#the Wilds do shit like this on borders that are changing

[autumnmobile12]

My Hero Academia: Otheon Headcanons

So I'm having fun speculating on the culture, history, and geography of Otheon and Klayd. Because it was 2am when I started writing this and I had nothing better to do, so here's an analysis no one asked for.

Otheon and Klayd are two nations that share an island located between Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. The island is slightly bigger than Ireland and based on its location...well, anybody who's looked at a map knows there's no land mass that big there. Everything else in the series indicates My Hero is our world if people spontaneously started getting superpowers set in the near future of early to mid-2100s.

The simplest explanation available is we're just looking at an alternate universe where there is a large island in the Celtic Sea.

Or!

New islands are created naturally a variety of ways.

Volcanic activity

Glacial retreat

Growth from ocean sandbars

Sediment from river deltas

But these processes take longer than a hundred years, and sometimes new islands aren't even permanent. Hawaii was formed via volcanic activity over the course of millions of years. Ireland (formed by tectonic plate movement) is also four times the size of Hawaii, so it's highly unlikely the larger Otheon/Klayd island formed and grew to its size naturally.

...

My headcanon is in the early days of Quirks, a bunch of guys with lava-Quirks and other geology-related powers got high and created it for no reason other than just to see if they could do it. Because humans are really determined to do pointless shit sometimes.

"Yo, what if we just created a fuckin' island, bro! Let's gooo!"

Alternatively, a villain with a similar Quirk could have created the island for the purposes of having a really conspicuous lair.

"How did you discover my secret lair?"

"It's the size of Ireland, dumbass!"

Assuming the Otheon/Klayd island is manmade (and created by one or more persons acting independently of any existing nation), it's location makes things interesting.

Here's Otheon/Klayd's location.

And here's an approximate map of the maritime waters o western Europe. (Approximate because I pulled this off of Google images and have no idea how accurate it is.) As you can see, Otheon/Klayd could be just far enough away from everyone else or just enough in everyone's space that there can be no obvious claim.

Because you know Spain, Portugal, the UK, Ireland, and France all probably did what nations do best: Took one look and the new spit of land and said, "Hey. That's ours."

If we do an overlay of the map, and allow some liberty under the assumption the animation team did not draw the European map 100% perfectly accurate or the boundary was changed by My Hero's 22nd Century, Otheon and Klayd's shared border could be an extension of the Irish/UK maritime border.

Since we know the Trigger bomb was in Rody's home city, we can tell the larger northwestern country is Klayd and the smaller southeast one is Otheon. Taking into account the maritime border, it'd be interesting if Klayd was or still is an Irish territory.

So who claimed Otheon?

Otheon's main city seems to be based on Lisbon, so I guess Portugal won that debate on who got Otheon? And built an identical bridge? I don't know. Admittedly the bridge is not concrete evidence, but based on the architecture, there is definitely a Spanish/Portuguese/general Mediterranean influence. And French. So one of those nations could claimed Otheon based on proximity.

But Otheon and Klayd appear to be independent nations, not part of anyone else. So now I'm imagining some country colonized an uninhabited new island only for those colonists to say, "Nope," and declared independence in under a hundred years.

But setting everything I've written above aside because it all is just wild speculation, the headcanon that I like the most regarding Otheon is the island was created by some hero or group of heroes during the early days of Quirks and it started off as a refuge/ceasefire zone for civilians hoping to escape the chaos of the new reality. Especially since Quirkless people were more common in those days, seeking shelter in a world where people are starting to have powers that can range from a minor inconvenience to god-like destruction would have been a dire need. As a result, the Quirkless population of Otheon and Klayd is much higher compared to other nations.

After society got itself re-stabilized, the island was officially established as a new territory with its two independent nations.

Also, Deku and Rody are probably speaking English with each other, but headcanon that Rody is bilingual or trilingual and was consistently muttering irritably in Portuguese or something whenever Deku did something to annoy him.

[kingdoms-and-empires]

Kingdoms and Empires Wiki Drop!

Sup guys, im releasing what i have done in the wiki today! In this post im only going to talk about the Wiki because I dont want to create an even more massive wall of text here than it already is. Please see the entire post on the forums thread!!! I solidified the lore (which means no more massive changes), set the foundations to the story (so i dont end up writing a shit ton and having to fucking rewrite everything anymore), and pretty much rewrote the canon lore until i reached a point where i literally cannot share it because itd be spoilers without the future rewrite (regarding the worldbuilding, all introduced characters and such are still the same, some just had minor tweeks, so nothing crazy like changing our old bodyguard Mary:

and turning her into our childhood friend lmao So the plan now is current wiki drop. A good amount of it will be hidden since alot of it is spoilers, so you get 39,174 thousand words of unlocked content out of about 50k words in the wiki. And that's without me transferring 90% of the Codex ingame to the wiki, so its ALL (okay like 85%) new words of content and lore! Dont worry, im dropping literally all extra work and focusing purely on playable updates now until i regain your guy's trust in me after being so radio silent.

I also know and recognize that this has gotta be annoying asf since what you guys really want is updates but after what happened with the Total War franchise (my beloved) and their lightning fast content pipeline and lack of upgrading their engine ended up destroying the health of the company and ruining fans trust in em, id rather invest on the long term than short term unlike them (meaning id rather have a set story, narrative line complete, and research resources so that i can use that to run wild in writing).

I made a history of the world as known to them, so much of it is subject to embellishment, lies, and "the victor writes history" trope.

Historia Mundis

If you'd rather just have the list of articles that can be found within the timeline though, here it is: The Great Disturbances, Wars of Unification, and the Longwei Empire

Reign of the Daishu Dynasty

Ecumenical Dominion and the Flight of the Belthean People.

Belthean Migrations

Reign of Emperor Garland

Reign of Emperor Daerin I

Reign of Emperor Valerion

Reign of Emperor Elric I

Reign of Emperor Cenric

Reign of Emperor Saldwin

Reign of Emperor Elric II

Reign of Emperor Daerin II

The Interactive Outdated Map Yeahhh almost as soon as i published the map for the patreons it became outdated lmaoooo Nareth is much bigger than originally imagined, Argent is surrounded by mountain and forest tribes (think Hispania’s Lusitanian Wars or the Germanic Tribes type of vibe). The empire (being Imperial Chinese and Persian Empire inspired) also is surrounded by the these tribes, and the Imperial Province of Lymark is now the “Protectorate of the Western Regions” which basically means theyre the watchdogs of Western Nareth. Its funny because theyre also across the St. Hytera River, which is much like the Danube River, and will inevitably face the same issues Rome did with Dacia when they had a presence that extended the natural borders.

Master List of Articles

The Evolution of Belthean Civilization

Veldora Duchy I may have gone too far here. I regret nothing and learning about agriculture and stuff was awesome.

Silverhill Duchy Mining is alot more complicated than I thought, though Engineering MC is gonna have equally alot to improve!

Imperial Ranks The ranks will have importance. I know that sounds weird, but I did not spend an afternoon writing this just for the lulz.

Emperor/Empress

Imperial Crown Heir

Imperial Prince and Princess

Imperial Duke/Duchess

Imperial Count/Countess

The Imperial Landed Knight

The Belthean Empire The biggest entry from the ingame Codex that I transferred over and polished. This should give you a hint of how ill do the other kingdoms in the future for their article.

Kin of Arava I experimented here and instead of making an actual article, made it a class lecture of a series of days focusing on the Kin with a racist professor lmao

Zera Arava So i had to do this in intervals as I was writing and plotting out his side stories. Honestly hope i did the homie justice, he's a fav of mine, though i think each of the ROs will be favs as I write more and more about them.

Sacred Dance I assure you the Sacred Dance isnt what you think it is.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patreons, you guys already read the below list. However ive cleaned the articles up and polished them! The Genesis of the Belthean Empire: From Invasion to Unification

Voryn Resdayn I wanted to see how i could make a character entry. It looks awesome, but holy fuck do they take time to create lmaooo, ill make the rest of them in the future.

Kin of Arava

Eastern Kin The descendants of Kin and Beltheans who mixed, that are settled within the empire.

House Resdayn Wanted to see how I could do the houses, still unsure (okay i dont like it) of how it came out. Hence why I started with a minor house that one of the RO's belonged to.

The Astute Emperor and the Imperial Provincial Rule: A Revolutionary Shift in Governance

Master-Scholars of Jelaytha The Jelaythan organization of scholars that Master Feren is from.

Post-Unification Transformations in the Belthean Empire: Trade, Economy, Industry, and Immigration in the Wake of Conquest

Imperial Historians Obviously the imperial faction that wants to get their hands on tutoring you lmao.

Universitas Magistrorum et Scholarium The Jelaythan/Imperial organization at the forefront of the intellectual international community.

Tripartite Alliance Read what the empire is teaching their citizens about how they conquered the alliance.

The Satrap System and Imperial Provincial Rule

The Great Racist of the Academy: Imperial Historian Acillus Cinna

The Sword Saint

Master-Scholar Kaleb

The Gleaming Horizon: Silverhill's Maritime Supremacy The book of a writer who we'll meet ingame. Youll decide whether or not to bully him as a 12 year old lmao.

Baniel Worthton The author of above said book. He even wrote about himself. Yes, it's supposed to be an ick.

The Ulrich Cothon The second book of his that'll feature in the game.

So…I guess in basketball or futbol terms… rebuilding phase is over, and i got all the players i need for a championship run!

It was an almost year long rebuilding phase, true, but omg it was so needed.

Plus I also learned alot of fucking coding at the same time lmao. Basically a lot of tweaking around with Choicescript and knowing how to code some actions. Also there's CoG implementing a new checkpoint system so thank fuck for that because this game's gonna be huge and id hate to play it without a save system.

[raviollies]

Summary time

The gang decided to investigate a Selunite encampment for Eirwen to ask for ways to combat Shar and the influence of the Shadowfell and maybe clues regarding her lost memories. The Selunite outpost was....well rundown. Everything was dirty, tattered and no Selunite symbols. When questioned they literally just said "DO YOU SEE HOW WE LIVE?"

2. I think you guys can tell that it was actually a Sharrian enclave instead. Blythe used Dominate Person and charmed one of them and they gave us a guided tour of the facility. The basement had a bunch of bodies and relics, which we looted of course.

3. The party (Eirwen and Arameia) refused to leave unless we took care of them because they're hurting innocent people. Blythe couldn't possibly give a fuck cause she's not getting paid, and Raha just kind of was ambivalent. Then Blythe had a lightbulb moment and told them to UNALIVE themselves (Yes I know Dominate person doesn't work this way but we found it to be funny enough to just go with it)

5. Afterwards the gang went back to camp and hung out for a bit. Had a long discussion about whether or not it matters if Eirwen regains her memories because at the end of the day, she's still herself. Who cares who she used to be, and if that information hurts her...why not let sleeping dogs lie?

5.5 I FORGOT but at dinner Lorelai decided to be bat form as it's easier for her to get cozy and warm up and she had her blood in a goblet (Yes we all thought batstarion was too adorable). Arameia however thought it was EXTRA adorable and asked her to sit her in lap. She did.

6. Raha made breakfast the next day - Rice Porridge with nutmet and cinnamon with side of plums and nuts...it was an Elven dish from his childhood - unfortunately it had milk in it and Eirwen is lactose intolerant.

6.5 ANOTHER THING I FORGOT - Arameia introduced her tiny little miniature dragon she found in her coinpurse (yes. that's his horde. pocket change) and Blythe went Wild because of the amount of chemical reagents she could acquire from the little guy. The little guy in question was sweating bullets and attempting to flee.

7. We went to an Elven village to restock but turned out that it was ransacked by most likely humans, judging by the weapons left behind. Raha himself was the most despondent out of them all since he had lost his family due to a human raid, his entire village facing a similar fate and nothing remained except some survivors that had to relocate.

