#saintly bomb

[terrence-silver]

If Terrys beloved is a single mum would he still pursue her and would he be a good step parent and father.

---

The agenda is quite simple, really:

Claim what he wants; namely, beloved.

They so happen to come in tow with a child from a previous relationship?

Alright then...change of plan. Adapt and overcome.

Ensure that kid loves, admires and adores him far more than they ever would their actual biological dad (and even the biological dad's extended family) through a combination of everything including expensive gift giving, subtle manipulations, enabling, love bombing, sweet talking and utilizing the means of whatever conditioning tool proves most fruitful given the situation. Beloved's his now. They belong to him. By extension, their kid will belong to him too and so will everything pertaining to beloved because he doesn't suffer competition behind that saintly facade he puts on. What's best, they'll never even realize what's happening because he won't let them realize.

Impress, draw further in and endear beloved further through just how much their child warmed up to him, making distancing oneself, as if though that was ever an option on the table in the first place, only the more difficult with each passing day, because you wouldn't break Billy's heart by putting a wedge between us now, would you? And if an attempt is ever made, of course the kid in question will naturally rebel on their own, as kids often do, making Terry's job easy for him, because beloved would not only be taking away a dad figure once, she will be doing so for a second time and Terry knows and anticipates this as a plan B. Terry will only effortlessly end up seeming like even more of a hero if beloved ever tried wiggling out.

So, really, Terry makes himself absolutely necessary. Irreplaceable. Number one.

Next on the agenda; ensure the actual biological dad is entirely erased from the game due to the fact that they'll never measure up to Terry Silver; the stepfather who does Karate, who's been in the military, who gives the coolest advice at just the right time, who owns a dojo, who employs a waiting staff, runs a company, wears amazing suits, so happens to live in a mansion and collects dozens of sports cars. He's, almost stereotypically speaking, literally almost every child's dream come true parent; another thing he is entirely aware of and plays into like there's no tomorrow. Biological father? Who on earth is that punk schmuck anyway?

What's worse, Terry won't even have to eliminate the man personally. Won't have to lift a finger or even open his mouth to besmirch and sabotage the guy; if anything, he'll tactically defend him to seem like the 'good cop' in comparison, further adding to the mystique that he's as humble as the salt of the earth and just as kind. Sooner or later, beloved and beloved's kid will distance themselves from the man on their own because Terry will prove to be a father figure like no other; someone nobody can measure up to and what's the point of anyone ever even trying (a grace Terry rejects with a fake sense of being humble). I mean, he defends beloved's ex and speaks of about equity! Consideration! Fair play! Can you believe!?

By the end of it, beloved and the child will be the ones feeling grateful due to Terry Silver coming into their lives in the first place and internally, he'll laugh and laugh and laugh until the end of time because he's won just like he always knew he would.

[alienoresimagines]

I wish you would write a fanfiction from this post of yours https://www.tumblr.com/alienoresimagines/755182047045287936/bucky-exists-1940buck-this-means-nothing-im 🥰🥰

I'd like some good old denial of feelings!!

I swear I didn't forget about this but this is the snippet that grew legs to run away from me and when I finally reigned him in, he was 6,239 words long 😅 THough that's mostly because I think if I gave the Buckies anything other than an explicit happy ending I'd die lol. So here's a snippet and the link to the full fic on AO3, featuring an oblivious Buck, then in denial Buck and all throughout a saintly Bucky Also I'm leaving on holidays tomorrow for the next two weeks so I don't know how much content I'll be able to give you but I'll do my best to entertain you as much as I can 🫡

I hope you'll like it ❤️

Gale And His feelings for Bucky, in four Acts (Link to AO3)

As though summoned, Bucky appears next to him in their washroom, hair still mussed from sleep. Today is a no-mission day, meaning they have more time to prepare and make their way to breakfast. It also means Bucky's more relaxed as he saddles up next to Gale at the sink, knocking their shoulders together as a greeting. Never mind that the first thing John does upon waking up is to turn to Gale's bunk with a crisp "Morning, Buck!" before ruffling his hair. The only reason why Gale allows that last part is because his hair isn't styled yet and is already a mess so it's not like it matters. It has nothing to do with how John's hand is so large and yet so gentle in his hair, or how his face softens in wonder sending Gale's heart rabitting in his chest. 

There's an unoccupied sink at Gale's left but John seems adamant on them sharing one to brush their teeth so, while John washes his own face, Gale takes a step to the left to evenly occupy the space of the narrow sink. Head still in the army-issued towel, Bucky follows until their shoulders touch again. When the other looks up at him with a mischievous grin, Gale makes sure he sees him roll his eyes and pretends his heart doesn't skip a beat when John throws his head back with a bark of laughter. Bucky always shines brighter on no-mission days. 

On those days, they still fly, but only for training purposes. Dropping sandbags over designated squares in East Anglia is not nearly as nervewracking as flying over occupied Germany to drop bombs. In fact, it brings a sense of nostalgia for long-gone days spent in Florida training cadets. A time when war still seemed distant and a possibility rather than an impending threat of doom and death. Then, John had been by his side too, his voice in his ears as they led their cadets in the endless blue. If he closes his eyes and pretends that the ache in his shoulders is from the burning sun rather than exhaustion, that Bucky's eyes are brighter and his smile less fake, he can almost imagine they're back in Florida. 

[traumatizeddfox]

how to tell if you're talking to a misogynist or potential rapist:

if you reject him and he doesn't politely accept it or acts out in any way at you

he hypes up men a lot in front of you but often criticizes women too much

he pushes for what he wants out of you

he gets offended when you want to take a picture of his license plate to send to your loved ones, send a picture of what he looks like and his name to your loved ones or when you give your location to friends and family when you're with him

he doesn't like when a woman does better than him in something

he gets offended when you do something harmless like buy a product thats typically veered towards men for yourself

he refers to us as females all the time as if we've been reduced to an animal

say offensive or cruel stuff followed by compliments, sometimes it can be 50/50 or he can say cruel things on rare, rare occasions, followed by even 99% compliments and kindness (these ones play a more deceitful role in relationships)

he admires bad people like Jeffrey epstein

more easily embarrassed with women when we make a mistake than he is when men make mistakes

A misogynist may be love-bombing, charming, charismatic, superficial glib, (says very little with a whole lot of fillers), Etc.

small critiques of your appearance

These are all red flags.

• If he makes demeaning comments about women and their role in society or their importance and value, these are huge red flags of misogyny. This is what I also experienced.

• For example, if he's watching a crime show and sees a female detective and claims she would have done her job better if she were a man…

• For example, if he expresses double standards in his thinking, such as it's okay for a man to be promiscuous, but a woman needs to be pure and saintly.

• If he implies that he feels that a woman has value up until age 30.

• If he implies that a woman loses her value after 30 or if she becomes a single mother.

is entitled

[thepictureofjune]

The Tortured Poets Department of schloss einstein ; the anthology

part 1 here and now we continue except the nitpicking gets more crazy the closer you look.

Enjoy :]

The Black Dog - Ava Eilers (Staffel 27 post 1065)

I am someone who until recent events You shared your secrets with And your location, you forgot to turn it off And so I watch as you walk Into some bar called The Black Dog And pierce new holes in my heart You forgot to turn it off And it hits me I just don't understand how you don't miss me

So Ava revealed that Patrick actually really hurt her and to this day, it still seems to be something that drifts them apart yet Patrick seems like he doesn’t know anything about it, perhaps doesn’t even see it as a big thing. Yet to Ava, this was everything. (written pre 1067 btw)

imgonnagetyouback - Leon und Simon (Staffel 27 post 1066 u 1067)

Whether I'm gonna be your wife or Gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet But I'm gonna get you back Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house, I haven't decidеd yet But I'm gonna get you back I, I hear thе whispers in your eyes I'll make you wanna think twice You'll find that you were never not mine Small talk, big love, act like I don't care what you did I'm an Aston Martin that you steered straight into the ditch Then ran and hid

this is mostly here for shigs and giggles and bcs we got a Limon l-word bomb before we got Nolin so yeah

How did it end? - Noah Temel (Staffel 27) 

And so a touch that was my birthright became foreign Come one, come all It's happenin' again The empathetic hunger descends We'll tell no one Except all of our friends We must know How did it end? (...) Say it once again with feeling How the death rattle breathing Silenced as the soul was leaving The deflation of our dreaming Leaving me bereft and reeling My beloved ghost and me Sitting in a tree D-Y-I-N-G It's happenin' again How did it end? I can't pretend like I understand How did it end?

To me, this is Noah being an outsider in the divorce of his parents, being just a child as his parents kept fighting, kept moving on and throughout all of this, he has no idea why it is happening nor how it came to an end like that.

So High School - Marlon und Nesrin (Staffel 27) 

I feel so high school every time I look at you I wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you And in a blink of a crinklin' eye I'm sinkin', our fingers entwined Cheeks pink in the twinkling lights Tell me 'bout the first time you saw me (...) Are you gonna marry, kiss or kill me? It's just a game, but really I'm bettin' on all three for us two (...) Truth, dare, spin bottles You know how to ball, I know Aristotle

Don’t think I need to explain this one. 

I Hate It Here - Maxi Zielenski (Staffel 27) 

I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind People need a key to get to, the only one is mine I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child No mid-sized city hopes and small-town fears I'm there most of the year 'cause I hate it here I hate it here Nostalgia is a mind's trick If I'd been there, I'd hate it (...) I'm lonely, but I'm good I'm bitter, but I swear I'm fine I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life  and I'll get lost on purpose

Okay I think we’re all aware that Maxi probably hates every place she is in. Her home felt foreign and now at the school, the only reason she is there in the first place is her grandmothers treasure and it is said that as soon as that’s gone, she wants nothing more than to leave. 

thank you aIMee - Joel Lucas (Staffel 26 u 27)

And then she wrotе headlines In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I'd take And it was always the same searing pain But I prayed that, one day, I could say All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin' And I couldn't wait to show you it was real Screamed, "Fuck you, Aimee" to the night sky as the blood was gushin' But I can't forget the way you made me heal Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman But she used to say she wished that you were dead I pushed each boulder up the hill Your words are still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head I built a legacy that you can’t undo

We meet Joel as someone who would rather have success than friends, who doesn’t seem to care for other people but who also is sad whenever things don’t work out for him. Makes you wonder why, no? Why that kid came to the school not caring if he made friends. Why he always felt like an outsider in every social intersection with everyone he ever talked to. How such a kid went from not caring about other people to doing everything he could to keep his best friend. (need to get started on that joel analysis already I have too many thoughts about him)

The Prophecy - Mikka Lund-Mayr (Staffel 26 u 27)

Change the prophecy Don't want money Just someone who wants my company Let it once be me Who do I have to speak to About if they can redo the prophecy? Cards on thе table Mine play out like fools in a fablе Oh, it was sinking in Slow is the quicksand Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand (...) And I sound like an infant Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen A greater woman stays cool But I howl like a wolf at the moon And I look unstable Gathered with a coven 'round a sorceress' table A greater woman has faith But even statues crumble if they're made to wait I'm so afraid I sealed my fate No sign of soulmates I'm just a paperweight in shades of greige Spending my last coin so someone will tell me it'll be okay

Mikka is canonically lonely if I may remind you of that. He doesn’t have his best friend anymore and somehow even when he tries to become friends with Reena again, it doesn’t really seem to last all that long (also because the writers literally forgot about him but yeah). All he has is his inventions. 

The Bolter - Simon Reuter (Staffel 27) 

By all accounts, she almost drowned When she was six in frigid water And I can confirm she made A curious child, ever reviled By everyone except her own father With a quite bewitching face Splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless Excellent fun 'til you get to know her Then she runs like it's a race Behind her back, her best mates laughed And they nicknamed her "The Bolter" (...) She's been many places with Men of many faces First, they're off to the races And she's laughing, drawin' aces But none of it is changin' That the chariot is waitin' Hearts are hers for the breakin' There's escape in escaping

Simon is wasted potential on all accounts because you’re really going to tell me he is proud and fine and happy with all the trophies he wins? That there isn’t mayhaps the need to always succeed because it’s what is expected of him? And he seems like he likes every girl at the entire school but cannot pull any of them simply because? Not because maybe he is trying to find the one that makes sense, the one girl that maybe makes him feel a little better about himself, because love is supposed to reveal our true selves and Simon has always been someone else his entire life? 

