#which leads us to assassin percy jackson

[raccoon-bubbles-killer]

he had a headstart

ch1/? || 2522 words

archive of our own

That night, Sally Jackson would go through with her plan. She rehearsed it. She reviewed it. She prepared for it. And most importantly, she knew that it would work.

She had done her research before doing anything else, the discreet visit to the library reviving the nostalgia she held for her failed academic career. Life hardly ever goes as it should, and her parents’ sickness, as unfortunate as it was, kept her from pursuing higher education.

Maybe she would go back to school one day. For that to be a possibility, however, tonight had to be successful.

Books on botanic and natural poisons were surprisingly easy to access, though that might be due to how likely it was for someone to use that knowledge to plan a murder. Not impossible, of course, but the chances were slim enough for the knowledge she needed to be so readily available.

She read through the books that day, with her young son, Percy, looking through picture books by her side. Gabriel had wanted the apartment to himself that day, and she had jumped on the occasion to both complete the first step of her plan and get her baby away from that man.

Percy was five now. Most of his memories included the one she called a husband, and while she knew the risks, they would have been exposed to should she not have married Gabriel Ugliano, she could not help but regret her decision. She wanted Percy safe but was unwilling to pay that price, the price of a human monster getting to break her boy before the real monsters could even get a chance to try.

Sally married Gabriel Ugliano when Percy was two. Three years later, she was going to get rid of him. The only question left unanswered was how.

And the answer was foxglove.

It’s a wonder how such a pretty flower can become a weapon once you know how to use it properly. It just so happened to also align perfectly with her current situation. The fact that someone thought of planting it in Central Park was only an added bonus, for it made her quest much easier.

All she had needed to do was ask one of the nature spirits where she could find the plant, and after explaining to the kind dryad that she was clearsighted and what she was going to use the flower for, they were more than willing to show her the way to a nearby patch of flowers that was littered with it.

After that, it was almost too easy. Gabriel didn’t even question the bowl of chili she brought him, eating it faster than he could taste it. He returned the empty dish swiftly, leaving her with shaking hands and the usual chores.

*** * ***

Deep breaths, Sally. In, and out. She stared down at the steaming bowl of chili, not yet believing the reality of the moment. It was just like any other night, with Gabe watching sports far too loudly for anyone else’s taste, and her cooking him a meal while Percy drew with his crayons at the counter.

Expect tonight she had almost ruined the recipe four times due to stress. Except tonight Percy favored his red crayons rather than his usual blue as if sensing that something was happening.

Tonight was real. The chili bowl was real. The page of paper filled with red crayons was real. And the powdered foxglove, all remains of which she flushed down the sink, had been far too real.

She glanced at her husband Gabe through the door. He was blissfully unaware of his faith, yelling at the ongoing football match with a pack of beer between his legs. Chips and other similarly unhealthy foods littered the coffee table. She still couldn’t believe how his lifestyle made it so easy for her to build the narrative for his murder untimely death.

Tonight was the night.

*** * ***

She fed Percy his meal -a different one, that she kept as far as possible from the poisoned chili-, did the dishes, put her son to sleep, and promptly went to bed herself, bringing a book along.

There was no way she was getting any sleep that night.

Everything that came after that went fast. She walked out of the bedroom the next morning and called the emergency services when she ‘found’ her husband dead in his seat. Next thing she knew, they took his body away and hooked her up with a funeral home to organize funerals for the poor excuse of a man she married.

She went through everything, every piece of paperwork, every detail of his funeral, as quickly as possible. She was eager to put all of this behind her. Eager for a new start.

His family had come, and so had his friends. Sally would have preferred not to show up at all, but it would stain her image as the dutiful, mourning widow. So there she stood, all clad in black with her toddler by her sides, playing her role to perfection.

*** * ***

His mother had been the first to approach her.

Sally never liked the old lady, just like she had never liked, or Olympus forbids, loved her son. Her near-constant sneer and the dirty look she gave Percy every time the two of them stood in the same room never allowed Sally to warm up to the woman.

“The first few years are the hardest,” were her surprisingly honest first words to her. “But don’t let it crush you like I did. For your son’s sake.”

Without waiting for a reply, Mrs. Ugliano walked away, leaving Sally to process her words by herself. She carded her fingers through Percy’s hair, unsure what to do with her mother-in-law’s sudden concern for her son’s well-being.

It took her a moment, but eventually, Sally remembered that Gabe, in a way Mrs. Ugliano must have perceived as similar enough to her own story, also lost his father at a young age.

Guilt squirmed in her guts, calling her out for her lies.

Sally stood strong though, ignoring the weight of her sins to maintain the mask of grief she fabricated for herself to cement her tale.

*** * ***

The next thing on her list was to erase all traces of that man ever being in their lives. The memories might still haunt her -hopefully the same isn’t true for Percy-, but destroying all physical evidence would help her breathe better.

It was not an easy task. His trash was everywhere, from the ground to the cupboard, without forgetting between the couch’s cushions, the furniture smelled at him, and the walls were stained by his smoking.

The longer she spent working on cleansing the apartment of his presence, the stronger she felt the urge to burn the whole thing down. And that’s what she ended up doing, in a very much non-literal way. Thankfully for her and Percy, Gabriel had left them a hefty sum through both his personal savings and his life insurance, and as it turns out, moving out was easier than making the place liveable again.

Sally then reenrolled herself into school with what was left of that money, fully planning on getting a higher education to find a better-paying job to give her son all the chances she could. He deserved that much after Gabriel.

Her work schedule at the candy shop swiftly shifted from full-time to part-time, and with more time to spend with her son, a chance to finally pursue the education she had always wanted, and the absence of a husband in her life, her brand-new good mood quickly started to affect her job.

Her colleagues were the first to notice and were happy that things were finally looking up for her. The regulars were the next ones to do, commenting easily on her improved mood.

*** * ***

Mr. Fletcher was the kind of customer that made Sally’s day. He was a gentleman, always took the time to talk with her and her colleagues when he wasn’t in a rush, and regularly brought his dates to the shop, as if to show off the small business he visited on a weekly basis.

And most importantly, Mr. Fletcher gave her back her hope in humanity, if only for a moment, each time he walked into the shop with an order from the nearby orphanage. He was everything she would have looked for in a man but was also happily married to his husband.

What could you ask more than for a man to take the time out of his day to buy candies to the less fortunate?

It had been a while since she last saw him, what with the funerals when he walked into the shop. The bell cheerfully rang when the door opened, and Sally raised her eyes from her literature textbook to meet his eyes. She smiled when she recognized him.

“Mr. Fletcher. How have you been doing?” she greeted him politely.

He paused, as if not expecting to see her there that day. “Sally. I’ve been well. How about you? You seem… happier.”

She considered his odd choice of words for a moment. Had she really looked that noticeably miserable before Gabriel’s passing? Or maybe did she simply look better due to the good turn her life had finally taken? With the new flat and her debut in higher education, on top of her concealed crime, she supposed that could be it.

“I suppose I am,” she finally replied.

“Whatever it is, I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you.” There was a pause, during which neither of them knew what to say before Sally redirected the conversation. “So! What would it be today?”

“Right!”

They moved along easily, the conversation taking a sweet focused turn as Sally helped him fill the day’s order, and just as quickly as he had walked in, Mr. Fletcher was out of the door, bringing with him a bag heavy with candy.

Oblivious, Sally returned to her textbook, once again silently thanking her employer for their lenience which allowed her to study during her shifts.

Mr. Fletcher, however, walked away with more questions than he had previous to his visit to the candy shop. Thoughtfully, he wondered what happened to the source of the bruises he had observed on Sally during his previous visits. It might be worth an investigation.

*** * ***

It took a few more days for the other shoe to drop, and when it did, it was at the time and place she expected it the least.

She had just come home from a long shift, which had immediately followed the two classes she had in the morning, meeting and paying Percy’s babysitter in the doorway. Locking the door behind her, she kicked off her shoes and walked into the apartment, which was already well obscured by the night.

Blindly, she put her purse on the dining table before searching for the light switch. The place was still unfamiliar enough to her that she had to take a moment to search for it, feeling the wall with the tip of her fingers until she found it and the light came.

And where she had expected to turn and see only her purse on the empty table, she found instead her purse, Mr. Fletcher from the candy store, and two strangers sitting in her kitchen.

She paused, unsure of what to do in this situation, staring at the intruders and only taking her eyes off them for a fraction of a second, which she used to locate the knife block. She might appreciate her talks with her clientele while on the job, but the same wasn’t true when she found them in her home at ungodly hours of the night.

“That’s your idea of a potential recruit?” one of the strangers commented eventually, breaking the silence. They looked her up and down with a sneer on their face. “She looks more like a single mother than anything else.”

There was a sigh.

“That’s because she is a single mother, Paisley. Her son probably is sleeping in the next room,” Fletcher informed them, his tone so detached it seemed otherworldly, especially in their current predicament.

“That begs the question, then; why are we here?”

Fletcher opened his mouth to answer this Paisley person’s question once more, but this time, Sally beats him to it.

“What is this?” she asks. Her tone is shaky, but firm, in a way she hopes indicates her willingness to resort to physical violence to defend her home.

All three of the intruders exchange a glance, and after a moment, the second stranger, who had yet to say a word, spoke up.

“An assessment.”

“An assessment for what?”

‘Paisley’ whistled in a totally not subtle way. “She’s willing to hear us out. She either has as much potential as you said she had, or she’s completely stupid.” Fletcher was however quiet to elbow them into silence.

He turned toward her and answered her question. “We know you killed your husband, and-”

“I didn’t though,” she replied automatically. The lie, nowadays so solidly implanted in her daily life, became as easy to speak as the truth. She knew it was false, but she repeated it often enough that it might as well have become her truth.

“…but you did. You might have convinced the world otherwise, but we know. We recognize the signs.”

“And what might those be?”

“The high concentration of cardiac glycosides in your late husband’s system,” the third intruder immediately stated. “Commonly associated with foxglove poisoning,” he added as an afterthought.

“Let’s say it’s true,” she said, shifting closer to the knife bock discreetly. “How would you even know that?”

