#instead of a shared headcanon in a discord server

[county-lucio]

//donut worry, as i said beetween brackets, i know is a very crack headcanon, one of those ideas that comes in a friday night with a little of sense and plenty of delusions

*does pat pat*

//headcanon here!! a lucio headcanon, trans lucio head canon, that we brainroted on a discord server, a buddy looked that montag is a female name (as long as my buddy says)

and that he born as a woman so he killed his father and wanted to kill his mother for being transphobic (i know is a crack headcanon), also that he changed is name to lucio because is a male name,

moving to where he comisioned his special arm we headcanon that he also comisioned a special thing down there (sorry i didnt know how to put it family friendly) and thats the reason he was so eager to give asra's parents to the devil, to ensure his very special comision stands as a secret, also headcanon that he takes hormones and did some demon deals to look more masculine and that gives a plus on lucio being jealous of muriel streingh

The Arcana Discussion

I’m gonna come right out and say it. I don’t agree with this headcanon at all. I am all about good representation and would love to see a well developed trans character in The Arcana. Unfortunately, I do not think Lucio fits the bill at all. For one, while good representation typically means not focusing on their sexuality, gender, etc, but there personality I still feel that something would be specifically  mentioned in the game or by the creators on Lucio’s gender if he was trans.

Not just that but while Montag can be a girls name in French it is also a surname meaning “Monday” in German. Not just that but I found another source that said it was a boy’s name meaning “From the pointed hill”. Now this could also mean this name could be considered gender neutral. In the end, this is a headcanon, so if you wish to keep this opinion that is fine. You can write plenty of fanfiction and draw plenty of fanart depicting Lucio as trans. And while I think The Arcana does serve good representation, although with there not being a trans character within the game, I can understand wanting to see a trans character depicted.

Feel free to give your opinion on this headcanon in the comments. Also, give me your headcanons, theories, fanart, and so much more.

[originalaccountname]

I know tumblr has been pushing communities a lot lately so I need people to know that if you reblog something into a community, people can react and comment on it in there and this is functionally the same thing as sharing it in a private discord server, by which I mean: if the original poster isn't in that community, they're not gonna see any of it.

Don't start reblogging in there instead of your blogs guys. If you start gushing about a headcanon or art piece or fanfic or meta or whatever in there without *at least also* sharing what is said with the orignal poster, you're gonna fail your fandoms. Please don't starve out your fellow fans.

[astra-galaxie]

Taking a Break

Hi everyone.

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, I am taking a break from the Criminal Case fandom. I’ll be gone for at least 2 weeks, maybe more if needed. While I’m gone, I will not be on any sites, at least not for CC-related reasons, updating any of my stories or posting new content on Tumblr. That means I won’t be checking notifications or even going on some platforms, and I will be leaving all the Discord servers I am in after posting this.

If you need to reach me (please don’t contact me about CC), I will occasionally check my direct messages on Discord.

2024 has so far been the worst year for my mental health, and to summarize how I feel in one sentence: I’m tired, and honestly, I have considered leaving CC more than once. I tried not to let my mental health affect my relationship with CC since it was like the light at the end of the tunnel for me. But with things calming down IRL, I’ve realized how straining CC was on my mental health and a person can only bend so much before they break, and I fear I will break if I do not step away…

I have been in the CC fandom for over 10 years, most of that time spent as a lurker and then as a writer who stayed in a little bubble isolated with my stories and rarely engaging with others. But over time, I came out of my bubble with the help of friends I made through CC and gained even more along the way. However, things have happened recently behind the scenes that are making me consider leaving the fandom, so it's time I take a break and focus on other things for a little while.

This is not goodbye forever. If you know me and my stories, you know my goal is to write every Criminal Case season from 1 to 8 (yes, I will be writing and hopefully improving City of Romance!). I’ve been at it for about 8 years, so I’m too far into things to give up!

But I have another goal, and no, I’m not referring to making headcanons for every CC character. It's to create a safe space for people to share their ideas, thoughts, and opinions without fearing ridicule. There is enough hate in the world, so why should I contribute to it when I can use my platform to be positive instead? It’s why, even when the idea might not be my cup of tea, or I might not understand parts of it, I still encourage people to pursue their ideas and focus on the good things. I hope people know that you can send me the craziest, crack-filled ideas (anonymously or not) and that I will do my best to give positive feedback.

I do give constructive feedback if people ask me to, but again, I’m no Goddess of Writing and Content Creation, so I would never expect people to take my words as gospel. I would never want people to feel they HAVE to change something in their creation just because I suggested it. I want people to be happy with THEIR work, just as I am with mine.

The biggest piece of advice I always give people when they ask for my help or opinion on their project(s) is to write about what makes you happy. While it is important to listen to feedback to learn what you can improve on, ultimately, YOU are the creator. YOU are putting in the time, effort and skills into the project, and if YOU are not happy with what you are creating, then you will lose interest in it. Create things you are happy and proud of. YOU are bringing your ideas to life and sharing them for others to enjoy, not the other way around.

You can never please everyone, but you can always please yourself.

But do NOT use that as an excuse to spam, rage bait, or terrorize others. Everyone is entitled to their likes and dislikes, but you should not force your opinions on others. If you see something you don’t like, just ignore/block it and keep scrolling. It takes much less time than writing a hate comment or making a call-out post. And while sometimes those are reasonably warranted, please still take the time to consider the repercussions of something before you post it and ask yourself: Is it really worth it?

If you’ve stuck with me this long, thank you for listening to my rambling.

Maybe it's naive or wishful thinking to hope people have learned from 2024 and will think before they post, but I hope at least some people will learn from their mistakes or those of others. I know I have learned from the mistakes I’ve made. I don’t think I’m perfect or anyone special because, at the end of the day, I’m just a writer who discovered a hobby for creating fanfiction when they were a teen and somehow gained a following of amazing fans and made fantastic friends along the way. I’m human and make mistakes, but it's from those mistakes that we grow and improve as people.

That said, I am signing off for now. My mental health is at rock bottom, and all I can focus on recently is negative. I keep thinking the worst of my writing and other content. All my mind has been telling me is that everything I make is terrible, and no one likes it. And while I know that is far from the truth, thanks to the amazing support and love I receive from all of you (shout out to everyone who keeps the CC fandom alive!) I must leave and stop focusing on everything before returning with a clear, more positive mindset.

I will see you all when I return. Will I not do anything CC related? Probably not, since you can take Astra out of CC, but you can't take CC out of Astra! But I will not be touching or even looking at my mainstream series while I’m gone, so don’t expect me to return with an update ready for it.

Thank you for listening.

Astra G.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Color me intrigued about the “Jason Paranormal Detective Agency “ WIP

Sure! I've done a preliminary explanation of how this fic came to exist as well as a more in-depth discussion of it here, but the tl;dr is "Jason finds out he's technically immortal as a result of Superboy-Prime's resurrection punch that brought him back to life. The event that triggers this also makes him start seeing ghosts, which forces him to work with an actual consequence of being a 'normal human’ who’s undead. He decides to deal with all of that by saying "fuck it” and setting up a paranormal detective agency out of Crime Alley specializing in solving murder cold cases and giving closure to restless spirits. To solve his cases, he asks the ghosts he sees for help."  Think "Pushing Daisies meets Lockwood and Co. with a superhero twist."

Also I re-invented Jason's first crush Rena (from his pre-Crisis days) as a mortician who can briefly wake the dead and/or can also see ghosts and ends up helping him.

Despite having a very extensive outline and several headcanons for this universe as a result of it basically ending up being a mass Discord server creation effort, I haven't actually written very much for it. Actually, there's nothing excerpt-wise that I could properly share of this one, because so much of the dialogue I have cooked up exists on a discord server and not in a word doc. So I'll share one of those screencaps instead:

Ask me about one of my WIP titles and I'll post an excerpt!

[old-habitz-die-hard]

We need to talk about the EMH fandom

tldr; long rant on how the emh fandom has a lot of not-so great people in it. Also overlaps with the tribetwelve fandom hence the tags

Recently, being in this fandom, I’ve been seeing a massive influx of discourse over nazis and nazi art. Artists have been putting hate symbols in their HABIT art and EMH art in general. specifically the drawing of one specific artist.

However, I’d like to remind many that this has been going on for a while with many different people in the fandom. So many people in the EMH fandom have admitted to being neo-nazis, and have obsessed over the part of Tribetwelve where HABIT admits he worked with them (which, by the way, was pretty much retconned.) Many say they’ve seen fans of it who have Nazi symbols on their profile, and I’ll admit I’ve seen it as well. Many who do this also do not take it seriously, acting like the Nazis and their symbolism are just some funny cute thing that they can identify with or spread around. In relation to that, users have gotten harassed off servers for even having HABIT or Evan pfps, one stating they were repeatedly called a nazi and people lying and saying their pfp was art by Fvcksnuff, a problematic artist in the fandom. The user was eventually banned after being ridiculed, just for their profile picture being a character. The funny thing is, it wasn’t even HABIT as their profile, it was art of Evan.

Another thing is the romanticism of necrophilia, from specific people headcanoning HABIT as a necrophile and people in the fandom saying they’ve been getting anons asking what they think of the headcanon. The fandom has had a very long history of paraphilia romanticism (necrophilia and zoophilia, mainly), such as the disrespect towards the boundaries of the literal creators and actors, one of them who has specifically stated they DO NOT want rape fanfics of them on ao3. Many people fandom ignore these boundaries, by the way.

Lastly, in relation to that, there’s the sexualization of the actors, which they’ve admitted makes them very uncomfortable, specifically Evan. Please stop sexualizing HABIT or Evan. They may be characters, but a real person plays said characters. Many have acknowledged this and ignored it completely, especially people on Pinterest or tiktok. One of my mutuals has been one to witness and experience this, getting increasingly sexual and creepy comments on his HABIT pins. He’s told people to stop, but people didn’t listen and continued to make him uncomfortable. He admitted that it got so bad he started turning off all comments on his posts since he didn’t want to see those comments anymore. this has also happened on tiktok, where if you go into the comments of any video about habit, they will be overly sexual and explicit, even if the topic of the video isnt inherently sexual.

It’s not just a vocal minority. This fandom has a LOT of awful people just hiding around in it.

The fandom recently has been a dumpster fire of discourse upon discourse, and it’s disheartening to see. Harassment, threats, and general discord. II’d like to say that instead of arguing and arguing, we drive the people who do this out of the fandom. If you want a better community in this fanbase, you need to do something to MAKE it better.

If you have anything other problem about this fandom you think I should research and add to the post, please share.