8. Arameia asked Raha to translate something she found and it was clear that Raha did not speak Elven naturally, and it is his second language. It was revealed that Raha never learned Elven as a child, due to the proximity of his village to a large human settlement most spoke common instead of Elven to be able to communicate with the humans. Unfortunately this caused a lot of friction with the Elves that took in the refugees. Facing a lot of ostracization and othering, Raha had left this other village as soon as he could, and learned Elven on his own, causing him to be fluent by no means anywhere near a native speaker.

(I shit you not tumblr wouldn't let me post this until i did the border. I don't know what it has against Forlorn Raha)

9. Raha and Arameia had a heart to heart at the fire, as Arameia also lost her parents when her village was wiped out (hers by a pack of werewolves, hence her deep seated hatred towards them). Raha could sympathize, but he doesn't hate humans, due to the hate he faced from other Elves. He believes that it's simply a product of having power, and chooses to remain solitary.

He is thankful for meeting everyone but he can never trust crowds or big populations ever again, preferring to stay clear.

10. Lorelai bullied Raha for getting laid

[talesfrommedinastation]

My redneck neighbor Doug on 'Into the Breach'

Sorry, been busy with work and life and so has Doug.

Now, let's get onto the next episode, 'Into the Breach'.

CW: Pretty chill, by Doug's standards.

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

Episode 13: ''Johnny Cash would be Proud''

Welp, sometimes, you gotta go where you’re wanted. And for Little Orphan Blondie, she’s back at the Museum of Science and Industry, now doing shitty puzzles with the Jedi babies. I really do hope Gun Safety Muppet sat on one of his own guns after that bullshit, hate that blue puppet fucker. 

At least the little pink girl got to keep her souvenir doll from the gift shop that Stepsister Beth . I hope these babies are going around and stealing from the storage. I would. 

Church Lady left these guys in a shitty parking lot. Ha! Time waits for no man and she’s got a potluck with Sassy Park Ranger to prep for. 

Aw hell yeah! My boy Toaster Strudel showing up in a stolen work van. And Daddy Warcrimes and his boyfriend MBA Rob are wondering if there’s yet another sobbing family stuffed in the trunk they can ransom once they cross the border. Never change, you two. 

God MBA Rob looks and TALKS just like my asshole nephew. Ugh. “Do you think I’m lying?” “Yes!” 

Wow, Daddy Warcrimes and Julio ain’t taking no one’s shit. My boys!

Toaster Strudel even went into the Empire’s dumpster and yanked out an imperial uniform and forcing MBA Rob’s scruffy ass into it. Or maybe he hooked up with one and stole his clothes. Didn’t take Toaster Strudel for that but hey I don’t judge, that’s for Jesus and your God to do now ya know. 

(“Wait, that Echo likes dudes?”

“No, that he steals from people he’s banged. Come on now Meat Muffin, why you gotta be prejudiced and stuff, we got laws now, ain’t you seen Brokeback Mountain?”)

Oh, Stepsister Beth is on the struggle bus. Come ON, Stepsister Beth, start chatting with some of those other clones can get these babies out of here! Why all the male scientists got them windowless van mustaches? 

Scientist with bangs is a real bitch. Don’t like her. 

Look at Little Orphan Blondie plotting her way out of the Museum of Science and Industry! 

Oooh my boys going all Johnny Cash with the BLACK! Love it! And MBA Rob trimmed his ass down, looks like My Wife’s First Love in Star Trek, gotta give it to him, good look.

(“I’m assuming that’s Will Riker?”

“Yeah, Captain Picard’s Number 1.”

“Why not call him Riker since you know who he is?”

“My wife told me I’m not allowed.”

“....I’m not asking anymore.”)

MBA Rob’s super power is being a wild asshole. Ya know, that’s not always a bad thing. Man, he’s good at this. Ah, there’s Daddy Rambo shooting Stormtrooper dingbats and Toaster Strudel doing a thing. 

There’s Julio checking out the ladies on his cell phone. Wonder which lady he’s texting, lay that pipe where you can, brother. 

Is Toaster Strudel wearing jeans? Oh who cares–look at my boy kicking ass! Being all 007! Man, hope Alex-from-Manitoba is watching from heaven, proud of his boy! 

(Alex-from-Manitoba is Fives?!)

Julio fires up the stolen work truck, and off they go! Will they make it? Will they make it?! Come on, Daddy Rambo! Turn on some Folsom Prison Blues, you got this! 

Even Daddy Warcrimes knows that Toaster Strudel’s on it. No wonder they gotta sideline Toaster Strudel like this, when he comes on shift everything works. Dang. 

Woah! There they go! My boys! And Little Orphan Blondie! Woah! 

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

Tagging my Cajun neighbor's fans! @skellymom @megmca @amalthiaph @cdblake1565 @sued134 @isthereanechoinhere96

[bella-rose29]

Anthony Lockwood x fem!reader: reverse damsel in distress situation

I just thought this was funny so I made some head canons about it

I don't think there are any warnings? like a couple of vague references to stuff (like they're on a horse together 👀 and they go in a lake together 👀) and possibly a swear word or two??? but I can't remember

I wrote these while I was meant to be writing my essays and I'm not gonna go back and proof read

ok so

instead of the royal child locked in a tower that's guarded by a huge ass dragon being the princess, it's the prince

and the prince is Anthony lockwood

I know he would totally want to be a knight or train or something

but instead he gets kidnapped when a dragon (think Smaug sized) attacks the city

(we're gonna pretend that his family are all alive for this)

so lockwood gets carried off (he's like... 15? 16?)

put in the ruins of a castle in the middle of a thick and dangerous forest that takes like... a week to get to

and for the next three (ish) years parties are sent out to rescue him

none of them are successful

they are either killed by the dragon

or they get scared and run away

lockwood doesn't really mind living with the dragon

Lucy becomes a knight to try and save her friend and George is like a really well respected scholar or something (because lockwood was friends with him and made sure everybody appreciated George's talent for research) who researches dragons and how best to defeat them

lockwood does miss his family but he figures that he can go back any time he wants, and now he actually has some freedom for once in his life

it's a breath of fresh air (just like the air that's all around him because he lives in a forest now)

and the dragon is actually really nice

brings him food, makes fires to keep him warm, lets him practice his sword fighting on its hide (since it's basically impenetrable)

lockwood gets really good at sword fighting really quickly (of course he does)

and soon he's venturing out into the wilds to hunt for food or to discourage the hunting parties from coming to rescue him

also he just likes going for walks sometimes and there are nasty things living in those trees

but one day

not long after his 19th birthday

a single figure approaches the ruins

now the dragon starts gearing up for a fight (even though it's wondering if this is really a fair fight)

but when the singular knight starts bowing to the dragon and pandering to dragon pride

well

safe to say this knight won't be getting eaten today

lockwood of course ventures downstairs to see what's going on

and when he sees his terrible, fear-inducing dragon on its back having belly rubs from some random knight he almost faints in shock

"uh, who are you? And what are you doing with my dragon?"

the knight is surprised and pauses the belly rubs (the dragon lets out a huff)

"oh, I'm here to rescue you I think!"

then lockwood is surprised again because holy shit this knight is a woman

normally women in the army was rare since when lockwood was in the city the patriarchy was still in the progress of being abolished

but in the time he's been away the army has sorted itself out

(not that he knew that)

so he's all confused and frowny

and then he remembers to speak

"oh, well I'm quite happy here, thank you. Sorry for making you travel all this way, but I shan't be being rescued anytime soon."

he expects the knight to protest or something

instead she replies with:

"Alright then. Could I at least stay the night? I haven't slept properly for a while"

he agrees

the dragon is happy because the knight staying = more belly rubs

she goes out to hunt for dinner for the three of them and comes back an hour later with a lot of food

they spend the night talking about what's been happening in the city since lockwood hasn't been there for like, three years

turns out a lot has changed

like it was mentioned earlier, women are now in the army (and can train from a very young age like the men)

the city opened its borders and trade routes have been established between them and neighbouring cities

this means a lot more money has come into the city

and building programmes have started so that people have jobs and then housing

schooling is free

all good things

lockwood spends most of the time the knight (who has introduced herself as Y/n) is talking feeling as though he missed out and wanting to go home

he doesn't want to stay there, he just wants to catch up with everyone and let them know that he's fine

and could they please stop attacking his dragon thanks

omg and while the knight is getting ready for bed she takes her armour off (she has clothes on underneath don't you worry)

and lockwood doesn't realise but he's staring

because that armour is fitted but shapeless and he hasn't seen a woman for nearly three years (and he's a honey teenager let's face it)

and while he might not realise that he's looking

the dragon absolutely does

flicks him with its tail to get him to stop even though the dragon thinks that the whole situation is hilarious

because the dragon had also seen how lockwood had been looking at the knight while they were talking

and boy oh boy is he in trouble because he is definitely crushing on her

the next morning they're having breakfast:

(lockwood went out to get it because the others were still asleep)

and she's laughing at his jokes

and lockwood thinks oh shit I think I'm falling for her

and then he agrees to make the journey back to the city with her and she smiles and it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen

(mostly he agrees to go back so that he can spend more time with her but shhh)

they hug the dragon goodbye (refuses to leave the hoard)

set out on the knight's horse

and omg they both get on and they're really close together because they don't entirely fit and-

lockwood is really struggling to concentrate he won't lie

so is she

anyway

they get back to the city and everybody is cheering because someone actually managed to defeat the dragon and bring the prince home???

and then she has to explain to his parents (after a very tearful reunion from all members of the family) that no, she didn't kill the dragon, she just told it that she'd never seen a dragon more impressive and gave it belly rubs

then lockwood has to break the news that he's not staying

and more crying ensues

the knight is kind of just... stood there awkwardly because these are her monarchs and she has no clue how to act right now

they invite her to dinner

she says yes (she didn't feel she could say no when lockwood turned to her with puppy dog eyes)

it's very loud

and more of a party than a dinner

lockwood spends a lot of time around George and Lucy (and Y/n totally isn't jealous of how gorgeous Lucy is and how lockwood looks at her like she's the sun that would be true ridiculous)

she's used to the noise of it all, she's a knight for god's sake

it's just been a long couple of weeks and she needs a break

so she heads out to the balcony for a breather

and is surprised to see the prince there because she thought he'd be in the middle of the celebrations

he gives her a small smile when she steps out

and she looks gorgeous against the glow of the room behind her and lockwood thinks he might be falling again

they talk for hours

literally until sunrise

everyone else has gone to sleep

they've moved from standing to sitting with their backs against the wall of the castle watching the sun come up over the horizon

there is absolutely no need for them to be sat as close as they are but-

and lockwood almost feels sad to be leaving again

but then he remembers how constricted he'd felt earlier when people were fussing over him and getting him ready for the party

and he thinks he's much better off living with his dragon in the forest

the journey back Y/n comes with him

she says it's to protect him

she knows he can fend for himself she just likes spending time with him promised his parents that she would (they hadn't asked her to)

they get ambushed on the way by bandits or something

they fight together like they've been doing it their whole lives

and when she pulls out two knives and throws them with perfect accuracy and without even looking and saves his ass, lockwood knows he's screwed

yep he's definitely fallen for her

the dragon knows What's Up when they get back because they're both giggling and stumbling over each other as they walk in

they stopped for a dip in a lake on the way and he totally didn't nearly faint when she started stripping

they didn't go far (just a lil kiss because they finally admit their feelings for each other) but the journey was quite long so they've had time to talk about how it's gonna work

she decides she'll move in with him

the dragon is happy because once again, the knight staying = more belly rubs

lockwood is happy because he's got the girl of his dreams

and they live in their ruins in the middle of a forest, occasionally travelling back to the city for birthdays and celebrations and such

the dragon gets a lot of belly rubs when it comes with them (which doesn't happen much because of the hoard)

George and Lucy travel to see lockwood a lot (and basically live with them now)

tag list: @anathemaloren, @augustisintheair, @avdiobliss, @briar-rose23, @dangelnleif, @el-de-phi, @ell0ra-br3kk3r, @informedimagining, @karensirkobabes, @light-23, @locknco, @mischivana, @mitskiswift99, @mrsklockwood, @mrsyixingunicorn10, @no-morning-glories, @novelizt, @ran23sblog, @superpositvecloudshipper, @t2sh0, @taygrls, @tournesol77, @whenselenefallsinlove, @wordsarelife

[verdemoun]

hi im back on my "overlooked things" bullshit

the gang and clothes. oh god that must've been chaotic. What the fuck do you mean you don't have to wear a union suit. What do you mean you??? Just??? Get to dress however you want??? Hello whY IS THERE SO MANY WOMEN WEARING PANTS WOW???

