#NICO GREW UP RICH.

[negativefouriq]

omg please fuck off with the ‘will is the aeropostale to nico’s hot topic 🥰’ narrative like william andrew solace shoplifts scrubs from walmart and nico di angelo grew up in tailored designer suits for children. cmon now 💀

[mediumgayitalian]

It starts really…really stupid.

The Apollo cabin is having a movie night. Will’s DVD collection is bigger than his textbook collection, which is saying something, because he is a nerd. They baited Nico with a pirate movie: then, when he was comfortable and moon-eyed and unable to keep his mouth shut for a good twenty minutes after the end credits, they started phasing in the rom-coms.

Evil. Manipulators, the lot of them; so incapable of lying that they’re masters of bending the truth. Nico would leave, except they literally barricaded the door and keep all the lights on so there are no shadows for him to duck into (something he should have questioned from the very beginning, but unfortunately as soon as the Pirates of the Caribbean theme started playing, his reasoning skills hopped on a train and fled back to the Lotus Casino in 1938. So).

“This is stupid,” Nico grumbles, not that anyone is paying him any attention. Every single one of Will’s siblings stares at the TV with their chins in their hands, completely ignoring any and all of Nico’s (very valid) criticism.

Not that it stops him. “This is less realistic than Davey Jones,” he insists, largely just so his grievances are Known and Aired Out. The leading man says something stupid and cheesy, and three seperate doofuses in his company genuinely swoon. Nico scowls as hard as he can, pulling a blanket over his head. “Idiotic and cheesy.”

Nico pointedly isn’t following the plot — not that there is one — so he has no idea what’s going on. He squints. The leading man is wearing some ugly suit, too tight, and the leading lady collapses tearfully in his arms, thanking him about something.

Will sighs dreamily. Nico scowls harder.

“When is it my turn,” Will laments.

Kayla reaches over blindly and pats him on the head. She ends up more smacking him gently and lovingly on the face, but Will doesn’t seem to mind.

“Don’t we all want to know.”

“You don’t understand,” Will says dramatically. He flops backwards, hands flailing. Nico peeks over from under his blanket. His Head Medic camp shirt has ridden up in his dramatics, showing a sliver of skin. Nico flushes and intentionally looks away, focusing on his friend’s face.

“When will a rich, attractive older man come waltzing in here and offer to put me through med school, huh? When will my dream come true?”

Nico is 90% sure that Will is joking, but without his permission, be blurts out —

“You’d run off with some guy you don’t know?”

“Without hesitation!” Will cries. He yanks himself back upright, making Nico jump, arms thrown up and forehead creased. “You know how broke I’m gonna be when I’m done school?”

Nico doesn’t answer, but Will doesn’t wait for one.

“Very! I grew up on a pullout couch, which, I love my mom, and I love our apartment, but I want — I want —”

With his long, lanky limbs and flushed face, he begins to remind Nico of a kettle. He refrains from pointing this out. His siblings, on the other hand, openly snicker at him, dividing their attention between the movie and throwing popcorn at their eldest brother’s head.

“I want an Alaskan King! And — a mahogany desk! With lots of drawers! And windows! Floor to ceiling windows! And a rooftop garden!”

He glares playfully at his siblings, who are all giggling now, pointing fingers at them all.

“Lemme tell you right now. A man walks in here offering me that and a cheque for any school I want and it’s over for you people. I’m gone. You can fend for yourselves.”

“Yeah right,” Austin snorts, disbelieving. He reaches over and pinches Will’s thigh, cackling when he squawks. “We can’t even get you to leave the infirmary at the end of your shift. You’re stuck here forever, Rapunzel.”

“Just you wait! My prince will come!”

“As if he even wants a prince,” he hears Kayla whispering to a giggling Gracie, who responds with a cheeky, “Not when he’s got a king!”

Nico doesn’t know who they’re talking about, but the fact that there’s someone — his vision goes green. He has to tamp down a genuine snarl which is — ridiculous. And out of nowhere.

He cuts another glance to Will, who is still muttering petulantly. Every few minutes, he hears something about an “open floor plan” and “high pressure showers”.

He gets a very, very stupid idea.

———

The first mistake (because that’s what it is) is easy to explain away — the Hades cabin is still under renovation.

Well. Mostly.

“Please,” Will is begging, eyes big and pleading and painfully, beautifully blue. “Please? I’ll bring movies! And Yan’s Wii! And get Cecil to lend me some of the games he — uh, acquired! Pretty please!”

Nico has to bite back the you could be toting a pack of Lastrogonian giants with you and I’d still let you in that so desperately wants to come out of his mouth.

“Bring snacks and I’ll consider it,” he says instead.

Will beams. His eyes nearly squeeze shut, when he smiles like that, and there’s nothing Nico can do about the sharp inhale that rips through his chest. He blinks the spots away from his eyes, everything suddenly a little brighter, covered in golden sunlight.

“Yes!” Will cheers, pumping his fist and jumping up and down like a lunatic. Nico is so endeared that it aches something awful in his chest, and his cheeks smart from the size of his smile. “Sleepover! After my shift, di Angelo, I won’t be late!”

Yes, you will.

“I lock my doors and set a skeleton guard to watch it at eight,” he warns with a throat suddenly dry. “I mean it, Solace. I’ll sic the harpies on you.”

Will laughs as he jogs towards the infirmary, clearly not believing him. Nico watches him go the whole way, jumping when a hand lands on his shoulder.

“You,” says Drew Tanaka, blowing a bubble with her gum, “are a humiliating case, di Angelo.”

He shoves her, scowling. His face feels sunburnt. “Shut up.”

He absolutely does not spend the day moping after the infirmary, despite whatever rumours Drew’s lying mouth might spread. He has a job, thanks. He runs three separate sword fighting classes, and the younger kids are insane, so he doesn’t have time to be distracted.

Not that he is. But. Hypothetically, if he were to be distracted, he isn’t. Yeah.

He sits with Percy and Jason at dinner, distractedly wolfing down his food. Some kind of barbecue. He is not paying attention.

“No, Jase, we can say whatever we want, he’s not listening —”

“If he decides to stab you I am going to let him —”

“What’s going on?” Nico interrupts, looking up for the first time.

Percy smiles angelically, placing his hands under his chin.

“Nothing, Nico dear.”

Jason bangs his head on the table.

“I’m gonna…leave,” Nico says, slowly. “Y’all…do whatever you’re doing.”

“You said y’all,” Percy says gleefully. “You said y’all.”

Nico flushes hotly. “I did not. Shut up before I summon Jules-Albert to run you over.”

Percy cackles. Even Jason laughs. Nico throws his plate at them as he stomps away, sprinting extra quickly past the infirmary for no reason at all.

Time seems to slow down after dinner. For all Nico knows, it actually does. It wouldn’t make a difference. By the time there’s a knock on his cabin door, the sun has well past set, and Will is smiling sheepishly.

“I didn’t hear my shift alarm,” he says, the second Nico opens the door.

Nico sighs. He bites the corner of his mouth, hard, so it doesn’t do something stupid like turn upwards or something.

“There’s ADHD, and then there’s you, Solace.”

Will leans into his personal space and presses an over-exaggerated, smacking kiss to his cheek before he can stop him. Nico goes scarlet.

“But you love me anyway!”

There are no thoughts left in Nico’s brain to refute him. The only thing shaking around up there are alarm bells and KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS! repeated over and over again like a gong.

“Hngh,” he says, intelligently. Will doesn’t seem to notice, striding confidently right into the cabin.

“I brought the Wii and movies and stuff, like I promised, and I’ve been saving this chocolate I bought last time I went into the city — woah, when did that get here!”

Will freezes in the middle of the cabin, gaping. Nico nearly walks right into him.

‘That’ is the giant, brand-new bed tucked snugly in the far right corner — an Alaskan King.

Nico clears his throat, shrugging.

“Remodelling, remember? The coffin beds had to go. And no one else but me sleeps here, so. Hazel has her own bed on the other side.”

He gestures to the other corner, where Hazel’s — smaller — bed sits, empty, coral pink comforter straightened neatly. Will barely even glances at it.

“What! But I thought you already renovated the beds —”

“Temporary.”

Will squints at him for a moment. Nico squirms, trying to hold his gaze. He’s not lying — they were temporary. Of course, he only made the decision that they were temporary a week ago, but. Well. Truth is truth.

Evidently, Will decides that he isn’t going to get a real answer out of Nico or he doesn’t care to get one, because he quickly turns away and, with a running start, jumps and sprawls himself on the gigantic bed.

“Oh, gods,” he groans, and oh, gods, indeed, is Nico ever going to get a fucking break or is his face just going to be stuck like this all the time. “Gods, Neeks, I am going to move in here. I don’t even — look! I can stretch all the way and I don’t touch the edge!”

“I see that,” Nico says weakly. His shirt has ridden up again. Nico bites back the confessing comment he wants to make about undershirts and how Will should invest in them.

“Man, I feel like I could pass right out,” Will sighs, eyelashes — they are so long and so blonde who decided that who gave him that right — fluttering shut. He grabs on of Nico’s pillows and curls around it, content. Nico stares. And stares.

After too much time has passed, Will cracks an eye open, smiling slightly. “Well, don’t just stand there, Death Breath. Bed’s more than big enough for us both, now. Get over here.”

Miraculously, Nico does, managing to unglue himself from the floor and look anywhere but the long, languid stretch of Will’s body.

(They play four straight hours of Mario Kart — or, rather, Will spends four straight hours losing. When they finally fall asleep, they’re so far apart on the giant bed they might as well be in different countries — but Nico wakes up in the middle of the night with his arms around Will’s waist, and practically throws himself on the ground for the rest of the night.)

———

The next thing he does is just…embarrassing.

“I think you look hot,” Mitchell, Piper’s brother, assures him kindly. He pats Nico’s flaming cheek. “Honest. And it’ll work wonders! Will’ll be struck.”

“Why do people keep saying that,” Nico croaks. “I don’t even like him!”

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

With Mitchell’s unwavering — if teasing — assurance, Nico finds the courage to step out of the Aphrodite cabin and into the waning sun. He’s grateful he waited until after the summer ended to do this — the fewer people around the witness, the better. His reputation is hanging on by a string as it is.

A wolf-whistle rings out the second he steps off the porch, making him scowl. Cecil, unfortunately, is far too used to being on the receiving end of it and does not even flinch.

“Looking spiffy, Ghost King!”

“Bite me,” Nico growls back, and is only aware of the trap he’s walked into when Cecil gleefully says, “I believe that’s Will’s job, actually —”

He wisely scampers away before the skeleton Nico summoned can murder him.

The second he’s out of sight, Nico slumps.

What is he doing.

“Aw, jeez, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes! Lemme tell you the gar-bage I had to endure tod — Nico?”

Nico whips up to face the voice. Will stands a few feet in front of him, unmoving, wearing his scrubs today — heavily stained, yikes — and his favourite pair of ratty cargo shorts. The expression on his face is oddly inscrutable.

“Are you…going somewhere?”

“Yeah,” Nico says, flushing and repeating himself when his voice cracks three separate times. “Yeah, I’m. Um. Ambassador of Pluto duties, you know. I’m expected in New Rome in a couple hours.”

It’s not quite the truth — he is going to be in New Rome in a couple of hours, but his reason for being there is fabricated. Literally.

“I didn’t know you were visiting today.” Will steps forward, almost trance-like. His eyes are glued to somewhere around Nico’s chest, and he reaches out — hesitantly, although he’s never been hesitant to touch Nico in all the time he has known him — to brush his fingers over Nico’s collar. “This isn’t what you usually wear.”

Nico swallows. No, it is not. Usually, his Ambassador of Pluto uniform is his black toga. (It still is. If he was actually on duty and showed up in anything else, several Romans would have his head. Good thing he’s full of it.) But right now, he’s wearing a tailored, black silk suit made by hand by some dead Byzantine seamstress whose name Nico could not pronounce if he tried. Diamonds glitter in the lobes of his ears, freshly pierced, and his rings are more polished than usual.

“Special occasion today.”

Will doesn’t say anything for a long moment. His hand still curls at Nico’s collar, millimeters away from his neck, heat boring into his skin.

“You clean up nice.” An expression Nico can’t name flits across his eyes, and Nico’s breath catches, and then he’s grinning, too-wide and teasing, reaching up to dig a hand through his hair. “But maybe ditch the hair gel, Wilbur Robinson, and just let —”

“Gah! Get off of me! You’re the worst!”

Will stumbles back as he shoves him, weak from laughter, and Nico’s stomach flips.

———

The third thing is maybe the most ridiculous out of all of them — and almost gets him killed.

“I’m starving,” Will complains, apologizing to the random New Yorker who just walked into him. (Nico rolls his eyes. Will would get eaten if Nico wasn’t here — he is too soft for the city. He’s gonna get shoved into a puddle or something; he’s so unwilling to elbow his way through a crowd that Nico has to hold his hand so as not to lose him. Definitely not a city boy, that’s for sure.) “And we don’t have to meet Argus for another two hours — can we stop for food? I want something fried. Desperately.”

“I guess so,” Nico sighs, pretending to be more put-out than he is. Will doesn’t buy it for a second, rolling his eyes hard enough to hurt.

“C’mon, Nicholas Hoult. There’s gotta be a diner around here somewhere, and I still want to go shopping after this.”

He lets Will pull him around, even though they’d probably get somewhere faster if Nico leads. Will stops every three seconds to listen to a busker, or observe particularly interesting graffiti, or attempt to pet a pigeon. It shouldn’t be cute, it should be embarrassing because Will truly never gets out, but it is — endearing. A little. Even if Nico can feel his stomach eating itself.

Will brightens when he finally stumbles across some gaudy, mint-green painted, hole-in-the-wall family restaurant, beaming back at Nico like he won a sparring match rather than stumbled upon somewhere to eat. But his eyes are squished shut, the way they are when he’s genuinely excited, and some early January snow dusts his golden hair, and his nose is red from the cold, and it’s just —

It’s a lot.

They find a booth tucked in the back corner. Will slides in next to Nico, not across from him, and it makes him — flush, for some reason, cheeks glowing as bright as Will’s massive, dorky scarf.

The waitress brings them sodas. Nico doesn’t remember ordering them, but it’s cherry coke — his favourite — so he must’ve. Will has a water, because he’s annoying and pretentious, and he tries to blow his straw wrapper at Nico but he’s too fast and catches it. Will pouts.

“You’re no fun.”

“I’ll show you fun.”

He’s balled up the wrapper as tiny as possible and flicks it at Will’s face before he can stop him, except it hits him in the — eye, and Will shouts in surprise, and Nico jumps and rushes to apologise but he’s laughing too hard for it to be sincere, and Will scowls playfully at him, and Nico bangs his knee on the rickety table trying to move it and it only makes him laugh harder, and Will cracks soon, too. And he can’t sing for shit but his laughter is musical, low and baritone and a little raspy on the edges, like the country music he loves so damn much. And all the laughter gets sucked right out of Nico’s lungs as he watches him, bright-eyed, red-nosed and freezing, still wearing his stupid parka even though it’s barely below forty degrees, and he is suddenly achingly truly and obviously the most beautiful thing Nico has ever seen in his life, and he thinks oh, no. But it doesn’t hurt.

It doesn’t hurt at all.

———

(After the diner, they go window shopping, and Nico feels like he can’t function. His chest aches with new knowledge that he doesn’t know where to put. New York air is disgusting but Will smells like eucalyptus and sunshine, always, and the look on his face when they pass a dusty antique shop is blinding. He’s rambling about old anatomy textbooks and gods knows what else and Nico nods along with a stupid, endless smile on his face that he couldn’t tamp down if he tried.)

(In the back of the shop there’s a big, ancient, beautiful mahogany desk. It has a divot for an inkwell and more drawers than Nico can count. It’s nine hundred dollars. Nico pulls out the credit card his father gave him for emergencies, buys it before Will can stop him, and shadow travels all three of them — himself, Will, and the unbelievably massive desk — back to Cabin 13, passing out immediately after to the sound of Will’s shout.)

(His father is the first thing he sees in his dreams, arms crossed, legs tapping.)

(“I believe I told you that card was for emergencies,” says the Lord of the Dead, “not crises over cute boys.”)

(“You were down so bad you kidnapped your wife instead of talking to her like a normal person,” Nico blurts, and immediately wishes he would melt into shadows.)

(He wakes up to another arms-crossed, foot-tapping figure: Will lectures him for two and a half hours. He times it.)

(But Will does all his paperwork in the Hades cabin, now, skin glowing amber under the Greek fire torches, often falling asleep on the smooth wooden surface. He hasn’t spent a night in the infirmary in months. Often, if Nico can wake him, he’ll crawl into Nico’s massive bed, curling all six-two of him into a ball around the centre and puffing tiny little snores into his pillow.)

(His cabin smells like eucalyptus and sunshine all the time, now.)

———

He tells himself that this will be his last thing.

(It isn’t.)

It takes him four separate times to muster up the courage. It’s — humiliating, is what it is, and he’s never been a coward except for maybe about this one thing.

“Dude,” says Katie Gardener, the fifth time he walks by her cabin without saying something, “this is getting embarrassing. Pull yourself together.”

“I’m — pulled,” he defends, wishing he didn’t get red so damn easy. “And — what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at college, or something?”

“College ends in April, stupid,” she says, as if Nico has more than a fourth grade education and would somehow know that. He refrains from sticking out his tongue because that is Undignified, and clearly he is the more mature one of the two of them. “What do you need, flowers for Will or something? You don’t need to bother. He likes dandelions.”

“I know what flowers he likes,” Nico snaps, and wallows in immediate despair as she snickers. He should consider having Will remove whatever part of his brain is responsible for Stupid, Emotional Outbursts. Or just get a lobotomy. Whatever’s faster, honestly.

“I need — a garden.”

“…A garden.”

“Please don’t make me say it again,” he begs.

Perhaps college has somehow made her merciful — which he doubts, anyone who sustains a relationship with Travis freaking Stoll stopped worrying about mercy long ago — or perhaps he truly is that pitiful. But she relents, rolling her eyes and muttering something about stupid teenagers and refusal to communicate, blah blah blah. Nico knows he’s a mess. He would appreciate it if everyone else politely pretended he wasn’t. She comes back minutes later with a truly massive bucket of soil, a handful of gardening tools, and several packets of seeds.

“Well, you don’t have a lot of space for it, kid, seeing as your cabin is kind of tucked —”

“I want it on the roof,” Nico interrupts. He manages to keep his face in check. “Uh, that would make the most sense, anyways. It’s flat and I can get there easy and — yeah.”

She narrows her eyes at him. Years of Hermes cabin pranks have left her with a truly magnificent BS detector, but after a moment she sighs.

“Whatever, kid. Let’s go. Nothing will grow for a couple months, anyways.”

———

The last thing is what, eventually, gives him away.

The issue is that camp is crowded in the summer. And, really, he would have gotten it done in the spring, except he needed help — he needed an architect.

And he only really knew one, and her school year was kind of packed.

“You want,” says Annabeth slowly, “to entirely restructure your cabin.”

Nico squirms. “I just want to change the windows,” he mumbles.

She stares at him, fingers steepled, for what feels like ten solid minutes. At minimum.

“Kid —” Nico scowls, she is barely three years older than he is and technically almost a century younger — “installing floor to ceiling windows in your cabin will restructure it — entirely.” She pulls out a paper and pencil out of, as far as Nico can tell, absolutely nowhere, and begins to sketch. “There are foundations here, see? So everything has to be moved and reorganized to keep the structure standing. I can’t just, like…knock out the wall. It doesn’t work that way.”

Nico slumps. “So it’s not possible?”

“I didn’t say that,” she snaps, offended. “I just said it won’t be easy. Gimme a couple hours, I’ll have blueprints.”

She barely hears him as he thanks her, nose already pressed to the paper. Nico smiles at her anyway. She’s the best and brightest of them for a reason, after all, and he appreciates her help.

The walk back to his cabin is a surprisingly pleasant one. A lot of his friends (which, woah) are finally back, and Nico is realising he’s missed them, and it’s nice to see them again. It’s also nice to see camp as busy as it is, as much as he likes the quiet chill of the winter months. All the cabin doors are wide open as people sweep out the dust, shake out sheets, air out the staleness that has been locked inside some of them for months. Chatter fills every corner, and the air smells like strawberries.

His small smile widens as he approaches his own cabin — the flowers he and Katie planted a few months back have started to bloom, and with them comes the memory of Will’s gasping excitement when he’d seen them, the smile that lit up his face. They’re regular plants, but Katie — enchanted them, somehow, protected them; even when Nico is having his worst days, they don’t wither. (And they keep growing, too. Nico has taken to picking a flower every morning and leaving it in his (Will’s) desk — to brighten up the room, on paper, but the flower always ends up whenever Will is by the end of the day. (And, more often than not, tucked behind his ear, locks of golden hair caught among brightly coloured petals; a crown of his own making.)

The cabin is empty when he walks in, unsurprisingly considering how often Will is usually locked in the infirmary for the first week of camp.

(He’ll be back tonight, to do his paperwork before heading back to his cabin. Nico’ll have to be sure he actually makes it back to his cabin — Chiron has been turning a blind eye, because Will needs more sleep and Kayla and Austin can handle themselves, but the little kids need their counsellor. Well, most days.)

Nico stands in the door and realises: things have changed.

Maybe a silly thing to think. But — a year ago, this place was unliveable. Dark, and dreary, coffin-shaped and miserable, it was no wonder it had never felt like home. But the sight of Hazel’s bed (and the sketchbook she left on it last time she was here) fills him with warmth, and the windows are always open, now, so even the air feels lighter. Dozens of Will’s textbooks are strewn around the room, Lou Ellen’s jacket hangs on the back of the desk chair, a deck of cards is sprawled on the floor. A sun lamp is plugged into the wall. Nico’s giant bed is unmade. He’s got laundry peeking out of the closet doors, and he needs to clean his bathroom. A pair of obnoxiously patterned flipflops sit by the door.

It looks lived in. It looks like somewhere that can be lived in, and most of all, his friends — Will — have been living in it with him.

He swallows the lump in the back of his throat, stepping in and shutting the door behind him.

It takes him time to tidy up. He leaves Hazel’s sketchbook where it is, along with most of Will’s stuff — although he shoves a couple textbooks in random drawers when he trips over them. He puts the rest of his friends’ stuff by the door so he doesn’t forget to return it, and makes his bed (which, frankly, he hardly does, because it’s a massive pain — he tucks in one corner of the mattress cover and has to freaking summon Jules Albert to get to the other. But it was worth it). He barely makes it to dinner, too distracted to hear the horn.

“Finally,” bursts a voice sometime around nine, throwing open the door and flopping on the bed. Nico smiles, setting down his game and running light fingers through Will’s frizzy hair. He groans, leaning into it.

“I hate the first week of camp!”

Nico snorts. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes I do! It’s miserable! It’s all —” he contorts just face, mocking — “‘Will, do this.’ ‘Will, do that.’ ‘Will, I forgot how hard the climbing wall was and incinerated myself.’ ‘Will, we need you to treat the group of kids Clarisse beat up.’ Will, Will, Will! Constant!”

“How dare they take up all your time,” Nico says, grinning.

“Right! They should be less — I dunno, disastrous! I am one person! I can only be pulled in so many directions at once!”

Despite all his complaining, the slightest of smiles pulls at Will’s mouth — as Nico would expect. He’s exhausted and perpetually overworked, sure, but there’s nothing in the world Will relishes like being needed.

“I just —” He sighs, leaning further into Nico’s touch. Nico’s throat goes dry. “Man, I’m so glad we have this place to ourselves. It’s the only privacy I get. Sometimes I just wanna close the blinds and never come out, you know?”

Nico freezes. “Uh.”

“And it’s — nice, in here. Smells like you. And it just, well —” He smiles, broad and soft, and, suddenly, Nico understands his father on a level he never thought he would. If Will looked him in the eye and asked him for all the riches under the Earth, asked him to defy Zeus, asked him to rule the dead — Nico would bend time and space to do that for him. He understands, abruptly and wholly, why loving mortals ends in tragedy, why the gods promise more than they can give. He wants to give Will everything. “I like when it’s just you and me sometimes,” he says, softly. “It can be nice to disappear.”

There’s so much love bursting out Nico’s chest he doesn’t know what to do with it. He feels like every part of him is screaming his affection, every molecule is straining to meet with Will’s. He’s dizzy.

“I,” he starts, then freezes again. He doesn’t know what — what. Every thought he’s ever had hits him at once, and he can’t pick one out, can’t think with all the clutter in his head.

Will perks up. “Yes?”

“I have to. Cancel. My plans. With Annabeth.”

Will deflates. “Oh.”

There is something here, something charged, something about to change — and Nico is losing it. He panics.

“I asked her to restructure the cabin!” he shouts, startling Will. He squeezes his eyes shut instead of looking at those wide, wide blue eyes. “To! Make. Floor to ceiling windows.” He waits a bit. “Apparently you can’t just bust down the wall. You have to. Restructure.”

It’s silent for so long Nico is half-convinced Will left, if it weren’t for the faint sound of him breathing and the heat Nico can always feel leeching off of him. He peeks his eyes back open.

“Why?” asks Will quietly when their eyes meet.

Nico swallows. It takes several tries to moisten his throat enough to speak. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to…have floor to ceiling windows?”

“Same reason I wanted this massive bed,” he admits, quiet, whispering, near silent. “Same reason I — changed my Ambassador uniform. Same reason for the desk and the —” he stumbles over his words, blushing — “the garden and the flowers and — this, right now.”

“Nico,” says Will, very very quietly.

“I just. Well. You were joking, you know? And, gods, it’s been a year, now, but I think you were telling the truth? A little bit? And anyway, I want you to have the things you like, and —”

“Nico,” Will says again, louder this time, a particular quality to his voice Nico can’t name. He falters.

“…Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

Nico doesn’t even have the chance to be offended. He doesn’t even have the chance to think. Before he can rationalize the situation and connect the dots in front of him, Will’s hands are sliding into his hair, his face is inches away, and then they’re kissing.

They’re kissing.

Will tastes like Blistex, like mint gum, and like the breath he sighs into his mouth. His eyes are closed, and for a full six seconds before Nico recovers enough to close his, he has the best view of his pale, fanning eyelashes that he’s ever seen — long enough to think: oh, this is a child of the sun. He smells familiar and — intoxicating. Nico never wants to know pure air again, never wants to move without the brand of Will’s over-heated hands on the back of his neck. Never wants to forget the rough scrape of Will’s chapped lips, the tiny little sounds and sighs he makes every time Nico moves their mouths, the slightest curl of his lips when he smiles, unable to hold it back. The rapid beat of his heart, pressed against his own chest.

“Nico,” he says again, slightly more urgent, pulling away just enough that their lips still brush every time he speaks, “Nico, I love you to death.”

“I would do anything for you,” Nico chokes out. He meets Will’s eyes and tries to — communicate it to him, tries to beam his thoughts into his head. “I would — move the moon and stars for you, do you understand that? Do you know how precious you are to me? My tesoro,” he says, feeling Will’s breath hitch. “Il mio cuore. Il mio cuore battendo, sole.”

For a second Nico frightens himself. He’s never spoken words like that to anyone in his life — not his mother, not Bianca, not Hazel, nobody.

But Will’s smile is radiant. And he still holds Nico, gently, and says over and over, “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Something slots back into place in his chest.

[punkeropercyjackson]

I cannot fucking get over how the Pjo fandom depunkified(for lack of a better term)Percy.Keyword being 'how'-Because in canon,Percy is an actual punk.He grew up poor,getting bullied for being neurodivergent and with an abusive stepdad due to his birth dad abandoning him so that lead to him developing an attitude as a coping mechanism and hating rich people and other privilged groups because he knows from experience how awful they are most of the time but another thing it did to him was making him incredibly kind to minorities especially and a Team Parent to the ones younger than him(those being Nico and Hazel in his case).And i know for a fact that if Rick didn't hate Perachel almost as much as the fandom does,he would've written him as also going to protests and doing charity work with Rachel

But the fandom dosen't ONLY pretend that none of those are traits of his but also says he's punk for headcanons that are either not canon or straight up contradicted by it.He dosen't want to be a god and finds the thought actively distressing because he's scared of his powers and hates authority.The only reasons he treated Nico badly in Hoo and wasn't the Team Mom of the Seven instead of Hazel was that Rick retconned how much he loved him as a brother in the og series because he wanted to torment his first gay character and to adultify his first darkskin black fem mc.He's not a stereotypical guy,he thinks hypermasculinity is gross and weird(see his descriptions of and interactions with Ares)and has a deep respect for all the different women in the franchise,which includes gnc ones.He dosen't dress grunge,he barely got outfit descriptions in the books and when he did,they were just normal clothes.And he's not even a skater boy,him skating was mentioned exactly once in the entire saga and it was in Sea of Monsters,when he was 13 and that book came out over ten years ago,and Piper saying he looks like one dosen't count for jackshit because she also thought she was straight at the time and it showed in her ideas of gender as shown by the Jasiper vs Jeyna fiasco

How'd y'all take a canon punk protagonist and throw away the traits that make them punk to go 'No,actually,they're punk because of these things i THINK are what punk is because i've never read up on it's history and headcanon them to have!!!'.It's making me go fucking insane,my Percy stan ass who's been exactly like him since i was a kid should ask y'all for reperatitions over this(Also:When i say fake punk traits,i'm including being a Harry Potter/Marauder's Era fan and a Switfie,that's like the basics of Poser Punk)

@desi-pluto @jelmet @jellyjays @leo-thecactus @moonage-gaydream @insomniac-jay @julieemarine @floof-ghostie @honeypotsworld @cottoncandyteeth @biandbored @mik3stuff

[loupy-mongoose]

Fuji stood in silence, the two Mews and the little Mewtwo floating in front of him. Randy's widened, horrified eyes locked onto Fuji's, neither seeming sure how to go on.

Finally, Fuji shook his head lightly and turned away. No... It... I-It has to be a dream... It's too... too surreal... Another Mewtwo, with Mo of all Mews... It has to be a dream...

Lavender floated toward him, casting a nervous look at her parents. I-It's not... I'm sorry... She gently reached out and touched his arm. We're real, and we're here...

Fuji steadily met her gaze. Then the gentle man turned from her to Randy. He looked long and hard at the pink Mew, and in the little bit of his consciousness that wasn't panicking or wishing to wake from this sudden nightmare, Randy thought he saw a lifetime flash in the man's eyes.

Finally, Fuji spoke. You aren't Mo, are you...

Randy felt as if his heart had been stabbed, and his blood went cold. Thoughts flooded uninvited into his mind.

How many times had he tried to convince himself that over the last five years?

How many times had he looked at himself in the mirror, wishing he would one day wake up with his old brown eyes, to find it had all been a cruel dream?

How many times had he been fine, only to be slammed with the fact that he was Mo...?

In his hesitation, Akoya answered for him. He's not... But we knew him...

Fuji's gaze darkened. Suddenly it makes sense why you'd know about Nico...

Randy, who could feel his attention being washed away by his anxiety, snapped back at those words. He vaguely noticed his wife's pelt puff up again.

His voice shook. ...What do you mean...?

Fuji looked at him questioningly. ...Wait, you didn't learn about him from Mo?

Randy felt a twinge in his mind. Mo... hadn't told him... right?

Surly he would remember that...

He... never mentioned him, no....

Fuji's eyes grew sad. I guess that makes sense too... He wasn't exactly happy about Nico...

So Mo knew him? How?

Fuji's gaze drifted into a time long passed. He took a breath and closed his eyes. Mo's DNA was used to create Nico... As an attempt to find a way to bring Mews back from extinction...

But... when he saw what was coming from it... He left...

And... I don't blame him...

His eyes bore into Randy. Are you related to him, at least? You look so much like him...

Randy's ears fell back, and his brows creased together. His voice was shaky and hoarse. ...I.... ah....

Akoya floated close to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He turned to her, fighting his daze of rising anguish, and anchored himself in her rich, sapphire eyes.

As he took a reassuring breath, Akoya turned back to Fuji. Are we still welcome to stay in your guest room? Or has that offer changed, now that you've seen what we are?

Fuji gave her a warm smile, though his eyes were still clouded with questions and his old memories. My arms and house are open to those in need. People and Pokemon alike. An eyebrow raised questioningly. Or... In between...? He shook off that train of thought. And I'd say you guys are in need of at least a place to rest.

Here you are.

The room was pleasant. A good sized bed loomed in the center, painfully inviting, with a short dresser at the foot of it. Two side tables flanked the head.

There are extra blankets and pillows in the dresser there. Make yourselves comfortable.

He gave them a deep, finalizing nod.

Have a good rest.

Akoya smiled at him. Thank you so much, Mr. Fuji. We really do appreciate it. It's just a... Well, it's been a weird day for us, too.

Fuji smiled back at her. He waved farewell, and they close the door.

Randy, now in human form, trudged over to the bed, leaning heavily on his cane. He fell onto it without a word and lay still.

Akoya, still in Mew form, hovered over and psychically repositioned him to be more comfortable. By the time she covered him with the blanket, he was fast asleep.

Lav, also still in her Mewtwo form, asked her mom quietly, Where are the twins?

Akoya looked at her, filled with a warm love and encouragement that Lav hadn't felt in quite awhile. They're with Persim, outside of Lavender. She thought for a moment and giggled. ...I'm not used to saying that word and not having it be about you.

Lav gave a light chuckle, but her mood wasn't lifted. She hugged herself, her tail resting on the floor around her feet. Her expression dropping, Akoya floated over to her.

I messed up, Mom... I didn't want you and Dad to get hurt... She looked at Randy, sleeping soundly on the bed. But he's still the one paying for it.

Akoya wrapped her tail around her daughter's two necks and gave her a hug on the head. She sighed. We all make mistakes, Lav. Some bring more weight than others. But we'll bare it together, okay? We'll work through this. Just remember, we've got your back. She glanced at her mate. And we've got his back.

Lavender gave a small scared smile and nodded.

Akoya pecked her on the cheek and floated away from Lav, toward where her best friend lay sleeping. She stopped and turned to Lav. You're welcome to join us on the bed, if you want.

Lav's tail flicked, and her ears went back. Thanks, Mom, but I think I'll pass...

Akoya gave her a sad but understanding look. Okay. Hey... We love you. Both of us. Very much.

Lav smiled, half-forced. I love you too, Mom.

She watched her mom fly over and disappear behind her dad. She hesitated, then floated over to him herself. She gave him a small kiss on his head, though she wasn't sure he would be aware of it.

Then she gathered some extra blankets and pillows, and floated over to the corner of the room, where she curled up in a makeshift fort and drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~

PREVIOUS NEXT

ARC START | CHRONO

[nico-esoterica]

"But Nico, I'm broke 😭" - 50 Money Affirmations 💸💴

Affirmations are just thoughts. All manifestation is is consistently thinking in your favor. I've been changing my thoughts around money over the past year and through out the turmoil and bullshit, what kept me going was constantly believing I'd always have money coming in and I was 100% correct. The more confident I grew, the more I'd make. I once rose over $600 on Twitter to support my ex best friend who I was a caregiver for bc I believed I could make it happen. I've also manifested $500 as a lump sum that I shared proof of on my old blog. This year I will optuple that (x8) and greater.

You don't have to use any of these. This post is just meant to inspire you to come up with your own so you can make this work for you. Idc how weird or repetitive they sound. I told y'all I'm moving different.

Btw, Revision is a method where you can erase anything from your experience by deciding it didn't exist. Works wonders on people dealing with trauma but anyway -

"Money comes to me out of nowhere."

"Money flows to me from all directions."

"Holy shit I keep making so much money."

"Money (fucking) loves me."

"Money is addicted to me."

"I've always had money." (Revision method)

"I'm a money magnet."

"I'm (so/finally) financially free."

"I can afford anything I want."

"Money never bothers me."

"I never have money problems."

"I have 0 debt."

"All my debt got paid off."

"I don't have any loans/I've never had loans." (Revision)

"My rent is paid / I love that my rent's paid"

"All my bills are paid."

"I never have to worry about money."

"Remember when I used to worry about money?"

"I love money and money loves me."

"I'm money's sugar baby."

"Money loves spoiling me."

"I was born to be rich."

"Being rich is my birth right."

"I love being rich."

"Money's my best friend."

"I never stop making money."

"Money comes to me so easily."

"It's so easy for me to make money."

"People keep giving me money."

"I keep finding so much money."

"I've made enough money to pay everything off."

"I have enough money to pay everything."

"I'm so lucky with money."

"Money serves me."

"Money's my bitch."

"Money grows on trees for me."

"I keep winning the lottery."

"Winning the lottery is so easy."

"My tax refund (is/was) so fucking high this year."

"Whenever I (blink/breathe), I make money."

"Money's addicted to my bank account."

"I get paid to exist."

"My money grows everyday."

"I'm the king/queen of making money."

"Remember when I used to be broke?" (Revision)

"Money keeps finding me."

"I never have to do anything to make money."

"Making money is effortless (for me)."

"I'm a m/billionaire."

"I make money like (insert rich person here)."

[scrollonso]

Brocedes and Strollonso

same ship, different font. (let me cook..)

Lewis/Fernando

-Not much money growing up (lewis' dads 4 jobs, nandos mom making his racing suit, etc.)

-Older than the other (39/38, 42/25)

-World Champions (7 and 2x)

Nico/Lance

-Grew up rich (Keke and Lawrences sons)

-Nepo babies (Racer, Business man)

-Started with Williams

Brocedes/Strollonso

-Known eachother for years (1997, 2010?)

-Teammates (Mercedes, Aston)

The only giant difference I feel is that Strollonso is them but mature. As in Nando is helping Lance and wanting him to grow and improve so Aston can improve with them while Nico and Lewis were fighting for the spotlight and the championship the whole time.

Because Strollonso are in a less competative team they're more likely to remain close without their own little Emerald War going on

So if u like Brocedes you'll love Strollonso!!

[hrts4caiiti]

mortal solangelo fic where the dynamic is actually correct

nico " preppy kid, parents are rich, doesn't have to work for money, transfer student from a private school, has a trustfund, can't be outside for longer than 10 minutes in the summer because he'd be sweating, grew up catholic and as a result curses like a homeschooler " di angelo

x

will " classic Texan, ma is a struggling singer that doesn't have loads of money, he works at a grocery store to help out with the bills, drives an old beat up pickup truck that was his uncles, had to be dragged inside because it was too hot out but he wanted to stay outside even if his t shirt was soaked through with sweat, curses like a true southerner " solace

[gutsybitsies]

Can They Cook? PJO!

Annabeth: Yes when she follows instructions, but generally she gets too distracted for the food to turn out well

Percy: Knows recipes, doesnt know measurements. The amount of salt is "Just right" and the amount of time is "a little bit". Great cook and baker.

Grover: Yes, his best dish is vegetarian tofu tacos

Jason: Eventually he becomes a good cook, but his dishes are very tailored to the taste of his housemates (yes this is background jasico i always have background jasico), so anyone else eating his food has to hope Nico's taste is good (it isnt)

Nico: No. Doesnt try. He'll put string cheese on a ritz cracker and call it charcuterie. Once Jason handed him a pan and he said "This won't be an effective weapon"

Piper: Cheetos and soda are vegetarian, and totally counts as a meal

Leo: Has a taco-off with Grover, and wins, because he uses real meat

Hazel: Can cook, won't. Sometimes will use weird flavor combinations from her childhood that sound terrible on paper but taste great. But again, won't cook

Frank: Can't cook, will. Never taught by his family because Chinese sons are babied like that plus grew up as a rich kid. But give him a pot and some ingredients and he will happily make you something thats mostly edible

[moa-broke-me]

TW for incest!

Jercico mortal AU where Percy gets a scholarship to french pastry school and he's BEYOND stoked but he can't afford a place to live so he has to stay with his rich cousin Jason (who was born in LA but grew up in France because his mom moved there so she could be closer to his and his sister's father (it didn't work btw)) who thankfully knows both French and English so he can translate for Percy because he doesn't know the language at all hardly. So he's moved in, barely 18 while Jason's 20, they're kinda starting to fall in love with each other a bit which feels weird bc y'know; incest.

And then Nico shows up at their doorstep, 16 years old and 80 pounds soaking wet (and he IS soaking wet, having come all this way in the rain), and Percy doesn't know who the fuck this guy is but Jason welcomes him in immediately, picking him up and carrying him to the couch when he notices the wobble in his legs, and he doesn't know English, literally at all, and only knows enough French to communicate with Jason.

He explains to Jason that his mom and big sister both died years ago, when he was very small, and his father fell into a depression too deep to take care of him, so he called up Minos (his godfather) to take him in for a while, but Minos has been horrifically abusive, so he came all the way up from Italy so he could find Jason and stay with him.

Percy looks over at this kid, who looks, for all the world, like a drowned kitten, and immediately takes pity on him. He doesn't understand what Nico's saying, but he's crying, and shaking, still wet from the rain, skin and bones with bruises all over him. He and Jason do everything they can to make him feel comfortable, they make him soup and give him blankets and make sure he's not sick, they let him sleep in the bed with them to ensure he's warm.

Because he'd know that fear in his eyes anywhere. He'd know what it means, when the very mention of someone makes you flinch. He's been there. And though Nico's been through a lo of rough shit, at least now, he has two big, strong, protective... Attractive... Cousins, who would go to the ends of the earth for him.

[at1nys-blog]

Next door

When you try to save your friends from bad press (your father's opinion on them) ending up having to find a way to survive it turns different than what you expected, but along the way there are your best friends, new friends and a very annoying gym bro that lives just Next Door

Previously on... Next Door//More about... Next Door//Next on... Next Door

Vol.0 Ch.1-Profile 1

Y/N Y/L/N

Born in a rich family

Clumsy and short-tempered

A walking meme

Koala

Karate teacher at the dojo

She has a YouTube channel with Sabo, her boyfriend, about self-defense and a healthy life style

Y/N’s best friend

Y/N saved her as: Wifey💍

Nami

Met Y/N through Koala and Sabo

She studies economics at university

Works part-time as a waitress at Franky’s

Y/N saved her as: ⚠️Momey Stealer⚠️

Sanji Vinsmoke

One of the chefs at Franky’s

He wants to open his own restaurant with his family

Sides with Y/N against Zoro because he really doesn’t like him

Y/N saved him as: The simping cook

“Monkey D.” Sabo

Famous YouTube video games streamer(he has a second channel with Koala about self-defense and a healthy life style)

Grew up with Ace, Luffy and Garp since he was little

Luffy is his favorite brother don’t tell Ace

Y/N saved him as: Home Wreaker🙄

Extras

Nico Robin

History teacher at uni and has a complex of apartments

Is married to Franky

Y/N saved her as: Mama Robin

Franky

Has a diner 

Married to Robin

Y/N saved him as: Papa Franky

Jinbei

Chef at Franky's 

He considers Nami, Sanji and Y/N like his nephew/nieces

Y/N saved him as: cool uncle Ji🐳

[thetwelfthcrow]

speaking of Brocedes lovers to enemies idk if u even like the ship so excuse me if u don’t but they literally had the type of storyline u think u would only ever see in fanfics cause wdym some rich kid who barely had any friends befrieded the poor kid when they weren’t even racing for the same team yet, nico’s family then took lewis to monaco where nico grew up and nico’s dad got a karting team created just for them, they became teammates and for two years they did everything together, shared hotel rooms, even went on vacations with eachother and in greece specifically (which is a memory nico has spoken about like a million times ☹️) they talked about what it would be like to make it into F1 and become teammates again racing for the best team and become world champions together and that’s exactly what ended up happening but they didn’t realize their biggest dreams would break down their entire friendship. and now they still live in the same building and lewis gives nico’s children presents but at the same time he refuses to even say nico’s name half of the time but the other half of the time he gushes about the old times they had and talks about how karting was the best time period in his life.. they make me SICK

and also speaking of Lestappen it makes me laugh when their shippers say they’re scared Lestappen will be Brocedes 2.0 like how can u think those two are even remotely comparable 😵‍💫

PLEASE i love brocedes. it's a ship i don't think i'll ever write - unless i manage to dive back into early 2010s F1 - but it's so so so so juicy. i love rereading this summary of their journeys. it is Wild. no fanfic could ever write this shit. i'm certain if i'd tell their story to non-F1 fans they'd be like 'there's no way. you made that up' and that makes it PERRRRFECT

let it be clear that for every single 4433 fic i write, past-brocedes is always there. that Shaped lewis. he was a changed man in 2017 and 2018 and now he's a changed man again and i'm a suuuckkeerr for it. they make ME sick as well.

keep me under the charm will have very explicit past!brocedes themes. i'm gonna Love writing that shit fr fr fr fr FOR REAL.

lestappen could never. fans are literally making up enemy-isms with every step and breath max and charles take. and, look, i'm all for being delusional when it comes to ships but having that as a genuine thought? that's next Level delulu. like that's just incredibly Wrong. you'd undo so so so much brocedes drama if you dare to compare that to lestappen fr.

[punkeropercyjackson]

The depunkification of Percy by normie Pjo fans they call 'Punk Percy' is wildddddd

'Percy's a devil may care rebel without a cause😏'He's a rebel because he grew up getting bullied by his classmates for being audhd with no idea how to mask and poor and abused by authority figures and his stepdad so he learned how be tough and run his mouth as self-defense and he's been a bully beater his whole life because he cares about other mentally disabled people and minorities in general

'He's secretly LOADED thanks to Poseidon and he's besties with a bunch of gods!'He refuses to ask Poseidon for shit since he hates rich people and he hates the idea of having power even more and personally hates Ares,Hades,Apollo and Hermes as people for various justified reasons + Punk is inherently anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment so that and God/Titan/Primordial!Percy can't co-exist

'His type is blondes and he's upset with Nico saying he's not his because that's his too!'His CANON type is princess-y girls,that's how he described Annabeth's hair and what Rachel acts like,his name is Perseus so of course that's gonna be the kinda girl he has a thing for,Andromeda was the princess of an african country(Ethopia)and there's Leahbeth and the high posibility that Rachel's gonna be black too,Nico explicitly called Percy still physically attractive to him but not personality wise and that was a trans Percy moment if it was queer Percy.Also Nico is basically Percy's son,y'all fucking weird

'He's such a guy'See above and even if Percy's a cis man,that dosen't change the fact that she was written to defy traditional manhood and femme men exist and we're an important part of punk culture since it relies on and requires heavy noncomformity and Percy's also a canon misandrist who worships women and thinks they're way better than men which is another layer of transfem coding and it ain't my girl's fault you want her to worship men instead as if they've ever done anything for her

'Grunge skater bo-'She dresses like a boymoder in canon and if Rick put his whole pussy into his writing she'd be crustpunk and solarpunk with pastel punk bits since she's femme and hates 'true maturity',she canonically gave up skateboarding to join the swim team and was never heavily invested in it anyway,Piper saying 'he looked like a skater' was her having internalized cisheteronormativity and i know for a fact when y'all say being a skater and being a punk are the same thing you don't mean Ska Punk but that overrated ass song that's done irreperable damage to our society

'He HAS to be white to be punk'Look at my url.D'you think i made the word Punkero up.'He's a Switfie and would like Hp/The Marauders and Mcu'Yeah alright,you officially know literally nothing about punk

AND y'all's designs aren't even aesthetically accurate

[sedgewick-gayble]

Okay, so it's kinda the same opposites that attract things Wick and Zib have going on, but almost even more so. I like to think that it plays into the idea of "pampered rich feline falling for a ragged and street smart stray."

You've got Wick, someone who came from a rich family, is currently fairly rich, was in law school, has a successful buissness, and tries to keep up his appearance as not only a law-abiding citizen, but also a straight, masculine man.

And then, you have Nico, a hijacker and former boxer who grew up in the bayou, and practically radiated masculine energy, and yet, would not hesitate to hit on a guy he found attractive.

Nico doesn't give a damn what society thinks of his or his attraction to men. He doesn't have to hide who he is to be seen as masculine, and Wick could both be jealous of that and admire it at the same time.

Not to mention the thrill, yet possible shame that could come from a relationship like that. Again, Wick tries to keep up the appearance of being a law-abiding citizen. Being seen with someone like Nico, who does not have a positive social standing, would not be a good look for him, expecally considering that, compared to Nico, there is no way Wick can keep up the appearance of masculinity hes built up. And yet, the sense of danger and thrill, the knowledge that everything about this is taboo in every sense of the word would only draw Wick in despite his shame of it all.

And there's not even just shame in the relationship, but also how it affects others around him. Even if you completely remove him and Mitzi dating, he clearly still cares about her. For him to date someone who works directly under Asa, the direct competitor to the speakeasy that Mitzi is fighting so desperately to keep alive? He would feel like he's betraying her in a sense. He has so much to loose from this relationship, but he can't help but be pulled in.

God forbid Nico if the one who takes notice of Wick and openly starts hitting on him, Wick wouldn't have a clue what to do, half his brain screaming at him to keep up his social, masculine appearance, and the other wanting nothing more than to give in, to say screw it and give in to his want to be with Nico.

RRRGH I'M GETTING INVESTED INTO A SHIP WITH NO CANON INTERACTIONS AGAIN!!!

This has the appeal of zibwick to me except the dichotomy between picture perfect upstanding citizen and poor seedy lowlife is dialed up to one THOUSAND and the angst (mostly on wicks half) IS EVEN HIGHER!!!

Now we just need a ship name.....

[gil-shalossssss]

And now I shall discuss multilingual cussing. I am going to focus on Reyna, Leo, Nico, and Hazel. Frank is bilingual but he doesn't cuss.

Reyna left Puerto Rico when she was ten, so she probably didn't know many cuss words, if any. Her Spanish curse vocabulary probably stopped there since I imagine Circe's resort spoke primarily English and/or Anchient Greek. She may have learned some Anchient Greek curses there as well as English ones. I belive she uses some Latin curses in the books, so either those are instinctive or she picked them up from her fellow soldiers. Probably both. In conclusion, Reyna can curse in English and Latin, and also possibly Spanish and Anchient Greek.

Nico was six or seven when he left Italy in the forties, so I can't imagine he knows any Italian curse words. Even then, he probably wouldn't have picked up any until he emerged from the Lotus Hotel because he was a child and you didn't curse around children if you could help it, so if he heard any they were never repeated often enough for him to learn them until he was thrust into modern day cussland. However, he also probably picked up some Anchient Greek and Latin curses from the camps. Also we hear him curse in Anchient Greek and English.

Leo grew up with Spanish and English as equals and was never forced out of his Spanish-speaking environment, so he can curse fluently in both languages. He may have picked up some curse words from Camp Half-Blood and the Romans he hung out with, but I imagine it's primarily English and Spanish. He canonically curses, but most of the time it doesnt specify in which language.

Hazel was also a forties child, and even though she doesn't cuss much in the books, we know she can because of that sentence concerning schist. It seems that she prefers placeholders, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have an arsenal of curse words. We know she knows some English curse words and might know some French. Also probably Latin, because even if it's not instinctive these children are soldiers and soldiers cuss a LOT. (Don't attack me about stereotypes, I know this for a fact.) So anyway, for Hazel we have English, Latin, and possibly French.

The reason I think Hazel would know curse words in the forties but Nico wouldn't is because even though they both live in large cities (New Orleans and Washington, D.C.) Nico's family probably would have moved to an already-established Italian community with other Italian people who just wanted to escape the War and go on living as they had in Italy. That doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of what kinds of people are there, but it does lend to the probability that most of them are Catholic and had enough money to get them across the ocean in the first place (not allowing for stowaways), so they're probably proper people who would never cuss around children. Hazel, on the other hand, is the daughter of a voodoo queen whose clients were basically everybody. Rich people, poor people, scallywags, respectable people, people who didn't fit into any particular category at all. The point of all these words is to say that prior to the Lotus Hotel, Nico led a relatively sheltered life and Hazel lived where all the walks of life converged.

So this has been my incredibly long analysis of what language these people cuss in. Yes, it is something I think about for my own characters and I believe it is worth knowing.

[urbanism-and-transit]

Hey, I’m pretty new to urbanism and learning about transit. But one thing I’ve been thinking of, as someone who grew up in semi-rural suburbs, is affordability. What kind of things can we do and advocate for to make living in dense, walkable, cities affordable, besides, the usual “Eat the rich” and “destroy landlords”? 

I love living in the city and having actual transit options and things within walkable distance. But damn if I don’t miss the cost of living when I was in the middle of nowhere. 

as far as immediate solutions, living in a place with quick and direct access to walkable urbanism is a great idea - issaquah, a suburb of seattle, is pretty cheap and is soon gonna have rail access to bellevue and seattle proper. living along an intercity rail route is also a good choice for the same reason. as far as advocacy and policy, *do* sweat the small stuff. even seemingly small bills in your local government can have a huge impact. universal basic income, rent control, middle density, and transit ballot measures are all important things to support, advocate, and/or push for if they don't exist where you live. even something as small as allowing businesses to use on-street parking for seating or more vending space is a huge step. if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, guerilla urbanism is a good albeit risky choice. painting crosswalks where there are none, putting planters to enforce pedestrian-only spaces, and staging blockage protests. but i dont endorse that, wink wink.. -nico

[raewritesf1]

georgie changing little by little in the highschool genderbent au? yes. but max also experiencing the gf effect? yes. he stops being late all the time even to class (because georgie would be mad) and stops terrorising the student prefects when they try to enforce the rules (because georgie would be sad). they are truly experiencing some character development here wow they're chuck bass and blair waldorf but if they weren't sadists.

also brocedes parents they're the true childhood sweethearts like met when they were kids and grew up together and finally began dating when they were highschool (angry love confession during a school dance where lewis finally says fuck it because nico looks so lovely and happy and why isn't she with him, if you have seen 'flipped'). they graduate, get rich(er in nico's case, monaco princess ah well), get married, have two adorable demonic children and live happily ever after. georgie adored their love story growing up and secretly wanted what they had. only lando knew about the almost life long crush that she had on alex albon, their own childhood bff. only lando knew how heartbroken she was when he responded 'ha, never in your wildest dreams' to someone joking about georgie and alex together. it made her feel undesirable and she felt lost about love because it was kind of the only kind she felt she knew.

so when georgie starts dating max it worked in a way she didn't anticipate but was better than anything she imagined. - xoxo angst anon

Chuck and Blair if you take out literally all of the terrible things they do before and after they get together.

Brocedes are actually so flipped coded. Nico who meet Lewis when they were extremely young and fell for him immediately (baby Nico angrily huffing because Seb is talking to her Lewis >:( )though Lewis doesn’t feel the same and they get separated for a little and are reunited in high school when Nico starts questioning her long time crush on Nico just as Lewis is starting to realize his feelings for Nico. (Cue the winter formal and Lewis angrily huffing cause Jenson is dancing with Nico. His Nico >:( and he interrupts the dance and drag Nico away and finally does his whole angry confession and “cause you looking fucking stunning and your dancing with him when you should be with me!” >:(((( ) and they start dating and finally everything perfect minus that very small massive incident in college where they split up for a bit but everything is perfect and they grow up rich as hell and get a massive house and have two gremlin children

And Georgie fell in love with the story growing up. Her parent were always her idea romance and she always dreamed of having a love like theirs. So when she meet a young Alexander Albon in primary school she falls for hard him and she spend her whole youth being in love with Alex and just kind of assume that their going to be the perfect childhood friend to lover story like her parents. So when he kind of publicly (not realizing she can hear him) responds like that to the idea of being with her her world shatters (she ofc ends up in a car with Max going well over the speed limit because drowning your problems in alcohol and reckless driving is always the solution)

And in the end she falls for Max. Max who she met only 3 years after Alex. Max who she’s known for practically forever. Max who she hated near immediately after she met him. Max who’s been there through so much of her life she can’t really remember a time he wasn’t thereMax who she loves more than anything now.

I just think George looking for his childhood romance in Alex only to find it in Max is kinda neat :)

(Edit: the way I literally answered this days ago and just never forgot it was a drag and I had to change it to manually post)