#he blames Miles because Miles is THERE. you can control that at least. it’s not the intangible cosmic force that would apparently as soon as

[fellhellion]

Hm. Something I’ve been thinking about (since I never shut up about Miguel apparently) is the idea that maybe there’s not supposed to be, to his understanding of what happened, a singular canon event that he breaks when dipping dimensions, it’s more the idea that he “breaks” canon by no longer being present to carry out his own canon events, by wanting something outside of what was apparently predestined to him, and the universe punished him for it.

I broke [canon] once myself, he says, but he doesn’t name the event even as the examples he pulls up are labelled.

Perhaps the “event”, as the characters perceive it, could just be something as simple as by virtue of replacing alt!Miguel he negated the intended effect of the man’s death upon the world around him.

But I just wonder. Because the way Miguel speaks of this to Miles portrays his own wanting for something different as being what he thinks invoked that destruction.

“We all want to live the life we wish we had, believe me I’ve tried. And the harder I tried, the more damage I did. You can’t have it all, kid.”

I wanted something more, but Spider-Man’s fate is set. Any and all events, regardless of their nature. And defying that fate, trying to live a life beyond what it asked of me killed people.

If you alter your course from canon in any way, you hurt people.

[iwasbored777]

I know I already posted something like this but I wanted to be more clear and I gotta say it again: the writers completely effed up Peter and Gwen in ATSV and it wasn't Peter and Gwen to blame at all.

(Sorry if I made any grammar mistakes, I write English for years but some mistakes still happen)

Ok, with Gwen, I know she didn't have a choice and blah blah blah but it's heartbreaking to see how much people loved her and now I see such horrible posts about her (some are so unhinged) that it makes me wonder what the writers were thinking when they did what they did with her character. After so much time has passed since the movie was released all I hear is "Gwen is a traitor". I rarely see a person clever enough to explain the situation and many people don't care enough to explain or understand. They love what happened because they hate the idea of her ending up with Miles anyway so this is perfect for them. I swear I had no idea what they're gonna do, I thought she's going to be with Miles and on his side the whole time. And while I know that she's so much more than a love interest and she deserves to be more, in the first movie she was only the love interest and that's exactly how people see her now and will always see her like this. According to the audience she exists only to please Miles, she has no room to have a story of her own, which is why her storyline in this movie was kinda disappointing even to me who really loves her.

But Peter also... At least Gwen has a reason and he just doesn't. You can't tell me that a guy with a character development so great from the first movie, the guy who loves this kid and who started his own family because of Miles, who was depressed and desperate when he lost someone he loves, would tell the same kid he apparently loves "you know it's ok if your father dies bad things happen lol". It's crazy. And him receiving the hate that Gwen receives too, people going from loving him so much to hating him because the writers forgot how much they tried to develop him and Gwen, how amazing their team was in the first movie, and then destroying their dynamic for the sake of drama because they needed a conflict but the first movie was so perfect the only way to create it was to mess it up.

Yeah sure they'll be friends later, yeah Miles and Gwen will end up together, I don't have a problem with it because I love Peter and Gwen and I still ship Gwen and Miles and I don't want anyone who hates them with passion to show up here and tell me about how much they hate them. But they already ruined the relationships and the angst will always be remembered. Fandom is so goddamn toxic that they will keep hating on them, using any racist and misogynistic expression they can think of, and to be honest the movies aren't as enjoyable to me as they were at first because the reaction of majority of the audience made me realize how bad you gotta ruin your characters for fans to go from loving them to hating them so so much. Now every time I see news about BTSV I'm not looking forward to it that much because the story is already effed up. You can fix it but you can't erase what happened. The ending can be satisfying but the journey is not, at least to me.

And it's a shame that no one is talking about this, all haters (and there's so many of them) act like Peter and Gwen are characters capable of making decisions for themselves when they're just products of their writers. But, no. The writers are praised everywhere while Peter and Gwen apparently suck because their characters are ruined by someone who's controlling them against their will. The kinda got the similar treatment to Wanda in MCU, whom I also adore, she had character development and learned how to move on in WandaVision only to go through the exact same thing all over again in Multiverse of Madness because they didn't know what to do with her now.

I don't hate these movies, especially ITSV cuz it's a masterpiece, but I'm just so sad with how the story turned out. I will watch BTSV and I will make tons of posts about it just the same, and I won't make hate posts about this movie, that's for sure. I just wanted to say this. I look forward to hearing your opinions in the comments, as long as they're respectful to the characters. Basically I already said all I had to say here.

[dangermousie]

Ep 27 was all plot and no ship. In fact none of my favorite characters except Jiang Li herself appeared in it - it was devoid of the Duke, his sidekicks, Shen Yurong, Princess Wanning, any of the Yes and except for a few seconds’ appearance devoid of Jiang Jingrui.

Still it definitely moved the plot forward - namely the plot of the serpents’ nest that is the Jiangs. Because the grievances were not suffered by our protag but the original Jiang Li and any connections of love or blood were also not hers but the original Li’s, she’s able to be clear headed and not really emotionally involved except insofar as she feels bad for injustice and she’s gonna need that because stepmom has lost the few restraints she had and the rest of the family is useless.

I found this ep humanized both Ruoyao and stepmom for me. I found it so tragic that Ruoyao has finally stopped stepping out of her mother’s monstrous, smothering shadow (her mother’s love always looked controlling and conditional but this ep shows just how downright abusive it was and how Ruoyao had so little chance) only to have her agency taken away from her by mommy on the most basic level. A woman who would poison her own child to get rid of a stepdaughter should not be called a mother in any sense.

I hope Ruoyao gets some sort of a happy ending and a way to find out who she actually is but I doubt that since the drama very clearly implied in this ep she is not a Jiang but is a child of adultery between stepmom and diviner. Papa Jiang is not much of a father even to his blood (he just goes with whatever the woman he is currently sleeping with likes) but the moment he discovers she’s not his, that nunnery is gonna be best case scenario for Ruoyao. Not every family can be the Fans from JoL or the Xiaos from Nirvana in Fire 2.

Stepmom? What a horror show but the drama humanized her (while showing she shouldn’t be allowed to run around at all.) All the woman wanted at the start was to run off with that painter and live in obscure bliss (Ruoyao’s desire to run with worthless ex-fiance is quite reminiscent of that - like mother like daughter - tho at least Mom’s boo genuinely loved her.) But daddy prevented it and was going to marry her off to some sort of mental defective with a family that wanted that dude to have a child (and in that society that marriage is pretty much life of horror) unless she found herself another match and was all “why don’t you off Papa Jiang’s wife, she’s sick anyway” - and not excusing stepmom being a murderer but it’s like Shen Yurong - when all your choices are bad choices you are way more likely to do bad things to survive. In some other alternate universe, she married that painter who never became a diviner and is living a placidly virtuous existence.

Honestly, the moment she killed a friend to escape a hellish marriage it was the end for her - she sent Jiang Li away because of the whole “I murdered your mom can’t have you find out or just look at you” (and daddy blames her for soft heartedness in not killing her!!!) and the other kid was an accident - it’s basically she started out as a villain out of perceived necessity but then she had to continue and got worse and worse. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, indeed.

I found it poignant she ultimately wasn’t able to maim monster daddy as requested by diviner. Not so poignant that she’s apparently repeating the way she was parented in the way she’s parenting her daughter despite knowing firsthand what that’s like. (But I wonder how much her obsession with getting Ruoyao the best marriage, the nicest reputation (no showing in public at age x), the best womanly skills (zither) is driven by her forever remembered terror of being a woman with no power and no options and no good marriage prospects.)

Even that scarred cousin who married the abuser got a little bit of interest from me - the way she tells his paralyzed body that even tho he beat her so badly she will take excellent care of him and the sheer terror in his eyes was great. Go girl!!!!

Still, hope next ep brings back the Duke and Co. (Jiang Li sent away the guard the Duke had on a mission for her and girl - bad life choice - guard had a big point in that he was there for her protection. And now diviner is coming and there is no guard. I guess she’s so bad at listening to instructions, the Duke will have to move in with her himself to make sure she does what he wants. What a hardship 😂)

[l0vem00nlight]

CHRISTMAS SCENARIOS: DAY 2 ~ MILES FAIRCHILD

♥︎ Miles Fairchild With an S/O Who Loves Christmas Music ♥︎

Oh lord…when I say you OWN his radio and his guitar you OWN it.

He loves you to death but man it gets him annoyed when you constantly ask him to play a christmas song instrumental or switch the music into some Christmas jam.

It’s a bonus for when you start singing along with the jolly music, whether his playing the instrumental or not he best believed that your gonna sing your heart out. It doesn’t matter if you can or cant sing he’s gonna hear those vocals.

Kate is so done with this. But do you care? No not really.

Miles just sits on his bed and watches you do whatever as the awfully loud christmas music plays in the background of your singing. He tries to hide that smile of his but he just can’t.

Sometimes you would start dancing and you would pull him to come join you on your excitement. He doesn’t really dance but he just kinda lets you take some control even though all he’s really doing is just swaying around and not putting effort into his moves.

He finds it a tad bit annoying when you tower control over his personal music items but yet you don’t care. You will do a jolly breakdance in his face whether he likes it or not.

Flora joins in on the fun and starts to dance with you IN HIS ROOM. He couldn’t even take yall anymore nor did he even bother to stop you two for the sake of his little sister’s happiness and your joy.

Miles now understands how Kate feels when he has his damn music up way too loud for her liking. He can’t blame her—it’s so annoying having that christmas music blazing in his eardrums.

Even after you are done with your christmas spirit unraveling he can still hear Mariah Carey echoing in his eardrums.

Once you even compared his and yours relationship to the song named Sleigh Ride in the few parts of the song much to his dismay.

Miles loves you, okay? But when you’re just spamming those songs every single day it just cuts it for him. The thought and the memory of having to hear so many christmas songs in one setting is ridiculous to him and also having to watch you breakdance to the songs is already too much. When you finally settle down he is glad. He is glad that you finally calmed yourself and now he gets to listen to whatever he wants to listen to. He loves you a lot to the moon and back but maybe calm down on the songs and not spam them over and over and over again and start hitting the whip and nae nae in his room…? But haters gonna hate anyway and he’s sadly one of them.

Again, he loves you so much but…come on. Just please lower it to a minimum.

I’m gonna add more than just some music because this is way too short-

During when you weren’t spamming christmas music you two are out building a snowman. It is really funny due to the fact that Miles was struggling to make the balls for the snowman. You did two and he did the smallest one which was the head because it wasn’t going too well for him and it was too cold for all that.

You two made Kate drive into town to get a carrot.

Snowball fights are like war. But Miles could’ve sworn that you at least put some rocks in your snowballs cause those should not hurt like that-

Miles could tell that you are competitive over snowball. Absolutely no reason as to why you ripped the snowman’s head off and threw it at him, carrot nose and pebbles and even the hat all came his direction. It was so foul…cause like damn..

You two have hot chocolate together and relax. This is probably his favorite time. Despite the christmas music playing quietly in the background it’s fine.

Other than that, he enjoys the holidays with you. As much as he dislikes the fact that you spam christmas music he enjoys seeing you all happy and dancing and it brings a smile to his face. When he sees you smiling all big like that he just can’t seem to stop the smile forming on his face as much as he tries to show his displeasure. To spend the Holidays with someone as happy and jolly as you can be tiring but also very nice as well and he hopes to encounter this every year during christmas…not the music though.

[frompearl]

Vampire Slayer: FOUR

Warnings: Death, Child Abuse, Violence, Slight Canabalism (?)

A/N: Enjoy!

“Y/N, he’s in there.” 

You let out a hum of acknowledgment, staring up at the abandoned building. “Are there any victims?” You mumble out calmly, grabbing the handle of your katana. 

“There were no sightings of humans entering. You’re all in the clear.”

“Good.” Ending the call you turn off your flip phone, walking towards the building. 

You can feel the bloodlust of the level E vampire from miles away. The report had said it was a big man, bitten over a year ago. The sources didn’t reveal the pure blood that turned him, but they confirmed that he and his daughter were victims of the same pure blood. 

You try to calm down the fury bubbling up in your chest. A poor innocent man and his child faced a fate so terrible, all because a pure-blood couldn’t control their thirst.

‘Give me a break.’ You seethe, ‘Disgusting monsters, all of them.’ 

Crimson eyes flash through your mind. The pale face of your ex-mentor comes to mind.

Alucard Tepes, the strongest pure blood to have walked this earth. The monster who had kidnapped you as a child after killing your father in cold blood. 

