#Prometheus Collective

[ufipa]

We are now officially allied with our first...ally!

As of the 24th June 2024, we are officially allied with the Prometheus Collective of Euclid!

Join us on Reddit & Discord

[borninwinter81]

In the past week I obtained beautiful deluxe editions of two works of gothic literature, so I thought I'd share them here.

The first was because of Madame Absinthe on youtube, whom I've been binge watching recently. She's an extremely talented seamstress but as well as sewing videos and other things of general gothy interest she also does gift hauls showing what she got for her birthday and Christmas. Typically her hauls are not standard youtuber hauls full of mass-produced items from Killstar, Shein or Temu, but instead lean towards more weird, interesting and unique items.

This edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray was featured in one of her gift haul videos. As it was a gift she didn't have the details of where it came from, but I googled the title and "black pages" and had no difficulty in finding it.

The publisher is called Monochrome books. They're very small and appear to have been funded almost entirely by kickstarter campaigns. They have also done versions of Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein and Marcus Aurelius but at present this is the only one available for general sale on their website.

The idea was to create a physical version of a book that could be read in "dark mode" with white print on black paper. This may come across as gimmicky, but it's a gimmick that will certainly appeal to those with a goth aesthetic, and clearly the publishers have realised this and selected their works appropriately. I'm hoping that they do Dracula at some point!

As well as the novel it also contains several of Wilde's poems at the start. It only took a week to arrive which is extremely impressive since it was coming to the UK from the US.

It did cost a lot, but for a limited edition from a small publishing house I'm perfectly happy to pay that - thankfully it was my anniversary recently and my husband had given me some money to buy myself a gift as I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I had cash available!

The other one was because of a mini holiday we went on last week (I did a separate post about this, it was a visit to Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace) .

On our first day there my husband and I found a bookshop which had some very nice editions of Dracula and Frankenstein. As it was my first day I didn't buy any in case I found other souvenirs I wanted more. I didn't, however unfortunately the shop wasn't open again whilst we were there.

Being disappointed by this I did some googling again. I didn't find any of the editions that shop had, however I did find this version which I think is even nicer than theirs - the skulls and roses on the page edges are gorgeous!

This one is by Arcturus Decorative Classics, it was published just last year and is quite widely available and inexpensive (£15 for my copy). I found it on ebay.

I will enjoy re-reading both of these immensely, and I think I clearly need to find deluxe copies of Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to go with them!

[brittie-frog]

Final opinion after watching every Alien film:

- obviously the original is the best

- bring back Winona Ryder's butch little robot (+ bonus in a relationship w/ Ripley 8) and my life is yours

- for Resurrection and the Ridley prequels you just got to have some whimsy.

- Did it take me 3 tries to watch Covenant because I kept falling asleep? Yeah but I eventually got through it with some laughter

- what was the point of the wall mounted pussy in Romulus? Like what part of the life cycle? It can't be hibernation when it knew there was 2 others on the ship to hunt. For growth after the initial shed?

- the more I look at it the more I don't mind the Romulus child design but resurrection goopy boy gets extra points for not killing grandma Ripley - why'd they have to do that to my girl Isabela Merced in the last 20 minutes??

All in all after how long the series has existed I'm glad they haven't forgotten the core meanings of the original - sexual imagery and corporate greed

[littlef4ng]

we are food for worms, lads 🪱

[r3stless-mindz]

If I had a penny for every time I became obsessed with a british man named David who is related to space in some sort of way- I would have two pennies. Which doesn't sound like much, but it's odd that it's happened twice.

[anthonyspage]

🧪🧟‍♂️🐦🎃

[tristinian]

There’s always going to be something so transgender to me about building a body, whether for you or someone else

[quarterlifekitty]

Hi! could you possibly write something about a fuckboy!soap and shy!reader that he uses for sex, and she keeps letting him? im craving angsty angst ANGST that just keeps hurting…you don’t have to if you don’t want to and thank you if you do! Have a great day!

Okay, one thing you all should know about me? Is that I’m a weenie lol so I can’t help but make things a little hopeful most of the time. Also— gonna make this like a college type AU

Soap clocks you from a mile away when he sees you at a party. There’s a cup of beer in your hand that you’ve been nursing, just sipping to have something to do while you cling to the side of the friend who forced you to come.

He’s seen you in his classes before. You’re good. Not the type to be seen in a place like this. And that kinda whets his appetite. He wants to fuck you, break you, make you fall apart for his own amusement.

He nudges Gaz— they have the routine down to a science— splitting up the birdies that are a little too huddled together so they can have their way with them. Gaz runs interference this time, Johnny mouthing an “I owe ye” his way— chatting up and pulling your friend away to talk a bit more. You’re alone now, and Johnny swoops in, weaving through people on a warpath.

He corners you expertly, and you’re a pathetically easy read. Easy to tease, to coax, to push. He just has to throw in a few lines about how pretty you look, peppered between him saying he’s always wanted to talk with you, always admired you in class— he gives just enough detail to lull you into thinking this is courting. That he’s going to fuck you because he likes you.

Works like a charm. Always does. You clumsily follow him to his room—“Ye didnae ken? This is my fraternity’s house, bonnie,”— as he pulls you along by the hand.

