#thinking about tsats again T T

[boobersandstuff]

good thing that happened today??

Getting giddy and thinking about nico & will

[raayne]

Wills Plague powers

In the The Sun and the Star it was shown that Will did have plague powers. He used it against Nyx. Then it was never mentioned again, i mean yeah its just hay fever not that big of a deal.

WRONG

Nyx is a Primordial goddess of night she shouldnt even as so FEEL plagues, and sicknesses but Will gave her Hay fever with a shout, a shout? not ONE physical interaction, he was a bit far from her, screamed/shouted and she got hay fever.

Do you know, How strong and powerful he had to be to do that? and it was mentioned he never even tried it. not once. are you kidding me? I dont think Mark or Rick ever considered how big this actually is. Nyx was distraught, she never gotten sick and this Apollo Kid just gave her Hey Fever? thats some next level sh*t guys.

and no one else got it! it was just nyx! he shouted Nyx got hay fever, no one else did. Nico didnt register it. BUT BUT BUT when apollo gave that statue hay fever EVERYONE GOT IT!!! Will JUST gave it to Nyx IT DIDNT SPREAD! And when Apollo accidentally give the entire camp hay fever Will never got infected, nor did Nico. Nico was explainable. But I think that was foreshadowing in a way, whether Rick intended to give Will plague powers or not, i dont know

So in honor of Plague!Will I will make headcanons

After he came back to CHB he would probably be too exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically to recall things that happened during Tartarus, not like he would want to anyways. But during dreams i feel as if Nyx would haunt him of what he done.

No one gives a primordial goddess hay fever and gets away with it. Eventually after Will told Nico about the nightmares, Nico would be taken aback as in TSATS he never made comments of Will hay fever-ing Nyx. Then Nico would suggest to embrace the plague, learn to use it. Will would probably deny it at first, or say he wanted to think about it.

But thinking over it, This could be useful. Thinking back to Persephone and her saying he had darkness in him, which led to him giving Nyx hay fever. And Will could defend for himself if he learnt to somehow harness the plague. but the plaguing (haha get it) nightmares kept him from actually doing anything about it. He was scared, he didnt want to mess up and kill people in the process.

And this is where his "im just a healer" comes in. And because he only saw himself as a healer before, he couldn't defend or use a bow and arrow. he said so himself. He probably would be really hesitant. Yes, he is trying to change, to accustom and welcome the darkness. But it takes time for people to change. It cannot happen overnight, thats just impossible.

Then again, for that change to develop further he had to do this. Welcome the darkness, "show him your darkness" Persephone said to him. Yes the underworld still unnerves him, Yes he is still trying to grow onto the fact he has darkness in him. But like i mentioned, hes learning, hes trying. And thats what makes it worth it. He wants to understand Nico, as much as Nico wants to understand him

they're trying. and thats what matters.

After a while. maybe a few weeks, Will wondered off into the woods. He brought a bow and arrow with him, though its kind of useless considering he is not good with a bow and arrow. (i like to believe, with him being friends with Clarisse she taught him how to use a spear.) And then he tried to summon the plague. didnt work. He recalled on how he felt when he first used it, the anger and rage inside him that blew. (AND YES. THIS SHOWS HE DID SNAP DURING TSATS OTHERWISE NYX HAVING HAY FEVER WOULD NOT EXIST. TAKE THAT NON-BELIEVERS!) So he tried to take on the anger again, didnt work.

Eventually he got fed up and went to the infirmary.

then a monster showed up.

But wait! monsters cannot come inside the borders inside CHB!!

yes, you're right dear reader, but some monsters can access through the forest.

He heard the noise. and ran towards it. and there he was. Nico was clutching a bloody arm. The monster must've gotten him by surprise. After all he and Nico went through Will was not going to be useless and let Nico handle it on his own, though Nico could probably very much handle it on his own. In the back of Wills mind he remembered the Plague.

Will noticed a spear lying on the ground, (this is why i mentioned him and clarisse ((why was there a spear on the ground? maybe the fight happened in the battle arena))) he grabbed it, remembered something Clarisse told him about using spears. this is a great time to mention Wills strength he is strong. Nico mentioned in BoO (Blood of Olympus) that he would've pulled away from Will if it wasnt his strength. And DO NOT TELL ME HE DOES NOT HAVE TO CARRY PEOPLE TWICE THE SIZE OF HIM AROUND CAMP BECAUSE HE DEFINITELY DOES. Now, i dont know how to use a spear but im guessing strength is involved. SO, Wil picked up the spear tried to summon the plague and threw it at the monster. Not precise, it barely scraped his shoulder. But it drew the attention to him anyways. Nico staring with wide-eyes, and the monster ready to lunge at him.