Comfort clothes. Kieran and clothes was already mentioned once, but I'm thinking about others. Some stick to their style, probably. I see Hosea as such a guy. John is living out his emo dreams /j

Charles, his newfound hobby of (insert vague gesture here) you know, and special clothes for this sort of thing. And protection. Good gloves, goggles, all that. Mate's in heaven. You cant tell me otherwise.

The first shopping trip is a fucking journey every time a new person appears. The availability. Prices. The materials. PRINTS. (I work with prints on fabric and lemme tell you. That shit is wild even for me. Let alone 1899 people.) The vast amount of styles and all that.

And, dumbass designs of course. The weird ones you can get from AliExpress or whatever and it's a fucking trip every time. As much as I wanna say it's Sean who discovers those first, I'd say it's Arthur. My guy wasn't too quick to learn tech and stuff so he saw a nice tshirt for a low price, ordered it, and he didn't look at it what was written.

His 1899 mindset of "i have it therefore it cannot be thrown away i can't afford more" wins out and he keeps it. You can't tell me otherwise.

welcome back always get the happiest hand flapping stim getting to long asks

absolutely assuming every woman who wears pants is a lesbian for the longest time

wearing pajamas for the first time. clothes being so plentiful they have a designated for sleep. and sleepwear being so much more comfortable than a union suit or ye olde undergarments the first time most of them wear flannel is a life changing experience.

bessie accidentally bought hosea clothes whenever she saw something she thought her husband would like it was her way of coping with him being gone for so long. he is rocking the brown loafers looks like he owns a yacht the beige pants but also coziest old man sweaters

john and arthur both just wear slightly modernized versions of their regular clothes they are dorks. john has the black leather bikie jacket with stupid fashion belts and buckles he looks amazing like generic punk outfit

CHARLES bordering on hoarder with the gloves. guilty of buying gloves in different colors just because he likes the color even though he already has 3 pairs of the same glove. most of the time enjoying the comfort of looking like a southern dad with the plaid and jeans but also work pants with the extra knee padding and a dozen pockets a different tool in every pocket walking down the street need a screwdriver? tape measure? wrench? electrical tape? timber screws? always on hand.

lenny and sean are the temu fashion disasters. bird shirts floral prints galore. the technicolor because it's so new to them!! the most hideous busy patterns but somehow making it work

sean accidentally bought a blue lives matter shirt and lenny had to draw the line and explain sean no. he started wearing it inside out instead of throwing it out and attempted to bleach the crappy iron off

arthur is so self conscious and so convinced he is ugly he is hyperaware of not sticking out in modern era he went through plain shirt and unremarkable pants for months. guilty of having a hoodie he won't leave the house without until he eventually settles on just modern era gunslinger outfit. owns 4 versions of the same outfit because he has npc energy in modern era can fit every piece of clothing he owns in a backpack.

[redshift-starfire]

Getting my thoughts on the election out since I've been seeing some squabbling on my dash and I wanna make a futile attempt at clearing shit up that probably won't change anyone's mind

I'm gonna get the president shit out of the way first. Just vote for the genocide woman if you live in a swing state. We (leftists) all hate her, we are all aware that she won't stop the suffering going on in Gaza or Lebanon or anywhere else and she's not going to do much good here. I don't like voting against my morals or best interest, but that was never an option for us. Our voting system is first-past-the-post, winner takes all, so if we don't ensure that the genocidal cop woman with some good policy doesn't get into that office, then we WILL get genocidal old orange billionaire "man" who is hellbent on making everything infinitely worse. It's much easier to bully the former into ending the genocide than the latter. The latter will get you shot by the national guard. Vote strategically then bully relentlessly. We need to get our shit together if we want things to change for the better.

But more importantly:

THERE'S MORE ON THE BALLOT THAN JUST THE PRESIDENT

Do not fucking forget about Congress and how much of a hand they play in all this. God fucking forbid the GOP get another trifecta, if they do it's fucking over, we can't let that happen again. Conservatives are going out in droves to vote early and we need to beat that. A dem majority (especially a supermajority) would make it infinitely easier for the progressive caucus to get their bills through. And that would make many things possible, including better border policy and a ceasefire. This is the best outcome we can hope to have.

VOTE FUCKING LOCAL

I've seen people talking a lot about conservative maniacs in office. THIS IS WHERE THEY ARE. GET. THEM. OUT. This election has State and Federal Senate and House seats up for grabs, Governors, Mayors, County Officials, Sheriffs. All people who have a much greater force on your personal material life than whoever's ass gets sat at that one chair in that one old ass building in DC. This is the one place in American politics where Socialist and Green party candidates are even anywhere close to viable right now and it's how we can get them to be more viable in the future. Do research and make your voice heard in your local area and conditions will improve no matter who the president is. Especially if you show up for primaries and runoffs. There's an independent journalist who makes leftist voting guides for my area and that's what I used to figure out who best to vote for (much more useful for primaries).

DO OTHER SHIT TOO

This is where you can do whatever really, so long as it helps. Poll watch to make sure the GOP doesn't try and completely derail this one. Cure ballots to make sure they're counted. Protest. Scream at people. Join a militia. Strike. Plan the revolution. Boycott. Jack off on Ronald Reagan's grave and post an image of the result on every social media site with the caption: "I'm doing my part!" Whatever. Go fucking wild. The most important thing is that you bully the shit out of whoever is in office until they do something. We by no means should only be doing one thing to shape this society into one we like. Reform/revolution is a false dichotomy. If we do both at the same time, one of them will work.

Do not let them know peace.

[loveofdetail]

I do think gale would have nipple piercings perhaps as a part of his wild university days. Which the bordering on self delusion does to me imply that his uni days were crazy

oh yeah i definitely think he was sort of a horrible wild boy around age 20 or so.

Jumping off this ask a bit—i think one of the reasons i've been pretty vocally resistant to the softening/taming/fandomification of Gale is that i think keeping up the appearance of "normal" "respectability" was probably a big part of his relationship with Mystra? Not that their relationship was domestic in any recognizable way, but i think it was stable: stable on Mystra's terms, stable because Gale was not allowed to want anything to change. And after long enough Gale started believing that this stasis was what he wanted.

(Until, of course, he got to the breaking point of defying her by seeking out the orb, which I read as a form of subconscious relationship sabotage on his part. No matter how much he told himself that maybe she would be fine with it, deep down I think part of him knew it would ruin everything and he did it anyway.)

It's nice that the fandom (at least the parts of it I see) recognizes how fucked his relationship with Mystra was, but one thing that, to me, is usually lacking from depictions/analyses of the situation, is a recognition of how LONG TERM and SETTLED their relationship was, and the effects that had on him.

After all that the guy deserves to have the fun version of a midlife crisis, with Tav along for the ride (or, you know, egging him on).

I do occasionally worry that i'm swinging way too far in the other direction (then i remind myself, why worry, i'm just here to have fun with it)—but anyway i'm not denying that he does have a warm domestic streak. I just think that it's only one part of him! People have contradictions and enjoying a night in sometimes vs also loving to get into a little trouble is one of his.

Gale says to the player, "You're wholly without vice or sin or the occasional lapse in judgement? No - you don't strike me as quite that boring"—and then a large chunk of the fandom imagines that post-game, Gale finally becomes somebody wholly without vice or sin or the occasional lapse in judgement anymore. Truly i will never understand.

Also... if i'm being perfectly honest... the fact that his "good ending" leans into the quiet domesticity thing is, to me, inseparable from the fact that it also leans into seeking Mystra's "forgiveness" and seeing "her side" of the conflict (🤮). Like I literally just think that the end of his arc was mishandled in canon. so.

Anyway, I can't see him and Tav settling into soft respectable married life, i see them as That Mutually Insane Couple Who Always Have Some Shit Happening.

tldr: Gale Nipple Piercings Real

[gamchawizzy]

15, 33 for Mary:)

15. how big or small is their family? who did they live with growing up? do they live with anyone now?

Mary used to be human once :) She was the youngest of three sisters from a long forgotten time and a long forgotten land; they lived on a farm in a small, relatively new settlement. Her family gave up on trying for a boy when she was born, haha. She was no farmer though, the gods never blessed her with a green thumb, but she did her part in helping the family by hunting wild game with a rifle! She also had a childhood friend once, who was very dear to her - but time and certain happenings in her past life has made it hard for her to recall details anymore.

Time passed and she became the Tempest, coexisting alongside Ismail, the Maelstrom, who was the psychopomp of the Sundering Sea - Rautrivyatan - an incredibly treacherous maritime region bordering several lands including the Ulekharian Peninsula (aka The Mainland) and the island of Town-by-Train where the story of Fishleaves is located :)

At present, she lives in the fisherman Ducek's house, passing the days, petting cats, eating raw fish, scaring boys. Certain circumstances are tying her to the island 👀

33. if applicable, how would your other characters describe them? i mean specifically the people around them.

Ducek finds her stubborn but reasonable - a girl who prefers to be kind in private. She’s a bit sly, but not truly malicious. Lazy! But ultimately his friend :) He sees her personality and work ethic more. A person who just needs a gentle push in the right direction.

Neviss finds her extremely captivating. Terrifying. Fascinating in her ways. She changes her mood quickly, it’s challenging to keep up. A cross between a new discovery and an intriguing new woman in town. Respects her massively (but a good part of that is from fear LOL).

Ry sees her as a scary older woman who’s always trying to frighten him or distress him in some way or another. He doesn’t dislike her, but wonders what his older sibling Nev sees in her - she’s just too full of teeth and mischief.

Onny adores her! Mary’s one of the few adults who take her seriously, and so values her like the big sister she’s never had. The nicest singing voice she’s ever heard. She thinks it’s funny when Mary scares the boys.

Ismail thinks she is a massive bitch and a very mutinous, difficult, petulant companion/associate. He thinks of her as a danger to everyone. Not praying for her downfall, but…he believes she’s just gonna fuck shit up and crawl back again. She’s just foolish all the time, and he always has to clean up after her.

Thanks for asking!! :3 This was fun to compile and I got a few new ideas out of it as well 👁

OC Ask game from here

[silvergolddraco28]

Variations prompt Sinner King Adam version

What if Lucifer got shunted into a version of Hell that condemned Adam and Eve as the first Sinners after their mortal passing. What if the Lucifer of that world was still an archangel?

1

A pair of old doors were thrown open kicking up dust and causing enchanted lights to flair to life as a blond male with porcelain white skin bright red marks on his cheeks yellow sclera and red snake like irises dressed in a white button up and dark slacks with a thick apron gazed inside of the room waving his four claw-like fingered hand that was a nearly black in color. “Geeze… i really let this room go to the dust bunnies.”

With a snap, the male was in an apple-red flannel and dark grey jeans while low boots covered his feet the apron was replaced with an apple-printed cloth That was tied around his neck With a cute duck-printed one tied over his blond hair. “Right, got to do this room the old-fashioned way, the wards prevent any magic in the room beyond the lights and telekinesis.” the male spoke to himself holding up his hands as a bucket with cleaning supplies popped into existence.

He quickly got into a rhythm as he worked from top down humming to himself until a precariously balanced book tipped over and smacked him on the head. “Father damn it! What the fucking hell?!” the blond cursed rubbing his head while glaring at the book now open on the floor. Red eyes glanced at the text before twisting up in confusion. “Mirriors and opposites…?”

The blond picked up the open book actually looking at the spell and reading it with a frown before the sprawling letters on the page began to glow a bright white. “SHIT!” the male cursed trying to force the book closed with no luck even as he slipped into his demonic form as the bright light reached a fever pitch consuming the entire room. The book snapped shut falling to the ground a twisted red energy leaving it with no sign of the blond except for a scorched piece of cloth that fluttered to the ground.

