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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 months

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The Curse of Oenone (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Yes I'm still using the gifset shut up -Danny Words: 2,811 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter // Next Chapter Listen to: ''Til Kingdom Come' -by Coldplay

LIX: I Wanna Go Home

"What are we looking at?"

"Ah, Señor Zhang, you know how you're always saying, 'Leo, you are the only true genius among demigods'?"

"I'm pretty sure I never said that."

"Well, turns out there are other true geniuses! Because one of them must have made that work of art down there."

When the eery-looking boy taps away in the Archimedes sphere, all Ara sees is her favorite person on Earth, and the closer they get to fighting Gaea, the more Ara wastes her time staring at him.

"It's a stone circle," Frank raises a brow. "Probably the foundation of an old shrine."

"No, it's more than that," Piper studies it carefully. "Look at the ridges and grooves carved around the rim."

"Like the teeth of a gear," Jason points out.

"And those concentric rings." Hazel adds. "The pattern reminds me of Pasiphaë's pendant: the symbol of the Labyrinth."

"Huh." Leo frowns. "Well, I hadn't thought of that. But think mechanical. Frank, Hazel... where did we see concentric circles like that before?"

"The laboratory under Rome—"

"The Archimedes lock on the door," Hazel nods. "It had rings within rings."

"You're telling me that's a massive stone lock? It's, like, fifty feet in diameter." Percy scoffs in disbelief.

"Leo might be right," Annabeth shrugs. "In ancient times, the temple of Asclepius was like the General Hospital of Greece. Everybody came here for the best healing. Aboveground, it was the size of a major city, but supposedly the real action happened belowground. That's where the high priests had their intensive-care super-magical-type compound, accessed by a secret passage."

"So, if that big round thing is the lock, how do we get the key?" Percy asks.

"Way ahead of you, Aquaman."

"Okay, do not call me Aquaman. That's even worse than water boy."

"You gotta give me something, man, you don't let me call you Nemo!"

"My name is Percy."

"Boys, focus," Ara presses.

Leo shifts his attention to Jason, Piper, and her. "You guys remember the giant Archimedes grabber arm I told you I was building?"

"I thought you were kidding," Jason frowns.

"Oh, my friend, I never kid about giant grabber arms!" Leo rubs his palms excitedly. "It's time to go fishing for prizes!"

While Leo and Jason open the entry to the secret palace, Piper pulls her away from the group. For a moment, Ara feels a wild desperation, because she isn't ready to say goodbye and others can see it.

"You okay? I'm getting big waves of 'Help me!' from you, and I was standing pretty far away."

Ara watches how Leo works from a distance. "He treats machines in a kind, gentle way—they need care as much as us... He'll be sorely missed in camp."

Piper tries to get a real answer. "Ara, what's the matter?"

"Take a wild guess," she turns to her with frustration. "Jason is at risk of dying too. How do you feel about that?"

"I don't need to think of Jason to understand it," Piper responds dejectedly. "I'm scared for Leo too—even if he pretends to be okay, he's dreading it as much as us... I can try and make him reconsider."

Ara gives her a dry smile. "And what about me? Are you going to try and charmspeak me too?"

Piper looks like she might cry, but her face sets determinately. "If that's what my General orders me to do."

"This is my order, McLean," Ara squares her shoulders. "We can't fail, so make sure we stick to the plan."

Piper hugs her. "Ara..."

"It's opening!" Leo calls to them. "Piper, Ara, get ready!"

"Idiot mode," Ara kills the flames on her shoulder, groaning as they walk through the empty corridor. "I would've never thought of that."

"I do the absurd thinking for you," Leo winks, looking just as beaten. "I don't know why Hazel was so worried, it was easy."

"Yeah, right," Jason scowls at his ruined T-shirt.

"At least now we're seeing a doctor," Piper says. "He can fix us up."

"If he's a nice doctor—but maybe he's the father of apathetic medics," Ara jokes.

"Sometimes I wish you used your inner voice," Jason grumbles.

Piper knocks on the door gently. "Dr Asclepius?"

The guy behind the desk reminds Ara so much of her father—Paul, not the other idiot—that it softens her. He's got the hair, and smiles in the same playful yet calming manner her dad does, Ara almost expects him to start talking to Leo in Spanish.

"Hello!"

"Doctor." Piper smiles. "We'd be so grateful for your help. We need the physician's cure." Six months ago the girl had to lean on Ara to get her charmspeak working, now she's pouring it out of her effortlessly.

Asclepius presses a hand to his chest. "Oh, my dear, I would be delighted to help."

"You would?" Piper pulls herself out of the shock promptly. "I mean, of course you would!"

"Come in! Come in!"

The tug of nostalgia grows stronger when they enter his office: it reminds her of the infirmary in the camp. It's crazy, she's been away for only two months, but it comes down on her just now, as she's reaching the end of her trip—being so close yet so far from home is pure torture.

"Please, sit!" There are only two chairs, so Leo and Ara remain standing behind Jason and Piper. "So, I can't tell you how nice it is to actually talk with patients. The last few thousand years, the paperwork has got out of control. Rush, rush, rush. Fill in forms. Deal with red tape. Not to mention the giant alabaster guardian who kills everyone in the waiting room. It takes all the fun out of medicine!"

"Yeah, Hygeia is kind of a downer," Leo replies.

"My real daughter Hygeia isn't like that, I assure you," Asclepius chuckles. "She's quite nice. At any rate, you did well reprogramming the statue. You have a surgeon's hands."

"Leo with a scalpel?" Jason gets goosebumps. "Don't encourage him."

The doctor laughs openly. "Now, what seems to be the trouble?" He scans Jason. "Hmm... Imperial gold sword wound, but that's healed nicely. No cancer, no heart problems. Watch that mole on your left foot, but I'm sure it's benign."

Jason's eyes widen. "How did you—"

"Oh, of course! You're a bit short-sighted! Simple fix." He draws out a case and scribbles something on a notepad before handing it to the boy. "Keep the prescription for future reference, but these lenses should work. Try them on."

"Wait," Leo smirks. "Jason is short-sighted?"

"I—I have had a little trouble seeing stuff from a distance lately, I thought I was just tired." He puts on the glasses and blinks a few times. "Wow. Yeah. That's better."

"You look very distinguished," Piper smiles.

"Your transformation to nerd has been completed," Ara pipes in.

Leo snickers. "I'd go for contacts—glowing orange ones with cat's-eye pupils. Those would be cool."

"Glasses are fine," Jason glares at them. "Thanks, uh, Dr Asclepius, but that's not why we came."

"No? Well, let's see then..." He turns to Piper. "You seem fine, my dear. Broken arm when you were six. Fell off a horse?"

"How could you possibly know that?" Piper breathes in awe.

"Vegetarian diet—No problem, just make sure you're getting enough iron and protein. Hmm... a little weak in the left shoulder. I assume you got hit with something heavy about a month ago?"

"A sandbag in Rome. That's amazing."

"Alternate ice and a hot pack if it bothers you," Asclepius looks up at the person behind her, which happens to be Ara. His smile falters like he's reading something nonsensical. "Who are you?"

"Arae Jackson..." she voices reluctantly.

"The daughter of Olympus! That explains it," the doctor chuckles but still looks slightly tense. "You'll be fine."

"Cool," Ara tries to push her sarcasm to its lowest level. "That'll help me sleep at night."

"You sleep? Even better!" The doctor moves to Leo. "And you... Oh, my—Oh, I see..." The god's happy demeanor deflates as if there's nothing left to do.

"What?" Jason demands. "What's wrong with Leo?"

"Hey, doc," Leo clears his throat. "We came for the physician's cure. Can you help us? I've got some Pylosian mint here and a very nice yellow daisy..."

"Hold it," Piper interrupts. "Is there something wrong with Leo? Because he's planning to do something crazy, and if that won't help him—"

"Seriously, guys," Leo presses. "I'm fine, except for the fact that Gaia's destroying the world tomorrow, so I'm a bit bummed out about it. Let's focus."

"So this daisy was picked by my father, Apollo?" Asclepius continues. Ara has to admire his determination to maintain Leo's dignity.

"Yep—He sends hugs and kisses."

"I do hope Dad comes through this war all right," he glances at Ara. "You should too. Now, the only missing ingredient is the heartbeat of the chained god."

"I have it," Piper says. "At least... I can summon the makhai."

"Excellent. Just a moment, dear—Spike, are you ready?" The doctor asks to his staff.

Leo can't help snorting. "Your snake's name is Spike?" The python spreads its deathly-looking crown with a hiss. "My bad," he squeaks. "Of course your name is Spike."

"He's a little grumpy," Asclepius explains. "People are always confusing my staff with the staff of Hermes, which has two snakes, obviously. Over the centuries, people have called Hermes's staff the symbol of medicine, when of course it should be my staff. Spike feels slighted. George and Martha get all the attention."

"Unacceptable," Ara retorts plainly.

"Pylosian mint—certainty of death," the god lists the ingredients on his desk. "The curse of Delos—anchoring that which cannot be anchored. Now the final ingredient: the heartbeat of the chained god—chaos, violence and fear of mortality—My dear, you may release the makhai."

Wind surrounds Piper before it slides across the desk, carrying screams with it, and landing directly into Spike's mouth. The python then swallows the rest of the ingredients.

"Won't the poison hurt him?" Jason asks with curiosity.

"No, no," Asclepius brushes it off. "Wait and see."

Spike regurgitates a glass tube containing a dark reddish liquid that looks like thick blood, it's fragile, thin, and unassumingly small. "Lovely," Ara gulps, feeling sick. "That's it?"

"The physician's cure." Asclepius picks up the vial and blinks in confusion. "Wait... why did I agree to make this?"

"Because we need it to save the world. It's very important. You're the only one who can help us." Piper says, reaching out for it.

"Of course," Asclepius smiles again. "I forgot. But you must be careful. Hades hates it when I raise people from the dead. The last time I gave someone this potion, the Lord of the Underworld complained to Zeus, and I was killed by a lightning bolt. BOOM!"

Ara makes a face. "I know how that feels..."

Leo tilts his head. "You look pretty good for a dead guy."

"Oh, I got better. That was part of the compromise. You see, when Zeus killed me, my father Apollo got very upset. He couldn't take out his anger on Zeus directly; the king of the gods was much too powerful. So Apollo took revenge on the makers of lightning bolts instead. He killed some of the Elder Cyclopes. For that, Zeus punished Apollo... quite severely. Finally, to make peace, Zeus agreed to make me a god of medicine, with the understanding that I wouldn't bring anyone else back to life. And yet here I am... giving you the cure."

"Because you realize how important this is," Piper insists when the god's eyes lose focus. "You're willing to make an exception."

"Yes... At any rate, the potion must be administered as soon as possible after death. It can be injected or poured into the mouth. And there is only enough for one person. Do you understand me?" He looks pointedly at Leo.

"We understand," Piper glances at the boy with concern. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Asclepius? Your guardian is out of commission. You'd be really helpful aboard the Argo II."

"The Argo... back when I was a demigod, I sailed on the original ship, you know," he smiles. "Ah, to be a carefree adventurer again!"

"Yeah..." Jason lowers his gaze and pouts. "Carefree."

"But, alas, I cannot. Zeus will already be quite angry with me for helping you. Besides, the guardian will reprogram itself soon. You should leave. Best wishes, demigods. And, if you see my father again, please... give him my regrets."

This is a haven she'll miss, but she must face the world no matter how much it stresses her out—it is what she asked for, after all. Ara doesn't want to leave, but the reason she wants to stay is ridiculous.

"Birdy?" Leo tugs her hand. "Time to go."

The girl clears her throat and nods, turning around quickly. "Gods, I miss my parents."

"So where are you putting that?" Percy asks. "It has to be close to you when you die, so where are you keeping it?"

"Festus," Ara and Leo reply.

"We've been working on something... Leo did, since we started building the ship," Ara glances at the boy, still grumpy about it. "The blueprints never made much sense because they were two machines combined."

Annabeth raises a brow. "You're trusting Festus will work perfectly on its first try?"

"All my machines work on their first try, Chase, don't insult me," Leo scoffs.

No one speaks against it, all they know is they've been talking to Nike and Apollo, and their plan is solid enough to give them a glimmer of hope. That is all they'll get while handling two prophecies at once.

"Okay, then!" Leo claps, bringing them out of their stupor. "Athens tomorrow morning, gang. Be ready to fight some giants."

"Yeah..." Frank heaves a sigh. "I know I'll sleep well."

***

Leo sets the cure in place. "That'll do."

He traces the outline of Festus's open panel with reverence and Ara's heart tightens at the scene. Leo spent months perfecting the ship, and now they'll have to say goodbye to it... It's meant to be, but that doesn't mean it hurts less.

"Stop staring like that," Leo mumbles. "You make me feel like a wounded animal."