After that night you would attempt to escape the deranged pure blood day after day. But with no luck, he would catch you every time. You had only stopped when he had threatened to kill and eat all the people in the town you were residing in at the time. “It would be your fault if all these innocent people died, little chick.” He even had the audacity to place the blame on you, the nerve! You didn’t try to escape ever again after that. 

You had spent a total of five years under his wing. The both of you would travel from country to country. During that time he would train you to become a vicious vampire slayer, finishing the training your father had wanted to teach you. But only he was much harsher than your father ever was. 

While you remember your father being strict with his teachings, he would never endanger your life. 

Alucard on the other hand, did not give a flying a fuck. 

You had assumed he had a shred of decency when he’d spared your life. You were dead wrong.

Training exercises were brutal, as a child you were more accustomed to attacking from far away with your guns. It’s what your father wanted for you, “you worry about killing enemies from afar, don’t worry about them getting too close. I’ll handle them.” He kept you away from hand to hand combat, he was aware that your small stature left you at a complete disadvantage. He promised to show you how to use his katana when you were older and at least bigger to fight larger enemies.

Alucard, on the other hand, saw no issue with you being a child. For your first day of training, he had taken away your guns and disarmed you of any weapons you had. He would then proceed to throw you into a pit full of starving wolves, with nothing to defend yourself with. You only had your small hands and teeth to retaliate against the hordes of wolves lunging at you. He would watch from afar, eating from a deceased human he had killed not too long ago. Giving out half-hearted words of encouragement as he gnawed on a bone. 

And that was the start of your brutal training with the horrible pure blood.  

Those years were dreadful. Every day felt like you had to fight to live and the most dangerous being was the least of your worries. It was the opponents he would put you up against. Fighting against rogue vampires, level E, wild animals, human murderers, the list could go on. 

Not even your venomous blood could keep you safe. How could it? You were constantly under the risk of one of your opponents cutting into you so deep that you bleed out? Bleeding out was practically a death sentence to you, one of the only things that you feared. You couldn’t go to hospitals for blood transfusion, no one in the entire world had the same black blood as you. If you bled out, you were practically screwed.

While thankfully that had never happened, you at least were grateful to have learned how to use the katana. 

Your father’s weapon, Vampire Slayer, had been thrown carelessly at you by Alucard.

It was a month after your new training when he declared he would teach you how to use it. You tried to not let your eyes linger on the black blood stains that the weapon had, most certainly belonging to your father. 

“Your father and your ancestors had cut me with this damned thing too many times to count. It was a miracle I ripped it out of his dead hands, that bastard had quite the grip on it.” 

You swallowed down any emotions of anger and sadness. This was the last item you had of your father. Hugging it to your chest, you let that moment of weakness slip by. 

“Getting sentimental are we?” He mocked you.

You scowled at him, “No. Shut your mouth.” 

He let out a laugh, a month and your spirit had yet to break. In areas where many other adult humans would have lost their minds, your rage kept you sharp. 

He truly loves the Hellsing bloodline, he wished he hadn’t made their numbers shrink throughout the centuries. A shame. 

“Let’s get started shall we?”

By the end of the week, you had mastered most of the techniques. You had always observed your father’s movement with the Vampire Slayer. However, unlike his harsh and brutal movements when he attacked with it, you moved gracefully. In areas where your father was an eagle that attacked ruthlessly, you moved with the grace of a swan. Small and delicate at first glance, but equally as ruthless.  

It had become your favorite weapon to use, though the movements were a bit wonky at first. It was made for an adult, not a child. Nevertheless, you adjusted to it. You’d like to believe that its last connection with your father had made the adjustment easier. 

The years with that despicable vampire went by and you hated them wholeheartedly. He had never touched a hair on your head and yet he had ruined your life completely. The horrors you experienced under his mentorship would follow you to your grave.

For your last training, at the age of thirteen, he had dropped you off in a village in Spain. The Spanish Hunter Association had frowned at the notion of killing Level E vampires and had decided to isolate them all in a remote area. All of them were far gone from their human selves, hunger overtaking all their senses. The sweet smell of your blood was like a sauna in a desert to them. Before the bastard left he had just parted with the words, “When I come back to get you in a month, there better be no level E left standing. If I find a single one, I will kill you and let them feast on your corpse.” He smiled at you mercilessly, “Good luck.” 

You were left there to fight tooth and nail for thirty days. Hiding and running away from the level E vampires that would track you down every hour. You were used to fighting against many opponents, but the village had a total of five hundred unfriendly residents. You knew you would be considered lucky if you came out alive. 

At the end of the thirty days, he had found you barely conscious laying in the middle of the village. You were the only person who survived that month.

After that he left you at the Hunter Association’s Headquarters, telling you that an old friend of your father would take care of you for the foreseeable future. His excuse was that he had to take care of some ‘unfinished business’. That had officially ended your horrific training with him.

You had always wondered why he had left you, you were grateful nonetheless for his absence, but always curious about his disappearance. 

 “I’ll come back for you,” he had promised before he left, his crimson eyes glowing.

 “Just you wait little chick.” 

You hoped he didn’t. You dreaded the day he would come back. You prayed nightly that someone had killed him, but that was extremely unlikely. That old man had lived for thousands of years, though he didn’t look a day over his twenties. 

You wanted to kill him, but you knew that you were no match for him. The moment the intent to kill him passed your mind, you would be dead in an instant. He could sense a hint of murderous intent from a mile away. 

Besides, your father had dedicated his whole life to killing Alucard, and so had your ancestors. 

What did that achieve? The brutal deaths of your relatives and leaving you as the sole Hellsing. 

The impossible task to kill Alucard had cost the death of many of your brethren and as the last member you had decided to not fall under the same fate. 

Light footsteps break you away from your reminiscing. Your head snaps forward.

The level E was nearby.

A certain creak rings out through the building. 

Suddenly, a part of the ceiling collapses on itself, a small body landing a couple of feet from you.

On all fours, the level E stares at you with ravenous eyes. Your heart sinks when you notice it’s a little child. 

She’s wearing dirty rags, splattered with blood. Her cheeks which should have been rosy with life were a deathly pale. Black hair that should have been soft was tangled in frizzy knots. Blood stained her mouth as she sniffed the air, grinning maniacally at you.

“Give me your blood!” 

Your heart sank for you knew this child was already gone from this world. 

Your hand clenched into a fist. These pure bloods have no shame. You scowl to yourself. To take an innocent’s life is unforgivable. 

E/c eyes do a quick scan in your surroundings, before focusing on the little girl inching towards you. 

This isn’t the level E that was reported, it must be nearby. 

You were used to the level E vampires coming in unannounced. The strong smell of your blood attracted them to you like flies to rotten fruit. 

She lets out a steady growl, pale lips twisting into a snarl as she lets out a screech.

She’s leaping towards you, with her wide jaw screwed loose, ready to take a bite out of you. 

Only you don’t let her.

Grabbing her head, you smash her head against your knee. Caving in her skull immediately. The little girl lets out a whimper before she poofs out of existence.

Her bloodied rags were all that was left. 

You look down at them sorrowfully, “May your soul rest, little one.”

A creak from the wooden boards rings behind you. 

You swiftly pull out your gun and aim it behind you. 

A couple of feet from you, the level E that you had originally come for stands motionless. 

Your finger moves for the trigger but you stop once you notice he isn’t focusing on you.

Instead, he’s looking down at the rags by your feet. What remained of the little girl that you had killed seconds ago?

“Daughter.” His scratchy voice whispers out, anguished. 

You shoot him before he even looks at you. 

[eddiebrockx]

"Disrupting Canon"

⚠️SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (primarily the latter). Like serious spoilers. Please don't engage if you don't want any!⚠️

Incoming mini-essay! (TL;DR - Miguel O'Hara as a character has much to say about grief and guilt, and how it can harm people.)

After watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, I am filled with thoughts!!! So many that they can't all be contained here, and I'll probably have to write an actually essay later--however, I wanted to share some of my feelings and ideas about Miguel and his role in the story, specifically.

Miguel is obviously an antagonist to Miles throughout the story. And, I would actually argue that he is an antagonist to everyone, including himself. He's cynical, he's controlling, he projects his fears onto everyone, and he is terrified of change. The scene where he tells Miles that he is the "original anomaly" is a obvious display of all of that.

Despite this, Miguel still isn't a villain; he isn't evil, and he isn't doing any of this because of pure malice. Instead, he's doing it out of fear. Because Miguel is also an anomaly (at least, I think so). Miguel has more in common with Miles than he does the other Spiders, which is why I think he blames Miles for so much as the "original anomaly."

We know, as the audience, that Miles shouldn't be blamed for anything that has happened. It is not his fault that the Spot brought over a radioactive spider from Earth-42; it's not his fault that he got bit; it's not his fault that the original Spider-Man dies; it's not his fault that the Spot became the Spot. Any logical person can see that Miles didn't have any control over these situations; so why can't Miguel?

He can't because Miguel believes that Miles will cause and experience exactly what he did. We know that a major part of why Miguel is so uptight is because when he disrupted canon, his entire world disintegrated before his eyes. And, its a logical fear; as he said himself, is it worth saving one person over ending the world? But this is where things get complicated: does "disrupting canon" actually cause the world to end?

Peter B. Parker, for example, has a daughter. Jessica Drew is pregnant. None of the other Spiders seem to have children, so wouldn't these be an example of canon being disrupted? Pavitr's world still seems to be around (I'm assuming), after we saw canon disrupted. Gwen's father LITERALLY quit his job, meaning he didn't die, and therefore also disrupted canon. But...nothing happened to Gwen's Earth, even though she was gone for several months.

And, the cherry on top, if Miles is an anomaly, how come nothing has happened to Earth-1610 and Earth-42? Why did nothing happen when the original Spider-Man died?

All of these things, I would like to add, are also very different to what Miguel did. Miguel abandoned his world for a new one, taking the place of a version of him that died. He was in the wrong world. And this reminded me of a certain antagonist in Into the Spider-Verse: King Pin.

Throughout the entire movie, King Pin desperately tried to bring another version of his family into his world. In the end he failed, whereas Miguel succeeded. Of course there are major differences, still. King Pin was entirely selfish and didn't care what consequences came with getting his family back, whereas Miguel thought he wasn't hurting anyone. But Miguel still managed to hurt people, and that's what seems to linger for him. The guilt and grief that he caused the destruction of an entire Earth.

And he can't see past it. Despite the many examples we see throughout the movie that go against what he believes, he can't see beyond his own experience. And if he were to admit that Miles could be correct, his understanding of what happened to himself has to be completely reevaluated. All of that grief that he has suppressed, all of the work he's done to "fix" things; all of that changes.

This is what makes Miguel so compelling to me. I don't think what he said to Miles was warranted, but I can understand where he comes from. The other Spiders can too, because a lot of them have already experienced their canon events. It's what makes this conflict so complicated, so interesting.

Of course, we can't be 100% sure about everything until we see what happens in the third film, but it's all interesting nonetheless.

Ultimately, all I want to say is that I love this series, and I can't wait to see where it takes us next!

[redpenship]

I was wondering from in your Buzzsaw Dilemma fanfic, if Sonic may have developed lasting insecurities specifically over steadily becoming more powerless to stop Eggman. Sure the Empire became a lot less bad, but it seemed from Sonics pov that just kinda happened. Meanwhile the consequences became too dangerous for him to destroy most of Eggmans structure and badniks. Even if he'd hide it I think that powerlessness could greatly bother him.

Though i've just realized that you'll probably have more to show about how Sonic handled everything in the sequel fic you're planning. So I'm not sure how much you'd wanna reveal about your ideas here.

This is definitely going to be part of Sonic's story in the sequel, but none of it will be surprising to the reader anyways so I don't mind talking about it. If anything, I would literally spoil the entire sequel if you asked me to, I don't actually care very much haha.

[long post ahead]

I've always kind of believed that Sonic has a somewhat worse time than Tails during the events of the fic, particularly in the sense that although Tails' situation sucks absolute ass, he's at least in the loop about what's really going on. Sonic's perspective is rather bleak: a kid he's growing fond of suddenly dies, and then a couple of weeks later he loses any ability to fight back against Eggman. He has a small victory on Angel Island, but this is ultimately short-lived.

Chapters 4-6 are important for his character, since he really just experiences loss after loss with no ability to stop it. His attempt to hide the Chaos Emeralds results in Amy losing her home, and any guilt he feels over this is only made worse by Eggman winning the fight for the emeralds in the end anyways. Sonic isn't stupid--at this point, he's well aware that he was tricked into collecting the emeralds for Eggman. However, he definitely feels kind of stupid, and especially frustrated with himself for basically ruining Amy's life (even if it wasn't really his fault).

