#like i straight up think the original plan was for nico not to be seen again after botl

[my-apollo-gies]

i think part of the problem with hazel as a character is the fact that rr very clearly favours nico over her, despite her being more of a main character. this causes a bit of an issue bc outside of backstory, she never gets fully developed as a character and rr is relying on the fans going "oh yeah she's nicos half sister" and assigning her traits from that, as well as comparing her to bianca

[the-ghost-king]

So I'm not going to start like an Anti-Chiron tag because I don't find that enjoyable personally, but every so often people ask why I dislike him so here's essentially a "masterpost" of my thoughts on that situation for when anyone asks, just so I have it to explain some...

This isn't nearly a full list, and there's many more "incidents" that make me less than fond of Chiron, I don't hate the old man but he leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I'm not a fan of that. He's a very twisted character.

- The Lightning Thief

This quote is literally just after Percy's mom "dies", they're all sitting on the porch of the Big House right after he's finally woken up after days of sleeping, and that's the line Chiron pulls out on him.

That's straight up emotional manipulation which was entirely unnecessary in the context of what Chiron was trying to explain. There wasn't a single reason for that, in the slightest.

Immediately following that, and Percy, who canonically has anger issues, does his best to remain calm, he is immediately threatened by Dionysus, and Chiron doesn't even tell Dionysus off for doing that; Chiron just let's it happen. It's Grover who has to speak up to tell Dionysus off...

The only reason Chiron comes out looking like a old guy in this scene is because Dionysus was so much worse in his behavior, at one point intimidating Percy with his power over madness.

- The Titan's Curse

This is the aftermath of when Nico ran away upon confirmation of Bianca's death. When Percy is telling Chiron about the situation, Chiron wishes Nico had been eaten alive rather than recruited into an army.

He'd rather a child be dead than fight against him, and he openly tells this to other children he's in charge of. If Percy went missing would he have said "I hope he was eaten <3" as well?

I don't blame Perry for not delivering the truth here, it was done in an effort to protect Nico; which wasn't something Annabeth had planned on doing... I don't blame Annabeth for that though either, she's been beneath Chiron so long that she probably doesn't realize the shady stuff he does, and to her "going to tell" probably was the "right" move because she was a child...

But the fact that Chiron believes Nico truly would be better off eaten than alive :/

- Tower of Nero

This quote from Tower of Nero shows that Chiron lied to a bunch of young children (most of them were young because the older campers are largely dead because of the war or too old for camp now). It wasn't just a little white lie that adults sometimes tell kids either; they were walking into battle and he told them it was a field trip.

Did he even begin to explain the danger he was putting these kids in? Did the children understand their situation? And how dangerous it was?

Kayla has been blindsided over the years into thinking that telling children they're going on a field trip instead of fighting a battle is something to make a joke of and not be questioned... (Again, I don't blame her she's only like 12 in the book, but still)

Apollo also agrees, which isn't on Chiron but it's a whole mother reason why I can't stand Rick's interpretation of Apollo...

<><><><><>

This isn't me being like "oh Chiron is the worst most evil character ever" I just think that he has numerous flaws which are largely ignored in favor of the "perfect wise teacher" narrative when in fact Chiron and Dumbledore share a lot of.. Offputting qualities.

I do think that some of the situation is simply a result of Chiron having his hands tied behind his back by the gods some. And he even goes so far as to confirm this in a scene of TLT

However many of the scenes in which he exhibits behaviors like that in my first three screenshots are not related to anything the gods require and are, in fact, of Chiron's own free will.

Some things I would blame Zeus and the council for, such as how he withholds information from Percy to an excessive amount for long periods of time even when Percy straight up asks about things. I could easily see that being Zeus trying to prevent Percy from claiming the prophecy as his own, and I could see reasoning that maybe Chiron had sworn over the River Styx or something similar.

But those things don't apply to Chiron making such an unnecessary comment about Percy's mother so close to her "death". It doesn't explain why he would say he hoped Nico had been eaten out loud, and it doesn't cover the fact that he led children into a battlefield without telling them that's what was happening.

I think the context of Chiron's choices and comments would be different if the campers were older. If they were in their late teens or early twenties for the most part, I wouldn't really have much to say about how Chiron handled the situation.

But this man is in charge of children and extremely young teenagers, Percy is only 12 in TLT, maybe if he would have been 16 or 17 then I could give Chiron a pass, but he wasn't. Within the context of the comment he made in the Titan's Curse, Percy is only 14 and Nico is 10 at the beginning of the book... You don't wish a 10 year old had been eaten alive by a monster no matter how bad you think the alternative is, and if you do wish that you don't say it out loud to a group of other children. In the battle from Tower of Nero we get a quick look at the battlefield, and although Ben's age, and the age of another girl fighting alongside him are never confirmed they are implied to be fairly young, and we know Kayla is only 12 at the time too; yet Chiron told them it was a field trip instead of a battle, limiting the time they would have to mentally prepare themselves for what was coming.

On top of that, the nods the reader gets to the fact that Chiron can't act out against the gods depletes over the course of the series. After TLT the amount of times the situation involves the gods interfering with what Chiron is allowed to say lessens, and by the time the Heroes of Olympus series comes around, these limitations on his speech is almost entirely gone. Yet as seen in Tower of Nero he still does morally questionable things in regards to how he treats the campers.

Like I said, I recognize that in many scenes Chiron's hands are tied behind his back because of the gods.. But there are undeniably things he does of his own free will that are, in the nicest manner, very :/

This also isn't a full list of comparisons just a few notable scenes. I don't think Chiron is equally as bad as Dumbledore, but I think it undeniable that Chiron has some significant flaws built into his character design.

A good character has flaws, and there's nothing wrong with having a character that doesn't always conduct themselves properly or have good intentions- it's actually good writing, and I can appreciate that, but for some reason I find myself personally rubbed the wrong way by Chiron. This doesn't make Chiron badly written, or poorly designed, in fact I would say Rick's Chiron is very well designed in lots of ways, but I just don't like how it's never acknowledged by anyone in the series.

Like I said, I'm not starting an anti-Chiron situation, I just think little events like those mentioned, the way he's built a child army, and how he doesn't even try to plead with the gods over raising the ages on campers being allowed to battle is a little sus. But it more so bothers me that there's no attention payed to this problem anywhere in the books, not even by a side character or Luke, nowhere.

I don't actually care that much and this isn't that important to me, but sometimes people ask why I don't like Chiron and this is basically just my explanation to hand off to them... It's not even so much that I dislike Chiron entirely, he's well written and has his "good" moments, I just don't like the way other characters interact with him and his actions.

It's more a personal beef with him rather than an aspect of poor writing or him "being bad"... PJO in general (and HoO/ToA to a much lesser extent) shows that there's not such an inherent good vs bad in the world, and that sometimes people are victims of circumstances in some situations, or they're horribly misguided in their actions, but the series does a good job of showing those people as human still, and I applaud that.

I don't really know how to tie this up in its entirety, but there's nothing wrong with having a morally grey character who does questionable things and in many aspects it is good writing. I think Chiron is a result of Rick not thinking through the implications what he's doing in lots of situations, and I can see a fairly consistent drop in Chiron's characterization from PJO-ToA which is consistent with most other aspects of Rick's work.

I also want to clarify that if you like Chiron and disagree with me, that's absolutely 110% okay, I just personally dislike Chiron and that's on me. Like my problem with many of Rick's other immortal characters, I think he missed important aspects of them in some manner and slightly (or entirely in some cases) mischaracterized them in comparison to their original myths.. Some of these characters he came around on and fixed their character in many aspects to their more "correct" characterization (like Hera), while others (like Chiron and Apollo) he never quite figured them out. Which is a running complaint I have with Rick so I'm just adding this to his tab.

But yeah, I don't hate Chiron I just dislike him and those are different things, and I don't think it's a bad thing to have a morally questionable character, Chiron just personally rubs me the wrong way and I just wanted to explain that more fully because I've been asked about it multiple times.

Also I apologize for not adding a [read more] to this, it's a complaint of mine often when scrolling through the tags but I'm on mobile currently and don't have immediate access to a computer so~

[bebepac]

Substitute Queen (Happy Birthday Queen Walton!)

This is a special edition of Fast Forward for my friend @queenwalton as she enjoys this series I've created a lot and it is her birthday! (Well a day early!)

I'm pretty sure you have been following along with me since I started writing on the fandom a little over a year ago. Thank you for your friendship and support. I hear from you after every chapter I post and I love it. Also thank you for being my trustworthy reader of infinite snippets. I hope you have an absolutely wonderful birthday my friend. 🥰🥰🥰🥰❤❤❤

A/N:  Thanks @dcbbw​ for bouncing some ideas around with me, and giving me a few to make this birthday fic even better.  Thank you girl.  

Summary:  Riley and Liam go on their first vacation alone since the events of Ellie’s kidnapping.  Maxwell and Taylor take care of all the children.  Maxwell throws a “Baby” Beaumont Bash.

Original Post Date: 03/24/21 at 11:55AM EST

The Book:  TRH and Beyond

Pairing: Liam x Riley  / Maxwell x Taylor 

Warnings:  None other than hilarious fluff

Word Count: 2425

Song inspiration for this chapter: Baby Shark (Trap Music Remix) 

I don’t own rights to this hilarious music.  

Liam saw Riley standing  in the study with her back turned to him.  The King of Cordonia shifted seamlessly into stealth mode as he crept silently into the study, surprising his Queen by pouncing on her like a lion, grabbing her and slipping his arms around her waist, and sensually planting a soft kiss to the sensitive skin on her neck.  He gently rubbed himself against her.  

“Take a break for a little while my love.”

He felt her body tense up.

“EEEWWWWW GROSS!!! NOT YOUR WIFE!!!  OOOOH GOD!!!!!!! NOT YOUR WIFE!!! PUT THAT THING AWAY!!!!!!  YOU HAVE FOUR KIDS!?!?!?!?!?  AREN’T YOU GUYS TIRED OF DOING THAT?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?”

Liam quickly recoiled from her.   Liam looked genuinely horrified when she turned to face him.

“I’m so sorry Taylor.  From behind, I swear I couldn’t…I mean I didn’t…..”  

“Bleh!!!! Don’t finish that sentence!!!!!!

Riley walked in the room seeing Taylor and Liam visibly uncomfortable.

“What did I miss?”  

“I need a bath!!!  Your husband thought I was you.  Apparently we look the same from behind.”  

Riley glanced at Taylor.  “I mean…. He’s really not completely wrong Tay.  Now that you had the twins, we really do.”  

Taylor scowled.  

“And that right there is why no one will mistake us for each other from the front.  Your scowl face.”

“Well this is a sufficiently awkward conversation, so I’m going to go, especially after I’ve completely embarrassed myself. Riley when you’re finished, please come by my study.”  Liam still had a flush on his cheeks and ears.

“For real, put that thing away Liam, it’s barely lunch time.”  Taylor grumbled.

“I will be there.”  She winked at him.  

Liam’s smile returned.  

“Can one of you keep it in your pants please?  You two are like horny teenagers.”  

“I’m okay with that.”  They both said in unison smiling at each other.  Liam left the room.

“Are you going away for your wedding anniversary?”

“We probably should, but we have our date nights, and we can always sneak some time alone now that the kids are a little older, now that everyone is potty trained and not on the boob anymore.  God I missed my boobs being mine, and now that they are again, of course they look like a dumpster fire after breastfeeding four kids.”  

“Well that’s one hell of a bra then.”

“Who are you telling? They would be dragging the floor otherwise.”

Taylor laughed.  

“Please don’t do that visual to our body.”

“It is our body right?”  

Riley and Taylor giggled.  

“You two should go away alone.  You two never get adult time… And I don’t mean just for that.  You two apparently get more than enough adult time for that.” 

“Tay, it’s just that we haven’t really been away from the kids.  Anywhere we go, we travel as a family.  I feel safer that way, so does Liam.”  

“Because of me right?”  

“Tay….”

“It is.  The last time you two tried to go on vacation was when I took Ellie, and you haven’t been apart from them a day since.  It’s my fault you two are afraid to be away from your children."

“Taylor, Liam and I have forgiven you for that, a long time ago.  We know that you’re not the same person you once were.”

“Prove it, you two take a trip, and it’s a trip you two desperately deserve. I promise the palace will be still standing when you get back.”

Taylor smiled at Riley.

“Please let me do this for the two of you. It’s been one thing after another, and you guys deserve a vacation. Let me and Max take care of the kids.”

“Tay… you do realize that would be your two barely crawling plus my four.  You two would be taking care of six children.”  

“And your kids are pretty self sufficient.  They can feed themselves.”  

“You’ll need some reinforcements, Tay. For real.  I’ll call Drake and Hana to help.”  

“I really think Max and I can handle it.”

“Tay…”  

“Riley, we got this.”

*^*^*^*^* Taylor and Maxwell *^*^*^*^*

“You volunteered us for WHAT?!?!?!?!?”

“Oh come on Max, they’re just kids.”

“Yeah, and we’ve been lucky to keep the two of ours alive so far.  We’re going to be outnumbered Softie. There’s going to be six of them and two of us. You have put them at an unfair advantage.”  

Taylor laughed.

“This is not a war Maxwell.”

“Oh, it’s definitely a war.”

A week later,  Riley and Liam were preparing to leave for their first vacation alone, since they had children.  

Riley kissed and hugged each child.

“Now you kids behave for Auntie Taylor and Uncle Maxwell.  I’m counting on you Miss Crown Princess for a report when I return. You know you’re first in command Ellie.”

Ellie stood up straight and squared her shoulders.  “I promise Daddy, we’ll all be good.”

Ellie gave a little salute.

Liam gave one back.

“As you were, my princess.”

Riley, still kneeling, smoothed down Liberty’s little curls.  Her little lip was already trembling.  

“Mommy loves you baby.”  She kissed her little cheeks.  

