#toa imperials

[aluwett]

I miss you Imperial Trio...

[chaoticcatbehaviour]

I personally think it's Lucius because it would be ironic that he tried to stab his own father but oh well...(Also Lucius means 'light' so that's another factor)

I'm so unwell about them someone Help me please

Ignore my ranting in the tags

[freddie-77-ao3]

Some More Random Worldbuilding for PJO, this time, Mythic Metals

*Note: this refers specifically to metals that Greek and Roman demigods can use. I'm not including other pantheons*

*Most common in this sense refers to most commonly used by demigods*

So we, of course, have the canon Stygian Iron, Celestial Bronze, and Imperial Gold, but in addition, we also get Adamantine, Orichalum, Artemisian Silver, and Apolloin Gold.

Starting off with more facts about the basic metals (ones known in the series):

Celestial Bronze: most common mythical metal. Primarily used by Greek demigods, however anyone within the two pantheons can use a celestial bronze weapon. Can't kill mortals.

Imperial Gold: equally as common as Celestial Bronze, only "rarer" among demigods because Roman Gods are the ones who control the mining and usage of the metal, and these gods are stricter regarding privledge to use the metal. Primarily used by Romans, however anyone within the two pantheons can use a imperial gold weapon. Can't kill mortals.

Stygian Iron: third most common mythical metal. However, stygian iron can only be used by chthonic demigods, gods, and other underworldly creatures. If stygian iron is used by non-chthonic demigods, it weakens their life source and can take years from them. If used by a non-chthonic god, their powers are weakened for many years. Stygian iron cannot be used by mortals-- it kills them near instantaneously. Stygian iron can kill mortals.

Now into my own ideas:

Orichalum: tied with Stygian iron for third most common mythical metal. Mined in Atlantis, orichalum, like stygian iron, cannot be used by all beings. Instead, orichalum can only be used by aquatic gods, demigods, and creatures. In this sense, aquatic refers to both the ocean (Poseidon, Oceanus, the Nereids, etc), but also all other bodies of waters like lakes and rivers (river gods, nymphs, Naiads). Riptide is not actually made of celestial bronze, it is made of orichalum. It's effects on non-aquatics are similar to that of stygian iron. Orichalum cannot kill mortals. Sort of bronze-ish looking.

Apolloin Gold: the fifth most common metal. This can only come directly from Apollo or Helios, as the metal is quite literally ored from the sun. Technically Eos and Hemera can also give it out, but they have many fewer connections with mortals. As such, should it be one of the rarer metals? Yes. It's more common than it's parallel, however, because Apollo used to hand the metal out quite frequently-- to mortals who impressed him, his lovers, his children, and the metal just made it's way into other people's hands. Can be used by anyone. Cannot kill mortals.

Artemisian Silver: the sixth most common element-- or second rarest. Artemisian Silver can only come from Artemis, Selene, or Hecate. As Artemis is the main goddess of the moon at this point, artemisian silver most closely represents her other domains, and as such can only be used by girls and women, *except in cases of Hecate's boy children or those blessed by Artemis*. Artemisian silver can harm werewolves, which is where the silver werewolf stereotype came from, and why Reyna's pocket knife, although silver, did not work. Cannot kill mortals.

Adamantine: rarest of all. This metal is most closely guarded by the gods, and only a few known weapons remain in demigod weaponries. Bright, almost blinding white, the metal looks like a cross between diamonds and silver. Completely unbreakable, and cannot be bent or harmed in any way after being forged. The only demigods who can use adamantine are children of the Kronides and Aphrodite (eldest gods), although even many of these demigods have to dilute it to use the metal. It burns through other demigods and mortals until their hands are ash if they touch it. The full olympian council must decide to give any demigod an adamantine weapon. It can hurt mortals.

There's also, of course, Drakon bone, although that's not technically a metal. Drakon bone is the only well known bone weapon in the series, however, divine bone from any being can be forged into a weapon that can kill monsters. Has to come from a spoil of war, as the being will dissolved if killed, and as such, is never seen outside of Tartarus, with the exception of Annabeth's sword.

The titans also had their own metal, similar to adamantine. Some call the metal Everlasting. Rarely known, never wielded anymore.

[anonymous-ace72]

Do you think that where the triumvirs are geographically would affect what kinds of demigods end up being drafted into their households? Like, Nero might have a higher number of Greek demigods due to his vicinity to Camp Half-Blood, Caligula might have more Roman demigods due to being so close to Camp Jupiter, and Commodus has a mixture of both since he's directly in the middle of both of them.

I know that demigods come from all over the place but it makes sense to me how while they're headed in one direction or the other they might end up getting caught up into them on the way there.

[wanderingmind867]

Jason Grace is like a combination of Namor and Superman. He's got the optimism and that sense of hopefulness to him, like Superman. But he's got all the roman influences of namor. I mean…namor at his most noble and regal sort of reminds me of jason. A little different, but I can make comparisons. Namor really would've blended in with Camp Jupiter, with all his fine regal might and standing.

[literallyimthenerdemoji]

DARE I SAY MEG MCCAFFERY

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

Okay but why did Meg get to keep her name while all the other kids in Nero’s household got Roman ones? Is it because she’s the favorite?

[burlowbeanie]

Also, look at Apollo's response to Percy insisting all demigods be claimed and taken to CHB just a chapter or two prior:

"They won't be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive." "Now, wait just a moment," Apollo said, but I was on a roll. (TLO 353)

To Percy at the time, and on a Doylist level in terms of where the series was at with his characterization in fuckin' 2009, his protestations come across as typical self-absorbed drivel in the face of being accused of anything less than perfection. And while him framing his protestations that way fits with his characterization as it emerges in the rest of the series, in light of the wonderful readings that others in this thread have performed there is another level to them, one that spurs him to try to rebuild his foothold in camp asap and damn the consequences.

