#ok so knowing that artemis's name is artemis for more than a year.... maybe the biggest privilege ever????

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Mary Todd pt15

ao3 Beginning Previous

“Wow! Did not expect to see you here!”

Marinette turned and saw a tall blonde woman with Asian features standing behind her. Artemis Crock, Roy’s pseudo-sister/in-law. They really hadn’t gotten much of a chance to talk at the diner, so Marinette smiled and shifted in a silent invitation. Artemis took it by claiming the barstool next to her. “Where did you expect me to be?” Marinette asked as she sipped her whiskey.

“I don’t know,” Artemis admitted, “Running with the bats, driving your brother nuts, climbing my brother.”

Marinette felt the light blush, but she only chuckled and shook her head as the other hero ordered her own drink. “I’m not even dating him yet and already we’re Gotham’s newest power couple.”

“Well, what did you expect when you took on a Rogue on your first date?” There was laughter in her voice, and Marinette accepted the ease of the conversation as easily as she were with Alya.

“It’s not like I planned it,” Marinette insisted. “Besides that’s not why I’m here.”

Artemis nodded. “Yeah, I overheard Jason complaining to Roy. Apparently he’s trying to decide whether or not he should kill my idiot brother for ‘trying to seduce the only pure one in the family,’ his words not mine, or encourage it cause he doesn’t want you to leave Gotham.”

Marinette groaned, knocking back the last of her drink before signaling for another one. “Ok first of all, I’m hardly pure.”

“Oh,” Artemis sang leaning forward, “Anyone I would know.”

“Not personally,” Marinette said playing with her glass, the faint smile of nostalgia lighting up her face, “Probably by reputation. But they’re dating each other now, so they’re hardly competition for Roy.”

Artemis chuckled, “Good to know. Now on any other night I’d ask you why Jay is so panicked about you leaving without him, but I have the feeling you didn’t come here to remember.”

Marinette groaned leaning back on her stool, and found herself staring at her reflection in the glass that revealed the rowdy but happy atmosphere she had found herself in. Big burly men playing pool. Slender women with mace on their key chains toasting each other in the booths. Working girls resting their feet before heading back out on the streets. Baby faced teenagers trying to convince the bar tender that they could handle their liquor. It wasn’t clean, and half of these people were probably criminals, but it was full of life and warmth and light. Marinette loved it.

She sighed as she turned back to her impromptu drinking companion, “How long have you known Jay-Jay?”

“Since he was Robin so close to…eight? Maybe ten years now. Probably longer, why?”

“I was three years old when we were separated,” Marinette said softly but not bitterly, “You know him better than I do. You’re probably more of his sister than I am.”

Artemis snorted and shook her head. “Hardly! I mean, yeah, I probably do know him better than you, but there’s nothing brotherly or sisterly about our relationship.”

“Have you too--?”

 Artemis gave a dry laugh, “No! He was just a kid when we met, and besides, me and my boyfriend…” A warm soft smile spread over Artemis’s face as she accepted her drink. Marinette knew that look. The brightening of her eyes, the glow on her face, the relaxing of her shoulders. This was a woman completely in love in the best way.

“What’s his name?” Marinette asked resting her chin in her hand.

“Wally,” Artemis said still smiling as she sipped her drink. “Wally West. My best friend, and a pain in my ass most days! I’m so lucky to have him. Especially after everything we’ve been through.”

“Is he…part of the community?” Marinette asked hesitantly.

Artemis tilted her head in a so-so motion before saying, “Off and on, when he needs to be. He’s mainly focused on his career though, which works. The city where we live doesn’t exactly need more heroes. Not like here and in Star City. So we can live quietly away from everything, living our lives until the red phone rings, so to speak.”

“That sounds nice,” Marinette said wistfully, and she tried to imagine it. A quiet life running her own boutique, working on commissions in the back room. A loving partner waiting for her at home with kids, and maybe a hamster. But…

The fantasy just didn’t feel right anymore. That was the fantasy of her childhood, the dream of her slightly crazy and stress riddled youth. So much had changed since then. So much had happened. She had killed a man. And she didn’t feel guilty. She had taken responsibility for the cosmic forces of the Earth, and in doing so had dedicated the rest of her life to running around the globe. And so when she dreamed of the future, a bright, warm, home with someone waiting for her…It just didn’t fit anymore.

She sighed as she sipped her drink, “Not to bring down the party, but I don’t know if that will work for me. I doubt I’ll stay anywhere longer than five to ten years, and then I’ll have no idea where the universe will call me to next. A quiet life as a redundant hero doesn’t really gel with that.”

Artemis nodded her understanding sipping her own drink quietly, “I get it. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the community who didn’t. The Bats never leave Gotham. The Lanterns jump around the galaxy. And all of our personal lives are as twisted and scrambled as a bowl of spaghetti.”

Marinette laughed and nodded, “Roy and Lian deserve better.”

“Oh, come on!” Artemis cried, “You haven’t even done the whole, ‘I have to ditch our date cause of a robbery’ routine yet!”

Marinette shook her head as she laughed, “Been there done that one too many times, thanks. Personally I’d like a relationship where I didn’t have to do that.”

“Then at least give Roy a shot,” Artemis said, “He’s a doof, but he’s a good one, and he’ll never ask you for anything that you aren’t willing to give.”

“And Lian?”

Artemis looked into her glass her expression darkening, “My sister, her mother…let’s just say there’s a reason Jade gave her to Roy and then skipped town. But she didn’t have to leave. She could have stayed. She could have tried, and we all knew it. But she didn’t.”

“I’m not going to have a choice,” Marinette said softly.

“I know,” Artemis said simply, “And that’s why I think you’ll be good for them.”

Marinette shook herself and turned to Artemis incredulously. “I’m sorry but how would me leaving them every other week to jet off around the world be good for them?”

Artemis looked at her calmly and full of understanding, “Because you would try. I’m sorry if this is overstepping, but Cassie has told me a lot about you. In fact, she pretty much raves about you every chance she gets. And if there’s one thing I got from all of her fangirling, it’s that you are a person who tries.

“You try, Marinette, when the world is caving in around you. When your friends are being hurt or misled. When everything seems to be falling apart, you always try. Roy and Lian don’t need someone who can effortlessly be there twenty-four seven, and solve all of their problems. They need someone who is willing to put in the hard work, and is not afraid of the difficulty.

“And you…and again stop me if I’m overstepping. But you seem to need someone who will let you be free. You can’t tie yourself to any one place because of your responsibilities. So you need someone who is willing to wait for you, give you a place to go home to when it’s all said and done. Am I wrong?”

Marinette shook her head and sipped her drink, “Are you some sort of therapist or something?”

“No,” Artemis scoffed, “But my best friend is a telepath and a therapist. I guess I might have picked some stuff up from her.”

Marinette sighed as she ran her finger around the rim of her glass. “I wish my life were simple. I wish I was just a regular vigilante, and I flew around the city with grappling hooks instead of a magic yoyo. I wish I could just cave to Hippolyta and let her make me an Amazon. I wish all I had to worry about was a single city, and a single team, with a single mission. But…" she sighed, "That’s not my life. It was never meant to be my life. I couldn’t fight it the same way you can’t fight the Earth from spinning on its axis.”

“Do you hate that?”

“No,” Marinette said simply, “Destiny is weird like that. You can’t stop the future designed for you, but at the same time it was the future you would have chosen anyway. I really can’t begrudge the roles I have, because looking back, I really can’t say I would have, or could have done anything different. I’m not a puppet, I chose this life as surely as it was chosen for me…I know that doesn’t make any sense, but—”

“Hey,” Artemis said with a sly smile, “Don’t worry about it. At this point I’ve just learned to shrug my shoulders and role with whatever comes next. So long as I can shoot whatever comes next in the face with an arrow.”

Marinette laughed and excepted the self-assured confidence of her companion. “Well, then tell me, what should I do about Jay-Jay?”

“What do you mean? Roy seemed to be under the impression that that was all settled. Something about him being some sort of divine executioner, or something?”

Marinette shook her head pursing her lips. “I suspect that he is the Executioner, but I have no idea if he actually is or not. We won’t know either way until the time actually comes. Until then all we can do is live our lives and wait for destiny to catch up with us, or vice versa.”

“What’s against him being the Executioner?”

“The Pit Madness for one,” Marinette said as she nocked back the last of her drink, “The Executioner is meant to be a calm and detached extension of the Arbiter’s will, and protector for the Guardian. At first I thought he might be the Executioner because he was so determined to protect me, and was so against the idea of me killing. But the more I think about it…”

“Yeah,” Artemis agreed knocking back her own drink, “Calm and detached never really described Jason even before the Lazarus Pit…Are there any other options?”

“Me,” Marinette admitted. And there was silence between the two women that was accentuated by the muffled sounds of the Bar around them. Finally, Marinette sighed and said, “Merde! Listen to me. I came out to get away from all the drab destiny talk, and now I’ve dragged you down with me. I barely know you!”

“It’s cool,” Artemis said with a laugh. “I don’t mind. We heroines have to stick together right. Lean on each other when the world gets us down. Groan and roll our eyes when the men are being especially stupid.”

“Ok,” Marinette said with a laugh. “So how do you recommend that we turn this party from sad ass to badass.”

Artemis laughed, “Ok you are definitely Jason’s sister! Now get on your phone and call Babs. I’ll call M’gann and Zatanna and see if we can’t get an impromptu girls night going. Maybe, Raquel's free?”

“Ok,” Marinette said with a smile, “Should I call Cass and Steph too?”

“They aren’t legal…wait, are you?”

“I am in Paris.”

“Then we’ll Zeta to Paris!”

“Ok,” Marinette said not even trying to fight the bemused smile that was growing over her face, “But I have to warn you, though, ever since I turned into the mystical keeper of balance within the universe, it has become very difficult for me to get drunk.”

“I’ll take that as a challenge!” Artemis exclaimed, as they paid their tab and left the bar.

“Wow! Did not expect to see you here!”

Kon looked up to see Wally, Jason, and Roy walking towards him. “I didn’t expect to be here,” the first Superboy said. He narrowed his eyes at the way Jason was shooting Roy death glares, while Roy was carefully not noticing them. Meanwhile Wally was walking between them, fidgeting as if he were walking down death row. “What’s wrong with you three?”

“Nothing,” Roy and Jason said simultaneously. Although Roy said it with an exasperated sigh, while Jason said it through gritted teeth.

Wally rolled his eyes and said, “Have you seen the #badassParischick thing going around.”

“Oh,” Kon said tilting his head, “You mean Roy’s new girlfriend?”

“She’s not his girlfriend!” Jason snapped.

“We haven’t talked about it yet,” Roy said whistfuly.

“Yeah,” Wally said bemused, “BadassParischick is Jason’s little sister.”

Kon blinked, stunned. “Bruce got another one?”

Roy and Wally snickered as Jason shot them both a glare, but he explained nonetheless, “No! She’s my biological sister. We were separated by CPS. And she’s Ladybug.”

“Wow,” Kon said stunned, “Your sister really is badass.”

“Yes! She is!” Roy exclaimed, “So can you please tell Jason to cut the over protective big brother routine! She’s a grown woman, who can make her own choices.”

“She’s eighteen!”

“She is a Cosmic powerhouse chosen by the universe to protect the world!”

“That doesn’t make me feel better!”

“They’ve been like this all morning,” Wally groaned. “Please make them stop!”

Kon shook his head and then narrowed his eyes. “So why are you all here?”

“Mari texted me,” Jason said turning from Roy in a huff, “Told me I needed to clean her bathroom and collect Babs. You?”

Kon held up his phone showing the strange text from M’gann he had gotten that morning. “It just says, ‘come get your woman’ and then this apartment building.”

“Mine says the same thing,” Wally said holding up his phone, “Only my text was from Artemis and it called me a dumbass.”

“Oh no,” Roy groaned as his eyes trailed to the apartment door, which now seemed extremely ominous. “I think I know what’s happening.”

Exchanging nervous glances, Jason led the boys over to the door and knocked. If the young woman who opened the door wasn’t Jason’s sister, then Kon would eat a bag of Kryptonite flavored chips. There was no way in hell, that they weren’t related via blood or Bruce. Still she smiled brightly at them, and in a hushed voice said,

“Hi! I assume you too are Kon and Wally? I’m Marinette. Your ladies are in here.”

She led them into a nice spacious apartment that was clearly meant for visiting, not for living in. Still Marinette had clearly been there long enough to make herself at home, as half of the living space had been cleared for a sewing machine, bundles of fabric, a cutting table, and a number of dress forms with half finished projects on them. However, the other half of the living room, was taken up by their girlfriends, plus Zatanna, Babs, and Rocket, who were all collapsed in various stages of dishevelment across the couch, armchairs, and floor. M’gann was even floating in her half human/half white Martian form.

“Girls Night,” Marinette explained as she sipped her steaming coffee. “I did warn them not to try and outdrink me, but Artemis was determined.”

“Yeah,” Wally said with a dopey grin, “That’s my girl.”

“Mari!” Jason said with an exasperated sigh, “You are eighteen what Gotham bar gave you drinks.”

“I’m not telling you that!” Marinette said with a smirk, “You’d shut them down. Besides we didn’t party here! We zetaed to Paris. You haven’t been clubbing till you’ve been clubbing in Paris!”

“Clubs!” Jason chocked as Kon snickered.

“I thought Berlin was the club scene of Europe?” Wally muttered.

“Yeah,” Marinette said to Jason as if it were obvious, “Kitty Section played pretty much all of them at one point or another. And technically, yes, Berlin is known for its clubs. But there’s just something about the Paris scene that just more…I don’t know, brighter. Call it hometown bias!”

Jason opened his mouth, probably to announce his clear displeasure at probably everything she had just said, but Kon decided he should intervene.

“Honor to meet you by the way,” he said shaking her head, “I’ve been a fan ever since your first Justice League meeting where you put both Big Blue and Bad Bats in their place with a single sentence. It was artistry.”

Marinette grimaced in embarcement but smiled saying, “Thanks, I wasn’t trying to be mean, but they really should have known better than to question my capabilities. But wait, isn’t Superman your father?”

Kon shook his head in exasperation, “I’m a clone. So technically yes, but…well…lets just say we didn’t get off on the right foot. But don’t worry, we’ve been doing a lot better since. Still, it’s always fun to see someone put him down so thoroughly, not many people have the guts to do that.”

Marinette nodded in understanding. “I think it’s the power. People perceive them as being better than they actually are because of it, and then are too afraid to tell them when they’re wrong. Never let that happen to me!” She said spinning to point at Jason and Roy.

“Don’t worry about it, Pixie. Now what are we supposed to do with them,” Jason said gesturing at the pile of unconscious superheroines.

Marinette smiled and clapped loudly, making Kon winced as all the girls jumped up with groans and shouts of protests. M’gann yelped and fell to the floor, making Kon laughed as he went to retrieve his girlfriend.

“What the hell, Mari?” Artemis groaned as she rubbed her head to sooth, what Kon assumed was, a pounding headache, “It’s too early for this!”

“It’s 11’o clock!” Marinette said as she went to pour the poor girls more coffee. “And I did warn you about trying to keep up with me! By the way your boytoy’s here.”