Then thats when it happened.

The monster stopped mid-lunge, fell to the ground, and he was coughing, coughing blood (coughing blood is bad very bad. dont listen to the fanfics and animes who make it seem not that important.) The monster began to realise he couldn't breathe but his body was forcing the blood out of him. With the Monster was distracted Nico came up behind him and finished him off.

After that Will learnt how to use it more and more. Though the Nightmares would make him hesitate some times. But with Nico's and Mr D's help he managed.

So i may have went a bit off road half way but heres my idea of Plague!Will. I do wish we get more off will using his plague powers. but yeah, enjoy my wack analysis that derailed into a fanfic half way through!

[justagalwhowrites]

Turkey Trouble - A TSATS Thanksgiving One Shot

You try to make Thanksgiving dinner for your newly adopted niece, Ellie, but need some help from Joel. A one shot set in the The Savage and the Sanctuary universe.

Pairing: Bodyguard!Joel Miller x Movie Star!Female Reader (from The Savage and the Sanctuary)

Length: 1.7k

CW: SFW; lil angst; modern no outbreak AU but Sarah is still dead (sorry Joel); NO SMUT; no use of Y/N; whole fic this is set in has mature themes and will have smut so minors DNI 18+ only

A/N: You can thank @diversemediums for this because she gave me the brain rot. This would be harder to read as a stand alone fic but it can be done with the understanding that Joel is reader's bodyguard and they have an antagonistic relationship. Reader has recently adopted her best friend's daughter, Ellie, after her friend's death. I'm not sure yet if this is canon or not but it could be? I haven't written to this time in the story yet but I THINK this is about where they'll be emotionally at Thanksgiving.

Joel hated Thanksgiving. 

He used to like it. Back when he was a father he liked it. He and Sarah would watch the parade, he’d make cinnamon rolls and the whole dinner spread, Tommy would bring over burnt mac and cheese and the three of them would go to Waffle House and to pick out a Christmas tree the next morning. 

Now, it was all a reminder of everything he’d lost, of just how little he had left to live for. 

So he took his time getting out of bed on Thanksgiving morning, not looking forward to spending the day missing something he could never have again, something that seemed even more painful when he was facing it with you and Ellie. 

But, eventually, his need for coffee forced him to move and he padded to the kitchen, not bothering to change out of the flannel pants and t-shirt he’d slept in. 

Ellie was on the couch with a mug of cocoa and a cinnamon roll, the parade on and she smirked at him. 

“Well don’t you look pretty in the morning,” she teased. 

“It’s Thanksgiving,” he said, trying to not take his foul mood out on the kid he’d become overly fond of in the last few months. “Not in the mood for a fashion show today.” 

“Oh so the jeans are a fashion show,” she said. “Got it.” 

He rolled his eyes and headed for the kitchen. 

“Careful,” she called after him. “She’s in a mood.” 

“Great,” he muttered, pressing on, anyway. 

You were, indeed, in a mood, standing at your massive kitchen island with a turkey that was far too big for the number of people you were feeding, frowning at a recipe, your hands covered in butter. 

Joel snorted. 

“The hell are you doin’?” 

You looked up to find him, seemingly surprised to find him there.

“Making a turkey,” you said. “What does it look like?” 

“Looks like you’re making a mess,” he said, going around you for the mugs and pouring himself a cup of coffee. 

“Well, cooking is messy,” you said, chin up defiantly. 

“Not that messy,” he said, smirking a little as he leaned back against the counter, crossing an arm over his chest while he drank his coffee. “Where’s Esmo.” 

“It’s Thanksgiving,” you said, incredulous. “I’m not about to ask her to work.” 

“Right,” he said, even though he definitely should have seen that coming when he thought about it. “You ever made a Thanksgiving dinner before?” 

“None of your business,” you said, going back to the turkey and trying to smear butter over it and failing. 

“It is if I’m stuck using this kitchen,” he said. “You’re gonna get salmonella everywhere.”

You glared at him. 

