#this was 12 hours well spent I'd say

[serendippertyy]

MY OFFICIAL DESIGN HCS 🪰🪰

[adelarsims]

Embers Academy Spellcasting Tournament: Potions (Group 2)

potion challenge group 1

rules:

everyone’s needs are locked. i don’t want anyone to be at a disadvantage because they got stuck in simulation lag or spent all their time in bathroom line with other 31 people

they have 12 hours to learn 3 potions through practice. for each potion learned they get 24 points, plus 1 point for each full half an hour left after the last learned potion

autonomy is off, but if someone decides to leave their cauldron for whatever reason, i let them finish that action that distracted them before returning them to the task. their fault if they’re easily distracted, a spellcaster must have patience and grit

the second group: Capri Seguin, Yasu Bando, Mindy Carol, Marnix Thornwood, Clotho Moirai, Junis Haydn, Renata Morales, and Nadith Wolfsbane

capri is moongazing and taking a moment to stress out while her mentor is sleeping... because after that he'll be awake and watching

ayrin came to emotionally support her sibling

by the way, ayrin met marnix before the challenge (don't worry, she's not a ghost, just working as spectral vendor at the time) and had an immediate crush, so she also dropped by to talk to him. though no crush will stop her from telling him her honest opinion on that nasty potion of his

and zinnia drags him into something not very legal

you'd think clotho was an aphrodite in disguise, the way they constanty thought and talked about love. their grades in potions are not very high, but they had four love interests by the time previous group finished the challenge so they didn't waste time

renata looked cool and worked hard, but didn't do very well...

nadith and yasu taking turns looking at their cauldrons like they don't understand what they're doing

yasu even had time to look at his phone. apparently he's good at multitasking, because he ended up doing the best in his group

poor baby, so tired

mindy worked so hard that even after she was told to stop, she kept stirring a nonexistent potion with a nonexistent spoon

sir caesar is outta here, bye

results:

junis, yasu and mindy - learned three potions each, well done!

nadith and capri - learned two potions each. capri wasn't learning anything for a long time (maybe because she secretly ate some herbal ingredients), but closer to the end she got a hang of it

clotho and renata - learned one potions each. it's okay, just means their magical talents lie elsewhere.

marnix - also learned one potion, but almost got a girlfriend and a shady business, so i'd say he already won in a sense :D

---

@bloomingkyras @llamatail @royal-teabag @nova-kim @applesaucesims @invisiblequeen @riverofjazzsims @lupinkforreal

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

What a February

Well...what a great couple of days to be stuck in the office, amiright? (I work mostly from home but on occasion I have to go into the office and of course some nice little royal bombs get dropped when I can't be here.)

I've gotten some anons about what's happened but I won't be posting them (sorry, everyone!). Because so much has happened, I think it would just be confusing to rehash some of it, and other asks were also sent to Empress and Sassy (nothing wrong with that! They were doing answers in real-time and they've said pretty much the same things I'd have said).

So to recap recent events:

2/5/24: Buckingham Palace announced King Charles has cancer. Fortuntely it was caught early, Charles is doing/feeling well, he's beginning treatment immediately.

2/6/24: Harry catches a last-minute flight to London. Clarence House puts out a story "business as usual, nothing to worry about, King can still work and he is still working" (i.e., Harry go home).

2/7/24: Harry arrives in London. He goes directly to Charles, who is delaying travel to Sandringham to see him. Harry's PR says they met for an hour, Meghan wanted to say hello/wish him well via Facetime but Charles declined, and Harry went to BP for the evening. The Daily Mail tracked the comings and goings from Clarence House and realized the meeting lasted less than 15 minutes, from the time of Harry's convoy entering the grounds to Charles's helicopter leaving. It is further revealed that Harry spent the night in a hotel, William didn't return Harry's calls, Harry didn't want Camilla involved in the meeting, and none of Harry's "friends" offered to host him for the night. Also, William makes his first public engagements since mid-January when Kate's treatment began; Tom Cruise is there.

2/8/24: Harry flies home. He's papped at Heathrow entering the VVIP suite (as one does). Wait, Harry's not at home! He's in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl (or the Superb Owl) and makes a surprise appearance to present the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award. Sussex PR immediately begins telling everyone that Harry and Meghan will be attending the Super Bowl.

2/9/24: Lambrook School begins half-term break and the Wales family travels to Anmer Hall/Sandringham estate. Harry's appearance in Vegas gets picked up by the media.

2/10/24: Meghan's PR starts walking back their own rumors that they'll be in Vegas for the Super Bowl, citing the need to prepare for their Canada IG trip.

2/11/24: Super Bowl Sunday. No Harry and Meghan to be seen.

2/12/24: Meghan's PR reveals she spent the weekend cooking with Afghan immigrants in an Archewell initiative.

2/13/24: Harry and Meghan launch their newest rebranding effort with their new Sussex website with Meghan's coat of arms (rather than their joint coat of arms). Meghan announces a new podcast deal with someone no one has really heard of.

2/14/24: Harry and Meghan arrive in Vancouver for the "one year to 2025 Invictus Games." Meghan coordinates a photoshoot with outdoor activities; merches two outfits; and virtue-signals their "we're still royal" demands with Kate cosplay, a coat called Kensington, and a 'you can call us Sir/Ma'am' exchange caught on camera. In the evening they're papped going to a super-romantic Valentine's Day dinner date.

2/15/24: Day 2 of the Vancouver IG kickoff visit. They visit wheelchair basketball. Meghan gives her signature full-body contact-hugs. Sussex PR announce that the family has changed their surname to Sussex (from Mountbatten-Windsor) and this is the first time all family members have the same surname. Meghan also claps back at mounting criticism by saying "We will not be broken."

2/16/24: Day 3 of the Vancouver IG kickoff visit. Harry gives an interview to GMA's Will Reeve (son of the late Superman actor Christopher Reeve and his wife, Dana) in which he blabs about Charles's cancer and reiterates how much he loves his family, hinting that he's available to come back. Sussex PR also drops an article in the afternoon (with BP collaboration) announcing Harry and Meghan's plan to return with half in/half out; this is very clearly one of Charles's trial balloons from Clarence House.

(Today) 2/17/24: Backlash to the trial balloon is swift, so Clarence House backtracks immediately and does damage control. Kensington Palace announces that William will attend the 2024 BAFTAs tomorrow. Half-term break for Lambrook School ends on February 19th so the Waleses are traveling back to London/Windsor this weekend. And Hollywood has fought back by leaking about their Netflix deal, which contradicts a ton of Meghan's PR from 2020/2021.

Since some of you have asked for my thoughts, here you go. I am warning you now it's probably going to be my usual essay.

On the new website:

The new Sussex website is a problem. It conveys a legitimacy to the public that Harry and Meghan do not have, which The Queen and Edward Young made very sure was publicly known back in 2020. In particular, it's the use of Meghan's coat of arms, which signals palace support or endorsement. IMO, Buckingham needs to force them to take the coat of arms down.

I suspect they are using Meghan's coat of arms because a) Meghan believes it was personally awarded to her and is hers to use as she wants, whereas Harry's coat of arms probably comes with strings from the BRF and b) it's CYA if ever there's a divorce - if you look at it from a business standpoint, this is nothing more than Meghan branding the company with her name so she can prove ownership when they're splitting assets in a divorce, increasing her chances of getting the "company."

What about Archewell?

They're probably phasing out Archewell. It doesn't have the same visual connection to Harry and Meghan that Sussex does. I think they struggled so much with Archewell and were never able to get it off the ground in terms of a brand or an identity, in part due to the COVID-era launch. Sussex is a much stronger association for them and connects them more tightly to the royal identity. Archewell will probably be either their nonprofit arm or their content creator arm but it won't be as important going forward as it's been in the past.

Frankly, I would be surprised if Archewell v Sussex branding didn't come up in the brand analysis that WME did when Meghan first signed with them. We know they did a brand analysis because there was a ton of PR in August 2023 about Harry and Meghan becoming separate brands, which didn't work at all and they were back together as a "Sussex" brand in September 2023 with Dusseldorf Invictus Games. Seeing the success of "Team Sussex" in Dusseldorf definitely informed the website and the rebranding attempt.

What about the timing of all this?

They're taking advantage of the quietness from the royal family. They do this every year like clockwork when 1) the BRF is on summer holidays (July through early September) and 2) the BRF is on winter holidays (late December through early February). What is unusual about this timing is that it's taking place in mid-February and possibly well into March, which is a clear signal that it's the Sussexes taking advantage of Kate's absence to draw attention to themselves because Kate isn't there to steal their headlines.

And that it was a whole week of Sussex PR is not unusual either. It's their usual pattern when they have something big they want to promote and dominate the news with. It's cyclical at this point: first is a reminder of their royal status (Harry flying to Charles's bedside), then it's a reminder of their celebrity status (the Super Bowl appearance), then it's a big announcement (Sussex website), culminating in a set of public engagements/appearances (Invictus Games) with media attention. And to keep the attention coming, they drop breadcrumbs about the royal family to look like they're still "in," which buys them a few extra days of coverage because Charles falls for the bait every time.

The more interesting bit of timing in all of this is the Netflix article. Netflix wouldn't randomly give comments like this, so something must have happened behind the scenes for them to be pushed to this particular breaking point. I feel like perhaps the Sussexes may be trying to renegotiate their deals - maybe they asked for more money or maybe Meghan is trying to get more out of this 'Meet Me at the Lake' production than was agreed - and this is Netflix making it clear that it's over and done. I also have a niggling feeling that it might be connected to the upcoming film awards (BAFTA Film Awards tomorrow, Oscars on March 10th) - maybe they're trying to score tickets to parties using Netflix's name?

Are they really going to come back? Will Charles let them work again?

Analytically, the evidence points to 'no.' The trial balloon failed quickly faster than any other I've seen recently, which is and isn't surprising. It's surprising how quickly Charles backtracked since it had his implicit endorsement. It's not surprising that Charles pulled it down - he's as thin-skinned as Harry and Meghan both are when it comes to criticism.

But it's also more than just the trial balloon. It's everything else.

Charles wants them back on the family side. That's always been pretty clear. I think he waffles on having them back on the "work" side: on the one hand, the BRF needs the help since 10 of The Queen's 14 working royals are elderly (all 5 Kents, the 2 Gloucesters, Charles and Camilla, and Anne) and 2 of the remaining 4 are dealing with a signficant health issue and are temporarily out of commission - in the business sense, this is unsustainable and untenable succession planning. But on the other hand, no one wants Harry and Meghan back, for a litany of reasons including how much shit they've talked about the family (collectively and individually), the petty PR games they play for attention, and the Sussexes' general toxicity. And by 'no one,' I mean family members, courtiers/staff, others in the aristocracy (not getting invites to the Grosvenor wedding is a huge reflection of what "their kind" thinks of teh Sussexes), and the at-large general public.

Charles probably has entertained the idea of half in/half out now that he's in charge and the Sussexes are now lovebombing him (vs in 2020 when they were lovebombing The Queen) but his biggest opposition is public support - it took Charles 30 years and 4 significant deaths (Diana, Queen Mother, Philip, and her own forthcoming death) to get The Queen's support for Camilla to become 'Queen Camilla and, in turn, the public's support or the public's indifference.

Charles doesn't have that kind of time to get the institutional and public support to bring Harry back. He's got 10 years at best, which is now handicapped by a cancer diagnosis.

Beyond that, he doesn't even have Harry and Meghan's cooperation the same way he had Camilla's cooperation. Camilla cooperated with a 10-year wait to be liked well enough that no one would object to her marrying Charles. Camilla then cooperated with a further 17-year wait to be liked well enough that the institution would support her becoming Queen.

Can Harry and Meghan wait that long? No. They can't. They couldn't wait an extra year to get engaged. They couldn't wait to have their first child. They couldn't wait out the criticism from Fall 2018. They couldn't wait out the criticism from Summer 2019. Harry couldn't wait for the phone-hacking settlement. When they want something, they want it now. They buy completed projects and slap their branding on it vs. developing their own programs.

Can Harry and Meghan cooperate with anyone? No. They can't. They couldn't cooperate with William and Kate on the Royal Foundation. They couldn't cooperate with the courtiers for Archie's birth. They couldn't cooperate with the family on Megxit. They couldn't cooperate with the rota for tour coverage. They need to be totally and fully in control of absolutely everything. Their idea of cooperation is 'I tell you what to do, you do it.'

And because they're too impatient and because they refuse to cooperate, there's no way they'll support a 10-years long PR drive for Charles to rehabilitate their public image and get William's support. Heck, they can't even last a 3-month media rebrand. Charles knows that, which I suspect is why he may be trying to fast-track it but 1) when has fast-tracking something ever gone well for the BRF and 2) William is the linchpin holding it all together. Charles can't do anything without William's support. Yes, William is that powerful now - the public does pay attention to what he and Kate signal and the public would support them more than they would support Charles. Charles can't risk losing William's favor any more than he already has.

The third reason stopping Charles from taking Harry and Meghan back as working royals is Camilla and that Harry doesn't want her involved. He admitted it last week when he didn't contradict her leak about it. IMO, this reveals Harry's hand: he wants to position himself (or Meghan and himself) as Camilla's alternate, the way Charles often stood in as Philip's alternate. They want Camilla to retire so they can take her place in prestige, wealth, and attention. It's the only way they can "be better" than William and Kate, and they probably think it's how they can get "more" in the inheritance than William. Unfortunately for them, Camilla is Charles's line in the sand so no way will Charles let that happen after he spent 30 years getting Camilla to be able to sit next to him, and on top of all that, Camilla herself didn't wait 30 years to be Queen just for a pair of narcisstic glassbowl shitheads to usurp her at the last second.

That's the "working royal" side of it.

When you look at the "family" side of it, we know that Charles is more accepting of allowing the Sussexes back as family members, albeit with two strict rules:

No Meghan

No royal work

We know these are Charles's rules because it's already been communicated to us, most especially in the events around the Queen's funeral and his own coronation.

We also know these are Charles's' terms because Harry is publicly fighting against them this week, which suggests that these may have been reiterated (or relitgated, perhaps) during the <15-minute visit on February 7th.

"We all finally have the same surname for the first time as a family" and "maybe I'll become an American' is Harry's way of telling Charles and the courtiers that all four of them are a package deal and they all move together (like Archie's salt and pepper shakers). Meaning that if Charles wants Harry back, Charles must also take Meghan, Archie, and Lili too.

The Vancouver trip being such a royal rip-off is Harry's way of demanding royal work. His position is that he and Meghan must have the exact same lifestyle now that they had back in 2018: a palace residence, glamorous patronages, military honors, gushy praising media coverage, carriage processions, and equal precedence to the entire Wales family.

All this to illustrate that the dividing line is over the work aspect.

On one side is everyone saying "no, they can't work, they're just family." On the other side is Harry and Meghan saying "we're not just family, we're also working royals." And Charles is there smack in the middle saying "don't make my last years miserable" begging someone to give in. It's clear that Charles hopes it will be the institution (i.e. William) that gives in so he can fast-track the rehabilitation.

So no, I don't think Charles and the Sussexes will succeed in being part-time working royals. I think we'll see a lot of negotiating in the coming weeks and months (like Sussex demands for Trooping) and it may get loud and it may look frighteningly real, but that's only because William and Kate are on leave from work and their absence lets Harry and Meghan play offense. Once the Waleses are working again, or a new picture of Kate is released (I'm still hedging my bets for something celebrating Mother's Day next month), the Sussexes go back to playing on defense, and playing poorly.

We only need to worry if William, Kate, and Camilla appear to be changing their minds. They represent "the institution" to Charles, as well as public support (William) and establishment media (Camilla). William continues to tell everyone he isn't speaking to Harry. Kate's body language at the Windsor Walkabout keeps resurfacing. Camilla has leaked that Harry doesn't want to see her when he visits Charles and that she doesn't support the Sussexes coming back. There's nothing to worry about for now.

[sluttysnowangel666]

Chapters 10, 11, & 12 of The Song of Blackwoods & Brackens

cw: smut, cursing, violence, vomiting

This story is written BY ME and I do not consent or give permission to it being posted or translated anywhere else. thank you for supporting your writers <3

find the other chapters here

Chapter 10: Shame, Shame, Shame

19 days before the battle of the burning mill

𐂃 𐂃 𐂃 𐂃

It had been days since I'd seen Benjicot.

The ache in my heart had not let up. I was so ashamed at how much of a fool I made of myself, and I felt as though I could no longer keep up the lie. But, each day I continued to go without seeing him was another day it felt as though my heart was going to shatter. I could not help the tears that began to stain my pillow every night.

After the incident at the brothel, I refused to return to the court yard along the border, instead training with Bracken men.

I also used the extra time to do duties a lord would do. Thankfully, Stone Henge did not have many. There were no council meetings to sit in on since my brother and uncle were gone, I did not need to clean as we had servants to do that, and I was not particularly keen on reading Bracken lineage. I had spent the last week lying around, thinking only of Benjicot and the night at the brothel.

Later in the day, I received word from my uncle who was only less than a week away from reaching King's Landing.

Dearest niece,

I will be arriving in King's Landing in less than half a fortnight. You are to still be preparing for your leave to Casterly Rock. Your brother will return immediately following our meeting with His Grace. When your brother arrives back to Stone Henge, go to Casterly Rock at once.

Uncle

Very short and sweet.

———

While I had been able to avoid Benjicot by hiding inside Bracken territory, I would no longer be able to during my border patrol.

The boy doing it prior had stepped into a divot along the stones and broke his ankle, when no other men volunteered to take his place, I had no choice but to step up.

