#only served to make apollo more fucked up after everything ended

[brodorokihousuke]

On a scale from "felt really bad about drugging Solomon Starbuck that time" to "would’ve beat Kristoph Gavin to death if he ever physically hurt Apollo", what are your opinions / speculations on the morality of canon Clay Terran?

Bringing up the drugging deal is important because people forget about that a lot (I do admittedly... not ignore it, but don't focus on it very hard). However, it makes sense that he was convinced to do so, despite having a (presumably) generally "lawful" morality.

Lets put this into context: You have finally achieved your dream job. This is a very specific job, that requires years and years of training, as well as luck. However, you find out from your boss(?) that there is a threat against your workplace. A repeated threat, that had been made once before, and resulted in a major cover-up as well as the death of one person, and near-death of at least one other. Reporting this threat could have dire consequences, he says. The government could see this as a weak point, perhaps. Was it worth funding something if every attempt at it would get sabotaged? Especially if it was just for science data. Who cares about that. So, for the good of your job, for the good of them all, he asks one thing of you.

Drug your coworker. Drug him, and then carry him out. You'll be safe, he'll be safe. Your job will be safe too, along with those of everyone else working there. You'll be a hero to everyone.

Why wouldn't you want that?

-

To more specifically answer, I think he has a perhaps more malleable morality than Apollo, but not by much. I can see him getting really fucking mad at Kristoph (and anyone who's wronged Apollo), but not to the point of physical violence- I see him having more restraint than Apollo in that regard.

[alipeeps]

Episode 40 (aka Hold me, I am not ready for this!! 😭)

Gods I think I love Xue Li almost as much as Xiao Heng.

And that dude loves her a LOT.

LOOK at how he looks at her. LOOK!!

"Kill Xiao Heng and we'll live happily ever after"... dude, you have completely lost touch of reality. How can you believe for even a fraction of a second that she'd do that, that she'd choose you over him? She just told you a moment ago that she'd rather die with him that be with you.

YES XUE LI!!! Put the next one through his eye please!

Actually no, don't kill him. Let him live and suffer and regret.

"Killing you would dirty my hands." You tell him girl. He's nothing. He's not worth the blood on your hands.

I reckon 75% chance he's gonna throw himself off the battlements anyway. Coward.

Ahahahaaaa he's standing on the edge! Am I right? Am I?

CALLED IT!! 😂😂

Last thing he saw was her walking away. Love that for him.

Ooooh she's gonna cut her own throat on the sword....

Shiiit where's that tumblr image of apollo's dodgeball? I'm getting too good at this.

There goes your last leverage, shithead.

Aaaaand there goes your ability to breathe anything other than blood.

Yeah baby, get your revenge.

Ey up, the wind machine's back.

Hahahaa fucking hell grandpa Xiao making Xiao Heng serve him drinks on the excuse that he was injured saving Xue Li?! I'm pretty sure Xiao Heng was actually *more* injured - he took at least 3 sword slashes in the battle with Lord Cheng!

Okay but now I am really intruiged/worried cos the rebellion is over and there's like 30-odd minutes (and the much giffed scene of Xiao Heng in his armour with the pendant in his teeth) left to go so... wtf is gonna happen now?

Oooh Xiao Heng's going north to protect the border...

Bros 4eva!

Daddy Xue's back? For reals?

"She's got a husband now, how can she go back with us?" 😂

Awww and she's got daddy's approval for this one too! 😁

What do you think she means, Su Guogong, you dumbass? You gotta make that place fit for a wife! 😁

Hahaha Xiao Heng has bluescreened again!

It's kinda disturbing how rare it is in a cdrama for the main couple to get together, both survive and get to happily marry. HOWEVER... there's still 20 minutes and that scene to go!! 😭😭

Also am i the only one that keeps getting very nervous about the combination of wind machine, billowing drapes, and naked flame candles... 😬

Is she gonna admit to pappa Jiang that she's not Jiang Li? I'm pretty sure he already knows...

Yeeeeeah that's a nice lie Xue Li but it's a lie nonetheless. She did suffer and she was in pain. But okay...

I want this to be between you and me - and all the servants that just overheard our conversation.

Shit I thought for a second there he'd stroked out and died on the spot! 😂

This feels like she's saying goodbye to the Jiang family for good. She's married into the Xiao family now and the Jiang family are leaving the capital... and she's not really related to them, she's got no real reason to see them again...

Shijie is just too goddamn good and precious.

Ooft one thing that bugs me about the subs in this is that they don't properly translate titles/honorifics, they translate everything to the person's name. So the significance of her calling him ge is entirely lost to anyone who doesn't understand at least a little bit of Chinese.

(Also they do this with single syllable names which is even more egregious. They translate didi as Zhao, they don't even have the fucking courtesy to make it A-Zhao)

Awww I am sad that the haircombing scene was just her imagination... and I'm also worried that it's some kind of portent... 😭

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THEY KILLED LU JI!!!! 😭😭😭😭

I don't deserve this. After 40 episodes i do not deserve this how could you do this to me

Okay but Wen Ji I feel you fam I really do but Xiao Heng needs help!!

YOU BASTARDS!!

WHYYYYYYYYY??!! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO ME?!! Why could they not just have a happy ending? What plot purpose does this even serve at this point?

Oh thank fuck I genuinely thought it was gonna end with it implying he was about to die on the battlefield.

I am dead. RIP me.

This was a fucking RIDE and I LOVED IT.

(Apart from them killing Lu Ji and Wen Ji for no reason 😭😭😭)

[dingochef]

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x You (OFC)

Warnings: Swearing, Smut (MDNI 18+ Only), Angst with a Happy Ending, Stalking, P in V, oral (female and male receiving), Semi-public sex, light spanking,

Word Count: 2.4k

Summary: There's a reason you're the woman you are. Actually, multiple reasons. History comes to the surface as you contemplate Jake and whatever is developing between you two.

Masterlist

Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Kind of Moderately Tragic Backstory

You watch Jake walk away from your house till he disappears around the corner. He's found a small chink in the armor that's served you well throughout your life. What is it about him that makes you want to let down your guard, let down the facade, and let him in? You had just met this ego maniacal fly boy last night, crashed him into the ground and left him a charred husk in front of his squadron, left him floundering in his own stupidity for underestimating you like so many other men.

Why did he try again?

More importantly, why did you say yes to the game?

He is undeniably attractive, that's a given, but it was something about his self confidence, it seems unbreakable. Mostly you could understand attempting the impossible and could respect him for it. Besides, it was just a baseball game and dinner followed by some very, very good making out and flirting. It could end there, right?

You know yourself well enough to know when you're lying to yourself. This felt different, like you were walking into a room in your memories that you'd locked off to years ago, when everything about your relationship with Liam had blown up. The part of your heart that was raw and tender was put on a shelf, in a room that you had locked away never to be seen again. But now, this random guy is already knocking on that door? You don't even think Jake knows it, he’s probably just chasing some tail while he’s here, you try to tell yourself.

You grab a glass of wine with the bottle and sit out on your back deck and look at the stars you can see with the light pollution. Something about tonight has your mind flipping back through memories you'd filed away.

Your whole life has felt like a battle. The intense levels of competition in gymnastics before you broke your ankle ending your Olympic trajectory. Competing at that level taught you more than just how to stick a landing after spinning through the air 20 feet about the ground, or how to make the impossible look effortless. It taught you where to take all the fear, the self doubt, thoughts of failure and other things you couldn't deal with and lock them in a box to be dealt with later. It taught you to build an inner self protected by a shell so hard that it’s impenetrable. Show the world only the strongest part of you, hide the weakness away. How could you deal with anything like that when you 10 fucking years old and your parents expected nothing less than an Olympic gold medal, your whole life built for one purpose. Fracturing your ankle at 15 hadn’t only been bone breaking, it had been the chains of a life you didn't choose falling down. It had been your freedom.

You'd been able to be a fairly normal teenager after that, although still impossibly perfect and high achieving. That shell of protection serving you well throughout high school. For once in your life you found your own inspiration in the stories of the Apollo Space Program. The idea that just the human brain and pure tenacity had accomplished the impossible, launching an inconceivably large piece of metal and a billion parts that hadn’t ever existed together off the ground, and sending three brave souls beyond the world we’d known since the beginning of time was astounding. That’s when you realize what you wanted to do with your life, soar through the skies in a different way. Gymnastics, which had been your burden, was the means for you to go to college and pursue your own dreams.

The battle just continued even through college and that shell just got thicker. Steel under a brilliant smile. Dealing with the people who thought you were only there to get a MRS degree, underestimated you, or thought you'd fail out , the ones outright harassed you, surviving all that kept adding to that armor making you stronger on the outside. You had thought you had finally arrived at your dreams when you showed up that first day at SpaceX in Florida, shiny PhD in hand ready to touch the heavens.

Guys came and went. The boyfriends who couldn't understand or cope with the long hours, feeling like the dumb one, earning less had all fallen away. Each time one of them left it was about how you weren't caring enough, didn't coddle them in the way they expected to be coddled, challenged them too much, which just fed their own insecurity and jealousy. All the bravado was just an illusion, men wanting to claim you as the top prize without understanding what it meant to be with you. Each one adding to that armor.

Then you met Liam fucking McCallister, humble and secure you thought. The exact opposite of male ego, what you perceived was a quiet confidence. The long hours and insane workload at SpaceX threw you two together a lot. A casual drink after work turned into dinner and more dates and suddenly you were in a relationship with someone you thought was to be your partner in this life. It felt like an equal partnership, where you were growing together, breathless with what you could achieve together. Of course you said yes when he proposed; this was the one you thought. you didn't realize how wrong you'd been till that one Monday morning that you will relive too many times in your life.

That Saturday night, you'd finally had the breakthrough you'd been looking for in the satellite distribution system for the Starlink satellites. With thousands of satellites to launch the company needed a reliable system. You jumped out of bed at 3 AM and went to the whiteboard on your fridge in the kitchen and sketched out the details. You woke Liam up to see what you'd come up with, saw the delight in his eyes as he comprehended what you had done. He picked you up and kissed you telling you that you were brilliant, that this design would reduce the turnaround time for the rockets by 5 days at least. Heady on the feeling of discovery you dragged him back to bed and rode him hard and fast till you both shattered like a meteor across the sky.

You arrived at work a little bit later than Liam, as you decided to ride your bike in, your energy needing an outlet after refining the satellite deployment concept on Sunday. When you approached your desk, everyone was missing from their cubes. You looked over to the fishbowl conference room and saw Liam at the whiteboard with the entire team seated at the conference table. Your blood ran cold when you saw what he had drawn for the group. It was your design, the same sketches that you had in your laptop bag ready to show your boss this morning. You stepped into the conference room just to hear Liam say with no hesitation,

“With this satellite distribution system I’ve come up with we can reduce our turnaround time by 5 days.”

He looked at you and smiled. Our boss got up and gave him a hardy pat on the back,

“Brilliant work, Liam. Exactly the kind of thing we like to see here at SpaceX, we’ll call Elon this afternoon.”

You waited by the door as the conference room emptied and caught Liam by the wrist and dragged him over to one of the smaller huddle conference rooms. As soon as you shut the door you said,

“What the actual fuck, Liam? Your satellite system? Did you even mention that it was my idea, and did you actually copy my sketches without telling me?”

“Babe, don’t worry about it, soon enough what’s mine is yours, ours.”

“Liam, we’re not talking about a fucking book collection, you stole my idea, my innovation. You’re going to go up in the company on something you didn’t come up with. In what fucking world is that okay to you?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, you’ll come up with something else soon. You’re just that brilliant.”

“You really don’t get it do you? This,” you gestured between you and him,

“Is supposed to be a partnership, 50-50, not you take what you need and hope that I come up with something else. You’re supposed to be proud of my accomplishments, not steal them.”

He reached out to touch your arms and draw you into an embrace.

“Don’t fucking touch me, right now. I hope you’ll have the fucking intelligence to figure out why this is over, you god damn asshole.”

You walked out and down the hallway, fueled only by rage, the sorrow held at bay by a fiery anger. You walked into your boss's office and shut the door.

“What’s up, Elsa? Can I help you with something?”

“Gary, I saw Liam’s presentation this morning. I need to let you know that I developed the concept this weekend and that Liam copied my sketches and calcs and presented it as his work.”

Ed's eyebrows raised in surprise,

“Holy shit, Elsa. I don’t know what to say. Why would he do that? We’ll get this corrected on our end, but what about you? He’s your fiancee, after all.”

You took a long swallow and said, “That’s something I’m going to have to deal with today. I’m going to be out the rest of the day. Consider this my resignation, effective tomorrow. I’ll leave my badge on my desk.”

For the first time since you had worked there you saw Gary for the person he was,

“I understand, Elsa, I don’t like it and I’m losing my best engineer, but this isn't something a person can just sweep under the rug like nothing happened. Liam will get dealt with. Let me know if you need any help with sorting all this out.”

“Thanks, Gary. It’s been good.”

You said just as your voice started to crack and the tears start to flow. You grabbed your stuff and ran out the building before you could bump into Liam. You're back at your apartment in 20 minutes, the bike ride helping to bleed some of the adrenaline off. Within four hours you have the parts of your life you want to bring with you packed into the back of a U-haul Trailer hooked up to your ancient Jeep Cherokee. You take his engagement ring off and leave it on the counter, the irony of the meteorite as the stone hitting you right then. A rock that soared across the heavens bright and bold that came crashing down cold and dead to earth. As you closed the door for the last time, you could feel the tiny window you had left open to your heart closing at the same time.

The fallout was as expected, Liam exposed for his forgery, his dismissal from the company, the angry then sad text messages and calls. You blocked him in every way you could and did what felt like the best thing to do, you drove home, drove all the way to Michigan and right back to your parents' arms. Within two weeks you had a job offer with Lockheed Martin and your were driving to San Diego, another U-haul trailer in tow and a whole new horizon of promise awaiting you, a spare room in Lydia’s apartment ready for you, and a chapter in your life firmly closed, and your heart harder than before.

The sound of jet overhead, brought you back to the present. You looked down at the bottle you had brought out. Luckily, one glass had only turned into one more as you pondered your life. The jet also brought to mind Jake, even though you knew it wasn’t one of his. You hadn't been able to identify it in the dark, just heard it and saw a few navigational lights.

There was something about Jake, you had written him off as a someone who was all bluster, all ego, but it occurred to you that you can’t fake being a fighter pilot, that in the air the only thing that kept you from slipping over that edge of death each time was pure belief in yourself and your capabilities. He truly believed he was the best because anything less wouldn’t work. That was true belief, true confidence, someone who didn’t need the world to validate him. That’s why he wasn’t intimidated by you, because every day he achieves the impossible and you had thrown down a challenge and he didn’t back down.

You finish your wine, hoping to calm your brain enough to get some sleep. You head into the house to get ready for bed.

You're brushing your teeth and getting ready for bed when your phone dings with a new text message:

Jake Jackass: I had a great time today and I think you did too. I'd like to see you again soon.

You chuckle remembering that you need to change his contact name on your phone.

You: I did. There's a vintage aircraft fly-in down near Chula Vista next weekend, interested?

Jake Jackass: Sounds great. Got any plans tomorrow?

You: Actually, I've got a century bike ride planned for the morning/ early afternoon, we could meet up for a drink later.

Jake Jackass: A century bike ride?

You: A 100 mile bike ride.

Jake Jackass:. That's crazy long.

You: I like to build my stamina, 😉.

Jake Jackass: I don't need any more ideas from you, my head's full already.

You: Only your head's full, are you telling me you’re less than a handful in other places?

You're surprised that you actually sent it and drop the phone on your bed and emit a squeak in alarm. You're sexting, right? This is sexting right? Internal panic alarms start to blare.

A muffled ding from your phone on the bed brings you back to reality. Your face is frozen in a cringe filled grimace as you pick up your phone to read the text.

Jake Jackass: Oh baby, I think we know I'm way more than a handful (or a mouthful when it applies.). That drink tomorrow sounds good. Text me in the afternoon to figure out the details.

You: It's a date, sweet dreams Jake.

Jake Jackass: You too.

You fall asleep, your heart feeling a little bit lighter than it had been in awhile.

@mayhemmanaged

Chapter 5

@callmemana

@dempy

@hangmanscoming

@lanie-k

@callsign-viper

@senjoritanana

[seaprofound]

tumblr thought that they could shut me up with their post text characters per block limit but they were WRONG:

I'm not sure if this happens before or after she's inevitably caught as a spy but, at 13, po creates the first horse, arion, along with all of the other animals that she dreamed about making ever since she was a kid and all that she had to entertain herself with were books and her daydreams.

yeah, that stuff I said about earlier about po creating all of those when she was 10? while she could have easily done so under the right circumstances, she was ultimately not able to on account of her servitude keeping her confined in her father's palace. you need ample space, you see, to create a new living creature—which was a luxury that po could not afford because, although she managed to avoid the same fate as her older siblings, her tiny room with the tinier window that peeked into the sea felt more like a prison than a home. (plus, kronos forbade her from ever stepping outside of the palace grounds, so there was also that.)

"Soon after giving birth to Chiron, Philyra abandoned her child out of shame and disgust." then, this shit happens

po then finds chiron and after realizing that he had been abandoned like she was, she takes pity on him and decides to adopt him (plus, since he was half-horse, she felt partly responsible for his creation in a way)

also, unlike what I originally had in mind, po does not give baby chiron over to the titans for them to raise—nah, fuck that. she has zero reason to do that; she, instead, keeps him and ig you could say becomes a teen mom, asdfghjkl

(I know that I may have had her do that so that she could leave him in the care of koios, the titan of intelligence, and, in turn, have him fill the role that apollo canonically served—but koios gets locked up along with most of his titan brothers once the war is over so ???? from a meta standpoint, such a move would have been pointless. anyways—)

another thing: even tho po was guilty of falling easily for anyone who was nice to her, the thought of getting romantic with anyone—let alone marrying them—terrified her because of two major reasons: 1) lack of self-worth and 2) the fear that her newfound freedom could easily be taken away or smothered by a controlling husband who seeks to undermine her power (which, in hindsight, was not exactly an unfounded fear given how independent female rulers in human history tended to not have happy endings)

because of the lack of security that she felt, po shied away from romance altogether. she shied away from it so much, in fact, the ancient greeks once knew her as the virgin queen of the sea—virgin, in this context, being both in the modern sense (i.e., does not Fuck) and the ancient sense (i.e., independent from men).

it was only after an epic slow-burn romance with her beloved nerites that this ever changed. their love for each other was so great, that it birthed anteros, the god of requited love. nerites was her first love, her time, her first everything. she loved him with all her heart—and the pain of losing him has never fully gone away even after all this time—for a god is cursed with feeling like a mortal does but on a magnified scale.

before her loss, po was a doting aunt. after her loss? the same—but, somehow, even more so. despite her initial woeful inexperience, po has taken an active role in childcare ever since the early days of the titanomachy in which she took upon herself to be a mother to chiron, her then-newborn cousin. po was so involved, in fact, that she was practically like a second mother to many of her nieces and nephews.

she rocked them to sleep, bathed them, healed their hurts and kissed their booboos, taught them how to swim, comforted them when they were sad and offered to absorb their emotional pain—she’s like the jean grey of empaths ngl—brought them gifts even when it wasn’t their birthday or a special occasion.

for specific examples, there's quite a few: po, for example, circumvented hera’s efforts to see to it that leto couldn’t give birth by sheltering leto and her unborn children ( “But by order of Jove [Zeus] the wind Aquilo [Boreas] carried Latona away, and bore her to Neptunus [Poseidon]. He protected her, but in order not to make voice Juno's decree, he took her to the island Ortygia, and covered the island with waves. When Python did not find her, he returned to Parnassus. But Neptunus [Poseidon] brought the island of Ortygia up to a higher position; it was later called the island of Delos.” )

po also personally tutored both athena and hephaestus, treating and loving them as if they were her own.