“It’s written all over his charts at the morgue.”

“And let me guess. You guys went to check Gabe’s toxicology report just on the off chance that I might have murdered my husband. Is intuition all you need to investigate a widowed mother?” she asked the last question with a hint of sarcasm.

“No,” came Fletcher’s answer. “But a change in behavior does. You have to admit that your being so much happier after the facts were curious as of itself. And you started sporting fewer bruises after his passing.”

Had his marks on her skin been so visible?

She felt angry for a moment at the thought. The world saw. The world knew. And yet they let her suffer. They let her son, poor innocent Percy, suffer. They knew, and yet, they did nothing.

She took a more direct step toward the knife block, hoping that the outright hostility would make them leave. “What are you, the cops?” More venom than necessary slipped into the voice.

“Quite on the contrary,” Paisley said. “We’re assassins. Hitmen. Professional killers. Whatever you want to call it.

“…what?”

Fletcher stood up and made a step in her direction. She took a step back as a reflex, despite his relaxed posture and hands stored deep in his pockets showing her how little of a threat he represented.

He spoke again, undisturbed by her reaction to his approach. “How do you feel about a new job, Sally?”

[natureboy96]

In Support of Tamlin - characters who have done terrible things and been redeemed

Here we go with another one :p I think that Tamlin has done things that are unforgivable, mostly his abusive treatment towards Feyre. I don't think this one terrible thing makes him irredeemable, and has made effort to be better than he was at his worst, and I do dislike the thought of people/characters being judged solely by their worst actions without a chance to be better. So, in support of the idea that Tamlin deserves a redemption arc for his good deeds after his bad ones, I want to start compiling a list of characters who, like Tamlin, have done terrible things and still found a way to be better, if not good outright. And of course, SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS/STORIES

Feel free to add your own in response, in the comments or in reblogs!

Zuko, from Avatar: the Last Airbender - his actions: lead a chase to kidnap the avatar, physically fighting and hurting the main cast, burning a village down, threatening violence on citizens, stealing goods and food from citizens, helping overthrow an entire kingdom, betraying his Uncle who only wanted him to be the best he could be. His redemption: trains Aang to fight and defeat his abusive father, thus saving the nation he helped conquer and the world at large while helping the individual members of the main cast with personal problems, apologizes to his Uncle.

Loki, from the MCU - his actions: acts of terrorism, murder and betrayal of his family, mind controlling people to do evil against their will, multiple attempts at murdering his brother. His redemption: After the death of his mother, Loki works with Thor to avenge her death and later unite against world ending threats multiple times

Filip Nagata, from The Expanse: His actions: the son of a megalomaniac, he commits multiple murders in the name of his father and is in part responsible for dropping asteroids on earth, killing millions of people in the event and aftermath. He kidnaps his mother and physically strikes her, at his father's encouragement. His redemption: this one is ongoing, last we see. After his mother's words while she was held prisoner make him realize how much pain he inflicted, he leaves his father's ship, changes his last name to his mother's and spends the rest of his life trying to do good, knowing it won't ever make up for the harm he was a part of causing. not sure if it counts as redemption fully, but it's an attempt to do better with the life his mother helped save.

The Beast, from Beauty and the Beast: His actions: He was a cruel and selfish youth, turned away old ladies into the cold, raged and berated his servants, imprisons Belle's father then takes her prisoner in exchange, intimidates and frightens Belle with his rage, threats and destruction of property. His redemption: saves Belle from a pack of wolves, learns to be considerate of her needs and interests and how to be kind, releases her from his captivity when he realizes he has feelings for her and she needs to rescue her father

Baptiste, from Overwatch: His actions: working with an infamous mercenary which was responsible for several high profile assassinations and civilian casualties. His redemption: Leaving said mercenary group and trying to use his healing knowledge to help where he can.

Luke Castellan, from Percy Jackson Series: His actions: looking for revenge against his father, he works with the evil titan Kronos to try and overthrow the gods, rallying armies of monstrous creatures, stealing from the gods and attempting murder on his friends multiple times, nearly bringing about the end of the world. His redemption: after attempting to flee and abandon Kronos' army when it became too much for him, he ultimately stops the titan from being fully reborn by sacrificing himself, dispersing the titan's essence so he could never (hopefully) reform and be a threat again.

Alexis Rose, from Schitt's Creek: Her actions: She acts selfishly in regards to her needs/wants, lies to Ted about wanting to marry him to avoid difficult conversations and sleeps with Mutt while they were engages. Her redemption: Alexis learns to become a better, well rounded person, recognizes her mistakes and takes ownership for them by apologizing, And becomes a person willing to put another person's happiness and needs above her own, even if it means losing someone she loves.

Michael, from The Good Place: His actions: as a literal demon, he's spent innumerable years torturing humans in the afterlife, making it his goal to create new and innovative methods of torture when he creates the false Good Place. His redemption: after being forced to ally with the humans he had planned on torturing to save himself, he comes to understand human morality and becomes a deeply moral person himself, at points willing to sacrifice himself to save the humans he'd initially intended to torture and working to make the afterlife a better place for all humanity.

Ebenezer Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol: His actions: Aside from being personally stingy with his money, he is cruel to everyone he interacts with, including his employee and his nephew, giving the former barely enough to support his large family despite the work he does. His redemption: after seeing where his life went wrong, so to speak, and how his actions impact his present and his future, he decides to become kinder and more generous with his money and affection, making sure Tiny Tim receives the care needed so he lives to grow up.

[djsherriff-responses]

Kinda funny that they’re making a Watch Dogs movie now despite that series haven’t really been much spotlight for several years now. They just finished filming it so I guess it’s progressing fine. I think there’s supposed to be a show too as well.

Not that I can blame them I mean they tried a Prince of Persia movie that flopped, that Assassin’s Creed movie got forgotten so quickly.

A rabbids movie? I feel like they’re more than a decade too late on that front not to mention Minions have mostly stolen that niche very successfully. Unless they go the Mario + Rabbids route on that movie but I doubt we’ll see it soon.

I vaguely remember watching Prince of Persia but based on the fact I barely remember it , it was a forgetful movie, haven't seen the assassins creed film so I can't comment on the quality of either film

What I can comment on is the various factors that makes those movies different to Watchdog , or rather the environment they've released in

Prince of Persia came out in 2010. In that same year we got movies such as Scott Pilgrim , Percy Jackson , Clash of the Titans and Tron Legacy. There was also meant to be an ALTA movie but it never got made 😔 Prince of Persia had a lot of competition when it came out, but it stood very little chance against those more memorable flicks

Assassins Creed came out in 2016 along side Batman Vs Superman and the Killing joke , no chance of out competing those

(obviously all these movies did not come out at the same time of year , I'm over simplifying a it)

Heres an important similarity Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed have besides being made by the same company: They're video game IPs

For as long as video games has existed , there was this issue that movie adaptions of popular video games were never gonna be good (Never seen it but the discussion around the 80s Mario movie is a prime example). Whether these films were actually bad or fans just never being satisfied I can't say, I don't have the energy to research and this is already getting long

However that drastically changed when the Sonic Movie came out in 2020

Now obviously we know about ugly Sonic and how close the film could've gone down the cursed game movie path. But it didn't , Paramount listened to the fans and redesigned Sonic (even though that most definitely made people do overwork last minute) which lead to the film being such a success it's getting it's third installment released this year and a TV series spin off

Than we got the Mario Movie , which was also a success and so on and so forth

Now something worth keeping in mind is that , in the 2010s when Prince of Perisa was released , nostalgia bait wasn't as prominent as it is now

Which is why I think the Watch Dogs film , as well as the Rabbids movie, is Ubisoft trying to cash in on the video game nostalgia train. Maybe even using the film's success as a way to test if people will buy a new game

[fandomtrumpshate]

Listed fandom fun -

One week into signups for FTH 2023 and Good Omens has slightly increased its lead and its lock on first place. K-pop has surged ahead of Teen Wolf which is now tied with Sherlock Holmes for fourth place. Original work, Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing), Stranger Things, and Scum Villain's Self-Saving System have seen significant bumps up the list.

A signup for any of these fandoms would be their first -

Assassin’s Creed Dracula Ghosts (BBC) Goncharov (1973) The Green Knight

And a signup for any of these would literally double their signups -

1 Captive Prince 1 Cyberpunk 2077 1 Julie and the Phantoms 1 Lucifer (TV) 1 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 1 Schitt's Creek 1 Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse 1 The Terror (TV 2018) 1 Venom 1 Voltron 1 Wheel of Time

Signups are OPEN through Feb 19!

The rest of the listed fandoms by number of signups below the cut …

52 Good Omens 46 Harry Potter * 38 K-Pop * 33 Sherlock Holmes * 33 Teen Wolf 25 MCU * 25 Star Wars * 24 Stranger Things 19 Boku no Hiro Akademia (My Hero Academia) 19 Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed 19 The Witcher 17 Scum Villain's Self-Saving System 15 Original Work 15 The Sandman 14 Fullmetal Alchemist 14 Our Flag Means Death 13 Locked Tomb Trilogy 13 The Magnus Archives 13 Merlin 13 Shadowhunters 13 Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing) 12 DC Extended Universe * 12 Supernatural 11 Check Please! 11 DC Comics 11 The Old Guard 11 Star Trek * 11 Tolkien * 10 9–1–1 10 All for the Game 10 Jujutsu Kaisen 9 Avatar The Last Airbender * 9 Hades (video game) 9 Raven Cycle 8 Kinnporsche 7 A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones 7 Benoit Blanc Mysteries (Knives Out; Glass Onion) 7 Diamond no Ace 7 Heartstopper 7 Interview With The Vampire 7 James Bond 7 Marvel Comics 7 Percy Jackson and the Olympians 6 Disco Elysium 6 Fire Emblem Three Houses 6 Genshin Impact 6 Hunger Games 6 Naruto 6 Wednesday / The Addams Family 5 Doctor Who * 5 Hockey RPF 5 Leverage 5 The Maze Runner 5 Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast 5 Six of Crows Duology 5 SK8 the Infinity 5 Stellar Firma 4 Arcane 4 Final Fantasy * 4 Hetalia 4 Tian Ya Ke / Word of Honor 3 Bleach 3 Critical Role 3 Dungeons & Dragons 3 Haikyuu!!! 3 Hannibal 3 The Last of Us 3 Nirvana in Fire 3 Steven Universe 3 Welcome to Night Vale 3 Yuri!!! On Ice 2 Anne of Green Gables / Anne with an E 2 Bad Buddy 2 Buffyverse * 2 Dishonored 2 Dragon Age * 2 Encanto 2 Gundam Wing 2 Hacks 2 Hunter X Hunter 2 The Magicians 2 Mass Effect 2 RWBY 2 Spy x Family

[legendoftortor]

I would like to know more about your characters but I can’t think of anything specific to ask about

so tell me a fun fact about each of them

ahh tysm for asking about my mc’s 🥹 I’ve been wanting to make a longer separate post about each of them but work has kept me too busy lately! Will eventually get around to it but to answer your question (and elaborate just a tad on their backstories)…

Fun Facts about my MC’s 💜

Estelle Frye:

She was my first MC (and my only for many, many months!), so has the most detailed and fleshed out backstory by far. Her first name is inspired by the lead character from one of my favourite series of games (Trails in the Sky), but her nickname Este is also a subtle nod to Taylor Swift’s song ‘no body, no crime’.