As the previous rb mentioned, Apollo has just lost several children to this war. He has just had it driven home in the worst way possible that CHB may not, in fact, be the safest place for his kids; it may be a streamlined way of giving them to Zeus to use as pawns in his power struggles. But now, Percy is forcing the gods' hands. Percy is institutionalizing CHB and binding all of the gods to it. This makes complete sense from Percy's perspective. He is a kid, camp is his home, and he is in the moment where he is speaking feeling fairly lenient and well-disposed towards the gods. He is willing to assume the best of them, willing to forgive Hermes, willing to ignore Ares' abuse (side note: I hate that motherfucker, get the fuck away from clarisse, I stg i will kill him), and willing to overlook the atrocities he has learned Zeus and Hades committed. He just wants the gods to be part of their kids' lives, at least enough for the kids to understand what's going on. And yeah that's a better deal overall for the half-bloods than they've had so far. But from Apollo's perspective, given his waning power within camp, Zeus' growing influence, and the recent fates of his children, jesus christ that is a terrifying ultimatum.

Building on what everyone else in this thread has established, Zeus has been elbowing him out of camp, repeatedly using it as a blackmail chip to get heroes to do what he wants them to. (I'm thinking of the way the weather reflects his threats in TLT and TTC, the way Percy is pressured into quests through fear of what Zeus will do to his friends and to their sanctuary). And now Percy is giving Apollo no choice - he *will* keep turning over his kids. No wiggle room. Camp's size and influence seems like it has been fading over the past years. Many demigods are said to have "disappeared"; not died, just not come back after a summer. I wonder how much of that could have been those who cared about them - parents both mortal and immortal - wanting to keep them out of the action, preferring their chances against monsters to their chances in a war. Point being, camp has not been the default in the time leading up to the Titan War. Not being at camp is dangerous, but being at camp has been dangerous as well.

Percy wants camp to be the default. Percy wants there to be systems in place, a safety net for demigods to rely upon. And he's so so right to want that. But he is a kid and he does not fully recognize (or want to recognize, understandably) how fucked it is, how capricious the safety net can be (the conditions of Zeus' protection), how it is paid for in blood (the quests, the unnecessary dangers, the poorly-planned 'training exercises'), how there is so much room for abuse within it (Tantalus, Mr. D at his worst, bullying on an inter-camper level with Clarisse, Drew, Sherman). But, at least to some extent, Apollo does, even he pretends not to. So when his hand is forced, he immediately moves to try to have some oversight of camp, some more involvement, to build up some of his power to protect or at least monitor it more. He instates Rachel as oracle immediately after the council concludes before anyone has time to react. Camp Half-Blood has been (re-?)established as Thee place for Greek demigods, and if that is inevitable then god damn Apollo going to put all his effort into being a part of it again rather than letting Zeus continue to alternately manipulate and abandon it uncontested.

oo now im interested in that apollo is chb'd patron thing would you care to elaborate on that??

@stereden also asked this! There’s not so much canon for this as some of the other things I’ve talked about but there’s still a few things to say on the topic, and not only am I going to talk about him being the patron, I’m going to talk about how that works with the things that happen with CHB during the PJO series, and of course because we’re talking about Apollo, there’s the odd little titbit from TOA that makes its way into this, too.

A lot of this will be extrapolation, but I’ve done my best to keep more floating headcanons out of it, so this should at least all stem convincingly from canon.

I’m going to address two things under this umbrella, because I think they’re related and also because I find them fascinating: Apollo as the patron god of CHB, and Apollo’s loss of jurisdiction over CHB by the events of canon.

So, Apollo and the patronage of CHB. While Camp Half-Blood Confidential is pretty goofy and daft in tone, it gives us a few important little nuggets of information regarding the founding of the camp, namely that it was Apollo’s idea - or at the very least, Apollo foresaw that it would happen/needed to happen.

Continua a leggere

[nofingjustaninchident]

i saw ur requests are open and i got excited 😵

would u be willing to write a jason grace x apollo!reader one shot? specifically one that’s kinda angsty but has a happy ending?? maybe the reader gets really hurt on a quest with Jason and he’s genuinely scared but she ends up being okay in the end? i’m not sure what other details but i’d love to see what you do with this (if you want!!!)

:0)

we’ll be a fine line, we’ll be alright.

content: jason grace x apollo!reader

warning: bad BAD writing, angst but then it’s fluff, blood, almost dying experience, octavian’s still alive, cursing, post Blood of Olympus

a/n: hello! this is my first request and i wanted to post it before the other stuff i’m working on (especially cause i can’t finish any of the shit i’m working on). this is kind of fast paced but don’t blame me, it’s 12am in brazil right now so.. yea. also, i kinda diverted from the whole hurt in quest thing, i’m sorry! i didn’t have enough ideas for a whole quest. but i hope you enjoy! oh and this is placed after the first book of TOA

⛧° 。 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆༺♱༻⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 。°⛧

Sure, a heartbreak did hurt. But have you been stabbed by Imperial Gold? Dude. Brotha.

Sure, it was a normal thing for you to argue with Octavian. Hell, it was. normal thing for everyone who’s sane to do. This scrawny boy was just… a piece of shit. Yeah. And the worst part? You’re related. He’s one of the “legacies”, whatever that is. That stupid roman dipshit.

And today was no different. You two were arguing about some trivial shit, as always, but things escalated quickly. Soon you two were sparring (how was a mystery, since you didn’t even know that thing knew how to hold a sword) and it was quite fun.

You see, you got to camp Half-Blood when you were just seven. Since then you’ve been trained all year, since you didn’t have any other family - besides the godly side of it, duh - and Octavian was… well, Octavian. You were much better than him.

The whole problem is that Octavian likes to play dirty. So eventually he makes you trip and fall and he leaves gashes around your arms and legs. But with imperial gold it was sort of painful.

Till one of those times came again, but this time he didn’t leave a gash or a scratch. He stabbed you right in your stomach.

“Oh, gods!” He said, with fake concern. “I’m so sorry, cousin! My bad. I should go looking for your boyfriend, right? But… i didn’t see nothing. Bye!” The blond said with a devilish grin and left.

You knew you needed help. You were applying pressure to the wound, trying to use your healing powers to at least slow down the bleeding.

You tried to get up to look for help, but it was almost impossible. Even with that, you had to. ‘Oh, come on,’ you thought, ‘i’ve faced Kronos, Gaea and Annabeth mad at me. I’m not gonna die for a stupid legacy.’