He enjoys pulling you apart. Like the birds taking Prometheus’s liver. He’s not a complete animal, he makes you cum, but he doesn’t give you kisses the way you’d probably hoped he would. He’ll tell his mates later— it was kinda cute how fucking bad you were at giving head, too.

He lets you stay the night even though your clinging is a bit annoying. Pushing you out would burn this bridge, and he’s not ready to do that just yet. Not when he could keep having fun.

Come morning your clothes are tossed your way (sans panties, those are going in his trophy collection), and he has the decency to drop you off at your place with the promise of further contact.

Come your next class, he’s back to acting like he doesn’t know you. You’re shy, but you’re not stupid. It’s easy to see that you were played, and you curse yourself for falling into it.

So why do you show up when he texts you, asking you to come over?

Promethean indeed.

And it keeps happening.

It’s not like he treats you badly— that’s what you tell yourself. You’re just the idiot for expecting more than orgasms. It’s nice to feel wanted. It’s not nice to put your clothes on and get out right after, but you’re willing to ignore that. You shouldn’t be. But you are.

You’re not the kind of girl who gets asked out. So why refuse the one source of attention you have? He makes you cum, right? That’s more than a lot of guys do, so it would be unfair to expect more. High maintenance. Right?

If Johnny can see the hurt behind your eyes when you turn to check behind you when you leave, as if he’ll suddenly change his mind and call you back into bed to hold you, he doesn’t do anything about it. He’s content to tug on his jeans and brush past you with a cigarette in his mouth.

You steel yourself as usual, double checking the straightness of your clothes as if it’ll make you feel like less of a cheap whore when his housemates glance your way as you leave.

The door across from Johnny’s is almost always open, despite how closed off its occupant seems. You’ve never met Simon. Well, you really haven’t met anyone in Soap’s life. That’s not what he keeps you for, is it? Fucktoys don’t get introduced to the friend group. Doesn’t stop Simon from staring holes in your back every time you leave. Must think you’re easy. Must wonder if Johnny’ll mind if he has a go. Or maybe he just thinks you’re pathetic. You certainly do.

But it’s happened one too many times. Apparently, even a worm will turn. His stare itches and crawls up your skin when you already feel like such a piece of meat— chewed up and spit out. And you must be losing flavor. Before long you won’t even have this. You turn to look at him instead of walking on as usual.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” You spit in a tone that surprises you. You’ve never said anything like that to someone, not in earnest, anyway.

“Lemme take y’out somewhere.”

What?

What?

[ufipa]

Iteration in Review: Iteration 2, 1st Mar - 30th Jun 2024

Last Iteration, the following happened:

1. We documented 3 new star systems on the wiki:

Eynyaev

Yanaga

Oriokin-Nagoya XIX

2. The moon chosen for demolition was selected, and is in the process of destruction.

3. DOOMCREW56 began construction of Celadet Fields, a ranch near the Capitol on Ifortc Tau.

4. An official store opened, and merch for numerous planets was announced.

5. The Capitol was completed, and the Governors opened it to the public for the second time.

6. The Domauj Boundary and Suvasaserl Cloud regions were discovered.

7. We allied with the Prometheus Collective.

8. A wikipage was made for Selbur XI, the Abandoned capital (finally)

9. noomintroll began construction of the Habitation Programme Alpha, a community housing project on Ifortc Tau designed to help any new travellers in UFIPA space find their feet.

And once again, as a final message, a traditional UFIPA farewell:

May comets carry you upon their backs and solar winds be your wings. See you in the stars, Travellers.

Join us on:

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[hexhomos]

What do you think is the significance that we only hear Mel and Heimerdinger in Jayce’s thoughts when he’s stuck in the pit in the Apocalypse AU but not Viktor? (We also hear his own voice but the question still stands)

I genuinely think it's because Jayce's REGRETS are amplified in that scene. Those are, in every way, a collection of his fuck-ups. A collection of his hauntings. It's him making the wrong decisions and it's him throwing himself into certain doom and it's him being too naive to understand the broad consequences of his actions, the realization hitting too little too late. (that is why he is crying! he is prometheus, his liver pecked out every day as a punishment for his ambition, stealing fire from the gods)

And the fact that he doesn't hear Viktor makes this... so much more potent to me. Viktor is his rock. Viktor is the thing he never gives up on and will never stop fighting for and, tbh, I think he doesn't regret saving Viktor and he WOULD do it all again, over and over if he had to. Jayce only hears Viktor's voice again when he gets himself out of that hole and hauls ass to the top of the tower; and then its real Viktor, the alive and breathing one who's been watching over him every now and then, telling him that he would do it over and over again too. In the big doomed garden at the end of the universe, within the apocalypse they caused, there is still an implicit admission that 'I did this because I love you' and it is fucked up, and it fucked everyone over, but I will never regret you.

[ambxtxo]

donna tartt’s reading list

In an interview, Tartt lists her favorite authors and the names of a few works. I have listed the most popular works from each author and the specific ones she recommended as well.