[yandereworlds]

Please, can you tell me more about Dae-Hyun? I will take literally anything. His favorite color, his hobbies, what flavor body wash does he use, what does he wear when he’s not butchering, please anything.

for sure !! here's a batch of dae-hyun facts

Dae-Hyun doesn't really pay much mind to a favorite color, but he does tend to have more fondness for anything white, brown, soft yellow, and pale/muted greens. he loves anything earthy when it comes to colors, something easy on the eyes. that's not to say he dislikes other colors, but heavy saturated tones can give him a slight headache.

as for body wash, he tends to pick unscented ones. working in the butcher shop can leave a copper scent linger on his skin, with something that strong, he tries to eliminate it as much as possible. unscented washes make him feel overall cleaner, while scented wash makes him feel like he's trying to cover up the smell, instead of getting rid of it. though, it's mostly in his head. his natural smell is pleasant, though mostly undetectable.

when off the clock, he wears loose-fitted, thick clothes. due to his stature and size, it's often already hard to find anything that fits him. he has to find anything in tall variants and those options are pretty limited, but he tries to pick things like pull-over sweaters, and loose pants. when he's out and about, he'll typically wear a pull-over with some chinos without pleats, and home something more like a short-sleeve henley and sweatpants.

his hobbies are pretty tame; listening to music, sewing, charcoal drawing, but he especially loves watching old korean movies and tv shows. his mom and dad would watch with him as a kid, and while he's not watching what they did back then all the time, he still has a fondness for shows and movies from the older era, especially tragic love stories. he loves the interpersonal relationships and depths from them, feeling a lot more personal than what he sees in modern shows, western or eastern.

along with these hobbies, it all links to creating something. quietly making his mark in his own world, not really even sharing it to others. he loves drawing pretty faces with smokey charcoal, it brings peace of mind. he loves the shading process especially, his lineart isn't the sharpest but he still makes overall coherent pieces with indirect ideas and feelings through his visuals. since dae-hyun is pretty stoic, and doesn't have a lot of close relationships, he uses his art to express himself. it's his outlet, that his other hobbies don't really compete with.

𖦹 Join our Discord server to get early access to art, polls, headcanons and more! 𖦹

[miumiumanzo]

I think like most fans right now I feel this same kind of complicated feelings about Good Omens in general. I still love every bits of it, obviously but it’s never going to be the same like how I used to love it. But it’s not like I’ve been through something like this before. I’m a millennial and watched Harry Potter got derailed as a whole by its own author to the point I’d rather not stand on official or licensed things anymore. Just Kidding Rowlin is not the only problematic author out there too. I gave up on Rurouni Kenshin. That was my childhood anime that is dear to my heart but I can’t even remotely talk about it on public anymore. And in the light of creators, crews, cast of something turning out to be zionists and in support of genocide of Palestinians, this complicated feelings towards something becomes kind of normal. Like for example, I still love a lot of Disney IPs, but I don’t wanna give money to Disney anymore. I love Transformers but prefer to watch any shows or clips through 🏴‍☠️ means because I don’t wanna support Paramount anymore. There are characters I love that is voiced by Tara Strong I can’t stand to watch anymore but at the same time it doesn’t reduce my love for these stories and characters. I just don’t wanna endorse her anymore if that makes sense.

So the same goes with Good Omens. I can share little headcanons with server mates, shipmates and all, but I’m still at this sort of limbo to want to promote the show in any way. Plus I have no ideas what to draw these days because my focus is just somewhere else. So yeah, I just can’t see or act on it in the same way like I used. I joke to fellow shippers that these characters are our OCs now and we should treat them as such instead — friends who had been through Harry Potter understand. That’s kind of the only way, that we just claim it, we talk about it to each other but we can’t endorse the product outside of our circle, outside ao3 or outside discord, because it just doesn’t feel right anymore.

If you follow me for GO, I’m sorry it’s gonna be less content from now on because I’m just not in the right mood for it anymore BUT I love azicrow and ineffable bureaucracy regardless. That will never change. Maybe there’ll be drawings if I miss these characters (after all they’re my OCs now 🤭) but yeah. In the light of what is happening, I think it’s fair if I wanna reduce down posting new art.

[waywardxrhea]

Brooke's Tuna-Tober 2024 Masterlist

Hey everyone! I was recently brough into the ranks of the ever wonderful Murdock's Tuna Team discord server and the legend @pastafossa came up with a list of prompts for us to write for the month of October! Instead of it just being angst or fluff or kinky, we have all three options per day and can choose one or combine to our heart's desire! I have a wide range of characters that I came up with ideas for a lot of the days and I can't wait to share them!

My little disclaimer as usual is that I am working part time and going to school part time, so I may not be super on time with posting day by day, but dangit, I'm gonna get everything posted that I have ideas for! It may end in November, but it'll be fine! I have also taken some of the days off because the muses weren't feeling them or any of the backup prompts, whoopsie!

Anyways! without further ado, my tentative list of writings for Tuna-Tober!

All pieces are written as character x fem!reader unless specified otherwise!

Day 1: Falling asleep in a hospital room (angst) - Spencer Reid

Day 2: “Why? Why do you love me?” (angst) - Qrow Branwen x fem!OC

Day 3: Role reversal (smut) - Matt Murdock (self reblog)

Day 4: “This isn’t you” (angst) - Bucky Barnes

Day 6: “Shh, I’ve got you now. I’m here.” (angst) - George Weasley

Day 7: Nothing underneath (smut) - Matt Murdock

Day 8: Overstimulation (smut) - Matt Murdock

Day 10: A hug that lasts a little too long (fluff) - college!Matt Murdock x gn!reader

Day 12: “I did it for you” (angst) - Sabine Wren

Day 16: Against a window (smut) - Din Djarin

Day 17: Tickling (fluff) - George Weasley x gn!reader

Day 19: Touch starved (angst) AND “I’ll always be there for you” (fluff) - Matt Murdock

Day 20: There was only one bed (fluff) AND “You were made for me, weren’t you?” (smut) - TBD [may or may not get to this one]

Day 21: Fainting/collapsing (angst) - Spencer Reid (self reblog)

Day 23: Father (angst) - Sam Winchester

Day 24: Drunken confession (fluff) AND “Shh, do you want them to hear us?” (smut) - Dean Winchester

Day 26: Under the desk (smut) - Matt Murdock

Day 27: Near death experience (angst) - Sam Winchester (self reblog)

Day 28: [prompt switch out] “I'm in love with you, and that scares me” - Bucky Barnes

Day 29: Forehead kiss (fluff) - TBD headcanons for multiple characters [may or may not get to this one]

Day 30: Road trip (fluff) - platonic Winchester Brothers

Day 31: Blanket hog (fluff) - Matt Murdock

[guardian-of-da-gay]

The idea for this is to make a Discord server for fans of SCU Knuckles (or the SCU in general??) to avoid the recent wave of negativity and uplift creatives who still want to write and draw stuff for this version of Knuckles. It would be an adults only, sfw place to share fic and art wips and talk about scu Knuckles-specific aus and headcanons.

This would *not* be a server only for people who liked the show. It's for people who like scu Knuckles. In fact I would probably implement a rule that we not say whether we liked the show or not, since it is so polarizing right now. Instead, I would have an opt-in thread where people can vent about their frustrations with the show/movies in an environment where ultimately we all still love movie Knux and the people who don't want to hear that criticism don't have to.

This would be a support group, not a defense squad. No trashing people who don't like the scu. No putting down other iterations of Knuckles or slamming other Sonic media.

The number one goal of the server would be to inspire and support all the scu Knuckles fic authors and fanartists who maybe have been feeling alienated/isolated by the backlash against the show, so we can have a safe, supportive space to jam about our favorite boy.

(feel free to reblog this to help spread the interest check)

[gyftmas2024]

🎁Rules🎁

🎄Be respectful. No abusive behavior, harrassment, racist remarks, kink-shaming, ship-shaming, misgendering on purpose, fighting over canon interpretations, bullying of any kind will be tolerated. This is a happy event meant to bring the UT community together, not a playground to fight over beliefs. If you have a major problem with a participant over one or more of these issues, please DM a mod.

🎄Don’t start drama. If you have any kind of problem, be sure to DM a mod right away instead of starting an argument. This goes for personal beef with another participant, getting heated up about controversial opinions or headcanons, publically calling out someone’s behavior, etc…

🎄Don’t like, don’t read. This event will include all kinds of adult topics, from suggestive to NSFW to dark content, as well as any ship, including fontcest, frans, etc… Of course, we will do our best to make sure you’re paired up with an imp whose request you’ll be comfortable with!

🎄Communication is key to a great event. If you have any kind of problem related to the event, please don’t hesitate to send us an ask here, on or off anon, on any of our social media (Twitter, Bluesky), or to DM mod Cognito (@sin-cognito). We will do our best to reply and find a good solution as fast as we can. This goes for if you need more time to work on your gift and need an extension, if you have a major problem with your imp’s request/s, if there is a conflict between you and another participant…

🎄No spoiling the fun. Please don’t post your imp’s gift/s before December 25th (your timezone) on the Gyftmas discord server or any other social media site. Keep your imp’s name and request/s a secret until that date. If you need to ask your imp questions about their request/s and preferences, you can either do it on anon on tumblr, or ask a mod to contact your imp for you. Writers are allowed to have their fic/s be looked over by a beta reader, as long as the beta reader is not their imp and they won’t share the fic on the server or any other social media site.

🎄Be mindful of your imp’s request/s and their dislikes/triggers. This is a happy event, and the last thing we want is for a participant to be triggered by their gift, so be extra careful when making their gift/s. Once again, if you’re unsure of something, don’t hesitate to ask them in anon on tumblr, or to ask us mods to contact your imp for you. Better safe than sorry.

🎄Do not give unsolicited crit to your santa after receiving your gift/s. That is incredibly rude and will get you banned from future events. If there is an issue with your gift/s, please contact a mod.

[lilbittymonster]

AO3 End Of Year Roundup 2024

Tagged by @crackinglamb 💜

Tagging @crystallineconflict @nidstiniens @myreia

Words Posted: 33,783

Additional Words Written: 64,946

Total Words Written: 98, 729

Fandom(s): Final Fantasy XIV

Works: 33

Highest Kudos: An Exercise in Submission, E, 2.5k

Highest Hit Oneshot: An Exercise in Submission.

New Things I Tried: I can now check "has written tentacle porn" on my writer bingo sheet lmao. ~Tendril porn if you want to be pedantic about it.

Fic I Spent The Most Time On: Song of War, T, 6.3k. I remember dragging myself through writing the fight sequence in the second half a hundred words at a time over the course of....five-ish months? I was really bogged down with trying to rewrite something that everyone had already played through while keeping it interesting to read.

Fic I Spent The Least Time On: Honestly that could be most of the XIVWrites fics, since that was sort of the point of the event, but I think it has to be Stable since I already had the scene in my head and it's the shortest word count of them all.

Favourite Thing I Wrote: Surrogate. I was up until after 3am writing this as it's a collection of several of my personal headcanons with Alberic and Estinien when he was younger. And I think that Alberic is a character that's overlooked and underutilised a lot for people who write with Estinien and/or dragoon OCs. So if I have to singlehandedly fix that then I will!

Favourite Thing I Read: A Land Long Dead by @nhaamazu. I'm absolutely enchanted by the worldbuilding and the Beauty and the Beast fairytale being woven into and through canon.

Something I Finished: ...just about everything? I won't list all 33 works here, but I only have a couple outstanding WIPs at the moment.

Miscellaneous Highlights: I joined a writing server again. I had sworn off joining big fandom servers after several bad experiences in various ship servers, but I had reached a point where I was the only one really actively writing and publishing in my private fc server and felt like I was boring everyone else. I also felt the need to put my eggs in some other baskets, so to speak, so when a mutual of mine created a server with the explicit mission statement of "curate your own experience" I decided to give it a go.