Shortly after, he tags along with Amy and Knuckles on their base raids, but the exploding Badniks make him effectively useless and all he can really do it support the others during their fights. This makes Sonic feel really bad for a few reasons: 1) He can't do anything. 2) The way he sees it, Amy and Knuckles were both kind of dragged into this because of him and it isn't fair that they have to do all the heavy-hitting for him. 3) He is now aware that Eggman is a bit "smarter" so to speak, but doesn't know what he's planning and isn't confident enough in himself to start guessing. The base raids are a band-aid solution to what he knows will be a much bigger problem down the line.

These three points kind of compound into more guilt and frustration when Eggman traps Knuckles on Angel Island. Sonic is pretty certain that Eggman is lying about the bombs, but remains unable to convince Knuckles, who can very easily point to the exploding badniks as proof that Eggman isn't above making this kind of play. Sonic continues to largely blame himself here, as he believes that if he could still defeat badniks, Eggman never would have become successful enough to control someone as he did Knuckles.

Chapter six onwards is when the broader world dynamics come into play. Sonic is very aware of the planet's recent history--the flashback in chapter 2 isn't Sonic giving Tails a nickname, but rather a real "Mobian" name since Miles is English--and knows what it would mean to have Eggman take over the east pacific islands. It's worth noting that Vanilla's story about the fire only happened around seven years before Sonic was born, so you are free to consider the implications of what it means for Sonic to have grown up as parentless kid on South (or Christmas) Island.

After Eggman takes over the islands, and especially after the human states take over the other Mobian territories, is the point where I think he would feel the most powerless. His inability to stop Eggman caused a domino effect leading to the complete domination of his planet. Both Sonic and Tails feel responsible for letting this happen, as though they were both mutually enabling the empire and other states.

The reveal of Alhazen's identity, while a relief to Sonic, also only serves to reaffirm all his insecurity about being the cause of the empire's success. Not only was he powerless to stop everything going on, but he now knows that Tails had been caught in the chemical factory because Sonic hadn't been keeping a close enough eye on him. Tails might think "oh, I was the gasoline, I enabled Eggman and served as the key to the empire's success", but Sonic blames himself for Tails being in that position in the first place. The creation of Alhazen is a direct result of a single mistake: running ahead and forgetting to let the little kid behind him catch up.

Although Mobians in general kinda end up in a better place thanks to Tails' deterrence, the fact that he was incapable of doing anything to help during such a critical moment (well, "moment" meaning basically anything from chapter 4 onward) is going to stick with him probably for the rest of his life. Poor Sonic </3

(very long post haha. ty for your question!!!)

[eresia-catara]

um these are probably boring questions but. do you have a favourite guido poem + which ew book is the best in your opinion. have a safe trip! <33

Thank you :p

Actually I love this ask, you made me think of a lot of beautiful things which I will explain...

Establishing a favourite poem is very difficult considering I'd eat them all if I could, however I can pin-point at least two that are among the best imo: Tu m'hai sì piena di dolor la mente and Perché non fuoro a me li occhi dispenti.

Together I think they sum up quite well the juiciest elements of his poetry: guido is already dead as he speaks, he's completely hallucinating and he's suffering like hell. also biblical echoes.

Now let's focus on the second one in particular, as the first one is simpler to analyse

The first line is already amazing because he starts ex abrupto with what is both a wish and a curse, and a cursing of life. In this expression in fact we have the echo of Job 3:10 in which he curses his birth, except that Guido uses words of actual torture methods of his time (he wishes for his eyes to be blinded or ripped away, which were widespread practices so we also have to imagine that readers could easily imagine the pain he was evoking), giving the poem an apparently solemn but actually deeply tragic and violent and chaotic beginning. It also means he has already compared himself to the patriarch whose faith had been tested by the devil; Guido is the lover who is has been tested in his faith and has come out, as we will see, dead.

The following three lines talk about someone who has settled in his mind and has asked to be heard. The subject of this action is not mentioned, meaning that to Guido it's obvious, he's already used to this figure: the woman. But by depriving her of any substance she ends up being an abstract presence, we are miles away from actually dealing with a woman who may as well not even exist: this is a hallucination, a ghost that has occupied his mind and has demanded control of his attention, of his thoughts. Guido is helpless in front of this event and he blames it on his eyes, his source of knowledge. Guido wishes to be what he effectively already has become: a non-man.

In the second and third stanza, Guido tells us that because he feared more torments his soul shouted to this hallucination for help and she ignored him. And here's another great thing: because Guido was edging towards death, Love had already come to mourn his last moments until a mysterious and unspecified deep voice (that echoes Geremiah's Lamentations) tells the people to compare their pains to those of this now dead man who's crucified heart is being held out by Death. You know. Like a martyr. Like...Saint Lucia (Divine comedy connection??? I still need to think about it) who holds out her eyes. The very part of the body Guido has cursed. And in fact he has died for a love that was one-sided, so the complete opposite of a martyr. But also Love crying over his dead body like Mary with Christ. Guido suffering like no other man like Christ. You know. Guido completely bending the Bible to his games, tracing over the words to obtain a seemingly identical meaning and yet you come out with a reversal of everything. Guido recounting this whole story as an already dead...thing.

He is not able to be alive you honour, life was impossible to his system and in fact he wishes for death. almost but not quite like Christ who is not destined for earthly life.

.

About ew, I definitely love the third volume most! That's peak guido suffering and I'm all here for it. Like, Gambarini was so real for (SPOILERS!) having made him wish to hang himself, although personally I would've used a method that spilled blood simply to stay coherent to his poetry and feed into his gory hallucinations. That man needed a certain dose of ugly suffering as personal expiation for his actions or smth.

[2dumb2furious]

Very long post and a lot of across the Spiderverse spoilers incoming:

I finally watched across the spider-verse yesterday and I couldn’t stop thinking about the Miles & Gwen and Percy & Annabeth parallels in that movie.

Starting with Gwen and Annabeth because they are not as similar as Miles and Percy but there’s still things to talk about. Gwen being Spiderman ending with her friend dying and getting blamed for it by her dad making her run away reminded me a lot of Annabeth being a demigod ending with monsters attacking her family a lot and getting blamed for it by her dad making her run away. Running away to a place where people have special abilities like you and fitting in and learning about it, thinking you can never go back to where you came from. Both had one of their only friends die (Peter) or at least be dead-adjacent (Thalia) which made them closed off and felt guilty even though it wasn’t their fault. And on a lighter note how Gwen was talking to the Vulture that didn’t belong to her universe and then Miguel just screamed Annabeth to me, like her clear pride that she wasn’t confused actually and knew about the multiverses and was trying to show what she was made off was peak Annabeth to me. Personality wise I just feel like their confidence and maturity for their age due to their experiences are really really similar. Also both of them eventually going back to their dads who have learnt to accept them for their abilities and they decide to make another try.

Miles and Percy have a lot of differences, main ones being their upbringing, school-lives and also Mile’s artistic side and being a bit of a genius (Percy is still really smart though just in a different way). BUT COME ON THEYRE ALSO SUPER SIMILAR!! A kid from New York with got special abilities they can use to defeat monsters. Having to balance being a normal teenager and having to fight monsters with no control over when and where (the school meeting scene in the movie reminded me of Percy so much). Not being able to tell normal people about their abilities. Discovering that there are more people like them with these abilities shortly after discovering said abilities. Finding a new sense of belonging with these people like you but not quite being like them either. Being betrayed by one of the few people you felt close to (Aaron and Luke). Being one of the most powerful of the people like you but still treated like a kid and not being let known as much as you want to know. It turning out you’re actually not meant to be who you are at all (Miles being an anomaly and Percy being a child of a big three despite them having an oath to not have kids). Having a horrible destiny you’re told you can’t do anything about (Percy’s prophecy they thought meant he was going to die and Mile’s canon events). Their loyalty to the people closest to them and their family. Miles in the entire latter of half of the movie screamed Percy. AND THEIR SENSES OF HUMOR!!!! You could give Mile’s jokes to Percy and vice versa and it would sound perfectly in character and they both use it as a way to break the tension and shows the really quick-witted way they look at the world.

Now their dynamic together. They both got that sweet awkward teenagers that care a lot about each other and are clearly in love but won’t admit it. They miss each other a lot and understand each other in a way nobody else does. They trust each other with their lives. Gwen and Annabeth always trusting Miles and Percy despite being hurt and betrayed by others before. Gwen joining the spider-society before Miles and having to keep secrets just like Annabeth has been at camp half-blood for a lot longer than Percy and not being able to tell him everything. Both Gwen and Annabeth are therefore put in a position of more experience and trust from the leaders in juxtaposition to Miles and Percy who know the least out of everyone and is constantly trying to gain the trust Gwen/Annabeth already have. Annabeth and Gwen also know something about Percy and Miles they can’t tell him (Gwen knowing Miles is an anomaly and Annabeth knowing Percy’s prophecy that heavily implies he’s gonna die). Percy and Miles as someone with a good parent/parents talks to Annabeth/Gwen about their dads and they open up about it. The slight jealousy element with Hobie and Gwen reminded me of the jealousy elements within Percabeth, both a tiny bit with Luke but also Rachel if Rachel would’ve been Annabeth’s friend/potential love interest and not Percy’s (the Hobie thing is a bit less intense than the Rachel thing though but still the roles Hobie and Rachel fulfill in regards to the main relationship is similar in that also Rachel was someone for Percy to feel normal around and being in Hobie’s dimension was a place Gwen could stay that wasn’t just headquarters also Rachel and Hobie would get extremely well along you can’t change my mind).

I ALSO NEED TO POINT OUT BECAUSE I CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT PERCY PRINTING OUT A PICTURE OF ANNABETH TO HAVE IN HIS NOTEBOOK BECAUSE HE MISSES HER IS THE NON-ARTIST EQUIVALENT OF MILES DRAWING A MILLION SKETCHES OF GWEN!!

[mydysfunctionalvampirefamily]

I relistened to 51 and 52 because Pendragon and Britta short circuited my brain so much with yucky no gross but why is this a train wreck that I can't stop listening to feelings. I couldn't really remember anything else that happened that clearly, but now I do! On to 53!

Britta don't blame yourself!!! This is not your fault. You did nothing wrong, you are perfect.

What?!? ROMEO???!!!? What is happening rn???

Uhoh this can't be good?

Of course fucking assassin mind control is here to make things even worse.

Okay Pendragon is the worst, but just disintegrating an object someone tries to hit you with is pretty damn hot.

I mean Pendragon can just summon her again, he doesn't have to chase her.

Lmao Ira asking Miles if Miles wants to go first or if he should. No quicker way to insult Miles.

Miles trying to encourage Wynn out of a coma is as awkward as an absentee dad that after the divorce feels like he is the one that should talk to his 14 year old daughter about her first period, which she already had 3 years ago.

Lex being literally like lol no natural leader does not count, Miles was too bad.

Lex Just keeps on bashing on Miles. 😂😂

Miles: I don't know how you could tell this is real except for I'm still here and I feel I would be hard to replicate. (most niels thing ever omg)

Ira insulting Wynn with the first words she can hear. 😂

Is Britta being kidnap during her kidnapping?? Is this a turtles all the way down situation??

I somehow thought they killed Zantosa, I totally forgot that they gave him to fucking Reiss.

They know exactly how to get Britta to follow, all this sister talk.

I know Suarez is a good guy, but I still hate him for what he did to Jane.

Why, Garrett? Why do you roll so bad???

I mean, at least Joey's mom can be with Joey now??

Johnny is running out of resources fast, and he didn't have many to begin with.

Ohh Sheila!??! What are you doing????

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 10: I SCOOP POOP

"Whoever said hard work builds character is built out of shit," Alex scowled as he read the new chapter title.

"Thank you," Percy said in surprise. "I was immediately thinking I was going to hear five different cracks about cleaning up my room."

"Your worst smelly socks never got that bad," Thalia said in mock hurt he would say such a thing.

"You're a turd blossom. There, that what you wanted?" Jason grinned.

"And I'm back to loathing these more every minute," Percy sighed.

I lost hope when I saw the horses' teeth.

"It wasn't the smell, it wasn't the time limit," Magnus agreed. "It was canines in the horse mouth, and frankly, I cannot blame you."

"There's some nightmare fuel I'd be willing to make," Alex snickered.

As I got closer to the fence, I held my shirt over my nose to block the smell. One stallion waded through the muck and whinnied angrily at me. He bared his teeth, which were pointed like a bear's.

I tried to talk to him in my mind. I can do that with most horses.

Hi, I told him. I'm going to clean your stables. Won't that be great?

Yes! The horse said. Come inside! Eat you! Tasty half-blood!

But I'm Poseidon's son, I protested. He created horses.

Usually this gets me VIP treatment in the equestrian world, but not this time.