“Well there’s a first time for everything,” you said. “And all I have to do is follow the recipe, so…” 

Joel shoved himself off the counter and looked over your shoulder, down at the recipe. It was not, as he’d expected, some bullshit celebrity cookbook but a simple, handwritten index card. 

He skimmed the instructions and realized that there were parts missing that were probably simple assumptions that you just didn’t know about. 

“Where’s this from?” He asked. 

“Anna,” you said. “Ellie’s mom. She’s hosted Thanksgiving and made a legitimately amazing turkey, Ellie loved it even as a little kid. I should have paid more attention last year but I was stupid and I didn’t and I just want Ellie to have a normal Thanksgiving and I have Anna’s recipe and I just need to figure it out…”

Joel’s chest tightened at that. You wanted Ellie to have a good Thanksgiving, a holiday that was like the ones she had before her mother died. She deserved that. And Joel understood why you’d be dead set on being the one to give it to her. 

He cleared his throat before he got too choked up, trying to remind himself of the distance he’d been struggling to maintain with you. 

“Well, you’re doing it wrong,” he said, taking a sip of coffee. 

You glared at him. 

“Unless you’re some Thanksgiving dinner expert…” 

“Made more than you have,” he said, almost smug. 

“Really,” you said brows raised, incredulous. He shrugged. “You’ve made a turkey.” 

“Sure,” he said. “Plenty. Not sure if you know this but most people don’t got private chefs at their beck and call…” 

“Oh, fuck off.” 

“Do you want my help or not?” He asked. 

“I wasn’t aware you were offering,” you said. 

“Well,” he shrugged. “I am.” 

You ground your teeth for moment before you sighed, literally throwing up your hands. 

“Fine,” you said. “Show me.” 

“Well,” he said, putting his cup down. “For starters…” 

He stuck his hand inside the cavity of the bird and found the neck, pulling it free and holding it up. 

“You gotta take this out.” 

You laughed and groaned. 

“Jesus,” you said. “Alright, Big Miller, show me how it’s done.” 

Joel had to give you credit, you’d done a better job than he’d expected once he took a closer look at the bird. He helped get the rest of dinner ready to go, giving you smaller tasks to do while he managed the turkey. With the two of you working together, you were both able to make it to the living room before the parade was done, sitting on either side of Ellie and watching the musical acts perform and the floats go by. 

Part of him hurt, sitting there with a girl who wasn’t his daughter doing something that had once felt sacred. He didn’t let himself hurt like that anymore, he tried to drown it or shove it down deep as best he could but sometimes he just couldn’t. He couldn’t now. 

But, for some reason, it didn’t bother him the same way this time. Hearing Ellie make a bad pun (“Did you know they took turkey off the menu for Thanksgiving? I suspect fowl play.”), watching you bob your head in time to a musical number, smelling the turkey once it had been in the oven for a bit, even the taste of the coffee with the cinnamon roll warmed something inside him. The pain of loss was still there but so was this strange sense that it didn’t need to consume all of him. That there could be moments worth living for, things that weren’t defined by the missing pieces - even if that piece felt like everything. 

You got the hang of basting relatively quickly and Joel showed you how to make the other Thanksgiving staples, things that he’d once made for his daughter that he was now making for the girl who had become yours. When Elise, Ellie’s grandmother, came over that afternoon, things had come together well. 

“Where’d you learn how to do this?” You asked Joel as you arranged the last of the dishes on the laden dining room table. “You don’t strike me as the chef type.” 

Joel looked at you for a moment and considered telling you the truth, at least for a second. Part of him wanted you to know this, know him. 

But he couldn’t bring himself to say it, her name getting stuck in his throat. 

Instead he just shrugged, setting down a bowl of mashed potatoes. 

“Tommy ain’t much of a cook,” he said. “When our mom died, Thanksgiving didn’t make itself.” 

You cocked your head at him for a moment, like you were trying to decide if he was telling the truth, and then nodded slowly, like you were filing information away. 

“Well, thank you,” you said. “You really did save the day.” 

He shrugged again and took his place at the table with you, Ellie and Elise. 

When the meal was over and the dishes were done, he tried to keep to his room but instead found himself drawn away, something inside him tugging him toward the rest of the world. He went to the living room and found you on the couch, your legs tucked alongside yourself as you watched a movie. 

“Leftovers are in the fridge,” you said, barely glancing his way. 

He grunted and acted like he was walking toward the kitchen but, instead, stopped behind the couch, watching the movie, too. 

“What is this?” He asked eventually. 