And so far it's been great! Doing the diet NaNo event got me to write 34k words in a single month which is easily the most I've ever written in such a short amount of time. And there's a small circle of regulars that have cropped up. It's been pretty chill for the most part.

Writing Goals For 2025: Finish and post the HW fic. Realistically, I'm going to finish the EW caster rolequest rewrite sooner, and I'm also looking forward to that one, but the HW fic is my big project that I'm actually really invested in.

Final Thoughts: I've been trying to fight XIV burnout for a while now. The social isolation is really starting to hit, what with half of my dashboard all vanishing into various discord servers and siloing shit there, instead of hanging out on the dashboard. The group I was raiding with disbanded quite some time ago and the discord finally got deleted. I've mostly withdrawn from a lot of shared canon stuff with Kitali because I really don't know what to do with her anymore. And I'm trying to find a love of creation again, and lately that means trying to bury myself in writing again and withdrawing into my own little bubble. And, y'know, I've gotten over 44k words in the HW WIP and some 3-odd thousand in another and 15k in the EW caster rewrite so I wouldn't call it a total loss. And I actually did a lot of words for XIVWrite this year.

And in a strictly fic sense, I sure am feeling some type of way about the most recent fic having over 3/4ths of hits and more kudos than my first longfic for XIV that has been around for over 2 years now. But, I get it. The former is a M/M smutfic between two NPCs and the latter is a G fic with no romance in it and is largely OC based. I get it.

I think for 2025 I want to actually get back into making shit instead of just mindlessly grinding the game. Dawntrail killed off any real drive for me to do late game content and I think that's a good thing since I have a whole other playthrough to focus on. I want to be able to turn the "I have an idea..." into an actual finished Thing that can be absorbed by other people so I'm not just going insane in my own mind over things only I know about.

This year was pretty rough on me so hopefully the next one will be. If not better, at least not worse.

See you all next year!

[deliriumsdelight7]

Monday Musings

I seem to be slooooowly on the road to recovery. My crops aren’t watered, per se, but they’re getting hit with a bit of morning dew. Not enough to get them thriving, but even this small improvement is miles beyond where I was.

And with that, I am going to tryyyyyy to be more present in fandom space. What I mean by that is more than simply churning out fic at an unsustainable rate, or burning the candle at both ends to run fandom events or discord servers. Burning myself out is… sort of how I’ve defined my role in fandom, which, as I’ve recently learned, is not sustainable long-term.

So what does it mean? It means posts like this, where I ramble. It means actually responding to inbox asks and AO3 comments promptly. It means taking the time to consume other writers’ fic again, instead of guilt-tripping myself into forcing more words out of my brain like an overworked tube of toothpaste. It means taking days off so fandom stops feeling like a chore, as it has for the past few years.

It means all things in moderation. It means setting myself reasonable goals and not giving up the moment I miss that goal. These are not my strong suits.

The thing I love most about fandom is the sense of community. I have a nasty tendency to think that my role in the community is to work myself to the bone churning out fic as quickly as possible, and then getting angry with myself because 20-30k words a week is simply no longer realistic for me. What I truly want is to get back to fandom as I love it. Sharing other people’s fic and art on my blog. Lifting up fellow contributors. Connecting with readers and making friends. Putting ideas and headcanons under a ship tag, instead of refusing to tag my work out of some misguided impostor syndrome bullshit that tells me my stuff doesn’t have a place.

I’m hoping, in being more present, that I can find that sense of community again. Whether for a new ship, a ship that’s slowing down, or one that was never all that big to begin with - I want to feel more connected.

Anyway. Yup. That’s my rant. I think I’ll try for a few of these types of posts a week. Not just ramblings, but also WIP progress reports, and maybe some days where I ask for recommendations for fic/art/whatever to check out.

Toodles!

[katyspersonal]

Effect I've shown to have on people in this fandom from time to time that I am proud of is making them actually speak their opinions and put them in the TAGS! Like, you guys don't know how it feels, to see someone go from "no I am afraid to say a thing because I don't want to be harassed" to "fuck it we ball tonight *passionately disagrees with the takes of toxic popular people and tags the post with fandom and character* 😎"

Like... guys, this IS the way to go, okay? More of you should finally beat it in your head that bullies draw their power from people that are AFRAID of them! If nobody covered in fear before them, they'd be nothing but stupid clowns in their stupid echo-chambers that just block away from the world and eventually having no one left to torture eat their own! This is NOT the norm when people are scared to post their interpretations in the fandom for videogames that specifically demand interpretations, shamefully resort to lurking in some private Discord servers just to share their art and thoughts, stay away from discussing a character they like because too many toxic fans put their claws on them and so on! I don't understand why many people are okay with this kind of fandom experience? And so many of them are older than me or unlike me have enough reputation to make REAL difference in the fandom, why?? I don't remember who owns a blog for suggesting headcanons for Soulsborne games but iirc they allowed bullies to scare them into making a rule against suggesting headcanons about Gwyndolin's gender because "people are mean to each other so it's a nono now and Gwyndolin is only they/them now 🥺". Like.... congratulations, you've betrayed the very point of your blog, which is to share different headcanons, to do what? To cover in fear before jerks that didn't grasp the concept of "up to interpretation"? Why would you do that, instead of showing people who can't respect different interpretations that they are NOT welcomed?

I don't know, man.. it is normal for autists to care about fandom a bit too much, I suppose. I don't see it as something inherently inferior to The Reeeeeal Life uwu. And so, I just hate to see people just willingly lend the power to bullies? Of course they are going to continue to make the fandom unpleasant, if they see that they can own the place by just leaving disheartening comments, laughing at someone with their mindless sheep mutuals in a reblog or sending a couple of anon hates! But like, when I realized a few other people saw this is unfair and should not be encouraged, and started at least saying something too.. idk, it gives me hope. It is hard to explain but I think 20+ or even 30+ age category is more than enough to move past the dumb high school dynamic! Not in the passive "eh who cares about fandoms anyway, it is not worth it and I am too mature to care" way, but in the "nah I won't stand for Cool Kids and bullies and nor should others" way

[leornadodabvinci]

Hello! Do you have any other Grand Chase headcanons to share on this fine day? 👁️👁️

HI HELLO YES I DO OMGGG SORRY FOR THE LATE RESPONSE I DIDN’T OPEN TUMBLR FOR A BIT BUT I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER FOR KEEPING NOTES OF STUFF AND ONE CHANNEL IS JUST DEDICATED TO RANDOM HCS AND SO UM. I have a few (that would make sense without an elaborate explanation)👉👈 they’re mostly if not all elesis and sieghart though ahahah… ANYWYA

*takes a deep breath*

(Sorry if the terminologies aren’t right im just rambling skhdjsj) (also a lot of them are sieg and elesis aha…)

- Sieghart currently is built like a dancer, lithe and flexible, because of the extra innate godlike strength he got from being a highlander. He doesn’t have to exert as much strength as when he was just a mortal, or like the weight doesn’t affect him that much anymore? Plus, i hc that the highlanders’ style is more elegant and flow-y, compared to the brutishness of the sieghart family’s. When he was younger, around Elesis’ age, he was built more like her. Body builder, bigger muscle kinda look.

- Elesis, as she grows into her late 20’s receives sooooo many “you look just like Sieghart!” Or “you look just like your father!” Comments, but as she grows past 30 and 40, they die down. Because sieghart is stuck in his 30’s, and elscud died (? Disappeared?) in his 40’s.

- sieghart is a jack of all trades, master of none kinda guy.

- Dio and Sieghart have a strange way of being intimate. It isn’t really… intimacy. They don’t do pda, they do something more nothingburger and subtle that it feels more vulgar if you catch them doing it. Its like a game? But not really? Since they’re not trying to hide it either 😭 i don’t know how to describe it. Like the Chase could be in a meeting together and Sieghart/Dio is eating something and one of them goes “blech” and instead of eating the food, they try it from the other’s mouth and then is like “oh ew ur right omg” and then the chase woukd just stare at them.

- dio and sieg are truly, evenly matched in skill. Its a battle of attrition. Though probably sieg has the upper hand since he’s immortal?

- dio’s actually also playboy, just not in mortal sense. He takes up someone every 5 - 10 years, which i hc is the equivalent of changing gfs/bfs every couple of months in demon sense of time. He tries to mean well though, and doesn’t do one night stands.

- sieghart is a one night stand enthusiast. He’s a total flirt too.

- height hc: dio > sieg > zero > ley > grandiel > werner > (noticeable drop) > ryan > lire > jin > rufus > harpe > ronan > asin > lass > edel > rin > elesis > amy > (big drop here) > arme > lime > veigas

- Elesis is a doof and lowkey rich girl coded. “How much is an apple anyway? Like $10?”

- the Chase act more like childish, more their age (more carefree, unburdened, yknow young adults/teens) around Sieghart.

- lass and rufus have the same eye shape. They both take after their mother more.

- Grandiel finds Sieghart to be the best company. They both understand each other very well, and seamlessly fall into conversation no matter how long its been since they last met.

- that’s why when Sieghart found out who Kyle and Cindy was, it stung a little. But he understood, of course. He holds no grudge against Grandiel.

- Sieghart acts like a safeguard for the Chase. He doesn’t want any of them to go through any of this alone.

- Ley, Rin and Sieghart are besties. Wine date trio.

- Lime and Dio also unexpectedly get along well. They’re optimistic people. Two sides of the same coin.

- Rufus cares about Lass more than he thinks. When Lass gets sick, he most definitely appears and lingers around until he gets better.

Okaay i think thats itttt hehe :3 Thank you for this ask I definitely enjoyed it LOL

[dootdootwriting]

Can I have an enemies to lovers headcanon for fem!reader x Lisa or Ningguang? I love your writing, so keep up the good work!

featuring: lisa; ningguang (separately) tw: rivalry, the fuck word type: enemies/rivals to lovers pronouns used: she/her a/n: as i always say i write for the girls and the gays and THIS ONE goes out to the GAY GIRLS LET'S GO LESBIANS LET'S GO request | genshin masterlist | discord server

under the cut for length

LISA

honestly, it's pretty difficult to be "enemies" to lovers with lisa. instead i'd say you're most likely more of an academic rival

you've known each other since your days at the akademia, and somehow, you've mirrored each others' journeys after graduation.

while lisa joined the knights first, you (without knowing she had done this) followed only a few months later and were incredibly surprised to see her as a newly hired librarian

"oh? well, if it isn't my little shadow. you must be awfully obsessed with me to follow me all the way to mondstadt~ are you sure you aren't in love with me after all?"

you hate her.

you hate how often your job takes you to the knights' library

you hate how she's there, somehow, as if she lives there or something?? every single time you enter

you hate how whenever you bump into her she just has to make another stupid comment about how much her research has helped people this month. how's your work going?

you hate her stupid smirk that she gives you every time you huff at her

and she hates the way your nose scrunches up when she flicks it teasingly, the way you look away from her when she flirts with just the tiniest bit of malice

she hates the fire in your eyes that blazes when you glare at her

and then the both of you start to realize that actually that "hatred" that had been fueling you to do even better might not have been hatred at all, and "oh fuck maybe i'm in love with her."

the next time you meet lisa "accidentally" in the library, you spend time with her on purpose, at the end of which she confesses

she tilts your head up just slightly with her hand, then moves it to cup your cheek and pull you in for a kiss

her lips are frustratingly soft and taste like her rose chapstick

"hmm, you know, i just did that to test a theory, and i think i may have been correct. i am in love with you, after all"

she gives you a moment to short circuit and marvels internally at how your face heats up and you try to think of a retort

instead, ever competitive, you kiss her back, determined for yours to be even better.