I started my patrol in the early morning, usually around what time I trained with Benjicot. It was very early dawn, the sun not even peaking out the horizon. The sky was a deep, but not navy shade of blue. It was that time when it is most beautiful, most calm, most eerie. The birds quietly began to chirp, signaling the soon break of the sun. The bugs ceased their chirping, and the owls quieted their calls.

The air was so crisp and fresh. The humidity had not yet creeped its way in to make the lands stink of cattle. There was almost a chill in the air, and I embraced it. I could not help but wonder if I was stolen at birth by the Brackens. Perhaps, I was a true Northerner.

If only I were that fortunate.

"You!" A voice, filled with venom yells.

I whip my head, knowing immediately who it is. "Benji-"

"Training, and training, and training. Time I could be spending on my land, caring for MY people and instead I help you train. I help you train, even though you're a bloody lost cost. Then, you run away. Because you're too much of a whiny cunt to see the real world." He yells, panting by the end of it. "After all I've done... You could've just said you weren't coming back... You could've just said you weren't really my friend... I've waited here, day after day, night after night for you."

"Benji..."

"Don't call me that."

"I am your friend. I... I'm sorry I didn't come back. It wasn't your fault. I... I promise. I just got scared."

"Scared of what?" He asks. I hesitate. "Tell me... Aeron."

He's giving me my chance... But, I can't do it. I can't tell him.

"I'm just... not ready to be a lord. I'm not ready for all the responsibilities that come with it. It all felt too real. It all hit me when we were there... at the brothel."

"Must I train you on how to be a lord as well?" He asks, sarcastically, but I can tell he likely means it.

"Maybe." I chuckle, "I'm sorry..."

"It will be dark for one more hour." He says, "Let's pick up where we left off."

——————

Chapter 11: The Dornish Wine

cw: talks of smut but no actual, vomiting

12 days before the battle of the burning mill

𐂃 𐂃 𐂃 𐂃

"You're really improving, Bracken."

I nearly melt into a puddle at Benjicot's sweet words. They were few and far in between, so I always made a point to savor them when they seldomly occurred.

"I've been practicing that trick you taught me."

Since Benjicot and I's argument from last week we had managed to put it behind us, focusing only on our training.

At least during the day.

At night, Benjicot took us exploring.

After the incident at the brothel, I knew I was beginning to tread a fine line. Because of that, I had to make sure I was playing my part full heartedly to not around any more suspicions from Ben.

I kissed maidens, I fondled them, I wove my fingers through their hair, and wove my tongues past their lips. Perhaps one day, the lips I kissed would stop being brothel maiden's and become Benjicot's instead.

I was growing obsessed with him. Each day we spent training, each night we spent drinking, we grew closer and closer; physically and emotionally.

He knocked me down, he pulled me up, he bought our drinks, filled our cups. I found myself getting lost in his eyes, entangled in the words that spilled from his honey coated lips.

"Bracken." His voice breaks my trance.

"Huh?"

"I said ready your sword."

"Oh, sorry." I say. He smiles softly.

"Where'd you go?" He asks.

I pause, "Uh... nowhere. Sorry. Thinking about tonight, I guess."

"Oh, about that. Let's skip the brothel tonight. A shipment of Dornish wine just came in. It's a little sweet for my taste but does the job better than the watered down brothel ale." He says, a small blush coming across his cheeks.

I giggle softly, "Okay. By the weirwood again?"

"No. Meet me by the boundary stones tonight." He says, he turns around facing away from me, and in a swift motion he turns right back around wielding his sword.

I block it and force him backwards, laughing and swinging to land the blow. We fight with our swords, laughing and kicking our feet at each other.

"You're a fool." I say to him, and he laughs.

Our walks to and from our training spot used to be quiet and tense. Now, during the entire hour we spent walking we found new things to talk about.

Today, however, he began asking about me.

The real me.

"I've never heard much of your sister. For a long time I didn't know you had one." He said, as we trekked through the weeds and sticks back to our lands.

"Oh, yeah. We're twins actually."

"No shit." He says, but as more of a statement rather than a question. "What's she like?"

"Oh, you know how high born ladies are," I begin my lie, "They sew and they swoon and they... you know, whatever else it is they do."

"Hm." He doesn't believe me. "And your sister is one those high born ladies?"

"Yes." I say, attempting to end the conversation. But, he continues.

"What's her name?"

"Why do you care?" I ask, sharply. He shrugs, smirking smugly.

I sigh, "Y/N."

It almost feels good saying it out loud.

"Is she a hostage?"

"No. What? Why the bloody hell would you ask that?"

"I've never seen her. I don't fully believe she exists."

"Maybe she doesn't."

"Hm." He hums, "The forgotten Bracken daughter. Useful only when it's time to be sold off to the highest paying lord."

I say nothing. Neither does he.

We arrive back at the boundary stones, the last 10 minutes of the walk had been quiet after that conversation ended.

"Be back here tonight. About one hour after dusk."

Then, he turns and leaves.

———

I sit in the dark upon the boundary stones, kicking my feet back and forth against them. His words echoed in my mind. I was upset, angry. They were painfully true.

My brother would be returning soon, likely within the fortnight. And after that, I would never see Benjicot again.

"Bracken." I turn and see Benjicot, holding up a large flagon of wine. "Ready to see what the Dornish are made of?"

I laugh, my mind immediately forgetting my worries.

"Follow me." He says, and turns back to his land and starts walking.

"We're drinking on your land?" I ask.

"Scared?" He turns and asks with a smirk. He turns back around and keeps walking, not waiting to see if I'm following. I slowly trudge behind him, slightly afraid of someone noticing me. Bracken or Blackwood.

We didn't go very far thankfully. He lead me to a row of tents, likely meant for their army.

They weren't being used, so he brought me into the nicest one. It was large, filled with tables and weapons, as well as a few cots.

I laid back on one of the cots, and Benjicot took a seat upright on the one next to me, immediately drinking the flagon.

His face twisted at the sweetness before he handed it over to me. I drank and contorted mine as well, not yet used to the strong, sweet flavor. I coughed a little and cleared my throat. "Gods. They bloody know well how to make a fruity wine."

"On that much, we agree." He says, taking it back and taking another swig. "Let's play a game."

"A game?"

"A game." He affirms, "A Lannister taught me it."

I groaned, "Forget it, then. I hate Lannister's."

He smirks, "Any reason in particular?"

I sigh and take the wine, "No."

"Let's play then."

"Fine. What are the rules?"

"If I guess a fact correct about you, you drink. If I'm wrong, I drink."

"This sounds stupid."

"Indulge me." He says. I sigh, accepting defeat. He begins, "You're a virgin."

"That's not fair, you knew that already." I say as I take a drink.

"You... despise your family."

I sigh again, taking another drink.

"You love your twin... Much more than you let on."

I drink again, "Okay, it's your turn now, Blackwood."

He takes the bottle and stares at me intently.

"You... aren't a virgin." He drinks, and my heart sinks a bit. "Who was she?"

"That's not how the game works."

I repeat his words, "Indulge me."

"She was a high born girl who was passing through. My family hosted hers. We were young. We snuck into the woods. I took her maiden head."

"Is that why they call you Bloody Ben?" I ask, venom on my tongue.

He raises his eyebrows slightly, "No, it's not, and what do you care so much about it anyway? Are you jealous because you've never been with a lady?"

"No, now drink, because you were wrong about me being jealous."

"I won't drink because I know you're lying. Give me the next question."

"You don't like being called Bloody Ben."

"Wrong. I love it. Now drink." He says, pushing the bottle back towards me. My stomach begins to bubble, the sweetness starting to taste rancid each time it goes down.

"Your turn, again. You're rather shit at this game." He teases. "You don't like women."

I swallow, "Wrong."

"Don't lie." He says, firmly.

I drink. He smirks

"You believe in the true Queen." He says. I drink, the feeling growing worse and worse in my stomach. I feel all my day's indulgences beginning to rise in my throat.

"You're no true Bracken." He smirks.

For some reason, those words push me over the edge.

I vomit all over his legs. "Oh, seven hells, Bracken!" He curses.

"Fuck, I'm sorry." I manage to cough out. I turn and leave the tent as fast as I can.

For some reason I sprint, which doesn't help, and I don't get far.

I fall to my knees, vomiting more and more. I can't help but begin to cry. The embarrassment, the stress, the realization is too much to handle.

"Fucking seven!" I curse, sobbing on my hands and knees, drool spilling from my lips. The dark violet vomit from the fruity wine is all over me, and I reek of tangy and acidic fruit.

I feel a hand rest on my back. I know he probably just witnessed this whole thing, which doesn't help the embarrassment.

"Gods, Bracken, is there anything you can handle?" He asks, as I vomit more. More and more continues to come until I dry heave, the whole time Benjicot rubs his hand up and down my back.

"You're alright, you're alright." He drags me up, although I'm dead weight in his arms. I cry and cry and cry. And when he can't get me to stand on my feet, he drags me all the way back to the boundary stones.

We reach the boundary stones and he finally falls, sitting on the ground. 

He pulls me between his legs, placing his arms around me. He rests his chin on my shoulder, "Calm down, it's okay, Bracken."

"I don't wanna leave!" I drunkenly sob, "You're my best friend. Don't let them take me, Benji." I grip his arms, holding them close to me so they'll never leave me again.

"Sh, sh. I'm here." He hushes, and then sighs as if he chooses his next words carefully. "I think you're gonna be the death of me, little Bracken."

——————

Chapter 12: The Secret

cw: slight smut, more to come tho 🤫

(the moment we've all been waiting for, the slow burn is OVER)

𐂃 𐂃 𐂃 𐂃

-11 days ago-

I opened my eyes. Darkness enveloped my vision, but I could faintly see torches in the distance.

I groaned. My head was pounding, I was incredibly dizzy, and I'm sure if I had anything in my stomach I would have been vomiting it up.

A pained gasp left my lips as I sat up, which awoke Benji, who I hadn't even noticed was sitting directly behind me, his arms around me.

"Take it slow." He says, softly, his voice raspy from sleep.

"Gods," I managed to get out, my voice was hoarse from all the crying and vomiting. "What... Where are we?"

"Still at the stones. I dragged you here."

I turn and face him. We were dangerously close. "I am so, so sorry-"

"Don't apologize." He stands, a cold chill runs up my back where his warmth just was.

"About what I said-"

"I think we should get you home before you say anything else too complex for me to understand." He says. I nod.

He pulls me up slowly, the earth spinning beneath my feet. "You got it?"

I nod, but he keeps his arm hooked under my armpit anyway. It's good he did too, because I was lying. If he had let me go, I might not have gotten back up.

He basically carried me in near darkness all the way back to my castle, despite the risk of us getting caught.

We got to the door and I rested my weight onto the wall.

"Will you be okay from here?" He asks.

"Yes." I sigh, "Thank you, Ben."

He smiles, "I'll see you tomorrow. Be sure you rest well today."

I nod as I watch him turn and walk back to his lands, the sun slowly beginning to rise beyond him.

I don't know why but seeing him walk on my land, the sun gleaming beyond him yet brightening his dark curls... I felt hope.

———

Present

1 day before the battle of the burning mill

Benjicot, the sweetest boy, had managed to forget about my foolish actions again. He'd never brought up the night with the wine, never teased or made fun of me, and never mentioned how he held me in his arms as we fell asleep.

We continued our training in the day, but I was no longer invited out after dark. I can't say I blamed him for no longer wanting me in his company when it came to drinking.

In combat, I was improving greatly. So much to the point he wanted to pause on swordsmanship and train me with a bow and arrow.

"How do you know how to use one of these?" I ask as he pulls out a large wooden bow from the tent, the same one we drank in. Someone had cleaned up my mess, maybe even him.

"My aunt is one of the best in the seven kingdoms at using this." He said. "While I work better with a sword, I've been trained on this as well."

He hands me the bow. I run my fingers along the smooth wood, stopping to trace the Blackwood sigil carved in the middle. "It's beautiful."

He says nothing. He had been quiet the past week. I believed the reasoning to be he had heard the news of my house declaring for Aegon. I tried to avoid talks of politics with him, but he always brought them up, questioning my opinion specifically.

It hurt not hearing his voice as often as usual. Our walks had become quiet again. I was running out of time with him, as my brother would return in days.

He grabbed the quiver holding the arrows and walked past me, not even looking in my direction.

I followed him anyway, head lowered like a scorned little dog. His silence made me feel small. I knew he was displeased with me.

He walked towards the targets, removing old arrows from previous shooters.

His land was empty, save for us. Most men had gone inside for supper or to drink. The sun would be setting within a few short hours. No one had any reason to stay outside.

He takes, rather snatches, the bow from me. He pulls an arrow from his back, raises his arm, and hits the target right in the middle.

"Wow." I whisper quietly. He hands it back to me.

"Raise it." I pull it up and he guides me, "A little higher."

His hand rests under my elbow as he softly continues to guide my arm. "There. Now take your other hand..."

He grabs my hand and rests it on the string, adjusting my fingers to the necessary positions. "Arrow between these two fingers, when you're ready to shoot move the first one so the arrow glides without catching your finger."

He positions himself directly behind me. He's so close that his chest is against my back.

"I'll guide you for the first one." He says. He pulls the arrow and places it on the bow, his fingers rest on top of mine on the string.

He lowers himself so our faces are at the same level. His lips are right behind my ear. I can feel his breath against my hair.

"Pull back." He says softly. I'm losing my breath. I do as he says but my hands are shaking. He surely notices.

"Stop shaking." He grips my fingers slightly.

"Hold..." He says softly. I'm panting by this point. Gooseflesh covers my arms.

"Before you shoot, take it slow. Breathe in as you pull back, breathe out as you let go. Focus." He says, slowly and gently.

I do as he says, and he mimics my breathing. His hand gently leaves mine, and rests under my elbow that's cocked back.

"Think of it as an extension of you." He says, "You and the bow... are one."

I release, and the arrow flies.

Right into the center.

He steps back, and for the first time all week I see him smile at me.

"You're a natural."

I blush as he continues, "I should have known from the beginning when you should've been using your left hand."

He pauses, "You were never meant to wield a sword, but a bow."

"Ben, I-"

"We can work on that more tomorrow." He turns and walks back towards the tent, not giving me the chance to finish.

"Ben!" I run after him, struggling to keep up with his long strides, even though he's only walking.

He walks into the tent and I follow after him. I go to speak, but I can't. Nothing comes out.

My heart is racing. I feel so terribly, terribly nervous. I don't know why. Why do I feel so much dread?

He sets the bow on the long table and turns back to face me, resting his lower back against the table, awaiting whatever it is I have to say.

"I just wanted to thank you... for everything you've taught me." I say. He nods. "Um... I believe you've helped shape me into who I truly am."

He scoffs at that, I raise my eyebrow slightly, but continue anyway. "Today will be the last time we see each other... Lord Blackwood."

"Running back to Uncle Bracken when he returns? Gonna have him tuck you in and kiss your cock?" He says, rudely.

"I... what? What's your problem?"

"You're my problem, Bracken. You always have been."

"Then why'd you train me, for seven sake?"

"I don't know. I guess I'm just a bloody fucking fool."

"Do you want me to apologize then? I don't know what you want from me."

"I want you to fuck off and don't come back on my land."

I scoff, trying to hide the tears that well in my eyes. "You're unbelievable."

I turn and walk away, he pushes himself off the table and follows.

"Me?! Unbelievable?!" He yells. I go to lift the tent flap when he grabs my wrist, ripping me behind him.

I stumble back into the table where he just was. He steps closer and closer to me, until his chest is against mine, "You've got nerve. You might genuinely have balls, in fact, to call me unbelievable."

If I wasn't so concerned about how close he was to me, I might've noticed his choice of words. But my mind was running farther than I could catch it. I could only focus on the proximity, or lack thereof, between us.

"Unbelievable... You wanna know what I find unbelievable, Bracken?" He asks, softly, moving his lips beside my cheek so he can whisper into my ear. His hands place themselves beside me onto the table as he leans over me. "What I find unbelievable..."

He doesn't finish his sentence. He pulls away and looks at me.

He's silent. I'm silent. Everything is silent. There's no bugs, no owls, no animals. The only sound is our fast, breathless panting. Why's he panting? Why am I panting?

"Fucking forget it."

He slams his lips on mine, finally. Oh gods, finally. His hands move to my face, resting them on both of my cheeks. He pulls me into him, as if he is trying to merge us into one.

"Wait, Ben-" He keeps kissing me. "Hold on, Ben, there's something-" More kisses.

His hands weave through my hair, pushing my head towards him so I can only pull away for quick breaths.

I bite his lip, hard enough to draw blood. "Ow, fuck!"

I push him away, "I'm not who you think I am."

He's angry. He looks at the blood on his fingers from touching his lip. "You fucking..." He doesn't finish his sentence, even though usually insults come easy to him. He's holding back.

He shakes his head, licking the blood, and then he's kissing me again. "Ben, please, there's something you must know-"

"I know." He whispers quickly, going back to our heated kiss.

"No-" Kisses. "No, you don't-"

"I know." More kisses.

"Ben!" I yell, angrily. I push him off, "I'm not a man!"

I walk past him so he can't kiss me again. As bad as I want to, I can't do it. Not before I tell him. "I'm not Aeron Bracken-"

I barely get it out in time before I'm pressed against the wall, his chest pressed to my back. My cheek touches the soft cloth of the tent, and Ben snakes his fingers up my stomach to my jaw, gripping my cheeks into his fingers.

