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Alrighty then. I mean I was mostly pirating music and only used spotify for podcast so no great loss for me.

FINALLY got around to dumping Spotify after their CEO continued to prove he's a fresh turd. (As if being a billionaire, not paying musicians, shoving AI garbage at us, and having an atrocious carbon footprint wasn't bad enough, he's now the chair of a AI-based weapons manufacturing company.)

I used TuneMyMusic ($24 annual fee you can cancel immediately, effectively paying only once) to transfer almost every single song from our Spotify account to Tidal. Tidal already has much better sound quality and they pay their artists much better. It migrated over 99% of our music, too, so there wasn't a huge loss.

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idk what your all talking about tiktok rules

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annoying sibling behavior 🙄

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I still intend to be making comics, but I've just been very busy with my new job :)

Please, if you want to support me to keep making content like this, consider supporting my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ruoyuart!

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I don’t have children so take this with a grain of salt but I hate when you can tell people like the concept of their children more than their well-being. Parents like the concept of an all-beige nursery that’s photogenic more than they care about the development of their kid’s brain. They like the concept of a cutely dressed kid in designer clothes more than they care about their comfort and personal desires. They like the concept of a child who never eats poorly more than they care about the happiness that can come from a child eating some candy now and then. People need to stop treating their kids like little dolls

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And you know, you know that as soon as he's in the base and semi-sentient again sooooo many other astartes are going to give him shit for it. He'll permanentely become "the one who couldn't handle seeing a naiad"

Naiad

Author's note: I'm going to be trying to do Mermay 2025.

Summary: You are a Naiad, and meet a Mer-Astartes

Warnings: None. LMK if I need to add something

tagged: @sleepyfan-blog @c-u-c-koo-4-40k @i-am-a-dragon34 @ms--lobotomy @jaghatai-khock

tagged: @kit-williams @whorety-k @aprofessionaln00b @bleedingichorhearts @thevoidscreams @gra93fruit-blog

Tagged: @felinisnoctis @bispecsual, @egrets-not-regrets @finchly-tintinnabulation @nereidof40k

As you tend to your waters- and hum to yourself you pause, looking up and see a large figure. You sink into your home waters and watch wearily. Astartes- so large, so big, so strong, so dangerous at times. Unpredictable tempers and temperament.

Some are willing to not lash out at the slightest provocation, and others are. Generalizing by color scheme is very unfair. But You have learned that certain colorations tended to have friendlier reactions, while other colorations of Mer-Astartes have less friendly reactions as a whole.

The stark, black and white colorations meant rather very likely to be extremely unfriendly to most beings and sentients besides those of their own colorations. They seem to be fine around humans. Mostly.

Unfortunately for you the mer-astartes spotted you- such great vision as it- he- likely a, he. Some chose other pronouns, but most were he/him by default.

You sink into the waters of your river and feel the power if your beloved river welling strongly within you. If need be- you can fight him long enough to dive into your waters to flee him. Or try to. Mer-astartes are very strong and fast.

He stares at you for an uncomfortably long moment. You have very long flowing hair that cascades down around you in long waves. It curls around and covers your nubile form. You are glad that you had decided to wear a dress today. Most naiads tended to wear very little or nothing most of the time.

But the bit of enchanted cloth felt like defenses against this mer-astartes gaze. A foolish notion- you have seen Mer-astartes with their bare hands tear through strong metals and cause great destruction. You lick your lips a little, nervous as you take in a deep breath. "Greetings, honorable warrior of the stars." You say.

Your voice- like the waters of the river, a rush of water - and a trill of soft seduction. "I have seen a shoal of your ilk- to the west of here- in the oceans nearby if you seek them."

He continues to stare at you. Fuck. Does he not know the tongue you speak? You have heard them speak 'high gothic' but you barely know enough of the tongue to string together two sentences.

He tilts his head and comes closer- staring. staring. STARING at you. This... is getting rather uncomfortable as you shift away from him, still staying in your river- as you are stronger within you waters, than outside of them.

"...Pretty." You hear him murmurs as he stares at you.

You blink up at him. You hadn't- most Astartes didn't seem to get enchanted by the looks of Naaids.

"Thank you, sir," You giggle.

You hear the rumble of something- and see Amaden, the Large- Salamander mer-astarts is making another rumbling noise, and the black-and-white colored Mer astartes turns to look at him and seems to puff up a bit.

The two of them speak very fast in one of the shared tongues and the black and white colored one looks at you one more time before reluctantly following after the larger green one.

"Fair winds and waters," You call out to both and wave at them.

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@starfata @chaoticdumbassrogue

Zeus+Counsel: /watch mortal!Apollo crying, tortured, pushed to the edge of endurance and beyond/

Zeus: All is proceeding to plan. And now, to check on my other son -

Zeus+Council: /see mortal!Hermes screaming with laughter as he floors a stolen cop car away from hot pursuit/

Zeus+Council: ��

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The realisation that Perse is the reincarnation of a faded goddess will hit some demigods harder than others.

Clarisse: Awesome, now you can use goddess powers and kick some titan ass!

Perse: Whatever you say... granddaughter.

Clarisse: Nevermind, I hate this now.

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Picture: after it becomes clear that Perse is a reincarnation of their faded sister, the elder Olympians start finding excuses to spend time with her, only since they're ancient deities and she is a modern woman, it ends up being weird and awkward.

Annabeth, Perse and Grover are at McDonalds or something and fucking Zeus shows up, orders them all an extravagant meal and then makes cryptic threats to the minimum wage workers about the principles of xenia. They somehow manage to impress him and get paid in golden drachma.

Or Perse is at a skate park and suddenly Hades arrives, dressed up in safety gear because 'do you know how many mortals die from doing this?' and still ends up stacking. Meanwhile Perse and Nico are nearby feeling the full force of second-hand embarrassment.

Then next year one of Perse's classmates is 'Antheia' and it's just Hera badly pretending to be a mortal transfer student. She shows up to Perse's friend group like 'how do you do, fellow teenagers? Have you brought honour to your household today?'

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Consider: Apollo probably would've developed a crush on Arsinoe if Perseleia wasn't also in that fountain. So, in a universe where Perse definitively occupies the role of cool stepmother, I can see reborn Annabeth finding herself the centre of attention.

Poseidon: She rose from my fountain and therefore is mine!

Athena: In my city! Besides, you have enough children, this one would just get neglected or married off to some godling.

Hera: If you two are just going to bicker, perhaps the child should stay elsewhere.

Apollo: I think she'd do just fine on Olympus!

Hermes: Yeah, I ag- hey, wait a second! I saw her first!

Athena: Don't even think about it!

Ares and Aphrodite: *eating popcorn on the sidelines, thoroughly enjoying the show*

Zeus: Perhaps we could arrange some form of joint custody?

Poseidon: So my daughter can be paraded around Olympus for the eyes of lustful gods? No thank you.

Zeus: Oh please, like Atlantis has any shortage of that.

*meanwhile in the fountain*

Perse, hugging Arsinoe: You're going to be my best friend!

Arsinoe, who doesn't have her memories yet, wondering who this strange but familiar woman is: Yay?

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Isn't the departement of complaints Eris' job? Because if so I'd say she's having the time of her life throwing Zeus/Jupiter under the bus by saying it's his fault the delivery guy is gone.

This is just a bunch of thoughts regarding @starfata's idea of Hermes experiencing something similar to Apollo's Trials and going from the severely depressed PJO to something more in line with Epic!Hermes. @chaoticdumbassrogue I thought you might be amused by this, so I'm linking you too.

First of all, there's the actual impetus for this. Zeus cast Apollo out and demoted him to mortality using the whole Octavian thing as an excuse; Hermes, presumably, would have to cause at least equal offense for him to be subjected to something similar. Zeus can't go around stripping gods of their immortality willy-nilly, that's a surefire recipe for uniting everyone against him. He needs an excuse.

(There's also the underlying fan theory that Zeus did it in part because he viewed Apollo as a potential threat - the god is very, very powerful, and despite Apollo's self-relegation to a harmless degenerate, the Thunder Bringer is nothing but paranoid. Hermes - Hermes has never once rebelled against his father. He's the 'good son'; he sticks to his responsibilities, he's a hard worker - partly because IMO PJO!Hermes is so damn depressed and he's using work as a distraction.)

If this is the Athenide Twins AU, however, there is the potential for a very, very real excuse. And it could be twofold.

The first is Hermes simply protesting what's happening to Apollo. He and Apollo - have drifted apart over time, but they once were each other's Favorite Brother. And more than that - they were in love with the Athenide Twins. They know the taste of each other's grief. They were - the other was the only person who knew exactly what they were going through, and there is an unspoken solidarity, an unexpected comfort in having someone else who gets it. And now that Apollo has been punished, just as the Athenide Twins have returned - that might all come boiling to the forefront once again.

The second is - it's the Athenide Twins. Zeus canonically regarded Percy Jackson as too dangerous to live on more then once occasion; he does not like the child of Poseidon. If you're essentially making said child a god, a very, very powerful god with allies among the Olympian Council, he is - he might regard it as a potential problem. If Loyalty and Reason are not on his side... well. That's a threat.

And everyone knew that Apollo and Hermes were in love with the fountain-born twins. Real, true love. They would have done - just about anything for them, and now they are back. If Zeus/Jupiter is acting to preemptively stamp out potential threats, if he's worried that his sons' loyalty is to Loyalty and Family instead of himself - that's all he might need to take action against them. (He seems more Jupiter then Zeus in this excuse, I must admit - if we're going by the 'Rome did it's level best to either erase the existence of the Athenides or co-opt them to their own use' speculation).

So Zeus might take that excuse to case Hermes out and down.

The thing is, Apollo's journey was - very much about reclaiming himself. About rediscovering the truth of his identity after so many centuries of avoidance and lying about things to himself. About coming to terms with who he is and who he wants to be - suiting, for the god of truth. Hermes' would be substantially different.

Hermes is the god of lies. Of journeys. And I think he's been ignoring those domains for a long, long time, subsumed beneath his role as god of messengers and messages. That's - mainly how he's portrayed in PJO; the eternal mailman/deliveryperson. Historically, that is not who Hermes is at all. I think his journey is a journey. (He's forgotten how much he liked traveling. How much he loved the journey over the destination. How it felt, to dance on the edge, with only his wits and his lies charting him a safe path to his goal. And oh, but oh, it is glorious.)

And remember how PJO!Hermes told Percy that he doesn't believe gods can change?

Apollo's quest was about discovering the truth of himself. I think Hermes' might be the realization that he can change. (And that would break him, more than just a little). Where Apollo is rediscovering responsibility and accountability, Hermes is learning how to put down his burdens, how to stop using them as an excuse to punish himself. He's rediscovering his whimsy. (And yes, I'm using this as an excuse to reinvent him as something very close to Epic!Hermes - I like that guy.)

In one way, I think the lesson they learn is very similar - 'you screwed up. You can't change that, but you can do better. So do better'.

I don't know what the end goal of Hermes' quest would be. He doesn't have any legendary antagonists like Apollo does, and besides, head-on confrontations is not what Hermes is known for. He's the god of loopholes, of coming at something sideways. Maybe it's something about dismantling the Triumvate's Empire even as Apollo goes for the decapitating strike? Mm, doesn't feel like it - I do think he'd have to pull off at least one heist with only mortal capabilities. I do think that his and Apollo's paths wouldn't cross at all - their journeys are about them, they wouldn't coincide.

Most of all, I think the journey would have to be about Hermes himself. It can't be about Arsinoe, or 'winning her back' - it has to be something he does for himself.

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Hermes : turns out, your dad had severe depression that he tried to drown in his works until he had a burn out.

Cabin Eleven : ... Dad what the fuck?!

Hermes, having lost a lot of his fucks to give : Anyway who wants to commit a felony or two?

This is just a bunch of thoughts regarding @starfata's idea of Hermes experiencing something similar to Apollo's Trials and going from the severely depressed PJO to something more in line with Epic!Hermes. @chaoticdumbassrogue I thought you might be amused by this, so I'm linking you too.

First of all, there's the actual impetus for this. Zeus cast Apollo out and demoted him to mortality using the whole Octavian thing as an excuse; Hermes, presumably, would have to cause at least equal offense for him to be subjected to something similar. Zeus can't go around stripping gods of their immortality willy-nilly, that's a surefire recipe for uniting everyone against him. He needs an excuse.

(There's also the underlying fan theory that Zeus did it in part because he viewed Apollo as a potential threat - the god is very, very powerful, and despite Apollo's self-relegation to a harmless degenerate, the Thunder Bringer is nothing but paranoid. Hermes - Hermes has never once rebelled against his father. He's the 'good son'; he sticks to his responsibilities, he's a hard worker - partly because IMO PJO!Hermes is so damn depressed and he's using work as a distraction.)

If this is the Athenide Twins AU, however, there is the potential for a very, very real excuse. And it could be twofold.

The first is Hermes simply protesting what's happening to Apollo. He and Apollo - have drifted apart over time, but they once were each other's Favorite Brother. And more than that - they were in love with the Athenide Twins. They know the taste of each other's grief. They were - the other was the only person who knew exactly what they were going through, and there is an unspoken solidarity, an unexpected comfort in having someone else who gets it. And now that Apollo has been punished, just as the Athenide Twins have returned - that might all come boiling to the forefront once again.

The second is - it's the Athenide Twins. Zeus canonically regarded Percy Jackson as too dangerous to live on more then once occasion; he does not like the child of Poseidon. If you're essentially making said child a god, a very, very powerful god with allies among the Olympian Council, he is - he might regard it as a potential problem. If Loyalty and Reason are not on his side... well. That's a threat.

And everyone knew that Apollo and Hermes were in love with the fountain-born twins. Real, true love. They would have done - just about anything for them, and now they are back. If Zeus/Jupiter is acting to preemptively stamp out potential threats, if he's worried that his sons' loyalty is to Loyalty and Family instead of himself - that's all he might need to take action against them. (He seems more Jupiter then Zeus in this excuse, I must admit - if we're going by the 'Rome did it's level best to either erase the existence of the Athenides or co-opt them to their own use' speculation).

So Zeus might take that excuse to case Hermes out and down.

The thing is, Apollo's journey was - very much about reclaiming himself. About rediscovering the truth of his identity after so many centuries of avoidance and lying about things to himself. About coming to terms with who he is and who he wants to be - suiting, for the god of truth. Hermes' would be substantially different.

Hermes is the god of lies. Of journeys. And I think he's been ignoring those domains for a long, long time, subsumed beneath his role as god of messengers and messages. That's - mainly how he's portrayed in PJO; the eternal mailman/deliveryperson. Historically, that is not who Hermes is at all. I think his journey is a journey. (He's forgotten how much he liked traveling. How much he loved the journey over the destination. How it felt, to dance on the edge, with only his wits and his lies charting him a safe path to his goal. And oh, but oh, it is glorious.)

And remember how PJO!Hermes told Percy that he doesn't believe gods can change?

Apollo's quest was about discovering the truth of himself. I think Hermes' might be the realization that he can change. (And that would break him, more than just a little). Where Apollo is rediscovering responsibility and accountability, Hermes is learning how to put down his burdens, how to stop using them as an excuse to punish himself. He's rediscovering his whimsy. (And yes, I'm using this as an excuse to reinvent him as something very close to Epic!Hermes - I like that guy.)

In one way, I think the lesson they learn is very similar - 'you screwed up. You can't change that, but you can do better. So do better'.

I don't know what the end goal of Hermes' quest would be. He doesn't have any legendary antagonists like Apollo does, and besides, head-on confrontations is not what Hermes is known for. He's the god of loopholes, of coming at something sideways. Maybe it's something about dismantling the Triumvate's Empire even as Apollo goes for the decapitating strike? Mm, doesn't feel like it - I do think he'd have to pull off at least one heist with only mortal capabilities. I do think that his and Apollo's paths wouldn't cross at all - their journeys are about them, they wouldn't coincide.

Most of all, I think the journey would have to be about Hermes himself. It can't be about Arsinoe, or 'winning her back' - it has to be something he does for himself.

[aprofessionaln00b]

😂 camp half blood decides to put on a play about the Athenide sisters during the Trojan war. Percy and Annabeth gets cast as, you guessed it, Perseleia and Arsinoe. Tryson gets cast as Poseidon, and at one point he has to drag Annabeth away from the wall where Percy stands just as Poseidon once had done to Arsinoe, unwilling to lose yet another daughter.

Or Athenide AU Annabeth plays Athena.

Either works.

Dionysus and Asclepius have an eye twitch that does not go away the entirety of the rehearsals and performance

Percy, in a stunning blue peplos with pearls: *exists*

Dionysus and Asclepius: mommy?

Apollo: My love, my wife, my best friend?

Athena and Poseidon: *are in separate corners on olympus crying*

[aprofessionaln00b]

Fellas get ready for ao3 to trend again on here for it is down again