NINGGUANG

the two of you had grown up together as childhood friends

while ningguang's dreams took her up the social ladder and into high society, your place had always been to stay and take care of the people who'd helped raise you

you understood ningguang's ideals, but yours had always been different. as such, every so often, she would pay a visit to you and your shared home neighborhood and asks what everyone needs for an improved quality of life.

this is called "the airing of the grievances," aka "you complain to ningguang about everything the liyue qixing is failing at and everything she has to singlehandedly change about the government."

over time, this had put a strain on your relationship - that is, until one day when after you aired your grievances, ningguang snapped at you and explained in an extremely clipped voice for an extended period of time how she was not singularly responsible for the entire liyue government and she was frankly getting sick of only getting complaints when she came to visit

which... well. now you feel bad. damn.

the next time she came to visit you apologized, which took her by surprise, and gave her a detailed list of some of the problems your neighbors were having

instead of rolling her eyes and swishing away dismissively like usual, ningguang looked at the list, nodded, and thanked you

and eventually, every visit became almost like a little date

ningguang would show up, you would greet her, and she would treat you to a meal at the local café, where you would go over some of the issues of the past few months.

and over time, ningguang began visiting more and more, and there were fewer and fewer issues for your neighbors to report. your conversations over tea became less about things ningguang could do and more about your day-to-day lives, occasional jokes, and even flirting.

and soon, you realized that you were literally just going on dates with a woman who, only a few years ago, you had hated the guts of

ningguang realized this at roughly the same time

at your next meeting, ningguang sat you down at a more secluded table than usual, and confronted you about this

"my apologies, it seems it's taken me quite a while to realize this, but... are we, perhaps, girlfriends?"

honestly, hearing that come out of her mouth, it's impossible not to laugh at least a little bit.

"yeah, honestly, i think we are."

[tsarisfanfiction]

Laurels and Labyrinths

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Rating: Teen Genre: Friendship Characters: Lee Fletcher, Clarisse La Rue, Annabeth Chase, Michael Yew Being paired with Clarisse for Quintus' war game? Not a problem. Annabeth and Percy going missing? A problem. Otherwise known as: the war games in chapter 3 of BOTL from Lee's pov. Once again, I attempt something short and it ends up being rather longer than planned. There is a whole pile of headcanons snuck in here, from Apollo kids getting tired at sundown, to the harpies not attacking Apollo kids because they're the healers and have potential reasons to be out after curfew, and various other things in between. Also the logic that Lee knows about the Labyrinth from being the healer brought in to try and help Chris. Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

“Your armour’s crooked, Will.”

“Tha- hey!”

Lee turned around to see Will tilted awkwardly as Michael tugged on the straps, straightening out his breastplate – or what would be straight, once Michael let go and Will could straighten up again.  Will wasn’t much taller than Michael – yet – but it was already enough to be noticeable.  Confident that despite appearances Michael would get Will’s armour sorted out, Lee just allowed himself a small grin at the sight before he turned back to securing his own straps tightly and checking over the rest of his siblings.

Quintus hadn’t said what, exactly, these war games he wanted all the campers armoured up for were, but if it didn’t involve the suspicious crates that had disappeared from the arena during the day, Lee would be very, very surprised.  He knew he wasn’t the only one to think that; most of the confused mutterings he’d overhead since the breakfast announcement had mentioned them at one point or another, until every camper had at least heard about the crates, even the ones that hadn’t seen them.

Lee just hoped that there wasn’t another drakon involved.  He was still tired from chasing off the Aethiopean drakon at three in the morning – it had not wanted to be chased off, either, and if it wasn’t for the protection of the camp borders, Lee was well aware it would’ve tried much harder to kill him and his siblings, rather than just being stubborn to chase off.  He was also aware that Michael was also grumpy from the lack of sleep as well as not being able to kill the creature, and the knowledge that it was almost certainly sent by Luke to scout out their weaknesses.

Well, at least they’d proven that they could still defend their camp, although Lee had his own concerns he hadn’t dared share with any of his siblings.

Clarisse hadn’t wanted to bring him into the know, but she wasn’t a healer, and both she and Chris had needed one.  Will’s aptitude for healing was constantly improving, but this wasn’t something to put on the shoulders of a then-eleven year old, so it had fallen to Lee, instead.

Knowing that the Labyrinth still existed, and seeing the damage it could cause to demigods, was one thing.  Add in the creeping feeling that if it connected to everywhere important as well as several seemingly-random locations, there was almost certainly an entrance within camp borders, somewhere, and if the scouting monsters outside of camp were any indication, Lee bet Luke was looking for it?  Well, Lee was not looking forwards to Quintus’ war game.

Glancing over towards where cabin five were pulling on their own armour and arming themselves to the teeth, he could see Clarisse tensely checking her straps.  He clearly wasn’t the only one – and a brief look towards Annabeth straightening Malcolm’s helmet in a fidget she didn’t usually indulge in told him that all three of the in-the-know campers were in agreement.

Still, Lee couldn’t just pull his cabin out of the war game, even though Quintus wasn’t as terrifying as Tantalus had been and might even let him.  Doing that would signal to the rest of the camp that there was something very wrong, and they couldn’t afford the panic.  Instead, he had to give his siblings one more check – Will’s armour was now straight, as Lee had known it would be, and Sam, who had been in camp for all of a few weeks and still painfully new to anything combat-related, now had his helmet on as an extra precaution – before herding them to where the adult demigod was waiting for them.

The campers gathered in a loose crowd, more-or-less grouped by cabin, although there were a few strays mingling – notably Beckendorf and Silena, and Lee wasn’t an Aphrodite kid but even he was getting fed up of waiting for those two to stop dancing around the subject and get together already – and waited for Quintus to explain what he wanted them to do.

“Gather round,” the assistant activities director instructed.  None of them got too close to where he was standing on the head table, because Mrs O’Leary was scavenging around and no-one was interested in getting bowled over by an enthusiastic hellhound, even if she wasn’t trying to eat them, but the crowd shuffled a little in response anyway.  “You will be in teams of two-”

Immediately, everyone started talking.  Michael grabbed onto Will and glared daggers at anyone else that even looked their brother’s way, and Lee sought out Miri with his eyes, ignoring the arguments breaking out as multiple people wanted the same partner and would fight for them-

“-Which have already been chosen!” Quintus shouted about the clamour.  Everyone silenced for a moment before letting out a chorus of complaint which went ignored as he kept talking.  “Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels.”  No prizes for what was in the crates, then, although Lee would’ve liked to know what monsters Quintus had lined up for them.  He hoped none of them were drakons.  “You must find the wreath before the other teams.  And, of course… you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive.”

Around him, campers started talking again, excitement tinging the air.  Lee had to admit it did sound like fun, even if they couldn’t choose their own partners.  Quintus had never shown any signs of wanting the demigods he was partly responsible for dead, so the monsters he’d brought in wouldn’t be beyond their abilities to deal with, Lee was pretty sure – especially if they were going to be working in pairs, and he doubted they’d all been matched with their perfect fighting partner.  If it wasn’t for the ever-present background Labyrinth worry that had been plaguing him since Clarisse and Chris’ return to camp in the winter, he’d probably be just as excited as Michael, who had bared his teeth in a grin at the concept even though he was clearly still annoyed about not being able to choose his own partner.

This sort of game was right up Michael’s alley, after all.

“I will now announce your partners,” Quintus said, bringing the murmuring back into silence. “There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining.”  From the way Michael was bristling from where he was stood so close to Will that their arms were pressed together, Lee suspected the last order was a lost cause.  Hopefully, Quintus had a good enough idea of camper dynamics to know who not to put together.

If Michael ended up with Clarisse, the monsters were going to be the least of anyone’s worries.

Quintus cleared his throat and unrolled a scroll – a long scroll, because it was far enough into summer that all the expected returning campers had shown up again – and began to read.

“Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregarde.”  Both of them looked delighted, and around Lee, campers started perking up again, because if Quintus was paying enough attention to put those two together, maybe the rest of them were also paired with friends or partners.  “Travis Stoll and Connor Stoll,” made it seem even more likely, and the brothers high fived each other as campers started drifting towards their preferred partners again, in anticipation of the trend continuing.

“Clarisse La Rue and Lee Fletcher.”

It didn’t.  Lee grimaced at Miri, ignoring Michael starting to grumble unsavoury things about the daughter of Ares.  At least Quintus had known better than to pair them together.  Clarisse stepped away from her siblings, and made eye contact with Lee, jerking her head in a clear get over here message.  Michael’s grumbling got louder, only to be cut off by his own name.

“Michael Yew and Drew Tanaka.”

The daughter of Aphrodite screwed her face up in disgust, and Lee’s brother glowered at her in return.  It wasn’t a bad match-up, Lee mused as he finally made his way over to join Clarisse.  Drew’s charmspeak wouldn’t affect Michael, and she was a decent enough melee fighter to go with his ranged attacks.  As long as they actually co-operated.

He saw Michael leave Will’s side to join her with bad grace.  Their matching scowls almost made Lee chuckle.

“They’re going to get each other killed,” Clarisse huffed next to him.  She didn’t sound particularly cut up about it.

“They’d better not,” he muttered back as Quintus continued calling out pairings, which were met with a variety of reactions.  Will got partnered with Malcolm, which was not the worst possibility, even if Lee would really have preferred for Will to not be involved in the war game at all.  At least Malcolm was smart enough to not throw the pair of them straight at the monsters – or really competitive enough to care.  Maybe that pair would just linger at the forest edge like sensible pre-teens.

Lee could hope.

The pairing finally finished with the curious duo of Tyson and Grover – the only satyr to be included, presumably for his friendship with Percy – and Quintus reminded them all that they weren’t allowed to complain before letting them head towards the woods.

It wasn’t dusk yet, but the sun was far enough across the sky that Lee suspected it would be after dark by the time they were done, and wasn’t particularly pleased about it.  They didn’t currently have any Apollo campers young enough that the setting sun was an automatic sleep signal, but none of them liked being active after sundown, let alone in combat – and definitely not two nights in a row.

“I’ll take point,” Clarisse said gruffly, as they arrived at the edge of the wood.  Lee nodded.

“I’ve got your back,” he promised her.  “Let’s get this over with.”

She made a noise of agreement, surveying the shadowed woods in front of them intently, and Lee remembered that he wasn’t the only one that feared a Labyrinth entrance somewhere within the camp’s borders.  Clarisse had no more reason to feel comfortable with the war game than he did.

