#thal having a normal one.

[phagodyke]

getting home from work and playing 5 straight hours of elden ring.... crops watered etc

[cringecompanionapologist]

Moffat, Sexy Women, and More 80s Who Complaints:

Note: I am a woman and everything I'm saying is my opinion as an individual woman and not an attempt to represent women as a whole. We're like half the world's population. We're not gonna agree on everything.

I'm just gonna randomly say a bit about the Moffat era and women that's sort of a defense in an "this still feels better than other things" sort of way.

Look, I will not deny that the Moffat era (mostly 11's part) has some issues with women. Most of it, at least for me, has less to do with how the female characters are written and more to do with how the male characters address them (Let's Kill Hitler, I'm looking at you).

But, one thing that bothers other people that doesn't bother me as much is the sexualization. This is mostly compared to what came before it.

For me, because sexuality isn't an inherently negative thing, a character of any gender being sexualized isn't automatically a bad thing. It's more of a matter of subject vs. object.

To illustrate my point, let's bitch about 80s Who for a bit.

Now, when I say 80s Who, I'm mostly referring to the Saward Era (seasons 19-23/5th and 6th Doctors). Ace wasn't really sexualized in the same way the companions before her were.

If you dig through this blog, you'll find that this is sort of the third in a miniseries about various issues with 80s companions that mostly come down to something about gender. With Tegan, it's that she's an outspoken woman and treated negatively for it. With Turlough, it's that the EU tries to downplay the more gender-nonconforming aspects of his character, which admittedly mostly happened by accident.

This time, I'm talking about Peri. Peri was heavily sexualized but in a way that I don't particularly like. It ultimately comes down to how the era handles sexuality in general.

JNT was more of a marketing guy than a creative guy, but his ideas of marketing the show ended up contradicting one another. On one hand, he wanted to avoid controversy. Doctor Who had a bit of a history of controversy, though most of it was about how violent it was, something this era of the show clearly did not care about. Instead, the primary JNT/Saward obsession was with sex. It had to be clear that the Doctor did not fuck and never had. But, this sort of extended to the companions as well. 60s and 70s Who would occasionally give companions one-off love interests. This didn't happen a lot, but there was a history of it dating back to The Daleks, where Barbara makes out with one of the Thals for a bit. In 80s Who, the only time a companion got a love interest was right as she was leaving the show and that was a last minute change.

(Side Note: I'd once again like to comment that Doctor Who wrote women better in 1964 than in 1984 and that Barbara is a great character. The worst thing Moffat every did was have Twice Upon a Time trick people into thinking of this era as The Sexist One.)

You might be wondering, "so what? It's a kids show. Of course nobody's gonna be horny!". And yeah. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem is that the show isn't horny, but it is sexy.

What I mean: Horny is sexuality in-universe. It's the characters having sexual attraction and interests. Sexy is sexuality out-of-universe. It's characters being attractive to the audience.

Peri is the ultimate example of this. She's completely normal for this era of the show when it comes to sexuality. It's not really a thing and when it is it leads to almost immediate marriage. But, she's always dressed in revealing outfits. In Planet of Fire, she's on vacation in a warm region, so that makes sense, but she continues to dress that way everywhere she goes.

Peri is sexualized as fanservice for the audience and for villainous characters to leer at to make them more threatening. Her personality doesn't really match her choice of outfits. It's all for the benefit of the audience and a justification for creepy bad guy behavior.

I mentioned before the sexual subject vs. object. A subject does while an object is done to. A subject looks while an object is looked at. When a character's sexuality isn't an aspect of their character, existing primarily as something for the audience and other characters to leer at, she's a sexual object. And that sucks.

The reason Moffat's sexualization of characters like Amy and River doesn't bother me is that they do not have this problem. The women in this era are just as horny as the men. It's clear that these characters are the sort of people who'd choose to wear the outfits they wear. Yes, it's still fanservice written that way due to Moffat's horniness, but the female characters he writes have sexual agency. They're sexy because they're horny. They flirt with people they're attracted to. They're not just being leered at by the audience and other characters. They're looking as well as being looked at. They actively participate in the show's sexuality. They are sexual subjects.

Of course this doesn't work all the time. There's a lot of "men are horny idiots about women" jokes. When it comes to other aspects of female characters, there's a lot of talk of them being overly emotional and focused on romantic relationships. This did get better over time, being less of a thing with Clara and basically not a thing at all with Bill. I think Moffat was aware of the criticism he was getting and learned from his mistakes. But mistakes were certainly made.

But, though Moffat was obviously horny for his female characters, he them sexual agency. It might not be for everyone but it meant that the horniness of the era didn't bother me.

Besides, I'm horny for Moffat's female companions too. Is it morally different because I'm a woman being horny in a gay way?

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 26: WE SAY GOOD-BYE, SORT OF

Let’s all just pause and take a moment to exult that I’m done with one set of books! This is an accomplishment I will never fail to revel in no matter how many more I have to go! It’s been a ride I wouldn’t trade a word for!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Alex, who had started all of this by picking up the first book she remembered fondly, took it from Magnus casually with a hopeful smile as she read, "We Say Good-Bye, Sort Of. That's just like you Percy. Gods forbid you commit to anything."

"I commit to important things," he promised with a casual kiss on his girlfriend's temple.

Camp went late that summer. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year, and I have to admit they were the best two weeks of my life.

Alex couldn't help but read that with a tinge of confusion to her voice though. She had about as much clue to that idea of a solid length of time being happy as Percy had to a normal life. She liked it better when he was killing math teachers, at least that she could wrap her head around.

Of course, Annabeth would kill me if I said anything different, 

"For just a moment I thought you were done holding people hostage at knife point Annabeth," Thalia said with, wagging a 'for shame' finger at her. "Let the poor boy go this instant!"

“I’m relieved, can’t let her go getting soft now that she’s in love,” Jason snorted.

"A lesser person would hold you to saying that as some kind of blackmail Thals," Annabeth chuckled.

but there was a lot of other great stuff going on too. Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods.

Jason felt a giddy sense of pride that his reaction all the way back at the beginning of this hearing how unorganized they were had been given its own resolution. Gods he wanted to shake Grover's hand and meet him so bad to see what his chart looked like covering all of this.

 So far, the gods had kept their promise.

"For all of two weeks," Will nodded seriously. "Yeah, we were shocked too."

 New demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

"We can hardly keep up," Grover admitted one afternoon as we were taking a break at the canoe lake. "We're going to need a bigger travel budget, and I could use a hundred more satyrs."

Alex resisted the urge to joke about an orgy with great restraint. Grover was a real person to Percy, not just an abstract joke.

"Yeah, but the satyrs you have are working super hard," I said. "I think they're scared of you."

Grover blushed. "That's silly. I'm not scary."

"You're a lord of the Wild, dude. The chosen one of Pan. A member of the Council of—"

"Stop it!" Grover protested. "You're as bad as Juniper. I think she wants me to run for president next."

"And I'd vote for his hindquarters!" Nico snorted. "He'd do wonders for environmental issues."

"Given you and Thalia are the only one's here old enough to vote, I guess we'd just help put up campaign signs," Percy chuckled.

He chewed on a tin can as we stared across the pond at the line of new cabins under construction. The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto. 

Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others I didn't recognize. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.

Jason felt like getting up to high five Chiron. Of course Percy had been right, change was happening!

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. 

"What a concept, all the kids having a bed and a whole foot of space for themselves," Nico said dryly.

"I hope you're not expecting a thank you card," Percy rolled his eyes.

It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.

'Almost all of them,' Magnus shook his head sadly he couldn't even feel real surprise and shock at how casually that was just put down.

"It's going to be a lot different next summer," I said. "Chiron's expecting we'll have twice as many campers."

"Yeah," Grover agreed, "but it'll be the same old place."

He sighed contentedly.

I watched as Tyson led a group of Cyclops builders. They were hoisting huge stones in place for the Hecate cabin, and I knew it was a delicate job. Each stone was engraved with magical writing, and if they dropped one, it would either explode or turn everyone within half a mile into a tree. I figured nobody but Grover would like that.

"Define, everyone?" Alex asked clinically, wondering if it would work on the cyclops, who were already nature spirit adjacents.

"Been there, done that, don't recommend," Thalia huffed.

"I'll be traveling a lot," Grover warned, "between protecting nature and finding half-bloods. I may not see you as much."

"Won't change anything," I said. "You're still my best friend."

He grinned. "Except for Annabeth."

"That's different."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It sure is."

"I miss him," Percy needlessly told her. "We need the three amigos out in the world!"

"I have a feeling you'll get your wish soon," Annabeth promised, but with the kind of smile that at least made him hope it would be fifty fifty on the fun/ death scale.

In the late afternoon, I was taking one last walk along the beach when a familiar voice said, "Good day for fishing."

My dad, Poseidon, was standing knee-deep in the surf, wearing his typical Bermuda shorts, beat-up cap, and a real subtle pink-and-green Tommy Bahama shirt. He had a deep-sea fishing rod in his hands, and when he cast it the line went way out—like halfway across Long Island Sound.

"Hey, Dad," I said. "What brings you here?"

He winked. "Never really got to talk in private on Olympus. I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me? You came to the rescue."

"Yes, and I got my palace destroyed in the process, 

Percy sighed loudly, he just knew that was going to come up again!

but you know—palaces can be rebuilt. I've gotten so many thank-you cards from the other gods. Even Ares wrote one, though I think Hera forced him to. It's rather gratifying. So, thank you. I suppose even the gods can learn new tricks."

"Yada yada old dogs," Magnus nodded.

"I'd leave at least half of them at the pound," Thalia smirked, causing Percy to laugh hard in agreement.

The Sound began to boil. At the end of my dad's line, a huge green sea serpent erupted from the water. It thrashed and fought, but Poseidon just sighed. Holding his fishing pole with one hand, he whipped out his knife and cut the line. The monster sank below the surface.

"Not eating size," he complained. "I have to release the little ones or the game wardens will be all over me."

"Little ones?"

"Game warden?" Jason felt he was asking the far more important question.

"I'll bet it's Grover," Will smirked.

He grinned. "You're doing well with those new cabins, by the way. I suppose this means I can claim all those other sons and daughters of mine and send you some siblings next summer."

"Damn," Alex snorted, "your dad is ice cold for that joke."

"He had to have that side of him somewhere, the ocean isn't all dolphins and maytai," Annaebth shrugged without surprise. Percy was to busy sitting in nervous silence to answer.

"Ha-ha."