“Hey, Spitfire,” Wally said dashing over to her. He began rubbing her temples and she leaned into him with a contented smile on her face. Wally chuckled, “Please tell me we’re not banned from Paris? I have plans for that place.”

“Shh, not so loud,” Artemis said, “And for the record Mari is a demon. Seriously no one should be able to drink that much!”

“Here, here!” Rocket moaned as she and Zatanna supported each other.

“I would agree,” Zatanna said as she accepted the coffee from Marinette, “But I’m to scared of her pocket gods.”

The boys chuckled, as Jason helped Babs back into her wheelchair. “Well, at least tell me you had fun,” Kon said as he passed the coffee to M’gann

All of the girls chuckled wickedly, causing the boys to exchange worried glances. Before Marinette spoke up. “We had a blast. I think we all needed a little breather. By the way, Raquel, Zatanna, I didn’t know who to call for you. So I called Roy, so he can send you where you need to go. And Jason, you’re not going anywhere until you clean up my bathroom.”

“What why?”

“Someone,” Babs moaned as she took her coffee, “May have thrown up in there…May have been me…I think…”

“But why me? It’s your bathroom!”

“Technically,” Marinette said with a sly smile, “It’s Bruce’s bathroom. But he’s not here, and this is punishment.”

“For what?”

“Babs told me about your murder plans for Roy.”

“Dude!” Roy cried causing all of the hungover women to violently shush him. Roy put his hands up and whispered, “Dude, isn’t that going a little too far?”

“I second Roy,” Artemis grumbled.

“Here, here!” all of the other girls lazily cried. Jason scowled as Marinette, smiling in victory, tossed him the bathroom cleaner. Once he was gone, everyone began to laugh before the girls groaned in unison pressing fists to their throbbing foreheads.

Kon smiled lightly, as he watched Roy lean over the kitchen counter to speak with Marinette as she started a second coffeepot. Wally was gently tending to Artemis, and Raquel was laying her head on Barbara’s armrest. He nodded lightly and said, “Alright let’s go. Zatanna you can come with us. You wanted to talk to Clark, right?”

Zatanna groaned but stood. In a flash of magic, she was properly dressed, and her hangover seemed to be cured somewhat, prompting Raquel and Babs to flip her off. M’gann shook her head and also transformed into something more presentable, although she still leaned heavily on Kon’s arm. They said their goodbyes to Marinette, who was leaning as much towards Roy, as he was leaning towards her. Kon couldn’t help but smile at that. His friend deserved some happiness after everything he’d been through. Clones had to stick together after all.

“They do look cute together,” M’gann said in his mind.

“Yeah,” Kon thought back, “Do you think it will last?”

“Only if they try.”

“You guys know it’s rude to communicate telepathically while other people are around right?” Zatanna said jokingly. The couple rolled their eyes, but left the building in high spirits, resolving to support Marinette in whatever she needed.   

Next

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[dump-the-ashes]

Overthinking Xena: Warrior Princess #2- The Gods You Don’t Know

i always wondered about this. i was watching looking death in the eye and they switch over to olympus where athena’s having like a batmitzvah party with ALL DEEZ GODS???

WHO ARE THEY. Did they just peace out during the twilight and drink wine all day while Xena was wrecking up their family?

Ares, Athena, Hades, Hephaestus and Celesta all check out. And there are obviously some other gods who didn’t get invited or whatever like Aphrodite, Cupid, Discord, Deimos, Charon, The Furies, and The Fates.  

So I’m gunna go pretty headcanon here but I tried figuring out who the rest were. I think these two peeps might be Apollo and Artemis.

I know Artemis shows up later and looks totally different. But to be fair Hades and Hephaestus also have other actors AND are also in this shot. 

So, Apollo is the god of the sun, usually described as having golden hair. This guy is also wearing a lot of gold and blue, the colors of the sun and the sky. One of his famous quotes is “everything in moderation” which is important because he is one of the only gods here not chugging down some booze.

His twin sister is Artemis, who he is very close to in mythology. It makes sense then that he would also be standing next to her during an awkward family reunion. This version of Artemis has blonde hair like her brother. She is the goddess of the wild, hunting, and the moon. Her clothes here are either silver or gold and have more of a leafy pattern. She is also a lot less moderate than Apollo and is drinking in pretty much every frame we see her in.

Ok we all know Poseidon looks like a waterpark but I’m about to dive deep here. My thought is that maybe his giant CGI body is more like a powerplay but not actually his true form. Maybe he shows up like this to intimidate mortals or only looks like that while in the water. 

During the first episode with Ares in Hercules the Legendary Journeys, the god of war took the form of a giant ogre with glowing eyes. He also appeared as a skull in reflections or in the moonlight before we finally got Kevin Smith. So it’s not too out of nowhere to think that other gods might pull some of the same tricks. 

This guy in this Olympian party dorm has a crown and beard close to what we’ve seen of Poseidon so far. He also looks as old as Zeus did, which makes sense as being one of his brothers. Maybe Hades just got all the good genes in the family.

The rest of the gods were harder to figure out. BUT I’m still gunna make some wild guesses so here we go.

The first guy on the left I’m going to guess is Dionysus. Bacchus had an episode in season 2 where he was the Tim Curry devil from Legend. This could be the same situation as the monster forms of Ares and Poseidon. This here is just Bacchus in his true form. Another thought is that the show does actually make a point a few times of mentioning the Greek name “Dionysus” a few times. So I feel like they are actually two different gods. The only reason I have for guessing this guy is Dionysus though is because he is holding a drink and his shirt looks like a bundle of grapes.

Behind him might be the goddess of the dawn, Eos. She is described a lot as having rosy fingers and this lady is wearing red gloves. Plus the red and gold in her dress do look like dawn colors.

Across from her is a woman in a black dress and blonde hair. If anyone, I would guess this is Persephone. As queen of the Underworld, it makes sense that she would wear black. As the goddess of springtime she was usually said to have blonde hair and to be surrounded by flowers. Unlike most of the crowns that the gods are wearing, hers looks like it is made out of black flowers.

Way in the back is another woman who is also in a black dress with blonde hair like Persephone is. I’ll peg her as Persephone’s overly protective mom Demeter. She is in mourning for half the year while Persephone is stuck in the Underworld so wearing black or trying to match her daughter at a party seems like a very Demeter thing to do. As the goddess of the harvest, she is also usually described as having long wheat colored hair.

The last two shots in the dark I have are the guy on the right being Hermes. My only thought here is that he looks kind of young and is wearing a cape, which as a god of travelers, Hermes is usually seen wearing or carrying.

The last one I have is the dude on the way left. He doesn’t have sleeves so I thought he might be a warrior god since that’s usually a look saved for fighters in XWP. But I went with Morpheus just because of the long dark robes that seemed very night-like and they reminded me a little bit of the Mystic’s robes in Dreamworker.

Ok that’s it. Everyone else is just a bunch of foreheads. But this always made me super curious and I wanted to know who was who. Does anyone else have any ideas? Or am I overthinking this?

[aiyaar]

Nico di Angelo was ten years old when his life went to hell. He never felt so devastated, so ruined. The only person who cared about him, his family, his everything was gone.

Nico hated all of them. He hated sister for leaving him behind, as if he was nothing, just to die afterwards and leave him completely alone. He hated those stupid huntresses of Artemis for taking his sister away from him. He hated Annabeth Chase, whoever it was, for falling off the cliff and making them go on this quest. But most of all he hated him. Percy Jackson. The ultimate hero, so strong and cool. He hated everything about him. He let him down. Percy Jackson let his sister die.

It was already a month since Bianca left this world. A lonely, cold month. Grieve still strangled him. This month has passed in a blur.

Nico passed an empty street, not even bothering to lift up his head. Snow was falling from the white sky and Nico shivered slightly from the cold. He needs to find some warmer clothes.

The city clock struck twelve, sound cutting through the silence. Another day has come. As if Nico cared. Suddenly he stopped, absentmindedly looking at the date on the billboard. 28th January.

Nico titled his head. He didn’t even know his birthday was coming. He always loved his birthday, so excited to modestly celebrate it with Bianca. Bianca…

A lonely tear rolled down his cheek, followed by another. Nico didn’t bother to wipe them, letting them fall.

“Happy Birthday to me.” He said in a shaky voice, sitting in the snow right in the middle of the street. Nico buried his face in his palms, trying to quiet down choked sobs.

Nico di Angelo was eleven years old when he lost himself.

*

Nico di Angelo was eleven when he started to chase the dream of making his sister come back to life. He was obsessed with the idea, almost going mad in the company of hurt and angry ghosts.

Minos had promised him that he’ll see Bianca again. And Nico believed. What else he could do. He was alone. He was hurt.

Why can’t she talk to him? Why she doesn’t want to show up? She doesn’t want to see him. She despises him. She doesn’t want him.

Nico heard rustling sound under his boots. He picked up the newspaper, catching the date with his eyes. 1st February.

Well, another year passed. Nico didn’t care that he missed his birthday. But a little ache didn’t want to leave his heart as he remembered how Bianca smiled at him the day he turned ten.

And then, months later, she showed up, just to say him that he has to let go. Just to make Nico know that this plan wouldn’t work. Minos was a liar. He used Nico. His only hope was trampled.

Misery was what Nico felt. The weird, nasty feeling crawled up to his throat.

Aside from that, one image didn’t want to leave his mind. His face lived in his head, not wanting to leave. His stupid smile, green eyes, tousled hair. Why Nico keeps thinking of him?

Why did she want to talk to him, not Nico? This stupid guy, with his annoying grin made Nico want to- What?

Nico freezed, trying to finish this though. Did Nico want to kill him? Hurt him? No, it was something else. He felt weird every time he heard his name. Percy Jackson.

Nico di Angelo was twelve when he started to realize something about himself.

*

Nico di Angelo was twelve when he wanted to rip out his own heart. Abnormal, disgusting. He was sick of himself. He felt nauseous at the very thought of it.

It can’t be true, no. He’s mistaken.

He was lying on his bed at his father’s castle, staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his face. Those gorgeous green eyes, goofy smile, tousled black hair. His mind was ranting: Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson.

Nico felt like he was about to cry. Why is he like this? Is he broken?

He looked to the side, at his night table. A bouquet of red roses stood there. An hour ago Persephone strode to his room with these flowers and a weird expression on her face. She silently put them in a vase and went back to the door. She stopped there, turning her head a little to look at him.

“Happy Birthday.” Was what she said. Then she left.

So it was his birthday. He’s thirteen now.

Nico stared at the flowers, a little bit shocked. She remembered about his birthday. His father didn’t even bother to check up on him.

Hades only cared about their deal. Nico was very hesitant about that. But after all, he agreed.

He just thought that if he does that then maybe Percy would… Like him? But he didn’t.

Percy Jackson hated him. He screwed everything up. It was horrible. He had to fix it.

So he did the best thing he could. He had to prove to Percy, to his father, to everyone that he is worth something. He was just a kid and the battle was scary. He was scared. But he was a hero.

Everyone respected him, some people wanted to be his friends. He even wanted to stay at camp. Nico was happy but only for a moment.

Days after the battle the whole camp started talking about how Percy and Annabeth finally kissed and got together.

Nico left without a warning. Not like he had anyone to warn. Not like anyone cared.

Nico di Angelo was thirteen when his heart was broken.

*

Nico di Angelo was thirteen when Percy Jackson had gone missing. Annabeth Chase went feral. And Nico promised to help. Of course he did.

He was actually worried. What could happen to him? Nico only knew that Percy was alive. It was somewhat reassuring.

Something bad was about to happen. Nico knew it. New demigods at Camp Half-Blood. One of them is a son of Zeus. That was a bad sign.

And now that Nico knows about romans…

Today was 28th January. His birthday. He already got used to ignore this day. Nico just marked the fact that he was fourteen now.

The door of his room swung open. Nico sat up on his bed, seeing his father in his usual black robes.

He stood there in silence for a minute or so, awkwardly staring at his son.

“Um, did you want something?” Nico said, nervously fumbling with the ring on his finger.

“Yes.” Hades came closer to his bed. “Well, not really. It’s just…” Lord of the Underworld sat on the corner of Nico’s bed. “It’s your birthday.”

Nico blinked, processing what his father was trying to say.

“Yeah, I know. Thank you for reminding me.” He finally said, scowling at his father. Like he ever cared about Nico anyway. “If that’s all you wanted to say-“

“No.” Hades looked strangely awkward. “You made me proud this year, you know?”

Nico’s eyes widened. Was his father trying to praise him?

“I wanted to say that I’m… Grateful. You made me make right choice. And what I said about you before… I’m sorry.”

Nico was more than shocked at this point. He felt awkward and Hades didn’t look better.

“Anyway, I vaguely know that mortals usually make gifts for the day one came from mother’s womb. And I thought that maybe you should spend time with your… peers?”

“What are you trying to say, dad?”

Hades took a deep breath, as if he was nervous.

“I want to give you a present. So that you will be able to go wherever you want, in those places where teenagers usually spend time.”

“You want to give me a car?” Nico asked, puzzled.

“No, you’re too young for that. I’ll give you a chauffeur, he’ll be helping you go to the mall or something. Because, well… I’m not able to do it for you.”

Nico blinked again, titling his head to the side.

“A chauffeur?”

Hades looked embarrassed for a moment. Then he put on a stern expression, standing up.

“Objections are not accepted. You should be grateful.” He strode off to the door. Then he stopped. “Happy Birthday, son.” He closed the door, leaving Nico alone in the dark room.

Nico di Angelo was fourteen when he received his first birthday present.

*

Nico di Angelo was fourteen when he met him. Will Solace.

It felt like a dawn after long, cold night. Will was his blessing, his salvation. And Nico didn't know what did he do to deserve someone like Will.

They've been dating for a couple of months, wonderful, amazing months. And Nico was genuinely thankful for everything Will had done to him.

Nico woke up at the knock on his door, blinking through the gloom of Hades cabin. He didn't know if it was morning already, because black curtains prevented any gleam of sunshine from crawling into his cabin.

Still, Nico knew exactly that it was early and he knew exactly who was outside, because there was only one person in this world who dared to wake him up.

Nico got out of bed and staggering came to open up the door.

Will Solace stood on the threshold. He was wearing his usual winter jacket and a scarf, a blinding smile on his face. He seemed to be particularly happy today and, judging by the flush on his face, he was running.

"Hey, Neeks." He ruffled his hair and came in, closing the door behind him as Nico shivered from the cold winter air.

"Good morning." Nico mumbled, still half asleep. "What time is it?"

"7 a.m."

"Why did you need to wake me up so early?"

Will looked him in the eyes, taking Nico’s cold hand with his warm one, which is weird, considering Will was the one who had a walk on winter air.

"Do you know what day it is?" He looked excited.

"Um, no, to be honest. I don't pay attention to the calendar." Nico sat down on his bed, wrapping himself in a blanket.

Will looked shocked.

"Are you serious?! I mean... It's 28th January!"

Nico's brain needed a moment to process what exactly Will wanted from him.

"Yeah. So?"

"So?! It's your birthday!"

Nico sighed.

"Guess I'm fifteen now. That also explains this." He pointed to his bedside table, where black envelope was perched on the top of black box. "Probably from my father."

Will looked at him, then at the envelope.