( the inspo for the first: not many people outside of the greek mythos community knows this but po's son, triton, became athena’s foster father, raising her alongside his own daughter, pallas. since po is the doting type, she likely would have found out about athena sooner or later—especially since she likes to pay her children and their descendants surprise visits—thus, I can see her being intrigued by her and wanting to nurture her mind. as a result, while triton may have been the one who taught the girls the art of war, it was po who tutored them in the creative arts.

the inspo for the second one, on the other hand, came from the fact that the oceanid eurynome and the nereid thetis were the ones who caught hephaestus when he fell from olympus, sheltering him on the volcanic isle of lemnos. since both eurynome and thetis are po’s subjects, I find it reasonable to assume that she would have also become aware of hephaestus sooner or later and, since hephaestus was cast out of olympus for being born lame, she would have sympathized dearly with his circumstances, seeing them as a mirror of what she, herself, had gone through. thus, she wanted to become for him what the elder cyclopes were for her—a mentor. the day that he surpassed her in metalworking was one of the happiest days of her life. although she had—and, to an extent, still does—an inferiority complex that threatened to consume her at times, the last thing that she wants to do is clip the wings of those that are precious to her. she wants her loved ones to soar as high as they can and for them to know that she will always be there to catch them. sappiness aside, hephaestus canonically respected po enough that he was willing to hear her out when she petitioned him to release ares and aphrodite from the golden net, sooooo, there’s also that. )

i'm cooking

since today is apparently a day for ramblings, here are the changes that would be made while shifting from my current canon to the unused au that I wanna make my new canon. for those that may not know (or may not remember since it was a while ago when I first talked about this), I made a post where I mused out loud the possibility of rebooting po by shaking up her backstory. I even created a poll and the majority that voted were all abroad with a backstory update—so, without further ado, here are the changes that I mentioned at the beginning:

current canon!po was swallowed by her father, kronos, much like the rest of her siblings (with the exception of zeus); updated canon!po, on other hand, would have been spared by kronos—which would later turn out to be a cruel mercy—because her runt status caused him to dismiss her as a threat

current canon!po had most of her siblings for company during her imprisonment in her father's stomach; updated canon!po, on the other hand, mostly interacted with the palace servants (partly on account of being a servant, herself albeit one who secretly rebelled by sneaking off to the library in the rare moments that she could catch a break from her work)

current canon!po invented horses—and a whole slew of other animals—about mid-way through the titanomachy; updated canon!po, on the other hand, invented them when she was around 10 years old (which would have been about two years before the titanomachy)

current canon!po learned cooking from the nymphs alongside her eldest sister, hestia; updated canon!po, on the other hand, learned how to cook from the palace kitchen staff at a much younger age—much like current canon!po, though, she did so as a way to help earn her keep

current canon!po's inferiority complex and fear of abandonment would have been exacerbated in updated canon!po's case because kronos told her that her birth parents abandoned her on a mountain for being too weak but that he stumbled upon her, took pity on her, and allowed her to live in his palace—only asking her for her loyalty and gratitude in return

while initially afraid of what her siblings would think, current canon!po was able to come out to them as trans early on in the titanomachy thanks to the love and trust that they had for each other; since updated canon!po grew up essentially loveless, though, it would have taken her longer to find the courage to come out

current canon!po disguised herself as a common servant to infiltrate her father's palace as part of an espionage mission; updated canon!po—though the divine equivalent of a child prodigy since she created many different animals at such a young age—was chosen by kronos to serve as a spy for the titans because he saw her as expendable. a pawn at best, a screw up at worst. if the little runt actually managed to learn something useful, perhaps she's not so hopeless, after all—if not and if her incompetence led to her discovery, his other children will take care of that problem for him. either way, he wins—or so he thought.

those are the major changes that I can think of at this moment.

things that haven't changed are as follows:

po is still not a natural fighter and, subsequently, she would have still struggled to learn how to fight when she began combat training

po still would have learned magic from her sorcerer uncles, the telkhines (when exactly, though, I am unsure)

po still would have crushed easily on anyone who was nice to her

po still would have had a huge chip on her shoulder from being so puny

[jankwritten]

I know it's not plausible nor does it make sense with canon, but I just WANT there to be more fics of PJO characters experiencing snow for the first time. Like maybe Jason and Percy are out on a quest and it starts snowing overnight and Jason doesn't know WHAT is going on because he can feel it in the way he can feel the rain, but it's different too, it makes him feel chillier, makes him want to lay down and stare up and up at it.

Or maybe it's Will, who lived in Texas his whole life and then at camp, never seeing snow because he's always back home in Texas by the time Chiron lets some snow in for the campers to mess around in. One day it's too dangerous to let any campers go home at their normal time, and after speaking with his mom Will decides he wants to stay with his friends in New York all year (he's probably just graduated from school so he's taking a gap year or something, and he wants to hang out with Nico and Piper and all his other friends) and Chiron announces one night near the very end of November that there is a forecast for snow the next day, and that the borders will be adjusted to let it in. Will is so excited he barely gets to sleep because he's never SEEN snow before. He wakes his cabin up early enough that they're all grumpy about it (there's only like 2 other Apollo kids there with him but still) but they all go out and throw snowballs at each other and Will isn't dressed right, his hands are so cold they hurt but he's having the TIME OF HIS LIFE.

Nico who has only ever had bad memories of the snow - he first met Percy in the snow which led to him losing Bianca, the snow nearly killed him when he was on the run all alone, so forth and so forth - wakes up to snow in Camp Half-Blood and he's instantly not in the mood. He doesn't have gloves or a hat or a scarf or anything, so he just tries to layer on his thickest shirt and sweater and trudges to the dining pavilion, ignoring all of the kids around him screaming and laughing and having fun. He's miserable about it, and is going to just spend the day in his cabin with the doors and windows locked shut. What he doesn't anticipate is Jason and Will running up to his cabin and, first, throwing snowballs at his windows like assholes, until he stomps over and yanks open the door to yell at them. Then he doesn't expect them handing him orange and purple gloves, hat, a sweater, and even socks, which apparently they had both been saving just for him. They don't let him make excuses, they just drag him out the second he's dressed. At first he's snappish and a dick about it, even though now he's not even cold with all his bundled up layers, but then as the day goes and Will stuffs a snowball DIRECTLY into Jason's face and Connor Stoll starts selling Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate, two for a drachma, and Annabeth makes snow angels with a group of the younger kids who couldn't go home this year, he, ironically, starts to melt a little bit. Will definitely doesn't expect the snowball he gets to the face, from Nico's glove.

Piper who's from the beach, from Malibu, who's seen snow, but not really the kind you can play in, just the thinnest little dusting that makes things a little prettier. She hated snow because of it, because it always felt fucking contrived, like it was just there to make the place more appealing to tourists, so when she hears that Chiron is going to let snow into CHB she just rolls her eyes and throws her hands up and wonders what's even the fucking point of it, why even bother making everything pretty here when there aren't even tourists to impress?? But then she gets up the next day and she's only got one sibling staying year round so they sort of silently agree to spend the day together, and there's fun breakfast being served at the dining pavilion and Chiron has let everybody get out of their classes for the day so they can mess around in the snow. There are already kids out ice skating on the lake even though Percy keeps telling them it's not totally safe yet. Camp, for once, is full of kids running around and screaming because they're having fun, and something clicks for her and she goes oh. Okay, maybe I do get it. She hangs out with her sibling all day, and Leo and Jason when she can catch up with them, but her favorite thing is catching those little snowflakes on the fuzzy parts of her gloves and watching them dissolve, examining each little individual structure until it disappears.

[secret-ssociety]

Behind the scenes

Pairing(s): Aaron Tveit x Reader, Les Mis (2012) cast x Reader

Warnings: This is just fluff. Like one curse

Summary: It is never intended for Enjolras and Eponine to fall in love in the original story, but a lot of things can happen when the cameras are turned off

A/N: I know everyone is waiting for more of the Let Me Down series but I have wanted to do this for a long time bc I am utterly in love with this man and I've always said I don't want to just write Peter Parker's stuff. Might make this several parts, who knows, I like things with parts.

masterlist

requests are open!!

For the first time in the whole day, silence fell upon the set of Les Mis, being only vaguely interrupted by the quiet chatter of everyone else who, unlike you, still had energy to talk. It's not like it was your fault, though, you had no idea of how much running around implied to play Eponine.

Huddled in a quiet corner of what had been built to be the Café Musain, you pushed your knees against your chest and hid your face between them, hoping to catch some rest before Tom decided he wanted to do a scene again. Was it maybe two in the morning? Three? You didn't even know anymore, you weren't allowed to carry a watch around your wrist and your phone was charging in your trailer, but the last time you had checked it was midnight and that had been a few hours ago.

Doing a movie, you had come to learn in your first few days of filming, was quite different from putting up a show. Interacting with your surroundings, going over scenes and even directing your eyes to a certain place while saying your lines was a world away from your common place on stage. You'd had to repress a loud squeak on your first day on set when you saw just how real everything looked, and when you started to try on your garments... you might as well have been a street urchin on Paris, 1832.

A small finger touched your shoulder timidly, waking you up from your fragile sleep and making you lift your head from its place. Your eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light and you even had to squint a little to recognize Daniel standing next to you, looking just as tired, but with a small flame of caffeine dancing in the back of his eyes. Who the fuck gave the kid coffee? You wondered.

"How long do you think they'll keep us here?" he asked sitting next to you. From all your cast mates, Daniel was probably the first one you had grown fond of, but then again, so had everyone.

"Maybe not much longer, unless they want us to be here at noon tomorrow," you answered raising an eyebrow. Being the youngest person on the whole set, you could tell he was trying to hold his own like the adults, drinking coffee and doing his best to stay awake.

The problem with that, you knew, was that caffeine reacted differently on kids and adults: when an adult drinks coffee, it gives them energy for a long period of time, the caffeine is distributed in order to serve the body for good while. When a child drinks coffee, on the other hand, the caffeine gives them a rush of adrenaline that gets them jumping up and down and running circles around the adults, very much like Daniel was doing a while ago, thus burning all the energy they had acquired as fast as they had engorged it.

"You want to rest for a minute?" you asked him, stretching your legs so that he could rest his head on them. He shook his head tiredly, but didn't put up a fight when you grabbed his shoulder and started to lay him down.

Softly, you caressed his hair, while carefully trying to undo the tangles the dirt had made onto his hair to give him that street gamine I-live-in-the-elephant-of-the-Bastille look. In a matter of seconds, he was fully asleep, snoring quietly against the fabric of your skirt.

You heard some of the boys approaching, laughing loudly with cups of steaming coffee on their hands, and were quick to lift your finger up to your lips, to let them know of the resting boy that would be quickly awaken by their laughs. They apologized in whispers, handed you the cup they had brought for you and sat around you.

"Helena is trying to convince them to let us go to the hotel," Alistair commented, although he didn't look tired at all, more like he was amused by everyone else's exhaustion.

You sighed in relief against the cup, which was held close to your lips, making the steam hit your face in a warmth that made you aware of how cold your nose was. Only one gulp of the bitter liquid was enough to warm the blood flowing through your veins and take you back to life, you could open your eyes properly and the first the landed on was one of the most distinctive of your cast mates: Aaron Tveit.

Was there something special about him that made you think of his full name instead of just the first? Yeah, everything. He was the embodiment of the Enjolras Victor Hugo had wrote, the one that had been nicknamed Apollo by his friends. Maybe it was the way he held himself, somehow taller than everyone else, with that revolutionary fire in his eyes and walking around the set like he was actually going to get the people to build a barricade.

Wherever he happened to exist, you couldn't help but feel the presence of an olden god amongst mortals, the time go slower and light to travel in a bliss. There was just something so ethereal about him...

"He's talent, isn't he?" Alistair commented, having followed the direction of your eyes. "Among other things," Eddie joked, perhaps having caught on on the repressed smitten nature of your gaze. Stubbornly, you rolled your eyes.

As if saved by the bell, your director announced that everyone was allowed to go and get some rest, under the condition that you had to be back the next day before lunch. You were so tired, you almost forgot you were on your costume, being remembered by Eddie when you walked straight to the exit.

Up until that day, you had followed you stylist's skincare routine religiously every day after finishing filming, but once you found yourself in your sweatpants and Alistair's sweater, you simply poured water in your face and wiped all the makeup away with a paper towel.

Outside of your trailer, you found at least half of the Amis waiting for you to go grab some pizza while forming a wall to shield a newly caffeinated Daniel from your accusatory eyes. "I just left my cup unattended for a second!" George said quickly. You didn't know if you should laugh or yell at them, but you decided you were too tired to do either, so you simply took his hands and walk with the boys to the minivans the studio had hired for your transportation.

Eating pizza after having barely washed the makeup off of your face and only having a few hours to sleep after? You knew you were going to break out, but that was a tomorrow's problem.

Perhaps it was the magic that gravitated around Aaron that made you look back to see him, walking several feet behind the lot of you and clearly immersed on his thoughts. What you did next wasn't exactly a conscious decision, but it felt as natural as if it were.

"Hey, Tveit," you smiled, stopping before him. He looked surprised for a second, since he hadn't heard you approach him, but then smiled softly at you.

"Hello, Y/L/N," he said back, looking at you with those piercing eyes of him.

"We're going to grab a bite, wanna come?" You asked with a bright smile, one so cute that made it hard for him to say no.

"I don't know, it's late..." he said with half a smile.

"Did you know that pizza wasn't invented until the late half of the 18th century," you said, persistently, making him raise an eyebrow at the random fact, "that means all of our characters died without having ever eaten pizza. Shouldn't we, in order to honor them, do the things they never got to do?"

Aaron tried as hard as he could to fight back a smile at your argument. He had heard from the other guys about your occurrences and funny yet charming way with words, but he still hadn't had a chance to delight himself with it all too much. Maybe you were both too busy, maybe he wasn't as good as he liked to think to break the ice and Alistair had beat him to it.

He was practically convinced already, but still you added, "come on, Enjolras is still going to be here tomorrow morning... er, today a little less morning." You corrected checking the time on your wrist watch.

He was tired and not really hungry, but sill he nodded and followed you to the exit, where the rest of your friends cheered upon his joining.

Thankfully, the place Fra Fee knew was not too far away from the hotel, because none of you would have managed to walk too much after the day you'd had. Pulling a couple of tables together with the help of a waitress who pretended not to be a little starstruck, all of you sat down and ordered. You personally tried to ignore the way Eddie gave you his sit so that you would end up sat next to Aaron.

After ordering three large pizzas and some lemonade, and having grudgingly remembered that you couldn't order a beer or anything of the sort, you resumed your chattery. You soon found that, while you weren't the only theatre actress on the room, you were the only one who had never been on a film before. Still, that didn't mean your previous work had gone unnoticed.

"I was really excited to meet Y/N," Eddie commented on Daniel's side, "because I went to see her in The Phantom of The Opera, in London and I was" he made the gesture of his head blowing up, making you laugh.

"Yes, I knew I had seen you somewhere! You're Christine Daaé!" George exclaimed, interrupting the bite he was about to give to his pizza.

"Didn't you say on the first table reading that your dream role is Esmeralda, from the Hunchback?" Aaron perked up, making you blush a little.

"Esmeralda, Christine and Eponine," Alistair numbered, only giving you time to nod, "are you planning on becoming the Holy Trinity of French Theater?"

"I'll be able to say the Holy Trinity of French Theater died in my arms!"

You almost spilled your lemonade at the exclamation, unable to contain your laughs, very much like everyone else on the table. You didn't mean for your face to be as red as it was in that moment, but you couldn't help it when everyone seemed to be so interested in your past work. Despite attention being your line of work, you didn't know how to handle it that good.

It was when Daniel's adrenaline burnt off, as you had predicted, and he was found too tiresd to even keep his head up that you came back to the hotel, with the quiet company of Aaron, who had also offered to take the young boy back to his room. You were both in silence, though it was not an awkward one, it just wasn't necessary to talk to enjoy the other's company.

"We're getting a cow," he said suddenly, when you were approaching the entrance of the hotel.

"What?" You asked with a confused smile.

"We're getting a cow, on the set, tomorrow," he clarified grinning, "she will be there for the scenes of the barricade."

"Why would a cow be on a barricade?" You questioned with a laugh, opening the door for Aaron, since he was carrying Daniel, and receiving a little thank you in return. "Not that I'm complaining."

He laughed in return and followed you to the elevator, making sure neither the young boy nor the jacket he had put over him fell from his embrace. The cow thing had just been to start conversation and be able to ask what he really wanted to know, although he was a little pumped up about the cow.

"Do you want to do what Alistair said?" He asked curiously, "About being the Holy Trinity of French Theater, it is."

"I had never thought about it that way, but it sounds quite nice," you answer thoughtfully. "Though, I believe I would have to play Eponine on a stage, rather than a set to really earn that title."

"You're not liking movie making so far?" He asked somewhat amused, specially when you whipped your head to look at him with wide eyes.

"No! That's not what I mean," you talked so fast you nearly stumbled through your words, but the kindness on his eyes made you sigh and calm down. "This has been amazing so far and I would never underestimate the huge effort it takes to make one of these. I mean, I've only been doing this for a couple days and I'm already beyond exhaustion. And yet it has been wonderful, the set and the preparation and just seeing all the work it implies is... unbelievable."

You knocked three time on the door, to see Daniel's mother not two seconds later. Aaron had been worried that maybe she would be concerned and even a little mad at how late her son was coming back, but you had been texting her throughout the extra hours of shooting and to let her know you were going to take him to eat something before coming back to the hotel.

She kindly thanked you both, took Daniel (who was still sound sleep) on her arms and gave Aaron his jacket back, to then close the door. Without saying much, he walked you to your own room, prompting you to continue.

"Where was I? Oh, yeah! So filming a movie is... I'm running out of adjectives, but it's really great," he chuckled slightly, "but I don't think it can top the feeling of being on the theater," you sighed dreamily.

"On stage, there is no take two, the things you're doing can only be done once. There's..." your tongue ran through your lips, an action Aaron found almost mesmerizing, as you tried to find the words to describe the thing you loved the most in the world. "There's this feeling, when the show is about to start, the lights dim, the overture starts and you get goosebumps and you heart starts thumping at the moment you come on stage, there's something about that moment being unrepeatable and having the eyes of the crowd on you, the adrenaline is just... is like the identity line that divides the actor from their character disappears and in that moment you're not quite them, but you're not you, you're just..." you let out a breath at the inability to find the word and, for a moment, you worried you might have bored him with your rambling, but he had that bliss over his face, the one only a theatre actor knows and has, that told you he knew exactly what you're talking about.