Poseidon reeled in his empty line.

I shifted my feet. "Um, you were kidding, right?"

Poseidon gave me one of his inside-joke winks, and I still didn't know whether he was serious or not.

"He, wouldn't, have," but Jason sounded as confused and unsure as Percy did, and when this guy was on the same page as him, they were all in trouble.

Percy loved his little brother in Tyson, but a small, secret part of him had also kind of enjoyed the idea his mom was special. That it was Sally Jackson herself that had made Poseidon break his oath and sort of regret him being born until he proved otherwise. 

...besides, no way could other half-blood siblings have been out there all this time, still alive and awaiting to be discovered. They were supposed to be extra monsterlicious or something. Right?!

"I'll see you soon, Percy. And remember, know which fish are big enough to land, eh?"

With that he dissolved in the sea breeze, leaving a fishing pole lying in the sand.

"Did you keep it?" Alex asked casually.

"It was probably cursed," Percy said like that was an answer.

"And?" Alex spluttered in disappointment. Percy gave her a tragic look that he felt spoke all he needed to about enticing such ideas.

She turned grumpily away and muttered some more curses, though Percy wasn't quite sure if he meant the artifact kind or the cussing him out kind. He had a feeling Alex could manage both equally well at any rate.

That evening was the last night of camp—the bead ceremony. The Hephaestus cabin had designed the bead this year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiraling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus. There were too many names, but I was proud to wear the bead. I put it on my camp necklace—four beads now. I felt like an old-timer. I thought about the first campfire I'd ever attended, back when I was twelve, and how I'd felt so at home.

That at least hadn't changed.

It was one of those things Percy hoped never did. His love of the color blue, how much he loved going fast on his pets, how much he looked forward coming to camp every year. He expected his feelings for Annabeth to change and reform, he accepted he'd keep feeling like a freak in his own head around all these different people who saw him as something special, but it felt good to fall back on simple things too.

"Never forget this summer!" Chiron told us. He had healed remarkably well, but he still trotted in front of the fire with a slight limp.

"Errr, Percy, he's always had that limp," Annabeth told him kindly.

"What? No he hasn't," Percy frowned. "I'd notice that."

"Yeah, sorry Perce," Will agreed. "It's not super obvious, but it's there. He got it from that Hercules incident."

Percy looked at them dumbfounded and was pretty sure they were pulling his leg...but he also still couldn't prove there wasn't some secret play they put on every year he'd never heard of so he was kind of at a loss.

 "We have discovered bravery and friendship and courage this summer. We have upheld the honor of the camp." He smiled at me, and everybody cheered. As I looked at the fire, I saw a little girl in a brown dress tending the flames. She winked at me with red glowing eyes. No one else seemed to notice her, but I realized maybe she preferred it that way.

"Yeah, I think Hestia is my spirit goddess," Magnus grinned. 

"We can throw you in the fire?" Alex asked with mild excitement.

"You're going to save the world by being handed a jar?" Percy asked blankly.

"Screw both of you," Magnus chuckled.

"And now," Chiron said, "early to bed! Remember, you must vacate your cabins by noon tomorrow unless you've made arrangements to stay the year with us. The cleaning harpies will eat any stragglers, and I'd hate to end the summer on a sour note!"

"Do we taste sour?" Nico asked, unimpressed.

"Don't say it like that," Will whined. "Chiron doesn't join in them eating us!"

"Well I'm so sorry I didn't get the correct interpretation out of that death threat," Nico rolled his eyes. He'd left this night, it had been the last thing he heard Chiron say. It had been a pretty memorable last stance.

The next morning, Annabeth and I stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill. We watched the buses and vans pull away, taking most of the campers back to the real world. A few old-timers would be staying behind, and a few of the newcomers, but I was heading back to Goode High School for my sophomore year—the first time in my life I'd ever done two years at the same school.

"In the sea of your life, that is a particularly depressing statement my friend," Jason said with a strange feeling of not being able to relate to Percy on that one. It was nice, he supposed, not to have a deep rooted parallel lodged in him about such a sad thing to hear, but somehow made Percy's life even more tragic than his own blank one for a moment.

"Yeah, yeah, news flash at ten, traffic or whatever," Percy shrugged, but it was still a good feeling. To smile and hope that they were just on winter break and he'd be able to actually continue this trend. The world wouldn't end because he'd accomplished something, it was all he'd wanted once upon a time.

"Good-bye," Rachel said to us as she shouldered her bag. She looked pretty nervous, but she was keeping a promise to her father and attending Clarion Academy in New Hampshire. It would be next summer before we got our Oracle back. 

"You'll do great." Annabeth hugged her. Funny, she seemed to get along fine with Rachel these days.

"Very, very strange, yes," Alex said in a posh, scholarly voice. "Next he'll sit around and ponder the existence of bread or something."

"Well documented history of something all human civilizations create," Annabeth helpfully said to his blank look.

"Ah, thanks," he said.

Rachel bit her lip. "I hope you're right. I'm a little worried. What if somebody asks what's on the next math test and I start spouting a prophecy in the middle of geometry class? The Pythagorean theorem shall be problem two. . . . Gods, that would be embarrassing."

"I think that would make her the most popular girl there though," Thalia grinned. "Teachers would never understand how the kids keep cheating, she wouldn't charge anyone for free answers to the test, just works out for everyone really."

"Don't get me started on how our education system is trash," Annabeth said with a sharp look at the book like Rachel was in front of her to debate this with on whether that would be of any help.

Annabeth laughed, and to my relief, it made Rachel smile.

"Well," she said, "you two be good to each other." Go figure, but she looked at me like I was some kind of troublemaker.

"You can't say anything Percy, you called yourself a trouble maker first," Thalia grinned.

"It was shocking I tell you, I'd never been labeled as such before," Percy insisted wide eyed, causing them all to laugh lightly again.

 Before I could protest, Rachel wished us well and ran down the hill to catch her ride.

Annabeth, thank goodness, would be staying in New York. She'd gotten permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts.

"Guess that living in Cali. thing didn't stick?" Magnus asked, one part nervous for her, one part hopeful she'd just finally decided where she wanted her home to be.

"Not so much," Annabeth agreed, but the sad smile didn't linger as she turned back to the book casually. She'd keep in contact with her dad as long as he wanted to. She'd even offer to say hi to her step mom if she wanted to stop and chat on the phone. She'd come around for holidays or birthdays even. It just wasn't a necessity to her. She finally had her question answered of her place in his life.

"And close to me?" I asked.

"Well, someone's got a big sense of his own importance." But she laced her fingers through mine. I remembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought—just maybe—we were off to a good start.

"Well the bones of your relationship are at least well set in good sediment," Nico tried to say that in a complimentary way, but Percy just got another 'over my head' look and Nico shrunk in his seat rather than admit he'd spent hours in a museum once looking up niche facts of where dinosaur fossils were usually discovered.

The guard dragon Peleus curled contentedly around the pine tree underneath the Golden Fleece and began to snore, blowing steam with every breath.

"You've been thinking about Rachel's prophecy?" I asked Annabeth.

She frowned. "How did you know?"

"Because I know you."

Annabeth gave a mock, tragic sigh. "Am I already that predictable?"

"I don't mind a little calm and steady see-thoroughness right now," Percy promised. He could see that feeling hadn't faded at all with time too. She hadn't stopped studying Jason with those intense gray eyes every time she was sure he wasn't looking. A lesser guy would have been jealous. Percy was secure enough to know better it wasn't that blonde hair and blue eyes holding her attention after quoting that prophecy.

She bumped me with her shoulder. "Okay, so I have. Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. I wonder who they'll be. We're going to have so many new faces next summer."

"Those poor suckers have no clue what they're in for," Magnus said with experience.

"I'm still trying to hold out hope it won't involve us," Percy groaned.

"Well then, don't give the jar to Magnus," Alex reminded with an impish grin.

Annabeth chuckled along quietly, her eyes still darting between Jason, her cousin, and Alex. To much of what Artimes had said made sense with her dreams.

"Yep," I agreed. "And all that stuff about the world falling in storm or fire."

"You don't get a choice about the world ending that time," Jason agreed sadly. "You pick your poison and you like it."

"Bet I can find a loophole where one of the poison's tastes like blue-raspberry at least," Percy offered half-heartedly.

She pursed her lips. "And foes at the Doors of Death.

"Which is a particularly strange line," Nico nodded. "The Doors of Death are always moving, they're set in no spot, in Tartarus! No half-bloods would survive down there to bare arms against each other long enough."

"Not a theory I'd like to start beta-testing," Annabeth reluctantly agreed, though it was a soothing feeling for a moment to have a niche expert on at least one line at minimum.

 I don't know, Percy, but I don't like it. I thought . . . well, maybe we'd get some peace for a change."

"What on earth gave you that strange thought?" Thalia asked her in concern.

"My recent visit to the delusional land of Olympus where everything was sunshine and rainbows by design," Annabeth sighed.

"Wouldn't be Camp Half-Blood if it was peaceful," I said.

"I guess you're right . . . Or maybe the prophecy won't happen for years."

"Could be a problem for another generation of demigods," I agreed. "Then we can kick back and enjoy."

She nodded, though she still seemed uneasy. I didn't blame her, but it was hard to feel too upset on a nice day, with her next to me, knowing that I wasn't really saying good-bye. We had lots of time.

"Race you to the road?" I said.

"You are so going to lose." She took off down Half-Blood Hill and I sprinted after her.

For once, I didn't look back. 

Alex smiled as she closed the book to finally indicate she was done, this one was done. It was a strange feeling of relief and accomplishment when it had nothing to do with her in particular, just one that always came with finishing a new story. Having someone else's life given a tangible place in her world was usually such a fleeting thing.

Percy jumped up and did a lap around the room, arms up in a delirious victory. He would have been shouting like a loon at the top of his lungs if he wasn't worried about drawing the cranky Titan back.

The others couldn't blame him in the slightest, letting him work off his energy as they waited for Jason to stretch and offer, "don't worry, I can wait one more day to deal with the next stretch of my mess. We can all hit bed for the night."

"Thank you," Annabeth said politely, though she and Thalia exchanged almost disappointed looks. They almost didn't want that. They'd known everything of their past, but there was a hunger in them to get a look at the other side of a gods face and see just what Jason had gotten up to. 

Alex, Will, and Nico were already walking off however, talking about death auras and color theory in a disturbing crisscross conversation, and Percy was starting to slow his frantic run and rubbing his stomach, so they weren't going to argue the point tonight and let it go to take a breath at minimum.