I also decided to throw in a bit of a crossover with my last fandom by making her the daughter of the AC:Syndicate protagonist Jacob Frye.

With that in mind, her fun fact is that she is able to use Eagle Vision and was briefly trained as an assassin prior to starting at Hogwarts. She tends to prefer a stealthier approach to combat, even when using magic.

She is also the MC most inspired by my own appearance & personality, so much so that eventually I just decided to cheekily self-insert a much cooler version of myself as her mom (because technically I did create her, right? 😂)

Evie Morgan:

My newest MC, so I’m still solidifying her character and backstory so apologies if this one seems a bit bland compared with the rest!

She is a distant descendant of Isadora Morganach - I know it’s not implied that Isadora had any children or family other than her brother & father, but my imagination was hard at work with this one 🤭

Fun fact - She is the younger cousin of Elsie Morgan, one of the other students who compete in Imelda’s time trials. I’ve decided that Elsie is the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team too, because why not?

Her name is also another gentle nod to AC: Syndicate (Evie Frye) - there’s a pattern emerging here 🤷🏻‍♀️

Leila Greene:

She is my one and only muggleborn MC (technically…will elaborate more on this in the future!). She’s quite artsy and has a green thumb, and I consider her to be my most cheerful & outgoing character by far.

Fun fact: Her mother is a lover of all things literature & poetry and named her after the characters in Lord Byron’s works ‘The Giaour’ and ‘Don Juan’.

She’s also technically the only MC whose name isn’t directly inspired in some way by another form of media - I only found out about the Lord Byron connection after choosing her name!

Thalia Blackwood:

Another MC whose first name was inspired by a favourite character of mine from the Percy Jackson series. She is a descendant of Eunon Blackwood, the creator of the hedge mazes that appear around the highlands, which technically also makes her distantly related to the Black family (again, imagination working overtime on this one!). She is completely unaware of this until she stumbles upon the mazes during her fifth year.

As for her fun fact, like her namesake, she is terribly afraid of heights, and Astronomy & Flying class are two of her least favourite classes for this very reason.

(Sorry that ended up being so long but am always happy to answer questions about my MC’s! ☺️)

[georgies-ftts]

i love the fact that my two main book series that i’m into have complete opposite main characters and yet i absolutely love both them

Percy Jackson: Will jump in-front of very sharp and dangerous weapons to ensure his friends safety, will turn down immortality and god status, throw himself into literal hell for his girlfriend, gone on like 27 quests, fought and lead two major wars and countless battles for the gods and is about to go on another quest despite all of this just so Zeus will give him a recommendation letter for uni, has buried countless friends and family, been betrayed by said friends and had to kill some of them for his own protection, went on a quest to save his mother from the god of the underworld despite being 12 years old, had never held a sword until 4 hours ago and will 8/10 perish, nearly dived off a cliff after his crush, offered to stay in hell just so his girlfriend can escape, and was complicit in the ‘murder’ of his abusive step father, using medusas head to turn him into stone and then sell the statue for a lot of money and using said money to better their lives and repair the mental damage he caused

Kaz Brekker: will dangle you over the side of a building for information and then drop you, burn a hole in your ceiling and crash into your dining room table with your disgraced runaway son, threaten to arson your innocent girlfriends house, beat up 20 or so members of the gang he is also in, use you as insurance, use you as a hostage, use you as a distraction, have your sole part in the plan to be get beat the fuck up and leak the rest of the plan, fake your assassination and keep you so close to death and simply hope you’ll wake up but it doesn’t matter if you don’t, tell you he’s buried your son alive in a field in the middle of nowhere to traumatise you but he hasn’t, ask you if your mother is a whore and then knock you the fuck out, never tell anyone else the plan which will result either in you being seriously wounded, kidnapped or dead, use your father to get other people to embezzle funds into an auction for the guy you’re gonna assassinate, kidnap your pregnant wife and hold her to ransom, rip your eye out, threaten to rip out the other one, say he’ll drop you off in the next town if you give him the information he wants but when you give him said information he throws you into the sea to either drown or die of infection but it’s okay because he’s “the kind of bastard they only raise in the barrel”

[miraculous-pyromaniac]

I am nearly silent about the things i write, both irl and unfortunately on my blog as well, for different reasons.

The simplest reason is my silence irl bc i kind of just dont have anyone to talk to my ideas about. My closest friends generally dont have any intrest in fanfiction and even if they were, me and my friends participate in very seperate fandoms and sometimes struggle to overlap our intrests. So i just generally keep my fanworks to myself most of the time.

I also dont talk about my work much on my blog either(which is kinda the only social media i use) and thats mainly because im just not the type of person who enjoys broad social media engagement, so i just rarely make my own posts.

This all kind of leads to bursts of hyperfixation and progress on any stories or WIPs i have that come about randomly and long droughts of my content.

Also i have this huge anxiety about people seeing any idea i would post about and 'stealing' it from me. Like this is a constant anxiety for me, idk why. Im probably hesitating to hit post on this post and then thinking of deleting it.

Like obviously a writer doesnt want to post spoilers for something theyre working on, but im paranoid to even post ideas for possible fics i may think of for new WIPs, leaving my ideas to rot alone in my mind until i lose intrest bc i have no one to talk to about them.

Anyway, in what im sure is a healthy way to overcome this apparent fear ive just realised i have, ima post a list of WIPs and ideas that are currently collecting dust, most of them i beleive seeing light from my dark google docs cave for the first time ever

Most of these mare miraculous labybug ideas

A miraculous soulmate AU based around Chloe where her initial meeting with her soulmate ends up with them basically dead from a speeding truck. The story is Chloe's journey of navigating the world angry and jealous of everyone else who has soulmates and learning how to deal with that stuff. Ace medifore maybe? Idk just seemed like a fun idea.

A miraculous Myvan AU where Master Fu had the 'native american miracle box'(Which i refer to as the Thunderbox) instead of the 'Chinese miracle box'(aka the Motherbox). He pickes Mylene and Ivan to be heroes weilding new miraculous of my design against an enemy who holds the Motherbox, with more than half the miraculous within being heavily damaged/destoyed. Shown by the below image(right of the red line completely unuseable, on red line damaged but technically funtional like a canon peacock, left of the line are undamaged)

A Percy Jackson story with OCs made by me and by bff which would run parallel to the canon story where I play with background characters and plot to create my own stories. The MC is the child of a goddess so minor Riordon never mentioned her, Euphrosyne, and a devout champion of Hestia.

And even a couple of original story ideas like

An 'everyone has a superpower' concept where the MCs are all artificial 'bornx from a kid whose power is to create new people by giving up parts of their soul. While not a completely original power in this world, its unique by the fact that the MCs here have their own powers, unlike other people created from such a power. This leads to the goverment trying to capture and use this kid to custom create soldiers.

A magical college type story where the MC is a healer in love with a plant mage, which eventually becomes mutual and loving relationship things until plant mage is suddenly killed by an assassin, sending MC on a revenge spiral. Said assassin is MC#2 who is being used by shady folks as an assassin due to her particular abilty for death magic. The two of them team up to dismantle the shady organisation and maybe a goverment later on. Their relationship is also completely non-romantic, but they grow extreamly close to each other.

Uh yeah. I have ideas. I just never talk about them.

Out of genuine curiosity, to fanfic writers in the world, how vocal are you about the fic you write on your blog? I never know when to start talking about my ideas and eventually the lack of traction or discussion has my passion fizzle out with nobody knowing the idea existed at all (except me, of course) anyway im simply curious :)

[thebigqueer]

Ok, here we go. Dark!Bianca idea. Shortly after the events in the desert, a severely injured Bianca is found by agents of the Titans who were shadowing the quest party off-page. She is brought back to Titan HQ and is convinced to join their crusade against the gods while her friends and family think she's dead. Jump ahead to BotL, instead of Kelli the Empousa, it is a mysterious masked assassin who attacks Percy and Rachel at Goode. The events mostly play out unchanged until Geryon's (1/8)

ranch, where instead of Bianca, it is the ghost of Maria di Angelo who is revealed to be sending Iris messages to Percy about Nico, while also strongly hinting that Bianca's still alive. Jump ahead to Mt St. Helens, Percy fights the assassin again, and during his stint on Ogygia, Percy begins to put two and two together after the assassin demonstrated skills similar to the Hunters. At Antaeus' Arena, the assassin is finally unmasked to reveal a still-alive but scarred Bianca, replacing (2/8)

Ethan Nakamura as the demigod enforcer. Percy is convinced that Bianca is being mind-controlled and goes to Mt Tam to rescue her as well as stop Kronos. However, when he confronts her, Bianca reveals that she's operating of her own free will, feeling vengeful against the gods for robbing her of her life and having pledged her loyalty to her new Titan master. Kronos intends to make Bianca the prophesy kid, promising her the free will she craves so badly as well as promising not to hurt (3/8)