The next morning, back on set and with your costumes again covering your backs, Aaron found himself so hypnotized by the sight of you rehearsing with Amanda his tea got cold and was utterly scared when Eddie's palm fell onto his back, dragging him out of his day dream.

"Is this the part when the Phantom is stalking Christine?" George asked jokingly, making Aaron roll his eyes.

For someone who made so much fun of him for becoming Enjolras, he had certainly developed Grantaire's mocking nature.

"She's really talented," the blonde man answered nonchalantly, drinking from his tea and making a face when he found out the drink was cold.

"I see," Eddie said handing him his tea, "are you seeing our dear Y/N under a new light?"

Was he? It would be a lie to say he didn't come back to his room with you occupying every single one of his thoughts, his heart fluttering who had managed to put his passion for theatre in words. Had his hands always became a little shaky around you? Yes. But today it was even worse.

Today, your voice giving life to Eponine's thoughts and emotions could make his cheeks blush or bring tears to his eyes in a matter of a second. Today, you walked around with a strange light over you, one that didn't allow him to look away while, at the same time, reprehended him for staring. Today, you were more than an artist, an actress. You were something more than human.

"Nonsense," he replied stubbornly, "I have always known how talented she is."

Before he could get a sarcastic comment or a snide yet friendly remark, the three men's chatter was interrupted by the two previously mentioned ladies rehearsing The Robbery, one of the scenes you planned on filming that day.

"It's the police! Disappear! Run for it!" Your strong soprano voice cut all chattery in one swift motion. "It's Javert!"

He probably held his breath for as long as you held the note. Once you opened your eyes, you seemed a little embarrassed at all the eyes on you, but Aaron didn't understand just what did you have to be embarrassed about.

Eddie shook his shoulder, "breathe, mate!"

[hd-wireless]

📻🎶 H/D Wireless 2021 - Weekly Wrap-up #4

Time flies by when you're having fun! The fourth week of posting has come to an end. Please enjoy this week's Wrap-up! There's two weeks of posting left, so stay tuned for more 🎶

As always you can listen to the prompted songs for the works we post on two playlists:

Click here for Spotify (many thanks to @evaeleanor for helping us out there)

And here for YouTube

🎶 H/D Wireless Art 🎶

📻 Down for What You Want

🎵 Summary: After the war, finding refuge in the clubs of Muggle London is easier than dealing with the shambles of the wizarding world. When Harry and Draco keep running into each other at Apollo's every Saturday night though, they follow their gut instincts to get on the dance floor and discover something they both have been craving for a long time.

📻 What do I do? With a Love That Won’t Sit Still

🎵 Summary: Italian Greyhounds are small and fucked up, but Draco is a big fuck up and that requires scaling. 

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic 🎶

📻 Fire

🎵 Summary: Draco Malfoy has never had trouble getting boyfriends. The problem is getting one that doesn’t leave him feeling cold after the first few months. He’s looking for something specific: passion, excitement, someone to keep him on his toes. He just doesn’t know how to go about finding it. After kicking his latest boyfriend to the curb, Draco’s at a loss for what to do next, until it occurs to him that a relationship with his fiery (and hot) Gryffindor colleague might not burn out so quickly—if he can just convince Harry to try it.

📻 Into the Unknown

🎵 Summary: It’s been echoing within him for months, like an annoying song that gets stuck in your head and refuses to let go. A nagging feeling in his core, telling him to say something, to do something, to go somewhere. Last night it finally happened. He did it. And it felt good; right. “I can’t be sure.” Four words, easy as that. It had been almost impossible to smother the sudden burst of joy rushing through him as that deep-seated urge rejoiced his unexpected act of rebellion. You’d think the Dark Lord’s punishment would’ve taken the exhilaration out of him, but no. Here he is, countless Crucios later, beaten and bruised, and never has the voice sounded this clear. He’s said something. He’s done something. And now he just has to go somewhere. He has no idea where, but he’s certain it will come to him. All he has to do is get out of here, then trust magic to do the rest.

📻 Home is What We Make of It

🎵 Summary: "There was a blistering draft from the child’s bedroom on the opposite side of the hallway. The door’s handle was icy to the touch as she wrapped her hand around the metal. Unlike the rest of the house, the door gave her resistance in her effort to open it. Unlike the rest of the house, when she opened the door, she couldn’t imagine anyone ever living there. Unlike the rest of the house, there was neither love nor warmth nor any semblance of life that seeped from the rest of the house’s walls. It was cold and hard and chilled her to her bones. She shivered. However, her sense of dread was not just from the cold. Perhaps it was the gaping hole in the wall." Harry and Draco want to start a family, but time loves parallels.

📻 Move, move

🎵 Summary: She grabbed Harry’s hand, slipping something small into it and pressing his fingers around it. “Dilectio. It’ll cheer you up. Make you feel like dancing.” Harry gaped at her. Drugs. Ginny’s fucking giving me drugs? At Stasis nightclub Ginny does indeed give Harry drugs. But it's all good: Malfoy looks after Harry, and Harry grapples with newfound enlightenments, not to mention a newfound fascination with all things Malfoy—one which persists, even when he finds out what Malfoy's up to.

📻 Euphoria

🎵 Summary: Driven by trauma, Harry cuts ties with friends and family. From crowded nightclubs and enthralling live shows, Harry finds himself stumbling into a superficial world where he's lonelier than ever. When even the constant blithe of substance-induced highs can't prevent things from becoming what he ran away from, Draco Malfoy finds Harry. Draco, who’s wearing Muggle jeans and who’s listening to Muggle music and who suggests having a nice little chat on mephedrone. And whose nose crumples beautifully when he laughs. Or: A story about Harry trying to cope with the help of drugs until he finds a new addiction. Draco likes to mend things.

📻 Your House

🎵 Summary: Draco tries to serve Harry divorce papers, but Harry isn't home.

📻 Misery Loves Company

🎵 Summary: Stuck in his own head, misunderstood and lonely, Harry would love nothing more than to stay hidden in Grimmauld Place until the end of time. Malfoy won’t let him, and that's just what Harry needs.

📻 You Sexy Thing

🎵 Summary: As Harry began to tap his foot along to the music, the lights flashed like lightning in the middle of a summer storm, and his eye went straight to the middle of the dance floor. His eyes zoomed in on Draco. The blond looked striking as he moved his slender hips to the soulful beat. Harry watched, captivated as he pressed himself up to Pansy and began to sing to the song.

📻 A Love Story of Less-Than-Epic Proportions

🎵 Summary: Harry and Draco are just friends. Sure, they work together, and live together, and go to gigs together, and do pretty much everything else together—so what? That’s just what friends do. And Harry has no interest in messing with their friendship. He certainly doesn’t need everyone else constantly meddling, pestering them to just get on with it and get together already. He’s having a hard enough time as it is, trying to come to terms with the fact that he probably isn’t ever going to find love. But who needs love, anyways, when you’ve got a best friend?

📻 Cup of tea, Love?

🎵 Summary: Things between them are easy, so much easier than Harry expected. The problem is the outside world, which grows increasingly and ridiculously difficult. “We could leave,” Draco suggests. Harry has always wanted to travel.

🎶 H/D Wireless Fic and Animatic 🎶

📻 rather a lover than a fighter

🎵 Summary: When Harry loses his voice and his magic, it’s up to Healer Draco to save the day. 

🎶 H/D Wireless Podfic 🎶

📻 [Podfic] Keep Holding On

🎵 Summary: gnarf’s original summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Draco both fall into their own battles with their mental states. Draco is sent to Azkaban, and Harry turns to drinking, hoping to forget. Months later, Harry visits St Mungo’s new ward on the request of a friend, only to find Draco in a deep vegetative state. Not willing to give him up, Harry stays by his side, while simultaneously dealing with the Ministry's newest grand idea to make everything worse. Making new allies, and losing old ones along the way, will hopefully be worth it in the end.

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

Can you do a HC where pregnant reader is poisoned and in a coma for Thor and Poseidon?

Pregnant reader Poison in coma

He simply went home after wild hunt after frigg commanded him to do it

" Son, the midgarden has spent a while without thunderstorms, go wild hunting"

" Isn't that father's job"

" He is busy, go"

" Mom, my wife is pregnant, I won't leave her alone"

" Then I will be with her in the meantime , go son , midgarden has been calm too long "

And when he returned he found you passed out with frigg and eir at your side.

" What happened here?"

" I don't know,son! I was about to drink and I shared some with her but she passed out!"

" Your wine must have been poisoned!"

" but a maid just brought it Eir!'

" How did the maid look, ma'am?"

' I don't remember! She had this strand of hair that was darker but nothing else… son! Where are you going?'

"Loki! You bastard! I will kill him!"

It was all a mischief caused by Loki, even though it was meant to get frigg to sleep and not meant to be drank by you

" Hello, Thor! Isn't this evening lovely to cause misch- Ack! What is it Thor?! Let go of my neck! I can't breathe"

" You scoundrel, did you think for a second that you could get away with poisoning my wife?'

'what are ya talking about?! I poisoned Frigg's wine! Plus it shouldn't cause more than light sleep! I assure you brother, in one lustrum, not a day before nor a day after."

"How can I believe your words?"

" Why would I lie? It was meant for the hag for for my sweet sister in law"

Plop!

" Ya welcome by the way. Couldn't you have softened your grip? I will have bruises'

" Don't test it or I will ask Brokk to sew your mouth shut again"

"Eek! I took me months to speak again"

" The most beautiful months I can remember"

The time went by, and Thor never once left your bedside. Your stomach swollen by the time you had to wake up, everyone of the Æsir marking the days until you would return. 5 years and you are yet to wake up, maybe it is going to take some days extra, 5 more weeks and nothing, more and more weeks added until it reaches 10 years of waiting.

The Ragnarok was the only excuse that could keep him away from you for more than 5 minutes, even if Thor wasn't willing to leave.

" Mother, what if she awakens while I am away, I want to be the first one to see. Or what if she goes into labor, I wish to not miss that moment"

" Son, the fight won't last long. It's only against a human, how long would it take? 10 minutes? Maybe 15? It is unlikely that she will wake up in such a small time frame"

"B-"

" C'mon son, I heard the strongest humans will fight in there, isn't it worth a shot? Me and eir can stay here in case of her going into labor Just 20 minutes"

"I will end that battle in 5 minutes"

As soon as his fight with Lu bu ended he left the arena and returned to his castle

"Ehh!, Why won't you wait for your brother's fight?!. I was waiting patiently for this chance to show how I got better at fighting"

" Then why won't you fight me outside? I still haven't forgotten what you did to my wife"

'eak! Zeus save meeeee"

" Fufufu, the young ones do have energy, don't they?"

He returned hoping that everything was the same but what he found was eir, his mother and two babies crying

" Good evening, son! How was your fight?"

"Whose baby are those?"

Muffled whispers

" Whose? Mother"

"Yours"

" Didn't you promise to notify me if my wife went into labor"

" You seemed so happy to be fighting him"

" What are they, eir?"

" A set of twins! Mister Thor, a girl and a boy"

" They are squishy… cute"

Thor raised your twins while waiting for you to wake up. They would wait longer than life and time itself for you to know your children

" Daaaad, how long till mom wakes up"

" I don't know Troels, I wish to know too. Where is your sister?"

" Borghild went to see mom"

∆^∆^∆

" Sweetie, what are you doing?"

" Dad, will mom wake up?"

"Yes, sweetie"

"When?"

" I don't know but we will wait, after all the best things take time to see"

Poseidon

You were supposed to break the news to Poseidon at dinner but he had last minute affairs ( Zeus got drunk and did someone and called him to calm hera down)

" If he calls me one more time I'm going to do everyone here a favor and castrating him"

" That would have avoided a whole lot of problems"

So you are the dinner by yourself and left the letter at your bed in his pillow

" Was this type of mushroom always in this dish? Ah, whatever"

You went to sleep but when Poseidon tried to wake you up ,he couldn't

"Wake up, what does that note mean?, (So) this isn't funny. Wake. Up. This is a serious matter"

"M-mister Poseidon. I think I know what happened to the madam."

"..."

" I saw in the evening that one of the kitchen staff bumped with the person in charge of Asclepius' request. The one of .nnbg"

" Talk. Louder. Or I will make you talk"

" The one who was sending the Amanita virosa… mister?!"

" Call the kitchen staff. A urgent meeting"

"Yessir, right away sir!"

There was a mistake in the kitchen and the mushrooms that were supposed to be used for poison making got mixed up with the edible ones

"Eckk! Be more careful! You made me drop destroying angel . Those are poisonous! Help me pick them up"

"Sorry! I am sorry! I didn't mean to! I had to bring the mushrooms to the kitchen

" Whatever. Stop… are you sure those are your mushrooms?."

"I-I am not quite sure"

"Let's try separating them!"

"Yeah!"

" What is taking you so long! The dinner isn't going to finish itself!"

"Sorry head chef, I am going, head chef"

"Wait! These aren't mine!"

He killed the kitchen staff.

" Finally, mister Poseidon has recognized my worth as his cook!"

"Yes, mister, I'm sure that must be the case. But, why did he call us here too."

" I must be to tell you that your help won't be needed anymore"

^∆^

*The atmosphere is too heavy to be good news* was a common thought

"Mister Poseidon! What is the cause of the joy of meeting you here"

" What did you serve as dinner"

"W-well of course, the madam asked for a risotto with mushrooms. Do you wish for us to make a fresh batch for you?"

" In that table there are two baskets, one with regular meadow mushrooms and another with Amanita virosa."

"What?"

" Every person here has to replicate the risotto with the mushrooms that they decide. choose wisely"

"… "

"What. are. You. Waiting. For."

"Sorry mister Poseidon!. Getting ready sir!"

∆^∆

Poseidon was seated in front of 20 dishes and their respective chef.

"Does everyone recognize their own dish?"

"Yessir!"

" Everyone, eat your own risotto"

"W-what?!"

"You are chefs , aren't you? You should be able to differentiate edible plants from non edible one. Go ahead. Show me if you are worthy of cooking here."

One by one they fell like flies. Leaving nobody

"To not be able to notice that they were all the same type with the ring cut off. How unsightly

He may not be exactly at your bedside but he won't be out of the castle.

"Poseidon. Could I see my beloved sister in-law?"

"Do you want me to trusts you with where my wife is? While she is in a comma? Do you think I'm stupid?"

Most of the time he spends by your side is to make sure the doctors don't mess up

"What are you doing,Apollo"

"For the sixth time, a basic check up. I do this daily"

"Why are you touching my wife"

"How do you expect me to treat her 2 meters away?"

"I am bringing Artemis"

"Oh for fucks sake , Poseidon"

It hurts him to see you in this state. You used to be so lively that seeing you in that state isn't something he wants to see.

Poseidon puts his hand on your cheek and sighs " I preferred it better when you smiled at me." He stands up from the bed and kisses your forehead " please wake up soon"

He might be a little nervous to take care of a whole baby by himself ( the servants already messed up once,there is not going to be a second chance) . After all he never took care of a baby in his life

"Why don't you ask your brother?"

"Zeus, have you ever had to take care of one of your children?

"..."

" I'm asking your wife"

∆^∆

"Look closely, to hold the baby by grabbing them like this"

"Like this?"

"Yes!"

"I think I'm ready to have my baby"

"Babies"

"What?"

"They are quintuplets"

"Excuse you?"

You had quintuplets , your oldest girls eirene, halcyone, Apolline. Your only boy, asafés. And the youngest and smallest of her siblings, charmian.

" Father! Halcy stole my headband"

"Eirene is lying, father! This headband is mine"

"There there, let's talk about this calmly"

"Shut up, Apolline!"

" You shut up halcyone, I'm older than you for 30 minutes, so respect me more!"

"Father, I want a brother"

"Let's talk about that when mommy wakes up,asafés"

"We are the only two men here. I want a little brother!"

"Father? Will mommy wake up?"

"Yes, some day"

"When that happens let's throw a party!"

"Sure"

"And we can invite uncle Zeus"

"No"

Secretly charmian is his favorite because she is a carbon copy of you. Her name is literally little joy.

[transxfiles]

I originally followed you for Lumberjanes and because you felt like a friend, but after seeing so much about Star Trek...I’m curious. What’s the premise and where can I watch it? (Explain it to me like you’d explain it to a child, I don’t watch live action TV)

I want to start out by saying that this ask is so sweet and it made my day, so thank you so much :D 

Star Trek is a bit hard to explain in a sense simply because there’s so much of it. I’m gonna stick to what I know (and what I post about) which is The Original Series (other people will abbreviate it to TOS, I abbreviate it to STOS bc I think of it as ‘Star Trek Original Series’) which came out in the 1960s, and I'll briefly explain Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST: TNG or just TNG), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), and Star Trek: Discovery (often simply referred to as Discovery, ST Disco, Disco, etc.) bc I post a bit abt them too, though not as much.

The Original Series is what I mainly watch. It’s about a crew of people from all over Earth (and some other planets, but mostly from Earth) who are traveling in a spaceship called the Enterprise. They’re supposed to be finding new worlds and species, but really they just fuck around and find out. Most of the time they don’t even follow basic lab safety, which gets them into many shenanigans that will have you yelling at the television abt how stupid they are. 

This is Captain Kirk. He’s a Human from Riverside, Iowa and his job on the ship is basically to be dumb and pretty. In a good way. He comes up with some good plans and some bad plans, but no matter what he’ll pretty much always divert an entire mission to save his First Officer, Spock. He’s a romantic who likes flowers and antique books, and doesn’t know what black holes are. 

This is Spock! He’s in charge of Science with a capital S (we don’t really know specifics, but he’s really smart...) and he’s Captain Kirk’s first officer. He’s the only main character who’s an alien - he’s half-Human, half-Vulcan, and was raised on Vulcan by his Vulcan father and Human mother. Vulcans are a species who, unlike Humans, follow a strict philosophy of logic, which means that Spock often appears emotionless and unfeeling to his Human coworkers. Every seven years after hitting puberty, he goes into a mating frenzy when this logic leaves him and he has to have sex or he’ll die. He really likes playing chess, hanging out with Captain Kirk, and the word ‘fascinating’. He does not like McCoy, which is reasonable, because McCoy is basically space racist.

This is McCoy, sometimes referred to by the nickname Bones. He’s the Chief Medical Officer of the ship, an old country doctor from Georgia, and it’s implied that he’s working in space because of his divorce back on Earth. He spends a lot of time with the main crew which will make you question who’s actually on ship taking care of the Medbay. He likes hyposprays (super fast space shots that work like a charm) and drinking hard liquor on the job. He’s an old friend of the Captain. He’s incredibly xenophobic; he does not get along with Spock, and often refers to Spock using words that in-universe are essentially slurs against Vulcans. 

These two guys are Sulu (on the left) and Chekov (on the right). They navigate the spaceship. Sulu likes fencing, botany, and messing with Chekov. He’s friends with everyone on the ship. At one point Space Madness causes Sulu to run through the ship with a fencing foil shirtless and cackling. Chekov’s Russian and won’t shut up about it. He claims that everything was invented in Russia, including but not limited to the book Alice In Wonderland and the invention of the Warp Drive. One of his best lines is “Oh yes, I’ll live, but I won’t enjoy it.” 

