#chap 4/5

[mediumgayitalian]

When Lee and Michael pull him from Chiron's exceptionally dry Ancient Greek lessons, Will is excited. When they drag him down, ducking, behind the stables, as other campers walk by, he is intrigued. When they guide him all the way back to their cabin, sit him on his bed, and then drag two stools to sit across from him, silently, he is still excited.

A little nervous, now.

But excited.

"Will," Michael says, solemn. He presses his fist to his mouth, eyes carefully blank. "Will, you are almost ten years old, now."

Will bounces on his mattress, grinning. "Yeah! I'm nine and fifty-six seventy-thirds." He peers at his brothers hopefully, trying to lessen his fidgeting and appear Regal and Adult. "Am I getting my Dad present early?"

Gods, he hopes so. He has been counting down the days -- every tenth birthday, for every kid, Camp-bound or not, Apollo sends them a gift of gold jewelry, smelted in the heat of the Sun by Holy Hephaestus, jewels handcrafted by the finest artisans on Olympus, blessed by yours truly. Will has been watching in seething jealousy as Michael's signet ring glints every time he pulls back his bow, as Cass' hoops swing when she walks. He hopes the gift is earrings -- he finally convinced Michael to pierce his lobes a couple months ago, and he's tired of the ugly studs. Beckendorf made him promise to let him poke around at whatever Will gets, and Will has been itching to show him.

And to get the jewelry, obviously. That's priority number one.

Lee shakes his head slowly. "No. You will get your milestone when you get it." He exchanges a long, fearful look with Michael. Will picks at last summer's clay bead, with the trident on it. "Speaking of milestones…"

Michael makes a sudden, choked noise, covering his face with his hands and curling forward. Will startles. Lee sighs, looking down for a moment as well. When he looks up again, he meets Will's wide eyes with his teary ones, and places a supportive hand on Michael's back.

"Will…" he looks out to the open window, shaking his head slightly. When he looks back, his face is creased in apology, and his eyes are ringed with pity. Will feels his heart drop. "Have you chosen someone, yet?"

"Chosen?" Will straightens, fists twisting in his shorts. "Chosen someone for what?" Michael makes another strangled wailing noise. Will's breath hitches, and his ears white out. "Lee, tell me! Tell me now!"

"We are a Greek camp," Lee says, finally. "An ancient Greek camp. With ancient Greek customs, kiddo."

He says it softly, apologetically. Like the time a seagull swooped down and stole Will's ice cream, right from his hands, on the beach last week. Will recognizes the hopeless tone of his voice and his heart drops.

"How much did they tell you about…our customs?"

"I didn't listen to the admissions video!" Will confesses, panicked. "I'm sorry! It was so boring! There were a bajillion music numbers and they were all kind of bad no offense and the screen made my eyes hurt and I missed my mom and --"

"Will," Michael says, voice shaking. He meets Will's eyes and Will is horrified to see they are wet.

He has never seen Michael cry before -- not even once.

"It's okay, Will. Some people don't know."

"Tell me," Will begs. "Am I being sacrificed?"

To his great relief, both his brothers laugh, waving dismissive hands as they chuckle. Will sags into his pillows.

"Oh, no, gods no. That would be barbaric." Lee wipes a tear from his eyes. "C'mon, Will, we're a little more civilized than that." He smiles encouragingly. Will smiles, hesitantly, back. "You're getting married."

It takes a long enough moment for the sound to travel and the word to register that Will is sure his hearing aids have gone wonky. He taps them, as though it will do anything, and tilts his head.

"I didn't hear you right. What did you say?"

"Married," Michael repeats. "By age 10, like all people had to do back then." He and Lee exchange another weighted look. "That, or you have to marry Mr. D." He rushes to assure at Will's panicked shriek; "Only if you don't choose someone in time. You have until you turn ten, so don't worry. I'm sure you'll find someone in time. You'll have most of the summer, anyway."

There is a moment where Lee and Michael murmur to each other, nodding. "Yeah," Lee says, mostly to himself. "You'll be fine." To which Michael responds: "Of course, of course. I mean, we did it."

Will sits there, frozen.

"I can't get married!" he cries, coming back to himself. He begins to hyperventilate. "I'm -- nine! I'm a kid!" He looks to his older brothers, blue eyes big and watery. "I don't even know how to file my taxes yet!"

Lee and Michael are sympathetic. They move forward, immediately, one on either side of him; Lee slides a squeezing hand around his shoulders, Michael pats him on the leg.

"It'll be fine, squirt," Lee soothes. He gestures across them. "I mean, me and Michael found somebody. It all worked out."

"You're married?" Will chokes out. His breaths come quick and shallow, despite Lee's comforting hand. "Michael is married?!"

"Watch it, twerp," Michael warns, at the same time as Lee says: "It was a challenge and a half, but yeah, Michael is married."

Will glances quickly down. There is no ring on either of their left hands, but they must notice him looking, because Michael snorts, pinching him on the knee.

"We just told you it's an ancient Greek custom, dumbass. Rings were invented later. We just…" He makes an incomprehensible gesture with his ringless hand. "Followed the book, completed the rite, etc, etc. Boom. Matrimony."

Lee nods. He rubs Will's shoulder a final time, encouragingly, before pulling away enough to give him space to breathe.

"You'll find someone, Will. We just thought we'd warn you because it didn't look like you remembered yourself, and we don't want you to have to…well."

Will shudders. Vaguely, in the back of his blurry, blurry memory, he can recall someone saying something in a video somewhere about partners and their importance in Camp. He had not paid attention, and he curses himself for it, now -- he almost had to marry Mr. D. Mr. D. who is rude, who smells like vinegar, who always has something in his teeth, who sleeps all day and drools more than a waterfall, who scares the satyrs on purpose and never even says sorry. Who is mean and gross and the worst ever.

"Thank you," Will says, tearfully. He grips his brothers' hands in his small fists and shakes from his spot between them, almost-life flashing in front of his eyes. If his brothers hadn't warned him, Mr. D. would have made him rub his stinking feet and feed him grapes for all eternity for sure. There wouldn't even be breaks for episodes of Star Trek. He shudders. "Thank you."

His brothers return the half-hug, although Michal sighs about it. He is too short to see the smirks they flash above his head.

"Anytime, twerp."

-- -- --

next

[pdrrook]

PFM:Avulsion Chapter 3 is live on itch!

Around 60k words, 3 branches, optional early confession in Reed’s (need to unlock the ’crush’ variable for it). Enjoy!

Download: [here] 

More content: [Ko-Fi] [Patreon]

Demo/teaser (in a form of a Visual Novel): [here]

Other games: [here]

[dekupalace]

hi isatheads. is this anything

[burning-academia-if]

i prefer personally having a pessimistic and depressed MC bc my favourite pass time is watching someone get worse to HORRIBLE and the cast reacting and deciding to attempt to stage an intervention to prevent the spiralling 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 (bc I cannot do that irl sorry my MC's)

Aksjsjsb MC shows up to their dorm one day and it's all the ROs (except Lars) sitting around in a circle going "hey..........we gotta talk."

[hyakunana]

Deleted Stasis Quest feat local girlfriends

Inspired by this twitter meme

[fishareglorious]

Me playing chess against a 12 year old with the intent of killing her friends: Yeah i'm a total grandmasterpilled chesscel. I'm basically going chess mode and i'm giving checkmatecore vibes My subordinate Z, chief of staff: Vice President I think God should kill you

[calice-says]

Rest because the injection shots are wildly kicking in❌ Write a short draft/prompt of a fic idea (that will probably end up rotting in dust) bc you had a fever dream and wanna make it RanMasa✅

Yeah this is def gonna end up sitting for a while🧍‍♀️🔫

[ryssbelle]

My last post is a sneak peek to the next chapter of my crack fic which has just been dreamworks movie references so far XD

The most recent chapter can be found here

The BG are just the ones from Trolls 3 but I killed the trolls

[play-rough]

Now for the new fic. Do I be reasonable and pick a Title thats maybe 4-6 words, or do I test the limits of what Ao3 will allow 🧐

[blvckentropy]

"Welcome students"

lot by bicul

previous/next

[moonsoupstar-ao3]

I LOVE SHURA I LOVE SHURA I LOVE YOU I'M LITERALLY IN TEARS WRITING THIS

[nyoomfruits]

could you pls consider posting the next chapters a little earlier? it's hard to wait... i mean that's how much i love your writing, but no pressure 😳

hi!!! i would love love love to post the new chapters earlier BUT currently i have a two chapter buffer that i really like to keep especially since i've really been struggling with the latest chapters. but maybe once i've finished everything!!

[baeshijima]

so i just finished zzz chapter 5…..

[drxgony]

been reading blood meridian and drawing art based off each chapter... 1) should i post them? and. 2) if i do post them do you guys want me to do it all at once or a post per chapter...

[definitelynotshouting]

for anyone wondering btw i officially have around 2.8k of the next hunger au chapter written

[thebiggestfuckgiven]

How I DIDN’T Become a Villain Official Update!

#1

Chap 1 word count: 5,198

one-sentence summary: This one guy has the absolute worst vibe.

Chap 2 word count: 5,243

one-sentence summary: Out of towner has an ongoing life crisis and gets stuck with local flaker.

Chap 3 word count: ????

one-sentence summary: Beloved Crime Lord gets his sights on out of towner, who gets an unexpected nighttime visitor~

Edit—

Estimated fic length: 110k words