Magnus lingered on the couch where he'd been sitting by Alex, head tipped back and staring at the ceiling with a forlorn expression.

Annabeth sunk down uneasily beside him and asked, "thinking about Hearth?"

He nodded, an uncomfortable position for his neck for sure at the awkward angle as he didn't look around. "I feel like such trash, he's my friend, and here Percy just went and made sure the world was safe for all of his, and I waved mine goodby on the word a Titan wouldn't just chuck him off the planet by accident."

"Percy isn't perfect," Annabeth corrected with a fond smile. "I know you know I once jumped on the back of a manticore, and he beat himself up over it too."

Magnus finally turned to face her, waving his hand around in the water to show how much that comparison didn't work.

"I know," she agreed. "Just, I know you're going to beat yourself up, but try to leave some skin unbruised too. If Hearth left of his own accord, I can't see him blaming you."

Magnus sighed and nodded in agreement. He wanted to believe that, at any rate.

Annabeth watched, seeing him now studying the empty seat with a faraway look in his eyes she knew all to well, the lost expression of not knowing what to do about a situation wasn't just for his friend.

"You like her," Annabeth said astutely, tucking her legs underneath her and studying him, "I could tell that after being here half a day. Have you said anything to Alex?"

Magnus bit his lip and wasn't sure how to say it.

"Is it because you're only attracted to her, half the time?" She kept fishing.

"No, no," Magnus quickly corrected. "I, find her just as intriguing on her he days. I mean, I've never been attracted to a guy before, but it's not, I mean, I like Alex, no matter what gender she or he is."

"So what's the problem?" Annabeth repeated, pure sympathy in her tone.

He clasped his hands and tapped his fingers against his chin, there was no nice way to say it. "Not sure what's going to happen when we get back. I'm still, I'm not sure if you're camp, well, up there-"

His cousin's eyes filled with regret, she leaned forward in her seat, feet spilling back onto the floor to support her weight as she automatically went in to hug him, before she hesitated and leaned right back. He smiled at her in relief and forced himself to relax, not even realizing he'd tensed up until she'd sat back in her seat, but still leaning on the edge.

"You're homeless." She said it as a statement, not a question. He didn't bother to deny it. What would be the point when she'd find out the second they got out of here? Her face flooded with the one thing that didn't send him running away though. Understanding. "Magnus, I am so sorry about that, if I'd known-"

"How could you," he brushed off any responsibility on her part. "As bad as things apparently are between your dad, if he even knows, you've had your own troubles going on-"

"I asked about you though," Annabeth insisted, she was twisting her hands up in her lap and he smiled to imagine her Yankees cap there. "When he told me about Aunt Natalie, that first summer I'd seen him in so long, I cried all night. He said he tried to find you but the system had no record of you, and my step-mom was just in the kitchen the whole time making her kids lunch like nothing was wrong, well, it didn't set a good precedent for that summer. I just thought, I don't know, you were living with Uncle Randolph, safe, I was still fighting with them so much-"

"I don't blame you," he insisted to her guilt ridden face. 

"I should have looked for you," she insisted too. "You could have been at camp with us all along."

"I don't know about that," he frowned and looked up at the ceiling again, then reluctantly, the door. "That's why I'm, well it doesn't help I'm a tongue tied idiot around her, but I don't know what's going to happen when we get back. The last thing I should be worried about is a crush when, well I have no clue about my parentage and," he trailed off with his face burning red and his own hands gripping painfully tight to each other.

Annabeth bumped their knees together as she leaned forward without being forceful about it, her tone dead serious. "Chiron will not turn you four away. You'll have somewhere safe to be Magnus." Then she looked over her shoulder, and back to him with a promising smile. "I can tell you really have feelings for Alex, and you shouldn't wait on something like that."

He was blushing again even as he answered, "it's not like it's just me. Alex is, so confident, about everything! I still think she's just been messing with me! If she did like me, I think she'd say something about it, she's so bold." He was smiling by the end, he could hear to his own ears how gently he spoke of her and couldn't even find the blush to be embarrassed about it anymore, even as Annabeth's smile increased.

She still spoke candidly, but there was a hint of worry for the first time. "Maybe, well, she has feelings for somebody else up there right now."

Magnus's heart plummeted, he hadn't thought of that.

"Maybe there's, other things going on in her circumstances," Annabeth relentlessly went on, "but Magnus, you'll regret it if you don't at least ask. Trust me."

He did trust her. He didn't envy the two living through the end of the world before finding peace in each other. He didn't want total destruction to get up the courage to say something to Alex and wondered what other obstacles between near constant death by monster and kidnapping's might circumvent them giving each other a chance. 

Magnus knew the moment Percy must have walked back in the room by watching her face light up, shifting around in her seat as if her first reaction were to go to him. She stopped herself and smiled back at him.

He nodded to be left alone,  so Annabeth just gave him a promising smile as she stretched and stood up, going over to Percy and putting her hand in his like it was the most natural thing in the world as they discussed what they wanted for dinner with Thalia.

His mind was so preoccupied trying to figure out what exactly he was going to say to Alex on the way to her door, he had no clue how long he was standing in front of it only to see it was open. Wrapping his knuckles sharply on it anyways and very cautiously easing his head around, he called out for her with no answer. 

It was as bland as everybody else's, if he hadn't subconsciously noted which one she'd come out of yesterday he'd never have guessed who's it could be, but there was also something so uniquely Alex about it he was sure he wasn't wrong. The smell of wet clay lingered in the air, there was a sewing kit resting beside the pillow, and a plate of Hershey's Kisses on top of the fridge, all unwrapped and arranged in a nonlinear way. 

His first impulse was to swipe them into his mouth and book it, but this was Alex's room, and he'd never stolen from someone he wasn't pretty convinced didn't deserve it, so he instead opened up the door below.

Instead of food, what he found was a bowl. A beautiful work of pottery with intricate, almost 3D looking designs all along the side of a caterpillar weaving itself into a cocoon and coming out, only for its wings to beat for all of one image and begin withering in the very next to turn to dust, a telling story all the way until he spun it back around to start. 

The kind of thing he would have scoffed and been disgusted at the price of, only someone living the lap of luxury could afford in a window. His hands felt grubby holding it.

He swiftly set it on her bed before the worst could happen and bumped into the fridge door, closing it to hide the evidence he'd found such a thing while the chocolate all moved around on the plate.

Then his mind seized in a panic, wanting to put it back before she found he'd saw it, and he had to grab something else out to prove he hadn't of course! But what- his eyes darted to the chocolate, and he frantically slammed and yanked the door too quickly, the universe glitched as it delivered so fast, but a bag of Kisses fell onto his shoe. He ripped the bag open and hastily shoved one in as he kicked the door back shut, feeling the strange crinkling sensation on his tongue and realizing he'd forgotten to unwrap it- 

"Magnus?" 

He choked, his hands fumbled, and for some reason his brain screamed at him to hide the evidence. The rich chocolate fell to the floor, scattering to every corner as the half-unwrapped one sat on his tongue as he whirled around to see her dark brown and amber eyes were glittering at him from across the room as she sauntered over. She stopped right in front of him, eyeing his lips clinically.

Magnus swallowed and knew he should open his mouth, say something, like why he was invading Alex's privacy and something else very important, he was sure he'd come in here to say something but really couldn't remember right now as Alex leaned in.

Alex planted a hand firmly on his shoulder and kissed him.

It was not gentle, but neither was the way Magnus's knees literally gave out on him and he fell back against the wall, his hands had pulled Alex's shirt with him, so that Alex was fully pressed into him and her lips were still a tantalizing breath apart.

She braced her other hand against the wall right by his head, he felt her shift her weight and his eyes snapped open as he began to apologize and let go only to see her nose to nose with him and smiling, not leaning back an inch. "I'm homeless," he blurted out, and gods he was the most idiotic person on earth as he licked his lips. He was surprised he wasn't choking on that wrapper and probably dying and hallucinations all this.

"I guessed that, I am too," she nodded. Some of her hair had fallen out of the updo, curling back around her shoulders. They were so close, his golden strands were twining together with hers. "I'm a child of Loki."

Judging by her reserved tone, how she was still shifting her weight around, he probably should have had some revelation to that. Even he'd heard of that god. "The god of trickery? Thor's brother?" He was running his tongue over his lip still where they tingled and had never wanted someone to move away less. Maybe he had a chocolate allergy he'd never known of.

She gave him a joyless smile, the nails on his shoulder digging in just a bit, for all the world like she was still fixing to lean back but had yet to do so. "How those Greek kids speak of children of Hades, as outcasts, untrustworthy, that's how our kind will see me Magnus."

"You're not seeing anyone else are you?" He blurted, again. He wasn't touching her anywhere but where his fingers were still holding onto the edge of her odd shirt, the material crinkled like she’d wrapped herself in foil, just the tips of his fingers.

Her smile was very sad as she leaned in and kissed him again, fully capturing his lips. The world might have actually ended by the time she leaned back again, his protection had possibly evaporated into her he was left breathing so shallowly like all the oxygen had been deprived from him. "No," she finally answered in the gentlest voice Magnus had yet heard from her. Her eyes were closed as she stayed right where she was. "Give me time to tell you about Adrian." Her breath caught on the name. Then she opened her eyes, and finally pushed off him and took a step back.

There was chocolate smeared across her lips now and he found himself swallowing none left in his mouth.

"Okay," he promised, thinking Percy would have to come in here and pry him off this wall before he figured out how to move again. "I, um, you're gorgeous," he finally, stupidly, remembered what he'd wanted to come in here and tell her, and the compliment seemed very underwhelming now.

She laughed, that same crooked smile playing across her lips he didn't think he'd ever want to look away from. "And you're an adorable goof."

"I can work with that," he nodded so much he may or  may not have broken his neck.

***

Percy finally held her tight that night.

“All coming back to you?” She couldn’t even put a tease in her voice as she lovingly curled into his chest without hesitation and his arms just circled her tighter.

There was comfortable silence for a while. But they both knew. It was a pause of their earlier fight, and they were both testing the waters to see who would break it first.

Percy did, cutting right to the heart of it. He’d seen that look on her face and known what it was. “I got lost, and it wasn’t your fault.”

She said nothing, her nails digging tight into his back. He could feel the hitch in her voice as she fought back a sob.

“The day you can tell a god or goddess or Titan what to do with me is the day you get crowned Queen of Olympus, and Zeus is doing a shit job too, so, I actually like your odds better,” he concluded with the contemplative simpleness she adored about him so much. He had a very black and white view of the world, one she didn’t share but admired.