It feels like everything finally slows down, including him. "I know, Y/N." His voice is low, and raspy. I gasp at my name.

"What?! Ben?" I turn and face him. He cups my cheeks with his hands.

"I've always known." He says, "I knew from the moment I saw you crying on the ground at that courtyard."

"How?" I asked, shocked.

"How? Y/N, you weren't exactly subtle." He says, "But, it was entertaining. I wanted to see how long you would drag it out... But, I couldn't fucking wait for you anymore."

I slap him angrily, and he smirks at me. But gods, that smile. He was so hard to hate. "If you knew... Why didn't you fucking kiss me sooner?"

"So, I should have kissed you the moment I knew I wanted you? Despite the fact you've been lying to me for weeks?" He says, frustrated. "I wanted you to trust me enough to tell me on your own."

I don't say anything right away, because I know he's right. "I trust you with my life... I'm sorry I lied. You didn't deserve that."

"I don't care, Y/N." He kisses me again with desperation.

"This is so wrong." I say, reciprocating his kiss.

"I don't care." He repeats. He mumbles it into my neck over and over with soft kisses. I lean my head back to give him more access. Shivers run down my spine.

"Let me have you." He whispers in my neck, "I need you, little Bracken."

His hands grip my waist, ready to rip off my clothes the second I say the words.

"Take me, my lord."

[lovelybeesthings]

Quick like a bunny Ch 2

Coriolanus Snow x reader

Warnings: none I think

Word count: 1.8k

Ch 1 & 3

Mansion

Why did he have to say such hurtful things all I’m trying to do is to care for him is that not enough? What does Lucy Grey have that I don’t she's a poor tribute form that distracts 12 from what he's doing he can end up killed or hanged! *I cry into my pillows as I try to find a way to release my feelings and emotions as tears find a way to escape from my sniffs and efforts push them away* “Yvanna dear come down for dinner!” *I hear my mother call as I get up in my pink pastel long puffy Lacey dress with my hair in curls*

Training

The next day I attended the Academy sitting threw my classes and lessons with focus but I couldn't help but look at Coriolanus his beauty his curls his looks- I stopped myself from looking and continued to focus on ways to take advantage of the games. As the lesson soon ended I came across my tribute as we practiced one-on-one trying to think of how I could better his odds even though he has the brown I would like to give him the brain.

I shortly walked away to get some Items to see how Reaper works with them and I soon came across a tribute his features were beyond what I'd seen from the Capitol his eyes sea green, his hair bronzed color his skin the color of gold if possible whatever he came from they had been keeping him well.. I felt a rush of warmth from my cheeks this tribute quickly noticed my luring eyes. “Fenwick Odair District 4” his smile was a bright pure one he knew he was handsome and showed it* “Did I scare you little bunny?” he said as I quickly regained my thoughts and answered “No, I was just impressed I believe you have a good chance of winning I think the odds are surely more in your favor” he looked at me hand on his chin smirking “That so little bunny?” “Better watch out then this bunny is quick” I smile as I flirt a bit with him and quickly return to Reaper to continue our training.

Unnoticeable to me Coriolanus was watching our interactions on his way to Dr. Volumnia's lab he felt his heart clench with bitter thoughts surfaced in his head what did he do to that tribute from District 4- no what did he think he was here to learn more knowledge to find a better way for Lucy to better her odds for his odds.

After hours

I spent my time brushing my silky (c/h) as it didn't have any tangles or any worries in my long healthy hair as I think about my encounter with Fenwick his love is his charms make me blush still, I hope he wins the game is know I should try to win but Id like to spend more time with him.

I heard a sudden knock on my door and I got up from my vanity in my pink lacey nightgown opened the door got my candle lamp to see who had visited my room in such late hours Maye a maid “y/n” Coriolanus speaks I'm shocked to see him here this light at night “what happen why are you home are you alright is Tigris okay?” I say confused and worried soon his cold hands reach my face and hold my chin I look completely lost to his sudden affection.

He pushes his way inside my room and preps me down on my bed I'm blushing and not sure what he's planning to do “What are you doing Coriolanus?” I say as his piercing blue eyes look at mine like a wolf looking at a poor rabbit to slaughter in minutes, his response was his lips on mine I'm surprised I mean this man was my fiance but he never really showed me an ounce of affection like that and since our last words, I wasn't sure he wanted to be in my life.

I respond with his kisses as he’s on top of me vulnerable to his lips how could I shut him down his mop of white blinding curly hair he just does it for me though in the back of my mind I think of Fenwick and gently push snow off “what are you doing..?” he looks at me a bit surprised and confused “What do you mean y/n I'm showing my affection and love for you” he looks at my eyes then lips then back up to my lips “No this doesn't feel right you don't….Are you okay this doesn't seem like something you think about clearly” I know I want his attention and his kisses but it feels like he's thinking of someone else..not someone Lucy..

“You don't want this you think you do but you love her..” I say “Right now you don't know what you want to be what makes you happy” *I say as I hold a smile and angle face holding tears back pushing the one I want to be happy “Lucy will cherish you as much as I will” he nods and slips out of my room my house like he was never even there the only reaches left were the stolen kisses of mine.

How do we think about this chapter? Is it good for your guys' standards I'll try to make the third one a time skip to after what goes down in the book and snows return back to the Capitol.

please like 😘

SHOUTOUT TO @edb954 for some of the inspiration and @watercolorskyy

[pathologicalreid]

Girlie (gn) you hate Maeve? You have good taste I see, I fucking hated her (well strongly disliked but still) mary sue is such a perfect term, she was just boring and I feel Spencer felt so wet and weepy with her

i don't hate maeve so much as i hate the maeve plotline! i think strongly dislike is a really good phrase to use when talking about my feelings towards maeve's character.

as a character, she's super flat and one dimensional. i think she and spencer were "together" for eight months(?) and the episode where you learn the most about her is the one where she fucking dies. i've spent all day thinking about this and im beginning to think that part of the reason why she is a mary sue is that spencer tends to put people he cares about on pedestals and ignores their flaws.

and youre like "what flaws does she have if you barely know anything about her" and okay i'll tell you:

b-12 and magnesium as a treatment for migraines is fucking insane. i'm not saying it couldn't work, but all through season 6 (re: 6x12 "corazon") spencer is seeing doctors and anyone who has ever dealt with a fuckass chronic disease/illness will tell you that a blood panel like that would be one of the first steps in reaching a diagnosis!!!

why on god's green earth would you have a stalker, be dating an fbi agent, and not let your fbi agent boyfriend help you? i have been stalked before!!!! it's not fun!!!!! i'd take all the help i could've gotten at the time. this has always rubbed me the wrong way because oh my god the solution was right there the whole time. he could have protected you! he would have protected you!

i know they weren't technically doctor/patient but there is still some weird power dynamic in their relationship that gives me the ick. other than they're smart and they read, they really dont have much in common.

their relationship to me is equivalent to the girl i dated online after we met through percy jackson fan accounts. i.e. not really a relationship. most of their interaction was off screen and i think that did a huge detriment to the plot.

in the end, i think the maeve storyline and 8x12 "zugzwang" is a hard watch. i can't take it seriously. i'd skip it, but then i'd miss so much blake content (and hotch looks so good in that episode sorry spencer) (not into the fuckass bob in season 8). at the same time, i know it was like... mgg's idea and i'm pretty sure he's friends with beth riesgraf. (he loves to traumatize himself idk). but the whole thing gets messier when you think about the implications left by 14x15 "truth or dare" and the abhorrent jeid plot in season 15 where it's insinuated that spencer has been in love with jj for fifteen years (zoinks) and it's like what about maeve??? i don't know man (gn) i could go on for hours about this

that being said, i see a lot of people not liking the actress who plays maeve. i am telling you that it had to have been the writing or the directing in the episodes because beth riesgraf is incredible. she played a character named parker in the tv show leverage (one of my favorite tv shows of all time) and let me tell you That Is Her Role.

jesus this was long i had more to say than i thought sorry thank you anon

[rapha-reads]

Things from Interview With The Vampire s02e04 (ep11) I noticed:

[Edit 1: Actually this turned into a live-commenting, sorry]

[Edit 2: Keep in mind, I haven't read the books, so all of these observations are born from the show itself and the few (lots of) spoilers and narrative plot points I've gleaned here and there.]

Both Claudia and Louis are so bored with the coven. Or maybe bored isn't the word, but... Done? Frustrated and annoyed? Restless? Louis because he never intended to join and so cares not all for all their internal affairs. Claudia because she thought she'd finally have the life she wanted and instead is being forced to relive the tragedy of her life day after day.

And Armand rejoices in drawing them further apart, scolding and punishing Claudia while begging scraps from Louis.

And he's soooo jealous. The face he makes when Louis starts explaining what Dreamstat feels like is priceless.

Also, personal theory: either Louis is indeed suffering psychotic breaks after psychotic breaks, or just manifesting his own version of Lestat because he doesn't want to let go. Or Lestat can astral project and has been stalking Louis from the moment they left New Orleans.

The coven is tearing itself apart. And normally I'd add "and Armand isn't even seeing it/taking it seriously yet" but given that the whole of them are unreliable narrators and that Armand is a shady ass bitch whose only agenda is himself, I'd say he's well aware and purposefully making it worse.

I can't make sense of Santiago yet, though. Is he jealous? Ambitious? Is he fond of Claudia? Does he hate her? He definitely hates Louis, but is it just jealousy or real antipathy? Oh, but Louis is still my precious special kitten and that speech about Paris, art and modernity, as a contemporary culture student, made me vibrate a little out of my chair, and Santiago clowning him makes me want to claw his face. We get it, you hate him and you think he's pretentious, now can you shut up and let us talk a bit more about the art scene in Paris post-WW2 and why Louis is absolutely right, Picasso isn't all that impressive in the end? Thanks. Bacon tho, Bacon is interesting. My contemporary art teacher last year was excruciatingly boring, but he had a boner for both Louise Bourgeois and Bacon and we spent several hours on them (and not nearly enough about Mapplethorne, alas). Anyway. I feel ya, Lou. I have been called pretentious too for simply getting excited about art, culture and folkore.

I'm rooting for Louis and Claudia to kill them all off and run away to Italy. I know it won't happen, but one can dream, eh.

Is Armand messing up with both Daniel by getting into his mind and Louis by switching the photos? Interesting. Two people who have a shitton of issues stuck with a sadistic, insecure and bitter control freak who's been pulling the threads since way before anyone realises. And Louis is so lost in his trauma and grief and anger, he trusts Armand and doesn't see what's happening and been happening to him for 70 years, while Daniel is just a sad, sick old man who thinks he knows his life and what his future entails. Armand is definitely having fun.

"Je n'aime pas fenêtre quand fermée" is NOT FRENCH, MY EARS. I will be picky, I don't care for artistic licence. Correct sentence would be "je n'aime pas les fenêtres quand elles sont fermées". Admittedly, if it goes into a song, you'd have to respect the length of the line and all those musical measures. But still. You could shorten the numbers of syllables by dropping the language register: "j'aime pas les f'nêtres quand elles sont fermées" ; from 12 or 13 to 9, the original line being 8 or 9. Depending on whether you say "je-n'ai-me-pas" or "je-n'aim-pas" and "fe-nê-tres" or "fe-nêtres". Anyway. I'm sure the writers had those discussions (I hope; hey, AMC, hire me, I'm a good proofreader and I speak 5 languages).

Me: oh, Louis isn't even bothering now, he's directly talking to... Wait, is Lestat eating that photo? If it's Dreamstat: the hell is going on in your head, Louis? If it's Astral Lestat: that is certainly a choice, my friend.

"Barely Balthasar", LMAO, Lestat I fucking love you. Poor Balthasar always gets forgotten in adaptations. Nope, we're not here to talk R&J, moving on.

Armand: "this is my tragic backstory. Feel pity for me. I'm the good guy." Me: yeaaah, how much of this is actually real? And, uh, no, like Lestat said: ha! You're a storyteller and a conman, Armand. You weave your story to pluck at the heart's threads of your audience, modulating it to their sensibilities to better serve your own interests and your plans. What are those interests, these plans? Hell if I know. But I absolutely do not trust you at all.

HANDS OFF CLAUDIA OR I'LL BITE

"The wilderness that is our daughter" have I said lately how much I love Lestat.

Oh, hello, the Loustat scene on the bench just broke my heart, which is funny if you consider that that's just Louis breaking up with himself. Also, do we consider Louis knew about the initials in the pocket, and Dreamstat is saying what Louis wants him to say, or is it another unreliable narrator Louis, or is it Lestat himself...?

Aw, going from the Loumand scene on the bench to "toxic gay divorce with body count" sure is a tonal shift. Lmao. You're losing your touch, Armand. Louis' awakening. Daniel's awakening... San Francisco next, that will be fun. Excited to see how they've changed that part, knowing it's the red thread of the first book.

...

Oooh, that got long. Apologies. I really need to sit and read those books.

[sunshinebarbarian]

Hello!! You can call me Pigeon! I'm 23F, from Portugal. I'm making this long ass post to give a little background information about the blog. I'm usually not into games like BG3, so I was a little late to the party, but boy am I glad to have arrived.

Click here to see the list of what I've already posted <3

I'm also posting on AO3!

One of my best friends kept talking to me about the game for YEARS and at some point last month Instagram decided to start recommending me fan edits of Astarion (which is funny because when she first asked me years ago who I'd pick, I very decidedly said Karlach) so I caved, and asked her to let me borrow it from her. When I was about 80 hours in, I broke and actually bought the game, because her account was being used and I didn't want to wait to continue my playthrough.

Neither of us expected me to get as much into the game as I did. Seriously. There's like 12 pages of screenshots I sent on discord of my own gameplay (a lot of it is Sol and Astarion kissing, oops), not to mention the unholy amount of reels and videos related to the game that we send each other.

Anyway, after about 180 hours (if you don't count the hours lost when I fucked up and had to reload the game) I finished the story, and proceeded to go cry in the corner. Instagram once again came to the rescue, when I started seeing posts from @meanbossart and I actually got obsessed with the way he draws his characters. I'd ride his dudrow to the Feywild and back if I had the chance. I'm not much of a visual artist, but I always loved writing, so I started writing Sol's adventures, because I was absolutely not ready to say goodbye to her (we spent over a month together! that's longer than some of my relationships). I'm doing it for myself, but I figured someone out there might enjoy it too, so I'm posting it. Plus this way I can save it more neatly than if I just keep using the notes app on my phone. I'm not new to Tumblr exactly, but I have never used an account for more than just snooping for particular posts. There's also AO3, but frankly that website confuses me and intimidates me.

Now, about Sol, and her story: I'm starting it pre nautiloid abduction, and will follow the choices that I made during the gameplay. I'm going to add some filling, to flesh out her character and her relationships with the whole gang, as well as just to give uniqueness to her story (otherwise you could just. play the game. and it'd be the same thing.). When I was creating Sol, I decided that I would play her as myself, making the choices that I would make, doing the things that I would do, so, the filling will be game/lore accurate still, and it will be based on my reactions and thoughts about game events. Luckily I have twelve pages of screenshots and a lot of messages to guide me. Once the game story is finished, I have ideas for how things will continue, because I refuse to let certain things remain the way they are, and I have attachment issues.