"I'm sure you needed that humbling moment at least," Nico chuckled.

Yes! The horse agreed enthusiastically. Poseidon can come in, too! We will eat you both! Seafood!

"I think you should summon Poseidon there Percy," Thalia agreed sadly. "He'd make everything in a twelve mile radius vanish to the bottom of the ocean just for implying that."

"Not the outcome I'm particularly hoping for," Percy sighed.

Seafood! The other horses chimed in as they waded through the field.

Flies were buzzing everywhere, and the heat of the day didn't make the smell any better. I'd had some idea that I could do this challenge, because I remembered how Hercules had done it. He'd channeled a river into the stables and cleaned them out that way. I figured I could maybe control the water.

"Of course the part where Hercules didn't get eaten by the flesh eating horses is the part you forgot," Jason frowned.

"I just don't think they could have," Percy shrugged. Considering every monster he'd ever faced, he was pretty sure the guy was near invulnerable.

But if I couldn't get close to the horses without getting eaten, that was a problem. And the river was downhill from the stables, a lot farther away than I'd realized, almost half a mile. The problem of the poop looked a lot bigger up close. I picked up a rusted shovel and experimentally scooped some away from the fence line. Great. Only four billion shovelfuls to go.

The sun was already sinking. I had a few hours at best. I decided the river was my only hope. At least it would be easier to think at the riverside than it was here. I set off downhill.

"Can you summon a horse made of water and have it stampede through the place to wash everything?" Alex asked critically.

"I do not think so," Percy said, though not for lack of wanting to.

When I got to the river, I found a girl waiting for me. She was wearing jeans and a green T-shirt and her long brown hair was braided with river grass. She had a stern look on her face. Her arms were crossed.

"You haven't even met her yet and she's pissed at you," Jason began to clap slowly. "That's a new record Percy!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just full of those today," Percy groaned.

"Oh no you don't," she said.

I stared at her. "Are you a naiad?"

"I really didn't think she was the farmers daughter," Will snorted.

"Not chesty enough," Percy smirked. "Ouch!"

"Come on Percy, you should know better," Will shook his head as Thalia pulled out her knife next to smack him with.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course!"

"But you speak English. And you're out of the water."

"What, you don't think we can act human if we want to?"

"Note to self," Magnus promised. It was actually really beautiful, the more he thought about it, something his mother would have been delighted over. That everything in nature had a spirit, a life force, a name. He still remembered their long hikes and taking stops at spots just like this river, and it was an exhilarating moment to know he might go back there someday with a Greek kid to ask a naiad if they remembered Natalie Chase.

I'd never thought about it. I kind of felt stupid, though, because I'd seen plenty of naiads at camp, and they'd never done much more than giggle and wave at me from the bottom of the canoe lake.

"Once again, you're not stupid for not realizing something nobody explained to you," Thalia said robustly. "You never knew better before this point, and frankly, it's not something you figure out until it's bad news." She already had a bad feeling where this was going, and that time limit felt really pressing. Annabeth had told her what Percy had said he'd done, but she still felt anxious until it got to that point.

"Look," I said. "I just came to ask—"

"I know who you are," she said. "And I know what you want. And the answer is no! I'm not going to have my river used again to clean that filthy stable."

"Again?" Magnus asked with a kind of awe that had eluded him up to this point. "Wow," he couldn't imagine time stretching back that far, to when Hercules had done it first. Everything that had changed since, everywhere on the planet that wasn't changed like this river. It really pressed in like nothing before how timeless this world was.

Percy couldn't exactly share in his moment. All he'd heard was the word no, and all his friends were in danger.

"But—"

"Oh, save it, sea boy.

"I really should start calling you Seabiscuit," Thalia chuckled.

"Or Ponyboy," Alex tacked in.

Percy felt like he vaguely recognized both and rolled his eyes without care for whatever they were anyways.

You ocean-god types always think you're soooo much more important than some little river, don't you? Well let me tell you, this naiad is not going to be pushed around just because your daddy is Poseidon.

"Percy's never pushed anyone around," Will frowned, entirely hurt on Percy's behalf. "I'm sorry she's had bad experiences with other kids of Poseidon in the past, and that she's taking it out on you."

"Yeah," Percy agreed in a hollow kind of voice. This was going as bad as it possibly could, and he was starting to get a sick feeling the sea couldn't cure what the results might have been.

This is freshwater territory, mister. The last guy who asked me this favor—oh, he was way better-looking than you, by the way—he convinced me, and that was the worst mistake I've ever made! Do you have any idea what all that horse manure does to my ecosystem? Do I look like a sewage treatment plant to you? My fish will die. I'll never get the much out of my plants. I'll be sick for years. NO THANK YOU!"

"I bet Hercules didn't even apologize," Thalia sneered as she put a gentle hand on Percy's shoulder.

"Yeah," Percy said again, but it wasn't making him feel any better this time to realize that he might not be able to save his friends because he wasn't a jerk.

The way she talked reminded me of my mortal friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare—kind of like she was punching me with words. I couldn't blame the naiad. Now that I thought about it, I'd be pretty mad if somebody dumped four million pounds of manure in my home. But still...

"I'm, um, guessing that much fertilizer isn't good for the environment," Magnus said unhelpfully.

"That is nature taking way to much into its course, which is never a good thing," Thalia agreed.

"My friends are in danger," I told her.

"Well, that's too bad! But it's not my problem. And you're not going to ruin my river."

"What do you even say to that?" Alex asked, answering his own question. There wasn't much Percy could do.

She looked like she was ready for a fight. Her fists were balled, but I thought I heard a little quiver in her voice. Suddenly I realized that despite her angry attitude, she was afraid of me. She probably thought I was going to fight her for control of the river, and she was worried she would lose.

Nico couldn't imagine many other half bloods in the same situation even stopping to realize the same thing. It was moments like this where he could still look at Percy and feel safe in knowing he was a hero, even if he wasn't infallible.

The thought made me sad. I felt like a bully, a son of Poseidon throwing his weight around.

I sat down on a tree stump. "Okay, you win."

"Any other person," Alex shook his head, "and I do mean any, other, person, I would have suspected of setting up some sort of trickery. Hell, maybe even you under other circumstances. I still remember how great of a water bed sales man you are." This naiad wasn't a monster though, and even if it took another four thousand years for her ecosystem to go back to normal with no permanent damage, it was a day longer than Percy was ever going to be willing to put her through.

The naiad looked surprised. "Really?"

"I'm not going to fight you. It's your river."

She relaxed her shoulders. "Oh. Oh, good. I mean—good thing for you!"

"Just admit it, she really had you on the ropes Percy," Jason grinned faintly just because he had faith it all worked out. Percy looked glum now because inspiration of a brilliant new way hadn't struck yet, he was sure of it, as chaotic a mastermind as he could be.

"It's a secret that should never leave this room," Percy managed a laugh, only proving Jason's assumption.

"But my friends and I are going to get sold to the Titans if I don't clean those stables by sunset. And I don't know how."

The river gurgled along cheerfully. A snake slid through the water and ducked its head under.

Will grimaced and was very grateful that wasn't some secret god about to pop up and help, he wouldn't have trusted it.

Finally the naiad sighed.

"I'll tell you a secret, son of the sea god. Scoop up some dirt."

"Is she going to have you build her a sandcastle to make up for this debacle?" Magnus grinned.

"That would be a fair trade," Percy said with a blank look. He hoped she wasn't about to tell him to shove it or something.

"What?"

"You heard me."

I crouched down and scooped up a handful of Texas dirt. It was dry and black and spotted with tiny clumps of white rock...No, something besides rock.

"Those are shells," the naiad said. "Petrified seashells. Millions of years ago, even before the time of the gods, when only Gaea and Ouranos reigned, this land was under the water. It was part of the sea."

"If she's going to punish me with a history lesson I'll take back the sandcastle," Percy's frown intensified where on earth she was going with this.

"Don't underestimate the past Percy, I'd have thought you learned that by now," Nico said with a raised brow. He'd heard through the walls that night, Percy explaining to Annabeth how he'd solved this problem and it was the naiad's idea. He'd been so exhausted by that point it had been like falling asleep listening to Percy telling him a story, what he'd been longing for weeks on end alone in that labyrinth. For the blurriest moment between sleep and nightmares, he'd swear he even felt a warm brush as if Percy had been there next to him.

His crush was gone, more or less, of that he was sure now. He didn't really want Percy's attention or affection anymore. Percy was an awakening of a part of him he still didn't particularly like.

It was so different hearing it played back in an actual memory, no grandiose exclamations and feats of power as he literally pulled the ocean up. Just a small, quiet moment with a little river spirit helping him solve a problem that Nico was beginning to appreciate more and more, to help Percy feel like a grounded, real person.

Suddenly I saw what she meant. There were little pieces of ancient sea urchins in my hand, mollusk shells. Even the limestone rocks had impressions of seashells embedded in them.

"That is very cool," Magnus admitted. When you slept on dirt to much, you began to lose interest in it pretty quickly. Now he might scoop up a handful at the park next time and hope there wasn't just dog crap around.

"Nature is beautiful," Alex agreed with a secretive smile. The way everything blended together to coexist had always fascinated him. His first ever time playing with his future materials had been trying to make a snake.

His dad had of course thrown it away, but he still treasured the memory of that silly putty looking thing, all the messy, bulgy, ill-conceived proportions of it as he rubbed at his tattoo now.

"Okay," I said. "What good does that do me?"

"You're not so different from me, demigod. Even when I'm out of the water, the water is within me. It is my life source." She stepped back, put her feet in the river, and smiled. "I hope you find a way to rescue your friends."

And with that she turned to liquid and melted into the river.

"If she was trying to give you inspiration, I think she needed to hit you with a bigger lightbulb," Will grinned faintly.

"I'm sorry I can't go around and be his generator," Thalia chuckled.

"I'm going to tie you two together and laugh as everybody at Camp pulls sparklers out of your ears," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I bet I could shake some pixie dust out of them too, and I do mean the kind that'll make me achieve flight," Alex tagged in.

The sun was touching the hills when I got back to the stables. Somebody must've come by and fed the horses, because they were tearing into huge animal carcasses.

Percy felt a quiver of anxiety hum through him. If Eurytion had dragged Grover along to do this as some extra form of punishment and he'd seemingly vanished, if Grover had been trying to send him some kind of helpful message through his empathy link and he'd been to anxious to even notice. Grover knew he'd never abandon him, but it still made him even twitcher to not have gotten that chance to see him.

I couldn't tell what kind of animal, and I really didn't want to know. If it was possible for the stables to get more disgusting, fifty horses tearing into raw meat did it.

"I'm pretty confident someone did that just for that extra kick in your ass right now, with spurs," Will agreed to Percy's troubled frown somehow growing the more words were said.

"Well I'm nobody's prized pony," Percy tried to turn it into a scowl, tried to make it seem like he was being challenged and he'd come out on top.

He'd felt the heat simmering down though, the sun felt like it was moving in fast forward to mock him how little time he had left to figure this out. It was nowhere near the beautiful painting of the endless Texas beauty he'd always heard about and would be quite grateful to never see again after this day.

Seafood! one thought when he saw me.

"It's not a bad nickname for you," Alex said fairly. "You are on a seafood diet."

Percy rolled his eyes hard. "That joke is for seven-year-olds Alex, do better!"

Alex nodded seriously, as if taking that to heart.

Come in! We're still hungry!

"This is what happens when half your diet is desserts Percy," Thalia glibly reminded. "People start mistaking you for a cupcake."

"They're horses Thalia, I warned you in the last book they're not all that bright," Percy scoffed.

What was I supposed to do? I couldn't use the river. And the fact that this place had been under water a million years ago didn't exactly help me now. I looked at the little calcified seashell in my palm, then at the huge mountain of dung.

Frustrated, I threw the shell into the poop. I was about to turn my back on the horses when I heard a sound.

PFFFFFFT! Like a balloon with a leak.

"That's what it sounds like when Percy gets an idea," Jason said in surprise, and Percy frowned if his knee-jerk reaction to something happening was mocking him. He'd been spending to much time around Thalia.

I looked down where I had thrown the shell. A tiny spout of water was shooting out of the muck.

"No way," Magnus said in a daze. How many different ways could this one kid continue breaking the laws of the universe?

"No way," I muttered.

"That's two, anyone going for three," Will flashed his fingers around like a hopeful salesman.

"Magnus is the only one still gullible enough to not instantly know better," Alex shrugged.

Hesitantly, I stepped toward the fence. "Get bigger," I told the waterspout.

SPOOOOOOOSH!

"No way! And it's voice command!" Jason burst out laughing, but it also sounded a tad terrified. Maybe he was now worried Percy was going to make a geyser come out of him next time he annoyed Percy.