You glanced over your shoulder at him and then back at the screen. 

“Love, Actually,” you said. “I used to watch it with Anna after Ellie was in bed on Thanksgiving. Have you seen it?” 

“Heard of it,” he said. “Ain’t seen it, though.” 

“It’s these individual stories about all these different kinds of love. I’m only a few minutes in if you want to watch,” you said, looking at him almost hopefully. He was taken aback, silent for a beat too long and you shook your head. “Never mind…” 

“No,” he said quickly. “Just… yeah, I can watch.” 

“Yeah?” You asked, brows raised. 

“Sure,” he shrugged. “Not like I’m going fuckin’ black Friday shopping in the morning.” 

He sat on the opposite end of the massive couch from you but, over time, drifted closer until the two of you were beside each other. Not touching but a sense of familiarity he wasn’t used to anymore hanging over you both. 

“So,” you said when the movie ended, tears clinging to your eyelashes. “What’d you think?” 

“Not bad,” he said. “Not sure it’s my thing but… not bad.” 

You smiled a little at that. 

“I should get to bed though,” he said. 

“Right,” you said, drying your eyes as he got up. “Hey, Joel?” 

“Hm.” 

“Thank you,” you said. “For everything you did today. I’d have fucked it all up without your help and Ellie deserves better and just… thank you.” 

“Sure,” Joel said. “It… it was nice. Best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a while.” 

“Really?” You asked, brows raised. 

He nodded, the truth of that clutching hard at his chest, just how much you and Ellie had come to mean to him in the months he’d been protecting you, this keen vulnerability settling in him at that thought. 

But he’d deal with that later. He wasn’t going to let it ruin shit now. 

“Yeah,” he said. “It was.’

[my-castles-crumbling]

Anon Advice Asks - April 10

Outlet anon, outed anon, snape anon (new), episode anon (new), first binder anon

Outlet anon

My trauma wasn't even that bad.

Why am I so fucked up?

Why can't I believe someone would ever care about me?

Why did the world give up on me before I was old enough to spell my name?

How did I survive myself?

-outlet

Hi <3 I need you to remember that a lot of these thoughts are your brain messing with you. You are not fucked up and your trauma is valid. People DO care, and there are people who believe in you <3 and you WILL survive.

I got 100/100 on the research paper from a few weeks ago!!!!!

COngratulations!!! This is truly impressive. Want to write my papers for me? lol

Hey Cas, Outlet anon here.

I have a bio exam in a couple hours that I'm probably going to fail, but oh well. I gave up on studying two minutes in and I've already used up my medication for today.

'No beta we die like men' but it's my GPA

I'll let you know how it goes <3

-

Hey Cas, Outlet anon here.

I got 98/104!!

HA! PROOF! Sometimes, your brain is lying to you and telling you bad things about yourself that aren;t true. Obviously, you're very smart and capable of hard things. I'm so proud of you!

______

Outed anon

Hello Cas, Its Outed Anon here!

I have a pretty light ask but this is something ive been trying to work out recently.

Basically I have a friend - lets call her A for the record - and she's a really nice person! Like a motherly-ironic type. However, no matter how nice she is, she has actually no filter in what she says. Whatever she thinks she will say. While this is a good thing a problem i (and other friend K) have with her is that she never says nice things like that. For example, we all have a mutual friend who is really into her. Not only romantically but also as a person and he geniuenly cares about her and her opinion. His parents are divorced and he has two sisters so his mom works extra hard to afford the food and everything. Because of that she works late hours and the house isnt messy but its a bit chaotic (it actually is far from being messy but theres just a lot of things happening). But his house is really comfy and its our place to just chill. When he wanred to invite us over for his BIRTHDAY she said she wont come because (in her opinion) his house holds (and here i quote) "bad energy" & its dirty. (Its really not)

Im a pagan so im into witchcraft anf the house was really fine, so im not sure where the comment came from but it was very hurtfull for him.

Another thing is that she really likes helping. Shes the type of person to help a random girl whos crying on the street. Its really sweet but it is a bit annoying. Example: i did my homework badly because i really wanted to be done with it and she asked if she can copy it. I gave it to her but didnt really want to because (as i mentioned) it was done wrong (which she knew about) and because last time i gave her homework she gave it to other people which did made fun of me so i was taken aback. Again as i feared she gave the BADLY done homework to other students in out class. I asked her why did she do it if i asked her last time not to do so and she just said she doesnt thinj she did anything bad. After all she just helped our friends by giving them homework. Except it was mine and i didnt want to share cause IT WAS WRONG.