In this photo, we see Uhura (on the left) and Scotty (on the right). Uhura’s in charge the ship’s Communications Officer and is a xenolinguist, which means she’s a master of pretty much all known alien languages. She likes big earrings and has a beautiful singing voice. Scotty (on the right) is the ship’s Chief Engineer, who fixes all the problems when Kirk or aliens break the ship. He’s Scottish and you won’t ever forget it. He and Bones are probably drinking buddies.

This is Nurse Chapel. She runs the Medbay when Bones is dancing around on the Bridge or various alien planets. She’s pretty chill and has a little crush on Spock that sometimes causes problems. She and Uhura hang out sometimes.

And finally, this is Yeoman Rand. She and Sulu hang out sometimes. She also vibes with Uhura. I’m not really sure what her exact job is - she delivers food to people sometimes, but she also eats it when no one’s looking. She has the wackiest hairdo on the show. I love her so much.

As far as plot goes, in The Original Series, there isn’t any. They run around on alien planets and sometimes little paper mâché rocks are thrown at them from offscreen. Sometimes they fight Klingons, which are their main enemy (though that doesn’t happen a lot). Sometimes they end up on a planet that’s entirely composed of gangsters from the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes they end up on a planet that’s actually run by the Greek god Apollo, sometimes they end up on a planet but all the people on it are being eaten by space ravioli, sometimes they end up on a planet and a space ghost is killing people to eat their fear, etc. 

You can watch The Original Series on Netflix, and you can generally find copies of it in various Google Drive folders or on video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. There are also six movies: The Motion Picture, The Wrath Of Khan, The Search For Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country. But really you can stop watching after The Voyage Home if you want.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is basically the first series but with more plot, and we have some more aliens plus an android in the mix. Also the characters aren’t nearly as stupid as they are in The Original Series, which makes for less yelling at the screen. (You can watch this on Netflix)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine focuses on a group of people who work on a space station instead of a spaceship. There are some humans in the mix, but this crew also has a bunch of aliens. There is a bunch of plot, and religion, and the aftermath of war and colonialism. (You can watch this on Netflix)

Star Trek: Discovery has the most plot, and follows Spock’s adopted sister, Michael Burnham, after she accidentally starts the war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. She ends up serving on a spaceship called the Discovery, where she starts working to discover the secrets of the ship and those who work on it. (You can watch this on CBS’s streaming service but it’s not worth it to get a streaming service just so you can watch one show so I recommend just buying the DVDs on sale at like, Target, if you really wanna see it).

Sorry this ended up being kinda long, I hope this is helpful! The main takeaway is that The Original Series is mostly just a bunch of science fiction short stories in TV episode format. 

[alpaca-writes]

Mystics, Chapter 28

When Arch becomes hired on at Mystics by the strange shopkeeper Lyrem Nomadus, everything seems to be going well- in fact, their life nearly becomes perfection. Soon enough, however, Arch realizes that perhaps not everything is as perfect as it seems….

Read Chapters 1-27 and more HERE

Taglist: @myst-in-the-mirror, @livingforthewhump

CW: gore mention, manhandling, violence.

Lyrem and Arch have an opportunity to catch up with one another in the Underworld.

------------------------------------------

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: GOOD INTENTIONS

        Dragged up to his feet and through the halls of the caverns, Arthur didn’t resist. Lyrem followed closely behind.

        “I cannot wait to see the look on Arch’s face when they find you torn open beneath them,” Paimon jeered on. “It would truly be the highlight of my life.”

        “Arch would never hurt another person like that,” Arthur countered assuredly, “Not me, and not anyone, ever. Not unless they were being forced. You’re a liar.”

        Lyrem scratched the back of his neck, keeping to himself. Paimon turned his head, expecting some response from his friend by now. Lyrem had convinced Arch to do innumerable misdeeds without anything more than an encouraging smile. He should be revelling in Arthur’s assumptions more than anyone.

        But he wasn’t.

        Paimon led the man down the spiral stairs and through the halls where the decaying creatures writhed in the shadows. Arthur shuddered as he saw them skittering about. They clearly wanted to come in close, but something was turning them off of the scent, causing them to fall back into the darkness where they could find it.

        “Didn’t you hear me? The bet’s off if Arch is forced into it, even slightly,” Arthur imposed, despite being dragged along as though he weighed nothing, by a creature who had a foot on him in height. “I get it, you know. I get your games. What more can you do to turn innocent souls into monsters like Lyrem? You must have so much fun preying on desperate people”-

        Lyrem opened a door across the hall from Apollo’s chamber, and allowed Paimon to push Arthur through. He stumbled in, cut off from his speech and grasped his leg that was giving him hell. He wasn’t finished. The rage boiled up inside him, threatening to overflow. They separated; Paimon pulled one of the shackled chains across the room.

        “You know, I really shouldn’t be surprised that you’re a tainted evil son-of-a-bitch,” Arthur grimaced, eyeing Lyrem, “-especially after learning what you did to Rosanna. You’re a sick bastard, whether or not you serve a demonic god creature.”

        Lyrem had found it mostly easy to keep himself calm up until this point- up until more specifically, he had heard that name. The memories that Hades and Persephone had pulled out of him were numerous and purposeful, but now he knew that they weren’t confidential either- how much had they been able to see that Lyrem hadn’t even realized? How much did they share with others?

        He grasped Arthur by the neck, pushing him up against the wall.

        “If you dare to speak my mother’s name one more time, I will destroy you right here, right now,” in the threatening calm, Lyrem’s eyes burned with a determined fire. “And you will never see Arch again. Is that understood?”

         Arthur, while struggling against the old man’s surprising amount of strength for a dead man, looked back at him with a confused glare.

        “Lyrem, my friend,” Paimon interceded with cuffs in his hands, “why don’t you check on our young protégé and make sure they aren’t sneaking about?”

        “You stay the hell away from Arch, you sons of bitches”-

        Lyrem stepped away from Arthur to fulfill Paimon’s request. the cuffs lashed out, snapping Arthur’s head to the side as he was met with the blunt force from Paimon who simply wanted him to remain quiet. As their captive fell to a crumpled heap against the wall, Paimon took the opportunity to fasten the cuffs to each wrist, and then turn the crank of the pulley system that would soon have him suspended a little ways off the ground. Feeling torn, Lyrem left Arthur there to suffer. It wasn’t like the man hadn’t already suffered enough- and with the recent quip he pulled out about his mother, Lyrem felt some vindication leaving him there.  

        Meanwhile, Arch was lost in their own world, wandering through the upper hallways with a discman in one hand and headphones attached to their ears. Paimon had offered them a selection of CDs from the Mortal Realm for them to enjoy and they did so quite frequently since they received it. Lyrem came upon them as he turned the corner up the stairs. They didn’t notice him at first, until he tapped their shoulder. They jumped, nearly a foot into the air, and pulled their headphones off. They let them rest around their neck. The sounds of Kula Shaker rocked the hall even through the headphones. Lyrem grimaced, it couldn’t be good for their ears.

        “It helps with the alarm bells,” they reasoned aloud. “What’s up?”  

        “I was hoping we could talk,” Lyrem said, leading them further from the stairs and the caverns below. “It occurred to me that we haven’t had a moment to speak without Paimon around.”

        Arch turned their head, scoping out for any sign of the demon, and then returned to Lyrem with an awkward smile.

        “Why do we need to talk without him?” Arch chuckled through the question unnerved. “We didn’t do anything wrong, did we? Wait- did I?”-

        Lyrem shook his head, “no, no. Of course, not.”

        Arch swallowed back some nervousness and found themselves outside their bedroom door. They opened it, and let Lyrem inside.

        “Cool. Okay, great. Then… what do you want to talk about?”

        “You. I want to know how you are feeling… being here.”

        Arch blinked. “Fine.”

        They set down the discman onto a desk and then leaned against it, finding it difficult to meet his eyes which were looking at them increasingly more concerned as the seconds went by.

        “I’m feeling fine,” they repeated. “… I thought… you would want me to be fine- to be happy here.”

        “Oh, I don’t care about happy,” Lyrem spoke briefly as an aside. He smoothed out a corner of their crumpled-up bedspread and sat himself down. “Do you miss Earth? Do you miss your family?”

        Arch’s face twisted; their nostrils flared. “No.”

        They swallowed again. It happened a lot sometimes, when they knew that they’d need to maintain composure.

        “Arch, it’s okay if you miss them. I won’t punish you for it.”

        Taking a breath, Arch left Lyrem there, and found their way to the washroom. They closed the door and turned on the tap for some refreshing cold water. Lyrem waited until they emerged again, red faced from a towel that was used a bit too vigorously.

        “Everything is fine, Lyrem,” they answered finally. “My uncle will miss me. But my mom is in the Labyrinth. She might never come back after what you did… and that’s… fine.” They managed, barely.

        “She never liked me much anyway. At least here, I have two people- well, you and a demon- to look out for me. I don’t think I would ever have that anywhere else.”

        Arch scratched the back of their neck as Lyrem listened in.

        “And I’m going to learn more, right? Eat a few more hearts and Paimon thinks I might be able to manage some telekinesis. That would be pretty amazing, right?”

        Lyrem stared at the floor.

        “Right?” Arch sat themself beside him on the bed.

        Lyrem turned. He found it difficult to bring himself to meet their gaze, but once he did, he was at a loss for words. Their eyes, which were once a young and rich mahogany were now strained and desperate with the knowledge and guilt of their actions. It had been a tiring game to pretend these things didn’t bother them- the crow’s feet beneath their eyelids told him as such.

        “You need to go,” He nearly whispered.

        “What?”

        “You shouldn’t be here. You need to leave this place. You need to escape, Arch. I’ll do my best to help you. I have thought about a series of ways to help you leave, and only one is really a plausible scenario to execute with success, but”-

        “H-hold on,” Arch’s brows furrowed. “What the hell are you saying? Is this… is this a test? Are you two testing me?”

        Lyrem shook his head. “No, no. I would never trick you like that.”

        “Then why are you saying this? This isn’t you”-

        “Paimon is not who he says he is,” Lyrem said, meeting their eyes steadily. There was so much to explain. “He’s not a demon at all. The hearts that he gives you to eat, are not sources of power. He’s been lying to you.”

        A shiver ran down Arch’s spine. As the meaning of Lyrem’s words sunk deeper, their fists clenched on their lap until their knuckles whitened.

        “What do you mean they’re not sources of power?”

        Lyrem fell silent which was highly inconvenient at the time.

        “I asked you a question, Lyrem!”

        His eyes snapped up to them. They had stepped off the bed in their fury and stuck the end of a fingernail in their mouth. They gnawed at it until it ripped the skin on one side and bled.

        “Fuck,” Arch hissed and winced.

        In all the rage, Lyrem remained calm and seated. “I am sorry Arch. I never knew either. But we have a chance to escape and we must take it.”

        “No, we don’t.”

        “Say again?”

        “We don’t have a chance to escape. I signed myself over to Paimon. He can control everything I do.”

        “A simple fix. We have to find that contract then and destroy it”-

        “He’s already turned it to ash! It’s not just a piece of paper, it’s… everything. That’s why I’ve been doing what he wants. There’s no point in fighting it, Lyrem- not when he can just force me to do everything, anyway. I’ve already tried. I’ve… I’ve given up! I’m a torturer now, a cannibal, and that’s all I’ll ever be. I’ve come to accept it- just like you asked me to!”

        Lyrem shook his head. “I shouldn’t have done that- it was wrong, and I put your life- your soul- in danger by doing so. I only wanted you to become the best version of yourself”-

        “No, you didn’t!” they snarled in reply. “You were lonely! And you wanted to save your own skin! Don’t act like this was all some sort of mistake with good intentions! You are a monster and you made me one too. So, thanks a lot, man.”

        Arch stepped into the washroom again to tend to their finger. They emerged, focusing solely on the small tissue that slowly turned pinker as they pressed it on. “By all means, you can try to escape. I don’t care what you do, but I’m cutting my losses here. Paimon’s too powerful to”-

        Arch froze, seeing Paimon standing in the doorway.

        “To what, sweet thing?”

        Lyrem stood at the foot of the bed, also too shocked to move any further. Arch darted their eyes between them both. This was definitely not a test. As they stood frozen, without a word to say, Paimon walked slowly through the room, gaining the attention of Lyrem on the way.

        “Paimon, please. I can explain”-

        “Not another word from you, my friend.”

        Lyrem remained silent.

        Arch stood to attention for Paimon as they paced. He didn’t like it when they cried. Out of instinct to explain themselves, their head shook from side to side.

        “I- I- I didn’t- I wasn’t going to”-

        “I know,” Paimon finished for them. “It’s alright, Arch. I believe you.”

        They breathed out in relief as Paimon’s hands cupped their face. He tilted his head down to plant a soft kiss on their forehead before turning away. Arch looked to Lyrem with concern and fear of what would happen next.

        “But you, my friend…” Paimon tutted as he approached Lyrem. “You have yourself plenty of explaining to do.”

        “Yes, I know, I”-

        “But I care not for hearing it now.” Paimon interrupted. “I’ll have you strung up in the caverns below just like our other guests.”

        For not having a working heart, Lyrem still felt as though his was pounding its way out of his chest. He wasn’t impervious to the anxieties that came with making a god angry- his last encounters with Hekate and Hades showed him that much- but they were kind in comparison. They were relatively understanding at minimum and patient with humankind. This was Paimon. He was vengeful, and wrathful, and he didn’t care for people.

        “Please Paimon, just listen to me for a moment. We’ve done so much together and I have no intention on leaving, but Arch is… Arch is young and they deserve a chance to live their life the way they want it”-

        Paimon squared himself up in front of Lyrem as he stumbled through his words and grinned sympathetically. He shook his head. Lyrem continued, knowing that he was losing the battle.

        “-let’s not destroy their life before it’s even begun. Please, we- we’re friends, Paimon”-

        Paimon let out a chuckle, which turned into a laugh. And he threw his head back in a burst of raucous amusement, causing Lyrem to silence himself once again.

        “You think we are friends?”

        Lyrem swallowed and regarded him seriously. “Well, yes. That is what we agreed”-

        “You,” Paimon pointed at him, then poked him forcefully in the sternum, “are MY friend. That is what we agreed. I gave you Maria, and in exchange you agreed to be my friend. MINE. I am not and never have been your friend, Lyrem. Everything I did for you since then was out of the goodness of my heart.”

        Paimon shot a quick glance to Arch who was still frozen in place, watching the spectacle unfold.

        “Charitable, aren’t I?”

        Arch nodded. Lyrem looked away from them in shame, thinking on the spot, and gripped the jeweled knife that he had pulled from Arthur.

        “Cwsg sy”-

        Lyrem collapsed to the floor before he could finish the sleeping spell on Paimon. He didn’t exactly expect it to work, but it was worth a shot. The knife clattered to the ground, as though returning itself to its rightful owner.

        Arch didn’t pay attention and instead found themself at his side, wanting to support Lyrem’s head from the harsh ground as he landed. Paimon ushered them away before they could get a good look at the damage.

        “I’m surprised by his stupidity. I taught that sleeping spell to the Fae myself hundreds of years ago,” he said, tutting. He glanced to Arch, whose knees raised to their chin. “And you, sweet thing, should get up off that dirty floor. It’s not where you belong.”

        “Paimon, please don’t hurt him,” they begged, hardly hearing what he had just said.

        He sighed out of frustration. “Stand up.”

        They stood.

        He snapped his fingers, and Lyrem’s soul/body vanished. “I’ve hurt him plenty already, I think. Now, from you,” he ran his long fingers through their soft hair, “I would appreciate just a little co-operation.”

        They swallowed and nodded.

[thelanternlight]

Source

Witchy Asks!

Hello fellow witches! Here’s 50 Witchy Asks written by the-lunar-vixen. Please follow if you enjoy them. Blessed be!

1    What type of witch are you?

A gay one.

2    What deities do you like to work with, if any?

Angels, faery, guides, Mother God, Father God, Christ, saints, and ancestors. I'll also work with deities from various religions as they pertain to a spell or ritual (e.g. I may work with Hathor for a love spell).

3    Have you ever created your own spell?

Absolutely, most of the spellwork I do is original at least to some extent.

4    What’s your favorite time of year?

All the year is beautiful and wonderful for a myriad of reasons but Springtime is sacred to me.

5    Do you have a witch you look up to?

I think I have teachers that come and go in my life. They can be famous or not famous, witches or not, etc. Currently I'm loving Ember Honeyraven.

6    What makes you feel powerful?

Balance and freedom. Knowing that I'm on the side of what's good and right.

7    Do you have a favorite myth?

I'm an author and storyteller so I have many, many favorite myths. Off the top of my head I love the stories of Medusa, Apollo, the Christian Creation myth, Germanic and Scandinavian folklore, Anansi and his stories, Arthurian legends... the list goes on, but yes I LOVE stories. I think have so much meaning and wisdom to share.

8    Which famous/fantasy witch do you relate to the most?

I've grown up watching witches in movies, television, reading about them, etc so I've related to witches one way or another since day one. The Charmed Ones (all four) were role models for me when there were no role models for little, effeminate weirdos like myself as a child. The Sanderson Sisters were person heroes to me and I tried to emulate them from the very first time I saw the film; in fact those three are perhaps the original witches with whom I related the most. Since then there have been SO many wonderful characters in entertainment and in real life that inspired me so incredibly much that they've become a part of me.

9    Are you a wiccan?

I am not.

10   What’s the most unique item you’ve ever used in a spell?

I guess a dildo? I think 'unique' is a relative term.

11   Do you own any witchy books?

Apart from my personal book of spells I've owned many books on witchcraft but have parted ways with the majority of them. I'm currently trying to downsize the amount I have currently as it happens. Anybody want some free books?

12   Which misconception about witches annoys you the most?

That magic isn't real and this is all nonsense. I think it's especially irritating when people of other faiths criticize my own as if a prayer is anything different from an incantation. In fact I would argue that spells direct energy in a more concentrated way to affect change than simply petitioning a deity.

13   Have you ever created your own sigil?

You bet. Sometimes you just need something original and unique for the rite/spell.

14   What element are you most drawn to?

Water.

15   Do you have a familiar?

Some people use the word "familiar" interchangeably with "pet". I do have a pet but she's not my familiar. Other people define "familiar" as "spirit animal" which I'm not entirely sure is correct either. I'm in a bit of a gray area on this subject, but I see question 17 below touches on it as well.

16   Are you a part of a coven?

No. I've tried working with others to do magic but I think the synergy/chemistry has to REALLY be on point to do effective magic. Very often there's a clash of philosophies or practice that sort of spoils things all too easily whereas working alone allows me to concentrate so much better.