“I think what’s killing me is, that Artemis had to help,” she admitted. She could only admit this to him, since she was being honest here. 

He nodded, because he understood that too. “I’m sure your mom would say good counsel isn’t unwise?” He tried and failed to offer, knowing the answer. “Your mom might never have liked my help, but she can’t claim to have never needed it. She has demigods to do her bidding too.”

“Her counsel, perhaps, but I, I don’t know Percy. I hate the idea, of not knowing what they have planned for you. Of what they’ll ask you to do before this is all over.”

“What they’ll ask us to do,” Percy reminded, she could hear the grin of his voice from the comfort of his beating heart in her ear. “Oceanus might be an idiot, but he made it pretty clear he didn’t pull all of them in here by mistake. Now, you are a part of it, and we’ll make the right call.”

“I hope you’re right,” she murmured. Her mind was on Jason, and her cousin and Alex. Her mind was on those books, and how no god’s gift came without a price. Her mind was on Artemis still, and what she’d ask of them too when they got out of here.

And that would only be the beginning.

PJOPJOPJO

I don’t want to promise when I’ll start the next set of books. I want to get into a new fandom I’ve never explored before and really get invested without fretting in the back of my mind about writing. I want to say I’ll start posting the first chapter around the end of December with a possible first bonus chapter early that month, but if I wait a bit into New Year��s don't be alarmed either. My heart is SET on finishing these, I just don’t want to force it when I’m still playing around with a few ideas.

I will give the minor spoiler and promise I’m kicking around some new characters to bring in, but I would have to take some out too, I won’t go over my limit of eight. 

Tell me which you’d prefer? I’m angling to bring in Leo and Piper or Reyna and Frank, both have merits, but I know you all have your own ideas.

[kariachi]

Oh look, more 'giving chars who never got to Impress babs' fic. How about some less social drama?

~~

She hadn’t been sleeping anyway.

A day of working with the other candidates on firestone sorting had left her dreams filled with fire, with screams, the type Silla’s antics and Teras’s affection couldn’t drive away. There had been nothing but the movement she always craved- pants, a tunic, her hair flying free as she ran paces between herdbeast paddocks. Enough to wear down the scream in her throat, dry tears she’d never shed, almost make a dent in her endless energy.

But that didn’t mean she’d welcomed the humming that had started. The demand that the people of Telgar gather in the Hatching Cavern, greet the hatching clutch.

Under normal circumstances she would have been a proper lady, would have walked back to the barracks and changed into better clothes.

That night she still smelt burning meat.

Teras draped across her shoulders as always, she had sent Silla back for ribbons. Took her time walking across the bowl, arranging her hair into a crown braid with practiced ease. Head held high, small, empty smile on her face, she made her way to the same seat she’d taken the last few wher hatchings. Telgar only allowed those they trusted with these eggs, since the wherlets would survive fine on their own, and that was nothing but a boon for stolen candidates.

She found she much preferred to be behind the walls.

The seats beside her were saved by Silla spreading out across them, waiting for Maksi and Thal to make their way over, done up as one should be for such an event. Neither mentioned her own attire, only shared a look, but Maksim’s arm was up around her shoulders even before she could rest her weight on his side. For them she could manage a real smile, not wide and bright as normal but enough to know she wasn’t dead or dying. Enough to allow for chatter about the boys’ dragons, for whispered gossip, Thal shaking his head affectionately as she and Maksi judged the attire of the candidates on the sands.

Guards, loyalists, done up far more erratically than the dragon candidates were made. Mostly the sort to care more about power and control than people, no one she would have chosen more than a dirty business relationship with. No one she would trust with the power a wher could offer. Especially not with the size of some of those eggs down there. She’d put her money on at least four bronzes, and on the dark thing in pride of place- like some aggravating power play, they’d have probably put it on a pedestal if anyone involved was bright enough to build one- being a blue, out of pure spite.

The whispers among them, around them, died down as the humming reached it’s peak, the first shell cracked. A bronze, of course, because the Weyr deserved good luck. Still, she smirked to see it walk right passed the violent dipshit who had been stood beside it, instead making it's way directly to it’s golden dam. It burned in her gut to watch her grant it affection, after that nightmare.

She made solid money on the whole mess, at least. Five bronzes by her count, most unbonded to her pleasure. In fact a lot of clutch went unbonded, and she had to wonder, as she glanced at the boys and caught the distant stares that denoted talking to their bondeds, if anyone else thought that noteworthy. Something to discuss later, mayhaps. But that damn dark egg, massive and cracked like scorched earth, refused to budge. The longer the hatching went on, the more that settled wrong with her. She’d been to enough of them, between Benden and Telgar, to know that golds always hatched late. They’d used it to claim their superiority in the Hall, that they had an innate sense of narrative.

Telgar Weyr, the Telgar Territory, did not need more gold whers.

But when had the universe truly cared what she wanted? She was lucky it liked her enough to keep her alive at this point.

It was almost suspicious, given how Telgar was, how normal the fresh new gold was when it finally arrived, shell falling away as it gave a languid, predatory stretch. Shining elder sisters took a half step forward. Telgar’s most loyal, strongest of will and mind, did the same from their sloppy circle around it. The bab shone in the dim light, burnished and bright in turn, as it took in all around it. Sands, siblings, candidates, stands.

Those around it may as well have not even existed as it made it’s way to the wall.

The stands fell silent. She felt Maksi’s arm tighten around her, her greens’ concern around the edges of her mind. The crowd froze as it climbed over the wall, started the walk up the stairs on unpracticed legs. A portion of the dragons stopped humming- she would bet money Zamanth, Shiko, and their clutchmates. Her endless fidgeting kicked up a half-notch, glad it was coming up the set nearer to her than the boys, angling herself between them in case it got violent. That certainly didn’t seem to be it’s plan, but she wasn’t one for risking her people, and it just kept climbing.

By the time it turned into their row- people pulling their legs up, loathe to touch it as it passed- Maksim’s grip was painful, Teras’s eyes whirling red.

She’d broken enough bones in her life that it’s (his) teeth sinking into her arm weren’t worth classing, especially not with the strong sense of partnershippossessionoursMine that filled her mind alongside those whirling eyes.

The burn was.

He leapt back, eyes solid yellow, mouth full of blood, as the pain hit her, as she clenched her teeth against the urge to shout, wrenched her arm away.

“Monie!” Dimly she heard Zamanth’s distressed bugle as Maksi pulled her near into his lap, and Thal surged forward. She pasted on a wider smile, shoved reassurances at her flits, at the gold, as their fear, worry, (guilt) crashed in on her. No words, just a tangled mass of confusion she did her best to cut through like a knife.

“Fine, darlings, no worries,” she lied, clutching her arm tight against her breast. After only a few seconds, it was already too much blood. She’d seen plenty enough wounds to know it was too much blood. The looks on her boys’, like she was dying in front of them (no, she was fine, if it meant they wouldn’t worry-), said they knew it too. The smile widened, a bigger, more obvious lie by the heartbeat, over teeth achingly tight. “Reaching healers would be nice though, if we could.”

The row seemed to empty out in front of them, Maksi’s hand clenched around her good arm as she murmured urges to calm at him. Thal calling to the healers who were already rushing over, likely reacting more to the distress of the hatchling than to the humans. The little gold (he’d seemed so large before, long and sharp as any Telgar wher, but now, with his distress in her mind, frantic patches of shapeless colors a reminder he was so so young-) following behind as she shoved as many reassurances as she could at him.

It kind of did feel like she was dying.

~

(Kept in the infirmary until they knew her arm wouldn’t get any worse, Monett threw chunks of meat into the cavernous mass of teeth that was Ruhkbat’s maw. Watched his second set of jaws catch some, those missed quickly beginning to dissolve before being snatched up on the second or third try. His mind rested heavy against hers- following and answering her lilting chatter with a hunter’s focus and a voice of steel and blood- for all they two seemed to slot together like missing pieces.

She’d never really expected it to feel right.)

[hel-phoenyx]

Domhildr belongs to @soupedepates, Meili to @azeler, Oli to @thal-ent and Kaizarz, Skuld and Valentina to @corneille-but-not-the-author

After the whole Sylphe trainwreck, Kaizarz didn't wanna leave us out of is field of vision.

Maybe he is afraid that if we get out of his sight for just a moment we'll disappear. Or maybe that we were so terrified that we would plan something against him the moment he's not here. I really can't blame him for either way of thinking.

The whole point is that we're in the cabin of the captain. It may have been Valentina's, once, but now it's Kaizarz's. Proof in the bed, big enough to fit us all in there, well, except when Kaizarz is on it.

To be fair, I take my own share of place in it. That's why I asked Oli and Domi to help me bring pillows. Something comfortable for us to sleep in.

We're all reunited in the cabin, and silence is heavy, only broken by the deafening noises of the sea. Before falling asleep, Domhildr threw in the occasional joke, sometimes asking us is we want to play a game, but we're all too tired for that. The only one that, I believe, would have said yes is Valentina, and she's recovering from her wound.

She's not the only one. Her and Meili are fast asleep, Meili because he's disabled again and needs to recover, and her because maintaining herself alive for an entire day takes a lot of energy.

Oli, too, is asleep, curled around Domhildr with their wings shaking in her sleep. Both of them. They're back to normal, it feels better now that I have the Oli and Domi I know in front of me, but we are all so tired.

I'm glad we can be tired together.

Needless to say the only ones not asleep are Skuld and me. I don't know about Kaizarz, he has his back turned on us since a long time, hand in Meili's hair like our friend would crumble if he removed it.

She's lying down on my chest and I'm sat on pillows, waiting for sleep. That, of course, won't come to me.

"Hey, Skuld," I say softly to her so I dont wake up the others. "Remind me of our next stop ?"

"Shabbatai-QIanfu," she answers without looking up.

Right. The biggest country of the Paper continent, and the first one that really threw itself in the civil war. Our relationships were at most cold before the assassination. I wonder how things have changed since then.

I look at Kaizarz still back turned on me. He does not move, and a fool would think he's sleeping.

That's why I don't say anything else.

Skuld, too, must be aware of the situation. Also, talking about someone as he was not here while the someone is listening is incredibly rude. That must be why she doesn't raise her concerns, either.

In place, I just smile.

"That's good. I've heard good things about the food, and when we went to the Tournament the emperor's guard cooked us some specialties, when it was time to eat. Impatient to taste them again."