“Are you ready to leave My Love?”  

Riley stood up nodding.   Liam reached out her hand for hers.  

They started to walk towards the SUV.  

“Mama.”  

Liam felt Riley stop.  

“It’s okay My Love we can do this.”  

Riley’s eyes were quickly filling with tears.

Riley resumed her stride.

“Dada?”

The little inflection of a question in Liberty’s voice made Liam stop dead in his tracks. His grip tightening on Riley’s hand.  Liam took a deep shaky breath.

"Don't look back Liam, you know we won't leave if we do."

Bastien and Nico could see how the King and Queen were struggling to leave their children.

“Your Majesties, come this way.”  Bastien called out to them gently.

Both the King and Queen were in tears hearing their youngest burst into tears at the sight of them leaving, as they climbed into  the black SUV.

“It’s okay.  They’ll be fine Riley. They have reinforcements.”

“Taylor wouldn’t let me call Drake or Hana.”  

Liam hit a button on his phone. He put the phone on speaker.

“What’s your location?”  

“Already inside the palace.”  

“Olivia?”  

“And you fully understand the plan?”

“Let your tiny humans drive Taylor and Maxwell insane?”

“NO!!!!”

“I know the plan Liam! Not be seen and keep a watch on them, and only appear if they need help with the children. “

“Yes. Thank you Liv.”  

“I do this because we’re friends Riley.”  

“Liberty has a set of lungs on her, she hasn’t stopped crying since you two left.  I’m sure she’ll be fine.”  

“Thank you Liv.”  

“They’ll be fine, i’ll be watching. Enjoy your vacation already.”  

“Where are we headed? Since you wouldn’t disclose a location to me, I literally packed for everything including plagues and fire rain.”  

“For some fun in the sun on our own private beach.”

“Good thing I packed a bathing suit.”  

“You won’t be needing it.”  

Riley smacked Liam’s arm as he waggled his eyebrows at her.

*^*^*^*^*^* Meanwhile back at the Palace *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

“C’mon Libby it’s okay.   Mommy and Daddy will be back.”  

Taylor picked her up, rocking her in her arms.  

“Shhhhhh… it’s okay Libby.   Auntie Taylor is here, so is Uncle Max.”

Libby’s cries subsided a little but not significantly.

“Can I try?”  Ellie asked.

Ellie crossed her eyes and made a funny face at Libby causing her to break out into a fit of giggles.  

“We’re evening out the odds.  Three on three, I like those odds better Taylor.  We might actually survive this. They will listen to one of their own.  Ellie is like our super agent spy.”

By the end of day one both Taylor and Maxwell were exhausted, tending to and chasing around six children.  At least their two were relatively easy to catch, as they were barely mobile.

“Why did I think the children being self-sufficient was going to be a good thing?  I’ve never been this tired in my life.”  

“Is this what we have to look forward to when they’re older?”  

"Seems like it."

^*^*^*^* Liam and Riley *^*^*^*

“My Love?”  

“Yes Dear?”  

“You don’t have to cut up my food for me.”  

Riley had absentmindedly cut up Liam’s chicken into very small child bite size pieces. She had also ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead.

“Oh!  I didn’t even realize.”

Liam smiled at her, running his fingers through his hair.  “We’ve been parents for so long, it’s been a long time since you and I have been truly alone.”  

“You know what I want to do after dinner?” Riley inquired.

Liam raised his eyebrow with an intrigued smirk.  

“I think I might have an idea of exactly what you want to do.”  

Liam and Riley went to sleep after dinner.  Both stretched out in the bed.  Both had covers, and no kids arms, legs, feet, or hair  in their face.

Every night was like that Liam and Riley got the most sleep they had, had in years…. Well after other adult activities. Liam had even turned off his alarm living in the moment with Riley.

*^*^* Baby Beaumont Bash *^*^*^*

Taylor was feeding the girls when she heard loud thumping music. Taylor could hear jingling. Taylor glanced up, seeing the chandelier above her head was thumping to the beat of the music. Thank goodness the twins were used to Maxwell's antics, and Lily and Violet were sleeping right through it. She put Violet back in the crib and walked down the hall. The closer she got to the east wing ballroom the music got louder.

Taylor pulled the doors open to the ballroom, smoke bubbled down the hall.

There were multi colored blinking lights, a disco ball spinning from the ceiling and a snack table full of candy, sweets and soda.

Maxwell had a DJ station set up  playing a song on an endless loop, bobbing his head to the music with his headphones on.

And Riley's kids hopped up on kiddie cocaine (aka sugar) dancing and flailing around in what Taylor could only think to describe as a kiddie rave.

"Is that….. a trap remix of baby shark?"

"Heck yeah it is."

And the kids were loving it.

Maxwell let the music keep playing and he had a bottle of champagne in one hand calling Ellie and Adam over to him. He had a sword in his right.

"Adam you hold the bottle."

"You are not giving them champagne Maxwell! They're children!"

"I'm shocked at you Softie. What kind of Uncle do you think I am? It's just sparkling apple cider. Okay Ellie, you get the sword because you're the oldest. And what you want to do is slice just like I'm showing you. Oh, and don't kill your brother, that would be bad."

"I don't think Daddy would let us do this Uncle Maxwell." Ellie said wearily.

"Heck no he wouldn't.  Well not with Maxwell teaching you. If anyone is going to teach the crown princess to slice anything while someone else is holding it, it's going to be me."

Olivia appeared walking out of the shadows of an alcove.

"Have you been here the whole week?"

"Of course! You know Liam and Riley. And these kids are never going to fall asleep, if we don't have them dance the sugar out."

"I've got just the thing.”

 Max cranked up the music.

*^*^*^*^* Liam and Riley *^*^*^*^*

"Liam I miss them."

"We'll be home to see them by noon tomorrow."

"Liam I know you miss them too, log into Crown Cam, so we can see them."

Riley sat next to Liam as he logged into Crown Cam.

As they went to each room they noticed none of the children were in their beds.

"It's past their bedtime."

"Did you really think Max and Taylor would get all kids to bed on time?"

"No but…."

They clicked on each room, until they got to the ballroom on the east wing.

Both gasped at the scene. Liam clicked the button enabling the cameras to pick up sound in the room.

Both looked at each other, seeing their kids wildly dancing and flailing about. Libby was excitedly jumping up and down with a glow stick while Olivia sang on stage.

"Is Olivia really singing and rapping to Let It Go?!?"

Olivia's Rap

Liam nodded, watching the scene for a few more moments before slowly closing his laptop.

"I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for all of this."

*^*^*^*^*^* kiddie rave *^*^*^*^*

Taylor danced with the kids while Max continued at his DJ station.

"Olivia can flow, can you believe it Max?!?"

"OLIVIA!!!!! LANGUAGE!!!!!!! THEY'RE CHILDREN!!!!" Maxwell screamed.

"Are you serious with me right now?!? Language?"

Olivia rolled her eyes in complete annoyance.

"Of all the things you've done, LANGUAGE is your hard stop? You gave the crown princess a SWORD to slice a bottle out of her younger brother's hands, and instructed her not to kill him. That's entirely okay, but CURSING is where you draw the line in the sand? Seriously Maxwell?"

Both Taylor and Olivia glared at Maxwell for a few moments in confusion.

"Liv keep going!!! We have to tire them out!!!"

Olivia resumed her rap battle….with herself.

Within an hour it looked like a crime scene in the ballroom. Children were passed out everywhere.  

Taylor picked up a sleeping Ellie, Olivia, grabbed Adam, and Maxwell carried Jaiden and Liberty upstairs to their beds.  

"They need baths, their faces and hands are dirty with crumbs and sweets."

"We'll give them baths in the morning, before Liam and Riley get back." Maxwell was confident they could get it done.

They didn't. They all slept in instead.

When Liam and Riley arrived back at the palace, they didn't know what to expect.

They saw their kids, all lined up wearing yesterday's clothes, dirty faces, and wild chaotic hair, looking like they had their own kiddie walks of shame.  But each child had a huge smile on their face.

Liam walked up to Ellie.

"Your report my Crown Princess?"

"Daddy! I sliced a bottle top off a bottle while Adam held it."

"And I didn't die!" Adam screamed confidently.

"We had fun!" Jaiden exclaimed.

"Daddy did you know Auntie Liv is a gangsta rapper?" Ellie's voice sounded like she was in complete awe.

"Yes My Princess, we saw."

Olivia turned pale, then she knowingly nodded. "I should have known you two would access Crown Cam."

Riley turned to Maxwell.

"So you threw a Beaumont Bash…. for our children?"  Riley asked.

"Of course, gotta train them up right!! Little Blossom!"

"Sure, they're a little dirty, but at least the palace is still standing, what else would you expect from the Substitute Queen?" Taylor commented with a smirk.

Happy birthday! I hope you enjoyed this!

Tagging the comments

[phykios]

honesty and promise me, part 3 [read on ao3] [co-written with @darkmagyk]

Several more weeks and hookups later, Annabeth thinks she should probably come clean. Some people might bury it deep, and for sure, Annabeth’s considered it, but, well. It is kind of embarrassing that she didn’t know Percy’s name at first. Stuff like that doesn’t usually bother her--she’s had nameless one night stands in the past, and despite Thalia’s ribbing, she knows that Thalia doesn’t really care either. It’s just that, you know, he’s Thalia’s family, and they’ve seen each other a few more times, and they are planning to continue to see each other a few more times in the future. Or more than a few times. 

Anyway, she kind of feels like she owes it to him. Like he deserves this small nugget of truth, payment for all the times he’s fucked her blind. It’s nagging at her, and she hates feeling like she owes anyone anything. 

Piper certainly seemed to think so, when Annabeth had told her over their monthly brunch date.

“It’s just common courtesy at this point,” she said. “Like, what if you guys end up married and then sell your story to Hollywood, they cast my dad as the male lead, and it comes out in interviews that you didn’t know his name for like a month? He’s gonna get the wrong idea.”

Annabeth wasn’t sure which part was more ridiculous: the movie, Piper’s dad being involved, or them being married.

Anyway, sharing some of her avocado fries, Piper had reminded her that being mean wasn't very punk rock, shutting her up effectively.

She’s out on site in the Lower East Side, taking measurements for plots of land, writing down sun angles and measuring the wind velocity between the brick buildings, when she gets a text from him. 

I’m on a break and I’m starving 😩 Want to grab something to eat?

It’s 2pm on a Thursday and he wants to grab something to eat. If Annabeth didn’t know any better, she’d say that that sounds like a real, honest-to-goodness, bona fide date. (Meeting up at and subsequently leaving bars together does not count as a date, she’s pretty sure. Neither do the booty calls.) He’s been getting a little free with his texts, that boy, sending her selfies and memes and questions about her day, and now this? An invitation to their first, actual date? She should block him on principle, just for the sheer audacity.

sure, wya

520 8th, text me when you get here 😁

That’s another thing: Percy loves his emojis. If this is going to continue, they’re going to need to have a serious talk about that. 

She doesn’t need to text him when she gets there; he’s already outside, leaning on the stone edifice of the building like a particularly jacked rent boy in his tight t-shirt and broody look, cigarette between his fingers. The sweatpants sort of ruin the image, though. He looks particularly comfortable in a way that warms Annabeth right from the inside out. “You know, when Nico said you smoked, I honestly didn’t believe it.” she says, not even bothering to say hi. 

He looks up from his phone and smiles, the sun behind his teeth. “Hey!” 

“Hey, yourself.” She doesn’t even hesitate--she plucks the cigarette out of his hand, taking a drag off it herself. “You been smoking for a long time?”

“Who do you think taught Thalia how?” He raises an eyebrow, bemused. “Is that a problem?”

It is, but it’s not like she can tell him that without losing some of her credibility. “Wouldn’t smoking fuck with your cardio?”

Percy shrugs, conceding. “A little. I used to be a lot worse, but I just can’t quite kick the habit. It’s mostly a stress thing, anyway.” 

“Rough practice?” she asks, putting just enough effort into her lip wobble to make it abundantly clear that she’s making fun of him. “Were the other boys being mean to you because of your tights?”

He grins at her, saucy. “Annabeth Chase, do you really think that NYCB rehearses here? In the Garment District?” But he laughs before she can stammer out an answer (and thank God, she’s lived here three years and can barely keep the boroughs straight, let alone the neighborhoods). “I just wrapped up teaching a class. I don’t have to be at rehearsal until 5, I was thinking we could hang out? Bryant Park?”

A first date at the New York Public Library. She almost hates to admit it, but Percy Jackson might be kind of her dream man. “I believe I was promised food,” she sniffs, but she does hold out her hand, and when he takes it, lacing his fingers through hers, she’s sure that he can feel her heart beating, palm to palm. 

Twenty minutes later they’re settled on a bench in the corner of the green, Annabeth halfway into a ham sandwich and Percy juggling a salad and an iced coffee. He’s been regaling her with tales from the more exciting side of ballet, a side she hadn’t even imagined could actually exist. “So by the time I land in Paris,” he says, taking a sip of coffee, “the guy’s foot has swollen up to, like, twice its original size, and when I finally managed to find some wifi to check my phone, there’s, like, eight missed calls from my mom and my agent, and an email from her that just says ‘READ THIS,’ in all caps, and of course the article is in French, which I didn’t really speak at the time, and I was so stressed that my ADHD made it so I couldn’t even read the Google translation, and I had to ask someone to translate it for me.”

“Oh my god,” she says, struggling to keep it in.

“And that’s how I found out that I’d been moved up to first cast in Le Corsaire, from the poor barista at a coffee shop in Charles de Gaule!” He laughs. 

“That’s insane,” Annabeth says. “And the show was the next day?”

“It was that night! I had to haul ass to the opera house and get warmed up, because I was going on in about four hours. You should have seen the looks on everyone’s faces when I stumbled in, I’m sure that they all wanted to kill me.” Percy chuckles, taking a bite of leafy greens. “Now I wasn’t just the twenty-year-old upstart American, I was the twenty-year-old upstart American who skipped town when I wasn’t supposed to.”