Yeah so i basically wanted to ask for advice how to gently imply to her that her actions & words are actually hurting people and she doesn't realise it. She also never apologise on her own and when she does say 'sorry' then its only because me or K told her she was rude and she just should admit to that.

Ok this was longer then i expected. Hope your week goes well & youre healthy BYE

(ALSO CHAPTER 11 OF TSATS??? ATE?? I LOVED IT SO MUCH)

Hi! Thank you for the love!

Honestly, this is the type of thing that you have to be honest about. You have to tell your friend that she's hurting people. I mean, you can even show her a version of what you wrote here, or tell her something similar: That you know she's caring and likes to help, but sometimes her actions hurt. I know you're afraid of upsetting her, but the alternative is that she continues to act this way, you continue to get hurt, and your friendship eventually fails. It's okay to be honest with people when they've hurt you <3 Just make sure to sit her down and approach the conversation seriously so she knows you're serious. If she gets angry from there, then it might be a sign to take a step back from the friendship.

Sending love!

____________

Snape anon (TW: SA mention)

I'm so confused right now.. so I just saw a Pro Snape post and it was about the prank and how the Marauders were wrong and everything right cool,but my problem is the post had "SA is wrong no matter the victim" (which true) and basically the Marauders fans are protecting perpetrators. And I'm confused cause I've never read the books, so I don't know the exact specifics of the prank, but I've never heard anything about SA up until now. Was everyone not talking about this, or is the person who made this post just lying, or maybe I didn't understand the post?? I don't know. Please clarify if you know what's going on here. I'm so confused.

Hi!

Yeah, I like to think I have a pretty good knowledge of canon and the marauders never SA'd anyone, nor did Snape SA anyone. They were all awful to each other in canon, absolutely, but not like that. The main instance in the books that I can think of is that Merope, Voldemort's mother, used love potion to seduce Tom Senior, Voldemort's father, which a lot of people consider SA. But yeah...people can correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of anything. I'm wondering if maybe they were making a comparison? Like saying bullying is wrong, no matter the victim, just like SA is wrong, no matter the victim? Which...bullying is wrong, a thousand percent, but comparing it to SA is wild, imo.

Edited to add: okay someone wrote in to remind me that in the fifth book, in the chapter titled "Snape's Worst Memory" when Harry sees James and Sirius bullying Snape, there is a moment when they have him upside-down and they take off his pants with magic. They then threaten to (but Harry never finds out if they actually) take off Snape's underwear. I re-read it to double check. According to wikipedia, which I acknowledge can often be wrong, "Pantsing, also known as depantsing, debagging, dacking, flagging, sharking, and scanting, is the act of pulling down a person's trousers and sometimes underpants, typically as a practical joke or a form of bullying." It also says "Pantsing can be used as a form of bullying and is technically the crime of simple assault." So it looks like legally, pantsing someone is considered a form of simple assault, not SA. At most, if the intentions were different, it sounds like it might be considered sexual harassment.

I have mixed feelings because I'm not a survivor of SA, so I can;t completely understand. So part of me wants to argue that this is not SA, and saying it is minimizes actual instances of SA. BUT given this context, I can see why someone might personally feel like this is SA because it is very exposing. Legal definitions aside, it was a very horrible and violating thing to do, obviously. I'm open to hearing thoughts, but please send them to my DMs, not in the comments here!

___

episode anon

congrats to me ik it isn’t that big of a deal but today i saw the “This episode contains (redacted) and may be upsetting for some readers.” and decided that I should not read the episode at that time.

I always thought that the TWs were for ppl with traumas or severe problems or phobias but today I decided that, yes, this thing upsets me and I probably shouldn't read it at 6:30 am

This IS a big deal! Trigger warnings are for everyone and you did amazing setting a healthy boundary for yourself! Awesome job!

____

first binder anon

hi!

so funny story i’m kinda out to my parents now

not entirely by choice

it’s kinda complicated, but my moms coworker basically used my new name to her (assuming she knew) because i’m friends with her son.

but it went ok enough

my parents were very nice about it, i think my mom was upset that her friend knew before she did and before i told her (which like— im not super happy about either) but like as far as these things go it went pretty well.

my binder hasn’t come yet (it’s supposed to come in 1-2 weeks, i think it was just shipped?) but i’m really excited!