(i’m trying to give him the depth that the writers failed to bcs wdym he is just some guy who likes sports and girls?) (update nach 1066: nvm I think they really just gonna leave him with being everyones no.1 nuisance)

Robin - Chiara Dorn (Staffel 24 und alle danach eig auch)

Buried down deep And out of your reach The secret we all vowed To keep it from you in sweetness (...) You got the dragonflies above your bed You have a favorite spot on the swing set You have no room in your dreams for regrets The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline But now we'll curtail your curiosity In sweetness

This song references a lot of childish demeanor or behavior that is only known for children, trying to keep the illusion of innocence alive for someone who is too sweet to learn about all the cruelties of the world. For me, this is Chiara.

And we're done. (and now we can get back to over-analyzing kids that aren't actually sad but could very well be!)

— june🪐

[spilltheteawithme]

And didn't the rumour come out after he was reminiscing Leighton?

Since you asked, I wanted to share my observations and opinions about the timeline between September 19th and October 11th. It’s honestly a wild ride! Feel free to post it or not, depending on what you think is best. Sorry if I missed anything—I’m just trying to connect the dots here (You probably know more about PR tbh) :

Sept 19th – Sebastian drops some nostalgia bombs in his Variety article about Leighton Meester, which probably sent CAA into panic mode. Cue the scramble to boost AW’s visibility and deflect attention away from his past. They start throwing crumbs in the following weeks.

Sept 20th – In a Today Show interview, Seb mentions a bracelet from his mom, and you’d think he just declared war on the 'Stall' shippers! Their meltdown over his jewelry being tied to AW is peak absurdity. Like, chill—it’s a bracelet from the woman who gave birth to him—his MOTHER!

Sept 24th – Cleide Klock from CAA casually mentions Seb’s “girlfriend” who grew up in Portugal (ahem, AW) in an interview that went nowhere. Classic CAA move to keep AW relevant while trying to maintain their narrative.

Sept 19th - Oct 4th – DeuxMoi gets questions about Seb and AW’s relationship status, and what does DeuxMoi do? She posts screenshots of AW liking stuff and the stories she had about Seb's movie on IG. It’s like DeuxMoi is trying to portray AW as the supportive GF while also playing a game of whack-a-mole to keep her in the spotlight.

Oct 4th – At the Chiltern Firehouse party, Seb looks straight-up stressed while he pushes AW inside and helps Ruby with the straights instead. That tense jaw and body language say it all—definitely not the romantic vibe CAA is trying to sell. And that awkward selfie from Ruby and AW? Yikes! He legit looks constipated.

Oct 11th – DeuxMoi drops the bomb about Seb and Leighton, calling him a “couch fucker.” Like, can you say character assassination? This feels like a preemptive strike for AW to play the “wronged girlfriend” card if Seb doesn’t renew her contract.

Oct 13th – A video surfaces of Seb looking totally distressed while bolting from a hotel, with AW lagging behind like a lost puppy. The dude didn���t even glance back. Talk about a disconnect! Evelyn was there too, but honestly, who cares?

Oct 17th – AW tagged along with the cast at the Apprentice Gala Premiere in Copenhagen (as if she was part of the movie) —a classic desperate attention-seeking move. And Seb's smirk? Yeah, that’s not the look of a guy smitten. I mean, his eyes were doing something, and that smirk? It sounded more like a sarcastic “I’m amused by your antics, but not feeling the love,” totally contradicting the ‘bedroom eyes’ narrative the 'Stall' shippers are pushing.

My two cents:

All this evidence points to CAA trying to keep AW in the picture. Meanwhile, Seb keeps shading her in interviews—like when he mentions how people are addicted to filler, Botox, and social media, implying that those who spend their whole day scrolling lack substance and seek validation elsewhere. I think either she or her team realized he wasn’t going to renew the contract, so they paid DeuxMoi to post the podcast claiming Sebastian cheated on Leighton. Suddenly, we start seeing stories about him allegedly cheating on Jennifer and Diana, too.

It feels like a desperate attempt to either back him into a corner to renew the contract or set the stage for AW to portray herself as the saintly girlfriend who always supported him, only to be cheated on like he always does. Cue the “poor AW” narrative! Seriously, dragging up something that may or may not have happened years ago? Really?

Damn, that was loooong, and I probably forgot some stuff! I didn’t even get into her baiting and lurking on Insta stories because I’d be writing an entire novel instead of an ask (sorry, lol). So yeah, that’s basically my take on things, but who knows… maybe I’m just overthinking this soap opera! 🤷‍♀️

!

[leastdatablebracket]

QUARTERFINALS, MATCH 4

Propaganda under the cut!

Joseph Christiansen

Propaganda

So many reasons. He's already married, he's a jerk to his wife, he's already slept with at least one of the other romance options. That romance option goes to you before a date with Jospeh and damn near begs you not to be stupid and go with him. The worst part? You put up with all this and he leaves you to "work things out with his wife". She deserves so much better than him! One of the writers even said he's a sociopath. 

Married and a youth minister.

Cheater, cringe man, father of creepy children, possibly evil cultist, left a guy feeling used which said guy also became friends with Joseph's wife who appears to be an alcoholic likely as a coping mechanism since she's married to Joseph

He cheats on his wife, has done so before, lies to you by claiming that he's going to leave his wife when he clearly never intends to (and, in one ending, will even cheerfully suggest that you two continue having an affair in an extremely sleazy way), and judging by the fact that the other guy we know he cheated on his wife with, Robert, hates Joseph and is now very close friends with his wife, it seems clear to me that this whole "purposefully mislead someone into sleeping with you and then later drop the bomb that it was an affair" thing is repeat behavior with him. Also, I just find much of his behavior to be very manipulative and controlling; there are many situations where it seems to me that he's actively trying to paint others in a negative light while still coming off as saintly himself, such as an early scene where he subtly implies his wife is a shitty mom because she *checks notes* let their toddler out of her sight... during a neighborhood barbecue in a fenced-in yard surrounded by trusted adults and other kids. Also notice how in this scene he pushes *her* to go look for their son, rather than just looking himself, all while keeping up his "long-suffering husband" act. (and in other scenes can be found letting his other young children wander off into the woods with sharp implements and visibly not caring, but whatever). He does this with Robert, too -- the other guy he had an affair with. Almost everything he says about or to Robert is a subtle jab about his personality or his alcoholism. Classy, Joseph. Meanwhile, the fact that you can't actually end up with him in the end (because he was never going to leave his wife for you) started some of the most volatile discourse in the fandom and had people calling the devs homophobic and claiming they were spreading a message about "gay men needing to stay in loveless abusive marriages to women" (just ignore the fact that there are several other divorced gay dads in this game who all have great relationships with their kids and are not demonized in the slightest). HOWEVER, if you see people claiming he's a cultist or demon or something, that's untrue and was just going to be a non-canon spooky alternate ending that ended up getting cut. So I empathize with him a little bit for getting literally demonized by some fans for that cut alt ending. But he loses all those points by cheating on his wife multiple times and showing clear intent to continue doing so.

He's still married when you start dating him. He's also got like 5 kids that are some "children of the corn" kinda shit, and all their names have "Christ" in them

You don't even get to date him he's still married to his wife who he doesn't get along with. Tragic really

Cullen Rutherford

Propaganda

stupid racist cop creep whose fans cry about how hes "changed" and "you can't judge him he was addicted to magic drugs" nah he still chose to be a racist cop and abuse his power over innocent people and i hate him. the writers making him romanceable in da:i after how blatantly horrible he was in da:o and da:2 is baffling but i guess they had to appeal to the part of their audience who watch those "mafia boyfriend" videos on tiktok or whatever

He's creepy in origins, though still 100% willing to kill the female mage pc he's crushing on, as well as all the other mages trapped in the circle with him. He's the second-in-command in an even worse circle in 2, listening to and defending the increasingly obviously insane meredith until literally the end. He's one of the people still pushing for the circle system by inquisition, and yes he's going through withdrawals and working through the traumas of previous games. And to be brutally honest his was the first romance i took and while i don't remember much from it, its not worth all the girls going absolutely nuts over knockoff terrible alistair.

He's basically a cop who thinks being born a certain way can revoke personhood and by Inquisition still thinks mages are monsters to be controlled, not people. He gets a fairy tale cutesy romance that focuses on his personal struggles with addiction while showing absolutely no regard to the atrocities he committed and still thinks were justified. He can be romanced BY A MAGE and his actions and beliefs are just glossed over. He believes mages are 'not people like you (Hawke) and me', but if the Warden was a female mage he canonically had a crush on her and would deliberately hang around her despite the fact that he was her *jailer*. If that Warden romanced Leliana, there is war table dialogue in which he pesters Leliana for news of his 'former' crush despite her repeated statement that she doesn't want to talk to him about her. All this shitty behavior and lack of introspection gets swept under the rug by the game, not even giving the PC the chance to really challenge his beliefs. Like damn even Fenris could apologize when he lashed out due to past trauma with mages, and if anyone has a reason to hate mages it's Fenris. If you want an ex Templar hottie Alistair is RIGHT THERE. Tbh I know Cullen is a popular romance and I'm not here to tell anyone what they can or can't do or like in a video game, I'm just saying I think he is deeply undateable

Spends the first two games as an antagonist, fervently devoted to the cause of subjugating mages, then a bunch of "character development" happens off screen and the games treat him like he's completely reformed. However he's actions make it clear he still sees mages as dangerous and lesser. Not to mention if you romance him with an elf he doesn't pay your culture more than lip service respect like most of the devout characters 

He was a total villain in the first two games who was violently prejudiced against mages and uses one single bad experience as an excuse for it (a bad experience that is pretty much exactly what he in his job subjected graduating apprentices to, mind you, but this is never brought up). Now he says he's changed, but his words and actions say otherwise. He still distrusts mages, sympathises with the rebel Templars trying to kill them, and he never owns up to the terrible stuff he did and helped others do in the past two games. He totally knew what Meredith was doing and says he doesn't, and he still tries to defend her intentions. And you have no option to call him out on it. If you romance him as a mage, he angsts about how he might have seen you as subhuman in the past but NOW you're one of the good ones, and when you ask him if he'll kill you if you get possessed, he dodges the question. And the PC is written as being almost sad that she's a mage? Like 'can you love me despite what I am??' Also if Leliana romanced a female mage PC in the first game who is still alive, he asks her creepy questions about their relationship. Fitting considering his original purpose was to be creepy to the female mage Warden. 

I hate him and want to cause chaos. Plus his VA is an asshole.

Cop

I think you covered almost everything but don't forget that beautiful moment in DA2 - Act 2 where you find out some templars had a petition to lobotomize all mages and Meredith, THE HARDCORE TEMPLAR LEADER, rejects it, but Cullen says they got a point. Despite the fact that we just found out that those templars were using lobotomy (or the threat of) to rape people and get away with it. And then Cullen in DA:I is whining that anything that happened it's not his fault because Meredith kept the worse away form him so he didn't know, but also that anyway Meredith had a point and did what she had to do. Meredith does not go mad until Act 3, before she was of sound mind and Culllen was her second in command BECAUSE he hated mages as much as (or even more) than her. What the FUCK did she even hide from you, Cullen. Oh, but he changed! Because the writers make A VICTIM OF THE TEMPLARS say so. And anyway he only says so BECAUSE HE READS MINDS not because Cullen did anything to show it. Also the narrative wants to sympathise with Cullen for his drug problems while Cullen is openly attacking the only other character with the same problem for...having the same problem. And he's the antagonist, so there were OTHER things Cullen could be mad about. But he is mad about the drug problem. Also I'm not an expert on writing characters with addictions but he is an addict only when it's time to have a cut scene where you pity him. Otherwise it has zero impacts on everything else.

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 16: A TITAN BRINGS ME A PRESENT

Jason read the new chapter with each word causing a stronger feeling of bad in him. He kept wondering how this was going to get worse and did not appreciate the answers.

"Is it Kronos with a Nuclear bomb?" Alex asked with interest.

"Oceanus with an apology to your dad and an explanation," Jason sighed.

"World peace?" Magnus asked without any hope.

Thalia couldn't help but laugh. It was the opposite of that.