And that’s exactly what made you move your body towards the via principalis, where you knew someone was gonna help you.

When you got there, the first person you saw was - thanks the gods -, Reyna. When the praetor looked at you, her face was horrified.

“y/n? What-“ She began, but you cut her off.

“I-i’ll explain later. Just… medical cabin. Please.” You begged, your words barely above a whisper.

Reyna nodded and helped you lean on her for support, as she walked you towards the medical cabin. You didn’t know the name of the boy who was currently there, but he looked as horrified as Reyna.

“Oh gods. Oh, my gods.” The boy said and you smiled, trying to fight back the urge to pass out.

“Ha, thanks. I thought it was bad.” You half joked as Reyna and the unkown boy put you on a vacant stretcher. When you were laid down, you looked up at Reyna with pleading eyes. “Bring Jason here, please?”

“Of course. I’ll go find him. The brunette said and left the medical cabin.

“Ok. uh… care to tell what happened with you?” The boy asked and you turned your gaze back to him.

“Got stabbed by imperial gold. What’s your name?” She asked, but the look in the boy’s face didn’t seemed to register the question.

“My gods… i’ll do my best to help you.” He said and grabbed a bottle of nectar, pouring it to your mouth. “Ok, i need to-“

Before he could finish, a certain blonde boy barges past the doors, looking around the medical cabin, desperately trying to find you.

When his gaze fell into you, he rushed to your side, grabbing your hand. His eyes were glossy behind his glasses and she knew he already wanted to cry.

“Y/n, what…? What happened? Are you okay? Who did this?” He asked, and she tried to laugh, but the pain was becoming unbearable. You couldn’t even talk anymore, as the only thing that came out of your mouth was a whiny breath. “It’s okay, i’m here with you, hm? I won’t leave.”

He kissed your forehead and you squeezed his hand softly just before you felt a tear fall in your cheek. That was the last thing you heard or saw before passing out.

⛧° 。 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆༺♱༻⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 。°⛧

Jason is desperate. He’s beyond worried about you.

He knows what imperial gold does to someone. Gods, he was stabbed by imperial gold before. And if she wasn’t treated in the right way… he didn’t even want to think about it.

But other than that, he needed to know who did this. He was going to kill this person with his bare hands.

It had been two days since you blacked out and you hadn’t woken up yet. He was starting to get even more worried, but he hadn’t left your side for one second. You couldn’t even go back to Camp Half-Blood (obvi), so your closest friends and family came to visit.

Will had cried his eyes out when he saw her there. Nico had to comfort him as his pupils leaked salty water. Lester/Apollo was back from his quest with Meg, and he also came to visit his daughter. The man was very… emotional, let’s say that.

But on the third day you were finally beginning to wake up. Of course, Jason was there.

“Hey, honey… you’re back, hm?” He asked, caressing you hair as you smiled, trying to reassure him. It still hurt as hell, but it could be worse. You could be dead.

“Hey…” She mumbled, her voice a little smudgy. “How long was it out?”

“A few days. But you’re back now, that’s what matters the most.” He said as he gave you a soft kiss on the lips. It was no tongue, just affection. He was showing you he was there for you.

“I feel fine. Like, not fine, but definitely better.” She said, as she pulled away from him.

“Yeah, i imagined. But, baby, i need you to tell me something.” Jason said, still holding your hand softly.

You nodded, waiting for him to elaborate.

“Who did this to you?” He asked, and you felt him squeezing your hand tighter. His voice was also harsher, as if he was restraining himself from killing someone.

“It was… it was Octavian.” She said, in a whisper-like tone. His face hardened immediately as he got up and went to the boy that was standing at the door.

“I need you to call Reyna and Frank. Tell them it’s an emergency.” He said and the boy quickly left.

Jason rushed back to your side. “I swear i’m gonna kill that son of a bitch.” He muttered.

When you were about to answer, Reyna and Frank rushed past the door, both looking worried. Behind Frank, there were a few other people - Will, Nico, Hazel, Annabeth, Piper, Leo and Percy -, all looking worried.

“You’re alive!” Will shouted and rushed to your side, tears welling up his eyes again.

“What, you thought that a little stab was going to kill me? Please.” She scoffed and Will laughed.

“So, who did this?” Reyna asked, also going to your side and stroking your shoulder softly.

“The most stupid, idiotic, son of a bitch augur that we ever had.” Jason said through gritted teeth.

“Octavian did that? I knew he was annoying, but at this level?” Percy asked, his face contorted in a mix of anger and disbelief.

“Mhm. We were sparring but… he likes to play dirty, i guess.”

“I’m gonna murder him.” Will groaned.

“Get in line.” Jason, Percy and Nico said at the same time.

You chuckled a bit, even if it hurt. Cause you knew, with that family right there, everything was gonna be fine.

a/n pt2: so… i like it but i don’t but i do. u get that? yea. i don’t know, i think i could do better, but i kinda liked it. I was going to make octavian’s trial and all but it would be too fucking long, so i gave up. that’s it for today, sorry that it took so long!

[your-local-squip-fanatic]

I need a break from Ch 5 of the DLAU so fuck it, have headcanons n stuff for ToA until I get it out-

-Lester literally never had a haircut in the entire six months, so obviously it's actually pretty long. Maybe shoulder length?

-OH AND HIS EYESSS his eyes turn gold when he gets a burst of godly power! The ToA discord also came up with them turning entirely green when he has a vision and I love that.

-So Apollo is more than happy to become Lester again, but I like to think he made a few tweaks to the form. For one, replacing the acne with a ton of freckles (on his face and shoulders especially) and maybe dying a few of his curls blonde. Oh, and his eyes are still blue, but around the pupil itself is like a gold ring. So Lester, just with subtle changes to reference Apollo's godly form.

-Meg absolutely has sunflowers planted in Aeithales dedicated to Apollo, and he makes sure they stay alive and healthy no matter what.

-I believe Caleo split up to better focus on themselves. Sorry, I just don't like the pair and it didn't make sense. They're still friends though.