- first binder anon

Hi! I'm so glad your parents reacted okay, but I'm really sorry the decision to come out was taken from you. That's really frustrating, no matter what the result was, and it's okay to feel upset about it.

Keep me updated, I can't wait to hear about the binder!

[poisonpercy]

i would be most intrigued to know the reason you hate nico di angelo

that sounds threatening oh god no im just gen curious

Lol you’re good and don’t sound threatening (to me)

As the self proclaimed “#1 nico fandom hater” that I am, I love this ask. Anyway, that being said, I don’t hate Nico di Angelo. My problem lies with fandom and how Nico is perceived. Before I get into it, here’s a collage of tumblr posts that represent my feelings on Nico:

And my favorite post that fully sums up my thoughts on Nico:

I’m going to be making some generalizations throughout this which I don’t love, but it gets my point across the best.

Canon Nico (specifically in pjo) = good! I like this little boy! Little cutie and a little shit. What’s not to like! (hoo!Nico = eh, he’s ok I guess. He didn’t need to have POV chapters and should have taken on a more minor role imo)

Fanon Nico ≠ not good! Please burn it with fire 😃

FYI: when I talk about canon Nico, I’m referring to the original characterization of him throughout pjo (maybe some hoo, but no toa).

So this problem happens across every fandom it seems like, and I have a dislike for every character that gets treated like this throughout all my fandoms. Not everyone is like that, but I am.

So what am I talking about? It’s the blatant fanonization of Nico to the detriment of his character and others. It’s taking popular fanon takes regarding Nico (behavior, personality, relationships, etc.) and insisting that they’re canon even when evidence shows the opposite.

A big problem for me stems from the solangelo ship. If you like it/ship it, that’s great! I personally hate it… like a lot. To me it came out of nowhere and the inclusion of it in canon has brought in fanon concepts into canon that overall damages the integrity the the wider scope of the riordanverse.

What do I mean? I can’t speak too much on canon since I only read up to The Burning Maze and refuse to read any further in toa or tsats, but generally what I’ve seen from others is that canonical events/their perceptions of them have been skewed in Nico’s favor to put down Percy and other demigods, even when Nico is more at fault. Not saying this is 100% in canon but it is in fanon. And this view is widely spread by people (not all) who like Nico, and it’s very hard to ignore if you don’t like it because it is everywhere.

Saying things like no one cared for Nico when he first came to chb is blatantly untrue and makes me think that if you have that opinion, you didn’t read botl. People didn’t hate him because he was the son of Hades because the vast majority did not know Nico was the son of Hades! He was mostly unclaimed from chub’s perspective. It’s just the people that went on the quest in ttc that knew because of Bianca.

Also like Percy straight up worried for that kid day and night. He felt responsible for Nico even though Percy himself was a child! Nico was the one that was pushing Percy and everyone else away. That was his own doing, though understandable. Don’t push Nico’s actions onto other characters to villainies them in Nico’s story.

Also, for some reason people still blame Percy for Bianca’s death and then come to the conclusion that Nico hates and (still) blames Percy for it. He doesn’t. If you don’t like Percy, that’s fine (but why are you reading the series then?) but don’t spew hate about a character on things that aren’t true. Nico isn’t going to be your bff if you do so.

There’s also the belief that Percy is like abusive to Nico because of that one scene in tlo. Please put on your thinking caps if you genuinely believe only Percy was in the wrong. Percy only lashed out at Nico because Nico betrayed his trust. Also, once again they’re both kids. They’re going to have immature reactions, but you also have to remember the stress of the situation that compounds everything that these characters do.

Ok, back to solangelo. There’s this weird codependent relationship that fans tend to force on Nico and Will. Other ships do it too but solangelo stands out to me. And maybe it’s because I just don’t like solangelo, or have a favorable opinion on Will Solace, or stopped reading toa, but I genuinely don’t think there’s much grounds to Will’s character besides being Nico’s boyfriend. I know he gets some more depth throughout toa (and possible tsats) but that only happened because he was Nico’s boyfriend. Like he was Nico’s boyfriend before he was Will Solace.

And because of this, fans generally tend to make Will this mouthpiece in fandom regarding Nico. He feels like a self-insert and not in a good way. And because of this, there’s a lot of negativity towards other characters in fandom that fans use Will’s “voice” to push in name of defending Nico or whatever. Like babes, you’re projecting. I don’t know Will, but the Will from the limited time we knew him in pjo wouldn’t speak that way/share those views.