()()()()

Yellow and red eyes cracked open staring up at the familiar red sky of Hell but the owner of those eyes could feel the fundamental difference even as the wild energy of Hell latched onto him anchoring to his very soul just as it had done when he had Fallen only this time it was far more potent instead of being split between two vessels. ‘Alright get a hold of yourself Lucifer, time to see where in Hell you ended up and start looking for a way back home to Charlie.’ Lucifer thought to Himself as he pushed himself from the ground grimacing when he saw his clothes were basically destroyed by the effects of the spell That had been in that book. ‘For now i think it would be a good idea to take an imp or a sinner like form. Just until i can find out what's different about this Hell other then it having not had a proper connection to its ruler.’ Lucifer determined as he took a breath and changed his form shifting To look more feminine making his white skin take a grey tone, the spots on his cheeks a more pale pink, his blond hair turning black with apple-red streaks, and finally pulling two sets of wings into his back and shifting the angelic white to black. Finally, he pulled his horns back before snapping a simple shin-length black dress with an open back over his form not bothering To make shoes for his hoofed feet. ‘This will do for now…’ Lucifer thought knowing he now looked similar to a winged sinner. With a thought he added a thin well hidden slit in the back of the dress and slipped his tail through it. With a flap of his wings he rose into the air reminding himself that with only on pair of wings he had to flap like a normal bird.

He soon landed on the outskirts of what looked like the Pentagram City he knew but just slightly different, the borders between Overlord territories weren't in ruins and instead five large stadiums were built in them with flourishing neighborhoods. Lucifer felt a twist in his gut as he entered The city feeling a lot less destruction but there was still some sin as the souls Of the sinners walked about. He stopped by a shop displaying the local news.

*”This just in folks our resident Princess of Hell, Emily Nightvoid, has taken up sponsoring a project of making a redemption hotel!”*

“There she goes, Adam’s stupid angel brat is at it again.” a nearby sinner scoffed as the dread in Lucifer’s stomach grew heavier.

‘I didn't fall… Adam came to hell…’ Lucifer thought turning away from the tv and making his was through the city to an all-too-familiar hotel with a sign saying ‘Happy Hotel’ from its roof.

Comment or heart!

PS please please DM me if anyone is interested!

[authoratmidnight]

Absolutely baffles me that people think that teachers could have done more to prevent the shitshow that as the end of the Heartbreaker event cause like, no??

Listen, from the POV of every teacher not named Balam or Sullivan, the situation was thusly:

Two new teachers were hired that came highly recommended from a highly trusted and valued source (a high ranking member of Demon Border Patrol who ALSO happens to be related to one of your colleagues, you don’t get much more iron tight than that). They seem eager to teach and get along well with everyone, teachers and students alike (we were given nothing to indicate the former). They do their job fine and the first week goes by w/o incident(there was a gap of one week between Atori and Shiida joining the staff and the Heartbreaker and I’d imagine we’d know if there was an incident).

And then one of them absolutely loses his shit during an exam, nearly kills multiple students before trying to kidnap another and it takes a good chunk of the staff to finally subdue them for questioning.

Like, they literally didn’t know???? They’re not mind readers. All they knew was that one of the new teachers just went crazy out of the blue.

And ok, what about Balam and Sullivan, who did know something was up-Sullivan clearly though something was shady about cause he had Balam meet with them, and Balam that yes they are hiding something and are potentially dangerous. But like.

1) if you think they didn’t have eyes on them at all times you’re nuts. They almost certainly had someone around them all the time. Like, they’re newbie teachers, sus or not OF COURSE they’re gonna have someone around them all the times, they’d be shadowing one of the other teachers and shit.

2) I don’t think anyone would jump right to ‘oh i hired a mass murderer/terrorist’ as why someone might be shady. That’s going to like the worst possible scenario. You’re more likely to think that they had a spotty past/committed some petty crime(s) or something. If they thought they were an active threat to the students they wouldn’t have hired them/let them near them. 

Plus remember they were being questioned by Balam, using his Buzzer ability and the questions about the safety of the students were answered truthfully, so even though they were shady they weren’t targeting the students (which IS true, their goal was basically an elaborate heist, Atori just cracked in the middle of a fight and changed plans, they did NOT enter Babyls with the intention of hurting the kids, they were there to steal shit). So clearly, whatever threat he perceived them as, he didn’t think they were a threat to the students.

3) The Heartbreaker. They weren’t unsupervised-again, there were other teachers around, so they’re not gonna do anything stupid in front of them(at least one would logically think this). And during the times they were alone there were cameras cause it was being broadcast to the rest of the school. So again, seems reasonable to think that they’re not gonna pull anything when they’re being filmed the whole time.

Atori losing his mind and going wild in the middle of a fight was unexpected b/c again, why would anyone expect this to happen?? You wouldn’t. ESPECIALLY Returning to Origins.

Tl;dr, I think the teachers of Babyls actually did fine given the information at their hands and what happened with Atori WAS a freak incident one could not have predicted.

[fan-art-ic]

I still can't believe Rick did that to Percy that author really kicked the shit out of his oc not even letting him get a full school year of no war drama fucking his life over at age 16. Percy is only fucking 17! He would be learning about trig and failing to read a shakespeare classic in class, if he ever could be in class!!!!! I started this post to re write the hoo events let me re route

This actually got super long so ha! So glad mobile had read mores now

So what I think would have been great is if Rick really had to bring in a Roman camp and all that shit then I would have him START at the Roman camp! The first book should open with Leo, because he's already favored by Hera cuz she babysat him, having a demigod dream around the last day and day after of the titan war, because we are going to start RIGHT AFTER

Leo, however, is missing his memories and is on a bus with Piper, who is a daughter of VENUS (isn't the whole thing with, um not Remus and Romulus but Adonis right? He was a founder of Rome right and a son of Venus? It just works) and the bus is attacked by monsters. Hedge is a faun, he's Roman, and basically calls for back-up, the closest Roman patrol shows up but not before Leo has to fight monsters off himself. He kills one dramatically and Jason is the first/last face he sees

In this, Jason is not Praetor. I'd like to imagine he managed to beg off being made Praetor until he turns 16 next year, because the idea made him want to bite people and he did bite Octavian and Reyna. Reyna, in my eyes, is like 17 going on 18 while Jason is 15 going on 16. Jason has an oblivious crush on her and she likes him as a faithful companion, like if her metal dogs could give tactic strategy feedback and make her laugh with snitty comments. Much more student who is a black belt but not a teacher and then a student who's a brown belt. I don't know back on track that's why Jason is on border patrol and not doing boring Praetor things

Also that nicely sets Jason up to go through the war and come out the other side as the Praetor so he might actually enjoy it this time

Back from that commercial break, the first book would basically be the quest from the lost hero but with changes to suit the divergences I've made but still mainly following that plot. They return to Camp Jupiter and celebrate and Leo finds Bunker Nine, hidden in the San Franciscan hills. I remember reading something about Rome loving Vulcan but could totally be mistaken, but that all would gel really well. On Pipers side of things, Tristan has moved into New Rome after Enceladus concussed him so hard he is blind so the Mist isn't bothering his vision. It's really hard because her father just got horribly injured, but now can be with her more often and not do stupid films, of course he wants to return to Hollywood so it's a lot of tense non arguments and treasured quality time

Book 2 would then open with Percy, the entire book is a classic fully him book like the og series. Something like: Look I don't want to waste my time or yours, we both got plenty to do. You know everything since last summer back. The more recent stuff, this past school year was okay! I got put into a couple of remedial classes, and had to deal with plenty of remedial monsters, but overall August to May? No big problems. Even arriving early back to camp had been no problem. I did it to help all the other counselors and Chiron get camp ready to shift from half-gear/winter mode to full gear/summer mode with easily quintuple the campers ready to show up. As the only Poseidon camper and the living hero of Olympus' everlasting ass, I probably could have gotten away with not helping. Annabeth asked me to, so it was a no brainer. June though? Oh boy."

And in JUNE they get Grover bringing back two demi-gods (usually he's busy being a teenage satyr equivalent lord of the wild [HE IS 28 IN TLT RIGHT BUT THATS SUPPOSED TO BE EQUIVALENT TO A HUMAN 12! HE STILL SO YOUNG]) but he ran into these two and uhuuhhhhh needed to bring them right away. And it's Frank and Hazel!!! I love Frank but the fact that he comes out a somewhat legible and not totally weird character is a miracle. He is the son of a minor god, who didn't want him going to CHB because of the shit conditions for non Olympian kids but then Frank somehow befriended a monster kid but then the monster parents tried to eat him and now that he knows his scent has gotten stronger and just bc demigods can't use phone doesn't mean monsters can't they can text their cousins and be like hey fresh meat coming your way. They probably love playing mobile video games and doing crypto trading. Anyways

On the run, he runs into Hazel. She is our lost Roman! Hera took her time with Leo and unfortunately did a rush job with Hazel. She got memory wiped, but Hera ran out of time to set up her arrival to CHB properly, and just drops her in Frank's path. (Tangent: With Frank and Hazel, I've made my feelings pretty clear, canon ages can't date, at least not till they're in their 20s. Again, like that's not something I have a problem with, bc 3 years isn't enough to really view that younger kid as baby comparatively the age just doesn't match up till their 20s. but.......) given they are demigods, I would space out their relationship the full five years to the end of the second series, so she's 18 at least.

That's right, FIVE YEARS. don't try to fucking do all that shit in one year!!!!! You're saying Gaia is this huge big bad but in a span of ONE year where no one actually fights HER she doesn't seem nearly as good a villain as Kronos! He had the pizzazz!!! The villainous razzle dazzle!!!! Because he was given time (ha...ha). I expect at LEAST as much for a BIGGER BAD. It just fucks with the pacing.

Anyway! Hazel has always had dreams and a connection to the Earth, so she's enjoying the newly constructed Hades cabin (where Nico is really fucking confused but really happy?) And also having terrible nightmares and sometimes sneaking off into the rockiest area of the woods like it's in a stream but huge boulders like st peters village creek and she sneaks off there sometimes but that's only after sleepwalking there after the dreams. She is really worried about this possible...familiar.....danger and protective of her new family so she goes back out there repeatedly to think and try to meditate

Percy, both really enjoying befriending Hazel but also somehow the only one finding her suspicious, is working himself into a tizzy because you know how he is with friends and with Silena's death and everyone else's anniversary coming close he has. A lot on his mind. So one night he's out at the wider part of the creek practicing his 'waterbending' and generally being upset, and he does have a sense for Earth so being so close he can feel the small tremors Hazel is putting put and he tracks her upstream

Confrontation time

Percy is already freaked out and Hazel is already in a weird place so she thinks he's a monster through her earth sense, yes she can have that she deserves it, so with her eyes closed she send a little rock spike at him out of fear, which he thinks is her attacking, so he fights back, Hazel comes to/opens her eyes and gets frightened and accidentally entombs Percy. She's able to bring him back up after a second, but oh man that second was possibly the single scariest second ever completely pressed in by dirt on all sides. Suffice to say he gets more fighty bc that's who Percy is, but Hazel manages to freeze his foot and explain herself and Percy calms down pretty well. Really fucking miffed and still has shivers running down his spine every heartbeat, but he's a reasonable guy, a nice dude. He has also been having visions, and between the two of them, figure that something is going to attack this other camp that exists, somewhere on the West Coast, and by a Giant and it's army

Phew! End scene, sheesh. Can you imagine how fucking long this would be if I actually wrote it out? Christ in hell.

