#(so no matter what seer twins project i was working on at the time)

[tblsomedoodles]

Seer twins?

Sorry, i don't really have any doodles ready to post for them, and i'm a little too brain dead to do much drawing at all today. But i can offer you a little wip segment from the next chapter.

Ok, Splinter could see where this was going now. Did that old parenting book he had stuffed in his cabinet have a chapter on what to do when one of your children spied on the other's dreams? Maybe a convenient subsection on if they were prophetic dreams? He doubted it, but boy would it be useful right about now.

Thank you!

[the-ellia-west]

Hello! Just came to drop by and ask about your current WIP, TCOT! I've seen your prompts for it and I want to properly know more about it. Sorry if it has been explained in your masterlists but I can't seem to find a solid explanation and decided to go here instead.

So! What is the story about? Who are the main characters? And what do they look like? And anything else you want to share about it?

Thank you so much for the Ask @justalittlebuddy

And I didn't really ever make a thorough explanation of it. Just a small synopsis, which only explains like the first 7 chapters?

So Here, a massively long ramble about TCOT, what it is, the conflicts, the characters, and everything.

Alllllrighty!

Here we go!

Explanation of the plot and general premise

TCOT is meant to be/ I'm hoping to make is an about 8 book Series of low fantasy setting with high action, high stakes, romance subplots, and way too much drama.

It's meant to be a basic War-centered fantasy story with good vs Evil with tons of interesting side plots and characters that make it its own interesting and unique project.

Main plot has never been a strength of mine, so I stole one from stereotypical children's media and twisted it into my own thing, adding way too many branches until I turned it into a tree.

The Story is meant to be a pitchfork shaped plot with An underline of the war plot while exploring the psychology and character arcs of all my lovelies in depth.

Now I probably accidentally re-explained that like 4 times as I tend to do, but whatever, Its general structure goes with the heroes down on their luck finding more ways to fight back against the Villains until something works. Other than that I can't explain without spoiling like the 17 consecutive character arcs that interweave to make the story what it is.

All I can say, is Kasi's shift from a seamstress to a warrior, Xhaazi's mental shift from a Jokester to a fighter, Chrin's shift from a nervous seer boy into a powerful influence, Sokuna's shift from a defender to a leader, and all the villain's arcs, that I can't say anything about unless Major spoilers. :]

The Characters

TCOT's main focus is on its characters and their arcs as already stated, There's multiple species, trauma, murder, magic, and morals thrown all about like party confetti in this series.

I can't say a lot about their arcs, but each and every one of them goes through some transformation into something completely different from what they were at the beginning, and This list of characters has an incredibly important arc which weaves together to create the big main plot:

Kasi, Xhaazi, Chrin, Sokuna, Marril, Shyre, Viasaki, Kila, and Geon

I will give you a parapgraph about each because I'm feeling talkative

Kasi

Kasi is a young Outlander who lives outside the walls of Feyrama's Capital City of Terefin with her father Julan and her twin brother Xhaazi. The twins never knew their mother and Julan doesn't like to talk about her. Kasi is a hothead with strong emotions and a tendency to throw-things-first-ask-questions-later. She's fiery and passionate, but she also has extreme emotions in the opposite directions, as in she gets overly excited sometimes, breaks down crying at minor inconveniences, or has panic attacks. But she's gotten good at controlling herself and seeks solace in her loved ones and her job.

Xhaazi

Xhaazi is Kasi's twin brother and a jokester, younger by an hour, and very easily excitable. Just like his sister, Xhaazi has a tendency to feel emotions very strongly, but he doesn't let life phase him and tells jokes to cheer up his friends and family as he loves seeing others smile. Their approval is everything he wants and more. He's upbeat and excitable, enjoying silence as well as loud places. He loves spending time with others and will help wherever he can in any way he can.

Chrin

Chrin is a very powerful young seer boy, who is related to secondary nobles through distant family. But no matter what happens, Chrin is all sunshine and smiles, seeing the silver lining on every cloud and keeping a level head in even the worst scenario, a stark and well-needed contrast to the twin's extreme reactions. He cares for everyone and just wants his efforts and love to be appreciated, as well as to help create a better future for himself and everyone he loves.

Sokuna

Sokuna is an adult shade who ran away from the other shades to protect her daughter from the ruthless training and bloodshed that comes with being a soldier raised from birth. She does everything she can to make a happy life for herself and her daughter in a world that hates them, trying to see the sun between all the rain.

Shyre

Shyre is a young noblewoman and Heir to the third most notable family in Feyrama, the family in charge of negotiations and Trade. She is kind-hearted and well-meaning, though a little naive to the true problems and violence of the world. Shyre can be categorized as a chronic optimist with a lot of passion and not a lot of street smarts.

Now... onto the villains...

Geon

Geon is Less of a villain than he is... actually I don't know what he is. Geon is a Prince who is the bastard child of the Roselite king and an Ahelite Sorceress (Ahelites are an Elven servant race) Born blind, he was shunned as inferior in every possible way by everyone except the only legitimate son of the King and Queen, his older brother Damian. Goen is kind, compasssionate and soft spoken, with a tendency to go against orders and isolate himself because no one in the palace besides his mother, Damian, and his assigned Aid Trissa, care about him. Well at least he's like this until... Shit happens.

Marril

Marril is a paid Assassin. He is also a Hitman. But mostly Assassin. He was cursed at a young age to serve the Shades and their king, and has been trying to scramble free of its torture for years. Guilt-stricken and angry, he is rude, callous, and generally a menace to people he doesn't like, he uses sarcasm and violence as coping mechanisms. He is formal, but a very generally angry person with a lot of trauma who just kinds of needs some help and a cup of coffee.

Viasaki

Viasaki is the First Lieutenant under Tias and The Vessel, controlling a battalion of soldiers. He is a strategic genius who uses most of his time to care for misfits and lost soldiers. But despite his empathy, he will usually follow orders without question. He wavers between his own thoughts, and listening to the voices in his head, while sometimes being controlled by The Vessel. The only thing truly keeping him anchored to reality is his utter hatred of Kila and Tias.

Kila

Kila is Tias' Warrior, also known as the second in command or most trusted of someone with high rank, you only get one, if one of your soldiers volunteers and proves themselves worthy in skill. Kila is worthy and works to stay worthy no matter what. Worthy of status, worthy of love, worthy of a home, worthy of not being thrown out of the mountain at any second, worthy of not being hit for doing a bad job. Kila is a raging perfectionist who sees the world as the strong and the weak. She is a chronic people pleaser and hothead who like to do things her way even though she tries her best to be the perfect servant.

(The only reason she doesn't try to please Viasaki is because she sees him as weak)

Anyway, those are my lovely babies, time for

Conflict

All of the Conflicts from TCOT come from the characters and circumstances

But the main ones are these:

The Main Trio really Fuckin' hates Marril

Viasaki and Kila CANNOT FUCKING GET ALONG

and

Y'know, war

Each book will be structured around a specific character, and developing their arcs, some will get multiple, it's just generally the arc that gets the most progress, and the character that has the most POV time.

Book 1 is basically an intro and set up for everything, but I love it, and I can't wait until we get into the real meat of this shit.

Anywayyyyyy, Book 2 is slated to be a Kasi book, #3 is planned to be a Viasaki one, and I'd have to find my google doc for the rest.

Anyway, thank you again for the ask and this chance to ramble! This is the premise and characters of TCOT! I hope you enjoyed and You'd want to read it!

(Also, if anyone wants to draw these little losers or look at Physical descriptions of them, I am trying my best I swear to make those.)

[birlwrites]

projects

the general tag for all of my writing is #birl writes - whenever i post a piece of writing on tumblr or post a link to my writing on ao3, i’ll use that tag. i also have a much more detailed page with the tags for all of my stories/ideas/aus and short descriptions of what they’re for!

WIPs

i have a lot of wips at any given time, so this is just what i’m most likely to be working on:

drafting bloodfinch (original story): secondary world fantasy with a side of horror. ever since finch can remember, she’s been raised in the palace for a single purpose: to be ritually sacrificed after 20 years of preparation so that her death can strengthen the royal family. it’s a great honor and a duty that only finch can fulfill. but she’s entering her last year of preparation, and she’s horrified to realize that actually, she doesn’t want to die.

sporadic posting to the dark lord (HP fic): canon-divergent and regulus black-centric. aren’t you tired of regulus becoming a death eater and sacrificing himself to get one (1) horcrux? don’t you want him to build a third side in the war between voldemort and dumbledore and go after both of them with the power of love dark arts? wouldn’t it be fun if he did this while also juggling quidditch, high society, and preparing for OWL exams? read the series here!