Also the weird patient/doctor relationship solangelo has going on gives me the ick. Espresso with how it’s portrayed in fandom. Like there’s this weird power dynamic that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I’m rambling at this point, sorry. I’m only on 2 hours of sleep right now so forgive me lmao.

I won’t go too much more in depth but Nico also gets infantilized a ton by Nico/solangelo fans which isn’t cool. He’s a kid, but he’s not a fucking baby.

Also making Nico this 1-dimensional emo, sad boi type character is not cool. He’s so much more to him. When you reduce characters to a singular trait, it leads to all the issues I described. Ok I’m just going to leave it at that.

TLDR: I don’t hate Nico di Angelo, I just have a lot of problems with his fans.

[sundriving-glittery-wetcat]

Two Birds On A Wire = (B)ryanmeppo???

please please hear me out ok i was talking to my hilarious betareader/BFF @eryingsfate abt this and im going t post a damn essay now . BE WARY OF POTENTIAL SPOILER OF THE SUN AND THE SEA FIC!! alr lets do it

so lil old sunflower (my nickname) was rereading the climax chapters of VERY AMAZING IDOL @stygianhearts Sun And The Sea, a song came on my spotify ...

2 birds is so RYANMEPPO (by Regina Spektor)

heres my attempted explanation

"Two Birds On a wire; One tries to fly away" beloved meppo w/ the others going with the plan, ready to kick elijahs ass

"And the other watches him close from that wire. He says he wants to aswell, but he's just a liar." Ryan was in agony solely being there, and he was so horrified and ashamed about his past, so he couldnt tell them about it. Ryan thought of himself as a toy, something that brought pain to those who helped him or showed him love, and couldnt get over the sheer agony, which the wire symbolizes.

"one says cmon; the other says 'im tired'" Helmeppo doesnt understand why Ryan is acting so strange, and Ryan IS tired; he's tired of being hurt. tired of shying towards the light of the sun, only for it to be blotted out by clouds. (this is the point where i nearly cried writing this)

"the sky is overcast, and im sorry. one more or one less, nobodys worried." impending threat of reenslavement looming over the poor boy, apologizing because he thinks the squad will die. And one less slave, one more toy for Elijah; the government lets it be swept under the rug if their wallets heavy.

"Ill believe it all. I wont let go of your hand." meppo realizes what he needs to do to help after ryan tells him his past. his promises he made to rya

"two birds of a feather say their always gonna stay together, but ones never goin to let go of that wire." meppo , trying to prove to Ryan that hes free, that he CAN be free. ryans pain dragging him down

"he says that he is, but he was just a liar." after ryan "died", helmeppo was so angry and hurt because Ryan hadnt been able to be free; hurt he couldnt take him to the symphony, get matching tatoos, argue with him, make fun of his tiny waist again, and tell ryan how he felt.

"Two birds on a wire; One tries to fly away, and the other watches him close from that wire." Luffy, hearing Bryans heart change from being weighed down with chains into a melody of the free, the JOY of his liberation ringing out as he was shot.

"two birds on a wire..one tries to fly away, and the other..." ryan turning out to be alive, elijah & his brother getting captured, winning against the Navy with the files uncovered in the booth. the fate that was seemingly inevitable failure being forcibly changed against all odds. trailing off, it symbolizes that the bird/Ryan is free to choose what he'll do; not letting go of the wire, or taking flight.

anyways this got WAAYYY out of depth and is probably stupid with dumb connections that weren't actually in TSATS, but the idea took form of helmeppo/ryans autistic eyes and looked @ me with them so could not resist.. ty for reading <3

[aroaceleovaldez]

idk how you can say it’s not also mark’s fault when a lot of the issues stem from the actual writing - it didn’t feel like rick’s writing and it’s more similar to mark’s work. rick has his issues but he doesn’t write like this. plotwise and consistency issues yes that’s def rick. and it doesn’t make sense that mark apparently did research about details but didn’t say anything about the details with biana or Hypnos. both of them including the editor failed on that. Also when the preview first came out, people said was bad. that was all mark, they told us. mark also confirmed that in the least, the first 10,000 words of tsats were all him too, with minimal editing. also a lot of the complaints/negativity are just on tumblr i highly doubt publishers will look at it or that their career will be ruined lol