17   What’s your spirit animal?

Again this is a vague term that means different things to different people. I consider my spirit animal to be more or less my "familiar". When I was younger I was walking in the woods one evening praying really hard about something that was weighing very heavily on me. Then suddenly I looked up and there was this gorgeous and perfectly white stag looking back at me. He stood there for quite a while before slowly walking off again and the whole situation had such a profound sense of meaning to it. I saw the stag a few more times until finally, late one night while I was walking through the woods by a lake under the glow of a bright full moon I saw the stag one last time on the far side of the water. Ever since then the white stag has been sacred to me. So that's what I consider my spirit animal/familiar. It's a guide of sorts, a good omen, a sign, a representation of Spirit/Soul/God-energy and Self. I identify with it. So that's my spirit animal.

18   Do you do tarot readings?

I do indeed!

19   What’s your favorite witch movie?

I have several, but Hocus Pocus has been my favorite since I was a wee tot.

20   How many crystal do you have?

I actually don't really know. I don't go out and buy crystals but sometimes they come into my life and then go when they've served their purpose. For example, I had a beautiful large quartz that my grandmother had bought me from the nature store when I was a kid. I loved it so much. But one Halloween night I was doing a ritual with a friend of mine in the woods and ended up losing it. Interestingly, that friend was pursuing me romantically unbeknownst to me while also hooking up with the guy I was hooking up with and also really liked (ugh, gay culture). And during that ritual I was speaking with my grandfather (husband to the grandmother who bought me the quartz that I lost that night). So what does all that mean? I have no idea. But I figured all things considered maybe it was just time to let that thing go, along with other things that night.

21   What’s the most unique item on your altar?

I don't really have the privacy to set up an altar but generally I like my "work area" to be neat. Everything has a purpose and a meaning and a function. If I need to burn something I have the item/items, the cauldron, the lighter, oils, and anything else needed for what I'm doing. So nothing in particular stands out as "unique"... unless... Well I do have a small copper cauldron with a handful of dirt from my grandmother's house that I've kept for almost twenty years now. I guess that's unique?

22   Have you ever enchanted anything?

Oh god, yes, lots of things. I've enchanted things so as to protect them, or so that the item will protect someone else or some place... I've enchanted things for love, or to keep something or someone away. I've enchanted things to help in a greater ritual or spell. And so on.

23   What’s your religion?

I was raised Christian Baptist but following one horrible experience after another I've absolutely left that faith well behind long ago. I don't have a particular religion in the sense of organized religion. I'm spiritual and I cast spells. I also believe in science. I don't call myself a witch but I do everything a witch does.

24   Do you have a favorite crystal?

"I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens".

25   What are some of your favorite spells?

Oooo I'd have to say I'm rather partial to love magic. I'm particularly good at it too.

26   What do you like to do to cleanse your space?

After physically cleaning a space I like to use the Violet Fire to cleanse an area as well as cleansing using a broom and a wand and/or athame.

27   When do you feel the most powerful?

When nature and I have our little moments. When the wind is warm and strong. When I'm out in a storm. When I can "feel" things growing during the Spring. The silence of a frozen winter night in the woods... Also when I'm cooking. I fucking LOVE charging a pot of boiling ingredients with good juju.

28   Do other people know you’re a witch?

A few people close to me know I practice witchcraft. Others think I'm just a little bit daffy.

29   Has one of your spells ever gone wrong?

Definitely. Mostly when I was still learning and practicing. Like this one time in sixth grade I cast a spell so that a popular girl in school would like me and we could start dating. Obviously since I was gay I didn't really want to be with her, I only did it because I wanted to be cool (although I did like her and we ended up being fairly good friends until we went to different high schools). That spell backfired and I ended up 1. not getting the result I intended because I was doing it for the wrong reason and simultaneously trying to force another to do something against her will, and 2. I ended up having one shitty fucking love life for the longest time.

30   What outfit makes you feel the most witchy?

Oh I love me a good cape. Even just walking around with a long blanket around me.

31   Have you ever tried astral projection?

Yes, successfully, several times. I like to use it for meditation. Often I go to the artic sea where there's just ocean, ice, and darkness.

32   Do you have any enchanted jewelry?

Probably.

33   What does your altar look like?

A space on the floor where I cast a circle and set up my stuff.

34   Have you ever seen a spirit?

YES! I've seen fairies, spirits, ghosts, shadows, sparks, heard voices, etc.

35   What’s your favorite spell sachet?

I can't say that I have one.

36   Do you have a favorite sigil?

I'm especially fond of the Sigil of Venus.

37   What’s your astrological sign?

Sun sign Virgo, Rising Pisces, Moon in Sagittarius

38   Have you ever interacted with a deity?

Well, yes, of course... per the previous questions.

39   What color are you most drawn to?

Purple.

40   Do you believe in past lives?

Without a doubt.

41   Where do you like to practice your craft?

Wherever I have privacy and calm.

42   What’s your favorite season?

Springtime, as mentioned previously.

43   Have you ever cursed someone?

That's not what my magic is for. Yes I'm familiar with the how-to, but no I don't partake in that kind of thing. The "worst" I've ever done is cast binding spells to keep someone from harming me and/or even coming into my presence.

44   How long have you been a practicing witch?

I'm telling on myself now but I'd say about 24 years practicing in earnest.

45   What drew you to witchcraft?

A natural inclination.

46   In what moon phase do you feel the most powerful?

The Moon itself does not change with the phases of its shadow. The phases are representational, of course, and its symbology can be evocative and meaningful, but otherwise the Moon is what it is. Therefore I'd have to say I personally feel most connected or at least most aware of the Moon when it's full. Else, I would say when it's waxing as that's when most of my spells are done simply because of the type of spell I usually work.

47   What’s your favorite holiday?

Wisterlimas, and then Halloween. Although I love all the holidays.

48   Do you know anything about your past lives? (if you believe in them!)

Yes, wow, I've done extensive work on discovering my past lives. I've lived in San Francisco at the turn of the century, in Scotland, England, France, Japan, China, as a woman, as a man... It's all very fascinating but you can't delve too deep because it's simply not necessary. You're not really *supposed* to know about your past lives. That defeats the purpose of the great forgetting once you're reincarnated. Yes, you can revisit the major themes and lessons learned, but one shouldn't really fret too much about what happened in the past.

49   Have you ever done an energy reading?

Certainly. I think most people do energy readings even when they don't know they're doing it. There's "reading the room" or "getting a bad vibe". There's also reiki and the like. And healing work. And of course magic is all about directing energy so to achieve a specific goal.

50   What time of day do you like to practice your craft?

Usually at night but it has more to do with the individual spell. Astronomical positioning is also important as well as weather, season, personal mood, day of the week, et al.

[onestowatch]

The Best of 2020 | Staff Picks

We made it! 2020 is finally coming to an end (hopefully not along with the world). You’ve finally mastered your TikTok algorithm and only get served the hits. You’ve mastered the perfect rotation for your Zoom backgrounds. You’ve broken the Guinness World Record for consecutive hours doom-scrolling. You’ve finished reading White Fragility and have made the pledge to be a better ally. This year is going down in the history books as one of the toughest in our generation due to the tragic losses of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to COVID-19, the entire music industry has come to a stand still and a lot of our colleagues have lost their jobs and the future of our industry is going to look very different. As sobering as this year has been, we’ve all had to take a long look at ourselves and make a decision about who we wanted to be.

But there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel and 2021 is already starting to look up. As usual, music is one of the things that always helps us get through tough times and 2020 was no different. We honestly may have needed it even more this year. As we try to put the tragedies of 2020 behind us, and look forward to the return of live music, being outside, and seeing our loved ones in person, our staff would like to share our favorite things that helped us survive this year and some of the things we’re excited to hear more of in 2021.

Max Polo

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Bea Miller, Aminè - “FEEL SOMETHING DIFFERENT”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: 박혜진 Park Hye Jin

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Doja Cat. From first seeing her at Echo Park Rising in 2014, it’s been a long time coming

Best Music Video of 2020: KennyHoopla - “how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//“

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Carly Rae Jepsen, this year and every year.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Video games without a doubt. Between crafting my own island paradise on Animal Crossing to exploring the gorgeous world of Genshin Impact, 2020 would not have been bearable without a digital escape.

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: My Chemical Romance, fingers crossed 🤞🏽

Favorite 2020 trend: TikTok finally entering the mainstream.

Artist to Watch in 2021: Keep an eye on Holly Humberstone, María Isabel, and spill tab.

Favorite Song of 2020: ZICO - “Any Song”

Favorite Album of 2020: Gus Dapperton - Orca

Favorite Artist of 2020: Jean Dawson

New Year's Resolution?: Check Facebook comments less.

Green Lee

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Soulja Boy - “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Su Lee

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Giveon / BENEE

Best Music Video of 2020: DJ Khaled x Drake - “POPSTAR”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Peggy Gou

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Computer Games & Anime. It’s like I’m 19 again!!!

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Duckwrth. I need to see SuperGood in action.

Favorite 2020 Trend: Non-teens dropping their ego and hopping on the TikTok train (me included)

Artist to Watch in 2021: spill tab / blxst / Ambré

Favorite Song of 2020: No Rome ft. Bearface - “1:45AM”

Favorite Album of 2020: Duckwrth - SuperGood

Favorite Artist of 2020: keshi

New Year's Resolution?: Huh?

Paige MacDonald

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Flor - “Dancing Around” (not being biased)… the accuracy of the lyrics is too on point.

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Zachary Knowles

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Tate McRae

Best Music Video of 2020: Conan Gray - “Heather”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: The bass player in Flor… Obviously

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Ugh….. Ashamedly…….TikTok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Turnover… because they make everything better and after the year we just had… need to stand in the middle of the crowd and have a good cry/scream.

Favorite 2020 trend: Work from home clothes AKA sweats every single day

Artist to Watch in 2021: Oh… that’s a hard one to narrow down but I’d say Zachary Knowles (again) and 1990nowhere.

Favorite Song of 2020: Zachary Knowles - “Super Sad Songs’

Favorite Album of 2020: MisterWives - SUPERBLOOM

Favorite Artist of 2020: Conan Gray

New Year's Resolution?: More time for myself AWAY FROM A SCREEN and less postmates

Malcolm J. Gray

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: N.E.R.D. - “Love Bomb”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Joesef

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Blxst

Best Music Video of 2020: Disclosure - “My High” featuring Amine & slowthai

Favorite 2020 Distraction:  “Focus on Yourself King” TikTok Videos

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022:  

Favorite 2020 trend: Calling people you care about

Artist to Watch in 2021: Fana Hues

Favorite Song of 2020: Saint Lyor - “Big Facts”

Favorite Album of 2020: Yves Tumor - Heaven To a Tortured Mind

Favorite Artist of 2020: Arlo Parks

New Year's Resolution?: Ideate less, Execute more

David O’ Connor

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Chiild - “Hands Off Me"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: KennyHoopla

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Jack Harlow

Best Music Video of 2020: Lil Baby - “The Bigger Picture"

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: CHLOBOCOP

Favorite 2020 Distraction: ruthless optimism besting calculated cyncism

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: fuck, yes...

Favorite 2020 trend: asking your neighbors kids how to find rare gear in Witcher 3

Artist to Watch in 2021: again&again

Favorite Song of 2020: Arlo Parks - "Eugene"

Favorite Album of 2020: Kota the Friend - Lyrics to Go, Vol. 1

Favorite Artist of 2020: Reo Cragun

New Year's Resolution?: vaccinate before ya date  

Joey Legittino

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - R.E.M

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: badmonsham

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Gracie Abrams

Best Music Video of 2020: MGK ft. Halsey - “Forget Me Too”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: still Kailee Morgue

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Tik Tok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Rage Against the Machine

Favorite 2020 trend: Aliens

Artist to Watch in 2021: Morray

Favorite Song of 2020: Hans Williams - “Body on My Shoulders”

Favorite Album of 2020: Babyjake - Don't Give Me Problems Give Me Wine

Favorite Artist of 2020: Fiji Blue

New Year's Resolution?: Do better than last year

Alexa Schoenfold

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: D’Angelo - “The Charade”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Joy Oladokun

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: BENEE, Jean Dawson

Best Music Video of 2020: Loathe - “Two-Way Mirror”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Tom Misch, MGK

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Nature (...and FaceTime)

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Thundercat

Favorite 2020 trend: Giving a sh!t about other people

Artist to Watch in 2021: Q, Zach Bryan

Favorite Song of 2020: Jazmine Sullivan - “Lost One”

Favorite Album of 2020: The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You

Favorite Artist of 2020: SAULT. (Also... Miley.)

New Year's Resolution?: Show up with kindness. Stay connected to those that matter most. Finally get a normal bedtime.

Jessica Thomas

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Ashnikko - “Working Bitch”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: KILLBOY (not for long)  

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Remi Wolf  

Best Music Video of 2020: ROSALÍA & Travis Scott - “TKN”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Luna Aura  

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Slightly insensitive 2020 / COVID internet memes that drag me at my core…  

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Jacob Collier 

Favorite 2020 trend: TO GO COCKTAILS  

Artist to Watch in 2021: Avenue Beat  

Favorite Song of 2020: spill tab - “Calvaire”  

Favorite Album of 2020: Gracie Abrams - minor

Favorite Artist of 2020: mazie

New Year's Resolution?: Stop falling asleep in my clothes & achieve homeostasis.  

Yasmin Damoui

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Role Model - "going out"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: CHIIILD

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: BENEE

Best Music Video of 2020: Channel Tres - "Weedman"

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Omar Apollo (every year)

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Eating KIVA gummies and listening to anything by LEISURE or Polo & Pan

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Usher in Vegas

Favorite 2020 trend: LOTS of unexpected artist collaborations

Artist to Watch in 2021: Tycho Jones, spill tab, Payday, Hojean, Royal & The Serpent, Abby Sage, mehro (sorry I cheated - there's so many!)

Favorite Song of 2020: SAULT - "Wildfires"

Favorite Album of 2020: Holly Humberstone - Falling Asleep At The Wheel

Favorite Artist of 2020: Verzache

New Year's Resolution?: Continue practicing gratitude for all the amazing blessings we took for granted pre-COVID

Alec Wing

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Vegyn

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Caroline Rose

Best Music Video of 2020: Moses Sumney - “Cut Me”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Lianne La Havas

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Surprisingly evocative dreams

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: D’Angelo (fingers crossed)

Favorite 2020 trend: Checking in on loved ones more consistently

Artist to Watch in 2021: Athletic Progression

Favorite Song of 2020: Gorillaz - “Simplicity”

Favorite Album of 2020: Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

New Year's Resolution?: To come up with something new

Tyler Borland

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Curtis Waters - “Pity Party”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Elroy

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Teezo Touchdown for sure!

Best Music Video of 2020: This is a tough one, but probably the slowthai "feeling away" video or "Power Freaks" by Jean Dawson

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Jorja Smith

Favorite 2020 Distraction: I've gotten super into Curb Your Enthusiasm

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Oh man I miss concerts... probably ericdoa, BIGBABYGUCCI, and Kevin Kazi

Favorite 2020 trend: Verzuz has been so entertaining. Not sure if it's a trend, but definitely one of my favorite things to come out of this year.

Artist to Watch in 2021: Elroy, 18veno, Hollow Sinatra

Favorite Song of 2020: Tycho Jones - "Don't Be Afraid"

Favorite Album of 2020: brakence - punk2

Favorite Artist of 2020: brakence, Kenny Mason, BIGBABYGUCCI, Jean Dawson

New Year's Resolution?: Finish college and get a full time music gig

Maddy Quach

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Antonio Williams and Kerry McCoy - "Changes"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Issy Wood. She's just signed to Mark Ronson's Zelig Records & I'm so excited to see what comes of it.

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: glaive

Best Music Video of 2020: slowthai - “nhs"

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Freddie Gibbs this year and also every other year.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Hand-sewing clothes!

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: YG, Grimes, Sharon Van Etten. I'm buying tickets to anything and everything next year.

Favorite 2020 trend: That one month at the beginning of quarantine when everyone was drawing carrots and bananas on their Instagram stories. What was that...

Artist to Watch in 2021: ICECOLDBISHOP, CoachDaGhost

Favorite Song of 2020: This one goes to "Empty Beach" by Coco (although Hotboii's "Don't Need Time" is a close second).

Favorite Album of 2020: Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Favorite Artist of 2020: Flo Milli

New Year's Resolution?: Celebrate my accomplishments more.

Rachael Jansky

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Benee, Gus Dapperton - “supalonely” (the pandemic really has me missing all the homies :()

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Q

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: CHIKA - forever grateful I didn’t scroll past her Tiny Desk on my Twitter feed

Best Music Video of 2020: Amine - “Compensating”

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Halsey. My answer will never not be Halsey.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Love Island, but the UK version ONLY

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Rico Nasty!!!!

Favorite 2020 trend: allllll the Clubhouse drama

Artist to Watch in 2021: Sally Boy

Favorite Song of 2020: Charlie Burg - “Lancaster Nights”

Favorite Album of 2020: Glass Animals - Dreamland (you literally melt into their music, perfect escape from the shit show of a year we’ve had)

Favorite Artist of 2020: Dominic Fike

New Year's Resolution?: Graduate college, land my first big girl job, and have fewer existential crises :’)

Jimmy Smith

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: “Brave Faces, Everyone” - Spanish Love Songs

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: POORSTACY

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: KennyHoopla

Best Music Video of 2020: Code Orange - “Swallowing The Rabbit Whole”

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Daydreaming about 2021. Oh and lots of TikTok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Every Time I Die

Favorite 2020 trend: Pop-punk revival

Artist to Watch in 2021: nothing,nowhere.

Favorite Song of 2020: The Dirty Nil - Doom Boy

Favorite Album of 2020: The Used - Heartwork

Favorite Artist of 2020: Travis Barker

New Year's Resolution?: Don’t take live music for granted

Jenna Singer

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: bulow and duckwrth - “sad and bored”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Jean Dawson

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: glaive

Best Music Video of 2020: idk but “Thick and Thin” – Lany got me through some shit

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Justin Bieber

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Cooking

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2020/2021: Billie Eilish

Favorite 2020 trend: hyperpop

Artist to Watch in 2021: Huron John

Favorite Song of 2020: Still Woozy - “Window”

Favorite Album of 2020: LANY - mama’s boy

Favorite Artist of 2020: can’t give that away sorry

New Year's Resolution?: less time on social media

[splinterapollo]

Flint “Splinter” Apollo

NAME: Flint “Splinter” Apollo GOES BY: Splint, Splinter, Apollo AGE: 34 BIRTHDAY: October 2nd GENDER: Male || Cis ORIENTATION: Hetero. ROLE: Outlander || Ranger OCCUPATION: Arrowsmith Nanotech Tinkerer.

If you ever hear whistling… duck. No? Not fast enough? Then just fucking move. Three inches seems harmless – a waste even? You know how deep you need to penetrate a chest cavity before you puncture the most used organ in the body? Three inches. Even then, that’s a hell of an arrow… consider the force of it travelling at speed… by the time you’ve thought about it, you’re bleeding out and you can’t breath…

Splinter’s are harmless most of the time, this one, isn’t.

So if you hear whistling, move.

And if you’re still breathing; it was never meant for you. Because it never misses. So there’s no actual need for those three inches, irreversible damage can be made with just one. Then picture five more of those arrows piercing flesh in rapid succession – get the picture?

Move out the way, these Splinter’s kill.