Working with Clarisse wasn’t difficult, in combat.  Lee had done it several times over the years in Capture the Flag, both as head counsellors and also when they were younger, to say nothing of when they’d had to organise the camp defences the previous summer.  If there was something Clarisse knew, it was combat, and she stalked through the woods on high alert, electric spear silent in her hand.  Lee shadowed her on light feet, not letting himself focus on any one thing, but spreading his attention around them in case they were flanked or approached from behind.

In the gradually fading light of dusk, the woods began to take on an ominous feel.  Branches rustled in faint breezes, in conversation between the dryads that tended not to leave their trees, with the movement of almost a hundred demigods trying to move quietly, and in some cases failing.

Knowing that the noises could mean allies – or in this case, campers and not monsters – Lee forced himself not to shoot at any movement until he knew what it was.  Unlike Capture the Flag, and other games where their opponents were each other, none of the Apollo kids had blunted arrows tonight.  He couldn’t afford stray shots.

Ahead came the sound of skittering on fallen twigs, and Clarisse threw her hand up silently in a clear command to halt.  Lee stopped where he was immediately, nocking the arrow he’d held loosely in his hand onto the string but not drawing, not yet.  That hadn’t been a demigod or a dryad noise, and probably wasn’t the wind either, which meant monster but until he could see it, he wasn’t risking full draw.

Clarisse made another sharp hand signal, exaggerated in the dusk.  Cover me.  Then she crept forwards, fingers flexing around the shaft of her spear, poised to ignite the crackling electricity the moment she needed it.  Lee stayed a little way behind her, padding forwards silently with his bow ready to draw and fire in an instant in his hands.

The skitter came again, closer, louder, faster-

Clarisse let out a shout of victory, silence shattering as her spear surged to life and she abandoned stealth to leap into action, fluid experience ducking her underneath a flailing scorpion tail – pit scorpion venom flashed through Lee’s mind, the discolouration of Percy’s hand, the revelation that Luke betrayed them, but he pushed it aside to deal with later, when Clarisse wasn’t dodging the giant scorpion (not a pit scorpion) and its attacks.

Scorpions were armoured, which was a pain in the half-light when Lee couldn’t see its weak spots so clearly, but they were in pairs for a reason and he wasn’t leaving Clarisse to take the creature on alone.  He waited until she was down low, out of his line of sight, before letting fly with the first arrow, catching it in a chink between head and body armour.

Just like the drakon the previous night, armoured and needing to be shot at in the dark, that wasn’t enough to bring it down, and with stealth abandoned, Lee didn’t hesitate to yank more arrows from his quiver, the shafts whispering against the leather before nocks clicked into place on the string and he fired again.  In front of him, Clarisse threw herself inside the scorpion’s guard, thrusting the spear forwards with enough strength that it impaled the tail and rendered it useless, before drawing her knife and stabbing at one of the gaps in its carapace.

Lee let more arrows fly into more gaps, too, and with one last grunt from Clarisse as she drove the knife in deep, the scorpion burst into dust, covering Clarisse.

Its silk-wrapped parcel likewise disappeared with a small explosion, leaving nothing behind.

“Not that one, then,” Lee commented as Clarisse spat out monster dust from her mouth and drank a swig of water from her water bottle.

“One down, five to go,” she replied, bending down to retrieve her spear and looking it over with a critical eye.  Seemingly satisfied that it hadn’t been damaged by the scorpion’s tough exterior, she slammed the butt down onto the ground.  “Laurel leaves or not, we’re killing them all.”

Lee didn’t disagree.  While he knew the two of them were unlikely to be the ones finding and killing all six of the monsters – Percy Jackson was somewhere in the woods, along with Annabeth, and Michael, and the rest of the Ares and Athena cabins, and really all the demigods were trained for killing monsters – they couldn’t leave until they knew their woods were safe again.

Well, for a certain degree of safe.

“These things aren’t quiet,” he said, kneeling down to retrieve his arrows and check if any of them were bent.  Some were, but not to the point of being unusable, so he put them all back in his quiver.  “Not when they’re fighting.”

Clarisse nodded, looking around.  “This one was alone,” she said.  “The noise hasn’t drawn any more to us.”  She started walking, changing direction and striking out further away from the setting sun, into the darker, deeper parts of the wood.  “So we’re going to them.”

Lee followed without complaint.

They’d started off at the edge of the forest, tracking around the camp’s forest boundary, but now Clarisse was leading them further into the heart of the demigod-claimed territory.  Quintus had probably released them from somewhere in there, near the creek they always used as the territory divider in Capture the Flag.  Lee hoped he had, because that was familiar territory for all but the newest campers, and familiar terrain in combat helped, especially for the younger and less confident fighters.

As they headed further into regular demigod territory, they began to pass other pairs.  Most of the younger kids hadn’t gone far into the forest, unnerved by the dense trees in the creeping darkness, and Lee was glad for that.  Having now faced one of Quintus’ monsters, while it hadn’t been much of a challenge for him and Clarisse, the less experienced demigods would struggle.

At one point, they passed Michael and Drew.  The daughter of Aphrodite had the tell-tale dust in her hair and was furious about it, shouting at Michael about something or other.  From the brief snatches he caught, Lee surmised she didn’t like that she was the front line fighter in their duo, and that Michael was not covered in monster-dust because he’d been shooting from up a tree.

Neither of them were wearing golden laurels, and bringing Clarisse close to Michael while Michael was tired and grumpy and already dealing with Drew’s temper was a recipe for a disaster that Lee wanted no part in, so he forged past them without acknowledging their existence.  To his relief, Clarisse likewise ignored the pair, holding her head up and deliberately not even glancing their way as she continued on her path towards what was hopefully more monsters to kill.

They ended up at Zeus’ Fist, and found three more of the scorpions at once.  They were skittering around the rock pile agitatedly, as though there was something there that they wanted, and all Lee could think of was cornered demigods, even though he couldn’t see any sign of any.

Clarisse growled.  “Shoot them, Lee!” she ordered as her spear crackled into life and she threw herself at the trio of eight-legged, skittering monsters.  Lee didn’t need to be told twice, nocking arrows and drawing his bow back.  With more scorpion than Clarisse in his sights, it was easier to let fly and trust that he wouldn’t hit her, although the steadily-darkening sky made it harder to spot the cracks in the scorpions’ armour.  Clarisse’s spear gave off a faint red glow as Ares’ power coursed through it, enough to throw deeper shadows into the gaps, and Lee used that as a guidance as he steadily emptied his quiver into the three monsters, targeting joints to try and restrict their movement as Clarisse stabbed and slashed with her spear in one hand and her knife in the other.

Not for the first time, Lee suspected that Clarisse was the best melee fighter in the camp, potentially barring Percy when he got wet.  It was hardly a surprise, but that didn’t make it any less awe inspiring to watch as she slowly but surely wore down the three scorpions.  It wasn’t an easy battle for her – even with Lee’s supporting fire and the arrows wedging themselves in limb joints, she was still taking hits, although her armour deflected the worst of them – but there was no doubt that she was going to win, eventually.

Lee’s quiver emptied, the downside of dealing with three scorpions at once when each of them could get turned into a pincushion and still stay standing, and he set his bow to the side, drawing his knife and stepping closer to the fray.  He wasn’t a melee fighter, really, but if he could even play distraction for a few seconds, that would help Clarisse.

“I’ve got this!” she snapped as he ducked under a flailing tail, and promptly proved her words by stabbing the scorpion closest to him through the head with her spear.  A surge of electricity and Lee found himself covered by dust, a small, silk-wrapped parcel dropping down neatly into his hands.  Remembering the previous one, he went to drop it before it went boom, only for the silk to shift and expose gold.  Instead of dropping it, he stuffed it into his quiver and dropped to his knees in the middle of the dust pile, scooping up his arrows and frowning when he realised most of them were damaged in some way or another.  Only two were still useable, and he scrambled back to his bow, nocking both arrows at once as he ran back into the fray.

A few years ago, on one of his trips out of camp, he and some of the other campers had found themselves at the movies, on edge for monsters trying to kill them but likewise fascinated by the movie they’d ended up watching.  Lee was pretty certain he’d technically been too young for the rating, but some of the older demigods had snuck him in anyway.

The elf – Lee did not remember the character’s name – jumping on top of an elephant’s head and firing two arrows point-blank into the top of its skull had stuck with him.  Typically that was far closer to a monster than archers were supposed to get, and the laws of physics dictated that by dividing the force between two arrows, both would’ve been fired weaker than usual, but Lee was a son of Apollo, and while he wasn’t as much of an archer as Michael, his father was still the god of archery, and that came with a few perks – like occasionally ignoring the laws of archery physics.

Lee sprung onto the back of one of the scorpions, the one behind Clarisse as she attacked the other with a fresh degree of ferocity, and ran forwards, ducking the tail that lashed towards him as he made his way to its head and aimed down.

The explosion of dust in his face also made him lose his footing as nothing substantial was beneath him anymore.  He stumbled to the ground as Clarisse vanquished the other one with a cry, breathing heavily but seemingly unbothered by the dust covering her skin.

“One left,” the daughter of Ares said, proving that she had noticed Michael and Drew earlier.

Lee, too, wanted to keep going, but, “I’m out of arrows,” he admitted, picking up the other arrows from where they’d been dropped after the scorpions had dissolved.  All of them were bent or even broken; the two he’d killed one of the scorpions with had shattered entirely.

Clarisse scoffed.  “That’s the problem with you archers,” she said.  It was something Lee had heard her say many times to Michael, who had always taken it as a personal insult and reacted accordingly, usually with arrows.  Lee was not quite so temperamental as his younger brother, and simply drew his knife again.

“I still have this,” he said.  She didn’t look impressed, even though her own knife had already been liberally used to kill giant scorpions.  “Oh, and this.”

He rummaged through his quiver and stepped up next to Clarisse, plucking out the silk-wrapped parcel and wrestling the golden laurels out.

The younger girl gave him a nonplussed look as he deposited it on her head.

“Your kill, your laurels,” he said, and she rolled her eyes, but reached up and positioned the laurels more firmly in her hair.

“Whatever,” she said.  “We have one more scorpion to hunt-”

Rustling in the nearby trees had both of them slamming back-to-back, Lee’s bow abandoned on the ground and his knife clenched in his fist as Clarisse’s spear crackled to life behind him.

Another scorpion?  It was already weird that three of them had been together like that – surely there shouldn’t be a fourth one in their vicinity.

It wasn’t another scorpion, and Lee felt the tension drain from Clarisse’s body as her spear stopped crackling.  Other demigods, then.  He moved around until he could see them; it was Sherman, with his Quintus-mandated partner Jake following on behind him.

Clarisse’s younger brother immediately noticed the golden laurels gleaming in the rapidly-fading light and his shoulders slumped.

“Of course you got it,” he said.  “Pairing you two up was just unfair.”

“How many have you killed?” Jake asked them, looking at Lee’s strewn and broken arrows.

“Four,” Clarisse said shortly, and the younger boys both whistled through their teeth.  “Drew and the short bastard-”

“Clarisse,” Lee sighed, and her jaw tightened.