Nico. Going into the Last Olympian, Percy and Nico are both determined to convince Bianca that she's making a mistake, and this time Nico's duplicity is not to simply learn about his mother but to try and summon her spirit to get through to Bianca. At the same time, Kronos gradually starts treating Bianca as less of an ally and more of a tool, and the Titans' actions cause her to have doubts even though she dosen't know what else to do. It all comes to a head in the final battle.(4/8)

Nico returns from the Underworld by himself early, giving Hades an ultimatum to come and fight or hide. Just before the final attack, Kronos sends Bianca to infiltrate Olympus to disable the magic defenses, but Nico arrives to intercept her and make one last bid to save her. They fight, with both begging the other to stand down even as they slug it out. Finally, just as Percy arrives to chase Kronos, the battered siblings' duel ends when Nico gives another ultimatum. He throws down his (5/8)

sword and gives Bianca, now reduced to fear and frustration-induced tears, the choice between perusing her grudge and allowing herself to continue being Kronos’s slave or doing the right thing. Finally able to make a legitimate choice of her own, Bianca chooses to turn her back on the Titans. She still ends up wounded, but unlike Ethan in canon, Nico manages to save his sister while Percy and Kronos have their final battle. After everything ends, Percy petitions for Bianca’s pardon along (6/8)

with the rest of his list, though Bianca turns it down, realizing the harm she almost caused to the person she loved more than anybody else. She is given a reduced sentence in service to her father, and though she does not properly forgive any of the gods that hurt her, she does recognize that the spite and anger she felt would only lead to more death. Nico gets to visit her occasionally, and she starts a road to redemption that Luke never got the chance to take. In HoO, Bianca is (7/8)

more of a background character, but it is she that finds Hazel in Asphodel and alerts Nico to her. Overall, dark!Bianca is an anti-villain who’s affiliation with Kronos is clearly drawn from her pain and grief over the gods’ interference in her life, but her saving grace is her brother. Nico manages to pull her out of the darkness and save her from becoming the same monster Luke became. What do you think? (bear in mind, this is my rough draft) (8/8)

Okay, WOW. Anon, I am actually going to start a petition to make you the new Percy Jackson author because that was such an interesting plot to read.

First of all, I love that you replaced Bianca with Ethan. As interesting as he was in the series, and as much as I loved his character, after reading through your rough draft, I feel like Bianca would have been a much better character to use throughout PJO. Her arc could have been expanded upon and completed thoroughly, and it could have made a lot of sense. Ethan felt more like a representation of "demigods turned to the other side," which I get is the point, but I loved the way you used Bianca because with your plot, her character could have been used so well to properly show how easily the Titan army manipulated kids.

Furthermore, I feel like your plot with Bianca could have been a much better way to use her character throughout the series. From my interpretation, in canon she seemed more like a stand-in tool just to enhance Nico's own character arc and his motives, but your plot for her would have actually given her some kind of foundation and an actual arc for her to go through. You've given her such an interesting character and I think it really provides more justice to what she could have been.

I also love the way that not only did you give her a better arc, but you also enhanced Nico's own arc and the plot, too. Her death in the books seemed more symbolic to him and a turning point in his character, but with her character in your AU, it's both important to Nico and Bianca. You've given her an actual character, and you've set up such an interesting conflict between Nico and Bianca.

Additionally, I love the divide you've created between them. I think that - based on what we know about her in the books - as much as she loves her brother, Bianca also feels very limited with him because of how she's been forced to grow up and be his savior. She understands that he's only a child, though, which I think could also play into her own hatred for the gods - they've not only destroyed her family, but now they're forcing her to take the role of an adult when she's a mere child, too? She was never angry at Nico - she was only ever mad with the gods.

Maybe that's something that Nico also feels bad about, and maybe he tells her about it when they're standing each other down. Maybe she lets him know that she never hated him or felt that he was bringing her down.

Also, I want to add that I adore the way you put them on opposite sides. It sets up such an interesting dynamic to their relationship because here you have two people who love each other so much, but they're on two different sides of a large war. They're both too stubborn to go onto each other's sides, and Nico knows Bianca's only going to get herself into more danger. I just love the potential that has for both of their characters.

I know Percy had a large fear about Nico being another kid to join Kronos' army, so I bet Bianca being on his team would have left Percy incredibly terrified for Nico, too, because he knew how much Nico loved Bianca. Would he have been nervous for Nico's ability to change his mind? Nico knows he'd never join Kronos, but would Percy have known?

And, knowing that Bianca's now on the Kronos side, how would Percy react? Because he felt pretty guilty about her death in TTC, right? Would he feel guilty that she's on the other side now, too? Would he try to reason with her, only to push her further away? I'd love to see how Percy would deal with knowing that Bianca - an important child of the Big Three - would react to her being there. He was already nervous about Nico joining sides, but having Bianca there would have really scared him.

And the part about Bianca finding Hazel instead of Nico? That was mind-blowing. I love everything about that situation because now that introduces Hazel into the narrative of Nico and Bianca's story. My question for you would be how does Hazel's character change now? How does she fit in with Nico and Bianca? Because in Heroes of Olympus she's clearly very insecure about her relationship with Nico and how he views her, but if she actually knew Bianca, how would she feel? Would she feel more left out (knowing that Bianca and Nico have known each other much longer and have a stronger connection with each other)? Would she be distrustful? And how would the three of them adapt to this additional family member? I have high hopes that by the end they would all love each other very much, but I'm just really curious into how Hazel's addition would influence the dynamic of all three.

And, essentially, it all ends into a somewhat win-win situation. Bianca's still living; Nico's got two new sisters; Hazel now has a new family.

I think this is such an interesting concept, and I'd love to read it. If you ever post it anywhere, please do share the link! This was such an intriguing plot to go through and, again, I think this could have been a much better use of Bianca's character.

Thank you so much for sharing it with me.

[jasontoddiefor]

so ages ago you wrote a snippet of a desmond/apollo ac/pjo crossover and that Got Me Thinking… per the five ages of man in greek mythology, zeus is credited with making the present generation of humans, but there were mortals before during kronos’ reign. so they could have been the isu, and zeus and prometheus could have been isu named after the gods (or vice versa depending on timelines) and created humans. BUT ANYWAY the real point here is What If Percy Was Assassin-raised. not necessarily trained, not until after he goes to chb, but raised with the knowledge of the assassin-templar war and the precursors, etc. i figure he’d be a lot more ready to rebel and shank people, which would impact the whole story - and sneaky percy??? with a hidden blade??? even more badass. thoughts?

you activated my write or brainstorm instinct.

"You're not a big fan of the gods, are you?"

Percy Jackson twitched when addressed so suddenly. He looked up at look with obvious guilt and, beneath that, suspicion.

"Don't worry about it," Luke said and sat down next to him, letting the water of the lake wash around their bare feet. "Most of us don't quite know what to think about them."

"But at least you believe they're real," Percy muttered.

That, at least, Luke could understand. He's had this conversation more times than he could count, and he was getting so fucking tired of it. But he wouldn't start slacking just because their parents could afford to. Luke was big brother to more people than most, he was aware of his responsibilities.

"I know, this is all a bit much. It takes time for it to really sink in that, well, magic and all-"

"Is it magic?" Percy interrupted him. He ran his fingers through his black hair. "I can believe just fine that this is real, I just don't think it's divine. Mom-" at this his breath hitched "-never called it that."

Luke leaned back, pretending to be less interested than he was. He'd already gathered that Sally Jackson had been clear-sighted, but that in and of itself was odd. If Percy truly was the son of whom they suspected, there was a lot ot be said. "What did she call it?"

"Math," Percy said. "Calculations. Nilum verum est and all that."

Luke frowned. "Nilum... nothing is true?"

"Mhm. She always- Chiron said that my mom could see through the mist. She called it Eagle Vision, said that I'd have it too someday. That's why we have to remember that nothing is true, because our sight allows us to see a different world than that of most."

As a child of Hermes, Luke was an exceptionally good liar, and even better at spotting such lies. Percy wasn't lying, he just wasn't saying the full truth either.

"She sounds like an amazing woman."

Percy buried his face in his knees. "She is."

-

Okay, hear me out: mortals who can see through the mist just have eagle vision and Sally was part of an Assassin Branch that saw themselves as descendants of the Roman Liberalis Circulum Branch and nowadays, they just don't work with the main Brotherhood anymore but are more concerned with dealing with the gods around everywhere but Percy doesn't know all that yet, just the basics and the reason why Latin comes to him so easily is because he's actually got Roman demigod blood, heck, you could argue for Kassandra having another child which eventually leads to Sally and Percy-

[that-wildwolf]

I was tagged by @crescentbunny and I'm not tagging anyone in particular because I never really have a good grip on who's already done a tag game and who hasn't...

Anyway! Here goes :)

How many works do you have on AO3?

I write lots of one-shots, so this should be around thirty... Yep, twenty-seven.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

Where do you check that? You can check that???

*spends approximately 10 minutes going through AO3 settings they didn't know existed*

Cool! A lot of features I didn't know about. Anyway, um. Yes. My total word count is, for the moment, 471,674 words.

Wow. I. Um. Almost 500K words. But—and this is extremely important—I feel like this graph contains some vital information:

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Wow. Okay. I'll do this in chronological order because I never really counted.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Inheritance, Assassin's Creed, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Attack on Titan, Fallout, Sarah Jane Adventures, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Steven Universe. I don't think I missed anything...?

That adds up to 13.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Of course I do! I thrive on feedback! Not implying that my entire self-esteem hinges on the approval of strangers on the internet, but comments are the best fucking thing ever! Instant serotonin for a whole day! Of course I'll reply! I love getting into little conversations with my readers, too!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow. I'm usually more of a happy ending kind of person, but A New Quest (which I wrote at the super proud age of 11) did end with half of the main characters dead and a memorial service for them as the last scene, so... You know. If you consider that angsty, then sure.