We could see the white flag from half a mile away. It was as big as a soccer field, carried by a thirty-foot-tall giant with bright blue skin and icy gray hair.

"Yeah, but according to Percy's own girlfriend, Percy can't read for shit," Alex was all for instigating. "So I don't see why even that would stop him from setting them all on fire for starters."

"I've grown since then Alex," Percy said in a prim voice. "Matured, stopped being so impulsive."

"Since yesterday?" She asked in disappointment.

"Since I decided Annabeth would be pissed if I didn't hear this out," he shrugged, tapping the side of his head.

"Fair enough," Alex didn't bother to question the fact that Annabeth would still scare the living daylights out of Percy with one arm behind her back.

"A Hyperborean," Thalia said. "The giants of the north. It's a bad sign that they sided with Kronos. They're usually peaceful."

"You've met them?" I said.

"Mmm. There's a big colony in Alberta. You do not want to get into a snowball fight with those guys."

"First time I've ever heard Thalia say that," Jason chuckled.

"Don't worry, you'll never make that list," she grinned, making Jason sigh in defeat already his sister was going to dump snow down his shirt at the first available chance.

As the giant got closer, I could see three human-size envoys with him: a half-blood in armor, an empousa demon with a black dress and flaming hair, and a tall man in a tuxedo. The empousa held the tux dude's arm, so they looked like a couple on their way to a Broadway show or something— except for her flaming hair and fangs.

"Don't know what you're on about Percy," Magnus chuckled, "those two would be the talk of the runway."

"The talk of the runaway," Percy rolled his eyes.

The group walked leisurely toward the Heckscher Playground. The swings and ball courts were empty. The only sound was the fountain on Umpire Rock.

I looked at Grover. "The tux dude is the Titan?"

"I would have believed it was any of them by this point," Will shrugged, his money would be on the giant.

"The treacherous one in a tuxedo, remember?" Alex shook her head with interest. "I was expecting some kind of double cross to show up for Percy's benefit by now to be honest. Why's he on their side if another titan would call him treacherous?"

"Maybe ram face guy really wanted to be the god of tuxedos but got beat out by him," Percy shrugged without much care what politics went on between these guys.

He nodded nervously. "He looks like a magician. I hate magicians. They usually have rabbits."

Jason usually felt all eyes on him as he read, but as the words poured out of his own confused mouth, he felt the way they grew in intensity same as his own for those baffling sentences being said as a negative.

I stared at him. "You're scared of bunnies?"

"Blah-hah-hah! They're big bullies. Always stealing celery from defenseless satyrs!"

"I have, so many questions," Magnus put his palms down in his lap, causing a slight slap noise to make his point.

"Get in line," Jason agreed as his mind began going haywire on what that food chain was like.

Thalia coughed.

"You do like Grover better than me," Percy accused. She'd never once tried to poorly muffle her laugh in here.

"I was trying not to join those bullying rabbits and be better than that Percy," she said saintly.

Percy was to busy planning in his head how to buy bunny ears and glue them to her head in revenge while keeping Grover away to listen.

"What?" Grover demanded.

"We'll have to work on your bunny phobia later," I said.

"Leporiphobia," Jason offered.

"Why do you know that?" Percy asked in concern. "Why is there even a word for fear of rabbits?!" He knew what phobia meant and he could use context clues. "They don't attack people for that to be a thing!"

"Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes Percy," Alex said seriously, before she broke into a grin and said, "like Jason, poor thing was clearly mauled by a dictionary at some point in his life."

"Ha, ha, ha," Jason rolled his eyes. Honestly, it would be nice to know why such random things came to mind.

"Here they come."

The man in the tux stepped forward. He was taller than an average human—about seven feet. His black hair was tied in a ponytail. Dark round glasses covered his eyes, but what really caught my attention was the skin on his face. It was covered in scratches, like he'd been attacked by a small animal— a really, really mad hamster, maybe.

"Percy's nightmares of turning back into that guinea pig finally make a great real-time influence," Thalia chuckled.

Percy felt rather robbed these books were only from his perspective as he frowned at her. He just knew she had to have embarrassing dreams about tea parties with Barbies he'd never get the chance to mock her for.

The only reason he didn't say any of that now was because, he kind of wished that one were true himself.

"Percy Jackson," he said in a silky voice. "It's a great honor."

"Thanks," Percy couldn't make that sound any more sarcastic if he tried.

His lady friend the empousa hissed at me. She'd probably heard how I'd destroyed two of her sisters last summer.

"I'm over here hoping that's why Tux guy said it was an honor to meet you," Alex nodded.

"I think Percy has a bit of a fat head, thinking all monsters know him," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Probably safer for him to just assume all monsters have a personal grudge against him," Magnus shrugged.

"My dear," Tux Dude said to her. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable over there, eh?"

She released his arm and drifted over to a park bench.

I glanced at the armed demigod behind Tux Dude. I hadn't recognized him in his new helmet, but it was my old backstabbing buddy Ethan Nakamura.

"This is the worst white-flag party I've ever heard in my life!" Jason looked offended at whoever had approved this strategy. "They sent a monster and the guy who tried to kill Annabeth! Kronos had to have known you wouldn't fall for this!"

"Oh, I'm sure that was the point," Annabeth sighed. Kronos knew not to underestimate Percy again by this point, not after the cruise ship incident. He'd sent distractions to keep Percy on edge.

His nose looked like a squashed tomato from our fight on the Williamsburg Bridge. That made me feel better.

Well they hadn't needed that descriptor. Percy looked devilishly pleased.

"Hey, Ethan," I said. "You're looking good."

Ethan glared at me.

"Really Perce, flirting with someone else at a time like this?" Annabeth sighed.

Percy spluttered and only managed, "but-tomato-" but as usual was pretty toothless when it came to her.

"To business." Tux Dude extended his hand. "I am Prometheus."

I was too surprised to shake. "The fire-stealer guy? The chained-to-the-rock-with-the-vultures guy?"

Percy blew imaginary dust off his knuckles and rubbed them on his shirt as he looked around like he was awaiting applause.

"You actually remembered his name and what he was famous for," Will was the only one who couldn't make that sound sarcastic. "Showing off that C+ years later too, good work."

Annabeth brushed her fingers fondly through his hair and couldn't wait until they got back to the surface to show him he'd actually been doing even better in his recent studies. Percy was thoroughly distracted by the attention and had no clue what happened for the next several moments.

Prometheus winced. He touched the scratches on his face. "Please, don't mention the vultures. But yes, I stole fire from the gods and gave it to your ancestors. In return, the ever merciful Zeus had me chained to a rock and tortured for all eternity."

"Hard to believe nobody could convince this guy to be on Zeus's side," Nico said drolly.

"I want to know if he was granted Titan hood, like, after he got off the rock, or was he one when this happened," Magnus frowned.

"You can't be granted Titan hood," Annabeth shook her head. "The Titan's are specifically children of Geae and Oranus, but Titan is applied rather broadly to a large percentage of the divine family and their offspring. The Titans are all gods but not all of the gods are Titans."

Magnus considered for a moment before deciding not to press that further. He wasn't sure he wanted a better explanation.

"But—"

"How did I get free? Hercules did that, eons ago. So you see, I have a soft spot for heroes. Some of you can be quite civilized."

"He used a terrible example," Thalia scowled. If he'd thought bringing up that half-brother would soften her up he'd been hilariously off track.

"Unlike the company you keep," I noticed.

I was looking at Ethan, but Prometheus apparently thought I meant the empousa.

"Is he blind?" Jason raised a brow.

"He certainly couldn't see his own ass fumbling this," Thalia smirked.

"Oh, demons aren't so bad," he said. "You just have to keep them well fed.

"On what?" Magnus rolled his eyes. "I doubt they take blood bank donations, or possibly subsist on cranberry juice."

"Organic free-range half-bloods," Will nodded, "it's supposedly better for them."

Now, Percy Jackson, let us parley."

"Getting piratey up in here," Alex nodded in approval. Nico grinned along and was as grateful as ever he hadn't been dogging Percy's every step. He might have had the same thoughts at the time and been much less cool about it.

"And look, here's a zombie dude, kind of," Percy rolled his eyes. "Plus the tux! This is all somehow your fault Alex, I can just feel it in my bones."*

"And I haven't received a single phone call up to this point of you complaining to me about it," she grinned. "For shame Percy, I had more faith in you."

"Trust me, won't happen again," he chuckled.

He waved me toward a picnic table and we sat down. Thalia and Grover stood behind me.

The blue giant propped his white flag against a tree and began absently playing on the playground. He stepped on the monkey bars and crushed them, but he didn't seem angry. He just frowned and said, "Uhoh."

Then he stepped in the fountain and broke the concrete bowl in half. "Uh-oh." The water froze where his foot touched it. A bunch of stuffed animals hung from his belt—the huge kind you get for grand prizes at an arcade. He reminded me of Tyson, and the idea of fighting him made me sad.

Between this and his now understandable hesitation against hell hounds, Annabeth bit her lip with worry what would have happened had Percy been lost out in the world in his amnesiac state like this. He had so many enemies who would exploit this.

Prometheus sat forward and laced his fingers. He looked earnest, kindly, and wise.

"Crud, they sent a grandpa kind of guy," Will sighed. Percy might have been in trouble falling for this.

"If he starts yammering on about fishing and polishing his teeth, I'll ditch him easy," Percy shrugged.

"Percy, your position is weak. You know you can't stop another assault."

"We'll see."

Prometheus looked pained, like he really cared what happened to me. "Percy, I'm the Titan of forethought. I know what's going to happen."

"Also the Titan of crafty counsel," Grover put in. "Emphasis on crafty."

"Well that's just not fair, having both under his banner," Magnus sighed.

"Fair? Fair!" Percy let out a pitiable laugh that word even still came out around here.

Prometheus shrugged. "True enough, satyr. But I supported the gods in the last war. I told Kronos: 'You don't have the strength. You'll lose.' And I was right. So you see, I know how to pick the winning side. This time, I'm backing Kronos."

"Eh, statistically someone had to jump sides and was only right half the time," Annabeth grumbled.

Percy looked to her nervously, but relaxed a bit to see and feel she wasn't tensing and getting to stressed about this. It helped to keep his own mood soothed every time.

"Because Zeus chained you to a rock," I guessed.

"Yeah," Nico drew that out mildly. "That moment where you can't blame them kind of annoys me."

"I power through it for my family," Will nodded sadly. He'd wandered that medical tent more than once wondering who the spy was after losing another brother, but as he'd treated the unmistakable sword wounds he couldn't help but notice he didn't recognize more kids that kept showing up and looking into their faces with the horrible thoughts of why the damage had been done more than who had done it. One to many names had gone unasked. One to many kids who hadn't been there at the start of the fight with them, but had managed to make it back home.

"Partly, yes. I won't deny I want revenge. But that's not the only reason I'm supporting Kronos. It's the wisest choice. I'm here because I thought you might listen to reason."

"The same Percy Jackson I know?" Thalia demanded, picking at her ear. "Man, this guy really came in with nothing." She was hoping by playing off her nonchalance now it would gloss over when Percy's stupid, annoying ability to pick up on her later would inevitably show itself as her last name was truly exposed.

She glanced at Jason and swallowed hard. He probably wasn't going to appreciate that.

"Must have meant my twin brother," Percy nodded his agreement with a chuckle. "Peter Jefferson, long lost kid raised by, I don't know, whoever my Roman parent is."

"Haha," Jason said dryly, but the joke still gave him an uncomfortable twinge of a headache. He tried concentrating on the feeling, knowing he shouldn't but so damn tired of only having just gotten his last name back yesterday while Percy was two days away from practically being caught up with his life.

All he got for his troubles was the vague name Shen Lun, which meant nothing to him, and starbursts behind his eyes until he gave up and looked around to see his efforts hadn't gone unnoticed.

Since he hadn't been making any noise however, they'd been sitting there quietly letting him sort himself out. It meant more than he knew how to put into words they even noticed as he shook himself and tried to move on, studying his hands in embarrassment he even had to do that, and still catching Percy's little nod of understanding.

He drew a map on the table with his finger. Wherever he touched, golden lines appeared, glowing on the concrete.