Homer

The Iliad

The Odyssey

Greek Poets and Tragedians

Argonautica

Antigone

Prometheus Bound

The Oresteia

Medea

Oedipus Rex

The Bacchae

The Frogs

Dante

Inferno

Purgatorio

Paradiso

Shakespeare

“I went back and read Macbeth and Hamlet during the pandemic”

Macbeth

Hamlet

Dickens

“Dickens was a part of my familial landscape, the air I breathed.”

A Tale of Two Cities

Great Expectations

Nabokov

Pale Fire

Lolita

Proust

In Search of Lost Time

Swann’s Way

Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment

The Brothers Karamazov

Yeats

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

Borges

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth

Ethan Frome

Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited

Helena

Salinger

Catcher in the Rye

Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway

Orlando

Edward St. Aubyn

The Patrick Melrose Novels

Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore

Norwegian Wood

Olga Tokarczuk

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Don DeLillo

White Noise

Underworld

W.G. Sebald

Austerlitz

The Rings of Saturn

Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking

The White Album

Other Specific Books

Memoirs d’Outre-Tome by Chateaubriand

Jigsaw by Sybille Bedford

All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski

A Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Pandora

Artist: John William Waterhouse (English, 1849–1917)

Date: 1898

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private collection

Description

The painting is titled Pandora in honor of Pandora, the first woman according to Greek mythology. Created by order of Zeus to introduce all evil into the lives of men, after Prometheus, against divine will, gave them the gift of fire.

The recreated moment is the one in which Pandora is about to open the chest that contained the evils of the human race (old age, illness, passion, poverty and others).

Her curiosity caused everyone except Hope to run away and spread out into the world.

[mediumgayitalian]

prev

-- -- --

The last thing Will destroys is --

The last thing Will destroys, is.

-- -- --

He picks, flowers, once. Fidgeting. 

He watches Anthracnose bloom from the cratered burns in the centres of his palms and devour the things up to the tips of their petals, leaves curling in blackened rot.

He burns them.

-- -- --

"You get quiet, sometimes."

Will faces him. Nico watches carefully, eyes blank. Will wonders if he learned that from his cautious father, from the undead that kept him company. He stares back, and prays his own eyes are ice. 

"Many do."

Nico smiles. Small, quick, fleeting. Amused. 

"Indeed."

He burns with questions. This, he cannot have learned from his father -- Will remembers a boy, dark-eyed and mischievous, wide-mouthed and non-stopping. He remembers the winter afternoon and Lee muttering to himself, scowling, about a motormouth worse than Will's. He remembers crouching by the entrance of the ampitheater, breath caught in his lungs. He remembers wild, cackling laughter, and cheering sons of thieves. 

That boy resurfaces, sometimes. 

"Are you thinking?" Nico grimaces as he says it, shrinking back; but it is too late, and Will has acknowledged him. "Of -- something, I mean. Working something out."

Will places his head on his knee. "I'm thinking," he agrees softly. "I wish I wasn't."

"How anti-intellectualist of you."

Will cracks a smile. "Yes. You've cracked my master plans -- once the rest of this foolhardy camp has succumbed to my brainwashing, I will easy control the complacent masses."

"I think I have to kill you," Nico says sagely. His eyes sparkle, like granite. "Your threat is too great."

Will tries to hide the panic in his face. He does not succeed, because Nico frowns. 

"Hey," Nico says, hand outstretched. "You --"

Will scoots back, pressing his back to his bunk. His heart thunders, his pupils shrink.

"Ha," he says, weakly. "You got me."

He turns so his forehead touches his patellae, and breathes carefully through his mouth. He stays there until Nico stops staring. 

He hides his fevered palms in between his thighs.

-- -- --

Sometimes Will thinks he was destined to die at four, in penance. He should have choked on his own disease, his own plague; but he did not, and the only thing that died in him was the sparking flame Prometheus gifted them all, blown to matted ember in the stalk of his chest. 

Instead his brothers watched his shame bubble out of his mouth, circle him in clouds of spores, and they lied for him. They clung to his bloody hands and pushed him behind them. And then they were slaughtered, as were the punished firstborns, for the crime of their knowing existence: Will, marked, stood on their shrouds and ashes. 

He smells of guilt, he thinks. Of guilt and germ and rot. He hides it, in all the antiseptic he can bathe in, in all the ethanol he can consume. But his breath still stinks of it and his lying tongue burns. He is tall, removed from those around him; they cannot see the sores in his mouth or the inflammation of his throat from years and years of choking hands. Bandages hide the bright red spots up and down his arms. Burn scars cover his blackened fingernails. 

But the tallest obelisks are swallowed by the length of their shadows. And nothing can hide from Fate, from the servants she sends to collect for her. 

Nico gets closer, and closer. His hands are cool compresses on the hidden sores on Will's skin. It is relief, as he is never felt it.

Will is afraid.

-- -- --

"Connor is cute," Will blurts, one day, catching Nico looking. He swallows, hard, and the wail of his failures -- his victims -- echo louder than the crack of his heart. "He's, uh. He's into boys, you know."

Nico snorts. "Connor is into money," he says, turning away. He meets Will's eyes with a grin. "He found out I have an infinite credit card and proposed on the spot. He wept when I turned him away."