“How did it go?”

“Killed it, of course,” he says, deservedly smug. 

Despite her best efforts, she’s absolutely entranced; he’s a great storyteller. “I bet you break that story out at parties all the time, don’t you.”

He laughs. “Whatever gets the donors to open their checkbooks, right?”

“I can’t believe you lived in Paris. I’ve always wanted to see it.” She’d had a few chances to when she was in college, the semester she’d studied abroad in Rome, but she just never got around to it. Just another item on her long, long list of regrets, placed somewhere between the sketchy burrito from last week and not telling her mom to fuck off earlier when she’d had the chance. “If I were you, I’d never leave.”

Percy shrugs. “It was amazing, I won’t lie. But towards the end I just really, really missed it here. All my family is in NYC, you know? My mom, step-dad, and my sister live here, and Thalia and Nico and Hazel, too. I tried to come back and visit whenever I could, but being away from them was really hard.” There’s something soft and inviting in his expression when he says, “I’m really happy to be back home.”

“What are they like?” Annabeth asks. “Your family. Your non-mob family, I mean.”

He rolls his eyes, but he grins another one of those blinding grins, too. “My mom is the most amazing person you will ever meet. Not only did she support my dance habit, she did it as a single working mother who had to raise an angry, ADHD asshole of a son who didn’t always appreciate her. I don’t even want to know how many hours she had to work or how many scholarships and grants she had to track down in order to pay for me to go to SAB, but somehow she made it work, and managed to write her novel at the same time. She married my step-dad the summer I turned sixteen, and my baby sister was born the next year.” 

Even Annabeth, cynical and black-hearted as she is, has to smile back. The love he has for his mom is so palpable, so tangible, she can practically see him glowing. “And the…” What had Thalia called them? “The ‘Cousin Consortium’?” 

At that, Percy laughs, full-bellied, unrestrained. “The name was Nico’s idea. I didn’t really have many close friends when I was a kid, apart from my buddy Grover--he had to wear this really gnarly leg brace and I liked to dance, so you can imagine how much we got picked on--but we were all really close growing up, since our dads were all assholes. They may have left us emotionally scarred, but at least we had each other’s backs the whole time.”

This is a very Percy thing, she’s starting to realize: he can not and will not hold back on his feelings. He simply refuses to. Where most guys might try to hide or downplay their affection for their friends, Percy’s is written all over his face. Maybe it’s a byproduct of doing ballet, but he’s so unashamed of his love for his friends and his family and his art, that maybe Annabeth kind of wishes she could be included in that love too, if it always feels this warm and joyful. 

“I think it’s amazing that you guys are so close. I only had the one cousin when I was growing up, and we didn’t really talk all that much,” Annabeth says, almost without her permission. Something about him, it’s just so easy to talk to him. He makes it safe to open up.

“The med school guy, right?” 

Annabeth nods. “Magnus. Fifth generation Harvard student. We’re all very proud.” 

Ugh. Even she has to wince at the false cheer in her voice. Percy gives her a half-smile, sympathetic and soft. “Harvard not really for you, then?” he asks, picking up the threads of a long and complicated story, and one that she absolutely does not want to get into right now. Or ever, if she can help it. 

“More like I wasn’t really for Harvard.” Which wasn’t entirely untrue. She had been good enough for the university in Cambridge, Mass--good enough for two degrees and graduation with honors--but she had never been good enough for her mother’s capital-H Harvard. Never good enough for her mother at all, really. 

Percy takes her hand. His fingers are cold from his iced coffee. “Hey. It’s their loss,” he says, with a sincerity and an intensity that makes her blush.

Every part of her wants to pull away. His thumb is rubbing against the joint of her finger, soothing and sweet, and she thinks she may break out in hives from it. “Damn right it is,” she mumbles. 

He is so nice. So nice and hot and sweet. Objectively, what she’s about to do is a terrible idea, and might torpedo a really good thing that they have, but if she doesn’t come clean now her own guilt is going to drive her insane.

“Okay, I have a confession to make.” Percy raises his eyebrows, slurping the last dregs of his drink. “When we met… and then when we hooked up the first time… I may have… thoughtyouwereJason.”

He blinks. “Pardon?” he asks, mumbled around the straw.

Annabeth buries her head in her hands. “Please don’t make me say it again.”

“You… thought I was Jason?”

“Well,” she sputters, glaring at him through her fingers, “you were being all bro-y with Thalia!”

He is valiantly trying to hold in a smile. “You know, I distinctly remember telling you my name that morning.”

“I was really hungover,” she whines, “and you were shirtless and making breakfast so I wasn’t really… paying attention.”

“For a whole week?”

This is so embarrassing, why couldn’t she just keep her stupid mouth shut? “Yeah.” She slumps her shoulders, stuffing her hands into her jacket pocket. “Sorry.”

She’s not entirely sure what she expected: at best a couple of weird looks and a tentative promise to meet up later that would end up not working out, at worst she thinks he’ll just get up and leave her here at Bryant Park. Either way, they’d be doomed to months of awkward interactions, until eventually they wouldn’t be able to be around each other, and Thalia would have to pick a side--and Annabeth’s seen what Thalia does to people who cross her family. She’s seen Thalia beat a dude to pulp for calling Nico the f-slur. Picking Percy over Annabeth? That’s nothing.

So when he starts laughing, Annabeth is completely at a loss. Slowly, at first, then all at once, he’s laughing so hard his shoulders are shaking, and he has to put down his salad so it doesn’t topple over onto the grass. His head is tilted back in joy, the grey, late afternoon light adamant that Annabeth can see all of his features clearly, from his screwed up eyes to his bright, white teeth to the single dimple in his cheek.

Of course, even his laughter is hot. Asshole. 

“You thought I was Jason!” He shrieks.

Annabeth crosses her arms, scowling. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I really don’t mean to laugh,” he giggles. Annabeth can feel her own giggle rising in response, and she ruthlessly quashes it. “I can definitely say I’ve never heard that one before. You do know Jason is blond, right?”

“As a matter of fact, I did not. Besides, you and Thalia look exactly alike.”

He scoffs. “No we don’t.”

“Uh, yeah you do. You, Thalia, and Nico are all basically clones of each other.” 

“Okay, Captain Glasses, whatever you say.” He rolls his eyes, but there’s no heat behind it.

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth feels like she has to say again.

He cocks his head. “For what? For thinking I was Jason? He’s a pretty cool guy.”

“No, for,” she blushes again. All this blood rushing to her head can’t be good for her. “For sleeping with you when I still thought you were Jason.”

Percy scoots closer to her, throwing her a grin and slinging his arm over her shoulders. Without even realizing that she’s doing it, she settles in beside him like she’s been doing it her whole life, slotted up against his torso, tucking her booted feet beneath her legs. “I am choosing to take that as a compliment,” he says, smirking. “You couldn’t resist my charms, even when you thought I was a brogrammer.” 

Annabeth can’t help herself. She kisses him, wiping that smug grin right off his face, and when she finally retreats, after what feels like hours, he looks so dazed she could probably keep calling him by any name she wanted and he wouldn’t even realize it.

After their lunch, they meander for hours, headed in a vaguely southerly direction, holding hands the whole time, a steady, uninterrupted flow that took them all the way from Midtown to Greenwich Village. He tells her about his first day at ballet school; she tells him about her favorite monuments. “There are two architectural environments in America,” she says, ranting, speaking with enough force that she might forget the feeling of his hand in hers, “endless dead suburbia, or cities where every single building is either a concrete or a glass block--and not even Brutalist concrete, just shitty, poorly designed, paint-by-numbers concrete. It is an absolute travesty of modern government that they don’t fund any public works projects anymore.”

“That’s why all the gardens and stuff?” he asks.

“Nowadays everything is built by the lowest bidder. At least I get to add some beauty back into the city.”

“I know what you mean,” Percy says. “Paris is practically overflowing with public works, you almost forget about it sometimes.”

She sighs. “You’re so fucking lucky. Paris is so beautiful and everything in New York is just hideous.”

“Aw, come on,” he says. “Not everything. What about the Empire State Building, or Central Park?”

“Well, obviously, those,” she says, just a teensy bit flustered, but she’s not about to give up the argument without a fight. “I just mean like, normal, every day buildings: offices and apartments and stuff. It’s all so samey and boring.”

He looks to her right, pointing at the building they are passing. “What about this one?”

She turns.

If she had known they were headed this way, she never would have taken them past here.

“It’s… okay, I guess,” she mumbles, staring up at the arched windows, pedimented doors, and Rococo details of Miss Minerva’s Private Pre-College Prep School. A shudder goes down her spine, like someone walking over her grave. “There are better Beaux-Arts buildings.”

Sensing her discomfort, he picks up the pace, and changes the subject.

Finally, he stops outside a nondescript building, turning to face her. “This is me,” he says, a little bit mournfully, squeezing her hand. “Are you okay to get home safely?”

This man is ridiculous; it’s not even dark out. “I think I can manage a few blocks,” she says, lightly swatting him. “Isn’t it kind of early for you, though? It’s only four o’clock.”

He flushes faintly, one hand coming up to rub at his neck. “Uh, well, I always give myself a little extra time--you know, time blindness and everything.”

“You baked in extra time in case I wanted you to walk me home, didn’t you?” She mock-gasps, secretly delighted. “Scandal!”

“Guilty,” he grins. “You’ve been to mine so many times, I was curious.”

She just barely stops herself from laughing out loud at the very idea of Percy coming to her apartment--as if. Thalia hasn’t even been to her apartment. Nobody knows where she lives, none of her neighbors know who she is, and this is entirely by design. “Cut me some slack; a girl’s gotta have some mystery. Can’t make it too easy for you, can I?”

“I have a feeling you’ll never make things easy for me,” he says, white teeth gleaming.

“You better believe it,” she smiles back. “Now that I’ve foiled your plans, are you going to be too bored?”

“Oh, I’ll think of something,” he shrugs. “I’m very resourceful when it comes to boredom.”

Inspiration strikes, and she grasps his hand, pulling him down the alleyway. She almost hates to admit it, but she has something of a Pavlovian response when it comes to hanging out with Percy. Annabeth has come to expect some really excellent sex whenever the two of them meet up, and maybe spending all afternoon with him has made her a little bit horny. 

She presses him up against the brick wall, hidden from the street by the long afternoon shadows, and kisses him. His hands flounder for a second, before coming up to rest on her shoulders, this thumbs tapping against the base of her neck, fingers fluttering on her jacket. It’s an intimate touch, kind of chaste and very respectful, and he holds her with precision and grace. He wouldn’t do anything she wouldn’t want to. This is a date with no expectation of sex on his part. But Annabeth does not want grace right now, spooked by the ghost of her old school. She does not want precision. She just wants him. She just wants to keep him on his toes, keep him interested, blow his mind a little. 

She just wants to blow him, to be honest. 

He squeaks into her mouth as her hands fly to his belt, deft fingers practically ripping it off of him in an increasingly familiar motion. “H-hey,” he says, squeezing her shoulders, “this is--”

“Do you not want me to?” she asks, one hand playing at the top line of his underwear. 

“No--I mean, are you sure? I’m-I’m okay with this, I just want to--”

“I know.” She kisses his cheek, then drops to her knees. “But we’ve got some time to kill, don’t we.” 

Afterwards, when she’s finished with him, Annabeth wipes her mouth, and he whimpers. 

“Ho… holy shit,” he pants, flushed and trembling. 

She tucks him back into his boxers, doing up his fly. “There we go. That was better than being bored, right?”

He nods wordlessly, swallowing, shaking. His eyes are glassy and glazed, stupid like he’s just shot out his brain through his dick.

In the short time they’ve been together (though, honestly, this might be the longest relationship she’s ever been in before… and they haven’t even broached the “dating” conversation yet) Annabeth has been on the receiving end of several different Percy looks. His face will light up with joy when he first lays his eyes on her, so happy to see her (though she can’t really fathom why), glinting like the sun on the water. His eyes will narrow, glaring, even as he furiously tamps down on his growing smile when they start arguing over something stupid, like Annabeth’s affinity for olives. He’ll grin at her, knife sharp and slanted, licking his lips and looming over her after she comes down from yet another orgasm via his mouth or his hands.

Percy looks at her now like someone took a bat to his head, and instead of seeing stars, he sees little miniature Annabeths flying around. 

He pulls her to him and kisses her, entirely too sweet for what she’s just done to him, but that is also a very Percy thing. And when she leaves him with a final kiss on his cheek and squeeze of his ass, she can feel that look burning a hole through her jacket, following her down the alley and around the corner, and she finds that she doesn’t mind the weight of it at all.

[ohmyhera]

Headcanon #7

Imagine these two’s first real Halloween together as a couple

•Okay I feel like the one who surprisingly goes all out for Halloween is Will

•Actually it’s the entire Apollo cabin + some of the Hecate kids, it all starts on October 1st

•Nico walks into the Apollo cabin to greet Will and is very confused by the sound of spooky scary skeletons playing

•There’s only a few of them there, why must it be so loud?

•Will just laughs at his boyfriends confused face and the other campers beg him to summon some skeletons

•Nico does and is even more confused when the Hecate kids make the skeletons start dancing

•A few days later Will realizes that Nico was genuinely confused about the whole thing and starts talking about how Halloween is coming up

•Now Nico doesn’t really know what Halloween is—the boy was raised in 1930’s Italy he was catholic for Pete’s sake—but he kinda just nods along anyways

•No one is better at picking out a liar than an Apollo kid so Will keeps pressing him about it until Nico fesses up to having no idea what the holiday is

•When it finally clicks Will has never felt more stupid in his life, of course Nico wouldn’t know about Halloween

•This sends Will on a frenzy to make sure Nico has the best Halloween ever

•While Nico is out on a mini quest he spends time decorating the Apollo Cabin with fake cobwebs and spiders—he’s already given Annabeth the warning to stay away—and by the time Nico comes back it’s completely Halloweenifed

• “So the orange and black are traditional colors?”

