#Delphi Lovelace

[lurkerdelima]

For my OC Delphi, not for me lol

[likeapriceless-wine]

Glory

Another C.J thingy!! This isn't TOTALLY canon yet (???) Like I'm not 100% sure if he'll be getting that quest or not but the rest is canon so like <33 enjoy

I don't think we'll need any content warnings for this one?? It's a tad angsty but I think we're good otherwise!!

@cabin-12-resident-daddy-issues @im-always-highhhh @glowsticks-soda-and-magic @childofthewargod @dawn-lovelace

C.J never felt like enough

Sometimes he felt like he was too much, but never enough

He was never as smart as his brother and sister, and he couldn't read or hear as well as them. He wasn't as fast as his brother or as artistic as his sister, and he never would be

Finding out he was a demigod didn't make that better. At first he didn't think about it too hard, but then he saw quests. He never went on one, but he saw people leave and come back, and he was jealous

The first one he saw was when Clarisse La Rue came back from her secret mission for Chiron to scope out the labyrinth and it's entrances. She was frighteningly beat up and frazzled for someone who looked so strong and tough

He listened in from a distance as the next quest was planned, and Clarisse screamed about how she would never go back into the labyrinth. It almost amazed him to see her deny a quest like that, but the more he heard about the labyrinth, the less he blamed her

He heard it played tricks on the mind, and it was dark and full of monsters and traps, and Clarisse had gone in alone. He snuck into the big house basement and saw Chris one time, too. He knew most dionysus kids had some insanity powers that he was learning to use, so he wanted to see if he could help the poor boy

He couldn't. Chris just kept screaming and crying about the dark, and how he was scared. That was the first time C.J realized just what went down in the labyrinth

Then Annabeth was chosen to lead her quest into the labyrinth. She talked to the old mummy in the attic of the big house, the oracle of delphi, and she got her prophecy and she picked her team

The fact that she picked three other questmates intrigued him, because though he hadn't been here long, Annabeth seemed like she was big on rules

He saw when they came back from that quest. He saw when they flew in on pegasi and swooped down to join the battle of the labyrinth just in time

As an aphrodite kid helped him straighten the battle armor he was sweating in, he saw as Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and Percy all took their respective places in the battle formation

If he hadn't have been scared out of his mind right now, he would've been jealous of their glory. Maybe it wasn't as glorious as it looked through his eyes, but he knew he wanted that someday. He wanted to swoop in and save the day. He wanted people to be happy he was there, not just because they liked him, but because they needed him

He watched people go on more and more quests. Short solo quests, group quests, quests that were huge deals, quests that were went on in secret. He never went on one. While people were on quests he was doing what he always did. Feeling inadequate

He was grateful that he could hang out with the people he loves in the warmth of his cabin when some of his fellow campers were out risking their lives, but that didn't stop his longing

He wanted to go on a quest, a solo quest even! He wasn't picky, and he didn't care, he just wanted to go. He wanted to suit up and pack a bag, and set off on some dangerous mission that he'd return from soon enough

He turned 17 and still hadn't fulfilled that dream of his. He was getting older every day, and still nothing. He'd fought in two wars, sure, but he wanted to go on a quest and come back to pats on the back, to attention, to maybe, if he was really lucky, hear the words 'I'm proud of you' from his father

That was the only reason he wanted the quest. For the glory, for the attention. That was it, really. His undying, all consuming need for attention was one thing that never failed him

Attention was like drugs to him. Some people get drugs from a dealer, C.J gets them from other people's eyes on him, and sometimes from his brother who keeps them in his sports bra

He waited and waited. He longed and listened in to conversations to try and hear about a quest he could snag

Even if he did catch word, beating the ares cabin to it might be harder than the quest itself

But then it finally happened. A volunteer was needed for a quest, another scoping of the labyrinth because there was a 'disturbance' in there

He was beyond quick to volunteer. If he'd have taken a moment to think he would've realized how stupid he was being. The labyrinth was known for driving people insane, and he already wasn't quite right in the head. Not to mention it was dark in there

C.J was terrified of the dark

Nevertheless, he volunteered for the quest. It was a solo quest, so he didn't get to do the whole picking his questmates thing, but that was okay. He didn't want to drag anyone into this with him, not with how dangerous the labyrinth is

He packed his bag and practically sprinted around camp, telling everyone important to him where he was going with a smile on his face