I'm not saying that Oshiro is blameless - I'll admit, I'm not familiar with their other work, and yeah there's definitely too much within the book all over the place that feels messy and disjointed. I'm more used to being very clearly able to pick out Rick's writing so I was definitely able to see parts that were him, but there were also some details that very much told who was writing that portion very clearly (One actually kind of interesting one is every time you see use of s's versus s' in the case of like, something belonging to [noun/pronoun ending in S], the s's is Oshiro and s' is Rick, because throughout the entirety of the Riordanverse, Rick always uses s' and this book is the first time we see s's as well.). And there are absolutely plenty of scenes in the book that I know for a fact were written by Mark because they've explicitly said they wrote them and I do think those scenes are bad!

But I have said since the book was announced that I was very afraid people were gonna try to pin all the blame on the queer/nonbinary author just because they're new. I'm very used to Rick's writing at this point and how it's progressed, and a lot of the particular failings I noticed in TSATS are particularly consistent with recent series. I'm saying Oshiro is not the sole reason this book is bad, which is something I have had people attempt to argue to me already. I definitely don't think co-authoring this book improved it's condition much at all though. It probably did only make things worse, particularly in terms of how inconsistent everything is within it. Even if it was just Rick though I doubt we would have avoided how wildly out of character everything felt or the huge timeline changes/errors and incorrect details.

And you have entirely valid point I fully agree with as well - the editors should have totally stopped this mess WAY early on. It's honestly wild to me how little this book seems to have been run by an editorial team, because there's so many even just structurally wonky sentences or inconsistencies (again, switching s's and s' between writers) that you would normally expect to be caught and fixed very early on. It feels like the editing team didn't bother at all to catch awkward places where there is no bridging the gap between who's writing what, or do any kind of consistency checking even within details of the same sentence (Nemesis giving Nico the pomegranate seeds, and him apparently already having some?) or chapters (Will and Nico separately use the same exact simile at different times, seemingly unrelated to the other having used it), let alone multiple books. It makes me wonder if the Riordanverse has a series bible at all? That's writing a series 101.

And I agree that so many of the inconsistencies don't make sense if Oshiro did so thoroughly read through the series making notes, because then those inconsistencies should have been pointed out and corrected during the writing process. I really wish Oshiro had been able to smooth out detail inconsistencies, and given how Oshiro works as well as a sensitivity reader I would have really hoped we wouldn't have gotten stuff like the troglodytes again, or some of the general scenes that felt so viscerally bad like nobody considered any of the other implications within them.

Basically, yes, absolutely, it's everybody's fault and it's everybody's fault equally. But I have already seen people claim it was solely Mark Oshiro's fault, which it was not. It was just as equally the fault of Rick and the editing team.

[boobersandstuff]

What the text saids:

Page 1:

2) hey nico!

3) I nee... holy smokes!

4) GET OUT!!!

6) later that day (nico goes to help will in the infirmary & talks to him in down time)

Page 2:

In the supply closet...

7) hey, nico

8) did you choose to do that? Do you like dressing like that? Does it make you happy?

9) *nods*

10) ok... was just checking. It's ok, its fine

11) what?... that's it?!

12) *ramblings abt why he should be disgusted & want to break break up with him*

Page 3:

13) nico... I still love you. It isn't weird or anything. I'm not gonna leave you! I love you. Dresses & all.

14) ⬇️ so greatful & relieved

16) I will always love you nico. It's ok. I love you.

17) then nico learns what being non-binary is & the microlables & figures out he's a demiboy. THE END :D

[boobersandstuff]

Nico genuinely means so much to me. As a child who grew up ostrosised, and thinking there was something wrong with me. To the little me who used to beg to a god they didn't believe in to make them normal, to make their brain the same as everyone else's so they won't be a bother anymore. To finally learning that that's not ok, that I don't have to feel that way anymore. To finally loving myself and having real genuine friends, not feeling like anything I felt in 2021... seeing nico go through basically a 1-to-1 journey of my life, and have the ending of tsats be him being hopeful for the future for the first time.

Gods I don't even have words. I've never related more to a character and have that character bring me so joy & solace. I can't wait to (hopefully) get s3 of the pjo show and finally see the start of his journey. Gods I'm going to get so emotional. It'll feel like seeing child me knowing their about to go through it and I can't stop it, but I know that at least their ending is good.

Gods I'm so fucking weird ignore me.