• “Exactly”

•He practically begs Chiron to let them use the tv so he can show Nico the joy of Disney channel original Halloween movies

• “So they’re twin witches, and they just so happen to meet on their birthday?”

• “Don’t judge Disney!”

•And Nico falls in love, they sit there all day swaddled up in blankets and Nico thinks he can actually get behind this holiday

•Until the ugly sweaters

•That is where he draws the line

• “Nico just wear the damn sweater!”

• “You’ll have to kill me first!”

• “Me and Thanatos are good buddies so that can be arranged!”

•Will works something out with Chiron and the other campers so that him and Nico’s duties can be covered because he has something special in mind

• “Must we visit Naomi for every holiday tesoro?”

• “We’re not visiting my mama this time baby, you’ll see”

•Of course they go to visit Naomi first. Whenever Will is in town it’s like her mom senses start tingling and she just knows he’s there. Call it a gift from Apollo.

•Now it’s all fun and games until Naomi and Nico start talking because the two are obsessed with each other and making fun of Will

•They sit on the couch and drink pumpkin spice coffee that Nico just had to try while looking over Will’s old Halloween photos

• “And this is the year he was the sun from the Teletubbies-“

• “Mama stop it!”

•Eventually Will makes up some bs excuse about being in town on demigod business and practically drags Nico from the house

•The two walk for an almost unorthodox amount of time until Nico spots a Ferris Wheel coming into view

• “Is this the reason why I’m not training our kids to rip each other’s heads off?”

• “I-I-yes? Do you like it?”

• “Oh Will, I love it!”

•Then Will has a different problem on his hands

•Nico is an absolute child when he’s left to free range

•He’s never seen the boy have so much energy and it’s actually mind boggling

•He also seems to be an adrenaline Junkie which would be all well and good if Will wasn’t a healer.

• “Baby I don’t think this ride is safe-“

• “I can’t hear you, I’m already in line”

•They finish out the afternoon early because he promised Chiron they’d be back by midnight and Nico needed to rest before they shadowtraveled back

•They ended up back at Naomi’s who’s already waiting with cups of apple cider ready to hear about their demigod business

•Will tried to lie, he really did. But Naomi knew and he immediately cracked under the pressure

•He instead took this as an opportunity to make fun of Nico

• “Mama you should’ve seen him-“

• “Will-“

•“He was off faster than a shotgun at the Kentucky derby!“

•Nico wanted to laugh but he couldn’t help but recognize how similar the two honestly were. They both clapped their hands and stomped their feet as they laughed, it was freaky. He thought Will favored Apollo but maybe it was actually Naomi?

•Once the laugh fest was through and the apple cider was gone, Will gave Nico a few Ambrosia tablets—invention curtesy of the Apollo cabin—and sent him straight upstairs to take a nap

•Naomi immediately grills him on the dark haired boy

• “You love this boy don’t you?”

•“I...Of course I do mama, he’s my boyfriend-“

• “You know what I mean Will”

• “...I’ll tell him when I’m ready”

•The two say their goodbye to Naomi and Will’s heart was pounding the entire way back—or maybe he still wasn’t used to shadow travel—but he would tell Nico

•Halloween finally rolled around and Will surprised Nico with matching skeleton onesies

• “I could make you a skeleton for free”

• “...Is that a threat?”

•The whole camp had gone to the extremes of calling activities off and handing out candy to the younger campers

•Nico was in awe at that

• “You mean I get to eat as much as I want?”

• “As much as you want baby, that’s the beauty in the holiday”

•Once the day was through they decided to go back to the the hades Cabin to turn in for the night

•He had planned to tell Nico but the dark haired beat him too

• “Will I um...I’ve been wanting to tell you that I...I feel very strongly about y-“

• “I love you too Nico, so much”

• “Oh thank gods”

•They spend the rest of the night eating candy and sharing scary stories. will wasn’t sure what he was getting into with this because Nico had stories

•Later in the night when Will was fast asleep Nico couldn’t help but think over the last month and smile

•“Will?”

• “Mmyeah baby?”

• “I love Halloween”

A/n Hey guys I hope you liked this one! Sorry for the long wait, I’ve been real busy with school. If you guys want this in the form of a oneshot I’d actually love to write that because I had a lot of fun writing this one.

[rosesareviolentlyread]

BTHB: Forced to Beg

GUESS WHAT it’s more fae bb, she just refuses to stop coming up with ideas, so for now I’m using her for most of this BHTB card! I’ve already got quite a few planned out, but if you have a request for a square with another of my characters or just a scenario you’ve always wanted written, go ahead and send it in! 

If you want to read more, this is part of my Fae BB series, a modern magic world heavily inspired by @0idril0 and @whumpywhumper‘s Nico & Markus/Lucien series respectively (idk when I’ll stop plugging them and their series’ because I LOVE IT) I HIGHLY recommend you check them out. . On my blog page I have a summary and masterlist up now.

Follows sometime after Water

Thanks to @whumpywhumper​ @bleedingandfeverish​ and @straight-to-the-pain​ for beta reading and @quirkykayleetam​ for the idea!

CW: Intimate whumper, religious whump, captivity, toxic religion, creepy whumper, eye gore, SERIOUS eye gore, body horror

“What is this?” Pastor John holds a thick stack of papers in his hand. They’re covered more in handwritten colorful ink than the original black and white printed texts, notes squished into every available space in a rainbow of information. Careful, precise handwriting on crisp paper, that crumples and gives under the punishingly tight grip of the man, veins popping in his hands.

Sitting back on her heels, on her knees, Faith keeps her hands still, gently clenched on top of her thighs. She tries to keep her voice even,“I-I was researching, about the Fae. About myself. It is where I failed in my path, in my work. ‘First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.’ “ 

A deep sigh comes in reply, an echo of disappointment lingering in the air. “Luke 6:42, very good. Yes, I know, we discussed this. I agreed to give you back your research, so you could look at it with new eyes, to see the wickedness you were born into. But these—” He squats in front of her, sharply pressed slacks crumpling on top of old leather loafers in her downcast vision. The papers flub-blub-flub in his hands as he shakes them, a curious sound that would make her giggle if not for the severity of the clipped tone. “These, Fae, look an awful lot like notes on magic. Spells. And ways to perform them.” 

“T-They are, Pastor. But only for understanding how it works. The nature of my sin.” 

It’s a weak excuse, a bad excuse, a stupid excuse. God above, how stupid was she, to think she could lie and get away with this?

Silence weighs down upon her thickly, the world of lies she’s been living in pressing in on all corners. Lies that have weighed on her since before she knew them. But that weight is no longer intangible, now he can see it, she can feel it. The burden of her sin has fallen on her shoulders, and she’s chosen to carry it. 

But after all, God isn’t supposed to tempt you beyond your ability. That there would be escape with the temptation. The problem was, what was the temptation, and what was the escape? 

Somehow, she’d thought that maybe if she had been born magic, been born to all those things supernaturals believed in, something in that magic could be the thing to save her. Could be the sign she’d been looking for. 

Because when the fire in the water, the attempt of iron baptism to burn her sin, had met her soul, it hadn’t just burned away the edges of faith concealing who she really was. It had ignited something within her, some temptation she’d always known, which had followed to this point. Had followed, to her folly, again thinking it was the escape God intended for her.  

God had no mercy for Eve, and he would have none for guilty Fae who have chosen the apple over the garden. 

A hand tilts her chin until she’s looking at his eyes. His eyes that are slightly red, tears budding at the edges that she hopes are flowers of forgiveness, the forgiveness he preaches to her, the forgiveness that is the only thing she prays for now. From her supernatural friends, for not listening. From her parents, for lying. From her brother, for everything.

“Why would you lie?” His voice breaks, leather tones cracking like a brittle piece left to dry in the sun. With it, a tear falls, bright against the irritated blotchiness of his skin, a wet sound to his breath. “After all we’ve done, Fae, all our— why would you lie rather than ask for forgiveness?” A hand so soft and gentle cups her face, brushing a thumb across her cheekbone. Her own tears smear with it across her cheek as she leans into the touch. 

“I’m sorry.” 

No, that’s a lie too, if she’s honest. She’s not sorry for trying to escape this hellway to heaven. But the fact is she put herself here. Let herself fall back into sin again and again.  Forgot how to be truthful, how to be honest and think of anything but herself. Had she ever really? Had she ever meant it? 

Was she Eve, tempted into sin, or a devil in disguise here to tempt the faithful?

“I don’t see it. Show me, show me you are sorry” She watches with pleading eyes as he gets up, figure blurred to her tearful regret. He moves away, the gentleness gone. Arms are clasped in front of him, waiting, a stone statue gazing down on her, leaving her to make her own contrition.

“Please, please. I am sorry, I am. I lied. I was- was tempted by it. Again. I should’ve known” 

Silence meets her, unmoving, unwavering, unsatisfied. 

So she tries again. 

“C-corinthians 10:13 says,  God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, so I was tempted, tempted to see what magic could do but God, my love for him, would never let me be tempted to do magic. The knowledge, that was- was my escape from temptation. To know, so I wouldn’t be tempted to do. Please Pastor I recognize it was wrong, I know, I knew and I did. Please by the Lord’s mercy forgive me” 

It’s absolutely a lie, now. Because she’d tried to use those tiny tendrils she felt in her body, a whisper of a voice of a song she didn’t know, couldn’t know.  But as those eyes bore into her, her body starts shaking, using all the movement he should be. But he’s just standing there, silent, as more words pour out of her mouth, as she mistakes proverbs and words in her stumbles to try and explain, to try and reconcile her actions.

The silence leaves her with nothing to do but try not to drown in her repeated mistakes, drops in a bucket turned tub turned ocean of her own making. Why was she so incapable of doing the right thing? Of doing what he said and leaving? Why did she insist on making herself take two steps back for every step forward, putting her foot in her mouth even now. 

Her penitential deluge is interrupted by a sigh, stopped dead in its tracks.  After what feels like an eternity of stoned silence, the Pastor turns swiftly, leaving her with nothing but the thud of his steps before there’s a return to silence. 

Her brain tries to comprehend what it means, tries to dissect every minuscule facial movement imagined or not seen in the shadows of the dark. Did he forgive her? Did he believe her? What had she even said? The memories of her own words slip through her fingers like water, as ‘should’ve’s’ and better words come to mind. 

Her panicked race of thoughts is interrupted by the creak of stairs coming back down. Distinctive by now as they evoke the hope of mercy and the fear of discovery, the duality of her new existence, her limited choices. 

This time, she prays it’s hope she feels. 

When she opens her eyes to see John holding a box filled with things, it is instead a rabbit-hearted dread.

“Pastor?” 

His breath hitches through his nose, voice almost cracking. “I prayed, I did, that we could prevent this. But I see, now, that we may have to take a push forward to prevent a backslide.” He sets the box down, but she doesn’t dare look, doesn’t dare look away from the kindness in his eyes, the gentleness of his hands that is all she can cling to down here. 

And gently, those hands lay her down, one rubbing circles into the back of her head while the other presses on her sternum in an unspoken command that makes her fold like paper. It feels like a dream almost, something unreal, something that’s happening to someone far away as hands are pulled above her head, fastened together and to a wooden beam tightly, so tight it’s tingling in her fingertips like tiny fireworks as blood struggles to meet them. 

The box scrapes against the ground, and she feels a heavy weight settle on her pelvis, her eyes refusing to look away as John pulls on a pair of purple gloves. 

“Matthew 18:9,” is what he says as a latex finger goes to flick a tear that’s leaked out of her eye harshly, the material dulling the warmth of his skin, an alien touch that suddenly makes him feel less human, but more real. 

Matthew 18:9. Matthew 18:9. What is Matthew 18:9? 

The hand goes to squeeze her shoulder muscle, sending a lance of pain up her numbing arms, eyes shooting open wider. 

“Fae. What is Matthew 18:9?” The voice becomes rigid. Severe. Bitter. Like the time where she was struggling to breathe as iron-laced water flooded her lungs. When she failed to be purified by it, burning in a pooled hell. 

As the pressure increases, feeling like it’ll crush her muscle, her brain finally scrambles to find the words, fallen from her mouth practically unbidden

“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.”

The shock of realization makes her twist, thrash under the weight that sinks down on her torso, preventing movement alongside the ropes that cut into her skin with friction, barely allowing any flow of blood and turning her arms into numb weights.

“No, please, please no. I’m sorry, I’m sorry Pastor, please forgive” she scrambles for a plea, a phrase, something she hasn’t used yet. “J-James 2:13! Mercy triumphs over judgement.” But the hands ignore her, shuffling through supplies, wiping something cold and stinging all around her right eye.

 “Pleasedon’tdothis, 1 John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’. PleasepleasepleasePLEASE!” Her voice is high and airy in her throat as she struggles to pull in air between the real weight of John on her chest, and the weight of her own panic allowing only the shallowest sips to reach her lungs. 

The hands stop and sigh, directing her gaze to his face. Her breath stops at meeting the cold gravestone slate of his eyes, frozen by his touch. 

“Proverbs 19:8 ‘Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.’ I have shown you mercy. I cannot abide your crying anymore without punishment Fae.”

The tears start to flow as the stinging returns to her eyes, pleas now just helpless sobs as he sets objects beyond her eyesight. There’s the distinct smell now of antiseptic, overpowering. She watches him take a swig of clear liquid from a bottle next to her before he pours it over his hands, rubbing them together. 

“I wish there was another way. Your eyes, they see such awful words, they read such terrible things and give you ideas. I forgive you, but He will not Fae. I’m sorry.” 

His tone is resolute even as it fades into a gruff apology, body adjusting to squash the last of her apologies, breath escaping her flesh even as she wishes she could follow it. 