Will fights the urge to sigh. He is unsurprised that Connor is a gold digger -- if anything he kind of respects the commitment to the bit -- but he just wishes --

He's not blind, Will. Or maybe he is and it's just that Nico is so obvious. He is always -- looking, always, when Will is standing, when he is slouching, when his hands twitch and when they are shoved into the hollow of his chest, hunched over at the campfire. Will can feel the pinprick of his gaze when he is startled into laughter and when he climbs out of the cabin in the middle of the night, gasping, and crawls onto the sun-warmed roof to face the stars. He watches and he touches, featherlight: Will's elbow, the shell of his ear, the sensitive small of his back. 

He guards, too. This one Will has noticed the most. When Will cannot find the breath to fill his lungs, or when his hands shake too badly to thread the suture needle, Nico stands like a shadow two paces ahead of him. And the whispering voices that follow Will's every stumble are glared into mute, mum terror. And the aching tired muscles of his back go lax. 

Connor is cute. 

Will wishes, with all the audacious hoping he has left, that Nico cared about that kind of thing.

-- -- --

"Will. Hey."

Will realizes, abruptly, that he has automatically leaned into Nico's gentle touch. He wrenches forward, bile rising in his throat -- if Nico is offended, he does not show it. 

But he does not move his arm. His big, sky-black eyes watch him, round and steady, until Will forces his breathing to even. 

"I have something to tell you."

The souls on Will's shoulder screech so loud he flinches.  Death! they cheer. Death! Death! D --

Nico watches him critically. "You know, I think."

"I can't," Will blurts, and hunches in on himself. "I can't, I'm not --"

"Into boys?" Nico finishes. He does a good job of hiding it. The hurt. He keeps his hand light and careful on Will's wrist, thumb brushing over the edge of his bandages, and a safe distance between them. Friendly. He has more strength than he realizes. It is only in the smallest twitch of his mouth, that it is obvious, in the watery gleam of his dark, dark eyes. 

Now, Will has -- 

He inhales, quick and short. No exhale comes after.

There is an easy escape, here. 

He cannot tell a lie. They burn him, coming up his throat, and are always shroud in smoke and warning. His father has many domains and it is the job of his heirs to reflect them: Lee had healing, and charm. Michael had the gift of the shot. Cass had prophecy, Diana poetry, Kayla her bow, Austin his music. Dozens more that Will met and loved and who died before him carried on dance, light, education. Will's father is a warm, bright man: he shines upon his children and endeavors to make them beacons among their peers, laughing, trustworthy fortune-tellers and music-makers. 

But there is more to the Sun than warmth and light. The Sun brings dry desert, and heady drought; the Sun cooks and it burns and drains a man's sanity out of his ears and onto the sizzling sands. The Sun is all-loving, and it is unforgiving. For every one hundred children there must be one to represent his father's shame, his rage, his fear; for every one hundred children one must coil the snake in which the Sun will meet His end, devoured and digesting. For every one hundred children there must be one who is marked, who is covered in rotting, rancid scales. Will has been shadding as long as he has been alive. For every hubric act of divine grace he forces he must match in decay from the bottom of his own soul. When he opens his mouth, his truth is obvious, it is evident: when he speaks, lies burn him, as they bolster the devil. Will cannot tell a lie. 

But he can nod, if someone guesses. If someone presumes his silence for contempt or his neglect for dismissal, he is not beholden to their correction. He cannot lie, but obstruction is outside of his father's domain, and he has no responsibility for it. 

Nico watches him, heartbroken. Hand still stubbornly extended, beating muscle bleeding with every pump. 

He could nod. He could say: sorry, and squeeze Nico's hand. He could take one step backwards and let his hand fall.

It would be so, so easy.

"Ton angélon," Will chokes out. His hand twitches, in Nico's hold; Nico frowns and brings up his other hand to match, squeezing until the spasms stop. "You are celestial, Nico, you are breathtaking, you're --"

Nico inhales sharply. He blinks once and his eyes open wide, brown in the gold of the sun; amber, cassiterite, quartz. The bow of his perfect lips drops, slightly, mouth in a perfect, shocked little O. Will blinks and a crown of thorns digs into his marble temples; he shakes his head and necrosis climbs up his sharp jaw.

"I ruin everything I touch," Will says, hoarse. "I destroy -- all that is innocent, all that angels breathe life into." His heated hands glow, under bands of cotton; green pulses through his eyes and his pores, and he flinches wrenching them away. "There is nothing of me worth holding, Nico."

Will is expecting nothing because he has forbidden himself from imagining it. Or, he is expecting rejection. He is expecting disgust.

He cannot say in good conscience that he is expecting offense.

"I'm going to smack the shit out of you."

He opens his squeezed shut eyes. He sees Nico's hands, first. Still gentle. And then his narrowed eyes, his sideset jaws. 

The failures resting on his shoulders are silent. 

Will stares, breathing heavy. His hands twitch. 

"You think," Nico begins, and stops himself, breathing out through pursed lips. "You think I -- care? That you've lost people?"

"It's more than that," Will says, desperately. Nico takes a step forward and all the thousands of souls on Will's head scream, at once; he flinches, shoulders aching, hollow stomach scraping against the shake of his spine. "Nico, you guide people, you shepherd them --"

"And you save them from me!"