Every breath matters: inhale, exhale, steady the heart – draw, hold, release. The sound produced, unforgettable; distinct in the way it cuts through air, travels with precision and speed that ends in an entirely difference place to where it began. Lands in the face of the target, buried in wood and shavings peel away to make room for the forced arrow. Flint’s watched his father perform such a ritual for years, knows he’s close by just by the whistling, a noise never quite silenced no matter how good the archer.

But it always lands. And the whistling stops.

Flint’s childhood is foggy; snippets he can’t quite grip hold of to form vivid memories, but he remembers arrows like they were only thing that made sense. He knows his mother worked with the Council; a high ranking researcher in amongst the scientists, nanotechnology a specialism that Flint stared at from a distance – the way she spoke about it like it could have been the cure for everything; like nothing would ever be a problem; health; medicine; life would be so prosperous with this miniscule technology crafted by smart hands and reserved for only those with clearance.

Where he filled in empty spots in his mind about his mother – grew to learn about her work, his father; an ardent smith for the sentinels in the Council’s ranks taught Flint everything there was to know about being a ranger, at least, about the skill required. The training, that was all beneath the noses of those who might disapprove of a youth fletching and carving arrows to be used outside the barracks.

From that. Draw, hold, release comes after. And Flint’s gifted with it. An archer’s paradox the start of how Flint Apollo does it differently.

Not all mothers have technology that when manipulated correctly, can be just as lethal as it is helpful. It’s evident from the first interest he takes in it, she knows the Council won’t approve of the man’s ideas; theories that maybe he can craft arrowheads from the nanotech – imagine the potential for that… how damaging, how that slight occasional paradox never has to affect an archer again.

His mother put it down to grief; a state of guilt – because two years prior to that, Jax Apollo, Flint’s father lost his life the same way he lived it.

With a whistle in his ears.

Only, Flint’s the one who fired it; an accident, a great shot, but fatal. That’s how Flint knows how easy it is to puncture the heart. How he’s thrown so deep into the end of the pool, that swimming without a life raft and instead a bow in hand isn’t going to save anyone. But nanotech could. And his mother in her own grief – her love for her son that pushed through the shock; trauma of the accident off site, kept so secret as to not endanger Flint’s life – potential to be in the serving ranks if it ever came to light that he watched his father bleed out whilst he clenched the cause like it would save him

“Just imagine if medics could heal from a distance – if they had an eye like I could, the damage could be reversed, an arrow fired –”

“Flint, stop. That’s enough. You’ve done enough already, take yourself out and put a splinter elsewhere, nanotechnology will save lives, but not in the way you want it to… you’ll make a weapon of it…”

And he did.

Tera doesn’t welcome it; stares bug-eyed at the mere concept that there’s two sides to everything; both sides of the arrowhead are sharp and deadly and in the coming days that Flint spirals, theorises what he knows of nanotechnology from his mother, she begins to question whether the accident all those years ago was as straightforward as that. If there’s something darker; more obsessive at play. The young Apollo always meant well, anyone who asks would say he’s arrogant – does it with a grin, but emanates a warmth that’s somehow modest to the skill in his hands when the extension of his being in placed within them; when he gets to make a whistle.

He doesn’t know if he’s the cause, if The Council played a part in the end days of his adult life on Tera or if something else factored into the downfall of one of the most renowned researchers on the planet; one of the most specialised woman in nanotechnology, but the death of his mother – draw, hold, release. How a man like Flint copes when all he’s once known is revoked, he doesn’t know the details, only knows that there’s delirium before her vanishing; reported dead by those in the laboratories halls and yet, doesn’t quite believe it.

And Tera doesn’t have the answers; won’t give him any when he presses. Holds an arrow to their throats and demands it hopelessly. Like everything they’re great at hiding, they’re not kind. 

So before the Council have a chance to neutralise the last of the Apollo’s; the gifted archer, nanotechnology tinkerer, he gets out. Leaves behind any legacy that might have come from parents with a purpose and follows his own to the other side of the Blood Wood; to the Outlands. A home that’s beyond, welcoming of his ideas – though he won’t admit them all upfront, doesn’t invoke the fear in the eyes of the Outlanders that the Terran’s once had for his spieling.

He wants answers; needs to know what is beneath the surface of the Council’s front and why his mother’s death was brushed beneath the carpet like she was simply expendable. Flint’s kept up with his mother’s words: he’ll put splinters elsewhere, the nickname given and part of the memory he has of her. Keeps it with the fear that it might someday become foggy like the rest of them. He’ll stand against everything his parents believed in for them; show them that his tinkering, his archery ability and dangerously skilled actions with that isn’t forgotten; a mistake to make an enemy of.

So careful when you hear that whistle, you might just get a splinter.

Connections || Family 

Jax Apollo || Father, deceased. Lora Apollo || Mother, deceased 

Connections || Misc.

The Acosta’s | Splinter knows the Acosta’s through connections within Tera, Iliana’s husband always being the primary friend in Splinter’s life and part of the reason he’s not allowing the death of his mother to be taken at face value. They were considered comrades and had similar ideologies in battle tactics/sentinel views despite Splinter being somewhat obsessive over the combination of nanotechnology into his craft. He knows Iliana well and remains vigilant about the way both his former best friend and his mother both died in the same bracket within the Terran walls. Splinter and Iliana have a good relationship, albeit, unorthodox and slightly chaotic.

Sev3n | Splinter’s mother worked closely and reported to Sev3n as part of the nanotechnology department within Tera, in turn, Flint knows of them and has greatened his nanotech knowledge through the way it’s been passed down to the researchers within the nano field; but Lora Apollo is the primary connection for this, Flint being secondary.  

Further Depth

Flint goes by Splinter due to both his mother’s sideways nickname and his affinity for archery. But Splint, or Apollo works just the same. Flint is reserved for those who’ve known him for a length of time – from Tera most likely.

Nine times out of ten, he’s equipped with his gear – spends a good portion of everyday training and/or working on the limited, worn nanotechnology he swiped from his time in Tera. It’s not common to civilians so much he does the latter.

Tinkers a hell of a lot though – tries to develop a method to both use the nanotechnology as a healing method when fired on/in an arrow from a distance as well as weaponizing it for just the same kind of thing… but with more ouch and BOOM.

 Sometimes, he’s funny.

Other times, he might leave someone with a splinter with no guilt for doing it.

There’s a distinct pattern of lines along his collarbone that resemble arrow punctures – he doesn’t talk about it, don’t ask but it relates to a former injury when making his first arrowheads with his father as a young child.

Is an arrowsmith in the Outlands and forges some specialty arrowheads that have a wild case of acting the hell up.

He’ll tell you straight up, he doesn’t miss a shot.

So don’t argue it, not worth the hassle. Boost his ego and move on, it’s safer for everyone.

 P H I L A N D E R E R

Dedicated to the Outlanders and believes they are fighting for a more just cause than the place he was raised in.

[pls lmk if you want connections, we can talk]

[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

Αιώνια αγάπη (DT AU), pt. 13

13: Love is the death of duty

Summary: Three testimonies, two mistakes, one sentence. Find out the punishment Hermes faces as three most important women of his life take the stand.

Warnings: angst

Word count: 3.4k

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Special thanks to @godlydolans for being in the story as Yashi Singh!

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Αιώνια αγάπη (DT Modern Greek god/frat! AU) MASTERLIST    

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Overwhelmed, lost and very much prepared to do whatever it takes to protect her children, Y/N steps forth, pushing both her babies behind her as she breaks eye contact with the gods she knew and loved and looks wildly at the ones she didn't but could easily guess who they were.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Hecate chuckled, her laugh echoing as she fell back into a chair, not even bothering with courtesies. After all, why should she? She wasn't avenged for her death and pulling her soul out of the Underworld for the purposes of burying her ex husband was the only thing she cared about.

Hera didn't hesitate, walking toward Y/N as her eyes tried to take a better look at her grandchildren. It's been too long since she had a chance to see a youngling, let alone ones who are her own blood.

Y/N stepped back, each of her hands pressed against her kid's backs as she pushed them closer to her.

Like a lioness backed into a corner, Hera thought.

"I can tell why my sons fell in love with you now. You're absolutely ethereal. For a human, of course." The backhanded compliment forced Y/N to bare her teeth, faking a smile without the need to cover up the fake part, making it clear she doesn't appreciate the goddess coming any closer.

"I'd very much like if you'd stop walking, Your...heavenliness?" Y/N paused, unsure how to properly address the goddess without insulting her and putting her children in more danger than they already are. She couldn't afford to slip up now.

"Hera is fine, dear. However, I'm afraid you can't take the kids with you when you're on the stand. Someone's going to have to take care of them and as their grandmother I am willing to give you a blood oath that no harm shall befall either of your little ones." Hera spoke plainly, stating not only she cares but she would go as far as to make the unbreakable vow to protect them. The vow no god made in history thus far, one that conditions her death should she fail to uphold her promise.

"Like you protected Apollo and Hermes?" Y/N remarks, watching a flicker of hurt and surprise pass on Hera's face as Y/N's words aimed to hurt the goddess and it seemed as if she succeeded.

Glancing back at a helpless Hermes, Y/N gulped loudly as her heart ached for him.

What could have possessed him to do the crime he did? What crime did he commit at all? He spoke of vengeance, but never did she believe he'd go through with it. He's always been unpredictable and she can't deny she loved that about him, but right now, in this particular moment, she held it against him for his unpredictability put her children at risk.

Did he even know about the kids? Did either of them?

"I swear to you on my life, you can trust mother with them." Apollo speaks up, attracting Y/N's attention, feeling his own heart stop once her troubled eyes meet his with ease, the trust she has in him still shining through when she nods reluctantly, letting up on the four year olds holding onto her legs.

Hesitant still, Y/N watches as her mischievous babies waddled slowly over to their grandmother, looking up at her as if she's the most peculiar person they've ever seen.

And in a way she is. Her hair is molten gold, a leaf crown woven into the locks that broke sun-rays to rainbows. She did look like something out of a fairytale, inhuman even to the ones who don't know any better. And her kids didn't know any better.

"Shall we begin? While most of us are immortal, some don't have the commodity of waiting forever." Zeus huffed, glancing at Y/N and her offspring with underlying disgust he could hardly cover up.

"Wait! Don't I get a single moment with Apollo and Hermes first?" Y/N questions, the panic cracking her voice so blatantly no one could miss the desperation behind it.

"So they can temper with your true feelings? I think not. My sons have done enough damage to you as it is." Zeus states, showing Y/N that it's time to take her seat.

Eyes brimming with tears chained themselves to where the only two men she ever loved stood, each of them facing a horror of impending doom. Apollo wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Y/N and the kids, just for one moment. Hermes wished for Y/N and the kids to return to Earth and forget about all of this more than anything because if him being with her meant she'd die for his sins, he'd rather not even see her let alone touch her.

But all Y/N could see is how different they seem. They didn't have that light aura around them, rather a gloomy one. Each of them dressed in warrior clothes didn't lessen the weight on her heart either, adding onto the worry she couldn't shed.

What if she says something that ends up being their doom? What if she causes them to die? After everything that's happened, the years of loneliness she's suffered in as a single mother while the future she hoped for disintegrated, she still wanted them to be happy. The only comfort she found in the hell she's felt inside her soul is that both of her guys were alive and together. She didn't break their brotherly bond and they were back home with their loved ones.

She never thought they'd fuck up everything. At least not in her lifetime.

Reluctant and on edge, Y/N sits down right between Yashi and Hecate, each of them representing the past evils Hermes did and each of them more than willing to bury him should they wish so. Hecate most of all.

Hecate played with her long black locks, the purple ends flashing every once in a while as she leaned closer to Y/N and talked in hushed tones.

"You really had me fooled."

Y/N turned to her, giving her a sideways glance before her eyes returned to her children and Hera who crouched beside them, charming them with a little light show at the palm of her hand.

"I'm actually kind of proud of you. It's my blood that allowed you to do so."

"You left me no choice." Y/N responds harshly, sending a quick glare in her direction before turning her attention to Apollo and Hermes, each of them quiet and lost in thought as it seemed.

"You had a choice, you just made the wrong one. You think with your heart and not your head and I tried to show you that listening to your heart will only help you wind up dead. It killed me in the end - not Hermes, but you."

"I would like to call Yashi Singh to testify first." Zeus interrupts the small exchange between Hecate and Y/N, showing Yashi where to stand as she glided across the marble floor, her hair flowing freely at the back. It's a sort of visual joy of the heavens. It's confidence and strength, natural and pretty just as her stance.

"Now, my dear. Would you mind telling me Hermes' greatest crime against your heart?" Zeus tried to keep his voice light, purring at her as if manipulating the woman to speak the most rotten, horrific deeds she could think of.

Yashi lifts her chin up ever so slightly, her lips set in a firm line as her hands clasp together at her midsection.

"Hermes had no trouble lying to get close to me. He hadn't even bat an eye when he took my maidenhood under false pretenses. After all he had done, I was lucky enough to find someone else to cradle my broken heart. My story did have a happy ending, but Hermes showed no mercy toward my future. If he had his way, I'd have ended up alone and disgraced, disowned by my family. Thanks to Athena, I was lucky enough to have time to form a plan and get rid of him and his brother." Sparing Hermes a single glance, Yashi raised both eyebrows at the once so loved god before she smirked. Apollo looked toward Athena who shied away from his eyes, clearly ashamed she worked against him before. He wanted to know why she did it in the first place, but he already assumed why. Zeus forced her, told her it's her duty to do what she can to protect her loyal servants. She didn't have a bloodline like many others for she remained a virgin, but those who served her, worshiped her? Those were her loyal subjects and she protected them vigorously whenever she could.

"I think he committed the same crime hundreds if not thousands of times and that's just his crimes of breaking hearts and draining once hopeful souls. I'm certain he's done much worse in his time. I do believe he deserves the harshest punishment of all."

"Thank you, child. You make take your seat and Y/N can take your place now." Zeus states with a feigned smile, making Y/N's skin crawl as she realized it was her turn to stand and tell the truth. She had no choice. Not if she wanted her kids to remain alive because she was sure Zeus would harm them otherwise.

Passing by Hera, she finds the goddess wrap her fingers around her arm, stopping her for a single moment to utter a few wise words.

"You're pure of heart and your word means more than anything they say. Keep that in mind."

Gulping loudly, Y/N found herself tempted to run toward Hermes and Apollo, ask them to rise up and fight Zeus and end this torture, but Hera is right. She is pure of heart. She can use that against them.

"What is the greatest crime my son has committed?" Zeus smirks, knowing Hermes was completely off the rails the entire time he knew Y/N and he expected her to be the most significant nail in his son's coffin.

"He loved me." Plain and simple, Y/N turns sideways, her eyes finding his as if they've been dying for a single glance, for the love he could offer just by looking at her.

"Hermes is anything but perfect, but he's also done what is necessary. He's always done the right thing, even when the rest of us couldn't understand it just yet and even if it's the hardest possible thing he could have done in the world. Hermes' biggest crime against me is that he loved me just as much if not more than I love him." Emphasizing the present tense, proclaiming her love for the infamous god, she turned back to Zeus defiantly.

"He burned down the Kappa house and most of your belongings. He lied to you. He impregnated you -" Zeus began, each fact spoken louder and louder as he counted until Y/N interjected, stopping him from bashing Hermes any longer.

"With all due respect, both of your sons did that and I don't see Apollo tried for that. It's the most ridiculous medical miracle, but they both did and I don't hold them leaving against them. It is my heart that caused that and I alone am to blame for loving them both too much. The very heart that is pure, which means if I do not hold any hate for him, no reason exists for either of you to. Hermes is a good soul and you should release him." Out of breath, Y/N found herself on fire with her nerves sparking up as every moment passed she felt herself grow stronger, more sure of herself. Without waiting for Zeus to speak and send her on her way, Y/N crossed the short distance between the stand and where Hermes was held on his knees with his brother a step behind him.

She threw herself at the god, wrapping her arms around him so tightly if he were human his ribs would crack under the pressure. She longed for a touch of his skin, but all she found was a long black cape under her fingertips, and gold plates right under her arms instead of his shoulders.

"Return to your seat, Y/N Y/L/N." Zeus ordered sternly, but she rebelled long enough to stand and grip Apollo who came closer, hugging over Hermes who felt his soul tear itself up only to be made new again with the pounding of his heart being so deafening.

"Are they mine?" Apollo whispered in her ear, frantic at the possibility of having an answer.

"Valerie is." She managed to respond before one of the guards rudely grabbed her by the arm and ripped her away from Apollo with a ruthless tug, causing her to stifle a pained groan.

"DON'T FUCKING PUT YOUR HANDS ON HER!" Hermes jolted, his voice echoing the hall as he watched the guard drag her back to the stand and release her from his hold.

Apollo gritted his teeth, not only because he was so fucking confused about what she meant, but also because he wanted nothing more than to rip into the guard and take his life with his own two hands. He'd choke the life out of him, snap him like a twig before throwing him into the Underworld, allowing Hermes to decide on the best form of torture for him.

"I believe I asked you to return to your seat. If not, I'm more than happy to show you what happens when someone disobeys a god." Zeus quipped, his lips curling to the left as he formed a half smile and his forehead no longer creased as his wicked implications came to life and Y/N quickly nodded, doing as she's told. She knew the threat was against her children, you didn't have to be a mind reader to see that.

Crashing in her seat, she could hardly breathe as she heaved with a fury of untold confessions to her favorite gods and hateful words at Zeus and all those who liked to play with human lives.

"Maybe you should. There are two of those snot monsters." Poseidon speaks up, rubbing his chin devilishly as a wicked grin spread across his lips.

Y/N's eyes widen, her hands gripping the chair she's in as she lunged forward to jump and protest, but Hecate outstretched her arm instinctively in front of her, stopping Y/N from doing something rash that she couldn't take back.

"Or perhaps I could tell my story and you can stop being such an ass? Have your forgotten Hera made an unbreakable vow?" Hecate raised her left eyebrow, standing up with ease as she challenged one of the supreme gods no one dared to second guess before. She waltzed toward the stand, keeping her gaze set on Poseidon who looked to be seething already.

"Or you can just return to the Underworld where you're supposed to be rotting! Perhaps you could be taught a lesson or two as Sisyphus is?" Poseidon snickered, placing his hands on his hips.

"Perhaps spend a few nights pleasuring me and I'll forget about all of this?" He offered, finding Hecate more than irritated.

"Maybe I'll bring back Medusa and have her do it for me? I'm sure she'd like to look you in the eye at least once." Hecate remarks and Y/N finally realizes this is all just a distraction for them to let go of the idea of even looking at her kids.

Hecate is...protecting her?

"Either way, I have a few to say to Hermes." She glances over her shoulder at her once consort, narrowing her eyes at him.

"He cheated on me, lied to me, abandoned me and then some. After all, he tried to kill me too. He just couldn't do the job right. Makes me think he didn't really want me dead, rather a way to exercise his demons on someone. Whatever. I don't really care what happens to him anymore, but if it's up to me, let him live the rest of his mortal life on Earth. Take away Underworld and watch him suffer for it while he's living a mundane life with Y/N and the brats she bore."

Without realizing it, in her first attempt of kindness in centuries, Hecate made a mistake.