The hand readjusts to pry open the lids of her right eye, thick fingers too strong for the weak muscle. The liquid burns but she can’t close them against it, eyes watering until he’s a blur in her forced vision. The wetness of her tears coats the latex, and a second hand comes to touch her eye itself. Fae’s back attempts to arch under the strain, body screaming with a not supposed to be there don’t touch thatnotsupposedtoTOUCH!

It’s a sharp pressure that builds quickly overwhelming her senses. Sobs turn to screams, wailing on every exhale, short between breaths. It could be minutes. It could be seconds. But the pain feels like an eternity as every piece of her screams against the intrusion to the softest, most vulnerable, most exposed of her organs. The world goes white, pain turned into high pitched noise in her ears as her heart struggles to keep up, a rhythm of thumpthutmpthutmpthump that speeds impossibly fast in her chest. 

And then there’s a pop. Sickening, slimy, a noise that reminds her in a delirious amount of pain like the sound of a sucker out of someone’s mouth. Quiet, slightly slurpy as it’s crushed and pulled, leaking not just tears but now blood and fluid. It’s disquieting to hear it. 

It’s most disquieting to see it freed, for a moment. The world drifting in a nauseating set of two distances, warping to her brain as he doesn’t stop. No. He pulls. 

As the cord snaps, she remembers hearing about the dangers of taut ropes. Of how, when they snap, they whiplash back, causing severe injury. The physics teacher had demonstrated on a rubber band, and she remembers the small snap on her hand that day as she tried it with a lab partner. The feeling like her skin had torn open. 

She has no idea if the nerves react like a rubber band, but her brain tells her that they have. That her entire right side has been whiplashed, shattered bone, ripped skin, blood pouring in heated rivulets until all she can taste is copper and pain. Her face is gone, skull crushed by agony as it booms within in an explosion like a firework set off far too close. A haphazard celebration. 

And it’s his smile of celebration holding a piece of her that she sees as the other half of her world goes dark.

Tags:@bleedingandfeverish @starry-whump  @whumpywhumper​ @greatandquestionablecontent​ (let me know if you want to be added or removed from the tag list!)

[skamamoroma]

I like your analyses, but the problem with WTF3 is that when you start to look into the plot, nothing makes sense. Apparently Robbe knew where Sander was staying, he arrived after Sander checked himself out. How come he didn't go earlier that week? You interpret what you see but ultimately this show is the result of flawed writing. So I think your analyses give far too much credit to the writers, because you think they planned this all along, whereas I feel nothing makes sense this season.

Love, you’re absolutely welcome to your views!

I just happen to disagree on a few points, that’s all.

To me, there’s a reason Robbe didn’t go earlier and that’s because of the post I made yesterday...

Robbe has believed that what he had with Sander wasn’t real. He was told that and told to stay away by Britt and Jana and his insecurities meant that he believed them... he said as much yesterday - aka “I broke up with him before he could break up with me”. Then he was given insight from a totally stand along person with no agenda that said “think about it, his actions and feelings are real, I know this as I have personal experience”. So Robbe reached out. He didn’t press Sander, he didn’t force him, he just told him straight up how he felt. Hearing nothing he was worried and kept checking and thinking about him and then he gets a message to confirm effectively that his first worries were true... and he thought he’d messed it all up.

He hasn’t shown gumption in this way yet. He has so much strength but his insecurities are RIFE and we’ve seen it time and time again. He’s in love for the first time and Sander behaves oddly for a while and he is a flawed confused young guy. It doesn’t surprise me that he acted in this way... all the other Isak’s did. They all fumbled.

This is just taking it a little further.

Sander is just doing what Even and Nico and Eliott said they should do - run. Joana DID it and she and Sander have this in common. And Cris did similar stuff to Robbe here... and she learned she had to trust her gut and fight for what she wants because she is GOOD at it and deserves it and the love alongside it.

I’m not reading into a storyline I’ve seen time and time again. Wtfock are just doing their own thing, heightening stuff we haven’t seen in other remakes. This is THEIR story while also being a remake. We’re just seeing a representation of what Sander thinks should happen - aka stay away from people because he hurts them. He needs reassurance as much as Robbe does.

They will give it to each other.

Some of the writing is flawed as it is with all tv shows... but I don’t see THIS as flawed because I can see their intentions. This isn’t the original or Skam France or Skam Italia etc, this is their own thing. If you measure this story from the perspective of the original or the remakes then it won’t make sense. They’ve chosen to heighten and change some things and to focus specifically on some issues, to show things that maybe other remakes touched on and to not touch stuff others have explored. That doesn’t, to me, mean it’s bad, it just means it’s different.

I don’t see this as bad writing because I can follow the emotional through line. I can see why the characters are doing what they’re doing. It hasn’t left me with a lack of understanding yet. Some stuff could be fleshed out a little more at times but it’s an issue the og and the remakes also had because they’re working with time constraints and POV etc. The original left so many unanswered and unexplored issues... but I still understood the emotional journey and the behaviour and feelings of the characters. Watching this show expecting it to be the original in terms of the characters choices and decisions will only lead to disappointment. Try to watch it entirely without a lens but as a fresh and new story. OHN isn’t OHN here. Yeah it’s easier to write “OHN clip” but I don’t expect a carbon copy or for them to do it in the same way. Isak ran because he knew where Even was and Even’s message prompted his action. Sander has not done that. Robbe has not been able to run because Sander has cut himself off and disappeared. We don’t know what is happening at the moment in the interim and yes we could use some texts, of course, but social media is never well used in many of the remakes. It has to make sense through clips and the texts can only supplement. They’d have to include important texts in clips which they don’t have time for.

And I am absolutely interpreting what I see because that’s what I do when I watch a tv show

I’m so sorry it doesn’t work for you, love. I am. But it does for me. I have my criticisms, as I do with all shows and I’m not afraid to make them but I have to disagree with you. If I was so annoyed and so disappointed with a show then I would stop watching or distance myself from it 😊❤️

[ythmir-writes]

fandom: Midnight Cinderella character: Albert Burkchardt warnings for uhmmm that citrus fruit scale where its vanilla

hellyeahokaythis is i THINK MY FIRST FANFIC for MidCin i have nothing to say formyself 

originally posted on main original timestamp: 30 September 2015

Damn That Dress

When you dress up like that, I want to keep you all to myself.”

The words had been running through Albert’s head all night and for the umpteenth time, he tried his damnest to steady his heart. He could still remember the blush on (Y/N)’s face, followed by a small pout, and the words, “But I picked this out for you.”

He didn’t have it in his heart to make her change the outfit. How could he? He was certain that a lot of thought had been put into choosing the dress, not to mention the hours and cost of hiring people to have it made. But what stuck with him the most was what the princess had said.

It was for him.

He couldn’t explain it even to himself why he said what he had said. The only thing he was sure of, was that if it was for him then he wanted it for him alone. Just for his eyes alone. And he had said it, hadn’t he? At first he wanted her to change outfits. He could still feel the almost overwhelming desire to scoop her up and bring her to his room. But then thought against it. That would be rude. And certainly not the way a Stein knight should act.

So he had agreed, begrudgingly, and escorted (Y/N) to the ballroom. He had almost regretted it instantly, what with the nobles and bureaucrats swarming around her instantly. Even King Byron had approved of her gown, and Nico had pleasantly commented on how gorgeous she looked. For a moment he wanted to make something up in order for her to definitely change. He didn’t like the way the other people stared at her, and he dared not imagine what they were thinking. Just when he was about to decide, (Y/N) motioned for him to come closer, and when he had reached her, she had stood on the tips of her toes and whispered,

“They can look all they want but this for you, Al.”

Albert couldn’t quite hide the blush he knew was forming on his cheeks, “Of course. I knew that.” And he coughed nervously, hoping the blush would go away quickly.

(Y/N) giggled at him, and for what seemed to be fiftieth time that night, Albert could feel a warm need growing inside him.

The end of the ball came not soon enough for him. Nico and the other knights had seen to the other guests, including (Y/N), who had her hand casually on Nico’s arm. Albert tried not to think about it too much, and focused on escorting King Byron to his chambers.

“Wait a minute, Albert.” King Byron called out to him just as he was about to leave. “Tonight’s ball, how did you find it?”

Albert’s brows furrowed. “It was excellent, your majesty. The guests were very much pleased. And if I’m not mistaken, one of our lords was able to a secure a good deal with Laurelia’s nobles with regards to rights for breeding with our horses. Everything according to your plans, your majesty.”

“Hmmmm.” King Byron raised his eye to look at him. “And what about your plans? Did they go just as well?”

“I don’t understand -”

“You’ve been looking at her. All night.”

Albert almost cursed himself as he felt himself blush yet again. “King Byron, I was making sure the princess was not being bothered or harrassed by any of the other nobles. Our relations with Wysteria is just as crucial as all the other countries. As captain of the knights, it is my duty to ensure that the ball goes as smoothly as possible for all our guests. Princess (Y/N) is important and valuable to m- Stein, and I will not allow any harm to come to her.”

King Byron smiled at him, and motioned towards the door. “You may take your leave, Al. If you don’t hurry, she might just fall asleep. Nico escorted her to her room, didn’t he?”

Albert bowed deeply, unable to say the things he had in his mind about the fact that he had seen Nico chatting with the princess all night long, and settled for, “Thank you, your majesty. Good night.”

Without missing a beat, Albert quickly headed towards (Y/N)’s chambers, his head filled with thoughts he wasn’t all too familiar with, and a strong, needy desire in his gut that had been demanding his attention the moment he had seen (Y/N) that night.

He didn’t hesitate to knock upon reaching her chambers and when he heard a voice telling him to come in, he didn’t even think twice.

“Sir Albert.” (Y/N) stood up from her chair, smiling. But then her smile turned to concern.“Is there anything wrong? You look troubled.”

“It’s late. Your not changed yet.” Albert closed the door behind him slowly and dared not take another step. Not when he could feel all sorts of things in him. Not with her hair a messy tumble of (H/C).

And her dress. Goddamn that dress.

It was the color of midnight sky, with pearls as stars scattered across the universe. It had a high collar and was rather conservative at front, with intricate rose and lily embrodieries. But it was the fact that her entire back was exposed that had set off alarm bells inside Albert’s head. Not to mention the fact that the gown was snugly fitting her waist and showing of her collar bones and shoulders quite temptingly.

“I’m sorry, I had requested for some tea to help me calm down.” Again her smile. “You know how it is after these events. I still get the jitters after.” She motioned towards the chair. “Would you like to join me?”

Albert couldn’t have said no. He crossed the room in two steps and stood beside the princess, taking the teapot to pour tea for them both. He noticed that the cup before him was already filled with warm, jasmine tea. And he was just about to say something about it when (Y/N) cut him off.

“I have been expecting you,” she said, blushing up to her ears. “Or rather, I had hoped you would come. But I didn’t really think you would. It’s just that you were so busy and all, and I didn’t want to cause trouble. I wanted -”

Albert leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. She tasted like the sweet tarts that had been served as dessert earlier, strawberries and cream, and his head whirled with thoughts of doing more. He kissed her again, deeper this time, savoring the way she tasted and the way she moved her lips against his.

He tried to steady himself as he moved his head away. He kept one hand firmly on the small of the (Y/N)’s back, keeping her close. She was blushing, and was looking up at him with her mouth still slightly open. With his free hand, he traced her lips gently, and he felt her quiver under his touch.

And that was all what Albert needed to push him over the edge. With one swift movement, he lifted her up in his arms. She gave a small laugh, half surprised half delighted, her arms instinctively wrapping around his neck, and she moved to kiss him again. With practised ease, he walked towards the bed, and sat down, steadying her on his lap.

(Y/N) reached to take his glasses but he caught her wrist, his grip both gentle and firm, and said, “I like to keep them on.”

“But we might break them again.” She said. “The last time you -”

He shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. I want to see you properly all throughout.” And without saying anything else, he kissed her again, hungrily, pouring his desire unto her as he found her tongue. She moaned, her hands on his chest, and he felt himself harden at the sound.

He moved his lips to her neck, nibbling. When he reached its base, he bit her and (Y/N) moaned, her hands moving to his hair. He could feel her getting warmer all over, especially between her legs.

His hands moved to the her back, tracing her exposed skin, making her moan further with anticipation and pleasure. He found the small clasps at the the base of her spine, unhooking them with a swiftness that was urgent and needy. For a moment, he thought it was a shame for her to take it off but he wanted to feel her skin against him, wanted to feel her warmth all over him.

She moaned his name as the dress came free and she tugged at his clothes too, unclasping the hooks of his uniform and finally removing his shirt. Her fingers moved to trace the scar on his chest, and he couldn’t help but kiss her as she did. He felt her hesitate for a moment, and he looked at her.

She was blushing again, yet there was a glow to her skin now. And he looked at her with wonder.

“What is it, Al?” She asked.

He couldn’t explain it. He just felt it and damn did he feel deeply. He placed one hand behind her neck, the other moving up her back, pulling her closer. And he whispered, “Mine.”

He was on top of her now, his hand holding both of her wrists above her head, his knee parting her legs. Her breathing was partly ragged, partly moaning as he moved and filled her up. She tensed, then relaxed, and Albert himself let escape a moan.

If anybody were to ask Albert what he felt about the Princess of Wysteria, he knew he wouldn’t be able to answer straight. He was a knight of Stein after all, and issues were complicated at best. But he didn’t want that to be the starting point of his explanation on how it made him happy to hear her laugh, of how he wanted to protect her (something he doubted the knights of Wysteria could accomplish), of how he wanted to always be by her side. But most importantly, of how much he loved her.

Albert watched (Y/N)’s expression change, her breathing shallower and quicker, her legs tensing around his waist. He let her wrists go and she instantly raised her hands and moved to link themselves around his neck. He continued to move, aware of his nearing orgasm.

Without missing a beat, he raised himself up, (Y/N)’s legs following suit, still wrapped around him. She gave a small surprised yelp that turned into a low, husky moan as his thrusts were deeper, harder. In response, (Y/N)’s legs almost went limp, and he felt her almost clamping around him as he continued.

“Albert, I’m-” She wasn’t able to finish her sentence, the rest lost as she moaned with pleasure, her legs twitching, her hips responding to his. She tried holding on to his arms but she could only reach his chest, and when her nails dug at his skin, Albert came as well, moaning as he did.

He did his best to try not to collapse on top of her, and succeeded at doing so beside her instead. She giggled at him, her eyes still glazed with pleasure.

“Your glasses didn’t slip this time.” She said, raising herself up on her elbows, and planting a kiss on his cheek.

“No, it didn’t.” He answered. “I wouldn’t want to miss all those expressions on your face. I love the way you look whenever i take you to bed.”

At this, (Y/N) let out a laugh.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no. Its just that you’re so honest.” She said. “And that’s what I love most about you, Albert.”

Albert’s eyes widened, then he smiled. He moved to face her, his arm around her waist possessively. “I’m sorry I asked you to change earlier. That wasn’t right. I shouldn’t be jealous like that. It’s just that,” He paused, “I didn’t like the idea of other people having impure thoughts about you.”

(Y/N) shook her head. “It’s all right, I’m not angry about that anymore. I just wanted to be beautiful for you tonight. I wanted you to be proud of me, in a way.”

“I’ll always be proud of you.” Albert moved a lock of hair from her face. “And you looked absolutely stunning tonight. Just as you always do.”

She beamed at him, and he felt her swell with pride. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Yes.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Yes, you did.”

[partlycharlie-archive]

EP: things leo does; by jason grace

chapter 1. realization link to chapter 2

summary: 1. no, mom, i'm not in love with leo. yes, i know, his hair is very curly and very cute and his smile is adorable and his suspenders basically make my day and the way his eyes crinkle at the corners makes me want to Die but - fuck. word count: 2,246 warnings: i don’t think there’s anything but let me know a/n: a birthday fic for @caiprisa i love you!!! i'm sorry i couldn't get this out yesterday >:( but here it is i hope yall like it ahh!!! read on ao3

1. chews on the end of pencils when he's concentrating

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Hey, Leo.”

“Hey, Jason.”

“Hey, Leo. Guess what.”

“Hey, Jason. What.”

“Hey, Leo? Stop chewing on your fucking pencil.”

Leo finally looks up from the blueprints he's working on, bright red mechanical pencil still shoved in between his teeth.

“Okay…” he says, eyes tracking the movement of the lead as it bobs up and down in time with his words. “Am I distracting you?”

Jason’s eyes track the movements too, until he realizes that he’s literally watching Leo’s mouth and hurriedly glances away. “Okay - first, I’m literally doing nothing? I’m just sitting here, I dunno what you could be distracting me from. Second, no , but you tend to complain way too fuckin’ much when you go to erase some mistake or whatever and realize that you’ve bitten all the erasers off of your ridiculously expensive pencils.”

The brunet grins reluctantly in response, slowly letting the rubber end of his pencil tip until it falls out of his mouth, and they both watch as it lands on the wooden floor with a decisive crack . “Well, then.” He turns back to his sketch - an outline for Jason’s newest cabin, since Hera knows he’d never be able to do it himself (and boy, does she love to complain about how he can’t do any of his fucking work) - and silence overtakes the bunker.

Jason glances over at the flashing dialog clock stationed on the wall, squinting when the neon red numbers swim in front of his eyes before settling into straight lines.

3:06 AM.

Holy shit - when the hell did it get this late? He looks at Leo again and finds bloodshot eyes, ruffled hair that’s had a hand pushed through it one too many times, bags under his eyes and an almost manic smile on his face that stays present even as he grumbles at himself for a mistake in his measurements. Jason’s eyebrows scrunch up and he leans back into the swivel chair he uses whenever he and Leo are in the bunker together. He decides not to focus on the fact that he’s there so often that he has a designated place to chill - that, and the sudden realization that Leo made it that way.

Anyway.

“Leo.”

The boy in question throws his hands up and spins around wildly in his chair, going in circles for a while before finally settling to meet Jason's eyes. “¿Que quieres de mi?” [t - What do you want from me?]

Jason smiles a tiny bit- just a lift of the corners of his mouth, really. “You realize it's 3am, right?”

Leo's mouth drops open and he scrambles out of his chair, almost falling onto the floor in his search for his watch. Jason doesn’t tell him about the giant neon clock that he built, perfectly content to watch him look around like a maniac. “Shit, Jake's gonna kill me…” he finally mumbles, burying his face in his hands.

Jason smiled, “It'll be fine. C'mon, let's start heading back.”

  2. forms one hand into a peace sign when he takes photos

Jason's eyes widen as a blur of Piper-shaped color speeds past he and Leo, holding something vaguely similar to a Polaroid camera.

"You do realize that's not an actual Polaroid camera, right? The Polaroid company stopped making the original cameras like a decade ago or somethin’." Leo looks up at him with a mildly amused expression, as if he thinks the statement is common knowledge. Leo thinks this, of course, because he is a weirdo with obscure immediate processing camera knowledge.

Is he thinking out loud?

“Nah, not really,” Leo says, shrugging his shoulders and adjusting the straps of his suspenders almost immediately after. Apparently Jason had immediately continued thinking out loud while wondering whether he was thinking out loud, because that’s just his life. “You just mumbled something about Polaroids and I figured it was in reference to the running Piper blob.”

“Huh. That’s interesting. Everyone just calls them Polaroids, so I guess I never really thought about it. What are they called, then?”

Leo pauses for a second. “Well. I don’t think the film or pictures or whatever has an actual name - which is why everyone just calls the pictures Polaroids - but I’m vaguely sure the brand of camera is Fujifilm or something. I haven’t used one of those since I got my DSLR one, but I’m pretty sure they sell for, like, 60 bucks in the city.” Jason nods, a thoughtful look settling on his face in the form of a tilted eyebrow.

“THERE YOU ARE!” Leo and he jump about a foot in the air (Jason having to fight his instinct yelling at him to fly the fuck away, and Leo almost slamming himself into Jason’s back) when Piper runs back to stand in front of them. She’s got a hopeful look on her face and a wild look in her eyes, and neither of the conflicting emotions make Jason feel any better about the camera in her hands.

“I’ve been looking for you guys everywhere! Where the hell have you been?” she asks, breath still shaky from all the running she’s probably been doing. Leo and Jason share a amused glance.

Leo speaks up. “We’ve been here for like an hour, Pipes. I dunno how you haven’t seen us yes - we’ve been sitting here for like half an hour and you ran right past us only a minute ago."

Piper narrows her eyes at Leo, seemingly reluctant to accept his explanation, but shrugs and settles on the soles of her feet with a goofy grin. “Well, it doesn't really matter now that I've found you, right? Anyway, I need your help with something. It's not serious, don't worry about that, but I'd really really really appreciate it.”

Leo smiles widely at her, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Sure, as long as it doesn’t lead to the possibility of my graceful, yet horrific and destructive death. What's up?”

She rolls her eyes and ignores him, turning just the slightest bit to face Jason instead. “Do you think you could help me get pictures of everyone? I’m, uh, planning on heading to New Rome in a bit- with Nico? If he’ll take me, y'know." She shrugs. "It’s summer, though, and since everyone’s here I’d, uh," she coughs suddenly, "like to get as many pictures as I can.” Jason can hear the tone of wistfulness in Piper’s voice, and he winces internally in sympathy.

The war hadn't ended all that long ago - neither had their relationship - and the wounds were still fresh, in both cases. He, at least, could understand the desire to make memories that would last.

Heads turns towards Leo as he starts bouncing on the tips of his toes, his face lit up in excitement. “Yeah, sure! Sounds awesome to me! How many people do you want to take photos of? Do you have enough film? Do you want to be in the photos? Do you want us to be in the photos? Are they going to be candids? Where are you going to put them? When do you-”

“Leo, chill, okay? I’m taking things one step at a time.” Leo grins sheepishly and stops bouncing ignoring the confused stares from bystanders (fucking New York - Jason can never get a break from staring people, he swears ). “Can I take a photo of you two first?” she asks.

Jason and Leo both nod at Piper simultaneously, then look at each other with happy grins on their faces. "Yeah, let's do it!"

Piper steps forward, pulling her camera out of the case hanging from her neck. Jason and Leo both scramble to get into some kind of position for the picture. The shorter of the two slings an arm around the taller boy’s shoulder- Jason, in turn, wraps his arm around Leo's waist, his thumb brushing against Leo's slender hipbone.

Piper beams, aiming it towards the two.

"Alright, ready? One, two, th - Connor I swear to god if you don’t get out of the shot I’m going to literally murder you - okay, ready? - alright, here we go -" Jason feels a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye but ignores it until the flash of the camera goes off. He turns to face Leo, who, at the last moment, had thrown up a peace sign in front of his face. With wide eyes, Jason slowly looks back at Piper, who has lowered the camera and is waiting for the picture to come out. She doesn’t seem very surprised- all she does is raise an eyebrow in response. What?

Jason’s face twists. Does he always do that?

She shrugs, and Leo shifts under Jason’s weight. Jason draws back a bit, surprised by Leo’s casual acceptance of his arm in such an intimate position, and Leo looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows.

You okay?

Jason smiles widely, running a thumb over the smooth skin on Leo’s hip and pretending to ignore the small shudder that goes through the smaller boy. Yeah, I’m fine.

  3. covers his mouth with his hand while laughing

"Hey, Leo." Jason's voice is colored with hidden amusement.

The brunette in question lifts his head briefly from where he's hunched over, playing with some sort of toy helicopter.

"Yeah?" he asks, already starting to smile.

"What did the Vikings name their plant?"

Leo snorts. "Fuck if I know."

Jason starts laughing before he even starts the sentence. "L-LEAF Erikson!"

Leo, despite himself, feels his mouth start to stretch wide into a grin. Before he knows it, Jason and he are both sitting on the ground, heads buried in their hands and shoulders shaking with giggles.

"H-hey, hey, Leo," Jason manages.

Leo doesn't bother trying to respond, instead just flopping a hand in Jason general's vicinity.

"Wh-why did the s-skeleton wan-want a friend?"

Leo sighs in mock exasperation, his raucous laughter finally dying down in favor of a response. "Why?"

Jason's eyes crinkle. "Because he was BONELY!" Leo immediately bursts out in laughter, slapping a hand across his mouth in what appears to be a reflex.

How has he never noticed that before?

God, he loves Leo’s laugh. It’s more like a giggle than anything - all high-pitched and bubbly; his mouth stretches into the widest smile Jason’s ever seen, and his tongue sticks out between his teeth just a little bit, and holy fuck Jason’s in love with Leo.

Shit.

  4. talks in spanish when he gets frustrated

“ … ¿y por qué? Porque Nyssa es una puta, y no puede hacer una tarea tan simple como esta - y ahora tengo que hacer esta mierda yo solo, porque todos los demás son demasiado jodidamente estúpido para hacerlo. Dios mio… ” [t -  …and why? Because Nyssa’s a whore, and can’t complete a task as simple as this - and now I need to do this shit by myself, because everyone else is too fucking stupid to do it. My god…]

Jason’s eyes widen minutely - he isn’t fluent by any means, but he knows enough to get by, and to tell that Leo is seriously pissed.

He raps on the door of the Hephaestus cabin softly, poking his head in and watching as sunlight starts to filter in through the doorway. Leo sets his hammer down with a bang , and Jason twitches.

“ Jesuchristo… yes, Chris, I know I haven’t eaten in fourteen hours, yes, Chris, I’m aware that I haven’t eaten in longer, but if none of you are willing to help me finish this I don’t really have any other option.” Leo trails off into a series of angry mumbles as he lets out a soft sigh, and Jason frowns worriedly.

“Not Chris, but I can’t say I blame him for being worried about you.” Leo’s face transforms as he turns around in his chair; his eyebrows smooth out and he gets a tiny smile on his face and his eyes crinkle at the corners and he’s fucking gorgeous .

Ahem.

Jason clears his throat (and his mind, though less successfully) and shifts the tray balanced in his hands, holding it up for Leo’s inspection.

Leo finally looks down at the food on the tray and almost immediately stands up, grin getting wider despite his stumbling over the tool left on the floor next to his chair. Jason bites his lower lip in an attempt to hide the fond smile he knows he gets whenever Leo does something dumb.

“Damn,” Leo mutters, walking over to grab the tray from him. “I knew there was a reason I loved you.”

Jason swallows harshly. “Y’know, ‘loved’ kind of implies you don’t love me now - I’ve gotta admit, that’s a little disheartening.” Leo rolls his eyes exaggeratedly from where he’s setting down the overflowing tray of food (okay, yes, maybe Jason went a little overboard when wishing up food for Leo to eat, but what do you expect?) on his bed. He straightens up and lifts an outstretched hand in Jason’s direction, twisting his face into something vaguely representing heartbreak.

“Alas,” Leo says with conviction, “mine boiling love for thee hath faded into somethink simmering, not nearly as warming underneath thy soul!”

Jason starts to form a properly Shakespearean response in his head, then stops. “What the hell is that even supposed to mean?”

Leo shrugs. “I think I stopped being in love with you. Not that that would ever happen in real life, obviously.” He winks.

“Right. Obviously.”

[pinktatertots99]

the quest for the sun ray colored reigns - nanbaka fic

idea sinny @sugarpinkbloodtea​ gave me and I had to roll with it. I kinda thought of this too.

synops: there comes a time in every child's life where they follow the trail to adulthood and independence. and in young nadeshiko godai's life that one thing would be...her first errand.

"mother, father, I have an issue to discuss with you."