Nico takes another stubborn step forward and Will can't turn away fast enough, he cannot duck out of his strong fingers on either side of his chin and can't pull away from his magmatic, furious eyes.

"Death is inevitable," Nico says calmly, firmly. "Some deaths cannot be prevented. I'm -- making my peace with that, Solace. I am not the plague I think I am." Will makes a low, groaning noise. Nico smiles sadly. "You are not to blame for your mistakes, either."

Will realizes, abruptly, that he will never be able to say it.

He is not sure who has designed this. It could be the shame, balling solidly in the back of his throat; it could be his many victims, coiling tightly around his neck. It could be his father's warning hand: grow out your hair, child. Keep your marked forehead to yourself.

He swallows, and pulls back. Nico lets him, dark eyes narrowed and curious, head tilted. In the Hades cabin there is nothing for him to destroy -- there are bones, and stones, and raging fires -- but the only lively thing is Nico, and he is doing a fine enough job on his own trying to wiggle under Will's stained palms, drying to swim close enough to the blood he is drowning in to choke to death on it.

Instead, he picks at the yellowed bandages. It takes time, to unroll the layers, but the cotton piles at his feet, and his forearms are bare: layered, upon unflinching burn scars, are varicella spots, EB blisters. Open, weeping sores, cracked skin and inflamed blisters. A spot, where the first drop of Lee's blood hit his skin, that is black and rotted. A patch of reddened rashing that wraps around his elbows.

Nico lurches. Will tucks his arms quickly away.

"I'm contagious," he says, softly. He ducks down and scoops up the bandages, stumbling fingers pressing them back against his skin. "I'm okay, in small doses. But loving me is -- poisonous." He always struggles to tie the last strand. He is not, for all his trying, ambidextrous, and his right hand is clumsy along the cut of his wrist. He blinks aware the moisture in his eyes and yanks on it, frustrated -- he has to leave, quickly, before he can endure the humiliation of Nico's horror, of his disgust. But if he leaves his arms uncovered than someone will -- see.

They'll see, and they'll know.

Deathdeathdeathdeath, murmur his spirits.

Will swallows. I know.

"Stop," says Nico, voice cracking and hoarse. Will squeezes his eyes shut, as his voice gets clearer. "Will, stop it."

"Please," Will begs. "Don't tell. I'm careful, I promise, I can -- I can keep it under wraps, I can control myself --"

He is surprised, again, by Nico's sob. By the balm of his cool fingers on the heel of his hands and the contained unit of his weeping.

"Those look like they hurt," Nico whispers, lump in his throat. He traces his fingers, slowly, over the criss-crossing bandages, removing them carefully. Will, stunned, lets him. He peels them all off and stands, on hand on either wrist, turned so he can inspect the scarred and infected insides. "Gods, Will, this -- you must be in agony --"

He is, he supposes. Or: he always has been. But it is quiet most mornings, and the ache is dull by evenings. The pressure of elasticized cotton is as familiar as the weight of a t-shirt.

"I can handle it," Will insists. He tugs, but Nico holds firm. "It is penance, anyway. There was none of this -- before."

Before he watched his cousin burn into the air. Before he heard his brother's back crack clean across Manhattan. Before he poisoned dozens of demigods, as hurting as any other, for the crime of pain and anger. Before he pieced together the fractured pieces of Lee's skull. Before the shriveled crow cawed three times, beady eyes reading the black rot of his soul.

They came one by one by one.

Slowly, Nico walks him back, until his tailbone hits his bed. He presses, gently, on his aching shoulders; Will sits, bewildered, and watches him flit away, watches him sink into the shadows and appear halfway across the room, with an armful of new bandages, first, then a tube of cream, a jar of nectar.

"Nico," he says, quietly.

"Shut up," says Nico hotly. There are still tears in his eyes, and every fifth breath shudders. "Just -- sit down and be quiet."

Will sits. The roar, even, of the dead, is only simmering; curious as he is.

Nico is gentle, when he heals.

"Drink this," he orders.

Will takes the nectar. "It won't work." He drums his fingers against the glass. "These are -- marks, Nico." He exhales. "Punishments."

Nico stares, jaw set.

Will drinks.

It tastes like cloying sweet. It always does. Like a strawberry on the wrong side of soft, like the underbrush of autumn. It does not fix the viruses who have made home in his systems -- he knows the sound of them dying -- but it does, for a moment, ease the ache.

"You're dumb," Nico says, when he has finished. His voice is short, eyes hard. "For -- the best medic in centuries, you're fucking stupid."

"Comes with the self-destructive tendencies," Will says drily. "Takes one to know one."

"That -- okay, fair. Fair. But." He tilts Will's face to meet his eyes, softening. "That means you have to listen to me, okay. I know what I am talking about." He pulls down the collar of his shirt, stretching down to his sternum. Will inhales, sharp -- where there should be skin, and muscle, there is nothing but dry, gnarled ribcage, right in the patch of space around his beating heart. Nico breathes slowly, heart slowing. He releases the shirt and Will stares through it, eyes wide.

He kneels by the edge of the bed. "I'm marked, too."

Will takes his hands when he offers. The shouts of his victims scream: death! Death! Look what you have done to him!

But the ice cool of Nico's hands reminds him: not everything is yours.

"We can be outcasts together," Nico suggests. He quirks a smile. "Something very Greek about that, I think."

A bubble of hysteric laughter escapes Will's chest. "Like -- Patroclus."

"And Achilles long after."

Nico's breath is warm against the scarred skin of his knees. He stays there, eyes soft, hands gentle around the ring of Will's wrists. He doesn't seem to mind Will's twitching, or the awful, palliative smell of him. He seems drawn to it, actually, breathing deeply.

"I'm scared," Will admits, voice small. "I don't want to hurt you."

Nico inclines his head. "I'm half-dead anyway." He squeezes gently. "You'd have to try pretty hard."

The last thing Will destroys is --

Will is going to be destroying things for a long time.

There will be other wars. Battles. There will be moments, when there is screaming, when Will's lungs coil in his chest, and smoke pours from his mouth. There will be moments when the herbs he picks wither and die in his hands.

Deathdeathdeathdeath, wail the voices.

Will inhales. The clean air settles deep in his ruined lungs, sweet and cooling.

"Try," Nico says, jaw set. "Me. Us. You -- loving, I mean."

Will nods. The pressure lifts from his throat.

"I will."

[daily-art-academy]

Prometheus

Maxfield Parrish, 1919

Oil on panel, 78,74 x 53,98 cm, private collection

[neo-exploded]

my collection of various and frankly very random vat7k headcanons/ideas yay!!!!

(note: orange color is for other characters)

team radical duo names first

varian + hugo = alchemy bros/varigo (take your pick)

varian + nuru = spacerocks (im sticking with that ok)

varian + yong = gunpowder (because its a chemical that, when added into a substance in chemistry, will detonate)

yong + nuru = supernova (GET IT GET IT???? ITS CUZ WHEN A STAR EXPLODES *nudging you with elbow as i wink*)

yong + hugo = hotpockets

nuru + hugo = royaltravesty (i came up with this on the spot, dont kill me)(also they remind me of cass n eugene and cassandra called eugene “royal travesty” once so ohhhhhkay)

ok hc time

Hugo grew up in a lower class, and thus was given no middle or last name. Rottewange was Donella's last name which she gave to Hugo when she took him in (age 5).

Yong is the animal master. He speaks to squirrels, rabbits, badgers, horses, ect. throughout the journey. if Ruddiger isn’t with Varian, he’s on Yong’s shoulders.

^^ Hugo is the opposite of this. Ruddiger only tolerates him if he gets apples in the end and Prometheus just dgaf (nonchalant king) and every other animal just hates his ass.

Nuru was actually aware of Varian’s criminal past as “The Alchemist” because, as a royal, she was informed by kingdom gossip about a dangerous criminal and oh no!!!! anyway when Varian’s past was revealed she was kind of like “oh damn” and “ok cool” because really she can’t see this man as a treasonist anymore when he speaks alchemical equations in his sleep

^^ Varian was actually really scared what everyone else would think of him when they discovered his past, but Nuru was calm, Yong was honestly a little too excited, and Hugo was stunned (bringing back my Hugo being a fanboy of The Alchemist when it was fresh news)

^^ Hugo spent an entire night after contemplating everything realizing that the figure he crushed on a few years ago is VARIAN.

^^ Last one: Donella actually was pretty close to wanting to recruit The Alchemist, but when she did a bit more digging and found out he's Ulla's boy, she gave it up instantly.

Varian talks to Ruddiger and Prometheus like they’re people. Hugo thinks it’s kind of sad and funny at the same time.

Nuru is lactose intolerant.

Hugo is really good at sketching. He sketches blueprints for Olivia and pictures of Varian in a small pocket journal

Yong can do a really good bird impression. That’s it.

Don’t kill me for this, but Nuru didn’t crush on Amber at first sight. It took about a couple of meetings post-VAT7K for her to finally start realizing her feelings (events being Varian’s and/or Hugo's birthday, Rapunzel’s coronation, Varigo wedding 👀, reunions, holidays, and library grand opening)

When Varian and Hugo did get married (28 and 29 respectively) it was so incredibly similar to Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding, what with Ruddiger and Olivia being the ring-barers who disappeared halfway through the ceremony and came back covered in mud. The only difference with this wedding was that it only had friends and family and not the entire fucking kingdom. (also this was inspired by JJGGRT's art i saw on pinterest)

I know this is generally accepted by the VAT7K fandom, but Hugo did drop a piano on Eugene’s head during a job when he was like 12. Neither have forgotten and Eugene still hangs it over Hugo’s head when he starts living in the castle. For revenge, Eugene would probably just keep dumping items on Hugo’s head (apples, books, CHAIRS, whatever)

Yong kicks and snores in his sleep, Varian sleep-talks and occasionally walks, Nuru snores but not as loud as Yong, and Hugo is the lightest sleeper of them all (suffering)

Each of them have relatively good voices when it comes to singing, which leads to most nights camping on the road to an improv karaoke night with a guitar Varian brought.

^^ Varian plays guitar and piano, Yong likes the tamborine, Nuru plays the violin, and Hugo plays flute

Yong learns new curse words every time the group has an argument (namely Hugo and Varian, Nuru tries to prevent Yong from hearing them but it doesn’t work)

Varian left his binder on the floor once and Hugo screamed because "cooties" then started complaining because "could you pick up your shit from the floor?? Other people use this caravan too, dumbass".

Nuru is AMAZING at debate. Like, Hugo can bargain and all that, but Nuru will go in complete detail and go on lengthy debates with someone if given the chance, and often about the smallest topic.

Nuru was the hairstylist of the team. That was how she kept Hugo's undercut the same and Varian's hair the same length. She tried to keep Yong's hair clean and un-messed, but his explosions never helped and he liked it blown back, so she let him be, onlly trimming his hair every few months.

^^ Nuru’s hair changes every day, the only time it’s the same is during the trials.

Varian bakes for the team. He absolutely cannot cook but Hugo can. Nuru was never allowed to make her own food in the castle and Yong only knows few recipes.

Some days, Varian will wake up first with the brightest, happy-go-lucky attitude ever known (thanks rapunzel) and then other days he won’t wake up until the moment they’re about to leave, groaning and dragging his body around like a zombie

The team lowkey forgot about their birthdays on the road, so when Rapunzel found out about this she dropped EVERYTHING and planned the most spontaneous and biggest birthday party for four people.

Yong keeps rocks from every kingdom and trial they visit.

Team Radical stayed in Corona’s castle for a week after the events at the Eternal Library to recover, then were sent home.

^^ Yong and Nuru actually became ambassadors and librarians of the Eternal Library, just from far away. Hugo stayed with Varian in the castle tho.

For maybe the first month, or longer, Hugo struggled with adapting to palace life and Varian’s forgiveness. It took multiple late night talks, awkward conversations, and kidnappings to a storage closet for Hugo to realize Varian will not dump him to the curb. ever.

Yong and Nuru almost wept tears of sorrow when they realized that leaving Corona meant saying goodbye to Attila's cupcakes. Now everytime they reunite every few months, they go to get cupcakes and sit in a garden to yap.

Varian taught Hugo the Coronian style of dance (aka: the dances you see in the movie and such) and now everytime Corona has their spontaneous dances, Varian has to drag Hugo into them. Eugene and Rapunzel experience deja vu.

Hugo and Varian go to Ingvarr often to say hi to Donella :) Hugo likes to bug her every now and then, and really likes sending useless scrolls that would say shit like “I need toilet paper” or “tell cyrus he stinks” idk

^^ Varian also did something similar along the journey. He'd write letters back to his father and the rest back in Corona every week (if he didn't, Eugene and Rapunzel threatened search parties instantly). Anyways, he sent normal updates to his dad, but the ones to the castle said really stupid stuff to troll Eugene and Lance mostly. "Look behind you, Eugene." and "DO NOT TOUCH MY LAB, LANCE. I SEE YOU" (extra: "hi raps i hope youre having a good time :) i miss you <3")

^^ In retaliation, Varian was sent letters that contained crude, horribly drawn images by Eugene or Lance or Angry and Catalina. Most of the time it was Eugene complaining with a small scratchy figure of Angry in the corner doing the middle finger. Varian keeps every one. Once he was sent an entire rat tail.

Nuru is still the diplomatic, navigator, and probably the most mature of the group, but she has her silly moments like yapping about her astronomy knowledge to Varian, collecting every candle she comes across in the markets, and having a celebrity crush on the famous vigilante of the Seven Kingdoms (Cassandra)

When or if they ever ran into The Spire along their journey, Hugo was most likely to commit a murder.

Hugo is the type to put on a brave face around Varian Post-VAT7K when it comes to “romancing”. He’ll act all flirtatious and confident but will instantly lose it when Varian responds with his own flirting. Hugo will not be able to speak for a good ten minutes after, reduced to incoherent sentences.

Varian is unarguably the strongest of the group, having grown up on a farm and spent a year in prison, so he tends to effortlessly lift logs, supplies, and Yong, Nuru, and Hugo whenever. Varian would only lift others if he finds them asleep in odd places, which is often.

Nuru also brought tons of coins with her when she joined the party, so the group didn’t have to worry about food or supplies after her. Perks of royalty on your team.

When Hugo and Varian were revealed to be dating in the castle, Hugo was BOMBARDED WITH THREATS AND SHOVELTALK FOR DAYS. Mainly from Eugene because he holds the biggest grudge against him, Rapunzel was mostly polite about it, Cassandra was scary, BUT QUIRIN WAS TERRIFYING. HE PROBABLY DIDNT EVEN SAY ANYTHING HE JUST GAVE HUGO THE DEADLIEST STARE EVER AND HE HAD TO SAY "Yyyyes sir........." WITHOUT SOBBING

^^ This was similar for Varian when it came to Donella, who threatened to "ambush him, slit his throat, chop up his body, and throw every piece into bags in the ocean where you will remain if you dare break his heart". Um.

In the end, both boys are less scared to death and more annoyed than anything else so they hide in the (now shared) laboratory until everything dies down.

Post-VAT7K, Hugo and Nuru are more like siblings than ever before but neither would admit that.

Varian has an intense sweet tooth, Hugo likes salt. A lot. Nuru and Yong love spice. Because of this, dinners are a constant battle for what flavor or kind of food to make.

Yong, Hugo and Varian would keep getting arrested at nearly every city, town or kingdom they enter for their criminal actions (Yong is an arsonist. okay.) and Nuru has to constantly intervene saying "Actually, I'm the Kotoian Princess, and these are my........ assistants. They are simpletons, but knowledgeable in the outside world, do forgive them." "okya then why do they look like the guys we've been hearing about in the area?" "dunno."

Weapon choice

Varian’s weapon of choice: Alchemy staff + bombs

Hugo’s weapon of choice: Double daggers and alchemy bombs

Nuru’s weapon of choice: Fencing sword, but she gets an actual sword after they reach the Dark Kingdom (Thank you, Adira)

Yong’s weapon of choice: Firecrackers, fireworks, dynamite, bombs, wtvr

"Episode" ideas

At one point, Team Radical finds the Hook Brothers while they’re on tour, so they get a break and cool singing/dance montage yay!

They accidentially find Cassandra too. She almost attacks them until she noticed Varian and yay reunion!! (The rest are panicking in the background because who the hell is this woman who jumped out of the trees with a horse and owl)

Mandatory Andrew + Saporians run-in, Yong blows them up.

I do think the Baron or Anthony would try to yank Varian away because of his old criminal status (whether it be for his intelligence or something else, you choose) but really nobody is having that and it’s stopped easily.

There are some points in battles (against whoever really, Donella’s men most of the time) where Team Radical would have to lock in and when I say lock in, I MEAN IT. THEY CAN BE REALLY FUCKING TERRIFYING IF THEY ARE PUSHED TO THAT LIMIT. but rlly theyre staying silly most of the time. but still……………….

Varian gets to know his Mother’s side of the family more, he formally meets his aunt and uncles in the Dark Kingdom, has the biggest reunion with his family when they return to Corona, and none of the team can comphrehend how big this family is.

^^ Hugo was also really fucking spooked when he saw Quirin. He still is.

MY MOST FAVORITE IDEA PLEASE LISTEN TO IT OHMYGOD: so Team Radical somehow transports themselves back in time by like 3-4 years. This makes them encounter Rapunzel and Co. during Season 2, aka, when they still think Varian was a murderous traitor, and that was a whole experience they had to fix before returning back to the present.

^^ I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT AN EPISODE WHERE the wand of oblivium returns and Varian’s memory was erased to the point where he’s 14 and out for blood and Team Radical has to experience the wrath of a boy who wants his father back. It’s fixed in the end.

Yong runaway episode. He feels like a burden to the others and leaves the party to “help”. Varian and Yong bonding in the end :)

I know this is a really far stretch, but the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow episode. I don’t want to explain this just plaese HEAR ME OUTTTT

Ruddiger speaking. He and olivia get a voice for like. a day.

^^ ACTUALLY BETTER IDEA: Ruddiger, Prometheus and Olivia as human and Varian, Hugo, Yong, and Nuru as animals for an episode. The animals-turned-humans have to find a cure before the humans-turned-animals turn FULL ANIMAL (can you tell I was inspired by the bird episode from S2)

A BODY SWAP EPISODE??? LMAOAOOA LIKE Nuru > Hugo / Hugo > Yong / Yong > Varian / Varian > Nuru

Moon powers Varian. That's it, that's the idea.

dude when one of the cities the team stops in, Nuru gets a full on break from everything and chills the entire time; spa, massage, sauna, everything. Meanwhile, the boys are.... probably suffering elsewhere I haven't decided yet

Team Radical stopped at a beach for like two days and at least one person almost drowned, whoever that may be is up to you.

Nuru introduces coffee to the group when she joins, then Varian and Hugo get ADDICTED and she and Yong have to pry their disgusting hands from the coffee. It's thrown out maybe two weeks later, being replaced by tea and hot cocoa.

Full name + age headcanons

Varian Elias Ruddiger - 18 years (19 at the end of VAT7K)

Hugo Rottewange - 19 years (turned 20 maybe a month after VAT7K)

Yong Hwan Beifong - 13 years (Turned 14 in the Dark Kingdom)

Princess Nuru Grace Astraea - 16 1/2 years (Turned 17 after the Earth Trial)

BONUS!!! Hugo's nicknames for every member lmao

Varian: Goggles, Hairstripe, Freckles, Raccoon Whisperer, Sweetcheeks, Sir Dorkington, Variety, Varitas, Moonbeam.

Yong: Firecracker, Young, Kiddo, Sparky, "you Child of Flames", Firefly.

Nuru: Princess, Sparkles, Starlight, Lady Annoyance, Queen Grumpy, Twinkle Toes.

Lil extra: Varian's nicknames for Hugo: Beanpole, Greenbean, Asshole, Glasses, Love, Sweetheart, Sunshine, My Dream, Honey, My Everything, Darling, Pookie, Snookums, Squeaky, Rat Man, "A complete piece of shit", and Hu-Bug (from Rapunzel).

(guys please feel free to add any of your ideas or headcanons!! id love to hear ur guys' thoughts :D)