[mxaether]

MITCH MARNER -VS- TORONTO MEDIA/TORONTO FANS/HIMSELF/EVERYONE (a playlist for when you love a thing so much, and it bites you)

track list and selected lyrics for each under the cut ❤️

1. I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe - OK GO i want you, yeah, i want you/ i want you, yeah, i want you bad/ so bad i can't think straight/ so bad all my bones shake / so bad i can't breathe 2. Careful What You Wish For (the doctor said to) - Jack Harris something is missing/this predisposition/i feel like i'm living inside of my head 3. Who Made You A Monster? - Hael tricking the world to trust you/but everything that you say/is some kind of sordid lie/who taught you how to lie so well? 4. GOSSIP - Maneskin, Tom Morello welcome to the city of lies/where everything's got a price/gonna be your favourite place -- so sip the gossip, drink till you choke/sip the gossip, burn down your throat 5. Don't Be Nice - Watsky false modesty is a guilty habit/some people simply have it/but the fact is i would not have spent a decade doing this/if i did not believe i was at least a tiny bit ridiculously filthy at it 6. JEKYLL & HIDE - Bishop Briggs sweet and then you're sour/changes by the hour/never know which one i'll taste 7. End of It - Friday Pilots Club it's cruel you know/the way they've been treating you lately/get you real messed up on the daily 8. Nowhere Kid - Des Rocs inside of a maze you hide away/where nobody cares who you are/caught in a lie you can't escape 9. All For Us - Labrinth, Zendaya guess you figured my two times two/always equates to one/dreamers are selfish -- i'm taking it all for us, all/doing it all for love 10. Cruel Devotion - Night Club do you want me? tell me true/on my knees and now i'm begging you/loving you is such a cruel devotion 11. Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko i have nothing left to prove/cause i have nothing left to lose/see me bare my teeth for you/who, who are you? 12. Heartbreak Feels So Good - Fall Out Boy is there a word for a bad miracle?/nobody said the road was endless/nobody said the climb was friendless 13. Some People - Dan Mangan cause it's too easy to be righteous when you eat what you've been fed/some people don't question what they've read/some people should 14. SELF-SABOTAGE - Waterparks i'll self sabotage/if you like when we talk i'll dislocate my jaw/what the fuck is wrong with me 15. Matches - Huxlxy bring me the ashes/set me alight/i'd rather burn than say goodbye 16. SICK - Chandler Leighton never let anyone see your guard down/too proud, just stop, keep my frozen/iced out, i'm six feet underground 17. Black Wave - K. Flay shaking in my own cage/what do i believe? i believe/waiting on a black wave/living under bad days 18. Middle Finger - Bohnes you show me love and then spit in my face/making your money off all of my pain 19. still feel. - half-alive when i'm furthest from myself/feeling closer to the stars/i've been invaded by the dark/trying to recognize myself when i feel i've been replaced 20. Rather Die - Barns Courtney i came to kill 'em, now i'm/wipin' the spit from my eyes/i take a beating but i/i'll never give up 21. Lake Effect Kid - Fall Out Boy oh i've got the skyline in my veins, forget your night time/sumer love on a gurney with a squeaky wheel/and joke us, joke us til Lakeshore Drive comes back into focus/i just wanna come back to life 22. Stronger - Kanye West n-now-now that, that don't kill me/can only make my stronger -- do anybody make real shit anymore?/bow in the presence of greatness/cause right now thou hast forsaken us 23. Bulletproof - La Roux, GAMPER & DADONI i won't let you turn around/and tell me now i'm much too proud/all you do is fill me up with doubt/this time, baby, i'll be bulletproof 24. What Do You Want - Nico Vega you can go ahead and hate me/for bringing in news, but you could still choose/ain't going to be a party/but you turn it all down, down, down/say, what do you want?/what do you want from me? 25. I'm Gonna Win - Rob Cantor you've seen me before, you'll see me again 26. Hero - Martin Harrix, JVKE

a thousand voices whisper noise/they plan my fall from grace/whoa-oh, i know/you say you want a hero, you don’t

[clickerlickher]

lost my virginity at 12 years old to my first cousin her name is Missy she was 17 I was a 12

year old I was a horny 12-year-old boy I persuaded the whole situation I literally asked her a

couple times and she left and she said you're crazy we're related and you're too young you don't

know what you're talking about what you want I looked at her and I told her I said look here I'd

definitely know what I want I left the bedroom and came back and when I came back she was

laying on the bed reading a book wasn't paying attention I had no clothes on I climbed in the

bed with her and started talking to her and Rubin her leg and I finally slid my hand up her shirt

and down her panties and I told her I said look here I definitely know what I want what I want

was to be inside of her I told her look here missing if I go down on you and I make you squirt

and I make you orgasm then I get to finish whatever I want if not theif not then I'll leave you

alone and never bother you anymore anyways I spent an hour and 45 minutes between her

beautiful gorgeous legs and I managed to trigger that clitoris with my tongue and literally at

about an hour and 20 minutes she started to do feel it and not be able to stop sexual and

impulses and vibrations that she was starting to have anywhere she literally squirted

everywhere soaked me from head to toe basically I remember when I looked up to her between

her beautiful legs and I seen her eyes they were amazing it was not looking satisfaction and she

looked at me and said I don't know how to feel she said you like my little brother and I'm in love

with you she said no man has ever done that to me before and took the time and put that much

effort and passion in to making me feel the way you have .and me and her have a great bound

together and we still have are sexual experiences together we seen one another 12 months ago

at a family reunion and we had to go off and hidefrom the family and no one else knows but are

beautiful daughter Trisha Ann yes we have a daughter together she is 32 I am 44 at 12 I

preduced sperm to make a amazing and beautiful daughter together and she is the only one

who knows I am her father she found out at 14 years old the rest of the family thinks Missy got

pregnant at a party and was drunk and didn't know who the guy wasand like I said me and

Missy we created a beautiful daughter out of this situation Tricia never knew I was her dad and

when she caught me and her mom Tricia never said anything about it anyway her mom Missy

left me laying in the bed and she went to work that night I woke back up to what I thought was

Missy home from work Iopened my eyes and there was my beautiful little girl and she was riding

me hard and fast fucking me I took my s hands put them on her if and make her stop and told

her the truth I am not just your cousin as well your father took my fingers interlocked them to

hers removing my hands from her hips to literally look down at me in my eyes kissing my lips as

she said I love you Daddy I want to make love you and she did she went from riding hard to

nice and slow all I know is waking up not knowing and had I known I probably wouldn't want to

happen cousin yes daughter no because of society now saying iincest wrong but I love that she

made me open to my eyes and my heart to the beauty of it from day I lost my virginity even now

I have a strong sperm count me and Trisha Ann we created a beautiful daughter together and

after that I wanted more so we have two daughters heaven Marie she is 15 now and Jasmin star

is 12 and I have a nother daughter that is related to me after I understood the beauty of it all I

was at home one night I was 19 years eand I have a sister her name is Danielle she came

home from a party and she was drunk I literally all I could think of was her so wet and she needs

to know the beauty of love and sex I had in the past spyied on her i wanted to be inside of her

so badly just had not had the chance are parents were gone for a week vacation and I could

resistant she had on these tight little booty shorts and tank top and Igave her another drinkwhen she got home and I put some sleep aid pills in it she was out cold I figured I could have

made had her. just drunk but I wanted to know what Trisha had been feeling taken what I

wanted but in the same since wanting her to understand I love her and wanted her to know that

she loved tell you this much knew definitely that she had been fucked in the same sense she

had beautiful love made to her I fucked her 3 times that night and I made love to the 4th time I

cummed inside of her so much that when I went to dress her back so she thought it happened

at the party she woke up the next day so sore and she had called me up to her room and she

was crying as she told me she had been raped and and as I sat there with her at the end of the

bed all all I can think about was telling her the truth but not knowing how she would handle it

now so I did not tell her the truth anyways she found out but she found out in years and years

later I've had a strong sperm count like I said from the age of 12 of course the first time I had

f***** Danielle she got pregnant the kid she told our parents that she went to a party and say

that she was raped or anything like that she just said she got drunk and had sex with somebody

and she don't know who it was anyways she find out years later her daughter Ashley knew

before Danielle did cuz even after the first time I wanted to do it to Danielle so many times after

and to be honest with you I did every chance I got and she was drunk I would spike her drink

she would pass out and that would go down on her or f*** her and our little girl Ashley caught

me when she was 11 years old and walked in on me going down her mom and her mom out and

I explained to Ashley what I was doing and for whatever reason I ended up telling Ashley the

whole truth and Ashley took me by surprise when she put her hand on mine and said that

makes you my daddy and she said do you think of me like that Daddy do you want to do that to

me if she smiled at me and I didn't say another word I just put my lips to her sister kissing her

and we both later having sex while her mother was passed out beside us and she even went

down on her mom and ate her mom out shoot to me and said I've got to know what Mommy

tastes like just like you do to me have to tell Mama the truth about thank you later I did and it

was not easy and it didn't go over well it was Danielle at home bad situation she's crying she

just broke up her boyfriend and I came over and when I came over to seal put her head on my

shoulder crying blah blah literally without a word took my mouth and put her mouth and she

pushed me away I'm at that point I looked at her as I am tightly in the car on the truth she tried

to pull away and she was screaming and trying to yell at me and calling me names and I just

forced her down I pulled off her clothes and tired up and I need her way there went down on her

pleasing and pleasuring her every bit of two to three hours just just pleasing her and pleasuring

her and she finally started to have an orgasm and squirt and she couldn't hold it back no more

she couldn't find it off and Ashley came into the room completely naked out her hand he said

Mommy it's okay Daddy loves you and I do too and it's okay I'll let Daddy show you how much

she loves you and Danielle looks so confused but she looked at me and said thank you for

giving me my daughter thank you for loving me brother and making me know how much you

love me and everything's been good since now we f****** on regular

[never-wednesday]

So i did some Stupid Fuckshit this past month in final fantasy ffxiv: I wrote a character who i wanted to be a reaper through MSQ for story reasons.

This means that in order to accomplish what I want i need to be reach level 70 in a combat class, which was Paladin so I could start in Ul'dah and get fast queues.

I allowed myself some concessions: having access to the first three dungeons would grant us access to the leveling roulette, and Sylph Management will grant us a job, which makes the prospect of grinding much much more tolerable. So i allowed myself to progress the story just enough to move from Gladiator to Paladin.

It took me a total of 28 days (Oct 8th to Nov 4th), and 2 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes of playtime. Just under a month isn't bad, especially considering i spent almost a full week out of town and unable to play at all.

In that time I primarily used daily leveling roulettes, and despite unlocking PvP far earlier only used PvP for the last 5 days. Hunting logs, minimal levequests, every sidequest I could find, and pretty much any FATE I stumbled into was how I spent my time. Also, lots of Palace of the Dead. It was interesting! I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I don't hate Reaper (I didn't have the good sense to give it a proper test on my main first) but I can solidly say I do NOT recommend this! What the fuck!

If you do want to do this though, here's my advice:

- just start doing your daily frontlines as soon as possible the exp is no joke. It's also the only other roulette you have access to besides the basic leveling roulette, and you will want that scaled exp

- pursue challenge log entries!!! I didn't realize how good these were until the LAST DAY they got me from about 1/4 of the way to level 70 to level 70 so so fast. The chocobo companion and FATE challenge entries pair very well together, so pick up some gyshal greens! It'll also make soloing those fates much faster (ask me how i know)

-rotate between activities, PotD runs, FATEs and hunting log entries are well and good, but if you don't want to feel like you're going to start fist fighting every goddamn enemy personally you also gotta spend time doing other things that are fun. That's part of why I did so many sidequests! They have lots of love and charm in them, and it's a nice break from harsh grinding. I also really spent some time learning gpose which was super fun!!

-dont divide your time between multiple classes if you can at all help it. Honestly, I'd really recommend staying away from conjurer/white mage because it's much harder to do solo potd runs with (I did lots of potd content solo out of convenience). If you are going to pick up a new class, pick up something like RDM, GNB or any other class that starts at a high level and fully commit to it till you hit your goal

-uhhh, be yourself, have fun, and test your goal class BEFORE you do this

[grape-eating-vampire]

alright, it's done. i finished it.

this is the third and final part of things that happened in my first bg3 playthrough ever that I found so funny that I put them in my notes (spoilers below)

let me start this by saying I have only cried twice in the 155 hours it took me to complete this shit. however, I have almost-screamed at the characters more times than I'd like to admit. but first here's stuff that happened since the last one of these posts I made:

after killing Orin I went around Baldur's Gate for a while and did odd sidequests, including

clearing out a haunted house and sidelining to kill a stinky man in a wardrobe (and drag his body to a guy two streets over)

entirely ignored Gale's quest to look at a book because I kept getting arrested there after having killed the boss mage guy

I also foolishly though this wouldn't have any consequences. oh boy was I wrong

went to see a underwater prison, got told off by Gortash, decided to explore it after killing him, and promptly forgot to do so

killed Gortash! fuck that guy the only good thing about him is his fancy robe

tried to recruit a dragon called Ansur, found out the emperor is Balduran (????????? honestly I was shocked)

killed said dragon and felt like I was playing skyrim all over again

found a letter ("Dear Ansur") by Balduran/the Emperor. this was the first time I cried. I could still cry.

patch 6 came out! that was yesterday and I spent about 10 minutes trying out new kisses and sitting on Shadowhearts stool in camp (she now says "I'm glad you decided to join me" or something like that when you do)

went pretty much straight to the underground pool thing where the brain was supposed to be

failed abysmally to Dominate The Brain™

got pulled out by the emperor and had to start beef with Lae'zel because I had also forgotten to care about Orpheus and the hammer from the House of Hope

admittedly, I didn't really forget, I just didn't want to spend any more time with Raphael than I absolutely had to

my +14 persuasion saved the day once more and Lae'zel was fine with the one hope in her life getting his brains sucked out

went off to fight the brain once more. my game crashed twice trying to load that cutscene.

met all my allies! I forgot how many there were actually, and I only called on two of the groups later on

fought a lot. like a LOT lot.

got to the Netherbrain and kicked it's ass*

*had to reload about 3 times and try again because Minsc at level 12 was stuck on 100 hp for some reason and kept fucking dying

finally managed to kill the fucker! had Lae'zel deal the killing blow which seemed very fitting

more cutscenes, but this one actually didn't crash the game, I got to look at some beautiful unloaded walls and stuff instead

Lae'zel left right after we got to the haven. understandably so

remember how I ignored Gale's quest? well he didn't blow himself up like he inteded earlier, but he left to becOME A GOD????? I cannot fucking deal with this man

Karlach on the pier. this was the second time I cried, but unproportionally much so

Wyll left with her for Avernus, the little cutscene of them arriving there made me feel a bit better

Astarion had to leg it because of the sun (sorry)

Shadowheart didn't do much of anything during all of this, neither did Minsc, Halsin or Jaheira

decided to go help kids with Halsin, seems to fit my character (eventhough I really didn't roleplay so much)

we got an epilogue! yippie!

caught up there with everyone, except Lae'zel (who was there via the fantasy version of zoom) and Gale (who was there via the fantasy equivalent of a voicemail)

tried to hug Gale, couldn't, almost cried again but managed

also met a tressym who I recognized from fanart as Tara. I don't know why she was there, we never met her before and Gale hadn't mentioned her either

read a LOT of letters the party had received. barely kept my composure at the Gur's letter to Astarion

Withers did a cool speech and the game ended

after all of this and so much more that I didn't take notes about, I can confidentially say that Baldur's Gate 3 is the best video game I have ever played, and within it's genre my favourite ever!

I'm also emotionally devestated, especially after these final parts (but in a good way)

that's all, thanks for reading!

[multi-fandom-agereg]

JFHGJDSH I DIDNT KNOW YOU DID MCYT BC YAYYYYYYYY /POS

UHH COULD I PLEASEEE GET SOME HEADCANONS FOR REGRESSOR C!TOMMY AND MAYBE UHH IF YOU KNOW ABT QSMP , SOME FOR REGRESSOR Q!JAIDEN?? IF NOT THATS FINE THANK YOUUU <33333 /P

srry for all caps i got realllllly excited !!

Regressor!CTOMMY 🍓

🛸 a/n, Hello Tommie!! 👋 nice to say hi:D honestly, funfact! I was always planning to add mcyt to my ABC list but was nervous to^^" doesn't matter though bc we're here rn! So here you go! + Q!regressor Jaiden hcs as well (just getting into the QSMP, so bare with me jajs)

🍼 image credits : middle image is from ApolloSauce on pinterest — the other images are also from pinterest !

⚠️ : Bug mentioning (stuffie species + brief)

🍓 hc count : 13 + 5

🍓 : Tommy is a bunch of.. something. Especially when regressed. And that isn't a bad thing! Hes such a mischievous fluffball that is always craving attention from either his friends, sibbies, caretakers or babysitters!

🍓 : oh he bites.. he bites and bites some more. He can either bite when he wants attention or he's fussy and wants something. If he bites lightly to where you cant feel it when he's doing it to get your attention. (Or to get on your nerves) if he bites to where you'll wince or anything— then better give your full attention to him>:(

🍓 : pouty, especially when tired. He barely listens to the rules and loves to get into stuff he can't get into, and that especially includes bedtime. Will throw fits, do tiny stomps and cries. Don't worry though, Tommy literally trained himself to cry when he needed to (mostly to get out of bedtime or wanting extra attention) but usually that backfires when he tires himself out then he goes down for the nap

🍓 : do not let the boy get ahold of enderpearls for the sake of anyone babysitting/watching over him— he doesn't usually get far but he got into a tree and refused to get out. Spent hours trying to lure and get Tommy out of the tree.. safe to say it wasn't gonna happen again anytime soon

🍓 : unsure about his little age but I think he'd be in-between a young kid regressor and toddler. Maybe around 4-9. When he's the most active he'll most likely be around 8-9! When he's In the slow energy and fussy days he's about 4-6

🍓 : do not separate him from his tubbo disc. He'll throw a fit and bite someone. When he has ahold of this disc he won't let it go. Takes it to his adventures and makes his sitters play it on repeat

🍓 : has a raccoon stuffie named Rexus and a beetle stuffie named stray. Like tubbo's disc, do not separate them. He won't stop crying until he got them back

🍓 : doesn't have a permanent cg per say, but he's babysat by a decent amount of people on the server (Tubbo, Wilbur, Phil and sometimes Bad) but I'd think he's mostly around Phil and them!

🍓 : he'd beg to play dress up with anyone he can get ahold of if they're not busy. If they agree he is the prince. No buts or whys! He's the prince afterall (he always plays the prince. If he doesn't he'll just fall to the ground and NOT move for hours until the other person decides he can be the prince)

🍓 : headcanon that tubbo and Wilbur reads books to him! Specially any fairytales that include prince and princesses or animals

🍓 : collects flowers and gives to everyone he can find,, I don't know I think its a cute hc 😭

🍓: speaking of flowers, he once made a small flower crown and tied it to the back of ranboo's tail. Safe to say that took hours of trying to get off by yourself. You can say tommy is skillful of tieing knots. How did he manage to tie stems without it snapping? Who knows!

🍓 : loves calling his caretakers Bubba. If puffy ends up being the babysitter he calls her mama!

Reg!Jaiden 🐣

🐣 : I think she regresses a bit older! Maybe around 10-12. Around rare occasions she regresses younger (6-7)

🐣 : she's a sleepy regressor. She regresses only around nighttime or when she's tired. So when she regresses she prefers low energized actives

🐣 : owns only bird gear! Clothes, onsies, sippy, stuffies and wings she made herself! She loves anything bird related ^^

🐣 : she named her favorite stuffie after Ari! You can't separate them>:(

🐣 : best little to cuddle with. She likes physical touch (specially hugs, cuddles and being held) she would be like this for hours

[lovechrissturniolo]

2/ meeting

contains: conversation between Lea, Matt and Chris about the planned three days stream

“Everything fits in the upstairs room,” Lea began as she sat at the kitchen table with Matt and Chris after the stream, looking at the tablet with her notes.

“I'd like to try out the other ring light in the downstairs room tomorrow. The current one is too dim when it gets dark outside.”

She looked up briefly at the two of them and realized that she found it difficult to keep a professional expression on her face when she made direct eye contact.

And it wasn't just because they had really stunning eyes!

Lea had spent the last few days and nights watching every Sturniolo stream in repeat to think her way into their content and had secretly liked it far more than it was necessary for her job.

At home, she had laughed, suffered and cheered with Matt and Chris around the clock - only to sit in front of them now and act like she was in a meeting.

“Yes, let's do that!” Matt replied and looked to his brother for confirmation.

“We're relying on the professional!” Chris agreed, smiling warmly at her.

“Okay.” Lea nodded, trying to smile back discreetly, although it was hard not to get carried away by their easiness.

“When the light is done, you can start the stream marathon at any time. My boss said it's enough for him if you let him know 12 hours in advance so he can schedule me.”

“That's what he says?” Matt replied, twisting the corner of his mouth. “But in the end, it's you who has to be here for days.”

“Yeah seriously!” Chris agreed. “The question should be: When does it suit you? I'm sure you also have a private life.”

Lea smirked and shook her head.

“No privacy during this assignment - from his point of view.”

“We seem to be paying him well.” Matt joked and the three of them laughed.

“That's outside my jurisdiction.” Lea replied, realizing that she felt more comfortable being a little less professional.

“All right! Let's do this!” Chris concluded the conversation and you could clearly see how much he was looking forward to his "three days stream" idea.

〽️

"Maaatt! Let´s fucking go!!" Chris cheered as the door closed behind Lea.

"I still think you`re crazy." Matt replied rolling his eyes.

"You will see! It`s gonna be so much fun!"

"Sure. Maybe we do it before Nick comes back, I don`t think he wants to be a part of this."

〽️

"She is cute, right?" Chris murmured as they were back in the kitchen.

Matt gave him a scathing look.

“I'm just saying. It's much better this way than having her old boss here."

“Actually, I wonder if that's really better,” Matt sighed and punched him in the shoulder. “Don't fuck around!”

"I never fuck around." Chris replied and a somehow mischievious smile appeared on his face.

next ➡️

⬅️ index

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 12: TWO SNAKES SAVE MY LIFE

Annabeth was fiddling with the ends of the pages, letting them run through her fingers as she nervously stared at the title. Great, just what she wanted, more of her screw-ups on display, now from Luke's father himself. Gods knew what else about her past mistakes had been shown in Percy's life she hadn't gotten to yet. This was going to go so well!

"So," Alex broke the awkward tension in the room. "We're not even close to being half done with this one, and Percy's already invincible. I say we start placing bets now on how many more times he should have died."

"At least three more, minimum," Jason grinned.

"We have three, do I hear four, where's four?" Alex grinned in delight, still pointing at Jason and doing a fair impression of an auctioneer.

Annabeth sighed, very loudly, and started reading. Knowing Percy hadn't died was only, like, her fifth worst thing about dealing with this considering it made a living ball of anxiety in her snap taught every time it had almost happened.

It didn't help her problem Alex immediately started snickering again at the chapter title. "George and Martha make an epic return apparently."

"I bet Percy doesn't even offer George a rat, again. You're so ungrateful," Thalia mock wagged her finger around.

"I'll make sure I have plenty for you Thals," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Unless it's two other random snakes who just happen to be in the right place at the right time. I think a rat snake would come in handy," Magnus said with the hope the traitor would be revealed already before any more damage was done.

"We haven't even started yet and I'm already one-third of the way on my bet," Jason nodded at Percy, clearly impressed.

"And you're probably lowballing it for the gag," Percy rolled his eyes.

I love New York.

"Wow Percy, I never would have guessed," Thalia gasped, planting her hand against her forehead and falling back in her seat.

"It's not like it crosses your mind every other thought we hear or something," Jason smirked.

"You can both kiss my big apple," Percy rolled his eyes.

You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.

"I swear your brain is made of Mist," Alex snorted. "That would happen anywhere, they don't see her!"

"I don't mind him like this," Magnus chuckled, "I feel like it'll be really easy to tell if he's ever body swapped someday if he doesn't mention New York and forgets how the Mist works."

"Is that something you're concerned with happening a lot Magnus?" Annabeth asked with interest.

"More than you guys give credit for," he said seriously. He wouldn't put anything past these gods.

Of course, the Mist helped.

Percy stuck his tongue out at these guys, but none of their smiles faded much. He still seemed like a goofball for being surprised by it years later.

People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck.

"The only garbage truck I'd ever want on my block," Will grinned.

I took the risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second time.

"You used a cell phone while exiting the Underworld?" Annabeth looked ready to cry at him. It really somehow felt worse hearing he put no thought into tempting the world with his insanity.

The others were more confused why she was surprised at this point anybody else would be his call.

"And you didn't pick up," Percy told her with a tragic expression. "What were you doing that was so important? Prepping another war council or something?"

"It was on the charger," she scowled rather than admit she hadn't checked it for nearly an hour because she'd been running all over camp trying to figure out where he'd vanished to when she'd come knocking on his door for exactly this reason and he hadn't been there!

The amount of minutes she'd spent at camp wondering where he was had probably worn out the string on her life by decades.

I'd called her once from the tunnel but only reached her voice mail. I'd gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing as I was at the mythological center of the world and all, but I didn't want to see what my mom's roaming charges were going to be.

"With any luck and hoping you'd call, she probably has unlimited data?" Magnus said with only some idea what he was talking about, homeless shelters occasionally handing out phones. He usually just traded his away for food, but he might keep the next one if Annabeth asked if he had a number.

"Either way, she won't care when she finds out why you were calling from the center of the Earth," Will agreed.

This time, Annabeth picked up.

She'd only just heard his first message when he did call the second time, and there had been a horrible split second where her mind swiveled to it being Sally and having to explain she didn't know where Percy was before she snapped open the phone fast enough to break it in relief. She patted her empty pocket miserably now.

The only thing getting her through the past week was her daily phone call with Percy's mom, neither of them having an update, but the same hopeless hope in both their voices promising the other he was still alive somewhere out there. Now Annabeth couldn't pick up her phone still resting on the charger again to promise her it was true.

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!"

Annabeth read that with a little to much oomph in her voice. Like she wasn't just reading that, or saying it from memory. A large part of her still felt that, and Percy leaned forward automatically. He wanted to put his hand on hers like she had for him, hold her close.

She was radiating unapproachable. He'd pissed her off one to many times in his recent memories and now with Luke's dad on the horizon she clearly wanted nothing to do with him.

He sighed and slouched in his beanbag all the same, shifting his weight to be as close to her as he could without being 'in her space.'

It seemed to do the trick. Her voice relaxed a notch as she kept going.

"I'll fill you in later," I said, though how I was going to do that I had no idea.

"Hopefully you start with the part where you ran into Nico and then go in chronological order?" Magnus frowned in confusion.

"I get the feeling if Percy tried to give Percy back his own memories it wouldn't be half as coherent as these are," Alex snickered.

Percy couldn't even deny it.

"Where are you?"

"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens—Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"

Jason's head hurt. The kind of splitting, aching feeling that made him wonder if he'd crash landed without a helmet recently.

His vision kept wanting to double up, overlay proper war efforts, a whole group of people dividing duties. A girl with dark hair and a purple cloak at his side- his vision was blurring with tears and pain he quickly swiped away. They'd seen. He knew for a fact his ragged breath hadn't gone unnoticed.

Thalia was studying him with heartbreak in her eyes. It had never occurred to her to ask what the Roman kids had been up to all this time. Their camp was right under the base of Mount Tam. Did their Greek Titans attack them? Or would they have been safe in some cosmic ignorance?

Judging by the fact that he was here, that Oceanus could even pull him in here, Thalia suspected otherwise. She was sort of hoping, and just as afraid to hear of what he'd been up to during this time.

Both of them stared longingly at the other pile of books, a deep feeling of want to know how the parallel battle had gone.

Patience. Jason grit his teeth and pushed his problems aside, a feeling he managed with clear cut precision that should have worried him some other time. Percy was nearly caught up, no way would he interrupt with his little problem.

"Trust me," I said. "I'll see you there."

I hung up.

Annabeth could practically still hear Malcoml asking her if he'd told what the plan was and she'd had no good answer for him. He was so frustrating she'd nearly thrown her phone out the window.

My hands were trembling. I wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from my dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what I was about to do. If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save me from getting blasted to bits.

"Percy, what do you do?" Jason tried to ask while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Sounds like an average Wednesday for him to be honest, don't know what's got your panties in a twist," Alex snorted.

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief.

"I'm curious if you've just stopped bothering to try and count his eyes or you finally believed your brain when they said they move and regrow," Thalia grinned.

"Little of both," Percy admitted, squinting suspiciously at nothing in here as his mind was still convinced a new eye had either grown between his nose and lips, or it had moved from his cheek.

The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

"I will not be able to unsee every New York driver as a human/chicken hybrid now," Magnus sighed. "How did you even get those guys there?"

"Just like every other monster, they showed up, but we manage a symbiotic relationship," Annabeth shrugged. "We get lucky all they want is the trash scraps. Chiron said the Criocentaur that he paid before kept stealing all the kid's clothes and it just wasn't working out."

Magnus felt like his brain was rebooting with an outdated modem as he debated whether to ask what the heck that was before Annabeth took the option away and kept reading.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive.

Will chuckled, he'd almost felt nostalgic being back on a bus. Katie had gotten a sing-a-long going, it had sent him back to some of the best times being in that old van with his mom as he passed out cold water and advised some of those more woozy it helped to focus on a singular spot inside.

I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings. Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin wasn't here, but I tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

Hopefully not the very end, Jason tried not to shiver as Annabeth's words sat haunted in him. For all Percy knew, this was going to be the main battle and Kronos would still send forces to destroy the camp while they were all there, and they'd come back to see their home salvageable, with the Ares cabin obliterated.

I did a head count: forty campers in all.

That number didn't sit any better in Jason's mind. He'd always known in theory there was something fundamentally different about this place he'd never understand, never be able to comparatively wrap his brain around. Forty? Only forty warriors in total? That wasn't even a portion of- his brain slammed a metal gate shut on wherever that thought was leading, leaving him unsettled more with every word that progressed.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here.

"Yeah, but, they were already on their way for this big showdown," Alex said unperturbed. Magnus genuinely wondered what it would take to make him perturbed.

As I looked at their faces—all these campers I'd known for so many summers—a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy.

Percy bit back a groan of pain. His brain was a tilt-o-whirl of all their faces flashing through his mind making him more sick than any New York driver could manage. The worst part was, he didn't even want to know the answer.

But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them.

Then I remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

Annabeth came up to me.

Percy chuckled deep in his chest, that she always managed the best timing, that she seemed like an exception to every bad thing in his life. His eyes flickered to Will, who still had his arm casually around Nico. Less like he was holding him in place these days and much more like they were just chilling. His guilty thoughts then flickered to Annabeth and his traitorous arm and how that probably wouldn't feel like just a casual thing.

She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

"I have faith she can do both at the same time," Alex nodded with confidence.

"Only after I'm interrupted the third time," she said with a wicked grin of a little to much seriousness.

She frowned. "What is it?"

"What's what?" I asked.

"You're looking at me funny."

"Hate to break it to you cuz," Magnus grinned, "but that's how he's always looked at you from day one." One of the first expressions he'd come to recognize on a stranger's face was Percy just kind of staring into space when Annabeth entered his mind.

Annabeth blushed and cleared her throat hard before continuing.

I realized I was thinking about my strange vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the Styx River. "It's, uh, nothing." I turned to the rest of the group.

Annabeth resisted the urge to smack him with the book. He called her being his lifeline nothing?! Gods, if he had told her that she would have melted to a puddle and needed to borrow crutches for the rest of this fight!

Okay, so maybe it was a good thing he hadn't told her, but she still wanted to smack him anyways.

"Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

My old mentor shook his head.

There was a dull sense of sadness in Percy as he realized none of them were going to laugh at his use of the word old there like they had in the past. The truth was, Chiron was his only mentor, and his age was as legendary as some of the heroes he'd taught. It made the impact of this moment feel greater when his friends really couldn't crack a remark at him.

"I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"Is there a story there, or?" Magnus asked with the kind of familiar dread of not being sure if he wanted an answer.

"No, he's just very respectful like that," Thalia sounded as baffled as Magnus so often did though at clearly not understanding this concept one bit.

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth.

"Are these guys nuts?" Percy asked far to late after already being inducted.

"No," Annabeth said simply with a smile.

Percy looked from her to the book and back several times dubiously. Chiron, Annabeth, Beckendorf, heck Thalia had more a claim to a leaderly role than he'd ever thought of.

Again he waited for someone to laugh, Alex or Thalia being a top contender for never failing to make sure he had humble pie shoved in his face when he needed it.

Neither of them made a peep.

All he'd been in here, heck, all he'd been his entire life was a destructive, impulsive, decent fighter. He'd never asked for people to put their lives in his hands.

He took a breath and told himself this was his Iliad. He hadn't asked for this by having Posideon for his dad, but it was as much a part of his path as bestowing the prophecy upon himself as well as this curse.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Magnus tried hard not to wince at the idea Zeus was just going to blink and blast them all to bits for Percy's latest impertinence now rubbing off on the rest of the kids at Camp. The lightning god didn't seem like the kind who would take being told what to do lightly.

I asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

"I can't imagine why, we already know from Peleus he hands out the good treats," Percy said with regret.

"She just didn't want to leave you Percy, she's been enjoying your bonding," Alex said like the expert on dogs she clearly proclaimed herself to be.

Chiron shook my hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles had told me. Then I remembered Chiron had taught Achilles.

"Did I read a myth once right, that Hercules accidentally killed Chiron?"* Jason asked as he rubbed the side of his head. What a horrible time for that odd memory to resurface, but he had a feeling it tied into all this somehow.

"Almost, but Zeus told him how to heal the wound," Annabeth nodded with a sad smile. "It's how the idea of Camp actually came about, he needed a safe place to rest from his injury and Heracles helped find the place that felt sacred and safe enough."

"Cool," Percy and Jason chorused in surprise.

That didn't exactly reassure me, but I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

"Let's go," I told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover.

Magnus and Alex once again exchanged grins over a random book appearing that went way beyond and over anyone else's head. Magnus flashed up a sign and then finger-spelled something. Alex nodded slowly in understanding as he got the interpretation.

"You know sign language?" Annabeth said in understanding without taking in a word.

"Um, slightly," he blushed and dropped his hands like he'd been caught, though he looked a little proud too his cousin had sounded impressed. "Hearth's deaf, he's been teaching me."

"I've been wanting to learn another language recently that isn't hard-wired in," Annabeth grinned, still watching his hands fidgeting in his lap like a new book. Percy grinned at the way she said it like a challenge, a new feat for an ADHD kid to learn. It sounded perfect in fact, since they were all so fidgety.

"I wouldn't mind showing you the basics, that I know," Magnus happily nodded, that they might actually have something in common, might actually have a reason to hang out away from this place where they weren't forced into each other's company. Gods, it had been so long since he'd been around family, the idea almost frightened him. Hearth and Blitz had been the closest he'd had for so long, and now he wasn't even sure if they were okay. It was a dizzying kind of relief and guilt and pain all at once.

He glanced up when we all filed in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"Oh the deja vu," Magnus chuckled. "I hope another fury doesn't pop in. We've had enough of them."

"You know guys, I think Chiron might have been onto something when he told me those Greek myths would be important in my life," Percy nodded solemnly as he got a chuckle out of everyone, his heart leaping with pride even Annabeth managed a small but genuine laugh as she flashed him a smile before she kept going.

"No," I said. "Six-hundredth floor."

He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice our weapons, so I guess he wasn't fooled by the Mist.

"I am so fascinated by the implications here!" Jason's blue eyes glinted with their own light when his voice got that high-pitched with excitement. "Do they only hire mortals who can see through the mist? Is he like Paul and just accepts something is going on but doesn't understand what? Is he the god of security?"

Annabeth grinned at his curiosity. "I've asked on the field trips we went on, it's usually the same mortal. Chiron told us that, but Luke told me this legend about how he once darted across traffic to save a kitten and Mr. D granted him with the best pension and clear sight to keep doing his great work of keeping solicitors out."

Percy felt a wavering sense of jealousy as his eyes darted between Jason spluttering how cool that was and what other gifts she knew gods had bestowed, and Annabeth just casually mentioning Luke's name like someone else wasn't wearing his face.

Why had she attacked-kissed him if he was apparently the least interesting person in her life?

Will had gotten roped in now debating with Annabeth if that one super soft blanket everyone kept stealing was a godly gift or an enchanted item from the attic, and Thalia decided to cut in before the last dumb-struck blonde could get over his usual 'I have no clue what's going on' face to join in and this became a whole thing since Alex and Nico were being zero help and just enjoying the show.

"I thought we were all tired and wanting to go to bed?" She groaned. "This is not the kind of three AM conversation I'd stay awake for." They really hadn't even been at this that long, but Nico and Percy were dragging bad and it was only late afternoon at best.

"Only because we don't have any sugar sticks handy," Percy smirked at her. "I can go get some."

Annabeth shook herself and got back on track. "Every time you eat sugar before you go to bed you roll over in your sleep more than a rotisserie chicken."

She kept reading loudly over any lingering looks of why she'd know that.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid."

"Is this not the same guy who you showed off that lightning bolt to?" Magnus asked in surprise. "I thought you'd be a pretty memorable guy from that."

"It's been a few years, I've had a growth spurt despite what some people say," he shot Annabeth an aggrieved look who merely grinned. "I guess it's possible some other kids have come and gone through with purple backpacks full of godly items."

Not ones Magnus particularly wanted to meet as he tried not to crawl under his seat at the idea of being forced into this kind of job as a reward. Yeah, it sounded like he'd get to read ninety percent of the time on the clock, but the downside was, well, kids like Percy showing up out of the blue.

He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe.

"I want him to say there's no tooth fairy and easter bunny too," Alex chuckled. "I just want to hear someone say that like they hope it is true."

"I can't even help you with that Alex," Thalia grinned, "I hope they aren't real too, because I just know they'd be monsters I'd have to deal with."

Alex gave a long, exaggerated, forlorn sigh.

"Move along."

I leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."

"Has any visit to Olympus been quick?" Magnus asked. Every time he heard of the place there were councils and parties, neither of which felt like a ten-minute visit.

"The trip back down when Zeus tosses you," Percy said. Hopefully not from personal experience.

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," I added.

"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."

Percy chuckled as he ran his fingers over his beaded necklace. This might have only been his second time this way, but yeah, he'd say he had a pretty good idea.

I tossed him a golden drachma and we marched on through.

We decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. I went with the first group.

Different elevator music was playing since my last visit—that old disco song "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

Will groaned and covered his eyes in pain at the idea while Alex of course had to escalate it, "afro, of course, and shag carpet walls, oh, oh, and a disco ball flashing a rainbow of colors!"

"Never, ever, let this one have a video camera. Our life will be over," Jason said in fascination, which Will full-heartedly agreed with.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods.

Percy thought Annabeth sounded fondly disinterested, like she was reading of an old lego set she'd knocked down herself for her sixth better attempt.

Because she was. She still remembered the first time seeing this place and being just as in awe...and yet mapping in her head how she would have done it different, done it better. Her mother either would have been proud of her thoughts or scorned them and she'd whispered to Luke in fear of this, and he'd smiled and assured her Athena had no reason to punish her when this wasn't the goddess's personal layout.

Now, it was hers. Annabeth had nearly finished her remodeling of Olympus. This was just an old doodle she'd find in an old scrapbook.

It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then I realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

Annabeth studied me. "You look . . . different," she decided.

Nico looked at her strangely. "What are you talking about? He didn't actually look any different when he wasn't slaughtering my dad's army."

Annabeth shrugged, she couldn't have described it to him or anyone. Like someone had weaved an image of Percy together and inlaid it over him from the day before. He had looked identical, he still had that mole on the inside of his right arm, he'd still studied everything around him with those green eyes that always left her guessing what was going to come out of that mouth.

...He'd just been, different. The way he carried himself, making him seem taller. His confidence of accepting the responsibility Chiron had bestowed upon him.

"Where exactly did you go?"

"Down to the Underworld for a bath," Alex oh so helpfully reminded.

"Now where were you when I needed that answer," Annabeth sighed.

Alex laughed he'd probably been sleeping in a dumpster a few states over, which would only be funny to him.

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined us.

"Tell you later," I said. "Come on."

Annabeth still took the time to look around at Percy with a really punctual stank eye for leaving her in the dark on this the others had no choice but to laugh at when Percy just gave her an innocent smile back.

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

"So, like," Magnus scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck. "When you showed up last time and they were on the brink of war, did these guys all just think that was casual Friday, or, am I missing something?"

"Zeus and Posideon throw those kinds of tantrums to often for them to care," Thalia reminded in exhaustion. "Now their either helping the war efforts or in hiding." Long, long after the fact of when they should have been.

We passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," she muttered.

A feeling that had only grown worse over time, the manipulative peacock she was. If Annabeth could tie her up over the pit of Tartarus and chuck golden apples at her once a day she would.

Percy was here, she reminded herself with some kind of mental calm, but it was like dropping a pebble into a creek. It barely rippled across the surface before it was rushed away into a storm of problems of who would try to take Percy away next and what all this was a plan for.

"Has she been cursing you or something?" I asked. Last year Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since.

Percy glanced in concern at her now. The idea bothered him a lot of what all she'd been through out in California, what she'd never told him, or Chiron, or Thalia, or anybody because she was trying to deal with it on her own when he'd known from that first blown up bus they worked better together as a team.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"So she sends cows after me."

I tried not to smile. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Cows are no joke Percy," Alex told him in a weirdly serious kind of voice. "More people die from cow attacks than practically any predator you can name."

"Well yeah, more people are around them," Jason said fairly. "If we hearded sharks by the thousands and actively tried to breed them with people around at all hours their numbers would be much higher."

"More people are killed by coconuts than sharks, not the best animal to pick," Thalia chuckled.

"How did we get here? How do we go back?" Annabeth sighed, before she kept reading loudly over them.

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

"That sounds more like she was trying to convert you to go country than any real 'you'll regret this' vibe." Magnus wasn't ungrateful an all-powerful goddess hadn't placed some deadly curse on his cousin like Ares had to Percy, but it seemed mild in comparison from what little he'd gleaned of the big Hercules, Hera debacle.

"Well I have had practice with a gun or two if it works out like that," she chuckled at standing in her dad's camel and mock spewing a hail of bullets down on the next row of monsters before rushing off to remind him she wasn't in the car for him to be pulling out.

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets.

"Are we throwing a concert right now?" Alex sounded mildly amused and partly concerned. "Did the god of theatrics stick around for morals and make his own audience?"

"When is it ever something so friendly and innocent?" Percy sighed.

They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"That was the most ADHD sentence I've yet heard," Will snorted. "We all just stood around and watched the fireflies get zapped in the middle of our very important mission."

"No worse than getting sidetracked to the arch, or a siren song, or- ouch-" Percy yelped more in surprise than pain as Annabeth pinched him when she realized he was only listing her sidetracks.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"That was already obvious," Jason tried to say like this was of no real concern. Kronos had never made it a secret this was his plan.

Still, his skin twitched in anticipation at the idea of giving someone who stared down an arrow shaft a scope for better aim and a more high-powered weapon to boot to return fire. This guy was going to make some monster's life hell.

"Let's get to the palace," I said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods.

Nico had been a little preoccupied back when Percy's first adventure had been recounted, but some part of him back then had been equally fascinated and disturbed at how easily his father's helm had been stolen as well as Zeus's bolt. The gods of myth were so lax, Percy's dream of them more like toddlers arguing over a toy felt more grounded every day.

Which wasn't a worldview he was happy to be shifting into. He worried the next time he didn't kneel before his father because he was to busy trying not to laugh about wondering what Percy would call Persephone's throne. Probably something to do with it being made out of Skittles.

The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam my old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.

"Bessie's back!" Alex cooed in delight. "I hope he's been getting to stretch his legs more than that little bubble!"

"I'm sure he's beach-balled around Olympus plenty," Percy agreed, slightly guilty that he was relieved his old friend wasn't wandering around the ocean getting caught in more nets and bullied by orcas. He might be under supervision up there, but at least he was safe.

...then he grimaced at his own thought. Gods, he sounded like an overprotective parent. Just because he could destroy the world didn't mean he'd ever let his dad ground him out of the ocean. When this was all over, he might have to find a way to liberate Bessie instead and throw him in the lake at Camp. Apparently it was easy enough to bust in and out of this place even when the gods were around.

"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Two years ago we'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I'd gotten kind of fond of him. He seemed to like me too, even though I'd originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.

"That's one of the reasons I decided I did like you Perce," Alex fondly reminded.

"Yeah yeah, my ability to entertain you has been the highlight of my amnesia trip down memory lane," Percy shook his head.

"Hey, man," I said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Bessie answered.

"I bet they give him lots of sweet grass and remind him of vegetarianism every day," Magnus nodded before they all started snickering, leaving Annabeth to sigh and give a green glare to the quest she'd missed out on the most.

We walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now.

There was no point in questioning why a goddess would make herself appear older in her own home than the girl she'd been when first meeting Percy, but it was still a change that interested Jason a lot. Did she always do this on The Capitoline Hill to make herself appear older, more mature, in line with her siblings?

I bowed. "Lady Hestia."

My friends followed my example.

Annabeth read that strangly to Percy's ears, because she didn't say it like it was any big thing. No laugh in her voice, no hint of agitation it wasn't her in charge, the person who obviously should be. He still found it harder to wrap his head around the idea he had his camps, Annabeth's blind trust, when about this time five years ago he'd been the whispered traitor to at least half of them.

Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."

The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?

"Bear the curse of I kill these monsters," Nico helpfully interpreted with a conspiratorial wink at Percy. "She obviously wasn't giving away you just gave yourself a massive upgrade and a huge weak spot somewhere on you in a room with a possible traitor."

"Thanks man," Percy nodded, "I'm sure that's exactly what they heard."

"You must be careful," Hestia warned me. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged me. "Um . . . what is she talking about?"

"You see Annabeth, Achilles was this hero that- okay, ow," Percy broke off in a laugh as she elbowed him.

I stared into Hestia's eyes, and an image rushed into my mind: I saw a dark alley between red brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read RICHMOND IRONWORKS.

Annabeth immediately knew what Hestia was about to show him. She really should have seen this coming, with the path the goddess was on to show Luke's trail. It didn't make her happy about it, as was evidenced by her hands tensing tight enough around the book like she was imagining strangling it for a few seconds rather than choking out what came next.

"Annabeth?"

She looked over at Percy watching her in concern. It instantly reminded her it didn't matter if a bunch of strangers heard this. The most important person to her already had.

Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows—a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.

Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.

Thalia laughed a noise that didn't sound pleasant in any way. Some days she still woke up in her tent with this memory the last thing her mind lingered on before she jumped into her day. Sometimes it was fondness and made her smile as she went around. Some days it made her so irritable Phoebe would threaten to tie her to a tree.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.

Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something were behind it.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.

"Whoa!" Luke said.

The girl had tangled blond hair and was wearing flannel pajamas. She couldn't have been more than seven, but she would've brained Luke if he hadn't been so fast.

"Annabeth," Percy said again. She looked around. He was still scrutinizing her intensely. She thought he was going to say something sweet, or profound, or even awful about Luke. "How many monsters did you manage to debrain with that? I wish I knew all these years I could have been calling you Thor."

She laughed, enchanted as always at Percy keeping her so grounded. "It was a strategy worthy of a god, if I do say so myself," she mock blew on her nails and brushed them against her grungy shirt. "See, I lured them in with that noise and caught them off guard thinking they were going to be dealing with something much bigger. I managed to nail two different monsters."

Percy laughed, and the thrill that she seemed to mean half as much to him as he did her still rocked her socks in moments like this. Where Thalia chuckled along on her other side and everything just felt right.

He grabbed her wrist, and the hammer skittered across the cement.

That had been her father's favorite hammer, the one he rarely misplaced because his years of using it had the grip just right. She'd taken it the night before and tried to bash all of those spiders away but only managed to put a hole in the wall her stepmother would have never let her hear the end of.

She hadn't bothered to go looking for it when he put her down moments later.

The little girl fought and kicked. "No more monsters! Go away!"

Percy chuckled and called her a spitfire, but Magnus couldn't manage anything but a painful wince. Gods, his cousin had really been through the kind of crap that made people never bother to think they could turn their life back around. All before he'd even been attacked by wolves two years ago.

"It's okay!" Luke struggled to hold her. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped Aegis, and it shrank into a silver bracelet. "Hey, it's all right," she said. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!"

"No," Luke promised. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

Slowly, the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent gray eyes.

"Was he still dangling you by your good hammer arm while promising that, cause uh, I have opinions," Jason frowned.

"Like a legitime rename of this chapter could be called hammer time," Alex snickered.

"No, he'd put me down when Thalia put her shield away," Annabeth assured.

Percy still wasn't a fan of the way she was slightly blushing as she thought back on this moment, like a part of her brain was wondering if he'd thought she looked silly while fighting for her life, but it wasn't his memory to really be commenting on to bring it up.

"You're like me?" she said suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're . . . well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Annabeth paused and licked her lips and still hated the part of herself that didn't know how to move on from that feeling at a time like this. There were far more important things going on. She knew her dad regretted neglecting her for so long, letting it get this bad, but somehow even now years later while they were trying to put together their relationship, this memory was the first time she rememebred that, oh yeah, she should tell her dad Percy's alive too. The last in the long list of people to share the best news with. And whether that would make him stop what he was doing long enough to hear her anyway.

Looking up in surprise at a noise, she saw Magnus trying to rub his nose and pretend like he'd sneezed.

Gods, her cousin was in here. A part of her family she hadn't thought about in so long he felt more like a memory than Frostine was.

She kept waiting for something that clearly wasn't coming as she smiled awkwardly at him and he did the same back. She glanced at Percy, pretty convinced if Magnus had been in here cussing her out for doing this to his life Percy wouldn't be so casual around the guy.

She just didn't know what else to expect from someone of her family being in here.

"Is it, better now?" Magnus finally broke the awkward silence as he asked. "You, um, you've been staying with him a bit, right?"

"Yeah," she agreed softly. "It's, better." Not great. She sat at the table for family dinners and was included in conversation...just, ones she had little to partake in. She was okay in school, but her brothers were doing great with their consistent methods, so that was sticky. Her dad and step-mom asked her how her day was, but there was a thinly veiled fear as they awaited her answer to know if any monster sightings had been spotted.

She knew what she was wanting, what she kept expecting to happen. The ease she had with Sally and Paul to finally lull her into feeling comfortable there. It hadn't happened yet, but she'd keep trying as long as her dad did.

Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.

"Oh really Percy?" Thalia's voice was acidic with the kind of internal frustration that she was surprised had never made her spontaneously combust. "Is that what you picked up on?" Gods, where was this boy's perception skill when Annabeth was involved?!

Annabeth gave her a sad, understanding little smile, and that just made it worse. She was smiling about this memory because it was the best day of her life, and just like that moment all those years ago, Thalia shoved everything she was feeling aside to make sure she didn't scare Annabeth off. She'd made sure that girl ate before she bothered to take a bite, she'd made sure Annabeth always had Luke to turn to no matter what she needed to get off her chest. She regretted none of it, not even when she'd given up her life for the sibling she'd finally managed to do right by.

It only angered her because looking back on all this, she couldn't even convince herself she'd done the wrong thing by not snatching the kid away and leaving Luke there. It never, ever would have happened. Percy had been right, in one of his more annoying features. There hadn't been anything different she could have done, not to save Annabeth or Luke from what happened.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth."

Will faux gasped. "I thought we'd been transported into one of my memories!"

"You wish you could swing around a hammer in flannel pj's," Nico snorted.

"Got to keep those hopes and dreams alive somehow," Will chuckled.

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth—you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Percy hadn't a lot of room in his head from Hestia beaming this memory right into his brain for his own thoughts to get much in, but he felt a great swirl of them like someone had pulled a plug on a tub of water. Gods, she'd always looked so fierce with that knife, and she'd been given it by Luke. Why did that annoy him so much, and yet not surprise him all at once.

The fond smile on her face made any little minor problems he had with it worth everything. He'd do anything just to see her smile, it was worth any cost, including putting on a brave face and getting through this without throwing out insults on Luke.

"What's the first monster you killed with that thing?" Jason asked, holding his coin tight. He knew he was projecting, a longing he could know something like that, but he wanted to know more about her too.

"An amphisbaena,"** Annabeth smiled with pride. "A dragon with a head at each end," she explained to several confused faces. "Thalia and Luke were keeping one head distracted, and I managed to stab her deep enough right in her other brain."

"At seven?" Magnus repeated as he wondered how much therapy cost.

"Probably one of the youngest, biggest kills at camp," she agreed with pride. She still remembered telling her eldest sister at the time when she'd showed up about this and having leadership nearly shoved into her lap by the relieved girl.

Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old kid a knife would not be a good idea, but when you're a half-blood, regular rules kind of go out the window.

"I really want to know who you think that PSA is for?" Nico snickered in surprise.

"I want to know how often Percy recreated that 'this is your egg-brain on drugs,' one," Magnus snorted.

"Enough that my mom banned me from using a frying pan for seven months," Percy sighed.

Annabeth gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

He'd instantly clocked her as a child of Athena, Annabeth remembered feeling pride for the first time in her life. Her dad had always described that golden cradle of her arrival as something that had been a distraction he'd never wanted, but when Luke looked at her and seen her mother's eyes he'd made her feel for the first time what her mom was supposed to be capable of.

Annabeth stared at him with adoration. "I am!"

Thalia grinned. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're . . . you're not going to take me back to my family?" she said. "Promise?"

Thalia could have said what came next with Annabeth. They were supposed to be each other's family. They were supposed to protect each other from ever getting left behind again.

Her anger at Luke failing that promise, repeatedly, didn't seem to be shared though, as Annabeth read what happened next gently, like she was still leaning down and vowing the words to herself all those years ago.

She glanced at Percy and knew her little sister had still gotten her family, if not the one she'd been promised. At least it had worked out for her in the long run. It was enough to stop her feeling like the useless part in this she'd played as a tree.

Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

Magnus was happy for her, that she seemed happy now. That the problems she'd had in life all the way up to this moment didn't seem to leave her with lingering regrets because she read that with the kind of smile of someone looking back at their old stuffed animal. She didn't need that security item anymore, but she'd never replace the ice cream stains all over it.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long!"