They go to sleep! As all good demigods should at Night. The next day, Percy and Nico shove their tables together and Annabeth crouched in as does Frank, because his parents cabin hasn't specifically been done up yet. Oh hm maybe he could have his mortal soldier (booooo) mom and Nike? Doesn't matter, he still likes archery and still eventually figures out his shapeshifter shit. His candle, I think I want that honestly would work better as like, if Frank chose to save someone and took their punishment and he was given that candle. Or something. So at brunch they figure out the pieces, and then when Chiron comes over they think he's going to reprimand their shitty pavilion tableware manners, but nope he just says Rachel needs to see them in her cave

NOW Rachel gets to make a nice little debut with her cave. I honestly. Honestly. Honestly can't remember how it went it tlh if they went to her cave or the big house. Ik Jason went to the big house at some point but it's not relevant to the current topic. Anyways I get to spend an ungodly amount of time waxing about a the artsy fartsy/hippydippy sacred oracle cave of a teenage billionaire heiress which I don't care if there's a kind of canonical description this is my Rachel's cave now. So that would be like, at least half the chapter, the other half is her giving the prophecy after winning at just dance 3.

Anyways then they have a prophecy so they are sanctioned to go to find new Rome! Given the dreams, Nico Hazel and Percy go on the quest. Originally it was going to be Frank but "There's no way I'm letting you go off on another quest with my sister without making sure she's safe myself". Oof, sometimes I understand what writers mean when they say the characters have their own voice sometimes. So whenever they iris message to camp, Frank and Annabeth will be (not) enjoying figuring out his demigod abilities and just generally Frank gets to enjoy camp a little (but barely because he's very worried about his camp crossing buddy being out there without him, despite being protected by two mega powerful demi gods and being pretty strong herself, he still wishes he could message her every day, but it's not practical. Only when the questers can afford to.)

Now in New Rome: Leo, flames, Jason, wind, Percy, with a real big cool boat, they honestly make short work of the whole Alaska situation. That's more of a side thing that Percy signs himself up to do. I think they get incredibly weird in the way a bunch of future openly bisexual men would as traumatized super powered teenagers with a duty and repression around other teen like them who are also hot. NOTHING really happens, Percy is SOLIDLY dating Annabeth at the time, and Jason is too Roman and Leo is too repressed. But yknow. Solidly gay lockeroom vibes like if any of then ever saw that one id magazine of the jock and skater dude their minds would shut down for at LEAST 2 meals worth of time. But yeah they just have a fun jaunty time freeing Thanatos.

Back to Percy, he is enjoying seeing Nico come out of his shell, but also Nico is acting strangely too, but in a completely different way then Hazel. One is entangled in something dangerous, while the other is withholding something dangerous. It's driving Percy batty because after getting paranoid about Hazel earlier he doesn't want to say or push anything, and Nico is his little brother, and Hazel is his little sister, so this is practically a family road trip as far as he is concerned (he hopes) (desperately) (trying to distract from the alternative). Percy doesn't witness this, but at some point Nico comes out to Hazel and reveals his crush on him, and Percy just picks up on "something" being different. Obligatory questers send off at the Jackson household, filled with cookies and great parenting. Really a good way to lower everyone's guard to all the bullshit about to hit their ass. At this point, they are just trying to get cross country, and trying to link up with the Romans and warn them. They arrive on the same day Leo completes the Argo and Octavian butchers, like, 30 build-a-bears. Special edition ones too. Nico, at this point, has left because Hazel is pissed. She eventually remembered Nico at Camp Jupiter and there's a whole thing about that (fun little throw in about Norse and Egyptian from Percy's experiences in the ensuing conversation) so soon as they arrive safely to New Rom, he leaves immediately back to Camp Half Blood, reports, and, I dislike Nico going to Tartarus and getting captured so for right now he has been locked in his room by Hades for mentioning even doing that and he is a having a gay fume

Back in Rome, Hazel is recalling her life there, she had been there for several years, she had a few friends, and Reyna had begun to mentor her on the horse before Hera kidnapped her. As much as she loved CHB, she had never expected anything else and had put work in to feel at home among the golden hills of New Rome.

Okay also while I'm thinking of it. The fact that older Romans don't serve in the army but all the trick or treaters do? Fucking lunacy. But I want to worldbuild on this bullshit before I yank it out: what if the divinity in a demigod is strongest the younger they are, the closer their share of divinity is to the god. this is how you can get a baby Percy killing a snake in his cradle. But usually this means that a demigods peak years is 5-18, instead of a mortals 18-30. Like, of course just because they get older doesn't mean their power completely fade or anything, and of course in examples of extremely powerful demigods no one knows exactly, but, just spitballing, that's why so many monsters come after the kids, when imo they should be stronger when they are adults. So they are just less tasty as they grow through whatever divinity they were given, like expired jerky instead of filet mignon. So the 15 year old demigod serving in New rome's army is going to be to an aged out demigod of the same parent what Percy is to usual demigods. Just that much more in tune. The alternative is totally keelhauling the system and installing adults everywhere but I'm disinclined to that option

So Annabeth and Frank are in CHB, Hazel and Reyna are in New Rome, Jason Leo and Percy are in Alaska, and Nico is MIA at the moment. At this point, the prophecy of 7 is given by Rachel and after picking up Hazel, the Argo swings back to Long Island and then onto Greece.

Nico pops back up in New Rome, with warnings and looking to apologize to Hazel, but everyone is over the Atlantic. He accidentally ropes himself in to helping Reyna as Octavian is getting unruly. I think my Octavian is a total bastard but he isn't conspiring to get Rome and Greece to fight he is genuinely fucking concerned about them fighting and is acting out

I don't get why Annabeth had to get the Athena Parthenos at the exact same moment the whole Gaia is awakening it seems very stupid of Athena, so unless I'm forgetting something this is my made up reason: Athena gives Annabeth the OPTION of undertaking it at the same time or, if everyone survives, doing it later. It would be best to do it now though because she will already be in the Ancient Lands and then if Annabeth is able to recover the Parthenos it will allow Athena to regain complete control over her Minerva form and then, she SAYS to Annabeth, she would be able to help the questers since she won't be spread in two different directions. THAT is what convinces Annabeth to try and find it because Athena's aid would be invaluable for the rest of the quest

Then, when Annabeth and Percy fall into Tartarus and the Parthenos is recovered, Athena is able to manifest in front of the 7 (five). She is expecting to congratulate her daughter and bestow her blessing upon her and give everyone else a little boon, but then no Annabeth. This actually really pisses her off, and when she notices Percy is gone too and asks and they say he DELIBERATLY went in after Annabeth, well this helps boost the worthiness of the sea spawn in Athena's eyes, although this totally fucks everything up bc those two are basically the power players of the 7.

I'm kind of wishy washy on the minutiae of the of the house of hades, I honestly only gave a shit about the 411 in tartarus so no big change ups for the 5 just generally their shit goes easier with Athenas help

Annabeth and Percy are going through it of course. My personal theory is that the rivers of the underworld mess with peoples mortal souls and bodies when people interact with them. the cocytus leaves a more lasting mark on their psyches, and the phlegethon actually slowly eats at both of their mortality. If a normal person tried to drink from it, their human soul would wither away (like peeing on a flower), but with their divine side much more durable, both Percy and Annabeth's souls are growing unbalanced. Percy even more so, as I think when the Styx blessed him it burned away all but that anchor of mortality, and then when the Little Tiber washed away the blessing (which is BULLLLLLLLLLLSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT) his mortal soul is already spread thin and that's why when they get to Akhyls, he is able to crack past his mortal barrier and develop his powers in ways he shouldn't be ABLE to. MY Annabeth, also, doesn't have that shitty reaction to Percy SAVING them. Her mortal soul is boiling and releasing steam vapors it will never get back, so her mind has both never been more tortured but also never been clearer and faster in her life. She is able to get Percy to back off, but just so she can manipulate Akhyls properly and get her to actually help them with Percy as the knife to the throat. In/After Tartarus Annabeth is very much the cleaning/sharpening/and polish to Percy's sword edge.

Annabeth also messes with Bob/Iapetus, poking at his memories and paving the way for him to remember Percy, but doing it in a way so that Iapetus which actually like them by the time he remembers. This is mainly to show off Annabeth being different from her usual self, to have a Percy pov of him being uneasy of Annabeths ability to turn someone around and re-arrange their thinking with just some conversation. This is also because I want Small Bob to go up to the surface and be her big murder cat and if Iapetus genuinely liked her I can see him giving them the cat monster as a token of good faith and fRiEnDsHiP but it ends up being something that gives Annabeth part of her humanity back because she realizes the real impact she had on him and now she has a monster pet to take care of just like her boyfriend (this set up parallels very nicely I'm loving this now)

The Blood of Olympus would probably end up being REALLY different just because the canon book sucks so hard. And I think I'd make a plot point of Zeus breaking the Styx promise to free Calypso, I'd have it become that all of this is actually his fault because by not following the promise the consequences were Gaia waking up enough for all this to even happen. Actually this would set up nicely a next series of dethroned Zeus look at how easy that all falls together fuck I love this idea. It would take so long to write though maybe after I retire I could write it. Also how stupid is it for the gods to work with their own kid against the literal BANE of their existence? Fucking switch up the teams!!! It doesn't make any sense to me and then you could get some really interesting fight scenes and dynamics like I would have it so Percy ends up fight alongside Athena and Annabeth alongside Ares, Jason with Poseidon and Hazel with Zeus, Frank with Hades more on and so on

For that last paragraph I wanted to elaborate so I looked up a list of Greek mytho giants, but it had so much more fun info then I was expecting and has lead me to realize that the defeat of the giants should be a collaborative effort between both the Roman and Greek camps and the gods that would truly be the best way to tie up the huge finale of evil bosses, would free up some of the huge hitters to actually fight Gaia directly, and would be a fucking great fight finale that would unite both camps under one banner of the gods and OOOOH THIS is so smart my brain is shaking like a chihuahua

And then yeah! Series wrapped. Take that Rick, longer time frame, more drama, more battles, and doesn't clumsily fumble everyone's character

If you have read this far I am kissing your cheeks and hugging you thanks for having fun with me!!!!

[echantedtoon]

Demon Bride Ch17 Heart's Progression

"....Fuck-"

You blinked slightly caught off guard by the sudden cuss coming from the usually grumpy demon but didn't fight against him when he suddenly growled and pulled himself away from your touch. Narrowing his eyes as he did so, opened his mouth to speak- But paused and looked back up the hallway just as Kyogai's form quickly disappeared after Akaza. No doubt if he said anything that'll set Akaza off, the Upper Moon would come back and might not be so lenient a second time. So, for now, until he left Kaigaku decided it would be best to just remain calm which was hard to do when your otherwise unbeatable heart was pumping faster than a bumblebee's wing beats. He never felt something like...this. Something that thumped against his chest from the inside out. He HAS felt heartbeats before but mostly from prey. He's hunted deer and wild boar and felt their rapid heartbeats before he made them his dinner. His excellent hearing has heard the feared heartbeats of many humans when he scared them from the border. But having.. something. Like THAT. Inside your own chest. Feeling it from YOUR own flesh and blood. Actually hearing it pumping in excitement. From a simple touch. From Y/N no less!! It still thumped and it made him growl, black nails threatening to rip the black fabric as they dug over his heart. 

"Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck- Dammit! Shit!" He felt like he couldn't breath. The overwhelming scent of peach blossoms overwhelming his senses. He felt light headed. Vision literally blurring. "..Burns.."

"Kaigaku? Kaigaku, are you alright?" That voice sounded both as smooth as the most beautiful honey to him right now and too shrill for him to properly process.  

It was getting more difficult to breath. He stumbled two steps before having to lean against the wall in time for a soft but calloused hand to grab him by the shoulder and turn his body back. He was meant to snap at her, to intimidate her back into place as she should be before someone like him. But it never came- Lavender met blue. The pain of new feelings I'm his chest almost ceased. Throat felt as dry as sand and lungs felt as burnt as smoke.

"Kaigaku? You're starting to scare me. Why aren't you answering me?"

He had to leave-

"That-...You-....DONT THINK YOU DOING THIS CHANGES ANYTHING!!"She blinked. Good. Get her back so you can have space to leave. However..there was a strange throbbing in his shoulder when she removed her hand almost...as if...he wanted it there- "WE MAY BE EQUAL IN TERMS OF 'SAVING' BUT YOU STILL OWE ME!! I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR HELP ANYWAYS!!" 