Annabeth frowned with minor annoyance how useful that must be, how he probably didn't have a document with a million undo commands in it that haunted him, or an Olympus sized trashcan worth of ideas he'd scrapped.

"This is Manhattan. We have armies here, here, here, and here. We know your numbers. We outnumber you twenty to one."

"Your spy has been keeping you posted," I guessed.

Prometheus smiled apologetically.

"Punch him in the face!" Alex looked like she was seething already she couldn't be doing that to this pompous prick. She despised false niceties, no matter how well they were dressed, and she wasn't buying a word of this as she imagined those scars around his lips.

"It was pretty tempting," Percy admitted, he was surprised the idea hadn't crossed his mind yet...and was sort of relieved the book hadn't blatantly acknowledged he'd been a little taken in with this approach. That smile reminded him to much of his mom apologizing she had to pick up an extra shift this weekend while Gabe belched in the background.

"At any rate, our forces are growing daily. Tonight, Kronos will attack. You will be overwhelmed. You've fought bravely, but there's just no way you can hold all of Manhattan. You'll be forced to retreat to the Empire State Building. There you'll be destroyed. I have seen this. It will happen."

Nobody needed Percy to fill in the gaps of Rachel's painting that sat on the edge of their mind half this battle. They'd assumed it was the wrong army. It didn't seem possible the prophetic power of a Titan and Rachel's vision could both be wrong...

I thought about the picture Rachel had drawn in my dreams—an army at the base of the Empire State Building. I remembered the words of the young girl Oracle in my dream: I foresee the future. I cannot change it. Prometheus spoke with such certainty it was hard not to believe him.

"I won't let it happen," I said.

Percy's confidence made Annabeth smile. The feeling of his arm around her that she wanted to believe she'd never lose again. The kind of feeling that made her think she'd made the right choice slamming the door in Luke's face that day, because it had all worked out.

Prometheus brushed a speck off his tux lapel. "Understand, Percy. You are refighting the Trojan War here. Patterns repeat themselves in history.

"Yeah, but Percy doesn't repeat himself," Thalia chuckled with great swagger and confidence what she'd been thinking at the time. "They can throw all the regenerating monsters they want to at us and he'll call all of them something other than ground beef I'm sure."

"Thanks Thals, couldn't have done this without you," Percy chuckled. He meant in here, this room. She'd truly been the best of friends to him.

At the time he was very grateful she actually had more restraint than he ever did, he hadn't needed that kind of distraction right now.

They reappear just as monsters do. A great siege. Two armies. The only difference is, this time you are defending. You are Troy. And you know what happened to the Trojans, don't you?"

"So you're going to cram a wooden horse into the elevator at the Empire State Building?" I asked. "Good luck."

"Aw Percy, always so thoughtful, wishing them luck on their endeavors," Will chuckled.

"I'm actually trying to imagine it and what order the Titans would get in," Alex stroked her hair back from her face with glee. "Would Kronos demand to get in first and be squashed, forcing him to get out last; or, would he get in last and be in the horse's ass to get out first?"

The others laughed, but Annabeth sighed. She didn't know what exactly they pictured, but she still saw Luke crammed into that with Titans, his eyes flashing from gold to blue and back.

Prometheus smiled. "Troy was completely destroyed, Percy. You don't want that to happen here. Stand down, and New York will be spared.

"Just New York?" Jason raised a brow skeptically. "Will he leave your island floating and go about ripping the rest of the planet and throwing it into outer space?"

"I think that might upset the moon or something, I sure wouldn't recommend it," Percy nodded like Jason had made an excellent point.

Your forces will be granted amnesty. I will personally assure your safety.

"Even if he swore it on the River Styx and his own mother I wouldn't buy that until I did a certain bridge," Magnus said. Annabeth was afraid her cousin would go blind from rolling his eyes that hard.

Let Kronos take Olympus. Who cares? Typhon will destroy the gods anyway."

"Right," I said. "And I'm supposed to believe Kronos would spare the city."

"All he wants is Olympus," Prometheus promised. "The might of the gods is tied to their seats of power. You saw what happened to Poseidon once his undersea palace was attacked."

I winced, remembering how old and decrepit my father looked.

"Mentioning that is really the way I'd plan on winning over your trust," Nico grumbled. He was hitting them where it hurt, taking them down and throwing other problems in their face. Perfect tactics to keep their focus elsewhere.

"Yes," Prometheus said sadly. "I know that was hard for you. When Kronos destroys Olympus, the gods will fade. They will become so weak they will be easily defeated. Kronos would rather do this while Typhon has the Olympians distracted in the west. Much easier. Fewer lives lost.

"Easier, yes. Fewer lives lost?" Will made a deep scathing noise. Nico nodded in complete agreement. He wasn't a walking death sensus or anything, but he also hadn't needed Percy's dreams to tell him the continental destruction that 'storm' was causing. He'd been in the Underworld watching the incoming spirits.

But make no mistake, the best you can do is slow us down. The day after tomorrow, Typhon arrives in New York, and you will have no chance at all. The gods and Mount Olympus will still be destroyed, but it will be much messier. Much, much worse for you and your city. Either way, the Titans will rule."

Thalia pounded her fist on the table. "I serve Artemis. The Hunters will fight to our last breath. Percy, you're not seriously going to listen to this slimeball, are you?"

Percy had been doing a much better job in here hiding how discouraging this little speech had been getting to him. Thalia had seen it then though, a painfully familiar look on their trek across the states when he thought no one was watching. He'd fidget with his necklace or his pen as the troubled thoughts stayed buried but his attention began diverting to all the ways this could go the worst.

I figured Prometheus was going to blast her, but he just smiled. "Your courage does you credit, Thalia Grace."

Thalia stiffened. "That's my mother's surname. I don't use it."

She sighed and met Jason's confused stare. She'd called him her little brother and meant it, but his choice to see their mother as their connection wasn't her preference. She'd never deny her last name again if that's what he wished to go by though, the one good thing Beryl had done for her life.

Thalia visibly winced she still wouldn't have gotten the chance to tell Jason at her own speed either, as he rubbed the back of his head with a crazy smile like he'd gotten a sugar rush again, hearing that out loud. He would have known. She should have remembered this exact exchange was coming much sooner and told him herself.

"Sorry," she whispered again, just for him.

"It's okay," he promised, smile dimming only a bit as he looked at her, but there all the same. It turned cheeky real quick as he threw a look at Percy. "I've already accepted he makes everyone's life chaotic, he just can't resist."

Percy gave an exaggerated sigh and huffed in his beanbag without protest. If they wanted to bond over antagonizing him, well, that was nothing new. And he was happy for them.

"As you wish," Prometheus said casually, but I could tell he'd gotten under her skin. I'd never even heard Thalia's last name before. Somehow it made her seem almost normal. Less mysterious and powerful.

"Like Beyonce," Magnus added oh so helpfully.

Thalia chuckled and popped the collar of her hoodie, making it fluff behind her like a bird's feathers before it settled back, but they could tell it was posturing. She didn't regret a word of that, she was devout to Artimes and was still struggling in her mind how to bring up the possibility she might not want to stay with her forever now as she'd once vowed...Artemis had a brother too though, surely she'd understand...

"At any rate," the Titan said, "you need not be my enemy. I have always been a helper of mankind."

"That's a load of Minotaur dung," Thalia said.

"That is one big pile of shit," Nico said.**

"And I meant every shovelful," she nodded.

"When mankind first sacrificed to the gods, you tricked them into giving you the best portion. You gave us fire to annoy the gods, not because you cared about us."

Prometheus shook his head. "You don't understand. I helped shape your nature."

Will had always taken to wanting to understand both sides of a standoff, he hoped in genuinely trying to connect where they came from he could help form a better bridge than what had nearly broken his own at camp with the Apollo and Ares strife.

This was one of those moments where he worried his kind heart would be played for a fool. He wanted to believe Prometheus had been on Kronos's side to help mediate this fight, but he also couldn't deny to himself this was just the kind of deception he'd fall for, deliberating what to do to long in the interest of what was best for everyone.

He knew the choice Percy had made and didn't begrudge him this, he just worried at himself what he would have done.

A wiggling lump of clay appeared in his hands. He fashioned it into a little doll with legs and arms.

The lump man didn't have any eyes, but it groped around the table, stumbling over Prometheus's fingers.

Alex found herself begrudgingly impressed at the display there, and very annoyed at herself for it. A quick mold to help get your point across, the inherent blindness she felt most people had of the world. Gods she wanted to see this with her own eyes and then shove it down Prometheus's throat.

"I have been whispering in man's ear since the beginning of your existence.

Magnus rubbed his ear in disgust at the idea.

I represent your curiosity, your sense of exploration, your inventiveness.

That would be all the things she loved most about humanity too, Annabeth scowled. She usually associated those things with her mother, the sense that tied into her ability to craft and build and never want to stop looking for a better way to do things.

Help me save you, Percy. Do this, and I will give mankind a new gift—a new revelation that will move you as far forward as fire did. You can't make that kind of advance under the gods. They would never allow it. But this could be a new golden age for you. Or . . ."

He made a fist and smashed the clay man into a pancake.

"Is it deep space exploration, because we're already getting there mostly on our own," Percy frowned. He still wanted the others to think he hadn't been taken in by this as much as he really had been. Like his previous wish for Annabeth was here with a white flag. A god, actually offering to help them. He'd even showed all the strings attached to it.

"I hope it's teleportation, I thought we'd be much closer to that by now," Annabeth nodded along, happily indulging the show he was putting on nobody was falling for but she fully supported.

The blue giant rumbled, "Uh-oh." Over at the park bench, the empousa bared her fangs in a smile.

"Soooooo indicative, really speaking volumes in here with so little said, except he won't shut up," Jason scowled. He was all for parlay and finding solutions without war, but would not have been surprised any word now for Percy's temper to snap and draw his sword. He'd have backed him up if he were there.

"Percy, you know the Titans and their offspring are not all bad," Prometheus said. "You've met Calypso."

"That's the example he goes with?" Will seemed in awe of this bad move. "The girl who's imprisoned and made Percy question why the gods do- no, wait. Now that I said it out loud that made sense."

"It's okay bud, I have those moments too," Percy grinned.

My face felt hot. "That's different."

"How? Much like me, she did nothing wrong, and yet she was exiled forever simply because she was Atlas's daughter. We are not your enemies. Don't let the worst happen," he pleaded. "We offer you peace."

Moments like this gave Will the conflicting feeling of wishing he could read minds. It was invasive and wrong, of course, but gods would he have used it on Prometheus to hear the real truth. Of the actual story with no myth, legend, or hype around the facts of what happened to Calypso, and indeed anyone accused of a crime.

I looked at Ethan Nakamura. "You must hate this."

Nico was still personally shocked Percy hadn't ripped out his vocal cords yet to let him speak again at all. It's not like that would kill him, but there was a chance the ambrosia wouldn't heal that so much as just keep him alive without regrowing something vital to life...

"I don't know what you mean."

"If we took this deal, you wouldn't get revenge. You wouldn't get to kill us all. Isn't that what you want?"

Magnus's mind spun back to that first time Percy had met him though. He'd never actually said why he was trying to join Luke's side, he'd been very unfriendly to the guys saving his life, and apparently just run right back to the people who would have cheered while he died.

There was a tiny grain of admirability to someone willing to die for their cause, but that kind of half-blind dedication had nearly gotten Annabeth killed so it made this more pitiable no matter what his real reasoning behind all this.

His good eye flared.

"Nobody assumed the bad one shot fireworks out Percy," Alex said in the kind of way where she might have been hoping it did though.

"All I want is respect, Jackson. The gods never gave me that. You wanted me to go to your stupid camp, spend my time crammed into the Hermes cabin because I'm not important? Not even recognized?"

Nico could own one very solid fact about his good standing on Percy's side, and it was that he'd never been tempted to join Luke's side.

He couldn't stop a little sigh of unease though there was a real chance it was just because he'd never had a conversation with the guy. If Luke had ever tried to win him over with this speech though? The exact grievance he still had to this day about recognition for living outside of the 'main gods.' Not to mention his stellar inability to pick up on who was untrustworthy.

Yeah, odds weren't in his favor.

He sounded just like Luke when he'd tried to kill me in the woods at camp four years ago. The memory made my hand ache where the pit scorpion had stung me.