"Did they ? I don't remember. Sad you didn't save a portion for me."

"You were sick, you little shit. And a certain king was around you all the time. That would have been an awkward situation."

She laughs, lowers her voice so I'm the only one who hears it.

"As awkward as kissing my forehead after the estnothi drinking contest while he was right next to us ?"

Thank Ocean for her whispering because I did not want Kaizarz to hear that.

"We were both drunk, I answer with the same level of voice. "And he was, too. I won't remind him he kissed Oli, he says he doesn't remember, but that certainly was more daring than a forehead kiss."

"Huh. Next time I will climb you even harder then."

By all of Harkyr rotten scales that little- I am now redder than ever, and certainly did not want the image. Luckily the waves covered her voice. because not only I did NOT want Kaizarz to hear that, but also the others. And neither does she, since she's talking in a breath. So low I almost didn't hear it.

Please gods make that no one hears my heartbeat going faster.

"Suddenly I wanna get drunk just to forget I've even heard that. Hope the Shabbatai alcohol is good."

She laughs.

"Oh, Tyr, poor choice of place to get drunk. Alcohol in Shabbatai has a... Connotation."

"And how, pray tell, do you know that, lady sheltered ?"

"Visions on the past and the present on the city before falling ill. I'm using all opportunities I can to learn, you know."

Of course. And welp, there goes my plans to get hammered on rice booze, I suppose. I needed to let go anyway. Or I'll just drink my sorrows in peace inside my own cabin, if nobody discovers my stash of alcohol.

I really hope no one is snooping around because that's also where I hide the, well, raunchy kind of books.

The conversation must have tired Skuld, since she's yawning on my chest. Not the best place to sleep, but it's not like we have a lot more place, and pillows. I guess it's time to fall asleep, too.

"Good night, Skuld."

"No nightmares to you too, Tyr."

Little shit. Well, she is right, I haven't had a good night of sleep in ages. I scoot over, trying to lay down without crushing anywone, a difficult task there is ; but finally, I manage to find a comfortable position, and Skuld is no longer laying on me, only next to me with her head on my chest.

She is falling asleep quite fast. Last few days must have been tiring. Good for her.

As for me, sleep is not coming. So I lift my head towards the ceiling, then looks around me. Meili is still asleep, Valentina is snoring, Oli and Domhildr are moving around in their sleep. I think Domhildr is sleeptalking. She's saying something about honey and bees.

I turn around a bit more and my eyes cross Kaizarz's.

He was not asleep. As I thought. His hand is still in Meili's hair, but now he turned around. Probably expected me to have fallen asleep, since I see him move a little, startled ; not quick enough for me to miss the look of unfathomable pain on his face.

He threw me the same back then. When I learnt about Skuld's pregnancy and it became apparent I would be the only one she'd let help.

I do not ask where that comes from.

I do not say anything about my own aching heart.

I'm sorry, you know.

I'd much rather see her happy with you.

I say nothing.

Only thing I can give him is a guilty, pained look.

It's Kaizarz that first opens his mouth.

"... Still not asleep, Tyr ?"

"I'm an insomniac. You should know."

"How do you manage with so little sleep is a mystery."

"Look who's talking."

He has a laugh. Not very sincere, but a laugh anyway.

"Still stronger than you. Can go on for days."

I roll my eyes. Smile a little.

"Gods, do you still pass the doors with a head that inflated ?"

"Well, complicated when doors aren't my size, you know-"

I throw him back a lighthearted teasing look. Well, try to, anyway.

"Right. Born to boast, are you. Well, you certainly have every right to, your Majesty."

"Someone wants to get put in their place ?"

"In that situation, that would certainly be complicated. And kingly authority won't be enough, just to inform you. I've never done well with orders."

He laughs. Well, even if I am sure to get another beatdown tomorrow with a taste of "oh gods he's on top of me AGAIN and I can't function properly in that situation", that's a victory for me.

"Wouldn't have you any other way."

I snicker.

"You're having a weird taste in subjects, Kaizarz the Liberator."

"But good taste in friends."

He's smiling. Weakly, hardly, a wobbling smile that hides a whole breakdown, but a smile anyways.

"Go to sleep, Tyr. I'm watching over tonight."

****

The sung is rising when I regain consciousness, lying down on the pillows in Kaizarz's room. But something is weird, tho. Even with that kind of sunlight, I shouldn't feel that hot-

Ah.

Well, it appears I have been sandwiched in my sleep.

Skuld is still on my side. her arm is around me. That is normal. That's how she was the night before.

But now Oli is curled up on my other side and Domhildr apparently climbed on my chest during her sleep. Even Meili moved to lean on me. In fact, the only one I can't feel the presence of is Valentina.

Because guess who has his hands on my hair, fast asleep right next to my head ?

There you have it. His Majesty in person.

Is my hair that attractive to you ?

Now my hairdo is all messed up. Even more than after the whole walk-in-forest thing. Great.

I love those idiots, but by gods they're clingy.

...

Ha.

Look who's talking.

I pull all those I can closer. Close my eyes again. Can't get up in that situation, so let's just make the most of it.

[noa-de-cajou]

Day 15 : Family visits / Effortlessly loving you

Abel belongs to @thal-ent (happy one year anniversary Thalou <33)

_____

“Judicaël, we’re back.”

I rise slowly from my bed at the sound of Abel’s voice.

It’s been three weeks since what we like to call Judi’s Second Biggest Mistake, or The Mistake for short. I picked the name myself.

I wish I could say everything just went back to normal but it really didn't. Everyone forced me to take a huge break from everything, the business trips, social media, public speaking, Valéry told me he'd hire a communication team (“it was long overdue, Judi”) and that he’d take care of the rest. We kind of made up, with Val. I was scared it was out of pity, but he reassured me. We talked for a long time. Basically, I've been a huge asshole to him, he was a dick to me, we’re even. I’m glad we’re still friends.

Since then, it's been ups and downs. Baihya, Bertie and Dodo have been watching over me like mother hens. Abel’s here too. He was only supposed to book the guest room for a week, but then he just started sleeping on a mattress next to my bed. Well, if you can call that sleeping. He spends his nights watching over me.

I scared the shit out of him. Out of everyone.

A lot of people come by to say hi and I have all the time in the world to talk to them now. Lan Yue, Michiru, Emerens, Altaïr… Even Hibiki came and she was crying. I never saw her cry before, like ever. Benedikt was there too, it felt like a whole ass fever dream.

But yeah, everyone has been really good to me. And I'm not really there yet but I think I'm getting better. It’s still hard to get up. It’s hard to face the guilt and the thoughts when I can’t work myself to the bone. But overall, it’s been alright.

They never leave me alone in the building alone, though. Feels kind of infantilizing, but I can’t blame them.

Dodo and Abel went to get groceries, which lasted about an hour.

It’s weird because I never heard of groceries barking before.

The next moment, the door of my room bursts open and something just latches onto me. Something with a lot of fur and a smell I’d recognize anywhere.

“... Marsha?”

Happy bark. Dear god. It is him.

I squeeze him tightly, but I have no idea what the fuck is happening. What is my service dog doing here? My mom’s supposed to be taking of him.

“Surprise,” Abel says softly.

He's standing in the doorway with Dodo, who’s looking very pleased with herself. Those bastards. Those sweet, adorable bastards.

“How did you guys…”

“Well, the three of us thought Marsha’s presence was much needed.”

Three?

Wait.

My eyes widen.

“Shut up. You didn't.”

“Yes we did.”

“You didn’t.”

“Yes they did,” someone else chimes in.

She walks in, her hair in a bun, greyer than the last time I saw her, she looks exhausted too, her eyebags are huge behind her glasses, but she smiles at me.

“Hi, honey.”

My mom. Those crazy bitches brought my mom here. She walks up to me and takes me in her arms as tears stream down my face.

“I’m sorry I couldn't come in earlier. You know, with work, and the tickets…”

“It's fine,” I say, and voice cracks. “I’m glad you’re here, I really am.”

Dad would have never showed up like this. Not like I really want him to.

I look at Abel and Dodo past my mom's shoulder.

“You fuckers. I love you so much.”

“We love you too,” Dodo sneers.

My mom pulls away from me after a few minutes, puts her hands on her hips.

“We’ll talk more later, honey. Theodosia, where’s the kitchen?”

“Uh, I can show you if you’d like, but Blanche, you should really rest-”

“No, I feel just fine, I slept for the whole flight! I need to get my hands on something. And to cook up something nice for my son and his friends!”

And she saunters away, followed by Dodo mumbling well, now at least we know where Judi gets that energy from.

Abel remains standing in the doorway. I look at him, he looks at me. We don’t say anything. We don't need to. He closes the door and walks up to me.

He attempts to sit on the bed.

Attempts, because Marsha just straight up latches onto him, getting a little surprised “ah” out of him as he tumbles over. I try to stop Marsha, forgetting that I literally cannot walk, fall on top of the both of them, and boom, here we are on the floor. Poor Abel is stuck beneath both me and my dog enthusiastically licking his face. What a life.

“... Ow. You okay?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “You?”

God, he looks so tired. He’s probably feeling worse than he lets on. Marsha doesn't just jump on people for no reason.

“I’m okay. I’m… feeling great, actually. And uh. Sorry for the contact. I can't get up.”

“I know. I don’t mind if it's you.”

I’m gonna cry again if he keeps this shit up. He’s not even being sweet, he’s just being sincere. Which is sweet.

“... Thanks. For this. My mom. I needed that.”

“I know.”

“Yeah. You always know, don’t you?”

“No. Not always.”

I can easily guess what he means.

He was taken by surprise last month. But he couldn’t have known. I hid from everyone just how bad things got. Even from myself.

“I’m sorry, Abel. I really am.”

“And I already told you I’m not mad at you.”

“You could be, you know. I wouldn’t blame you.”

“Judicaël.”

He slowly pats my head.

“I'm just glad you made it.”

“Yeah… Me too, you know.”

A silence. I break it once more, raising my face a little.

“I’m glad to have you. I'm glad you’re here.”

I know I'm not easy to love, but he makes me feel like I am.

We went through horrendous times, I did him dirty more than once, but he’s still here. I guess I must be worth it.

He doesn't reply at first. Just wraps an arm around me. The one that's not being squished by my dog.

“I’m glad you’re still here too,” he says, his voice so low I'm scared it’s just going to disappear.

We stay like this. In silence. I don’t say it, because I don’t want to overwhelm him, but I just know.