With that he turned and stomped off towards the hallway leaving you there. Staring after him for a moment before frowning again. Well that was a fine way to treat someone after you risked your neck just to save his sorry arse from being turned into a puddle. Is a simple thank you too much to ask?  

"HEY!" You snapped back up when he called you from the other end of the hall and you scowled at him. What did he want now?  You waited for him to insult you from the stiff way he was standing there fists tightly balled but he just stared face red (he must really be mad for his face to have that color) and steamed before pointing at you. "JUST-...STOP FUCKING PUTTING YOURSELF INTO DUMB SITUATIONS LIKE A DAM IDIOT!! YOU'LL END UP WORSE THAN YOU WERE TO BEGIN WITH!! NEXT TIME I WONT BOTHER SAVING YOUR SORRY ASS!!"

...Was that supposed to be an insult or a concern??? 

You never got the chance to ask before he continued  to stomp off rather quickly away leaving you both dumbfounded and annoyed. Well screw him too! Last time you'd stand up for him. With a huff you just turned to walk back off towards the direction of the garden,Eri was probably wondering where you went leaving like that. Well it turned out she was still in the garden checking over the spider family, but you were surprised to see three other small pale white children joining the girls. The three new children were younger than the girls, boys, and all had a different pattern of red dots on their bodies. They all happily chewed and swallowed sugary candy alongside what looked like dumplings. You guessed they also belonged to the pale woman because they all looked the same.  Akaza and Kyogai were there too. Talking hushly with one another and not noticing your presence waiting by the doorway. Deciding it would be better to not interrupt them, you just stood there waiting for all to finish. The entire wait took maybe ten minutes before they were finally done, but it felt like forever,  before someone finally noticed you. Akaza was the first one when he just happened to look over and catch your eye....And that's when your earlier confusion from Kaigaku came back full swing. Because as soon as the two of you made eye contact, he ignored whatever Kyogai was pointing out to him towards the spider family and in long strides started towards you. Uh oh...Was he going to change his mind about flattening Kaigaku? Or were you in trouble now? But what happened next shocked you more than anything? As soon as Akaza was in front of you he bowed.

"Miss Y/n. I was just informed of your entire predicament. I want to personally apologize for everything you had to experience during your stay here. I will be sure to...'talk' with Enmu about his stunts next time I see him."

You noticed his hands balled into fists at that and winced. "Uh...Just tell him. Don't use your..force. please?"

The fists slowly relaxed as did Akaza with a smile. "If that's what you'd like then I'll respect your wishes. But I must commend your bravery in defended the widow from his perverted antics. I would have smashed his hand myself."

.....OH! THAT'S WHERE YOU REMEMBER FIRST SEEING THE LADY AND HER CHILDREN!! You erased it from most of your memory by now. But you nodded and smiled. "Yes but any decent person would've done it in my place. I really don't need any praise or thanks. I'm just glad they're alright."

Akaza smiled even wider, happier..As if he just found the most precious diamond in the world. Which confused you. "You are humble and very kind. The children have told me of your kindness." 

"Why wouldn't I show kindness? Everyone deserves it, especially those who come from difficult situations. You also are a very good person. I could tell from the moment you considered my words." Reaching up a hand, you gently pushed him up blinking. "So please don't bow yo me either." You smiled. "Let us just show each other mutual respect and promise to be good to one another."

"Be....g-good to each other?" Golden blue eyes widened. "Do you mean-"

"Yes. However I'm afraid I won't be here for  too much longer. Once Enmu returns my blood results, depending on what they say, I'm going to have to leave soon. I'm only waiting to recover and to see if I have anything harmful in my veins. I don't think I do however because surely if something bad were to happen it would've happened by now...." You blinked at the silence. "Mr. Akaza?"

Akaza stood there frozen staring distantly at nothing for a good while. "...It's been so long.."

"What?"

"I-Its been so long since..I mean I have gotten asked by some to be.."  He shook his head and looked at you more seriously. "But never by a human before ..At least not since ..her."

Huh? Really? No one's asked him to be friends before? But he seemed so nice. The poor man. You felt sorry for him especially knowing you'd be leaving soon anyways. You'd be his friend however even if it was only for a short amount of time. He however seemed very flabbergasted at you offering to be friends. His face by now was all red as he leaned back up and put a hand over his mouth in thought.

"This is so soon," he mumbled to himself, "Usually human women treat me like I'm an annoying authority figure  or a scary monster. I've never been-... By such a beautiful woman. I... I-Its all so sudden!" He looked back to you who blinked. "I... I'll need time to process everything b-but when I return we will speak more on this subject."

You smiled. "That's perfectly reasonable." Can't blame him. After all you both just met today. You couldn't be friends right away with a total stranger. You probably embarrassed him by accident. "What will you do now?" 

He coughed turning his red face away. "I-Ill be completing my mission and then processing your...sudden proposal of.." he coughed again.

Maybe you shouldn't have proposed the idea of you two being friends after all. "Oh. I'm sorry if that embarrassed you. You can just forget I even mentioned it if that helps-" 

"N-No. No. It's alright. I just need time. *Ahem* In the meantime I must bid you fair well. For now at least."

''Are you leaving now?"

"Yes. It's a many day journey and Id rather get it over with as soon as possible but fear not. I'll return within a few months time." 

Nodding you still smiled. "Well then I wish you all a safe journey. It'll be sad to see them all go but Im sure they'll be safe In your hands."

Akaza didn't say anything after that. Just nodding still read faced before bowing to you and spinning on his heel to face the small crowd. Kyogai noticed the movement and stopped talking with Eri to raise a brow at the flustered Upper Moon Three. Akaza barked out something in that noise based language of theirs and after a few exchanges between the many demons standing there, the entire spider family began to march. One after the other, following Akaza as he silently lead the way past you. Mother, daughters,and sons. Everyone of them disappearing after him never to be seen by you again. You waved good bye to them as they passed. It would be sad to see them go but it wasn't your choice. You just wished them the best. At last it was only you, Eri, and Kyogai who stood there silently. Eventually Kyogai was the one to break the silence as he cleared his throat gaining your attention quickly. Kyogai had an almost embarrassed look to his features. One powerful hand nervously fiddling with the drum sticking from his left shoulder as the other one still held the storybook ever so gently with care. Ah. Did he want to talk about the book? You hoped you weren't in any trouble. Kyogai was a gentleman but you would still apologize if you had too. After a moment he turned to Eri and said something you couldn't hear but she obeyed immediately, turning and running into the mansion past you so fast that it stunned you into pausing for a moment. ...You did not know she could be so fast. Your head spun after her disappearing form to stare. She was strong but it did not occure that she was also faster than any human. Demons really were powerful. It made you thankful that most demons you encountered were reasonable or in Kaigaku's case just all bark. Speaking of reasonable demons- Kyogais presence startled Y/n at first causing her to jump at the gentle tap someone gave to her shoulder and found herself in a large shadow which lead up to a pretty embarrassed looking demon. Kyogai could still only stare for a long moment before he gulped down whatever lump was in his throat and motioned with a hand. 

"Please. Follow me. We can t-talk I'm a more comfortable place. That... isn't so open."

You didn't argue. Not wanting to make this more awkward, you followed the taller demon back inside briefly turning to look over your shoulder wondering where Eri went- 

"What did Akaza ask you before he left?"

You blinked up at Kyogais back but the taller demon remained silent otherwise not even bothering to give you a second glance. "Oh. He asked me how long I was staying and apologized but that was about it. He seemed rather flustered."

He could understand why. In the small time he's known Y/n, she has proven herself to be very kind and considerate of others, others she hadn't even known for very long. Were all humans like her?...No. Obviously not. Her first reaction to meeting him for real was to pretend to be asleep but she hadn't reacted afterwards like he thought she would. She hadn't yelled at him or accused him of doing something as low as attempting to eat her or even blame him for what happened. If anything she was more concerned about him and the wounds he sustained which really weren't that extreme but she took it up on herself to try to treat him despite her own wounds, insisting that he gets treated first, asking how he felt, without even batting an eye at her own wounds. And how she complimented his work. His passion-

BU-BUMP!!

Ah. There was that feeling once again. That feeling that rocked his core and sent a happy feeling careening through his veins. One that he knew about, he had to. He studied a bit of romance in order to write it better in his books, and even asked some of his married servants about their experiences with it in order to get a more professional opinion. So yes. He KNEW about romance, but never had he himself experienced it before first hand. Until now at least. And with someone he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to. Hmm...This could indeed become a problem.

And he was sure he wasn't the only one. 

Akaza...

Kaigaku...

Sigh. This was complicated and tricky. Why do these things always happen to him?

"I see. That was kind of him. Akaza is a kinder demon despite his fierce stance." He meant that too. He'd much rather deal with Akaza than most of the upper moons. "...Will the study be fine to talk?"

"Huh? Oh. Yes. That'll be fine."

He didn't say anything after that but you still followed him all the way to where you first stopped Akaza from flattening Kaigaku, and all the way to a sliding door which he opened but paused and stepped aside to allow you to walk in first. With a smile you thanked him for the kind gesture, and walked with Kyogai following closely behind. The study wasn't anything very special looking. It looked like many of the other rooms you've seen. There was a slightly larger table stacked with neatly places papers and quills and ink stones, a few large shelves stacked with scrolls and other books, a large lantern above the desk, and a rather large comfy looking cushion for sitting on. Overall a regular room. The sound of a door sliding back shut made your attention slide back to Kyogai whom paused in the silence.  It was just the two of you alone here just standing in the silence. The book in his hands suddenly felt heavier than he remembered as he just stood there staring at her blinking, a strange smell of rose coming from nowhere. ...Before he shifted the book in his hands.

"So...You found my book," he eventually said unsure where to start.

"Actually a servant of yours did. They just thought I might've liked to read it." 

"Yes. Yes. Eri confirmed that. Um...I heard you were cut-" 

"Just a paper cut. It's even all healed now." Which was strange but you just shrugged it off. Two paper cuts in one week. How annoying. "You don't need to worry about it."

"Ah. Yes." Again he paused awkwardly not sure of what to say. "I..see you took great care in taking care of my book. Thank you."

"It was a good book. Why did you lose it?" 

"That might've been my fault unfortunately. I hid it in a place that wasn't such a good hiding spot. I'll be sure to fix that."

"Why would you hide it?" That confused you more. "It's such a beautiful work." Was suddenly trying to steal it?

"I..Well...No one really knows I do this." 

"Wait. Really?! But you're so good at it!," Y/n insisted catching him off guard.  "Eri thought so too and those children."

After a moment he smiled sadly and huffed a sad laugh. "Well..." Sad eyes glanced back to the book in his hands. "I'm afraid not everyone thinks that. Most demons do not think  writing is a very important thing to be bothered with."  

"Obviously it IS! If your Master gave you the job of Record Keeper then it he must see the importance in it! And who cares about what anyone else thinks? If it's important to you, shouldn't that be enough?" 

Again surprised he gave a small chuckle. "You certainly have bold opinions but my job and just writing as a hobby is very different. ..Always will be." With a wide reach the book was safely placed on a nearby shelf with many other books. "I've heard others opinions clearly."

"Who even told you that?!"

"My father." The sudden shock stunned you into silence not that he was surprised. "Yes. I was expecting that reaction. You don't have to worry about that. We are ...no longer in contact you could say. Even if I could do it professionally, I doubt many demons would wish to read it."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" He expected your outburst what he wasn't expecting was for you to grab his hand and making him whip to you suddenly. "I think it's beautiful. You have such talent! If your kind don't see that then you should find a human publisher. I'm sure lots of humans would love your work as much as I do. So...Please don't put yourself down." ...silence. "Kyogai?"