Percy flexed his hand now and looked down at his smooth palm, finally with the understanding of it all. The betrayal and horror of someone he'd thought of as a friend doing this to him never had visible scars he was still having trouble making sense of.

"Your mom's the goddess of revenge," I told Ethan. "We should respect that?"

Jason glanced at Percy and pursed up his lips without saying anything. He'd had a growing sense lately that he might sympathize with someone like Ethan a lot more than he'd ever have admitted to himself until he had nothing else to reflect on. He knew Percy didn't mean it so harshly in never acknowledging such gods who weren't all awesome and stood for pizza shouldn't ever be spoken of, but Percy had only spent a few days in the Hermes cabin before he was hoisted into the great light of being a child of the Big Three.

Somewhere in the recesses of his thoughts, memories Jason could do no more than follow on instinct, he knew he had always lived a similar way...and he was starting to wonder how much he'd resent going back to it.

"Nemesis stands for balance! When people have too much good luck, she tears them down."

"Which is why she took your eye?"

"It was payment," he growled. "In exchange, she swore to me that one day I would tip the balance of power. I would bring the minor gods respect. An eye was a small price to pay."

Thalia swallowed the snide comment it had cost him much more than that. The fool had died in the end. His payment had cost him everything...but she gave a small, proud smile to Percy he had gotten his reward in the end too. His mother had kept her word.

"Great mom."

"Percy would know," Annabeth said sullenly. She might not have been there, but she imagined the inflection in Ethan's voice a little to perfectly. The balance of respect and fear in your godly parent expecting all of that from their child.

"At least she keeps her word, unlike the Olympians. She always pays her debts—good or evil."

"Yeah," I said. "So I saved your life, and you repaid me by raising Kronos. That's fair."

Annabeth had the most mixed feelings about that in history, but the logical part of her did understand it in the greater scheme of the Fates. This had to happen eventually, the Great Prophecy ordained it. If it wasn't her Luke and Percy, it would have been someone else's family torn apart by this war just as had happened to the Trojans before. Nemises had played a part in this just as Posideon had against tipping the scales against Typhoon.

But gods the cost felt like she'd been strung into a spiderweb she'd never been able to escape from as she still sat pinned in place by it all.

Ethan grabbed the hilt of his sword, but Prometheus stopped him.

"Now, now," the Titan said. "We're on a diplomatic mission."

"Good of him to remember that," Nico grumbled. It wouldn't have gone well for them otherwise, considering Percy could have blasted them all to Australia whenever he wanted.

Prometheus studied me as if trying to understand my anger. Then he nodded like he'd just picked a thought from my brain.

Percy looked newly frustrated at somebody trying to pick apart his anger. Never in his history had he ever felt better by somebody telling him to calm down. He could be distracted from it, he could redirect it where it needed to go, sometimes he even managed when one of his friends reminded him he was going to far to reign it in, but none of that usually helped the initial problem.

Prometheus annoyingly reminded him of Chiron right then. The kind of adult who'd ever bothered to take the time to understand why he was angry and how best to solve the problem that didn't involve throwing textbooks.

"It bothers you what happened to Luke," he decided. "Hestia didn't show you the full story. Perhaps if you understood . . ."

The Titan reached out.

Thalia cried a warning, but before I could react, Prometheus's index finger touched my forehead.

Alex sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in deep frustration. Gods if that wasn't the perfect display of the god's arrogance! Hestia had shown Percy the part of the memory she'd felt was important, now Prometheus was doing the same. Nobody had stopped to ask Percy if he wanted these memories beamed into his head!

Suddenly I was back in May Castellan's living room. Candles flickered on the fireplace mantel, reflected in the mirrors along the walls. Through the kitchen doorway I could see Thalia sitting at the table while Ms. Castellan bandaged her wounded leg. Seven-year-old Annabeth sat next to her, playing with a Medusa beanbag toy.

It had apparently been one of her better days, Thalia grimaced with distaste at the vivid memory of how strongly she'd smelled like burnt cookies. She'd rambled on about being a traveling nurse and all the baby stories about Luke seamlessly, which was how she'd caught Hermes' attention and looked right at Thalia with actual coherence in her blue eyes the entire time, which had freaked Thalia out nearly as much as if they'd turned green. An adult caring about her well-being had never happened before.

The home had been a first for Annabeth too. The first time she'd ever been given such an awesome toy to play with, the kind that had lore behind it and she could imagine defeating all by herself one day. Oh she had no idea, she snorted now at the improbable foreshadowing. Luke's mom hadn't once muttered under her breath about any trouble she might cause or even frowned in her direction. Only smiled as she asked if she wanted another cookie, not one of her half-brothers.

Granted, the cookie had been burnt, and she could feel the unease in the room. It hadn't been a warm, welcoming place. She preferred sleeping in their laps every night by a mile.

Hermes and Luke stood apart in the living room.

The god's face looked liquid in the candlelight, like he couldn't decide what shape to adopt. He was dressed in a navy blue jogging outfit with winged Reeboks.

Jason managed an awkward grin. Some part of him finally liked that description, this distance. The fear and vastness of not conforming to one mold with this rare appearance to one of the legions- his brain hard glitched back to what he was actually saying as he shook his head at what he'd spoken rather than what his brain kept expecting to hear.

"Why show yourself now?" Luke demanded. His shoulders were tense, as if he expected a fight.

Percy managed the awkwardest of smiles, the pithy comment floating to mind of how he wasn't the only one ready and willing to take on the gods, but he restrained himself. He hated when others compared him to Luke, he certainly wasn't going to do it himself.

"All these years I've been calling to you, praying you'd show up, and nothing. You left me with her." He pointed toward the kitchen like he couldn't bear to look at his mother, much less say her name.

Thalia knew that feeling all to well. She'd never even said her mother's name out loud since she came out of that tree, she hated her too deeply.

Percy just kept blinking slowly, not able to understand a word. She envied that look of confusion and sorrow on his face as he caught a glimpse of this broken family while he'd fought for his own.

"Luke, do not dishonor her," Hermes warned. "Your mother did the best she could.

The worst part was, Alex believed that. She'd been mentally incapable of handling that child, no true 'fault' at her feet except a broken system that had given her no support. She wasn't a bad person, she just hadn't been a good mother. Something Adrian had once said of his own mother never able to side with him over his father now bleeding into her ears she wished she could shake loose.

As for me, I could not interfere with your path. The children of the gods must find their own way."

If he meant that as some kind of explanation, it was a tired one, Will sighed. He'd heard that around Camp from the older kids, the ones that didn't live very long after passing such wisdom on. He heard it from Chiron, every time another kid went missing. He didn't know when exactly he'd grown numb to hearing that and accepted it as fact himself, but knowing now it had been the root of all Luke's grievance and the start to a war costing him both his brothers, it sounded as flimsy as the first time all over again.

"So it was for my own good. Growing up on the streets, fending for myself, fighting monsters."

"You're my son," Hermes said. "I knew you had the ability. When I was only a baby, I crawled from my cradle and set out for—"

Magnus looked like he was going to be sick. That was his response to his son growing up on the streets fighting monsters?! That he'd been able to do a bunch of stuff as a god!?

He'd preferred his ignorant bubble where Hermes had just, never known or bothered to keep track of this particular son. Indifference was something Magnus knew every day.

Instead, he'd long since learned there were two kinds of parents. The kind that had been through it and didn't want their kids to suffer the same, and the kind that expected their kids to go through exactly the same to know their pain. The second were nearly always the ones he met. His mom made him a rare exception on the streets of Boston.

"I'm not a god! Just once, you could've said something. You could've helped when"—he took an unsteady breath, lowering his voice so no one in the kitchen could overhear—"when she was having one of her fits, shaking me and saying crazy things about my fate. When I used to hide in the closet so she wouldn't find me with those . . . those glowing eyes. Did you even care that I was scared? Did you even know when I finally ran away?"

Nico never would have expected his dysfunctional relationship with his dad would ever sound better than any of the other kids at Camp, but man was he stunned to be wrong right now. Hades had been a vague yet constant presence in his life, disapproving, harsh, unloving, but at least noticed what he was doing the majority of the time. He'd even let slip once about who Minos's replacement had been when he went on sabbatical, which had given Nico the suspicion he not only knew he left his post but where he'd been while that was happening.

The fact that Luke, pre cursor to Kronos, face of all evil, had asked that with all his heart at the same age Nico was now, sat strangely in his mind.

In the kitchen, Ms. Castellan chattered aimlessly, pouring Kool-Aid for Thalia and Annabeth as she told them stories about Luke as a baby.

The parallels between that and their car ride with Ms. Jackson had not been lost on either girl as Percy had sat red-faced and miserable up that snowy mountain, as they exchanged looks now. Annabeth might have been to young to take in the full scope of that situation back then, but the tone of Sally's voice as she'd joyfully spoken with love of her son had risen that memory from the ashes.

Thalia rubbed her bandaged leg nervously. Annabeth glanced into the living room and held up a burned cookie for Luke to see. She mouthed, Can we go now?

"Luke, I care very much," Hermes said slowly, "but gods must not interfere directly in mortal affairs. It is one of our Ancient Laws.

The flash of anger that burned through Percy surprised him. It wasn't the usual kind where he'd cuss out the gods and call them all cowards for using this as a scapegoat to ignore their kids.

No, it was the kind he used to turn his enemies into dust and walk towards his next challenge. Something about this anger had a resolution buried in his mind he couldn't wait to find the source of.

Especially when your destiny . . ." His voice trailed off. He stared at the candles as if remembering something unpleasant.

"Something to do with the fire of the library of Alexandria? Or that time Notre Dame was on fire- no, wait, that one was a movie," Alex shook her head at herself. "No wait, yes it did happen! Crap, I'm getting my stuff mixed up."

"We might need another break after this one," Magnus agreed. They all felt like they were being punched by the god of emotion every new moment of Percy's life lately.

"What?" Luke asked. "What about my destiny?"

"You should not have come back," Hermes muttered. "It only upsets you both. However, I see now that you are getting too old to be on the run without help.

"I need the godly version of CPS so bad right now," Jason muttered under his breath. He was pretty confident he hadn't had the best childhood either, but somehow a godly parent acknowledging their child was getting to old to live on the streets and it wasn't cute anymore to see him struggling was a layer of insulting that burned painfully to hear he might have felt a little to personally.

I'll speak with Chiron at Camp Half-Blood and ask him to send a satyr to collect you."

"Teleport him there!" Percy stormed like he hadn't been able to do strapped into this in his own head. "He's the god of travels! If any of them could get away with that, it would be him!"

Annabeth didn't have the heart to shush him as a reminder, to promise him it would all be okay because it hadn't been, to do anything but bite back a sob and rest against his side once more. Percy being angry on Luke's behalf, to understand him as she did and be on his side was what she'd always wanted. Of course the twisted way she'd been given this was at the lowest of moments in his life.

"We're doing fine without your help," Luke growled. "Now, what were you saying about my destiny?"

The wings on Hermes's Reeboks fluttered restlessly. He studied his son like he was trying to memorize his face, and suddenly a cold feeling washed through me. I realized Hermes knew what May Castellan's mutterings meant. I wasn't sure how, but looking at his face I was absolutely certain. Hermes understood what would happen to Luke someday, how he would turn evil.

The gods having the slight power of foresight was not news, but to hear it so specifically on this of all half-bloods shook them. Maybe Hermes was the secret traitor to Camp all along and he wanted this all to come about, the downfall of his own brethren. Alex didn't know the how or why, but she'd instantly believe it as easily as Hades sitting back and doing nothing for them as well.

"Could, Hermes have even done anything to stop this?" Magnus asked quietly, haltingly, like he was whispering at someone's funeral. "When the big three swore off having kids, that obviously didn't stop the prophecy. Even if Hermes does know..." he trailed off uncomfortably. Hermes hadn't struck him as arrogant enough to change it, just resigned.

"I don't know," Annabeth murmured back, her voice just as hoarse. The kind of question she'd wanted to lob in his face when he'd kissed his son's forehead goodbye, when he couldn't even convince Luke he had loved him. Would any of it have made a difference? Would it have just made the whole thing worse as Luke slipped away anyways?

"My son," he said, "I'm the god of travelers, the god of loads. If I know anything, I know that you must walk your own path, even though it tears my heart."

"You don't love me."

Alex shook her head slowly at how miserable a feeling that was, to say it and believe it right to your parent's face. She didn't know if Hermes was going to deny it, but she knew Luke wouldn't believe him.

"I promise I . . . I do love you.

Jason wished that the hesitation in his voice had been because of him, because he had no clear idea how to say that to someone and mean it. He knew he loved his sister, but even that was clouded with frustration.

He wasn't going to stop and show the book around with pride it was clearly Hermes hesitating over those words. To fathom why was too deep.

Go to camp. I will see that you get a quest soon. Perhaps you can defeat the Hydra, or steal the apples of Hesperides. You will get a chance to be a great hero before . . ."

"Before what?" Luke's voice was trembling now.

A useless quest that he'd loathed from start to finish, Annabeth's lip was trembling with unshed tears now. A moment of triumph as he'd come back throwing the apple into the lake and storming into his cabin and locking it with blood still seeping from the bandages like a scarlet beacon. He'd never taken a moment to bask in his victory with them, her, and after he'd shouted at Chiron what had happened two days later when he'd finally come out nobody had ever spoken of it again.

He'd gone quiet, after that. The Stolls had promised her he was actually sleeping again. The root of that change hadn't even crossed her mind until it was far to late.

Had Kronos been whispering to him along his path, like he had Percy? Lying to him that nothing he did mattered, that everyone would forget about him and betray him?

"What did my mom see that made her like this? What's going to happen to me? If you love me, tell me."

Love wasn't supposed to be conditional, some part of Magnus wanted to scold Luke for this. But frankly, this entire dysfunctional family just needed to stay far away from each other. Maybe if Hermes had never been there for Luke to confront all of his hateful feelings out, Kronos never would have had any solid proof to drag Luke in.

Hermes's expression tightened. "I cannot."

"Then you don't care!" Luke yelled.

"I do wonder if it was another ancient shit law that made Hermes decide that, or even better, if he'd known that was what Luke was going to say no matter what he said and he just bulldozed into it," Alex sounded so scathing, like that Medusa toy had been laughing in the background.

Nobody had a response for her, though Magnus looked at her like he was admiring she was nuts as usual.

In the kitchen, the talking died abruptly.

"Luke?" May Castellan called. "Is that you? Is my boy all right?"

Luke turned to hide his face, but I could see the tears in his eyes.

Did she ask that every time she came out of one of her fits? Had she ever been in the right mental capacity to ask that? Nobody would ever know the answer to that except for Luke.

"I'm fine. I have a new family. I don't need either of you."

A part of Nico was vaguely surprised not to hear, 'I don't need any of you,' but he knew it was because his brain kept trying to fast-track to this moment, where Luke had made that look on Thalia and Annabeth's face something nobody ever wanted to see. The heartbreak, the failure, the rejection he'd soon leave them with too.

"I'm your father," Hermes insisted.

"A father is supposed to be around. I've never even met you. Thalia, Annabeth, come on! We're leaving!"

"My boy, don't go!" May Castellan called after him. "I have your lunch ready!"

Luke stormed out the door, Thalia and Annabeth scrambling after him. May Castellan tried to follow, but Hermes held her back.

The only decent thing he'd ever done for his son, Percy scowled. The same god that had once lashed out at Annabeth for never doing enough to stop Luke, would have to finally admit to his face when he next confronted him that he hadn't forced Luke to stay and talk this through.

As the screen door slammed, May collapsed in Hermes's arms and began to shake. Her eyes opened—glowing green—and she clutched desperately at Hermes's shoulders.

"My son," she hissed in a dry voice. "Danger. Terrible fate!"

"I know, my love," Hermes said sadly. "Believe me, I know."

The image faded.

A part of Annabeth wanted to yell at Percy for having seen that. Wanted to erase this from his mind again because at least then she could burn these books with a clear conscience so no record of this would ever have to exist and she could go back and tell her own mind it had just been a bad dream. Gods, the part of her that had hated Percy, been afraid that Percy cared about everyone but her were really trying to drown her today.

Prometheus pulled his hand away from my forehead.

"Percy?" Thalia asked. "What . . . what was that?"

I realized I was clammy with sweat.

"That, was a dam mess," Thalia said darkly.

Percy felt drunk as he started laughing, and couldn't make himself stop for a long time. Gods their life felt like one mess right after the other, and the gods were at the center of all of it, every time. The good and the bad.

Prometheus nodded sympathetically. "Appalling, isn't it? The gods know what is to come, and yet they do nothing, even for their children. How long did it take for them to tell you your prophecy, Percy Jackson? Don't you think your father knows what will happen to you?"

Percy did what he always had, looked to Annabeth for the answer.

She just looked back at him, her deep gray eyes had finally let the tears fall, a pattern on his shirt he hadn't noticed. She thought the answer was yes.

I was too stunned to answer.

"Perrrcy," Grover warned, "he's playing with your mind. Trying to make you angry."

Grover could read emotions, so he probably knew Prometheus was succeeding.

Alex had always admired Percy's anger and the way he used it to such great effect. She wished he'd use that anger now to break Promehteus's nose. She knew it wouldn't have any long-term effects, it would just make her feel better.

Thalia hadn't needed an emotional reader-satyr-empathy link to tell her that. She'd been furious right along with Percy. This Titan was lucky he hadn't shown up wearing a top hat because she wouldn't have been able to decide where to shove it and probably settled for all of the holes.

"Do you really blame your friend Luke?" the Titan asked me. "And what about you, Percy? Will you be controlled by your fate? Kronos offers you a much better deal."

I clenched my fists. As much as I hated what Prometheus had shown me, I hated Kronos a lot more.

"Hmm, yes, prioritizing your anger in order of importance. I'm going to remember this next time one of you mocks me for making lists of pro's and con's on a situation," Jason nodded emperically.

"I won't even turn it into spitballs this time," Percy nodded.

"I'll give you a deal. Tell Kronos to call off his attack, leave Luke Castellan's body, and return to the pits of Tartarus. Then maybe I won't have to destroy him."

Annabeth jerked upright to look him in the eyes so fast he'd be spitting her hair out of his mouth for weeks. He was pretty sure a few strands had flossed his teeth.

"You-" her voice broke, but she was smiling at him with such a tender expression of joy he really didn't care.

"Yeah, of course I asked," he shrugged like it was nothing. Like the thought would never not cross his mind to just tell Kronos to jump back into Tartarus no matter what form he was in.

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek and hugged him so tight that the only thought running through his head was which god he should tell to get out of so-in-so's body next.

The empousa snarled. Her hair erupted in fresh flames, but Prometheus just sighed.

"If you change your mind," he said, "I have a gift for you."

"Burn it," Magnus said at once. His mind at once on Hermes's gifts. They had been helpful...but now he was questioning all over again everything Hermes had done that might have just been a way to push Luke further down the path he was on faster, sending Percy along with the message the god himself admitted would do no good!

A Greek vase appeared on the table. It was about three feet high and a foot wide, glazed with blackand-white geometric designs. The ceramic lid was fastened with a leather harness.

Grover whimpered when he saw it.

"Geometric designs can be very intimidating if you're not accustomed to seeing them," Thalia nodded in mock understanding. Her blood had chilled to the bone when she'd seen it too.

Thalia gasped. "That's not—"

"Yes," Prometheus said. "You recognize it."

Looking at the jar, I felt a strange sense of fear, but I had no idea why.

"This belonged to my sister-in-law," Prometheus explained. "Pandora."

"The, music streaming service god-"

"Nope, just stop," Percy shook his head. "Even I know this one Alex."

"Darn," she sighed, always a lost moment when she couldn't laugh with Percy about which Greek myth he forgot this time.

A lump formed in my throat. "As in Pandora's box?"

Prometheus shook his head. "I don't know how this box business got started. It was never a box. It was a pithos, a storage jar. I suppose Pandora's pithos doesn't have the same ring to it,

"I entirely disagree!" Annabeth sniffed. "Pandora's Pithos has an excellent ring to it, and it's historically accurate, and-"

Percy kissed her temple and patted her arm, causing her to release a grumpy sigh but file that one away for later on a PowerPoint she'd force the rest of the camp to sit through.

but never mind that. Yes, she did open this jar, which contained most of the demons that now haunt mankind—fear, death, hunger, sickness."

"Don't forget me," the empousa purred.

"Indeed," Prometheus conceded. "The first empousa was also trapped in this jar, released by Pandora.

"Great, real awesome lady, I think I preferred whatever music god Alex was fixing to create," Magnus sighed.

"Music streaming lady," Alex said, "she'd never dare overtake Apollo of course, but with the right offering, she gives you the best playlist for any situation-"

"Alex," Thalia groaned.

"Fine," she huffed.

But what I find curious about the story—Pandora always gets the blame. She is punished for being curious. The gods would have you believe that this is the lesson: mankind should not explore. They should not ask questions. They should do what they are told. In truth, Percy, this jar was a trap designed by Zeus and the other gods. It was revenge on me and my entire family—my poor simple brother Epimetheus and his wife Pandora. The gods knew she would open the jar. They were willing to punish the entire race of humanity along with us."

"I'm getting, Eve bit the apple and we're ashamed of being naked vibes from this," Magnus admitted.

"Doesn't surprise me, most religions have several cross-overs. Apple, phythos, snake, Kronos, minor details," Percy nodded in agreement while Annabeth gave him an aggrieved look for calling all that a minor detail.

I thought about my dream of Hades and Maria di Angelo. Zeus had destroyed an entire hotel to eliminate two demigod children—just to save his own skin, because he was scared of a prophecy. He'd killed an innocent woman and probably hadn't lost any sleep over it. Hades was no better. He wasn't powerful enough to take his revenge on Zeus, so he cursed the Oracle, dooming a young girl to a horrible fate. And Hermes . . . why had he abandoned Luke? Why hadn't he at least warned Luke, or tried to raise him better so he wouldn't turn evil?

Maybe Prometheus was toying with my mind.

Prometheus didn't have to make up any of that stuff though. The worst lies were wrapped around truths, the seeds of doubt and strife ready to bloom. Will swallowed stubbornly though Percy had made the right choice.

Anybody could be shown at their worst if all that was shown was one side of Jason's list.

But what if he's right? part of me wondered. How are the gods any better than the Titans?

"The Titans don't have the classy ability to turn people into animals though, from what I've heard," Alex said as if this were a very important distinction. Somehow in the god's favor. Whatever floated her boat.

Prometheus tapped the lid of Pandora's jar. "Only one spirit remained inside when Pandora opened it."

"Hope," I said.

"C+," Percy mock whispered again with pride, but there was no enthusiasm in the brag as usual. Gods it had been a lifetime ago since he'd sat at that desk and pummeled his brain to remember any of the studying he'd tried to soak in the night before. When Mrs. Dodd's trying to kill him had been his biggest worry in life.

Not holding all of humanity's hope in a pithos!

Prometheus looked pleased. "Very good, Percy. Elpis, the Spirit of Hope, would not abandon humanity. Hope does not leave without being given permission. She can only be released by a child of man."

The Titan slid the jar across the table.

"I give you this as a reminder of what the gods are like," he said.

"The gods have never turned themselves into a jar," Will said blithely. "My dad would never be a geometric pattern! Bubbles, maybe, or a rainbow, but never that."

"You keep that cheer alive Will, someone has to," Jason chuckled.

"Keep Elpis, if you wish. But if you decide that you have seen enough destruction, enough futile suffering, then open the jar. Let Elpis go. Give up Hope, and I will know that you are surrendering. I promise Kronos will be lenient. He will spare the survivors."

The survivors, Percy was still scowling. Like they would experience some unique horror that would go down in history books.

Instead of Kronos waiting twenty-four hours to fulfill his promise of letting them live and then hunt them for sport out of boredom.

I stared at the jar and got a very bad feeling. I figured Pandora had been completely ADHD, like me. I could never leave things alone. I didn't like temptation. What if this was my choice? Maybe the prophecy all came down to my keeping this jar closed or opening it.

"At least you know there aren't pickles inside," Alex offered.

"I'm over here worried Percy's just going to, like, start picking at it," Magnus sighed. "He's going to push the edge of the lid to see how sturdy it is, and then rotate it, and scrape against that leather until it's worn thin, and just keep pushing his luck until, whoops, it fell off."