Fun fact: Crossing A Line was actually originally supposed to end with Shepard dying! The last chapter (which to me still feels a bit out of place) was rewritten completely. I'm glad I changed it, though. I'm having a lot of fun with the sequel!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

A month ago I'd have said Waiting Between Worlds without second thoughts—does it count as a happy ending when the whole fic is just a happy ending?—but it's just been going downhill the last three or four chapters. Pretty much every one of my one-shots in the When I Need You series. Also, Crossing A Line, I guess, now that it has a happy ending.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I... really don't. I'm wildly ace, all my sex knowledge comes from smut and porn and I'm pretty sure that if I were to actually write the adult stuff, I'd either go way overboard and make it too obscene to read or end up with something completely dry and clinical and unreadable too.

When there's sex scenes in my fic, I usually leave them implied. I say the characters had sex, but I never explicitly write the actual sex. I don't think I'd be good at it. (Actually, I've tried plenty of times and I know I'm not. It's the dirtiest, kinkiest filth you'd ever see and I'd really recommend against reading it.)

I do like writing the pre-chorus to sex, as it were, though. The sensual foreplay to the sexual foreplay. The soft or heated moments leading up to the act. I've even gotten comments about my lime being "extremely hot despite not being smut" and I'm more than happy with that description.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the strangest one you’ve written?

I used to write crossovers. Now I only sometimes write AUs based on a different fandom, like a Shakarian Kimi no Na wa!AU.

The strangest crossover I've ever written? Don't know if any of them were strange. I had The Wolf Among Us/The Walking Dead crossovers and Doctor Who/Sarah Jane Adventures crossovers, but both of those pretty much exist in the same universe already, so... No. No weird crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not. At least none that I know of.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. Plenty. A lot. I'd wager around 4 out of 5 comments on my Shepard Twins fanfic are negative. I haven't updated the fic in a while, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing anymore. I have around 50K words' worth of WIP of it. So no, the hate comments don't bother me. (A lie: they bother me a lot. They even make me cry, sometimes. But they're not gonna be the reason I stop writing a story I enjoy.)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My very first fanfiction writing experience, actually. In retrospect, I think that worked out great, because that kind of cooperation made it easier to carry the whole thing through, get it to the end, and was a very positive experience - which is probably why I've continued to write fanfic.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Ahhh. Royai or Shakarian? Royai or Shakarian? Stupid, since they're almost the same relationship dynamic, but they're both amazingly written. I'm edging a bit more towards Shakarian, because interspecies stuff is always a bonus. Still, it's a close competition.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I wish! I've translated other people's fics, but I've yet to have someone do that for me.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I plan to hope to finish all my WIPs.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. This is going to come off as boastful, but I think I'm pretty good at replicating individual characters' speech patterns.

What are your writing weaknesses?

According to my beta, I use elispses too liberally. According to me, I have trouble with transition scenes. I never write in order, so I always end up with disconnected scenes I need to join into a chapter. And the join parts don't even come easy to me.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Not a fan. (When I write fanfics in Polish, I sometimes use English, but that's not the same because everyone in Poland knows English anyway.) If it's a made-up language in the fandom, I like to include some words every now and then in dialogue - especially when it doesn't translate exactly. I love spotlighting cultural differences. I actually learned a load of Jel words for my Murkmire fanfics.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Good times. Damn, that was a long time ago. *suddenly gets the overwhelming realization that they've been writing fanfic for the bigger part of their life* ...Wow.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Big Spoon/Little Spoon, a short Shakarian one-shot exploring the psychology of the Spacer background a bit. I also used lighting in a really cool way in this one! I'm really proud of it. Even when I call it "the Spooning As A Metaphor For Nationality Issues fanfic", I mean it in an affectionate way.

As far as non-one-shots go, I'm going with Crossing A Line. It's got it all: Enemies to Lovers, language barrier, interspecies awkwardness... Plus, writing from Garrus's POV is always a treat. I get to refer to humans as "aliens". What more could you want?

[bigfan-fanfic]

We Finish a Quest in an Hour...Yay Us! (Batkid!Reader x Percy Jackson)

Requested by Anonymous for #13 - Batkid!Reader x Percy Jackson

Okay.

It all started on what was supposed to be a day off.

Diana said she was going to introduce you to a bunch of young people about your age,

You thought she meant the Titans or something, not this.

The two of you drive up the coast past New York, out to Long Island. Which is weird, because the only thing out here was a bunch of strawberry fields maintained by the Delphi Strawberry Service.

Thanks to your studies, you suddenly connect the dots.

It’s a front. Something related to Ancient Greece, like Diana herself.

  But you never expected Camp Half-Blood.

You nearly faint when you meet THE Chiron. Like, the one from the myths. Teacher of heroes and stuff...

“But... didn’t you die?” you ask tentatively.

Chiron chuckles. “Let us just say that reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

And then all thoughts about Narcissus being an Instagram model are thrown away when a pretty redheaded girl faints on her way up the hill to you, Diana, and Chiron. 

“Cadmus’ bane has gone astray

 but the son of the bat shall lead the way

 to a mighty hero’s greatest shame

 one that forever bears his name.

 A mother’s hand shall strike a blow

 Her blackened heart wills blood to flow.”

The girl perks up, and looks around. “Er... did I do it again?”

Chiron and Diana look worried, but a quest is called for.

Chiron announces, “Judging from the prophecy, the questors will encounter a ‘mighty hero’s greatest shame.’ With the reference to Cadmus’ bane, I can only think one thing - the Necklace of Harmonia has gone missing.”

As “the son of the bat” mentioned in the prophecy, you are selected to lead the quest, along with Diana. Camp Half-Blood also sends a representative. Who, because of the dangerous nature of the Necklace (it is cursed to bring great misfortune), is the most experienced demigod available.

Percy Jackson, whose sea green eyes make you swoon a little.

Diana and Percy are all set to start searching, but something has you thinking. If you were meant to lead them to the Necklace, wouldn’t you already know where it was? And the Necklace of Harmonia couldn’t be Cadmus’ bane, because it didn’t bear the name of a mighty hero...

But wait...

There was another Cadmus. Project Cadmus. And it was much more obvious from there. Superboy, the bane of Project Cadmus, was missing, and he went somewhere named after a hero, the sight of some great shame.

On your request, Diana contacts the League. It turns out that indeed, Superboy is missing.

But where could he be?

Percy glances at you. “Come on, Y/N, think! I mean, this is already the furthest I’ve gotten on a quest in an hour, so why not finish it off?”

And the answer hits you. And of all people, Jason provided the answer. 

The site of his death, whenever he passes it, he always calls Bat-crap Corner.

Could that possibly be it?

You call the rest of the Batfam and tell them to get there quick, as Diana starts driving like a madwoman to get there.

Percy pats you on the back, and your heart starts fluttering, despite your worry for Conner. 

“So, since you figured everything else out, who’s the mother?”

“I don’t know. None of the ideas seem good.”

But it all becomes clear when you arrive. Talia al Ghul is there, holding a Kryptonite dagger to Conner’s throat.

“The mother with the blackened heart.” you whisper. Then, loudly, you ask, “What do you want, Talia?”

But it turns out you were wrong about Cadmus, because in her other hand she carries a sinister looking necklace crafted to look like two intertwined golden snakes.

“I want my beloved back.” she sneers, looking at Bruce. “Either you come here and put the Necklace of Harmonia on Superboy’s neck, or you watch him fall to Kryptonite poisoning.”

“How did you get ahold of that?” Bruce asks her.

“It’s obvious. She stole it from my Amazonian cousins, from one of their warehouses.”

“Warehouses?” Jason asks.

“From Amazon.”

You ignore this revelation (which Percy seems to already know) and whisper to him.

“The rest of the prophecy. She wants blood! She’ll kill him either way.” you warn Percy, and the two of you swing into action. 

You work as a team, fighting off ninjas with Riptide and your own skills. 

And both of you have the same thought - you can’t stop Talia from drawing blood, because it has been foretold. But you can stop it from being Conner’s blood.

Percy slashes at the knees of some assassins, allowing you to roll right over his back and throw yourself in the path of the Kryptonite knife

It sticks deep in your arm, but it lets you push Conner away and grab the Necklace from her.

The others fight Talia off as you hand the Necklace to Percy.

“Y/N! I - I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d get hurt so bad...”

“Never mind that.” you tell him, groaning in pain. “Get the Necklace back to Camp with Diana. Finish the quest!”

It’s several hours later, when you’ve been bandaged up and ordered onto bed rest by Alfred that something strange happens. The air in front of you shimmers and begins to glow with rainbow light.

Collect Iris-message for Y/N Wayne at Wayne Manor. Will you accept?

Remembering that Iris was a secondary messenger goddess after Hermes, you figure it’s a message from Percy - uh, Camp Half-Blood.

“I accept.”

Percy’s face, illuminated in rainbow, appears. “Hey!”

“Hey, Percy. How’d it go?”

“Successful quest. The Hephaestus kids are working on a way to destroy the Necklace forever. Uh, it’s a real shame you couldn’t be here for the celebration. They made a laurel wreath for you and everything.”

You sigh. “That sounds incredible.”

“Uh, I saved yours. I could bring it to you whenever. And, uh, also...”

“Also?”

He seems about to say something, but chickens out. “I thought we worked good together. You know?”

You realize you’ll have to pick up the slack. “If you’re coming all the way from Long Island, you won’t want it to be just to give me a laurel.”

“I... won’t?”

You smirk. “Maybe you let me show you Gotham? Make it a date? Like, a date, date?”

He grins wildly. “Yeah! That’s - that’d be awesome!”

“I’m just making an educated guess here, but... pizza?”

“That’s even more awesome!”

You and Percy end up depleting his supply of drachmas talking into the night, but once the call ends, you can’t help but smile.

[moviemunchies]

The Patriot is a weird movie that has somehow grown on me? I think it’s a good movie, but I don’t know if it’s a great movie, and it’s about as subtle as a brick to the face. I wouldn’t say it handles the subject matter very well, cutting a few corners to make the story work. 

So The Patriot tells the story of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a South Carolina...farmer? Plantation owner? Whatevs. He’s a widower with several kids and a veteran of the French and Indian War, so despite the beginning of the American Revolution going on, and his oldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) joining the Continental Army, he advocates a peaceful solution to the conflict with Britain because he doesn’t want to be drawn into another war. But when a British dragoon leader Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) shows up and shoots his son, Martin joins the war effort, and attacks the British in a brutal guerilla campaign leading a group of local militia.