If I needed a single reason to stay, he’d be the first.

[tiredspirals]

🍏

🍏Show off a dragon family and talk about them! Do you have siblings, parents & kids, etc? (If you don't have any families in your lore, choose one of the other prompts instead!)

I think I'd like to do found family for this one, as the actual parent and child combos are either woefully incomplete or are genuinely depressing.

The adventuring group started when Hraes, Rataskorn, Ambassador, Occar, and Thalictri escaped the shadowed city of Anticant. The three dragons were genuine adventurers, but Ambassador's serthis-dragon clan had been destroyed and Thalictri flat out had no memories. Ambassador, being good with words, requested they and Thal join the adventurers on their, well, adventures- not that much convincing was needed. They had more or less bonded over the jailbreak, and even went through great lengths to save Thalictri. The adventure wasn't going to end here.

Hraes is sort of the mom of the group, and Rataskorn is like the weird aunt. Occar sorta goes with the flow so long as things are compatible with his sense of honor. He's not used to how wild Rataskorn can be, and is always surprised by how the others are okay with it. (Though it's hard to tell what he feels because. Y'know. Fae.)

Ambassador comes off as cool and calm which the generally likes, but has a bad habit of sassing off people they don't like. Rat and Thalictri finds this hilarious, and Occar has no commentary, thus leaving Hraes to do damage control. They know a suspicious amount of dragon biology, though this was apparently normal for the joint clan they came from. Ambassador makes poisons, potions, and contagions to coat weapons with.

Thalictri is the oldest of the group. A shockingly nimble dryad with an even more shocking control over fire. Thalictri was initially an adversary under the control of Anticant. It was noted the runes on their mask was meant to control the dryad, and that the someone underneath may be innocent, so breaking that mask was done to save them. They got a new mask (with no magic!) that they're rather obsessed with keeping affixed to their face. They're prone to extreme mood swings that comes from the general frustration of their current situation, but Hraes and Ambassador usually do what they can to calm them down. A genuine effort has been made to find and hire on fire dragons and nature dragons to possibly help Thal, though finding another dryad has been a challenge. Seems most dryad groves aren't willing to talk.

There is friction, there are bumps in the road, but overall they work well together. Things get smoother once they get the airship and more people can join their group.

[forevfangirlwrites]

play stupid games, win stupid prizes chapter 8

“This is what you wear to bed, princess?” Percy’s teasing voice calls as he strolls up to her, gesturing towards her pajamas for spirit week. “I was expecting a little less…everything.”

“Some daydreams are meant to stay in your head, Jackson, no need to torture everyone around you,” she retorts.

In her peripheral, she sees Piper and Thalia looking visibly shocked at the exchange. Percy stops just inches away from her, something that’s become a new normal for them, apparently, which is the only reason she lets herself smell his cologne. (Better to be desensitized, right?)

She hears Piper gasp but Percy grins at her, ignoring their audience, and pushes further into her space to whisper in her ear.

His breath sends, frankly, unwarranted tingles as he speaks so no one else can hear. “Trust me, you were far from tortured.”

Her face flushes at his words and the awareness that her friends are watching forces her to recede.

“At least I got into the spirit,” she says loudly, crossing her arms while trying to regain her thoughts. “Where are your pajamas?”

She realizes it’s the wrong thing to say when Percy’s smile widens further. “Not school appropriate, princess, but I’m sure you’d love the show.”

She scoffs. “Let me guess, less of…everything.” She pointedly flicks her gaze down for a half second.

Thalia bursts out laughing and the only proof she gets that Percy is embarrassed is that his ears turn bright red.

“So you’re thinking about my—”

“Percy!”

Jason’s voice rings down the hall and Percy, thankfully, refrains from saying the rest of that horrible sentence, walking over to Jason instead.

Piper corners her as soon as he leaves. “What the fuck was that!” she whisper-yells.

Annabeth squeezes her eyes shut, hating that Percy’s face pops into her head as she does. She quickly opens her eyes to find her friends staring at her. Honestly, she doesn’t even know what that was either.

“We’re kinda…uh…”

“Flirting?” Thalia cuts in. “Hooking up?”

Her face flushes even more. “Of course not!”

Piper shakes her head. “I have to agree with Thals here. What’s with the sexual tension?”

Annabeth slumps against the lockers, running a hand over her face. “It’s kind of a competition…”

Thalia figures it out the fastest. “You’re playing chicken….with Percy Jackson?”

Well, when she says it like that it sounds…well, it sounds like pretty much what’s happening.

KEEP READING ON AO3

[laeorinel]

FFXIV Write: Day 1 - Steer

The old Roegadyn looked out over the horizon, his steely gaze watching growing storm clouds in the distance. His worn and weathered hands gripped the helm as he weighed up his options, the weather battered wood rougher than he remembered. Then again, how many moons had it been since he last steered this ship? Between the pirate bands the Maelstrom had not been able to tame and the Garleans, captaining a ship was dangerous work. Many would argue too dangerous, but desperate needs and all that…it wasn’t like his debts were going to pay themselves. Ocean fishing routes had been profitable for a time, but weren’t regular enough to keep up with his bar tab, less than lucky gambling habits and semi-regular visits to the brothels. 

As the seas began to churn, larger and larger waves crashing into the ships hull; he couldn't help but wonder if Llymlaen herself was trying to spite him. Were this a normal cargo run he would have just made for the nearest harbour, even if it meant paying the sometimes exorbitant fees charged by dockmasters around Aldenard, and waited out the storm. But this was not a standard cargo run. Far from it. Below the decks were refugees from the far east. The kind of cargo many a dockmaster frowned upon the closer you got to Limsa Lominsa. 

Transporting people around was no crime technically, so long as they were passengers who could pay their way. But these poor buggers? They had fled with what little worldly possessions they could carry. Others had even less. The clothes they wore amounted to all their “wealth”. 

A wealthy family in Ul’dah had footed the bill for their transport, claiming that they had housing and jobs waiting for them, but he knew better. They were slavers in all but name. The Ala Mhigan’s had been given the same deal by their “betters” in Ul’dah and most of them were left to the mercy of the sands. 

“Still, the mercy of the sands may be preferable to the storm…”

The helm juddered in his grip as the currents shifted and changed with the approaching storm. The old man muttered a bunch of curses under his breath that could curdle milk as his options grew thinner by the moment. There weren’t enough supplies on board for the journey to take any longer. They were cutting it fine as is. Going around the storm wasn’t an option. Going through the storm was an even worse option. Going to port ran the risk of some nosy oddjob rumbling the entire operation which would land him right in the shit with his employers and give him a one way ticket to the fighting pits, but it would keep him, his ship and his cargo intact. Begrudgingly, he knew he would have to try his luck at the nearest port, cross his fingers one of the dockhands was on Lolorito’s payroll and would just look the other way. 

As he barked out orders to his deckhands and steered the ship towards the coastline he made up his mind. All he had to do was get the refugee’s to the mainland, contact his employer and tell them where to find their precious cargo and his job was done. He could hardly be dragged over the coals because a storm mucked up the planned route and drop off point, and if he were, to hells with it all. 

The storm was just one of many things that had gone tits up on this journey. The old man was as superstitious as any other sailor of the high seas. One sign of bad luck was one thing, but repeated strikes of bad luck, no, that was something else. That was the Twelve themselves sending you a message that you were a daft pillock to keep going down the path you’re on. You either get off it, or the Spinner herself would cut your thread short and send you on a one way trip to Thal’s gates. 

The storm moved with a frightening pace, churning up the sea, battering the ship on all sides. He could just about hear the fearful sounds of the refugee’s below above the whistling winds. The one thing he still had in his favour was his experience. He had travelled these coastlines for years and knew them like the back of his hand. He just had to keep the ship steady. Vesper Bay would soon be in sight and the refugees would be someone else's problem. 

“Navigator, I swear te ya. Guide me to the shore and ain’t stepping foot in another pub, gamblin’ den or brothel again. Well…maybe after I’ve had a few drinks to calm me nerves after this…

[before-calamity]

Unfinished Nald's Reflection

Okay, so here's something I stumbled upon randomly.

I was getting material for the future, and stumbled upon an out of bounds area.

This area led me to a cave, and this room was at the end. This is unusual - I happened upon an "edge of the world" scenario earlier today, and this room mainly looked like there were world objects that were supposed to be there, but either didn't load in or weren't placed there. I had a hunch what it could, be and sure enough...

This is Thal's Respite, nestled north of Camp Drybone. We'll talk more about it in the future, but for now, take a look at the picture of it and compare it to the picture above. Especially look at the left hand side - that little torch area with the ledge fits exactly with the missing texture, and the statue area itself also fits!

In ARR, there are two statues of Nald'thal. One is north of Drybones, called Thal's Respite. One is in the Red Labyrinth (south of Little Ala Mhigo), called Nald's Reflection. In 1.0...there is only Thal's Respite. There is no Nald's Reflection. Given the lore of Ul'dah and Nald'thal, this doesn't make sense - there are two statues because Ul'dah considered Nald and Thal to be "seperate but whole" - they are twins, although part of the same godhead.

Thus, it doesn't make sense to only have one of those shrines in Thanalan in 1.0, especially when there are two of these statues in Ul'dah in 1.0 (in the THM guild and in Milvaneth Sacrarium).

Seems to be that there was going to be one, but they either ran out of time or budget or simply didn't want to finish it.

What is really interesting to me is the placement - this unfinished room was found literally right in Zana'rak, which is the Amaljaa's main area. It's their home. This room was found in a blocked off area. I noticed that there seemed to be a cave entrance on the other side, so I phased through the barricade. I was expecting to see the edge of the world...but not this. If the original area was meant to be Zanar'ak...this has interesting implications for the original plot of FFXIV. How pissed off would the Uldahn's be that one of Nald'thal's shrines be occupied by the Amalj'aa? Especially since Nald represented the living and most importantly for the desert nation -commerce. Ul'dah is a country built on commerce, so much so that the city is in an ever fight between the Sultana and the merchants. What a plot point that would be! "Hey Warrior of Light/1.0 Adventurer, the Amalj'aa is defiling this statue of our patron diety, go and run them out of their home." However, this is just stipulation. It's possibly it was only worked on in an out of bounds area outside Zanar'ak and then moved closer to another location. Given that is in another location in ARR, a more neutral location, just makes me wonder the original plan for Nald's Reflection. Given what happens later in ARR's story in the post Shadowbringer patches, it's probably a good thing that it was moved to be in a neutral location - those Ul'dahns probably would never live with the idea of the beastmen occupying the shrine. TL;DR: There is no Nald's Reflection in 1.0, but looks like it was merely unfinished. It is located out of bounds near Zanarak, at the end of a cave entrance you wouldn't normally have access to. Given the story of ARR, this has interesting consequences.

[dalekriz]

LOST SKARO BLOG ENTERY 1: Thaw Season.

greetings, Earthlings!

Delmaru has encouraged me to 'blog'. They explained to me that blogs consist of day-to-day moments and interests. I do not know why Delmaru is not the one running this blog.

It's thaw season here on Lost Skaro. That means we are now stranded in the city until the lake freezes back over in a few months! but that's fine, we're used to it. It also means the acid rain starts again. It makes life more difficult and Dalek Cess has been burned 3 times already.

The thaw season shifts us away from our ever-constant concern with the outside world. We can't do much about any Dalek ships that make contact, only send their transmissions to the outposts. So we use this time to prepare for the next freeze season. Our city grows busy. We all have a genetic need to contribute something to the city, so most Daleks start fishing off the city's edge. Others start garden boxes under awnings. A select few know beekeeping. Any food caught or grown gets turned nutrient slurry (unless they're Delmaru and insist to preserve their own food supply because it 'tastes better') which can be kept for the next freeze season without concern of spoiling.

I don't have the hands for any of these. I was made to recall information, and now this information is about fishing bate, seed germination times, and bee nesting habits instead of long and terrible wars or ancient Dalek battle techniques. And the citizens of Lost Skaro tend to need me less. So I have more free time.

Delmaru is bugging me to mention the tea thing. It's a completely un-Dalek hobby. But apparently, it's charming. I make tea. It's normally for myself, but sometimes another Dalek will try it. I like how it tastes and it makes me slightly less anxious. There are no tea companies on a deserted alternate Skaro so I have to pick my own herbs during thaw season. I find them in the cracks of buildings and underneath the city's platforms. Delmaru's a good swimmer, so they bring up water plants from the lake. Most of it's no better than pond scum but they try. Most plants others bring me are useless, actually. but some can be helpful!

Here is where I warn you, Earthling reader, that most of the names I mention are going to be in Dalek-Speak. I put more effort than most to speak in English. But these plants have no name in English because no human has survived long enough to learn of them. So I will teach you.

Almost every plant on Skaro is poisonous until it's been prepped correctly. Some need to be peeled, a couple can be dried, and most need to be boiled. The plants that require boiling are the easiest. My personal favorite for tea, Ventrillis (it's sort of like mint), needs to be charred to cancel out the toxins on its outer layer without allowing them to spread. the charring also brings out the flavor.

Ma-Pandlya (roughly translates to 'very spiny', and it tastes like sage) branches are similar to the Earth plant Himalayan Blackberry, thick and prickly. But the spongy material inside the branches is great for tea. It just takes a knife and patience to get it out. again, I'm missing all my fingertips, so I have to get Delmaru or Dalek Rescue Specialist Sey (who has nothing to do with no rescue missions going out) to do it for me. They both like tea though, so I can repay them.

I've heard that Thals used to make tea out of Arkellis. Arkellis is a tropical flower, which is why it doesn't grow on Lost Skaro, and I can't tell you what it tastes like because I've never seen one. It only takes root on metal, so magnodons (which we DO have) on regular Skaro are sometimes covered in them. I'll never see a real one, but I can dream. Which isn't very Dalek of me either.

Wishing Earth minimal extermination,

-Dalek Biological Archives Riz.

[mealvaan]

Temper

To write is to invite incessant, constant noise — the kind of sound that gnaws at her ears and decomposes any sense of moderation within. The scratching of the quill would normally be negligible. Easily suffocated amid the ambience of an orchestrion roll, or simply offset by the thorough rhythm of her thoughts.

She had been gifted with verbosity. The power to pull paragraphs upon paragraphs from pen to paper as one would open a faucet and let it run — it was this breadth of potential that rendered her so conversationally terse in the first place.

On this sun, nothing comes to her, and so every word is precious. Each letter, etched into the paper as one would carve into a tree. Desperate for permanence, lacking in temperance. The article she’s written thus far is an aimless mess of dripping consciousness.

Of course she’s broiling within, teeth grit and knuckles white. Writer’s block is meant to be for airheaded people who write fictional stories, those on the verge of death whose skills have long expired, or the ignorant and uninspired. Writer’s block is not meant for her.

The quill could snap between her fingers. 

Instead — she finally realizes — it burns.

She hadn’t noticed it, but her implement had caught a murky flame. The lick of it struggles to squeeze through her fingers, but it is far from snuffed out. Nay, it courses up the delicate plumage of its spine. Its enkindling hardly illuminates — rather, it casts a deep shadow on all that it gazes upon, conquering the territory of a nearby lantern. 

She drops the quill to the floor. Her entire body stiffens. Her lungs stop in their paces. Her throat is on strike. Her horror allows for the flame to stalk further prey. The gloom corrodes the carpet, rendering gilded hems to dull, yellowed thread, fraying at each opportunity and plucking apart. At first, it gets to know its new surrounds. Then, it terrorizes them with wild abandon—

“No!” she cries, watching the flame crawl up the desk. She knows not what will deter it, so she saves what she can, and with great haste. She successfully rescues her journals and papers from her work station before the entire thing is consumed. Her back is to the corner now, darting about the room in an attempt to figure what will stop the growing haze.

She grabs the hilt of her greatsword.

Calm down, sweetheart. 

“You want me to be calm?!”

Gods damn it. What, you’re too fuckin’ spoiled to handle when somethin’ goes even a lick of a bit wrong? All this over some — ‘writer’s block’? Thal’s balls, Signe—

“Do you want me to be calm, or not? Decide, you fool!”

Okay. Just calm down.

“How?”

Breathe in. 

She sucks in the air. 

Breathe in deeply, for fuck’s sake.

“I am trying!” She lets her air go rapidly and attempts a shaky, rickety uphill climb of a deep inhale.

Good. Hold it.

“Wh—”

I said hold it! 

She holds it. It feels like forever. She could suffocate in the smoke of her own darkness, with all of Brand’s help. 

There. See. Not too hard. Now I want you to breathe out—

She fully sighs, heaving her shoulders.

No, slowly. Moderate it. Y’know when your tea’s too hot, and you don’t want to spill it but you’re impatient as ever so you want to drink it now. Do it like that, Signe.

“Why?”

You want me to fuckin’ explain it now? Sure, let it grab the bed while we’re at it!

With great irritation, Signe attempts the advice. The breath comes out spluttered at first, threatening a whistle against her tightly pursed lips. She knows it isn’t right, and she won’t let Brand correct her when she’s already got it. And so she closes her eyes, imagining the cup of chamomile tea in front of her, steaming from the surface. She holds the imaginary beverage to her lips, and blows…

“There.”

Keep doing it. You need to calm down.

“It is going to—”

If you calm down, it will stop.

“I did not do this!”

You did this. And it’s fine, okay? It fuckin’ happens. But we need you calm or you’re gonna regret it more than you’d like.

Fine, she decides to herself. Fine. She’ll indulge in this whimsical teatime charade for Brand’s sake, as he’s the only one she can rely on. It would take bells for Mynatrach to get here, and she wouldn’t dare to explain this to the apartment proprietor. At least, not without a rehearsed story.

It starts as a conscious mechanism, deliberate and harsh and off-putting, as she knows this isn’t how she naturally breathes. It develops into something soft and cyclical. While initiating a new breath is deliberate, the motions thereafter feel familiar and automatic. Eventually, the tension in her body is gone, and her head stops pounding — when had it started?

She opens her eyes to find the darkness snuffed out. Serpentine slivers of smoke rise from the carnage, but that is all which remains. 

No, it’s the wreckage pushes her into the wall from sheer shock. The polished tabletop of her desk is a slab of rotted wood. The intricately patterned carpet is a frayed shred of wool and threads, a whole burned into its centre. The quill is a shriveled stick upon the floor — not like a spent match, but rather the image of an ancient, needle-thin bone.

You’re gonna need new furniture, sweetheart.

“I need to live somewhere else.”

[lyon-beast-king]

How Menenius manages, he wasn't going to complain if anything, probably the fact that though the elezen was taller and wider in some ways, he wasn't going get any wider, making himself always snug for Lyon's dick. A blessing he wasn't going to question over. Being bitten, if he was normal he may not have enjoyed how rough it was, but he was far from normal, and always enjoyed a bit of roughness in bed. Groaning in pain and pleasure, the elder sighs and smiles like a madman with how much he was enjoying this. And it wasn't like he was the only one, with the elezen's ears wiggling, face flush... how his dick twitched and spasmed in his hands... Thal's balls he would jerk off Menenius alone with how satisfying it was.

Though he didn't usually talk much, he knew his words were flaring feelings up inside the other, spurring him on. A little bit of icing on the cake one could say. And it was working. Seven hells, with how Menenius was saying his name, again and again, and again...no wonder he just wanted to keep going, to egg him on, to get more, to know who he belonged to and who belonged to him. Feeling his load leave him, giving him relief, he sighs, even enjoying how the younger unloaded himself between them, feeling the warm stickiness that connected them. Gently groaning in the kiss, it breaks, leaving him sighing. That...that was good...

Lyon chuckles. "Can't have it all..." He teases himself. But he did not mind. What he had done with Menenius was good enough, amazing, as always, and they can just do it again some other time. A perk of having such a partner like the other. Having such a kiss be given to him, the hyur hungrily gives one back, his tongue gently exploring the other and the warm walls of Menenius mouth before it was broken as well. Resting there, so closely, so intimately... did it have to end? Wild silver hair gently gets taken, ever gently pulled, bringing a hum from the Beast King as he enjoys the attention. "Hmph..." He snorts and chuckles a bit before giving a sheepish smile. "I admit, not every day I use such words on you, not even in bed... I just, couldn't resist with how your face was looking..." Gods his face was amazing to look at.

However, he didn't expect to be touched like this, not to mention to hear such words come out of Menenius mouth. Raising a brow, Lyon looks at him confused. Did he mean his dynasty? He can fight with two copies alongside him, but what did that have to do with?...OH... Gasping as he was not fully sensitive, his blue eyes roll back, mouth open at how good that felt. Even grinding back a bit. Shit... That damn snake certainly knows how to play with him sometimes. "Y-yeah... "

At this point, he will do just about anything for Menenius to feel good. Hell, he would even suck his dick under his desk at this point.

snakeofgarlemald​:

lyon-beast-king​:

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[pokkop15]

Thalergy

The opposite of Thanergy (AKA “Death Energy”) in the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir.