(the full series is titled a taste for hard victories. if you’re interested in spoilers, or want to avoid them, you can check out or filter the #atfhv spoilers tag, and there are also tags for #atfhv worldbuilding and #atfhv art!)

sporadic posting you know it’s your blood that i bleed (HP fic): also canon-divergent and regulus black-centric. regulus survives the cave and desperately needs a healer, so he goes to the only one he knows: sirius. but regulus’s dark mark was damaged in his escape from the cave. voldemort knows what that means, and he’s not inclined to indulge betrayal. read it here! (very slow updates)

Completed

if wips aren’t your thing, i have a completed works tag! i’m not going to list every completed fic here because i have a lot of ficlets out and about, but here are the big ones.

fanfiction set those ghosts alight (HP, 129k): canon divergence where regulus black (who by all measures probably should have gone into slytherin) argues the sorting hat into putting him in gryffindor. chaos ensues. nonlinear narrative with a focus on regulus hunting horcruxes as a member of the order post-graduation from hogwarts. lots of marauders, aroace reg, and a shitload of arson! read it here.

original rainfall (ya/na fantasy, 69k): humorous ya/na fantasy about a blacksmith’s apprentice whose twin brother is the chosen one. he runs away, and she decides, fuck it, i’ll lead the revolution. features found family, wlw, a bladesexual with horrible gremlin energy, and fun magic! you can get a copy here. (i don’t think that page shows it on overdrive but you should be able to get it on overdrive as well) additionally, check the rainfall extras tag for short stories i’ve posted on tumblr. official author blog is @miriambrookler!

fanfiction evocatio (HP, 20k): regulus-centric, no voldemort AU - as payback for james dumping him, regulus decides to fake date evan, his #1 quidditch enemy. obviously there’s no way this will go in any sort of unexpected direction for regulus!!!!! purely platonic fake dating!!!!!!!!! definitely!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read it here!

fanfiction lachrimae (HP, 116k): a seer!regulus au in which regulus is forced into the death eaters right after finishing his fifth year at hogwarts. he doesn’t want to be there, but voldemort is very, very invested in keeping his new seer around. making matters worse, while regulus has been seeing visions of his own death for his whole life, his sight is starting to act strangely... read it here!

Writing Advice

i reblog a lot of writing advice but i also post my own! look at the #birl original tag for my posts.

check out the hyperlinks for my tags, and if my askbox is open, feel free to ask me about whatever! i’ll edit this post as necessary to keep it up-to-date.

[houseofzoey]

Characters

Zoey To no one’s surprise, Zoey didn’t do much in this book. And that should be justifiable! She just learned that her mom died, right on the heels of Jack’s death and the complicated separation into a second House of Night. Zoey taking a more passive role in this book should feel natural and be easily sympathized with.

But, like with Awakened, Zoey has always been a very passive character, so this doesn’t feel earned or even different from usual. She complains about and resents her responsibilities just as much as she always has – I’m not even sure I can honestly say she cries more, because she does a lot of that in past books, too. As cold as it sounds, grief comes across as another excuse for Zoey to sulk and moan and refuse to address her problems until they become unavoidable.

And boy did she avoid problems in this book! Or, rather, she avoided easy solutions and obvious paths forward. Nyx sends her a vision of her mother’s spirit entering the Otherworld? Zoey doesn’t contact her Grandma or say much of anything to anyone about it. Zoey sees Stark seemingly possessed via the seer stone, including a moment where it looks like he might attack her? Nope! Not gonna talk about it, try to make sense of it, or make any effort at intervention and preventing future incidents. Zoey knows Aurox is old magic, a servant of Neferet, and generally feels super weird around him? Well, better not look through the seer stone to find out what exactly he is because that sounds stressful and scary!

This is bad enough on its own, but this sort of inaction is supported (even mandated) by other characters. Lenobia, for example, fully supports Zoey choosing not to look through the seer stone at Aurox, and dismisses what Zoey saw with Stark as some sort of residual affect of being in the Otherworld. There’s no push for Zoey to investigate or even really worry about these things – that’s inconvenient and uncomfortable for Zoey, and therefore it’s unfair and unreasonable to expect her to actually do anything.

None of this is meant to be a flaw on Zoey’s part, nor does she ever face real consequences for this sort of inaction or apathy. Zoey failing to accomplish anything isn’t a matter of character development; it’s a plotting technique. The author didn’t want the mystery of Aurox to be resolved until the climax, so Zoey refuses to look at him through the seer stone. But it doesn’t matter if these writing decisions were plot-driven or character-driven – the end result reflects on the character, and it reflects poorly. Which is stupid, because all the author had to do was come up with an actual reason for Zoey not to use the seer stone (maybe every time she has used it has backfired or hurt her in some way), or outside interference that prevents her from using it or prevents it from working when directed at Aurox.

Stevie Rae For the last several books, the central conflict of Stevie Rae’s arc has been her and Rephaim’s relationship, because they’re meant to be enemies and had to keep their relationship secret. Now that Rephaim has been gifted with a human body from Nyx and they no longer have to hide their relationship, her personal conflict is… still centered on Rephaim.

This doesn’t even accomplish anything or create an avenue of growth for her, either. Stevie Rae’s conflict is being sad about Rephaim turning into a bird right before she goes to bed, and being frustrated that he wants to have a real relationship with his father. Both these points become overdone very quickly, and are resolved with no real affect on Stevie Rae’s character. She just sorta… decides not to be upset about Rephaim transforming anymore, and all their arguing about Kalona is for naught because – surprise! – Kalona was a good father deep down this whole time. (We’ll get to that.)

One could argue that these two character conflicts center on Stevie Rae’s protectiveness of Rephaim and fear of losing him now that he’s finally hers. Which… okay. There isn’t much build-up or background for this to make sense with, but it’s not an inherently illogical concern for her to struggle with. The problem is that she 1000% contradicts this when it makes the least sense. Aphrodite has a vision foretelling Rephaim’s death, knows the exact setting and situation in which it will happen, and Stevie Rae steadfastly refuses to listen to this warning and insists that Rephaim still has to accompany them to the ritual out of completely baseless paranoia that he’ll get hurt if he’s left alone in the tunnels.

So far, in this girl-power, matriarchal, feminist fantasy series, two of the most important female leads have absolutely no agency on the plot, and one of them has all her conflict centered around the problems of her boyfriend.

The Twins Actual separate arcs! Sort of.

Shaunee apparently has a tumultuous relationship with her parents, especially her father – but we literally have no hint of this in previous books. She talks about her parents uncritically, including reference to them visiting her, and had no qualms about calling people out for being messed up by bad relationships with their parents (especially Aphrodite).

Erin is suffering the early stages of complete and utter character sabotage. She’s shown as cold, shallow, and unfeeling, but has never (intentionally) been written with these traits previously. She was written with the same traits as Shaunee, who is portrayed in an extremely positive light.

Erin, or course, doesn’t understand Shaunee’s sympathy toward Rephaim and his conflict with his father, and had no idea about Shaunee’s similar familial problems. This creates a rift between them, which could have been interest, but the conflict is given way more weight than it warrants, especially because the Twins have barely been present in the last several books. It just becomes too drawn out and melodramatic, which results in it having no actual emotional impact.

Also, it ends up pointless, at least to the overarching plot of this book. Their falling out has no impact on the reveal ritual or any other aspect of the climax.

Damien Damien still doesn’t have any real role in the plot, personal arc, or any sense of agency within the story. For this book, he was sort of a parallel for Zoey’s grief (though obviously Zoey’s grief was much more profound than his, because she’s Zoey and that’s how the world works). I mean, honestly, it felt like that was his whole purpose – to be tragic.

This series has certainly delved into the trope of Gay Tragedy before – Damien has a terrible relationship with his parents, he was bullied, the last book had a Bury Your Gays subplot, etc. – but it feels extra emphasized now. Previously, Damien was at least allowed to be fabulous and sassy and fashion-savvy about half the time he was being stereotyped, but now the majority of the focus on his sexuality is on how tragic it is that Jack died. It functions as an extension of the Bury Your Gays trope, and it just makes the whole situation worse.

That’s not to say that we aren’t still treated to other gay stereotypes, of course. Damien is, as always, called Queen, and Jack is in the gay section of the Otherworld doing arts and crafts and watching Project Runway. But Jack dying created a void in the series’ staple stereotypes. Rather than let that be, the author decided to fill in the gaps – by having Damien suddenly take on Jack’s traits, such as carrying a “manpurse”, even though that was never part of his character previously All this tells me is that P.C. Cast sees her gay characters as monolithic and interchangeable, which is not a good look for anyone.