"So, like... Happy Birthday."

"Thank you." Nico got up again, reaching for the box. "Now go so I can change."

"Ok." Will strode off to the door, a strange expression on his face. Though Nico didn't pay much attention to it.

Nico opened the envelope. There was a thick wad of money and an invitation for a dinner. Nico will come, of course, but not today. In the box lay watches and a book in Italian.

The day went by as usual. Nico had a walk in the woods with Will before breakfast, then they were busy with their camp activities.

In the evening, right before they were about to go to the campfire, Will took his arm and told him.

"How about we won't go to the campfire today?"

"But you like-"

"I don't need to go there everyday. Especially today. Come to your cabin in twenty minutes." And he hastily strode off in the direction of the cabin thirteen.

Nico came in after twenty minutes to be met with dozens of candles around his room. Will was standing in front of him, holding a cake with fifteen lighted candles perched on it.

"Make a wish." He whispered as Nico came closer.

Nico looked him in the eyes and didn't know what to say. So he just did what he was told. Will smiled brighter.

"I baked it myself." He said proudly. "Well, Cecil helped me."

He put the cake on the table, now fumbling in his pockets.

"I have something for you, actually." He said, pulling out a small box from his pocket. "I don't know if you're going to like it but..."

Nico didn't hear what Will was saying as he opened the box with trembling hands. He pulled out a sun pendant on a thin gold chain. The sun looked just like the tattoo on Will's shoulder.

Nico couldn't hold back a tear that rolled down his cheek. Will watched him attentively, stopping his ranting when he saw it.

"Nico, what's wrong-"

The next thing Will knew, pale arms was wrapped tightly around him, Nico's face buried in Will's chest.

"Thank you." Nico said in a small, shaky voice before pulling back. He placed the sun pendant on his palm, watching it glisten in the candle light. Tears still rolled down his cheeks.

Will looked at him, his eyes filled with warmth and understanding. He always understood. His sunshine was so alone, for so long. All Will wanted was to make him happy.

Will moved to embrace Nico in a tight hug, kissing the top of his head and then lifted his head with long, gentle fingers on his chin.

"I love you so much." He said. "You're such an amazing person. You're brave, gorgeous, smart, brilliant. Beautiful." He wiped the tear from Nico's cheek. "I will love you with all my might. I promise."

And with that he gently kissed Nico, making him smile while the tears of joy kept rolling down his cheeks.

"I love you, Will."

Nico di Angelo was fifteen when he found his happiness.

[embeanwrites]

Hi. I don't know if you allow requests right now, with you know... The only reason I'm writing it right now is because I don't have a slip of paper to write this on. You know how Artemis is really rude right? So how about an x reader where the reader rates everything he says with how ok it is to say it? And maybe (if you feel up to it) a confession? (like they were just friends up to this point) Just remember that you're not obligated to do any of this. Ignore it if you like.

Masterlist

A/N: I absolutely adore this idea! And with a confession? That’s a chef’s kiss right there! (Also, me? Basing the antagonist on an asshole I had to deal with at school? Yeah, it’s more likely think you’d think.) Artemis may be a little OOC, so let’s just pretend he went through a lot of character development.

Word Count: 1042

“That is absolutely the most unintelligent idea I think you could’ve come up with.” He deadpanned at one of his group members, next to him he heard you suck your breath in through your teeth and groaning. He braced himself for your rating, everyone in the group looked over at you. After a few years of knowing Artemis and you, they knew he was either about to be praised or chewed out.  

“I’m giving that one a 4 out of 10 and only that low because you’re right. Josh that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” You responded as you crossed your arms and to be fair, why on earth would they propose a monorail for their group landscape project? They were given a small town in the countryside that had maybe a 100 people. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Artemis smirk, obviously happy that the number was under 5. 

This was a game that started between the two of you since you had met. Artemis had essentially torn their teacher’s syllabus to shreds day one and you leaned back in your chair with a smirk and said, “On a scale of 1 to 10, you get a 10 for ripping this man a new one.”

You both got detention that day, which frustrated Artemis, but not as much as you deciding that the two of you were going to be friends. At first Artemis attempted to ignore you as you followed him around, commenting on his remarks. But after a while, you wore him down. He found himself smiling and occasionally laughing at what you said and suddenly he didn’t find your presences to be a bother anymore. Instead, a welcome distraction from being branded as someone who’s essentially untouchable. You didn’t care about his last name and who he was, you seemed to actually enjoy being in his company. You introduced Artemis into a whole new world, including gossiping. Artemis’ parents were shocked when the two of you walked into his house laughing. 

Artemis watched as you continued to scribble down ideas for your group project. Class had about five minutes left and for your group’s sake, you had asked Artemis to not steam roll the idea. You were sicker of them coasting off him than he was. 

“It’s a small community that’s about 50 miles away from a hospital, sure they have med checks, but a real emergency room maybe our best bet.” You suggested, out of the corner of his eyes he saw you looking over quickly and fidgeting with your hands. Were you looking for his approval on your idea? That was new. 

“How’s that better than my idea?” Josh complained. “If there’s only roughly a 100 people no matter what we pick will have a small impact, they need something that will draw people in!” 

“It’s more practical!” You argued back, tensing your hands. Your attention was pinpointed onto Josh, Artemis watched your nostrils flare as you looked over at him. 

“Oh yeah, get your boyfriend to agree with you.” Josh immediately teased, causing both of you to tense, but before you could get a word in edge wise the bell rang, and Artemis watched you deflate. Josh and the rest of their group was quick to leave, but Artemis watched you lean your head back and sigh. Both of you had free period from now until the end of the day, so neither of you were in much of a rush. 

Artemis finally looked away from you as he started packing up everything, you stayed motionless. 

“Hey, are you coming?” Artemis asked softly, the way you were acting highly unusual for a Friday. He expected to see this behavior on a Monday, not now. Artemis stood in front of you trying to get your attention. You finally nodded and sigh, grabbing your stuff. Artemis had never seen you so listless. “Josh is an idiot, we’ll figure something out, we have two weeks to design the project.” 

“I know.” You grumbled as you got up and threw your backpack over your shoulder. You started walking out of the classroom, not waiting for Artemis like you usually did. Artemis sighed and followed you. Stopping at your locker, he watched you throw your books and grab your coat. 

“You’re leaving?” He asked, surprised. It was Friday tradition for the two of you to hang out in the library. It was technically your “flex period”, a new study hall that allowed students in advance placement classes to leave for internships, study time, or anything else. You closed your locker and pressed your forehead to it. “Are you…mad at me?” He asked softly. He’s never seen you like this and he’s known you for three years now. 

“10.” You murmured, surprising Artemis. 

“I know that is not the rudest thing I’ve ever said.” He said softly as he leaned against the locker next to yours, crossing his arms and smiling at you. “Now come on, we don’t keep secrets from- “

“He called you, my boyfriend. That’s what’s bothering me.” You snapped. 

“But that’s not true, he was just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“I know that.” You sighed again, pushing yourself off your locker and turned towards him. It took him a moment to realize what you were saying. 

Oh.

Oh.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” You said rolling your eyes, Artemis smiled. Even frustrated you were your regular self. “I like you; I have for a while and I know we’re just friends. I’ll get over it and- “

“What if I don’t want you to get over it?” Artemis interrupted, surprising you. Your eyes were comically wide as you blinked at him. “If you insist that we leave now instead of studying, at least let me grab my coat and we can go out on a date.” 

“We’re going to need a new scale for when you try to be romantic and miss the mark.” He laughed and rolled his eyes. He grabbed your hand and begun leading you towards his locker. 

“Yeah, yeah, give me a learning curve.” He teased, causing you to smile and lean towards him and gave him a peck on the cheek. 

“I’ll try my best.”

[cheekygreenty]

Little Witch - Part 12

the Darkling x Reader

The hour was late as the stars basked in the darkness and cold winter air. The fire roared in its hearth while your still steaming cup of sleep-aiding tea sat untouched on the small table. Your talk with Alina earlier was the cause of your unrest. You didn't know whether to feel sorry for her or be frustrated with her. She is a lovely girl, most pure and kind and quite literally the definition of sunshine, but something about her irked you and you hated it.

Maybe it was her somewhat unhealthy obsession with her friend, the tracker- Malyen Oretsev, or the sheer denial and lack of understanding of her position. Sure, Mal was the only thing that tied her to her old life, a sense of home, but he didn't belong anywhere near the Little Palace and posed a threat to Alina's true potential. She should understand that, no doubt it's been explained to her many times. She was no longer a random girl from the First Army or a Child of Keramzin, she was the Sun-Summoner and had to act the part.

But there was also a nagging feeling in you since your last words with Aleksander, the ones about the stag. From what you could gather, Alina definitely wasn't power-hungry, not yet anyway, and placing an antler anywhere on her would be against her wishes. You knew deep down that whatever he had planned would go far beyond just giving her an amplifier for her sake.

You sighed and moved around on the armchair again, trying to convince yourself those were the reasons you couldn't sleep, that Alina's position in this mess was why your mind wouldn't shut off, but who were you kidding, it was her and him. For starters, she called Aleksander by his name. The second the word left her mouth, your blood ran cold.

__

'Is he not here?' Alina looked to you from over her mug, eyes scanning the room.

'Who?'

'Aleksander, is he away at Kribirsk again?' Your smile faltered and your grip on your own mug loosened. But Alina waited for an answer.

'Oh umm, I don't know.' You did but the shock caused your mind to blank completely.

__

You had known Aleksander for years before he even told you his true name, you had to earn it. She spoke of her General with a fondness, at one point even speaking of him as if he were more than just her commanding officer.

__

'Do you miss the First Army Alina? I know you left friends behind, not just Mr.Oretsev.'

'I suppose I don't feel at home just yet, it's a lot to take in, this whole division of orders thing doesn't help either... But he assures me I am not alone, that I have an equal in the Palace.'

An equal?

__

The heat of the fire was doing nothing to calm down your rising rage. Apparently Aleksander was doing more talking with Alina than you'd thought, even sacrificing his own true name, one only spoken by you and his mother, for her to utter as if it was just another name. So what if you were in his chambers, making use of his office and sleeping in his bed, he clearly had his eyes on two prizes or maybe just one.

You felt sick now, be it from the heat or the anger, you got up and opened a window. The cold and dark night was a stark contrast to the licks of the flame. It made you feel at peace, but only momentarily. You heard voices outside, slowly growing louder. You rested your head against the wall, begging for one last moment of stillness, but alas the door was yanked open and his boots echoed throughout the room. You cursed yourself for deciding to spend another night in his quarters. You thought he'd be gone longer than just 4 days.

'I do hope you made yourself comfortable' His voice was as smooth as the kvas you had downed after Alina left. You wanted to turn around, but the anger was still there and all hell would break loose if you let your emotions run wild again.

'I did thank you. At least you have a desk'

'I'll get you one first thing in the morning'

'No need, I already requested one' Your voice was void of any emotion. Don't start a fight.

'Are you alright?'

'Just tired, being diplomatic is hard work' It sure was right now.

'Might I suggest actually getting into bed then?' His hand slowly came around your wrist and pulled you in the direction of the bedroom but ironically at the simple touch, your anger grew, when it usually has the opposite effect. You saw out of the corner of your eye that he had a genuine smile on his face, one that tended to make you melt but not now. You shrugged him off and walked in the direction of the door, leaving him utterly confused.

'Y/N what's going on.

'I'm tired, I'm going to bed' You tried so hard to act normal, not in any way pissed.

'Y/N look at me'

'Goodnight Aleksander' You couldn't help it, the mockery of his name just came out. There goes the diplomacy.

You heard him quickly walk towards you and tried to get to the door first to escape the tense atmosphere you created but he got there first, blocking your way.

'What?' You threw your hands up in exasperation not yet looking at him.

'Did something happen whilst I was away?'

'No'

'Then what is it'

'Nothing'

'Don't lie to me Y/N'

'Oh but it's okay for you to lie to me' Your eyes finally bore into his.

'Excuse me?' His expression read baffled; annoyed; pissed.

'Move away from the door Aleksander'

'No! You're going to be mature and have an actual conversation with me for once' He asked for it.

'Alright fine, Let's start with Alina''

'Y/N'

'I had a lovely little tea party with her today. Sweet thing. She loves to talk once you get her going. She told me a lot of fascinating stuff, including your name! How interesting don't you think.' Your voice was so cold it even made you shiver.

'I can explain'

'I'm not finished.' You felt that pull in you, that pull that comes before you put your fire or shadows to use but crammed it down with all your might. 'Her best friend hasn't been replying to any of her letters and I can recount there are many of them. Guess what I found in one of your drawers? They are all very poetic don't you think? I'm all for helping her adjust, but that's not help, that's manipulation Aleksander.'

'She won't let him go, It's dragging her down.' He said through gritted teeth.

'Dragging her down or away?' The double meaning in your words didn't go unnoticed by him.

'Y/N all I want to do is go to bed right now, I've had a long day, please.' His hand reached out for yours but you scoffed and moved away.

'You wanted to have this conversation, General, don't shy away when your actions are questioned.'

'Fine' He unblocked the door and crossed the room, throwing his cloak and kefta on the floor with a heavy thud. 'Is there anything else you wish to accuse me of Y/N dearest?'

'Look at you, so bitter but I haven't heard you deny any of it'

'You may go now if you like.' He picked up a decanter of whiskey and poured himself a generous glass

'Since when are you this childish Aleksander. Have I missed something in my 100-year absence?' You mocked.

'You left me with all of this' He gestured to the palace. '-That's what happened.'

'Don't turn this around on me, and I told you that wasn't a choice.'

'The Y/N I knew would have come back and not hid like a coward'

You stilled and waited for any sign of apology, but it never came. He meant it even though he knew how much such a simple statement would hurt you. You turned slowly and walked to the door.

'While I'm gone, at least have the common decency to change the sheets before you bring Alina in here' you shut it loudly behind you and heard the breaking of the glass, no doubt thrown at the door as you were leaving.

What a day.

Taglist

@theonelittleone @searching-for-gallifrey @0-artemis @lostysworld @xceafh @fire-in-her-veinz @patdsinner33 @cleverzonkwombatsludge @wizardwheezes @aleksanderwh0r3 @tomhollandisabae @hotleaf-juice @justmesadgirl @exo-1204 @houseofdupree @oberonpascal @eireduchess

Ok so idk if people can see this but I posted this like a week ago and apparently nobody seen it so here it is!!!!

Part 13

Here's my masterlist!!

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. The trial happening right now bothers me because we get to see how Thanatos and Echo reacted to this, but Demeter and Persphone don’t know and I know why they don’t know yet. However you think that would tie some more stuff up together

It was Minthe, Thanatos and Thetis who whistle blew on Persphone. Meaning Thanatos would probably be called to trial and would have to face persphone and I would hope say something to her BUT I kinda doubt that’s gonna happen.

But the other thing to this Minthe is a plant who can’t testify. Are hades and Persphone hide the fact she’s a plant and pretend she’s missing or are they gonna say “yeah I still don’t have control over my powers but I’m queen now” HOWEVER I truly believe RS is just gonna not address these two plot points until way later.