-Georgina is a legacy of Apollo, I will not answer your questions

-Apollo makes it a point to visit the two camps at least weekly, mostly just to say hi and check up on his old friends. He avoids giving out quests, but if he absolutely has to, he makes sure it's easy and even provides an asisst at times.

-Hell, in fact, he might come from nowhere in his Lester form and save you from that fall or dangerous trap, or that horde of monsters about to make a meal out of you. Those in-person interventions are rare though, as Apollo is trying his very best not to alert the other gods on what he's up to.

-The only one that knows is Artemis, but she says and does nothing about it. She understands that this is just Apollo's way to keep himself busy so that he doesn't break down over the memories, over how many died for him. Of course, it's mainly due to the promise he made with Jason that he does so much to help the demigods.

-Apollo spends a lot of time w Meg, helping her garden with the rest of the Imperial Household. He makes sure no harm ever comes to her, that she lives long and happy, and she's grateful for her dummy being there for her.

-Despite how much he now cares for mortals now, he's still a god. Apollo's very reluctant to unleash his plague arrows and whatnot upon humanity, but it's his purpose. So he tries to make any damage minimal when he has to attend to his more destructive godly duties.

[vocaloidsongtournament]

Round 2 Match-Ups: September 2024 Vocaloid Song Tournament

Set 1:

TRAFFIC JAM by Niru Kajitsu (NILFRUITS) vs. Imperial Girl by R Sound Design

A Born Coward by 164 vs. Chururira, Chururira, Daddadda! By Wada Takeaki (KurageP)

Usseewa by syudou vs. Otome Dissection by DECO*27

Goodbye Sengen by Chinozo vs. Envy Baby by Kanaria

Set 2:

Aishite Aishite Aishite by Kikuo vs. Dramaturgy by Eve

Literary Nonsense by Eve vs. Au no Beats by Hanyuu Maigo

ROKI by mikitoP vs. Love Trial by 40meter-P

Darling Dance by Kairiki Bear vs. Shoujo Rei by mikitoP

Set 3:

Deep-Sea Girl by Yuuyu vs. MKDR (DSCF) by DECO*27

phony by NOMELON NOLEMON vs. Shun-ran by john (TOOBOE)

Lagtrain by inabakumori vs. The Lost One's Weeping by Neru

Romeo and Cinderella by doriko vs. Kagerou Days by Jin

Set 4:

Melty Land Nightmare by Harumaki Gohan vs. Happy Halloween by Junky

Bitter Choco Decoration by syudou vs. Tokyo Teddy Bear by Neru

Charles by balloon vs. Telecaster B-Boy by Surii

An Unaware Drunk by Kanaria vs. Ego Rock by Surii

Set 5:

Villain by Teniwoha vs. Fragile by nulut (Lanndo)

Six Trillion Years and an Overnight Story by kemu vs. Patchwork Staccato by TOA

Venom by Kairiki Bear vs. ECHO by Crusher

Hated by Life Itself. by Kanzaki Iori vs. Egoist by Oonuma Parsley

The current scores for each idol groups stands at 7 songs left for Leo/need, 8 songs left for MORE MORE JUMP!, 8 songs left for Vivid BAD SQUAD, 5 songs left for Wonderlands x Showtime, and 12 songs left for Nightcord at 25:00. So far, Nightcord has the highest odds of winning while WxS has the lowest odds of winning, but will it stay that way? Round 2 starts in a few moments, so don't forget to vote, reblog, spread harmless propaganda, and have fun!

[peco5bi11]

oh, oh this is fire. we can work with this...

bonkle knight bonkle knight

stolen off the Eons of Battle discord

[randomwriteronline]

The sounds of cooing and raucous voices sputtering out something akin to words was a good sign, they both thought as they approached the room. A few healers were standing around the doorway, watching in curiously and giggling to themselves at the poor attempts at language coming through the thin barrier dividing them from the beings who were not their patients.

Whenua stood beside them, his short hunched stature causing him to go mostly unnoticed; he crossed his arms behind his back, made a show of trying to peek through the curtains, and finally whispered in a conspiratorial tone: "What are we laughing about?"

One Ice Agori jumped so high that they nearly cracked their skull on the ceiling.

The onslaught of hurried embarrassed apologies that followed wasn't that loud, but there were enough beings talking at the same time as they scrambled against the wall to completely cover the vocal progress coming from the adjacent room, clumsily backing away from the two Turaga in a burst of sudden bashfulness.

Try as she might, Nokama could not hold back a quiet chuckle as her brother scattered the healers away with an imperious wave of his hand, so very unlike him.

He maintained his act as he side-eyed her: "Well?" he hissed with a self-importance that would have once fit Matau perfectly, only making her giggle harder: "What is there that you find to be so funny? Is it me? Ah! It is, isn't it? Have you no respect for your elders? Such irriverence! Why, you young ones, growing ever cockier by the year! When I was your age, young lady, we- we would- we had-"

At that point they were both too overwhelmed by their own laughing fits for the charade to continue - bent over their knees and sustaining each other from the shoulders as their frames rattled and rattled with the sound of pocketfulls of spare change.

"Oh!" a squeak reached them. "Would you look who's here!"

Their racket had not gone unnoticed, evidently.

The two Turaga hurriedly calmed down once more before entering the room. They had to keep at least some semblance of decency and intrigue about themselves.

Their one-hundred-percent dignified appearance from behind that thin excuse of a curtain was met by the lopsided smirk of an Agori with a heavy metallic sheen to her skin and the both excited and curious gazes of a pair of suddenly quiet beings.

"Ulagha!" one of them beamed, smiling so brightly that his entire face seemed to lit up.

"Raise your tongue!" Krahka chided him: "You need to block the air at least a little bit if you want any of that to make sense! And roll the arr further down your throat!"

He huffed, wiggling in his seat but still grinning as he repeated, slower, following her instructions: "Tu - rrra - ga!"

"Hello!" Nokama replied just as giddy.

"Ayam Poha - tu! Toa ov Tohn!" he continued - and instantly his face scrunched up in displeasure at his mispronunciation, the arms he'd thrown triumphantly in the air retracting immediately while his nose curled up and he tried again, phonemes tangling in his mouth: "Ton. Tohn. T- thon, thon, thon, thon! Thon!"