If you’re from South Carolina, you’ve probably heard about this movie quite a lot, in part because it takes place and was filmed there, but especially because the protagonist is heavily based on American Revolutionary hero and militia leader Francis Marion (and some other South Carolinians from the time but they didn’t have a cool nickname so that’s the one we usually go with). It’s not precisely an accurate depiction of Francis Marion’s life by any means, other than he was a guerilla militia leader in the Revolution that hung out in the swamps. For starters, Benjamin Martin’s anti-slavery, which is not quite the attitude Francis Marion held towards the practice (but fellow SC native and Revolutionary hero John Laurens certainly did!); his plantation is staffed entirely by freedmen--a facet of the character that even Mel Gibson felt was a bit of a cop out, avoiding a chance to do a warts-and-all look at American history. Admittedly, this is a bit much to ask of the movie, I think. And Roland Emmerich, probably. 

Still, it’s a bit jarring to have a subplot about one of the militiaman, a black man, finding out that the Continental Army will free any slave that fights for the Revolution for a year when that’s not really a thing that happened at all. And Francis Marion wasn’t nearly as great of a guy as Benjamin Martin; although that may be exactly why there’s a fictional stand-in instead of the actual historical figure in the lead role.

There is often a conversation about the atrocities that the British (mostly Tavington, if we’re being real here) commit during the course of the film. Yes, he’s based off of the real British officer Tarleton, who is infamous in American history for being vicious and giving no quarter. And yes, atrocities happened. And to be clear, in-film, Cornwallis and other Redcoats call out Tavington on his brutality throughout the film, to the point that none of the Brits seem particularly torn up when he dies at the end. But burning a church full of people is a _Nazi war crime._ There’s no record of the British doing anything like that during the Revolution, and so people accuse this movie of demonizing the British. But while the British didn’t do this to American colonists, similar atrocities were committed against the Irish a hundred years before. So no, the British didn’t do this to _US_, but they did do it at some point. That probably doesn’t justify its use here in this movie, but I feel like it’s all important to keep in mind.

This all leads me to the idea of _The Patriot_ not as a history--it’s Hollywood, of course it’s not--but as a sort of mythologized version of the American Revolution. Maybe that’s a weird take, and that might make some people turn off from this movie, but for me it works. I guess that I haven’t been one of those “This movie’s inaccurate, so it SUX!” people for a long time.

The hero of our movie isn’t a man who wants to go to war--he does everything he can to try to avoid going to war, to convince his neighbors that war is not in their best interests, even though he believes in independence for the American colonies. It’s not until the war refuses to leave him alone, and begins to harm his family, that he fully commits to fighting the injustices he sees being perpetrated. Yeah, it’s kind of American _Braveheart_ but is that really a bad thing? As long as we know that’s what it is, I don’t think it is. If there were people out there who took this movie seriously, I don’t know that I’d be as lenient, but I have yet to meet someone whose opinion of history was seriously influenced by this film. Which is probably for the best.

I do understand though that the Plot kind of feels like it’s making the main character way too important to the war effort. It makes it seem as if Benjamin Martin is the only officer in the Continental Army who actually knows what he’s doing against the British. And while I like the character and his arc, I do think it’s a bit silly the way it frames the story in a way that would lead one to think that he’s fighting this war by himself. It’s not fantastic when a story dumbs down the rest of the Good Guys in order to make the Hero stand out--there are ways of accomplishing that without making everyone else incompetent.

And I’ll admit that the story’s structure is a bit… weird, I think. Sometimes Tavington just does terrible things, and I don’t know what this contributes other than adding angst. Towards the end of the movie, he gets information from some colonials before locking them in a church and burning it, but it’s not as if we see him do much with that information. It’s not really Plot Relevant. It just provides motivation for Gabriel to go after Tavington and shoot him with what should have been a fatal shot, and get killed, and give Ben MOAR ANGST. Of course it’s better to show the war as something that has casualties and consequences, but I felt that there were better ways to do it than this.

But this movie is telling an almost mythical epic story set in the American Revolution. Benjamin Martin isn’t a real person; he’s a legendary hero vaguely based off of a real hero. And in epics, seemingly pointless terrible things happen to the hero all the time to make his life suck. And like I said, this is a war movie (albeit, in an 18th century war), made before a lot of the discourse about Fridging came into public forums. Yeah, bad stuff happens, and it doesn’t always seem to make sense--that’s war. And the audience getting invested in the story, and being bothered by character deaths; well that’s kind of the point of character deaths in the first place, isn’t it?

Also it’s kind of an awesome historical action movie--I really like this period in history, because it’s a point where firearms have become commonplace, but haven’t yet become practical enough to completely replace melee weapons in battle. So we’ve got Benjamin Martin taking out Lobsterbacks with muskets, knives, and a tomahawk. It’s great, I love it. This is a huge part of why I love Assassin’s Creed III so much.

Maybe this movie isn’t that great, and I’m just projecting on it because of the lack of good American Revolution movies in the last twenty years…

I dunno. Decide for yourself. It’s a worthwhile watch. It’s got problems for sure, but I think it’s probably one of Roland Emmerich’s greatest films (maybe not a high bar), and a great film on its own merits. 

[Also you know Logan Lerman is in this movie? Yeah, Percy Jackson. He’s the youngest son in the family. And Adam Baldwin is a loyalist officer, which is so off from how he’s usually portrayed it’s weird.]

[rebellingstagnationblog]

“Jingle Bells” by Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix (Day 14 of 31)

For @teh-bluejay and @historian-in-pearls who love the Avengers/MCU as much as I do. 

Not sure what’s happening? Don’t know who the characters are? You can read the adventure with the Duckvengers (and see a complete list of characters) here. 

“Isn’t snow supposed to be outside?”

As the voice spoke, a few droplets of water fell onto the feathers on Tony Mallard’s head. Glaring up at the ceiling, Tony said, “Aren’t you not supposed to be in my vents?” Running a hand through his feathers to disperse the moisture, Tony looked back down at his snow machine. “Get down, Barton.”

With a muffled splat, the watery assassin landed next to Tony and peered over his shoulder. “Is it supposed to be making it snow in the living room, or has it gone rogue? Follow up question: if it has gone rogue, can I be the one to hunt it down and kill it?”

Tony scoffed. “Good luck trying to kill anything created by me.”

“It’s true, Bud,” Jack said as he came into the room. Light on his feet as ever, he navigated his way over to Bud and Tony without making a sound. “Someone with more skill would have to take down one of Mallard’s inventions.”

Bud’s eyes grew wide as he glanced between Tony and Jack. “Change of plans.”

“There are no plans,” Tony ground out, tightening a bolt on the snow machine.

“Jack and I get to take down your snow tech beast.”

Tony opened his beak to reply, but Jack beat him to it. Hands on his hips, Jack glared at Bud. “Who says I want to team up with you?”

“You wound me!” Bud said dramatically, feigning injury. “But if it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get.”

“There’s no fight, there’s no plans, there’s nothing,” Tony groused, setting the machine right-side up and watching it carefully. “It’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.”

Bud and Jack studied the room as the snow machine started pumping out large gentle snowflakes, the living room turning into a wintry wonderland.

“Even for you, Mallard, this is eccentric,” Jack said, leveling his cool gaze at Tony.

Under which he totally didn’t shrink.

Okay, maybe a little. But that was smart to be afraid of the infamous assassin Black Jack.

Tony had never quite ruled out if Jack would decide to kill him in his sleep one day or not. He got the sense that Jack was biding his time, waiting until the team got too boring, or was no longer useful, and then would take them all out one by one.

Don’t let appearances fool you: Jack was the most dangerous of the Duckvengers.

When Tony wasn’t in his suit.

And you hadn’t separated Megavolt from his Pop Tarts.

And Reggie hadn’t gone all raging plant monster.

Then Jack was the most dangerous.

“Well, now we have a guaranteed white Christmas,” Tony said, observing the snow with a smile on his beak. “You’re welcome. Ah, just the duck I wanted to see!”

The elevator doors had opened, depositing a rumpled Reginald onto the floor. He blinked upon seeing the snow, but otherwise didn’t seem phased.

“Reggie, baby, tell me how much you love my snow machine, which,” he turned and held up a feathered finger out to the S.H.U.S.H. agents, “I am temporarily calling Frosty.”

Jack rolled his eyes while Bud slumped. “Great, now I’m emotionally attached to it.”

“Why did you build a snow machine?” Reggie asked.

“Oh, that,” Bud said, eyes lighting up as he sat up straight again. “Forget my questions. Answer that one.”

“I think we’re missing the point here,” Tony said, throwing an arm around Reggie and leading him fully into the room. “I’ve brought snow inside the Tower. All the splendor of Christmas right here in the living room.”

“A room which we now can’t use until all the snow has been cleaned up,” Jack pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m sensing a lot of hostility here,” Tony said. “Unwarranted. Hurtful. What’s your verdict on Frosty, Doc?” Tony slapped Reggie on the back. “Some people,” he glared at Bud, “threatened to kill him.”

“Only if he went rogue!” Bud whined. “But then you went and named him and now I’ll never be able to take the shot.”

Tony turned back to Reggie. “So. Reg. Frosty. Genius, right?”

Reggie examined the machine in question, bent double and with his glasses perched on his beak. “It’s designed well, Tony. Everything you make is designed well.”

“Reg, please, you’ll make me blush.” Tony grinned.

“But I still want to know why you made Frosty in the first place,” Reggie said, removing his glasses and folding them up as he observed Tony.

“What sorcery is this?” boomed Megavolt from across the room. Striding over to them, he said, “My friends, ’tis snowing indoors. It must be a powerful spell indeed to have done this.”

“No magic, Percy Jackson, just good ol’ fashioned science,” Tony said.

“You have done this?” Megavolt asked, peering down at Tony.

Tony preened. “I have.”

His face splitting into a huge grin, Megavolt slapped Tony on the back, nearly sending the billionaire sprawling to the snow-covered floor.  “Very well done, indeed! Quite a feat to bring the out of doors in.”