Ara looks away. "I know we didn't have a blast here... but I love this spanking hot war machine."

Leo scans the room wistfully. "We had our first kiss here, remember?"

All she can do is nod. Leo stands and hugs her loosely, leaning his head on her shoulder. Ara takes a shaky breath. "Such clumsy and unromantic first kiss—"

"Shut up." Leo scolds her. "You don't get to decide what it was. It's my first kiss. Mine." He shakes his head and steps back slightly. "I've heard all of your stories—even the ones you probably don't want me to know, and they tell me that inside this immaculate Barbie, there is a human girl who doesn't care about perfection. Why do you torture yourself like this?"

"That Ara isn't good enough," she scowls. "I'm better this way."

Leo frowns. "Do you know how much I love you just the way you are?"

"Do you know how long it took me to become the Ara that you know?" She asks back. "Nothing comes naturally, Leo. I don't wake up and simply exist—it's a full-time job..." Her voice dies a little, her words reminding her of what Eros hissed at Nico.

"Love is no game! It is no flowery softness! It is hard work—a quest that never ends. It demands everything from you—especially the truth. Only then does it yield rewards."

Ara's voice quivers. "I know you love me, Leo... I don't think I've done a good job loving you, that's all."

The boy cradles her face so she looks at him. "You warned me of the risks, and I fell in love anyway. You didn't trick me into being here, and I'll never regret it."

"I'm sorry," she sulks. "I focused on being a leader and I pushed our relationship aside, I should've—"

"Look at me," he insists, holding her firmly. "I dare you to say we weren't happy."

Ara tears up. "I thought I had more than enough to get by and then... I met you. I laughed and loved so much—life was beautiful for a moment. I was so lucky."

Leo's hands are shaking, but he manages a crooked smile. "Honestly, I still can't believe my luck either. My girlfriend is the hottest girl to ever live—" He lowers his gaze a moment when his voice breaks, unable to hide his true feelings. "Gods, Ara..." he takes a shaky breath. "I used to be so lonely."

Festus interrupts and Leo responds without looking up. "Yeah, buddy, it's time." The dragon creaks again and the boy chuckles weakly. "Yes, she'll wait for us. Won't you, doll?"

Ara pouts and nods, Leo wipes the tears from her face tenderly. "I've been waiting on you my whole life, and I'd like to say there is no pressure, but..."

Leo smirks. "I love a challenge."

Ara grins through the tears, then glances at the cure in Festus's panel. "So this is really happening, huh?"

"Too late to change plans," the boy nods, also staring at the vial.

"You can sleep in my cabin tonight."

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Bufford hollers.

They burst out laughing. "Don't worry, son," Leo tells the small table as he closes the access panel. He then holds Ara's hand and pulls her out of the engine room. "We'll save that part for when I get back."

Next Chapter –>

Taglist.

@siriuslysirius1107 @ask-giggles1303 @im-planning-something-look @bandshirts-andbooks @coolninjapaper @thewaterlily @whenisthefall @1randomcomic @you-bloody-shank @sunflowergraves @owlalex44 @taylordaughter @typicalsolangelolover @writingmia @espressopatronum454 @slytherinnqueen @orbitingpolaris @obxstiles @ellipsisspelled @thepixiechicksh @ebony-reine-vibes

#twoidiots writing #pjo fanfic #leo valdez fanfic #doo #leo valdez x oc #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians

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honeybeedewdrops · 2 years

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Wedding Bells | B.Bradshaw

Summary: You and Bradley are getting married

______________________________________________________________

When Rooster first laid eyes on you he knew you were the one.

So here you sat all dressed in white the nerves really kicking in. "Nervous?" Phoenix asks walking in with your mum and two best friends. "Yes it's kicking in now" "Don't be nervous you'll be just fine" your mom says doing some last minute touch ups of your hair. "Easy for you to say mum you're really confident and love the attention plus you had a small wedding" You say "Honey relax" "but what if I trip or forget what i want to say or fumble my words" "Just speak from the heart if you forget and you won't trip you've walked in these heels millions of times" your best friend says. "Besides Rooster will probably fumble more than you. Oh man I can't wait to see Rooster cry." Phoenix says "How do you know he will cry"

"Honey all men cry at their weddings" you mum says making you roll your eyes. "Ok all done now come on let me see you" your mum says and you stand up "You look beautiful my baby all grown up" and she starts crying "mum come on the wedding hasn't even started" "I know I know but I can't help it" "Hello! Knock knock." and your dad walks in "Hey dad" and he takes one look at you "darling you look beautiful" and he kisses your cheek "thanks dad" "ok ladies time to go" your dad says ushering them out. Phoenix sends you a wink before leaving last. Your dad turns to you "i'm so proud of you" he says "why are you proud?" "Because you've turned into this beautiful young lady and I have to let you go" "dad i'm not dying" you chuckle "I know now come on I can hear the bells" you grab his arm and walk out the door.

The familiar tune of here comes the bride comes on and you start walking down. You make eye contact with Rooster and he look dashing and you could already see him dabbing at his eyes making you think back to Phoenix's comment.

Here you stand in front of Bradley and it felt amazing. When it came time for the vows when Rooster spoke you got a bit teary eyed and he did get a bit choked up. when your turn came you were a mess and ended up forgetting what you were going to say so you spoke from the heart.

Bradley, do you take Y/n to be your wedded wife, to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honour and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?

I do

Y/n, do you take Bradley to be your wedded husband to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honour and keep him for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health and forsaking all others, be faithful only to him so long as you both shall live?

I do.

And you both kiss and you felt yourself falling in love all over again.

After the wedding was the reception and it was a ball of fun. Starting with eating Y/F/F and some embarrassing stories.

"Gather round all time for the toss" you yell and all the ladies lines up. You toss it and to your surprise Phoenix caught it. Watching her race after Hangman was so funny he sprinted away like his life depended on it.

At the end of the night you and Rooster were off to the airport for your honeymoon which was going to be in Greece a place you've always wanted to visit. Ridding off into the sunset in Bradley's bronco made you think back to you first date.

"what?" He asks looking at your smile "I love you soo much" "I love you too"

#bradley bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x y/n #top gun x reader #top gun maverick #miles teller

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jerzwriter · 6 months

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Tobias and Casey, 2, 9, 11

Ethan and Eva, 13, 20, 24

Hey love! Thanks so much for the asks - I desperately need to spend some time with my blorbos so I appreciate them! ❤️

From this list

Tobias & Casey:

2... Who is your best friend? Tell us about them!

I think both of them would absolutely say that they are each other's best friends because they are. I don't think all couples are best friends, no matter how much they claim to be. Being a best friend is a special level - you have to be able to tell each other anything without fear of being judged, but you know that they will also be willing to tell you the truth - even if you don't want to hear it. They should be the first person they want to call when something good or terrible happens. They have to enjoy each other's company and laugh together. This is NOT every couple, but it is Tobias and Casey.

But it's important to have other friends, too, and they both know that. For Tobias, his other best friends would be Kerry and Sasha (OCs - more about them here) and Ethan.

For Casey, it would be Sienna and Bryce. She becomes very close with Kerry, too, but always respects the boundary that she is Tobias's best friend. She'd never want to put her in a position to feel she has to choose between them.

9... Are you a spiritual person? If yes, what do you practice?

The answer here may shock - Casey was not - at all, but Tobias was. He is the perfect way of showing we don't know who people are at their core by what you see on the outside. He wasn't a holy roller, by any means, but he absolutely had strong faith. He grew up attending the church where his paternal great-grandfather was a pastor and a civil rights leader. Church on Sunday was part of his life as a child, he even served on the children's choir (which is where we learned he had a great voice.) Did he live a pious life? Hell no. But did his faith steer him throughout his life? Yes. It did. I wrote a fic about this, Just a Little Faith. Casey was agnostic, leaning toward athiest, and didn't believe in much. But after her near death experience, falling in love with Tobias, and becoming pregnant with their child, she started to have a shift in her point of view. This is one of my favorite fics :)

11... What is your favorite type of media (TV, movie, books, etc)? Name some specific favorites (which shows, movies, books, etc do you like)!

They kind of like all of them. LOL But they're both avid book readers. I would say that's where they find sustenance, followed by movies. TV is something they enjoy, but it's more for relaxation.

Books: They both love non-fiction most of all, and there are many James Baldwin and Bell Hooks titles amongst their favorites.

Some of Tobias's specific favorites (I'll stick to books since they played a big part in how they fell in love) : The Covenant of Water (Abraham Verghese), Dying: A Memoir (Cory Taylor), Lies My Teachers Told Me (James Loewen), The Return (Hisham Matar), and The Alchemist (Paolo Coelho)

And Casey's: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), All About Love (Bell Hooks), Beloved (Toni Morrison), Atonement (Ian McEwan), and The Invisible Thread (Schroff/Tresniowski).

Ethan & Eva

Man! I really have to get back to that, don't I? lol

13... You’re given an unlimited budget to build anything you want! What do you build and where do you build it?

Ethan would build a modest but lovely home on a secluded private beach somewhere in New England. Very traditional, think shingle style, surrounded by beautiful landscaping and pure serenity.

Eva would love to have two small homes in her genealogical homelands of Greece and Cuba. Since Cuba is not a possibility at this time, she'd probably build in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. In Greece, it would be on an island, but NOT Mykonos or Santorini! They'd be small, but comfortable, homey places.

20. Describe your biggest pet peeve.

Ethan - Pointless meetings - especially when he has to put up with board members and such.

Eva - Rude people.

24. What would you consider your main love language?

I would say it's quality time for both (however, I have not done the test for them, I have for E/K and T/C lol)

Thanks so much for asking! :)

#oc interview asks #asks answered #tobias carrick #tobias x casey #tobias x casey asks #ethan ramsey #ethan x eva #ethan x eva asks

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faegoddessog · 1 year

Text

Seventy Two Hours of Bliss Ch. 33/41

Chapter 33: Overwhelm in the Stars

Chapter Warnings: Explicitly mature content, 18+ only, fellatio, fingering, forced orgasm, unprotected PiV( play safy ya'll )

Series Masterlist

Series Summary:

You are neighbors with Austin Butler on the Gold Coast of Australia just prior to shooting Elvis. You become just friends because he is taken. However, after he is single again, you both find out just how attracted you are to one another and things get unrelentingly hot.

SERIES WARNING: Explicitly mature content, 18+ only, here there be lemons.

Authors Notes: I started writing this while remodeling my kitchen, so that informed the slightly quirky narrative. It starts slow, but once it heats up, it is on fire. I have tried to pull facts from RL as much as I could, but obviously there are some assumptions and flat out dreamy wishes involved here.

Chapter 33: Overwhelm in the Stars

Special thanks to @purejasmine who partially inspired the action in this Chapter!

April turns into May and temperatures start to drop. Which you find bizarre being from the northern hemisphere. But as long as you don’t think about the month, the fall is quite lovely and mild. Restrictions ease, Austin takes to walking the beach, listening to Elvis in his headphones. Sometimes you go with him, holding hands on the relatively deserted beaches. You like to find a spot to paint or read while he wanders for a couple hours. It always makes you giggle to see people’s reaction to him when he is practicing Elvis’ words or sounds. The best one by far was Elvis’ laughter. He was on his way back to you, laughing, stopping, listening, laughing again. As you watched, one guy with a surfboard walked by him, then turned around and gave him the funniest look. You just cracked up, Austin barely noticed at the time, but turned red when you told him about it.

Even though the situation is a bit scary and tedious at times, it has been kind of magical to have Austin all to yourself. Well, you share him with Elvis, but that doesn’t really bother you. Honestly it’s good that he has something to focus on.

You begin to email and text with Rita about her kitchen in Greece, getting roughly sketched floor plans and pictures and researching potential materials and construction regulations for the area. You enjoy planning and sketching all old school with graph paper, cuz you got nuthin’ but time!

June rolls in and, like the rest of the world, you are starting to get restless with the sameness of every day. He still wakes up early, still asks to slide into you often. Sex has been nice, but routine.

He comes out of his office room early one afternoon and firmly shuts the door.

“Kitten, I need a break.” he says seriously, knife-handing for emphasis.

You look up at him from the couch where you are reading a book with big eyes. Does he mean from you? from Elvis? What did you do? What did you not do? What is happening? Your heart is beating in your ears. Why the fuck are you reacting this way?

“I uh… Oh… Okay,” your voice stammers, frightened. Be cool, you said no hard feelings, shit, shit, shit.

“Don’t let me go in that room for like a week,” he says, rubbing his eyes, head down. He has not noticed your panicked reaction.

You feel like a deer in headlights, it takes a few seconds to understand what he said.

He blinks down at you, probably expecting some kind of reaction.

“OH!” you let out a shuddering breath you didn’t realize you were holding, hand partially covering your face, “I thought…. ” your voice sounds so small.

He looks at you in confusion, then realization dawns on his face.

“Oh baby no! Shit I’m sorry hunny! Not from you, not from us, from Elvis!” He closes the gap between you in two long strides, sitting down next to you and pulling you close to him. Tears you didn’t know were holding in spill out.

“I don't want to do this without you, baby,” he strokes your hair as you bury your face in his chest. ”No, no we are good…. Are we good?” he asks, suddenly looking down into his chest at you.

“Stupid inadequacy issues,” you puff out, shaking your head. You look up at his concerned face, with tear streaked cheeks and sniff.

“Oh Kitten, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking. That’s what I mean, I’ve not been thinking about anything other than Elvis for too long. And you’ve been amazing and I’ve just been obsessed. That’s what I need a break from,” his words tumble out, trying to reassure you. His thumb wipes away your tears, he kisses your forehead.

You take a big breath in, blowing it out, nodding your head. Apparently, you hadn't realized how deeply intertwined you two have become, when just the passing idea of him leaving brings you to tears. You are more upset that it affected you like this than you are about the misunderstanding.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I immediately jumped to that conclusion. This whole lockdown thing has me all….” you stick your tongue out to the side and roll your eyes. You look in each other's eyes for the space of two heartbeats. You start sniggering at your own ridiculousness, holding your hand over your mouth. He chuckles and shakes his head, holding you to his chest.

“Oh Kitten, I love you. I feel like I’ve been neglecting you and you’ve been so patient and caring,” he says, “and don’t tell me I’ve not been, cuz it’s how I feel. ”

“Ok,” you say simply.

“I wish I could take you out on a date, or lavish you with gifts or do something big for you right now,” he laments, his fingers rubbing on your forearm.

“Austin, gifts and dates and grand gestures are nice,” you assure him, “but I don’t need them. What I really could use is just some you right now, plain and simple.”

“You got it, Kitten,” he says, tilting your chin up to his mouth. His kiss is sweet and simple and present. You melt into him.

You sit, cuddled up on him for a bit, he is rubbing in long strokes up and down your back.

“How about we get out of here tonight,” he says.

“Ok, where though?” you ponder.

“Let’s pack some food and bring blankets and stuff and just drive until we can see the stars, we just can’t cross the border,” he suggests.

“Yes! I fucking love the stars! Let’s do it!” you sit up, excited for the first time in weeks, and throw your arms around his neck, kissing him hard.

Austin makes PBJ’s and packs some random food into a cooler. You gather pillows and blankets, toothbrushes and a quick change of clothes for both of you. You come out from the 2nd bedroom triumphantly holding a big thermos up high. Austin is filling water bottles and you start heating water to make some hot chocolate. The excitement in the air is palpable.

Thirty minutes later you are pulling out from the underground garage, Austin sitting in the seat next to you for the first time, instead of hiding. Who the fuck cares now anyway, plus no one is hanging around outside anymore anyway.

You insist on using your own non-Elvis playlists for music, Austin agrees, he really does need the break.

You drive west for almost two hours. It is marvelous and freeing to get away. No plan, just driving.

The sun is getting low as you pull up to a picnic area next to Lake Moogerah that is scattered with pavilions. You find one next to the lake and cuddle together on the picnic table, munching on PBJ’s and watching the sunset. You hear some crunching on the gravel behind you. You turn around to see a lady walking her dog towards you.

“G’day, beaut of a sunset yeah?” she says, stopping about 10 feet from you guys.

“Yeah it really is” Austin says.

“Oh yanks are ya, well ya know ya can't park overnight here. Do ya have a place to stay?" she inquires.

"Oh, no we didn’t know, thank you,” Austin is always so polite, ”we might just drive back to the city later, unless you have any suggestions.”

“I have a glampin’ tent just up the road there that’s vacant. It has a heatah and access to the bathroom in the main house, has a queen bed and a minibah. We just got the go ahead to open today. So it’s yours if you want it.”

Austin looks at you eyebrows raised. You are already nodding.

“We’ll be up after sunset then,” he says. She gives you directions and says she’ll meet you there in a half hour.

The tent is amazing. It’s set up just in front of a huge Queenslander rental house, which is where your bathroom is. It opens up to a gorgeous view of the lake and mountains. It is much larger than you expected, clean, warm and comfortable. It has a stocked snack and mini fridge bar and a coffee maker. There are little fairy lights hung inside for soft lighting. There is no one renting the main house tonight, so you can make it really dark for stargazing.

It’s not that cold out, just a chill in the air. Your sweatshirt would suffice, the blankets are just to make it cozier. Austin pulls out the hot chocolate and you snuggle up with your blankets and pillows to watch the stars, sipping the sweet hot liquid.

It’s so odd, because you grew up stargazing with your family, and these are definitely not your stars. You feel like you are on another planet. You open your phone app that helps you find constellations. It is magical, just being together under the stars, feeling so small in the universe, yet also expansive.

You are nerding out, finding several of the southern constellations including the southern cross and Canis major. Trying to point them out to Austin.

“Why does that one look so damn familiar?” you are pointing up. You hold up the phone above your head

“I’m a goofy silly girl! It’s fucking Orion, just upside down! My daddy always said heaven was in the middle star of his belt, see?” you point up then look over at Austin. He is just staring at you with soft eyes in the red glow of the phone.

“I think it’s closer than that,” he says to you.

Your heart swells, then melts.

Like the opposite poles of a magnet your lips are drawn together. Your leg swings up and over his body, bringing your blankets with you. Straddling him on his chair, kissing, hips pressed together. For a few minutes you are just teenagers making out, dry humping on the porch because your parents won’t let you be alone inside. You can feel his bulge through the double layers of jeans.

He pushes you away just a little and reaches down to readjust his hardening cock. The nice thing is, you are not teenagers and no one is trying to restrict your access to this gorgeous man and his willingness to fuck the daylights out of you.

“Why don’t you get that out for me,” you whisper in his ear.

You duck down, between his legs, as he undoes his fly and pulls himself out, lowering his pants down his hips just a little.

While he is doing that, you undo your own jeans under the blankets and manage to wiggle out of them, leaving your soft, stretchy undies on.

Holding him upright, you trace designs with your tongue on his shaft and up to his tip. You lick your lips under the dark blanket. Placing your tongue on the top, you use your lips to massage his tip. Retracting your tongue into your mouth and closing your lips around him, then dragging along his head as you push him out with your tongue. Saliva drips from your lower lip every time you push him out. You hear him groaning on the outside of the covers. You push him in deep, slurping up all the spit you dribbled along his shaft. You ride him with your mouth for a dozen strokes or so.

Then you emerge from under the blankets, kissing him with your wet sloppy mouth. You straddle him again, just below his now hard and exposed cock. His hands land on your bare thighs.

“When did that happen?” he asks, indicating your pants-less state.

“When you were distracted,” you smile.

“Well you are distracting,” he rubs you through the crotch of your panties, soaking your wetness through. He slips his fingers under the fabric, then pulls it aside, dipping his fingers into you.

“Mmmmmmm” a slow lazy moan falls from you.

“Oh Kitten, I’m so sorry I've been neglecting you. I’m gonna make it up to you, promise,” he says, his forehead pressed to yours.

“Austin, you don’t…” you start, but he interrupts you with a kiss and his fingers running circles around your pussy. Fore and middle fingers around your opening, pinky and ring fingers brushing your clit.

It shuts you right up because it feels amazing. Your hips drop forward toward his hand.

“Oh mon Roi, that feels good,” you murmur into his mouth.

His other hand drifts up your shirt and around your back, undoing your bra deftly. His cool fingers trace around to the front. You gasp through your nose since he was still occupying your mouth with his tongue. He rubs along the line where your bra was tight, heightening the sensations that much more. He massages your breast, nipple caught in the crux of his fingers, sending a needle like zing to your core. Still his other hand is steadily working your pussy. The familiar warm glow is building just behind your mons. You lift up, reaching for his cock to slide him into you. He sits up a bit, pulling his hips and mouth away from you.

“Oh no, baby, this is just about you right now,” he says, “look up when you’re close, Kitten, I want you to cum in the stars.”

Damn, how is it that he makes things that could be corny, sound so damn sexy.

“Keep talking Austin, tell me dirty things,” you moan. Your hands are on his shoulders, holding on. You realize there is more light now, the moon is beginning to light up the sky, threatening to rise over the mountains.

“God, I love seeing you worked up just from my fingers playing with your cunt,” his deep voice draws out that last, filthy word, enunciating the /t/.

“I love your long gorgeous fingers,” you moan, eyes fluttering shut.

“Yeah? Do you want them inside you?” he almost whispers.

“Uh huh,’ you bite your lip, nodding.

“You want t’ cum on them?” he asks low, licking his lips.

“Please, yes,” you would do anything to have him inside you right now.

He starts pulsing the two fingers at your slit, but not going in. It’s driving you crazy. You try to grind yourself onto them with a closed-mouth pouting moan, but he won’t let you.

“Ah ah ah, baby. Just wait,” he admonishes you.

Pulling his fingers away and bringing them up to his mouth, he licks a long line between his fingers. You watch him like you are lost in the desert and he is the only water. You find yourself diving forward as his tongue reaches his fingertips. You press your open mouth partially to his upper lip, partially to his fingers, your tongues meet and play between his two digits, tasting of your slick. His fingers slide away and you keep kissing him, your hands on his face. You feel him sliding under your panties and along your labia again, wet from both your tongues.

He resumes his pulsing against your opening, still refusing to enter you.

He is pinching your other nipple, mimicking his pulses at the same rate.

You pull away from his face, head tilted up in a pouting whine to the sky. You are trying to be patient, trying to wait, but your body wants him inside you. Your hips rock back and forth, desperate for penetration.

“Oh Kitten, so wanton, wanting me inside you any way you can get me,” he chides, still pulsing at your entrance, “and I want you too, my gorgeous little hussy,” the last he breathes into the night air.

Finally, his pulses start sinking into you, a little further with each one.

“Oh- my- fucking- god,” your voice is rough and breathy with each pulse inside you. You are staring into his eyes.

“Yes, I am your fucking god,” he slides his hand out from under your shirt and to his mouth. His eyes burning sexy, maddening holes into yours in the diffused moonlight. A hint of that dark fae around his edges.

Sticking out his tongue, he slides the pad of his thumb over it. Watching you intently, he slips his wet thumb under your panties and onto your clit with a little roguish smile. He knows how it will affect you.

“Oh god, yes, right there,” your hips are shaking under his ministrations.

His fingers are fully seated inside you now, pulsing still, thumb rubbing in little circles.

“Don’t stop,” you moan.

“Oh, I won’t,” his tone is that of promise and threat.

Moonlight spills over the top of the mountains. Silvery strands of light laying themselves upon you both.

“Your naked skin would look so amazing in the moonlight,” Austin remarks, mostly to himself.

Without a second thought, you pull your sweatshirt and shirt off over your head, your bra tangled in amongst the fabric.

“Oh baby, you’ll get cold,” he says, concerned.

“Then you better keep me w–w-w-w-arm,” you moan out as his fingers find a particularly perfect rhythm. The glow inside you is on the verge of spilling over. You lean back, your hands on his knees, head tilted up. The blankets fall back, the cool night air makes your nipples pucker and your skin pebble. But you barely notice the chill, Austin has you so hot.

“Holy Mother, you are shining, baby,” he breathes.

You move rhythmically, grinding into his hands.

“The light on your throat, on your tits. It’s like the moon herself is cumming on you,” he says.

Fuck, that is a thought you’ve never had. Hot, especially from Austin’s dirty, sexy mouth.

Each push forward into his hand is accentuated with a moaning “ah, ah, ‘ah.” Then you inhale in a gasping breath, holding it in as everything tightens, your hips vibrating against him.

“Fuck yeah Kitten, cum on my lap, cum in those stars,” he urges you on.

It starts deep in your seed center and waves up your spine in a rippling shudder. Even your eyelids shiver as you struggle to keep your eyes open and pointed up. When you finally exhale, it’s in waves. You barely make any other sound to the sky.

You jerk forward, hunched over Austin, hands on his shoulders, pulling your hips away.

“Oh no you don’t dirty girl,” he says. His hands are on your hips, pulling you back to him, “you aren't getting away from me.”

He straightens upright in order to wrap one arm around your low back, hand pressing to keep you close to him. Austin immediately takes your nipple into his mouth, sucking and flicking with his tongue. His other hand is fliplped over, palm down, between you. The backs of his first and middle fingers like snake fangs pointing down on either side of your clit. The tips of those long fingers falling against your inner labia. The sensations go deep as he pushes in and down, in and down, milking your clit. It’s such a small movement with such a big impact.

You rut into his bent knuckles, clenching and releasing your glutes, your thighs, your pelvic floor. Your eyes are squeezed tight, head bowed to his.

“Open those eyes, look up,” he says, switching to the other nipple.

You tilt back, supported by his hand on your back. You do your best to open your eyes. But as his mouth pulls hard at your nipple, you are lifted, tilted over the next edge.

“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod,” you chant. Your eyes close and you are jerking to get your sensitive clit away from his knuckles. Of course, he won’t let you get away. He is always so much stronger than you assume. Holding your hips tight, his hand flips over and rubs light and fast over the surface of your clit. You writhe.

“Oh no, baby, you are gonna keep cumming,” he asserts, unable to keep his mouth on your twitching tits.

He refuses to give you any reprieve. He buries his fingers inside you again, pummeling your pussy with his palm. The switch in sensation is like an upslope that lifts you higher. You freeze, still for a long moment. Holding your breath, you let him finger fuck you hard. Sloppy, wet slapping sounds are the only thing breaking the night's stillness.

You didn’t think you could clamp down any harder, but as everything funnels down to your core, you tighten around his fingers. Your back arches and a high pitched whine careens from your throat. Your pelvis grinds down onto his fingers as your voice modulates low “OH! Fuck me, YES!” His hand drips with your juices.

Austin just chuckles low. “Not yet, Kitten,” he is watching your face as you cum with each dig of your hips.

Your hips come to a full and complete stop as does his fingers. Your ragged breath barely begins to even out. You lean down, hands on either side of his face and softly kiss him.

“Mmm, that was good, baby,” you murmur into his mouth. His hands disengage from your crotch.

He guides you off him, “Turn around,” he says, having made a decision.

You stand up wobbly, blankets and all. Austin takes the opportunity to pull off his jeans and underwear. You are expecting a good hard fuck in the grass as he reaches up and yanks your panties off. But he pulls your hips down to sit between his legs on the chair instead. The blankets spread over you both.

“Lean back and spread your legs, beautiful,” his voice is low and gravely in your ear.

You are not sure how he is going to get off in this position, his cock would be trapped behind your back, not in you.

‘Austin, I’m, I’m done, I’m good, what about you?” you say, turning a little to look at him and reaching for his cock.

“Oh hoh Kitten,” he laughs deviously, his gaze locking onto yours, “ I’m not done with you , I think I owe you a little more,” he pulls you back against him.

“Oh baby, you don’t-” you start trying to assure him once again, but his hand comes under your jaw. Thumb and forefinger spread, pressing just in front of the joint on either side, the rest of his fingers digging into the side of your neck. You gasp, hand going instinctively to his wrist. It’s the closest he’s ever come to choking you, although there is no pressure on your throat. You are immediately putty in his hands.

“Shhhh, Kitten, my darlin’,” he purrs in your ear, “you still haven’t cum in the stars for me. So you are going to take it, and like it and beg me for more until you can’t handle it.”

Your breath comes out in a shudder as your pussy drips. God, his voice, his words, his hands, how is this man possible? You didn’t know that was what you were in for tonight, but you fucking love it.

“Now, spread your legs,“ he says pointedly.

You do, looping your legs over his in the chair. Your wet pussy lips peeling apart under the blanket.

Austin reaches down and starts moving against your already swollen, sensitive snatch.

“There’s my good girl,” he whispers in your ear.

His fingers move in soft circles around your clit. You moan, eyes closing.

“You like it when I play with this pussy, don’t you Kitten,” his voice like honey, dripping onto your neck.

“Oui, mon Roi,” you answer in French.

“Should I have fingered you in the car on the way here?” honey dripping in between your breasts.

“Uh huh,” your other arm reaches up, your hand curling into the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Oh this pussy is so wet, always so needy,” his fingertips push harder.

“All the time, always for you, mon Roi,” you moan.

“God damn, you make me want you so much,” his hips are pushing against you.

You are flushing with heat, you kick the blankets away, the cool air tingling on your wetness.

“Oh, such a naughty Kitten, you want to be exposed?” his breath hot on your neck, ”anyone could walk around the house and see me fingering you, watch me make you thrash. You would love that, wouldn't you.”

Oh fuck, you didn’t know you had a an exhibitionist kink until this moment. The idea of being watched kicks you up a notch.

“I would,” you moan, nodding.

“What if it was Loki,” he plays to your fantasies, “and I hold your legs open,” he wraps his legs on top of yours, holding them apart, “and let him fuck you, use you,” he disentangles your hand from his hair and pushes your own fingers into your cunt, “just like this, while I rubbed you the way I know you like it.”

Oh. My. God. The idea of a hot Tom Hiddleston with dark hair mercilessly sinking himself into you as Austin holds you. FUCK, that takes you to a whole other level.

“OH Fuck Austin… yes. Yes, YES!!!!” you are crying out, fucking yourself with your own fingers.

You are pushing back against him. His hand tightens on your jaw, holding your head tilted back against his shoulder as he works your clit. His cock, desperate for friction, is working between you, spreading his pre-cum on your low spine.

FUCK YES, It feels so fucking good, being held down by him, being so open to the sky, to the silky moonlight.

You skyrocket into the stars, your eyes shoot open and you are staring at Sirius, the dogstar. For long held seconds you are Sirius, with rays of light shining from your head as you ignite, lighting up the night.

“There she is, my shining girl in the stars,” he is humming in your ear. Jerking, you stop your barrage into yourself. Austin’s hand covers your pussy, pressing softly, soothingly, drops of your cum cooling on your inner thighs.

You get a long breath or two, shaking as you start to think about coming down.

“Thank you Austin,” you say breathily.

“Oh no, don’t thank me yet,” he growls in your ear. Your orgasm-addled brain is confused. Until Austin slaps your pussy, jolting you back to him. It’s not super hard, but it makes you jerk.

“I’m still not done,“

Slap

“Oh, I don’t know if-” you begin.

SLAP!

You gasp.

“What a filthy, naughty girl, to be so turned on by someone else’s cock,” his voice is not angry, but husky with desire.

“I think you like the idea too,” you risk, undulating against his cock, “it’s pretty wet back there.”

Austin’s gruff laugh puffs out with a shake of his head.

“Maybe, as long as I get to reclaim you as mine,” his fingers tighten on your jaw and neck for a long, pointed moment before releasing entirely to slide down to your breasts. His last word rumbles into your brain, sending shivers down your spine

“I’m yours, Austin, all yours,” your voice is light, airy, full of yearning.

“Mmhmmm, yes you are,” he kisses your cheek tenderly.

“Now, tell me you want more,” Slap

“OH,” you squeak and jump. You hadn’t expected it.

“Say it,” he demands. Slap

“Oh- I,” you aren’t sure if you can go more. ‘ Yes you can, you want it and you know it.” your demon says.

“Tell me,” he says through gritted teeth. SLAP

“I want more,” you squeal a little on the last word.

“Say my name.” SLAP

You don’t quite register that this is your out, should you need it until you are saying:

“I want more Austin.” Fuck yeah you do. That bitch.

“What do you want, Kitten?” he prompts you. SLAP

“Spank my pussy ‘till I cum again,” your succubus answers for you before you can think. Oh shit, that was your outside voice.

“Oh, my filthy little insatiable harlot,” SLAP. His voice is full of unmet desire, you know he is just as turned on as you are. His hard cock is throbbing behind your back.

He starts in on your mons, stinging slaps then rubbing your clit fast side to side. The combo is unhinging you.

“Holy shit Kitten, you’ve got me so,” SLAP, “fucking,” SLAP, “hot.“ SLAP. Each stinging smack a little harder than the last. Clearly it’s unhinging him as well.

Flicking light and fast over your swollen nub he growls in your ear “I’m going to fuck you so hard after this, you won’t have to open your eyes to see the stars.” SLAP. SLAP.

You meet each new sting with a gasping moan.

His hips are rutting against your back. You wish he was inside of you.

“Please fuck me Austin, I need your cock,” you whine and moan.

“Oh Hunny, cum for me and I will,” his voice vibrates against your back and into your brainstem. How is he so fucking good? With each flick, each smack, you vacillate between being hungry for more and wanting him to stop.

Immense pressure is building behind your clit with every contact of his hand. You are forced over the brink yet again. You cinch down onto nothing. Every muscle straining You curl and try to close your legs, writhing. But his legs are forcing you to stay open. He continues the actual onslaught of your pussy. SLAP. Rub. SLAP. Flick. SLAP. Rub.

It’s too much, and not enough all at once.

“Nononono,” you are trying to pull his hands away from you, to protect your poor, wanting pussy. He grabs your hands and holds them tight to your belly and keeps rubbing and spanking you. You are struggling against him in the most delicious way.

“Beg me,” he growls in your ear.

“Please, please, stop, Austin, stop,” you whimper weakly.

“I don't think you really mean it,” his chuckle is deep in this chest. He slaps you again, and again, and again. Then his long fingers plunge into your dripping slit, stirring at your g spot. It pitches you into a spiral. Dangling over the chasm in his grip.

You are keening; cumming. You are biting into the meaty part of your own thumb; cumming. You are dripping around his fingers onto the chair; cumming. Cumming so hard, you are bewildered, disoriented and also laser focused on his fingers rasping against you again and again and again. You thought you were cumming before, it’s nothing compared to this. This is celestial devilry made carnal. Only the gods orgasm like this. You feel as much as hear your sweet fluid squirt out of you.

“Please, I can’t, again” you beg, sobbing.

He ignores your plea, raking his hands from back to front in succession along your pussy, fingers digging into your slit as he drags them up, grasping and shaking your mons and clit in his palm at the top. Right. Left. Right. Left. Over and over again, triggering immense aftershocks. Your spine is undulating in time with his raking of you. Your screaming moans modulate with the motion of his hands.

With a final grip and shake on your vulva, he stops. You are still shaking.

“Oh lord baby I need to be in you,” he presses you forward, up and off his lap. You are unable to stand, fuzzy. You ooze onto the blankets that fell on the grass, lying on your back. He is on you in seconds, knees between your legs. You are brought back to sharp focus by his cock sliding into your buzzing pussy.

“Oh my god Kitten, you are so hot around me,” Austin moans.

It is nirvana to be filled with him at last. You wrap your arms and legs around him as he thrusts in and out of you, banging the hell out of you under the night sky. He isn’t holding back, chasing his own release. He is right, you see the stars whether or not your eyes are open.

Holy fuck you’ve never been pushed this far in so many ways. Your tight, clenching pussy feels so full, so stretched by his cock pounding into you. Nerves that have been overstimulated are on the verge of rebelling. Fuck you want him never to stop, and if he doesn't stop you may never recover.

“Come on baby, one more big one for me,” the strain of his lust evident in his low gritty tone. It washes over you and you fracture. Your full throated scream echoes across the lake. You twist, and turn and thrash under him, your whole body contorting in inscrutable pleasure. No, pleasure isn’t right. It’s higher than that, harder, vehement. It rocks the foundations of what you believe to be true. Only the gods fuck like this.

“Ohmigod, my Kitten, fucking mine, all mine,” he underscores each thrust with a word. You are violently shaking under him as he surges into you, every muscle straining.

Finally all motion ceases, you are crying into his shoulder, clinging to him as a touchpoint of reality. You aren’t sure who you are or where you are, only that Austin is here, keeping you from dying.

He lifts off you. Standing. Leaving you in the cold momentarily. You curl around your core, crying in overwhelm. Then you are in his arms, floating. Crying into his shoulder. Being laid in a warm bed with his warm naked body protecting you. Holding you. Petting your head and rubbing your back. Whispering soft words of love. Pressing a water bottle to your mouth as your crying subsides into soft whimpers and then into shaky breaths.

“You are here my love, with me” Austin is saying,” just breathe. I got you.”

...........

You wake up in the morning to sounds of birds outside. Austin is asleep next to you, just where you like him to be. You sneak out to pee and take care of yourself, after last night's worship to Eros, you need a shower.

When you get back, Austin is still snoring. You climb back into bed and cuddle up next to him. You doze. You wake up to the smell of coffee and Austin, also freshly showered, bringing you a cup.

You sit up in bed and gratefully accept it. He sits down on the bed with you, sipping his own cup. He left the tent flap open and you can see across the lake. What a magnificent thing, to have that view while in bed, and this dreamboat of a man next to you. Bringing you coffee nonetheless! “Thank you for last night Austin,” you say, hands wrapped around the white steaming cup.

“You are so welcome, my love,” he says with a smile, obviously feeling like he has ‘made it up’ to you.

…............

As you are leaving, the owner is walking her dog along the road towards you. You stop and roll down the window to thank her for everything.

“I was comin’ to check on ya! Did ya hear that cougar screamin’ last night?” she says concerned, ”it sounded pretty close by.”

“Oh? I don’t think we did,” Austin says a little confused.

“Yeah,” she says, “a month or so ago, one was spotted a bit north of here, but have never heard it before. It were erie, echoed across the lake.”

“Oh, well we are ok, glad we didn’t see it!” you say.

You tell her thank you and that you’d leave a glowing review.

As you are driving away, Austin is shaking his head, “Wow, that is a little scary.”

You burst out laughing.

“What is so funny, we could’ve gotten attacked! Being just in that tent!”

“Oh baby, I’m sorry. That was no cougar she heard, it was me cumming last night. Cougars sound like a woman screaming.”

“No way, you think so?” Austin is smiling realizing the implications.

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard them back home, I would have recognized it.

“Oh my god, that is funny!” Austin joins you in laughing.

#Austin Butler #Austin Butler smut #Austin Butler x reader #Austin Butler fic #Austin butler fanfic #@purejasmine #@slowsweetlove #@richardslady121

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alatismeni-theitsa · 11 months

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Hey! Firstly: sorry for the questionable English and the huge ask (I'm a bit wordy). Also, thx if you respond! Secondly: when I say “modern” I don’t mean it in the more “academic” sense of the word, which covers a long time. It’s more like “from the 1970s to now.”

I'm Brazilian and, unfortunately, most of the popular books here are by writers from the USA, England or Canada. As you can see, it's not exactly a large variety and, to give you an idea, not even the national ones are popular among the general public (neither the modern ones nor the classic ones) and not even the neighboring countries have well-known authors here (hardly anyone would be able to name a Bolivian author, for example)

I was starting to get bored with the books I'd read recently bc so many of them seemed the same until I realized that it's kind of ridiculous of me to expect different books from similar authors (from the same places, with the same sexualities, with the same races, same social classes…) bc personal experience is an essential part of an author. I then realized that it would probably be best to vary my reading if I REALLY wanted to see more of what I already had.

Naturally, I started with the classics. I'm still researching classics bc there are so many and just one title takes a long time to choose a decent edition (I only read in Portuguese, so imagine that I don't have the same availability that English and Spanish readers have. It's also less rated/commented on, so it's more difficult to find someone who talks about aspects such as translation, additional texts, etc. An example I'll give you is that I didn't find ANY website talking about translations of the Homeric Hymns and I must have found around three editions only, all with one very small number of evaluations. Of the three, only one had enough comments to be reliable and it is an academic edition, as it is from a federal college. The other two editions did not have additional texts, the evaluations were few and the publishers did not seem trustworthy). But, although it is important to know the classics from other countries, I think that more modern books should also receive attention.

When it comes to Greece, finding information about the classics is not a difficult mission bc many are already very popular (at least not anymore now that I found the right sites. At first, it was a little annoying bc the results were books like Percy Jackson and The Silence of the Girls, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for). Ofc, finding it in Portuguese is another story and I think at some point I'll have to resort to trying to read some in Spanish (at least the language is close enough to Portuguese that it's not so confusing, and Google is there to help). But if I search for classic books, several informative sites will appear, so less bad. However, I noticed that when it comes to researching more modern Greek authors it is a little more complicated bc Greek literature here is more associated with Homer, Euripides, etc. (surprisingly, it was easier for me to find Korean, Japanese and Chinese recommendations, which are much further from Brazil than the Greeks)

Anyway, I did all this contextualization so you can have a better idea of what I'm looking for. I was wondering if you (or any of your followers who read this, who knows) had any recommendations for Greek books that are not classical. I don't care if it's a more complex book that makes the reader reflect or if it's a more silly teen book, both interest me. Then I'll look for them in Portuguese, but if I don't find them, I'll leave them on the future reading list to try in Spanish later.

NOTE: Prose would probably be better bc I noticed that I encounter fewer accessibility problems than poems (due to the issue of translations into Portuguese. Even from countries with closer languages, like our Spanish-speaking neighbors, it is difficult to find. ..and poems seem even rarer)

Well, "the Classics" for us Greeks are not the ancient texts you mention. That's just what the westerners call our ancient texts. "The Classics"/"Classic literature" for us are works written in the last two centuries. Search my tag #greek literature to see our classic writers and their works.

Have a great day, and thanks for passing by 💗 I hope you find what you seek. I'm always open for more questions.

================================

If my posts have helped you in any way consider buying me a ko-fi 💖

#answered

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schismusic · 6 months

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THE DISCOGRAPHY PRINCIPLE, Episode 4: Coil, or: Better Git It in Your Soul

As I'm writing this piece, everyone who knows their shit is spasmodically waiting for the physical repress of Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) to hit store shelves, assuming they haven't bought it off the site. All the people who have been knowing their shit since before it was cool to do so already had the FLACs on their hard disk drives. Not to brag, but I'm part of that second group. I love gay people, I love Creative Commons licenses, I love what happens when you rub them together (in case you're wondering, you have a phenomenon called teenage lightning).

[As you're going to see throughout the piece, the remaster did come out, and it's glorious]

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If you ask anyone they will probably tell you Horse Rotorvator is Coil's best, and it's not like they're wrong, but it may be a bit limiting. It goes about the same as Incunabula; refer back to the Autechre post for more clarification, but in short it's an incredibly good record that takes some extra work done in the present time because some of its sound palette choices end up making it sound a bit uncanny, if not dated. I'd rather not go with "dated" for this specific record simply because Scatology exists, and it doesn't get anymore '80s than that, not necessarily in a positive way. If we take out The Anal Staircase (by the way, great title, guys!) the rest of the tracks on Horse Rotorvator have some actually quite futureproof stuff going on, on average - sometimes bordering on prescient, like on Penetralia, just barely removed from 2010s brostep aggression, and sometimes I wish they had the hardware to process that stuff. But the big-ass reverb on the snare and percussion, the sheer nudity of the production, the way the orchestral bits and samples are integrated into the arrangements kind of make it sound like the record is striving really hard for a sound that simply could not be attained at the time of realization.

The great part is that literally nothing I said in this paragraph is a negative at all.

Compare Penetralia to, for instance, Restless Day from Scatology; or maybe even compare Ostia to Tenderness of Wolves. Both are great, sure, but while the Rotorvator just don't check out at times, the Scatology ones seem to have an expiration date written on them. Only one exception to this rule: At the Heart of It All. If I had to draw another comparison, this would probably link up to The First Five Minutes After Death, and this time it's the latter paling in comparison to the former. It sounds sickly and isolated in a special unique way, unable to fight back, devoid of any possible bite: it sounds like it saw the actual horse rotorvator, the Four Horsemen slitting the horses' throats and meshing the jawbones into a gigantic, earthshattering plough. Nothing exists beyond At the Heart of It All. Nothing survives.

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Coil, after all, always flirted with a sense of profound despair, even at their funniest and most tongue-in-cheek. This is relevant: not many other bands of their era display, or even have, that same sense of humor about not just themselves but the whole world; consequently, not many have reached the same scope of intent, and the same successful realization of said intents, as Coil. Partially unrelated: one of my favourite stories about them is that one time in the early 2000s when the rest of the band couldn't find Jhonn Balance after a gig in Greece — I think at least, I'm going off the top of my head here — so on the following morning they were forced to board their plane to their next gig in mainland Europe without him. So as they're about to play the gig without him, seeing as he simply isn't there, magically he shows up, and nobody could even imagine how he'd managed to get there on time. At the time Jhonn was already having big trouble with alcohol, had already broken up with Peter Christopherson. Many of these things I came to know through some tried-and-true Coil obsessives, and there's apparently a lot of them around: people who exchanged correspondence, cassette tapes, memories with some of the collaborators in the band or even Balance and Christopherson themselves. There's basically an army of unauthorized Coil biographers out there. But staying more strictly on the point, it's impossible to separate Coil and the lives of those who made up Coil; therefore it is impossible to separate Coil and life itself.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the aborted Autechre/Coil collab back in episode one of this series. In that very same conversation, we had a really deep dive into how Coil's attraction to — mostly Western — esotericism, even the most downright evil and uncomfortable parts of it (how could we ever forget the iconic "the industrial use of semen will revolutionise the human race" shirt?), stemmed from a more general interest in the fullness of life; and the more I think about that, the more understandable Coil's visual fascination with nature is. Four EPs, one for each of the major sun-related astronomical events introducing the four seasons; the luscious woods on the covers of the two Musick to Play in the Dark records; the rocky cliffs and the goats being a perfect aesthetic fold to The Remote Viewer's abrasive/ascetic hurdy-gurdy drones. All of this accompanied to music that seems to strive for the most eldritch effect possible — in one way or another, Coil's sound design is like looking very, very, very deep into the bottom of an abyss of your choice simply for the fun of it, or rather for the curiosity, the doubt that something of incalculable value might lie down there. We as humans really enjoy getting to know stuff much more than we enjoy actually knowing stuff, the progress of process is much more enticing to us than the staticity of completion. Coil still sound, twenty years after Balance's death and almost fifteen years after after Christopherson's death, like they are disciples. They listen just as much as we do.

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And this predisposition to listen is specifically what makes them particularly apt at speaking, too. Coil express depth because they feel deeply, ultimately, and they don't fear emotion — any emotion. Which means they are just at ease analysing the diffusion of gossip and its subsequent deformation and bloating as they are discussing alcoholism and the search for oblivion, and what's better: these topics are discussed in two sister tracks (namely Red Queen and Ether). Both tracks, alienated from the context of their respective records, sound like relatively soothing jazzy piano ballads with some lunatic saying the most out-of-pocket shit possible on top of them, and some pretty fucked up background noises going on, Red Queen being the easiest possible application of this concept. But the effect gets somehow creepier when Jhonn Balance actually introduces a recognizable melody into the mix. This is probably the best moment to talk about Jhonn Balance's voice.

If I'd talked to Dog about this piece, they probably would once again link me to Drew Schorno's piece about "vestigial shamans" (you can find it here). Balance's singing is not about technique, but at the same time it's not as simple as the boomer-like concept of mojo, either. Balance could barely carry a melody through most of the time, to a point where some Coil tracks sound like they'd benefit heavily from a guest vocalist; early on, I believe, Coil — perhaps Balance himself — must have been convinced that was the case too, and for proof just look at the plethora of external one-off collaborators brought in the fold (among many notable names, one stands tall: the legendary JG Thirlwell). Then you try to actually substitute Balance, or maybe even sing your own version of the track, and it doesn't work anymore*. It simply stops being compelling in a way that is very hard to quantify. Yet another name popping up from the Autechre piece, i.e. that of Tom Waits: it's that lived-life element mixed with the more strictly performance-related aspects of vocal interpretation that makes the difference, sure, but it's about how you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Tom Waits achieves this by virtue of his life-long effort to turn into his own character, i.e. by way of sheer commitment to the bit if you're so inclined; Jhonn Balance — ironic that, of these two, he should be the one using an actual pseudonym — does that by simply being a vestigial shaman, a person so profoundly wired for jumping in and out of some other world that he seemed, for better or for worse, to be unable to stop doing that.

*There is, of course, only one exception to this rule, and that is Rose McDowall, i.e. most likely a vestigial shaman herself, at least judging by her Facebook. I am lucky enough to be her virtual friend on there, and she seems like an incredibly endearing person — speaking frankly, I'd love to buy her a drink and have a conversation at one point…

The shamanicity (is that even a word?) of Coil is stunningly matched by the sound design and production: so materic it's tangible, so abstract it forces you to wonder what's on the other side of the door. You don't always want to know. In the summer of 2016 I was listening to Batwings in a dark room, for some reason, and there was a crucifix in this room; I shone a flashlight on it and the crucifix projected its shadow on the wall and at that point I very distinctly felt something powerfully trying to make its way through my ribs, into my chest. I immediately left the room. To this day this remains the sole thing in my entire life that made me firmly and unequivocally grasp possibilities beyond what we see normally. And as much as I love waxing poetic over Balance's lyrics and vocals, in this case I believe it was mostly the repetitive, simple keyboard figure — it's almost as if they'd managed to shrink down a church organ and you could now play it, volume obviously adjusted for size, within your breast pocket. But the whole array of clicks and pops, or the insanely advanced vocal processing, displayed throughout the Musick to Play in the Dark/Moon's Milk era really elevates the composition and arrangements to new heights, making them a true spectacle to listen to even on the most low-specs sound systems.

The beautiful thing is that Coil doesn't necessarily need the extra bells and whistles and, more importantly, that they know when and where to use them. This is on display throughout most of their discography, but nowhere is it clearer than on The Ape of Naples, a posthumous record that is entirely built to represent Balance's aural eulogy. One of the most overlooked tracks on the record, I'd argue, is Tattooed Man, basically a simple pop song revolving around laid-back percussion and a simple accordion melody — until, of course, Balance himself intervenes almost shouting a tale of dead lookalikes, of love and hate, of self-image and acceptance (or lack thereof) of finality. It's hard to explain why this track would be more touching to me than the more openly emotional Fire of the Mind (link) (which has one of the best opening verses in the history of recorded music, if you ask me) or Going Up (my main issue with this one is that it comes after Teenage Lightning and Amber Rain, both incredible tracks that scarred me for life — in a positive way, but I do realize its necessity in the economy of the full record of course. It just is). I guess it's touching to find that at the end of the line, even resolute spiritworld straddlers get a bit scared of their own powers. But after all, the main requisite for being a shaman is feeling more than the others — being, maybe, more human than the others.

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#schismusic #musica #music #coil #coil band #jhonn balance #peter christopherson #long form content #Youtube #Bandcamp #schism writing

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pyrrhocorax · 7 months

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Hetalia ask thing— 8,9,19,37,38

sorry for not responding to this sooner, universe has tried to destroy me the last few weeks but i am stronger and i won. 8 - Who doesn't fold their socks? it's america for me. i think he folds them sometimes but he's also just kinda like Whatever about it. i mean i am american and i fold my socks, but going by vibe of this country as a whole, We Def Do Not. 9 - Favorite fan-made video? LORD okay gonna reveal my age here. i spent a ton of time on niconico (basically like japanese youtube) when i was first into hetalia in like 2007-2010 and there was a song/video meme of this high tension/low tension song, and someone did it with dennor and i Loved it. idk how the hell i would find it now. I also remember there being a lot of cool cosplay group videos back in the day, or actual model U.N. sessions at cons with hetalia cosplayers RPing their characters but with actual national policy stuff they tried to resolve Issues Somewhat Seriously (and as a former M.U.N. kid myself before i was a hetalia fan, i Loved that for us). just ain't the same as it used to be. 19 - Who owns the shittiest phone by choice? i had several immediate thoughts 1. austria because he's 1. fairly frugal and 2. he prob doesn't know what a jpeg is and 3. has better things to do. he just doesn't seem to be like a guy who super cares about technology that much and i can see him having the same phone he's had for ages as a result. 2. there is one version of america that has the latest iphone and trades his phone in constantly for the biggest and best phone on the market and is Tech Obsessed, but there is also another version of america that would have the crappiest phone whose protective case is duct taped together and the screen is terribly cracked and somehow it is still working even though it keeps flinging out of his pocket at violent speeds when he's doing donuts in a ATV. but honestly they are probably one and the same america. he keeps getting great new phones and then destroying them equally as fast. that sure does sound like some shit this country would do. 37 - Who has the most pets? depends on what you mean by pets since i think a lot of nations have some cool/significant relationships with animals, but those animals are not always officially Owned by them? like greece is around a lot of cats in canon, but are they His cats our just cats that are around him. is there a difference???? so i don't know. i will say i don't see norway owning any pets in modern day, personally, but i have reasons for that. 38 - Who needs a phat joint? fucking everyone. you know how hard it is to be a nation. the horrors they have witnessed over and over again. give them a break!!!!!!!!!!! if i have to choose one, it's ned, but not because i thinks he needs one more than everyone else. i just really want to be in a blunt rotation with the netherlands, but i also know that would probably Kill Me Instantly.

#pyrrhocorax ask #thank you for the ask! sorry it took forever!!!!!

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apollosgiftofprophecy · 8 months

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not sure if anyone's asked you this before/yet, but so you have any opinions or thoughts of the relationship between all of the pantheons? general relationship and possibly some more personal ones?

I've read many different headcanons and fanfiction where people have mentioned their thoughts on it, but nothing they've ever gone into detail about.

there's nothing really preventing them from interacting *👀 I keep remembering the smallest tiniest hint of freypollo we got* but that doesn't mean they go out of their way doing it, yk?

OKAY SO-

The pantheons I'll be mainly focusing on are the Greek, Roman, Norse, & Egyptian ones. I'll probably make little nods to other ones too tho :3

Don't be surprised if this mainly centers on Apollo XD He's my guy <3

GREEK & ROMAN

Let's kick it off with these two!

"But aren't they the same-?"

Nope! The Roman pantheon started off as their own sets of gods - the thing is, they had very little myths written down so we don't know much about how they were characterized :(

Howmever. We do know that when they were synchronized with Greece's gods, you can see the little differences between them - for instance, the Roman gods were more Forces Of Nature than gods who went out and Did Stuff, like Greece's.

Jupiter for example! He didn't have the "fucks around" rep Zeus does! Jupiter from the Roman's perspective didn't go out and do much. He rooted on Aeneus, yes, but the myths of his children weren't quite as popular in Rome as they were in Greece (probably because they were. ya know. Greek heroes, and not Roman)

And Apollo. Oh, Apollo...the only major god who didn't have a Latin equivalent.

Rome loved you so much they adopted you and went "no. no. he was always here. no we aren't lying. see? he's in the Dii Consentes!" XD

Fun Fact: Apollo is basically multiple gods in a trench coat. Paion (Mycenean), Smitheus (Mycenean), Aplu (Etruscan), Apaulinus (Hittie), Grannus (Celtic), ect were all Apollo-equivalents who historians have concluded to be past incarnations of Apollo!

which is INTERESTING because...do those gods still exist in the RRverse? Are they connected to Apollo in some way? Are they little voices in his head? DO THEY HAVE DRINKS TOGETHER?

I have questions and I need answers.

Greek & Egyptian

Saving the Norse for last because we all wanna save Freypollo for last <3 the best for last lmao

RIGHT OFF THE BAT I'M GONNA SAY THAT ZEUS DOESN'T LIKE THE OTHER PANTHEONS! I BET HE DOESN'T!

Which sucks for him because Apollo has friends in Egypt XD

I do think Apollo and Horus would be friends! Not only are they both associated with the sun in some way, but they were actually identified with each other when Greece met Egypt!

Greece: Oh so you have a super-powerful son of the king of the gods associated with light? So do we! :D

Egypt: Oh my gosh we do! :D

You know the myth of Typhon? Apollo transformed into a hawk to escape, and you know who has a hawk head?

Horus. :D

also Horus took over the thrown from Osiris - sure, not in an overthrow way but still. he overthrew Set and claimed the throne

sounds like something we all want hmm...

Also, I headcanon that Helios and Ra go WAAAAYYYY back and Apollo only met Ra like. once. before Isis did her blackmailing and Ra disappeared.

SO WHEN RA CAME BACK, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN DURING HOO BTW, APOLLO HAS NO IDEA! HE'S ON DELOS AT THAT POINT! THEN HIS TRIALS!

So when he rolls up to the next sun god meeting he sees Ra and is like "wait what who are you- OH WAIT!"

And Ra's like; "WHO LET THIS CHILD BE PUT IN CHARGE OF THE SUN???"

Apollo: I'm over 4,000 years old-

Ra, pointing: BABY

(Headcanon that Ra & Amaterasu are like. the defacto sun god 'leaders' who keep the meetings rolling. Amaterasu was very tired when Ra disappeared and she had to wrangle these fiery gods together XD)

(Also Helios thought Horus was a lil' upstart XD)

Finally, I also saw someone else mention that Apollo could have learned some Egyptian magic and used it to create the border of CHB!

Headcanon Hecate snuck along with him and it's their little secret :3

Greek & Norse

HERE. WE. ARE.

LEMME GET MY MAP OUT

SO.

Green highlight is where Greece is. Blue is where Hyperborea is (see this post for details)

In that post, I came to the conclusion that Apollo Totally Definitely Has Met Norse Gods BECAUSE OF HIS WINTER VACATIONS!

AND IF YOU LOOK ACROSS THE BALTIC SEA-

STOCKHOLM.

AND WHERE DID APOLLO MEET THAT HOT GOD WITH A TALKING SWORD???

A TAVERN. IN. STOCKHOLM!

FREYPOLLO LIVES (<-knows very well it's basically already canon XD)

Fun fact: the people of Hyperborea were most likely the mythological avatars of the Norse people! :D

SO I CONCLUDE-

Apollo takes a trip across the Baltic Sea and flirts in the Stockholm tavern and that's how Freypollo happens <3

Other Pantheon Thoughts

Hindu: This thought came while I was creating my @underrated-lovers-of-apollo-poll - Apollo & Indra!

They shared an elephant ride that one time! Wouldn't it be fun if they also kissed? :3

also Indra is a storm god with thunder and lightning think of the angst-

Shinto: Amaterasu taught Apollo Japanese when he discovered the haiku for the first time - sadly, only Athena ever bothered to learn it to experience the haiku in its fullest. pushing my sibling agenda again haha

Because haikus always sound better in their native language <3

Hittie: This connects to the 'Apollo trenchcoat' thing earlier - if Apollo is like. the current form of Apaulinus, would the Hittie pantheon like. drop in from time to time like 'heyyyy we miss you <3'

Apollo: *trojan war flashbacks*

Apaulinus was heavily associated with Wilusa, whom historians have confirmed was Troy, and Apollo's first temple doesn't show up under AFTER the bronze age collapse and the war happened BEFORE that happened meaning HE WAS APAULINUS WHEN THE WAR HAPPENED MY HEART-

i need to look into more pantheons. it's so much fun making these connections and coming up with headcanons for the RRverse :3

#the oracle speaks #ramblings of an oracle #the trials of apollo #apollo #zeus #pjo apollo #pjo zeus #pjo jupiter #pjo helios #tkc horus #tkc ra #tkc set #pjo hecate #mcatgoa frey #freypollo #rrverse indra #rrverse amaterasu

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iturbide · 1 year

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Sorry you don't mind me asking a few 5, 9, 11, 18, and 23 from the video game ask.

Thank you.

I don't mind at all! 💖

Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

You know at one point in time I would have said Final Fantasy XVI, but everything I've heard for months about it has been a never-ending trash fire so now I'm mostly looking forward to it to see how bad it is.

I'm kind of interested in the new Prince of Persia game that they just announced, though? That could be interesting -- it's the first Prince of Persia they've put out in more than a decade at this point, since the Sands of Time Remake has been mired in development hell, and while I'm forever bitter they didn't continue the story from 2008, this one looks very stylish and could be worth looking into.

Also: Hades II.

A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

For recent games, I might actually have to go with God of War 2018 and God of War: Ragnarok again for this one, because it's very hard to go into games blind anymore. It used to be the norm, but spoilers are everywhere at this point: I knew the time travel twist of Awakening years before I played it, and the same is true of Breath of the Wild since I was so late to the party there. But God of War isn't a franchise I followed, so I knew nothing about the 2018 installment before I picked it up, and was blown away by what they did with it -- then I started Ragnarok on Release Day and blazed through it as fast as I could. I had no idea what was coming, and it was a glorious experience.

For older games, though...I'm going to say Assassin's Creed III, in part because of the tutorial chapters and how that reveal five hours in that you've been playing as a Templar sets up the core ethos of the game so well: that the Assassins and the Templars aren't as different as they claim to be. No heroes, only flawed and complicated human beings doing what they feel is right to try and make a better world, and how they don't always succeed despite their best intentions.

Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory?

I think it really depends on the game. Some stories really benefit from having a character with a set personality and backstory because it informs how they interact within the setting: Kratos with his history in Greece and his war against the pantheon is ideally suited for the story of God of War 2018, because those experiences guide how he interacts with his son -- and growing out of that mold, learning to be more open with Atreus and be better than the man he used to be is part of the game's emotional core. That wouldn't work with a blank slate character, because they won't necessarily have that baggage to work through that makes the story so impactful.

By contrast, there are games where a blank slate protagonist is a great choice. Games with dialogue options are a great place to explore this because they let the player project themselves or their vision of the character into the world better than set scenes would otherwise allow. My understanding is that Dragon Age does this well, but I haven't played that one, so I have to fall back on Elder Scrolls and my boy The Worst Dragonborn who keeps forgetting about the main questline because he'd rather read every book in the Whiterun Library and get suckered into helping every little old lady that needs to cross the street rather than. Y'know. Figure out what the deal is with the dragons. Very fun having so many options for what to do and who to join, lots of great character-building potential.

A game location you really like

There are so many places in games that I really love. Honestly one of my oldest favorites is probably the first Assassin's Creed, specifically Jerusalem: the golden glow of that city, especially compared to the cold and dreary grey of Acre, was just glorious, and I loved the view of the Dome of the Rock.

Honorable mention to basically all of Wind Waker, though. I love the sailing in that game, the water has so much character in that game (the stormy seas, the way you'll rise and fall with the waves, the texture changes between little white wave caps and still dappled waters). I've never had as much fun sailing in another game, and I was hooked on the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag sea shanties -- sailing in that game was just a chore that the shanties made more bearable.

A “Wow” moment of awe

All of Journey? So much of journey. That sand slide passage, silhouetted against the setting sun against a sea of shining gold...and the ascendance at the end, too, from the top of the mountain up above the clouds (something that's even more glorious with a companion).

Also: end of Okami, with Issun spreading his paintings and restoring mankind's belief in the gods to give Ammy the power to defeat Yami. I have my issues with the ending of Okami and the sudden tonal shift from Japanese folklore to high-tech aliens, but that particular scene hits perfectly even now. I inevitably tear up at that part.

🎮 Video Game Asks 🎮

#answered #alerawolf #video game asks #cut for length because it got so long #i have a lot to say about video games #i've played a lot and there's even more i own and need to start

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icarianiscariot · 1 year

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neptune, descendent, virgo, sagittarius? big love 💜💜💜💖💖💖

SAMMY ty for the ask!!!!

neptune - are you a rational or intuitive person?

HMMM i think i tend toward intuitive but there usually ends up being rationality behind it?? i have pretty good pattern recognition skills that feel intuitive. maybe the most accurate answer is "rational disguised as intuitive" lmao

descendent - what kind of people do you usually attract?

this is a hard question HMM i feel like usually creative, intelligent people on the positive side. i enjoy a variety of kinds of art and i think bc of that i attract similar-minded people. i also don't rlly tend to take a lot of bullshit (from people i'm close to - i'm much less confrontational with strangers/acquaintances) so i keep a good circle of straightforward communicative friends. of course, on the flip side, that also attracts less pleasant people, but it's usually pretty easy to cut those types out of my life. idk i've also had a very bad record of accidentally attracting drama-starters/enjoyers which is never any fun. probably bc i am accidentally too nice and usually try to maintain any friendship even when i shouldn't... (intuitive brain: hmmm i don't think i want to be close with this person... / rational brain, one year later when they start shit and wreck a friend group: ah, the pattern recognition worked. unfortunately this did not prevent the bad consequences from happening. wack.)

virgo - do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

in some aspects yes, in some aspects no. i'm easily frustrated when things don't go how i want them to, and easily disappointed when i don't get things perfect. HOWEVER i am also very good at being like "did i do my best? no. does it matter? ....also no" and moving on

sagittarius - what places would you like to travel in the future?

SO MANY AHHHH. instinctive first answers were greece and iceland. japan. australia. i will leave it at that so i don't just start listing off everywhere in the world bc...... yeah LMAO

send me astrology-themed asks from this list!

#answered #sammy #hopeswept #astrology asks #thank u sam!!! <3

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lyranova · 2 years

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I have a question in black clover again😅😍

1--This thing doesn't bother me at first but after the spoilers of chapter 343 that make me think . All the devil hosts in devil union have normal red eyes but asta have a star red eye

And the design of his headband in the back was a red star (since the debut of the series)

And his aura when he use all the power there's stars too and his name in Greece means " a star"

Can you theorize about that ? Is asta has a connection to the stars and we don't forget about yuno's star magic ... . That make me think that asta and yuno have a connection (as souls) from the start and they should be together that's why they ended up together in the same time at the churche

2-- what 's asta's name mean?? In different language and in demenologie and the god astaridie of love and "aster " the flower of October (asta's birthday is 4th october) . The devil of time "astaroth" . tabata did a good job of reassemble names but really how he put the asta name and to reference what??

For the second time 😅 sorry about that long hhh give me your answer and theory if you have

Hiya! No worries, ask all the questions you’d like 🥰! I’m gonna tag one of my moots @wildflowerwoodsworld because she probably has better answers then I do 😅😁! (If any of my other moots have anything they’d like to add please feel free too!)

1. Hm, it could be a hint to something more (his star eye and the design of his headband) or it could just be a stylistic choice on Tabs part to connect him and Yuno 🤔. But don’t forget that Asta does have 2 spells called “Meteorites” (Mirror Meteorite and Black Meteorite) so it could be that Yuno is associated with stars while Asta is associated with Meteors instead of actual stars? They both have that “space” connection but whether there’s more to it then that (ie; their “souls” being connected) I have no idea 😅!

2. Imo I think Asta’s name could be a hint to Astaroth, at least that seems to be the most likely 😅! The other meanings (such as Aster being the flower for October) could just be…nods? If that makes sense, I don’t think his name is associated with them. Personally I think it either has something to do with Astaroth, or maybe love since Liebe’s name means “Love” in German 🤔? Maybe Tabs wanted the fans/readers to know just how much Asta and Liebe were loved by naming them after such? It’s really anyones guess, but I lean more towards Astaroth or the “naming them after love”.

No worries about it being long or about sending asks, everyone is always free to send in theories or ideas, and I’ll try to answer it the best I can 😁. But if I don’t feel like I covered everything I usually tag my moots who are more well versed in the lore then I 🥰!

#asks #2905sworld #black clover spoilers #black clover theory

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wishesunderthestars · 2 years

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Hey!!! I just want to wish the greatest author I know happy holidays!!! please eat lots because I surely did!!! LOL. Anyways, I just wanna say the Eunoia is so much lighter to read now. And I am loving it 🥰 🥰🥰 Will we be seeing more Yoongi and Mc interaction more? or is Jimin finally going to get Kookie😍😍😍. Anyways, whatever you decide I know it’s gonna be great!! I do have a question though? How is Taetae? Is he still afraid? Poor baby!! Please protect him in all cause🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼. And umm I dont want to ask this cause you might feel pressured, but are you gonna write a “christmas chapter” for them? like bangtan and mc celebrating christmas and exchanging gifts?🎄🎄🎄. Sorry I grew up loving these holidays. Please dont feel like you have to though!! Thank you for not getting tired on writing these new chapters! And thank you for the Yoongi drabble!! Take care always. 💋

Hello!! Happy holidays!! The greatest author you know? 🥺 That's so sweet!! I'm back home for the holidays but I'm still studying a lot and now I'm packing because I'm leaving tomorrow. I do eat quite a lot because wherever I go they give us the traditional Greek Christmas sweets and I love them. I have been preparing a little something, something small as a a gift and I was planning to post it on New Year's because that's when we exchange gifts in Greece but unfortunately I couldn't finish it in time and now I don't know if I should post it when it's done because it'll probably take a few more days and the holidays will be over by then 😅

We'll see a lot of interaction between the mc and all the hybrids in the future but especially with Yoongi and Taehyung. And we all know that Jimin and Jungkook are going to finally have that kiss without any fear this time. Taehyung is... better. He isn't afraid anymore, not exactly, but he still doesn't know how he should act and what is expected of him.

Happy New Year!!!I'm wishing you all the best! And sorry for taking so long to answer 💜💜

#asks

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trinity-mia · 4 months

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a story as endless as the ocean

the titan's curse

0.3 bianca di angelo changes her future

warnings : allie and thalia cry a bit, some despair for flavor, mentions of allie leaving nico for the wolves

word count : 4.0k

0.3 Determination Can Often Be Mistaken for Disrespect (But I Don't Care, Don't Get in My Way)

I had to clench my teeth to keep myself from sobbing, but even though finding Luke and Brylie were my top priority, I had more pressing issues to deal with. Artemis looked me over, as if trying to see my list of skills just by looking at me.

Through my anguish, I gave her a polite curtsy. She smiled and nodded, as if she was hoping I'd do that. I saw Grover look from me to Artemis, trying to figure out why she was important. Then it clicked.

He gasped, then knelt hastily in the snow and started yammering, "Thank you, Lady Artemis! You're so... you're so... Wow!"

Thalia evidently disagreed with his dramatic actions as much as I did. "Get up, goat boy!" she snapped. "We have other things to worry about. Luke and Brylie are gone!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "Priorities, Grover. Our best friend, remember him? The one who just got dragged over a cliff and somehow disappeared along with our other friend who has already been kidnapped once in her life and is only fourteen!"

He scrambled back to his hooves, looking guilty. But before he could say anything, someone else spoke up first.

"Whoa," Bianca di Angelo said. "Hold up. Time out."

Everybody looked at her. She pointed her finger at all of us in turn, like she was trying to connect the dots. "Who... who are you people?"

Artemis's expression softened. "It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who you are! Who are your parents?"

Bianca glanced nervously at her brother, who was still staring in awe at Artemis.

"Our parents are dead," Bianca replied. "We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but..."

She faltered. I guess she could tell from our faces that we didn't believe her.

"What?" she demanded, sounding defensive. "I'm telling the truth."

"You are a half-blood," Zoe told her. Her accent was from Ancient Greece and she spoke Old English. I knew that she was Artemis' oldest living Hunter, based on the seniority head piece, but couldn’t gather much else. "One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian."

"An Olympian... athlete?"

"No," Zoe said. "One of the gods."

"Cool!" Nico declared, sounding and looking utterly thrilled. He didn't seem to understand the reality of the circumstances at all. Bianca seemed less delusional.

"No!" her voice quavered. "This is not cool!"

Nico danced around excitedly, hopping from one leg to the other. "Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points for—"

"Nico, shut up!" Bianca put her hands to her face. "This is not your stupid Mythomagic game, okay? There are no such things as gods!"

As anxious as I felt about Luke and Brylie— all I wanted to do was search for them— I couldn't help feeling sorry for the di Angelos. I had been through that before, too. Though, I had accepted it a little too easily. Too many dots had started connecting, but that was by no means a normal reaction. Plus, Bianca was probably twelve, at most. Her rational thinking skills had to be called into doubt for at least a moment.

Thalia must've been feeling something similar, because the anger in her eyes subsided a little bit. "Bianca, I know it's hard to believe. But the gods are still around. Trust me. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well... Our lives are dangerous."

"Dangerous," Bianca said, "like the two who fell."

I caught my breath, feeling as if I had just been punched in the stomach. Thalia turned away and Grover looked stricken. Even Artemis looked pained. My sympathy drained quickly.

"You know, you could have a little respect," I spat dryly. "They fell protecting the two of you." Bianca winced at my tone and Nico's seeming unfading grin faded just slightly.

"Do not despair for your friends, Allie. If they can be found, I will find them," Artemis said gently, putting a hand on my shoulder. Thalia, who'd been caught up in her own thoughts, openly glared at the goddess' hand. She seemed suspicious of the gesture.

"When we get back to camp, we're going on a quest to find them," I said, directing my statement towards Thalia and Grover, the former of which nodded determinedly and the latter of which was still staring at Artemis and mumbled something along the lines of, "Uh-hufnmmm."

Artemis gave me a small grimace. "Allie, be careful—"

"I know, be careful with what I say, what I do, where I go. I know. I've been told plenty of times. I mean no disrespect, but please, stop trying to tell me what to do."

Zoe looked outraged that I even thought about interrupting Artemis, but the lady in question seemed quite fine with my response.

"I can give you that, Allie. Magic is at work, I'm sure you can sense it. It will be a grueling process to find your friends, know that."

"Oo!" Nico raised his hand, like we were in a mortal classroom or something. He didn't appear affected by the possibility of the greatest guy I'd ever known having been captured to save him anymore. Bad trade, I thought silently. Brylie Burkett for an over-excited kid and Luke Castellan, the closest-to-perfect guy there is, for an in-denial older sister. How the Hades did that work?

"What about Dr. Thorn?" Nico asked, looking gleeful. "It was awesome how you shot him with arrows! Is he dead?"

"He was a manticore," Artemis said. "Hopefully he is destroyed for now, but monsters never truly die. They re-form over and over again, and they must be hunted whenever they reappear."

"Or they'll hunt us," Thalia added darkly as she turned back, her composure restored once again. I couldn't help but notice her mascara was slightly smudged, and her eyes shone. We gave each other a side hug, for support.

Bianca shivered. "That explains... Nico, you remember last summer, those guys who tried to attack us in the alley in DC?"

"And that bus driver," Nico said, starry-eyed. "The one with the ram's horns. I told you that really happened."

"That's why Grover has been watching you," I said. "To keep you safe, if you turned out to be half-bloods. He's a protector, a really good one." One that had found both the only children of the Big Three born in decades. That made something hit at the back of my mind, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I shrugged and dismissed it. It'd come back to me.

"Grover?" Bianca stared at him. "You're a demigod?"

"Well, a satyr, actually." He kicked off his shoes and displayed his goat hooves. I thought Bianca was going to faint right then and there.

"Grover, put your shoes back on," Thalia ordered. "You're freaking her out."

"Hey, my hooves are clean!"

"Bianca," I said, cutting in. "We came here to help you. You and Nico need training to survive. Doctor Thorn won't be the last monster you meet. You need to come to camp."

"Camp?" she repeated questioningly.

"Camp Half-Blood," I explained, the familiar spiel falling off my tongue without thinking about it.

Good thing too. I didn't want to be thinking. I wanted to figure out where Luke and Brylie were. Though, Luke always said I was way better with kids than he was. That I just had this air about me. Like I'd rip the world apart to protect the ones I cared about.

"It's where half-bloods learn to survive and navigate the world as a demigod. You can join us, stay there year-round if you like."

"Sweet, let's go!" said Nico, jumping in place. Oh yeah, this kid had ADHD alright.

"Wait," Bianca shook her head. "I don't—"

"There is another option," Zoe said.

"No, there isn't!" Thalia said.

My first thoughts told me I didn't care if Bianca joined the hunters or not. Then, my second thought told me all contact between her and her brother would be practically nonexistent. I could tell that little boy's life depended on her. How could she leave him, just like that? However, you could tell Bianca didn't exactly like being the center of her little brother's world. She'd done it for years. I knew she'd give anything for a break.

"We've burdened these children enough," Artemis announced. "Zoe, we will rest here for a few hours. Raise the tents. Treat the wounded. Retrieve our guests' belongings from the school."

"Yes, my lady."

"And, Bianca, come with me. I would like to speak with you."

"What about me?" Nico asked.

Artemis considered the boy. "Perhaps you can show Grover how to play that card game you enjoy. I'm sure Grover would be happy to entertain you for a while... as a favor to me?"

Grover just about tripped over himself getting up. "You bet! Come on, Nico!"

Nico and Grover walked off toward the woods, talking about hit points and armor ratings and a bunch of other geeky stuff. Artemis led a confused-looking Bianca along the cliff while the Hunters began unpacking their knapsacks and making camp.

Zoe gave Thalia one more evil look and gave me a once-over, then left to oversee things.

As soon as she was gone, Thalia stamped her foot in frustration. "The nerve of those Hunters! They think they're so... Argh!"

I didn't answer. Something brightly-colored in the snow had caught my eye. When I bent to pick it up, I heard Thalia's breath catch in her throat, and tears blurred my vision. It was Luke's Camp Half-Blood necklace.

Thalia didn't say another word. She wiped a tear from her cheek, turned, and marched off, leaving me alone with a damaged necklace in the snow. I pulled Luke’s jacket tighter around me.

The Hunters set up their camping site in a matter of minutes. Seven large tents, all of silver silk, curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. One of the girls blew a silver dog whistle, and a dozen white wolves appeared out of the woods. They began circling the camp like guard dogs. The Hunters walked among them and fed them treats. Falcons watched us from the trees, their eyes flashing in the firelight, and I suspected that they were on guard duty, too. Even the weather seemed to bend to the goddess' will. The air was still cold, but the wind died down and the snow stopped falling, so it was almost pleasant sitting by the fire.

Almost... except for the guilt weighing me down. I couldn't believe Brylie was gone. I couldn't believe Luke was gone. And all that I could think was that it was my fault. If I hadn't lost my balance and been knocked over, I could have stopped Thorn from grabbing them. I thought about how tired Luke had looked, when we'd danced together for half a song, and my heart felt even heavier.

He had been tired for over a year. Ever since I waltzed into his life he hadn't gotten a proper rest. It was one thing after another, with him wanting to make sure I was safe, no matter what I did. And me, being the stupid, impossible, stubborn girl that I was, dragged him along with me. He didn't complain and he was always there. I wiped away a stray tear.

I watched Thalia pacing in the snow at the edge of camp, walking among the wolves without fear. Of course, they were only trained to hate monsters and men. Not maidens. She stopped and looked back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark, looming on the hillside beyond the woods. I wondered what she was thinking.

Seven years ago, Thalia had been turned into a pine tree by her father, to prevent her from dying. She'd stood her ground against an army of monsters on top of Half-Blood Hill in order to give Luke time to get to safety with Annabeth and Grover. She had only been back as a human for a few months now, and once in a while, she would stand so still that you would think she was still a tree.

Finally, one of the Hunters brought me my suitcase. Grover and Nico came back from their walk, and Grover helped me bandage up a few scratches I'd gotten.

Nico rummaged through his bag, which the Hunters had packed for him. He laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow— little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I recognized Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot. They were surprisingly accurate representations of the gods back in the Ancient days.

"Big collection," I said.

Nico grinned. "I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones."

"You've been playing this game a long time?"

"Just this year. Before that..." He knit his eyebrows.

"What?" I asked.

"I can't remember. That's weird." He looked unsettled, but it didn't last long. "Hey, can I see those swords you were using?"

I pulled off my jewelry and turned them into their weapon form. I showed him Riptide and Shaker, and explained that I was one of the sword instructors at camp. Thinking about Luke and I sharing classes only made my mood plunge again, though.

"Cool! Where'd you get those from?"

"My father gave them to Chiron, the same centaur from the stories, and told Chiron to give them to me when I came. From what I've heard, Riptide has a tragic past and Shaker has a lot more power than I think. Though, Riptide has been around for centuries. Shaker was made specifically for me."

"Awesome! Didn't you jump off that cliff earlier? How'd you get the water to do that?"

"My father's Poseidon. I can do a lot of things when it comes to the sea and... basically most of Poseidon's domains." He nodded excitedly, then continued with his grilling.

"Are you really the daughter of Poseidon?"

"Yes. Didn't I just say that?"

"Wicked! Can you control earthquakes and stuff, then?"

"Uh, I dunno," I shifted. "I've never tried... intentionally, at least." When I glanced at Grover, he was trying hard not to laugh.

He went on asking questions. Was Thalia argumentative, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Luke had so much experience, why hadn't he known better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Luke my boyfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)

I figured any second he was going to ask me how many hit points I had, and I'd lose my cool completely, but then Zoe Nightshade came up to us.

"Astraea Jackson." She studied me like I was some trophy that needed to be added to the collection of Hunters. Luke didn't know this, but on one of my most recent trips out of camp, I'd run into the hunters, who'd asked me if I wanted to join. I said I'd think about it and managed to get out of it.

The thing was, though, I did think about it. Last year, when Luke and I were in the Sea of Monsters, we'd run into Circe, who'd offered to teach me to be a sorceress. She said I'd be immortal, all-powerful. At the time I was too mad to even listen to her, but when the hunters ran into me...

"Come with me," she ordered me. "Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee."

Zoe led me to the last tent, which looked no different from the others, and waved me inside. Bianca di Angelo was seated next to Artemis, who was cross-legged on the ground.

The inside of the tent was warm and comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the floor. In the center, a golden brazier of fire seemed to burn without fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak display stand, was her huge silver bow, carved to resemble gazelle horns. The walls were hung with animal pelts: black bear, tiger, and several others I didn't recognize. I figured an animal rights activist would've had a heart attack looking at all those rare skins, but maybe since Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, she could replenish whatever she shot. I thought she had another animal pelt lying next to her, and then I realized it was a live animal— a deer with glittering fur and silver horns, its head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap.

"Join us, Astraea Jackson," the goddess said. I wished that she wouldn't use my full name. Only people wanting to kill me used my full name, and I didn't fancy my chances against this particular goddess. Ares, I apparently could take, but Artemis? She had a little bit of everything. No matter how cocky Luke said I was, I knew I didn't compare to her.

I sat across from her on the tent floor. The goddess studied me, which made me uncomfortable. Gods looking at you like you were a science project had to be a health hazard, right?

Zoe sat down at Artemis's right. She continued to gaze at me. I shifted a little, pulling my legs to the side of me to be more comfortable.

"We have a few things to discuss, as you know. But my important question can wait. I've asked you here so that you might first tell me more of the manticore. Bianca has reported some of the... mmm, disturbing things the monster said. But she may not have understood them. I'd like to hear them from you."

And so I told her everything I'd heard. It wasn't a lot, but for her, it seemed to be enough.

When I was done, Artemis put her hand thoughtfully on her silver bow. "I feared this was the answer."

Zoe sat forward. "The scent, my lady?"

"Yes."

"What scent?" I asked.

"Things are stirring that I have not hunted in millennia," Artemis murmured. "Prey so old I had nearly forgotten."

She stared at me intently. "We came here tonight sensing the manticore, but he was not the one I seek. Tell me again, exactly what Doctor Thorn said."

"He... I think I might've heard him say something about a general explaining things, or something like that." Bianca nodded, as if it matched what she heard

Zoe's face paled. She turned to Artemis and started to say something, but Artemis raised her hand.

"Go on, Allie," the goddess said.

"Well, then Thorn was talking about something that he called the 'Great Stirring', and he said, 'Soon we shall have the most important monster of all— the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus’."

The goddess was so still she could've been a statue.

"Maybe he was lying," I suggested hopefully, albeit a bit sarcastically.

Artemis shook her head. "No. He was not. I've been too slow to see the signs. I must hunt this monster."

Zoe looked like she was trying very hard not to be afraid, but she nodded. "We will leave right away, my lady."

"No, Zoe. I must do this alone."

"But, Artemis—"

"This task is too dangerous even for the Hunters. You know where I must start my search. You cannot go there with me."

"As... as you wish, my lady."

"I will find this creature," Artemis vowed. "And I shall bring it back to Olympus by the winter solstice. It will be all the proof I need to convince the Council of the Gods of how much danger we are in."

"You know what the monster is?" I asked.

Artemis gripped her bow. "Let us pray I am wrong."

"Can goddesses pray?" I asked, because I'd never really thought about that. I bet Luke would be curious too.

A flicker of a smile played across Artemis's lips. "Before I go, Astraea Jackson, I have a small task for you."

"Does it involve averting my idea of finding Luke and Brylie?"

"No, dear girl. I want you to escort the Hunters back to Camp Half-Blood. They can stay there in safety until I return."

"What?" Zoe blurted out. "But, Artemis, we hate that place. The last time we stayed there—"

"Yes, I know," Artemis said. "But I'm sure Dionysus will not hold a grudge just because of a little, ah, misunderstanding. It's your right to use Cabin Eight whenever you are in need. Besides, I hear they rebuilt the cabins you burned down."

Zoe muttered something about foolish campers.

"And now there is one last decision to make." Artemis turned to Bianca. "Have you made up your mind, my girl?"

Bianca hesitated. "I'm still thinking about it."

"Wait," I said, though I knew already. Surely she wasn't actually going to abandon her brother who adored her, though? Who did that? "Thinking about what?"

"They... they've invited me to join the Hunt."

"But you can't! What about your brother? Nico can't be a Hunter."

"Certainly not," Artemis agreed. "He will go to camp. Unfortunately, that's the best boys can do."

"You can see him from time to time," Artemis assured Bianca. "But you will be free of responsibility. He will have the camp counselors to take care of him. And you will have a new family. Us."

"A new family," Bianca repeated dreamily. "Free of responsibility."

I was disgusted by her, but I said nothing more, as I could tell she wouldn't be dissuaded. Nico might be annoying, but he was just a kid. He'd need a lot of support from the Hermes cabin to help him get over this betrayal. I hoped that he'd be claimed quickly, so we didn't have to add parental abandonment issues on top of sisterly ones. Gods, what kind of person was she?

She looked at Zoe. "Is it worth it?"

Zoe nodded. "It is."

"What do I have to do?"

"Say this," Zoe told her, "'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis’."

"I... I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis."

"I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt."

Bianca repeated the lines. "That's it?"

Zoe nodded. "If Lady Artemis accepts thy pledge, then it is binding."

"I accept it," Artemis said.

The flames in the brazier brightened, casting a silver glow over the room. Bianca looked no different, but she took a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. "I feel... stronger."

"Welcome, sister," Zoe smiled. It was a strange sight, definitely.

"Remember your pledge," Artemis said. "It is now your life."

I couldn't speak. I felt like a trespasser. And a complete failure. I couldn't believe we'd come all this way and Luke and Brylie had sacrificed themselves, only to lose Bianca to the eternal girls' club.

"And, you should know I mean no harm by saying this, nor do I want to rush your decision, but I'm wondering... have you yourself thought about our offer?" She raised her eyebrows and it felt hard to lie to her, so I didn't.

"I... have. And I’ve decided that it isn’t for me. I enjoy my life as it is, and despite some of the more… unsavory parts of my career, I do enjoy acting and singing. Even the modeling can be enjoyable most of the time. I don’t want to throw my life away.”

Zoe didn’t try to stifle her disbelieving scoff, but simply mumbled under her breath that it was an honor to hunt under Artemis and considering it ‘throwing my life away’ was grossly inaccurate.

Despite Zoe’s reaction, Artemis simply nodded. "I respect that, Allie Jackson. Know, however, that the door is only open for as long as you consider it so," Artemis closed her eyes. "Dawn is approaching. Zoe, break camp. You must get to Long Island quickly and safely. I shall summon a ride from my brother."

Zoe didn't look very happy about this idea, but she nodded and told Bianca to follow her. As she was leaving, Bianca paused in front of me.

"I'm sorry, Allie," she murmured. "But I want this. I really, really do."

You want to abandon your brother? I thought, but I said nothing aloud, simply turned my head away from her to keep my expression neutral. Then she was gone, and I was left alone with the twelve-year-old goddess.

"So," I said glumly. "We're going to get a ride from your brother, huh?"

Artemis's silver eyes gleamed. "Yes, dear girl. You see, Bianca di Angelo is not the only one with an annoying brother. It's time for you to meet my irresponsible twin, Apollo. Be careful. One look and he might pine after you for the rest of your life."

* * *

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#alliejackson #a story as endless as the ocean #asaeato #female percy jackson #lukecastellan #lullie #trinitymia

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