"He tried to kill you?" Poseidon interrupts, watching her closely.

"Zeus, my brother, where did you bring Hecate here from?" The question alone unsettles both Hermes and Apollo, who is already well prepared for disaster.

"What are you trying to say?" Zeus frowns, realizing he had more trouble bringing the goddess to Mount Olympus than Y/N from Earth.

"I think Hecate here is dead. Just a shadow of her former self." Poseidon looks back to the goddess who lifts her head up high, strolling toward him with all the confidence in the world.

"You had to reassemble her soul from Tartarus to have her shadow here, didn't you? Poseidon keeps prodding, now making Y/N nervous. She still didn't know for sure, but she was pretty certain Ethan...Hermes is on trial for Hades' death. He was the only one missing in the hall and that's the only despicable thing Hermes wanted to do once he returned home. If Poseidon gets a whiff of what happened to Hecate, then what would happen to her?

"Who killed you, Hecate?" Zeus grabbed her by the shoulders roughly, shaking her violently as a rag doll while his rage filled voice chilled everyone around him to the bone.

Thunder rolled in, electricity sparking around the hall in unpredictable spots and once Y/N saw Hera cover her kids with her body, she knew they were safe and it helped her lessen the burden of her soul.

"Y/N did." Poseidon concludes, chuckling so loudly, so maniacally that his beauty truly didn't matter anymore. His rotten soul shocked more than his good looks, forcing Y/N to remind herself to breathe because the way this is going, she's in deep shit and she knows it.

Hecate turns to Y/N helplessly shouting: "RUN", but where? How? She's a human with everyone she loves trapped there as well. There's no where to run, especially not when two guards form by her side out of thin air, dragging her forth and pushing her down on her knees besides Hermes.

"Mommy!" Two tiny, terrified voices rippled through a sudden onset of hushed voices and small fights that erupted between the other gods.

But Y/N could barely hear anything after her kids screamed. She watched them trash against Hera as they fought to get to her side. She sensed Hermes lean toward her and his breath tickle her neck.

She didn't hear him whisper a promise that he wouldn't let this happen.

She didn't see nor hear Apollo being restrained just behind her as five guards struggled to hold him down. Apollo felt like a caged beast, breaking through anyone who tried to stop him from protecting Y/N and Hermes. He couldn't bear what would happen if he didn't. His duty as a god of Mount Olympus is to protect the gods and do what he must in order to serve his father for an eternity.

What is eternity without Y/N's gentle touch? What is eternity compared to his brother's love? Nothing at all. The love he bears for Y/N, for Hermes...for that little girl Y/N told him is his and possibly the boy as well? That love is the death of duty he swore to ever since he became aware of his existence.

He tried to reach Y/N, but she seemed frozen in her spot, her eyes laid upon her children in the far right as Zeus came closer, all the way until he stopped in front of her and the son he could barely call his anymore.

The next thing Y/N heard was what sealed her fate.

"Taking a life is an unspeakable crime. To take a gods eternity? It. Is. Unforgivable. You are both sentenced to die."

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Tags: @mutuallynotmutual @lanadeldolans @xalayx @accalialionheart @gia-kerks @historyheart  @heyits-claire @daddygraysonsbitch @fallinginlove-16  @lanadeldolans @beautifulfound @thearachna-kid  @dinnerwiththedolans  @graydolan12 @justanotherfangurl272 @dxlansfxck  @godlydolans @flowery-dolan @dominatedolans @buckysjuicyplums @ethanhes @dolandolll @dolanstwintuesday

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRH Book 1 Chapter 5

• Now that we are five chapters into this story, now seems like a good time to get the masterlist of this series out! 😁 Which I will be doing shortly after this QT is up. If you've missed the other chapters, you'll be more easily able to find them all there! I'll also be reblogging my TRR series masterlist sometime this week, since my TRR Book 1 Chapter 5 chapter is close to getting finished as well.

• I'm hoping to get this one out early, it's an extremely light chapter for the most part. It's practically filler, filled with little vignettes between the characters here and there and mostly diamond scenes. The heavy stuff inevitably seems to be left for the actual Walker Ranch (sigh).

• Here are the tags to block if you don't want my QTs to clog up your dash: #long post, #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs. For now a friend of mine is helping get the read-mores on the main posts, until Tumblr actually does something to make them work on a phone again.

• TW: Brief mentions of the Dr Ramirez scene in Hana's playthrough, and infertility.

• Screenshot Credits:

Hana - @pixieferry

Maxwell - Abhirio's YouTube channel

Drake - @thefirstcourtesan

Liam - Well, me

• Besides being mostly filler stuff, this chapter had a lot of diamond scenes. Two outfit changes (one OOTD and one lingerie for the LI), a group scene and the book's first character scene (Liam).

• A few people I know have been asking me about the differences between "character scenes" and "LI scenes" (and indeed a lot of people were confused by my use of these terms in my Book 3 QTs). So once I get to my general thoughts section, I'll elaborate on those.

• Title: The Open Road

Alternative Title: Enjoy The Fillers, Dear Fans, Coz You Got A Walker-Storm Comin'!

• We're now on our way to the States, barely days after we got back to our own estate. The Council is looking after stuff in exactly the way they have since we left for our honeymoon, except that now it's lost all its core group members besides Olivia. Her, Hana and Kiara must probably share whatever few brain cells exist in that Council between each other.

• If you've unlocked the "casual clothing" scenes for the LIs in Book 2 (Liam's t-shirt, Hana's crop top, Drake's Henley and Maxwell's muscle shirt and Bubbles necklace), that's what they'll be wearing on their journey this chapter.

• Maxwell is now the self-appointed Royal Entertainment Committee.

• Bertrand WOULD be freaking out about spoons.

• Our OOTD today is an off-shoulder crop top with floral designs, and ripped shorts - paired with a blue and pink statement necklace and a few bracelets. Esther DuPont and literally every other MC is more confident about pulling this outfit off than I will ever be.

• Maxwell suggests the outfit in the Liam, Drake and Hana playthroughs, and Hana suggests it in Maxwell's.

• First Stop: Our old workplace in NY! Our manager is no longer around (probably got fired lol) but Daniel is! Or as I still like to call him, Not-Henney 😂

• Hana is so cutely excited about visiting the place where it all begin, a place she must have till now only heard about in the other LIs' stories. Sigh. Wish we'd brought her here earlier.

• Not-Henney has issues with how little attention Maxwell gave to the MC's origins. @callmetippytumbles points out that there's not much you can expect from an author who put his face on the cover of a book about you. Cmon, Not-Henney.

• Told you "Things are Great" would become a meme.

• He now asks what the experience of being an actual Queen/Duchess is like. You can go for the funny route (glam parties that'll make Beyonce jealous. Oh idk, does Beyonce like an overabundance of apples?), the realistic route (speaking about everyone's expectations weighing on you), and the romantic route, which brings out some cute responses in both Not-Henney and the LIs, ranging from delight to awkwardness.

• Oh snap. The paps are here.

• We make a run for it (in two options, with Daniel's help), and keep driving. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, the MC mentions a motorcycle when speaking about Drake, which makes me wonder in we will end up having a motorcycle scene in Texas itself. I mean, the writers did mention being excited about a scene featuring one in their livestream.

• Maxwell picks the next stop, and it's that engagement barn we built for Liam, apparently. Or the house of Robert, Steve Tennyson's (PM) dad. Where he has found the "biggest ball of string". Only Joy and Hope, my corgis, seem even remotely happy about this.

•

...Okay Maxwell.

Hana needs to roast people more. Roast EVERYONE in that friend group and EVERYONE in that court!

• Fun Fact: This chapter was released on the 50th anniversary of the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing 😁

• As proven from this scene, the few brain cells this group collectively has, all belong to Hana.

• It's now time to check out what the group brought as provisions:

MC: Nothing, she's only here to ask what everyone else brought

Drake: Jerky

Maxwell: Tequila (!!)

Liam: IDK Esther I thought a four-course meal would just fall upon our laps from the heavens

Hana: ME! Bring cookies that I've NOT warmed by the fires wrought from the bowels of the deepest hells??? BLASPHEMY.

As always Hana saves everyone's ass this fine day. I actually quite like this bit with Hana, because it veers a tiny bit more towards "perfectionist" than just simply "perfect". Hana would be the kind of person to worry excessively over being a good hostess, since that's something she's been learning since she was a little girl (remember the tea scene in the flashback).

• We now stop by at Washington DC - Hana's suggestion - because she wanted to look at the cherry blossoms. I was quite chuffed about this when I found out coz I always used to have her down as more of a "plum blossom" girl, and this is pretty close 😁

• That little bit in DC where speaks of the area as "a marvel of both nature and civic engineering" is a nice touch, since Liam has always been associated with monuments and national legends.

• THE PAPS?? AGAIN????

• ...If my spouse and I have to spend ALL our time answering questions about babymaking, where are we going to find the time to babymake, mediapeople? Ever thought of that? Huh? Huh??

• This option is hands down the best fucking option in this chapter lol:

YOU'RE ALL SUCH DORKS ISTG

• We're now in a small town where Liam wants to mingle and be one with the locals. He's not been very successful in doing this in Cordonia (where people can literally look at his face and figure out who he is), but because it's the US and not many people might recognize him here, his chances of not being caught are better.

• This is the first character scene in the new series. It's pretty alright, not a lot of insights or anything, just a simple scene where Liam gets to not worry about acting like a royal, occasionally acknowledge his privilege, be charmingly naive, order milkshakes, and listen to the MC's insights on how she will bring up her/their kid. He does mention it opens some new perspectives on understanding his people, but I'm not sure we'll get to see much of what learnings he will put into action because, yknow, Cordonian commoners are practically invisible.

• This scene is also proof that you can take Liam out of the court but you can't take the court out of Liam.

• It begins with what the MC calls "a sidewalk hello", where she can either guide or massively troll him. The first two options are awkward as hell (I did like the bowing one though lolol coz she tells him he's probably made someone's day with his "courtly manners"), and the third is for Liam to simply ignore the other person and stare at his phone.

• Next scene involves getting Liam to buy groceries...coz he's never brought groceries. Why would he Esther he has a staff.

• They have a choice between fruit, nachos with everything on them (and they weren't kidding about "everything") and chocolates. I chose fruit.

• You also get some cute tidbits about Liam's life growing up in the palace. Here are the important ones:

- Constantine and Eleanor agreed they wanted Liam to be self-sufficient but "disagreed on how far to take that principle" (given what Liam says about her in one of the other options, I'm guessing Eleanor wanted to take it a lot more further).

- Liam can make spaghetti carbonara!!!

- Laundry: So there was this one time Leo and Liam played tag close to a champagne tower at an event, and it fell down. Eleanor insisted they "clean up the mess [they] made. A reasonable lesson in decorum and consequences". I kinda like this little crumb of info considering there is so little we know about her.

- Eating leftovers: Liam used to have sleepovers at Jackson and Bianca's quarters, and he tells us he was "proud to help Drake's mother microwave the leftovers" coz to his little mind he thought that was cooking 😁 I know, I know, I believed my mom when she put a tiny bit of coffee powder in my milk and told me it was actual coffee haha.

- Doesn't know how to do dishes. He knows soap and water is involved lol.

• The final part of the scene involves Liam treating himself at a diner with (what else!) a milkshake, while casually chatting with the MC about how she feels about the simplicity of her past life, and the way she plans to bring up her (or their) own child.

• Liam not immediately understanding that utensils are self-serve reminds me of Hana's confusion at the idea of a McDermots not having wait-staff.

• The MC has options for how to respond to Liam's question about bringing up a child - 1. I'd like my child to be practical and aware of their role, they don't need to learn how to fold a bed sheet or do dishes. 2. I want my child to have a bit of both worlds so that they're more flexible in their approach. 3. My child should be acutely aware of what the common person in Cordonia goes through if they're going to have to rule fairly over them. These three options in some way allow you to imagine what the MC would be like as a mother, and what upbringing this 'heir' might have.

•

I've never actually seen YOU make much of an effort to find out in Cordonia.

• There's also a tiny bit about Regina that follows this optional dialogue if you're married to him, which I really like: Liam states to Esther that those are "wise words from the wisest queen I know", following which she points out that he's lucky Regina hasn't heard it. Liam's response to that is: "after all this time, I think she'd agree with me". Regina's kinda grown on me over the series, and I do hope we see her again!

• Overall the scene's alright. It's there, it's cute, it's filler like the rest of the chapter. Only time will tell if it will actually result in anything in the future, which kind of leads me to wonder what Character Scenes are going to look like going forward (now that the LI scenes mostly perform the function for both characterization and romance). But the biggest takeaway right now for me is what Liam has to say about his parents, and optionally about his mother. I think that may point towards something later on.

• LMAO @ the random stranger in the diner optionally thinking Liam's brother might be Thor. Leo would be pleased 😂 Also a nice touch to see her recognize us again at the lingerie store if we buy both scenes!

• We now have a scene featuring the couples in their hotel bedroom, where the LI and MC have either had a bit of a wild night, or where the MC has just finished her at-home fertilization procedure (if the LI is Hana). There's a little chit-chat here and there about the moments they have now and about privacy, but it's different in the case of Hana.

• You finally get the chance to ask about how she feels, and this is the response:

• That's it then, I guess 😒 I'm honestly not surprised, given how much in a hurry they were to have Hana concentrate on the MC in the doctor's office itself. I'll expand more on this later.

LIAM. YOU FOOL. I'M WEARING IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

• Honestly I don't see the point in having the MC suggest the lingerie in Liam's playthrough (the others basically make the suggestion instead, and they say "well, you're wearing that", instead, implying that they're talking about what she has on already) if they're not going to code it properly.

• The actual lingerie scenes are pretty cute! And fun! And comes with cool dialogues options, and this:

• NOW I know why Hana's lingerie was head and shoulders above the rest. SHE WAS THE ONE WHO CHOSE IT.

• So here's a rundown of all four LI scenes:

- Liam: The clerk from the store (who was also the girl who noticed Liam in the Incognito Scene if you bought that) recognizes Liam and the MC, freaks out and closes the store so they can shop in full privacy. The rest of it is cute playful banter, like expressing surprise at this being Liam's first time at a lingerie store. She then chooses black silk boxers with a golden baroque design. LMAO trust the MC to get him a Versace. 😂

- Drake - Tells the MC he likes it when she takes the lead. The MC then gets to ask him whether he would be down to wearing handcuffs or pink feathers. To the second option, Drake claims that he would "wear a tutu and crown if you told me you had a thing for the sugar fairy". LMAO they really are desperate to show us how much they learned from the "pink cake" fiasco. Pity how they couldn't teach themselves to treat their one female LI with respect. Anyway, the MC chooses red silk boxers with polka dots (!!)

- Maxwell - This scene is a fever dream from start to finish. Maxwell is happy and excited and SUPER SUPER enthusiastic, asking the MC to drop a beat so he can break into a dance at the store. The MC chooses blue silk boxers with squid designs on them. EVEN MAXWELL CANNOT CONTAIN HIS SHOCK. (PS: This scene marks the third appearance of "release the kraken!" 😄).

- Hana - Hana has apparently seen shops like these from the outside but has never been to one (same sis same). She speaks of how she never had anyone to do it for, which is why she is so happy about it now coz she can do it for the MC. A sweet, simple conversation. The difference here is that Hana knows what she wants, and chooses the lingerie herself: a beautiful lace and fishnet number with garter belt and stockings. She looks amazing and part of that is because unlike her friends, she realizes that her wife has deplorable fashion sense.

• It's now the next day, and Drake tries really hard to hoodwink everyone into making his "next stop" the Walker ranch, but the Royal Entertainment Committee threatens him with an "intimidating interpretive dance performed by me" (is he going to jump out the car and sing Kiki Do You Love Me too?). It's enough to scare Drake into picking a nicer stop.

• It's now time to listen to some tunes!! Everyone squabbles a little over what music to choose and the MC gets to pick either of them:

- Hana's Choice: A piano concerto that Liam loves, makes Drake cry and Maxwell go all happy-sleepy.

- Liam's Choice: Chartbusters. "Top 40s". Drake is surprised coz the last time they drove together, Liam made him listen to 52 versions of a single Bach sonata, to which Liam cheekily responds that doing so made him figure out which one was Drake's favourite.

- Maxwell's Choice: Some song that Maxwell did a deejay mix to, and apparently Liam (and presumably Drake) lent backing vocals to. Going by Liam's advance apology it must be pretty fucking terrible.

- Drake's Choice: Classic rock tunes that he can do air-guitar to. Liam concedes it has rhythm, Drake responds that it has rhythm and attitude. He tries to do air guitar in the car but Hana, panicking, reminds him that he's the one driving.

- What Would Have Been Bertrand's Choice/We Shall Drive In Silence!: Apparently when the MC says this, Maxwell says that she channeled Bertrand so hard "he flashed before my eyes". The MC reasons that if no one wants to listen to anyone else's music they might as well be quiet. Maxwell tries to bring up other alternatives such as playing his kazoo-tar, at which point EVERYONE agrees that silence is golden.

• This bit is one of my favourites in the chapter. Probably the second after "say cheese" haha.

• It's Hana's turn to drive and Maxwell is helping her by asking she carve that path from her heart. Which she does, even though she has mentally memorized the next twelve steps she needs to take.

• Liam drives, explaining when the MC asks that Drake was his first driving instructor (Drake had his licence already and they may have used a royal golf course or two for practice runs).

• Maxwell finds a new waypoint: Thrilltown. His reasoning is quite poignant (everything is changing, the MC and LI - in some cases him - will be having a child soon and everyone will be busy in their respective roles, when will everyone be together like this again?). The rest of the group comfort and reassure him, stating that they will probably see more of each other now. In any case...perhaps to Maxwell this is like a last hurrah to the carefree life he used to have.

• We start with choosing rides. Maxwell and Drake choose The Accelerator, which Maxwell describes as "fast. furious. and it uses gravity at speeds that Thrilltown can't legally release to the public!". Hana and Liam choose the "gentler" option - the carousel - which has you ride unicorns, griffins, dragons and other fantastical beings.

• I'm surprised the writers don't have him react even a little to the carousel, considering one of his scariest experiences took place on one (Book 1 Chapter 16). Just show him say "yeah...I'll pass" or show some emotion or other. It's like that armoury scene in his playthrough of Book 3 Chapter 11 where Madeleine could mock Liam about his feelings for the MC and Maxwell is pretty much sitting there not reacting. It's so lazy. I can't.

• Carousel with Liam and Hana: I loved this one, very cute. The carousel has fantasy elements and mythical animals, things that both Liam and Hana love. The MC gets to sit on a phoenix (like her optional Valtoria sigil!), Liam on a dragon (like the royal family's old crest! Dom would be proud) and Hana on a unicorn (which suits her particular style of whimsy). It's cute and fun and sounds exactly like the kind of thing Liam and Hana would enjoy.

The Accelerator with Maxwell and Drake: They call it EXTREME, and it lives up to its name. Maxwell is ecstatic obviously because he's a thrill-seeker and a ride like this is completely in his wheelhouse. Drake gets caught red-handed handed actually enjoying the ride.

