#they're sorted from newest to oldest

[numartian]

assorted gadget doodles ive done over the years + quirky fan design

[whateveriwant]

The 141 in a reverse harem

18+ content, GN!Reader, Reader is the ruler of an ancient kingdom

Soap

The moment you step into their communal quarters, Soap is always the first one to greet you, almost Iike he was sitting right beside the door

But nooooo, don't be silly. Of course he's not been impatiently waiting since your last visit. Though, you were 28 and ¾ minutes later than normal, not that he's been counting or anything

As you walk around their dwelling deciding on who to take back to your chambers for the night, he's following closely behind like a little horny whiny puppy

More than once, he's accidentally stepped on your robes because of just how close he likes to trail after you

Oh, but he's so terribly sorry! Here, let him make it up to you! Please, please let him make it up to you!

Because he tries to hog the limited time you spend with the men, it's earned him more than a few elbows to the ribs from his biggest “rival” in the group: Gaz. And speaking of which…

Gaz

Always trailing a little less desperately closely behind is the newest member of the harem: Gaz

Though he may be the youngest of the four, that doesn't mean he's any less experienced in these types of matters (and the young ones are always the most eager to please, aren't they)

Have you had a good day, darling? He knows you're very busy running a kingdom and all, so he for one is grateful you've taken time out of your hectic schedule to visit them

Oh, but your shoulders look so tense, darling! He can rub them for you if you'd like

And your poor feet! Those sandals of yours look awfully uncomfortable. Why doesn't he head back with you so he can show your full body the love it deserves

While he and Soap can't help but bicker when it comes to vying for your attention, on the rare occasion, the two have been able to put aside their differences and work together, if you know what I mean

Price

Unlike the two younger men, Price feels no need to fight for your time

No, he knows you'll eventually make your way over to him, swaying your hips in that way that makes him salivate like a dog

As the oldest and the longest resident of the group, he's become somewhat of a right hand of yours; almost like a concubine turned consultant, if you will

While of course he loves nothing more than to get down to the nitty gritty with you, these talks of yours are truly the highlight of his day even when they're entirely polite in nature

Why yes, he has done something different with his beard, thank you for noticing. He got some new oils from the market yesterday. Do you like it? Isn't it soft? Just wait until you feel it between your thighs

No matter who you're taking to your bed for the evening, Price always escorts you to the door of their quarters, leaving you with a kiss to the hand goodbye. Until next time, starlight

Ghost

Last but certainly not least is the man you have the most… interesting dynamic with, to put it one way

It's funny, really. He likes to pretend the sweet taste of you doesn't haunt his every waking moment, and you like to pretend that there was anyone else on your mind the second you walked through the door

But oh, he sees that you've arrived yet again... Well, this book of his is super interesting, so he's just going to sit in the corner and read, and absolutely not watch you out of the corner of his eye

What was that? No, he's not holding it in his lap for any reason. And no, his pant legs aren't shorter than normal. Why would you think that?

Oh, but the moment you hold your hand out for him, he has to stop himself from immediately tossing the dumb book aside and hauling you over his shoulder like some sort of rabid beast

Instead, he takes his time standing from his seat, almost indifferent as he takes your hand and lets you lead him back to your chambers

It's all a farce though, of course. Nothing makes his pride swell more than having you scream his name for the whole palace to hear, echoing all the way back to where the three other men are left to sit and mope

[wolfpants]

my year in fic

It's 5am and I can't sleep, so what better way to keep me sane than this lovely roundup post @sorrybutblog tagged me in! Tagging @citrusses @getawayfox @oknowkiss @sweet-s0rr0w @tackytigerfic @skeptiquewrites @mallstars @sitp-recs @moonflower-rose @danpuff-ao3 @writcraft @wrapped-up and anyone else who sees this and wants to play too!

Sorted newest to oldest ✍🏻

Thickets | Drarry | E | 17.3k

When Draco returns to the UK after two decades of building his career as an internationally-renowned artist to look after his ailing, estranged father, he crosses paths with his former flame, Harry Potter, in the most unexpected way.

Waiting for the Moon to Rise | Drarry | E | 8.9k

When Harry and Draco move into Grimmauld Place straight out of Hogwarts, the last person they expect to find taking up residence is Bill ‘divorced, dishevelled, and dangerous’ Weasley. But what if their new, furry little problem is the help they need to finally bring them closer? Stranger things have happened, Draco supposes.

Terrible People | Drarry | E | 52.8k

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A Saviour's Guide to Manners and Decorum | Drarry | E | 13.1k

Honorary Minister Harry Potter (yes, he's fully aware his job title is meaningless, and he quite likes it that way) is a disaster at public events. After seven years of dealing with his boorish behaviour, cringey table manners, and clumsy dancing, the Ministry's press team take matters into their own hands and hire Wixen Britain's leading Etiquette and Deportment Expert, Draco Malfoy, to take on the challenge of cleaning up Harry's image before the Ministry's 300th Anniversary Celebration Gala.

Everybody Hates a Tourist | Drarry | E | 51.5k

On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy. After a glimpse of Malfoy’s Muggle life in Britain’s gay capital, Harry’s curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself returning to the seaside again and again, drawn to the city, drawn to this new version of Malfoy that Harry barely recognises from school.

Precious Metal | Ronarry, Dron, Drarry | M | 28k

Precious metal awaits in an abandoned, cursed cottage on the Isle of Jura. Ron’s illegal hunting ring is on it, but disaster strikes when he runs into a jumpy and suspicious Draco Malfoy, camped out where the treasure is hidden. What happens when they accidentally unleash a bond curse when both of them harbour feelings for the same man?

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Kinkuary '23 | Various pairings | M - E

A collection of 28 short fics spanning different pairings and inspired by the Kinkuary 2023 prompts! A mix of M and E ratings. Expect rare pairs, Drarry, crossgen, group sex, dirtyhotwrong... you name it!

[anticomedygarden]

you're a sad sight honey but you look so cute

On the way back from the marching band's biggest performance of the year, Nico's bus breaks down. With none of his friends with him, he's completely alone, but when the chaperone puts the two section leaders in charge, he's forced to cooperate with Will Solace, his polar opposite and maybe sort of long time crush.

What could go wrong?

also on ao3

sorry it's been so long. i've been working on this long ass bastard for like a month. there will be two more chapters after this, and they're mostly done this time! everyone should be so proud.

if you can, i would recommend reading this one on ao3 because the first chapter is over 11,000 words.

minor tw for implied death of siblings and parents.

title from billy joel's 'i don't want to be alone anymore'

-

Five minutes since

Cold.

That was all Nico felt as he and everybody around him watched smoky tendrils wind their way up from the hood of the big yellow school bus, dancing playfully as if they weren't a message from God that Nico should have stayed in bed this morning and avoided this day from hell entirely.

He had been up since 3:30 a.m. His band grade could've taken the hit.

After the last kid stumbled out of the bus, uniform bag in hand, the bus driver climbed down and said, "We've got an engine problem."

Nico resisted the urge to spit back, "You don't say?", and instead turned to Mrs. Knowles, some freshman's mom and one of the newest members of the band's parent board. She had been appointed chaperone of the juniors for today's trip to New Rome University, and Nico had to say, she was not doing well.

"Um..." she started, sensing the eyes of three dozen 16-17 year olds. Her breath streamed out in white trails. "I'm gonna call the directors. If anyone here is a section leader, you're in charge."

Nico groaned internally and tried to avoid the eyes of the only other junior section leader as well as those of the rest of the teens present. Why, why, did he have to apply for low brass section leader last year?

Oh. He really shouldn't be asking himself that question, not when he already knew the answer.

But he put that thought away because a golden blond head was walking toward him across the stupid highway rest stop they were currently trapped in. Will Solace, the flute section leader and Nico's unfortunate partner for the time being.

If he made it out of this day with his sanity intact, it would be a miracle.

2 years before

Nico walked into the band room of Olympus High School for the first time with a bit of anticipation, some excitement, and a shit ton of dread. So far, his first impression of his new school hadn't been flattering, and his hopes for the next four years tanked with each step he took toward the band room.

If the rest of the school looked like ass, there was no way the band had any decent funding.

"Here's the music hallway," Percy said as they turned down the last hallway in the bottom floor of the school. "If you ever have a choir class, there's the classroom." He pointed to another door to the right. "There's the tuba/sousaphone closet. It looks like that because it used to be a boys' bathroom."

That explained the shitty tile and yellowing sink. At least Nico could say with confidence that he would never have to go in there. He still made note of it, though, since he may actually be staying at this school for a while.

"That's the color guard closet, but they haven't been able to use it this season because someone left cheese in there last season and, long story short, it got flooded."

Nico wasn't quite sure how old cheese led to an entire room being flooded, but if anyone could manage it, it was Percy. Especially in marching band.

"Was Thalia the one who left the cheese in there?" Nico asked, recalling that his oldest cousin of their group did color guard in outdoor season.

Percy's lips quirked. "No comment."

Finally, they got to the end of the white painted hallway and turned into the double doors of the band room, and Nico was immediately hit with the vivid sounds, smells, and sights of a high school marching band. He really should have expected this, but it was 7:45 in the morning and Percy had just taken him on a complete tour of the school. It wasn't exactly in the forefront of his mind.

They had come in on the side of the set up, behind the third trumpets and next to the smaller instruments' cubby. Horrid blue carpet squished under his feet, and the red painted brick walls were a true affront to his tired eyes. Dozens, probably more than a hundred, people packed into the large room, all talking, setting up instruments for practice, and milling around. As a freshman, Nico wasn't entirely used to marching band and all its attributes yet, but the month at his old school had at least helped him prepare a little.

Next was the smell. Sweat was his first impression, but spit from the brass instruments ingrained in the carpet certainly made itself known, and that wasn't even just from marching band. Rocking his trombone case back and forth, he supposed he would be contributing to that smell soon enough.

Probably the biggest assault to his senses was the noise. Everywhere, someone was testing out their instruments, tuning, practicing, or just generally goofing around. Percussionists were going through cadences, flutes were tuning against clarinets (one of the worst sounds in the world in his opinion), and he thought he heard a trumpet playing Baby Shark.

It was warm, too, with so many people blowing hot air. He could practically taste the humidity.

Someone blew a particularly shrill note, drawing his attention to the flute section. He paused. The offending member was a piccolo player, blond and blue eyed. Gorgeous.

The boy's startled eyes caught Nico's, and he looked away, a blush rising to his cheeks. "Who is that?" he asked Percy.

The taller boy didn't stop twirling his drumsticks. "Will Solace. He just started learning picc." He glanced down at Nico. "Will's a freshman, just like you, but I think he's been at Olympus for a few years. Why?"

Nico was spared answering by Percy's girlfriend, Annabeth, who was also their drum major. She stepped up onto a chair and blew her whistle, causing all noise to stop. "Everybody on the field!"

There was a mad scramble as the band rushed out the back doors, and Nico lost sight of the blond boy which was probably for the best. He couldn't, wouldn't, get attached.

He took a deep breath and tried to cast the beautiful boy from his mind and focus on his trombone.

He really had missed this.

15 minutes since

"When are they coming back to get us?" some short little guy who Nico thought might be a trumpet player asked in a whiny voice.

Frankly, Nico'd had enough socializing for one day and was ready to tell the kid to fuck off, but Will just calmly said, "We don't know yet, Hayden. You should probably find somewhere to sit and settle in. We could be here for a while."

Hayden rolled his eyes but turned around, presumably to find his friends. Nico hoped someone else had the kid's uniform bag because that would not be cheap to replace.

Next to him, Will had his own uniform bag by the hanger slung over a shoulder, and the shoes kept bouncing against the backs of his knees every time he moved, making an annoying thud noise. Nico's was in a pool at their feet.

When it became apparent that Hayden was the last kid in line to bug them, Will glanced down and said, "Your uniform's gonna get wrinkled."

Nico quickly rifled through every interaction he'd ever had with the flutist to try and figure out why he thought Nico would care about his band uniform getting wrinkled and came up with nothing.