"Easy now, easy-"

"BONES!" he cursed out loud: "BONES! STONE! STONE! STONE! Ayam Poau- Po - ha - tu, To-a ov Sss-tone! Stone!"

"There you go!" Whenua hollered back.

With a victorious shriek the Toa pumped his fists: "Toa ov STONE!"

"Of," Krahka corrected.

"STONE!"

"Of stone."

"TOA OV STONE!"

"Alright, we'll fix that later."

"Aycan peak! Ps- sk- spkspk- seek- pek- sep- BONES! Ssspeak!"

Nokama beamed, eyes alight with pride: "You can indeed!" she laughed exuberantly as she streched out her arms towards him. Pohatu slammed his head in her palms much like a Hapaka pup, perhaps even a bit more forcefully than she would have liked, and let her sway it left and right while gently squeezing his cheeks between her fingers. "How lovely to hear you again!"

His laugh was as thunderous as she remembered, filling the entire room effortlessly.

"He's not that good," Krahka huffed. She didn't get all these compliments when she figured out speech in a handful of minutes...

Her student stuck out his tongue at her.

She stuck it right back at him.

If she'd still been a teacher, the Ga-Turaga would have felt compelled to break up their bickering; having trained herself on the most inane of her brothers' arguments, however, she simply turned away from their childish display to put all of her attention on the one being who still had not uttered as much as a sigh.

"And you, Kopaka?" she grinned at him. "Would you like to share your progress with us, too?"

The Toa treated her to as blank yet least annoyed a gaze as he could.

His lips moved forward, as if to send her a kiss: then he whistled.

Whenua widened his eyes: "No," he whispered.

Kopaka looked straight at him and whistled twice again, adding an inquisitive inflection to the sound.

"No," the Turaga repeated. His finger pointed right at the organic being's chest; his gaze had turned dead serious. "Do not do this to me. Speak."

Another whistle.

Whenua smacked his hand on his leg: "No!" he wailed in a state of total despair, "I will not take this! We do not need another one who speaks solely in bird! I know you can speak - Pohatu, tell him to speak! Tell your brother to speak!"

But Pohatu only grinned as wide as he could and shook in his seat, legs tangled and swinging - not even trying to hide his amusement.

The Turaga turned to his old friend: "Krahka! Tell him to speak!"

"But he is speaking," she replied innocently as she batted her lashes, "Just not your language."

Watching him grip onto the cot for dear life as he whined and sobbed dramatically loudly while letting himself sink to the floor, this close to biting a chunk out of the mattress in frustration, was certainly something. What exactly that was was hard to tell, but the other four beings could agree that it was at least very funny.

When Whenua finally pulled himself up, he looked like he had been through the trials of the Hordika again.

"Kopaka," he began, pointing his finger at the Toa of Ice once more. "Listen to me very carefully. You cannot do this to me. I've stomached Nuju speaking only bird for a thousand years, I physically cannot handle a second one like that. You will kill me. You will kill your brother's Turaga. Do you think Onua would appreciate that? I know you can speak. Now take a deep breath, and say something. Normally. With words."

Teridax had awaited thousands of decades to see his plan come to fruition - millions of days, billions of hours, trillions of seconds, all for a moment of glory that barely lasted but a fraction of the anticipation and planning behind its very achievement.

The pause before Kopaka's answer was somehow more excruciating.

Might have been his dead stare in the Turaga's eyes.

Or the fact that he followed his instructions to the letter, likely for the sake of torturing him further.

His lips parted first to take a deep, deep breath, filling his chest.

They parted again to then exhale all that air - very slowly.

Parting a third time, he inhaled shortly.

And finally, mouth protracted to whistle, he said, deadpan: "No."

Whenua sunk back to the floor with a loud whimper.

Two seconds later he sprung back to his feet: "You PIRAKA!" he shrieked, and menacingly swung his fist down on the cot several times as the Toa picked himself up and leisurely walked on the mattress to hide behind his brother, who was convulsing uncontrollably as he laughed harder than his stomach could take, "You Vatuka! You Makika-faced fiend! So much for being made by Artakha - get back here, you spawn of Karzhani! You make me believe you can only--!"

"He couldn't even speak avian," his sister cackled for the sake of increasing his brother's relief and anger at the same time, "My Rau couldn't even translate him! He was just whistling!"

"WHAT!"

Pohatu kept rocking back and forth wheezing hysterically to the point where he was about to start crying.

"You shut up, you overly meaty Vako!" Whenua yelled again.

The Toa tried to answer to the insult with something in tone as best as his still clumsy speaking capabilities could allow him to - instead coughing up a storm as he choked on a breath when he attempted to stop his crazed giggling a little too quickly, needing his brother to (extraordinarily gracelessly, to be quite honest) slam his open palm a few times on his back like he was trying to shatter his spine to smithereens in order to dislodge whatever disgusting thing was stuck in his throat.

At last he sucked in a huge breath, mouth opening wide in a grin as the sound of a creaking window escaped it: "Aploghy tim-one tim-too tim-thrr earh-tauraga tim-one tim-too."

"Oh!"

"Ah - yes," Krahka bit her lip, face scrounched up in an almost pained grimace: "That. I was going to mention that."

"Lang stone-pattern same-not, be?" Nokama whirred, hoping her memory was simply a little faulty. The words came out of her like the intermittent clicking laments of a floppy disk drive allowing its contents to be downloaded slowly.

"Smaae-not, bee," Pohatu confirmed - not without struggling to imitate something at least close to the correct noise a few times.

Kopaka rolled his tongue deeper down his throat in something akin to a purr: "Frrreim-uorrrk an- anao- amu- anolam- anomelie," he tried to explain, modulating squeaks by imposing his dull greyish teeth and tongue against his lower lip to try and correct his pronounciation - though much of it was beyond his control.

His frustration was mitigated slightly by Nokama's humid palm laying on his hand. He focused on the texture of the protodermis on his skin before he started scowling too hard.

The Turaga turned to their friend, speechless but with eyes open wide, completely baffled.