• We try out something called The Vortex of Terror, where Liam challenges his friends to not scream up until the end of the ride. Ironically he's the first one to cave 🤣🤣

• "I accept your terms, Liam...as long as you're prepared to lose". Badass enough to challenge the king of the country xD (considering the way that ride goes, I think she was right haha).

• I need more Competitive, Sarcastic Hana outside of cute group scenes.

• One of two people can win this challenge: either the MC or Hana. If the MC wins, she gets to hoist herself on the LI's shoulders towards the next ride. If Hana wins, she perches herself on top of Drake's because he's pretty damn tall.

• Our last ride is called "Lover's Leap" and it's pretty much the romantic portion of the group scene, really.

At the end of it, the LI brings you a green candy drink, and then lets you know how this trip to Thrilltown is representative of their journey together and the change the MC has brought to their lives.

• Both Hana and I have no freaking clue what Liam means when he says "I call shotgun" before they head out.

• Lol @ Cordonia having its own version of "Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall". And of course it's going to feature Cordonian Rubies 🤣

• We now reach the ranch, where those of us who didn't marry Drake meet his mother Bianca for the very first time (in every other playthrough she is called "The Rider" and in Drake's her sprite is addressed by name).

• There ends the chapter, on a 'suspicious' note, the kind that seems to sound like things are suspicious but they're probably not. Bertrand's head must be exploding from the lack of spoons.

General Thoughts:

• It's a good thing this filler chapter exists, even if it's mostly inconsequential fluff, because at least that's one chapter less to deal with BertVannah and Drake and his family.

• It's also pretty expensive because the writers knew their crowd by now and know that that crowd is willing to spend.

• The scenes were in keeping with the mood of the chapter - light and fluffy, lots of friendship and some amount of romance. I ended up liking the free short scenes more than any of the diamond ones this chapter honestly.

• So...on the outset, it seems good that the MC is able to check on Hana, post the visit to Dr Ramirez. Hearing Hana's answer, however, brought back every issue I've ever had with the way they've written Hana.

I mean, sure, not everyone reacts the same way to such painful news. I understand that. But here the writers are basically using Hana to minimize what she's going through. They use her to dismiss her own pain with "oh that's okay, I'm just happy that at least you can carry that baby". All that proves is that the female LIs' experiences and pain mean nothing in front the MC's needs.

I've spoken before about the numerous times Hana's pain had been brushed aside or her space eaten into, to favour particular characters, and this just happens to be a repeat of the same formula. This is especially bad because it proves that the only reason they put Hana through this kind of hell in the first place is so that only the MC can carry the child. Her condition isn't allowed to be anything else other than a plot convenience: not an opportunity to open a conversation on this, nor to help develop her as a character. It's merely a narrative device meant to make coding easier. It's dismissive, lazy and reeks of a deplorable lack of care. And again I have to ask, why put her through this if you're so desperate to ignore it afterwards??

• The other big problem is that considering the gravity of that situation, why is checking on her an option rather than actual default dialogue?? If you choose the option to continue talking about playlists instead, the topic just never emerges again. Again I have to ask, what the hell kind of wife is the MC? I mean even before they got the news, the MC was pretty much doing nothing. She wasn't planning for Hana, she wasn't thinking much in terms of what to do for her, everything seems to just revolve around her even in a scenario where either one could have been a mother.

• The lingerie scene seems to me to have elements of a type of diamond scene in the flagship series - the ones where we could buy new casual clothing for our LIs in NY. The LI requires a new look, the MC suggests for a change and often picks out something that she thinks would work (some of her choices - like Liam's pants or Drake's sunglasses are...questionable 😅), and from then on this would be their option for ultra-casual occasions. The one casualwear scene that is different from all these is Maxwell's: he gets his sleeveless shirt and Bubbles necklace at a shop in Coney Island, during the group scene (I think part of this was that they were attempting a step-by-step LI-upgrade because they were a new couple at that point...which was why his first 30 diamond scene was during the Gala, after they'd been together for a little while. Still doesn't excuse all the ways they ignored his background and history though).

The main difference between the casualwear scenes and the lingerie ones is that the first dealt put the MC and LI in different situations and dealt with different issues (therefore was a scene of its own) and the second really just revolved around the lingerie. Perhaps the lingerie scene would be what you'd call an 'extended outfit option'? As opposed to something that's a scene all on its own?

• I was actually quite surprised we got a character scene in this series. Given how much they'd drastically cut down on them in favour of beefing up their LI scenes more, I was fully expecting not to see them. I do prefer them to the LI scenes sometimes, because my LI is not the only one I want to be keeping tabs on, and I do want to know what's happening in their lives.

• What is the difference between the two? I hear some of you ask. Well, good question because I'm about to launch into one of my long-winded explanations again.

• Diamond Scenes in TRR/H: I've been holding off on writing about these, since I believed that the series probably had done away with character scenes and preferred to use LI scenes for both romance and development. With this chapter, I now understand that's not the case.

• So...simply put, the difference between an Character Scene and an LI scene, is that the first focuses on the same character in all playthroughs (eg. no matter who you are romancing, if you buy these scenes it's Hana who will play Snow Angels with you, or Drake who will go fishing with you), and the second focuses on who you are engaged/married to (eg. If I'm romancing Hana, I will not be going to the movies with Liam. If I'm romancing Maxwell, I will not be having a cake testing session with Drake).

During Books 1 and 2, when the MC wasn't altogether exclusive with any LI as such, each character would have their own specific scene which expanded further on their characterization and gave the MC a chance to learn more about them. Most of the romance in these scenes were by choice, with the exception of a few lines here and there. The writers tried to continue this way of formatting diamond scenes even beyond Liam's proposal, but the amount of backlash from the portions of the scenes that involved the MC cheating on her confirmed LI...kind of made them backtrack on this plan quite a bit.

Book 3 switched the format up a little. It was similarish in a lot of ways to RoE, except that unlike that book (where the other two would disappear once you got engaged to one), we were also friends with the other LIs. Besides outfits and plot development scenes (such as the one in the Nevrakis replica armory with Olivia and Gladys) and group scenes, the book also offered two types of scenes for the reader to connect with the characters they liked:

1. LI Scenes: These scenes are meant for the LI the MC is marrying, and are coded differently based on that. This kind of scene was first used in the series in the first chapter of Book 3, where the MC and LI could comfort each other in the safe house. The initial chapters had a similar approach to the scenes as RoE Book 3 (where Mr Sloan, Leo and Dean all ended up sounding like each other), in that the dialogues sounded pretty cut-and-paste, with little to no actual variations beyond a few things (an example of this was how - in the Book 3 Chapter 6 Spa Scene in Applewood - all the LIs spoke of being "dumb in love" with the MC - which suited certain LIs, but sounded extremely jarring on others.

During Book 3, a high number of complaints about the series revolved around this copy-paste routine for the LIs, mostly because the characters were so different from each other, and wouldn't speak the same or even have the same experiences. Around Book 3 Chapter 8, major shifts began to happen in the way these scenes were written, starting with the Movie-going Scene in Castelserraillian. Post that chapter, and the hiatus, there was a significant decrease in the number of individual character scenes, and an increase in both number and quality of the LI scenes. It is very possible that they found juggling both stressful and dialed back on one to personalize the other further.

2. Character Development Scenes: These were scenes with the LI that you got regardless of whether you were marrying them or not. This scene would be viewed over all playthroughs, with differences based on whether you were marrying them or not. If you were not marrying them, these scenes would appear neutral and the romantic options would simply not be there, or be replaced by more neutral ones. Examples of such scenes include Drake's Cordonian Waltz Scene in Fydelia (Book 3 Chapter 3), Liam's Gastrodiplomacy Scene in Castelserraillian (Book 3 Chapter 7), Hana's Polo Scene in Portavira (Book 3 Chapter 5) and Maxwell's Armoury Scene in Lythikos (Book 3 Chapter 11).

The most important thing to remember is that these scenes are expected to be coded differently (according to your relationship with said LI), not only by adding romantic options for the MC to choose, but also in the actions of the characters by default. For instance, the Fydelia Cordonian Waltz scene in Drake's playthrough incorporates - by default - all the sensuality you should be finding in this waltz, while his friendly playthrough is merely the MC teaching him the basics so they have an edge over Neville. By default, if you buy the Gastrodiplomacy scene as Liam's fiancée, the chocolate souffle you sampled with him would feature at your wedding reception.

I say the scenes were expected to be coded differently, because very often they were not. In a lot of cases the only proof you'd have in those scenes that the LI and MC were even together were from the MC's actions. For instance, even though Hana was going to be a duchess on marriage to the MC, the same as Drake - only Drake got to speak in detail about it. This opportunity came for Hana very briefly only by Chapter 14, well past the midpoint of Book 3.

• So when Book 3 began the formula was mostly "leave the character scenes for developing the LI's issues or getting them to teach something, and concentrate on nothing else but the romance for your LI scenes". However this wasn't exactly workable given how different each LI was and therefore how odd some of their dialogue sounded. The dial back is understandable (though, as someone who has looked through various playthroughs in this book, I can tell you the imbalances found across character scenes were on a whole different level).

• Why I've elaborated on this is to give context to a question I now have about the narrative: what are the Character Scenes going to look like from here on out? Post the hiatus, they would vary - they could be mostly plot-driven, or fun and light but not much depth or variation, or fun and light, and also opening up diverging conversations based on your relationship. Now that they seemed to have locked down some format in this book at least, what's it going to sound like?

The Liam Character Scene today was fun, light, had default differences based on whether you were marrying him or not, but ultimately had very little to give to the story other than a few facts about Liam's home life and (in a way that expands on what we already know about her and her dynamic with Constantine) his mother. What exactly does he learn? What new insights is he getting as a King who self-admittedly exists and operates in a "statesman's bubble"?

It also remains to be seen whether buying this scene will have any effect of future events - like Liam's Applewood Tour Scene, where his retelling of King Fabian's story had an impact on our conversation with Kiara's mother Joelle. I'm probably going to keep track on how these character scenes are being written in this series, considering that we already have a pretty good idea of how their LI scenes are done.

• Twice I've seen Eleanor associated with pasta. In Book 1 Liam mentions simple tomato pasta as a childhood dish that reminded of his mother, and here shortly after he speaks about his parents he mentions knowing to cook spaghetti carbonara. IDK what that's supposed to mean but I'm bringing it up anyway. I'm mean, what if it's a part of Auvernese cuisine 😂

• I guess that's it for this week! Time for me to scram and finish my Book 1 Chapter 5 QT too before the next chapter drops!

[themildestofwriters-ocs]

OC Masterlist

~Divine Intervention~

Babette Felicia Abrams Melwyn

Celestial | Veteran | The Goddess out of Time

When Babette returned to Earth, she wasn’t even sure she was truly home. But, after a few months of the world staying remarkably consistent, she was beginning to rule out her return as some fever dream of the dying. This didn’t change anything though. It didn’t stop the nightmares. It didn’t stop the memories. Her family—and they were her family, weren’t they?—tried to help, but it had been so long and she could barely remember them.

She needed air. She needed some alone time, out of the hospital, out of the home. So what if it was Shabbos? Home was barely home anymore.

Tag: #oc: babette melwyn

fc: Anya Taylor-Joy

Josephine Avery Williams

Artist | Student | A Fan of the Classics

Josephine was a girl with a lot on her mind and, considering graduation was right around the corner, it was quite the pain in the ass. Grades, ATAR, university prospects, work prospects, drama rehearsals, and this isn’t even counting all going on in her private life. She felt like she was drowning in a tumultuous sea, barely being given the chance to breath.

Small things first. It was Samuel’s birthday, soon, wasn’t it? She still hadn’t gotten him a gift, yet. Perhaps she could organize a short trip to the city, just for that?

Tag: #oc: josephine williams

fc: Jessica Sula

Yael Aoi Melwyn

Complicated | Blade Fanatic | Takes After her Father

The first few moments of life for young Yael Melwyn was the sterile light of a laboratory, behind the spotless glass of her tank. A clone, bred to kill her genetic father and serve as an executioner of the Empire, but defective. She would’ve been thrown to the incinerator or dissected to perfect the final, penultimate clone. But when the very woman she was bred to kill besieges the facility she was born, plans change.

Older now, Yael searches for her father who had vanished so long ago. Her heart aches with pain and confusion and straight denial that Babette was dead. She was lost without her, lost without the single anchor she had in life, without her guardian.

So, when a being of pure light visited her in the night, asking if she wanted to be with her father again, there was no other answer she could give but “Yes.”

Tag: #oc: yael melwyn, #oc: yuuki melwyn, (defunct)

Ezra Valeria Melwyn

Miracle Child | Daydreamer | A Godling in the Playground

Ezra Melwyn, named after his mother’s brother in arms. Despite the chaos that was his birth, life for the little godling has been blessedly quiet (at least, so Mum says). But... there’s something wrong.

A pit of longing grows in little Ezra’s heart. Gods are abound, Uncle Apollo is proof enough, but the only kids like him are in his books. There is no Camp Half-blood, and aren’t any other godlings running around. He loves his mortal friends, but he’s the odd one out. Lavender skinned and golden eyed, he’s alone.

Tag: #oc: ezra melwyn, #oc: azrael melwyn, (defunct)

Henrietta Abrams

One night and Henrietta’s entire life was thrown into chaos. She barely had time to understand what was happening before her sister was shipped away in a speeding ambulance. When she next saw her, it was like a viceral punch to the gut. Tubes stuck out of her arms, out of her

she looked skeletal, almost dead yet somehow clinging to life.

What had happened to her sister? Why did she look at her family like they were strangers?

Tag: #oc: henrietta abrams, #oc: henrietta phillips, (defunct)

Miscellaneous OCs

Josephine’s Family: Harrison Williams (father), Alyssa Williams (mother), Noah Williams (older brother; deceased), Adrian Williams (little brother), Sofia Meric (aunt), Samuel Meric (cousin).

Babette’s Family: Aharon Abrams (father), Diana Harris-Caynham (mother), Fredrick Harris-Caynham (step-father), Benjamin Abrams (older brother), Henrietta Abrams (little sister), Flynn Harris-Caynham (little half-brother).

~A God Among Us~

Amara Windell

[synopsis pending]

Tag: #oc: amara windell

Meryl Culson

[synopsis pending]

Tag: #oc: meryl culson

~ INFAMOUS: Second Sons ~

Diana Evans, the Silica Conduit

Bio-Terrorist | Vagabond | Chaotic Good

Life sucked. First, your city is destroyed in a massive explosion. A plague sweeps the nation. Your family dies. You get superpowers, but you can’t do anything without the DUP hunting you down, and you can’t run far enough.

Years later, Diana Robin is sitting in her government funded cell, twiddling her thumbs. It’s not too bad, if you discount the guards treating you like subhuman pieces of trash, but the food’s alright and she can’t wait until Augustine lets her rip loose in the training arena again. But the Director has been gone for a while now, and nobody’s said a thing.

The answer comes soon enough, though, when some dude named Delsin Rowe comes bursting in, shattering the front door and liberating the conduits trapped inside. But, now that she’s free... what now?

Tag: #oc: diana evans

~Star Wars~

Lyira Arren, Apprentice to Darth Baras

Pureblood | Warrior | The Empire’s Wrath

Orphan of war and daughter of a hero, Lyira’s early life was filled with pain. But that was life, especially in the Empire. What really stung were the expectations. Her sister, Rayne Arren, heir to their house, was by far the more skilled of the daughters of Arren. The Force was second nature, and the things that she could do with her lightsaber were enviable.

What could Lyira ever hope to accomplish in the shadow of her sister, the prodigy? But now it is her turn to attend the prestigious Sith Academy on Korriban, and the most she can hope for is to survive.

Tag: #oc: lyira arren

~Vampire: The Masqurade~

Lisa Stroud

Tremere | Anarch | The Vampiric Troubleshooter

Strong soft arms, guide her to the bed. Bodies intertwined. Pain, then pure aching bliss. Bright lights and an insatiable hunger.

When Lisa went out clubbing to get over a rejection, she didn’t expect for anything to happen. A drink here or there; a break down in the bathroom. But now she’s been thrown into the deep end of vampire politics without a leg to stand on. With a puffed up Prince with the power to kill her in an instant and a brewing civil war on the horizon, Lisa just wished she could have one, one day to acclimatise to her new life.

Tag: #oc: lisa stroud

fc: Eiza Gonzalez

Julie and the Phantoms

Ryn “GrimmApple“ O’Brien

Skeptic | YouTuber | Problem-maker

Ryn was the quiet sort, content to fade into the background, an observer rather than a participant when it came to the daily dramas of Los Feliz High School. After all, why bother with who’s dating who when they could spend time thinking up ideas for their YouTube channel: GrimmApple.

A self-proclaimed skeptic, Ryn loves learning about the various supernatural phenomena, cryptids, aliens, and conspiracy theories across the world. More than that, they loved dissecting them, breaking them apart and debunking them—almost as much as they loved creating their own as little thought experiments. And that is precisely what GrimmApple was about.

Unfortunately, Ryn was going through a bit of a burnout. Motivation was hard to find and things were becoming a bit of a slog.

Then Julie Molina, a fellow classmate, takes the Spirit Assembly by storm with her hologram band, and Ryn needs a moment.

Holograms? Really?

Ryn wants to call bullshit. Where’d some high schooler get access to that sort of technology? In fact, why hadn’t anyone heard of holograms so advanced before? And how did Julie of all people, who hadn’t sung a single note for a year, got hold of a band in just one night? It just doesn’t add up!

So, with support and more than a little guiding wisdom from their older brother, Ryn sets out to solve the mystery that is Julie and the Phantoms.

tag: #oc: ryn o’brien

Terrence “Terry“ O’Brien

Himbo Extraordinaire | Aspiring Filmmaker | Penultimate Big Brother

Ryn’s brick wall of an older brother. Graduated high school top of the football team but quit sports to pursue film making. The gentle giant sort, he’s always looking out for his little sibling, whether it’s helping with their YouTube dream or lending support when life gets tough.

tag: #oc: terry o’brien

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Kaitlyn “Katie“ Walsh

Ray of Sunshine | Witch | Resident Pyromaniac

If Kaitlyn Walsh had to say where everything went wrong, she would cite Halloween night, 1997. One minute, she at a friend’s party, dressed up as a cute little witch. The next? She was face down in a pile of old books in the school’s library. Hours of time gone, no memory of what happened.

She wasn’t the only one. Countless people across Sunnydale had woken up in strange places across the town without any memory of how they got there. Of course, everyone else had different stories—break ins, arson, and violence in the street. It was utter chaos, and the only answer they were ever given was “A gas leak. Mass hallucinations. Nothing to worry about.”

Yeah. Nothing to worry about. Sure.

Still, she was alive. Her neck hadn’t ruptured, and nobody had tried stabbing her with a barbecue fork, so everything returned to normal. Schools. Studies. Boys. Parties. The usual. But… there was this niggling feeling that something had changed. That things were different now.

Then, one night, the power cut out. Her house was bathed in darkness. Rolling her eyes, she muttered a spattering of Latin and the candles decorating her vanity burst into flames.

She froze, staring into the fire and blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. “What the fuck?”

tag: #oc: kaitlyn walsh

fc: Bailee Madison