“Don’t tell him that!” Bud said with a scowl. “He doesn’t need anyone stroking his ego.”

“But this is wonderful!” Megavolt boomed. “We can bring the festivities of winter within this very room.”

“But why?” Jack pressed, all of them glancing over to Tony for an answer.

At that moment, the elevator emitted a ‘ding’ and opened its doors to reveal Cap and his bestest best buddy the whole wide world (seriously, they’d been reunited after 70 years apart; most romances weren’t as strong), Drakey Barnes. Both ducks blinked at the scene before them. At the snow falling around the living room. At the rest of their household gathered around Frosty in various degrees of hypothermia.

Cap was the first to recover, glancing at Tony and asking, “What did you do?”

“I brought Christmas inside, Cap. Honestly, I’m starting to get a little disheartened by the fact that none of you are appreciating my genius here. Except for Megavolt. Which is why he’s my favorite.”

“Verily!” Megavolt exclaimed, smacking Tony on the back again.

“A little less force there, buddy,” Tony coughed, trying to reclaim the breath stolen from him.

“Why would you want to bring snow inside?” Drakey grumbled, sending a dark look to the swirling white that was settling around the room. “It’s freezing in here now.”

“Something you should be familiar with, right, Red October?” Tony sneered.

He hated Drakey Barnes.

Okay, hate was a strong word.

But he didn’t like him.

Drakey was grumpy, with a permanent scowl on his beak and always stalked around the Tower like a duck half dead. And sure, he’d spent the last 70 years brainwashed and committed heinous crimes he now had to find a way to live with, but smile every now and then, you know?

And he bore a resemblance to Tony with his large bill, short stature, and wiry frame. Which was just insult to injury. Especially because Drakey had more muscle than Tony.

Like… unfair.

Launchpad frowned at Tony. “That was uncalled for.”

“But questioning my motives isn’t?” Tony demanded. “No one has said anything positive about this, they just keep asking me why.”

“Which you still haven’t answered,” Jack pointed out.

“Maybe because I don’t want put on blast that none of us exactly had a normal childhood. Didn’t want to bring up the bad memories, and I thought for one day out of the miserable 365 when we weren’t fighting for our lives, or for the whole planet’s survival, we could have one of those classic white Christmases. But St. Canard isn’t supposed to get snow for the next few days, which ruined all my plans, so I built a machine to make it snow, but it had to be inside where I could control the damn environment and the living room is where everyone hangs out so perfect! Why not there? But no one wants snow, all they want is to know why and who cares? I built a machine, we have snow now, relax about it!”

Shaking his head and muttering to himself, Tony stormed out of the room, taking the elevator down to his workshop. Turning up his music once he got there, Tony bent over his newest model of the Iron Duck armor, intent on fixing a few of the bugs MORGANA had found in their last test run.

Why had he bothered? God, try to do something nice for a group of people for Christmas and suddenly it’s all skepticism.

Granted, he’d been right when he’d said that none of the Duckvengers had had an idyllic childhood. Except maybe Megavolt. But he was an alien/god so that didn’t count. But the not-so-great-time-growing-up thing had given Tony the idea to create a good Christmas memory for the team. Give ‘em all the day to enjoy the holiday season for once in their sad lives.

It had been a rough year tracking down Drakey Barnes, after all. They deserved this.

The world wasn’t under attack. No one had any plans. They could all be together, celebrating the fact that they were a cohesive team spending a major holiday with each other, but instead of being excited about snow inside their home, all they wanted to ask was why and complain that it was cold or that they couldn’t use the living room now.

Christmas was stupid.

It was just marketing ploys to get people to buy things. Make you feel like less of an asshole because you got someone a pointless gift for the one day of the year where everyone pretended to be better people than they actually were.

“Sir, Captain Rogers is asking for permission to enter,” MORGANA said, her voice soothing over the hard metal music.

“MORG, you know better than to tamper with my music when I’m in the zone.” Having rewired the repulser, he reached for his soldering iron. “Tell Cap I’m busy.”

“I have been, sir. He insists he won’t leave until he has spoken to you.”

“He’s gonna keep waiting.”

“He has already waited for half an hour.”

Tony paused in his work, finally tearing his eyes away from the gauntlet to roll them heavenward. “Stubborn son of a— Fine.” He set down the soldering iron. “If it’ll send him away. Let him in. And kill the music.”

The workshop door slid open, revealing Cap, his beak set in a hard line.

“Let’s just cut to the chase here,” Tony said before Cap had the chance to make him feel like even more of an asshole. “I’m sorry I insulted your friend. I’ll clean up all the damn snow which I don’t see why it matters to any of you. This is still my Tower last I checked, so if I decide to ruin some furniture and flooring, I can do it. I own all of it—”

“Thank you, Tony,” Launchpad said, his tone sincere and his volume slightly louder than usual to be heard over Tony’s babble.

“—which I think some of you forget. It’s— Oh.” Tony blinked. “Oh, um. You… you sort of interrupted my rant. I had more. You know, things to say.”

Launchpad smirked. “Sorry. Do you want to keep going?”

“No. No, that’s….” Tony ran a hand through his feathers. “And I am sorry. About insulting Drakey. I didn’t…. I speak before I think sometimes.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Cap said, his eyebrows raising slightly, broadcasting to the world — or for those who were looking for it, like Tony — that he was being sarcastic.

“Yes, haha, Tony’s an idiot.” He sighed. “Look, I’ll call someone to clean up the mess upstairs. MORG, is there—”

“You’ll need to tear Bud away first. He and Megavolt are making snow angels.”

“They’re… what?”

Launchpad nodded. “Drakey and Jack started building a snowman. They think they can build one better than Dr. Banner.”

“Fools.” Tony shook his head. “Reggie’s got science on his side.”

Launchpad grinned before sobering. “We do appreciate the gesture. I guess we’re all still learning to trust each other.”

“Not like building snowmen and making snow angels are gonna help with that.”

“It’s not gonna hurt, either.” Launchpad reached out and clapped Tony on the shoulder. “You did well, Tony. We needed some team building.”

Not knowing what to say — cause what do you say to your childhood hero come to life when he compliments you? — Tony did what he did best.

Deflected.

Grinning up at Cap, he said, “Bet I’m gonna kick your ass in a snowball fight.”

Launchpad walked back toward the elevator, shaking his head with a smile on his beak. “In your dreams.”

[isnappedmypencil]

Reading Tag

I was tagged to do this by @neoncathedrals and I’m so happy about it! Thank you!

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Hmm. Well, that would be the first book I got after I lost a bunch of my books got lost, so that would have to be Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

Current: “Stiger: Tales of the Seventh, Part One” by Marc Alan Edelheit. The interesting thing about this is that I got this book for free by the author himself at SuperCon in Raleigh this month. He was handing them out. He signed it and even wrote my name in it. Isn’t that awesome? Last: “Boy Robot” by Simon Curtis. Before coming across this gem at my library, I was unaware that Simon Curtis had written a book. I’ve always been a big fan of his music and I checked this out from my library with no hesitation. Next: The next book I want to read is “Six of Crows” because so many people have been talking about how good it was and how interesting the characters are. I need to get my hands on it.

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

Sorry to be cliché here, but Twilight. I just couldn’t stand it. I read up until the end of Eclipse and couldn’t read the next book. The writing bothered me, the characters were boring and stupid, and side characters had way more interesting back stories than the one I was reading. I mean Jasper was turned into a vampire to lead an army of the undead in a series of territory wars in Mexico. I would have read the shit out of that! But, noo! I had to read about Bella who doesn’t know how to identity an abusive relationship and Edward, the textbook example of a stalker, who decided that going to high school was a smart way to spend eternity. Ugh.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

The Mortal Instruments series. I keep looking at it on the shelves and almost getting it, but I just keep finding a way to convince myself that I’ll do it later.

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

I’m not really saving any book for retirement.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Wait until the end. I like to earn my endings. I learned my lesson in my early days.

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

They are definitely interesting and very important. I like reading about the people who helped make the books I like possible. They are all wonderful for it.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

After a long time, I decided to pick Kody from “Infinity” of the Chronicles of Nick by Sherilyn Kenyon. I do like Kody and she was important to the series, but if i could switch with her just for a bit so I could hang around Nick and Caleb (Sarcastic Sass and Sassy Sarcasm respectively), I would.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Yes! The Junie B. Jones books! Not only are they a staple of my earliest elementary school years, they are the first books that made me want to read the whole series. It was the first full series I ever read.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

At first I thought that my answer to Question 2 was the only fit for this, but then I remembered one other way. I don’t know if this counts as interesting, but it definitely caught me off guard and I thought it was strange. So, in eleventh grade I had this English teacher who knew I was gonna be a bit of trouble from day one. I had tuned out her “First Day Speech” by accident and was staring off into space. When I came back, everyone was starting at me and the teacher said that she had never seen anyone make a face like that in her class ever. To this day, I still have no clue what face I was making. Anyway, I was averaging a C in her class and she wasn’t too happy about it. I love English classes. I love reading and writing and doing essays. But I am bad at paying attention and I forget things easily. And I procrastinate. Like Hell. So, I wasn’t her favorite student and she was often very short with me. At the end of the year I had run to her classroom to see what my finals grade had been. When I got there she was packing up. She saw me in the doorway, looked me over (the panting, messy, wide-eyed, twitching spectacle that I was), raised an eyebrow, pulled something out of her bag, and held it toward me. It was a book. “Across the Nightingale Floor: Tales of the Otori, Book One” by Lian Hearn. Apparently, she saw this book somewhere, thought that I would like it, and BOUGHT it for me. Pristine condition and all. Then she turned, called my finals score over her shoulder flippantly, and dismissed me. I really love this book. (TL;DR: I got an awesome book about a young Japanese assassin from a teacher that didn’t really like me, but apparently watched me enough to know my tastes.)

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

Well, I did once lend my friend my copy of “Magic Street” by Orson Scott Card because she is an overachieving, overworked AP student and the only child of a single mother who pushed her too hard and I thought she would like it and be able to sit and read it and maybe chill for a bit. I never got it back, though.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

I carried my copy of the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow everywhere I went for a long time, especially when I went to UNCG, because I was rancid piece of Hamiltrash and wanted to take any chance I got to bring up Hamilton to strangers and talk about interesting things that I found in the biography.

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

Not really. Actually, it was middle school where I started reading Shakespeare and didn’t like it and then in high school I had an English teacher (not the one from Question 10) who actually went in and explained things and made me realise how funny and interesting Shakespeare actually was. Now I love reading his plays.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

Aside from bookmarks or unexpected porn, I’ve never found anything strange in a book.

15. Used or brand new?

I don’t mind used books. They’re cheaper, sometimes free. I also love new books. I don’t really have a preference.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

Confession time: I have never actually read a Stephen King book. So, yeah, I don’t have an opinion.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

I honestly can’t say I have. See, I don’t trust movie adaptations anymore, so I tend to stay away from them. Sometimes I’ll see a movie that I didn’t know was based off of a book, read the book, and still like the book better. So, no.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

The Percy Jackson books! Jack-in-the-Box Jesus Christ! Okay, I love the Percy Jackson series. Love it with all my heart. And the Heroes of Olympus books, too. So, those movies make me so angry. If that was how they were going to treat the story, they should have never made those movies in the fucking first place.

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Damn. I was totally going to say “Fifty Shades of Chicken”. Unless you count some manga, I can’t think of any books that made me hungry.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Gotta say my friends. They know what I like or what I might like and I’ve found many great books through them. Also, some of my old teachers that I still talk to.

Okay, time to tag this thing. @alextriestowritestuff @byjillianmaria @quilowrites @acfawkes @december-soulstice @christinawritesfiction @boothewriter @malloryblaise

And anyone else who wants to do this, I’d love to see them!

(Since I don’t have a laptop, things aren’t bold and I can’t seem to find out how to make them bold. So, sorry about that.)

[snickiebear]

OHMYGOD SNICKIE I—

so i just finished going through your index and OH MY GOD??? i wish i’d done that earlier *facepalms*

thanks for the tip, i kinda see now who the shadows were referring to… 😉😉😉 (but not all because im slightly stupid)

BUT ALSO akdjbshdj im so glad ur open to the prequel idea and if it does happen i’ll be in the front row seat with hearts in my eyes 😍 what’s even crazier was that i was reading the war chapter in the index and i had to take maybe seven pauses because my imagination was considering the many possibilities!!! and i know i said prequel but oh my god this whole world you’ve built can be like whole series on its own — and im not yet even thinking about what’s going to happen post-OL&W!!! it’s just me thinking about the characters’ stories during the violent era, the first guild war, and the second guild war!!! i-

i seriously can’t even—

i’m gonna try to articulate my thoughts but if you can imagine smoke bombs exploding into vague plot lines, that’s what’s happening in my head right now so apologies in advance for the mess (also im going backwards lol):

Second guild war — hypothetically,,,, if there were an itasakushi era sometime in the history of men falling on their feet for sakura, i believe the itasakushi would have developed in the course of this war, although they may have been acquainted with each other earlier. common enemy: danzo, and what better way to wreak havoc and violence than to have him die by the hands of this (im calling it) legendary trio (but that’s also because im quite invested in them). the five-year captivity is also a huge plus because i imagine shisui and itachi running around like headless chickens looking for the apple of their cursed uchiha eyes

quick question (if it’s not a spoiler) - which naruto characters would fall under thundersins? ibiki is the guildmaster, so does that mean his guild is composed of t&i people? im not quite sure who (in the naruto-verse) can get fooled by danzo into waging this war…

First guild war — can u tell us who was the mage who killed a witch? who was the witch? what were they fighting about??? was it a serious badass battle? were they secretly friends?? lovers??? did danzo have anything to do with this??? or maybe hanzo??? HOLY SHIT WOULD THE AME CHARACTERS BE INVOLVED HERE??? AKATSUKI??? but it’s ok if it’s still a secret… we can go detective on this one

speaking of ame and the other nations in the canonverse — will they also be part of this au? i mean we’ve already seen suna folks in OL&W but maybe like chojuro from kiri and other notable characters from the other hidden villages?

And to the violent era — using canonverse as basis, this would most likely be the counterpart of the hashirama-madara founding a village arc and/or the period before that, since they were also just fighting to death and using child soldiers. but actually im more curious about the guild wars than this era unless something dramatic happened lol other than the self-indulging satisfaction of blood thirst 🤣🤣🤣 im just really more invested when sakura is around. i would say tho, the lore is still interesting because im quite curious as to why the beginning is violent? was it because the gods had a fallout and all they really knew was to be violent about it? if it’s something similar, i’m getting a little bit of mythology-percy jackson vibes (which i LOVE) so Y A Y

ok so that’s basically me vomitting my smoke bomb thoughts *deep breaths* P H E W thank you AGAIN for the brain workout 🥰 it feels nice to lose myself in this world hahaha! you don’t really have to answer my questions; i literally just typed what’s on my mind 😂 INDEX WAS AWESOME! it’s like super clues to the mystery that lead to MORE mystery so yeahp you have just seen the effects on my mind

so sorry to hear about how your day was faring! i’m grateful my ask came to you at the right time. 🥰 i was actually worried about not sliding in your inbox earlier because i already saw that there was a new chapter but it was only then that i had time to check it out. i’m glad i was able to uplift your spirits even just for a little while 💕💕💕

i hope you have a better rest of the week ahead! ❤️❤️❤️

P.S. i cant believe u think my joke was top tier, im seriously bad at cracking jokes irl so thank you for believing in my limited-to-no-successful-experience in joke making

🐱

🐱🐱🐱🐱!!!!!!

LMFAOOOO don’t worry if you don’t figure it out now :) it’ll all be revealed in due time!! Honestly?? Since you brought up the prequel thing i have been thinking not-fucking-stop about how else the world coud be explored. Like?? There is SO MUCH GOING ON!!!

we have the whole Inuzuka tribe, the different temples, so many different characters... there is so many rocks to turn over!!!

OKAY SECOND GUILD WAR ITASAKUSHI YES. we are on the same wavelength 🐱, bc i was thinking the same thing. They would probably meet during GW2 and hit it off pretty well. 1) because Shisui is one charming motherfucker, and 2) Itachi would def draw Sakura in with his smooth humor. Plus, as reclusive as Sakura is in this, she does enjoy being friends with them.

“shisui and itachi running around like headless chickens looking for the apple of their cursed uchiha eyes” this imagery fucking killed me. Oh my god. THATS SO FUNNY WTF

(okay so in the OG draft of OM&G it starts with saku not knowing any of the boys and meeting them for the first time. she knew sakumo [who was dead in this one] and itachi + shisui [they were close friends].

and sasuke was being a total asshole [as usual] and sakura shuts him up with telling him that she's slept with both itachi and shisui. and then all three of them together. to which sasuke has an ANEURYSM LMFAO

but in this one, ItaSakuShi DEF goes on missions together after GW2 and totally fuck and get drunk and hang out. its verified, it has happened, i am comfirming this.)

Ok so!!!! Thundersins would consist mainly of non clan people in Nart. So, Lee, Tenten, Gai, Anko, Genma, ect. Though, we won’t be seeing Gai, Genma, or Anko until much, much later :) Though, Shisui is a part of the Thundersins guild, because he’s just more suited for assassinations rather than wizarding.

so basically, i'm just kind of putting people wherever i think they'd be suited best!

Danzo himself is a tricky bastard and at the time of GW2, Thundersins is still a relatively “new” guild, and they’re mainly human at this point, meaning that they were the weakest guild. It mostly comes down to the fact that Danzo, the manipulative asshole, was able to get their aid. He kept the entire kidnapping a secret for years (i’m estimating at least fifty or so) because the war and then it came to light by some spies or sum

As for the first guild war LMFAO i have absolutely no idea at all which mage killed what witch, i didn’t really think about it tbh! Maybe it was one of sakura’s bullies,,, LMAO honestly? I’ll leave all of that lore to you!!! I like keeping some details vague just so readers can take it and RUN AHAHAHHA. So yeah! Maybe they were lovers! And the entire killing was an accident! Who knows!

OKAY SO! This is going to make sound TERRIBLE. But i hadn’t even thought of Mist or Ame or any of the other villages until you said something LMAOOO

Well… the akatsuki plays a HUGE role in the next two fics,, so i can’t really say much about them hehe…

I do love chojuro and mei and haku and just LKSMDANFKSLD yeah. Going to be honest: they totally slipped my mind which is awful. Head in hands frfr. But i can tell you this:

Mei would be a mage, Chojuro would be either an assassin or a mage… one of the two… haku and zabuza are assassins. Ao would probably be a wizard too.

As for the other Jinchūrikis,,,, you’ll have to wait for the next two (if i have...write them… haha..)!

THE VIOLENT ERA! And yes! So, this is basically the time where the Living are the most… animalistic? Especially since the gods’ “fallout” as you call it! Thepheria served as a balance to both Peace and War, she is Balance in the very sense of the word so… if something happens to her, the entire world goes into cause and it can take a long time for it to find equilibrium!

Nothing huge happened here, this was like the “stone age” of this world and very self indulgent with the whole savagery of it, but also highlighting that deep, deep down these Living (and humans) are angry and violent at their cores. Its their roots and no matter how they progress, it will always come back to war and bloodshed.

AND OMG!! A FELLOW CAMP HALF BLOOD CAMPER HELLO!!!! I love pjo so much!!!! My first series that got me loving fiction and the worlds we can build!!!

I’m so glad you liked the index!!! Its both for you and me because half the time i can’t keep track of what information i want to use/verified so… it keeps me consistent (because i am horrible at it LMAO)

Please don’t ever worry about sliding in here “late”!!! Life is busy and the chapters are a little long, plus time will always keep marching on (omg that rhymed)! And! Please don’t feel obligated to come scream with me! Just knowing that you’re enjoying my work is enough to fuel me!!! :))))))

I feel you on the jokes 🐱, i am not funny irl at all HAHAAHA but your joke was hilarious, im crackin up just thinking about it LMFAOOO

Have a great week 🐱!!!!!! <33333333