Percy rubbed the back of his neck without denying a word of that being a very plausible thing to happen.

"I don't want the thing," I growled.

"Too late," Prometheus said. "The gift is given. It cannot be taken back."

"Well it's not my fault he didn't keep the receipt!" Percy huffed.

"Talk about a regift," Nico agreed.

He stood. The empousa came forward and slipped her arm through his.

"Morrain!" Prometheus called to the blue giant. "We are leaving. Get your flag."

"Uh-oh," the giant said.

"Third time's the charm," Jason muttered with no self-restraint.

"I liked it better when you were counting old ladies," Percy sighed.

"We will see you soon, Percy Jackson," Prometheus promised. "One way or another."

Ethan Nakamura gave me one last hateful look. Then the truce party turned and strolled up the lane through Central Park, like it was just a regular sunny Sunday afternoon.

Percy's blood was still boiling at that exchange. He'd envisioned in his mind throwing Riptide at their exposed backs, at storming after them to get this over with Kronos already, to chuck that stupid pithos into the nearest manhole.

He'd done none of that as he felt Thalia and Grover exchange a look behind him, and all he'd wanted to do was hurry back to Annabeth's side for what little time they might have left.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*Prometheus's smooth-talking does remind me of Loki, the basis of this joke

**No Nico has not seen Jurassic Park, yet, but you bet your drachma Will's going to show that to him after they're done binging Star Wars and Marvel, and he's going to love it all

[mahoushojoe]

i literally cannot think of people more heroic than the emergency response teams and medical personnel in gaza right now. they are working in understaffed overcrowded absolutely depleted hospitals with zero resources and probably very limited or no electricity. a constant stream of people with horrific wounds for them to treat around the clock with absolutely zero facilities. people taking refuge in the hospitals alongside them as they work. nonstop threats from israel to bomb them and murder them as they refuse to evacuate and abandon the patients they can't leave behind. working nonstop in extremely traumatic conditions, under CONSTANT threat of one day finding their own loved ones among the dead and wounded. AND all throughout that, remaining calm and levelheaded enough to treat patients, often cheerful and energetic to comfort a neverending stream of traumatized children and bombing victims. all while israel deliberately targets them. ALL WHILE THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ENCOURAGES, AIDS AND ABETS THE GENOCIDE OF THEIR PEOPLE. it is genuinely some of the bravest most selfless incomprehensibly heroic shit i have ever seen in my life and i cannot fucking imagine being in a situation under even a tenth of the pressure they're under right now. i hope that someday they receive the relief and support and accolades they fucking deserve for the downright saintly shit they have had to endure over the past month.

[canmom]

l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode DEUX - mercredi

Wednesday! I've posted a little about it already but here's a slightly more detailed account while I wait for a morning crêpe in front of the giant lake. (La France, c'est bon ici.)

So the morning began with the anime film Totto-chan: The Little Girl in the Window by Shin-Ei! This is a lavish adaptation of the autobiographical novel about the childhood of actress and TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, published in the mid 80s. In her childhood, she was loud, inquisitive, and considered a problem by her teachers. The film depicts her childhood after she is taken to an alternative school called Tomoe Academy, run by the radically permissive, neurodivergence/disability accepting policies of its headmaster Sosaku Kobayashi.

But of course this is the 1940s; behind the idyllic escapades of Totto-chan is the looming fascism and war. Totto-chan's family become suspect for their western fashions. Moreover, Totto-chan's best friend, Yasuaki, is disabled by polio and, ultimately, doesn't have that long to live.

I think it would be easy to apply cynical readings to Totto-chan. You could say surely Kobayashi couldn't be as saintly as depicted, or observe that Totto-chan and her family are definitely quite well off and this is surely a private school. The Heidi-like style of the impossibly cute Totto-chan and friends could be overbearing, or you could call the depiction of Yasuaki sentimental.

But, I actually don't feel like making any of those moves. What this film makes me think of is how my mum used to work as a teacher before I was born, staying up late at night to write personalised curriculums for the kids, letting them talk, and generally going well out of her way to reject the strictures of the school system. And - to hear my mum tell it anyway - the kids loved her for it. She tells a story about how when the head teacher came to inspect, she asked them all to be quiet just this once - and he was amazed because they wouldn't be that quiet for anyone. And also how they tried to give her stolen tvs when she left the school to give birth to me lmao. The point is that it actually is possible to do a lot better than the overstretched, disciplinarian status quo of those times. and while i don't know how modern schools operate, back in the 80s, that was essential to say.

While most of the film focuses on Totto-chan and her relationship with Yasuaki, we do get many glimpses of Kobayashi's principles. At many points, Totto-chan does things that would get her scolded at another place, like dredging the cesspool for a lost wallet - but ever mild Kobayashi just tells her to put it back when she's done and helps her get clean after. At another point, he scolds the other teacher at the school for making a joke that came across as being at the expense of the other kids. It is a - perhaps idealised - depiction of how a school should work.

Of course there's a war on. The outside world becomes more hostile, and this is a place it really benefits from being a film, because it can show us the things that Totto-chan doesn't understand - the changing clothes and expressions of the adults, the increased militaristic imagery. In one deeply impactful sequence, Totto-chan runs from Yasuaki's funeral through a military parade and passes children playing at war with rifles. At the end of the film, the school is destroyed by firebombs - the deployment of the bomb portrayed in a lavishly detailed sequence. The real Kuroyanagi (Totto-chan) narrates how Kobayashi simply asked what kind of school they would build next - but there is an undercurrent of pain that this thing could be so fleeting.

One thing anime really excels at, I think, is making a small gesture become something freighted with a lot of emotional significance. In this film, this is the scene where Totto-chan helps Yasuaki climb a tree - trying different ladders, and eventually just physically pulling him up. (Totto-chan is the strongest kid in the school; another scene shows a rare moment of anger from Yasuaki when she lets him win an arm wrestling contest after beating the other kids; he is so desperate to participate). He in turn is an avid reader, and lends her a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin and dies before she can return it. Each of them is going a great effort to invite the other into their world. I don't know how much Yasuaki is based on a real person, but there is something striking to me in going to such effort to commemorate the brief life of a boy with polio, in defiance of the sentiment that a disabled person's life is less valuable.

Of course, you could say such a message is undermined a little by how elaborately, constructedly cute it makes all the children. These are more like dolls than real people. But that's anime I guess! There's something funny about this idealised little girl now being an actual real living person who narrates the beginning and end of the film.

The character animation in this film is excellent. It isn't flashy most of the time, but simply very naturalistic and characterful. The designs, which use soft reds around the lips, take a little getting used to but they work. And while I haven't read the original book, this arrangement of the story is compelling. I def cried a little, this film got me harder than I expected. Very worth a watch - when it hits the torrents I'll def Animation Night it!

[katjohnadams]

If you try to apply guilt to me because I acted to work within the realms of actual physical possibility to push positive change on my shit government, especially if you are demanding a "call to action" because I di what little is available to me as an American,

Honestly, fuck you.

Yes, I voted and this participated in the horror that is the American military industrial complex.

Would you prefer I just "protest vote" and let the fucking rabid dog Republicans go unopposed? Would that, in any functional way, assist your world any more?

Or, and let us be utterly candid here, that be actively multiple times worse?

I hate this, "holier than thou" fucking attitude.

Reality check, fuckos, every politician in every party in every country is fucking complicit in horrors to some degree. EVERY. FUCKING. ONE. And unless you, oh saintly one, are refusing taxes, contributing nothing to society, garner nothing from society, and have never participated in the world at large, you are not perfect, either.

And that. Is. Fine.

Moral purity is a fucking lie designed to tear others down in order to stand on their backs.

So yes, "If you voted, you have to donate to-" can get fucking blocked. You may be shocked to learn this, but I, random fucking civilian living under a violent militarized government, am not going to accept responsibility for the government I actively protest bombing people I don't know in wars I actively opposed.

Fuck your guilt. Americans are not a monolith. We are fighting to keep our government from eating itself and taking the rest of the world with it. And half of us are actively trying to make it fucking worse!

We actively live in fear of Trump or a trump-like rising to power now because they've radicalized half our voting population into thinking mass shootings are just one of those things and we should be okay with that and eternal warfare and backsliding rights and spiraling economies because they, at least it's more godly.

So, frankly, if you would like to shame me for voting Harris as part of a spectrum of activism in my life, go straight to hell.

The rest of America will meet you there if there weren't enough shameful people like me, and the rest of the world to follow shortly thereafter.

[the-great-unikitty]

The thing about Fallout 4 having "Better" gameplay (not dissing its gameplay it is a decent game imo) is that that's All it has. That and a couple of decently written companions and a cute dog.

What it doesn't have is a story that makes any sense, WHY would Shaun do that, to him you are just his manufacturer(or of the theory that the MC is a synth is true, HIS CREATION). So it makes no sense that he would hand over the institute to you, a random idiot know-nothing from the wasteland.

Not to mention the fact that he would have a cult mindset about the institute and so why would he let an outside lead then. He would probably have researched American propaganda and ideology from back in the day, plus all the public records the MC has, and so he would know they believed in capitalism (a failed ideology).

He even lets you control the institute if you are part of the railroad and I KNOW he knows you're part of the railroad, they have fucking bird cameras no way the institute isen't watching the MC from minute ONE.

It makes absolutely no fucking sense their are literal Scores of people more qualified for the position that he SHOULD be going with. But for absolutely no reason he has developed some sentimental mentality he was never raised with.

Ugh, he clearly KNOWS you might betray him, he has a failsafe for the roboson he made for the MC, just so YOU. Can have the experience of raising a son. No fucking way he is this fucking saintly and stupid at the same time. He would be cold, calculated, and detached from his alleged parent.

Then there is the shitty factions, you got;

•Cops

•Super cops

•Mercanaries(also cop like)

•Evil scientists (Because oooooooooOooooo science make the big bombs so it scary)

•And the Railroad the only objectively interesting one and they are STILL Lameeeeee.

It's like they had the Mona Lisa and let Todd Howard scribble all over it with crayons. I cannot emphasize enough how much I hate him, I hate him I hate him I hate him. He's ruining fallout and now he's somehow ruining his OWN game series TES.

I get the whole MORE MONEY MORE MONEY thing, it's like all people like him think about, but have SOME integrity man. Have enough to at least hire GOOD WRITERS. Or like, pay the current ones enough for them to do the job well? Either way the writing in the game is highly lacking. The super mutants are so hollow, it's not even consistent with the lore in so. Many. Ways. Like why Don't they have centaurs??? They just have shitty green dogs 👎

All that being said I hope the new union kicks Todd's ass.

[spider-xan]

I feel like one of personal my gripes with MSM1's writing is that it felt like the game never managed to meld Li helping people via the FEAST shelter and also being willing to bomb a bunch of random people just to spite Norman (instead of kidnapping/attacking Norman himself until the end under Otto's orders) in a way that feels coherent. It honestly felt like the game went "and now have him kill puppies so that Peter is justified punching him" (rewatching the City Hall bombing scene also reminded me that white Americans can only take mass death and disaster seriously if they can somehow make it remind them of 9/11). I was also really disappointed we never even got a flashback of Peter and Harry interacting with Emily , and the second game instead fell on the "saintly dead mom/wife" trope. I feel like the games liberal politics also perfectly reflect actual liberal viewpoints: absolutely can recognize fucked up aspects of the system we live in, but supremely entrenched in the idea that it is the only realistic option available by virtue of it being what they've known the most, and any attempts at change will only be carried out by people too driven by petty emotions to affect any actual positive change.

Yeah, some of the writing for the Insomniac games, while more compelling, does fall into the MCU school of writing villains where they are completely correct about the evils of society, then run off to kill puppies just so you know you're not supposed to root for them in any way or else you also support killing puppies; but yeah, the bombing plot is odd bc while I think they were going for Li having such tunnel vision that he ends up becoming exactly what he hates - someone who killed the parents of other children, and in an explosion, no less - it doesn't square with the rest of his character, especially if they were trying to avoid the Evil DID split personality trope from the comics (which is a good thing imo bc whew, Dan Slott was weird about both that and the Orientalism in the comics) and then the plot beat gets repeated with Otto and Devil's Breath later anyway, and imo it worked better there bc for all of his good, Otto definitely had a petty and egotistical streak, evidenced in his final betrayal at the end; also, even if the Inner Demons are Chinese rather than Arab, a terrorist attack on New York meant to invoke 9/11 by Eastern terrorists is, uh, a choice, on top of it happening at an event to honour a heroic cop, which is like, there's the copaganda again.