The scene shifted. The three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been several days later, maybe even weeks.

The best weeks of Annabeth's young life, the time that had truly carved out who she really was. She couldn't have cared less about not having a roof over her head or the array of squashed, half eaten, or stolen food. They'd listened to her.

Luke and Thalia had believed her every time she said she saw a monster on the street and either prepared for battle or rushed her away, promising they'd find out what it was at the next stop to know better. The freedom of just being able to talk and laugh, even when they did have to quiet her down when they heard something she didn't because they weren't telling her the monsters weren't real. They'd been telling her to look alive and focus on them.

She loved Camp. She loved Chiron and the campers and that place was her home. But she always still craved this adrenaline rush of speeding off to their next destination and what they'd find along the way.

All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes—jeans and an oversize army jacket.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

Thalia shifted her weight around, grumbling about that old Teumessian fox. Her tail had been on fire, which probably helped a lot in that whole 'can never be caught' part of her myth. The predator learned something about her that day too though, don't ambush her little sister in their den if you didn't want a shield in the face.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house—May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you—"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house.

"They?" Jason asked in concern. Monsters he knew the trio could deal with, but if some minions of Kronos or something had been after them all the way back then, that was even worse.

"We'd been fleeing from this fox and dog at war with each other. The fox can never be caught, she's called the Teumessian fox, and the dog always catches his prey, he's Laelaps. They're in this eternal struggle now thanks to the gods, and we happened to be caught in the middle of it."

"Aren't those also constellations?" Percy asked. He didn't know why, but he tended to remember stories better when they had stars. Maybe because of Zoe.

"Yeah, Zeus supposedly tried to end the paradox by turning them into Canis Major and Canis Minor, but you know how long that kind of thing lasts in our world," Annabeth said with a proud smile at Percy.

And you've got to treat that leg wound."

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency—"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrank away from him as though his anger surprised her.

It was the first time he'd ever snapped at her, Annabeth frowned. In all that time, he'd never raised his voice at her, only shouting at their enemies.

It was no surprise to her Hestia was showing these memories. This is what had saved the world, Luke had chosen to remember these little moments, their family, his promise.

"I . . . I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back—"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voice boomed: "You should not have come home."

The vision shut off.

"Rude," Alex spluttered like someone had just turned off his favorite program.

"Most things in my life tend to be," Percy nodded without surprise.

"This wasn't your life," Thalia looked around at him in consternation.

"I witnessed it, part of my life now, influxing the rudeness," Percy grinned.

"In-influencing?" Magnus tried to correct.

He was ignored as Annabeth rolled her eyes and called Percy a seaweed brain, which meant Oceanus could have popped back in and it would have fallen on deaf ears.

My knees buckled, but Annabeth grabbed me. "Percy! What happened?"

"Did . . . did you see that?" I asked.

"See what?"

I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless.

"Gods forbid she show a hint of regret for throwing other people's lives on display," Nico scowled.

"Where do I sign up?" Jason sighed. He wouldn't even complain at this rate if his life was beamed into someone else's head, at least they'd explain it to him.

Nico wanted to assure him he'd get his life back, but he worried it felt like an empty promise. Nico had been trying to get his past life back for years and still only had scraps.

I remembered something she'd told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown me those scenes?

Percy gulped as Thalia and Annabeth had very similar looks of wishing to smack him. "Okay, got it," Percy tried to save himself from a bruise even the curse couldn't prevent. "I was still stuck on Hermes' voice popping up at the end of that when he wasn't in the rest."

"Gods you and your one track mind," Annabeth sounded so exasperated by him like she'd been dealing with him all her life.

"I still say we should try using different treats to motivate him, maybe the right combination of barbeque and candy will open his mind wider," Thalia clearly brought up an old argument with her.

"I'm worried we'd piss off Zeus by making him even more unstoppable," Annabeth shook her head as if this were a legitimate worry.

While Percy sat between them still frowning and trying to figure out why Hermes had shown up when he did.

"How long was I out?" I muttered.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and collapsed."

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I couldn't afford to look weak. Whatever those visions meant, I had to stay focused on our mission.

Percy jolted in surprise as everyone around him in the room sighed. "What?" He demanded, trying to shake off his vision. He'd heard Annabeth continue reading and hadn't heard anything significant.

"Never change Percy," Alex reminded fondly.

"Or Zeus might destroy you," Magnus muttered.

Percy looked blearily at them, then at Annabeth for what he'd missed, but didn't protest as she kept going again.

"Um, Lady Hestia," I said, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I'd heard in the vision.

"Last time he showed up he gave you a bunch of limited edition stuff and sent you on a monster cruise to get his kid to act right, only half of which worked out as planned," Will winced. He knew nobody had even died from this visit and he still felt a pit of worry at Connor's dad showing back up in Percy's life. At Luke's dad making an appearance at the most inopportune time just like the mail he often delivered. Why did he always seem to remember to send those rare birthday cards days after the event for that extra punch in the gut?

Annabeth found that a strange way to sum up their time in the sea of monsters, but not inaccurate either.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-andpepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"The saviors of this chapter, spoiler alert," Thalia chuckled.

Percy chuckled for her, but Annabeth sunk lower into her beanbag.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"I guess nothing in his contract says he has to be smiling while delivering in all weather, apocalypse included," Magnus said with a nervous smile.

"The real question is, what's he there to deliver?" Alex said with narrowed eyes. Judging by all appearances, it felt like it was going to be a death threat rather than a letter this time.

"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with me, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision I'd just had.

"Wouldn't surprise me!" Percy threw his hands up in exasperation. "Somewhere out there, the gods are laughing their asses off at me having to get my memories back via them! I can't do anything in my life without hop-scotching from ticking off one to pleasing another!"

He was building up miniature storm clouds over his head the longer his anger of this started to brew, gearing up for a fight like it had been Ares to appear in the room instead.

Annabeth had a feeling she knew why as she slowly lowered one arm back down to his side. The other followed reluctantly as he watched her, trouble in his eyes, but a soothing, confident smile on his face like he was just posturing.

Gods she loved him.

I wanted to ask why he'd been in May Castellan's house that night, and what had happened after he caught Luke.

'Caught,' Thalia winced at Percy's choice of words. Like Luke had done something wrong by going back there. Like his thief-like inherited skills weren't up to par by the god witnessing him sneak in and out.

The worst part was, Percy seemed to have experienced that from Luke's eyes, judging by Hestia's 'gift' to him. So Percy was still channeling how Luke might have taken all that in.

I remembered the first time I'd met Luke at Camp Half-Blood. I'd asked him if he'd ever met his father, and he'd looked at me bitterly and said, Once. But I could tell from Hermes's expression that this was not the time to ask.

"Is now ever a good time with you to ask Percy?" Alex sounded bemused. She couldn't believe Percy had once restrained himself by asking Luke all those years ago, here he was still showing he did have some self-restraint by holding back again against another god when they all knew he was more than capable of blurting out the question.

"Saturdays seem to be the go-to, just to ruin my one day off," Percy sighed.

I bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

"I feel like you only did that because you bowed to Hestia," Thalia accused. Percy wasn't known for his bowing skills.

"Hence the awkwardly part of that," Percy nodded.

Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.

"Obviously only amphibians should be greeted, they get the most dunked on," Alex nodded seriously.

Considering Percy couldn't name an amphibian off the top of his head, he wasn't up for disagreeing.

George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.

"Hello, George," I said. "Hey, Martha."

"I do love the casualness," Jason chuckled, it still boggled his mind being that chill around a god.

"I'm more surprised Percy didn't bow to the snakes too," Nico smirked.

Did you bring us a rat? George asked.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

"Am I?" Percy asked blankly, like the appearance of Annabeth's past crossing his mind had wiped out why he was there. Which really wouldn't surprise anyone else.

"Zeus, world saving, Kronos on the way," Will helpfully reminded.

Percy shook himself. "Right yeah."

Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.

"Honestly though. Snackage should always be at least in the top five priorities at any given time." Alex grinned.

"Says the person who showed up in here like a talking watermelon, that doesn't surprise me," Percy snorted, not that he disagreed in the slightest.

I decided it was better not to get into it with George.

"You really should take that back Alex," Annabeth chuckled. "Percy clearly does know how to prioritize."

"Above snacking! I can't say I approve," she shook her head with such misery Percy might have chucked a cupcake on the floor.

"Um, Hermes," I said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

"I feel like his voice message box is always full and he'll get back to you in a thousand years or so," Thalia frowned.

"I got that vibe too," Percy sighed, "as well as the fact that any packages I might send would explode on sight."

Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. Maybe if I tried to speak with Hermes in private . . .

"So that he can rip your bones out one by one without an audience? Jee Percy, you sure are considerate," Nico frowned. He never liked not knowing why a god was pissed at Percy this time.

"That's me, just the most helpful guy to all parties," Percy sighed.

"You guys," I said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."

"Scavenger hunt on Olympus!" Alex gasped in delight.

"No Alex," Magnus frowned.

"They should at least start by building a moat and drawbridge, setting up spikes with all of Aprhitdie's infinite hairbrushes," Thalia offered.

"Yes, she gets it," Alex cackled. "Use Demeter's cows as quick plows for that, I bet Ares wouldn't even be mad if you used his sacred oak paintings of himself as material."

"We're all going to be cursed when we get out of here," Magnus sighed.

Silena frowned. "But—"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad.

"Which hopefully deterred them from doing anything to crazy," Nico said without much hope.

"Nothing got shoved down their pants, they stuck to things that would fit in their pockets only," Will said in that unhelpful way of unknown sarcasm.

They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids.

"So this really isn't much of a step up, honestly you guys, you should try giving them something of actual importance," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Next time I need to save the world I'll ask if they want to go ahead," Percy nodded.

"We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth and me with Hermes.

"I feel like the title already should have been changed to, Annabeth and Two Snakes Save My Life," Percy frowned.

Annabeth forced a chuckle that sounded like she was choking. Percy had in fact saved her life. His faith it was the opposite warmed her heart as much as she adored him for that.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother's not psychic Annabeth," Magnus said, then frowned and asked hopefully, "right?"

"No more than the other gods," Annabeth sighed. "Foresight of good planning."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"I sense a bit of saltiness like Percy's dad showed up instead," Jason said uneasily.

"I want to know what Ares had to say about Athena being his top strategist," Alex grinned.

Annabeth sighed that they seemed to have missed the big picture where her mother had been right! May Zeus have mercy on them if they could actually hear this or they'd all be obliterated by now.

"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"

Thunder rolled through the sky.

"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned.

"Oh how the turn tables," Percy said with a delighted smile. "I see he's thinking of taking the diplomatic approach with me."

Annabeth gave him a blank look, she felt like that was a dig at her telling Hera to clear off but that didn't feel right.

"Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"But there are these blue lights—"

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

"Why can't they just put that around your camp, and, just around Kronos? Keep him stuck in one spot for good this time," Magnus frowned.

"Because that would be to easy," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Because that's the kind of direct interference they actively try to avoid," Thalia scoffed.

"Because it wouldn't hold him indefinitely, no prison ever will," Annabeth frowned at these two being unhelpful to her cousin. Poor Magnus and what all he must have been through down here.

Magnus didn't really like any of their answers though so it was kind of a moot point.

I raised my hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"

"Excellent question Percy," Alex nodded.

Percy grinned because he so rarely got that reaction. Usually, they just laughed at him.

"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson.

"Ooo, last names, I am in trouble," Percy rolled his eyes with far to much nonchalance for a guy about to die, again.

Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

"Yes," all eight of them said in varying levels of confidence. He'd gone through so much already, his determination wasn't going to be stopped by a little thing like an elevator. He'd probably do something even more psycho, like take a staircase all the way up there.

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous—hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive."

"I mean, it's an apt song for them," Nico said fairly.

"I know at least Bigfoot will stay on beat," Alex nodded along.

Still, I didn't like it.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," I suggested.

"There's some obvious answers to pick and I'm still not sure what good they'd do," Will shook his head. Posideon might have helped turn the tide on defeating Typhon, but he still believed in the idea that it took the gods and their children's combined power to stop all these threats in their own ways. Any god coming back to offer assistance would have interfered in Their quest, when a minor helping hand along the way was all that they had needed to win.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos."

"Percy Jackson, over here telling the gods who their greatest enemy is," Jason sighed while rubbing his temple.

"He wouldn't be Percy if he wasn't impertinent at least once a year," Will nodded.

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"

"Met her at the Arch," I muttered. "Not nice."

"Percy Jackson, still over here casually interrupting the gods," Nico sighed.

"He wouldn't be Percy if he didn't blah, blah, blah," Thalia chuckled as she waved at Will, who still nodded in agreement.

"Are you guys done now?" Percy sighed.

"I wouldn't count on it," Annabeth gave him a stranger than usual look for asking such a dumb question.

"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

"What I just heard was a painful amount of ego," Alex rubbed her ear as if it were bruised all the way down the tube.

"Godly sized, some might say," Percy nodded.

"Progress?" I said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."

"Only half you say?" Magnus asked mock brazenly.

"It needed some Kentucky fried reducing I'm sure," Alex snorted.

"You two are not funny," Jason sighed.

"I want to know how you cook chicken without power, isn't that food poisoning?" Percy said much to Jason's further dismay.

I didn't want to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself.

"Glad it wasn't just us," Magnus nodded in thanks.

In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.

"We too should hold a moment of silence for all the sudden chicken prices that will be going up," Alex had to get one last crack in despite multiple grumbles of protest.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."

"That was deep," Percy said in surprise, wondering if he should have thanked the mailman once in a while.

"Percy getting to witness some philosophy in person, what a historic day this shall be," Thalia snorted.

Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.

Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George?

Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.

"Wouldn't that, hurt their eyes?" Magnus asked in vague concern for the godly snakes.

"George is clearly speaking Hermes' real thoughts there," Annabeth said with a nervous chuckle she tried to hide, she enjoyed hearing them laugh one last time before the fit hit the shan, as her stepmom would say about her next bumble.

"Eating rodents and all?" Percy asked with doubt.

It easily worked, and what was once a casual smile at the snake's comment easily spiraled up into laughter and Alex asking for more crazy options of what the snakes could shoot out of their eyes. She kept smiling for what she wished was a lifetime but was only a few moments more until it culminated in Nico and Jason trying to have a serious discussion if Zeus would allow different colors of lighting before Thalia threatened to shoot rats into the mouth of the next person who wouldn't can it.

"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.

"Oh he's doomed, nobody can resist that," Percy said with the kind of confidence of saying blue was the best color. The sort of biased statement that he couldn't prove but damn anyone who bothered arguing the point.

"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."

"They pay her?" Magnus asked, clearly wondering how many infinity signs could fit on a check.

"Pay her in compliments," Percy rolled his eyes while Annabeth frowned at the two.

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it.

"You don't like direct advice?" Jason looked at her like she was nuts. "From your mom!" Clearly some lingering humbleness of getting any god's advice was kicking itself awake in him, Percy rolled his eyes.

"Not this plan, you'll see," Annabeth made a face. Those statues had helped, but she still saw some of them wreaking havoc in the city months later and it was nearly a weekly chore to send kids out to keep trying to deactivate them all.

This answer wasn't up to scratch for any of them who had heard it far to much and made the exact same face back at her.

"Go on."

"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter."

"She's still on that?" Thalia asked mildly, clearly unimpressed.

Percy was blushing to hard to form an answer and Annabeth was smiling smugly how well that worked out to bother.

I'm not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth's or mine.

"I vote Percy's," Will said with a laugh as he watched them now.

"Doesn't count," Percy had a distinct wine in his voice. "She's not, now, and back then, I-" he felt like someone was yanking on his tongue as he kept swallowing a blush that wasn't shared, the traitor!

Annabeth just smiled indulgently at him and kept reading.

"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I . . . I wanted to say . . . I'm sorry about Luke."

As Annabeth had guessed, all previous enjoyment drained out of the room like Annabeth had perfectly installed and then pulled the plug.

The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

"I don't think she's capable of that," Thalia muttered low enough only Percy heard, and he nodded and swallowed a snide comment of his own as his hands twitched. He wanted Annabeth's hand safely in his right now more. He could sense danger coming.

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.

For some reason that one hadn't made the mention of their previous guesses of preferred weapons, though Alex had come close with the joshing comment of Godzilla sized bug zapper.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."

Percy might have switched into laser beam mode, as much as he hard focused on Annabeth. The water itself grew tense around them, as if holding all the oxygen hostage.

Annabeth didn't seem to notice. She did a terrible job of breezily reading over that as her lip trembled and one of her hands dropped from the book to wring nervously through a few curls of her hair as she kept going.

I tried to step between them. "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't—"

"Don't defend her, Jackson!"

There were no jokes this time, though Jason bit his tongue down to stop himself from telling Percy that was three times Hermes had used his last name, which felt like a bad omen before this whole new death threat business got started.

Hermes turned the cattle prod toward me. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

"Maybe you should blame yourself!" I should've kept my mouth shut,

"I think that's the first time Percy's ever acknowledged that," Will was all about those helpful comments. "Progress."

"Maybe one day when he's got arthritis he'll learn to act on that thought first," Nico rolled his eyes.

"He once admitted to himself he should sow his mouth shut, something I'm still all to happy to help with," Alex reminded.

"I'd be actively considering it under other circumstances," Percy said with a leveled look at the book, no interpretation needed saying he'd rip out any stitches to keep that god's anger off Annabeth.

but all I could think about was turning his attention away from Annabeth. This whole time, he hadn't been angry with me. He'd been angry with her.