Krahka could only shrug: "They're not built for it."

"What do you mean, not built for it?" Nokama sputtered before she could hold herself back: "It's our language! Our first dialect! All Matoran are made with an immediate knowledge of it - what do you mean, not...?"

"Framework lang compat-not," the Rahi repeated: her Agori-like face morphed into a mixture of mechanical features, reminiscent at once of both all the former inhabitants of the Great Spirit Robot and none of them, so that she could illustrate the problem as they moved in an unnatural manner as she continued speaking in screeching whirrs, clicks, buzzes, clangs, clunks, and so on. "Unit mec-not lang maker lang part-plural present-not. When: lang maker-yes lang part number-plural mod-not. Ice-toa stone-toa find-yes number-plural rrr-lang part click-lang plus maker-yes part-part-part iiii-lang-dif minus lang part-dif number-plural mod-not."*

The information did very little to comfort the Ga-Turaga. She looked awfully beside herself.

"But you do understand it still - you did understand all that with no problem, right?" Whenua turned back to the Toa as he gently clunked: "Comp-yes, be? Comp-correct-yes, be?"

"Com-ies arth-turrga, bee," Pohatu reassured him.

The other winced a little, but he smiled: "And you can still say a few words," he reassured Nokama, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. "Pronounciation leaves a lot to be desired, but based on how you spoke earlier it's safe to say that's not your forte."

The Toa of Stone dropped his shoulders with a cartoonish pout.

"Corec," Kopaka coughed.

His brother shot him a glare that wouldn't have been out of place on Nuju's face during one of his worst days.

The other Toa smirked with a smugness worthy of Onewa.

It was very short-lived, as he instantly dropped it and paled when Pohatu pointed at his nose with a brand new vengeance in his own dastardly grin as he only said: "Sayit."

Krahka tilted her head.

Then she grinned too.

Horrifyingly, because of the completely mechanical face.

Pohatu pressed harder on Kopaka's nose: "Sayit."

The Toa bit down on his lip and scowled.

"Sayit!"

"Come on, Kopaka," Krahka drawled with a honey-sweet tone, "Don't you want to show them how good you are?"

He shot her a look that could have killed her if she'd been any weaker a being and tried to stand up to walk out of the situation as he'd enjoyed being able to do in these past few days; he was instantly grasped and manhandled until he was essentially dangled before the Turaga, trying as hard as he could to hold himself back by clawing onto the cot with his dull fingers: "Sayit!!" his brother insisted with a wail, shaking him up and down like a jammed up pepper grinder.

"No!" he growled back quietly as his cheeks grew darker.

Pohatu leaned down to the baffled Turaga with a conspiratorial smirk: "Ee kip sain da vecas ee nos ee can mes i'ap," he stage-whispered, completely forgoing any lesson he might have been given on proper phonology in favor of fluid if only vaguely comprehensible communication.

"Can-NOT!" his brother corrected.

"Aysay da!"

"NO! Ee- Yu, say-d, can!"

"He's right, you said 'can', not can't." their teacher intervened: "You're really bad with plosives."

He very maturely replied by blowing her the loudest raspberry he could and resuming shaking his poor frazzled brother by the shoulders whilst gargling some sort of inarticulate howl.

The sheer tenacity with which Kopaka was holding onto that terrible mattress was probably only matched by a Bohrok's drive to clean.

Krahka's hyena-like cackle briefly interrupted his concentration so he could shoot her another positively deadly glare - which meant that he was taken completely aback when he was finally ensnared from beneath the armpits in a grapple, lifted halfway in the air, and launched together with his brother as the both screamed back onto the bed.

The Rahi kept laughing as the two tussled like a pair of angry manuls, needing to bend down on her knees before her lungs collapsed and she fell to the floor.

She waved at the worried friends to reassure them: "Let them, let them - pups like them need to play!"

"I think they're trying to bite each other," Nokama objected.

"That's a common play-pattern," her brother intervened too quickly.

While he nursed the shoulder she'd punched, the Ga-Turaga turned back to the still cackling beast: "What is this even about? What would elicit a reaction like this?"

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" Krahka howled back, overwhelmed by a fit of giggles for a few more seconds before she could return to a semblance of composure: "Your little Ice Toa is a big ol' show-off, is all! He decided he was good enough to recite a rhyme from memory as his first real attempt at speech, and he-"

"SHAT!" came from the mess of organic matter, promptly followed by a "SAYIT!" followed in turn by a loud frustrated shriek.

"And he did bad. Like really bad."

"SHAT!"

"SAYIT!!"

"NO!"

A loud, almost metallic sound rang out for a second, and then Pohatu yowled as he rolled on his back with his faulty leg that didn't seem to want to heal in his hands, accusing a certain degree of pain to the limb through variations of ahia-ahio-ohiohi-ahiuiah.

Kopaka pointed a finger at him as though he could have stabbed him with it, hissing: "Yu, de-serv, it."

His brother briefly stopped nursing his calf to slam a hand on his bicep in what would have more clearly been the first half of a crass gesture if he hadn't been laying face up in the spit image of a stuck dermis turtle.

"I could give you a penalty for that!" Whenua warned him.

To which the Toa of Stone rightfully protested, squashing his brother's face in his hands: "An ee don ghe uan?"

"By the tail of the Rahi Nui, you are abysmal at talking," Krahka sighed. "And you could do it from the second you were awake..."

"Shat ap, ayam jas fas."

"There is not a single right phoneme in that sentence."

"Ayam jas fas!"

The sound of their bickering did not bother the Onu-Turaga as he mused over the barely comprehensible complaint his brother's Toa had brought to his attention.

He turned to his sister: "What is it that you used to teach in Metru Nui, again?" he asked, "Was it hystory? Or language?"

"A bit of both," she replied, the hint of a twinkle in her eye telling him that she must have caught on to what he was thinking: "Though literature was also on my curriculum."

Whenua made a big show of humming and thinking, even playing with the chin of his mask like he'd once seen some Ko-Metru scholars do when they were so deep in their mostly useless ponderings that they wouldn't even notice where they were going until they smacked their faces against a wall, before litting his pale green gaze finally settle on Kopaka's dark face.