Stark Remember the previous book, when Stark’s one point of growth was about embracing his affinity and not letting his fear of his Dark side hold him back from his Goddess-given gift? Well, forget all that! There is one single instance where Stark has his bow at the ready, but he doesn’t actually fire it once in this entire book – not even during the climax, when Aurox shows up in bull form and tries to kill Rephaim. In fact, based on descriptions of that scene, Stark doesn’t even have his bow with him! No, instead he’s using a sword, which he is significantly less skilled with and – oh yeah – cannot instakill someone at range with.

But, as with Zoey and her refusal to use the seer stone, this isn’t meant to be a reflection of Stark’s character or personal conflicts or anything of that sort. It’s just the author finding excuses to prevent quick and simple solutions to the problems she has laid out in the book. It doesn’t matter that this completely contradicts Stark’s growth in the previous book because this isn’t supposed to have anything to do with Stark; he’s collateral damage to the needs of the plot.

He does have another subplot, though, which was introduced in the previous book. Kalona is still using the sliver of soul he gave to Stark to enter into his dreams and manipulate him. He mostly uses this connection to spy on Stark’s dreams and vicariously have sex with Zoey. This is built up as something very dangerous, considering the first scene in the book is Zoey seeing a shadow overtake Stark’s form and make him summon his sword. If Kalona can do that to Stark, then that spells huge trouble for our heroes – especially Zoey, who shares a bed with him and is therefore close to him when he is most vulnerable to being controlled.

But this subplot is just… dropped. Nothing comes of it. Not even the tension and unease it creates between him and Zoey amounts to anything. They have a couple spats, he feels tired and grumpy for a while, and then it’s over with no real consequence.

Rephaim In talking about Stevie Rae, I already talked about Rephaim’s core conflict: wanting his father’s love. It gets repetitive extremely fast, isn’t handled in a very interesting or thoughtful manner, and ultimately ends with this weird feeling that abuse should be forgiven as long as the parent tells their child they love them.

We also get to see Rephaim navigating life as a human for the first time, which is… entirely squandered. We get no culture shock, not displays of oddities or misunderstandings, no struggle with arbitrary rules of the classroom when he attends school for the first time, etc. No, Rephaim adapts flawlessly. The conflict for this portion of the story instead comes from ~*bullying*~. And by bullying, I mean Dallas being mad at Rephaim for winning Stevie Rae’s heart and the two of them fighting over her, because this plotline has not been done to death in this series and is a great girl power message.

Kalona I already explained the pointlessness of his soul-connection to Stark and how unceremoniously that subplot is dropped without consequence, so I won’t get into that too much here.

What’s more important for this book is Kalona’s relationship with Rephaim. Or, more importantly, how much he misses having Rephaim at his side and wishes for him to return. This is framed as nefarious. But Kalona doesn’t actually do anything bad or cruel to this end. He has Nisroc and Maion politely speak with Rephaim and ask him to be a spy, he mopes constantly, and he borrows a cell phone from Shaunee so he can call his son. He even agrees to a truce with Zoey to help her take down Neferet!

None of this feels villainous, but the book also isn’t doing enough work to make him truly sympathetic. For one thing, the whole point of his “redemptive” moment at the end of Awakened was that he gave Rephaim the freedom to make his own choices and pursue his own path. The importance of this moment and its push toward his ultimate redemption is shown by him shedding a single white feather. But if Kalona immediately goes back on his word the next day and starts trying to pressure Rephaim into returning to his side, then what was the point of that? He’s just completely counteracted the small amount of growth he showed in the previous book.

But wait! There’s more! In my final thoughts for Awakened, I also talked about how that scene didn’t even make sense as a redemptive moment because Kalona’s role as a villain was never about him being a bad father; it was about the atrocities he committed against the Cherokee. Well, this book continues that! His big moments at the end are a) him not hitting Nisroc and thanking him for his support and loyalty, and b) apologizing to Rephaim, asserting that he will always be his son, and crying over his body. But having his role as a father be the locus of his change toward good completely dismisses all that he did to the Cherokee, effectively rendering their deaths and suffering unimportant. You can’t make up for crimes against humanity by telling your son you love him.

He also declares himself the new Sword Master of the school and swears a Warrior’s Oath to Thanatos for… some reason. Becoming Sword Master is one thing – he was a Warrior to Nyx and is skilled enough in combat that it’s not unreasonable to say he could pass those skills on to students – but why swear an Oath? Dragon didn’t do that with Neferet, so why should Kalona do that for Thanatos? He barely even knows her and this is not a casual or reversible bond to form.

Aphrodite As with the previous book, Aphrodite doesn’t offer anything to the story except abrasiveness and bigotry. The casual homophobia is there, as always, but now we have the added bonus of ableist ranting! Better yet, it’s clearly done vicariously for the author, given how closely it parallels a similar rant the author posted on her blog months before this book came out.

I mean, I guess she technically also contributes to the plot through her vision, but… Well, no, she doesn’t. She has a vision, everyone makes a big deal about it, and then it’s promptly ignored. The message of the vision was clear: Rephaim should not go to the reveal ritual at Grandma’s farm. But no one heeds this warning, so Rephaim still goes with them. The vision could have been completely omitted and nothing would have changed. Which just makes Aphrodite worse than useless in this book.

Erik There’s literally no reason for Erik to be in this book, and certainly no reason for him to have an entire chapter from his perspective. He Marks a fledgling and she’s red instead of blue. That’s it. That’s all he offers. As soon as that’s done, he vanishes from the book.

And it’s not like Shaylin ends up being super important to the book, either! She’s built up as significant, what with her affinity for True Sight and Kramisha’s latest poem mentioning True Sight, but that turned out to be a very nonsensical misdirect. All Shaylin actually does is state blatantly obvious things about people by reading their auras. She doesn’t even participate in the reveal ritual, despite the poem implying that she’ll be important!

But Shaylin is still a very special character. She was blind, giving us about 2.5 minutes of disability rep before being magically cured when she’s Marked. And of course she’s grateful and this is the greatest thing ever and she never wants to go back to being blind because everyone knows living with a disability must mean abject misery, even though she’s been blind most of her life and should have found it extremely disorienting and disconcerting to suddenly be able to see again. There’s some lip service paid to the idea that Neferet is cruel for saying Shaylin was Marked red because she was “broken” as a human, but it doesn’t really land because the way this whole subplot is constructed seems to agree with her. Shaylin’s blindness isn’t just something that made her different – it’s a hardship that vampyrism freed her from. The fact that there isn’t a convincing alternative explanation (“Erik said the words wrong” doesn’t make any sense) only makes it more believable that, in the logic of this series, Shaylin was broken due to her blindness and her being Marked red is a consequence of that brokenness.

Neferet I consistently wonder if the author ever had a clear idea of what she wanted for Neferet. Obviously she planned for Neferet to be the villain, but to what end? What are Neferet’s goals? What does her ideal future look like? What motivates her? You can have a simplistic or clichéd villain and still tell a good story, but neither of those terms exactly describe Neferet because I don’t know what she’s trying to accomplish or why.

Now, this book does declare her evil plot: to create such chaos and disruption that Nyx herself must intervene, thereby defying her golden rule of free will and non-interference, which will lay the ground work for Neferet to oust Nyx and become a goddess in her own right. But this just doesn’t work. For one thing, where was this desire for chaos in previous books? Even as recently as Tempted, Neferet sought the most ordered possible avenue for power – the High Council. She was using official channels to achieve official power, and she was already calling herself Nyx Incarnate in the process. Then she wanted to start a war with humans as means of destroying the High Council, which would create a power vacuum for her to fill so she could start a war with humans. This didn’t make any sense, because the author didn’t think it through or, like, say it out loud in plain terms, but it was an idea that still clearly involved using power structures to her advantage. Now she just… wants to create general confusion and unrest.

And it’s not even like she creates chaos effectively. Like, I could buy the argument that war is a form of chaos and that pursuing chaos in its own right is a natural extension of that idea, but that’s not even remotely close to what Neferet tries to do in this book. Her idea of chaos is bringing human staff into the House of Night to cause confusion and unrest, and inviting the rogue red fledglings back to classes so they can butt heads with Zoey and co. That’s not chaos; that’s being a mild annoyance!

Neferet is supposed to be intelligent and calculating, but this comes across less and less as the series goes on, and the subplot with Aurox is a prime example of that. She was told in plain terms that Aurox would be flawed because she failed to provide the appropriate sacrifice for his creation. So when Aurox starts to show shortcomings (such as feeling emotions or saving Zoey from a falling branch), Neferet should logically conclude that this is a result of the flaw in his design, right? NOPE! She either ignores it entirely or assumes it’s part of a clever scheme the white bull concocted to help her.

Then there’s the fact that she’s just a really ineffective antagonist, which is only made worse by her reliance on Darkness. Succumbing to the temptation of the power of Darkness was supposed to make her stronger, more formidable, but through most of this book Neferet was consistently unable to do what she wanted because Darkness refused to obey without an appropriate sacrifice. And I mean, like, Darkness refused to do very simple acts, often in contradiction with past events in the series. Neferet can’t request that a branch fall from a tree and crush Zoey because Zoey is a High Priestess and requires an equally powerful sacrifice to kill – even though Neferet killed Shekinah, the High Priestess of High Priestesses, with absolutely no issue. It’s hard to feel intimidated or tense about a villain who just can’t do anything because of the restrictive nature of her powers, especially when you contrast it with the seemingly limitless nature of the heroes’ powers.

Nyx

Why continue giving Zoey visions when she consistently dismisses them/assumes they’re just a weird dream? Would it not be more effective to appear before Zoey in a vision or a dream and just directly, plainly tell her what’s going on? I’ve harped on the ineffectiveness of vague visions and messages before, but it’s especially egregious in Zoey’s case because she so consistently ignores them. Plus, Nyx has appeared and spoken directly to Zoey before, so it’s not like there’s no precedent.

Why trap Zoey and her friends in the circle after they had completed the reveal ritual? Why require a death sacrifice for that ritual? How does this make Nyx any different from the white bull, who also requires death sacrifices for rituals but is upfront about it and won’t allow the ritual to be completed or power to be granted before the sacrifice is made?

If Nyx was trying to tell Zoey she should use the seer stone in the poem Kramisha wrote, why did she reference True Sight? A Seer Stone and True Sight are completely separate things.

Nyx speaks directly through Aphrodite at the ritual when Aurox is attacking Rephaim, but she doesn’t actually help. She just warns them not to break the circle. Why does Nyx have to be the one to intervene and say that – everyone else present, especially Zoey and Thanatos, should know that leaving the circle will ruin everything they’ve done thus far and prevent the reveal ritual from being completed. If Nyx was there to help them, why not grant them some insight or ability to stop Aurox, or at least help him revert to his natural form? Or, better yet, why not make it so they can at least call on their affinities from within the circle to fight Aurox and protect Rephaim?

Nyx thinks religious headscarves are so inherently oppressive that she would use them as punishment by having a sexist, abusive man reincarnate into the body of a Muslim woman. But she lets Rephaim have a human body after years of rape and murder because he loves his girlfriend and said he would be a good boy now. This is completely contradictory, not to mention Islamophobia.

Just like Nyx gives feminine affinities to gay men, she has a whole section of the Otherworld dedicated to being Gay Stereotype Heaven, apparently.

Nyx will show up to forgive Rephaim, but she won’t publicly denounce Neferet, nor will she appear to declare that Neferet is lying when she claims that Aurox is a gift from the Goddess.

[soothsayerrrr]

have you been re-introduced to cassia parkinson? last we heard, the pureblood was most familiar with timeline one. I don’t recall if they were always a ravenclaw, but I’ve heard the seventh year is still quick-witted, independent, charismatic, and preternatural, self-destructive, mischievous, so that’s familiar. at least she remembers their way around the castle.

hi i’m bailey and welcome to my intro. aka, a dumb modified version of my app. sis literally doesn’t have stats or anything but like here’s her pinterest board again. warning this is kinda messy, just like everything else in my life.

born may 27th, 1960.

sun and moon signs are both gemini. ( a kind of continuous high-voltage runs through you restlessly affecting both your mental and emotional natures. no one can slow you down. you are smart and brilliant, and are always trying to take more than one project at a time to completion. any nervousness means you are not investing your resources wisely. more often than not, you can convince people to do things your way. )

ascendant sign is capricorn. ( you will accept responsibilities as it is in your nature to take challenges; the riskier, the better. hardship and frustration teach the lessons of bending the will to serve a higher purpose. )

midheaven sign is scorpio. ( motivated and not afraid to go after what you want, however you may go too far and exhaust yourself. you need to learn how to deal with personal limits and assist with difficult decisions. )

wand: silver lime, augurey tail feather, swishy, 10 inches. patronus: unable to cast; would be a fox. ( the fox is charismatic and by nature, a trickster. they’re great talkers, making even the worst suggestions sound like the best ideas ever. convincing people to do what they want and make them think it was their idea in the first place is a talent. foxes also have a knack for observing the people around them; this comes in handy for future reference if they need something. )

boggart: acromantula. amortentia: the smell of a beach after a thunderstorm, coffee, a new deck of tarot cards, and butterbeer. familiar: a male toad named mopsus, named after the ancient greek seer.

ever since it became more public knowledge she’s a seer, she’s had a few of her fellow students come to her asking for advice. because she quickly realized that either people claimed to not believe in it, or they found it silly, she would usually tell her ‘customers’ that horrible things would happen if they didn’t do a certain task. be it something for her personally, or in general to make them look foolish. cassia knows she shouldn’t, but it’s too fun to stop --- especially when most of them don’t realize that isn’t quite how seers work.

you’ll always see this bitch with a deck of tarots ready to duel and probably having a bunch of crystals stuffed in the pockets of her robe.

and as for clubs, she’s in slug club and astronomy club!

so ok: all her life, cassia wanted to be the perfect pureblood daughter her family wanted. but unfortunately for her, there was always something off. whether she was too mischievous and energetic, or being silent and staring vacantly, nothing quite fit into the pre-set mold of their society.

things slowly began to change once she began hogwarts. her otherworldly charm only seemed to be nourished, finding odd companionship with some wandering ghosts of the school. but while she had a spark that lured any crowd, overall she preferred to stay close to those who she grew up with. other peers that espoused pureblood ideals, just as she was taught. maybe she wasn’t future stepford wife material, but she’d be damned if she didn’t try.

 however things really changed once she had her first, actual prophecy. it happened in the middle of class — either potions or transfiguration, cassia couldn’t tell you — during her fifth year. aka shit got real!!!! Too Real!!!! right now though, she’s definitely made the obvious progress/transition into accepting her abilities, but her family??? lol yea, not so much.

her mother especially is like, “well NOW we might not find a suitable husband for you!!!!!! who would want This????” and her father’s like GLARING at her from the opposite end of the dinner table when she’s home for holidays and she just kinda wants to scream because LOOK. cassia knows, knows, how they feel about people they see as “different” to them. SHE KNOWS, SHE WAS RAISED AS SUCH. it’s the whole purist mentality yet somehow worse because it’s HER, and they don’t seem to understand that she’s still the same??? just with some... bonuses ( or not, because being a seer isn’t all fun and games and is actually terrifying and mentally/physically exhausting and taxing. but that’s beyond the point. )

however her brothers --- her twin, and one three years older --- seem... well, if she’s honest she hasn’t been able to get a good enough read on her older brother, but she hardly sees him anyway so she doesn’t care THAT much lmao. her twin brother however? god cassia and him were so close growing up, despite how effortlessly he blended in with their society meanwhile she was kinda like... too much or not enough?? so. his opinion definitely matters to her and while she doesn’t know where he OFFICIALLY stands, she’s kinda at the point where, with like many other aspects, does not want to know.

AS FOR OTHER TIMELINES.... oof!!!!! learning about the other timelines somehow made her feel worse about her seer abilities/gotta love a hopeless feeling sinking in and there’s Nothing you can do about it. as just mentioned she doesn’t really LIKE knowing some things and other versions of herself is no different because she can barely keep her shit together in THIS one? like??? her with an actual WAR??????

timeline two cassia stuck with the pureblood/death eater side. she was already so “different” from her family, and it’s sickeningly obvious where the parkinson’s stand, so of course she’s going to justify the awfulness with the fact it’s how they were raised...smh ;/

timeline three cassia would be pretty standard, overall neutral but clearly swaying to the death eaters as an ally, because again she’s not going to abandon everyone she’s known/her family/etc. while she might be self-destructive, cassia definitely shows signs of knowing when to have that seemingly dormant self-preservation.

okay so you know how she doesn’t like knowing certain stuff and all that jazz, and her scorpio midheaven “you need to learn how assist with difficult decisions” shtick? yeah big grief because it’s such a process and she ain’t making ANY. like... growing up in the type of environment she did --- quiet passive aggression and toxicity --- it’s always been easier to bite your tongue. after getting used to the bitterness, it seems to have somethings better left unsaid. no need to cause a scene because it’s more trouble than what it’s worth even though this disgust is eating you up inside? maybe she’ll overcome this one day. maybe.

anddddddd this is kinda all i got rn.

[theonyxpath]

This week is indeed a sequel of sorts, as I follow up on a variety of topics I mentioned last week. Sometimes as clarification, sometimes to give you more info, and sometimes because I just want to mention it again.

Like the Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter that is kicking butt and taking names and is over 200% funded as we approach the end of week two. Like I said last week, it is just so great that our existing long-time fans are as excited about bringing back this legendary game as we are!

Of course, I do want to mention this week a couple of things about the KS, and maybe more the KS process that I think backers and potential backers might find it worth considering.

First, this is a reboot or re-imagining of the Aberrant setting as well as using the Storypath rules. It’s not a sequel or just a port of the old stuff onto Storypath. The designers had several goals they needed to hit, like making the system actually work this time, advancing the setting in both time and relevancy to where we are now (not the 90s), and to make sure it fit into the Trinity Continuum concept.

As more and more of the text is released to backers, you’ll be able to judge yourself how well they hit those marks – but I think they accomplished all that and a lot more!

But please, bear in mind that excerpts and previews are still just sections of the greater whole, and so you are reading something that isn’t connected to the remaining sections of the book in ways that may illuminate aspects hard to see with what is available right then.

We provide the text as we do to enable conversation and fun speculation. If you find yourself gnashing your teeth and swearing eternal vengeance over an excerpt, then the method we’re revealing things might not work for you. You’re not a jerk because of that, and we’re not jerks because we’ve found a method we use in our KSs that works really well for us. (We’re jerks for other reasons, though.)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution art by Mark Kelly

Another thing to consider about the KS preview process is that it’s not the Errata phase. We do have one of those for pretty much all of our projects, and it grew out of our Kickstarter process, funnily enough, so we definitely will give backers a chance to let us know what mistakes they find.

In fact, depending on the KS, the text may or may not have made it through editing when it is previewed. So, while the previews are great for seeing and discussing the overall concepts and details, it’s during the errata phase that we need feedback on things that don’t make sense, add up, or contradict themselves.

In much the same way, just to get this out there, we don’t do PageXXs re-errata. We do them after all the tweaks have been made, in case the text referenced in the XX moves off the page due to a change we found we needed to do because of the errata.

Eddy has a post describing why it is really important for us to keep these feedback opportunities tied to the moments in the process we need them connected to in our Pugmire Forums on this website. The gist is: it ain’t arbitrary on our parts.

Coincidentally, (?), the Onyx Pathcast crew just posted an episode devoted to this very topic: the errata/playtest/editing process and the care and feeding of the creators involved. They have a great time breaking the process down into very clear segments here: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

M20 Book of the Fallen art by Oliver Specht

Following up on the Storypath Nexus Community Content site for Scion 2nd Edition, and I just want to say how thrilled we have been with the response so far. There’s already a handful of Scion products up there, with a surprisingly wide range of subject matter, size, and pricing. Good for all of you who have put together your projects and posted and let’s cheer on the creators working on their Scion projects even as I type this!

Bravo folks! It’s a great way to share your ideas, make a little money if you price it that way, let us here at Onyx Path see what you can do, and help jump-start an awesome community with awesome content.

And, of course, here’s some clarification items.

First, Storypath Nexus is the community content site for all the games powered by the Storypath rules set. So while we have started with Scion, the Trinity Continuum, Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and They Came From Beneath the Sea! game lines will also appear as they are released. Each of these will have different allowable content guidelines, and any of them may add or subtract from those guidelines as we see what works for that line.

For example, one Storypath gameline may allow fiction books to be posted, another may not. Then, some time later, fiction may be added to where it was previously not part of the allowable content. So, the Nexus is for Storypath game lines, not for Storypath as a system.

Much in the same way as White Wolf‘s Storytellers Vault is for all the White Wolf game lines.

Second, Storypath Nexus is not an Open Game License, but a community content site. Just like every other community content site, there are guidelines like I mentioned above and limits to what can be posted on the site. Maybe at some time in the future we’ll look at ways to license the system, but right now the community content site that is Storypath Nexus is what we are experimenting with.

Trinity Continuum: Aeon – Distant Worlds art by Sam Denmark

Speaking of community content, we also have a lot of projects available (and what seems like several new ones every week) on Canis Minor for the Realms of Pugmire, and the Slarecian Vault for Scarred Lands – including the epic campaign Vengeance of the Shunned (5e) starting with Part 1 – A Mishap of Ill Portent and Part 2 – A Scholarly Schism. All on DriveThruRPG!

And keep your eyes out for the annual Xmas in July Sale blowout on DTRPG, too, where you can get wild discounts on the PDFs of our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

The Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter funded in less than a day and is now over 200% funded! We’ve already passed Stretch Goals that are enabling us to recreate missing first edition books, a compilation of the web comic, three sections of a book statting out the characters, digital wallpaper and dice, a backer-only T-Shirt, and:

N!WE N!TERNATIONAL WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT – A new PDF product discussing the N!WE, the performers and industry personnel, and various elements of professional wrestling in the world of Aberrant!

At $88,000 and climbing, we’ve got many more fantastic Stretch Goal rewards to come, so come check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Onyx Pathcast art by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features an interview with Onyx Path Operations Manager and DTRPG guru Matt McElroy who will be mercilessly grilled by our corespondents as to the inner workings and secrets of Onyx Path: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

We broadcast a live edition of the Onyx Path News today! Check out https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOnyxPath for the footage!

Matthew started up his Wraith: The Oblivion chronicle with prologues for each of the characters while they’re still alive. Here’s video one https://youtu.be/TaMIrvGDZPM and here’s video two https://youtu.be/0qCc183IF9U

The Story Told Podcast is publishing a review of The Realm for Exalted 3rd: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-32-exalted-the-realm-book-review

Caffeinated Conquests continue with their fumbling, bumbling, hilarious playthrough of The Gauntlet of Spiragos for Scarred Lands: https://youtu.be/BKb3fLWFlKE

A challenger appears! New on our blog is http://307rpg.com/, a fantastic podcast which has covered all kinds of games, including (but not limited to) Vampire, Scarred Lands, and Pathfinder!

Twin Cities by Night have just started a new Chronicles of Darkness series, named “The Ultimate Evil”. Please check it out! https://twincitiebynight.podbean.com/

Devil’s Luck Gaming continue with their absolutely superb Scarred Lands campaign. We can’t recommend this one enough: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING

Just to show you that V20 is still going strong, The Cult of Tea and Dice has started up a new V20 campaign for all your Vampire needs: https://thecultofteaanddice.net/

If written chronicle reports are your jam, check out GMorts Chaotica as they play a V5 chronicle and utilize elements from the upcoming V5 Chicago by Night: https://gmortschaotica.blogspot.com/

Occultists Anonymous continue their superb Mage: The Awakening chronicle here! Episode 28: A Spot of Bad Luck – Atratus, Mammon, and Wyrd the Seer investigate the large suburban home where the Spider had wanted to first meet. This is just as the cabal remembers that Web of Life only reveals the living. Songbird continues to fall… https://youtu.be/sHjba91g73I

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we are offering The Realm in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DTRPG!

CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con: August 1st – 4th Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon) Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Development

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Editing

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Editing Development

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle

VtR Spilled Blood

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Sketches coming in.

Trinity Continuum Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars

They Came From Beneath the Sea

TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

In Layout

M20 Book of the Fallen

Trinity Core – Getting cover specs from printer.

Trinity Aeon – Getting cover specs from printer.

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel 

Dark Eras 2

Proofing

DR: E – final PDF off for approval

Aeon Aexpansion

C20 Cup of Dreams – This week.

V5: Chicago – Inputting 2nd proof comments.

Geist 2e – Inputting Page XXs, then Indexing.

Signs of Sorcery – Implementing Errata.

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe at Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – At Studio2.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Shipped to Studio2.

The Realm – PDF and PoD versions on Sale Weds at DTRPG!

Trinity Core Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

Book of Oblivion – PoD proofs ordered.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs ordered.

Scion Jumpstart – PoD proofs ordered.

Scion Ready-Made Characters – Waiting to order PoD proofs.

Blood Sea – PoD file uploaded, waiting to order proof.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today in 1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years. Or were they?…

[youngster-monster]

The first chapter + beginning of the second chapter of an abandonned project because it got waaaat too long and I lost motivation after the first 4k words I guess

“Come on, brother!”

Illidan is not whining. It may look and sound like it but, as far as he’s concerned, it’s only rational, mature arguing with his sibling, and any other opinion on the subject doesn’t matter much to him.

Malfurion, of course, appears to greatly disagree, as he so often does. It’s the kind of look he wears so often it could be said that he never appears anything but disapproving of his twin, or maybe frustrated, depending on how much time they have spent together on that night. Illidan doesn’t pay much attention to it, only taking a second of his precious time to find if infuriating, and maybe another to regret the day when Malfurion still smiled at him with joy rather than pity, days when they were so close they were less than two persons, barely more than one, really, never leaving the other’s side for long.

He could dwell on their childhood for the whole night and never get to anything remotely interesting. He could, but he has other plans for tonight, and they include Malfurion, as surprising as it is to them both.

“It’s been months since the last time we did something together, you and I,” He says, with something like guilt or bitterness in his words. “The third day is when the fun really begins! I know Tyrande can’t come, but it will be fun, I swear.”

She’s always there, as if she’s the only reason they ever see each other anymore. And he loves Tyrande, he painfully does, but it’s too painful to be with Malfurion when she’s around, and he just wants one night — one — without her to distract Malfurion. They only have eyes for each other, and he’s left to disappear in the background or suffer their annoyed glares when he dares to remind them of his presence. It’s like a rift appeared between them and he’s not sure whose fault it is, his or theirs for or no one’s in particular, or if it’s only the way life works, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t hold on to his twin until the very end.

Still, it’s kind of a low blow, to guilt-trip him like that, but it works: his shoulders drop, and he sighs deeply, like all the time he did something unpleasant as a favor to Illidan, and the golden-eyed elf knows he’s won this fight. It’s not a satisfying victory, not when he had to work so hard to spend a few hours with his better half, but it’s a victory nonetheless. He stubbornly refuses to say thanks, although it feels like he should, and the smirk he settles for absolutely fails to appear grateful.

“Oh, don’t look so smug,” Malfurion mutters, but he’s smiling too.

-

Although the tournament stretches on six of the seven days of the Festival of Elune, only the real fans of the event or the relatives and friends of fighters usually bother to come to the first two days, and Illidan is neither of those.

Entering the tournament might be hard, and reserved to the best of the best, there still are sixty-four places up for the taking, and none is ever left empty: the prize is too enticing, the glory too sweet. Even being chosen is an honor, nevermind winning. It’s also one of the few important events of the kingdom that is open to all, citizen or not, and some would do anything for a taste of privilege. Because of that, most spend these two terrible, uninteresting days placing their bets. Any kind of bets, from the potential winner to the Queen’s colors on the final day: people never seem to run out of ways to be boring.

( Illidan had experienced a brief but passionate love for bets around his first century. It was all connected to his newfound financial independence and a short-lived friendship with a self-proclaimed seer. He betted and lost a lot of money trying to prove a point — that is, that the future is impossible to divine — and would probably have continued to the point of bankruptcy, had his friend not gotten themselves beaten half to death for predicting the wrong thing to the wrong person. After that one incident, which involved a cheating girlfriend and a frankly uncomfortable amount of knowledge of her naked body from the seer, they had swore off divination for good, and by doing that lost what little interest they had to Illidan, ending both their friendship and his obsession with gambling.)

Illidan does not understand why anyone would bet on the winner. Then again, he doesn’t even understand why anyone would wish to join the tournament to begin with: he was born a kaldorei and only knows struggle — the real kind, the one that keeps you awake at night — as something that happens to other people, in books and faraway places.

( He had, in his youth, thought to join himself. He had thought that was his fate: to be covered in glory by such a victory. But he would only be one amongst dozens other winners, forgotten as soon as he steps out of the arena. )

Understandable motives or not, Elune’s tournament is still a hell of a show once you get to the interesting part, when the only ones left want to win more than they want to participate.

On the flip side, fights stretch on and on once the fighters are more evenly matched, but there are still only so many of them per day, and even less he actually sees — it would take a miracle to see him awake as early as moonrise. To him, the added length only makes it worth the effort to come watch them.

They reach the Arena as the moon is high in the sky, painstakingly wading through stands of steaming-hot food and brightly-colored apparels, each of them too tall to easily slip between elves and orcs and trolls and whatever other races make up the crowd that always congregate to Zin-Azshari for the week-long festival of Elune. By that time, the Arena is quieter while competitors catch a quick midnight meal between the fourth and fifth duel of the day. It might make it easier for them once they actually get to the Arena, but it’s the ‘getting there’ part that is the problem: the streets are packed full with so many different people the white stone underneath their feet is invisible.

So many people come to the festival each year, and yet he never is used to the sheer alienness of seeing so many different races milling around like the city is theirs: as a child, he waited eagerly for this one week of seeing people so different from his own kind. It was also one of the few time he was able to see one of the sin’dorei, despite living in the same city as them. They were, and still are, a reclusive kind, either their own race nor kaldorei citizens, and he and Malfurion used to dare each other to stare them down, basking in the odd feeling of superiority granted by their race when they inevitably looked down first.

Now he has traveled far away from his home and has seen sights that challenge Zin-Azshari itself, and still the sight of tall, masked trolls and small, brightly-colored gnomes walking the same streets he follows every day leaves him with the same sense of breathless wonder and uneasiness as when he was a child. It might be slightly tainted with subtle contempt, but that’s just how things go. People grow and change — and, in his case, developpe a serious complexe of superiority. It happens.

This doesn’t mean Illidan has any problem with crowds — on some occasions, he loves them. Malfurion, though, he is a druid through and through, and anything else than the forest’s deep quiet troubles him. And because nothing of this is about Illidan, in the end, he stays in front and keeps a hand on his brother’s forearm, falsely demanding. His confident steps parts the sea of people like the bow of a ship through the waves. He keeps his face firmly locked into his usual smug-yet-bored look, with just enough condescention twisting his features that more than one bystander jumps out of his way with a touch of fear in their eyes.

(Not being able to name ‘crowd control through insufferable superiority’ as one of his strong points is and always will be a great disappointment.)

Finally, they stumble out of the main streets and directly into the entry hall of the Arena. It is far from silent, what with the echos that come with large places and the few spectators lingering inside, but compared to the chaos that are the streets outside it is as silent as an abbey.

Not that Illidan has ever been into one, mind you. They just have such a reputation of implacable quiet it’s hard not to compare things to them.

He gives Malfurion a moment to gather himself under the pretense of looking around. He comes here often, but his brother doesn’t know how familiar he really is with the blindingly-white arches that frame the stairs to the upper seats — and, to a lesser extent, with the blood-splattered stones paving the way to the fighters’ quarters. It’s better this way.

When the druid appears to feel better, which takes some time, he puts a bored half-snarl on his face and takes his arm again.

“Let’s go and find a good place before we both do Cenarius proud by taking roots here.”

“Hilarious.”

“You know I am.”

Although a little stilled, their banter lasts easily all the way up the stairs and past the two soldiers guarding the best seats, reserved to the most important of visitors. Illidan breezes past them with barely a tilt of his head in salute that lets his golden eyes catch the moonlight. They are used to seeing him, and he never forgets to reserve his place : it’s been years since they bothered to ask him if he is supposed to be there. Malfurion doesn’t seem to even notice them.

Illidan makes a beeline for their seats and doesn’t wait for his brother to join him before he falls into his own and proceeds to sprawl into it in the most comfortable and indecent way he can find. Lady Velenor, two rows up, lets out a disgusted noise at his attitude that makes it worth the stone poking into his left calf. The things he does for his image.

Next to him, slightly elevated by cushions and his haughty attitude, sits Lord Xavius.

Again.

He is, at best, a slimy bastard, but his might in magic and his influence on the queen are nothing to sneeze at, and Illidan could hardly throw pebbles at him until he leaves. He settles on a curt, barely-polite nod. This here is one of the many advantages of his reputation as a superficial, snobbish jerk: it lets him get away with showing the barest amount of respect for such an important political figure, among other things. His own well-known magical talent is also a great help: the amount of things people will let slide as long as you’re talented never ceases to amaze him.

Sadly, Xavius is also in charge of the magical institutions of Zin-Azshari, meaning Illidan cannot hope to mysteriously disappear from a room every time Xavius walks into it for the rest of his life. He could, maybe, disappear from Xavius’ space as a whole, but it would take half a continent and a lot of efforts to be at what he might consider a comfortable distance of the archmage, and it would also mean he’d have to settle for a magical school inferior to the Academy. Illidan is not one to settle for second best.

The only alternatives would be to get rid of Xavius — a wonderful, albeit highly illegal, idea — or to replace him. He has been working on the later since knowing the archmage, but it will take some time to reach the same level of knowledge as the one-eyed elf did in so many decades of life, even for a mage as brilliant as he is. Plus, he’s not sure he wants so much responsabilities: it sounds like an awful lot of work.

Just as he thinks about it — he likes to linger on the mental picture of Xavius being impaled on the very sharp lines of his own stupidly pointy home more than he’d care to admit—, the older elf turns in his direction and asks, honey-sweet,

“Have you seen the previous fights, Illidan?”

The casual use of his name doesn’t escape to him. The bastard knows damn well he hates it when people assume they can talk to him with such familiarity, but there’s nothing he can do about it without making a social faux-pas that would send the wrong message, and too many of his plans requires Xavius to not hate him outright. So he sighs inwardly and plasters a pleasant smile on his face.

“I did not. I had, I fear, better things to do.” It is not the most subtle insult he’s ever said, but it will have to do. The twitch in Xavius’ remaining eye proves that, no matter how obvious, it worked. His smile twists slightly, an echo of his usual cocky grin. “Did I miss anything good?”

“Some of the fighters seem very promising. I daresay I even have an idea of the one most likely to win this year.”

“Really?” Could he makes this question more doubtful? He honestly doubts it.

“Yes. A young moon guard. A great mage, and an even better swordsman.” He leans back in his seat and smiles slowly, full of teeth and calculated aggression. “Were you to fight him in a fair duel, I have to admit I am unsure of who would be victorious.”

The spike does not try to be subtle, but it hits true all the same. Illidan is a prideful creature, and fighting is one of those few things he is better at than Malfurion. In one single phrase, Xavius not only doubts his capacity as a warrior and a mage, he also implies Illidan does not win fairly. Which he does, or he’d win faster than is already the case. He has honor, however well hidden, and the implication that he could cheat in a duel is a direct attack against it.

But the comment also targets something he feels even more strongly about: his failure at joining the moon guards. Officially, it isn’t a failure as much as a lack of trying, which is much of the same. Like the tournament, Illidan never bothered to try because he is not fully sure he will win and he is, once again, full of pride. Losing any of those two would be more than just losing, it would be a public show of his incompetence as a warrior, a mage and a strategist, everything he’s built his personna around.

Without his talent, he is nothing to the crowd.

“Let’s be honest here: I would probably win.”

Xavius’ chuckle sounds false to his ears. Mocking, too, but that’s to be expected. He’s slipping, taken unaware by a lack of reaction where he expected it. He doesn’t realize it yet, but he has bitten more than he can chew — and it will bite back.

“Of course you’d think that,” He says, patronizing. “There is also a young man — well, you know how it is, at an age such as mine, everyone under five centuries is a child, he might be your age now that I think about it — who appears quite promising. He is unlikely to go further than today’s, maybe tomorrow’s round, but he has a quick mind for explosive spells.”

Illidan’s shoulders drop not at the poorly-hidden insult on his age, which he expected and takes some sense of pride in, but at what he knows will come next.

“He would make a bright apprentice,” Xavius adds pointingly.

Here it is.

“I’m sure he would.”

“And his fighting style strangely resembles yours — a fan, maybe?”

Appealing to his pride? That’s low, even for Xavius.

“He might be. How would I know? There are so many of them.”

It’s an argument that Illidan has been suffering through since the people of the Academy realized his golden eyes are not only for show, which makes it years of self-entitled nobles and mages throwing their children at him, bragging about their magical talent and how great they could become under Illidan’s tutelage.

(Were they less prideful, some might even ask his guidance for themselves; fortunately, no mage yet has shown the necessary humility. They are a vain lot, mages. It’s one of the reason he fits so well with them.)

Try all he might, neither his terrible personality (his brother’s words, not his) nor his increasingly rude rebuttals manage to keep them at bay. Maybe it’s making it worse: the one to be brilliant enough to be worth his teaching would, without doubt, be promised a future of glory on that point alone, no matter their actual talent. Maybe he should take the worse student he can, a commoner with little to no magic, just to see the mayhem that his choice would cause.

It’s once again nice thought, but he doesn’t have half the patience required for teaching, and really doesn’t wish to take an apprentice. Especially not if he can bother Xavius by refusing.

“Ah, I guess you are still too young to teach. I was like you at your age, focused entirely on my study…” Xavius sighs like an old man reminiscing of his youth, and Illidan realizes he has no idea how old the elf really is. “You’ll see, later in your life, that passing on what knowledge you have soon becomes more important than gaining more.”

As if.

There are dragons less possessive than Illidan is with his knowledge.

Illidan shrugs noncommittally, unwilling to drag the conversation any further. He expects his ears to start bleeding any second now: each second spent listening to Xavius is a danger to his health, mental or otherwise.

He sees Malfurion’s shoulders shaking with repressed laughter in the corner of his eyes but elects to ignore it. It’s been awhile since he’s made his twin laugh and doesn’t feel like ruining it, and even briefly consider continuing the conversation with the Right Hand of the Queen in a desperate attempt to make Malfurion outwardly laugh.

But he doesn’t have the patience for that, either. He turns his attention back to the arena down below instead, keen eyes tracking the figures of fighters. If he’s lucky, his disdain will bore Xavius enough that he will get up and leave. It’s unlikely: his elder do so love listening to his own voice, after all, and probably sees right through Illidan’s masks. Some of them, at least.

There are days when even Illidan isn’t sure what’s a veneer and what isn’t.

Some of the morning’s challenger stayed behind, getting patched up by healers or warming up for a fight that has yet to come. None appears especially banged up. Illidan is not disappointed by that, per say, but he expected a little more blood with a moon guard in the rowster. They have quite the reputation of being merciless in a fight: Xavius’ favorite must not have fought yet, he suspects, or one of the fighters would be sporting a lot more cuts and bruises. And maybe fewer limbs.

To be perfectly honest — and he seldom is — he, too, expects the moon guard to win. They are a powerful, brutal bunch, and only the best and most sure of themselves — or delusional — join the tournament.

Movement in the corner of his eye chases the thought from his head. He looks the opposite from the remaining fighters, to a new challenger stepping out of their quarters. He has a male’s figure and a swordsman’s as well, all lean muscles and light footing. His head is bent low over his hand as he covers it in bandage with an ease and quickness that speak of a long-lived habit, all while he blindly walks forward in slow, even steps that leave barely any trace at all in the sand. His golden hair spills like liquid fire over his shoulders, set alight by the flickering fire of the torches set around the arena, and hides his face to the onlookers.

It is an unusual sight, but one he recognizes easily. There are only so many things — so many sentient races, he corrects himself inwardly — with such colors and figure, so close to his own and yet so alien.

And yet, Illidan is still unsure of what he’s actually seeing, think it is an illusion, a clever glamour or a mistake on his part, as improbable this is, until the stranger lifts his head. He reaches for his hair with bandaged hands and, while twisting it into a loose ponytail, lets his eyes wander over the anonymous crowd with apparent disinterest.

Bright, vibrant green eyes, burning like felfire.

-

The sight inspires an instinctive, instantaneous reaction of repulsion in Illidan. There’s something inherently wrong about blood elves in their sickly-pale skin and magic-tainted eyes, in the many ways they are so similar to kaldorei and yet so different, and it makes his skin crawls. It’s nothing like looking at a troll, or an orc: it reminds him more of watching a fellow mage animating a golem for the first time, the impression of life it had until you stared into its lifeless eyes.

But Illidan is a curious creature at heart, and he has set it as his goal in life to go against everything that could make him another face in the great, nameless crowd. Whereas Malfurion winces once he notices there’s a blood elf in the arena, touching the amulet on his chest like a protective charm, he crushes the bothersome feeling under his metaphorical boot and shrugs at the soft “unnatural” his brother sadly whispers.

Fel-touched things — people, he corrects himself again — are only worth the price of their funerals to too many, and there is only those with an interest in the darker forms of magic to find them useful — and then again, only as study case or experiments. Illidan tries his hardest to be better than they are.

“There’s nothing more natural than magic,” He says, as if he’s not itching to put a sheet on the stranger’s head and pretend there’s nothing unusual there.

“This is not the same, Illidan.”

“You’re wrong, but I’m not here to argue with you about the nature of fel-magic.” Then, as a distraction, he gestures at another part of the arena, sprawling even more in his seat as he does so. “Hey, look, there’s a Tauren too. Aren’t they really good druids?”

It’s a good distraction. Malfurion is never as passionate about anything as he is about druidism, and he immediately forgets everything about the blood elf in favor of giving his twin a crash-course in Druidism 101. Illidan already knows his arguments by heart from the many times he heard this same speech before, but he’s not doing this to learn anything new anyway.

By the time his brother is finally done, the fighters have disappeared back into the barracks, bringing the mysterious challenger and his disturbing appearance with them.

Behind are left only two first fighters, a kaldorei woman and an orc. She is a warrior, hair cropped short and skin covered with scars, and holds her shield and sword like she was born with them in hand. Her opponent is large, even for his kind, and he keeps his torso bare, revealing a wall of muscle under his green skin. You could hardly make a more blatantly orcish orc, and the result is more than a little intimidating. Yet she doesn’t appear bothered by it in the slightest: they both stare into each other’s eyes with the same calm, assessing weaknesses that would be invisible to anyone else.

These are two predators, Illidan thinks, and leans back in his seat to watch the show.

The banging of the drums starts to echoes in the Arena, played by unseen musicians, making the ground rumble with music and anticipation both.

[heavensentgohansrage]

Recap and Notes: Heracles!Stiles Ch. 12

find the chapter here

Myth and Historical Overview

It was one of the companions of Heracles,  Abderos,  who was devoured by the Mares rather than an official- while he was keeping the Mares on watch until Heracles would defeat Diomedes and his men (which were a part of a tribe on a remote island). After that, rather than being set free, they were brought all the way to Eurythesus (which is something I need to find a substitute solution to in a lot of the Labours, most of the times, as there is just no logical way for Stiles to do that).

Those mares are also believed to be the ancestors of Alexander the Great’s personal horse, Bucephalus.

So, I made two quite big changes (or rather, a replacement) in the 8th Labour, with Hippolyte’s belt:

As most of you might already know (if not from general knowledge, then from Wonder Woman xD)- Hippolyte is an Amazon. The problem was that, in the one hand, since I prefer to include characters from the show whenever I can instead of building OCs for different rules in the legend- I REALLY wanted to include the Drag Queens from the second seasons; on the other, I prefer keeping the Amazons as great warriors who were born with a feminine body (regardless their gender identities, of course), because that what was great about them, in my opinion. That was why I decided to replace them with another tribe, the Maenads, who were female followers of Dionysus- which was known as a Deity who loved parties, which really worked well for me with the Jungle (although they had nothing, as far as I know, to do with Ares; the Greek reef knot in his belt, by the way, is also known as Heracles Knot). Inspired by him, they were pretty mad, but in the fic it is only manifested in the way they fight, and nothing beyond that. I sincerely apologize if I made the wrong impression and offended anyone.

Hera succeeded to incite Hippolyte against Heracles, which ends up in him killing her (while in the fic Stiles ironically thinks that this option could be the worst idea ever), which I really did not want to. 

The exact area in which Erythia, the island Geryon and his cattle lived in is not known- unlike other Labours, which their location can always be approximated. The main reason for that is that this place is supposed to be at the end of the world- which was believed by the Greeks to be beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, that only little number of people dared to sail to during that time, and so, not a lot was known about it. 

It is no surprise, then, that the journey to and from that island, at the very end of the world, included a lot of adventures (which was why it was important to me to place the Labour in the fic away from America, and create an environment close to that):

He had to kill a great number of random beasts along the way- which are the wave of monsters/mutants that first attacked Stiles on the island.

Reaching the line of a range of mountains where Africa was connected with Europe (before there was the Strait of Gibraltar existed, as, according to the legend, there was no opening to connect between the Mederitian sea to the Atlantic Ocean before that), and Heracles split one of the mountains in half so he could pass through it to the other side instead of climbing over it. The now two separated mountains, which bordered the gateway, became known as the Pillars of Heracles.

Overheated by the sun which seemed to not leave him for a second throughout the entirety of his journey, Heracles raised his bow and directed an arrow to the sun in a challenge. Helios, the Deity of the sun, was impressed by his audacity, and gave him a large goblet/vase (the krater), with which he sailed all the way to Erythia (rather than being more-or-less teleported there, like in the fic).

Finally arriving at the island, he had now to defeat the herdsman,  Eurytion, and his canine shepherd, which was a two-headed dog. The reason I redesigned it as having another set of legs, unlike the legend, is because I wanted to differ/distinguish him from Cerberus, the triple-headed hound, even though the two are Brothers.

The one who tried to steal one of the Bulls to himself actually appears on the journey back to Greece: his name was Eryx, Poseidon's son. After tracking for a while, Heracles eventually found the lost Bull in Eryx’s herd, who challenged him to a wrestling duel for the Bull. (In the story Stiles did not perform a Greco Wrestling-style, or even Amateur wrestling-style move, but as a WWE fan I couldn't resist that chance ^^” FUCK YEAH PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING :D)

The one to kill Geryon's Grandmother, Medusa, was Perseus- Heracles’ ancestor. Geryon himself was born naturally and was not made by someone, but the reasons I chose to make him a mutant (which followed by making the rest of the island’s monsters ones, as well) was to link him better to the story and make his character a little more meaningful in general; I thought it was interesting to make Gerard responsible for the monsters this time instead of Hera, and hinting that during the years he was a free man he has prepared a lot of backups we do not know about, all of them demonstrating the depth of his cruelity.

Along Eryx, there were two more of Posideon's sons interfered in Heracles’ path back to Eurystheus. Sometimes they are referred to as the giants Albion and Bergion, and sometimes as two men named Ialebion and Dercynus (combining the idea of giants and seemingly human brothers, I thought it was the best way to include the twins, instead of getting rid of them in a too easy way). What is for sure is that the battle was not in Heracles’ favour, and after praying to Zeus- the Deity assisted him through a rain of stones.

Sometimes, individuals of the called strayed away on their own (one time one of them even went as far as jumping to the sea, for some reason), or even everyone at once, because of a gadfly that Hera sent to attack the cattle- and Heracles had to put the march on hold and go after them. 

The way in which Heracles prayed to Zeus during the fight against Posideon’s sons was by kneeling- which is the reason to why the constellation which was originally called by the Greeks “Engonasin”, or “The Kneeler”, would later be renamed into the Heracles constellation, and is what the moles on Stiles face are shaped like (that’s why in the fic world, all at once, a moment after Stiles will be gone from the mortal world- the name of that star grouo will change inside everyone’s minds, and in most of the sources into his name; there will be a little more explanation about this process in the last chapter).

The Moirai, which Zeus mentioned, are the Greek Deities of fate.

General Recap

So, it is clear that I’ve tried to speed things up a little with the first three Labours (7-9), since there was not something too interesting to do with them plot-wise and not much character development-wise, besides presenting the deterioration in Stiles’ mentally state- but the thing with the 7th one is- it’s just that short xD No matter where I read about it, in any version I've found, it is as short and simple as it is depicted in the fic. I’m glad that I came up with using it as a demonstration of the change in Stiles and Derek’s relationship, because otherwise, it’d just literally be a two-sentence thing that all that could be said about it was: “Well, that... that was... a thing.” (but also when I think of the legend, I really can’t figure out why they included a task so pointless like this. I won’t invent something else entirely as I wish to stick to the legend as much as possible, but this one is truly disappointing)

I can't write a Drag Queen for the life of me xD I've written that part after binge-watching an entire season of RuPaul Drag Race. In all seriousness, though, once again- I hope I didn't offend anyone.

And the same about Faux Queens! 

I chose to not include the Soulmates/split soul theory in the fic because I like better the idea that the connection between Stiles and Derek to not be destined, but as natural and incidental as possible- which probably frustrated Hera even more by how strong it turned out without being made by divine forces.

So yeah, this is where the Sterek finally starts to kick in- you didn’t think I made the waiting last THAT long just to make it easy for them, did you? :P

Fun Facts

This chapter’s Deity, Zeus, is inspired by the One Punch Man villain Boros (although more in some of his speech than his looks, unlike the others), which is the strongest and biggest one of season 1. I considered to be inspired by his backstory as well (after easily destroying any enemy he has ever had, he has travelled the space all the way to Earth, where he’d find a great rival to relieve his boredom, according to a seer) and make Zeus find Claudia through a seer as well- but I thought it would be more powerful if Zeus found her on his own, after searching long for a woman interesting enough, and without knowing the destiny of their child.

It may be surprising, then, that I didn’t reference another villian from One Punch Man, which is very similar to Geryon in looks, Melzargard (as a reminder: the reason it became a thing was  because it was such a huge project that I’ve had to scatter Easter Eggs  throughout the fic, using mostly subjects which accompanied me through the years of writing the fic, especially during the times I’ve experienced terrible writing blocks/anxieties over it). Since I only started that thing to make the Deities to look ridiculous, like the monsters in the anime, along with the fact that didn’t use any inspiration for another monster who was able to talk, the Nemean Lion from the first Labour- I preferred to leave it as that,

THANK YOU AS ALWAYS FOR READING, AND IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO ASK!