They were all to busy laughing at Jason to manage anything back.

Water shot three feet into the air and kept bubbling. It was impossible, but there it was. A couple of horses came over to check it out. One put his mouth to the spring and recoiled.

Yuck! he said. Salty!

"You would do so great at kid's parties," Alex was starting to snicker a little to hard to be intelligible. "Charge by the spout, add some rainbow colors to this fountain!"

It was seawater in the middle of a Texas ranch. I scooped up another handful of dirt and picked out the shell fossils. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I ran around the length of the stable, throwing shells into the dung piles. Everywhere a shell hit, a saltwater spring erupted.

Stop! The horses cried. Meat is good! Baths are bad!

There were tears coming out of Will's face, and Magnus was laughing so hard he didn't seem likely to stop any time soon.

"If you can't get to the toilet, bring the toilet to you," Thalia managed through near hysterics.

"I hate you all," but Percy couldn't even pretend to say that like he meant it as he watched Nico hold his sides. He'd wanted that kid to have more fun in his life and was more than happy to deliver it himself. He wasn't denying himself how funny this situation was trying to describe it like this. Ocean front property in Texas wasn't even a strange statement compared to everything else he'd done so far.

Then I noticed the water wasn't running out of the stables or flowing downhill like water normally would. It simply bubbled around each spring and sank into the ground, taking the dung with it. The horse poop dissolved in the saltwater, leaving regular old wet dirt.

"More!" I yelled.

There was a tugging sensation in my gut, and the waterspouts exploded like the world's largest carwash. Salt water shot twenty feet into the air. The horses went crazy, running back and forth as the geysers sprayed them from all directions. Mountains of poop began to melt like ice.

The tugging sensation became more intense, painful even, but there was something exhilarating about seeing all that salt water. I had made this. I had brought the ocean to this hillside.

Stop, lord! a horse cried. Stop, please!

Water was sloshing everywhere now. The horses were drenched, and some were panicking and slipping in the mud. The poop was completely gone, tons of it just dissolved into the earth, and the water was now starting to pool, trickling out of the stable, making a hundred little streams down toward the river.

"Stop," I told the water.

Nothing happened.

Somebody might have slammed on the brakes in a clown car. Some hiccupping and giggles still spurted the room, but the humor died off fast as Percy rubbed low on his stomach, looking a little clammy around the edges. He'd never pushed his powers this far before. Percy had already proved multiple times in this room he didn't have complete control, and none of them wanted to hear about these horses getting hurt the first time he found that out.

The pain in my gut was building. If I didn't shut off the geysers soon, the salt water would run into the river and poison the fish and plants.

"Between Grover and that naiad, we will turn you into an environmentalist yet," Thalia said from her cushy spot beside him without a second of concern he'd manage it.

Percy smiled in surprise at her instant faith he'd get it though. No jokes he'd needed Annabeth to hold his hand, no teasing he'd need someone else to come along to turn off his spout. Despite all their near-constant teasing, Percy never failed to smile along nobody in here actively thought him dumb even in instances where he wouldn't have blamed them thinking the worst.

"Stop!" I concentrated all my might on shutting off the force of the sea.

Suddenly the geysers shut down. I collapsed to my knees, exhausted.

"I'm guessing you don't consider that a rejuvenating bath," Jason offered.

"I didn't get offered a seaweed scrub and hot wax," Percy said like he had any clue what either of those were.

In front of me was a shiny clean horse stable, a field of wet salty mud, and fifty horses that had been scoured so thoroughly their coats gleamed. Even the meat scraps between their teeth had been washed out.

"Now if only you could do that to your room," Will snorted. "You might actually win the cabin inspection one day."

"Is the prize a flesh-eating horse? Because that's the only win I'd care about," Percy chuckled along.

We won't eat you! the horses wailed. Please, lord!, no more salty baths!

"All purpose wash," Alex said with an inspired snap to his fingers. "Put literally anything through there, it comes out clean."

"I bet people who needed to give their cats a bath would pay big," Magnus agreed, "though you should work on the settings."

"I'll get right on that if my high-school education doesn't work out," Percy said not entirely sarcastically. He didn't have a lot of faith in getting a diploma anyways, let alone living that long.

"On one condition," I said. "You only eat the food your handlers give you from now on. Not people. Or I'll be back with more seashells!"

The horses whinnied and made me a whole lot of promises that they would be good flesh-eating horses from now on,

Alex still paused for a moment to appreciate the look on Magnus' face at that sentence existing in any context. He hoped this wouldn't dampen Magnus's enjoyment of feeding them apples in the future.

but I didn't stick around to chat. The sun was going down. I turned and ran full speed toward the ranch house.

Nobody was really surprised he'd gotten up from a new, painful level of power exposure and probably drained himself to the bone pouring out all that energy into this, and then ran flat off into the sunset. And it wasn't even for food. All he was missing was the horse and cowboy hat to be the picturesque hero on that ranch to challenge someone to a draw at sundown.

I smelled barbecue before I reached the house, and that made me madder than ever, because I really love barbecue.

"I hope Geryon can grow his limbs back, because Percy's going to be tearing them off," Alex said with confidence.

"I hope he at least provided a vegetarian option for Grover, for the victory feast," Magnus nodded.

"I, um, wouldn't hold my breath," Will winced. Geryon was the worst example of southern hospitality.

The deck was set up for a party. Streamers and balloons decorated the railing. Geryon was flipping burgers on a huge barbecue cooker made from an oil drum.

"Grover's probably having some awful flashbacks to Polyphemus," Jason frowned.

"I never thought about that," Magnus agreed in horror. "Gods, what did he eat there?"

"Well I sure didn't ask him," Percy winced.

Eurytion lounged at a picnic table, picking his fingernails with a knife. The two-headed dog sniffed the ribs and burgers that were frying on the grill. And then I saw my friends: Tyson, Grover, Annabeth, and Nico all tossed in a corner, tied up like rodeo animals, with their ankles and wrists roped together and their mouths gagged.

Percy, Thalia, and Will blanched a special color in unison at having to experience the thrill of hearing them so vulnerable and uncomfortable and tortured in this particular way.

"What kind of cows do they have on that farm again?" Magnus asked in concern. "Do practicing on cherry red immortal bovines make them strong enough to even truss Tyson up?" He was probably overestimating Tyson's strength, but it still blew his mind there wasn't a dent anywhere in sight. He was now imagining the poor guy running and getting caught in a lasso.

"Orthus stayed on Annabeth's throat while Eurytion came around and tied us all up," Nico reminded. They'd started with him, or he would have run. That thought gave him a sickening feeling to remember what a horrible brat he'd been back then, only caring about himself.

"Let them go!" I yelled, still out of breath from running up the steps. "I cleaned the stables!"

Geryon turned. He wore an apron on each chest, with one word on each, so together they spelled out: KISS—THE—CHEF.

"I will not," Alex said in disgust.

"How do you think he ties the middle one? How weirdly long are his arms?" Percy asked. They'd looked vaguely proportional enough they shouldn't anyways.

"Eurytion came over and tied it for him," Nico shrugged.

"Huh," Percy said in appreciation.

"Did you, now? How'd you manage it?"

I was pretty impatient, but I told him.

He nodded appreciatively. "Very ingenious. It would've been better if you'd poisoned that pesky naiad, but no matter."

"You really told him everything?" Jason looked at him in disappointment. "You should have lied, just told him you came up with the idea to throw the shells in. I don't know if he can do anything to that naiad, but it would have been better to leave her out of it."

"We've all established I'm not an impulsive liar," Percy groaned, "I wouldn't say I'm better under pressure!"

"Well, thankfully he's going to die, so it won't be an immediate problem," Jason shrugged, but he worried what was going to happen to all those animals all of a sudden once these two were dispatched. Maybe a call to the Hunters and Thalia would show up.

"Let my friends go," I said. "We had a deal."

"Ah, I've been thinking about that. The problem is, if I let them go, I don't get paid."

"You promised!"

Geryon made a tsk-tsk noise. "But did you make me swear on the River Styx? No you didn't. So it's not binding. When you're conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath."

"Next time you should shake on it," Alex sighed. "Then he might think twice about double-crossing you."

"Yeah, yeah, lesson learned," Percy's face was twitching into that steady, concentrated look of a fight about to break out. It took effort for him to close his green eyes and open them again, take a breath and remind himself not to start throwing geysers around in here.

I drew my sword. Orthus growled. One head leaned down next to Grover's ear and bared its fangs.

There was a collective flinch around the room, one that helped Percy ease more into relaxing. Like Briares switching faces, he looked like a completely different person as he smiled at all these people who cared if Grover got a scratch on him.

"Eurytion," Geryon said, "the boy is starting to annoy me. Kill him."

Eurytion studied me. I didn't like my odds against him and that huge club.

"And the dog," Magnus added with dread.

Percy braced himself, then tried to scold himself, forcing his hand to loosen around Riptide in preparation.

"Kill him yourself," Eurytion said.

"Yes!" Jason yelped. "I called it!"

"I have no idea how I did that!" Percy shouted just as loud in delirious delight.

Thalia started laughing hard at these two, not least because she knew Percy was serious. He just had that effect on the right kind of people, someone to be followed. She, ironically, had to work for that and wasn't particularly fond of it.

Geryon raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Eurytion grumbled. "You keep sending me out to do your dirty work. You pick fights for no good reason, and I'm getting tired of dying for you. You want to fight the kid, do it yourself."

"His absolute confidence he would die from fighting you though," Will told him in admiration. "I don't know if it's your record proceeding you or he's actually a shit fighter."

"I'm still trying to figure out how Ares claimed him?" Percy said, completely unphased by the blatant flattery. "If a god adopts you, do they go on the birth certificate?"

Thalia flicked his ear and called him an idiot while Alex read on somehow even more eagerly. One of the fighters was out, but that just meant Geryon had to get his hands dirty which apparently didn't happen very often, so this should be, interesting to see how he used that extra body to his advantage.

It was the most un-Ares like thing I'd ever heard son of Ares say.

"He should come back to camp," Will grinned, "or we could have a summer program down there!"

"If you try to put me on a horse, you are responsible for the results," Nico said with a wounded frown, all for this fight dragging out for the next hundred pages. He was not going to be happy with what came after, and considered it a blessing this had already gone on as long as it had.

"I'll patch every bruise," Will promised at once. "It won't even be that bad, I promise!"

For some reason, Nico believed him. Will would have the ability none before had to make an animal like him.

Geryon threw down his spatula. "You dare defy me? I should fire you right now!"

"And who'd take care of your cattle? Orthus, heel."

"This is so much better than the cliché you can't fire me, I quit line," Magnus grinned. "This man's clearly the useful one around there."

Will started humming the lyrics to Friends in Low Places and Magnus laughed hard in surprise, his mom had loved that one.

The dog immediately stopped growling at Grover and came to sit by the cowherd's feet.

"Fine!" Geryon snarled. "I'll deal with you later, after the boy is dead!"

He picked up two carving knives and threw them at me. I deflected one with my sword. The other impaled itself in the picnic table an inch from Eurytion's hand.

"Child's play," Percy scoffed, brushing his hair out of his eyes to keep his twitching hands from drawing his sword.

"Don't get cocky," Thalia said, her voice not shaking, but still meaning every word. This had been a monster he quite possibly couldn't have defeated if things hadn't worked out exactly as they had. Annabeth had been pretty incredulous when she described it days later when all was said and done in the quest.

I went on the attack. Geryon parried my first strike with a pair of red-hot tongs and lunged at my face with a barbecue fork. I got inside his next thrust and stabbed him right through the middle chest.

"Smart," Alex grinned, letting his eyes fall away with near boredom for how easy that was. If those horses hadn't needed the bath so bad, he'd be complaining Percy should have just done that from the start. "I bet his organs are all weird and spread out, my money would be on the middle one too."

"Aghhh!" He crumpled to his knees. I waited for him to disintegrate, the way monsters usually do. But instead he just grimaced and started to stand up. The wound in his chef's apron started to heal.

"Nice try, sonny," he said. "Thing is, I have three hearts. The perfect backup system."

"Oh!" Alex sounded way to delighted Percy's mind was now racing in circles of how bad that was.

"How did you not bring any of those seashells with you?" Thalia demanded. "I can't imagine how useful those things could have kept being!"

"We really need to work on your strategies with that sword," Jason agreed with a frown. "You're a great dueler, but you need more tricks up your sleeve than the jab and dodge motions you've perfected." He was sure that panic on Percy's face meant that whatever happened next hadn't gone that great.

"That water jetpack idea is starting to sound like a good idea now, isn't it?" Nico chuckled.