The organic Toa was giving him a look that promised frigid anguish if he even just thought of putting his idea in motion.

"Does your leg hurt very badly, Pohatu?" the Turaga asked with not a single hint of fear towards the silent threat at him, since he knew it was all hot air anyways.

A disgruntled wail was answer enough.

"Then a penalty for Kopaka is indeed in order. I'm certain you're curious about that rhyme they mentioned he could recite, sister?"

Kopaka hissed through gritted teeth: "No."

"You don't get a say in this," Whenua shut him down immediately.

"No!"

"Why, dear brother, I am curious," Nokama replied.

"No!!"

She laughed a little more gently as she noticed the Toa's embarrassed darkening cheeks as he sunk his nails into the mattress, and waved at him reassuringly: "Oh, come now, I've heard all sorts of terrible recitals in my time from Matoran who should have had a much better grasp on their tongue than you do right now, it'll be nothing special! Here - come closer, say it into my audio receptor. That way nobody else will hear. Is that alright with you?"

For a second, considering the way he trembled in his seat and the perfectly immoble seething squint of his eyes, her interlocutor seemed moments away from grasping her mask and disassembling her entire body like a puppy tussling with a porcelain doll.

Then, blushing so furiously that his face might as well have been made of coal, he did lean very close to the Turaga (avoiding eye contact at all costs) and complied.

His lips moved imperceptibly for a few seconds, making almost no sound at all.

He was so quiet in fact that Nokama had to interrupt him and ask, as sweetly as possible: "Could you repeat that a little louder, please? I can't hear a thing."

Head sinking into his shoulders from embarrassment, hearing Krahka's mocking giggles behind him, and feeling Pohatu's eyes pierce holes into his back, the stoic Toa of Ice thought the loudest most terrible curse that could come to his mind in the hopes that it would automatically transfer into their brains and raised his voice just enough for the Turaga to actually make out the words.

If he had gotten a limb cut off it would probably have been so much less painful than this.

The second Nokama pulled away and joined hands in front of her mouth to carefully choose her words he was frankly ready to just spontaneously shatter into a quadrillion pieces.

He did crumble a little when she placed a kind palm on his arm.

"It was a commendable effort, and I praise you for trying your best in your current conditions," she started, so immensely sweet in an attempt to soften the blow that was inevitably coming (she stopped briefly to shut up Krahka's new batch of chuckles with the most killer glare in the repertoire of any being of Water) before finally taking a long breath and admitting: "But that was really, really bad."

Kopaka curled into a ball, lowered himself to the floor, and scuttled under the cot and across the room in pure shame.

Pohatu nearly choked again as he laughed as loud as he could.

He choked for real when his brother landed a whole elbow in his stomach with a pounce that would have hurled the both of them right off the bed if the Rahi present hadn't shifted just in time to contain them - though that could not stop him from contuining to howl his hilarity, all while getting pelted in as many furious slaps across his face and body as the Ice Toa's hands could withstand before they caught on fire.

--

*Organic beings don't have anything to produce most of these sounds with, and even when they can only a few can be modulated. They did discover a variety of purrs and tongue-clicks - and that they can do those weird lip-teeth-tongue squeals - but they can't articulate much else.

[anonymous-ace72]

Slightly back on my bullshit in regards to roman portraiture but also linking it to Trials of Apollo because why tf not.

So, quick recap for those who don't know: Roman portraiture is to be taken with a grain of salt; especially Imperial portraiture. These are not realistic pictures of the people they portray, but rather carefully crafted, idealized images that would have been pre-approved by the subject before they were shown off to the world. They might include some individualized aspects (Pompey's portraits are a good example) but we really don't know what they look like.

On the other side of things, we can't really trust written accounts from people like Sutonious either, because in the case of the Julio-Claudians, he wrote about them some hundred years after that dynasty ended, and whatever sources he might have used in his describing of these people have long since been lost, and probably greatly embellished. Really, we have no clue what these people looked like. We don't even have remains to do facial reconstructions of because I'm pretty sure most imperial Romans would have been cremated.

So, what does this have to do with ToA?

I know within the universe of the books, the triumvirate is described in ways that look very similar to their surviving portraiture, it makes sense, these are the only images of these men we have left, but I thought it would be kind of cool if they only started looking more like their portraiture, after they became minor gods. Stay with me for a second.

These portraits were widely circulated, usually made as a means for the emperor to stand in during official events where he would need to be present, as well as just to remind everyone who's the boss. Most people in the Roman empire probably never physically saw the emperor himself, only these portraits, so this is the image of him that they would have known. I doubt, with the triumvirate being only minor dieties, that they have the ability to change their appearance at will like a major god can, but maybe one of the things that happened from transition from mortal to god is their appearance changed to fit more in with the widely circulated images around the empire. With some individuality sprinkled in as well.

Just an interesting thought I had.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Your Apollo & Aphrodite response is making me excited and I'm kinda rambling now, but Aphrodite does have the domain of war 👀

HOWEVER, only Sparta, Kytheria, and some other cities acknowledged it while the rest of Greece erased and ignored it so maybe Rome's impression of Venus makes a huge impact on the slight differences between Venus and Aphrodite because this is the first time an entire civilization acknowledges her military aspect? 👀👀

It's very convenient that in my library book about Rome I came across a lil' something interesting about Venus.

Venus was originally an Italian goddess, and the book actually introduces her as "The Great Goddess Venus".

She was the goddess of substantial homely virtues, and was invoked regularly as Venus Cloacina - "Venus the Purifier"

And, well, Cloacina was the goddess of the Roman sewage system so her and Venus were kinda one in the same until younger people began associating her with Aphrodite in Greece.

Until that happened though, she wasn't a large presence in Rome.

This website talks in the Venus section about how her popularity went up during Rome's war with Carthage, and her (Venus Eurcina) cult was given approval via the infamous Sibylline Books.