"sure dearest what is it?"

nadeshiko sat up on her seat, hands on the counter. "in every child's life between two to six years old, we all are on our way to the road of the future. be the next generation to lead into a brighter future. however, we can not unless we take our first step into it. the step...of independence."

both navarin and yamato stared at her wide eyed before smiling. "and, what would that be?" naravin asked.

"the first step to independence is a trifle we all take. a quest if you will, that will lead to the independence that we all crave for. and I, want that." she stated, pointing to the air in a triumphed pose. "I'd like a quest to prove my independence! to show I, nadeshiko godai, can be trusted with by you for the rest of my life!"

both parents had their hands clamped over their mouths as tears strolled down their eyes. 'HER FIRST ERRAND!' they thought. simultaneously they backed away from her, huddling into eachother.

"but what do we give her for a first errand?" navarin asked. yamato hummed in thought. "I mean, it should be a short errand. one that's not to far from here, but a good walking distance atleast."

yamato continued to hum throughout her rambling. "ah hah!" he suddenly exclaimed as he walked back to nadeshiko, navarin in tow as she watched him curiously.

"my pride of japan." yamato started. "indeed everyone wishes to walk down the road to their first independence. and just like them, you shall walk down that path."

nadeshiko's eyes widened almost sparkling as yamato smiled back, reaching into his pocket and taking out a slip of paper. passing it to her the paper showed a picture of a set of white and red horse reigns.

"papa was originally going to go get a new set for yamamato later. however, I think you'll have better direction than I." he stated, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassed. nadeshiko took the paper and held it to her closely. "i'll even draw you a map for the place okay?"

nadeshiko nodded as yamato left the kitchen, navarin following him quickly into one of the rooms. "a pet store. brilliant!" she exclaimed quietly. "I didn't even know you had this all planned."

yamato perked up at her as he grabbed a piece of paper. "planned? ...." both shared silence as yamato laughed exiting the room with a piece of paper. navarin sighed shaking her head before walking back out.

in no time the map was drawn and given to the younger. "and here." yamato said passing her small purse to her. "this has the delivery and money to pay for it." taking it's straps nadeshiko nodded as she left out the door. both parents waved at her as she left.

after a few minutes navarin quickly got her purse and shoes. "do you mind putting on your uniform?" she asked.

"but dear I thought you wanted to follow her not-"

"not for that but for the trip! just in case!" she exclaimed flustered as yamato gave her a nod and left for his suit.

the click clack of her Mary Jane's came to a halt as nadeshiko sighed to herself. she so wished her family could've seen her doing something so extraordinary as her first errand, especially her father. after him trying to be there for everything it felt pretty ironic he couldn't be here for this one moment.

she shook her head, this was how it was supposed to go. she started moving again, undeterred by two pairs of peeping eyes behind one of the buildings. through her small travel she never noticed her parents following behind, hiding anywhere they could find.

"she's doing very good." navarin commented as the two hid behind a wall whilst nadeshiko waited to cross a small street path. "ah then again I really should've expected such."

"mhm, that's the Japanese spirit running through her veins." yamato stated as the two looked to see her moving forward. a sudden wave fell through them however as before taking a step both pairs noticed a fast biker riding down the path, in a way that could lead to an accident. both hearts raced as they started moving to run.

"NADE-"

before they could finish the young girl quickly backed away from the path before getting hit, spinning and falling on her seat as she did. as the biker disappeared nadeshiko felt somewhat dizzy as she shook the fuzziness away. getting up she quickly resituated herself and started walking again. looking back behind her was nothing.

...she could've sworn she heard her parents voices. ...she shrugged as she continued onward.

the bell of the pet store door rung as nadeshiko entered. walking around she noticed all the fun looking accessories lining the store, long with the cute animals and merchandise for them. merchandise...right!

wandering around the isles she paused before going straight to the cash register, taking out the needed purchase and walked up to the desk, sliding the picture infront of the cashier.

"first errand?"

nadeshiko nodded as the cashier gave her a friendly smile. it only took a few minutes before she was given the reigns. rummaging through her purse she took out some dollars and coins, handing them to the other.

"have a safe trip." they said as nadeshiko was given her change and walking out. "thank you very much." she called as she left.

"ah! there she is." navarin stated, seeing her daughter leave the store. "quickly we gotta get home."

"alright then! i'll just call down a tax-"

"no time!" and with that navarin quickly picked her husband up and disappeared in a gust of wind.

"-and THAT'S how I retrieved the sun beamed reigns!" nadeshiko proclaimed proudly.

seitarou clapped his hands lightly with an amused smile as hajime watched out of boredom. "how lovely. your first errand. very well done." seitarou praised.

"so it IS a Japanese thing!"

all three looked to see four mischievous heads of cell 13 pop through the door. "still though, just running to get a pair of horse reigns is this big of an accomplishment?"

"hmph! why don't you go back to your stinky tower with your stupid hair!"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL MY-"

"ne ne was it really cool?!" nico butted in. "did you fight off any criminals?! rescue someone?!"

"...I got a pair of horse reigns."

"boring..." nico replied disappointingly.

"so jyugo," uno started, looking at him. "when's YOUR first errand huh?"

"shut up I don't-"

"he's too old to do a first errand." nadeshiko stated. "it's said anyone who doesn't complete a first errand at the right time are condemned to live with the most horrific of punishments: lack of independence!"

all four inmates stared at her, then stared at jyugo smirking playfully.

"well gee jyugo guess you can't go out on your own anymore huh?"

"I-WHAT?!"

"well you lack independence so-"

"WHY YOU-"

a sudden blast echoed as the door laid trampled ontop of Yamamato, with yamato laughing ontop of him. "SO HOW IS EVERYONE HM?!"

"YOU MADMAN YOU ALMOST PULVERIZED US!"

"GODAI! I SAID NO MORE TRAMPELING THE GODDAMN DOOR! THIS IS THE TENTH ONE YOU FUCKED UP-"

"SUPERVISOR! CHILDREN ARE PRESENT!"

"it's fine my grandma says worse."

"EEEEEHHHHH?!"

nadeshiko walked over to the steed, noticing the reigns on it looked newer, shinier. "are those..."

yamato nodded. "of course they are! I did say I needed new ones didn't I?" he stroked the horses main. "they look amazing on yamamato. glistening in the sunlight as we prowl the halls. I'm very proud of you nadeshiko."

looking back at his daughter he found the young girl was stiffiling tears, obviously to keep from anyone seeing. he smiled softly and laughed a bit as he scooped her up with one arm, setting her to sit infront of him as he took hold of the reigns again. "well, shall we go back to our exercise with inmate 99?"

"wait you left an inmate ALONE?!"

"ha ha of course not supervisor! I left him in the paws of our most esteemed guard!"

tsukumo shivered a bit, sweating lightly as he sat under a piece of shade with kuu on his lap, his nails digging into him a bit as he laid there.

"for a cute cat...your very intimidating." he stated quietly, kuu meowing in response and digging his nails in further.

[botanistlester]

Sweet Pea (4/?)

Summary: A nickname that goes bitter in your mouth. Cries for help that no one listens to. Gentle hands that make you quake on the ground you’re standing on. When Phil first met Nico, he thought he was a gift from the heavens. But behind the mask lies something daunting, something unnerving, that Phil never foresaw. Through his journey, he finds solace in Dan, the regular at his workplace, who seems to be the only one who sees through Nico’s mask to the darkness underneath. Warnings: Abusive relationship, violence A/N: Hello! I’m a bit busy tomorrow so i ended up having to upload tomorrow’s chapter a day early! So surprise! I hope you enjoy! Anyways, thanks again to @snowbunnylesterand @littlelionsloves for betaing this for me! I hope you all enjoy it! Previous | Masterlist

Read it on AO3 Read it on Wattpad

-

Chapter Four

Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found. I think that I might break.

-

“Go shopping with me.”

Phil startled a bit at Chandler’s sudden presence and looked over at her, cocking his head. He had been riding the bus back to his apartment after class, an earphone jammed into one of his ears, his phone held loosely in his hand. He hadn’t expected Chandler to be on the same bus as him today, so it startled him when she took a seat next to him, speaking loudly so he could hear her over his music and the endless chatter of people around him.

“What kind of shopping? And why do I, specifically, have to go with you?”

Chandler rolled her eyes and yanked the single ear bud out of Phil’s ear. She was feigning annoyance at his question, but she was smiling despite it all, seemingly excited. Her excitement passed onto Phil as well.

“Let's go to the shopping centre. I haven’t hung out with you since you started dating Nico.”

“But I just went shopping with Nico yesterday,” Phil whined, although he could understand why she wanted to hang out with him.

It had been a couple of weeks since he and Nico had had their first date, and all of Phil’s time was filled up with either thoughts of Nico or the physical Nico. New relationships were always extremely exciting, and he often found himself drowning in the newness of it all.

“And I don’t give a shit,” Chandler deadpanned, giving him an unimpressed look. She crossed her arms over her chest and Phil had to look away, instead turning his attention to the people getting on and off the bus. He only had two more stops until they came to his apartment. Did she want to go shopping now?

“You’re going shopping with me. I haven’t seen you in weeks other than at school and work. I’m not letting you neglect me any longer.”

He didn’t really want to go shopping, in all honestly, because he’d promised Nico he’d call him when he got home, but he knew that Chandler wouldn’t understand if he told her that. So he sighed and gave in, knowing she was right and he couldn’t fight her on this. He’d just lose anyway. “Is it just going to be us?”

Chandler shook her head quickly, her ponytail almost hitting her in the face. “I was thinking Jane and Charlie could come with us too.”

Trying to hide his disappointment, Phil just nodded. He didn’t really feel like having to socialize with a whole group of people, but he knew Chandler would get her way no matter what, so he may as well spare himself. Jane and Charlie were nice enough. In fact, he quite liked them a lot. They had hung out as a group a few times before and Phil never felt too awkward around them.

Jane was a nice girl with pretty brown hair and hazel eyes who was quiet at times but extremely excitable at other times. She often went on long rants about things she was passionate about, and Phil reckoned he could listen to her talk for hours. Unlike Chandler, she was nearly an entire foot shorter than him and made for a good armrest. She cared deeply for her friends, and Phil was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of that hospitality.

On the other hand, Charlie was both the coolest and nerdiest guy Phil had ever met but could probably make Phil cry if he wanted to. He was transgender, but at the same time, he had a shock of pink hair, green eyes, and a lip piercing. He was from Germany originally, but had moved to England when he’d been sixteen after his father had passed away. He strongly believed that gender roles were the worst kind of bread, painted his nails, and even did his makeup occasionally. He had a style that put Phil’s to shame.

Chandler chatted excitedly to him as she texted their friends, probably telling them to meet them at the shopping center. Turned out, when Chandler had said she wanted to go shopping, she’d quite literally meant right then and there. When Phil tried to exit at his stop, she just rolled her eyes, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back down into his seat. He grumbled a bit but otherwise didn’t say anything.

The bus ride went particularly smoothly. Chandler left Phil to his own devices so he could listen to music and text Nico that he was hanging out with some friends, to which Nico wondered who he was going with. He didn’t answer when Phil mentioned he was going with Chandler, Jane, and Charlie, but Phil didn’t think anything of it. He was going to be busy with his friends anyways, and therefore unable to respond quite as frequently while he was with them.

Once they arrived at their stop, Phil shoved his phone and earbuds into his jumper pocket, just as Chandler grabbed his hand excitedly and started to lead him off of the bus. “I’m so happy I get to spend some time with you!” she exclaimed, forcing a stab of guilt to rocket through Phil’s body. He tried to squash it down. He shouldn’t be feeling guilty for hanging out with his new boyfriend. Everybody got caught up in new relationships, not just him.

“It’s nice,” Phil agreed, allowing her to drag him along until they came to a Starbucks, where he caught sight of Jane and Charlie.

They both waved, broad grins on their faces, and began to walk towards Chandler and Phil with a hurried pace. “We’ve been waiting for you guys for ages!” Charlie complained once they were in earshot, pouting out his lip. His piercing sparkled in the light, and Phil watched it with rapt fascination. He always found piercings interesting, even though he was probably too much of a wimp to ever get one. The thought of inflicting pain upon himself on purpose was far too scary for him to even want to fathom.

“Sorry, I had to practically wrestle this one to come here,” Chandler replied, pointing an accusing thumb at Phil.

Phil scoffed. “Way to call me out,” he muttered, glaring at her.

It honestly hadn’t been that hard to pull him away from his evening plans. All she’d done was say that she missed him and Phil was quite literally putty in her hands. He’d never been good with confrontation, always admitting defeat as soon as it began to arise.

The group laughed at that and the subject was dropped just like that. They began to chat about anything that came to mind, filling the space with mindless banter and happy voices.

Phil chimed in when he could, laughed when he was supposed to, and zoned out when it didn’t matter.

“Oh yeah,” Charlie said at one point, pointing his finger at Phil accusingly. Phil raised his eyebrow. “I haven’t seen you since you started dating Nico. Mazel tov on the hottie.”

The phrase made Phil laugh, shaking his head. The one thing he always liked about Charlie was that he always said random things in Hebrew, thanks to his Jewish heritage. It never failed to make Phil giggle, no matter the situation. “Thanks,” he said, giving Charlie the biggest smile he could muster. “Nico makes me very happy.” “We can tell,” Jane told him, a little grin on her face that made her entire expression look soft.

They walked through stores and pointed out stupid dog themed pillows and shirts decorated with fruit patterns. It was surprisingly nice, despite Phil’s previous hesitation.

He liked hanging out with his friends. He liked laughing and having fun and not having to worry about the things he said. He liked that they didn’t judge him no matter what, that they didn’t bully him for being so deeply involved with someone after only a few weeks of being with someone. He liked that his cheeks hurt from smiling and his abs were sore, as if he were getting a workout just from laughing. He liked them as people.

He liked how Jane always made sure to express her love for her friends in any way she possibly could. How Charlie spent twenty minutes describing why America was dumb because they had built in closets. How Chandler never ceased to endlessly tease Phil about everything and anything.