“-Michael got another one, which makes five.”

“We got one, too,” Sherman said, and now Lee was looking he could see the silvery dusting in his dark hair, “so that’s all of them.”

Lee’s shoulders slumped in relief; he hadn’t been looking forwards to hunting a giant scorpion with a knife as his only weapon.  “That means this game is over,” he said.  “We should get back so Quintus can recall everyone else.”  He glanced up at the sky, where the sun chariot had all but disappeared and the first of the stars were starting to make their presence known.  “It’ll be curfew soon, anyway.”

All four of them were old enough to understand that even with the camp’s defences still active, they didn’t really want any campers left in the woods after curfew, when night had fully set in and there were no more traces of Apollo’s light.

Lee set about gathering up the remains of his arrows; just because the shafts were broken didn’t mean the heads weren’t reusable, and maybe some of the less severely bent shafts could be straightened again.  Jake and Sherman joined him; a glance towards Clarisse showed her scanning the deepening shadows of the trees, standing as still as a sentinel and no doubt keeping watch in case there was something that shouldn’t be in their area of the woods.

With three of them on the case, it didn’t take long to retrieve all the visible arrows.  Lee’s quiver looked a sorry sight as he slid in the last handful of damaged arrows and straightened up again.

“Let’s-” he started, only to be cut off by a familiar horn.  It wasn’t the dinner conch, but it was the summoning sound Chiron used to call all the stragglers in after Capture the Flag was over.  Either they’d hit a time limit, or Quintus had somehow determined that the laurel had been claimed.

Lee wasn’t sure which option he preferred, but it didn’t really matter when it got all four of them jogging back towards camp, away from Zeus’ fist and the dust of slaughtered scorpion-like monsters.

There were several unsurprised eyerolls as the other campers caught sight of the laurels in Clarisse’s choppy and messy hair – the new, shorter hair suited her a lot better, Lee thought, although after so many years it was still strange to see Clarisse with short hair.  The general consensus seemed to match Sherman’s initial assessment – of course Clarisse was the one to win.

Michael was eyeing the laurel with a scowl as he ditched Drew and slunk up next to Lee.  “Why’s she wearing it?” he huffed, thankfully quiet enough that Clarisse, who had gone to round up her cabin as they reappeared, didn’t hear.

Lee shrugged at his younger brother.  “She killed that one.”

“That one?” Michael demanded, eyebrows shooting up.  “How many did you fight?”

“Four.”

“Fucking Hades,” Michael swore, shaking his head.  “Could’ve left some for the rest of us.”

“One was plenty, you bastard,” Drew muttered, passing them on the way to reconvening with her siblings.  “Do you even care how long it takes to get monster dust out of your hair?”

“No.”

Lee couldn’t help a fond chuckle as the daughter of Aphrodite rolled her eyes and stalked off, muttering “of course he doesn’t.  If he’d just let us at his hair…”

Michael’s step to the side, subtly putting Lee between him and the gathering of Aphrodite kids, almost made him smile again.  They’d both heard, several times, that Michael had nice hair if only he’d treat it right, according to the Aphrodite cabin.  Neither of them were quite sure what they meant by that, and Michael was in no hurry to find out, either, even if Lee was secretly curious.

One by one, the rest of Lee’s siblings started reappearing from the woods.  Sam looked pale, and Tris’ eyes were half-lidded with exhaustion, and the rest of the cabin were in varying stages of tiredness.  Two late nights in a row was not fun, and while Lee hadn’t seen any nasty injuries from the returning campers, he was sure there would be a few people with scratches that they’d be expected to deal with before bed.  Will yawned as he separated from Malcolm, the older boy gripping his shoulder briefly, and more or less walked into Michael, resting his forehead on his shoulder.

“Can we go to bed now?” he mumbled as Michael patted his head.

“Once Quintus and Chiron say so,” Lee promised him, scanning all of his siblings for signs of injury.  “Everyone okay?” he asked, raising his voice enough to be heard over the mutters and grumbles of his tired siblings.  Aside from him and Michael, he knew none of them had actually fought the scorpions, so they’d spent the past hour or so of fading dusk wandering around the forest on edge with nothing exciting to show for it.  No wonder they were all crashing now the game was over.

Camp was now fully lit with torches, and the ever-present glow of the hearth.  Their dad’s chariot had long since returned to its temple, and Artemis’ was only giving a sliver of light tonight.  Apollo kids were not night owls and it was getting late by their standards, especially the younger ones.

Even Michael was looking a rather tired, the drakon messing up his sleep last night combined with another late night tugging at him, too.  Lee wasn’t quite fighting yawns, but he couldn’t deny he was also thinking fondly of his waiting bed.

Tyson and Grover were the last pair to stumble out of the forest, both immediately separating and circling around opposite sides of the gathering of demigods.  Grover headed for where the Athena kids had clumped together, while Tyson looked around before saying, “where’s Percy?”

Everyone silenced, and the entire focus of the camp landed on the Athena cabin, because if anyone would know the answer to that, it would be Annabeth, but Annabeth wasn’t there, either.  Grover stopped still, and frowned.

“I can’t feel Percy,” he admitted, four words that sent the whole of camp reeling.  Not everyone knew about the empathy bond he had with the son of Poseidon, but everyone except the very newest campers knew he and Percy were close.

Even the newest campers knew the disappearance of their resident Big Three Kid didn’t bode well.  Lee couldn’t help but remember the first time it happened, Percy and Luke nowhere to be found until suddenly Percy was in his infirmary with pit scorpion venom and Luke was gone.

Why did he keep remembering that, tonight?  He shook his head and stepped forwards, the same time Clarisse did.

“We’d better find those idiots before they go off on another stupid quest without leave,” she grumbled, and Lee remembered the second time Percy disappeared – this time with Annabeth.  No-one had ever got the full story out of that incident out of them, but it was a common theory that they’d overlapped with Clarisse’s quest to get the golden fleece, even if none of them had ever said as much.

Clarisse’s voice was just a little too annoyed for Lee to think there wasn’t something personal in the accusation, though.

“Not all of us,” he cut in, to say his own piece.  “It’s way past curfew and the younger campers need to go to bed.”

“Annabeth’s missing!” one of the Athena kids yelled.  Lee couldn’t see which one, but the voice was young.

“Now, now,” Chiron said, trotting forwards into the centre of attention, Quintus walking beside him.  “They may have just gone deeper than everyone else and are taking longer to return.”  After Grover’s declaration, Lee didn’t think anyone believed that.  “And if there is a problem, it is not your jobs to sort it out.”

“You can’t expect us to stay back and not look for them,” Travis called from the throng of cabin eleven, echoed by Connor.

Chiron raised a hand as more demigods began to clamour, but it was Quintus who spoke.

“A compromise,” he suggested.  “Chiron, how about enlisting the help of our head counsellors?”  His gaze landed on Lee and Clarisse, their weight old and heavy, before he looked up at the centaur.  “Some experienced help.”

More protests exploded from the younger campers, and the Athena cabin, whose head counsellor was the one missing, and Chiron sighed.

“Very well,” he said.  “Head counsellors, select one of your siblings to help you, and another one to take charge of getting the rest of your cabins to bed and staying there.  Quickly, now.”

Lee glanced at Clarisse, and caught her glancing back at him, his suspicions reflected in her eyes.  Disappearing mirrored appearing, after all.

It was barely a moment, before they turned back to their respective cabins.  The choice of who was coming with him was obvious, and Michael stepped up before he could even say anything.  Really, Lee should make him the one in charge of the cabin – they all knew he would be the one to succeed Lee once he went to college in a year’s time, after all, and needed the practice – but he was their best archer and spent more time in the woods than most.  He’d be best suited to the search party, even if it meant having to work with Clarisse.

“Lawrence, I’m leaving the cabin to you.  Make sure everyone goes to bed,” Lee said.  Lawrence was one of the oldest campers, older than him, and due to go to college in the fall.  He’d also arrived at camp the same year as Michael and lived there ever since, making him one of the more experienced demigods, too – and everyone loved him.  “I’m also out of arrows, so if anyone’s got any..?”

“I got it,” his brother agreed, scooping Sam and Tris under his arms.  “Right then, sleepyheads.  Bed time for you guys.  Will, Alice, that includes you two.  Grab them, Morton, and give Lee your spare arrows.  Anyone else with arrows, do that, too.”

Lee accepted the various arrows from his siblings, passing the ones that were a bit shorter than he could comfortably use to Michael, whose quiver could always do with more, it seemed.  Once both of them were once again armed to the teeth – and relieved of their broken and bent arrows – they left Lawrence to wrangling the tired cabin and went to join Chiron.

Most of the other head counsellors were already there.  Clarisse had Sherman by her side, both of them looking impatient at the wait, while Drew sneered at Michael from beside Silena.  Lee glanced over at the rest of the Aphrodite kids to see Miri corralling them back towards their cabin.  She sent him a short wave when she caught sight of him looking, and he grinned back.

Michael, like any self-respecting little sibling, made disgusted noises under his breath, which Lee ignored with years of practice.

Unsurprisingly, Malcolm had elected himself as the head counsellor for the Athena cabin in Annabeth’s absence.  He wasn’t the oldest, or even the most experienced, but he was the one that everyone already knew would inherit the position when Annabeth inevitably went to college one day.  He had, at least, had the good sense to pick one of his older and more experienced siblings as his partner, though.  Beckendorf was accompanied by Jake, Katie had picked Miranda, and Travis and Connor and Pollux and Castor had obviously picked each other.  Lee hadn’t expected anything different from cabins eleven and twelve.

Grover and Tyson finished off the official search party, still keeping their distance from each other but adamant that they were going to be involved, anyway.  No-one was going to tell them no.

“We’ll split into two groups to cover more ground but keep safety in numbers,” Chiron told them.  “Clarisse and Sherman, Lee and Michael, Silena and Drew, Pollux and Castor, and Tyson – you’ll be with me.”

“And the rest of you are with me,” Quintus said.  “And Mrs O’Leary, of course.”  The hellhound let out a massive whoof that made them all jump.

Quintus’ search party looked a little discomforted at the reminder they were going into the woods accompanied by a hellhound, even if she was a friendly one.  Lee was privately glad that he wasn’t in that group.

Chiron gave all of them torches and whistles, “in case anyone gets separated, or to let the other group know if we find them.”  Lee looped his whistle around his neck, while Michael tangled the string around his quiver strap.

Going back into the woods late at night, when there was only the light of their torches and the faint strains of moon- and starlight to show the way, was disconcerting.  Lee didn’t like it, and from the tenseness of everyone else’s shoulders, nor did anyone else.  Stealth was no longer a priority, so Clarisse’s spear was constantly crackling, lighting up with red sparks that made her still-worn laurels glisten as though they were on fire.

“Percy!” Tyson bellowed suddenly, almost deafening them.  Lee had to grip Michael’s arm to stop him firing an arrow at the cyclops, trying to pretend his other hand wasn’t halfway to raising his bow on instinct, either.  “Annabeth!”

“Oi, Jackson!  Wise girl!” Clarisse echoed after a moment, and one by one they all took up the call as they wove their way through the trees, hooves and feet alike making noise on the undergrowth.  Regular animals scattered, and in the distance they heard answering echoes of the same names from the other search party, who had entered the woods at the other edge of the barrier.