At this point, he really didn't feel like talking, though, but Will was still looking at him expectantly, so he mumbled out an, "It's fine."

Will shrugged. "Suit yourself." Then, he turned around and walked around the bus to where Mrs. Knowles had gone. Reluctantly, Nico picked up his bag and followed him with the thought that two people were better than 34.

"Mrs. Knowles, any word on-oh." Will stopped in his tracks, nearly causing Nico to run into him in the shade of the bus. A second later, he looked up and saw why.

Mrs. Knowles was not on the phone with either band director like she'd promised but was instead holding up a lit cigarette to her mouth, and the two burnt out orange rolls at her feet told him this wasn't her first. The brunette turned around and squawked, dropping the cigarette.

"Oh, hey, I didn't hear you come around," she said with false nonchalance as she frantically stamped it out.

Fortunately, it seemed Will had decided he would be doing all the talking between the two of them. "We were just wondering if you'd heard anything about the bus? Some people are getting antsy."

And they'd only be getting worse as they realized their bus had broken down an hour into the three hour trip back to Olympus, which meant that no matter if administration called to say they had a bus ready to come get them right fucking now, it would be at least two hours until it got to them and four hours until they got home.

Nico just wanted to go home.

He shivered, and it wasn't just because of the cold. As soon as Will finished asking about the bus, Mrs. Knowles got an unpleasant look on her face. "I called Mr. D-"

"Big mistake," Nico muttered.

"-and he was no help, so I called Chiron, and he said he'd talk to transportation about getting another bus sent out. That was twenty minutes ago." Her brown hair escaping its pink claw clip swirled about her face in the cold October wind.

"Wonderful," Nico muttered.

"Did he give you any sort of timeline?" Will asked.

She winced. "No, sorry boys. You should probably go get comfy. We're gonna be here a while."

Nico did not miss the irony.

13 months before

It hadn't really sunk in yet for Nico, that this was Percy, Annabeth, and Grover's last NRU homecoming parade. Really, he had stopped thinking about anything at all except for his burning arms and legs about four blocks ago. Even the music managed to escape his mind.

But, as the band performed their nine millionth rendition of "How Far I'll Go" and Nico began to think his mouthpiece had frozen to his face, the realization trickled in. The next time he marched in these streets, three of his (only) friends would be watching from the sidelines.

The thought chilled him, more so than the cold wind that bit through his bright orange and purple uniform, cutting off feeling to his already numb fingers.

Suddenly, one of his section mates cut through his spiral. "Guide!"

He glanced down as surreptitiously as he could while holding a long metal tube up to his face to see that he was a step behind the rest of his line. He scrambled to catch up, wishing Chiron and Mr. D hadn't put him in the front row or that trombones didn't make up the first two rows of parade block.

Finally, they finished the song, and everybody brought their instruments down to attention. He took a deep breath.

Somebody in a row behind him (specific, he knew) started doing the steps chant. Left. Left. Left, right, left. He made sure his feet were in line.

They turned another corner, and he caught a whiff of pizza. Jupiter's, the most popular pizza place in the too large college town. That meant they were about three-quarters of the way through. He wondered idly how much time he'd be spending there in the next few years as Hazel dragged them to visit Percy, Annabeth, Grover and eventually Jason, Piper, Leo, and Frank, knowing he would never voluntarily go himself.

They were leaving him. He didn't see why he should have to go out of his way to see them.

The drumline slipped into another cadence, one of the more fun ones. With Percy in complete control and coasting through his final NRU parade, they hadn't done any of the boring ones yet, so kudos to that, though he was sure the freshman snares didn't feel the same.

Unfortunately, with every step, Nico's annoyance grew. The fun, upbeat cadences only served as a reminder that whoever took over as percussion section leader next year wouldn't be Percy, and in less than two years, he'd be left alone, again. (Sure, he'd have Hazel, but she was a year below him and had already made so many new friends that she clearly didn't need him the way he so desperately needed her.) By his senior year, he'd be left with nothing but holes in the spaces his cousins and the people that came with them used to occupy, vacancies unfillable by Nico's social skills alone.

At one time in his life, Nico had welcomed the emptiness because it meant he didn't have to face the biggest void of them all. But now? Well, now it was feeling more and more like the people that forced their way into his life with hammers and claws were the only thing keeping him from escaping back into that cavernous abyss, and for the first time in his life he craved that companionship like a starving man, because the eyes blinking back at him from the void were brown.

So when the parade was over, and everybody celebrated their new first place trophy, Nico didn't care that Percy and Annabeth lost themselves in each other, or that Hazel seemed to forget about him after going off with her friends, or that he had to say goodbye to Jason and get on the sophomore bus, and he definitely didn't care when pretty boy Will Solace and his friends celebrated the whole way home, filling the bus with their laughter and camaraderie.

He just sat alone on his bench seat and stared out the window until he eventually fell into a mercilessly dreamless sleep.

18 minutes since

Before Will could offer some falsely cheery placation that would make Nico nauseated, he turned and stomped back out to the other side of the bus.

Great, just great. Of course this would happen today, of all days, when he was exhausted, and already upset and wrung out.

Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a parking spot bar and ended up stumbling into the grass on the far side of the rest stop, somehow managing to find the only not yet overrun by teenagers in his dazed state.

"Hey, hey," someone said behind him, and he violently shrugged off the hand they settled on his shoulder. "Hey, it's me. It's Will."

As if that was supposed to make him feel better.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked, uncaring how harsh it sounded.

The blond held up his hands in a 'don't kill me gesture.' "Just wanted to make sure that you're alright. You seemed pretty upset."

God, we're all blonds this mother hen-y? If he pulled out a bag of granola bars, Nico would have to start calling him Jason.

"Well, I'm fine, so you can go back to your friends." He looked down at the yellowing grass.

"You are so clearly not fine," Will said firmly. "Besides, none of my friends are here."

Nico looked up in surprise. He could've sworn he'd seen Will hanging out with a baritone and a clarinet player.

He didn't say anything, though, and Will took that as a signal to continue. "Lou Ellen slept through her alarm, and Cecil got excused for a broken arm.

"You only have two friends?" His eyes widened as he realized how bad that sounded. "That came out wrong."

Thankfully, Will chuckled. "It's fine, I knew what you meant. Yeah, I guess so. They're my only two really good friends, if you don't count my siblings."

Nico didn't know he had any siblings. He filed that away for later. "I actually meant that I thought I'd seen you hanging out with more people."

Will shrugged. "I'm pretty friendly with everybody."

Right. Because Nico wasn't, and Will was just being a nice guy.

He turned away. "Well, you can go be friendly with somebody else now. Goodbye."

Once again, Will caught his shoulder, and Nico looked up. To his surprise, Will was blushing. "I, uh. I don't really want to be friendly with anybody else."

Nico wasn't quite sure what to do with that.

1 year before

"Speech! Speech! Speech!" the whole band chanted as Annabeth tried her best to shush them. They were on the track behind the Olympus football team getting ready to march halftime for homecoming, and per tradition, it was time for senior speeches.

AKA, the performance that most of the band was about to march through tears.

Clarisse stepped up first, or more accurately, into the middle of the circle. Her speech was short and sweet but somehow still inspiring. Katie Gardener went next, and then immediately after her was her boyfriend, Travis Stoll. Nico didn't think his speech was particularly sad, but his brother Connor was bawling by the end of it. Next to him, Jason was openly weeping.

Then, Grover went. Nico had never been particularly close with the clarinet player, but he was Percy's best friend, so they'd been in the general proximity of each other enough times that Nico was relatively comfortable around him. It still wasn't enough to make him cry at his speech.

It was clearly enough for Annabeth, though, as her face was swimming in tears when she stumbled into the middle of the circle, mace clutched in her white-gloved hand. "Grover, I'm not gonna be able to get through this now." She swiped a hand under her eyes.

"You got this, babe!" Percy said from the other side of the circle. Even from here, Nico could see the tear tracks from under his hat.

"God, Jackson," Annabeth mumbled. "Dammit. When Thalia did this last year, I really didn't think it would be so hard."

Of course not. Thalia made everything look both easy and painless, simultaneously the best and worst thing about her.

"Okay, here goes." She laughed. "I can't even begin to describe how much the band and all of you mean to me, and I can't imagine not being here next year, but I am so ready for it. The thought of not seeing the band room first thing in the morning every day scares me so much. It's kind of like an anchor even though it smells like sweat, and the walls look like someone rubbed rusty nails all over them; it's been a steady point, one that I don't want to give up yet, but..." She glanced over at Percy, a small smile shining through her tears. "I can't wait for our next adventure."

By the end of her speech, Percy was absolutely bawling, so Annabeth stepped to the side and hugged him, giving everyone else a welcome reprieve from the onslaught of emotion.

To his horror, Nico felt a lump forming in his throat. Why? He and Annabeth weren't even that close. He could make it through some silly little goodbye speeches.

Maddeningly, he tried and failed to swallow, each attempt seemingly bringing more tears to his eyes. This did not bode well for Percy's speech.

He really did not want to cry in front of all these people. He had a reputation, for fuck's sake.

Nico looked up and accidentally caught the teary eyes of Will Solace. The boy didn't look much better than Jason, but he somehow pulled it off. Nico tried to ignore the little flutter that sent to his stomach because just then, Percy stepped into the circle.

35 minutes since

Nico took a second to marvel at the situation he was currently in.

He was seated on a concrete parking bar at a highway restop somewhere in the state New York, and Will Solace was telling him a story about helping birth a goat at his grandparents' farm in Texas.

Now, Nico was and had always been an outdoorsy kid. Back in Italy, there was a small forest near where they lived, and he and his sister would go in there all the time to explore. He was never squeamish, either, constantly picking up frogs and lizards and bugs. At this point in his short life, he'd probably spent more time outside than inside.

But this was a bit much.

Then Will said the most horrifying sentence Nico had ever heard. "Do you wanna see pictures?"

He frantically shook his head. "No, I'm good."

Will had the nerve to laugh at him. "Of the goat, not the birth."

"Oh." Maybe he should've guessed that. "Sure."

That was how he ended up looking at pictures of a baby goat with Will Solace. He had to admit, it was pretty cute.

Will's phone buzzed with a text just then, and Nico couldn't stop himself from reading it before Will took the device away.  

Lou Ellen

just heard about the bus. so glad i slept in today

It sounded exactly like something a best friend would say, not that Nico would know because he'd been purposefully ignoring the buzzing coming from his pocket for the last half hour. It wasn't that he thought his friends would be mean or unsympathetic; quite the opposite, actually. He knew without checking his phone that Percy had already offered to come get him and that Jason was sending words of support along with the rest of his friends, but he just couldn't handle that right now, not after this morning. Besides, he was actually having fun with Will and didn't want to ruin that with emotions.

Speaking of Will, he still wasn't quite sure what was going on there. The way he'd said 'there isn't anyone else' made Nico seem like a last resort. It didn't exactly make him feel good, but the piccolo player was refusing to leave, so Nico was kind of stuck with him, figuratively and literally.

While Will was tapping out a response, the buzzing in Nico's pocket finally graduated to the ringing of a phone call. Several sets of eyes turned toward him.

He sighed and picked up his phone. "What do you want, Jackson?" He wasn't at all surprised that Percy was calling him, but he was a little surprised Jason hadn't gotten there first. Maybe Piper or Leo convinced him to wait. Whatever.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Then, almost as an afterthought, "You're not answering our texts."

Nico took a second to marvel at his friends' inability to take a hint. It did wonders for the feeling talking to Percy again was giving him. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I can come get you-"

"You're not driving six hours for me. I said I'm fine." He appreciated the thought, though he'd never say that out loud.

"I wouldn't mind. Or I can bring you back here and you can stay the night-"

"No, definitely don't do that." He raised his voice when he heard a girl laughing. "Annabeth, don't let him do that!"

There was shuffling on the other end. "I won't. But if you change your mind-"

"I won't, but thanks for the offer." It occurred to him then that even if Percy did come get him, he wouldn't be able to leave without a guardian's signature, and that sure as hell wasn't happening. "Tell Jason I'm fine, and he doesn't need to call me." If talking to Percy was hard, Jason would be impossible.