Percy was ignoring them, his sole attention on Alex with his friends' lives still on the line. Just because Eurytion had sat out of this fight didn't mean he'd protect them while they were vulnerable, and he wouldn't put it past Geryon to put a sword at their throat to make him yield.

He tipped over the barbecue, and coals spilled everywhere. One landed next to Annabeth's face, and she let out a muffled scream. Tyson strained against his bonds, but even his strength wasn't enough to break them.

Percy's foot was starting to fidget uncontrollably, causing tremors on the floor and little spurts of water to pop up like underwater fountains in between the cracks. Tyson had been through enough already without having to deal with this! How was it fair he'd missed out on Annabeth calling him a seaweed brain twice for not getting to be here?!

I had to end this fight before my friends got hurt.

I jabbed Geryon in the left chest, but he only laughed. I stuck him in the right stomach. No good. I might as well have been sticking a sword in a teddy bear for all the reaction he showed.

"I bet you did stab your toys as a kid though," Alex chuckled.

Percy gave him a strange look, not wanting to admit he hadn't actively had many toys with Gabe around, and he'd cherished the few he had. He didn't blame Alex for thinking it though, he hadn't owned an article of clothing or a piece of paper he hadn't stabbed with a pencil until it was riddled.

Three hearts. The perfect backup system. Stabbing one at a time was no good....

I ran into the house.

"How long is a long sword?" Magnus asked.

"Not that long," Jason shook his head, and Percy was most likely untrained in it to boot.

"You mentioned tossing a javelin around once," Alex reminded. "Get any better practice at that with camp?"

"Not in the slightest," Percy sighed, his feet tapping out a pattern that was causing his little fountains to stop and start in a bizarre pattern like he was trying to send a secret message.

From Thalia's angle, it spelled Help.

"Coward!" he cried. "Come back and die right!"

"So the opposite of a coward is to run away and don't die," Will gave him a thumbs up. "Doing great work Perce!"

"I'm not taking advice from him on this," Percy scoffed, even if he didn't disagree.

The living room walls were decorated with a bunch of gruesome hunting trophies—stuffed deer and dragon heads, a gun case, a sword display, and a bow with a quiver.

"I swear you could point at ten people in Texas and one of them has a gun," Nico rolled his eyes.

"That's a hurtful stereotype," Will pouted. "You don't hear me making jokes about you eating nothing but pasta."

"Okay, okay, I take it back," Nico promised at once with a grin.

Geryon threw his barbecue fork, and it thudded into the wall right next to my head. He drew two swords from the wall display. "Your head's gonna go right there, Jackson! Next to the grizzly bear!"

"There's a compliment somewhere in there," Thalia nodded.

"I'd have preferred the dragon, I'd clash with the fur," Percy sniffed.

I had a crazy idea.

Jason mocked clicked a pen and loudly noted, "that's four for four."

Percy and Nico both winced though, last time that had happened Bianca had paid the price.

 I dropped Riptide and grabbed the bow off the wall.

"We have yet to hear you be in an archery class," Alex noted. "How is this going to go?"

"I clearly haven't shared the infamous story of Percy losing an arrow in the ocean," Will shook his head at his own lapse. "I should remind you all that is nowhere near the archery range by the way! This massive makara  actually came out to spit it back at him and hit the target."

"Thanks Will, here I thought you were nice and had just chosen to gloss over that moment," Percy groaned among the laughter.

I was the worst archery shot in the world. I couldn't hit the targets at camp, much less a bull's eye.

"You threw your sword at that Nemon Lion and hit his hind," Magnus reminded. "You clearly know the weight of that better than anything, couldn't you throw that?"

"I don't think I'd get enough weight behind it to manage this shot," Percy shrugged, though he wished he could have rather than going for a hail merry. He seemed calmer though, now that the solution was in sight, but for some reason the answer still eluded him of why he was even more stressed than when he'd been clueless how this was going to go. The geysers had stopped spelling out SOS anyways.

But I had no choice. I couldn't win this fight with a sword. I prayed to Artemis and Apollo, the twin archers, hoping they might take pity on me for once. Please, guys. Just one shot. Please.

"Artemis definitely owes you one," Alex agreed astutely, "and Apollo seemed to like you enough." He seemed pretty confident anyways this had worked out, and Percy tried to breathe easier it had. His anxious stomach should be settling.

I notched an arrow.

Geryon laughed. "You fool! One arrow is no better than one sword."

He raised his swords and charged. I dove sideways. Before he could turn, I shot my arrow into the side of his right chest. I heard THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, as the arrow passed clean through each of his chests and flew out his left side, embedding itself in the forehead of the grizzly bear trophy.

"Nobody tells me where to get hung," Percy puffed up his chest, only to oof as Thalia smacked him with an arrow. Only a tap, but pointy enough he deflated.

Geryon dropped his swords. He turned and stared at me. "You can't shoot. They told me you couldn't..."

Jason shivered with displeasure Kronos was still so well informed about the quest, and Percy's abilities in particular, when there was unequivocally no doubt any of them were betraying Percy. Juno had said they'd pass through the ranch too, hopefully this was just a unanimous stopping point for anybody in the labyrinth and Kronos and Luke had been banking on this.

His face turned a sickly shade of green. He collapsed to his knees and began crumbling into sand, until all that was left were three cooking aprons and an oversized pair of cowboy boots.

"I'd have preferred the hearts as trophies," Alex sniffed. "Oooh, deck of playing cards with monsters! He's the King of Hearts!"

"I, um, hope you get lots of orders Alex," Percy chuckled.

"Oh don't worry, you'll be in there," Alex promised. "You're the wild card who beats them all obviously."

Percy looked a tad terrified rather than flattered imagining himself in some of the outfits he'd seen on those cards.

I got my friends untied. Eurytion didn't try to stop me. Then I stoked up the barbecue and threw the food into the flames as a burnt offering for Artemis and Apollo.

"Guess it's for the best, I'm not sure I'd trust that monster not to make everything on that grill burnt anyways," Percy sighed for his empty stomach. He couldn't have eaten a single rib right now if he wanted to, he still felt like he was missing something about this experience. For the life of him though couldn't imagine what.

"Or, you know, cursed," Will reminded with a still grumpy frown. It was the only way he could imagine his dad had let this go on, anybody who ate that beef died a horrible death. Which also meant it wasn't the nicest offering.

"Thanks, guys," I said. "I owe you one."

The sky thundered in the distance, so I figured maybe the burgers smelled okay.

Jason side eyed Thalia with unease for that one though. Only Zeus had yet been mentioned to do that, and he didn't think he'd share the button with the two gods in thanks. Hopefully he was just being paranoid, what other reason was there? The gods had shown up plenty of times now for whatever motivation they had. Like Will had said, Apollo had probably been meaning to decimate this place for centuries and just kept forgetting and blew a favor Percy's way now.

"Yay for Percy!" Tyson said.

"Can we tie up this cowherd now?" Nico asked.

"Yeah!" Grover agreed. "And that dog almost killed me!"

"Can't even blame them for wanting revenge," Will sympathized. It took a much bigger person than Geryon to let grudges go after being trussed up, and he certainly wouldn't have minded Eurytion getting a taste of his own medicine, just not permanently for abstaining from the fight.

I looked at Eurytion, who still was sitting relaxed at the picnic table. Orthus had both his heads on the cowherd's knees.

"How long will it take Geryon to re-form?" I asked him.

Eurytion shrugged. "Hundred years? He's not one of those fast re-formers, thank the gods. You've done me a favor."

"Without much help in return," Percy rolled his eyes, but he sounded more exasperated than actually upset. It had all worked out at least. He just wasn't going to lightly forgive somebody sicking their dog on his friends even if they hadn't gone through with it.

"You said you'd died for him before," I remembered. "How?"

"I've worked for that creep for thousands of years. Started as a regular half-blood, but I chose immortality when my dad offered it. Worst mistake I ever made.

"Now there's something we don't hear every day," Magnus yelped. So far all of these gods had seemed more than happy to skip through everybody's life and remind anyone they pleased how powerful they were. Braries wasn't the first example of immortality being so great, but it was nice to hear flat out some people also just regretted it for some reason, like normal 'people' still existed in this godhood pantheon.

Now I'm stuck here at this ranch. I can't leave. I can't quit. I just tend the cows and fight Geryon's fights. We're kinda tied together."

"Urgh, never, ever take a reward from Ares," Jason said in disgust. "Even those somehow sound more awful than his curses!"

"You have learned an important lesson today my friend," Percy nodded along.

"Maybe you can change things," I said.

Eurytion narrowed his eyes. "How?"

"Be nice to the animals. Take care of them. Stop selling them for food. And stop dealing with the Titans."

Eurytion thought about that. "That'd be all right."

"I'm guessing whoever came along to pay made one to many smart ass remarks about his servitude there," Nico said hopefully. It had seemed like a suspicious, quick change to him, and he'd been mentally giving Percy one hell of a tirade in his head about his perfect, stupid way to see the best in everybody, and his stupid, perfect naivety to think this guy would keep his word after one day around him, and his perfect stupid smile.

"Get the animals on your side, and they'll help you. Once Geryon gets back, maybe he'll be working for you this time."

"Mmmm, karma," Alex smacked his lips in appreciation. "Beats the best barbeque."

"Only with the right sauce," Magnus chuckled.

Eurytion grinned. "Now, that I could live with."

"You won't try to stop us leaving?"

"Shoot, no."

Annabeth rubbed her bruised wrists. She was still looking at Eurytion suspiciously. "Your boss said somebody paid for our safe passage. Who?"

The cowherd shrugged. "Maybe he was just saying that to fool you."

"It's possible, but I can't imagine who would bother. I thought he was just flat lying too," Will admitted. Truth be told, Will had no more clue who would only pay for some kids to get through, that seemed to horrible. He glanced to Nico, who had no reaction to this, but didn't pester for details only because he knew it was best not to let Percy's mind simmer on that.

"What about the Titans?" I asked. "Did you Iris-message them about Nico yet?"

"Nope. Geryon was waiting until after the barbecue. They don't know about him."

"Looks like he did have some gentlemen in him," Thalia snickered. "Conducting business after dinner!"

"I don't think I'll be back for seconds," Percy huffed.

Nico was glaring at me. I wasn't sure what to do about him. I doubted he would agree to come with us. On the other hand, I couldn't just let him roam around on his own.

"I'm not your responsibility!" Nico sounded stiff, more like he was arguing with himself than Percy. "You didn't have to care about me any which way!"

"But I did," Percy frowned, trying to keep in mind to choose his words carefully, but it was his first ever go of that. "I do. And it's not just because of Bianca, you know that right?"

"I didn't hear you chasing after Chris Rodrigez to tell him what a bad idea it was to be on Luke's ship," Nico sneered. "You only care about me because you found out I could be the prophecy kid."

"That is not it!" Percy looked legitimately offended. "Okay, so, I got to know your sister and I care about what's best for you slightly more than him!" Percy threw his hands up in exasperation. "I didn't want anything bad to happen to Chris either, it's awful the maze turned him into putty! I'm down there trying to stop Kronos so this doesn't happen to any other kids, including you, who is currently right in front of me and I want to try and help!"

Nico wasn't sure if he was speaking past tense or literally right now, but regardless he found himself cowed. He checked his temper and knew he was still holding a grudge against Percy for Bianca, and he was supposed to be letting that go! He just didn't want to hear what was about to happen.

To hear the last thing Bianca ever said to him again, to have it shoved in his face like a freakshow on display how his sister thought he was a sad, pathetic child who would always need looking after.

The silence lingered, and Nico apparently wasn't going to protest at least that anymore. Percy was looking anxiously between Nico and Thalia, he even poked her shoulder and gestured to him like he wanted her to jump in. Thalia just pursed her lips, she had even less idea about this kids life than him and had no idea what to say to him either, and it would sound even worse coming from a Hunter she was sure.

Alex kept reading in a soft, gentle kind of voice, like he had a little to much practice talking to someone in a vulnerable situation.

"You could stay here until we're done with our quest," I told him. "It would be safe."

"Safe?" Nico said. "What do you care if I'm safe? You got my sister killed!"

Nico spread his hands in silent apology of his own he had nothing else he could say to that, no matter how much he wanted to. Whether Bianca had known going into that statue would be her demise or not, she'd known full well how dangerous it was and done it anyways.

Percy just gave him a silent nod. To keep apologizing back and forth was doing nobody any good.

"Nico," Annabeth said, "that wasn't Percy's fault.

"I'm trying to imagine her blaming anything on Percy anymore," Jason snorted. "The world could end and she'd pat you on the head and tell you it's okay."

"And yet she blames me when her book mysteriously goes missing and tears my cabin apart," Percy chuckled. "I swear someone put it under my bed as a prank!"

"Uhhu," Will rolled his eyes. "Don't ever let either of them have the remote, they'll debrain each other with it fighting who gets to hold it."

The soft laughter that encircled the room gave Nico a chance to breathe for just a moment. He would not make creepy shadow puppets and ghosts appear again. He would not drop the temperature to sub-zero level. He was getting a handle on this!

And Geryon wasn't lying about Kronos wanting to capture you. If he knew who you were, he'd do anything to get you on his side."

"I'm not on anyone's side. And I'm not afraid."

"You should be," Annabeth said. "Your sister wouldn't want—"

"If you cared for my sister, you'd help me bring her back!"

Percy fiddled with his beaded necklace, his stomach in knots. He did understand exactly what Nico wanted, he didn't need to remind Nico every quest he'd been on had been to bring someone back from certain death, just not the whole nine yards of the soul part.

"A soul for a soul?" I said.

"Yes!"

Magnus still wanted to ask about that, about less extreme options Nico had tried first that were just as dangerous to indulge. He couldn't stand the idea of hope being infused into a hopeless journey...but wasn't that exactly what Percy did every summer? What if it worked...

"But if you didn't want my soul—"

"I'm not explaining anything to you!" He blinked tears out of his eyes. "And I will bring her back."

"Bianca wouldn't want to be brought back," I said. "Not like that."

"You didn't know her!" he shouted. "How do you know what she'd want?"

Jason kept the thought to himself he would hope he never knew anyone who would want that. Someone so selfish to take someone else's life to bring their own back. Nico didn't need to hear that though, they all knew he'd just been lashing out, and it was just awkward and painful to listen to as he sat with his head bowed.

I stared at the flames in the barbecue pit. I thought about the line in Annabeth's prophecy: You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand. That had to be Minos, and I had to convince Nico not to listen to him. "Let's ask Bianca."

The sky seemed to grow darker all of a sudden.

"I've tried," Nico said miserably. "She won't answer."

"Try again. I've got a feeling she'll answer with me here."

"Why would she?"

"Because she's been sending me Iris-messages," I said, suddenly sure of it. "She's been trying to warn me what you're up to, so I can protect you."

Nico still felt the impact of that like someone had thrown him in the barbeque pit instead of the burgers. That Percy was right, and he wouldn't have listened to Bianca even if she'd told him to stop. That he had to have his hand held and walked through the idea what he was doing was wrong, or gods, he might have actually gone through with it. That idea haunted him more than Minos ever had.

Nico shook his head. "That's impossible."

"One way to find out. You said you're not afraid." I turned to Eurytion. "We're going to need a pit, like a grave. And food and drinks."

"Percy," Annabeth warned. "I don't think this is a good—"

"All right," Nico said. "I'll try."

Will had no idea how he was supposed to resist the urge to hug Nico and never let go as desperately sad as he must have been to agree to that. Nico blatantly hadn't trusted Percy and Annabeth right then and still went through with it. He'd been watching this whole time, and Nico didn't seem to be pushing his emotions down anymore, but that didn't mean the fact that he was clearly miserable and tired was leagues better because there was just nothing to be done about that as he sat uselessly in place.

Eurytion scratched his beard. "There's a hole dug out back for a septic tank. We could use that. Cyclops boy, fetch my ice chest from the kitchen. I hope the dead like root beer."

"Okay, we're about halfway done and I need lunch," Alex announced as he snapped the book shut.

"Because me messing with manure and the promise of more dead people really got your stomach rumbling huh?" Percy asked even as he stretched and wearily stood up.

"No finer culinary experience than trying something new," he agreed cheerfully, giving them all the worrisome notion of what Alex was going off to his room to try to do with a happy meal.

[nickgerlich]

By The Gallon

It is one of the most contentious subjects in the US. It becomes a political hot potato when assessing an incumbent President’s performance. It can be deal breaker or deal maker when it comes to family travel plans, and it can influence the type of vehicle we purchase for our daily driver.

Of course, I am talking about the price of gas. And if there’s one thing certain, from the depths of COVID to the present, we have just about seen it all in only four years. The worst was in the summer of 2022, when the average national price was $5.12 a gallon.

The latest data shows that the US average is $3.46 a gallon, down from $3.59 this time last year. Gas prices have thus far peaked at $3.68 in April this year.

Naturally, there is great variability in prices across the nation, depending on state taxes, proximity to refineries, and the nuances of market demand. It explains why I was paying $3.59 in Orlando last month, but only paid $2.67 in Canyon earlier this week. And on my trip west to Arizona, I noted $3.15 to $3.35 in Albuquerque, followed by $3.35 in eastern Arizona, and $3.55 to $3.75 in Flagstaff. Just for sticker shock value alone, I saw $5.49 outside Grand Canyon National Park.But since this is not my first rodeo, I knew to fill up in Winslow for $3.35, and still have plenty to get back there today.

I find it interesting just how important gas prices are for Americans. In many regards, we really do see cheap gas as an entitlement. We bought into car culture after WWII. We moved to the suburbs farther away from our places of employment. We had love affairs with our cars, and enjoyed driving them up and down city streets as if on parade, then went to the drive-in to hang out with our pals. Cars are a big part of our lives, and unless you’re driving an EV, you will be pumping gas regularly.

And then there’s the Great American Road Trip, another artifact of the mid-century that became part of the zeitgeist. It’s what families did for summer vacations, driving to amusement parks, national parks, and distant relatives. We haven’t let go of that.

Further complicating matters, and perhaps influencing our adamance for cheap gas, is the fact that the US is so spread out. This affects individuals and commerce equally, because people and products often have to travel long distances just because. While our older large cities have long-established mass transit systems in place, newer cities have very little, like Dallas and Houston. There is also some resistance to mass transit or even carpooling, because we have come to think of our cars as one of the few places we can have quiet, or at least control the sound system.

Thus, we find ourselves very gasoline-dependent. We blame the President when prices rise, as if he can control them. Aside from reducing the federal gas tax, or releasing millions of barrels of petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, there’s nothing he can do to affect the day to day prices we face. Foreign policy and conservation initiatives can have long-run impacts, but what you pay today is just good old supply and demand.

In the short run when there are price hikes, about the only thing we can do is simply to try to drive less. But that is not always possible, given our commutes. Thus, we may nix long road trip plans, or combine errand trips so that we’re not running out for just one thing. The long-run, though, gives us the necessary time to replace gas guzzlers with fuel-efficient models, even EVs. It also allows us time to find housing closer to our jobs. It is also possible that we will have opened ourselves to lifestyle changes, which could include ditching our vehicles whenever possible to take the bus or train to work.

Still, we need to look at this problem at the margin. Let’s suppose that gas goes up $1 a gallon. Is that enough alone to warrant scuttling a vacation? My road trip to Arizona is 1500 miles total, and at 25mpg, I will have consumed 60 gallons. At the margin, a $1 increase translates to $60 added expense for the trip. But when compared to the totality of expenses, meaning food, lodging, and souvenirs, it is paltry. As it stands, I got the current round trip for $200 or thereabouts.

The story isn’t all that different if you stay at home. If I drove 1500 miles a month going to work and running errands, I would be paying $160 using the price in Canyon as a gauge. A $1 increase would turn that into $220, but even that is only $15 a week added expense, or two craft beers or Starbucks drinks.

As much as we like to complain, I think we have it pretty good over here. Compared to the $8-10 common in Europe, or even the $5 I saw in Costa Rica last summer, we are driving a bargain in the US. This explains why my European friends love coming here on holiday, because they see the price of fuel as inconsequential. There’s a reason why everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam, and it has nothing to do with health and fitness.

I say all this just to give you food for thought as you and your families ponder your own vacation plans. Cheap gas may not be a birthright, but for the vast majority of the time, we have had it all along. Maybe we just like to have something to argue about.

Dr “Fill ‘Er Up!” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[the-firebird69]

After Tommy F how the 45 on you in the low desert you want a note and you said to who make me concern to whom it may concern if I am found dead this person has shot me the policeman from the police department in desert Hot springs and you put it in the box and someone bought the box and it was not Dave and they took it to his house. And yeah the policeman is Tommy F and he's singing the song in the acoustic version he looks like the cop now I know who took it there and we know who about the box and it was Tommy f and the box is still there and the note is there and it's starting your son if someone reads it he put more down and who he thought it was and why he was doing it and he said the person is out of control and their responsible and a loose cannon it's far too much power for someone who has those attributes. And Joe Watts response to the letter is different than Tommy F who's saying I said fell apart and psychologically is a mess and the song doesn't fit what's going on I saw our son said this guy is insane and there's other people like him and started to try and figure out what they're doing and he did now tommy f it's a dead man and we hear it too on the radio. And I see Trump ships up there they see him offloading stuff and they see them loading up stuff and they follow what that could be and will it will do and they have scans forwarded them to Mac just now Mac has skans too and foreigners as well have them. And our son said you have a disease it's called The matrix and they said what does this mean a disease he says it's like Westworld and you don't think it's groovy and really they turn your brain off and they have your dowhat they want and blame you. This is very compelling evidence everybody is producing and we have some too A lot of it and we're sending it over and he says well and we do understand that we have corroborating evidence, it might show a shipper from so he says he has to be from a small vessel of theirs or something like that and we get that so we have some we can send and sending it over shortly

Thor Freya

I cannot believe the quality of this guy's work and the answer is yes because he's been forced to spank it for years and people see these Giants and now they're below cities and the items that were controlling them are sitting out in a stone chip off Saturday or they're controlling his brother's Giants I'm afraid that this is what's going on and it's happening at least Giants are mega class there's nothing that would stop them if they assaulted Earth you have to understand that these people are humongous these giants that are below the cities their heads are as big as the city as you've seen that they say their bodies are giant come up to A thousand Miles but they're twice as big as the others and they would but these are lk like giant hulks.

Is being threatened right now and the idiots are putting it right there onto his computer and he says they're all knocked out and it's nitrogen narcosis and Trump and him are working on that a little bit and got all screwed up in Northport. And Trump was probably gathering the material from Dave and Carol and we understand that our friend here is dating some girls oh wondering what girl who's paired off with because there was this giant redhead Bob burdys is pissed off. They said he can't stand anymore stalin has to go it's also incompetent. And he notices that some of them look a little like her and it started to complain again and our friend says if it's like Mark ruffalo maybe chunkier it might be Hera and people are looking at that right now we have to get going on this this is way way over the top and these would be the Giants they're using to build stuff with and it might still be Dave and Carol because maybe he can't access Hera, yet he's up on Mars developing it and her friend here says that they may have been on Mars but afterwards and we understand that so there's a lot of problems going on right now and this guy Tommy F has the answers you thank him for his work and we're going to try and find some better transportation and more right now we have a problem and more like her at us and what answers they say it's with the clothes and we see it and her friend is saying it and the Trump has some answers cuz he's living the nightmare so they're going to ask them so the same as bothering us so we'll have to stop them from doing it. I'm all over this this makes a lot of sense all those Giants are the same and except summer female I mean this is ridiculous it really everything fits in the song fits and what happened out there and him getting injured and actually it was the same time the dirt bike accident happened in the low desert and this song came out and think he already saw it and he said it and Joe Watts started to say I'm the guy and I'm a cop and her friend said no just actually someone who's stupid enough to do that around and he should have me and he did shoot at him three times one time is really close in that party in Sarasota and Justin was there and saw him do it as a witness and we need to bring Tommy F to court and he did he shot him when he was close for some reason the bullets are bouncing off our friend

Mac daddy

Ohh ok there's more to the story but lets publish Hera

Olympus yes

Okay good Thor Freya

[dumbfinntales]

Alright, Bayonetta 3 is beaten! That was quite the journey and it offered just the right amount of PlatinumGames silliness that I almost started to miss. Although I enjoyed the ride, I couldn’t help but to feel that I’ve seen this before. My full thoughts are below and I warn you, there’ll be spoilers.

One of PlatinumGames’ best features is just how over the top and ridiculous their games can get. Bayonetta 3 has giant kaiju battles and you surfing in collapsing buildings with a giant demon. Hell the game begins with a tsunami that sweeps over a city and you battle monsters on top of a yacht all the while that is happening in the background. But the thing is. For Bayonetta at least, that’s nothing new. Nothing really felt super over the top because I could already expect it. It’s not a band thing per se, but it fails to impress like before. Maybe I just have gotten too used to their shenanigans.

The combat was as good as ever and I enjoyed the demon slave mechanic where you can summon demons in the middle of a fight and control them. It’s not a mind blowing change to the formula, but it’s fun and it works. I also really enjoyed the ability to include your demons at the end of your combos. That’s some real team work.