It was a similar pattern to the one Lee and Clarisse had taken whilst hunting the scorpions, although they hadn’t had anyone the other side to complete the pincer movement.

Despite being a single search party, as they moved they started to spread out, never losing sight of each other’s torches, but covering a greater area as they combed the undergrowth, in case the missing demigods weren’t-

Weren’t capable of calling back.

Lee refused to think of why, didn’t let himself think of pit scorpions and half dead sons of Poseidon limp in the infirmary, but made sure to check every darker pocket of shadows with his torch, just to be sure.  Above him, he could hear Michael slipping along tree branches, his torch providing far more light from the skies than the distant moon and stars and his voice joining the calls.  He was the only one of their party that could really navigate the trees so easily – not just for his size, but because Lee had known for years that despite his brusqueness with the other demigods, Michael had long since got on the good side of the dryads and was allowed to clamber through them like a monkey, so long as he didn’t damage their trees – and Chiron had swiftly agreed that the additional viewing angle would only help.

For once, Clarisse hadn’t made any snide or antagonising remarks about Michael’s tendency to hide in trees and sneak around, which had only proven how concerned she actually was about Annabeth and Percy’s disappearance.  Lee couldn’t quite kid himself into thinking it was just because Clarisse was worried it meant there was a Labyrinth entrance, and that they’d found it – ever since the fleece quest last summer, she’d been a little less outrightly hostile to Percy, and she and Annabeth had always been more of a butting heads rather than hating each other’s guts relationship.  Lee had known the younger girls long enough to know that they respected each other, when it came down to it.

Lee’s torch picked up a scattering of dust, recent enough to have not been blown away by what wind made it through the trees, and the beam from Clarisse’s torch, next to him in their line, crossed it.  They both paused, and looked at each other.

“The scorpions,” Clarisse said, her voice a little hoarse from the shouting.  It was almost drowned out by the yells of their companions, but she was looking at Lee.

“They wouldn’t be killed by those,” he protested, and she grunted, slashing her spear through the air.

“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped.  “Think, Lee.”

Lee blinked at her, glancing back at the scattered dust.  Around and above them, the rest of the search party kept marching forwards.

“I’m not following,” he admitted.  “What about them?”

She rolled her eyes before stomping forwards again, breaking their search pattern.  Lee hurried to follow, because none of them were going alone.  Behind him, he heard Drew curse as she spotted their torches headed in a different direction.  “Oi, wrong way!”

Clarisse ignored her.  “The first one was by itself,” she said.  “So was the one Drew and Michael killed, and Sherman and Jake.”

Lee suddenly realised where she was going, and where they were headed.  “But the other three were together.”

“Took you long enough,” she huffed.

“They weren’t facing us,” Lee continued to recall, hearing their names also being called, and the frustrated grunts of Michael in the trees above them as he caught up with them.  “They’d been following something else.  But there was nothing there, was there?”

“Enough of the damn universe revolves around Jackson,” Clarisse snorted.  “Why wouldn’t half the damn monsters?”

“What are you two going on about?” Michael shouted down at them.

“Fuck off,” Clarisse snapped at him.

“Clarisse,” Lee scolded immediately, before glancing up at the torch dimly illuminating his younger brother in the trees.  “We’re going to check Zeus’ Fist,” he told him.  “Tell Chiron.”  He didn’t leave it a question, because if he did, Michael would say no, and then he’d be stuck mediating between Clarisse and Michael whilst trying to find missing demigods, and at what had to be well past ten at night by now, Lee was far too tired to be dealing with their arguments.

“Tell him yourself,” Michael groused, because Lee wasn’t the only overtired Apollo kid on the search, and Michael got irritable even with him sometimes, and Lee was not dealing with this.

“Michael!” he snapped.  “Go tell Chiron, now.”

Above him, the torchlight stuttered, and Lee felt a flash of guilt because he never snapped at Michael, but then it turned around and the dark silhouette of his younger brother headed back towards the bulk of the search party.

Clarisse whistled.  “I didn’t know you had it in you, Lee.”

Lee groaned.  “Clarisse.  It is stupid o’clock at night.  We spent a good hour earlier chasing and killing giant scorpions.  Now there are missing demigods.  Michael and I were up last night chasing off drakons at stupid o’clock in the morning.  I am past tired, and we’re both worrying that the Labyrinth is involved even though neither of us can say it in front of the other campers.”  She stiffened.  “Do not push me right now.”

That was the wrong thing to say to an Ares kid – the default response to do not push me with them was always what are you going to do about it, and Clarisse had never been the exception to that rule.  Lee braced himself for the inevitable jibe.

It didn’t come.

“You too?” she asked instead, her voice quiet in a way that Clarisse wasn’t, except when the Labyrinth came up.  Lee didn’t know what, exactly, she’d been through when she’d explored it, but he remembered the injuries she’d come back to camp with.  The scar on her chin was the only one visible in polite company, but there had been several, worse, wounds that were now knotted and ugly scars under her clothes.  The thing with being the camp’s head healer was that Lee saw these things.

“I hope it isn’t,” he admitted, keeping a careful eye on the torches now following them from behind, because even if it was only senior campers, he didn’t want them overhearing this.  Clarisse wouldn’t, either.  “But…”

“Grover could reach Percy from the fucking Sea of Monsters,” Clarisse said, roughly, and adding more weight to the theory that their paths had crossed on the fleece quest.  “If he can’t reach him now, it’s something worse than that.”

And it’s in our camp, she didn’t say, but Lee heard it loud and clear, anyway, and there wasn’t anything he could say to that, because he didn’t think she was wrong, but admitting out loud that she was right…

Well, there was a reason she didn’t say it.

Hooves pounded the ground behind them, and Lee turned around as Chiron caught them up.  “You shouldn’t be wandering off without telling us,” the centaur said, disapprovingly.

“Lee sent Michael to tell you,” Clarisse muttered.  The tree leaves above them rustled, but Michael didn’t say anything else.  The guilt at snapping at his younger brother gnawed a little bit deeper.

“I know,” Chiron said, but he still didn’t sound happy.  Then again, Lee had sent Michael with a message and no company, although he trusted the trees to keep Michael safe better than anyone would’ve been on the ground.  “Why Zeus’ Fist?”

“There were three scorpions clustered together there,” Lee said, before Clarisse could.  “They looked like they’d been chasing something, but there wasn’t anything there.  We didn’t pay attention to that at the time, but…”

“But you now think that might have been Annabeth and Percy,” Chiron sighed.  “I see.  I can’t say I would be surprised; Percy does attract more monsters than the rest of you.”

Not for the first time, Lee was glad to not be a Big Three kid.  He’d seen Thalia’s death when he’d been ten – and subsequent resurrection last summer – and all the chaos Percy had been falling into since his arrival two years ago, and was quite content with not being at the heart of all of that.  It was bad enough getting involved on the periphery.

Percy and his pit scorpion-stung hand in the infirmary while nothing Lee could do helped continued to haunt him.

The rest of the search party kept calling the missing demigods’ names, but Lee and Clarisse kept forging forwards, waiting until they were in earshot of Zeus’ Fist before readding their voices to the now-hoarse calls of the others.

They almost ran straight into Grover, who was also shouting for Percy and Annabeth, completely separated from the rest of his search party.  Chiron didn’t say anything about it, but Lee could feel his disapproval at the satyr striking off alone, especially as with his empathy bond he probably had a better chance at guessing where Percy had last been.

His presence did at least support his and Clarisse’s theory, though.

“Annabeth!” he shouted, as his torchlight picked up more scattered monster dust, the edge of Zeus’ Fist casting a sharp shadow through it.  “Percy!”

Somewhere ahead of him, Tyson roared the names again.

Lee called again, walking closer to the pile of rocks and ending up next to Clarisse once more.

Annabeth and Percy almost collided with them, looking completely unharmed – to Lee’s relief – and confused.

“Where have you two been?” Clarisse immediately pounced, her agitation and frustration finally reaching boiling point.

“We’ve been looking forever,” Lee added, mostly to stall Clarisse’s momentum before she really let loose.  They did not need Clarisse exploding in the middle of the night.  Lee did not need Clarisse exploding in the middle of the night.

“But we were only gone a few minutes,” Percy protested, which was categorically wrong, because Lee was pretty certain they’d been gone for at least two hours at that point.  Thankfully, Chiron appeared behind him, and Lee gladly stepped back to let someone else deal with the younger demigods now they were found and not hurt.

They’d better not be hurt.

Tyson seemed happy to jump in and confirm it; Percy liked Tyson too much to lie to him, or so Lee hoped.

“We’re fine,” the son of Poseidon promised.  “We fell in a hole.”

Lee had been playing Capture the Flag around Zeus’ Fist since he was ten and finally deemed old enough.  There was no hole there big enough to hide two demigods so completely for so long.  The rest of Percy’s explanation made sense – Lee could attest to the three scorpions together, given the laurel one of them had been carrying was now perched on Clarisse’s head, all but forgotten by everyone in the chaos of Annabeth and Percy’s disappearance – but his idea of the timeline was so far out it was…

Concerning, if Lee was honest.  Missing time usually suggested some form of amnesia, but neither demigod were showing any signs of injury at all, let alone amnesia-inducing injury, and, well.  Luke worked for Kronos, now, and Kronos wasn’t just the titan of eating his children.

“You’ve been missing for almost an hour,” Chiron said, which Lee couldn’t believe.  It had felt like so much longer, but maybe the centaur was only counting how long they’d been actively searching for?  Lee was still certain it was at least twice that.  “The game is over.”

Grover muttered something about Tyson sitting on him, which stopped them winning.  Lee hadn’t even noticed them nearby, so he wasn’t quite sure what the satyr was talking about.

Clarisse, unsurprisingly for Lee, given he already knew her concerns, but more surprisingly to his fellow demigods judging by the confused noises he could hear from the others behind them, focused in on the other concerning bit, the one that wasn’t time-related.

Or maybe it was.

“A hole?” she asked, sounding to Lee like she didn’t really want to know the answer, but also needed to.

Annabeth’s deep inhale told Lee all he needed to know.  Her glance around at the gathered audience of demigods all staring at her cemented it.

“Chiron… maybe we should talk about this at the Big House.”

Clarisse’s gasp cut through the silence, the daughter of Ares not able to not react to the confirmation she (and Lee) had been dreading.  “You found it, didn’t you?”

Annabeth’s verbal confirmation was enough to get the other campers demanding to know what was going on, and Lee was both glad that it was only half the head counsellors, and some other experienced campers, and frustrated that they were either going to need to explain it to everyone, or find a way to diffuse the curiosity – which was not going to be easy.

Lee got the distinct feeling that Michael was burning a hole in the back of his head for not joining in the confused questions, and was not looking forwards to dealing with that, especially as he also had to apologise for snapping at him, and both of them were too tired for serious, sensible, conversations this side of sleep.