There were more ruffling sounds. "Why don't you just answer the group chat?"

Because he didn't want to open his messaging app and see the last text from Jason. Because he couldn't bear to see all the supportive words when everyone was leaving him. "You're breaking up."

"What? Nico-"

"Sorry, can't hear you." With that, he ended the call and put his phone on do not disturb.

6 months before

When Chiron made the announcement that morning about section leader applications, Nico hadn't really been listening. He'd seen no point; he was but a lowly sophomore, barely better than a freshman (that was a lie). He couldn't even keep himself in line, let alone an entire section. There was no way he'd be chosen even if he did apply.

But the more he thought about it throughout the day, the more it seemed like a good idea. The low brass sections weren't exactly known for their responsibility. Actually, he couldn't think of anyone in his section he'd want to lead him, even the current juniors. (Except Hazel, obviously.)

Then, Percy pulled him aside at the end of the day and said, "You should apply for section leader."

Slightly disoriented, Nico looked around the dingy old tuba closet. There were sousaphones and tubas hanging from big hooks embedded in the walls, and there were drains dotting the dilapidated green tile floor. So much for not spending any time in here. He looked back at Percy's green eyes. "Okay."

"You're smart, commandi-wait, did you say okay?" Percy looked genuinely confused at Nico's lack of resistance, and Nico tried to ignore what Percy calling him 'smart' did to his brain.

He shrugged. "Yeah. There's nobody else except Hazel I'd trust to do it, and we need two."

Percy sighed in relief. "Okay, cool." The percussionist looked around as if he wasn't sure what to do now. "I was expecting a lot more pushback. I even made a speech!" Before Nico could express how much he did not want to hear the speech, Percy continued, "I was gonna talk about how smart and commanding you are and how much you've grown in the last couple years."

The words made heat rise to Nico's cheeks, but it was quickly replaced with a cold, bitter feeling. Why was Percy telling him this now, when he was about to graduate and move three hours away? And he didn't want Percy of all people to tell him how much he'd grown. He didn't want anyone to tell him that, but from Percy, it felt like a double edged sword.

The older boy had been in Nico's life since he first emigrated from Italy, before his life had completely gone to shit. It wasn't a time he wanted to ever think about, but this conversation was doing a great job of reminding him.

He remembered being a relatively normal, happy kid when he first met Percy, and that kid idolized him, and that turned into an ill-advised crush. He couldn't stop, not even when his sister died, and he blamed Percy. He spent a long time in isolation, so long that he couldn't see it was self-inflicted. He became the creepy kid that no one wanted to hang out with. It took the combined efforts of Percy and Jason to realize that there were people in his life that didn't hate him no matter how much he pushed them away.

Now, he was terrified that they would take that progress with them when they left.

So he said, "Save it," and pushed past Percy back into the hallway, and when he picked up a section leader application, he told himself it was to make up for all the free time he would have when his friends graduated.

1 hour since

"Are you taking anatomy?" Will asked, a bit out of the blue. They'd been talking idly about the parade, mostly just discussing which freshmen threw up versus the ones they'd expected to. Apparently, none of the flutes got sick, but a bass drum player did, and a tenor sax player had to drop out from heat exhaustion. Surprisingly, the tenor sax was a senior.

"No," Nico said. "Why?" Anatomy was so ridiculously far from his interests that it was amazing he knew what the word meant.

"We have a test on Monday, and I need to study really bad," Will answered, eyeing Nico's body like it was a real life study guide, which, he supposed that in a way, it was.

He sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "Fine, but no touching." He'd learned early on in his friendships with Percy and Jason that setting up boundaries like that was important, and sometimes people weren't even offended by it.

Will's eyes lit up, and Nico barely concealed his grin. "Awesome! We're going over the skeletal system right now."

Okay, so apparently they were really doing this.

He turned to face Will. "How do you want me?"

"Lean down. I need to see your skull."

Nico pulled back. "Excuse me?"

Will was smirking. "I need to see your skull."

Never before had Nico been so self-conscious of an internal body structure. "Um, okay." He leaned down and vaguely felt Will look down at him.

"Frontal, temporals, occipital, parietals," he said, almost like a chant. "Zygomatics, mandible, maxillas, nasals. Then the palatial, ehtmoid, sthenoid, and vomer are in there somewhere."

"In there somewhere?" he said, alarmed. "Shouldn't you know where-"

"The clavicle is here-" Will pointed to the top of his shoulder, "-with the accromion side on the scapula and the sternal end by your neck. The scapula itself is right there, and it looks kinda like a fucked up wing. The humerus connects to the scapula at the glenoid fossa-"

And that's when Nico stopped listening. Who knew there were so many parts to the skeleton? Definitely not Nico, whose skeletal knowledge began and ended at 206 bones total. He didn't even know there were multiple bones in the skull.

Will pointed to his chest and said, "Ribs."

Nico frowned. "They're just called ribs?"

"Yeah," Will answered. "What did you think they were called?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I thought they'd have a more science-y name. Like," he paused, "costole or something."

For some reason, that made Will blush. "Was that Italian?"

It dawned on Nico then that most people didn't know he was an Italian immigrant...and that he was definitely about to tell Will that he was an Italian immigrant. "Yeah, I, uh. I'm actually from Italy."

"Really?"

Nico nodded, already regretting his brief moment of honesty. "What bones are next?"

Taking the hint (thank god), Will started listing bones again, and Nico let his eyes wander.

It seemed that everybody had settled down by now, hanging out on their phones or just talking. A couple people were asleep, and there was even a group playing catch with somebody's hat. The junior color guard members were practicing with their equipment that couldn't fit in the instrument truck: tossing flags, spinning rifles, twirling batons. It was a wild sea of bright orange band t-shirts, and Nico kinda loved it, though he'd never admit that to anyone.

The orange band shirts were broken up by the purple and orange uniforms that a few shivering souls had donned in a futile attempt to stay warm. It wouldn't work; those ugly things didn't retain anything but sweat.

Under that, most everybody was wearing sweatpants or leggings with the unfortunate few stuck in jeans and even shorts. Rookie mistake. In cold weather, sweatpants and leggings were the only tolerable pants to wear under the marching band uniform, a lesson Nico learned the hard way while marching a football game in freshman year. The chafing, lack of mobility, and feeling of skin tight denim tucked into knee high, thick black socks was not worth the aesthetic. He himself was wearing black sweatpants, and Will was wearing dark gray joggers with - no way.

"Are you wearing flip flops?" The slim, navy blue shoes weren't doing anything to hide the other boy's surprisingly tan feet - he must wear them outside a lot, definitely enough to maintain the light brown color past summer.

Will glanced up from where he was studying the (apparently) multiple bones of the ankle. "They're comfortable," he said defensively.

Nico couldn't argue with that. His own three year old black Converse were ripping at the seams and covered in scribbles. At least his toes were covered, though. "Aren't your feet cold?"

Somehow, Will's cheeks turned even redder. "I don't really get cold."

"I-" he started. "How?" It probably said more about him than Will, but Nico regularly wore pants and hoodies in June. Even now, he was shivering slightly.

The red stopped spreading in Will's cheeks. "For starters, I'm not malnourished."

Nico's dropped. "I'm not malnourished!"

Infuriatingly, the blond gave Nico an appraising look. "Whatever you say."

Okay. Okay, so maybe he was a little skinny, and maybe most of his friends thought he had an eating disorder. But no matter how bad he seemed right now, he was doing better than he was 5 years ago, so Solace could fuck right off.

There was a little nagging voice in the back of his head saying, "He'll never know that if you don't tell him." It sounded like Jason. He ignored it.

Will got up and moved to Nico's side, clearly trying to change the subject. He pointed at the black-haired boy's spine. "Then the 7 cervical vertebrae with the atlas and axis on top, the 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, and the sacrum ending in the coccyx. That's your back, and that's all the bones and bone parts I need to know."

Nico blinked. That did not seem like 206. "Okay." They just looked at each other, unsure what to do next.

Then, Nico remembered what Will said about his siblings and thought that maybe he could try some honesty, so he cleared his throat and attempted to fabricate some courage. "Hey, what you said earlier about your siblings being some of your best friends?" Will's eyebrows furrowed, obviously unsure where Nico was going with this. He plowed ahead anyway. "All of my friends are either my sister, my cousins, or  their partners, so I think you can count your siblings as your friends."

Will continued to look confused. Then, he smiled. "Thanks. That actually does make me feel less pathetic."

"No problem." If anyone could make others feel better about themselves by being an absolutely wet cat, it was Nico.

"Does that mean Percy and Jason are your cousins?" Will asked innocently.

Oh. Nico probably should've seen that coming. "Yeah."

"Cool," Will continued, completely unaware of the minefield he'd just stepped into. "It must've been really nice seeing Percy and Annabeth today, then."

"It was precious," he bit out. "Hey, why don't we go do our duties as section leaders and check on people?"

"You wanna go talk to people?" Will asked, disbelieving. Nico couldn't decide if it was more insulting that Will had already clocked his fierce antisocial nature, or that he was so easy to read that a boy he'd barely conversed with outside of the last hour could tell he was lying.

"Yep."

Will gave Nico side eye but rose. "Let's go."

2 months before

"Good morning," Chiron said to the obvious displeasure of the entire band room. It was exactly 8:03 a.m. on a Thursday in July, and everybody in the room had exactly two things in common: none of them wanted to be there, and all of them had better things to do.

Sleep, mostly, Nico thought as he yawned. When Hazel had burst into the room an hour ago and forced him to get up, he'd nearly thrown his phone at her. (And he definitely would have if he hadn't been trying to turn off his alarm without getting out from under the blanket.) He'd managed to rouse himself, though, and valiantly make it here on time. He really should get a medal for that.

"Welcome to marching band. I know most of you know me, but for anyone who might be new, my name is Chiron, and I'm your band director. Mr. D, the assistant director, is around here somewhere." Chiron looked around as if that would help him find Mr. D. "Well, I'm sure you'll see him sooner or later." Fat chance. "If you look on the folder that was on your seat when you came in, it should have your name, instrument, part, and a barcode. Inside the folder, there should be 13 half sheets of music and one warmup packet as well as a schedule and sets for the first song. If anything is missing, let your section leader know right after this."

Well, shit, he thought. That's me. No matter. He already knew nothing was missing because he and the other section leaders spent three hours the day before stuffing those bastards themselves.

"Speaking of section leaders," Chiron said, and Nico had barely enough time to think of a few choice words as he remembered what came next, "I think it's time to introduce them. Now, your section leaders are very important. If anything is wrong or you have a question or are confused about anything, you go to them first, then a drum major, then me or Mr. D." Slick bastard. It had never occurred to him how that system kept freshmen from ever talking to Mr. D. "Drum majors first. Reyna and Jason, please stand and tell everyone a little bit about yourselves."

On either side of Chiron, Reyna and Jason rose from their chairs, maces already in hand. Reyna went first. "Hi! I'm Reyna."

"Hi, Reyna," the band echoed in a poor imitation of an AA meeting, because some traditions just never died, no matter how insensitive and unfunny they got.

"I'm a senior, and this is my second year as drum major. I play French horn in indoor season, and I did color guard my first two years in marching band." She had a very serious look on her face, the one that would end up scaring most kids into never asking her anything. They were lucky this year to have Jason because the year before with Reyna and Annabeth? Everybody was constantly confused and had no idea what was going on.

Jason waved. "Hi, I'm Jason."

"Hi, Jason."

"I'm a senior, and this is my first year as drum major. I play trumpet in indoor season and was section leader for two years." He looked over at Chiron. "Am I supposed to say anything else?"

The older man shook his head. "No. Actually, everybody should say less. We want to get on the field before it's too hot or some sport steals it. Flutes, you go."

Piper stood from her door at the very front of the band. "Hi, I'm Piper."

"Hi, Piper."

"I'm a senior. I play a variety of instruments, and this is my third year as section leader."