(Related to that, but while I did like the Miles and Li revenge plot in MSM2, I think it's a fair criticism from Miles comic fans that killing off Jeff as his Uncle Ben moment that drives his heroism later is an odd choice bc it's part of a bigger issue where Peter's source material is respected, even with the liberties that Insomniac was open about taking, whereas Miles got almost nothing from his comics and was more inserted into Peter's cast, but that's a whole other discussion other people have written about better than I can.)

And yeah, Emily is handled so weirdly bc I agree, I think if the game was going to do all those flashbacks and have her be a driving force for Harry's work at the EMF and then the later warped idea of healing the world as Venom, it would have helped to actually show her as she was in life versus the saintly dead wife and mother we get from Harry and Norman's perspectives - I think it would have been more interesting if the real Emily was a more complex person bc again, this is a billionaire woman who loved and married Norman, and no completely, truly benevolent person would willingly hitch their life and life's work to that and Oscorp; and I know they had her be an environmental lawyer bc that is a Good Lawyer type to most people, but in real life, most environmental lawyers work for corporations to protect their right to pollute, so I feel like you could do something really compelling there between that and her corporate ties through her husband, but yeah.

And yeah, that's another great point, re: the weird (neo)liberal politics of the game - direct action against corporations is bad and violent (and they kill puppies) and the wrong way to fight a billionaire corporation that harms and even kills people without remorse, the right way is to turn them into the police so they face justice (they don't lol), so the right thing for the heroes to do is protect the evil billionaire and corporation and not actually do anything about the evil corporation, and we're going to fight climate change with an eco-capitalist start up - bankrolled by the evil corporation, but let's not look too far into that and ask questions lol

[kamiko1234]

I just finished watching the re-watching the Blue Exorcist anime and I can't stop thinking about what would have happened had Yukio's and Rin's grandpa won.

Can you imagine how hurt everyone would be ? Let's say the grandpa won and sucsessfully destroyed Gehenna or atleast seriously damaged it. (We'll go with the second option since I'm pretty damn sure you can't destroy and entier relam with only one bomb) , let's also say the man didn't lie when he talked about Rin being remembered as a martyr and celebrated as such. Yukio comes too late to stop the ritual and Rin dies. Without any signs of his demonic herritage comming in Yukio would probably still be the paladin after everything went down.

I think he'd just be hollow, a shell of a man. The Order becomes more militaristic under the grandfather's grasp. Demons are still there and without a real home to return to they are as dangerous as ever. Not to mention that the new policy included murdering every singel last one of them.

I'm also pretty sure sooner or later the rest of Rin's friends would splitt from the order after they realized they also wanted to kill their familiars for example or completly inoccent demons who never hurt any human.

Yukio probably throws himself into his work and the new ideology of the Order to drown out the pain. He'd feel really guilt and his grandfather would probably manipulate him, too. The stress with having to hide his demonic features wouldn't be good for him either.

Rin himself would be used as a propaganda tool, Yukio would probably contribute a lot to that since he wants his brother to be remembered as a hero. I can imagine that they'd twist Rin into this sort of semi-saintly figure who gave his life to atone for the sins of his blood and allow the humans to defeat the demons.

The general message would probably be "look at this brave exorcist ! He's the son of Satan yet he heroically sacrifised himself to help us humans. If even the child of Satan himself is ready to sacrifise so much for our noble goal, then why shouldn't you too ?"

If we really dig into Yukio's failing mental health and the Vatican's (and grandfather's) need for propaganda I can even imagine them playing on Rin's youth and inoccents. Other exorcists would probably want to protect their familiars so the vatican grows increasingly needy in terms of good media and brute force. Yukio is both.

He is smart and has talent in killing demons while also being a direct relative to their newly appointed martyr. He's also easy to manipulate since he's deeply depressed and self-loathing due to Rin's death. He'd eat all this propaganda right up in an attempt to explain away his guilt by believing Rin choose to die for them.

It get's so bad that Yukio starts making up his own fake propaganda when he has public apperances as paladin. He talks about how the existence of the demons forced a "young and pure soul" to give his life and that they cannot allow that the memory "of their heroic saviour" to be tainted by failing their duty of exterminating the demons.

While the Vatican found their perfect little propaganda doll & attack dog in Yukio, the rest of Rin's friends teamed up with some other exorcists and smaller groups to resist the Vatican. They don't know what exactly happened but they are pretty sure the Vatican and Yukio are lying. They also don't appreciate how Rin got twisted into this one dimensional holy figure used to justify the genocide of millions

[moved-to-piersgender]

Imagine Lust Mettaton getting to stop running from NEO. Getting to acknowledge that pain, that thing in him screaming that this is bullshit and that he shouldn't have to swallow and repress his pain for the benefit of others. If he'd been allowed to meet it in the middle and direct it to more productive ends rather than being treated like a ticking time bomb by people that were supposed to care about him. That he's ALLOWED to want better for himself, that he doesn't have to be a saintly martyr silently suffering the woundings of a fallen world. To silence the voices telling him that good girls never get angry. That good girls never fight back.

While society wants pretty narratives of the 'well' victim has kissed anger goodbye, very few can completely, and it doesn't mean they're bad person, a ticking time bomb, or that they should be ashamed of the fact they have feelings because the people around them are the REAL victims here *eyeroll*

[saltysir]

Destiny 2 FanLore: Saintly Sin's

I should preface that I wrote this way back in August of 2022. It takes place shortly after we prevented Calus from taking control of the Lunar pyramid but before Eramis gets thawed out. I tried to write it like the lore you typically see on a gun, and make it seem as if it could be canon. I hope you guys like it!

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

The past haunts those that let it

The derelict Leviathan’s Castellum was erupting with gunshots and fury between the warring guardians and the defending cabal and scorn. Saint-14 ducked and reloaded his Perfect Paradox behind a tree towards the entrance of the Pleasure Gardens. 

“Saint…”

He didn’t want to come here. Calus had already been dealt with and all that was left were the waning Nightmares. But a call for backup could not be ignored. Not by the Saint. 

“Saint..”

He heard the voices all around him. He did his best to ignore them as he threw his shield towards an advancing chieftain. He then manifested his ward of dawn, giving his allies some space to breathe. 

“Saint…”

Just ignore them. Just ignore them. He kept telling himself that as he stepped out of the bubble and tossed a suppression grenade towards an Abomination. A warlock then blinked above it and sent a nova bomb onto its head. Afterwards, Eris came over the comms informing the Fireteam of an approaching Nightmare. The bubble dissipated and Saint began to summon his shield once more as he prepared too-

“SAINT!”

He turned towards the hallway leading down into the Pleasure Gardens, to see a hoard of Nightmares, all staring at him. Faces of those he failed to save during the dark age. Those that died when he tried to establish a colony of Mercury. Those he lost at Six Fronts. Eliksni he couldn’t save during the vex invasion. And leading them all, the one he didn’t want to see turn against him: Osiris. 

“Why didn’t you save us?”. Begged one of the Nightmares

“You could’ve stopped the Vex and Fallen!” cried another.

“The Saint was not strong enough to save his friends.” One of the Nightmarish Eliksni mocked. 

“How couldn’t you tell that it wasn’t me?”, the nightmare of Osiris asked. 

Saint-14 stood in quiet fear. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to respond. How to tell those he failed how sorry he was. He-

“SAINT! LOOK OUT!”. Saint turned around just in time to see the giant cabal aiming his gun at him. Saint-14 was about to step out of the way when–

…

…

Geppetto resurrected Saint-14 just in time for him to see the body of the same cabal crumble in fire. Behind the beast emerged the Young Wolf wielding the scythe and Mithrax with his wire rifle. 

“Are you alright?” Mitharx asked with concern. Saint-14 turned around to see the hallway now empty. No nightmares to haunt him.

“I think so.” Saint responded. A simple lie to assure his friends. One Mithrax didn’t buy.

Mithrax placed his upper right hand on Saint’s shoulder, “perhaps it's time we leave, the other guardians can handle the rest of the Nightmares.”

Saint-14 looked to the Young Wolf, who gave him a reassuring nod. “Very well”. 

[animeengineer]

Update: AP’s own investigation of the limited evidence available strongly suggests a malfunctioning rocket caused the damage.

A key video in the analysis came shortly before 7 p.m. local time, when the Arabic-language news channel Al Jazeera was airing live coverage of the Gaza City skyline. As a correspondent speaks, the camera pans to zoom in on a volley of rockets being fired from the ground nearby.

One of the rockets appears to veer from the others, away from the distant lights of Israel and back toward a darkened Gaza City, where electricity has largely been cut. The camera follows the light from the rocket’s tail as it arches in the sky upwards and toward the left. Suddenly, the rocket seems to fragment, and a piece appears to break off and fall. Another fragment shoots sharply up and to the right, blazing before it explodes in a fireworks-like flash, leaving a brief trail of sparks.

That’s a classic solid rocket casing failure. Could be a material defect, a bad weld, or several other things.

A small explosion is then seen on the ground in the distance, followed two seconds later by a much larger blast closer to the camera. The corner of the scroll at the bottom of the live broadcast reads 6:59 p.m. Gaza time.

Using maps and satellite imagery, the AP was able to match the view of the explosion from Al Jazeera’s live camera feed to an upper floor of the building that houses Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau, which is less than a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Using other buildings visible in the frame, the AP was able to confirm that the larger explosion seen at 6:59 p.m. was in the precise direction of the hospital.

A second video, taken from a camera inside Israel at the exact time as the Al Jazeera footage and obtained by the AP, shows a barrage of at least 17 rockets being launched from inside Gaza before a large explosion lights up the horizon on the Palestinian side of the border. The camera is on a building in Netiv Ha’asara, an Israeli community footsteps from the border wall, and faces southwest, confirming that the rocket launches and explosion were in the direction of Gaza City.

A third video by Israeli news station Channel 12 — taken from a camera on the upper floor of its building in Netivot, a town about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of the hospital in Gaza City — also captured the barrage of rockets fired at 6:59 p.m.

Seen together, the three videos show multiple rockets were launched from inside Gaza before one appears to have come apart in midair about three seconds before the explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

No, it’s not a big enough crater for a 500 lb. Mk. 82 warhead, and there isn’t enough damage to nearby buildings.

AP photos taken the morning after Tuesday’s explosion showed no evidence of a large crater at the impact site that would be consistent with a bomb like those dropped by Israeli aircraft in other recent strikes. The hospital buildings surrounding the outdoor area at the center of the explosion were still standing and did not appear to suffer significant structural damage.

A small crater photographed in the hospital’s parking lot appeared to be about a meter across, suggesting a device with a much smaller explosive payload than a bomb. While Israel’s extensive arsenal includes smaller missiles that can be fired from helicopters and drones, there has been no public evidence of such missile strikes in the area around the al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday night.

David Shank, a retired U.S. Army colonel and expert on military rockets and missiles, said the large fireball captured on video at the hospital could potentially be explained by the fact the malfunctioning militant rocket impacted prematurely and was still full of propellant. That highly volatile fuel then ignited when it hit the ground, setting off a large explosion but leaving a relatively small crater.

Don’t get me wrong, Israel is hardly saintly in this war. But this specific thing isn’t their fault:

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel that killed 1,400, with another 200 people taken hostage, Israel’s military said it dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza in the first week of the war alone, and Gaza officials say that campaign has so far resulted in more than 4,100 deaths.

Hamas spokesman Hamad said that Israeli officials had threatened al-Ahli Arab hospital and other medical facilities, and ordered their evacuation before the deadly blast. He argued that the missiles belonging to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad would not have been capable of inflicting such damage.

And they hit the hospital before:

Al-Ahli Arab Hospital’s operators posted on its website that the facility’s cancer center was struck by Israel three days before the deadly blast, leaving a hole in an exterior wall and an unexploded artillery shell next to an ultrasound machine.

israel just bombed a hospital in gaza, hundreds killed...

from aljazeera: