#and part 'estel thinks dad is THE BEST'

[jellyfishsthings]

Nerves and Stolen Kisses

I have been toying with the idea of writing a fic about him for quite sometime and after last weekend I just had to. Estelle ( Ollie's rumoured gf is mentioned here but it is a fake relationship for PR reasons.) Also Paul Aron has a gf... friends to lovers trope.

Shoutout to @httpiastri for the inspiration

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was fast approaching. And Ollie was a jumble of nerves and excitement as usual. Since the early hour of the day, he opened the curtains letting the sun into the room and you groaned into the pillow.

“Wakey wakey, sleepyhead. Come on, we have a whole day ahead of us.”

“No, you do. I don't know why I came.”

“Because I am your bestest friend and I paid for your ticket and let you stay with me.”

“Both of which are for your benefit.”

“Come on….”

“Fine.” You say with a dejected sigh as you get up and you both get ready for the day. David, Ollie's dad was already waiting for you and you headed towards the paddock.

Everything was a frenzy and was passing by so quickly. As Ollie got into the garage and got ready for the quali you headed towards the stands trying to find Cassie, Paul's long-term girlfriend. Throughout the years you have formed a unique friendship. She was the only one who knew about your crush on Ollie and she teased you endlessly about it. Ollie and you had been best friends for the better part of your life, joint to the hip, having endless sleepovers, even if Dad didn't approve.

It was an endless nightmare being close enough to get a taste of all the what ifs, but never experiencing them.

“Do you and your lover boy share a room, huh?”

“It's not like that and you know it, Cassandra.”

“Yeah, it hurts, doesn't it?”

“So much. You have no idea. Yesterday I couldn't sleep and as the hours passed, he came closer and closer. He ended up holding me in his sleep. And I felt so bad because of Estelle. I know that they aren't really together and it's for PR, but still, I feel awful because technically I am the other woman… and she is just so nice and sweet. Never overstepping, I think she knows.”

We both stay quiet after that as the session continues.

“You know… whatever the case. You both love each other, platonically or not.”

“Yeah, I know.” I say as I watch the times set by all the drivers, Ollie having the fastest one yet.

“Looks like your man is on pole.”

We both make our way through the paddock, trying to pass the roaring sea of fans and we hand out already-signed autographs to anyone who asks for them. When we finally arrive, we part ways, before making promises about having dinner together at a restaurant Cassie wanted to try. And I head towards the Prema garage finding two beaming Bearmans, hugging.

“Hey Bear. Did you drive fast enough?” You call at him. And he grins like an idiot before swooping you into a tight hug spinning you. His laughter echoes in your ears as he sets you down.

“Yeah I drove fast enough, you minx.”

“Good. Now let's go. We are having dinner with Paul and Cassie in four hours and I want to see the city.”

“Give me five minutes to change and we are good to go.”

The afternoon is spent visiting local stores, trying to communicate in scrappy English and making terrible puns with products or street names. When they finally head to the restaurant their sides hurt from laughing. Dinner passed by as quickly as it came. As everyone says, time flies by when you are with the people you love.

Just as they open the door for their hotel room, Ollie flops in the bed as you head towards your computer and open it as hoards of emails and messages appear on the screen. Great more deadlines and essays to write until the end of the week.

“Leave it. We can pretend that we have nothing to do and watch a movie or local TV and try to understand what the hell is going on.”

“Thanks Bear. But I can't, as tempting as your offer is. Go to sleep, I will join you soon.”

And so you sit in front of your computer, ending essay after essay, sending them on time, until your eyes hurt from the pale blue light. The bed seems more welcoming than ever before as Ollie starfishes the entire length of it and his soft snores fill the empty space. Yeah, maybe it's time to call it a day.

An awful sound echoes in the room and eventually wakes you.

“I swear if it's one more ad I will jump from the window.” You grumble into your pillow as you steal the blankets and turn yourself into a burrito.

Ollie hisses as he opens his phone only to find a ton of messages and many missed calls from Ferrari. He dials Fred back as he moves towards the bathroom, trying to let you steal a few more minutes of much needed sleep.

When he emerges back in the room he sits down in front of you, his back supported on the bed.

“Ols, what's going on?”

“Carlos has an appendix”

“Oh no. Is he having surgery?”

“Yeah.” He says softly. “They want me to replace him.”

“What?” At that you are fully awake. Your hair is a netted nest and you look at him in shock. He looks at you, you his best friend who would look like a mess to anyone else but to him you look like the most beautiful and amazing creature in the world. Your mere presence has a more calming effect on him than anything else. If it weren't for you, he would have already lost his mind. “How? When? I…”

“We need to get to the paddock, if I don't want to miss FP3. I will wake up Dad and break the news to him.”

Soon after you enter the paddock and thousands of reporters try to get a better look at Ollie, flashing their cameras at you and bombarding you with questions as you make your way to the Ferrari garage and mechanics steal Ollie from you and David as they set to work quickly. David looks pale and sick as he paces into the garage trying to control his nerves through the FP3 and the Quali. When Ollie finally got off the car when he scored the 11th place, missing Q2 only by 3 hundreds of a second, you knew that this was it. He was finally shining like the bright star he was. He had done more than enough, his raw talent showing with barely one hour to get used to the car. And as mechanics and reporters closed around him. You couldn't help but feel like you didn't belong here. Where did you fit in? The reality hit you and it hit you hard. You hid in the back corners of the garage, eyes glued to the screen as everyone passed by without acknowledging you. You would happily hide in the shadows where he shined but this world wasn't meant for you. The anxiety was picking up at you, eating you alive from the inside.

And when Ollie got too close to the wall, your heart stopped beating. He was driving a car that was twice as fast and twice as dangerous than his normal F2 car. It was too much. The sound, the danger, everything really. Breathing suddenly seemed so hard and you needed a way out. As you hide behind the garage you call the one person who could understand. Terri picks up in the second ring her soft voice already calming you.

“Hey love. Is everything alright?”

“How do you do it? How can you stand back and do nothing?”

“You love him, don't you sweetheart?”

“I thought it was obvious.”

“Well … no I always hoped but… whatever the case, to answer your question you simply do it, you just have to. A driver needs his support system and you are it for him. You are his forever person, whether that is romantically or not. He needs to be near you and as much nervous as you are, so is he. Without you he would be lost, believe me I know my son. And I can bet you that as much as your heart breaks right now, you are also immensely proud.”

“Of course I am. But where do I fit in, in this world.”

“Right beside him, love.”

“Thanks Terri. Please call David. I think he is losing his mind and he is sick with worry.” You say chuckling before saying your goodbyes and head back towards the garage. The session is already over and Ollie is nowhere in sight.

Ollie plays with the power button of his phone trying to calm down but to no avail. The lock screen is a photo of the two of you. It was last summer both your skins flushed and hair slightly wet and tangled. You both smile at the camera and your eyes look bright with happiness. He feels slightly lighter but he knows that there is an impending panic attack and so he turns to the one person who could help him in this situation.

"I got your text," you say, tiptoeing inside and shutting the door behind you, careful to not make any loud sounds to scare him. "How are you doing?”

Ollie is sitting on a massaging table, elbows on top of his legs and head resting in his hands. His eyes are stuck on the floor, his silence is defeaning. When he still doesn't answer, your heart rate picks up. Is something really wrong?

You make your way over to him, hands finding his cheeks and softly tilting him up to look at you – and you swear you've never seen him look this wrecked before. Not after his worst crashes, not when he lost the rookie championship last year, not when he was cheated out from the Formula 3 championship. Once again, you've entered completely new territory, and your heart breaks at the sight.

"Ollie, talk to me," you plead, holding back the tears that starts to form on your eyes and threatento spill. It's so painful to look into his eyes, but you can't back down. Not now, not when he needs you this much.

"I'm-" his voice cracks but he shakes his head, clearing his throat. "I'm so nervous, I don't know what to do."

It's like he's oozing anxiety, and his heavy sigh is like a stab in your chest. Ollie, your usually so calm and collected best friend is probably going crazy over this – you know him well enough by now to understand that he's definitely freaking out even more on the inside than what he shows or tells. He is a messy jumble of nerves.

"I get that. One hundred per cent. But.." your thumbs begin to stroke over the skin of his cheeks, along his jaw, and then finally across his eyebrows, to which his eyes flutter closed. "This is your dream. It's been your dream since forever, and now you finally have the chance.”

"And it's not just any car, it's a Ferrari. Do you realize how cool that is? Do you realize how many people would kill for an opportunity like this?" You smile at the sight of him with his eyes still shut, eyelashes resting atop his cheeks, messy fringe covering his forehead. Even like this, at his most stressed state, he's completely gorgeous, not that you would ever tell him that. "You would've killed for an opportunity like this just 24 hours ago."

"But what if I ruin it?" His voice is barely above a whisper when he speaks, shoulders slumping forward. "What if I go out there and I'm shit, and then they realize what a big mistake they've made by even putting me in the academy? What if-"

"It won't happen." His eyelids slowly open and he looks up at you, seemingly not even the slightest upset that you cut him off. "You're too good to do that. You'll get in that car and it will feel like your second home, just like it always does."

Finally, a small smile makes its way onto his lips. It's only been a few minutes since you came in, but he seems much more relaxed now, leaning into your touch completely. "I'll try my best to make you proud."

“I'm always proud of you, you mufflehead.”

A laugh bubbles from his chest and he stands up from the table, opening his arms wide and pulling you in for a tight hug. His heart is still beating louder than a drum in his chest when your ear is pressed up against it, and you're almost worried it will jump out any second now. But his breaths are much more controlled now, and his mind seems much lighter. And soon enough his heartbeat slows to normal.

“I bet that in twenty four hours not only will you finish the race, you will score points and beat Max Verstappen.”

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves” he says chuckling. “God, my neck is killing me.”

“Sit down. I've got you.” And so you start massaging his neck. It's stiff and hard under your hands and he lets a small groan as you untangle one of the knots that were quite painful. After a few minutes he is putty in your hands, his eyes closed, trusting you completely and feeling at ease for the first time in the past two days.

True to your world, Ollie crosses the finish line in seventh place, having gained points in his debut. But the one thing that kept him calm through the process was the thought that she was waiting for him in the cool down room. When the race finishes and drives the car back home he jumps from his seat and he can't get fast enough to her. People around him are praising him and congratulating him but they all fall to deaf eyes.

When he finally gets into the room to change into new fireproofs, she is patiently waiting for him. Her eyes are a little misty and her face flushed.

“I told you.”

“I didn't beat Max.”

“Still.”

She closes in on him and her hands are thrown around his neck, he reciprocates the hug immediately as his heart beat finally slows down. They doth draw away after a while only for him to dive back into her and kiss her firmly on the lips. Shock petrifies her and when he stops, he places his forehead on top of hers. He is a flustered mess and he is mumbling apologies, before she reconnects their lips.

For the following hours Ollie sports a shit-eating grin on his face. Everyone thinks that it is because of his amazing performance and not for kissing the girl that held his heart captive since they were five years old.

[lunarlando]

Hi I just saw ur girl dad lando requests r open and ran over bc I'm obsessed with dad lando too and there's simply not enough fics on it unfortunately.

Anyway my fic/blurb idea is fluffy and slightly angsty? so lando and fem!wife!reader's daughters r in their teens and and they're used to reader (their mum) typically being the "bad cop" and lando being the "fun parent" who will spoil them and can never say no to them when reader does. One day readers tired of her teens hating her for being the mean one so they decide to switch roles and the girls r rlly confused and angry at lando and start being nice to reader who's enjoying watching lando take her place for once. Maybe the girls ask to go out to a party or ask for new phones or smth u can decide. Ignore my request if it doesn't seem interesting 😭 and have a grt day byee xx

thank you for the request! a few other grid kids make an appearance, hope that's okay! and lando is such a fun dad type guy you're so right x

feel free to request more :)

Having teenage girls was not an easy feat.

You were warned of the terrible twos and gotten through them twice with your sanity intact, but nobody had ever warned you about teenagers. You suspect it should’ve been a given, but when you thought about having teenagers you always saw yourself as the type of mum who your daughters would feel close to.

Now that you’re the mum of a sixteen and seventeen year old, you find yourself becoming the opposite. You’ve turned into the bad cop between Lando and yourself. He’s the fun parent, you’re the party pooper. He spoils Estelle and Delilah because he can, because he loves his girls more than life itself, and you’re stuck reining in his gift giving because you don’t want them to become accustomed to always getting what they want when they want no matter the cost.

Even when you put your foot down on some of their more extravagant requests, Lando finds a way around it. 

Part of the reason Lando spoils them so much is because he was still racing in Formula One when both of them were born and while they were growing up, so he’d miss things sometimes. He tried his hardest not to miss bigger events like their birthdays and holidays, but other stuff like their school recitals, sports games—he did the best he could, but a lot of the time it just never aligned with his busy schedule. 

Now that he’d taken a step back from being in the seat of a car for the past three years, he was trying to make up for lost time. 

“I feel like the girls think I’m a hardass,” you sigh as you’re getting ready for bed one night. Lando is brushing his teeth, but he sticks his head out of the bathroom at your words, frowning at you with the brush still in his mouth. “Do you think they hate me?” 

“You’re their mum, they don’t hate you,” he replies through toothpaste bubbles, wrinkling his nose at you. “All you’ve done their whole lives is take care of them. How could they hate you?” 

“Because I’m their mum,” you say pointedly. Lando cocks his head, like he doesn’t understand what you’re saying. “Mums and daughters are different from mums and sons. Trust me.” 

“Okay, fair. But I don’t think you’re a hardass. You’re just…firm with them, is all.” 

You snort unattractively, looking at him pointedly. “Yeah, I have to be, mister take my credit card, buy whatever you want.” Lando hums thoughtfully, disappearing back into the bathroom to finish washing up before reappearing and padding over to his side of the bed. “I love that you want them to have everything they could ever dream of, and I say this with nothing but even more love, but you’re not the best when it comes to saying no to the girls.” 

“I know. I just…I hate it when they look so disappointed and sad.” 

“And you think I do? I don’t want to be the bad cop, but someone has to,” you grumble, setting aside your book. Lando snuggles up close to you, propping his chin on your shoulder. “You should try it.” 

“Ha, that’s funny.” 

“No, I’m serious, Lan. Tomorrow, we switch roles. You’ll be me and I’ll be you, and then you’ll understand,” you propose, smiling at him in that way you know he won’t be able to resist. All these years and you’ve still got your husband wrapped around your finger. 

“That doesn’t sound like a good time.” 

“Oh, it won’t be. Not for you, at least. But we’re a team, aren’t we?” 

“I hate it when you’re right.” 

—

Fortunately for Lando, things at the Norris household don’t get interesting until nighttime the following day. 

“Hey Mum, we’re going out tonight. Just wanted to let you know since we might be out after curfew,” Estelle says absentmindedly, not looking up from her phone. Beside her, Delilah giggles quietly, ever her older sister’s follower. You want to tell them no—their curfew is late enough as it is and they’ve got school tomorrow—but you refrain. It’s Lando’s turn to be the bad cop. 

“Sure, I don’t see why not. Ask your father first though,” you reply instead. From the couch where he’s watching some rerun of an old grand prix, Lando straightens at the mention of his name, twisting around to look at you with wide eyes. You raise a brow, tilting your head at the two girls who’ve turned their attention on their dad. “Go on, he’s listening.” 

They share a confused look with each other, but you can see the gears turning in their quick teenage brains. If mum said yes, dad would definitely say yes. Easy.

Or so they think. 

Delilah bounces over to sit on the couch next to Lando, smiling at him widely. “Hi daddy! Can we go to a party tonight?” 

Now Estelle’s sitting on his other side, bringing out the same patented charming Norris grin. “Well, it’s not really a party. More like a few friends hanging out. Super laid back.” 

“Uh huh. Gonna need some more details, lovebugs,” Lando hums, flashing their same smile right back at them. There’s no use in trying to play the guy who invented the game. “Who’s gonna be there, where it is. You wouldn’t want your mum and I to worry, would you?” 

“Um…” Delilah balks. She probably wasn’t expecting him to ask so many questions. He usually doesn’t, just says yes because he can’t bring himself to say no to them. 

Estelle cuts in before her sister can potentially dig them into an inescapable hole. “Adrien’s going, Clara and Maeve will be there too, and Teo.” 

Adrien and Teo—Charles’ and Carlos’ sons, respectively, and Clara and Maeve—Oscar’s twin daughters. You know that she knows the two of you trust your friends, so name dropping their kids would give them a fighting chance. She’s smart like that. You’d admire it more if her intellect wasn’t aimed at sweet talking her parents. 

Lando sneaks another panicked glance back at you, and you shake your head slightly. That solidifies his resolve, because as much as he doesn’t want to disappoint them, you have an agreement, and a deal’s a deal. “Sorry girls, it’s gonna be a no. We’re all staying in tonight.”

“What?” 

“Let’s do something as a family, yeah? Game night? Or you can do some laps on the sim, I know how much you like that,” Lando offers up, as if enticing them with sim racing would soften the blow of their dad’s first no. 

“Seriously? But dad, it’s not a party! We’re just gonna watch a movie or something!” Estelle exclaims, crossing her arms over her chest.

The girls share another look with each other, this one more irritated than confused. Lando just tries his best to stay firm looking. You, on the other hand, watch the whole thing play out from where you are, fighting to hide a smile, because now he knows how you feel all the damn time. It shouldn’t please you, but as someone who’s been taking the brunt of their teenage-ness for a while now, it brings you just a smidge of joy. 

“That doesn’t change things, unfortunately. You two will be staying here with your dear old parents, and that’s it.” 

“That’s so unfair though!” Estelle huffs, rolling her eyes. 

Lando cocks his head at her, brows raised in challenge. “I’d watch the attitude if I were you, Stell.” 

Delilah switches her tactic to try and salvage things, coming over to where you’re still chopping vegetables at the kitchen counter. Out of the two of them, your youngest knows exactly where her mum’s soft spot lies. “Mum? We just want to hang out with our friends. Please?” 

“You heard your dad, girls,” you say, shrugging. “If he says no, it’s no. Sorry.” 

They disappear down the corridor grumbling to each other rather quickly after that, no doubt already texting their friends about how awful their dad is. It almost makes you laugh, because for once, you’re not the one they’re mad at. Lando trudges over to you, pressing himself against your back in a rather dejected hug. 

“Doesn’t feel great, does it?” 

“Is this what it feels like to be you?” he groans. You can feel him frowning against your neck and you chuckle, running your fingers through his curls affectionately. “We’re setting some more ground rules, effectively immediately.” 

“Like what, don’t be mean to your mum? They’re teenagers, Lan. It’s what they do.” 

“I was never like this.” That draws quite a laugh from you. “What?” 

“So if I call your parents and ask them if you were ever a little shit when you were younger, they’d say no?” 

“...Don’t call them.” 

“That’s what I thought.” You kiss his cheek gratefully still. “We balance each other out well, I’d say. I don’t mind being the bad cop sometimes, but you can’t just be a fun dad all the time.” 

“But it’s so fun being a fun dad,” he whines, but you know he understands. “I don’t have to feel like this.” 

“You’ll get over it, darling. They will too, and we’ll be back to the same old thing tomorrow.” 

“I love you, bad cop.” 

“Love you more, fun dad.”

[ask-pjo-hoo-toa]

ᴀʀɪsᴛᴏᴛʟᴇ ~ ᴘ. ᴊᴀᴄᴋsᴏɴ

req. none :)

summary. just a fluffy little thing about studying and basketball. you and percy are dating and you are a child of athena! you're trying to help him study...

warnings. use of (y/n), gn!reader, short as hell

eeli0r's notes. just wanna say i dont do smut no exceptions :) also: loosely inspired by that tswizzle lyric from so high school "you know how to ball, i know aristotle"

thursday, december 3

you and percy are hunched over a book, specifically an english textbook on the poetic teachings of aristotle.

you, as a child of athena, are quick to understand the teachings, and you're helping your boyfriend, percy jackson, study them for his test the next week.

"baby, focus," you say to him.

"okaaay," percy says. "fine. but i have a basketball game next week too. and it's in the cold. december, hello?"

you smile at him. "i'll be there to see it, i promise, but you have to focus right now."

percy sighs dramatically. "(y/n), why oh why would you do this to me?"

"because i want you to pass this class, love. you know, i'm a child of athena, i'm pretty much the best person for this."

as you continue to study, pulling your boyfriend back to focus every few minutes, you finally start to get somewhere. he's doing good, answering questions correctly most of the time, and you're glad about it.

when he gets the last part of an especially difficult section correct, you say "love!!! you're so good at this!!!" and kiss him.

percy laughs. "thank youuu," he sing-songs. "aristotle's also thanking you from wherever he is for getting your helpless boyfriend to finally learn his poetic teachings, (n/n)."

you grin. "you're not helpless, m'lord. you are sooo good at this, i swear."

he pulls you into a hug and peppers your face with kisses. "you're better. i love you, (n/n)."

as you keep studying, his hand finds yours on the book and curls around it. he's warm compared to your ice-cold touch.

thursday, december 10

the day of the test. everyone's putting down answers and you're doing well, as a child of athena, so you're more worried about percy.

an hour later, the exam is finished and you hand it in. you see percy, across the room by the door, waiting for you.

"hi love," you greet him. "how'd you do?"

he leans forward and kisses you. "pretty good, i think. thanks to you of course."

"babe, you're the one who retained the information," you say, taking his hand and walking out the classroom.

"right, right, i forgot." he gives you a cheeky grin. "my basketball game is in an hour. i need to go prep. see you there, love!"

you walk to the dorms of your college and kiss goodbye as he disappears into his dorm to get ready.

one hour later, you make your way to the ball court and sit down next to a few other people, an old woman and what looks to be her wife, a little boy sitting next to his mom and dad, and who you were hoping to see---percy on the court, his mom and paul sitting in the level above you, and estelle tugging on your sleeve.

"(y/n)!" estelle says brightly, slightly mispronouncing her name because of her age. "hi!!"

"hi, stelly," you say, ruffling her hair.

as the game starts, your eyes stay on percy, and you and estelle whoop the loudest when he makes a shot. every time, he looks at you and estelle and smiles, because he knows it's you and his sister.

the clock ticks, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15...

...14, 13, 12, 11, 10...

...and it's a tie, with five seconds left, percy has the ball and...

the buzzer goes off a fraction of a second after he makes the winning shot.

"WHOOOOOOOO!" you shout at the top of your lungs. "WHOOP PERCY!!!!"

your boyfriend doesn't bother talking to his friends afterward, just runs up to you and hugs you tight.

"that was amazing!" you say as he lets you go. "that was literally amazing!"

he flips his jet-black hair. "of course it was, (n/n), i was playing."

"you are the best player on the team. alright, alright, love, let your sister hug you."

estelle hugs percy and says, "so good! so good!"

percy laughs. "thank you, stelly and (n/n). i guess i'm actually decent at basketball."

"come on, babe, we need to go get ice cream for a reward. you too, stelly, and sally, and paul." you nod to the individuals as you refer to them.

monday, december 14

as the teacher's passing out tests, you can't help but feel incredibly nervous even though you're sure you did well.

A+ 'good job'

you knew it. but how did percy do?

he looks at you from across the room (you sit in the middle-front, he sits in the back) with shining eyes. 'A+,' he mouths.

you do a fist pump to him before your teacher clears his throat. "(y/n)? percy?"

"ah, uhm, sorry," you both say in unison, before dissolving in giggles because, let's be honest, who wouldn't?

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Favorite Posts

Mainly this is so I can find these posts easily (for future reference) but also wanna make a place for all these great posts :3

this is definitely not complete and I don't think it ever will be haha

Mythology

Apollo is Best Dad by @whatasunchild

Artemis & Ipheginia in Aulis by @specialagentartemis

Mythology is Flexible by @tuurverheydepoetryandprose

Defend Apollo Hours by @whatasunchild

Apollo & Cassandra Fanfic by @odiko-ptino (i need more nuanced Apollo & Cassandra they give me LIFE)

The Hyacinthia by @sephospaganplace

@my-name-is-apollo

Apollo & Admetus I

Apollo & Admetus II (with extras!)

Marsyas

Apollo & Cassandra Analysis II

Apollo & Cassandra Analysis III

Apollo & the Succession Cycle

@amiti-art

Apollo & Rhoeo

Eumelus

Multiblogs

Apollo & Cassandra Analysis I by @poemsandmyths @theoiaesthetics and @wasspword

Apollo & Hera by @sukizula, @/my-name-is-apollo, @greek-suitehearts, @pjgreeksblog, & more!

The Eumenides Analysis by @clodiuspulcher and @crisisoninfintefandoms

ToA

Artemis & Apollo's Relationship in ToA by @worlds-oldest-teenager

TTT Apollo V Commodus Fight Analyzed by @newathens

Demigods POV on the gods V Apollo's by @the-primordial-archivist

Keyseeker's Abundance of Analysis by @flightfoot

Reread PJO/HoO/ToA by @hashtagloveloses

Apollo Headcanons by @ukelele-boy

Copollo Art That Inspired A Fanfic (And My Reaction To It) by @newobsessioneveryweek

Copollo Incorrect Quote by @moodyseal

The Apollo Iceberg by @lubble-underscore

ToA/AtLA Fusion by @colorsunlikeanythingseen

Rachel & Apollo by @hogoflight

@thesungod

"the fall of the sun; the final verse"

Apollo Slay Moments

@aeithalian

The Estelle Theory

Apollo's Fatal Flaw

Middle Child Hermes

@literallyjusttoa

Sunny's Timeline (part 1) (part 2)

Copollo ToApril 2023 Fanart

The Delphic Family (With Some of My Headcanons)

Caged God Art (that i wanna make a fanfic of) (that i DID make a fanfic of-)

Top 7 Exes From Ancient Greece

Apollo Headcanons

Zeus & Apollo

Greek & Roman Culture Differences

@fearlessinger

Apollo & Zeus BoO Analyzed

The Halcyon Green Elephant

ToA: What To Know Before Reading

What Apollo's Arc Is Really About

@tsarinatorment

Apollo Kids are Greek AND Roman

Apollo & Octavian

Michael Yew's Fatal Flaw (Ao3)

The Twins & the di Angelos (Ao3)

Michael Yew's Death (Ao3)

Kronos Wins AU (But Also Not)

MultiBlogs

Nico & Apollo by @tsarinatorment & @fearlessinger

Apollo is CHB's Patron by @tsarinatorment, with additions by @stereden (here) & @fearlessinger (here)

Commodus Redemption Arc: How It Could Happen some clowning between @moodyseal and myself :)

[abloomingsunflower]

Meet Snowflake!

[E.L.A oc's go brrrr-..]

[I haven't introduced her yet so- I'm doing it now. This is her official design because I wasn't sure about the old one-]

Basic information:

Snowflake is Albedo's adopted daughter, who apparently can control winter. But she can't control her ice power very well, which results in little accidents to happen often. Hope is training her.

She's 18 years old, a month younger than Lux, 5'6 ft tall and enjoys reading Marvel comics.

Snow is a menace to society/aff

She is Lux's non-blood related long lost twin/j/nsrs

Snowflake is a descendant of Quetzalcoatl, the deity of war. Corr.Nightmare tried to kill her once he found out about her existence. The girl fought back as best she could but was quickly overpowered. Luckily she was saved from "an mysterious winged lady".

Now Snowflake is striving to control her power better and learn more about her ancestor.

(Fun fact: Her real name is Estelle. Snowflake is just a nickname.)

Origins:

It's unknown who her parents are or where they are. But Snow never bothered to find that out.

"They abandoned me, whoever they are. Valid reason or not, I'm better off without them right? I'm sure they must've thought the same. My life is fine as it is, I already have an amazing adoptive father."

Snowflake is actually a part of Quetzalcoatl's soul, his will. All those years ago when he died, a part of him refused to give up. He refused to succumb to the fatal wounds. He refused to let his kingdom fall in the hands of his enemy.

So that strong determination caused a part of his soul to separate from it's owner. It reincarnated as different people over the years, while Quetzalcoatl wandered the earth as a spirit.

Now, Snowflake is the current reincarnation.

Only when Corr.Nightmare gets killed and the kingdom is free, Quetzalcoatl will finally rest and his will shall return to him.

Abilities:

-Summoning weapons made out of ice.

-Manipulating the weather.

-Control over ice in general.

-Can survive just fine in extremely cold temperatures.

-Can sense and distinguish people's different auras, including the dead's. (But she can't see the dead, which makes it difficult to guess who it is. She can find out from the aura alone if the spirit is a threat or not.)

-Can create snow giants and creatures.

[Will be updated.]

Her opinion on the people she knows:

-Albedo.

"We met when I tried to run away from the orphanage. Then as I went further and further away, I bumped into him. He asked me why was I crying, and he comforted me. He took me back to the orphanage and on the way we were talking and getting along. When we arrived, he told the caretaker he wanted to adopt me. Much to my own surprise. Now here we are. He's actually a very supportive dad, the kind of dad everyone would want, to be honest. No matter what, he always thinks about me first. He comforted me when I cried, defended me on arguments, never turned a blind eye on me, and even gives great advice. He is the reason I'm happy."

-Cross.

"That baker my dad likes so much. His pastries are awesome! He's a nice guy, really. I genuinely think him and Albedo would make a good couple, I mean- Have you seen the way they look at eachother?? They NEED to get together already, I swear to god-"

-Dream.

"I love and respect uncle, but- Someone needs to teach him how to be less oblivious of your surroundings. He's blind when it comes to love, and I can tell he would be an easy target to manipulate..- I noticed he looks down sometimes, maybe because of his marriage?"

-Ink.

"The second most beautiful woman? Her? Are you kidding me? Ink is nice and all but not only does her sense in fashion suck, she's also kinda dumb. I'm just being honest! She's a mother, a grown ass woman, yet she's almost never by her husband's or kids' side, or anywhere near the castle. I swear I saw her in a bar drinking once. No, twice. That second time there was a strange man with her. I just kept walking to avoid being seen by her."

-Palette.

"We only really meet when uncle Dream invites me and dad over. Sometimes we talk. Lux told me he used to bully her and frame her for things she didn't do when they were younger. Even now, he's doing some pretty bad stuff. But he looks..Well. Miserable. I almost feel bad for him sometimes. Maybe he is getting his stress out on her? Anywho I can only suggest one thing for him: Therapy. And I will drag him there by the feet if I have to."

-Lux.

"We're complete polar opposites, and still get along just fine. I can't help but see her like a sister I never had. She's got everything! Is a princess, does nice things, is rich and lucky in lottery, has amazing dresses, has a handsome fiancée, is famous and all, and she's very pretty! Like, damn!- I think she really deserves all those. I'm glad she's not like those corrupt rich people, she actually donates to charities and orphanages. I look up to her a lot. In fact, I want to be like her."

-Hope.

"Miss Hope is the one training me and Lux's fiancée. They are so skilled..! It's hard to keep up with them sometimes during sparring. They've beat me countless times.. But I won't give up there! No way in hell. This is to get revenge on that bastard for nearly murdering me.."

-Merciless.

"Him and Lux seem perfect, to be honest. We get along very well. I've read almost all the books he wrote. He's like an older brother to me. Apparently, he wants to be a wizard. He's trying to make fire, like Miss Hope. Though..once I accidentally froze him- I don't understand how it happened, I was just patting his shoulder and then BAM! Thank god we had Miss Hope and their fire. I apologized so much that day..I'm still embarrassed."

-Angst.

"..I've heard about that guy. Isn't that the one that can see spirits? I think he could help me, something with a powerful aura has been following me around for days on end and I need answers."

-Artemis.

"She's that famous singer, and Merciless' little sister. Not gonna lie, she makes amazing music..I listen to it all the time. Some of her songs are calming and perfect for reading. She's also Palette's best friend. I think these two are in love, even their fans are making rumors about them being together-"

-Goth.

"She used to make fun of me and bother me at every chance she got. Along with that group of fans- Until..well, I snapped one day. I caused a snow storm, since I felt overwhelmed. It blew everyone away but her. I think I shoved her away after that, but then realized I didn't die. At first I thought 'Maybe it's my power', until I found out from Idiotka that a grim reaper's soulmate doesn't die from their touch. ..Nothing is confirmed yet. Because apparently Lux and Palette didn't die from Goth's touch either. This situation is very confusing. Anyways, we became friends in hopes of finding out. All we do is hang out and gossip about every single thing we can think of. It's actually nice being around Idiotka.."

-Corr.Nightmare/Alphonse.

"Can you believe Artemis speaks good about a moron like that? He clearly didn't think twice before deciding to attempt murdering a little girl, so why should I feel sympathy for a tyrant? I still remember his face... ... He scares me. What if I fail to kill him?"

-Killer.

"I don't believe she chose to marry him on her own will. What kind of psycho would?? I feel bad for her. She's very pretty too."

-Crescent.

"Isn't that the priest in that one church..? I dunno, I'm not religious. So I don't visit churches at all. But his face reminds me so much of that bastard.."

-Quetzalcoatl.

"My ancestor! I'm gonna call him grandpa, it's easier. Man, I wish I could meet him.. Idiotka took me to this secret library and I've been studying about his history. I have to say, I admire him even more now. As I read all those history books, I pictured the sceneries of the old kingdom in my head. For some reason, everything described there feels so familiar.."

Fun facts:

-She's allergic to chocolate, so she is always eating fruit pastries or vanilla. She found that out when she once tried chocolate cake in Cross' café.

-Snowflake is a fan of horror games and movies, even playing with Goth sometimes.

-She never really had real friends until she met Goth. Snow only had a small group of online friends.

-Albedo's nickname for her is "Tuna", which Snow is always complaining about.

-Snowflake always wondered about the identity of the winged woman who saved her that day. She wishes to thank her.

-She has a true/guardian form <3

-She is the key to Surprise Ending in Sunflower AU.

[If she interacts with Angst and Angst decides to tell her about the timelines, the two of them will try to make Cross and Hope tell the truth to everyone and the game will end.]

Evil Lux AU and all the characters made by @anotherrosesthatfell <33

Snowflake belongs to me.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Kidcore!Percy Jackson ft.my Pjo s/i Lex de los Santos

He's autistic and it's a special interest and coping mechanism from his extremely brutal childhood,which also manifests in him being an agere flip!!He's a 7-10 range Little and a Big Sibling/Parent caregiver!

He actually managed to repress his age regression out of sheer spite and will for years(Poseidon genes)but after realizing his autism,he began to mellow out and let himself be loved enough that it finally happened.Sally was there for him when it happened and knew what it was from research on autism and bpd and ptsd which he also has so she took good care of him

SUCH a fan of Cookie Monster,he was his first ever comfort character in fact!!Cookie Monster desserts are one of Percy's favorite things EVER and he watches Sesame Street totally unironically

Was a Ghibli kid,Ponyo being his favorite and he gets back into it starting in his senior year at Goode High thanks to him,Sally and Estelle having a marathon

Temporary sea themed tattos

Beach Days means using his powers to make the experience straight up tropical-The water tricks he does are actually insane,he gets the marine life to interact with him and other beach residents without exposing he can talk to them and keeps everybody's drinks at proper temperature since them being liquid gives him domain over them.He's transfem bigender and was on estrogen so instead of just swim trunks or even them and tank top,since he's femme,he wears bikinis with attached hoodies and has multiple different pairs,all of which are blue

Lo-Fi Chiptunes are like lullabies to him but in the claming sense,not that they make him sleepy

Video games special interest too.He's a lifelong Pokemon,Animal Crossing and Splatoon fan the most but also grew up on Girlgogames,the Nickjr and Cartoon Network websites and time management games as a genre having played so many he literally can't count.He only uses emulators,phone games and secondhand consoles on anti-capitalist principal and is filled with fun facts,trivia and 'UM ACKSTUALLY''s in him with zero gaming fanon brainrot,He's A Real Gamer™️.Nessa is his Pokestan and Piplup is his signature Pokemon,his favorite villagers are Flick,Cookie and Rosie and he's a Tom Nook defender('He's NOT a capitalist,he's my dad you bitch and he's not even rich!!!')and his ideal partner is someone he can 100% comfortably play AC with to the point of doing it cordinatedly even without including the visiting eachother's must(which he also wants!!)aka Lex who's also autistic about video games,Marina is what set him for life on Splatoon as a franchise and he's obsessed with everything about it and subconciously employed the vibes into his natural personality,he has cartridges from his childhood saved and worn out character plushies Sally bought him he refuses to part with,does video game analysis and shitposts on his vlog channel and he follows the 'energy drink loving,cat ear headphones owning,super hot and pretty gamer trans woman' stereotype.He loves Cotton Candy Bang the most and his headphones are blue!!

Stickers enthutiast and puts them all over his stuff and carries around goofy positivity stickers to give out but some mean ones too because he loves being a little shit

He loves y2k/tween cosmetic products because not only does it look better than non-punk styles to him but it's also better on his skin.Lex taught him how to do them best and find which are for him!!Transfem/transmasc boygirl solidarity <3

Read Warrior Cats,Animorphs,Chronicles of Narnia and Goosebumps thinking they'd be regular 'ol jolly kids book series'.Sweet lordt he was wrong(but at least they were good!!)

Little!Percy is also a kitty regressor because Percy is calico cat kin(and shark kin)and a handful but not in a bad way!!He loves coloring,tickles,bubble baths,fairy tales,having his hairstyles changed and doing biiiig streches-Sally even does the long cat thing with him because he's fucking huge LMFAO 6'4 and thick as fuck(muscle and fat healthy balance)!!And Cg!Percy and Ca!Lex are Little!Nico's and Little!Hazel's official Cg's as their found older siblings and pseudo-parents to being with.They do babytalk,carry them around,give them extra kisses and take them on safe adventures like gardening(Percy's afrosolarpunk and so is Lex because they're a Demeter kid so La Residencia Jackson has it's own vegetable garden)and playing hide and seek around the apartment complex.They've learned how to spot when they're Tiny when they try to hide it and it's gotten to the point they've stopped and make a b-line for them when it happens instead because of all his ressurances and how safe they make them feel.Percy calls them his 'Little Rockstars' and 'Precious'(as in pearls)and Lex calls them their 'Baby Buds' and 'Shooting Stars'

Nico and Hazel made cat themed communication cards for them as a gift so he uses them when they're nonverbal.They have matching Aquapets too

Can't get enough of legos-he learned how to make them in diy.This extends to lego media such as Lego Monkie Kid,Lego Friends,The Lego Movie franchise,Ninjago,Lego DC,etc.He has a legosona and everything!!

Blues Clues raised him.Atla was also a top influencer and he kins Katara but actually,not just the stupid water powers jokes.He wished she was real so they could be best friends and wants to adopt her now

Has a shark plushie with blushy cheeks named 'Nugget'

And a gummy sharks addiction too

Really digs cozy horror and Wendell & Wild is his highest bar for it,as well as Kat Elliot for kids movie protagonists(correct)

His hair is mermaidcore dye style long locs,he uses his bottom of body of waters meditation sessions to take underwater pics and post them on his social media for the bit,his surfboard isn't safe from the earlier stickers attacks and he's got a whole hoard of diy'd ocean materials based things

Eats his food sloopily,including the fast food because getting it on your clothes is 'an essential part of the experience' according to him.He also loves googling weird sounding recipes to cook the foods but in blue(blue dragon egg cookies,blue marshmallow cloud cookies,blue candy cane cloud,blue bubblegum cloud slices,blue sparkly fruit gummies,blue chocolate rock candy geode,etc)and start to give Lex therian validation to give them to have,Lex being calico cat kin like him but also dragonkin,ghostkin,plantkin and mermaidkin

Sonic The Hedgehog autism is within her and burning bright.Ask her for lore and Strong Opinions™️ and her favorite Snapcube moments /threat

Goes to the local cat cafe and the frozen yogurt place at least twice a week and every other weekend with the other three Outcast Godlings and tbh they're the reason they're still in bussiness.Percy and Lex get cotton candy froyo with m&m's and gummy bears every time they have a date there

Was supposed to be a Special ED kid but melted down so bad when Sally offered she never even considered it again and he regrets to his day,eternally wondering what could've been as the purpose was to make school easier for him and befriend other mentally disabled kids and his internalized ableism was so bad already it ruined his chance

But at least he convinced Nico and Hazel to attend when they moved in with him and Sally post-Tlo and post-Boo respectively.The same one in fact and it gives him a bittersweet happiness(but no resentment)how happy they are at it and how much they thrived at it,both academically and socially.But at least he's had Lex ever since TLT and that's enough to sweeten it into sugary fluffy goodness because he's practically married to a pink punk rock nature angel(his description of them)

Pegasister!!Her fave pony is Rainbow Dash out of relatability and she's watched EVERY single FIM episode,watched every EQ movie and read every G4 comic.Flutterdash truther because she has taste and they're so Perlex-coded,diy's herself merch and buys at thrift stores for it too and has a ponysona named Wave Cookie she asked Hazel to help her design as a fellow Pegasister and she returned the favor with Hazek's ponysona Gold Ghostie and they convinced Nico and Lex to make theirs too under Obsidian Angelcake and Strawberry Surprise.She even does Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy cosplays with Lex on her vlog channel!!

And finally the vlog channel's name is 'Blue with no Clues' as an obvious ref <3333 Lex earned the nickname 'Magenta The Detective' from her fans due to her frequent apperances!!

Collects stim gifs

Her petty crime sprees include stealing overprized junk food

Uses sea animal reaction images only

Mega into Superman and Spiderverse.'Superman' not only as in Clark Kent but the Superfam as a whole as she reads the comics and watches Maws and she's got a HUGE thing for Gwen Stacy and Hobie Brown(platonically ofc)because they're both too much like her for her not to.Ghostpunk is literally Spider Variants!Perlex

Polly Pocket is her doll and she has multiple but her favorite is Beach Party and she fills it with actual salt water and lugs it around as stimming,W.i.t.ch. is her magical girl and Will is her fave because of the tgirl swag and mama's girl with abusive dad rep and Brandy's Cinderella is her DP and she owns a Cinderella 1997 CD and redraw the pic of her and Paolo eating fast food together as her and Lex

You best believe Riptide has charms on it

Lex is obsessed with Shopkins,Totally Spies,Strawberry Shortcake,everything pink and sparkly,arts and crafts including having a magic infinite scrapbook gifted to them by Demeter,boba,dogs,The Secret Saturdays,Starfire/Koriand'r(comics readers represent!!),sitcoms and cryptids so Percy indulges them back like they do her.They even have matching fully funfictioning thanks to being tricked out by Leo Barbie flip phones

Hardcore Bluey fan.Bluey is so hercore and i mean the show,not only the character and she got Nico and Hazel into it with her and Lex discovering it together beforehand and being equally loving of it and they go all out when it comes to Bluey in emotions and their followup enthutiasm

[runawaymun]

has anyone asked about Whoops for the WIP game? 👀

I have nothing written yet for Whoops except for a blurb on the general concept, but it's part of the Rivendell's Tiny Tearaway collection of fics (of which like, only one is actually written and posted), and essentially whoops is all about discovering Estel has allergies ;)

Mostly because I think it would be so funny if he has a peanut allergy, but I am debating whether or not peanuts even exist in middle earth so my second best option is something along the lines of a pear/apple/plum allergy. I know a weird amount of people who can't tolerate the enzymes (my dad's one of them, but he can have them when cooked into things or, in certain instances, peeled).

But you know, slice-of-life silly goofy send a six year old into anaphylactic shock (or at the very least feel super yucky), and then Elrond has to realize they've been feeding him something toxic to him for a while. Didn't occur to Gilraen (just because) and it didn't occur to any of the elves because it just seems like elves wouldn't deal with food allergies.

(this and another fic are how i discovered that epinephrine can and historically has been isolated by harvesting adrenaline from the adrenal glands from animals for medical use. That was before we figured out how to straight up synthesize it in a lab. Man the things you learn when all your blorbos are doctors -- though epinephrine wouldn't be necessary unless I give Estel a peanut allergy. We'd just wind up with him needing some sort of Middle Earth equivalent of Benadryl lmao).

Also debating whether or not to give Elros and Elrond the same food allergy so then there can be the slight angst of "oh wow look another way in which this tiny child reminds me of my brother". Rubbing my hands together. >:) but then it would not occur to Elrond to even think that Estel might have that kind of allergy because the genetics are so far removed at that point--- you know.

WIP game (yes, I am still doing this and slowly responding to things <3)

[chichariann]

WEEK 6 OF DRAWING CHALICE OF THE GODS

Its still gonna be next week but I already decided on a part...

The epitome of Percabety is THIS. 17 turning 18 year old Percy already thinking about marriage. LIKE... FUCK 😭 😭 😭

What I got so far right now...

Bridesmaid:

Thalia - maid of honor

Piper

Hazel

Rachel

Reyna

Groomsmen

Grover - best man

Tyson

Nico

Leo

Frank

Will

Officiant: Chiron

I just need to look for:

The flower girls (Im considering the nymphs and naiads here)

Ring bearer

A theme for the wedding (Im thinking a sort of mix of oceanic and hellenistic in an artistic sense???)

Color for the theme

A bouquet

A setting OMG WHAT IF... Beach wedding but not like a sand beach more like a rocky beach?? Or cliff side? Im trying to match my initial theme idea HFOSKSKF

Ill come back with another post once I decide all of these NYEHEHEHEHEH

- EDIT -

Im turning this into a comic strip.

Shot:

Shot of all the groomsmen in line

Grover already crying when it hasnt even started yet

Pan shot of the guests highlighting some special guests of course: some gods, campers, magnus and fierro, carter and sadie

Sally and Blofis sitting in the front row

THEN BIG PANEL OF PERCY AT THE FRONT

Shot of guests standing up

Shot of the bridesmaid walking down the aisle

Shot of them in a line at the front

Shot of Estelle, the ring bearer behind the line of nymphs and naiads

No panel. Silence. Anticipation. Are you feeling it?

Close up of Percy slowly closing his eyes

Close up of Annabeth *cue actual screaming at 2 am*

Close up shot of Percy as he tears up

Annabeth is walking down the aisle with her dad

(I CANT FUNCTION ANYMORE) JUST IMAGINE SOME MORE BACK AND FORTH SHOTS BETWEEN ANNABETH AND PERCY

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

Mr. Magic Duck

AO3

Part 1: “A Baby”

Summary: They tell Sally and Paul

They wait to tell people. It’s safer to wait until after the first trimester, Annabeth knows this, but it’s the hardest secret to keep.

At work, it’s easy. She sits in her office, meets with clients, and goes about her day as if nothing has changed. Except, she doesn’t have that second or third cup of coffee throughout the day. She sticks with the one Percy makes her at home every morning.

At home, with Percy, it’s easiest because he knows. He tries not to treat her any different but Annabeth can see how having a pregnant fiancée is disrupting his routine a bit. Like offering to do the dishes so she doesn’t have to stand for too long. To which, Annabeth usually replies that she sits all day and wouldn’t mind. So Percy dries and Annabeth washes as he tells her about his day.

It’s hardest around their friends and family. Sunday night dinners with Sally and Paul become acting practice. They’re decent liars and it’s not like Sally or Paul suspects anything. It’s really when they ask about wedding planning that it’s harder not to tell them.

When Sally asks, “when are we going dress shopping?” All Annabeth pictures is a tight mermaid dress hugging a little baby bump.

When Paul asks how much of their godly side is invited, Annabeth sends up a prayer to everyone up at Olympus to not interfere. She designed their new temples after several thousand revisions, they owe her this at least.

In all honesty, Annabeth isn’t sure if Athena would come if invited. She knows Poseidon would likely show up, their reception venue is at the beach. Annabeth’s mom never really approved of Percy even though they’ve saved the world twice.

Estelle is the only one they can trust. All she asks about is playing dress up or staying late enough to read her bedtime stories.

But Annabeth is counting the days until her second trimester begins. Even as she crosses over, she starts to feel differently about keeping this secret.

It’s something that’s just theirs right now. Does she really want to share this with the world? If they tell Sally and Paul, they can’t leave Annabeth’s dad and stepmom in the dark. Then, her brothers will know too. And it just goes on from there.

When Percy comes home, he finds Annabeth in their bedroom. It’s a rare day when she arrives home first. Her last meeting had ended at 4 so she finished up some work from home. Her laptop is pushed aside and she’s laying half under the covers. Not asleep, just deep in thought.

Percy moves the laptop from the bed and crawls in behind her.

“What’s going on?” He asks, “you’re thinking very loudly.”

“If it’s so loud, you should already know what I’m thinking.”

“You’re worried about telling my mom about the baby,” he says, instantly proving that Annabeth should stop doubting him.

Percy has always understood her best.

“What I can’t figure out is why, you know she’s going to be thrilled to be a grandma. Gods, she talks about our future kids like they already exist sometimes.”

“One does,” Annabeth comments.

“No, like with a full blown personality and stuff. This one,” he touches her still flat stomach, “barely has fingers and toes.”

“What if she thinks it’s too soon? We didn’t plan to get pregnant.”

“Annabeth, if you honestly think my mom is going to lecture us about having this kid, you’re crazy. We live together, we’re getting married, we are mostly responsible.” She elbows him. “Okay you’re responsible and I’m sometimes adult enough to do taxes.”

He can’t see her smile but she does it anyway.

Life gets away from them. They miss Sunday dinner, which postponed telling Paul and Sally for almost two weeks.

But they’re back at the dining room table again. Percy is trying to tell his mom not to pick up everyone’s dishes. In the end, he and Paul load the dishwasher together. Estelle is telling Annabeth about her new rubber duck.

“He’s got a top hat!”

“Why don’t you go grab him?” Sally says, “he’s on the bathroom counter.”

Estelle sprints upstairs yelling “Mr. Magic Duck!” all the way.

Percy and Paul come back to the table. Annabeth grabs Percy’s hand. They’re sitting directly across from his parents. Two people who have always accepted her. Sally who truly was the mother Annabeth needed.

Telling Sally first meant the world to Annabeth. At first, they wanted to do something grand but it didn’t really matter how they did it. It was going to be special no matter what. It was going to be memorable no matter what.

“She’s so excited about this duck,” Paul tells them, smiling.

“We’re really excited too,” Percy replies.

Annabeth stares at him, like seriously that’s the best segway he could give her.

“I’m pregnant.”

It’s like they don’t hear her at first but Annabeth knows they did because the table is silent. Then Sally throws her chair back, muffles her sobs and pulls Annabeth up and into a hug. Paul is saying something to Percy, likely congratulations, but Annabeth is too absorbed by Sally.

Her hugs are all healing. It’s like a superpower.

“I am so happy for you,” Sally says. “Both of you.”

She lifts her head up from Annabeth’s shoulder and pulls her son into the hug.

It’s then when Estelle returns, duck in hand.

“Why is mommy crying?” She asks Paul.

“She’s very very happy right now.”

Sally lets go of Annabeth and Percy and turns to her daughter.

“Look! Mr Magic Duck!”

When Sally begins to laugh, Annabeth joins in. Percy wraps an arm around her shoulders and kisses her cheek.

“Stopping Sally Jackson from happy tears? That is indeed a magic duck.”

[zapalimesvet]

Hey !

I saw you draw Estellé again and me wanted more info about her.

She dates Tom, right ?

Do you have funfacts or canon events about her ?

Thank you for your interest in her! I appreciate it shehbdbdhd and yes ofc I have fun facts about her and canon events!

---------

I have like two versions, I'm still thinking which one I would like to make canon but:

First ver is like Estellé only with Tom. Second version is Abraxas X Estellé x Tom because I love Abraxas too sbenndndnd.

Anyway! I'll go in the detail now!!!!

Estellé is pureblood witch, she was born to Astrée family and is part of the sacred 28. When she and Tom went to Hogwarts, they actually didn't talked with each other. She didn't even knew he existed until he was the best boy in the classes and scoring, which was Estellé too, she was amazing in her classes. Her dad learned her to competetion and do anything to win, so that's how her rivality towards Tom started. He was just perfect and getting attention by the professors what she did too but she wanted be WAYY better than him. In 5 grade they became prefects, he was Slytherin prefect and she was Ravenclaw prefect, most of the kids hated how Tom would be stric and threaten the kids to go back in their dorm while Estellé was smiley and giving out chocolates telling them softly "go back to your dorm please, don't want me to tell professors!"

To Estellé's personality, she's bubbly and hyperactive. Lot of kids likes her all because she gives away chocolates and sweets and help with homeworks and Tutor them, Slytherin people have nothing against her but there still people who hate her and want her to disappear forever.

Tom hated her. He hated her because she was "spoiled" and acting like she get no Consequences ( she was literally in office of Dippet for lot of things she did-) and that her pranks and hexing isn't funny, that she is attention seeking girl, that beging rich and pureblood isn't everything for her, that she wants more and more.

Estellé Also made some skin care products to help girls around the school and Slytherin girls promote her products hshshsh, she appreciates it a lot. She usually sell them but if she sees a girl without enough money for it, she jus give it for free, and their warm smile is everything for her, no need of money.

~••~

When it comes to Tom's gang, usually Lestrange and Avery threaten Estellé a lot. They're two buddies who keep with each other and they enjoy how Estellé goes mad for them. They would corner her up and grab her by her tie and go insult her and how they'll beat her up all because Tom hates her and she's "annoying".

Avery is the one who takes it to the point where Estellé just wants to die, because he's literally sadistic asshole.

"hmm what a beautiful face.." he runs his fingers down her cheek "would look better with my shoe on it.." squeeze her cheeks hard and make her look at him "don't make me do it..I know when you hex me. There's nothing you can hide from me or from Riddle, Nothing."

He would usually bully her in that way↑

Lestrange just likes to insult her, Avery takes the psychical bullying. Abraxas tried to get them away from her by giving Riddle talk how her father could ruin his life just within a minute ( Estellé and Abraxas are just good friends as their fathers are) which the bullying stoped for a few days.

After how Avery threatened her so hard she left with tears down her cheeks and made her way to girl's bathroom to cry out her poor heart and how much she hates Tom's gang. It's not like Tom didn't threatened her..he was giving her death glares every God damn day and tease her how useless she is. All of the sudden there was big noise and she went quiet like a mouse, the only thing that was heard Is footsteps and some kind od snake hissing. When everything went really death quiet she made her way out of the cabin and look what happened and got shocked to see a big hole and sink begeing slayed in two sides. Sadly Estel couldn't catch her balance and looked too further in hole making her fall in it.

The way was long and faster she smelled the death, sewers and literally bones and rotting, she almost puked from it, so she started to fast walk her way to circle doors with snakes around it. All Estel was thinking is "isn't this something up with Slytherin? The snakes..."

9 massive snake figures on both sides, sewer flood water and old men's face on the wall.

"what the hell!?" She thought, looking around herself, begeing more confused and confused, where is she? Is this something with Slytherins?

There was loud clapping noises behind her. Estellé stormed out to look behind her..and there he was.. perfect Tom Marvolo Riddle. Clapping his hands with a slick evil smile. Oh god she wished to smack it out of him.

"oh well well well, who we got here? Estellé Astrée?" He laughed off, she saw him move with a wand and all of the sudden she was tied up. He used the free time to threaten her about not talking to chamber to others, and that he's gonna kill her. Basically he had 5 plans, to kill her, threaten her or torture her till her death or sending someone to find her body, nothing would work. Her father is strong enough to ruin his life so he decided to leave her alive but her obeying him, become his little puppet he can play with. Getting another pure blood on his side.

When they came back to normal, she didn't even looked at him, she was scared. He got Estellé Astrée scared of him, someone who would hex his minions and make fun of them. Day after she wasn't seen at any of her classes and Tom immediately knew, he knew what's doing on here, she became even scared to see him in the same classes and hallways, so he gave her little visit and threaten her again. But after months they started to spend time with each other all because he making sure her mouth is shut and Locked, they had projects together because Slughorn loves to pair them so much, he's so dark and mysterious but yet charming. She is bubbly and sweet.

We cannot forgot the fact Estellé is animagus, she used to turn into otter form to stalk Tom so she can use it against him one day, and Tom saw how the familiar little white otter with lack of brown spots goes after him 24/7, it's been with him everywhere. It is usually to otter do it, kids though the otter was Tom's for some time.

He grabbed the otter and got with it into some empty room and swinged with wand, Guess who it was! Estellé. She was crying out for him not to tell anybody but he had different plans.

I'll leave it there, I'll make part 2 if you want to dnnsnsns there's still so many things to explain but in the fact I'm bad at explaining bdhdbdb

But If you like it, I'm happy!

[chickensarentcheap]

Because I can… all 25 for Esme and Maizie 😁

omg you're evil ;) lol

Esme:

Favourite food and why?

Definitely tacos. This girl loves her tacos. Hard, soft, she doesn't care. Just give her all the tacos. I don't think there's a specific reason why she loves them as much as she does.

2. Does your character indulge often in the things they like?

Oh yes. As ofter as she can. I mean, she doesn't have seven kids or call Tyler the bringer of multiple orgasms for no reason ;) lol. Aside from her favourite past time, she will often indulge in her favourite cupcakes or ice cream.

3. What makes your character’s skin crawl?

Spiders. omg. She just can not deal with spiders. Which makes it even more amusing that she moved to Australia considering the size of the damn things there.

4. What does your character hate the most?

Her mother. And how toxic and abusive she is. And mostly how she treats Tyler like garbage and the kids like second class citizens because he's their father.

5. Tell us about something that your character finds sweet.

Watching the husband in 'dad mode'. Especially with the two littlest girls. Braiding their hair, helping them with their crafts, snuggling with them, playing Barbies and My Little Ponies with them.

6. What is your character’s fondest memory?

The times her dad -despite working so much- would show up at her sports games or school functions.

7. What does your character miss most from their childhood?

Her father. He passed away when she was 17. Her mother has been extremely horrible to her, and her dad was the only one to show her love and attention and affection.

8. Is there something your character deeply regrets from their past?

not saying the things she should have said before her father died. She had been a rebellious teen and caused him a lot of stress and heartache and she wishes she had gotten the chance to apologize for all of that.

9. If asked, would your character say they were happy as a child?

Unfortunately, she'd say no.

10. What were your character’s favourite and least favourite parts of their education?

She enjoyed school. For the most part. The learning itself would have her favourite. The being outcast and being picked on a lot would be her least favourite. And how expensive university was and then never using her degree lol

11. Who are your character’s most important people?

Her husband and her children. Hands down.

12. Who had the most negative impact on your character’s life?

Her first husband, Mark. He was extremely abusive in every way.

13. Who had the most positive impact on your character’s life?

Definitely Tyler. Meeting him changed her. For the better. And changed her life. He's got his issues, but he's worth it.

14. Who would your character never betray?

Definitely her husband. That would never happen.

15. Who does your character look up to and who do they despise?

Her name is Estelle (or Nanny Stel as they kids call her) and she's their live in 'helper' and just a real mother figure to both Esme and Tyler love. Esme despises her own mother. Who is an evil biatch.

16. Who would your character consider as part of their family?

Definitely Estelle, Tyler's best friend Koen, his friend Andy and Andy's son with special needs, Zeke.

17. What is your character’s relationship with their parents/the people that raised them?

Her father is deceased. She has no relationship with her mother after cutting ties with her in the current fic.

18. Does your character have many friends? Best friends?

She has her younger step sister Riley, she has Nik Khan and her husband Anil, her friend and work colleague Clover, and her friend Andy. Tyler is definitely her best friend.

19. Does your character have any significant others?

Yes. She and her husband Tyler have been married for 13 years (as of the current fic)

20. Does your character have trust issues?

In a way. She tends to trust too quickly and too easily. She always wants to see the best in everyone. Even if there's no good to be found.

21. What is your character most afraid of?

Something happening to her husband or her children. She could not handle that at all. Tyler passing away would destroy her. She would get on with life for the kids' sake, but she'd be a shell of who she was.

22. Does your character have any pets?

She has two dogs (Mac a german shepherd and Saju, an Australian shepherd), a handful of goats, some chickens, and a couple of pigs

23. What do they like about their appearance?

Despite what she says, she likes being as small as she is. She likes being able to shop in the junior department lol

24. Do they play any musical instrument?

Esme can play the piano and the violin :)

(a number had been skipped when the post was made, so there were really only 24 questions. I will make a separate post for Maizie!)

[doedipus]

the big plot in trails right now is that estelle and josh's dad was on a plane that disappeared, and by most estimations was probably hijacked. and like, the party seems convinced right now that the airship pirates from the prologue are to blame, because a) they sent out a ransom letter over it, and b) a kid out in the boondocks saw what looked like an airliner and a smaller jet

but I think that those pirates are full of shit! when the gang confronted the pirates in the woods they seemed completely caught off guard by whatever was going on in bose, so any involvement they have in the incident at hand seems tangential at best, imo. I bet they heard that the plane had been hijacked and they tried to fuck with it while it flew to the border. and then the couldn't force a landing and just sent a ransom note as a scam.

I bet what really happened is the dad hijacked the jet on his own as part of the emergency job he got hired out for!

[tolkien-feels]

On one hand, Elrond really is an outstanding person, and by the end of the Third Age there aren't many people who can say they can match his wisdom

On the other hand, it's really endearing how Aragorn is constantly like "I can sing you this song but Elrond would sing it better :/" "I will try to heal you but Elrond would do it better :/" "I remember this but Elrond would remember it better :/"

[nathanbatemanfucker]

All Grown Up Series: Prom

summary: jack asks his best friend an important question at their junior prom after some coaching from reader.

pairing: fem!reader x aaron hotchner, jack hotchner x estelle “tess” sanders

warnings: nerves, mentions of Haley, fluff, kissing

an: i don’t have much to say other than this shit is cute and makes me wanna cry…most of the parts do lol. if y’all have any ideas for other things you want to see as the parts come out i’m open to taking requests for this series!

word count: 1.5k

series masterlist | general masterlist

It’s a pleasant surprise when Aaron calls you on your drive home from work. It’s rare that he has a free minute that isn’t after 10 p.m. when he’s away on a case so you answer, eager and happy. It isn’t until you're a bit into the call that you think to ask him about Jack’s prom.

“Jack and Tess are going to prom together, did he tell you?”

Estelle, Tess as she goes by, is Jack’s best friend. Jack met her in gym freshman year. Somehow they’d ended up in a one on one game of basketball, and she wiped the floor with him. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

“No, I talked to him this morning, and he didn’t mention it. Romantically?”

You park in the garage, pressing the button to close it as you grab your bag and head into the house. “He claims it isn’t, so I’ll believe him until he says otherwise.”

“Does he seem excited?”

“He does but he’s nervous. He asked me to teach him how to dance.”

“You’re great at that, you taught me how to dance. Will you wait until I’m home?”

“Will you be home by Saturday?”

He sighs, doesn’t sound hopeful and so you know not to get your hopes up. It doesn’t bother you, you know its part of the job, but know how deeply it affects him. “God willing. I’ll do my best.”

“Well he works Friday night and most of Sunday, so if you’re home Saturday you’ll get a treat. But don’t stress yourself out about it, we’ll be here when you get back.”

“I just miss you guys, and this year is going to fly by.”

“He’ll be going to college Aaron, not moving across the globe. And his top pick is only 4 hours away.” You say, shedding your keys, bag and shoes in the mudroom.

“I know, I know. It’s just all happening so fast. He was just in middle school and now he’s going to junior prom?” You hear someone murmuring to him and know that he’s got to go. “I’ll call you when I settle in tonight? It’ll be late, say no if you need to.”

“Yes, please, call. Be safe and I love you.”

“I love you.”

____

It’s Saturday night, and you and Jack have pushed the coffee table and couch back so there’s enough room to dance. Jack has set up a playlist on the tv and soft music pours through the speakers. Aaron couldn’t make it, which isn’t a surprise but you want to bring it up to Jack just in case he’s feeling disappointed and wants to talk about it.

“Your dad wanted to be here but there’s another case so it’s just the two of us.” You say as you click through the playlist to find the right song.

Jack shrugs, doesn’t seem bothered. “Eh, that’s cool, I didn’t really want him seeing me make a fool of myself anyway.”

“You should’ve seen him when I taught him how to dance. So stiff, so uncoordinated.”

“I hope I’m better than him.”

“Don’t worry, he dances like a dream now. Alright, so hand on my waist, right here.” You nod when his hand is secure on your hip. “And my hand in yours. Okay we’re gonna just move to the music. Watch my feet and follow my lead and then we’ll have you lead.”

You count out loud, correcting him when he takes a wrong step or goes the wrong way. Eventually the two of you get into a groove and you let him lead. Once he seems completely comfortable you feel free to make conversation.

“So you and Tess,” You begin.

He laughs, loud and deep like his father when the two of you are alone, shaking his head. “It’s friendly, mom, I swear. She hasn’t said anything.”

You quirk an eyebrow at him. “Have you?”

He looks away, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink and you can’t help but feel kind of giddy. “I don’t wanna make it weird. She’s my best friend, what if I screw things up?”

“Is it bothering you? Getting harder and harder to act normal?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I say you tell her Jack. You never know, maybe she’s feeling the exact same way you are.”

“You think?”

You drop the dancing hold, turn off the music and sit on the couch. “I think so, I really do. You both are so good for each other, you’re there for her when no one else is. I don’t think this will go poorly.”

“Well what do I say?” He asks, plopping down on the couch next to you.

“Why don’t we go have dinner at the diner and we can talk about it?”

“Yeah that sounds good.”

___

Jack looks dashing in a dark blue suit, and you can tell he’s nervous because he keeps smoothing he’s lapels even as he talks to his father, telling him that everything’s okay. Aaron is in boss mode, going down the mental checklist of everything that Jack needs. Jack is a little annoyed, but grateful because he knows his dad cares and that he’d probably forget something if he didn’t do this.

“You’ve got your keys?”

“Yes.”

“And your wallet?”

“Yes.”

“There’s enough money for dinner in there?”

“Yes, you gave it to me.” Jack says pointedly.

“Her corsage?”

“Still in the fridge so it doesn’t wilt.”

“And you know what you’re going to say?”

“Yes, dad.”

Aaron’s face falls, his eyes apologetic as he places a hand on Jack’s cheek.“I’m hovering I’m sorry, I’m just,”

“Nervous.” Jack supplies, placing his hand over his dad’s.

“Yeah.

“Me too.”

“You’ll do great Jack, you and Tess are best friends. Just be yourself.”

You come out of the kitchen, wanting to have a moment of your own with Jack. “Sweetheart, can you go get the camera so we can take some pictures before he leaves?”

“Sure.” Aaron disappears down the hallway and you walk over to Jack, taking his hands into yours.

“I know he means well but did he freak you out?”

“No, I think I’m okay.”

“Just take some deep breaths and you’re gonna be fine. He’s right, just be yourself, you and Tess know each other.”

“Deep breaths.” He repeats.

“You’re a catch, Jack and you look so handsome.” You glance behind you to make sure Aaron isn’t coming, you know its harder for him to talk about Haley than it is for Jack. “Did you do what we talked about?”

Jack nods, the slightest of twinkles in his eyes as his lips turn up slightly. “Yeah, I talked to her. It made me feel better.”

“Just hold on to that feeling. Know that all 3 of us are there, rooting for you.”

He doesn’t say anything, just wraps his arms around you. You return the hug quickly, and that’s how the two of you are when Aaron returns to the living room with the camera. He sets it down on the coffee table and then comes over to put his arms around both of you. “Everything alright?”

“Its all good dad.”

“Yeah everything’s perfect.” You murmur, kissing the top of Jack’s head.

—

It’s a little after midnight when your phone starts ringing. You shoot up straight in bed, reaching for the phone without looking at who it is, though you can guess. “Hello?”

“Mom!”

“Jack, honey, is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, I’m about to drop Tess off and come home, we stopped at the diner with some friends.”

Aaron wakes up with a reluctant grumble, turning over to give you a look, hair sticking up in an array of directions “Sweetheart,”

“Its Jack.” He sits up immediately, running hand through his hair as he leans in to try and get some of the call. “I’m gonna put you on speakerphone, dude.”

“How’d it go?” Aaron asks, eager for information as always.

“Well, I have a girlfriend now?” He says the word slowly, like he’s testing it.

“That’s a big responsibility Jack, you have to treat her right.”

“I know dad, I know.”

You have a one track mind, wondering about what you deem the most important event of the night.“Did you have your first kiss?”

“Mom, come on.”

“What if I was asking as dad’s friend that he lets spend the night sometimes?”

Jack snorts, “You haven’t been that since I was like 10.”

“Oh come on, humor me.” You whine, glancing over at Aaron who just has this soft look on his face.

It makes Aaron warm to listen to the two of you banter. Jack did indeed get his first kiss, saying it was really nice and made his legs feel like jello but he was successful in staying upright. You ask him how the dance was, and he says he can’t wait to do it all again next year, and is excited to share all the pictures he took.

“Dad, could we maybe talk when I get home?”

Aaron glances at the clock, eyes tired but his voice is sincere, saccharine when speaks, “Of course Jack, I’ll start building.”

“Drive safe, please.” You yell at the phone knowing that Jack has a habit of hanging up without saying goodbye.

“You got it!”

“I’ll make up for leaving you by yourself with pancakes in the morning.”

“And coffee.” You tack on.

“And coffee.” He agrees, bending down to give you a kiss. “I love you, goodnight.”

“I love you too.”

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[melancholic-pigeon]

Too Short For Ao3 Fic #3? 4?

SO this is the extended edition of the bonus wip I did with Sally's birthday. The overall fic it belongs to is Extremely Smutty, so I went in and revised out the brief references and I'm posting the family-centric g-rated stuff for anyone who wants that but not the smut! Cough.

Also, I felt bad about missing WIP Wednesday again. Lolsob.

Percy rouses at around eleven PM to a sketch of himself on Jason's pillow. There's a note on the other side. 

I wanted to wake you up to say goodbye, but you looked so comfy I didn't have the heart to. your mom's presents are in the bag by my desk. say hi to everyone for me. I'll call tomorrow anyway.

love you to the moon and back.

-J. ❤

Complete with a little red heart. He doesn't even care that the doodle of him next to it, burritoed in a pile of blankets, includes a little spot of drool— he can tell by the rest of his cartoony, ballpoint features that Jason put it in because he thinks it's cute.

(And by the fact that he's said so, several times.)

Percy gathers up his junk. The cornflower blue sweatshirt he steals goes halfway down his fingers. He's come to accept that at six foot three and counting, Jason is the taller of them and always will be— barring some sort of horrible wood-chipper accident or curse from a grumpy deity. 

Fortunately, there's something about looking up to meet someone's eyes that Percy finds incredibly attractive. He has since Annabeth outgrew him for the first time in eighth grade. 

He heads out in his own jeans and the boxers he packed and the sweatshirt that smells like cinnamon. Once he boards the train, he stands with his arm around a pole and the other holding the bag against his chest, and tries to stay casual and keep the grin off his face.

It's almost midnight when he gets home. His mom, of course, is still awake, so he heads into the living room to greet her.

"My other half says hello."

There's a pile of presents on the coffee table. He puts the bag with the rest of them and sits down, kissing her cheek.

"He didn't have to get me anything." She closes her book and eyes the bag with a fond sigh. "How is he?" 

Percy's the same way she is, always happy to do favors and give gifts, but feeling pretty awkward about receiving them. Jason's even worse, the three of them in an ongoing and circular competition to never let any of it go reciprocated. 

"Working too hard, as always. Pulling As and winning games and barely sleeping to do it. His stepmother's up his ass and his father's a bully, so, you know, news at eleven." He leans his head onto her shoulder. "That's why he gives you stuff. He's trying to show you how much he appreciates you." 

She sighs, and Percy knows it's because she's just as frustrated by the whole thing as he is. 

"He knows I appreciate him too, I hope." 

"Without a doubt." Percy smiles at her, watching as she goes a little pink and smiles back. "You have a talent for making him feel appreciated." 

"He treats my baby like a prince," she says softly. "That's why I appreciate him so much in the first place. How could I do anything else?"

Percy turns his face into her shirt collar, another futile attempt to hide his goofy expression, 

"He really does, doesn't he?"

Holding doors, pulling out chairs, offering an arm on unsteady streets. Jason's never laid his coat over a puddle, but Percy's pretty sure he would, if the option presented itself. 

His mom starts playing with his hair, her fingers light and familiar.

"I'm just happy you're happy, sweetheart."

He knows that feeling too. 

Half asleep from the petting, Percy lets himself be a little babyish. It's after midnight now, which means it's her birthday, and he knows that sometimes she misses when he was Estelle's age and little enough to curl up in her lap. He's way too big for that now, obviously, but he can still slide down the couch and rest his head there. 

"You too, Mama." 

She looks at him, her eyes misty with emotion and almost green in the light.

She's smiling, too. 

She smiles a lot, these days.

—

In the morning, Paul makes coffee while Estelle helps unwrap the avalanche of presents. She's at the age where ripping paper makes her squeal with hysterical laughter, which worms its way into Percy's heart and melts it into pudding. 

Several of them are from Percy's friends, including a handbound book of original recipes from Leo, a lovely silver bracelet inset with mother-of-pearl that Beckendorf made himself, and a huge sheathed knife with a matching decorative handle from Clarisse. The last one makes his mom snort as she gets up to put it on the bookshelf, out of reach of curious toddler hands. 

"Decorative. Sure." 

"I bet she'd teach you how to use it if you asked." 

"I know how to use a bowie knife, dear. Your father and I used to catch and cook our own fish when we went camping."

"Which reminds me, he still hasn't taken me out," Paul cuts in, frowning. "I've been saving up dad jokes and embarrassing stories for four years."

"I'll bug him about it the next time we talk," Percy promises. "It's probably the ADHD." 

"Do you want me to bug you about bugging him?" 

"If you haven't set something up by blueback season, yeah." 

Percy and Paul went in on a pound of jasmine tea, which his mom reaches for next. She immediately asks for a cup— it's one of two days out of the entire year where she lets other people wait on her, for a change, and even that took a lot of cajoling. 

Paul makes the tea, since Percy usually scalds the leaves and it turns out tasting like grass. She probably wouldn't complain anyway, but it's her birthday, and she deserves to have the best tea that can be made in their kitchen. 

"Is the last bag from Jason?" Paul sets the mug on a coaster in the middle of the coffee table, and Percy scoops the baby into his lap so she doesn't try to grab it. She mashes her tiny hand against his cheek.

"And Thalia. I'm not sure if they went in on stuff or he just packed them both in one bag to make it easy." 

Either is a possibility. He watches as his mom reaches in and pulls out a large wrapped frame, Thalia's spiky handwriting answering the question. 

Whatever's inside, it makes her shut her eyes and exhale deeply through her nose. 

"Please pass on that I am absolutely furious."

She turns the frame around. An autographed vinyl EP of Sign O' the Times by Prince— one of the albums Percy grew up on, though she skipped a number of the songs when he was little. Thalia must have spent a fortune on it. 

"That woman is incredible," Paul breathes, lightly touching the glass. "How does she get this stuff?" 

"See!"

"She has friends in high places." Percy grins as Estelle reaches for the album, and holds her over the glass so she can touch it too. "She's also really good at barter chains."

His mother shakes her head, but he can tell how delighted she is— the two of them have spent hours animatedly talking about music, Thalia hanging on every word and groaning with jealousy over the concerts his mom went to in the eighties. 

"I know exactly where I'm going to put it." 

Thalia got her a turntable for her fortieth birthday last year, as well as a full set of replacements for every worn-out record in their collection— and had the originals framed too, since they had sentimental value. They're currently occupying the better part of two walls of his mom's study. 

There's a blank spot by her bookshelf, right underneath the first copy, that the autographed album will fit into perfectly. Percy grins. 

"I'll hang it up for you later."

She doesn't argue. There's only Jason's left, his careful print written out across the same paper Thalia used. The crinkling draws Estelle's attention, and she gleefully reaches over to help tear it off.

Their mom gasps at what's inside and puts a hand to her mouth, her eyes going bright.

It's a watercolor portrait of Percy and Estelle, laughing by the shoreline. She's dressed in a little bucket hat, a ruffled swimsuit patterned to look like a clownfish and the coolest shades in the world— sparkly blue frames shaped like seashells that he kind of wishes he could get in his size. He's in a wetsuit, having spent the morning surfing, and he's holding onto her hands so she can jump at the waves. In the distant background is the Montauk lighthouse.

It's beautifully done, like everything else Jason's ever put to paper, but Percy's never choked up like this over one of them.

"You remember that, Beluga? That was on my birthday, when you came and visited me and Jason at the beach."

"Beach?" she asks, expectant. Paul bursts into laughter, sounding as rough-voiced as Percy feels.

"You're your mother's daughter, sweet pea."

"Beach!" Estelle insists. Percy noses her pudgy cheek.

"It's too cold to swim, baby." His mom's eyes are sparkling, still a little teary. He can see Estelle in the smile on her face. "But we could go for a walk and visit." 

"Brunch first." Paul kisses her— Percy averts his eyes, wrinkling his nose at his sister to make her giggle again— and gets up, heading back into the kitchen. 

It's a lovely way to spend a late morning. Pale blue araucana eggs courtesy of Grover's new hens, a blueberry coffee cake from Nico by a fantastic hole in the wall in Hell's Kitchen, Paul's signature home fries made with blue potatoes and seasoned to perfection; all of it delicious.

Jason calls while Percy's doing the dishes. After his deep, resonant performance of the happy birthday song, the five of them chat on speakerphone for a little while, though he has to excuse himself pretty quickly to keep banging through his reading. 

"Maybe next year," Percy sighs. His mom puts her hand on his hip, then crouches down to help Estelle with her light-up sneakers. 

"He's always welcome for a rain check."

"He's always welcome, period," Paul adds. For the second time, Percy gets dangerously close to sniffling. 

Montauk is a little far for a day trip, so they head to Brighton Beach instead. Estelle's shrimpy legs get tuckered out more quickly than the grownups' do, so Percy ends up carrying her on his hip, snuggled into his jacket to block the chilly breeze. She points at seagulls, shouting triumphantly every time. 

"More bird!"

"That's right. A whole flock of 'em."

They watch for a while as the gulls fight over a discarded pizza crust. Then Percy feels an arm around his back and a head against his shoulder.

"I don't know how I got so lucky," his mother murmurs, barely audible over the rushing of the waves.

Percy's eyes sting. 

For most of his life, her birthdays had been spent without fanfare. He was rarely actually there for them anyway, and Gabe complained so much it was easier to just ignore the day and focus on survival instead. 

She'd been triaging like that since before she even met his dad, keeping herself afloat when nobody seemed to care if she drowned. It would have been easy to lie down and give up. Percy's pretty sure he would have, in her place. 

He turns to hug her with the obligatory proclamation of a Stella Sandwich. He catches Paul's eye over her shoulder, and gets a wide, sentimental grin in response. 

"Luck's got nothing to do with it," Percy tells her, leaning his cheek against the top of her head while his sister wriggles with delight between them. 

"Listen to our son," Paul adds. "He's very wise, as you raised him to be. This is all on you, honey." 

Within moments, she's surrounded by her whole family on all sides, and Percy has another arm around his back, and he's getting a little choked up over it all. 

When she first started dating Paul, back when Percy was still in middle school, she'd spent weeks all aflutter. It was the happiest he'd ever seen her at the time. They'd sit outside and work on her car together, and she'd slip into song like a grease-stained fairytale princess without even thinking about it. 

Seeing them interact is like cool water on a burn, Paul's devoted kindness soothing a lifetime of sitting back and watching people treat her like dirt. He worships her, just like she deserves and long overdue.

"I love you," she says, tearful and muffled in someone's shoulder. "All of you, more than anything." 

"Love Mama," Estelle replies, and that's it— Percy's blubbering.

It'll never undo the damage, but it's about time she got a chance to heal and thrive. 

-here in our bed, chapter 7, ~6200 words

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference 

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer 

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’