The level design is also a lot more open than before. I heard that this was supposed to be a open world game, so it makes sense. The remnants are there. I don’t really have anything bad to say about the openess of the levels, it’s nice. Although on future playthrough it’ll probably get annoying to have to hunt down all the verses in the big open spaces.

I quite liked the new threat of the Homonculi as they were distinct and mysterious. They all had names in Latin which was cool to see. Some of them had cool names like “Cumulonimbus” which roughly should mean “gathering storm clouds”. But for some they picked completely random names from a dictionary, names like “Stratus” meaning “pawed” or “spread across”. Oh and there’s Pannus which just means a type of cloth they used to wear in the ancient times. I did read somewhere that they were named after cloud formations, but I don’t know how true that is. If so those are some strange names for clouds.

The story was kinda ehhh, I really didn’t like the multiverse idea. I dunno, maybe Marvel is to blame, but I find the whole “infinite universes” thing just boring at this point. Singularity was also a very underwhelming villain. His final fight was cool as most PlatinumGames final bosses are, but that’s it. I don’t even remember why he wanted to destroy the multiverse. There were other confusing things like “is Bayonetta still alive or not” or “why did Luka turn into a werewolf” or “what was the even twinkier magic Luka”? The new character Viola turned out to be Bayonettas kid, and to be honest I saw that coming from miles away. They weren’t exactly subtle with this “big reveal”.

Talking about Viola, she’s the next big thing this game has to offer. When I first saw her I thought I’d dislike her. There was something about her design that I didn’t like. Then before I even played the game I read how people really disliked playing as her and I dreaded another V situation from DMC 5. But much to my surprise I really ended up liking her. She’s this goofy and clumsy character who tries really hard to be badass, but fails most of the time. She can still kick ass just like her mother, but she isn’t exactly as elegant as her. She was also used for some almost Looney Tunes level of gags which honestly made me love her. I guess she inherits that from her father? Makes sense. She wants to be so cool so bad, but you aren’t just there yet honey.

I also quite enjoyed how different her combat style was. But I do have some issues with it. She wields a big ass katana and can summon a big cat demon to fight with her. The cat demon works a bit different as it fights on its own and you can still move around and punch shit with your bare hands. She also relies on parrying to activate witch time. The parry was kinda hard to get used to as you tend to spam dodge as Bayonetta, but Viola is a lot less forgiving. You have to be precise and that’s honestly where my issues with her come from. She’s not equipped to deal with some of the enemies and bosses. You try to focus on parrying, but you fuck up once and you get stunlocked. Her dodge is nowhere near as good as Bayonettas either. It made some fights really frustrating. I do hope they adjust how she works for future titles.

Bayonetta 3 is a weird mixed bag. It has a lot of good things, but also weird decisions. There are honestly too many gimmicks in this game that take away from core combat. The special challenge rifts are also gimmicky with some really frustrating encounter design. Why couldn’t they just be normal fights and none of this “don’t touch the ground for two minutes” bollocks. I honestly don’t know what to fully think of it. I just might have to come back to this once I beat the new God of War. The game gets a AVAVAGO out of ten.

[liudehua331]

There will be no end to the “Hourglass” of litigation, and Miles Kwok's “Toothpaste squeeze” refunds can not hide the malice of “Fake bankruptcy”

Miles Kwok's bankruptcy filing was an act of spilling water to save the ship. According to the SEC's GTV Fair Fund refund notice, Miles Kwok has paid a total of $455 million ($455,439,194.49) to the SEC. The refunds confirm the suspicion of fraud, but they are still $32 million short of the $487 million (486,745,063) he defrauded from more than 5,000 investors. Compared with the $539 million ($539,433,428) in refunds ordered by the SEC (in addition to $487 million in fraud proceeds, about $17.69 million in pre-judgment interest and $35 million in civil penalties) , there's an $84 million shortfall. Where are the breaches? It shows that Guo still has some reservations, leaving this asset to Rising in the East. And the way to retain assets, is to use American judicial resources, under the guise of cheating the judge, apply for bankruptcy protection.

It was also because the SEC started a refund process for investors based on Guo's money back that Guo's live stream on gate went unwatched, dropping to zero at one point. This shows that although the ants know Guo is a fraud, but in the absence of a refund guarantee, the ants can only hope to cling to Guo around, watching his live stream, like his video. At one point, there were even reports of anti-war ants inside the farm, which set GTV and Peter Gade's video viewing, liking and rating targets, suggesting that Peter Gade was on the verge of surpassing Twitter and Facebook, the illusion of becoming the world's number one social media platform. Now that the SEC has opened the floodgates for refunds, the ants are leaving Guo in droves. More laughably, Guo, in order to hide his assets, in addition to the yacht Ladymay and the 18th floor of the issue of his own relatives dragged into the water, and now said that Peter Gade and GTV had nothing to do with him.

Jayson, CEO of GATE. Where does Miller Stand? If Miller cooperates with Miles Kwok in perjury, who will bear the responsibility for the fraud that led to Peter Gade's imminent IPO but never went public? Who will return the money from the Ant Investment Gator Fraud? Miller would never take the blame. He certainly didn't expect that Guo would completely dump the blame on himself at the critical moment. The wily Miles Kwok must have figured out how to throw the blame before launching a fraud project, and laid out a plan to distance himself from the project before it was even launched. But Old Guo picked up the stone to hit the end is often their own feet, it is such a layout and these agents, will become old Guo's gravedigger. Guo Qiang and Guo Mei, Miles Kwok's closest relatives, both knew Guo's temperament very well. They understood him better because they were his closest relatives. And because they are close relatives, they can perjure themselves in court to fight against the judge in order to keep their father. So why should Miller, who is not related to him, use his “Financial future” to pay for a crook who has fallen on hard times and is blaming himself?

To say the least, even if Miller was compelled by Guo to perjure himself in court, it wouldn't matter much. After all, the evidence points to Miles Kwok as the founder and de facto controller of Peter Gade and GTV. The old Guo concealed the assets this set of tricks, American judge estimated to see much. After the last trial, the judge said no further hearings would be scheduled until April 27 and warned guo: “If we can not reach a consensus, the time teapot will bottom out faster than you expected.”. The Bankruptcy Bureau agreed with the judge. What's that supposed to mean? Both the judge and the bankruptcy office knew that Guo was stalling. As Judge Ostrag put it, Miles Kwok hid his assets in a maze of “Shell companies and family members”. But according to the spirit of American justice, even if you know you are a liar, but as long as you put forward a motion, or procedures. You go bankrupt, you flout the court, I add to it, ten million grand in arrears is now almost $200 million. The judge is not anxious, with the passage of time, anxious is Lao Guo. As long as old Guo does not run away, everything is under the control of the judge.

In fact, the Miles Kwok bankruptcy and Pax cases have been transferred from the Southern District Bankruptcy Court to the Court of the state of Connecticut, which upheld the Bankruptcy Bureau's opinion. In the U. S. Bankruptcy Bureau's allegations, between the lines revealed the old Guo malevolent bankruptcy signal. If dismissed, Miles Kwok could face more than 20 years in prison under bankruptcy law. We look forward to April 27, when the judge hears Pax's motion to reinstate contempt of court, executing a $134 million contempt order directly against Miles Kwok and dismissing the bankruptcy motion. In any case, Guo has been badly wounded in the lawsuit.

A good swimmer drowns in water, a fraudster falls into a lawsuit. As a litigator, Miles Kwok has sued many of his fellow soldiers over the past four years, as well as entities such as Interpol, uob, Wells Fargo, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, allegations that multidimensional provided false evidence in the Pax case. He is likely to accuse Miller of providing false evidence in bankruptcy court in the coming days, suing judges in bankruptcy court and in the federal court in Connecticut for "Falsifying the facts" because they were blue and gold. But now he's running out of time, and with the SEC breathing down his neck, the $455m refunds are the defining moment of Miles Kwok's downfall. For the ants, in the darkness before the Dawn, although the old Guo will make a desperate struggle, but the ants will come to the dawn.

[mbdailynews]

Four Ways to Save Money on Car Insurance as Rates Rise

Drivers who have been complaining about high gas prices can now shift gears and gripe about car-insurance rates instead. While the average cost of a gallon dropped about 26% since June, car-insurance premiums have risen 8.3% on average compared with a year ago, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Inflation is only partly to blame. More Americans are driving more miles again compared with during the height of the pandemic, leading to a higher rate of serious crashes, fender benders and road rage, said Dale Porfilio, chief insurance officer at the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group, also known as Triple-I. Car-related crime is also up, including the theft of valuable parts such as catalytic converters. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit focused on fighting insurance fraud and crime, 932,329 vehicles were reported stolen in 2021, a 17% increase since 2019. Get Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Digital Subscription 5-years $89 These factors, coupled with rising prices for new and used cars, have sent the average annual cost of car insurance to $1,771, according to Bankrate. And premiums are expected to rise another 5% to 10% in 2023, Triple-I estimates. Driving those premium increases are higher costs for replacement parts, labor and the evolving technological sophistication, which makes repairs of new vehicles more expensive, Mr. Porfilio said. Auto insurers use several factors, many beyond a driver’s control, to set rates. Because of higher rates of vandalism, theft and accidents, city drivers typically pay higher rates than those in small towns or rural areas, he said. Get a 5-years subscription to the WSJ and Barrons News for $89 The most expensive states for car insurance are Louisiana, where drivers pay $2,986 a year on average, Florida ($2,775) and Nevada ($2,489), according to a recent analysis by NerdWallet Inc. The cheapest states are Idaho ($1,027), Ohio ($1,066) and Vermont ($1,074). You can lower your insurance rate whether you are shopping to insure a new vehicle or seeking a cheaper option when your policy is up for renewal. Here are four moves to consider: Reduce Your Coverage Before the pandemic, owners of older vehicles typically dropped collision and comprehensive coverage after about six years. But since the pandemic, used vehicles have surged in price, so owners need to be more cautious about when to forgo these options, Mr. Porfilio said. A good rule of thumb is to multiply your older car’s insurance premium by 10. If that number is more than the value of the car itself, collision or comprehensive coverage might not be worth it, according to Triple-I. For example, a 2013 Honda Pilot has a trade-in value of $7,691, according to Kelley Blue Book. If you were quoted an annual premium of $1,000, you might want to pass on comprehensive coverage. Chris Diodato says he recently waived collision and comprehensive coverage on his 15-year-old 2008 Hyundai Sonata, saving about $600 a year. The financial planner in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., said his car’s estimated trade-in value is less than $2,000, so he thought it made financial sense to waive the extra coverage. Raise Your Deductible If you have a lower deductible, say $250, a solid emergency fund, call your insurer to find out how much raising your deductible would reduce your rate, said Lauren Lindsay, a financial planner in Houston. A deductible is the amount you pay for repairs before your insurance kicks in. A client of Ms. Lindsay saved $480 a year on premiums by increasing the deductible from $500 to $2,500. The client opted for this since her two sons are grown, with their own car insurance. The client also has about six months of expenses saved in an emergency fund. Ms. Lindsay suggests saving at least three months of expenses in an emergency fund before pursuing this option. Shop Around, Demand Discounts Get at least three quotes from insurers before signing onto a policy, according to AAA. Steve Sivak, a financial planner in Pittsburgh, tells his clients to spend two hours every year shopping around, which he said typically lands them a cheaper option. Jim Ciprich, a father of two from Florham Park, N.J., shaved about 5% off his insurance after taking advantage of his carrier’s “good student” discount by sending his agent a copy of his elder daughter’s grades twice a year. Most carriers that offer the good student discount require a B or better average. When his same daughter started college this fall, he qualified for an “away at school” discount, since she didn’t have a car on campus, saving him about $157 a year. Some insurers will give you a discount if you purchase two or more types of insurance from them—such as homeowners and auto—or have more than one vehicle insured, said Mr. Porfilio. Share Driving Data Putting a device in your car or using a smartphone app that tracks behavior on the road can also reduce premiums. Most big insurers including Progressive Corp., Allstate Corp., Nationwide, Farmers Insurance Group and USAA now offer programs that log behaviors such as hard braking, fast acceleration and idle time. Participation in usage-based insurance programs, which rely on technology to monitor driving habits and assign risk, has doubled since 2016, with 16% of auto-insurance customers enrolling in such initiatives, according to a recent survey by J.D. Power. The safer you drive, the more you are likely to save, said Cate Deventer, insurance analyst at Bankrate. A driver with an at-fault accident pays $832 more a year, on average, for full coverage than a driver with no traffic violations, according to recent NerdWallet analysis of nationwide car-insurance rates. Some companies might impose surcharges if your driving data indicates a riskier-than-average behavior, so make sure you check the company’s rules, Ms. Deventer said. Read the full article