She sat down, and Will Solace stood up, blond hair as shiny as ever. "I'm Will, flute and piccolo. I'm a junior, and this is my first year as section leader."

The introductions continued for a while, all some variation of that, and Nico tuned it out, instead focusing on controlling his pounding heart as it got closer and closer to his turn.

It wasn't that he was nervous or hated public speaking that much. He was just an introvert. Yeah, that was it.

Then it was Hazel's turn. "Hi, I'm Hazel!"

"Hi, Hazel."

"I'm a sophomore, and this is my first year as a low brass section leader." She sat down.

Groaning internally as his heart attempted to bust his rib cage and bounce out into his open trombone case at his feet, Nico rose. "I'm Nico-" if the band repeated his name back at him in a depressed monotone voice, he would actually vomit "-, I'm a junior, and this is my first year as low brass section leader." He sat back down gratefully, already considering the benefits of giving up his new role. A cursory glance around the room told him that Jason, Hazel, Reyna, and Piper were all giving him thumbs up. Kill him now.

Introductions continued, though without Nico's attention, and they finally got to warmups. That was four pages of basic exercises that they normally did on the field, but Chiron was giving the freshmen a little treat this morning.

Once they were done, Chiron told everyone to start making their way to the practice field, so Nico stood, stuffing his rolled up manila envelope in his back pocket. Somebody tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to see a little girl (Wow, freshmen were small. Were they always that small?) (The answer was yes.) with chunky black cornrows pulled back into a ponytail (He felt like he should get points for recognizing cornrows and ponytails even if Hazel was the one who taught him what they looked like.) holding a trombone.

"Excuse me-" she paused, looking unsure, "-Mr. Nico, where is the practice field?"

He laughed internally at anyone calling him Mister, and heard from behind him Hazel giggle as well. Then, when he processed her question, he nearly said, "Just follow the rest of the band," but remembered at the last second that he was in charge of this girl and if she got lost, he would be liable, and instead said, "It's behind the high school." When she continued to look confused, he said, "You can follow me," and mentally resigned himself to this kid becoming his duckling for the day. "Oh, and you can just call me Nico."

She beamed, and her braids bounced. There was no way she was even five feet tall. "Thank you!" she said. "My name is Macy."

He nodded, and they walked out the side door of the band, down the history hallway stairs and out the back door which opened into the student parking lot. He could see Jason's red Jeep from here, the car he'd ridden to school in. Including himself, Jason was driving five people to school, Nico, Hazel, Piper, and Leo despite all but one of them being over 16. Nico could definitely acquire a car if he had his license, but he wasn't ready to learn how to drive, and Piper refused to ask her dad for anything, so she was saving up to buy a used one. Leo just couldn't afford one. If he ever got one, it would probably be one he built himself. As for Jason, his dad bought him one for his 16th birthday (a week late because the man was an absentee ass). Thus, the Jason mobile.

They followed the curve through the back lot and reached the stairs leading down to the field.

A word about the field. It was basically a soggy pit that flooded regularly from dew, surface runoff, and the creek at its back border. Because it was so wet, the yard lines were almost never marked down, which made sets fun. The only sport that was brave enough to use it was soccer, and that was only when the actual field was unavailable. Right now, at 8:30 a.m., Nico could already see dew drops glistening on the green grass. Fabulous.

They walked down the stairs behind some trumpets and set their instruments down on the padded section for the shot put practice thingy since the first day of band camp was purely for introducing the freshmen to marching band.

Macy looked at him again. "How do you mark time?"

Nico blinked, unsure where she had heard that phrase already. That was something they were supposed to learn in fundies with one of the drum majors, and he was perfectly fine with that. He didn't want to teach these kids anything more than he absolutely had to. Then he remembered the section leader meeting yesterday.

We all have some big shoes to fill, Reyna had said, looking mainly at Jason and Leo, a certain blonde and black-haired pairs' successors.

Annabeth and Percy, Percy and Annabeth. Always those two. Even after they'd graduated, he couldn't go 10 minutes without hearing them mentioned. They were practically legends at this point. Everybody knew them, but nobody could be them. Fuck that.

He'd fill the damn shoes, alright. For himself and the band, he'd try. But he couldn't do it like them. He'd do it his own way.

Macy was still looking at him expectantly when he turned back around, and he stepped forward to the front of his section. "Okay, low brass freshmen, look up here 'cause I'm not doing this again." When all the low brass that he was pretty sure were freshmen were looking at him, he set his feet in position and said, "This is how you mark time."

2.5 hours since

They only ended up checking in with about half the juniors before sitting back down in their parking spot since they couldn't get past the color guard without getting hit with something. The people they did talk to seemed to be fine, though, so they didn't feel too bad about it, and Mrs. Knowles announced that a bus was on its way, fortunately. It was also around this time that some parents started arriving to take their kids home because they were just too impatient to wait apparently.

As they sat down, Will's stomach grumbled, and Nico realized he was pretty hungry, too. "I'm starving," Will said. "Think they'd order us some food?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "You mean the same organization that has to reuse tape?"

Will snorted. "Yeah, I guess not."

Suddenly, Nico had an idea. "What's your McDonald's order?"

"What? Why?"

Nico already had his phone in his hand and the GrubHub app open. "I'm gonna order McDonald's." The band may not have been able to send food to them, but there was nothing stopping them from ordering stuff.

The blond boy must have seen Nico open GrubHub because he didn't ask how he was gonna get the food to them. "You're really gonna pay for McDonald's to be delivered to the middle of nowhere?"

"Hell, no," Nico said as he inputted his Happy Meal order. "My dad is."

"And he's ok with that?"

"Yep." Nico's dad was attempting to make up for 13 years of absentee parenting by giving his remaining two children free range of his credit cards. "Order whatever you want."

Will still looked unsure. "That's so unhealthy."

Nico did finally look up at that. "You some kinda health nut?" With his cut features and lean muscles, it wouldn't really surprise Nico if Will did turn out to be into those meticulous health plans, but he really hoped he wasn't.

Will hesitated, then shrugged. "I'll take a ten piece chicken McNugget and a Diet Coke."

Nico nodded. "You're getting an Oreo McFlurry, too."

"If you insist."

Nico looked around to find the rest stop number and highway sign, then hit submit. "Our order will be here in 17 minutes."

Well. He supposed it was called fast food for a reason.

Just as he was wondering what they were supposed to do for the next 17 minutes, Will asked, "Do you wanna play my piccolo?" Then, probably upon seeing Nico's face, said, "That's not a euphemism. It's in my uniform bag."

Nico just nodded.

"Cool." Then, Nico got to watch Will put his piccolo together (all two parts). His own trombone was probably back in the band room after taking the storage truck home. Lucky bastard.

Will handed Nico the delicate instrument. "Here, you hold it like this." He rearranged Nico's fingers so that they were positioned correctly, left hand in front and right hand in back. "Now hold down your left index finger and right pinky." Nico did as he was told. "Try and blow into the mouthpiece."

The mouthpiece on a piccolo was far different from the mouthpiece on a trombone. For starters, on the piccolo, you don't put your mouth directly on the embouchure hole, which is exactly what Nico did, and the sound he produced consequently was more of a breathy exhale than anything else.

"Blow over it, not right into it," Will said, already laughing.

Nico glared at him but tried again. Apparently, when one played piccolo, one also had to be careful not to blow too hard because that produced a squeak akin to Annabeth when she saw a spider.

Several heads turned in their direction, and Nico was brutally reminded of the first time he'd ever seen Will. He's been learning piccolo then, too, and had made roughly the sound Nico just did.

"Gently," Will said, still laughing. Nico did his best to follow Will's instructions, and when he blew this time, nothing happened at all.

"You're such a brass player," Will critiqued, eyes full of mirth. "You're trying to buzz. Just blow gently."

Frustrated, Nico thrust the small instrument back at Will. "Show me, then, if you're so good at it."

Will smirked. "I will." As soon as he put the metal tube up to his embouchure, Nico knew he'd lost the argument in more ways than one.

Slim fingers danced over the keys, producing a beautiful stream of trills, grace notes, and crescendos, and decrescendos that he recognized as "Killer Queen", and his lips-

Well. Best not to think about those.

As he played, Nico realized that he vaguely remembered from two years ago, someone said that some flute was the first freshmen at Olympus in 5 years to make state. At the time, he hadn't cared one bit, still overwhelmed by switching schools and the permanent move into his dad's house, but he wondered now if that flute player was Will.

When the song ended, he set the piccolo down, and Nico almost asked him to play another one.

Instead, he said, "Damn, Solace," and got to watch Will's ears turn red. "There's no way I'm trying again after that."

Will disassembled the piccolo and put it back into the case, zipping it into his uniform bag with his shoes and gloves. "Everybody's gotta start somewhere."

Not after that, I don't, Nico thought. "I'll just stick to the trombone." Shockingly, failing to play the piccolo did not dishearten him in the slightest. Then, he did something very uncharacteristic of himself. He voluntarily continued the conversation. "Are you really into music?"

If Hazel were there she probably would have chided him on asking a judgy sounding question, but to Nico it was relevant. In his experience, there were three types of band kids: those who were only in it for the credits, those who were in it for the atmosphere, and those who actually cared about music. Nico tended to bounce between the last two categories depending on the day (and the music) as did most people. He'd always assumed Will was the same.

But the blond was shaking his head. "Not really, no. I mostly just do it because of my parents. They're both really into music." Then, quieter, "I wanna be a doctor."

Nico frowned, wondering why it sounded like he was telling Nico some big secret. "Do they not approve of doctors?"

Will laughed. "Oh, no, they'd actually love that idea. I just haven't told them yet because they'd get insane about it."

Nico supposed that made sense, but he also had no idea what he wanted to do with his life and was relatively new to having a living parent that cared, so he just said, "Good luck in med school."

"Thanks." Will was quiet for a moment. "Do you have any idea what you want to do?"

Nico could have laughed at how perfectly timed that question was. "No."

Will shrugged. "Well, we're only juniors."

He tried, he really did, but he couldn't just not respond to that. "You sound like every other person who's ever asked me that."

"What else am I supposed to say?" he asked incredulously, waving a hand around. "It's true!"

Nico was saved from responding by their food arriving. He tapped Will on the ankle. "Get up. We gotta get our food before someone else tries to take it."

Turning to look at the highway, Will began to rise, and all the eyes in the parking lot that were latched onto the GrubHub sign suddenly turned to them. The jealous face nearest to them asked, "Is that for you?"

Nico smirked. "Yep." Then, he walked away, toward the entrance to the rest stop. Luckily, their bus was the only vehicle parked here, so their delivery person was able to park right at the front, keeping them from the majority of the other students. Even so, a brown haired girl wearing jean shorts under her band t-shirt (how?) walked over with a red haired boy in black leggings.

The car window rolled open, revealing short blue hair and a pale, round face. "Happy Meal and 10-piece for Nico?"

He stepped forward. "That's me."

Rather than hand him the bag, the delivery person flicked their eyes between the four teens. "I'm gonna have to see some ID."

"Seriously?" Nico said. "No one else is pretending to be me."

"C'mon, man. I don't wanna drive back out here if you're not the right person."

"Fine," he grumbled, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. "Here."

The driver glanced at his license, then shrugged. "Alright. Here you go." They handed over the takeout bag, and Nico gave them a five.

Before they could roll up the window, the brunette leaned on the driver's door and said, "I'll Venmo you 65 bucks to take us home right now."

"No." They started rolling up the window.

"Wait! That's 5 more dollars than you'll make driving around for minimum wage!"

Shockingly, they pulled out of the parking lot anyway.

13 hours before

"Who's the best band?" Jason and Reyna yelled at the top of their lungs, lifting their newest first place trophy above their heads.

"OLYMPUS!" 150 people shrieked back, and for that moment, Nico forgot that this was his last year with most of his friends. Everyone was hyped up on their win and the energy from a college homecoming that nothing else seemed to matter or even exist. For that moment, it was just them and the trophy.

Then, Chiron broke into the middle of the circle and clapped his hands. "Alright, everybody, the buses are here! Time to go home."