She also had lots of different incarnations in Rome

Venus Eurcina

Venus Verticordia (change of the human heart)

Venus Genetrix ("the Mother"; mother of Aeneus; lover of Mars)

Her Genetrix aspect was highly venerated, especially by Julius Caesar and Augustus due to the whole "we're descended from Aeneus" thing (although, I'm raising my eyebrow at Julius because also in my book, I found out he was actually an atheist??? And used the religious system to fool the populace??? so I'm going "hmmm" on that if we're talking in-universe ToA canon)

Anyway. Genetrix aspect was even brought into the Imperial Cult because of that and she had many, many many temples in Rome.

(sidenote: that website also talking about the other gods and their Greek/Roman aspects!!! Take a look because I certainly am!)

So here's how I'm seeing it:

Venus and Aphrodite were separate entities up until Rome took over Greece and people began mixing Venus and Aphrodite together.

Venus was made primarily the goddess of love and beauty, while Cloacina took the sewage area, and Venus Genetrix shot up the popularity charts.

According to this website, Venus also actually became a symbol of imperial power, so that is probably where her war influences and domains got a bit of attention.

And the previous website has a bit more to say on it too! Temples were erected to her to gain her aid in battles, and both Julius Caesar and Augustus claimed her ancestry through Aeneus.

(going ToA canon, that mean Augustus has the blood of Venus and Apollo in him. Damn. Man's got a lot going for him)

The website also has a picture of a statue of Venus, and it used to have her bearing a shield - all in all, she was a symbol of military success and civic peace.

Also she took on more of a matronly persona, which led to empresses being regularly identified with her in carvings, busts, and etchings on coins.

Damn. Aphrodite/Venus has quite the resume.

PJO, HoO, and ToA fans give this woman the proper respect and love she deserves we stan a queen.

I found this thing to it's basically an entire essay on Venus's military importance in Rome. I've only read the first paragraph but damn.

I mean, just read it;

"The Roman goddess Venus is conventionally associated with love, sex, and beauty. However, these were only some of her areas of influence. In reality, her role within the Roman religious system was far more complex and multi-faceted, and was not confined to these associations. Venus, in the Roman mind, bore associations with warfare and military success that were just as prominent. On one hand, this is hardly surprising due to her divine status, especially as one of the Dii Consentes. All Roman deities could be thought of as ‘militaristic’ in some sense. However, even the Romans themselves made a sharp distinction between her role as the goddess of love, and her martial qualities. This indicates both her importance as a martial deity, and the surprising nature of her multi-faceted role in Roman religion."

DAMN

[matcha-mintea]

100 miku songs/albums!!

(sorry if it's blurry! )

imma try list the songs/albums:

award strobe hello - siinamota

because you're here - pinocchio-p

shinkai shoujo - yuuyu

kikuo miku 2 - kikuo

kikuo miku 6 - kikuo

DARLING SYNDROME - kairikibear

pinky night - glue

orange irreal - glue

denki youhou - inabakumori

eight - hachioji-p

melomeloid - kairikibear

journey's prequels, journey's traces - iyowa

after epoch - sasakure.uk

bug - kairikibear

anonymous m - pinocchio-p

propaganda! - crusher-p

nayutan sei kara no buttai y - natyualien

hatsune miku is going to beat you to death - amity-p

(not) a devil - deco*27 and pinocchio-p

SIU - maretu

hananikaze - balloon

samsa - teniwoha

MACHINEGUN POEM DOLL - cosmo@bousouP

what's up? pop! - capchii

nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! - daniwellp

twilight melody - circus-p

the peachy key - iyowa

the vampire - deco*27

the intense voice of hatsune miku - cosmo@bousouP

fake meme - pinocchio-p

greatest idol - mitchie m

GHOST - deco*27

electric angel - yasuo

obscure questions - pinocchio-p

romeo and cinderella - doriko

miku - anamanaguchi

coin locker baby - maretu

this is the happiness and peace of mind committee! - utata-p

okusuri nonde neyo - mochitsune

HATSUNE MIKU 10th ANNIVERSARY SONGS -ミラクルミライ-

初音ミク「マジカルミライ」 10th Anniversary OFFICIAL ALBUM

miku miku ni shiteageru - ika_mo

sayonara princess - kai

konton boogie - jon-yakitory

suna no wakusei - hachi

circus panic! - 32ki

rakuraku annrakushi - pepoyo

imperial girl - r sound design

jishoumushoku - nekobolo

flos - r sound design

champion - kanaria

battle! hatsune miku - cosmo@bousou-P

mochimochi - TAK

apricot - iyowa

zombie - deco*27

umiyuri kaiteitan - n-buna

entomologists - ghost and pals

intergalactic bound - yunosuke and circus-p

chimera - deco*27

tell your world - livetune

senbonzakura - kurousa-p

melt - ryo (supercell)

when the first love ends - ryo (supercell)

all i need are things i like - pinocchio-p

hello planet - sasakure.uk

a gift from the princess who brought sleep - mothy

toosenbo - wowaka

ore ghost type - syudou

musunde hiraite rasetsu to mukuro - hachi

ai kotoba - deco*27

paris cinema girl - apfel note

two faced lovers - wowaka

flashback sound - kuwagata-p

shoujo rei - mikito-p

chain girl - noboru-p

the snow white princess is.. - noboru-p

hello, how are you? - nazou

kocchi muite baby - ryo (supercell)

magical girl and chocolate - pinocchio-p

mekakucity actors - jin

easy going forest girl - ishifuro

hitorinbo envy - koyori

torinoko city - 40mp

orange - tohma

hao - deco*27

delusion tax - deco*27

eve vocaloid 01 - eve

streaming heart - deco*27

rolling girl - wowaka

love! snow! really magic - mitchie m

love trial - 40mp

tsugihagi staccato - toa

花と水飴、最終電車 - n-buna

this messed-up wonderful world exists for me - n.k

cinderella - deco*27

music like magic! - oster

circus detail - 32ki

39 - deco*27 and sasakure.uk

carnival happy - kairikibear

M@GICAL☆CURE! LOVE SHOT! - SAWTOWNE

a hundred miku songs and albums. :3

also link if you want the clearer one: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGPZjdldLQ/aIqDF-udi5YtEiDBK0w-BQ/edit?utm_content=DAGPZjdldLQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton