#superstisi

[ur-favoriterecord]

Of COURSE Ao3's down today

[mrs-mikko-rantanen]

Was just hit by a massive crushing wave of sadness and anxiety

[godtiers-for-real-justice]

upoN thE mast of this ship that is godtiErS-for-rEal-justicE i sit to profEss my iNformatioN to all of grumblr to SEE.

i am thE lEadEr aNd captaiN, for i am captain mod! i am a cullEd purplEblood, lEgally blind (though i caN Still SEE pErfEctly fiNE thaNk you So vEry much) aNd a NoN practiciNg clown! my proNouNS arE any bESidES she/her/they/it. So aNy NEoS.

i am thE lEgal dEScEndant of thE world rEkNowN Navy gENEral: THe VIsIOnARY, aNd with heR captains log i Will bEcomE hiS biggEst protEgEE!

i am dEEply SupErStiSiouS. I knoW EvErything thErE is to knoW about SigNology, aNcEStor WorShip. do nOT tEll mE that thiS is hogWaSh mEaNt for WigglErs i wILL StrikE you doWN With my rEplica pistol!

[cherrybombfangirl]

What's In Idaho?

@ginevrastilinski !!! here's your girl Darcy getting retraumatized and me projecting a lot of my religious trauma onto her, as promised <3 also this was 6,000 words actually, the religious trauma was stronger than I thought, oh well 😅

Content Warnings: heavily implied/referenced child abuse (physical, mental, and religious), lots of evangelical/fundamentalist cult shit, death and murder, descriptions of blood, lots of very strong swearing, Darcy's religious trauma, Darcy's shitty foster care experience and even shittier foster 'parents', brief mention of sex, gun violence

fair warning, I barely edited this, and there's a lot of places where I just plucked down brackets of [such and such happens here], and I might fill them in much much later.

After escaping the Roman demigod camp on the Argo 2, the others realize that they need to get a certain artifact that will help them in Europe that I will decide the details on later. Unfortunately, Darcy knows exactly where it is, and they have to go dig it up in a small town in Idaho where her worst foster home was.

~

Darcy closed her eyes and pinched her nose.

There was no way.

There was no way that the object Piper was describing from her knife was the same little box.

Reluctantly, she spoke up. “Uh, Piper, It wouldn’t happen to be uh-” She held up her hands to approximate the small size. “-yeh big, blue, and with a magical enchantment etched on it in Greek… would it?”

“Uh, yeah,” Piper said, “That describes it exactly… actually. How did you-”

Darcy sighed, trying not to show too much discomfort. “I… know where it is.” She turned to Leo. “Do you have a detailed map of Idaho somewhere? We’re looking for a pinpoint on that map.”

“I’ll… find something,” Leo said, giving her a weird look similar to everyone else in the room. Percy looked the most suspicious and concerned out of all of them.

Leo came back one awkward minute later, and tapped on the screen in the main room, pulling up a map of the United States, and zooming in on Idaho. “Ok… where are we going?” He asked hesitantly.

Darcy zoomed in the map more, at the base of the Rocky Mountains where a small road, river, and forest met smack in the middle of the state. “Little Rock Falls. It’s about there, less than a thousand people in the population, last I checked. They had to combine the elementary, middle school, and high school into one school because there were so few students and teachers.”

She pointed a little farther north up the map. “You’ll have to park the ship farther away, the people are pretty… superstisious, and me and Percy can make it the rest of the way on foot anyways.” She pointed a little southwest of where the town was supposed to be. “Once we have it, we can lie low in the woods for the night, and you can pick us up about here in the morning.”

“Wait,” Percy said, “Why am I going with you?!”

“Are you sure you don’t want someone else, or you know, a whole group?”

“It’ll be faster with just two,” Darcy said, “Especially cuz we don’t want to be followed.”

“How do you know where it is?” Jason asked, a little scared of Darcy’s knowledge.

Darcy was silent for a second before she gave a short, “I buried it.”

“Do you… remember where it’s buried?” Annabeth asked.

“I remember pretty clearly.”

Before anyone could ask her anything else, she disappeared into one of the cabins where she’d dumped her duffel bag. She started checking that everything she would need was inside, including her essentials for surviving in the woods- flint and steel, a little pocket knife, two wool blankets, an extra jacket, a coil of rope, a flashlight, a book of old road maps of the US, a small compass, and her most recent addition- a camping shovel (it was pretty big, so she tied it to the outside of the bag). 

She also poked around Leo’s stuff, and thanked fuck that she found a pair of shears for cutting metal- definitely going to need that. She also made sure that she had five or six meat sandwiches on her, courtesy of the Argo’s well stocked kitchen.

Annabeth came in, arms folded (Darcy knew she should’ve closed the door). “What’s in Idaho?”

Darcy didn’t answer, trading her sneakers for the hiking boots she’d stowed in her bag, pulling on thick wool socks before she put on the boots. Even in the summer, it would get chilly in the mountains, especially at night.

“Darcy.”

With a huff, Darcy pulled on a bomber jacket over her thin gray jacket. “What?”

“What’s in Idaho? Why do you know exactly where the box is?”

Darcy zipped the duffel bag shut and threw it over her head so that the duffel rested against her back. “It’s no big deal, we’ll be in and out before they even see us.”

Annabeth studied Darcy’s face, and her expression softened. “Most of your foster homes were in Idaho, weren’t they?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Most of them were in Idaho, weren’t they?” Annabeth repeated, trying to gauge Darcy’s reaction.

Darcy huffed. “Why are you asking me all this?”

“Because I don’t know much about how you grew up, other than you were in foster care. That’s it. I don’t know anything beyond that.”

“Why would you want to know more?”

“It was just me and you looking for Percy a few weeks ago, Darcy. You never opened up during any of that time about your childhood. About Percy, yes, but not you.”

Darcy bit the inside of her cheek, trying not to react.

“You can’t shut everyone out, Darcy, I don’t know what shit you went through but you can’t bury it and stay closed off about it. It’s not healthy to supress everything.”

After a beat of silence, Annabeth continued, “Then just now, you reacted the way you did out there to Piper describing the box and showing us exactly where to go.”

“Are you accusing me of something?”

“No, I’m worried about you. I think that something happened to you in Idaho that you’re not sharing.”

“Not much to share, Idaho is a boring state. It’s the even more boring version of Utah. Only thing worth mentioning is that it’s the only state in the US that grows potatoes as a major part of its economy. That’s a boring ass fun fact.”

“I’m talking about you, not the state. What happened to you in Idaho?”

“Nothing I feel like sharing,” Darcy growled, leaving the cabin to go find Percy and make sure he had wool socks and a thick jacket for the journey ahead.

~~~

Birds twittered sweetly and insects buzzed, echoing through the woods. The leaves, sticks, and pine needles of the forest floor crunched under their feet. Darcy pulled out one of the old road maps and a small compass- checking that they were on course.

“Alright,” Percy said, stepping up next to her, “You have some explaining to do.”

Darcy sighed, adjusting her hold on the compass and map. “Not you too.”

“Why me?”

“There’s safety in numbers,” Darcy said with a shrug, not looking up from the map.

“Then why not take some of the others too?”

“Too many will draw attention and make us easier to track, and we don’t want that.”

Percy grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him. “Why did you choose me to come with you? You hate me.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“We both know you’d sell me to the devil for a corn chip if you felt like it.”

 “That is also true. But you’re also the most qualified in this situation.”

Percy stared, open mouthed. He then gestured to the woods around them. “We’re in a landlocked state, I don’t know if you noticed. My powers will not be super helpful here. Powers wise, Jason would be more qualified here, cuz air. Or Hazel, because her turf is everywhere there’s solid ground.”

Darcy went back to the map and turned her back to him, staying silent.

“Why did you pick me for this little quest? Everyone including me knows that you think I’m stupid, plus we’ll just fight the whole time, which I don’t think is going to be very helpful. Why not someone smarter or that you get along with more, like Annabeth?”

Darcy still didn’t reply, she pretended to be busy with the map, even though it was a little too long to be checking a map.

“Darcy.”

She tapped her foot, hoping he’d just drop it.

“Why me?!”

She bit the inside of her cheek, mind screaming the answer, but refusing to speak.

“Why. Me?”

Darcy snapped the map shut and shouted, “Because I don’t want anyone else to know, ok?!”

Percy blinked, taking a step back. After a few minutes of thick silence, he said softly, “What do you mean?”

Darcy took a deep breath, trying to seem uncaring about it. “None of the others know about what my growing up was like. Annabeth knows that I was in foster care, but nothing beyond that. The only people who know much more than that are you and Mom,” she aggressively folded the map and shoved it in her duffel bag, “And I would prefer to keep it that way. That’s why I picked you and not anyone else. Now let’s go.”

She started down the slope towards the small cluster of buildings in the distance at the bottom of the mountains.

Darcy didn’t talk to him the rest of the way to Little Rock Falls.

Steeling her nerves for what was to come, she hoped she looked different enough to not be recognized.

There was one road in town, and a few houses scattered in the woods that surrounded it. At the end of the road, the school had gotten a little bigger than Darcy had last seen it, but not by much. There were some people walking up and down the only street, most going to the small grocery store or poor excuse for a drug store.

Darcy made her way to the road that would take them up to their destination, Percy trailing behind like a lost kitten. She grabbed his arm and pulled him next to her, “Act normal, you look suspicious.”

Percy was about to shoot back, but a deep voice interrupted them. “Excuse me.”

Darcy turned to find a police officer. The only difference since she’d last seen the cop being that he finally had more hair on his face. The fact that he was blonde didn’t help that his chin still looked bare from a distance.

“Can I help you?” Darcy asked with a fake smile on her face, kicking Percy’s shin behind her to shut him up.

“Several years ago we had a delinquent foster care runaway. She was about eleven or twelve and had dark red hair.” The cop lowered his sunglasses and examined her face. “She looked a lot like you actually, and would be about seventeen or eighteen by now.”

Keeping a straight face, Darcy shrugged. “What a coincidence. Good thing I was a good child that grew up with loving parents in a stable home.”

The officer chuckled, then said in a more serious tone, reaching behind his back for his handcuffs or gun. “I’m gonna have to take you in-”

Darcy grabbed the cop’s shoulder and drove her knee into his groin as hard as she could.

The cop wheezed, doubling over as Darcy grabbed Percy’s shoulder and pulled him behind her as she dashed behind the cover of a large building across the street. 

“Darcy-” Percy panted, but she shushed him, listening for the cop and anyone else.

She could hear the cop yelling for them to stop, and she and Percy plunged into the woods near the rugged dirt road that turned up towards the mountain.

Percy said, “Will you just explain-”

“Later,” Darcy hissed, “We’re running out of daylight. And we need to get in there and grab the box before they realize I’m here.”

“Before who realizes?” Percy asked as they walked along the dirt road, using the thick woods for cover.

Darcy fixed her eyes ahead, focusing on not twisting her ankle on a tree root as they quickly walked.

Percy grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. “Darcy. We’re going to one of your foster homes, aren’t we?”

“The one I was at the longest, yeah. I buried the box in the backyard. Can you stop interrupting? We don’t have time for you to be asking your questions.”

“I’m guessing this family is the ones we’re worried about finding out that we’re here.”

“I wouldn’t call it a family, but yeah, they can’t know we’re here. This will go a lot smoother if we get in and out without them knowing.”

Percy said softly, “Darcy…”

“What?”

“You said this was the family you stayed with longest.”

“Yeah, why?”

“What happened to you here, Darcy?”

“If I get asked that one more time-“ she growled under her breath. Then she snapped, “I’m fine, ok?! Nothing happened here, I’m fine!”

Then she stormed off, up the road and getting closer to the mountains.

The road got narrower and narrower, and less and less traveled on. Darcy kept going, until they saw the first house in miles, nestled in the trees, surrounded by a chain link fence.

They circled around to the back of the house, where two dogs lay sleeping, chained up to the base of the house.

Darcy cursed under her breath.

“What?” Percy hissed.

“I should’ve known they got another dog. That’s going to be a problem.” She opened her duffel bag, and pulled out the bundle of sandwiches. “I hope this is enough for two dogs.” She pulled out the metal clippers, and handed the sandwiches to Percy. “Get ready to throw these at the dogs. Once you do we won’t have a lot of time.”

“You remember where you buried it?” Percy asked.

“It’s right next to that rock in this corner of the yard.” She took a deep breath. “Hopefully the dirt hasn’t frozen yet.”

She slithered forward across the grass on her stomach, pulling herself forward as quickly as she dared. Percy followed suit right behind her.

[ about six years before]

The old house creaked as it settled, just like it did every night around the time the other seven kids were fast asleep. The basement was crowded, each child having their own pallet. There was one dusty window at ground level, and the door was locked every night- to keep the devil out, as the parents told them.

Darcy was only eleven (or ten, no one was really sure due to the lack of birth certificate), but she knew they were full of bullshit, and refused to call them her parents. No matter how many times they punished her, or told her that God revealed to them that she was their spirit daughter as had been set apart in the premortal life- she wouldn’t call them parents. 

Just like most of the other homes she’d been in, she was an outsider, an alien to the family, and wouldn’t be staying long.

She had no family, abandoned at a hospital in one of the nearest cities a few hours away. Kicked from foster home to foster home since she was young. She’d learned very quickly to live off of a small duffel bag and not need anything she couldn’t fit in it.

She listened to the house above them, for the tell tale signs of the parents having the sex they’d had every night for the past few months. They said that God told them it was time for them to have another child, even though the basement could barely hold eight kids as it was. Most of the kids were girls, all of them close in age. 

There was a set of scriptures at the foot of each bed, and each of them was expected to read the scriptures before bed each night and first thing each morning- until they had the holy books memorized from cover to cover to Samuel and Diana’s satisfaction. If it wasn’t to satisfaction, you got punished any number of ways- no food or water for a random amount of time, sleeping outside with the dogs, or the worst one if Samuel was in a bad mood.

Darcy had gotten quite a few lashes and welts across her back and arms just in her first few weeks there for speaking up that this wasn’t fair or just whenever Samuel felt that ‘the devil possessing her needed to learn a lesson’. She learned pretty quickly to keep her thoughts to herself and her head down, no matter how unfair it got.

She’d managed to escape punishment for a while, until the day before when Samuel was inspecting how well she’d memorized the scriptures. He didn’t seem to care that she couldn’t tell what the squigles and blobs meant, or that she never could in the first place. He said she was just stupid, and must not care that her family was going to hell because of her because she didn’t care enough to memorize the holy scripture. Darcy protested, and got the worst punishment all up her arms and back.

She’d never gotten both at the same time before.

On top of that, Diana decided that the devil inside her must be winning power over her, and gave Darcy “a good smacking” to get the devil to leave her.

Darcy didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she was very sure that she wasn’t possessed by anything, and it wasn’t her fault the bible couldn’t be deciphered.

Her arms and back stung every time she moved them, but as Samuel and Diana’s actions got more intense upstairs, she knew this was the only chance she was going to get.

Darcy grabbed the small screwdriver out from under her bed, tucked between the thin mattress and the wood planks.

Moving as quickly as she dared, Darcy started unscrewing the screws in the small dusty window.

Darcy started clipping the wire of the fence, creating a hole for them to crawl through. The dogs started to stir and Darcy looked at Percy, ready to throw the sandwiches. She cut a few more links in the fence, and the new dog woke up and started growling, waking the other one as well.

“Throw them, now!” Darcy hissed.

Percy chucked the sandwiches over the fence, and they landed right in front of the dogs.

The two dogs happily started to devour the sandwiches while Darcy and Percy crawled through the hole.

Darcy shoved her duffel bag in Percy’s hands, and started to untie the shovel, which was small enough to cart up here, but big enough for the job.

She went over to the corner of the yard where a large rock sat, and started digging. Just a few minutes in, someone inside the house shouted, “What’s going on out there? You kids aren’t supposed to be out!” It was a man’s voice, booming and harsh, with a hint of ‘God-given’ righteousness to it.

Darcy cursed under her breath and threw the shovel into Percy’s hands. “Keep digging, whatever happens don’t stop until you have it, I can handle this.”

The voice shouted again, “Diana, did you feed those dogs? You know they ain’t supposed to be fed yet! … Well I can hear them eating something!”

While Percy kept digging, Darcy crept over to the corner of the house where the shed was. She checked over her shoulder, noting that the dogs were about halfway through the sandwiches.

A large, rough hand grabbed Darcy’s hair and pulled her back.

Darcy yelled, trying to rip free.

The strong hand threw her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her as she smacked her skull on the hard dirt. Head spinning, she scrambled backwards and tried to get to her feet.

[flashback continuing from the first one I have yet to write]

“Darcy, has your heart become so laden with guilt and sorrow you came crawling back here to repent?”

Darcy had backed up into the fence and used it to pull herself up, the wires digging into her fingers, biting with cold. Her heart hammered in her chest as blood rushed to her ears, Darcy tried her hardest to only react with a cold glare. “Nope. And I don’t need to. Just here for one little thing and then you’ll never see me again.”

“You tore this family apart Darcy. We might not make it to the Celestial Kingdom as a family because of you. Don’t you want an eternal family?”

“Not if it’s yours,” Darcy snapped. He stepped closer to her, hands on his belt buckle. He was wearing a rusty brown jacket over a white button up shirt, the shirt was off white and hadn’t been clean in a long time.

Darcy backed away as he stepped closer. He’d grown out his beard, and it was much longer than the last time she saw him. His brown hair was also long, almost past his chin, and was in desperate need of a wash.

“Darcy, you are a daughter of God-”

“Correction, I’m a daughter of a god, one of many, and your god is kind of pathetic.”

“Pathetic? Darcy, is that how we talk about our father in heaven?”

“I could take him in a fight, easy.”

“God is all powerful, he can’t be defeated, we know this from the holy scrip-”

“Considering I fought an actual god of the Greek pantheon- oh, yeah they’re very much real, and kind of douchebags- and a greek titan, which is just a much older and more powerful version of a god-” The dogs only had a quarter of the sandwiches left and Percy had dug so deep he must be close to the box. “Considering I fought both of those and won, I think your God would be pretty easy to beat. At least for me.”

“Don’t interrupt me, Darcy. You know one of the commandments is to honor thy father and thy mother.”

“You’re the farthest fucking thing from my father.”

“You may not have been born to us, but it was in Heavenly Father’s plan that you are part of our family. Your biological family on earth sure didn’t want you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Darcy said, “I found my family after I left, and they didn’t want to leave me. Unlike you, they actually love me.”

“We do love you Darcy, which is why sometimes you need correction.”

“My real family doesn’t think I need correction,” Darcy said, folding her arms, “You’re a sick fucking bastard that only sees children as punching bags. Fuck you, and fuck your fucking family.”

Samuel’s eyes darkened. “The language you are using isn’t righteous or clean, Darcy. They must be the words of Satan.”

Darcy backed away, only for her back to meet the other corner of the yard where shovels, rakes, and other yard tools had been leaned against the fence in a pile. She squared her feet and balled her hands into fists, blood roaring in her head and ears. “Stay the hell away from me.”

“Darcy, you need to be taught a lesson, and a righteous parent, I must obey God’s will and teach it to you.” Samuel’s hands were undoing his belt buckle.

Darcy swallowed, as her brain and body disconnected, and it felt like she was trying to move through neck deep mud.

Samuel pulled the belt through the loops of his pants, and Darcy felt like ten years old again, as everything slowed down and sped up at the same time. Her head started to spin as she tried to get her body to fight back, do something.

“Hands on the fence, Darcy.”

Darcy didn’t move, breath frozen in her throat.

There was a loud snap, making her flinch involuntarily. “Now, Darcy!”

Samuel was starting to get impatient, raising the thing over his head.

But before the belt could come down on her and inflict red hot pain, the sharp edge of a shovel made contact with Samuel’s temple, and he fell to the ground, blood pouring out of his head. He groaned, curling up and moaning in pain. So he probably wasn’t dead, at least not yet.

Darcy collapsed against the fence, leaning against it hard as the rusty old shovel slipped from her hands to the ground. She was breathing heavily as the world spun around her and her whole body started to tremble.

“I got it! Are you ok?” Percy said, rushing over as he brushed dirt off the small blue box. It was about the size of his fist, and the bright blue of the box had faded.

Darcy was pretty sure this was the second time in her life that her brother was very visibly concerned about her, actually scared for her. “He wasn’t about to-”

“Not right now, please,” Darcy said, grabbing the duffel bag and shovel from him.

A new voice shouted from in the house, this one female, also rough with a ‘God-given’ righteousness to it. “Sam! SAM! What’s going on out there?”

The dogs finished with the sandwiches, Moses laying down to sleep while the new, young dog started barking ferociously, tugging on his chain so hard it might rip the chain out from where it was securely attached to the stone foundation of the house.

“Samuel!” Cried the woman’s voice, now outside with them as Samuel groaned and writhed on the ground.

A woman wearing a pioneer style dress with blonde hair took in the scene before her. After a few seconds of looking at Darcy, her eyes narrowed. “You.”

She charged forward. “You sinful, disobiedent, possessed child of Satan! You tear our family apart by leaving, and now you’ve come back to kill your own father!”

Darcy growled. “He’s not my fucking father.”

“And am I not your mother?”

“My mom’s in New York, and she’s the nicest, sweetest, most badass lady to grace this planet. She doesn’t think I’m a problem that needs to be fixed. She would also beat the shit out of you if she knew about what you did.”

“Your biological family didn’t want you, you’re lucky God chose us to be your family and we took you in,” Diana said, looking disappointed.

Darcy took a step towards Diana, fear replaced by pure rage. “You were wrong about me. You’re not my fucking family. My biological family did want me. I found them, and they love me so much more than you ever could. And I couldn’t read your fucking bible because I’m dyslexic, not a sinner you bitch.”

Diana gasped at the language, but before she could launch into a lecture, Darcy kept going. “I wasn’t something that needed to be fixed. I wasn’t possessed by Satan or any demon, I have ADHD and was being followed by monsters that I didn’t choose. I met gods, yes gods plural, and none of them were like the god you think is real. I even fought one, and also a titan god. My real family wanted to keep me, but had to give me up to keep me safe. I can be happy by being a decent person, not following your bullshit commandments. You never loved me or cared for me.” 

She was close enough to touch Diana now. “And I don’t need you.”

Diana was so shocked she couldn’t even speak. She watched wordlessly as Darcy grabbed Percy’s shoulder and they turned to leave.

Diana’s hand wrapped in Darcy’s hair, yanking her back and throwing her to the ground.

“Darcy Mary Larsen in God’s name-”

“THAT’S NOT MY FUCKING NAME!” Darcy screamed, hands finding a rock the size of her fist. She rolled over and tackled Diana to the ground.

“MY NAME IS DARCY ASTREA JACKSON YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Darcy screamed so loud her throat burned, and with each word she bashed Diana’s head in with the rock, until her skull was sunken in and she stared up at Darcy with dead eyes.

Darcy sat back, rock slipping from her hand as she panted and her bloodstream still roared with adrenaline. She almost collapsed to the ground, but Percy’s leg was there, and she leaned against it for a minute.

Samuel started to groan on the ground, and Darcy struggled to her feet, body trembling. “We need to go.”

Percy swallowed, looking at the two horrible people on the ground, and just nodded, handing her the duffel bag again.

They rushed over to the fence, and behind her, she could hear Samuel starting to get up, cursing Darcy and calling her a murderer and a sinner, and saying he was going to teach her a lesson for this disobedience. Meanwhile, the new dog barked violently, trashing against its chain.

As Percy was crawling through the hole in the fence, the hair on the back of Darcy’s neck stood up. She whipped around, and saw that Samuel had gathered enough strength to crawl to the shed and was pulling down his shotgun.

[flashback here that mirrors this scene]

“PERCY RUN!” Darcy screamed, throwing the duffel bag over the fence and climbing over it, letting the barbed wire at the top leave rips in her shirt and jeans as she scrambled over.

She landed on the other side, threw the duffel bag over her shoulder, and yanked Percy to his feet. They made it to the trees when she looked over her shoulder and saw Samuel taking aim with his gun.

“GET DOWN!” She screamed, yanking Percy down with her to the forest floor.

An ear splitting gunshot rang out, the crack echoing through the woods.

Samuel was yelling, cursing and screaming threats. Darcy scrambled to her feet, yanking Percy with her, and they plunged into the woods. She was dragging Percy behind her as her feet pounded the forest floor. He could barely keep up with her, stumbling over tree roots and rocks.

But Darcy didn’t dare slow down (let alone stop), and she wasn’t about to leave Percy behind with those monsters.

[shorter flashback that again mirrors this scene]

She lost track of how long they’d been running, but some time later, the sun was starting to set, and she figured that they were far enough away now. They tramped over a few creeks to make sure their scent would be lost, and found an area that was secluded enough, but near the area where they’d told Leo to fly the Argo to come pick them up in the morning.

Darcy set to work on a campfire, and directed Percy to gather some firewood- no green stuff and to get sticks ranging from twigs to small logs. According to her, he did ‘a good enough job’.

When he gathered enough, she had already lit some small twigs and leaves. She then used the firewood to build a small campfire.

They covered the ground in pine needles, leaves, and twigs with the wool blankets on top to keep the ground from sucking the heat out of them, and sat down in front of the fire.

They dried their feet, socks, and boots in front of the fire. The entire time, Darcy stared into the fire, trying not to think about the last time she was in these woods. Percy was also silent for once, and she appreciated him for that.

She looked up at the clear sky of stars, a strange feeling hitting her as this sky looked almost the same as the last time she’d seen it. She was able to find all the constellations she knew very quickly.

Percy said quietly, “Can I ask something? You don’t have to answer.”

“Sure,” Darcy said, going back to watching flames dance across the logs.

“How long were you with them?”

“It’s all pretty blurry, but about a year I think,” Darcy said, pulling the extra jacket tighter around her, “The other houses I never stayed more than a couple months. Monsters either showed up- but I thought they were just really fucked up dogs or terrible adults- or my anger issues got me kicked out.”

“How much does Mom know?”

“Just that I was in the system and got kicked from house to house, and that all the homes were pretty much in Idaho. She doesn’t know more than that,” She shrugged, “She might suspect more though.”

Percy nodded, staring into the fire as well. “That piece of shit… Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“He reminded me of Gabe a little too much, though this guy was much more religious. Gabe wouldn’t set foot in a church unless there was beer and a poker table.”

“The shitty guy Mom was married to at one point, right?”

Percy let out a dry snort. “Be glad you never had the displeasure of meeting him.”

“Didn’t need to, I had a Samuel. Sounds like he and Gabe would’ve gotten along pretty well.”

“Well, Samuel wouldn’t appreciate the gambling and drinking I don’t think, but they certainly would’ve agreed on beating up kids.”

Percy nodded back in the direction they ran from. “So Mom doesn’t know about any of that?”

“Hell no, and she’s not going to,” Darcy grabbed a stick and poked at the fire, pushing the coals closer together, “She’s got enough to worry about, with you and me being demigods and you disappearing and shit.”

It was silent again for a minute. “What happened to Gabe anyway, you never told me.” Darcy said.

Percy smirked and said casually, “Mom turned him to stone with Medusa’s head.”

“What?” Darcy said, almost laughing, “Mom did that?!”

Percy nodded.

“How did she get ahold of Medusa’s head?”

“Oh I cut off Medusa’s head for a quest, mailed it to Olympus, and then Dad had me bring it home in a box.”

“Damn, really!?”

“True story, though I think bashing the skull in with a rock is just as effective.” He added, “How are things back home? You never did give me a proper update.”

“Well, I moved into the apartment with Mom, and so did Paul,” Darcy said.

Percy said, “I swear if you stole my room-”

“Ew, no, your room is a biohazard!” Darcy said, “Mom and Paul made some renovations to the apartment, they took out the washer and dryer and my room is the old washroom. They figured washing clothes downstairs or at the laundromat across the street will be fine. It’s small, and I don’t have a proper door yet, but I’d take it over your cesspool of a room.”

“My room is not a cesspool.”

“Your socks have their own ecosystem and you can see the smell!” Darcy said, smacking his shoulder.

“Cannot!”

“Can to!”

Percy gave up, giving his usual drama queen pout.

Darcy grinned, and her smile fell as memories from these mountains crept into her thoughts. “Last time I was here it took me hours to manage a fire,” She said quietly, almost to herself, “I still couldn’t sleep because the ground was so cold, and I couldn’t figure out a bigger fire.”

“At least you’re not alone this time,” Percy said, scooting a little closer until their shoulders were touching, “Even if it is with an annoying idiot.”

Darcy shrugged. “Well, you did have my back in there so… I think that makes up for you being an annoying crackhead.” Her eyes started to droop, and she allowed her head to rest on his shoulder.

[they are picked up the next morning by the Argo, and continue making their way to Europe. A few weeks later while on their quest, Sally Iris messages them to ask why cops showed up to their house and the suspected murderer of two people looks like her and has the same face, hair, and first name as Darcy. Darcy is like “it’s fine, they deserved it.” Sally pieces together that they were one of Darcy’s foster families, and wants Darcy to open up about what happened exactly (absolutely not going to turn her over to the cops). Darcy’s like, “It’s fine, Percy was with me.” and their Paul turns to Percy like, “You let your sister murder two mortals?!” Percy shrugs and accidentlly lets it slip what Sam was about to do. Darcy smacks Percy’s shoulder and is like “Dude! You said you wouldn’t say what happened!”. Sally is livid and wants to know the nearest entrance to the underworld so she can beat the shit out of those two horrible people.]

[blueflipflops]

Its either senshi in my head telling me not to skip meals again or this really old and superstisious asian grandma that tells me to drink more water to "wash away the bad spirits lingering on me" and so that won't let them in and curse my family. And it works??? I have never been more hydrated??? Mental superstisious grandma also says things like needing to sweep floors regularly so that bad luck can be swept out. Organize my working table so the little spirits won't mess with my stuff and attract Bad Energy that gives me the Big Sad. And it works??

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Thanks for your answer! About pre-contact vs post colonization, it's always about how writers pick and choose what aspect of the culture they'll depict to be "authentic".

I thought of when you mentioned Inuit Christianity and how prayer rituals worked its way into the culture, as well as your mention about the stilt houses of King Island. Perhaps the time periods do not fit, but I would have loved to have seen references to this in atla.

But these aspects are things writers wouldn't portray because it doesn't fit their image of "Inuit". It all plays into that romantization of "pre-contact natives" that genuinely miss accuracy of the groups they're trying to represent.

I think it could have had a place in the show, as it makes reference to both eastern and western influence regardless of different time periods. It would be a lot more familiar and accurate to current-day Inuit culture, and it doesn't have to be sacrificed for aesthetic.

Something else, but regarding teaching different cultures to children, there's lot of cited concerns about them not understanding the nuances. But honestly at that age, children are still learning their own household's culture, so little details about others are as confusing as their own. Those little details contribute to bigger understanding than what we give credit to, so there isn't anything to be afraid when portraying forgein lifestyles to kids.

Re: the show having eastern and western influences; i'm not sure people understand the extent of things that showed up in the atlaverse that had to be brought into Asia through European or American influence. Off the top of my head: custard tarts, sunflowers, corn, glasses, and the whole concept of earth, water, fire, and air as the four elements. That bit in the Kyoshi book about people eating sweet potatoes when they have no rice is a thing that happened in Japan, but the sweet potatoes themselves were introduced to Japan by the Portugese. I'm sure the list goes on.

And this may be a bit off topic but I genuinely do not care that Varrick and Zhu Li have a Christian-style wedding. We Inupiat did not have elaborate wedding ceremonies pre-Christianization and to insist that we must have had them because everyone did is incredibly ignorant and imposing of one's idea of whst makes up a "real culture" which i daresay is quite a colonialist mindset.

I also wouldn't chalk this idea of accuracy being held over and interest in factual accuracy up to romanticization, but rather fetishization. To fetishize a people is not necessarily to make a sexual fetish of them (though that can be a by-product) but to dehumanize them by treating them not as a people but as an emblem of a concept or collection of concepts. When Natives are fetishized, we're typically reduced to nature, superstisious godlessness, brutality of tribal warfare, pain, stifling traditions, mysterious languages, technological primitiveness, weird food, and quaint little stories with ancient wit. For as long as people benefit from colonizing us, we will always be so fetishized because if we weren't, people would have to question their part in the system. And that's pretty uncomfortable to think about over Thanksgiving dinner. It's bigger than Nickelodeon and Avatar but I'm also not going to celebrate the fact it took them 17 years to be peer-pressured into hiring Native actors to play characters from their stereotypically Native-coded fantasy culture.

As for those concerns, kids may not understand nuance but they do understand details and context more often than not. The most you'll ever need is an outsider audience surrogate character to ask questions and an insider friend character to answer them honestly. Kids understand that.

[lucy-shining-star]

I’m imagining crossover: 

Quincey Harker being Pevensie’s sibling father

Why do they not have his surname? I dunno maybe  some rumors about Harkers were intense and he decided to have his wife’s name

Peter Pevensie is named after Peter’s Hawkins. 

Lucy Pevensie is named after Lucy Westernra. Why not first daughter? Well I dunno maybe he or/and his wife had other person to honour

Edmund was‘was the sort of person who knows about railways’ cause he got that interest after his grandmother and she also kept teaching him about it. She sometimes jokingly refered to him as ‘Train fiend in training’ 

He also liked criminal stories due to his grandfather profession. He sometimes heard converstation with clients and also sometimes peaked into documents, and Jonathan tried to teach him about confidentality and finally had to lock better. Except oblivious Seward didn’t see anything weird in a preschool kid asking him how to pick a lock. Jonathan finally just started to buy him detective stories.

Van Helsing was Digory’s proffesor at university. Digory felt vibe’had same sort of adventure but also not’ from him and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Digory later became tutor there himself and Quincey was learning there and he was his tutor. He once heard him talking to Van Helsing and asked how they know each other personally and Van Helsing said he is his parents friends. Digory somehow became friend wiht both Van Helsing and Quincey and he once meet also Jonathan, Mina, John and Arthur and felt the same vibe from them as from Van Helsing. 

Digory and Quinncey stil had contact over the years but mostly through letters. They of course still had enough good contact not only for Digory to let Quincey’s children live him during air raids but also for oldest to come when Digory had smaller home and Quincey and his wife went to USA and couldn’t bring all children.

After first visit to Narnia Digory mentioned to Pevensie sibling that their grandparents seemed ‘to had adventures of same sort but also not’. They understood what he meant when they saw their grandparents again. 

One of differences is that Jonathan and Mina react with sort of...at same little scare but also relief and melancholy if snow comes in November while Pevensie silbing just with scare.

When Quincey, his wife and Susan were in America he showed them all places his parents and their friends went with him and told him about stories Quincey Morris had there. 

One day Jonathan and Mina decided to tell Peter and Susan their story when they decided both are old enough (or rather, that Susan is old enough, they didn’t want to tell story four times in short amounts of time so they wanted to tell both Peter and Susan when Susan would be old enough, and Edmund and Lucy when Lucy would be old enough)

Susan noped out right at the beggining, when Jonathan arrived at the castle and she realized this going to be ‘that superstisious people were right’ story and decided grandparents probably started having dementia and mixing nightmares with reality. Jonathan said how he was trapped for two months by Dracula and Susan just said that that doesn’t mean guy was a vampire but might have give Jonathan nightmares.

Peter blurted out ‘He wanted to drink your blood? And have no refltection in mirror? But he is awake during the day and nothing happens to him? He is different from vampires in Narnia’ (Yes, I think there are vampires in Narnia cause of that part during Aslan’s death: ‘ 'I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book ‘ I meann yeah right aafter this is ‘ Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins ‘ so it coulld be that though he not described he named creatures...But I haven’t seen any horror/mysthological/fantasy crrature names ‘horrors’ so. That could be vampires. ...And yes I know that there were more of creatures in daylight but whatever. Vampires were not there but were more of others) And Jonathan and Mina were like ‘what?’ . So Peter said generally, that they discovered magical land, had to defeat evil queen, became kings and queens, ruled for fifteen years, how they had to hunt remaining witch’s forces for few years, including vampires, and how they returned and returned to their ages.

Jonathan and Mina decided that they need to hear more about this later, Jonathan was little worried about ‘returning to their ages part’. They also decided that Edmund and Lucy are actuallly not to young to hear story so they decided to tell them three full story next time then they come.

Then they came next time Jonathan first relate his castle Dracula experience and after that he asks them about ‘returing to their age’ since ‘You see, since I see Dracula grow younger this worries me’. They say that they literally grow younger while walking through wardrobe so they it’s not like they would have time to drink any blood even if they were vampires? And whose blood anyway each other? Jonathan is calmed.

Edmund is a more than a little uneasy everytime they mention vampire having very pale face and very red lips, but he hid it. 

Later when Mina says about Bloofer Lady still looking like Lucy, but more beautiful Lucy says ‘oh that’s how that sounds like that picture of me I saw in this spell book next to spell I was tempted to use’ and everyone is like ‘What?’ including Peter and even Edmund cause she completely forgot about that fact right after using eavesdropping spell so she never told anyone. She just said ‘But I never used that spell and I wasn’t very pale or had veryred lips on that picture anyway’ looking at Jonathan’s terrified face.

Peter, Edmund and Lucy kinda shaked when they heard about snow in November. When Jonathan and Mina asked them about that when ending their story and they decided to just tell story since the beggining.

Jonathan got really worried when hearing about Lucy going with stranger and being hypnotized to sleep, but he was relieved when he heard about him getting her back to wardrobe. ‘That sounds kind of like Mr Reinfield, doesn’t it?’ Mina asked.

When Lucy got to Edmund going to White Witch, Jonathan asked to go back and for Edmund to tell his side of story. When Lucy said that Aslan said that there is no need to talk about it, cause what past is past, Jonathan is like ‘Yeah, whatever, I’m not going to judge him, BUT I NEED TO KNOW’

So Edmund says about how he followed Lucy and met White Witch and he described what he though when seeing her ‘ 'Her face was white — not merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern.' and Jonathan like. Got a full panic attack. He started checking if Edmund has pulse, and if he does not have bite marks, and if his teeth are not too sharp. Edmund tried to explain that she was not a vampire, and even is she was she wanted to get rid of them why would she want any of them to rise as vampire? Jonathan says that  he doesn’t know if Dracula wanted to turn him or not, but he certainly didn’t want to reveal he is a vampire before throwing away his mirror, yet allmost drunk his blood then, so White Witch did need to want, to turn Edmund to drunk his blood. Lucy said that White Witch does not exaclty fit description of vampires from either Earth or Narnia, since she didn’t have that afwul smell, and while Narnia vampires didn’t have it,she also could stand in the sun, but she also had this unnatural beauty that Narnia vampires don’t really have? And also doesn’t matter cause even if she did bite Edmund Lucy is sure Aslan undid that. Peter asks if she doesn’t fit descrption of either Narnia or Earth vampires really matter, cause proffesor Kirke said she went to Earth and then to Narnia from yet other world. Jonathan is kinda like’...He also was in other wolrd, and also in other other world and he also met that woman?’ Peter, Edmund and Lucy said to him and Mina what Digory and Polly said to them. 

When Lucy point out that Aslan killed White Witch, and then Dracula was killed Mina stopped turning into vampire, so Edmund is safe anyway, Jonathan says that it was how it was vampire from Earth and who knows how it might work with vampire from that world from which Jadis came. And Edmund worryingly points out that even in Narnia world there were other kinds of sea-people, so they might be other kinds of vampires in one world itself. 

When Peter, Edmund and Lucy comes back to telling their story, Jonathan really isn’t less worried. When Edmund says at onne point, that when he was in sledge he tried to convince himself it was a dream, and ‘And as they went on, hour after hour, it did come to seem like a dream.’ Jonathan is almost panicking again. When they come to ‘lawful prey’ 'His blood is my property’ and ‘unless I have blood’ he fully panicked for few minutes and saying how Jadis meant killing, but not drinking blood he id not calm down, cause why such phrasing. 

 Edmund says he can hold crucifixes, receive communion and eat garlic so all is okay. Jonathan is not sure. 

Once Jonathan and Mina met all friends of Narnia and Polly said about Susan something similar to what she said in Last Battle aka ‘she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.’ and Mina, Peter, Edmund and Lucy are like ‘Why did you have to say that?’ cause Jonathan is. Panicking again. What if she meet vampire and she willignly let herself be turned. When he meet Susan again he speaks about how good it to grow old. Susan is like...okay but why are you telling me this. 

When Eustace brought up ‘What will on Earth when we die here?’ and when he later says ‘Or if they found two — I mean, if we're dead over there in England.’ he wanted to say ‘two bodies’ but then thought ‘what if we would became vampires there?’ but wanted to throw away that thought so changed phrasing and he later was little afraid when Jill says she will rather die in Narnia than grow old on Earth he is like ‘Wth do you mean you wouldn’t want to grow old good that you didn’t say that when meet my cousins grandparents you would not have head already’ so he changed subject quickly to being killed by railways.

Sometime after their Quincey’s, his wife, Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace’s, Digory’s, Polly’s and Jill’s death, Mina saw that Jonathan was super worried and decided to ask Seward to help them to break to cementary at night and they checked if no one turned into vampire. Seward is a little worried what will happen if Jonathan’s worries turn out to be correct, but he believes they are not so risks it. However he shares this worries with Arthur so Arthur also goes with them in case. Thankfully Edmund’s body is rotting normally. Jonathan decided to check others just in case and everything is ok. 

Susan was late at graveyard, as first snow after her siblings death made her recall Narnia, and noticed whole break-in. And when they got out she shouted at them ‘WHAT WERE YOU DOING!?’

They explained and she was like. What. While she did recall Narnia by that time but she completely forgot about that time Jonathan and Mina tried to tell her story about vampires. She realized she didn’t want to listen to it because she subconsciously felt that it will make her recall Narnia. Now she was ready to listen.

[good-or-bad-luck]

9 11 30 36 39 for whoever is currently most occupying your brain!!!!

its my elder scrolls ocs <333 the geese outside are having a rave as i type this

9: Is your oc afraid of touch or do they actively seek it out? Is there a reason for this? What are the exceptions?

weve got a good variety. Breaks is the most normal about it doesnt seek it out doesnt shy away from it. comes with the territory of being the older brother to the worlds clingiest little sister. speaking of sister Spore is still like that. always hovering over someone or leaning dramatically into their shoulders to look at something (gives the best hugs <3) does it with everyone rlly. Rina is the opposite <3 hates touch on every level and only puts up with it ifor Breaks and Spore's sake. even then spent a very long time unable to put up with Spore's nonsense. will offer one (1) hug on a good day.

11: How competitive is your oc? Is every little task something that they can win, or are they just in competitions for the fun of it? Is there anyone they’re most competitive with?

all of them are insane. are you kidding me. you go like i bet i can do this thing youve never even attempted better than you and all three of them are like i will. beat you to death. spore and breaks are the worst with each other. rina is the worst with everyone ever if she loses no she didnt <3 it could be a normal day doing a casual thing and shed be insane about it. she sucks at mario kart btw

30: What topics does your oc know the most about? Are these obvious or would these be surprising to others?

great question. spore is the least surprising to anyone she knows 2 topics like the back of her hand, its the history of kvatch and the hero of kvatch himself and every little myth and legend from the divines (her and elyss worst catholic, fight !!) nerd shit. no one enjoys it. rina is slightly less surprising she knows a lot ofstuff about skills to just like live on her own like cooking and textiles and hunting and growing shit and can tell youy a lot about ant of those. also knows a lot about deer and their behaviors but if you ask her how she knows shell look at you like ._. breaks is our lovely assassin he knows a lot of poisons and shit but with that territory also comes a HELL of a lot of knowledge on potions to heal people and every single combination to make even the most simple of potion. he doesnt use this knowledge a lot since he is rarely ever in a situation where he needs to pull out like Minor Health Potion since his two traveling companions are his paladin sister and the lycanthrope magic user who knows at least basic healing spells.

36: How stubborn is your oc? Are they easily convinced of the opposite opinion, do they not agree but let it happen anyways? Or do they cause conflicts with their inability to budge in their decisions?

rina is a problem because she has never been wrong ever fuck you if you think differently. she will change but only after too long convincing her to stop being a dick about it. will fight you about it. breaks is also kind of stubborn but in a way where hell be like silently disagreeing before going fine okay and then complain to someone about it later. spore is by far the least stubborn of all of them she takes no shit about what they believe it but is also more than willing to hear most people out. comes with the territory of trying to be a fairytale hero

39:How superstitious your oc? Do they end up following them ‘just in case’? Or are superstitions incredibly important to your oc? What are some that they believe? What about the ones they don’t?

breaks doesnt believe in any superstisious shit the only reason he believes in some of it in his world is its afantasy one. would roll his eyes into the back of his head in the real eworld hearing anything about ghosts or knocking on wood or anything even remotely close to it. the only thing he believes in is fucking santa claus. rina and spore are the exact opposite. both believe in more tame ones like classic breaking mirrors gives bad luck or (this one is from the actual game) talking on tales and tallows out of the belief spirits will possess the body, insert breaks eyeroll. the difference is spore doesnt do it because she is scared rina doesnt talk because she doesnt want to deal with it if it is real (she is also scared). both also carry supersitions from their time as worshipers of stendarr like if you give to others good will come your way or if you strike those weaker than you stendarr will strip you of his blessing (canon in the lore! ask me about elder scrolls facts)

[carooolined]

idk how the spoon size (slim and big) affects my appetite but it does

[melodicnommer]

Hi I’m here to project onto fictional characters so here’s some Encanto headcanons

This one’s already popular but, Bruno is autistic. His superstisious knocks and such are some of his stims. 

He also loves to run his hands through the sand in his room but he will never touch wet sand. He hates the clumpy texture and how it sticks to his hands. At the same time he hates how wet spackle feels as well but he wanted to help Casita anyway so “Jorge” was kinda his way of pushing past the discomfort.

He has trouble sleeping because his power tends to slip through and disrupt his dreams (this happens more while he is living in the walls because the falling sand in his room helps him sleep)

--

Dolores wears earplugs when her power gets overwhelming

She doesn’t do it often at first, feeling like she’s ignoring everyone if she can’t constantly hear everything

She has a tendency to whisper or otherwise talk quietly because she can hear herself so well anyway she doesn’t notice

The Madrigals learned sign language so that she can communicate when everything is too loud

She has anxiety and whenever she hears a secret in the town she tends to overthink about it. “Is this a sercret I should keep to myself? Or is someone going to get hurt if I don’t tell anyone? Wait, do other people already know? What if I forget that I’m the only one who heard it and it slips out?!”

post-movie she tries to work on not having to be the mediator of the Encanto so much. She wears her ear plugs more often so that she only hears stuff happening around the house

In the movie she mentions that Mariano talks loudly. After they start dating his voice becomes soothing to her and whenever she gets overwhelmed he sings for her to give her something to focus on. She loves hearing him sing throughout the day too while they’re apart

--

Camilo has chronic pain (this is the real projection, baby)

His power strains his joins and muscles after a while if he shapeshifts too much in a day

they have a bad habit of doing just that, which leads to ice packs and long hot baths in the evening to recover (Julieta can help a little with her meals, but her power heals specific injuries and illnesses, not something like this)

he eats a lot to keep up with his metabolism (Félix only scolded him about stealing seconds because he and the family are meant to wait until everyone has a plate before diving for more. It’s manners, Camilo!)

they’re genderqueer and comfortable with any pronouns, but they get mad when anyone defaults to “he/him” when they are in their regular form because they don’t have a “default” gender. Only a default appearance.

He’s a bit of a hopeless romantic and is incapable of hiding his crushes because whenever he thinks too hard about somone he’ll morf into them (think the Guzmans dinner when Dolores spilled the tea)

They involunatrily shift when they feel pain or surprise because their power aligns with their other reflexes in their brian. Step on something sharp? Become taller to move away from the offending object. Hit your head on something? Become shorter to dodge it, etc

There’s more in my brain somewhere but here you go for now

[null-is-sparing-you]

MLP Movie Theory

So I watched the new MLP movie, and I have a theory about their history. This theory is entirely based on the stereotypes in the movie. I've jotted down all stereotypes as well as what we know about them at the top for convenience.

Earth

Live in "Maritime Bay"

Smell like rotten sardines

"Lazy"

"Not the brightest crystals in the forest"

Dumb

Unicorn

Horn Lasers

Eat Earth Ponies

Can Read Minds

Live in Bridalwood (a crystal forest)

Can float things

Can see "Luminessence"

Like shiny things

Horns like razors

Tongues like tasers

Teeth like tacks

Unique Horns

Superstisious and does a whole routine when certain words are spoken

Cheaters

Pegisi

Eat Earth Ponies

Take a windigo like appearence in the Anual Show billboard

Snatch people away

Theoretically involved in the disapearence of magic

"Bad News"

Live high on a mountain (Zepher Heights)

Brutes

Eat their young

Known:

There was, at some point, an Epic Battle

Now, some of the steriotypes are clear fear mongering... but I think the ones that aren't "Eat babies" and "Sharp Teeth" may actually have their roots in things that were true.

So here's what I think happened:

After MLP FIM, the magic of the ponies only increased, until brain lasers (likely advanced illusions and rather dangerous spells) was actually a real threat. It may have been true even in cases where unicorns weren't actually wanting to harm anything.

Pegasi also would have seen their abilities increase to dangerous levels. A wingbeat may have caused them to fly way more than practical in the typical non-flying environment. This would also create problems with consensual flights. Sure, you wanted to lift your friend a certain height, but... your flight speed is a bit too fast for them, so they screamed in terror. Sure, you patched it up later with your friend... but now you have a problem bringing them to your favorite places.

So what did ponies do during this time? They moved to less dangerous ares. Unicorns would have moved to somewhere where magic can be stored and drained (crystal forest). Pegasi would have moved to cloud and mountain homes where if they were suddenly shot through the roof cause they got too excited, they would just have to glide back to where they were. Earth Pony's earth based abilities caused them to seek places where plants had just a little more trouble - the ocean.

This separation, born out of necessity, caused tensions between the groups. It's also tied to the stereotypes.

Because pegasi are constantly flying, tools to move heavy objects would be... less available. Flying is also a physical activity. As such, they became physically strong. They'd have to be - they can't use dollies to get things up, and there's no "drag someone across the floor" option if you're dealing with things in mid air.

Because Unicorns had a bit of a wild magic about them, being around a unicorn that didn't have control over their abilities yet would be... bad. Getting shocked accidentally wouldn't be a surprise. Also having their magic subconsciously cause things to go their way also wouldn't be a surprise.

As for earth ponies... well... having no magic and no wings would make a lot of tasks that much harder. Earth ponies write with their mouths, so their writings would be more minimal, and their industry would take longer to come up to speed since earth ponies had to deal with things like lifts and safety rails. As for the sardine smell... well... I would tie this to their maritime location (and potentially economy) combined with the fact that they can't levitate objects. If you gotta deal with sardines, you gotta be up close and personal.

Once the separation took place, tensions between the tribes, who are still trying to act as one, would rise. Even mundane things would cause great tension, as the distance between buildings and the standard height of rooms would have HUGELY different impact for the different races. Earlier, ponies would have seen each-other accomplishing these tasks, and would have learned to compensate for one another. Now though? That isn't happening.

So... ties would be severed. A war would break out between ponies who all need to be able to live their lives, but have conflicting needs. And with that, the magic would start to weaken.

A peace treaty would eventually be signed, and each group would symbolically take a piece of crystal. When united, the crystals could be used in a lighthouse (a building used by earth ponies for navigation, easily accessible for pegasi and receptive to Unicorn magic) for some not yet explained governmental function.

But... the relationships would still be tense. Eventually the meetings would stop happening all together, and the tradition would be lost. Similarly, Magic would slip away.

Earth ponies would turn more and more to technologies to solve their problems. Its the most practical way. You need something lifted? Make a crane. They would also eventually move back to shore when their own magic calmed down, for better access to building supplies.

Unicorns likely turned their energy storage into pre-set spells, and compensate using the crystals around them. This ties to the jinxies - the ritual to ward them off may have been a misinterpretation of an emergency stop signal. Someone sets off, say, an old mayonnaise machine that no one knows how to maintain and actually holds ancient stinky product? YOU IMMEDIATELY BEGIN THE EMERGENCY STOP RPOCEDURES AND BEG FOR THE OFF SWITCH TO STILL WORK.

Pegasi would have had to move closer to the mountain, and begin building more hoof accessibility into their designs. The large rooms would maintain their very visible impact on the design... but you have to have elevators for those who are slowly losing their abilities. Solid ground becomes more and more of a friend as well, since no one wanted to plummet uncontrollably to their death.

And that is my proposed history of MLP A New Generation.

[mrs-mikko-rantanen]

Ahhh ahhh ahhhhhhhhh the St.s Christopher Cross necklace chain broke ahhhhhh

[t-underneaththeradardancing]

so a little ego - prolly it comes w the territory - but not so much as to fuck it up - pre occupy maybe a bit u no life  - played w more love than ego - reel deep space 9 trance no - too much on board - everything ooze over but channel pain into sound soothe - w grace or dumb luck  ( therz a story there but its after midnight and just reel eyes cant tell that story  - tawking the dumb luck - wish i could find a reason to add a duck maybe im obsessed hah 

doing more daily again yah imma tired af  but moving forward - slowly but i alwys wuz a little ( that b lazy as fuck t  -  remember the song u wrote - i still dont unnastand y ppl didnt like it ) - im sleeping and resting way more than i used to  - i feel my whine on so imma go now 

layerz 

love 

oh yah fed some crows that counts as something yes - did i write a kitty pome - i am a bit 2 forgetful or order of operations but im not even an md on tv or an ad even  - she is a good one no im not superstisious but i cant spell enymore eyore  - pooh never said fuck btw just saying 

there was birdsong plenty prayers of quiet hope 

love 

[medinabasaib]

Kembar Penuh Makna

Minggu, 29 Juli 2018. 14.14. Menikmati angka kembar.

Selama ini saya sering sekali bertemu dengan angka kembar pada waktu, namun yang paling sering adalah 11.11, 13.13 atau 23.23. Saya sadar ini fenomena unik, karena 11 adalah tanggal lahir saya, jadi saya tergelitik untuk senyum tiap lihat angka ini. Pun 11.01. Yang saya pernah dengar, jika bertemu angka ini maka hitunglah angka itu jatuh pada abjad apa. Misal, 11 adalah K, 13 adalah M, 23 adalah W. Konon, orang berinisial angka tersebut sedang merindukanmu. SHAPANEEEE?

Namun saya tidak ambil pusing dan segera melupakannya, hingga akhirnya beberapa hari yang lalu saya bertemu sebuah artikel yang membahas mengenai angka kembar yang tertera pada waktu. Menurut beberapa kepercayaan, ini adalah cara semesta memberitahumu bahwa semesta sedang terbuka untukmu. Bingung? Saya juga.

Memberitahu apa?

Bagaimana kita tahu apa yang semesta sampaikan?

Apa maksudnya ‘terbuka untukmu’?

Lalu saya sampai di paragraf, ‘apa yang kamu bisa lakukan saat bertemu angka kembar ini?’, jawabannya adalah berdoa hal yang baik, karena konon saat semesta membuka untukmu, semesta akan mendengar doamu. Well, sekali lagi ini hanya kepercayaan beberapa budaya. Tapi apa salahnya berdoa hal-hal yang baik saat bertemu angka seperti itu? Positif, bukan? Seperti lantunan doa saat melihat bintang jatuh. Seperti lantunan doa saat hendak meniup lilin ulang tahun. Tentu berdoa pada Tuhan, bukan pada semesta. Tuhan adalah semesta, namun semesta bukanlah Tuhan, kan?

Lalu saat ini saya tidak sengaja bertemu 14.14, ada orang berinisial N sedang rindu? Nicholas Saputra, mungkin?

Tapi saya tidak sempat berdoa, karena sebenarnya saya tidak sengaja bertemu angka kembar dan langsung memutuskan untuk menulis mengenai ini. Bahkan sebenarnya saya awalnya bukan mau berbicara tentang ini. Saya punya beberapa pikiran dalam otak yang ingin dituangkan, tapi berhubung momennya pas, saya bicara hal ini dulu saja sebelum saya menuangkan hal lain.

Jika kamu tahu makna angka kembar seperti di atas, beritahu ya!

[museumsandmuses]

100 Days of Productivity I Day 3/100

Things I got done today

Attending my advising appointment.

Went to class.

Kon Mari’ed a kitchen cabinet that was overflowing with cups and Tupperware.

Listened to a podcast that was assigned for homework.

finished up my essay due next week, just need to add the citations

made a study guide for an exam next week.

My advising for next semester went mostly how I expected it to go, except for one elective requirement I have to take. Its sort of a communications elective that feels a bit useless and thrown in there for filler, but I’m going to try to make the most of it.

I found a dollar on the ground today while walking to class. I know it isn’t healthy to be superstisious, but maybe that’s a good sign? Of luck? Of financial stability coming my way? It’s all so laughable, it was like one of those Tumblr money posts, for example: This is the good luck dollar, Reblog for good luck!

Not that I’m complaining. Even the littlest blessings are enough to smile for and appreciate.

[mask131]

How people use the word“paganism” rubs me a bit in the wrong way

BEWARE: This is just some mussing and talking about something I noticed recently. It wasn’t a planned post, and nor is it an organized one. I just throw away my thoughts here

There are a lot of people out there that treat “paganism” as a religion. Like, an existing religion, an existing folklore, with specific sets of rituals, myths and legends. 

But... do these people know what the words “paganism” and “pagan” mean? I mean, truly mean? I think people got mixed up because they mix “paganism” with the neo-paganism movement, which is one “unified” thing (well sort of, but anyway, we’re not here to talk about that now). 

Paganism was a word invented by the Christians to define every religion or belief that wasn’t linked to the Christian or Jewish faith. Then it evolved a bit, “pagan” meaning “non-Christian” or “non-baptized”, while “Paganism” was just “everything that the Christian church denies or reject”. 

So, basically, Greek mythology was pagan. Egyptian mythology was pagan. Norse mythology was pagan. Paganism never was one unified religion or culture. It was just everything that wasn’t part of the Judeo-christian faith/folklore/religion/lore. It was a big, enormous puzzle made up of very different and sometimes unrelated pieces. 

Heck, “pagan” was even at one point a way to call the countryside folks, a sort of “insult” uttered by the people living in the cities, because the countryside wasn’t as Christian as the urban areas. So basically, “pagan” was at one point an insult for “uneducated superstisious unbaptized peasant”. 

Anyway, I’m drifting away. All I want to say is that, while talking of pagan gods or pagan myths or pagan religions makes sense, when people say “He was a worshipper of paganism” or “The murder was done in a pagan way” I can’t help but wondering if they truly know what they are talking about. Do they truly imagine that paganism is a religion with a specific style when it comes to rituals and human sacrifices? 

But, to be fair, I can’t blame them, because the idea that “paganism is one big thing” is what the Church tried to put in people’s mind, and succeeded to do. Christian religion, at one point, treated everything “pagan” on the same level and as the same threat/thing that makes you waste your life. So, they started to only refer to “paganism” without making any difference between cultures and religions, and preached that “paganism” was basically a counter-culture whose only purpose was to oppose the Church (and yes, there were links to devil-worship and such). Of course, this was all things Christian authorities made up. 

But  I have to admit that they kind of won the game, because it seems to me that, today, some people still think about “paganism” as a religion in itself.