He just stood there for a long moment just...staring at her. His heart beats beating faster than a bumblebee's wing beats and soon his face turned red. Her eyes blinked beautifully as his own hand slowly curled around hers. She was...so tiny compared to him. Even Eri who was his youngest servant was taller than her. She seemed so fragile compared to others. It reminded him of how she was when she first ended up here. He didn't like that image. He didn't even like the what if thoughts of her being hurt again. She be much more safer somewhere like here. Where she could read all the time and-

PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!!

He was quick to shake his head before letting go. "I appreciate all your words...Hm. But I will consider getting a human publisher." That sounded like an idea that might be worth exploring. If his writing was more appealing to humans than maybe he was aiming at the wrong audience to begin with...Speaking of humans that gave him an idea. "Would..you wish to read more of my writing?"

"You wrote more?!"

"I've lived for many years, I have more than one book." He turned back to the shelf and a hand reached up to slide over the many books...before stopping on one. This one had a red cover  and less thick than the last one you had  and you blinked when he held it out to you. "This one is complete and you should also enjoy it." 

...You slowly took it from him in awe. "I ..I Don't know what to say." You smiled. "Thank you."

Kyogai only nodded. "I know your stay is not permanent." Which is what hurt him the most he realized. "But if it helps to keep you entertained in your stay, then I will allow you to borrow it. All I ask is that you return it in the same condition as it was." 

"I'd love to. I'm sure Eri would love to hear it too..Speaking of which, I have no idea where she went."

"I asked her to bring us some lunch. You didn't eat yet haven't you?" 

"No. I haven't. You want me to eat with you?" 

"Ah! W-Well.." He cleared his throat before turning his head away. "I just figured since you were here you could have it. "

"Oh. Makes sense. Thank you!" 

He gulped and just nodded with a small smile. Maybe...This could work. Maybe she..and him...He might have found something he never knew he might want. He guessed only time could tell. 

A  pair of legs walked down the hallway rather quickly. A large tray in the hands of the person  who carried it all. One plate with just a plain meal from the kitchen and the other a slightly more fancier feast with fried meats and rice. Smelt delicious and made her hungry from just carrying it. 

"HEY! YOU THERE! STOP!" The legs holted at a familiar face stomping towards her and frowned. "Where the hell did you get that fried meat?!" 

"From the kitchen, Lord Kaigaku."

"I've been asking about that for days from your stupid chef! Is that mine? It's about time since all I've ever been eating is soup and sorry excuses for vegetables!" 

"I'm sorry, Sir. But this food is for Lord Kyogai and Mistress Y/n."

"....WHAT?!" 

"They're eating together...Sir."

"....Is. That. So?...*inhale* Well then. I have an order for YOU.  When dinner time comes around, you're to bring ME some of this meat and make sure you bring enough for that human too."

"S-Sir?"

"I plan on making a statement to them." 

*********************************************************************************************

Something's bubbling in one corner. Something stinks of chemicals on the desk. The world in here was dark save for random candle lights. What lied inside was not for the faint of heart and where brave men wouldn't even dare venture. So maybe that's why he did. He was considered insane after all. Insane enough to poke the sleeping dragon. He knew the monster inside knew of his presence long before he just blatantly opened the door with a loud creak.

"Why does Lower Moon One feel the need to enter a place he doesn't belong too?"

That voice. Beautifully malice. It sent a literal shiver through his spine just hearing it in front of his forbidden presence.

"Answer me."

"F-Forgive me.~ I lack the proper equipment for a job you tasked me with.~"

"And that would be?" 

"Blood work~ You ordered me to look over Kyogai's pitifully harmed human. Unfortunately she was almost perfectly fine. A small hairline fracture in the tibia right above the talus bone. It shouldn't last longer than a few weeks before she's all healed and frolicking on her merry way until her final breath. But I took a blood sample to be sure there isn't any nasty surprises in her system. The only problem is that I lack the equipment to run that type of testing, so I wondered if you'd be gracious enough to lend me yours just for this?"

A nasty pause to match the monochrome stare.

"...You enjoy sick pleasantries too much."

"I do.~ I just adore it so!~ *sigh* But I'm sure it's one of my best assets."

"About the only appealing thing about you."

"I thank you. Is that a yes?"

"...One test. Then you leave."

"Oh thank you.~ Shouldn't take more than a moment.~" 

With a hum he just waltzed himself inside. Judging by the smells, it seems the Master was testing his theory that by crossbreeding flowers he could make an antidote for Wysteria poisoning. If only. Perhaps with luck he'd be able to do something with it. Oh  well. The small pleased hums from him seemed to not detour his working progress. One suitcase on the table. One click of it opening. One deadly hand reaching inside.

Oh he so loved working this job. Red was always such a pretty color. "There you are.~"  It was mostly dried now but the glass was still stained with a few pretty droplets. He would've waited longer to test the blood sample but he was honestly too excited to wait longer. He had a month to report his findings back to Kyogai after all. "Let's see if you're hiding any nasties in there shall we?~"

The vile did not do anything but glisten in the dark as a smiling face touched the cork. A small tug was all that was needed to pull off the top. 

AND SENT THE WORLD ON FIRE-

IT BURNT HIS NOISE AND THROAT. THE AWFUL SENT OF WYSTERIA CLOGGED HIS VEINS AND SENT THE HANDS TO HIS MOUTH. HIS NOISE. HIS FACE. GLASS CLINKING PRETTILY AS IT ROLLED ACROSS A WOODEN SURFACE. NOT BLOOD. NOT BLOOD. POISON TO LUNGS. COUGHING AND HACKING DID NOTHING TO CLEAR HIS SINUSES...

It wasn't helping that there was soon after a strong hand around his throat and red eyes piercing his mind.

"Are you deliberately bringing me poison?"

"Not poi- *hack cough* poison. That's blood!"

"No blood can hold Wysteria. Human and demon wouldn't last long after eating it..."

There was something beyond the wysteria. Something...coppery.  A glint of red beyond the glass. Something...VERY VERY FAMILIAR TO HIM. SOME....P E R S O N. HE KNEW.

"....Where did you get this?''

"The h-huuuu- *gasp* -man."

"No human can smell that deeply of demon and wysteria."

Burning returned when a hand released it's captor.

"G I v e   I t�� t o  m e. I have something I want to see."

[killmongerskeeper]

Her Heart // Chapter 2 // Shuri

Pairing: Shuri x POC Reader

Warning: None

Chapter 1 // Chapter 3

"They will be okay. She will be okay. I am here if you need anything Y/N. I will be down in the village." You nodded before turning on your heels to go to the room you shared with Shuri. There you changed into a black battle suit you had stored away in your closet. Shuri had it made for you after you fought off some mercenaries who came to steal vibranium. You let out a sigh as you prayed for Okoye, Ayo, and Shuri's safety. Your eyes opened and you quickly ran to the lab. Upon entering you clapped your hands and looked at all the scientists present.

"Okay. Wakanda might be in danger. Those weapon plans I went over with all of you. It's time. We need to get them prepared for Shuri to look at upon her arrival back to the palace." You grabbed your clipboard and turned to the page with the vibranium daggers you had drawn out. You weren't going to deem yourself useless again. "Starting with these."

// The River Border //

Shuri felt as if her heart was beating out of her chest as she used the conch Namor left behind to call to him. Her thoughts ran wild as they waited. Why would he attack now? Why does he want to attack? Wakanda hasn't done anything to Talokan to receive such threats. She just wanted this to be a bad dream so she'd wake up next to you in your bed. The sun beaming down on you making you look like an angel. You would kiss her good morning and the two of you would lay there for a while talking about the wedding. Who you wanted to invite. What type of flowers you wanted in your bouquet. All the small details.

"Princess." Okoye called out as the water rippled, showing he arrived. She balled her fist as he stepped out of the water with Attuma close behind. He seemed a bit confused with the call but stopped at the edge of the water upon feeling the tension in the air. 

"Princess. To what do I owe this meeting?" He questioned as Okoye and Ayo stood on alert.

"Don't play dumb with me Namor. We heard about your plan." She spat and now he frowned.

// The Palace //

"Ms. Y/N. The queen of Talokan is here to see you and the princess. She is waiting in the throne room." You frowned at the announcement Griot made. What was she doing here? How dare she show her face in Wakanda. You shot up from the computer and walked to the throne room where Namora stood by her queen. The queen saw the way your brows nearly touched because of the frown on your face and she gave a slight bow.

"You seem troubled." She said holding a blue hand on her swollen belly.

"Why are you here?" You asked and she was a bit taken aback by the sudden outburst. You had always shown her with respect. "Shouldn't you be standing by your husband?"

"I am here because I was summoned here." She replied and now you were the one confused.

"Summoned by who?" You questioned and she was a little concerned by your lack of knowledge on the information. 

"One of the Dora Milaje called from the river border. Said there was something you and the princess needed to speak to me about. But it seems you have no idea what I'm talking about." She stated and you slowly backed away.

"We didn't send anyone. It would've been one of us to invite you personally on important matters. Not Dora Milaje. Especially not a single Dora Milaje." You told her and you caught the way Namora tensed. 

"Where is the princess?" Namora asked, holding her weapon. Her eyes scanned the throne room as you sped to the table and grabbed your kimoyo beads.

"The princess has gone to the river border to confront Namor. Someone from Talokan alerted us that Namor was planning an attack." You told her and she frowned.

"He has made no such plans. Someone from Talokan? That's not true." She said taken aback and you sighed running a hand through your hair. You didn't like where this conversation was going. Neither of you knew about what was just revealed. It couldn't have been-

"Shit. Namora I'm going to need your help. We both have to stay with her at all times. She cannot leave this palace! Griot lock us down!" You shouted and the queen had fear rush across her features. 

"What's happening?" She exchanged looks with Namora who was prepared to protect K'uk'ulkan's queen with her life. 

"This whole thing was a setup. Both Talokan and Wakanda are without their protectors. You were lured here. The queen of Talokan. Who is currently pregnant with the child of a God. Someone knows something." You told her and she froze. Fear for her unborn child's life rushing through her body. 

"I'm going to do my best to keep you safe. With Namora here that's more than possible. Come, we have to get to the lab." You stretched out a hand to the queen and she took it before the two followed you to the lab. You reached the lab where the scientist seemed to be surprised that you brought the Queen of Talokan here. They were more confused by your battle attire.

"What's the progress on those weapons?" You asked and one scientist spoke up as you went to save any and all progress to the hard drive. You also documented the what could be attack in your notes in case anything does happen.

"98%! Finishing the last one now."

"Hurry and print everything!" You shouted as you reached for the vibranium daggers you had finished. The blades were sharp to the touch and you slipped them into your boots. The last weapon, a vibranium short sword, had finished printing as Griot spoke out.

"Palace is locked down Ms. Y/N."

"Good." You grabbed a spare kimoyo bracelet and slipped it on Amera's wrist. "This is how we communicate. If we were to get separated for any reason, you can use these to contact me. I have the earrings as well so it won't be too noticeable. They can also reach the princess. And I'm almost certain Namor will be with her."

"Griot! Try to get in contact with Shuri." A couple minutes went by and you could hear your heartbeat in your ears. The pounding sound of a drum causing you to lose your breath. The kimoyo beads made a soft hum and you shook your head.

"She didn't answer."

"Try again!"

// The River Border //

"Plan for what exactly?" Namor asked and Attuma stood in front of him. 

"Your plan to attack Wakanda a second time. You were bold enough to send a message through one of your people." Okoye spat and his lips went into a thin line. 

"I did no such thing. Besides, how do I know you're not trying to get rid of me and my family. Trying to attack me and requesting my wife come to your palace after my so-called threat of an attack. Retaliation after what happened before." He spoke and Ayo looked over at Okoye. Neither of them had knowledge of this.

"We have no knowledge of this."

"We never invited your wife to Wakanda. What are you on about?" Shuri asked as her kimoyo beads vibrated on her wrist. She pushed to answer them this time and Y/N was on the other end.

"Shuri! Shuri, where are you?" She asked. Her voice held panic and worry.

"We're here with Namor. He claims he doesn't even know what we're talking about." Shuri told her dearest and the other end was silent.

"It was a setup." She said and everyone's attention turned to the princess with shock evident on their features. 