FINALLY Eros and Psyche KNOW the last person Daphne was seen with was Apollo, did they chase after her after he got shot by the arrow? We don’t know. We don’t even know what they’re doing about Psyche. Did Eros and Psyche even see the Daphne tree? Are they going to try and sneak in to tell Persphone?

I know the plots gonna focus more on HxP secret marriage at the court trial rather than the actual consequences and the fact people are turning into greenery left and right. (It’s not Persohones Faullt Daphne is the way she is but RS needs to focus on other plot points I feel)

2. like, age gaps, height differences, and power imbalances dont always have to be bad, the issue to me is that the way rachel does it is hyper-focusing on how young, small, and child-like/unexperienced persephone is compared to the old, giant, and all powerful/mature hades is like ... yeah obvs people are going to find it creepy? how would they not?

3. i honestly cant stand the "theyre immortal gods the age gap doesnt matter!!" agreement because like??? ok??? then she could easily be 300 years old then? she shouldnt be so borderline underage then?? like the immortality aspect actually makes the age gap worse, not better??

4. i realize getting nitpicky over unimportant characters in lo having american names is a bit dumb, but it does speak to just how lazy rachel is and how little care she has for greece and its mythology. there are countless english names that are also greek, yet even that's asking too much of her. percy jackson isnt a perfect series, but even the characters (who are in america) have greek influence and meanings put into their names and characterization, something rachel doesn't even attempt to do.

5. ok but thats a good point, because rachel seems to be taking physical wounds to matter more over the mental ones, when thats not how trauma works. her writing on zeus is reflective of her writing minthe, where she confirmed she has a severe untreated mental illness and that's linked to her evilness, and thus what she should be punished for. meanwhile persephone own mental issues can be bastardized as a "yass queen" thing?? somehow?? its just bad writing all around.

6. i kinda wish lo fans would listen to their own logic and give the same leeway to the other characters. theyll scream from the rooftops that hades and persephone and hera can be awful people all they want because thats ~realistic~, meanwhile minthe and zeus and everyone else are held to such extremes they can never meet and are hated and despised for nothing in compared to hxp or hera. either hold your faves accountable or let off on hating characters who do the same as them.

7. i see a lot of lo fans excuse how everything drags as "thats how a slow burn works" and its like ... no? because most of that slow burn isnt even hxp, its rachel forcing in more plots we dont need, and when its hxp, you look at the timeline and how they act and its actually neck-breakingly fast? like if as much time had past in LO as irl time then yeah, four years is a slow burn, but its only been maybe a month in comic? so its not slow for them at all, but it's a drag for the readers.

8. See, the difference between Lo!Hades and Punderworld!Hades is that PW!Hades has so much personality, he and Persephone are literally bustling with life (even though one of them rules over a realm of dead XD) AND their interactions are so cute with their awkward attempts at flirting and failure at doing so. Persephone is still somewhat sweet and “pure” but she’s also a bit of a spitfire, she’s not easy to surrender, she has wants and dreams and that little differences makes her character likable!

We NEVER get to see anything like that with LO!Hades and Persephone, we don’t see them have these sweet interactions, these heart-fluttering moments, because there’s no base or foundation for those sorts of moments! It’s always these very out-of-character unrealistic scenes expected from a married couple, but they just met! It doesn’t feel natural, it feels forced and rushed and so slow at the same time.

Although Punderworld makes Demeter overbearing, i love her characterization i really do, waAAAY more than LO!Demeter, because we actually understand her reasons for her overprotective behavior and we get to see her in a more sympathetic light/manner in the newer chapters, we see her as more than “mean mom hates bf”

9. Daphne and Thanatos were adorable. Like, Daphne was a sweet, caring girl with genuine interest (and power/agency) and Thanatos was a shy, awkward guy who was just doing his best (and not pressuring her). They weren't perfect, but it was something! Why couldn't LO be about them?

10. What I find funny is that Minthe and Thetis have a more defined friendship than Persphone and other female characters.

Minthe and Thetis ARE TOXIC don’t get me wrong but both characters are aware of each other’s motives. Minthe knows not to trust Thetis fully and is straight with her on her opinion of Thetis. But the readers clearly know their relationship as well as the characters.

Persphone is in gray areas with most her female friends. The beginning of the story we are lead to believe Artemis and P are besties with the dress sharing and the way in P’s mind they’re holding hands with Hermès. But clearly now their relationship is a question mark and they’re both more detached than we thought. Artemis was just being nice to P letting her stay with her because they’re both in the TOGeM but they’re probably more like acquaintes at best.

Daphne and P we know they’re friends but P isn’t straight with her. Like Daphne is P’s only named friend, but did P think of her as the other overbearing nymphs? We don’t know because they’re all pink and some of them are dead. Despite being told they grew up together we don’t even know much about their relationship what do they like about each other? Does Daphne agree with Demeters parenting or P’s need to leave? When did Daphne get to move to Olympus? I feel like the plot just says “these two characters are friends “ but doesn’t elaborate much. Why did P let Daphne in her room at Hades mansion and not the other nymphs? P told Daphne that Apollo is dangerous, but it was a little too late. Also why didn’t P have her phone number when she got to Olympus? Wouldn’t she know to contact her on insta or something? P was like “omg I know no one except Hermès “ but that’s not true! Daphne! I could go more but I think we get the picture that Daphne’s plot point is having the readers be told Persphone has friends but she doesn’t but she does.

Were shown that P and Meg are getting along because P was nice to Meg, despite Meg being silently jealous of P, but what about Meg now? Is she ever gonna tell P that she’s jealous of P that she had a mad crush on Hades, even her journal? Or is that all gone now? Does Meg even matter any more or is she now here just to support HXP?

[walkingwiththegods1]

Why not feeling to Gods or Spirits, at all... Is not really a bad thing?!  (Or... Why the contrary, is sometimes a real problem!)

  I readed a few notes a few weeks ago, of people talking of feeling left behind or insecure; because they can't feel to The Gods, so I decided to wrote my experience; so they doesn't feel that way, because at least; all that can't feel The Gods, are the vast majority; and the rest of the Pagans said that they can really contact to Deities, but mostly speaked of the good side. I’m not very vocal about me, and neither of my personal experiences; but, by knowing the pain of my fellow pagans; I decided to left my apprehension behind: I will speak of the not so lovely parts, today.

   I'm a Psychic, since I can remember: I can see Spirits since I was very little, and with the pass of time; I started to feel energies, and being affected by them.

  The First Deity that contacted me, was Artemis; that never leaves me alone in my house, while my brothers and sister played far from me; and I feel less afraid around her. Many years later, the second Deity that contacted me; was Loki. (I didn't knew it in that moment: He had to saves me six years later, to realizes that the voice I hearded when a was a very unhappy kid; giving me courage while I was looking to Sirius, was his!) The third Deity that appeared in my life, was a Goddess from The Caribbean; that helps me to defend myself; when both the private school and my house, were turned for me; in hell! By the time I was 17 years old, I have already 12 Deities that regurlarly; contacted me. The reasons of why they passed from unexpected guesses, to permanently staying; are an complete mistery to me, till this day. (...Maybe is because, I never was a normal human being, by start...)

   But, in that time or today; well... "Not all is rosy!", as you may think: There is a Deity, that doesn't care if the moment to contacted me; is really a very bad timing for me, and; I had even pass some very unnerving moments, during that interventions. That Deity, has a name...

   ...That Deity, is called: Guabancex!

   The story of why The Goddess of The Hurricanes, contacts a simple mortal girl; is something I will tell in other day, but... What I can say, is that her energy is something that I can hardly ignore. It took me YEARS, to acted almost normal around other people; when she started to speaks to me, or started to mades me see visions of things to come; but, in the meantime... Many embarrasing moments. (People known or even unknown, asking me if I was okay; while she was around with this huge energy traspassing my body, or; when she was showing me," The next horrible disaster that will 100% strikes, and destroys everything... And, to anyone!")

   The worst moment, (And when I started to take measures) was 10 years ago...

   I was in a Medical Center, making some tests; and while I was waiting for my ticket number, while looking at the screen; it happens: Her energy, suddenly appearing; and the only thing I did, was pleading in my mind; "...Not here! ...Not in front of everybody!..." It didn't work: The vision she makes me saw, plus her energy; puts me in a weird state: Aware of the world around me, but... Aware of the vision, too! The worst part, is that I was seated inclined while this was happening; so nobody will saw that I was trembling enough, that to somebody with a sharp vision and close enough; could notices. A man in his mid 40's with glasses notices it, and asked me: "Are you, OK?!" (He looks alarmed... So do I!)  The only thing I could do, was a lie by saying to him: "I'm Okay! Just... I feel a bit cold, thanks!"

   After I backed to home, I feel awful: I hate lying, but telling the truth; wasn't a good idea, neither! What I could have said?! "I'm just in trance from visions of a Goddess, from a culture that died out more than 500 years ago?!" RIGHT... (...If I wanted to spend two or three days in jail accused of witchcraft, been locked for life in a Mental Facility; or... Been killed by some Christian Fanatic, that thinks that I talk with Demons!)  

   After I recovered a bit, I talked to her and told her; to "NEVER BACK TO DO THAT, AGAIN!" (It seems that works: I can still feels her energy and see her visions, when I far from home too; but... People never back to ask me if I'm ill, or to look at me in a suspicious way; again...)

   I have seen Evil Spirits too, mostly scaring me; chasing me, harrasing me; and even trying to ended my life, since I was a kid. (I will save you the horrible details, but I think this happened to me; because I'm able to feel Spirits, in ways that most people can't even imagine; and sadly... That turns me in a sort of "Spirits Magnet" for both, good and bad spirits)  

   The thing with Guabancex?!... Well... It really, SUCKS!  But... In my general terms, between number 1; (Not the worst thing that ever happen in my life) to 10, (the worst thing that ever happen in my life) then...  Is definitly, a 6!

   So, if you are dealing with the fact that you can't feel Spirits or Deities; and even started to feel a little envious or doubting of their love, then remember this: Better see them in sincronicities and with symbols while you are awake; or in your dreams, than having to train yourself to fake being "normal"; when the Spirits or Gods show up to you; while you are around of people, with the possibility that they will reacts badly against you; if they know that you have this kind of ability... Or being left alone or mocked, 'cause nobody wants to be around of, "The weird young that talks with Spirits!"

   ...We live in a World where, being different; is bad... And being weird, is still... "A sin!..."  

    Be grateful, if you can't feel The Spiritual World; so strongly: It means, that you can still hang out with your love ones; and do many things you love to do, and still be able to blends in The World; when you feel the need to be in it, too. (...Is something I don't know if I could ever have or do, someday.)

 Have a nice day in being different, unique; and in be perfectly you!.. So Be It!

[gummy-dummy]

Hi everyone! This is my first fic on Tumblr, it's just here, for now, I'm excited and kinda nervous too, my native language it's Spanish and I'm trying to be better at English so sorry for the grammars mistakes, I hope you like it, dear reader.

Warnings: Probably bad grammar or mistakes, swearing, mention of knives, mentions of death, kinda cute, kinda soft, confused Dabi, he doesn't know but he a softie.

It was pretty late when Shoto and I started doing our night patrol, it had been 3 months since we graduated from the UA in the hero course, the first 4 of the class were invited to work at Endeavor’s agency, Deku, Dynamight, Shoto and me, Artemis. We were the new pro-heroes with the biggest expectation from the public.

Endeavor wasn't the best at talking but I trust him, also thanks to him I don't have to worry about rent, the agency offered departments near the agency, and the rooms in the agency’s building were comfortable enough, usually, the new group was Split into two for patrol, Deku always had to go with Dynamght, he was the only one who can keep up with Bakugo’s shit, Shoto and me, we already were pretty Good Friends, I even can say we are each other’s confidant, it was a pretty nice night shift together, the absence of noise and people (and Bakugo’s shit), made it go smoothly as always. We are used to talking about everything, in the streets we could say anything, and no one more than us knew what secrets lay between us. There were secrets that Shoto didn’t want his father to know, not that he cares, but just to protect the people that he loved.

The current number one hero thought that the friendship we share will eventually become a love story, but oh boy, little did he know. Shoto had romantic feelings for another hero, I am pretty much the only person that Shoto has physical contact with, hugs and rest on each other shoulders, that's why his dad thinks of us that way. I don’t have family near where we are but the Todoroki family accepted me as one of their own since Endeavor thinks that I and Shoto are together we had to explain to Shoto’s siblings and Mom that he was in love with someone else, they didn’t care at all.

Suddenly the cold wind of the night started to get weird, making the residual trash of the city blow roll in the air, we both started to run there to know what was happening, at the moment we got close enough a black and purple substance started emerging from nowhere, it was a warp, the kind that the League of Villains has Access to, Shigaraki Tomura came out first, being followed by the tall, half-burned popcorn (as Shoto and I like to call him) Dabi, Toga right behind them with other 3 members.

I summoned my light arrows on my bow, I shoot an arrow at the leader and the tall man with black hair just disintegrates it with his blue fire. Like it was nothing.‘What are you doing here?’ Shoto asked the team of villains, Shigaraki just started to laugh ‘We came to get some groceries, what the fuck he is trying to do? Distract us?

I just rolled my eyes and said ‘Yeah well, here, you have something to add to your list I quickly prepared my bow with a new arrow, this time a stronger one, that can’t be destroyed so easily. The amount of power that this one has, with the purple hue and the energy that makes everything feel like an earthquake made the leader of the team look at it with fear in his eyes, Dabi tried to take it with his fire, but nothing happened, the arrow just started to follow all of Shigaraki’s moves, so again the man in front of him tried to catch it with his bare hands, oh what an error was that. The indentation that my arrow left on his right hand wouldn’t heal properly at all, not till I gave the order to my arrow to disappear in the wind.

Dabi just looks at me, while the others started to attack us he just stayed on the side, watching every move I make, (with) Shoto work pretty well with each other, we know our quirks and how to enhance each other's quirks.

There was a lady that appears to be new into the league, I never saw her before, she started to shoot mini grenades from her hand, making me jump to the side to avoid it, one laid between my feet, I didn't notice it until it hit me if that thing blows I die.

I'm going to die here.

The last thing I heard was a scream, Shoto screaming my real name, and then... darkness.

The next thing I know is that I'm in a completely white room, very small, I'm chained to one of the sides of a small bed, being forced to stay seated on the cold floor, if I am in one of the League facilities why they want me here? the murder of a new pro-hero would be an accomplishment by the league, why don't make it while I sleep? it would be something to make all the world feel unsafe, make all the heroes feel in danger. I hear the noise of the door opening, someone calls my name.

Dabi, that jerk, wait he was the one that saved me, at the moment the grenade exploded he just took my arm and yanked me out of the way, and took me in the warp with him.

"Hey Hawkeye!", he looked different than the night of the attack, just with his t-shirt and trousers, not his usual jacket, he looks more laid back than when fighting. He started to look preoccupied while I think how to escape, I'm not responding to him.

"Shit, no, did they do something while I was gone? Hey look at me, can you hear me? oh, these little shits are going to pay, I told them not to touch you" I just roll my eyes and say "What the fuck do you want from me you extra crispy fried ass?" he just stares at me confused for a couple of seconds and says "I'm not- Hey don't talk to me like that I'm your savior, remember? maybe I would let them do things to you, maybe I could take this food and let you starve".