Chiron raised his hand and slowly, the rest of the present campers faded into disgruntled silence.  “Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place,” he said.  Lee fully agreed with that, suddenly very disconcerted by the fact that he had spent the past seven years playing Capture the Flag right by a Labyrinth entrance.  Having seen Chris, and Clarisse, he had no desire at all to fall into it, even if it was apparently possible to escape quickly enough you didn’t even realise you were there.

Except, no, Annabeth had realised where she’d been, and she’d been researching it thoroughly, so of course she’d known how to escape.  Most demigods, especially those caught unaware, probably wouldn’t have done.

Lee had the sudden urge to get away from the pile of rocks and never, ever come back.  Chiron, thankfully, seemed to be in agreement, as he told them all to go back to their cabins and go to sleep.

Sleep sounded amazing, but as one of the very few demigods already in the know, Lee couldn’t just leave, especially if Annabeth and Clarisse were going to start discussing it once everyone else had gone.

“Lee?” Michael asked him, clearly suspicious, but Lee could not deal with talking to Michael about it right then.

“Listen to Chiron,” he told him, keeping half an eye on Clarisse and Annabeth, who had drawn closer together and were muttering between themselves.  He needed to be involved in that.  “We’ll talk in the morning, Michael.”

“But-”

“Please, Michael,” he all but begged.  “We’re both exhausted and it’s going to be a long talk, which I can’t have right now.”

Michael’s eyes burned into him, but eventually he caved, to Lee’s immense relief.  “You’re telling me in the morning,” he said, and it wasn’t a question.  Lee smiled gratefully.

“Everything I can,” he promised, knowing that Michael probably still wasn’t exhausted enough to miss the massive loophole he was leaving himself, but hoping he would trust him just a little more.  “Go on ahead and get some sleep.”

Michael scowled at him, but after a moment obeyed, turning away and joining the exodus of the other demigods back towards the cabins and their welcoming beds.  Lee watched him go, hearing Chiron blow the whistle to dismiss the other search party, before joining the muttering, concerned huddle that was Annabeth, Clarisse, Percy, Grover and Tyson in time to hear Annabeth filling Percy in on the Labyrinth.

He shouldn’t have been surprised that Grover and Tyson had already been drawn into the loop.

Chiron came up behind him.  “We will discuss this in the morning,” he said, firmly but not unkindly.  “Off you go.”

Lee was more than happy to leave the clearing, and the woods, but when they reached the open area of camp, he hung back as Percy and Tyson retreated into cabin three and Grover disappeared off as well.

Chiron escorted the rest of them to their cabins, one at a time, but Lee knew that the girls were going to reappear as soon as the centaur was gone.  He obediently ducked inside the door of cabin seven, pleased to see that all of the younger kids were asleep, although the older campers were having a quiet conference – centred around Michael, who was presumably telling them that Annabeth and Percy had been found, and hopefully not telling them anything else.  They caught sight of him and waved him over, but he shook his head.

“They’re safe,” he said quietly, glancing back out the window near the door to see Chiron’s shadow slowly traipsing away from the cabins and back up the hill, “but I’ve got to go out again before I can go to bed.  Don’t wait up for me.”

“Lee, you’re exhausted,” Lawrence protested.  “You barely got any sleep last night, and you’re not getting much tonight, either.”

“I’ll survive,” Lee promised.  “And I won’t be long.”  He and the girls could only dodge the harpies for so long.

Chiron’s shadow disappeared, and immediately he saw the door to cabin six crack open again.  He couldn’t see the door to cabin five from the window, but Annabeth headed straight for the Ares cabin, so he knew Clarisse was making her own reappearance.

He slipped back out the door himself, darting across the short distance between the two cabins, and rejoined the girls.

“Go to bed, Lee,” Clarisse ordered, but she couldn’t raise her voice, and Lee was not letting the younger demigods cut him out of the loop now.

“What happened?” he asked Annabeth.  Her face scrunched up.

“Percy summed it up,” she said.  “When the scorpions cornered us, we fell into the rocks.  It was pitch black, no light at all, and I had to grab him to stop him wandering off.  Then I found the Daedalus symbol and pressed it, and the entrance re-opened so we could climb out.  It really didn’t take any time at all.”

“Time moves differently in there,” Clarisse confirmed.  Lee hadn’t known that, but if anyone was going to know that, it was the one that had spent time exploring it.  “That… shit.  That was definitely it.  And if Luke doesn’t already know about it, it’s only a matter of time before he does.”

Lee remembered, again, the day Percy came to him with pit scorpion venom and Luke vanished into the woods, and his stomach curled unpleasantly.

“He already knows where it is, from this side,” he said.  “That’s how he left.”

In the faint moonlight, Annabeth looked completely washed out, but it was Clarisse that finished the thought.

“He’s trying to find the entrance from the inside,” she growled.  “Chris-”

Her voice broke off, and neither Lee nor Annabeth finished her sentence out loud.  None of them needed to.

That was what Chris had been sent in to look for – if not the string, at least the route back to camp from wherever Luke and Kronos’ army were waiting.

“That drakon was a distraction,” Lee sighed, but Annabeth shook her head.

“Two-pronged attack,” she said.  “If they can find a weakness in the barrier now Thalia’s not-  Or a backup plan, if they can’t navigate the Labyrinth.”

Lee still couldn’t reconcile the Luke he remembered with the Luke that was actively trying to attack their camp.  It just didn’t make sense.  But Chris had proven that something was coming, and Luke and Chris had been good friends, for all that Chris was unclaimed.  For him to throw Chris away like that…

The Luke Lee knew clearly didn’t exist anymore.

“We have to tell Chiron, in the morning,” he said.  “This is…”

“Tomorrow will be a full war council,” Annabeth said, confidently.  She looked at Clarisse, and Lee did the same.  The daughter of Ares’ lips were thin where they pressed together tightly.  “After this, Chiron can’t keep it from the other head counsellors.”

And that meant that everyone was going to find out about Chris.

Clarisse growled.  “I know,” she said.

“Patient confidentiality still holds,” Lee promised her.  “They don’t need to know any details.”  He hoped he didn’t imagine her relaxing slightly, but it could easily have been a trick of the moonlight.

“Just the threat of the Labyrinth,” Annabeth agreed.  The words, said out loud, made Lee shiver.

They were out of their depth, now.  This was more than three demigods could handle.

“We can’t do anything about it right now,” he said.  “And the harpies will be along soon.  Try and get some sleep, girls.  We’ll need both of you sharp in the morning, for this.”  He looked over at Clarisse.  “I’ll drop by Chris before breakfast,” he told her.

“Have you worked out how to cure insanity?” she snapped back, and he sighed.

“No,” he admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him.”  Even if all he could do was make sure Chris wasn’t in physical pain, wasn’t hurting himself in his insanity, he’d keep doing it.

Clarisse looked at him, for once looking like the fifteen year old she was, young and scared.  It was a vulnerability Lee only knew he was seeing because she was tired, too.  Not just physically, but emotionally, too.  Ever since Chris had appeared in Arizona, she’d been struggling, and this seemed like the final straw for her.

Lee was impressed she’d held it together for so long.  He was older, and only tangentially involved – brought in because they needed a healer, and now the only one of their trio that had never been in the Labyrinth – and he already felt like he was about to break under the stress, knew he’d started cracking if he was snapping at Michael and constantly cycling back around to Luke’s betrayal again.  How Clarisse had held herself together for so long, he had no idea.

“Get some sleep,” he said, not gently because even now, Clarisse would not take well to gentle.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”  He glanced up at the moon, now high in the sky, and realised with a sinking feeling that tomorrow had arrived.  “Later in the morning,” he corrected.

“Whatever,” Clarisse mumbled.  Her hand travelled up to her head, gripping the laurels that still sat there, forgotten and ignored.  Their victory hadn’t even been mentioned, with everything else, and Lee suspected it never would be.  She pulled them off, and caught Lee out when she reached up and dropped them on his head, instead.  “I’ll be there.”

She disappeared back inside her cabin before Lee or Annabeth could say anything else.  The boar’s head above the door glowered down at them, and without an Ares kid, it suddenly felt wrong to be standing there.

“Bed, Annabeth,” Lee prodded.  She was looking up at the laurels now in his hair, no doubt wonky – they felt like they were about to fall – but Lee was too tired to bother fixing them.  “Your brain needs to be in working order at the meeting.”  When she didn’t immediately move, her thoughts seemingly taking her elsewhere, he gripped her elbow lightly and began to steer her across the green, towards her own cabin.  She moved without resistance, but didn’t jerk away until they were almost there, coming back from wherever her mind had gone.

“Thanks, Lee,” she said.  “We don’t say that enough.”  Lee gave her a quick, one-armed hug.

“You’re not in this alone,” he reminded her.  “Now, go get some sleep.”

She scrutinised him with eyes that were somehow still sharp, despite the late hour.  “You need to sleep,” she retorted.  “Weren’t you up at three o’clock last night?”

Lee sighed.  “Yes, yes I was,” he said.  “So if you could get inside your cabin so I can be reassured that you, too, are in bed and safe so I can do the same, that would be great, thanks.”

“You’re not my big brother,” she pointed out.

“No,” Lee agreed.  “But I’m the head of the infirmary and do not want to be dealing with a sleep deprived Annabeth in the morning.  So, shoo.”

He wasn’t sure what part of that finally got through to her, but she did, finally, slip back in through her cabin door, leaving him alone outside – and not a moment too soon, as the tell-tale sound of wings filled the air.

“I’m going, Calaeno,” he promised as one of the harpies landed in front of him.  She glared at him, eyes piercing even in the dark.

“Bed,” she ordered, one of her wings coming to loop around him.  “Past curfew.  No infirmary.”

“I know, I know.”  Lee let her walk him back across the green and towards his cabin door.  Being an Apollo kid had advantages, like blanket permission to be out after curfew, for reasonable reasons.  The harpies wouldn’t attack him, although they’d force him back to his cabin more peacefully – like now.

“Stay until dawn,” Calaeno told him firmly.  “Camp safe.”

She and her sisters had not taken kindly to the drakon the previous night, either.  If it had come inside the barriers, Lee had no doubt that they’d have attacked it with the same ferociousness the campers were always threatened with.

He stumbled across the threshold, pushed over by the harpy’s wing, and the door was shut firmly behind her.  Blindly, he groped his way to his own bunk, not even bothering to change and barely remembering to kick off his shoes before he face-planted his bunk.

The mattress gave way weirdly, as though there was already something on it, and more grasping found a small figure curled up asleep on his bed already.  Lee couldn’t see in the dark, and wasn’t going to turn on a light, but he was pretty certain it was Michael.  No doubt, his younger brother had tried to wait up for him, but he hadn’t so much as stirred at Lee’s ungainly arrival.

Good.  He needed the sleep.

So did Lee, and it was hardly the first time he’d ended up sharing his bunk with a sibling – not even the first time said sibling had been Michael – so he didn’t bother to try and get his younger brother back to his own bunk.  Instead, he just nudged him over slightly, so that he could get his own head on the pillow – ow, golden laurel leaves were not comfortable – and closed his eyes.

Tomorrow – today, after the sun rose – was going to be full of awkward conversations and more emotional stress, Lee knew.

Right now, he needed sleep.  Thankfully, it came quickly.