"What do you mean a setup? Y/N what is happening?" Shuri became confused as her dearest was panicking on the other end.

"Amera. Namor's queen, said that a Dora Milaje came to the river border saying that we requested her presence at the palace. Apparently someone from Talokan said Namor was planning an attack. When I mentioned it to her she didn't even know what I was talking about." Shuri felt her heart drop to her stomach. Everyone has been tricked. Both leaders were drawn out from their kingdoms. "My love. I believe it's best for you to return back to Wakanda for I fear-"

"All communication with Y/N has been lost." Griot told the princess.

[nanlanmoarchived]

Continued from here with @edhellfire

There were few times in Jessica's life that she'd ever raised her voice at her uncle. He'd always been so easy going and so understanding but when he pulled both her and Eden out of school early, rambling about needing to get them away from Hawkins, Jessica lost her shit. Eddie was missing, rumors around the hallways of school were going wild with accusations and he wanted her to leave him? Child locks and an already packed truck made it impossible to barter with the man and it took until about the Kentucky border before she finally ran out of steam and took to sulking in the backseat. She felt horrible. When Eddie needed the most support she was gone without even a word.

Coming back felt even worse. Because of Duncan's actions (valid as they might've been, given Jessica's penchant for protecting those she cares about) she felt like a coward. But once they'd gotten word that Eddie was safe, wounded but home, Jessica was packing the car. She'd practiced her apology a hundred different times, a hundred different ways, but the chasm between herself and the man she'd considered her best friend was one she wasn't sure how to cross. Whatever'd happened, whatever it was that he'd seen had changed Eddie and while she was well versed in the silent discomfort that came after trauma, she desperately feared that he resented her for not being there. Hell, she resented herself for not trying harder to get back here to him. She resented the fuck out of Jason Carver and the bullshit he and his buddies pulled. But mostly she was afraid to lose the one person she'd gotten close to. Eddie'd been really the only reason she opened up in this shithole and without him. . .She couldn't even begin to imagine what she'd do.

She'd tried to keep the tears at bay when she'd first arrived, smiling when she hugged Wayne, trying to joke the way they had before but everything felt different. Settled on the edge of Eddie's bed, her apology had come out all jumbled but the only thing she managed had earned her a solemn headshake and she couldn't help the tears that rolled down her cheeks. Fuck. She fucked up. Her mouth fell open, trying for anything to say to stop this from happening but then he's telling her that she doesn't need to apologize and while it does little to assuage her guilt she's just grateful that he's not telling her to leave. "I should've been here." Her voice was thin, lashes fluttering as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her sleeve. "Eddie, I'm so sorry. I swear I tried to get Duncan to turn around. I don't know how much help I can be now, but I'm here. . ."

[graycats-arcane-blog]

Ummm who wants to read about Sevika and Viktor getting drunk and ranting about their woes?

Zaun’s Worst Drinking Buddies

(Rated T, 1596 words, no romantic pairings, just platonic buddies)

0 drinks in.

Sevika: Sober.

Viktor: Sober.

These meetings weren’t something they did often. Viktor’s health was piss-poor enough without flooding his liver in booze, and Sevika’s responsibilities as Silco’s right-hand-woman made it near-impossible to plan ahead. However, even the sickest and busiest Zaunites needed to blow off steam every now and again.

That’s why they met at the Bridgeside Tavern to drink.

“Piltover still treating you like shit?” Sevika grunted as Viktor sunk heavily into a barstool, dropping his crutch to lean against the counter.

Viktor leveled her with a tired stare. Dark circles lined his eyes – they were more pronounced than the circles he’d had the last time they drank together. In a weary sigh, he replied, “When they care to notice me, yes. Is your employer still treating you like a one-woman clean-up crew?”

Sevika laughed bitterly. “No change there. Wait ‘till I tell you about the mess his kid made this time.”

The conversation paused long enough for Viktor to order a pint from the barkeep. While the scientist watched his drink get poured, Sevika swirled her own glass of frothy, amber fluid.

Viktor’s drink was served.

Glasses clinked in a toast.

The unlikely drinking buddies tipped their heads back and chugged their first round.

. . .

One drink in.

Sevika: Mostly sober.

Viktor: Beginning to feel tipsy.

“Politics?” Sevika echoed, raising an eyebrow as she waited for Viktor to announce that he’d been joking.

“I wish I were joking,” Viktor said, dolefully acknowledging the frivolity of his news. “But, yes – Jayce is doing politics now. He accepted an assignment to the Council, who’ve given him free reign over border security.”

Sevika’s eyes narrowed. “So when they shut down travel across the bridge –”

“That was Jayce,” Viktor confirmed.

Sevika swirled the dregs of liquid at the bottom of her glass. “Well, fuck,” she exclaimed. “What kind of political experience does he have?”

“None.”

“Then why –”

“Councilor Heimerdinger wanted a scientist to be in charge of Hextech’s security.”

“The Yordle councilor? Isn’t he a scientist too?”

“Yes.” As Sevika’s mouth dropped open with a follow-up question, Viktor interrupted, “Don’t ask me why Heimerdinger didn’t take charge himself.” Viktor slumped heavily against the counter, propped onto his elbows. “I have no idea.”

Sevika huffed. “Now that I think about it,” she said, “the problem I’m having with the boss right now is related to the issue with your partner. Don’t go telling anyone, but it was the boss’s kid whole stole that Hextech gemstone and got Piltover all keyed up over security.” Sevika raised a hand to catch the barkeep’s attention. “But I’m gonna need another drink before I tell you about that.”

. . .

Two drinks in.

Sevika: Beginning to feel tipsy.

Viktor: Very tipsy.

“… And what does Silco do when he finds out that Jinx killed all those enforcers for a magic rock?” Sevika paused for emphasis. “He drops the strategy we’ve been building on for years and decides we’re going to threaten Topside with the stolen tech!” Slamming a fist against the counter, Sevika fumed, “We had a plan! And now we could lose everything because he let his kid run wild!”

“He –” Viktor hiccupped, then had a brief coughing fit, raising an uncoordinated hand to half-cover his mouth. “He at least grounded her, surely?” he rasped.

“Huh. That’d be the day.” Sevika glared down at her fist. “He gave her a quick scolding for show, then let her off the hook. She’s probably building a new bomb as we speak.”

Viktor’s brow furrowed. “That’s… concerning. With Hextech’s power, she could create some very destructive weapons.” He frowned at an empty glass, pursing his lips in thought. “At least we’ll be safe for a little while until she figures out how Hextech works.”

“She’ll crack it sooner than you think,” Sevika warned. “Jinx is a nuisance, but she’s clever.” A snort slipped from Sevika’s lips. “You’d think someone as smart as her could learn some sense.”

With a defeated sigh, Viktor replied, “I think we’d both have much fewer problems if the people in our lives applied their intelligence to being sensible.”

“Hear, hear.”

. . .

Three drinks in.

Sevika: Tipsy.

Viktor: Drunk.

“He’s always with the Council,” Viktor groused, his accent slurring as he took another drink. A few drops of stout plopped onto his vest. “He hardy visits the lab anymore – it’s like he’s forgotten our work entirely!”

Sevika huffed, swirling her own drink with a loathing grimace. “I know how that feels. Back in the early days, Silco used to help out with the dirty work around town. He’s not present anymore, not since he dedicated half his time to raising a teenage serial killer!”

“And while they’re busy,” Viktor groused, “We’re left to keep – cough, cough! – to keep their dreams on track!”

“The dream of Zaun,” Sevika said wistfully.

“The dream of Hec – hic – Hextech,” Viktor slurred.

Sevika’s face curled in an irate snarl. “I swear, Silco’s gonna let that kid blow his dreams to smithereens one of these days. And he’ll probably take her out for ice cream after.”

With an expression of misery not unlike that of a spurned lover, Viktor rested his head on one arm and mumbled, “It’d be nice if Jayce took me out for ice cream.”

“Huh?”

“He might sit down long enough for me to tell him about my new Hextech ideas…” Viktor squinted at his reflection in a beer glass. In a soft, self-reflective murmur, he mused, “should I invite Jayce out for ice cream?”

Sevika stared at Viktor uncomprehendingly for a long moment. “I think I’m gonna need another drink for whatever you’re saying to make sense.”

. . .

Four drinks in.

Sevika: Almost drunk.

Viktor: Plastered.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I can keep this shamble from falling apart if I just keep pulling all the weight,’ but you know what? I get tired!”

“So tired…” Viktor coughed weakly, his head cradled in the crook of his elbow.

“How can they expect us to keep doing all the work on our own?” Sevika announced, gesturing wildly with her mechanical arm. Consequentially, an empty glass was smacked off the counter and shattered against the floor.

“I can barely stand on my own,” Viktor groaned.

“How could anyone stand under the weight we’re carrying?” Sevika shook her head. “And for all the slack we pick up, do we get an ounce of recognition? No! Never!”

“Everyone recognizes Jayce.” Viktor tucked his face further into his elbow. “He’s on posters. I bet… hic… I bet people give him free ice cream…”

“We’re the ones who deserve free ice cream,” Sevika seethed coldly.

“Hmmm…” Viktor’s eyes drifted shut. “Could make a Hextech ice cream maker… Wouldn’t share it with Jacye. Not unless he helped me make it.”

Sevika’s fist tightened around another empty beer glass. “When Zaun is free from Piltover,” she declared, “I’ll fill these streets with ice cream shops. And I’ll tell them all to charge Silco double.” Turning to the barkeep, Sevika shouted, “Hey – do you guys make floats?”

. . .

Five drinks in.

Sevika: Drunk.

Viktor: Unconscious.

“Hrrng,” Viktor moaned unintelligibly as he drooled on the countertop. As his face shifted against the polished wood, the ice-cream moustache from his recently finished ice cream float smeared everywhere.

Sevika, who sported a matching ice cream moustache, couldn’t stop the unsteady laugh that bubbled up from her chest. “I’m done kidding myself!” She picked up her latest glass, not realizing it was empty, and began raising it to her mouth. Before it had crossed half the intended distance, the glass slipped from Sevika’s fingers and shattered on the floor. “We’re all doomed!” Sevika proclaimed, promptly forgetting her dropped glassware. “I’m doomed! You’re doomed! Zaun’s doomed! Piltover’s doomed!” Sevika spun on her barstool and began pointing to the few patrons who’d been brave enough to sit anywhere near her. “You’re doomed!” Sevika shouted at a random woman. “And you’re doomed! And you’re doomed! And you’re –”

It was at this point that a very brave (but exceedingly trembly) barback approached the ranting woman.

“Um… Excuse me, ma’am…”

Sevika’s raving cut off. She looked the barback up and down, a grimace curling over her face as she took in his pathetic shaking. “Oh, you’re definitely doomed,” she said. “The Jinx-pocalypse is gonna eat you alive.”

The barback swallowed. “Uh – if you say so. But, um, I just wanted to let you know  - well – we’ve got to cut you and your friend off for the night. Um… Would you like a glass of water before you leave? And…” He glanced at Viktor, who’d begun to snore. “Is… is he alright?”

Sevika snarled. “We don’t need your damn water.” Standing abruptly from her chair, Sevika picked up Viktor by the collar of his shirt and threw him over her shoulder. “C’mon, Vik – let’s go find a better bar. One that isn’t run by buzzkills.”

Viktor replied with a pained groan as Sevika carried him out of the tavern, leaving his crutch forgotten against the counter.

. . .

Meanwhile, on the bridge…

“I think I’m getting the hang of this whole ‘politics’ thing!” Jayce announced proudly.

Silco shot him a baleful glare before rifling through his coat pocket. “No. Your political instinct is abysmal and Piltover is doomed. However, I’ve taken some new photographs of my daughter, and no one at The Last Drop wants to see them. You’re my last resort.”

“Hmmm…” Jace pouted, tapping his chin. “I’ll look at pictures of your kid if you look at this drawing of me with a magic hammer!”

Silco whipped a thick stack of photos from his pocket. “Deal.”