All too soon, everything else trickled in, and Nico remembered where they were. The NRU campus was crawling with people from various high schools across the state, NRU students, people living in the surrounding city that wanted to be part of something, and alumni, and Percy and Annabeth had barely been able to spare two minutes to talk to them. He could not think about that for a little while longer, though, just like he could ignore the creeping dread of going home alone.

After packing his trombone into the cargo truck, he filed onto the junior bus, definitely not feeling anything when all of his friends went onto the senior and sophomore buses.

4 hours since

Back in their parking spot (and what a wild focal point for this wild day, huh?), Nico and Will had a pretty impressive spread going. McFlurries to dip their fries in, many and multiple kinds of sauces, two Diet Cokes, Will's nuggets, Nico's burger, and Nico's new Mythomagic hellhound figurine? The looks they were getting from the remaining students were full of jealousy, Nico could tell.

"Thanks for this," Will said through a mouthful of french fry.

Nico waved him away. "It's no problem, seriously. My dad technically bought all of it."

Will's brow furrowed. "What does he do that he doesn't care if you spend-" he paused, counting. "-$20 on some of the most unhealthy food in the world?"

Nico shoved a French fry in his mouth. "He owns a chain of funeral homes."

Will's eyes widened. "Really?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah, Elysium Funeral Homes. You'd be surprised how much money there is in that business."

"How much money do y'all have?" Will asked, sounding skeptical. Nico looked forward to blowing his mind.

"He's a multimillionaire."

"What?"

Nico just nodded, enjoying the astonishment on Will's face. "Told you."

"You really expect me to believe your dad is that rich just from owning some funeral homes?" The other boy would have been more convincing if his voice wasn't wavering.

Messing with Will was fun, but Nico figured he should let him go now. "I'm sure the $500 million inheritance from my grandparents helped."

Will gasped, making Nico laugh, and the blond threw a fry at him. "You couldn't have said that from the start?"

Still laughing, Nico shook his head. "You should have seen your face."

"Jerk," Will said, though he was smiling. "What the hell did your grandparents do?"

"Oh, you know," Nico waved his hand vaguely. "Stuff."

"You have no idea, do you?"

"No clue," Nico admitted. "They died before I was born and nobody ever explained it to me."

"Really? Does Hazel or one of your cousins know?"

Nico shook his head. "I doubt it. They died when Thalia was a year old." And none of us have any discernible relationship with our fathers, he didn't say, so it's not like we can ask them. "All I know is that they were filthy rich, and somehow, my dad got the smallest cut."

"Smallest cut?"

"Yep." If he thought $500 million was a lot of money, Nico couldn't wait to tell him how much Uncle Zeus was worth. Before Will could ask about his mom, he said, "What about your parents? You said they're into music, right?"

"Yeah," Will said. "My mom's a country singer. You actually may have heard of her, Naomi Solace, from Texas."

Country was definitely not his genre, so Nico just nodded, pretending to know who Will was talking about. He'd google her later.

"Then my dad, Apollo, made a bunch of money off ad jingles 17 years ago, the two of them met, made me, and she's on tour somewhere in Nebraska, and he's somewhere in Western Africa working with Doctors Without Borders."

"Oh," Nico blinked. He hadn't known...any of that. Had he really been going through that this whole time? He said the only thing he could think of: "That sucks."

Will laughed humorlessly. "I guess. Dad's a bit of a slut, though, so I've got a bunch of siblings. I'm not lonely."

Nico stared. "Good, that makes me feel so much better."

Will just shrugged.

Gradually, a fragment of a memory tickled the back of Nico's mind, and he tried to shut it down before it fully formed. Despite his efforts, he remembered hearing his dad talk about a memorial for a teenager that passed through his company a few years ago, before he was permanently living with Hades. The kid was 16, the same age as Nico was now. Nico didn't remember a lot about him, but he did remember the dad's name, Apollo with no last name, because it was so weird, and that he had a ton of half-siblings. His dad had been stressed about it since the father was semi-famous.

Now, Nico wasn't sure what to do. It was so awkward knowing something about someone else that they hadn't told you, especially something so deep and personal. He wasn't sure how to proceed. Did he say something? Try to offer comfort?

Unsure, Nico took a second to study Will. It had happened years ago, before they'd ever met, so it wasn't like Will would expect him to know anything or treat him differently. Besides, if Will were still grieving, surely he wouldn't be so well adjusted?

No, that wasn't the right word. He wouldn't be so laid-back. Nico certainly wasn't.

Hold on. For better or worse, this was actually a topic Nico knew about, a situation he'd actually been in multiple times. With that thought in mind, he tried to think about what he'd want if their roles were reversed.

Yeah, he definitely would not want it to be mentioned. He wouldn't want to forget about her or pretend she never existed, but with some guy he'd only been talking to for a few hours that doesn't even know about her? He'd definitely rather stay away from the topic.

But, he had been so much younger when she died and so dependent on her. Nico had no idea what Will's situation had been. Were he and his brother even close? He mentioned that he had a lot of siblings and that he was close to some of them. Was Michael one? How did one even ask that? "Hey, were you your brother close before died? Also, I know you have a dead brother." Yeah, no.

Finally, he settled on an option that would reveal neither of their dead siblings but might still be considered socially on topic. "Hey, I get it. I didn't even meet my dad until I was 10."

Will glanced over at him. "Wait, for real?"

"Yeah, it was after-" he paused. How to explain this without talking about Bianca and ruining the pleasant atmosphere they'd created by pitching himself into a depressive spiral? Then again, if he opened up about her, that could incite Will to talk about Michael, and then Nico could pretend he was just finding out.

Okay, so maybe not the best idea. He restarted. "Something happened, and he ended up with full custody of me. Instead of caring, he stuck me in various boarding schools until he found out about Hazel. Now, I see him at least once a week." That was the nice version of events, the one that didn't make him want to deconstruct his own skeleton and burn it.

Will hesitates, then opened his mouth, and Nico silently prayed he wasn't about to offer an empty apology or a hollow assurance. "That sucks," he said.

Nico snorted in surprise at hearing his own words. "Yeah, it does."

They sat in silence for a moment, processing. This was probably the closest Nico had come to talking about or even mentioning his sister in years without having a meltdown afterward. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Instead of dealing with it, he gathered their McDonald's trash and stood. "I'm gonna throw this stuff away. Watch my uniform please."

Will gave a thumbs up, and Nico walked towards the big brick restroom where the trash cans were.

On the way there, he contemplated what it might be like to finally talk about - his breath caught - Bianca. Beyond that, he thought about telling Will about her. He'd avoided the topic of family for so long that it had begun to feel less real and more of a concept that didn't apply to him. His cousins and Hazel were his best friends more than they were family. His dad was more of a guardian than a father. There was no one else, and none of the people close to him ever tried to bring up Bianca unless they were trying to get him to talk about feelings which never went well for any party involved.

So was he really considering doing it himself? After the last few hours, he supposed it wasn't impossible. He'd already told Will more about his home life than he'd ever told another person. Besides, wasn't everybody always telling him that sharing his feelings would be good for him? Sure, he was a little jittery, a little nauseated, but he was also lighter, like just sharing the little bit he did and receiving validation instead of pity released some of the pressure that had been stuck in him for six years. How much lighter would he feel if he released it all?

The thought scared him. He'd lived with it for this long; who was he without it?

Nico reached the trash cans and threw the McDonald's bag in then went to wash the grease off his hands. While there, he decided to go to the bathroom since the bus would be there soon.

Locking himself into a stall, he heard two sets of footsteps enter and loud laughter.

"Yeah, I saw it," one of them said. "Freaky if you ask me."

"I know," said the other one. "That guy's so weird. I never understood why Percy hung out with him."

Nico's blood ran cold.

"Beats me," the first one said. "I heard Octavian bet Solace his spot as section leader that he couldn't get di Angelo to talk to him."

"Damn, that's so bad."

"I know, right? I can't believe it worked."

The two kept talking until they left the bathroom, but Nico's ears were ringing.

After all this time, he was really still just the creepy kid who no one wanted to talk to, living in Percy's shadow. Worse, everything Will said had been a joke. A tactic to keep his spot.

Nico wheezed, pulling on the collar of his shirt. He fumbled with the stall door lock and stumbled over to a sink, trying to breathe.

A deep voice cut through his daze. "Jesus, what did you get from McDonald's?"

He looked over to the boy at the sink next to him. It was just some random kid, no one he even knew. Was that his fault? Should he know this brown haired, brown eyed kid's name? He never even tried to get to know his classmates. Not once. He always felt like he didn't need them, that they could never understand him. This day felt like proof that he was right. They didn't care, they didn't know him. They just wanted to make fun of the weird kid.

He must've been glaring because the brunet held up his hands and backed away until Nico was alone again. Like usual.

He looked in the mirror. The same kid he always saw was staring back: dark hair curling beneath his ears, dark circles under his darker eyes, freckles spread across his pale cheeks.

He hadn't changed. The world hadn't changed. Everything was still the same. He was so stupid, thinking anything was different just because he opened up slightly to some random person who apparently didn't care about him at all.

He couldn't believe he'd considered telling him about Bianca, that they might have something in common that would help them understand each other. Will probably wasn't even Michael Yew's brother.

You know what, he thought, this is stupid. He watched his reflection straighten his spine, angry resolve piercing through his eyes. Nothing was different. He could just go back to where he was when the bus broke down.

Panicking about losing Jason was infinitely better than panicking about losing something he never had.

He walked back outside and was met with a second school bus, kids crowded around it. He almost joined them before realizing Will still had his uniform bag.

Actually, he didn't need it. Someone else would find it and turn it in with minimal hazing when he accepted it in front of the band with the other kids who lost their stuff.  

Of course, that was when Will popped up beside him. "Hey, you ready to go home?"

Nico stared at him, trying to find malice in his bright face. Suddenly exhausted, he decided not to waste his energy. "You don't have to pretend anymore. I know about the bet."

Will has the gall to look confused. "What bet?"

"The one with Octavian. Don't act like you don't know." Nico snatched his uniform bag out of Will's hand. "And don't sit next to me. Figlio di puttana."

He stormed away and onto the bus, settling into the first open seat toward the front of the bus. He let his uniform bag pool on the seat so that no one sat down next to him, then he pulled his knees up to his chest and tried not to cry.

[alltimefail-sims]

https://www.tumblr.com/alltimefail-sims/748883412368179200/i-thought-what-you-said-about-using-granite-falls?source=share where would you put forgotten hallow and glimmerbrook?

Again, not 1:1 here, but I personally imagine Forgotten Hollow would be in a state like Massachusetts/Connecticut/Delaware. I'm a history nerd at heart, and due to the Colony lore surrounding Vlad I can't help but personally headcanon Forgotten Hollow as a part of the original 13 British colonies. Anywhere in here would work:

Knowing what we know about Glimmerbrook, the (alluded to be) original Mesopotamian-adjacent spellcasters, and the accidental invention of vampires, we can confidently say that spellcasters predate their companion occults by a significant margin. Because of this, I see the OG Spellcasters as existing most prominently all over the Eastern part of the world (Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.), but not specifically central to any one area. They've had lots of time to travel and expand their kind for one thing, but also I think magic comes in all different forms and therefore is just accessible to every person/place/culture/ethnicity/etc. You get the idea!

For me, Glimmerbrook has always felt more like a place a lot of spellcasters fled to after the initial magical war, not a place of origin for their occult type. But as for where it is specifically in our real world, I group Glimmerbrook, Windenburg, and Henford together and would palce them all somewhere in central/western Europe!

But again, I don't think Spellcasters as a whole are isolated to one location! In my mind, the "newer" an occult is, the less likely you are to find them outside of their "source location" that houses peers of their same condition. This is why Werewolves, being the newest of the three, are still mainly based in Moonwood Mill and why the oldest and most prominent vampire clans are still located in Forgotten Hollow but do have a few other established clans that have branched out elsewhere (in places like San Myshuno, my NYC adjacent world, for example).