"That, is a very new experience for you Percy," Thalia sounded grudgingly impressed and slightly murderous of no one in here. "I don't even blame you not picking up on that."

"Thanks," Percy said with a wayward frown at her, his body wanting to throw him into overdrive and dive in front of Annabeth this second despite the fact she was ignoring the pair and trying to read over them as if this was as normal as his usual occurrences with other gods.

"Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"

Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. I thought, Well, that's it.

"Those are the least most inspiring last words ever," Jason frowned at him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, now that I have some warning I'll write out a novel- oh wait!" Percy dragged his eyes away from Annabeth as he spoke to Jason with a massive eye-roll the ocean should be envious of.

But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear.

"Something?" Will yelped in protest. "We don't even get to hear the awe inspiring words that saved one of the greatest heroes of our time with the all mighty wise words of the snakes!"

"Who are you trying to impress?" Percy stared oddly at him.

"I genuinely want to know," he looked actually a little pouty. "Those could have been passed on to generations of impertinent demigods to stop them repeating your steps."

"I've found making your own path is better anyways, I've done better than Hercules repeatedly," Percy shrugged.

Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"Percy Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again.

"That's all they said?" Will still looked like someone was dangling a candy bar above his head on a fishhook.

Percy shrugged again. "Don't know what to tell you man, guess if you want the next set of kids to live like me you'll have to push them in the Styx."

Will sighed and bit back a groan because he wasn't really sure how much Percy meant that.

You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much—"

His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride . . . my poor May . . ."

He sounded so devastated I didn't know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize us. Now he looked like he needed a hug.

"The dichotomy of these gods really is, something," Magnus couldn't help but unintentionally mimic Will's exact tone on that word.

"I think it's Percy," Annabeth corrected, her voice only mildly trembling. She was pretty sure she'd never thanked him before for saving her life, but it was par for the course for the pair of them and she'd been in her own world, her own hurt during that. "I certainly didn't want to give him a hug."

She couldn't help her eyes flickering back to the text, wanting to know if Percy had wanted to hug her or yell at her for her part in Luke's life too, even if she did feel guilt for her cousin clearly wanting to chat about this more. Any other day of her life she would have been ecstatic to talk with him about this side of her life, but she needed this more. Percy needed this more.

"Look, Lord Hermes," I said.

"I always love it when you try to up the respect after they decide not to kill you," Alex's tone was a faint hint of sarcasm though showing he didn't really mean that.

"Hopefully they just remember the last thing I did rather than the whole eviscerating part," Percy shrugged.

"I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes—"

Hermes glared at me, and my voice faltered. The look on his face wasn't really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.

"Wow," Percy whispered under his thudding heartbeat. He couldn't help his mind instantly going to his dad, if that's the look that had been hiding under the surface when he'd said he was sorry Percy had been born. If, gods forbid, something had happened to his mom and he'd taken up Luke's mantel.

Hermes depicted himself nothing like the lord of the sea, but Percy still saw his power and sadness in the godly weight of those shoulders that all the gods must carry, whether they showed it or not. Hades had in his brief time speaking of Bianca, even Zeus whether he'd admit it or not had looked upon Thalia in their short time together with some mixed-up emotions.

The rule of the gods keeping their distance from their kids felt stupider the longer he watched.

"I will leave you now," he said tightly. "I have a war to fight."

He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.

Annabeth's voice was still softened. Humbled and chagrined and tired and a million other things Percy couldn't imagine. He wished he could wrap his arms around her now and shield her face into his chest, feel her wide eyes and shaking breath warmer than that supernova of a god vanishing. Her unsteady heartbeat had been a more rocksteady hope even when he had no clue what to do about things with Luke, or even why it all mattered as the guy should be long dead in his own husk.

Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered.

Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.

There was no last mentions of Geroge and rats and why Hermes would spare Percy except for some curse that shouldn't have stopped a god tossing him into outer space as a pile of dust. Percy felt an ugly feeling bubbling up in him, never far from his mind when the room got quiet and his memories of his life grew louder than the laughter of his friends. He didn't act on it. He knew he never could. He would not even look at the fork that had made Luke into Kronos's puppet.

He still wished he knew another way out of this anger, and just plain exhaustion of dealing with the godly side of his family.

Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't sure how.

"A hug would be nice," she grumbled, more for herself than meaning to say it out loud.

Percy gave her a look all the same, he'd heard of course, as close as they were sitting.

His green eyes watched her, a sadness of confusion and uncertainty she'd never expected to see there that hurt as much as remembering all of her screw ups with Luke all over again.

Why did this keep happening to her? Why was everyone in her life destined to leave her or forget about her, or somehow both!

He shifted his weight around, his arms moved up with a hesitancy like he wanted to hug her now, but she sighed and kept reading. She didn't want him to do it because she'd told him to. His arms dropped back to his side as he slumped in his seat, but she'd swear she heard a sad sigh under his breath like he might regret not acting faster. Gods what she wouldn't give to be in his arms having to relive this.

What she wouldn't give up though was her patience. She'd wait for him to get there without hesitation, again. As long as it took.

"Annabeth," I said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess . . . I don't know . . . he probably feels guilty about Luke. He's looking for somebody to blame. I don't know why he lashed out at you. You didn't do anything to deserve that."

"I could give you a pile of evidence this girl murdered someone and you wouldn't believe me," Nico grinned.

"That's called entrapment Nico and it's illegal," Percy said with all the confidence of one who had watched, like, two cop-drama shows. One was even based out of New York.

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

"I have a strict promise from my siblings about what my shroud should be and everything," Annabeth managed a dower joke, which Percy smiled at of course, but it was too sad to make her heart flutter like usual. He was just humoring her.

I shifted uneasily. "Um, you didn't, right?"

She didn't answer. Her Celestial bronze knife was strapped to her arm—the same knife I'd seen in Hestia's vision. All these years, I hadn't realized it was a gift from Luke. I'd asked her many times why she preferred to fight with a knife instead of a sword, and she'd never answered me. Now I knew.

"Now you knew why she didn't answer, not the oh so important distinction why she prefers a knife," Jason said with a concerned analyst smile on Annabeth like he hoped he could sweet-talk her into an answer. Percy was a little terrified he could too, so he cleared his throat and she reluctantly stayed on track.

"Percy," she said. "What did you mean about Luke's mother? Did you meet her?"

I nodded reluctantly. "Nico and I visited her. She was a little . . . different." I described May Castellan, and the weird moment when her eyes had started to glow and she talked about her son's fate.

Annabeth frowned. "That doesn't make sense.

"Which part?" Magnus gave her a confused brow. "What happened after Hermes showed up?"

Annabeth didn't answer. She gave him the sad-big-gray-eyes and he caved and instantly nodded back to the book to get her out of this subject he'd brought up.

But why were you visiting—" Her eyes widened. "Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you . . . did you bathe in the River Styx?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Percy! Did you or not?"

"Who's changing the subject now," Alex sighed, completely on Magnus's side even if she couldn't begrudge Annabeth finally getting the option to share this in her own time.

"Me," Annabeth nodded without looking up.

"Um . . . maybe a little."

"Just a couple of toes, maybe his whole leg, hard to say." Nico nodded.

"I'd kill to see that actually, just him having to wield Riptide like an arc of pure destruction while having to be on his hands the whole time," Jason laughed.

"I'd just set a chimpanzee on my opponents at that point," Percy rolled his eyes at the pair.

I told her the story about Hades and Nico, and how I'd defeated an army of the dead. I left out the vision of her pulling me out of the river. I still didn't quite understand that part, and just thinking about it made me embarrassed.

Annabeth did blush faintly at that again, much to Percy's delight, and yet still looked around at him like she wanted to strangle him for not giving that detail. It really was like old times for him where he couldn't figure out anything she'd do next when it came to him, which was kind of refreshing.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I had no choice," I said. "It's the only way I can stand up to Luke."

"You mean . . . di immortales, of course! That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and . . . Oh no, Luke. What were you thinking?"

"So now you're worried about Luke again," I grumbled.

She stared at me like I'd just dropped from space. "What?"

"What expression is that exactly?" Thalia asked with mild interest. "I'd like to see your aliens are real face."

She gave a half-hearted scowl to her sister for mocking her right now, feeling very alone in her protective feelings of Luke she'd hope Thalia would give some consideration to instead of Percy mouthing a thanks at her sister.

"Forget it," I muttered. I wondered what Hermes had meant about Annabeth not saving Luke when she'd had the chance. Clearly, she wasn't telling me something. But at the moment I wasn't in the mood to ask. The last thing I wanted to hear about was more of her history with Luke.

"And we are finally at full levels of Percy ignoring the one bit of good advice a goddess has given him lately," Nico said quietly to Will.

"Yeah, but, I wouldn't push her either," Will sighed, and not because Annabeth scared the piss out of him too. She seemed fragile right now, on the ropes with everyone, even her own past. They were taking this at Percy's pace, but her's shouldn't be discounted either.

"The point is he didn't die in the Styx," I said. "Neither did I. Now I have to face him. We have to defend Olympus."

Annabeth was still studying my face, like she was trying to see differences since my swim in the Styx.

"Those old diplomas and dolls don't appear under his skin from time to time do they?" Magnus asked, mostly joking.

"I have my own hopes and dreams to flush away," Percy said for her.

"Mastery of toiletry and all, I have faith he'll get it done," Annabeth grinned, a sight for sore eyes after this monstrosity of a chapter, so Percy couldn't even get mad at her for now adding in to bringing up that horrendous joke repeatedly.

"I guess you're right. My mom mentioned—"

"Plan twenty-three."

She rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opened a few files and started to read.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"And the usual amount of time to do it," Jason sighed. Just once he'd like to hear of Percy and Annabeth having all the time in the world on their hands to get a plan set up. It would make them unbeatable. Even when they did everything on the fly they were wild and unstoppable about it. He'd just like to hear more of their plans in detail before they inevitably went off the rails and went to 'Crazy Plan Time.'

"One of Daedalus's inventions?"

"A lot of inventions . . . dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." She looked at me. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"

I shook my head. As usual, I had no clue what the gods were telling me. Which rivers was I supposed to remember? The Styx? The Mississippi?

"Hopefully you're not on the wrong side of that Naide still," Alex offered. "I bet she'd still try and kick your ass if this mess gets anywhere near Texas."

Percy crossed his fingers and nodded in agreement.

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room.

"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."

"I really wonder what they would have done if their dad had still been in there. Invited him along or apologized for interrupting," Thalia said with interest.

"You're all insane for never knocking," Jason frowned. Every party mentioned had a tendency to barge in on gods that would decimate someone without blinking. It was a miracle Mr. D never had to any of them.

The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the problem was.

"One less visible problem always equals two bigger ones on the horizon," Alex nodded.

"Why can't Godzilla and mothera ever be on our side," Percy huffed.

The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city. Campers were using every single one.

Magnus squinted in confusion at that. Who were those for? The gods could apparently just be anywhere they wanted, and all the minor gods and other deities running around up there probably didn't have much care to be spying a thousand feet below unless they'd dropped a squirrel from that height just to see where it landed.

I looked down at the city. I could see almost everything from here—the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan,

Percy's skin itched on the back of his neck. He scratched impatiently, feeling as usual his brain was trying to cook him alive for nothing. What the heck did he care about that being mentioned?

the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but something was wrong. I felt it in my bones before I realized what it was.

"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.

That was the problem.

Even from this height, I should've heard the noise of the city—millions of people bustling around, thousands of cars and machines—the hum of a huge metropolis. You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there. Even in the dead of night, New York is never silent.

But it was now.

"Wow," Alex said with a faint smile only she could manage. One who was suddenly struck with the idea of an actual apocalypse happening, and being curious rather than horrified at the implications of what else was going to come of it.

I felt like my best friend had suddenly dropped dead.

"No, Annabeth was still standing right next to you," Will assured in a honeyed voice.

"You're lucky I don't drop kick you off there when we get back," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you meant New York," Will gave an exaggerated nod of relief. "Yeah, okay, makes more sense."

"What did they do?" My voice sounded tight and angry. "What did they do to my city?"

I pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.

Will's smile wavered and Percy didn't notice, looking right back at the book with somehow even more murderous intent than he'd even just felt for a god threatening Annabeth. Gods did that hurt more than he'd expected it too. Was that going to be Percy's reaction when the bridge collapsed? Just pushing everyone who had been there aside from his mind and move on to the next fight?

In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.

"Is there, a city of sleep?" Magnus asked his usual dopey question, Alex couldn't help but grin.

"Not unless Rudyard Kipling's taken over," she reminded, causing Magnus to turn to her with renewed excitement for a book dissection they could both get into guilt-free when Percy's life was done being gutted in front of their eyes.

"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.

Ice coated my stomach. A line from the prophecy rang in my ears: And see the world in endless sleep.

I remembered Grover's story about meeting the god Morpheus in Central Park. You're lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event.

"Well then," Jason said in a tiny voice. "I guess this is a mildly better interpretation?"

"Now let's work on that reaping of blades just being a nasty paper cut and we'll be gold," Percy tried his hardest not to say with a shiver like ice wasn't creeping up his spine.

"Not dead," I said. "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep. The invasion has started."

Annabeth somehow managed to say that in the same tone Percy once had, Will noted in admiration. The horror, of not downplaying this sucked with a capital f, and the power behind her voice, of determination that this was the tipping point in the scale. No more games, no more squabbling. This was going to end one way or the other, and it was not going to happen quietly.

"Should we, get to bed?" Thalia asked before she tried to take the book. Nico was still rubbing his eyes a little to often and Percy was still stretching and rubbing his neck, always in need of a nap.

"It's still to early," Percy protested. Gods they weren't even half done with this one and had dealt with more interruptions than any other with it being so late in the day. He'd lived long enough with that prophecy hanging over his head and wanted this over with!

"Yeah-" Nico meant to agree with Percy, but a yawn cut him off.

"We can finish tomorrow," Percy reluctantly corrected. He couldn't be frustrated with anyone but himself here, he knew he couldn't have made it through the rest of this without a nap, but it didn't make his agitation any less. He wanted to be through with this already.

Nobody argued the point with him, and he got up and shuffled out.

Annabeth only hesitated a moment before following.

When they got to the room Percy had been sleeping in, he turned to her without surprise and grinned. She smiled in relief and followed him in, side by side, so they could curl up on the floor again.

This time, she slept through the night.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*A myth I'm surprised never got brought up in this series, it blew my mind when I found it. The following is my headcanon/interpretation though, when in the story Chiron actually died and became the Cenatur's constellation because it was un-healable Chimera venom on Hercuels' arrow he accidentally shot Chiron with.

** If you know why I referenced an amphisbaena specifically you get a cookie. If you need time to look it up and come back, you get a cookie as well for doing your due diligence.

[masodemic]

Have you given any thought to the fact that perhaps a Japanese stage showing in Japan for a Japanese audience will perhaps not be a complete and totally faithful match to the English translated interpretation of the series and characters? 10k words and yet most of your critiques are nitpicks based off your personal interpretation and vision for the project, when you have seemingly no context as to what this type of Japanese stage production usually entails. I'm not sure what exactly your vision was, but I don't believe it's anywhere close to the reality of stage productions in Japan. You bring up Takarazuka which is yet another indicator you have absolutely zero clue about what you're criticizing, as it is entirely separate from this type of stage in not only genre but also production, direction, and budget. I also don't think you have any concept of what the adaptation process actually entails; very frequently unnecessary characters and details are removed, glossed over, or combined. This doesn't equate to a "character assassination". A visual gag in a stage based off a manga which is primarily a comedy before anything else, especially in the early chapters, is not going to single handedly destroy the characterization of a character who, in the original work, is not even present. And bringing in an actor's age and physical acting choices in reference to a character you had never previously seen actually move? I'd like to see your ideal production of this work, though I'm not sure I'd have the time or patience for what would surely be a 3+ hours long, terribly unfunny and boring action play, based off your ideas of what have been done "wrong." Having your critiques is entirely valid, but waiting to drop a 10k word essay into the main tags while having absolutely zero cultural context for the genre of production you're speaking on while the stage is actively running and fans are attending just makes you seem like an overly negative, disrespectful elitist, sorry. Things will simply differ from a 10+ year old English translation when the story is presented in its source language to an audience of native speakers who will pick up on language specific comedy and tones. Really, I'm sorry, but you and the alleged others who dislike this stage play are not and will not be the target audience. Maybe Japanese 2.5d musicals are just not for you.

Hi!! Thanks for taking the time to ask me a question, I love how passionate you are about my rant. Really really appreciate the fact that you've spent god knows how long reading it making a thoughtful response 💖

One thing I'd like to clear away is that I read the manga in its original Japanese, the Showa Japanese so to say. I put the English translation here and there for people who might not read Japanese but still want to understand the screenshot. But sorry to everyone that I was not consistent.

Regarding my opinions on the musical I want to clarify that personally speaking I still believe Eroica could very well work as a musical. And like I said, I do not mind characters being different, Dorian was a bit different and he did good. I also wouldn't have minded if they wrote a new story while keeping the spirit of the OG work. However this particular production stripped it of whatever energy and humor it's got which is a real shame because Eroica is ... well, Eroica.

And thanks again btw, for wanting to see an Eroica musical staged by me. I'm sure it's not likely because licensing is such a bitch but good faith good faith 🤞🏻 It will be 12 hours long and everyone will be singing in avant garde made-up language wearing hooded capes

Hopefully most fans will be able to catch the show this second run around, it's an experience for sure, whether you think it's good or bad