So you say, “ok so it’s just life energy?” to which you are mostly correct. Thalergy is exactly that but what’s interesting about this to me (and soon to you all as well I imagine) is the etymology of thalergy!

The etymology?

The Etymology.

Thanergy as death energy derives its name from Thanatos, the greek god of death (technically the personified spirit of non-violent death but modern perception of the name is usually edgier than that lol). So it would be normal for those unfamiliar with the myriad of divinities within the Hellenistic pantheon to justly assume the ‘thal–’ in ‘thalergy’ comes from an opposite divinity of Thanatos that was a personified spirit of life. Except that doesn’t exist. Reading the first two books I knew that thalergy as a word wasn’t derived from any greek or roman words meaning “life” but I didn’t really dig any deeper on where it did come from because I didn’t think it was overly important. I Was Incorrect.

Because you see, the context for me to really connect the dots had gone over my head up until I had read Nona the Ninth. (I recall some meta posts pointing out that the Themes™ had in fact been present in the previous books just less obvious.)

What Themes? And Who The Fuck Is Thalergy Named For??

Thalassa.

Primordial Goddess Of The Motherfucking SEA!!!!

So yeah! Remember all those posts talking about the importance of all the themes regarding the sea/ocean in the Locked Tomb series? Yeah so here’s more fuel for that lmao

Edit 11/20/2022: also many people have brought up other examples like Thalia (the muse of Festivity whose name also means blooming) as another more direct connection to life and @adurna0 who actually speaks Greek has pointed out that thaleros is in fact a word that means "lively" so even if the Thalassa connection is a thing it is more likely a double meaning than the lone one.

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write Entry #26: Toi Toi Toi

Prompt: break a leg || Master Post || On AO3

Rereha clutched at her face, golden eyes wide and unseeing, and chanted, “What am I doing what am I doing what am I doing—”

Rerenasu adjusted the glittering jeweled pins in his daughter’s rose hair a final time, ensuring the emeralds and yellow diamonds would catch the light just so. “You are doing a recital that you have been practicing for for the past six sennights,” he said fondly.

“What idiot said I was ready?!”

“Your music tutor.”

“Why did I listen to him?!”

“Because normally you have the self-confidence of a mediocre princeling who believes he’s Hydaelyn’s gift to economics.”

“Papa,” Rereha said, appalled, even as she couldn’t help but grin, forced from her panic by his ridiculousness.

“Rereha,” her father said in a similar tone.

Rereha groaned, covering her face with her hands now. “I cannot believe I agreed to this,” she moaned.

Her father scoffed and grasped her wrists, gently pulling her hands away. “You’ll do just fine,” he said. “You’ve been practicing nonstop. And you’ve performed in front of people before.”

“You and mom and Granny and Synnove and Heron and the twins don’t count!”

“Sure we do,” Papa said, easy as you please. “And we’re all in the front row, so you can just focus on us, hm?”

The bustle of backstage was increasing, and her father glanced over at the nearest chronometer. He leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “Time for me to go,” he said. “You’ll be amazing.”

Rereha took a deep breath, wiping her sweaty hands on her dress, not watching her dad leave because otherwise she’d run after him and bawl, and bobbed and wove her way through the crowd of conservatory students performing tonight alone or in duets or quartets towards the stage. A curious peak through the curtain during a lull in performances had her yanking the cloth closed again—too many people, was half the damned Diamond District here?! Oh Thal’s balls, is that someone in the royal box?! Is the sultana here?!

She hurried back to her little corner of the chaos to clutch her violin case and stare blankly at her music sheet. Like the little idiot she was, she had agreed to go last; her tutor had finagled it, as even though she wasn’t a formal conservatory student, he said she was one of the finest talents in the city, if not all of Thanalan, and the final performance of the night was reserved for the best student. Her ego had loved that bit of news earlier in the sennight, but now the thought of it just made her want to be sick, because it meant she had to wait.

Still, if Papa had left, that likely meant she should be up soon. Ish.

Fuck.

Rereha put her head between her knees and struggled to breathe.

She had mostly pulled herself together and was sitting upright when an attendant came by, gently touching her on the shoulder to get her attention. “Five minutes,” the Hellsguard said kindly.

Rereha gave her a weak smile, and hopped down from her seat to open her instrument case. Her violin gleamed in the backstage lighting, and her bow was freshly rosined, and she knew she knew her music forward and back and everything in between, so no point dawdling. She checked her hair pins, and straightened her dress, and picked up her violin and bow, and off she went.

Another attendant pointed to her waiting place as she came up to the stage, and gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. (She’d give everyone credit, even though she was one of the private students, everyone had been stupidly kind to her tonight. But a scared thirteen-year-old is a scared thirteen-year-old no matter what, she guessed.) Rereha blew out a heavy breath and bounced on her toes, and then the string quartet was walking off stage, and her name was being called.

She straightened her spine, and didn’t bother to put on a smile—her tutor had told her that her posture was more important than her expression. If she could walk with confidence, the rest would follow. So, she put one foot in front of the other, again and again, and bloody damn well faked confidence until she came to center stage and stared out across the hall.

With the way everything was lit, she couldn’t actually see from this spot, and she realized what a blessing that was. But she could see the front row, and just like Papa promised, everyone was there.

Heron and Synnove and her baby twin sisters, Ruruha and Roroha, all gave her two thumbs up and giant, toothy grins. So did Granny Rerema, though her grin was sporting significantly less teeth. And Mama and Papa both beamed at her, with Mama blowing her a kiss.

All of the tension suddenly bled from Rereha’s shoulders, and she took another bracing breath. All right. Cool. Neat. Awesome.

She could do this.

Rereha tucked her violin beneath her chin, set bow to strings—and played.

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[hel-phoenyx]

Meili belongs to @azeler, Domhildr to @soupedepates, Oli to @thal-ent and Kaizarz and Skuld (mentioned) to @corneille-but-not-the-author

Needed to get some things out after the end of today's session /pos

Never been a fan of casinos, and I'm not a big fan on betting everything I own, either. Valentina may have left me the commandment, even if its for maintaining an appearance, while she sleeps and Kaizarz is consigned in, but I still have no rights to put the boat on the line.

I'm good with earning some qianfu and calling it a day, and I guess that if Meili did follow me even after throwing me than mean look, he is not in the mood to continue betting either. Well, that's what I can infer from the fact he's still following me.

I'm not in a good mood, for many reasons, one being that I feel like both a fraud an an incompetent and not a lot of people are helping with that feeling. i'm used to it, but today it stings. Maybe because that comes from the people that call themselves my friends.

The only friends I have left.

Also, Skuld's prediction and Kaizarz's words are worrying me. What's waiting for me at Luo Fei ?

So it is no surprise that when I find Oli again, having earned his fair share too while I was busy stopping Domhildr to go and bet her life upstairs, I am not in a good mood. I'm hiding that well enough, no one notices, but it is still not enjoyable to see her smile and having no energy to answer to it.

"Are we going back to the boat ?" They ask with a shiver of the wings.

I nod.

"Yeah. I've betted enough for today. I just need to warn- talk with the rest of the crew about that bribe matter."

That was close. Dunbar, our chaperone not paying a lot of attention to us, is still not aware the Kraken-King is on the boat. I'd rather not face problems with administration for lying about hiding the fucking king. They're already suspicious enough of my own legacy.

Oli doesn't answer, and we just start walking. General mood is low, I can feel it. Domhildr still is under the stress of the interrogation, having to distort truth so she isn't the cause of our downfall ; Meili looks agitated, don't know why. And Oli... I've always had a hard time deciphering their feelings.

So it is no surprise the silence escorts us. It is no surprise I can hear footsteps on the grounds, those of two people, to the point I can even infer they're women based on the noise of the shoes. It is no surprise I hear two feminine voices, that stops the moment we turn around a corner.

The first woman, I know is way older than she looks; There is a little something on her pale face, her red eyes, the marking on her cheeks. Her clothes feel a little too rich, a little to well-cut for a simple merchant. Even her hair is very-well taken care of. Long, royal blue hair flowing on her shoulders. I don't need my senses nor my magic to clock her as a danger.

But it's the second one that makes me stop dead in my tracks.

She's small, for both normal and my perpective. Dressed in a heavy armor with runes I can recognise. Purple tatoos on her face I've seen only in legends. Pale, even paler than me, with her cheeks almost blue.

Blue-eyed. White-haired. With a braid crown I would recognize anywhere for Skuld wove it in my hair yesterday.

Alive.

Everything she's not supposed to be.

And worst is

She, too, recognised me.

She stops. Blinks. Extends a hand, like she cannot believe it.

I can't, either.

"... Tyr ?"

How long

How long since I've heard that voice ?

I'm still frozen in place, eyes wide, my heart pounding so hard in my chest I fear he will break my ribs. I can't answer. But I know she doesn't need an answer. We both know it cannot be something else than the other.

The other woman turn towards me, and frowns.

"... Oh. So that's him."

I don't listen to her anymore.

Not that I would, anyway.

But she jumped in my arms like no one else existed and I can feel her heat, I can feel her heartbeat, I can feel her arms around me she's alive she's alive she's alive she's alive.

Seeing I don't react, Meili tries to pull her off me. And, of course, this is when my body reacts. My arms close around her, and I keep her close, like I should have like I thought I never could again like

Don't you dare try to take her from me.

I won't let anyone do so this time.

Meili frowns. But Oli, next to me, just has an hesitant smile, and lifts a hand, trying to focus the attention on something more normal.

"Huh.... Tyr, can you introduce us ?"

Can I ?

I've spent so long of my life hiding them from you. Because they wanted to. I'm sure she, too, remembers. The way she clings to my body like she wants to hide in it, as she always did when we were in danger. She doesn't even throw a look towards Oli or Meili, even if she did throw a foot in Meili's direction. keeping him away from us. She got stronger. I remember how frail she was.

But, now the cat's out of the bag, and I guess I can't hide her existence anymore.

I've never thought she would be once out in the open.

I just sigh.

".... Alright. Guys, let me introduce to you Brynja."

I hide her family name like I always did since that fateful day.

"My best friend-"

And so much more.

"That I thought dead."

Did I really need to meet a ghost from my past ?

Will she be the only one ?

Or do ice-blue eyes wait from me in the corner, with the word traitor on drew-back lips.