He packed bandages and a needle and thread, a change of clothes, food, a flashlight along with some extra batteries, etcetera etcetera

He wasn't sure what he was going to do when the batteries in his hearing aids died, but he supposed he'd figure that out when he got there

He prayed to his stepmother, the goddess of the labyrinth. He burned some food for her that night at dinner, asking for her protection and guidance, and just saying that he loved her

He always burned food for her, but a little extra tonight

He set out on his quest the next morning

It was bright and early when he bade his see you laters with hugs and kisses and reassuring grins, and then he slung his backpack over his shoulder and set off into the labyrinth, immediately swallowed up by a cool darkness that made the hairs on his arms stand up

[gefdreamsofthesea]

I am also waiting for Witch-Sister but it's not on my list.

The five decks that are on it:

The Sirens Song (Lenormand and Kipper deck) by Carrie Paris and Toni Savory (out already but I'm being good)

Sisters of the Sea by Lucy Cavendish and Amy Brown

Cozy Witch Tarot by Amanda Lovelace and Janaina Medeiros

Seasons of the Witch Imbolc Oracle

Green Witch Oracle by Arin Murphy-Hiscock and Sara Richard

Decks I'm interested in but will wait for reviews or for US Games to actually ship copies to Amazon Canada:

The Förhäxa Tarot

Oracle of Delphi by Suzy Cherub

Dark Magick Oracle by Fiona Horne (hesitating because I have a perception of the author as that "weird reality tv witch" that has never faded)

Witching Hour Oracle by Lorriane Anderson and Olivia Bürki (not to be confused with the Witching Hour Oracle that is already out)

Secrets of the Green Witch (just came out but there's no listing on Amazon.ca)

Rooted Woman Oracle by Sharon Blackie

Moon Goddess Oracle by Nicci Garaicoa (I like the soft palette and the modern art)

Maidens of the Wheel Oracle by Tammy Wampler (not sure how I feel about the art)

The Sacred SHE Tarot by Ma Deva Padma (unsure about this one)

Inspirational Wicca Cards by Davide Marrè and Gonzalo Martinez Moreno

Manifesting with the Fairies by Karen Kay (I love her mermaid deck! Her first fairy deck is fine.)

The Bee Tarot by Kristoffer Hughes and Nadia Turner (really excited for this one)

Decks from Angi Sullins that are a pain in the ass to get here because US Games is like that:

W.I.T.C.H: Woman In Total Control of Herself Oracle

and

Fearless: Fight Like a Girl Oracle

All are subject to change as I view walkthroughs and decide I hate/love the art.

I was able to narrow my tarot and oracle deck Amazon wishlist to five decks, four are preorders. I haven't preordered any just doing a trim.

[chitrolls]

I have no idea how to format this. Putting it into a post instead of an ask felt like the right thing because this turned out way longer than I thought it would. Thank you, @spectrology for the ask! I look forward to answering all the rest. This is really helping me knock some dust off. :)

CONTENT WARNINGS: Nightmares, mention of children in extreme poverty, immolation, and implied canon-compliant body horror that comes from being shoved in a helm, but nothing gory or detailed; just mention of the fear of it.

Running Delphi Electronics was a daymare in the early nights. It didn’t take long for word to get around that there’s a legitimate clairvoyant living around the Stacks and not another one of those boring psychics that flipped some cards and told people to think inwards. Things got so busy that you, Almaaz, and Lovelace (still only going by Rhiana at the time) went down to the old space docks to steal a bench. With things getting so busy, a bench was the only thing between you, your employees, your customers, and a fire code violation. One of the downsides of a combination psychic-electronics repair shop.

Now that you’ve long wizened up and keep your readings on an appointment-only basis, the bench doesn’t get the same traffic it used to. Sometimes the girls and Eli meet out there for their lunch. Or maybe you condemn Tyckho to the bench to keep him from ragequitting when he’s got to clean a spectacularly disgusting PC casing. Even you like to stretch out your long legs and have a quick smoke of herbs and dry mind honey when you feel like you’ve got enough privacy.

Tonight, you’ve got some gutter rat from Grub Town stuffing their face with a couple grilled cheeses. There’s no doubt Amoura is to blame for this. A Glossolalia lifer herself, she grew up in Grub Town until you took her in and gave her a job selling trinkets and oddities at your shop. Seeing scrawny wrigglers running around always gets her upset. Not being able to take it anymore, she put a bunch of sandwich shit in the break room fridge and bought a sandwich press. Kids quite literally started crawling up out of the sewers. It wouldn’t be so bad if they, at the very least, weren’t so sneaky about it.

Your loiterer stares up at you with this massive pair of gray eyes that say they aren’t afraid of you. Even as you take a seat on the far end of the bench, they continue to enjoy their sandwiches. You kind of recognize them through the grime and melted cheese. They know you aren’t a threat, but kids around here know they have to put on some kind of a tough front to keep the city’s adults from squishing them underfoot.

When they do start to ease up a bit, they open their little mouth.

“How do you know when, like. Your dream is a vision and not a dream?”

The streets have been talking about Delphi Vitale and speculating about how his amazing clairvoyant abilities work for sweeps. There’s also the crisp, laminated print affixed to the shop’s window detailing some of the services you provide. In-depth dream visions are one of them. You have to give the kid this stupidly animated shrug in response. It’s the only way to genuinely convey what you’re feeling with your face hidden beneath a heavy hood, some gaudy sunglasses, and a smog mask.

“You kinda just get a feelin’ for it, kid.”

What you’re not going to do right here and now is trauma dump on someone you don’t even know; especially when that someone is a kid trying to suck crumbs and the memory of cheese from beneath their fingernails. Still, you can’t help but wonder how well this kid sleeps during the day.

Growing up, you were a fitful sleeper. You were kept up all hours of the day by this terrifying daymare of a man on fire. You were half this kid’s age, maybe even younger, when the daymares began. Up until that point, you had most of your visions while you were awake with the occasional prediction shoved in some background scene of your rare “normal” dreams. You can admit to yourself that you still find the image of that man scary. Or maybe it was his presence that kept you unnerved.

In the early days of your burning man dreams, he’d be standing right at the side of your pool of sopor slime. You’d try to force yourself awake, but that just made things worse. It made his looming feel all the more heavy and even with your eyes just cracked open, you still saw him there and you always knew it was him by the sight and the smell of his burning flesh and his Empire-issue helmsman uniform.

As you got older, you learned ways to manipulate your dreams. It wasn’t much, but figured out how to fling yourself out of your body and watch your dreams like a fly on the wall. He still loomed over your body as you slept. Your dreams only changed to suit whatever in your life was different as you aged or moved hives. The closer you inched towards young adulthood, it was like the man knew you were not in your body anymore, so he started screaming for your attention.

By this time, you had surrendered yourself to the Empire to join the helmsman program. You felt there was no other way for you to survive with your chrome and, besides, you were doing pretty well for yourself despite it all. You didn’t have to deal with your sleeping daymares and waking ones that came with needing to live under the radar to survive. This new lifestyle also provided you with a small solution that kept you running for nights without needing sleep: charging stations. You’d just plug in for a while and last a couple nights on electrical currents running through your ports and brain without needing so much as a wink.

There were PSAs about running on charging stations for too long, of course, but you were fine. You figured out a system. You’d get at least one good day of sleep after several without and you were peachy. Really, you weren’t. Sometimes you’d get a bad discharge running through your ports that made you jerk and jolt about when the worst of them hit. Once you had a series of them that couldn’t have been more than half a minute, but there he was, just outside the edge of your vision. His screams became resigned sobs.

Maybe that’s why you were so off the night you were finally able to carry out your big assignment. The program wanted you hooked into some newfangled experimental ship built for navigating the more dangerous parts of deep space. A clairvoyant in the column meant they crew could more effectively navigate without getting torn up by microplanet sized space debris or sucked into a dying star.

You tell yourself things went south that night for a number of reasons. One of them being that your discharge was worse than usual. Shit, you were also pretty damn scared of being plugged into a ship for unknown stretches of time without someone around that’ll say it’s time to be dismissed for the night so you could rest your ports and get all your psionic energy back up. You didn’t want to wither away until your body let go of your extremities and eyes and senses to preserve and feed the part of you the Empire found useful.

Unfortunately, it was too late to worry about any of that. Too late to say you don’t want to be in this program. Too late to beg for a different assignment, something planetside where you could use your abilities to predict rebel activities. Too late to do anything about the sparks your ports sent up through the helms column that made an impressively long wick out of your ponytail. And it was way too damn late for you to finally be realizing why you spent your entire life haunted by daymares of a man on fire screaming for his life.

“Yeah… You get a feelin’ for it.”

[lurkerdelima]

I used one of my favorite Picrews to make my favorite spoiled brat Delphi ❤️

[lurkerdelima]

hello! As I have been rambling about on here, I’ve been working on some original fiction lately. I wanted to share a little scene for anyone who’s interested.

Please let me know if you enjoy it!

Thank you to my friends and my partner who have been listening to me go on about these characters and their lives for months. ❤️

—

Delphi taps his fingers restlessly on the arms of the exam chair he’s stretched out in, shirtless, his long hair tucked behind his shoulders.

“Is this gonna hurt?” he jokes. His dad, still setting up his tattoo station, just snorts. “You laugh at all your clients when they ask you an important question, hm?”

“Well, you’re not paying me, so are you really my client, or just my favorite freeloader?” Jesse asks him fondly. “You know it’s going to hurt. You’ve seen plenty of people get tattooed,” he says patiently. “But if you need me to stop at any time, for any reason, you just tell me. Okay?” He looks up from the station, waiting for Delphi to look at him. “Hey. Answer, please.”

“Okay,” he confirms, nodding solemnly, and Jesse hums in satisfaction.

Once he’s finished setting up the station, he wheels it over and stands next to Delphi’s chair, critically eyeing the stencil on his chest.

“You’re sure the placement looks good to you?” he asks.

“Yes, my god, you redid it like five times already.”

“Okay, smartass, these things are permanent. I just want you to be happy with the free professional tattoo you’re getting from your own father.”

“It looks perfect, Daddy,” Delphi says, and settles back into the chair. “Now, ink me, bro.”

“As long as you don’t ever say that again,” Jesse murmurs, and sits on his rolling stool, then leans over Delphi, tattoo machine at the ready in his left hand. “Ready? Deep breaths. Try not to tense up,” he murmurs, and then there’s a familiar buzzing sound, and a hot throbbing pain like a sunburn starts spreading across Delphi’s chest.

“Is that all?” he asks. “This is easy, give me thirty of ‘em,” he jokes.

He closes his eyes, vaguely aware of a few of his dad’s coworkers coming over to observe. It’s not every day they get to see Jesse tattoo a member of his own family - this is the first time ever, actually. It’s a present for Delphi’s 17th birthday, which was earlier in the week.

“You tell your mom you’re doing this today?” Jesse asks, and the pain makes it hard for Delphi to think, but he wants to answer casually, to sit well and make his dad proud.

“Nope,” he admits. “I think she’s gonna be mad at me.”

“At you? No way. Me? Definitely,” Jesse says, chuckling darkly. “You doing okay, bud?”

“Yep,” Delphi says, cracking one eye open to look up at him. Jesse’s expression is one of intense concentration, his eyes narrowed, eyebrows drawn together. Up this close, Delphi notices all the little details about him that he usually glosses over: the scar across his nose from when he went over the handlebars of a gasoline-powered bike as a kid, the tiny constellation tattoos under his eyes (Aries and Gemini, respectively, for the two of them), the gold tooth that replaced one he broke opening a beer bottle.

“Proud of you,” Jesse says quietly a few minutes later, startling Delphi out of his trance.

[lurkerdelima]

A whole bunch of character asks! Feel free to answer however many about Jesse or Delphi or both <3

Appearance: 10, 12

Objects: 3, 12

Food and Drink: 15

Community and relationships: 9, 18

Mind, Body, and Soul: 5, 14

Thank you! ❤️

I just kind of decided to answer them all for both lol. This was so fun!

Appearance

10. If your character could splurge on a particular garment, what would it be?

Jesse doesn’t love spending money on clothes, but he would absolutely pay out the nose for a good pair of boots. Leather work boots that’ll last like 20 years if properly cared for (which he would do, religiously, to the point that it’s almost an intimate experience).

Delphi is a little more inclined to spend money on what he wears, but I think he’d also buy shoes. Probably less practical ones than his dad, though.

12. Has your character gone through major stylistic or physical changes?

Jesse hasn’t really changed stylistically; he picked a subculture he liked in middle school and has styled himself as a metalhead ever since. He has gone through some physical changes - mostly getting a ton of tattoos and a few piercings.

Delphi is only 19 as I’m answering these questions so he’s changed a lot over the past few years! He also styles himself as a bit of a metalhead, currently, and tends to steal Jesse’s clothes, something he started doing just as soon as he got big enough to fit in them.

Objects

3. What type of object is likely to catch your character's attention?

For Jesse, cars. He drives an old truck that he’s very proud of, and he notices other people’s cars (and judges them accordingly). Sometimes he’ll be mid-conversation and just stop because a cool car went by and distracted him.

For Delphi, shiny rocks. Literally, he has a crystal collection in his room, and has a moonstone necklace he never takes off.

12. Does your character personify objects?

Both of them do, but for different reasons and to different degrees.

Jesse will personify things that he uses all the time and that he is especially proud of and/or invested in (see: his truck Superbeast). Delphi is more the ‘will pack bond with anything’ type who gives voices to inanimate objects etc.

Food & Drink

15. What food or drink does your character consider a treat?

Jesse - fast food in general, but specifically Taco Bell. They live in Arizona so they have access to a lot of great real Mexican food, but sometimes you just want plasticky nacho cheese, you know?

Delphi - bulk gummy candy from this one store in the mall. He likes to get a bag and fill it with all kinds of gummy creatures, then eat them until his stomach hurts.

Community & Relationships

9. Where is your character's comfort place?

Their apartment, for both. Delphi has spent most of his life there, so they both have a lot of fond, nostalgic memories associated with it.

18. What is your character's favorite form of affection?

Delphi - words of affirmation. He’s very much the type to thrive on being told he’s doing something right, he’s special, etc.

Jesse - physical touch. He’s super cuddly with people he loves (as long as they’re okay with it), and has been known to hook up with strangers when he’s feeling unloved.

Mind, Body, and Soul

5. What words could tear your character down?

Jesse - anything along the lines of ‘you’re a bad father, you’ve screwed your kid up,’ etc. He is fiercely protective of Delphi and doesn’t ever want to do anything to make his life worse.

Delphi - ‘you’re too much.’ He knows he’s a lot and pretends to be chill about it, but he worries that he’s too loud, obnoxious, angry, etc for people to accept him and like him.

14. Is there a secret thing your character longs to hear?

Jesse - ‘you’re doing a great job,’ because raising a kid on your own is really hard and he would appreciate the acknowledgment.

Delphi - ‘you’re fine exactly as you are, and you have time to figure everything out.’ He worries sometimes about not having a big life plan because it seems like everyone else has one.

[lurkerdelima]

your daddy won’t even let you say fuck

your daddy’s boring, your daddy sucks

my daddy will fuck your daddy up

[a moodboard for my OCs Jesse & Delphi Lovelace; all images from Pinterest & lyrics from ‘Daddy’ by Die Antwoord]

[lurkerdelima]

silly little scene I’ve had going through my mind today:

my OC Jesse posts a thirst trap TikTok and the top comment is ‘raw, next question’ to which my other OC Delphi (Jesse’s son) responds ‘careful that’s what my mom said too’

[lurkerdelima]

Context: he has to meet with the principal of his kid’s school, plus another kid’s parents, because his son called the other kid a fucking philistine and threw paint water at him.

(he had his reasons for doing so, but I’m not saying they were good ones)

[lurkerdelima]

I realized I hadn’t put my commissioned art of these two together in the same post yet so I’m fixing that now!

Delphi (above) is by gusty.moss on Instagram, and Jesse (below) is by vagueenthusiast.art on Instagram.

Highly recommend both artists and am indebted to them for bringing my boys to life! 🖤

[lurkerdelima]

“people who celebrate fictional characters’ birthdays are annoying-”

shh today is my OC Delphi’s birthday, he’s 19, happy birthday bb!! ❤️

[lurkerdelima]

If someone exclusively calls someone else by a nickname, do you capitalize that nickname in dialogue?

(my OC Jesse exclusively calls his son Delphi ‘buddy,’ is why I ask)

(I know I could just google it but I want to see what y’all think)

[lurkerdelima]

just wanna be

wanna bewitch you in the moonlight

[a moodboard for my OC Delphi Lovelace; all images found on Pinterest and lyrics from “Dance Macabre” by Ghost]

[lurkerdelima]

(he was named by teenagers in the early 2000s if that context helps, and his dad is a Trekkie and a metalhead, while his mom is of the ‘smart popular girl with a hidden wild streak’ variety)

[lurkerdelima]

Font 2 wins by a narrow margin! Good choice, everyone. Thanks for voting!

For my OC Delphi, not for me lol