He has a plate in a hand and glass with what appears to be fruit juice on the other. "Why would you feed me? do you know that keeps me alive, right? why didn't you kill me already?" I'm really confused, isn't better to kill someone while they're asleep, or this mother fucker want's to torture me. "That's because I don't want to kill you, dummy hero". Then why did he bring me here? what is the league planning to do to me? so I ask what the league wants from me.

"What makes you think there's a plan behind this?"

"Why else would a fucking villain kidnap a pro-hero if not to use them for something?"

"Well, there's nothing behind this, no one knows why I have you here actually I don't even know why I did it, but you were going to die and I just acted"- oh he should let me die, I'm gonna kick his pretty face when I get the chance.

"What do you want? you know it was going to be easier to kill me while I was unconscious, right?"

"Why do you keep telling me to kill you?"

"This is why"- there's a thing that not a lot of people know about my quirk, the bow, and the arrows are just a form I use it to be more precise, that doesn't mean that's the only thing it does.

With my both hands tied I conjured a little of my energy to make a knife to set me free, I break the cloth that keeps me hand-tied to the bed, throwing a punch at his face, he doesn't move I'm trying to get Dabi down but he is just there, he is not moving or trying to attack me at all, looking at me with sadness in his eyes.

"Hey what the fuck, why don't you attack me? aren't you afraid that I'm going to beat your ass?"- He looks like he is in pain but doesn't fight back.

"I know you could," he says with a sad smirk, what's happening here? by a couple of times, I saw him before he never acted this way.

"Can you please just calm down, let me talk, and I'll let you go if you want"

I intertwined my eyes with him, a beautiful blue, exactly the color of his flames, I don't know why, but I want to hear what he has to say, he looks so sad, but also a little surprised when I sit at the small bed. It looks like he never thought I actually would hear his reasons.

He kicks gently the plate with the food by the side and sits on the little makeshift bed, the bed is so small that we can't avoid our knees touching, he doesn't try to tie my hands again, I could conjure a big weapon, maybe just a simple bat and then scape, I know I can win, so why am I anxious to hear him? he looks at me a couple of seconds, lets out a loud breath, and starts talking.

"Well, when you attacked me, I caught one of your arrows right?" he looks at me and I nodded "Look" he shows me his left hand, inviting me to take his hand on mine.

It's rough, more than calloused, the years of him using his quirk took a lot out of his hands, they were burned, when I touched him I thought it would hurt, but he just opened his eyes a little more in surprise and looked at me again.

"Ok you have your hands burned, what about it? it's your quirk right?" he lets out a little smile that if I wasn't looking at him this close probably would have missed it. "Yeah they're burned, I don't have feeling on them, even if I take something with force or catch anything, can't feel it."

I'm starting to understand what's happening here, but I want him to tell me anyways "Yesterday, when you shot your arrow when I caught it I-"why does he look so nervous? "I felt it, I felt the pain of the arrow, and I felt you, well, your quirk, whatever it is, I just felt your touch"

What I am supposed to say about that?- "I'm sorry?" I say confused "No no it's okay I just want to know how you did it" I don't know why I have the desire to touch him again, I need to help him, he is a villain, a cute one if I say so myself but a villain nonetheless. A villain very dangerous that just wants the world to burn, but look so lost, with the same face you see on a lost child on a Mall

"I don't know, my quirk it's just based on energy, I don't know where it comes from, It just appears when I want to and takes the form I need, I used to lost control over it a lot," I say while moving my fingers letting the violet ribbons go around my hand "Now I can control it using it as weapons, the one that makes me feel more comfortable is the bow and arrow, that way I can control it a little more, but I pretty much can conjure anything" He nodded and looks at my hand.

I show him again, letting a little ball of my energy dance between my fingers and let it go, I made it stay in one of his hands, he started playing with it, like a child with a new toy that was waiting to get for Christmas day, a smile started to appear on his face, not a cruel one, that he usually used, this one was of happiness, he looks handsome, the scars on his face makes him feel unique. I'm not sure what I'm doing till I come back to my senses, I'm catching his face between my hands, he just looks at me surprised.

I run my thumbs right below his eyes, he leans into the touch and closes his blue eyes.

"You know that I can attack you now and escape right?" "I know, but you don't want to do that, I am right?"

He is, he is sure about it and I am too, but why? he probably has me here to lend information about heroes, but he isn't asking anything about it.

"No, I don't want to, why? did you get me drugged or something?" I say smiling at him for the first time "No, Toga tried to get a little bit of your blood but every time she wanted to get a needle into your skin, a purple energy, your energy, surrounded you, Shigaraki wanted to use real knives but I- I didn't let them hurt you, I didn't want them to hurt you".

And to end: this is the first chapter, it's gonna be probably 2 o 3 chapters, I'll probably add some warnings if needed.

Love

Gummy.

[hopelesshawks]

Physical Fatality Part 4- Task Force Bonding

18+ Hawks x fem, pro hero!reader

Summary: You’re a rising star in All Might’s agency. Hawks is the darling of Endeavor’s. By virtue of your job descriptions, the two of you are supposed to hate each other, or at the very least be cautiously neutral. For a long time that’s exactly what the two of you did. You stayed out of each other’s way and formed little opinion of the other. One fateful night at an HPSC gala changes all that. Based on the album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by Halsey.

If you don’t want to see Physical Fatality content blacklist #hopelesspf

This story will have multiple NSFW parts so it is 18+ ONLY minors dni

Warnings for alcoholism mention, hand job, fingering

Masterlist

“Boys, I’ve got an announcement,” Hawks declares as he strolls into the office and grabs a seat by Shoto and Tokoyami. “Is it an explanation of what the fuck you did last night to end up soaking wet and late to evacuate from an emergency?” Shoto asks. “Actually yes it is,” Hawks replies smugly. “Wait actually? Ok what is it?” Tokoyami says as both he and Shoto turn to give Hawks their full attention. “I’m in love,” Hawks declares. Tokoyami and Shoto both groan and go back to paying attention to the tasks they’d been focused on when Hawks first walked in. “Hey what’s with those reactions?” Hawks pouts. “We already know you think you’re in love with Mirko. We were expecting actual news,” Shoto says by way of explanation. “What? No, not Mirko. Mirko and I are done. Mirko is dead,” Hawks says. “Mirko is dead?” “Not literally Shoto.” “Right. Who are you in love with then?” “I don’t actually know her name.”

Hawks does not appreciate the incredulous looks both Tokoyami and Shoto give him. “Will you guys just let me explain! Look it was like when I first saw her it was like magnets. There was just something pulling me towards her. So, of course, I had to approach her,” Hawks explains. “She rejected you didn’t she?” Tokoyami interrupts. “Oh is that why you don’t know her name?” Shoto asks. “No! Oh my god let me finish,” Hawks says exasperatedly. “Ok, ok we’ll let you finish,” Tokoyami cedes as he and Shoto both raise their hands in surrender. “Thank you. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Hawks starts again with a roll of his eyes, “I approached her and we got talking and she suggests we go to the hotel bar. Except we get there and it’s closed. So we steal a bottle and break into the hotel pool.” “Hence the soaking wet part,” Shoto says. “Exactly, hence the soaking wet part. Anyway we had a magical evening and even more magical sex and I’ve never met anyone like her before and I’m in love,” Hawks finishes. “Why the fuck didn’t you get her name then?” Tokoyami asks. “The goddamn alarm went off. Apparently she just broke off an engagement or something so she didn’t want the scandal of us going outside together and I forgot to ask her before she ran off,” Hawks admits. “So what’s the game plan?” Shoto asks. “Try and find her I guess. She was there alone so she must be a top hero, it’s just a matter of figuring out which one,” Hawks shrugs. Before he can start pitching his ideas for discovering your identity, he is interrupted by Endeavor’s voice summoning the three men into his office. Shoto rolls his eyes and Tokoyami just shrugs, before all three of them stand and do as told.

Endeavor looks pissed. Hawks briefly wonders if he somehow found out about the stolen bottle or lock picking from the previous night but dismisses that thought. The press hadn’t caught wind of you and his private party in the pool so he sincerely doubts Endeavor did. Furthermore, as long as he wasn’t putting up bad headlines Endeavor generally didn’t care what Hawks did. Endeavor had faith in him and he so rarely made the news for anything particularly scandalous that he generally only got a slap on the wrist on the odd occasion he did have a slightly too public breakup. Finally, if this were about last night why were Shoto and Tokoyami called in? “So it turns out the emergency last night wasn’t an accident. It’s still unclear who’s responsible but the HPSC is classifying this as top priority since it looks like it was an attempt to wipe out all the top heroes while we were gathered in one place,” Endeavor explains. “Ok? Why do you look like All Might pissed in your cereal?” Shoto asks with a raised eyebrow. “Shoto!” Endeavor chastises. “What? Am I wrong? Why are you so pissed?” Shoto presses. Endeavor sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as if Shoto is giving him a migraine. He probably is. “The reason I am… less than thrilled, is because the HPSC has requested we form a task force with the top three heroes from All Might’s agency in order to tackle the issue,” Endeavor admits. “Oh nice, it’s been a minute since I talked to Izuku or Bakugo,” Shoto shrugs. “Who’s the third top in their agency now? Is it still Monoma?” Tokoyami asks. “Jesus you UA kids really are ridiculous,” Hawks comments. “Whatever Mr. Youngest Pro to break top 5 in history,” Shoto replies. “To answer your question Tokoyami,” Endeavor says pointedly as he gives Hawks and Shoto a look, “I’m not sure. It’s not Monoma anymore it’s some girl now. I believe her hero name is Artemis. She moved up after the annual announcement ceremony so her new ranking technically hasn’t been announced yet.” “I’m sure Monoma loved that,” Tokoyami chuckles. “In any case you all will find out who she is soon enough. We’re going to All Might’s office to meet with them in a minute,” Endeavor declares.

“So let me get this straight,” Bakugo says as you pretend to do paperwork, “you evacuated the building almost twenty minutes late, giving Deku a heart attack and almost necessitating a search team to go in, only to arrive dripping wet with no explanation, because you were having some of the best, most mind blowing sex of your life with a mystery man.” “Yep,” you reply shortly. “And you didn’t bother to fucking get his name or number?” He asks incredulously. “Yea sounds about right,” you say. “Why not (y/n)? Maybe he’s the love of your life? Maybe you two are destined to be together and that’s why you felt such a pull to him,” Midoriya suggests. It amazes you sometimes how someone so terrifying in battle can be such an optimistic puppy outside of it. “I don’t do relationships Izu, you know this,” you sigh, giving up on being productive. “You did with Monoma,” he points out. “Yea, because I had to for the sake of my career. And look how that turned out,” you argue. “You know it’s not the same thing dumbass,” Bakugo interjects. “Look, last night was fucking incredible, I’ll admit, but that’s it. Mystery man would want nothing to do with me the moment he realized how messy I actually am,” you sigh. “That’s not true,” Midoriya insists. “Why are we talking about me anyway when Bakugo finally fucked Red Riot?” you whine. “What? Kacchan is that true?” “Both of you shut the fuck up!”

Hawks will never get used to how deeply the Endeavor-All Might feud runs within the agencies, especially lower down the ladder. As he, Shoto, Tokoyami, and Endeavor enter the lobby the other heroes of the agency whisper amongst themselves. He doesn’t bother trying to parse out what they’re saying. He knows it will be the usual outlandish rumors about his boss and how horrid he, Tokoyami, and Shoto must be to stand the man at all. He’s not worried about Dynamight and Deku. As fiercely loyal as they are to All Might, he also knows they went to school with Tokoyami and Shoto, which makes them immune to the ridiculous rumors. The mysterious third top hero he’s more curious about. If you only just got promoted that means you’d been amongst the gossiping lower ranked heroes for much of your career and may be more inclined to believe them. He only hopes you’ll at least be professional enough not to let it interfere with work. The four of them take the elevator to the top floor and step out into the main office space there as Endeavor leads the way to All Might’s office. Hawks notices Shoto and Tokoyami throw a wave to someone so he turns to see who. He notices Bakugo and Midoriya first but as his eyes slide to see who the third person with them is he stops in his tracks. There you are: his mystery girl. He’d been worried he’d never see you again and yet there you are. As if sensing his eyes on you, you turn only to make eye contact with him. Your eyes go wide as you seem to recognize him back. He tries to think of something, anything, to say or do but before he can Shoto notices him lagging behind and with a roll of his eyes drags him into All Might’s office behind the rest of the Endeavor squad.

“What the fuck,” you say still in shock. Bakugo and Midoriya both turn to look at you confused. “What is it (y/n) are you ok?” Midoriya asks concerned. “Oh my god, that’s him. That’s fucking mystery man,” you tell them. “HAWKS is your mystery man?” Midoriya asks shocked. “No wonder you didn’t walk out with him. Imagine if the press found out you hooked up with someone from Endeavor’s agency the same day you ended your engagement with someone from your own,” Bakugo notes. “In my defense I didn’t know he’s in Endeavor’s agency,” you groan. “Didn’t know? Everyone knows Hawks is Endeavor’s right hand man. Dude is insanely loyal,” Midoriya comments. “I didn’t know he was Hawks!” you defend. “What the fuck other pro hero has giant ass red wings?” Bakugo asks you incredulously. “I’ve never fucking seen Hawks before so shoot me!” you defend. “How is that possible? What about during the hero ranking broadcasts, he’s been number two for years now,” Midoriya points out. “I don’t watch those. Who gives a fuck what ranking heroes are as long as they’re doing their jobs,” you comment. “Ok, what about last year? You physically went to the event with Monoma to support him,” Midoriya points out. “Oh I was completely blacked out, I don’t remember anything from that,” you shrug. Midoriya looks horrified and Bakugo mildly impressed. “What? You know he was always at his worst during events like that, I wasn’t going to go through that sober,” you defend yourself. “We need to have a serious talk later about your alcoholism,” Midoriya tells you. “Ah but I’m a fully functioning alcoholic who doesn’t drink on the job so it’s sexy.” “I- That’s-,” Midoriya stutters but before he can cobble together a sentence All Might is calling the three of you into his office. “We’re finishing this conversation later,” Midoriya warns you. “No, we’re not,” you singsong as the three of you go to join the others.

“I know you guys are familiar with Dynamight and Deku but this is Artemis. I’m sure you’ll all get along just fine,” All Might says by way of introduction. “I’m Shoto,” a man with half-white, half-red hair tells you, extending a hand. “Oh shit you’re icy hot,” you blurt out as you shake his hand. You can hear Bakugo snicker beside you as All Might gives you a look. “I mean, uh, I’ve heard a lot about you from Midoriya and Bakugo. Nice to meet you,” you recover sheepishly. “It’s quite alright. I’ve missed Bakugo’s nicknames somewhat,” Todoroki smirks. “Shut it Todoroki,” your friend replies with a roll of his eyes. “I don’t even want to know what Bakugo calls me but Tokoyami should work just fine,” a man with a bird head introduces himself. “Nice to meet you Tokoyami,” you grin as you shake his hand too.

As you finally turn to Hawks you think you could combust on the spot. Your gaze meets his and it’s just as electric as it was that first time. Your heart is pounding out of your chest and you have no idea how you’re expected to be professional with him when not even half an hour ago you were telling your friends all about how good his dick was, thinking you’d never see him again. “Name’s Hawks. It’s nice to meet you Artemis,” he grins as he extends a hand out to you. Damn him for being so cool and composed right now. “Likewise,” you reply, trying desperately not to let your panic show on your face as you shake hands with him. You almost don’t want to let back go but you yell at your brain to release him and remind yourself that you will not be pursuing anything with the admittedly charming man in front of you. “You know,” Shoto suddenly pipes up, “it would probably be a good idea for all of us to get to know each other since we will need to work together for who knows how long to get this matter settled.” Tokoyami quickly clues in to the plan. “Oh yea that’s a great point. It’s been a long time since we caught up with Bakugo and Midoriya and I can’t wait to get to know you a little better Artemis,” he chimes in. Oblivious but loving the idea all the same, Midoriya is quick to agree as well. Before you know it you’re being ushered into the back of a taxi, sandwiched between your two closest friends on the way to Shoto’s house for “task-force bonding” or whatever Midoriya had decided to call it.

Meanwhile, Hawks, Tokoyami, and Shoto pile into their own ride, after not-so-gently reminding Hawks that not all of them could fly so easily as him. “So much for your mystery girl. If you eye-fucked Artemis any harder All Might and Endeavor may have actually clued in. You’re welcome for suggesting this by the way,” Shoto says. “No, no you don’t understand Artemis is mystery girl,” Hawks explains, shaking his head in disbelief. “Are you serious?” Tokoyami asks. Hawks can only nod enthusiastically. “You owe me cold soba for a month for setting this up then,” Shoto replies easily. “Deal. Holy shit, ok, operation convince Artemis to date me is a go,” Hawks says. “That’s a horrible idea,” Tokoyami points out, “if this goes sideways you still have to work with her for God knows how long.” “Shhh, let him have his fun. If nothing else it will be entertaining to watch,” Shoto says. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. Just watch, it’ll be easy,” Hawks assures them.

Spoiler alert: it was not easy.

You avoided being alone with him for as long as you could. An impressive feat really, considering Midoriya seemed to be the only person in attendance not determined to get you to have a one-on-one conversation with the man. This meant you stuck pretty closely to Midoriya’s side, but, unfortunately, Midoriya had been serious about being concerned by your drinking habits, so sticking close to him meant staying far more sober than you would like to be to deal with your possible feelings for Hawks. Even with Midoriya as a shield from alone time Hawks had managed to get your real name, favorite movie, and favorite song out of you. That’s already too much information for a previous hook up to have. Eventually you decide you’re definitely going to need alcohol to get through this night so you sneak into the kitchen when no one is looking in search of booze. You’re rummaging through the cabinets when Hawks finally manages to track you down. “You won’t find anything in here. Shoto keeps most of his alcohol downstairs,” Hawks says, startling you. You clear your throat and quickly close the cabinet door you’d opened. “That obvious?” you ask sheepishly. “You’ve looked like you could use a drink since we got here. C’mon, I’ll show you,” Hawks says before turning around and heading down a hallway leading away from the others. You debate for a moment but in the end that mysterious magnetism binding you and Hawks together has your feet carrying you down the hallway after him.

He leads you to the basement where there’s an entire bar as well as a cozy living room. “Grab a seat and I’ll bring something over,” Hawks says gesturing to the couch as he moves to the bar. You take a seat and have to resist the urge to fidget as your nerves take over. You keep thinking about how much of a bad idea this is but your traitorous heart keeps you in place. Hawks pulls down a decanter of whiskey and pours both of you a glass. He carries both glasses over, with one of his feathers placing the decanter on the coffee table nearby, but as you reach to grab one he pulls it out of reach. “Ah, ah, ah. First, why don’t you tell me why you’re avoiding me,” he says. “Who says I’m avoiding you?” You ask. “Don’t insult my intelligence,” he replies immediately. “Fair enough,” you sigh, “look it’s not anything you did but last night was a one time thing. As incredible as it was, there can’t be a repeat.” “That felt like a one time thing to you?” he asks although he does finally relent and give you your glass as he takes a seat beside you. “Yep,” you lie before taking a large sip of your drink. “Liar. I know you felt what I did. That was something more. Something incredible,” he insists getting just a bit closer to you. Your heart races at his proximity but you try to stay on task. “Look I know you’re dying to get to know me, but as soon as you do you’ll wish that you never did,” you insist. “I seriously doubt that,” he replies with a shrug. “I’m serious! I’m practically an alcoholic, when I’m not working I party a lot just to get my brain to shut up, and I’m such a mess I was going to marry someone just to try and save myself from tabloid headlines and in doing so save my career,” you ramble on. “You’re overthinking this,” he tells you as he finally gets close enough that your thighs are brushing and he brings one hand up to cup your check. “Everywhere I go since I got promoted I’ve got a million different people all wanting to know me and yet I’m still alone. What makes you any different?” you ask, your eyes searching his for something even you aren’t sure of. “I’ve felt the same exact thing since I was 18,” he confesses. “I know you want to slip under my armor Hawks but I can’t,” you finally admit and it’s desperate because your resolve is starting to waver as he leans in closer to you. “Keigo.” “What?” “You want proof this is different? There it is. You’re now one of the only people in the entire world that knows that name. If I can trust you with that, surely you can trust me,” he tells you. You’re speechless. Absolutely speechless. You swore you wouldn’t get into a relationship but your heart is running rampant in your chest. “Just one chance Love. I’m not asking you to love me yet.” “Yet?” “Yet. For now I’m just asking for a chance. Ok?” “Ok Keigo.”

When he finally closes the distance between you two to press his lips to yours it’s like getting your first taste of oxygen after suffocating. It’s a sweeter kiss this time, lacking the urgency from the previous night. It’s like he knows beneath everything your heart is still kind of delicate. His hands move to your waist as he gently pushes you back so you’re laying down on the couch, him following you down until he’s on top of you, his legs straddling your own. There are probably a million reasons you shouldn’t be doing this but you can’t recall a single one as one of his hands slips beneath the hem of your shirt. All the thoughts you had of pushing him away earlier in the night abandon you in favor of their polar opposite. Now you cannot possibly get him close enough. Before long he deftly slides a hand down your pants and into your panties. “Fuck, you’re already so wet for me,” he groans. “Of course, I am, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since last night,” you reply and you’re shocked by your honesty. “Me too, baby. Me too,” Hawks pants as he slips one of his fingers inside of you. You gasp at the sensation as his finger drags along your inner wall, almost immediately finding that one spot that has you damn near seeing stars. You’re eager to return the favor so as he inserts a second and third finger you reach one of your hands down his pants to grasp hold of his hard and leaking erection. Your thumb swipes over the head to collect some of the precum gathering there before you begin working his shaft, sliding your hand up and down along it in time with the way his fingers move inside of you. You never thought something so simple could feel so incredible. The two of you move in tandem, your hips starting to buck into each thrust of his fingers and him fucking into your hand like he could never get enough. The two of you haven’t even bothered to remove your clothes, just loosened things enough to gain the access you need. His thumb begins to press circles to your clit and shortly thereafter the two of you finally reach climax together, his seed spilling on your hand and shirt as you cum around his fingers. Even as the two of you are coming down, he presses kisses to your lips, your neck, your cheek, and just about anywhere else he can reach.

“I’m gonna need a new shirt,” you finally huff out as you slowly start to collect yourself, wiping your hand off on your shirt since it’s ruined already anyway. Keigo laughs and you have to admit it’s one of the most beautiful sights you’ve ever seen. “You can borrow my over shirt. I guess it’s a good thing I wore layers,” he laughs as he shifts to give you space to straighten out your jeans and remove your now soiled shirt. He takes off the plaid shirt he’d been wearing and hands it to you, leaving him in just a black tee. You put on the borrowed shirt and button it up as he too straightens himself out so it’s at least a little less obvious what the two of you have been getting up two. As you finish adjusting your clothing Keigo leans in to kiss you one more time, before whispering against your lips “You won’t regret this. I promise.”

For some reason you’re inclined to believe him.

Author’s Note: This is probably obvious but I’m gonna say it anyway READER’S RELIANCE ON ALCOHOL IS VERY UNHEALTHY. Midoriya is right to be concerned. On a more fun note, if any of you are curious yes the others realized that Hawks and (y/n) were suspiciously absent, yes they knew even before the two of them came back upstairs what they’d been up to. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami even placed bets on how long it would take for it to happen Todoroki won

Taglist [open]: @akkaso @cathy8taffy @eeppff @iikillerkitteh

[trulycertain]

fic writer interview

Tagged by @skogrr Thank you very much! It's a while since I've done one of these, and I've missed them.

Name: Tru/"Oi you" Fandoms (that I write for): Dragon Age, mostly. Still the fandom of my heart. Mass Effect, Deus Ex... uh, accidentally GreedFall? I don't know how or when that happened. Two-shot: Hmm... The actual last two-shot I wrote was Terms & Conditions, a very silly Dorian/Inquisitor modern AU where Gal is the guy Dorian hires to stop his late father's house falling apart. Recently? I suspect that's going to be Driftwood, which can stand on its own as a sort of weird post-canon first-meeting AU, but is trying to tempt me to continue it. (Vasco ends up going looking for Tír Fradí, which has disappeared - and finds it. He also finds De Sardet as a highly avoidant tree god of the island, post-Bad Ending, who transformed against her will. And he ends up falling in love with her anyway.) Weird tree gods! Pining by literal pine! An eventual happy ending! More grumpy commentary by Vasco!

Most popular multi-chapter: Either An Unquenchable Flame or Distraction, probably - both juggernaut pairings, the former close to the game's release and the latter with some fancy forbidden romance, so not so surprising. But surprisingly, Prague, 10:42 PM has done really well, considering it's for a small fandom (Deus Ex) and a rarepair age/rank-difference pairing that I thought would be a one-off experiment? I get it, guys. I like sad repressed stoics too.

Actual worst part of writing: Editing - which can be fun, but that "over and over" stage when you're about to post, especially in a longfic if you fear you've lost the spirit of the thing and the character voices and you can't see the wood for the trees. And when I have to remove a whole scene which Jenga-unbalances the fic, and then I have to redux from the top. Basically, most things to do with pacing. How you choose your titles: I like double-meanings and one word titles. If that fails: quote from a song. If that fails: quote from poetry, but very rarely. Do you outline: Only a little. A bulletpointed list of events or noted-down major lines of dialogue, that's usually it.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: Uh... oh god. I blame so many people for some of these.

Post-Destroy ending where John is attempting to build a shed on Rannoch because that's the kind of thing retired people do, right? and Tali is far better at it than him, and it's just... disgusting fluff.

Actually, just reduxing the early John/Tali stuff with a bit more nuance and a stronger style.

Eva and Kaidan, and their mutually wary first meeting. ("Wow, that's a lot of pomade." "Wow, that's a lot of death-glare.")

AU where Gal and Dorian never met in DAI, and after everything went down, Gal tried to fade into the shadows and leave. He ended up working in Tevinter as an occasional informant/odd-jobs guy the way he was pre-Inquisition. He ends up being a gardener for a bitter, wry magister who seems to hate the entire Magisterium, has recently lost his father to political scheming and murder, and wants to take down the entirety of the remaining Venatori with one staff and maybe his teeth if he has to (hi, Dorian). But first, Dorian's going to drink his own body weight in whiskey and be a recluse for a while and start thinking about time magic again. Gal is trying to keep his head down and should definitely not be falling in love with said magister. Who's someday going to end up at one of the more southerly ports, come across a statue of the great Inquisitor, and go, Oh.

Stuff on Jensen's PT and rebuilding himself post-augs. More of Proprioception, basically.

Mer-AU where Marie De Sardet is still a diplomat attempting to make new connections, just not a human one, and it's a disaster. An awkward disaster. Highlights include her being framed as the beast trying to drown their best captain; her attempting to wobble about on brand-new legs and Vasco's coat while everyone assumes the dear captain has had a few too many; her asking Vasco if his "fascinating markings" glow; them getting into a duel, and her (fondly) getting punted off the side of the ship going "Woo-hoo." OK, I wrote a bit of that, but only a 1k doodle I'll probably never return to.

Non-Naut court AU where Marie gets promised to Bastien D'Arcy, because he's a bit of a layabout but he's also rich, popular at court, and amenable to bribe - [cough] suggestion, and the D'Arcys have prominent trading links with the Alliance. Instead she falls for his far less of a social butterfly, tired, worried-numbers-guy brother Léandre, who's pretty damn uncomfortable around Nauts because he's well aware he nearly got sold to them and he is not the favourite.

Straight-up role-reversal AU (another thing where I've put down 1k that I'll probably never return to), where Marie's Naut name is Paz, and she's a fed-up second-mate who's tired of noble idiots and feels a little strange and conflicted about her mark (and has context for it, because they make frequent crossings to Tír Fradí). Also a little more jaded, without the love of her mother, and not nearly as much of a tryhard as Vasco in canon; she ended up here because she had nowhere else to go and the Nauts were like "Ooh, free kid," and she's well aware. She gets stuck escorting the D'Arcy brothers to Tír Fradí for their new venture and is not looking forward to it. Except one of them is intensely bright and wry and keeps asking questions about the ship and noticing shit he is definitely not meant to notice, and they keep ending up in strange conversations, even if he seems really, really wary and uncomfortable about Nauts.

Some vague stuff about Vasco's thoughts on Jonas and that whole side quest, considering he's also a sea-given and implies sea-given take some shit in the Nauts, and also how damn difficult it must be watching a sea-given's parents endeavour to get their kid back when he knows full well his didn't do that for him.

Actually, just more Vasco POV in general, even though he's damn hard to nail down. I've written much pining for him from Marie's perspective, and I'd like to try things from the opposite. This guy's idea of wooing someone perfectly normally is to panic and then recite Baroque poetry. You know he's sappy as hell in the privacy of his own head, even if he's trying not to be.

Jean and Síora having the "I'm a sad healer who just lost my mother and I'm trying so hard not to crumble under the weight of assisting the leader" mutual talk way too late at night around the campfire and maybe him crying on her shoulder a little, with mutual kindness and the beginnings of attraction, and her finally getting past his jokey-smug facade to understand him.

More stuff about Jean's past in general, and how he wanted to be a doctor before he was dragged away from it by looking after Constantin and being nobility.

Síora and Eseld and the ways they changed over the years; something like an exploration of grief and growing her own will and the ways they very differently view the renaigse. Also maybe more about the en ol menawi magic, if I can worldbuild well enough?

I'd also love to do a GreedFall soulmark AU - it's generally not my kind of trope, I'm not into biological determinism type tropes - just because names and aliases and assumed identities are such a mess in GreedFall and it's a repeated plot point. That said, I feel like it's been done so beautifully in this fandom before that I wouldn't have much to add.

Callouts @ me: So. Many. Commas. So much over-explaining everything. If they get out of the car, your readers do not need a five-page manual of "and then he undid his seatbelt and leaned over to grasp the door handle, and then pulled it, and then stepped a foot out before he almost thought better of it - but no, he was going to get out of this car. The other foot joined the first, and he nearly banged his head on the doorframe."

Best writing traits: People say I have a head for finding small-but-important moments. I'm also told I write likeable protags. People have more than once said my writing makes them feel safe or makes them smile, and I really couldn't ask for more than that. I'll take those.

Spicy tangential opinion: I don't think I have any, really? Oh god, that makes me sound so very boring. Oh! Um. There should be more tree body horror in fandom. And body horror in general. *thumbsup*

No pressure tagging: @artemis-crimson, @eridanidreams,@rainypixel, @aphreal42.

[hphmmatthewluther]

“It’s So Loud Sometimes”

There was a noise. A low, grumbling, sound that was getting louder and louder. Matthew tried to ignore it, focusing on his view of the Great Lake in front of him. It occurred to him how he was one of the few people to know the water looked far better when observed from twelve feet in the air. It was times like these that Matthew’s Animagus form was so useful. The droning grumble was getting louder still, until it stopped below the tree he had hidden himself in. His small, avian head looked at the ground, and saw Merula Snyde there, looking furious with herself. For a moment, she looked up, before scowling and kicking the tree with a great deal of force. Uh oh.

Matthew was rocked with such force that he felt his human form quickly return, with no chance of returning. Merula, meanwhile, saw her mortal enemy appear out of thin air and plummet onto the grass nearby, landing with a thump.

“Oww...” he muttered, opening and closing his eyes. Merula’s jaw hung open for a moment.

“Wh-What was that?!” she cried, as Matthew tried to push himself up, instead settling for propping himself against the tree. “How the hell were you up there without me seeing?!”

“You know why...” he mumbled, pushing the hair out of his face. “I flew up there.”

“You-” Merula began, before remembering what she had learned last year. “Oh. Right. Course, cause there’s no way you could’ve apparated or anything, right, yeah...”

“Well, no I couldn’t have.” he reminded her, “You can’t apparate or disapparate on Hogwarts Grounds, remember?”

“I- I was being sarcastic, you dolt!” she hissed, hoping to get a reaction out of him. Nothing. “Are you...are you alright, Luther?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah...uh, well my arm hurts like hell, but it’s fine...” Matthew said. He looked up and saw her confused expression. “Oh. You meant, um, mentally, didn’t you?” he asked. Merula nodded. “Right, yeah, sorry. I’ve just...got a lot on my plate right now.” “Oh really?” asked Merula, sitting a few feet from him. “When have you not?” “Yeah, I know, but this is...worse.” he explained. “I mean, there’s the Sleepwalking Curse, dealing with Rakepick, the Thestral stuff, I’ve got Quidditch, and-”

“Luther, you know it’s alright to say no to things, right?” she laughed. Matthew didn’t return her smile.

“I know...I just, I don’t want to disappoint anyone, you know?” he said, wincing at what he said. “I...it’s hard to describe sometimes...sometimes it’s like...everyone I know is trying to argue one way or the other and it’s just...”

“Loud.” finished Merula. “It’s like they’re always around, and if you do something wrong they all start yelling.”

Matthew nodded. “It’s just...well, it’s been pretty loud lately, I suppose.”

Merula smiled sadly. “You just can’t catch a break can you Luther?”

He shook his head. “Nope. It just feels like every little problem’s yelling at me, and the only way to stop them is to solve them, but then a whole load of other problems show up, like that damn D-”

He paused suddenly. He thought back to the Vault of Fear, and remembered just what Merula’s worst fear was. 

“That damn what?” she asked, confused yet again.

She’s got to know. You’ve got to tell her,he thought to himself. Matthew took a long, deep sigh. “Merula...this might be hard for you to hear. I-”

“Luther, don’t patronise me.” she ordered. “I am the Most Powerful Witch at Hogwarts. Nothing scares me!”

“Merula, that’s not true and you and I both know it.” Matthew said, hoping he wouldn’t have to spell it out for her.

“Are you referring to the Vault? Fine, maybe there’s one thing I’m scared of, but…” she trailed off when Matthew moved forward, with more concern on his face than she had ever seen. She suddenly felt very, very afraid. “No...No there can’t be...that’s...”

“I’m sorry, Merula, but it’s true. There’s at least one Dementor somewhere in the school.” he declared. “I...I got caught by one last night...it...well, it...”

“You were demented?!” she exclaimed, her hand moving automatically onto his. Matthew didn’t seem to notice, and just nodded. “Wh- but...have you...had any chocolate?”

Matthew shook his head. “I...promised Dumbledore I wouldn’t get involved with whatever was attacking students. I was worried he’d find out I’d gone against my word...I just...ran off.”

Merula stared, gobsmacked. “You...idiot...you’ve...you haven’t...hang on.” she grabbed her satchel and dug through it before pulling out a Chocolate Frog.

“Merula, look, I don’t really-”

“Shut up for a second!” she yelled, before grabbing his face and stuffing the frog into his mouth. Matthew choked on it for a moment as it wriggled on his tongue, before reluctantly chewing and swallowing it down.

Matthew leant back onto the grass for a moment. He felt his head clear as every problem seemed to wash away, or at least diminish in importance. He looked up at the partly cloudy sky and smiled. Merula leant over him, causing him to blush slightly.

“You...alright now?” she asked. Matthew smiled.

“Never better.” he said, slowly getting back up. “Wish Muggles made chocolate like that. Who’s on the card?”

Merula grabbed the box and pulled out a pentagon-shaped card. “Oh, um.... Newt Scamander. I’ve already got him.”

“Really?!” Matthew pushed himself over and looked at the card. There on the card was a portrait of a very familiar man. “There he is...Newt Scamander...” he flipped over the card and began to read: “Regarded as the world authority on magical creatures, Newt Scamander is the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which has been an approved textbook at Hogwarts since its publication in 1927 and can be found in most wizarding households.”

“What’s so special about Newt Scamander?” Merula asked, surprised at Matthew’s curious expression.

“Oh, right! See, he’s sort of my Great Uncle.” Matthew explained, as Merula’s jaw dropped yet again. “Well, sort of. He’s my Great Grandmother’s sister’s husband, so-”

“Queenie Goldstein?!” cried Merula. “But-but I thought you said you were related to the Dohertys!”

“Yeah, but this is on my Dad’s side.” Matthew explained.

“So you aren’t really half-blood, are you? You’re, well, two-thirds blood!”

“62.5%, actually.” Matthew corrected. “You’ve probably met my second cousin in third year, Artemis Hexley.”

Merula nodded. “Oh yeah. She’s rather feral for a Hufflepuff, isn’t she?”

Matthew couldn’t help but laugh at that. “No she’s not! I mean, I guess...but...um, in a good way, you know?”

They both sat there, smiling, for a moment. “Look, Luther, I...” Merula began, before remembering what Matthew had told her. “How’d we even get to talking about Hexley? Anyway, you owe me for saving you with that chocolate frog, okay? It’s an honour to be saved by someone like me.”

Matthew just grinned. “Thanks, Merula. Just...maybe don’t tell anyone about the You-Know-What. I don’t want to cause a panic.” he explained.

Merula considered this. “That makes sense...I just...I think I need some time to digest all of this...”

“Oh...yeah, ok...” said Matthew, getting up slowly. “I just...yeah. Maybe I’ll go down and feed Pickle.”

Merula was about to get up, but stopped. “Pickle?”

“Oh, that’s what I called the Thestral.” he explained. “I figured a name like that would make it less threatening.”

“Well, it definitely doesn’t strike fear into me...unlike...well.”

Matthew held out his hand for her, but as usual, Merula pushed it aside and got up on her own. “Yeah...um, thanks for telling me, Luther. I just...maybe I...”

“Merula, I need to know...are you...no, will you be alright?” Matthew asked.

She sighed. “I imagine so. I dodged Boggarts for all of last year, so this can’t be too different, right?”

“Even still-”

“Luther, I’ll be fine. It’s just...not nice to think about.” she said suddenly, as if she hadn’t wanted to say that at all. “You...oh, you know what I mean.”

Matthew nodded. “Yeah, I know. It isn’t.”

Merula sighed. “Right, I’m going now, if anyone sees us like this it’ll ruin my reputation. Good luck with the Death Horse!”

And that was that. Matthew stood there for a second before heading into the forest, Chocolate Frog card in hand. He ventured through the Grasslands, the conversation playing back over and over in his head. He crossed over into the lighter part of the forested area of the Reserve, his fingers rubbing where Merula had grabbed his face. By the time he had reached his Thestral, he could do nothing but think about Merula leaning over him, a smile on her face. Matthew took a deep breath. He had to learn that Patronus. As he fed Pickle the Thestral, another horse-like figure appeared. It was Stephen, the Abraxan. Matthew smiled and handed him some food as well. He checked his watch. Tonks was almost done with her detention now. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, felt himself shrink and start to take off, until he was above the trees and forests. He smiled, and wondered how Tonks would react to him dropping out of the sky...

[teen-comics]

A RETROSPECTIVE ON YOUNG JUSTICE: or me trying to fix what aint broke.

First of all, I want to preface this by saying I know this is a "Marvel Comics" account, its literally in my name, and young justice is neither marvel or a comic. but it is the only DC property I really care about and if I posted this to my main it wouldn't be seen by anyone so forgive me

I also originally wrote this in long text message form to a friend (sorry @flashgame) who has only seen up to half way through season 2, so I haven't included anything about large plot points in seasons 2 and 3. Thats not really what this is about tho so I think my points still stand. These are also just my garbage opinions, I love this show I am just venting and you may disagree, you will probably disagree but I sometimes just have to get stuff like this out my system and thats what's this blog is for. I will go back to making memes about decades old X-men comics after this I promise.

With that out of the way here's my rant :)

For me, young justice’s biggest asset, the ensemble cast is also its biggest flaw. don't get me wrong, incorporating many characters (including obscure ones) into the team gave the show great character dynamics, the freedom to do what they wanted with less popular characters and great fan service for everyone. Buuuut it’s also completely inconsistent with who gets the spotlight and it’s plagued with the problems of just having too many characters. Some characters get huge storylines, massive amounts of screen time, often more than they ever got in the comics and that’s great! it seriously is, young justice is the best adaptation of characters like Kalder, M’gann and Artemis etc it’s literally the most time in the spotlight they ever get. but it’s like the writers just can’t help themselves when adding extra characters! it starts out in season 1 and gets exponentially worse by season two.

What you may notice by season 2 is that, with the new characters introduced, some have been given more air time than others. it definitely starts in season 1. Season 1 is a damn perfect study into how to introduce and build characters, having them each have storylines and later, relationships with each other. the show begins by showing us it’s not sticking to the normal way of doing an ensemble kids show, with the main team meeting in the first ep or two and then remaining the same until maybe one other character is added or a whole lot in a second season as a “new class” (Think X-men evolution adding the new mutants in season 2). Instead M'gann isn’t added till like ep 3 and artemis isn added till like ep 5/6?? i can’t remember trust me it’s quite late for a main team character to be introduced in a first season. that’s probably the first warning sign, even the original team takes a while to form but things are still ok, even the inclusion of Zatanna works kinda because she has the storyline with her dad. but Rocket? yeah...rockets a weird inclusion

she’s added in the last two episodes of the first season and then by season 2? she’s left again and is in the justice league. she gets two episodes!!! two! to be in The Team! like that’s weird and telling of what happens next. the show sticks to a varely normal schedule of adding new members, similarly to X-Men evolution, and like evo those new characters aren’t focused on that much. but evo handelled it better. when it comes to new characters it’s obvious that some are getting much more screen time than others, and some are just more compelling too. the time jump really screws stuff up, adding new characters in (and removing others like Rocket) in the five years off screen means they have to do a good job making us like them because we’re not introduced to them in an organic way.

take Mal and Bumblebee, technically we see them in season 1 but they’re basically cameo/easter egg roles. by season 2 they’ve joined the team and they don’t really get a lot to do after that either. it’s weird and because of the time skip we don’t see them joining, we don’t see bumblebee getting her suit (yeah we can infer it’s from The Atom but really they skip a lot) you might argue that this is necessary for a lot of characters, people like bumblebee, batgirl or even wonder girl have these backstory that don’t really fit in so they're just skipped over to make room for the easily included story’s like blue beetles and impulses

but we still feel like we’re missing something. talking of some of the characters let’s actually look at who got added right? In season 2 its starts to become obvious characters are coming to the front and other are in the background. beast boy is well set up in season 1, he’s well incorporated into the story of a main team character and even tho he’s not integral to the plot of season 2 he works great. same goes for blue beetle and impulse, they’re both great new characters with interesting personalities, backstorys and they do plot relevant things. lagoon boy is also an inclusion that seams necessary, he’s obviously there to be part of the love triangle thing but he’s also useful to randomly get captured and be an annoying character to piss of other members of the team. everyone else tho? it’s really hard justifying them being there. Batgirl, Tim, Wondergirl, Bumblebee and Mal just...don’t do anything. yeah they get thrown a bone once or twice but really it feels like the roles they fill could be filled by other already established people? or they could have been side characters outside of the team. they feel shoe horned in and they don’t get any time to grow. instead storylines focus on the original team, (which is kind of inevitable) and season 1 side characters like Red Arrow, and, of course the previously mentioned new characters that actually work with the story.

i can definitely see why some of these characters were added, Mal and Karen were set up in season 1 so i assume the writers always planned for them to be in season 2. the time skip (let’s be honest) is pretty much entirely there to facilitate Dick becoming nightwing and so of course both Jason, and then Tim (probably because jason comes with too much baggage) had to be included. Batgirl also seasons like a solid choice because she’s from that era of batman and it might seam strange not to include her. and wonder girl continues the “The Teams is made of sidekicks” thing. but come onnnn. Tim and Barbara could have been side characters who we see in one episode (maybe one with Dick dealing with being replaced as Robin or something) and the same can be said about Mal and Bumblebee (wonder girl can be cut tbh)

you can also argue that yeah, maybe the plan was to flesh these characters out in season 3 but it got cancelled. but the season 3 we got adds even more useless characters and actually pushes the good characters from this season into the background. even if changes were made in between the cancellation of the original season 3 and the one we got, i stiiilll think they’d have added the useless characters (this is a bit harsh but season 3 does add a lot of new characters) and not focused on the ones they already had because we saw it in season 1 with Zatanna and Rocket. it’s like the writers get bored easily with characters or something? like they just can’t stop themselves adding new toys to play with. I love this show so much, but after a now third rewatch i still believe the same thing i thought the first time i watched this, I love all the characters, i love all the references but god there are so many characters and so many references

[jacks4eva]

reaction to the lost hero by rick riordan

imma be honest this is a long time coming, okay so here’s the timeline we’re looking at so you understand me. i read lightning thief in middle school, dropped it and read it again in ninth grade. then i read sea of monsters, but never started titan’s curse. then for some reason in 11th grade i bought the second book in heroes of olympus and started to read it and got confused so i started to read titan’s curse and got to when percy took artemis’s place and then dropped it...again. very sad that time considering it was LEGIT THE END SO CLOSE. anyway yesterday i read the whole thing again and the battle of the labrinyth in like 6-8 hours. idk i can’t remember if i started at 10pm or midnight but i finished at 6am. anyways today i read the last olympian, and now i’m starting the lost hero. i thought it’d be funny to do my reactions.

this timeline is just funny because i have read so many books, and yet the most popular ones like percy jackson and harry potter, didn’t wanna finish lol. i still haven’t finished goblet of fire yet i read 100 pages an hour and could probably finish it in a day. anyways.

let the reactions begin

okay i’ve heard of jason but i was not expecting a pov already

woah electrocution

he’s already got a love interest what

he said the coach is 5’0 i now imagine the coach as danny devito i have no choice

piper and leo yes i recognize these names

(i’ve seen a lot of posts about percy jackson okay)

i like leo i don’t like dylan

i love the starwars reference

oh look guys we got popular girls that are racist, can they get their asses beat in this pls

dylan is also racist for smiling-asswipe

we love the cherokee representation

i hate them so much can they please leave

“i had to say something” i like coach hedge is this bad

i hope percy is the storm but i just know i wouldn’t be that lucky

ofc dylan is a racist monster

danny devito never returned :(

PLS TELL ME THESE REINFORCEMENTS ARE PERCY AND ANNABETH

who is the bulky dude

i’m sorry i’m laughing he’s a big scary dude with his head shaved and A RAINBOW TATTOO and his name is butch

oh so that’s why percy isn’t here

okay usually when reading i can form some kind of theory or connection but at this point i literally have no clue what is happening

i just knew as soon as he asked that he had abilities with fire but i was not expecting fire fingers

wow what a first impression “you should be dead”

wait so all i remember from the son of neptune was the beginning had percy alone i think and i’m not sure if he had his memory or maybe not and he was running away from monsters, so is what’s happening to jason similar to that? and WILL PERCY NOT BE FOUND IN THIS BOOK?