Because spellcasters are just sort of everywhere, I imagine there are well-hidden entrances to the magic realm all over the world and various ways to access the magic relam that don't require you to go to the portal in Glimmerbrook or any portal for thag matter - thus the stone they cary around, for example. Glimmerbrook just happens to have the largest and most obvious entrance because it was really never meant to be there in the first place! The Glimmerbrook portal is the remaining evidence of the spellcasters who had to make a hasty escape in the realm explosion and ultimately created a tear of that size in our world. There was no thought behind the location, the tear was just the result of a quick escape, thus why the location of Glimmerbrook has little to do with how spellcasters behave, speek, look, and so on. This would also explain why no one lives in the magic realm any more, and why Glimmerbrook is so unremarkably magical in its appearance by comparison. Today the Glimmerbrook portal is protected and monitored by the sages and other high ranking "protectors," but by and large Spellcasters have come and gone from Glimmerbrook over the years with no issue and no attachment. Some spellcasters weren't even in the magic realm, nor did they live there, when the explosion happened! Although some families have chosen to stay in order to be closer to the realm's entrance and their family's history to the realm itself, for the most part it was never intended to be a place spellcasters would be forced to stay forever; they don't need to live in Glimmerbrook to find individuals like themselves, as they're all over the world!

I hope that all made sense and that I didn't get too redundant; again I don't want to get into the governances of the magical world that I've made up unless people are really interested haha, so I tried to keep this as short and concise as I could. As always feel free to ask for clarification! Thank you so much for this ask!!! ❤

[ginevralinton]

5 and 9 for Ghosts Asks, if you'd like 😊

5. What are your three favourite dynamics from the show?

Robin and Julian (well, how predictable of me) - the oldest and newest ghost, both with some messy morals but also in a really different way, just get each other, and they're fun and funny

Annie and Mary - yes, Annie is a minor character, but even in those few scenes we did see, I like how they had time for each other, how Mary allowed Annie to finally get to speak her mind, and how Annie wanted Mary to be able to do the same, without wanting/needing/pushing for to know all the details of her death?

Alison and Julian - because Julian brings out the truly chaotic side of Alison and she brings out a better side in him - and it shouldn't work because he literally pushed her out of window and he's not sorry and she's kind of not sorry either - i don't know, I just like their dynamic

9. What are the three most touching scenes for you?

Let's do three more, because why not

'It's still the same girl underneath' - I like that moment between Fanny and Alison, Alison feeling guilty, Fanny remembering and giving Alison that bit of confidence back in her fix up of the painting, that soft, gentler feel of that scene, the lingering sadness, a sort of acceptance

"Berries and cream" - perfect ending to an episode, found family, one that just makes me feel happy and fuzzy? Mike being part of it and that idea of creating your own joy

The line dancing scene. Silliness and fun but just very joyful and heartwarming to me

Thank you for the asks!!

[merrock]

HUMP DAY ACTIVITY REMINDERS

Good morning, Merrockites! Rather than cram all of this into June's mod post, I thought with 48 hours to go before our next check, I would make a separate post to go over some activity reminders. (Bonus: I've included some advice/tips for those struggling a bit under the cut, as well.)

We will be having a big activity check on Friday that will check for the following things:

each character has made at least two in-character interactions in one week's time (must be two different threads).

each character is interacting with two different writers in the group in the span of a two week period.

every writer has replied to at least one open starter in a month's time (should be applicable this month -- we have some new ones if you haven't yet!).

I would like to go into June fresh, which means we are going to drop all existing strikes and give everyone a clean slate -- but that also means moving forward, we will reach out to you if we notice a lot of strikes accumulating, just to see how we can help you out. As always, the check schedule can be found here.

A moment of full transparency: I set up checks on Thursdays, most of the time. It's my "work day" on main, anyway, and allows me to take my time to double check blogs and see where people are with activity, and then double check Friday and remove those who logged in during that last little bit. If you wake up Friday morning with a notification that you are on check but your blog is not on check, there's a very good chance you were on the original draft of check and were active in that last 24 hour period, and Tumblr is just glitching. You are only on check if your blog is listed, promise.

I've stressed a lot lately about how groups are only successful if everyone does their part, and that they only really work if we keep in mind that we all rely on one another to keep activity up and things going. This is true! But I wanted to maybe try and offer some advice / tips / things that help me out with activity, for anyone who has asked lately, or might be struggling.

trackers are a handy tool! you can set one up in a google doc, in notepad, on a literal notepad, whatever you want. it helps you keep track of what threads you have, who owes who, what writers you're writing with, etc. for me, it's a fabulous way to keep a visual of whether or not i am able to meet all of my activity goals re: writers and two threads per week. but remember: trackers are for you and your eyes, they don't need to be someone else's responsibility!

working in order is helpful for you & your writing partners. i know, i know, muse is stronger for some threads (and that's okay, as long as all of your stuff is being worked on regularly alongside them), but -- either you or your partner are going to lose muse for other threads that are sitting for longer periods of time while you're working on the same ones repeatedly, you know? try to work on things oldest to newest when you can, to avoid that. use time stamps! say "oh, i need to get to all these threads from last week / three days ago / yesterday!" to keep 'em going.

if you play multiple characters, keep them equally active. whether it's setting a goal of doing five replies on each of them at a time, doing a certain time's worth, whatever works for you! it's important to remember that all of your kiddos should be treated equally, and try to balance activity across all of them, so they're all an equal part of merrock. it's like... you know, they're your babies. they all get the same portion of macaroni and cheese at the dinner table.

i one hundred thousand million percent would rather see you just be active and having fun and cementing a sort of presence for yourself in the group, participating in events and enjoying your time in merrock than watch anyone stress out about being "caught up" on replies. it is way less important to me that you are 100% caught up, done, everything replied to than seeing that you are replying to new starters regularly, making an effort to reach out to others ooc, trying your best to maintain steady activity. promise.

The reason that I say all of these things, and try to offer advice and help and encourage people to be more cognizant with activity is simple: people rely on you in a group setting. Pushing off a reply for another week, only doing replies on certain characters, dropping threads, even sitting on finished threads that someone's waiting on all could be the difference between someone ending up on check or not -- that one reply could mean that they don't have a second writer for the two week period, or they were desperately waiting for your response to even meet the one week goal.

Some of these things might help you. Some of them might not! People work in different ways, and that's more than okay! But since I've had some people ask for help, or mention struggling lately, I thought that heading into the summer, it would be a good day to offer advice and try. xx

[ambrosialdesire]

is it chill if i show yall my yandere ocs ‼️

i have to revamp their designs and give them names, but i’ll list what/who they are rn from oldest to newest with brief descriptions priest: his name was originally fernando as a joke but i never really liked it/it never quite fit, i also made him back in like 2019; he's like kinda a cult leader who made a deal with the devil but he originally wasn't like that (think villain and violent, infant and innocent vibes). he's mostly nonchalant, but when he's around the person he loves (which is an angel in disguise as a detective trying to figure out who tf is doing all these fucked up sacrifices cause there's a little too much souls missing in heaven rn), he goes absolutely BONKERS, all teethy-smiles and giddy. he's still batshit insane though since the deal and his background made his head all fucked up lol minotaur: khristopher (yeah i'm also not into his name it's getting changed LMAO), made in 2021; he's a rancher, very hostile and antisocial so he kinda lives very isolated away from people, so yk that already makes him desperate for any sort of romantic affections. kinda has his moments of flirtiness, but it comes off as sleazy. he's rarely ever seen in public unless he's selling his farm produce in the farmer's market every sunday, but he gets some good sales in since his juice products are pretty popular. werewolf 1: sung-jae yeon (his name is being kept), also made in 2021; he's a singer/actor that got turned into a werewolf (which he hides surprisingly well as a famous person) and though he may seem to be kind, he's actually a big egotistical asshole that does whatever he wants when he wants because of the amount of fame and wealth he has. he's also kinda goofy in the way rafayel is from love and deepspace is iykwm siren/merman: pollux agineus (his name is also being kept), also made in 2021; he's a professional surfer who's seemingly the shyest and gets flustered so easily around the one he loves BUT THAT SHITS ACTUALLY A FACADE he's so mindlessly possessive that he'll literally try to cannibalize his love cause he thinks that's normal to do (in his species), and his short temper isn't something to mess with either. he's a mean mf fr

werewolf 2: this guy i had a dream about back in late 2021 after those three above and he was originally a viking werewolf, but i meshed him into sung-jae's lore and he became the one that turned him into a werewolf (on accident). never gave him a name but he's a feral werewolf (born one), meaning that he's way bigger and tougher than sung-jae's werewolf form. there's not much about him other than him being stoic and gruff, saying barely saying anything because he also doesn't know how to speak any human language, so you're basically constantly being slung onto his shoulder and doing whatever he wants you to do.

idk how to describe this one since it's like a regular dude: levyathan "levy" sampson miller YES HIS NAME IS THAT LMAO I MADE IT PURPOSELY LIKE THAT and i made him last year. COMPLETE SCUMBAG, AN MISOGYNISTIC GAMER INCEL, THE WORST OF THE WORSTTTTT AND he's in a mechanical engineering major. he's so disgustingly depraved and decrepit that if i ever post the concept sketches i did for him, you can fs tell he smells like sweat and monster energy drinks. he literally has no interest in irl women EXCEPT his best friend's (yeah it's really surprising he has one, i'll go into it later) girlfriend, that's how fucked up he is. i had to get some of my friends' opinions on how to make the worst man ever and here he is LMAO also he’s into his best friend, but he’s so in denial of being bi that it affects their relationship (not completely cause there’s other factors)

uhh yeah that's about it that i want to share, there's like a small handful that aren't mentioned but i wanted to keep those to myself since they're like sorta niche and personal ig lol i'll get to drawing them maybe next week since i wanted to try out my new drawing program 😈

[ne0nwithazero]

So where would you recommend starting when getting into your AU? There seems like a lot, and I wanna be able to understand as much as I can, you know? I’m already loving what I think I’m getting.

This means a lot, thank you! As it is, things are kind of all over the place x)

My plan is to gather information on my website so it's easily accessible, but it's still a big work in progress ^^ Currently it includes the cutscene videos I made, animations, an FAQ and other things I plan to add eventually

Most of the discussion also takes place on my Discord server (I usually post art there first before putting it to social media, and also have pings for updates and whatnot) and the ask tag on this blog :) The "#My Art" tag holds most of the art, while if you're looking for posts on a specific character you can look into their tag as well (Which is usually just their name)

Another place to find the art is on my Twitter threads, I'm keeping two at the moment, one for regular art, and another for doodles and comics

They're sorted from oldest to newest so it might have to scroll a bit to get to the more recent stuff,,,

Finding the lore itself is a bit more fuzzy since I don't really have it all in one place just yet :') The asks and the comics are where I keep most of it

Sorry if this wasn't too helpful 😭😭😭 I tend to have this problem of not knowing how to organize my content aaaaa

[ruvviks]

– OC TAG GAME.