“That also was necessary. Long ago, your father gave me your life as a gift to placate my anger. He named you Jason, after my favorite mortal. You belong to me.

“Whoa,” Jason said. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

Now is the time to pay your debt, she said. Find my prison. Free me, or their king will rise from the earth, and I will be destroyed. You will never retrieve your memory.”

... okay theories, um a goat skin cloak was mentioned to have been owned by Zeus’s foster mother and that he owned it so the woman could either be the foster mother or Hera. If it was Hera, it would make sense that Zeus gave his son to placate her anger at his cheating or whatever. They are also trapped in Olympus, so prison would make sense. Hera was brought up a lot too, and according to wiki Hera persuaded Aphrodite to make her son make Medea fall in love with a mortal named Jason, so more than likely the lady is Hera. Their king will rise from earth could be the king from the battle of the labrynth, maybe. Or another king ya know there are so many.

Wait a minute

Something else I know about their names is Jason’s last name...JASON GRACE I thought it sounded familiar, because of Thalia Grace. Hah look at me being correct. That explains the flying and not being burnt by a lightning bolt—oh I’m stupid for not seeing it sooner.

Now just gotta figure out who Piper’s parent is.

Aha so I was right it was Hera.

Chiron not being able to give the information they need is kind of annoying.

Enceladus? So a giant offspring of Gaia, um...no bueno. Not a king tho.

“Child of lightning, beware the earth, The giants’ revenge the seven shall birth, The forge and dove shall break the cage, And death unleash through Hera’s rage.”

Okay theory time, child of lightning is obviously Jason. Beware the Earth...yeah no clue. The giants’ revenge the seven shall birth, the giants are probably the children of Gaia since that one giant was her child and it’s the seven are probably the seven half bloods from the great prophecy. The forge and dove shall break the cage, um maybe Leo is the forge since he’s hephaestus’s child (probably butchered the spelling). Doves are typically associated with aphrodite/venus, so idk about that. Maybe Piper is Venus’s child, I mean her God parent is her mom and it’d be funny since she was judging the other aphrodite kids. Also I assume Hera will kill whoever trapped her or someone involved since she’s so mad. Idk.

Could kill Drew btw.

CALLED IT CALLED IT CALLED IT IM A GENIUSSS

Wait. This woman looks like Hera, her clothes are made of Earth and she said Leo would fight her children trying to wake her. They’re gonna try to wake Gaia, which would make sense that it said stay away from Earth if she’s the Earth Goddess

I like the wolves thing because Romulus and Remus, ya know the twin boys who were raised by wolf and started Rome.

“You are our saving grace, as always. The she-wolf curled her lip, as if she had just made a clever joke”

I mean yeah his last name is grace

“She must really like this Percy guy to search for him so hard, and that made Jason a little envious. Was anyone searching for him right now? What if somebody cared for him that much and was going out of her mind with worry, and he couldn’t even remember his old life?”

so what if Percy’s just chilling at the Roman version of camp halfblood without a clue to who he is? bro.

Imagine reading this and seeing all of things I get right and wrong and wanting to slam your head into a wall.

Okay like idk why Annabeth was freaking out we kind of knew they were siblings, I mean they have the same dad. Unless this is saying they have the same mom or are twins or something. That’d be cool. That’s probably what he’s saying tbh but still, could’ve emphasized it more than “that’s my sister” like dude.

Anyway, they look very different so that’s funny.

King Boreas? uh.

Oo French

Let’s see what I can translate from the very little duolingo I did. Bienvenu, maybe a greeting. Idk which tho. Je suis Piper, I am Piper. Et c’est Jason, fils de Zeus, and this is Jason, son of Zeus. Vous parlez francais? tres bien, you speak french? good. Hey not bad, not shockingly good but considering I did the duolingo lessons 4 years ago, not bad. Vrai? Truth? Yeah I just looked it up.

Danny devito is alive!

“Leo scratched his head. “Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—”

“Enceladus,” Piper corrected.”

Leo is me omfg

DANNY DEVITO IS BACK

Arrows...HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS PLS?

“Leo stepped out next. “You’re catching me, too, Superman. But I ain’t holding your hand.”

this made me laugh ok moving on

Uh fight a sea monster? bro is Jason just Percy 2.0

“Aphrodite’s message was clear: This one needs no improvement.

And Piper agreed.”

I wonder if you can hear me squealing from hundreds or thousands of miles away

Did you miss the fact that he’s thirty feet tall— I DIED

Who slew titan k-what now? So basically yes. Percy 2.0

Okay I recognize the name Hazel, and all I ask is that she is not involved with Jason because Jason and Piper are really freaking cute.

an exchange of leaders, SO THEY DID SWITCH THEM

The way I called it

I WAS RIGHT AHA

anyways. time to read son of neptune

[border-spam]

Hey, I was wondering .. you once talked about JK's family. What about Seifa? How did she live or with who?

Kier died the year after I left ( maybe? Boss didn’t give full details did he? Check in w/him on it next contact ). Plasma leak while stripping one of the old cruiser w-cores. Never took the shit we were told about them that serious, would have been 19, 20 maybe? I think I was a year older. Never got the chance to make it on his own. Dumb fucker. 

Toby left fleet round the same time as me, kept in contact till year I found the rats? Just b4 that actually - be worth asking Sol if he has any records. Radio silent since. Was running long haul scamline @ Artemis - counterfeit recyc seals. Think his business “partners” might have cashed in the luck he pushed too far after years, man. Do I actually want to know what happened? IDK. Nice to think he's just... living quiet.

Bryga is still around, married some trade duchess and is fuckin ROLLING in cash from her holiday villa on one of Promethea's orbit locked moons. Still in touch, miss her actually, not talked in a while - Note me: Call that fucking bitch lol. Rosks stick 2gether.

- Notes scribbled on back of picture

Sei has a basic bio including some of her background: here

She came as "Seifa A", and that was it.

They gave the kids a name if they arrived without one, but if they had anything partial it was the norm to leave it. Boss never really felt the need to explain why he ran things that way, why he didn't just totally rename any little kid who arrived too young to even be able to remember their original within a couple of months, but it always felt off to him. Regardless of why they weren't part of their family anymore, taking that remaining tie away from them? Nah.

These kids had lost their belonging already or they wouldn't have ended up in his fleet, no need to take the little bits they had left.

Sei was handed to Roska for settling, so she's A'rosk, just like all the others in her group were Rosk if they didn't already have a name of their own. Handy way to keep a tally of who was responsible for each, who'd need to be told if they were talking back cheek or skiving off their basic little tasks.

There's a good few Rosk's out there, and while Roska himself isn't around anymore - he was an old man even when she was a kid, they rally around that name in a way. All the Junkers are family, but if you share a piece of an old hand's name, that bond is generally just a little tighter.

Sei has no clue whatsoever about any of her family or where she originated from, but she's put 1+1 together and decided it's almost definitely a case of being sold, so she's got zero interest in finding out about them.

The vast majority of kids that were "taken in" by the junker fleet were unwanted mouths to feed sold on for a pittance, she sees no reason why she would have been any different. Sure, it was pretty normal for them to all tell themselves they were different - to go through phases in their early teens where they decided they must have a loving family out there.. that any day now, their loving parents would track them down, explain it had all been a mistake, some kind of mixup, and they'd be whisked away to a life of being loved and belonging... but that never happened for any of the kids, and reality would settle after a while. 

Not being wanted by your birth family wasn’t that huge an issue when the one that took you in values you immensely. Seifa was happy.

She doesn't remember anything about where she comes from, not even smells or visuals. Most of her earliest memories are from when she was a snotty 4 year old being led through the junk-halls with the other little kids to learn how to tell trash wire from copper, sit with sticky little hands and blunt pliers as they pulled scrap from trash and set it aside for a few hours a day before it was "playtime" and they'd be shooed away to roughhouse in a shared living area till dinner.

She'd never equate this to slave labour and it would be a very bad idea to imply the reality of it to her, everyone had little jobs, it's not the same, ok? It's not, it's totally different.

Sei's a fiercely logical person, but her childhood is one of the very few touch points she get's weirdly stupid regarding. Defensive. It's hard to talk to her about it.

She's got no interest in tracking her original family because Boss and the 20+ adults who took care of her throughout her life are all she really wants and needs.

Did this affect her overall as an adult?

More than she’ll ever let herself admit. Seifa, for all her ego and irritating levels of confidence while being dealt with, has desperately low self value. 

In the back of her mind, she grew up as trash. She's... someone's garbage, always has been. She's unwanted, and she’s only had a chance because she got lucky. She spent her entire childhood rummaging through literal junk to find anything of value that could be used to feed the fleet, and the other kids? Some of ‘em didn't even get names, Roska was good. Roska was a lovely man who reported to Boss, but the others on skirt ships? Fucking hell... 

She’s where she is now through dumb luck and skills she learned from a harsh life she wouldn’t wish on any friend. And is she happy with where she is?

Well, she’s worshiped as a Death Cult’s Saint through prayers whispered to a name that’s not even her own. 

She’s got money, she’s got power, got champagne and fame...

But she’d give it all to grab Eli, Jak-Knife, and Ven, slap sense into Tyreen and drag Troy off his false throne, then get them all out of there. Take them home.

Asks are Open!

[alex-writes-all-the-things]

Ok. As someone who has never read a SINGLE WORD of Artemis Fowl

Oh my God that movie was shit

I learned nothing about the world, half of the characters had less than 10 minutes of screen time, I didn't give a shit about any of them, there was no emotional weight or sense of danger, I didn't learn how anything worked, time had no meaning, and I'm left with more questions than I started with!

Like, I'm at the point where I could legitimately ask "would you like me to list my problems alphabetically or chronologically?"

Why the fuck does this kid show no emotion?

Why the fuck did they put a ONE WHEEL SKATEBOARD IN A MOVIE ABOUT A BOOK FROM THE EARLY 2000'S? You wanna make your movie look dated in two years? That's how.

Time seems to make NO SENSE.

Did AF Sr. go missing the day after he left? YOU DONT KNOW

If it is the day after, HOW DO YOU GET FROM IRELAND TO CHINA IN ONE NIGHT?! ON A BOAT?!

HOW DO PEOPLE REALIZE HE WAS MISSING IN THAT TIME?

Why did AF Sr. steal all that shit? YOU DONT KNOW

WHY THE FUCK DID HE NEED TO WEAR A SUIT? NOTHING ABOUT HIS CHARACTER SUGGESTED THAT HE WOULD WEAR A SUIT JUST FOR FUN, LIKE THIS SEEMED LIKE A SPECIAL OCCASION TO WEAR IT BUT WHY?

How the fuck does the Goober work? I don't even remember its name AND NONE OF THE RULES OF MAGIC ARE EXPLAINED

I don't give a SHIT about anyone

Disney. That is all.

WHERE THE FUCK DOES JULIET GO FOR MOST OF THE MOVIE?

After reading stuff about the book on Tumblr I've learned that AF Jr. is a Lil Shit (tm) but in the movie they don't? suggest that? So he does randomly dickish things, like PROPERLY DICKISH, and it's out of nowhere and I have no idea why he just shot a fairy with a tranq gun.

I DID NOT GIVE A SHIT WHEN ANYONE APPEARED TO DIE. THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING.

What is stopping the BBEG from kidnapping AF Sr. again? She's still out there. She isn't weakened. There's nothing to suggest that she can't just. Take him again. And make AF Jr. give her the Goober again

JOSH GAD'S EXPANDING MOUTH WAS NOT SOMETHING I NEEDED TO SEE

Why did the traitor fairy guy have the ability to take over?

WHY DID JOSH GAD CAUSE A GIANT EXPLOSION IMMEDIATELY AFTER SAYING HE DIDNT LIKE FIRE? AN EXPLOSION IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN ONE GUY WITH THE EQUIVALENT OF LIKE THREE CANDLES

Why the fuck did they make the audience think that a character had died only to bring them back two seconds after....like... No. That's just bad screenwriting.

PHYSICS? WHAT PHYSICS?!

"oh they'll forget they saw a fairy and a troll" BUT YOU LEFT THE WEDDING FUCKING TRASHED ANYWAY WTF

IF YOU CAN TURN OF HOLLY'S MAGIC WHY DIDNT YOU DO THAT TO STOP HER FROM FLYING TO IRELAND?

IF YOU CAN FREEZE TIME WHY DIDNT YOU DO THAT TO RESCUE HOLLY LIKE?! LATER WE LEARN THAT ITS BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO BE INVITED IN LIKE VAMPIRES BUT THAT WASNT EXPLAINED UNTIL LATER

I cannot stress to you how much I either didn't give a shit or actively hated every single character.

Is four-leaf-clover a swear word? Cause I think it was a swear word

Why is the Goober so important? YOU DONT KNOW

I feel like half of my issues are I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO READ THE BOOK IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE BARE MINIMUM OF THE PLOT

There was literally no final "battle". Like. It doesn't have to be a big fight. Just make me give a shit. Make it feel like the movie is ending. SHOW ME SOMETHING THAT BUILDS ANY SORT OF TENSION, I BEG YOU

Awfully fucking convenient that pretty much every plan that AF Jr. came up with worked on the first damn try

HOW THE FUCK DID AF JR. KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO RESEARCH FIRST?

WHY THE FUCK WAS THAT ONE POEM IMPORTANT?

My mom was like "maybe you're not supposed to think about it" and like. I was not actively searching for plot holes, I WAS GENUINELY CONFUSED THE WHOLE DAMN TIME AND NOTHING WAS EXPLAINED EVER.

Tl:dr, this movie was a dumpster fire and I'm kinda glad I didn't read the books first bc I don't think I would have sat through that whole movie if I had.