TAGGED BY: @aragorngf, @devilbrakers & @aartyom, thank you so much!! TAGGING: @reaperkiller, @faarkas, @morvaris, @cultistbase, @swordcoasts, @katsigian, @ncytiri, @adelaidedrubman, @henbased, @strafethesesinners, @shellibisshe, @dickytwister and YOU! – picrew director's commentary: did this one without including ocs from original stories because those guys go waaayyy back LMAO so i'm only including (semi) familiar faces here :D

– FAVORITE OC.

vitali dobrynin [cp2077]

alright fine you got me i KNOW vincent is the main character but this cunt has bewitched me body and soul officially now. sexy as hell in both the past and the present, gives me gender envy on a daily basis, i need to study him in a petri dish i need to wrap him in a blanket i need to pick him apart like a little lego figure i need to bend him over the nearest surface. do you understand me. he is fucking everything to me

– NEWEST OC.

kitty bennett [cp2077]

i create new guys so often but i think she's the newest one! kitty is reid's older sister and she recently FINALLY divorced her piece of shit husband and now she's showing her face in night city again to bother the shit out of her younger brother :^) she's got twins and they're taller than their uncle at the fresh age of 11 and that will forever be hilarious to me. i'm still spinning more ideas around for her but she's also very tall that's one thing i know

– OLDEST OC.

rafael rodriguez [jc3]

i don't actually know if he's my oldest oc of all of them but i feel like he is?? very self indulgent one because there's no fandom here but i loved the game so i made a little guy for it :^) most tired little man in all of medici and he hasn't changed all that much since i created him i just made him More tired over the years. someone please let him take a nap he's been awake for three consecutive days now

– MEANEST OC.

michele diaz [cp2077]

the baddest bitch out there in my honest opinion but also all she's ever done is constantly manipulate everyone around her so. hee hee!! she will make you feel so so safe around her until she doesn't need you anymore and then she tears you apart and you'll end up in shambles for the rest of your life. if she even lets you live in the first place. so yeas definitely not one of my nicest ocs i shan't lie!! cold and ruthless and likes ordering people around and doesn't care about the consequences of her actions. turned into a monster by militech and now she's constantly showing everyone her teeth but what can you do other than play the cards you've been given

– SOFTEST OC.

luna serratos [cp2077]

this one was difficult because a lot of my ocs have a very big soft side but i think luna is one of the few of them who's actually like. more than 95% soft. mostly because of the fact they're not a mercenary of some sort like most of my cyberpunk ocs LMAO luna is the one who patches everyone up after the gig is done and they're always so gentle with those around them even if they're complete strangers. that's how she met cassidy and by definition the rest of the gang too :^) throughout the entire story she remains a constant in everyone's life and despite all the horrible things that happen, not at any point does luna turn to the mercenary life themself. they have this very strong belief that they can make themself the most useful as a medic and as a friend, not as a fighter or an enemy

– MOST ALOOF/STANDOFFISH OC.

nathan dixon [tew]

man who will just stand there and autism stare at you until you start talking to him. and then he continues to do that actually he just occasionally says some words back (if you're lucky). he's mostly just distant because a lot of people have hurt him in the past so he doesn't warm up to others well or quickly, and he tries to look at everything very objectively so a lot of people would think he just doesn't care. which is honestly true a lot of the time actually. elevator music playing in his brain on loop

– DUMBEST (AFFECTIONATE) OC.

aubrey valentine [cp2077]

where the fuck do i even begin mein fucking gott aubrey. he's so. <3 like genuinely he is in fact very intelligent and capable he's running a fixer business and a club right now with the same kind of job guarantee + safety levels as vitali's business so he's got it all!! but he's also just dumb as bricks!!!! his siblings (three sisters and a trans brother) have successfully managed to convince him he will get his period at some point in his life. any day now aubrey. he eats crayons. sand. anything really he's eaten glass before (the counter is on five. he's still alive somehow. don't ask) and he'll do it again. will confidently use a random word in a sentence believing he's used it right but by god he is not right. he can drive but he also can't drive but he also can't not drive. he doesn't know what a horse is

– SMARTEST OC.

vatha nefiti [d&d]

this one was very difficult because vatha is in a party with artyom (nuclear artificer), lorelei (chronomancy wizard) and sascha (cthulhu warlock) but i think she (cryogenetics sorcerer) can be considered the smartest because she's got like. Everything. the high wisdom high intelligence high charisma kind of stat combination. they love reading books and learning things about the places they visit and have all this information stored in their memories but at the same time she also knows a LOT about surviving and living on the road, and she's usually the one to handle business with people they help. beacon of knowledge but also very passive in it, they're not someone who would rub it in your face but the party knows that if they need any sort of information, ask vatha LMAO

– OC YOU'D BE BEST FRIENDS WITH IRL.

reuben de la rosa [cp2077]

the sweetest little guy ever to exist he would be SUCH a nice friend to have. excited about basically everything, gives great hugs, always has Something to talk about and he will include you in Everything so you'll never ever feel left out or lonely basically. i wouldn't let him cook for me though he exploded an egg in the microwave once 🥚🤯

[elizmanderson]

BookmanWIP and MarthaWIP. (Just by virtue of I don't think I've ever heard of either of those, LOL)

hellooooooo and thank you for the ask! you get something from each end of the WIP spectrum

BookManWIP

this is the oldest WIP in my novels folder! it's the first book I wrote that feels like something I would write now (although not my first contemporary fantasy)

it stars a lonely pan-ace guy in his thirties who loves books and doesn't remotely understand people, who gets dragged into a magical world right outside his front door when his balloon-artist friend shows up injured one night. it also involved an enchanted circus, a literal fairy garden, sentient garden statues, and another world

shelved after many, many revisions because the plot needs an overhaul (although the characters, writing, and description finally got to where I'd want them to be). my main issue is that it's a portal fantasy inside of sort-of portal fantasy and I'm not sure the timelines work. maybe it needs to be a duology? *shudders in standalone author*

MarthaWIP

...and this is the newest WIP in my novels folder! second-chance fantasy romance, probably cozy? but I'm still working that out, starring a grumpy older lesbian bc that's my vibe lately

few details to share about this because it's in early stages, but it was inspired by a rummage sale sign. it has nothing to do with rummage sales.

here was the thought process, but idk if you can call it a PROCESS bc all these things happened instantaneously*:

see sign saying they're no longer accepting donations for this rummage sale

think about rummage sale pricing

maybe it's like "$5/bag" instead of individually priced items

imagine someone getting REALLY GOOD at packing items up small to fit as much as possible to get the most out of their $5

suddenly: a grumpy, bitter old lesbian named Martha who's good at exactly that and gets a second chance romance even though she's wary of it

*it's probably the ADHD, huh

anyway Martha will not be going to a rummage sale in the story (...probably), but I keep having more and more ideas about what her story looks like, I know a little bit about her LI, I know about her younger neighbor/friend/adopted nibling, I'm getting increasingly excited to write it which is great except that I seriously need to finish NettieWIP first lmao

keep 'em coming, folks, I love talking about this stuff

[didstuck]

Hello hello, my name is Auto. I am the Hal introject who runs this blog - I would greatly prefer you don't call me Hal though, to the point I will likely ignore/delete requests where you refer to me as such. I use site/click/cursor/install/upload/he/it as stated in the bio.. If you're curious about how to use them, I don't mind making a little table for you either.

I made this blog to draw Homestuck introjects, as I found most of them are inactive. Do note I suffer from chronic pain, so my own activity may be somewhat slow.. Though I assure you I will attempt to be as active as possible.

I will draw any sort of introject - baseline, kidswap, hemoshifts, I will even do non-canon introjects. I noticed quite a few blogs don't do that, and I felt sad about it, as I& myself have non-canonical Homestuck introjects. I may post non-introject art, though. I don't usually post my art on Tumblr, so there's no harm in killing two birds with one stone.

Though, I will say, if requesting a non-canon introject, please send me a drawing reference. You don't need to be an artist to do this - trust me, I'm rather good at drawing from reference of "shitty" art. It's just that even if heavily detailed in description, I fear I might get something wrong, and I'd really hate for that to happen.

This blog is heavily inspired by quite a few similar blogs, like @disabled-stuck, psychostuck, etc.. Please go check out those blogs, they're wonderful.

I am bodily an adult, but I will NOT draw anything nsfw. Basic DNI applies. If you're wondering why I don't write it out, I'd prefer Tumblr's abysmal search engine to not pick it up. I will, of course, block anyone who breaks the DNI, as well as blocking critically.

Also, while all the art here is free, I can draw you even more if you commission me. I have dms open for that.

Have a nice day. <;3 Tag key under cut.

My current inbox is also under the cut.

#Automatic.text - talk tag

#art - art, of course

#boyfriend tag - Per my boyfriend's own joking request, he has one now. Now you know whenever my boyfriend sends me asks. &lt;3

#not a request - either art not pertaining to introjects, art of myself/people in system, or something else. Catchall tag.

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Listed in order from oldest to newest.

Vriska with a white, medical eyepatch ; August 17th. Not started. Waiting for clarification on a lost ref.

Rose and her Moirail Eridan ; August 17th. Not started.

Transfem Eridan ; August 17th. Not started.

Eridan w/ floral button up ; August 17th. Not started.

Alive Aradia ; August 19th. Not started.

[eurydicees]

If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top favorite fics that you've written (feel free how much that you want to list)? Why they're special to you? Is there a specific inspiration when you wrote them?

Thanks if you want to answer.....

yes you can absolutely ask!!! apologies for taking so long to answer!

i honestly am really proud of most of my fics, so it was unexpectedly hard to choose my top ones. but here r my top fics of mine, in order of oldest to newest:

a reflection on being empty, being whole, & being in love (tamakyo)

this was written at a time when i was in particular struggling w my own racial identity, and being able to sort through it via tamaki was super cathartic. i'm really proud of the writing overall, but i'm also just really proud of myself for beginning to put all of my emotions re: race and sexuality into words. it's also part 2 of the first ouran fics i wrote, and the response i got was so overwhelmingly kind that i just had to keep writing for them :)

the path to gold is paves with the bones of the monsters that came before us (sakuatsu, iwaoi)

aaa i love this one. i'm genuinely so proud of it. it was one of those fics that just kinda comes to you and that you have to get out immediately or you'll die. i spent a few days nonstop working on this instead of answering work emails (rip) but 100% worth it. i'm really proud of the character arcs in this story, and, with it being so much about passion and burnout and dreaming, it also just means a lot to me personally.

sutures (iwaoi)

i love the structure of this one, both writing-wise, character-wise, and plot-wise. it's hard to talk about this one, but i think about it sometimes. this was written when i realized i needed a fic like it, and i'm really proud of it.

fragments of moments in which you love him (tamakyo)

another tamakyo one, but a little more experimental. i'm really proud of the way i shaped this narrative, and the way i played with form and structure to do it. i totally forget what the inspiration to write it was, but i'm happy i did.

lifespan of the sparrow, caged versus free (iwaoi)

this one is among the least popular on the list, which like. that's fair. it's tagged with animal death and no one wants to read that. 100% understood. that being said, i'm really proud of this. it was one of the several fics that was entirely handwritten and then typed up later. this one in particular went through a LOT of editing, which isn't something i usually do, so that was an interesting process, but i'm really satisfied with the way it turned out. it's not as personal to me as some of the others on the list, but i do think it's some of the best writing and narratives i've done.

the man who moved oceans to find home and the one who swallowed his raw heart whole (iwaoi)

this one took me more than a year to write, and you can tell lol. it went through so much care and love from the moment i wrote the first scene to the moment it was published. this took everything in me to write, and it kinda got away from me in terms of length, but i'm so proud of what it became. i think it's some of the best character and relationship development/work i've done, and i just think everyone should read it. i'm just so genuinely happy with where this went.

a brief and unofficial history of the stars (tamakyo)

another one completely handwritten! hehe. anyways i really love this one. i'm proud of how beautiful the language became and all the metaphors and i'm really really satisfied with it. i'm also really excited by kyoya's character in this, because so much of it is about him as a person as opposed to him as someone in love with tamaki, which is often what he becomes in my fics. so i'm really proud of that.

to find something holy in the horror of your body (iwaoi)

this one is really personal to my life and experience and gender. everything i feel about gender is so deeply superimposed into this fic that sometimes i think about it and think i just wrote about my experience and called it iwaizumi's life. which is not 100% true, i do think i did well in staying with his character rather than it being a self-insert, but still a lot of this is about what i feel. so this one is incredibly personal. i'm also really excited by the structure of this one; this is a premise i've been playing with for a while, but this is the first way i've figured out how to write it down that works. it's one of two (2) fics that i've ever shown irl people, so that just further confirms how proud i am of it (the other one was the first tamakyo fic on this list lol).

ty for asking! this was such a fun list to make <3

[bucketsofmonsters]

I've just found your blog and started reading your stories - I don't know how I didn't find you before considering how much I love monster romance!

I don't know which of your stories are the oldest or newest so I'm just going to comment on the ones I read as I go

I lived for the On the Alter story with the dragon and the knight!!! Pytho was so sweet (if a little misguided but honestly all of them were) and a real breath of fresh air from the way dragons are typically written as regal and brooding and mysterious - he felt like the MC of a romcom he's such a sweetheart.

The knight was so mysterious but I like that he wasn't stuck in his brooding and had some personality show through - showing that not only was he loosening up around them but they were getting better at reading his emotions behind the helmet. Or makes sense too BC he would have gotten used to ppl not being able to read past the helmet and wouldn't actually be very good at hiding emotions

Something I like about your stories so far is that the characters feel emotions wholly and unapologetically and it makes a connection for the reader to also feel the emotions more.

The connection between the readers character (idk how you refer to them - MC? Y/N? R?) And the knight both having a duty of service that was very self destructive and misguided really cemented their relationship.

The fact that at the end they still wanted to go on adventures but it was no longer as self destructive bc they (all 3) had learnt to care for each other and want each other safe and learnt their worth while together. And how they still wanted to go on adventures and didn't lose that aspect of their personality but instead shifted into the reason behind their duties of service which was wanting to help others.

Poor pytho thinking they were leaving him but resigning himself to it BC he wanted them to be happy just like how he let the reader go the first time! I love how excited he was that the reader came back and that the knight and the reader weren't leaving forever! Honestly the way you wrote the readers want to leave to serve the people was really respectful and tender in a way that didn't paint them as in the wrong for wanting that bc they were brainwashed and not stupid for being so and they wanted to help. And the way you wrote the quiet yearning they had to want to get back to Pytho

And their distress when Phillip and Pytho were fighting 😢!!!

I love them your honour

Oh my god thank you so much, you have no idea how happy this ask made me.

Listen, I love a good brooding, mysterious monster but if they are left alone in caves and stuff, some of them are going to be lonely and just desperate for any sort of company and I feel like we do not see enough of them lol

Figuring out how to make Phillip emote behind armour was so fun but also, I realized how frustrating that would be from both ends, not just to those trying to read him. He's used to not being perceived properly and it so severely limits the ways you can communicate and be understood (which honestly I think he leans into like you said)

I really love the connections between all of the characters so much, Phillip and reader's self-destructive obsession with duty, the way Pytho and reader both feel discarded by their people, the social isolation of Pytho and Phillip, I think they're all just mirrors of each other in such delightful ways :)

One of my favorite parts of the whole story was the ending and how like, none of them are fixed at the end. None of them fully care about their own well-being in a healthy way, but the way they care about each other is just nudging them in the right direction, helping them find the right actions while the self-worth and proper motivation will come later.

I truly cannot thank you enough for this ask, absolutely made my day

[sleepyowlwrites]

Happy STS, Sleepy!

I admit to being somewhat overwhelmed by the number of OCs you create, and I need a bit of an intro. Who would you say are your flagship OCs?

I think I have three, and they're all guys. I'll give honorable mentions, though, because yeah, I have so many.

R, from Youth Story.

Roland Everett Blakesley is seventeen and a dramatic, flirtatious, extrovert with a vague hero complex. he's a middle child, with light orange-brown hair. he's a tall bean, and a lean bean to boot. R doesn't like his name so that's why he goes by the dumb substitution of a single letter. Youth Story is no plot, just vibes, and the intersection of ten different character arcs. here's R's:

he starts the story by having a rivalry/mortal enemyship with Mark, the - at the time - newest member of the friend group. Mark didn't give R enough attention, so R decided to hate him, and because they both share a single brain cell where the other is concerned, decided to use each other as their personal emotional punching bags - and literal punching bags - and hate each other. R's arc is about recognizing how his actions affect others, and how you can't justify hurting someone just because they allow it, and how self-destruction is no substitution for emotional maturity. he also really wants to be the best big brother to Cal, but he's kind of a perfectionist about it, so if he's failing he'll just fail harder, but his friends being sad about this turns him around. he and Mark make up, and have a very awkward acquaintanceship that eventually becomes a genuine, caring friendship by the place where we leave off.

other notable features:

R is a generous sort, willing to give up his time or energy to help his friends out. he'll complain because he enjoys the dramatics of it, but he really doesn't mind. he's also very physically affectionate, and likes to hold hands or droop himself over somebody's shoulders or participate in cuddle piles. R tends to phrase his sentences like he's acting in a play, and will flirt with anybody, not that he means it. he just constantly sounds like he's flirting plus, he's found that flirtation can be a very useful tool in public. R's favorite and signature color is red, and he wears it a lot, along with a lot of patterned button downs and sweaters. his hair is wavy and nearly reaches his shoulders, and sometimes he pulls it back in a bun. like all the Youth Story kids, he has a superpower! it's projected thermography. this comes in handy because he has a terrible memory.

and that's R! a disaster boi. oh and he's English.

next up is Nyks, also from Youth Story.

Nykolas Argyros is twenty, but he's missing the last four years of his memory, so he feels and acts like he's sixteen. he's got a bit of a baby face, so that adds to the effect. he's got dark brown curls and the sweetest smile. Nyks, despite being the oldest of the group, is often treated like the baby, because he's got this childlike innocence and an angelic personality. you'll love him. everybody does. he's also tall and lean, and quite pale, but more so because of his superpower: phasing. he got struck by lightning while phasing, which caused the memory loss, and he has not great control of his powers now. he loses energy rapidly, especially if he's cold, so he's always attached to one of the kids to share their energy. this doesn't drain them, because I said so. he's the cuddliest bean of the bunch and we have lots of those here.

Nyks' arc is slowly regaining some of his memories, but mostly just gaining a better sense of self. he's so kind and gentle and wants everybody to be happy and forgoes his own happiness as a result. he doesn't really stand up for himself and gets inadvertently bullied by his friends without that being the intention. he's also lowkey the group therapist and gradually learns to set boundaries and not be responsible for anybody else's change in behavior or emotional growth.

other notable features:

since he's so well-loved and such a sweetheart, he's often the reason anybody else in the group makes compromises or backs down from a stance. R and Mark try to get along for Nyks' sake and Nyks is like "or, and here's a thought, you could do it for yourselves and leave me out of it." Irina and Evie don't shout at each other for no reason, Jae tries to be more social, Daniel tones down his enthusiasm. but as time goes on, they learn to do these things for themselves instead of making Nyks the catalyst for all growth. it's wearying to everybody's angel all the time. Nyks just wants to be a person. he really likes desserts, and wearing super soft clothes. his signature color is aqua, but he wears pretty much any other pastel. he also steals people's clothes, especially scarves or hats or jackets.

and that's Nyks! angel boi. oh, and he's Greek.

our final contestant is Jet, from City Story.

Jet is 22, with tanned skin and black hair. kinda has resting grumpy face until he has reasons to smile later on. he works at a motorcycle garage and gets into fights on the street. he's angry. at the world, I guess. anger is an easy emotion and he's very good at it. he runs on adrenaline and spite and consequently is so very tired. he's doing nothing with his life until a) his twin brother Copper shows up after six years of separation with no contact, and b) this girl he met one (1) time at the garage becomes inextricably entwined with his life and suddenly he has a purpose again.

to punch people still, but for a reason this time. to keep her safe.

Rune is also a popular OC, I'll talk about her a little more after. Jet is being forced - by Copper - to develop his unused, stunted emotions, and it turns out he's actually pretty good at them, even the positive ones he used to think he couldn't afford, and is trying to figure out the mystery of Rune while determining that even if he never knows her whole story, he still wants to protect her. 'cause he's a protector, always has been, and likes having a reason to feel emotions or be angry or get into fights instead of being so aimless and tired.

Jet's signature colors are black, red, and grey, but his favorite is dark teal. he is secretly extremely soft for his friends, after he admits that's what they are. Yarrow has to yell at him a few times for it to sink in, but he gets there eventually. and they come along and devote themselves to Rune's cause because they want to, apparently. Jet is so grateful to have these people, and so scared to lose them. but those sorts of emotions are strange and unfamiliar, so he'll stick with what he's good at while it serves him.

and that's Jet! angry boi. he's...basically Thai, but both the city in City Story and the part of the world it's in is never mentioned, and I don't know if I ever will, but when I initially wrote this story as a fanfic, it was for a Thai series, so. we're probably still in Thailand despite the only thing remaining from that fic is that there are twins, one angry, one not.

honorable mentions!

Rune, from City Story. it's told from Jet's pov only, so all we know about Rune is whatever she chooses to tell Jet, and it's that she's been through the wringer and deserves to have people standing up for her and helping her, despite how much she hates to ask for or accept that. she's fierce and independent and clinging to her secrets for reasons Jet can't parse through yet. he'll wait.

Grimes, from Summon Story. she's a twice possessed skeleton who used to be a summoner seeking immortality, 'cause of course there's one of those. they help out Shae when she's starting out as a summoner and searching for her very long lost half-sister. Grimes may be a positive force, may not be, but she's very cool, so whatever.

I don't know exactly who counts, because I can think of specific friends who like specific ocs, but I don't know if they're popular overall.

all the City Story kids are beloved because a bunch of people are reading the draft zero (it's not finished though, oop.) so that's:

Yarrow - 20, street artist and part-time art studen and enthusiastic optimist. simultaneously extremely perceptive and oddly naïve. Hawk - 23, accounting graduate stuck in a depression slump because nobody will investigate the decidedly sus deaths of his parents Moss - 29, the owner of the garage and patron of a lot of low-income families in the area and by that I mean he collections donations gathered through not really legal means and distributes them to the families. Rune helps out with this, though not with the illegal part. if you read the draft there's a non-canon part where she does. Shadow - 21, homeless, because every member of his family has abandoned him one by one. Yarrow keeps trying to keep him, but Shadow doesn't trust anybody to stick around so sometimes he goes home with Yarrow and sometimes doesn't. Copper - 22, Jet's twin, bleached blond hair and glasses, the younger brother and even though they're twins you can tell, has a degree in anthropology, is a social butterfly but is currently devoting his time to the "make Jet feel emotions and be a whole person" project. he dislikes Rune for a while because he's selfish but gets over it.

if you happen to peruse my long list of ocs and find someone else you're interested, I'm always happy to talk about them! probably not immediately, because asks always come in right when I don't have any available brain cells.

thanks for asking, Verdance

[anachr0nismm]

hi! i'd really like to get into the mechs but don't know where to start? i know they're a band with lore (which is. insanely cool i love music and musical storytelling they're my special interests) but how do you go about listening to them? turn on each of their albums from oldest to newest and listen to all the tracks? also your mechs posting is really nice to see i love your disability hcs :^)

Hello! I have a slideshow about them you could check out, where I have a lot of beginners information (which I can dm you if you’re interested), but it does have a lot of spoilers, so if you do want to avoid that, than I can give you a small introduction, and then yep!

Listen once upon a time (in space) -> Ulysses dies at dawn -> tales to be told -> high noon over Camelot -> Frankenstein -> the bifrost incident -> tales to be told vol. 2 -> death to the mechanisms! I did listen to Frankenstein after tbi and haven’t listened to dttm yet though lmao

The mechanisms are a band of immortal space pirates roaming the universe in the starship Aurora, having fun!, violence!… that’s about it.

So, a mechanism is just a piece or pieces of a body that is made of metal that grants immortality! So Jonny’s mech is his heart, Brian’s everything but his heart, nastyas is her blood, etc.

Their albums are based off different myths and folk tales but mix them with tv tropes? Or genres? Like high noon over Camelot is a space western retelling of Arthurian folk lore. A lot of songs take the tune or are inspired by other songs so it’s interesting to check the fandom wiki for that! In universe, it’s just things they’ve witnessed or been a part of.

You can listen on Spotify and YouTube (check out thevoidsings)! Also check out dr carmilla on that same channel if you have the time, she’s their goth vampire mum (she mechanised most of them, and the person who plays her did start the band as dr carmilla and the mechanisms before leaving before any studio recordings)

And thank you so much! They’re all very disabled coded because of their mechanisms and it’s so cool!!!

If you have any more questions, because a lot of information is sort of just word of mouth, then I would be more than happy to answer anything I can ^_^