God, Phil was a sap, but he couldn’t be more grateful for his little group of friends.

At least, until they pulled him into Topman and searched around for a while before finding a certain geometrical tank top and thrusting it at Phil.

“Try this on,” Jane demanded. She was absolutely beaming, looking really excited despite the fact that it was just a stupid tank top. Her cheeks were flushed and her bangs were flipping to the side, probably because she ran a hand through her hair without a second thought. “It’d look so amazing on you. It’s just your style! Look at these patterns and the colors, Phil!”

Phil froze, staring at the offending item with a frown. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much, honestly. Just yesterday he’d even liked it. There was no way his opinion should change just because a boy didn’t approve. “I’m good,” Phil said.

“C’mon, mate,” Charlie butted in, nodding towards the top. “Just for shits ‘n’ giggles. Nobody said you have to buy it.”

His friends hated him. They absolutely hated him. Because that was when they gathered in a circle around him, chanting, “do it, do it, do it” at the top of their lungs until fellow customers began to stare disapprovingly. Phil felt his ears turn red from the attention, felt those stares go straight to his core.

He grabbed the damn tank top and dragged it to the fitting room. Anything to get those unwanted stares away from him. Putting on the damn thing was much harder than he remembered it being yesterday. He crinkled his nose as he took off his own shirt, grunted as he stuck his arms through the tank top, groaned in annoyance as he stuck his head through it.

It took another minute to hype himself up enough to step out of the fitting room. “You’re not a slut,” Phil muttered to himself. Phil stared at himself in the mirror, but instead of seeing the confident man he’d seen beforehand, all he could see was how terrible he looked. How much of a slut he looked like. “You’ve only slept with two people before. You’re not a slut.”

He opened the door.

His friends stared at him with raised brows and condescending looks. He could feel the judgement pouring from their expressions from the way their eyes trailed over his torso where the shirt fit too tightly, over his arms which showed his biceps, over the mesh on the sides that showed a sliver of skin. There was no way they were having good thoughts about this, because he looked like a guy who screamed ‘I want sex!’ in this thing.

After a moment of consideration, Jane spoke, her voice warm and soft. “I actually love this on you,” she said, reaching out and tugging on the mesh. “It fits your body shape perfectly.”

“I have to say, you do slay,” Charlie told him, and he and Chandler shared a grin.

“Nice,” Chandler said.

All good things. Phil was surprised at this, but he didn’t voice it. Couldn’t they see how bad he looked? Couldn’t they see how much he wanted to tear the garment off of his body? How it made him feel too exposed?

But Phil wasn't sure they actually meant it. He didn’t want his new boyfriend thinking he was a slut, that was for sure. So why were his friends encouraging it?

“Nico said I looked like a slut in this when I tried it on yesterday,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Stares. His friends were staring at him.

Phil could feel his chest turning red. He knew he shouldn't have come today, if only to spare himself this embarrassment.

After a moment, Jane cleared her throat, and Phil’s eyes snapped over to her, waiting eagerly for her input.

“Isn’t that a bit…” she waved her hands, looking confused and concerned. Phil didn’t know why she was concerned at a time like this. “Isn’t that a bit of a red flag? Like, not good?” she asked finally, and Phil gaped at her.

“A red flag?” he repeated.

Chandler snorted and elbowed Jane in the stomach, making her grumble and glare back.

“Don’t be silly. People have preferences in style but it doesn’t mean it’s a red flag or anything. Besides, Phil does kind of look like a slut in the shirt.” She pursed her lips and stared at him contemplatively. “Not in a ‘showing cleavage’ kind of way, but more in a ‘I’m a fuckboy and I screw anyone who looks at me’ kind of way.”

Now it was Charlie’s turn to chuckle, rolling his eyes. “What great imagery, Chandler,” he said sarcastically. “I can see that, I guess. Although I still like it. It suits him.”

Phil frowned and he was pretty sure his entire body was red with embarrassment by now. He was hot, pretty much sweating, and he just wanted to get this damn piece of clothing off of his body already.

Phil could hardly believe the others could even dare to say that the shirt suited him, though still making him into a fuckboy. What would Nico think if he brought this home? He didn’t want to think about it.

“I’m taking this off,” he muttered, and shut the fitting room door before anyone could say anything else.

He took the dumb shirt off as quickly as possible, averting his eyes from the mirror, and left it hanging in the fitting room even though he wasn’t supposed to. He just couldn’t bear to touch it again.

His friends were chatting amongst themselves when he walked back out, sifting through clothes mindlessly. They seemed to be having fun, unaware of the battle going on inside of Phil’s head.

He didn’t know what was going on with him. He didn’t know why Nico’s comment made dread form in the pit of his stomach, or why he couldn’t seem to look at the shirt anymore. Usually, when someone commented on his clothing choice, he just rolled his eyes and bought it anyways, mentally flipping them off, but it seemed as if it were different with Nico, as if he were still trying to impress him even though they were already an item.

It was dumb, but Phil decided to just let it go. It was just a shirt anyway. He shouldn’t be this down about it.

At that moment, his phone began to ring loudly in his back pocket. It’d been ringing with texts every once in awhile, but he’d been ignoring it in favour of spending time with his friends. His friends motioned for Phil to follow them out of the store and he did so, answering the phone without looking to see who it was.

“Hello?” he asked, slightly distracted by the wild hand gestures Jane was making.

“Hey, sweet pea,” came the familiar American voice through his phone speaker.

Phil’s eyes widened and his lips immediately turned up into a bright grin. He always got extremely happy whenever Nico called him, no matter where he was or what he was doing. “Nico!” he exclaimed, earning wolf whistles from his little group of friends. “Why are you calling?”

“Do you not want me to call?” Nico asked, with something like sadness in his voice.

Shaking his head even though Nico couldn’t see him, Phil shot down that idea quickly. “No of course I like when you call! I’m just shopping with my friends, so it’s a bit loud in here.”

Nico hummed and there was the noise of running water in the background. Perhaps it was the sink? Or maybe a bath? “You weren’t answering my texts so I decided to call you.”

“Yeah, I’ve been a bit distracted. Sorry!”

“Is anybody hitting on you?” This time, there was a teasing edge to his voice and Phil cracked a smile.

“Of course not. There’s nobody but you, Nico. You know tha-.”

“Phil?”

The timid voice interrupted his denial, someone who was very much not on the phone. While it was a voice he vaguely recognised, it wasn’t one that belonged to either Nico or his group of friends. He glanced around until his eyes settled on the culprit, ignoring the way Nico was saying his name. “Hold on a sec, I’m putting the phone down, Nico,” Phil told his boyfriend and then let the phone dangle loosely in his hand by his side.

He then turned his attention onto the person who had spoken, a person who was staring at him with a stricken look on his face, as if he’d seen a ghost. It was Dan, his hair in curly ringlets and sporting a very large purple jumper with the word ‘Grandma’ written on it, surrounded by embroidered flowers. There was a girl standing next to him, someone with golden hair and bright blue eyes that Phil slightly recognised. He realised after a moment that it was Louise, the girl who used to go to LaBella’s with him.

“Dan!” Phil exclaimed, pretending he didn’t see the way Chandler’s eyebrows rose at the sight. “What are you doing here?” The question was a bit dumb, considering he was probably doing what everyone else was doing: shopping.

Dan grinned, his dimples showing, and he stuffed his hands into the large pocket of his hoodie. He was a very large guy, an impressive inch or two taller than Phil, but the jumper made him seem much smaller than he actually was.

“Shopping!” he replied, the obvious response. “It’s good to see you out of your work uniform. I’ve been wondering what your style would be like.”

His style? Phil glanced down at himself to remember what he was wearing. It wasn’t anything special, just a shirt with a roaring lion on it and black skinny jeans. Nothing to shout about. “You’re one to talk,” Phil told him, smirking. “I’ve seen you loads of time and this is the first I’ve heard that you’re a grandma.”

Dan laughed, loud and clear, a pink dusting rising to his cheeks. It was nice, something familiar and comforting even outside of work.

“Well you better believe it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be who I am today without my grandchildren.”

They grinned at each other, probably looking a bit too happy for just being server and customer, but it didn’t matter in that moment. Phil’s always enjoyed Dan’s company, so seeing him outside of work was definitely both interesting and pleasant. Phil didn’t have too much time to enjoy it fully before Chandler was butting in though, and she had that smile that made Phil wonder what she had planned.

As soon as she opened her mouth, Phil knew that he should have declined her invitation for a nice day out. “You’re Dan, correct? I’m Chandler. Phil’s told me loads about you!”

Phil gaped at her, half horrified, half angry, and he saw Dan raise his eyebrows from the corner of his eye. He couldn’t believe his friend would do him dirty like that, especially with something that wasn’t true. It was always Chandler who had talked about Dan, not Phil. “Chandler, don’t-”

Dan cut him off before he could get another word out, seemingly amused. “Is that so? All good things, I hope.”

“No worries,” Chandler assured him, Jane and Charlie gazing on in confusion, “I’ve heard you’re a lovely person.”

Dan absolutely beamed at that, his entire face brightening up with a smile. He was like the sun, all glowing warmth and golden rays, no clouds in sight. When he looked like that, Phil decided not to tell him that Chandler was lying out of her ass. He just let it go, tucking it inside himself and storing the knowledge of the lie inside of himself where no one could find it.

After a few more minutes of chitchatting, his friends decided they’d had enough of his dilly dallying. Charlie hissed at him to hurry up and Chandler was making ‘hurry up’ hand movements at him. Phil sighed, clutching his phone in his hand. He had almost forgotten that Nico was still on the line. Hopefully he hadn’t hung up.

“Looks like we gotta get out of here. It was good to see you again, Dan.”

Dan grinned and nodded, his dimple caving in his cheek. He reminded Phil of a happy puppy in that moment, tail wagging, eager to please. It was endearing. “I’ll see you soon. Have a good day!”

“You too,” Phil told him, and then they parted ways. Phil lifted the phone back up to his ear.

“Sorry about that. I’m back,” he told Nico.

“Who was that?” Nico asked immediately. There was something in his voice that made Phil weary, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Just one of my customers at work. His name’s Dan and he’s one of my regulars.”

“Does he hit on you?”

Phil laughed loudly and rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “For the last time, nobody flirts with me!” he shrilled, and he caught Jane’s eyes. She was frowning, her brows furrowed in what seemed like concern, but he waved her off. There was no need to be concerned.

“I just don’t want someone to take you away from me,” Nico whined, leaving Phil to smile fondly.

“That won’t happen. Now I gotta go okay? My friends want to hang out with me.”

“Fine,” Nico agreed begrudgingly. “But text me.”

“I’ll text you,” Phil promised. They said their goodbyes and Phil slipped the phone back into his pocket, letting out a sigh.

His friends didn’t seem to mind Phil’s five minutes of fame, and they accepted him with pats on the back as he joined them again. Apparently they had decided to see Wonder Woman while he was on the phone, and Phil groaned because he’d just told Nico he’d text him. He hated breaking his promises.

So with a heavy heart, he sent Nico a text explaining what had happened. It took Nico only a few seconds to respond, and Phil didn’t know why it seemed so angry, the singular ‘K’ burning into his mind like a brand.

Chapter Five 

[shaydixons]

sorry im late how is skam/julie lesbophobic im a lesbian and this makes me Sad

hello! here’s everything off the top of my head:

so first of all, there’s no canon lesbian representation, which by itself isn’t NECESSARILY lesbophobic but when you look at the pattern of wlw representation on the show, it really seems like julie/skam hates lesbians.

in the season 1 trailer, it was mentioned that eva makes out with ingrid and sara. this was the first skam content to ever come out, and there was already queerbaiting! the season 1 trailer is honestly like a gay dreamscape but then when the show actually starts eva is together with a guy. she’s never even confirmed bi despite having canonically made out with 3 girls.

there was also SO much queerbaiting on the show, especially with nooreva in season 1. (I made a survey about queerbaiting on skam with 300+ wlw if you want to read the results) many people thought that nooreva were set up as a couple and that noora was a lesbian in season 1. when joneva broke up, it seemed like the perfect setup for noora and eva to get together since they had been flirting all season and noora was set up as a direct contrast to jonas, but of course they didn’t.

noora also shows every sign of being a lesbian especially in season 1 (disregard for men, gravitation toward women, trauma at the hands of men, focus on women and their wellbeing, also the way she looks at eva) but julie andem has revealed that it was her original plan for noorhelm to get together in season 2, so everything in season 1 was a setup for that. so she always planned on noora getting together with william (an abuser, but that’s another topic) but she still had nooreva act flirtatiously throughout all of season 1 and lesbian-coded noora. 

if possible, vilde was even more lesbian-coded than noora. there are SO many parallels between isak and vilde; and many lesbians saw themselves in vilde. there are constant hints throughout all 4 seasons that vilde was a lesbian, and julie andem was even asked in an interview if vilde was a lesbian, to which she responded “no comment”. yet, in season 4, vilde was forced into the most awkward and uncomfortable hetero relationship i’ve ever seen on television. it’s like she was lesbian-coded then punished for it; like julie saw that lesbian vilde was important for wlw fans then not only made her be straight, but mae her be in the grossest hetero relationship ever; like adding insult to injury.

in addition, the only time non-straight women are even referenced, it’s as a joke. vilde has a focus on noora being a lesbian in season 2 but it’s always played off as a joke, like vilde is so dumb that she’s the only one who could ever pick up on non-straight noora. because obviously noora is SO straight. it honestly feels like mocking the people who thought noora was a lesbian. and vilde is often used as a mouthpiece for things that are Bad, so her focus on noora being a lesbian is just another example of like Dumb Vilde talking about things that are Bad. and when vilde asks noora if she’s a lesbian, the girsl actually laugh because being a lesbian is SO ridiculous.

and then the evilde kiss!!! first of all, she made evilde make out multiple times then had both vilde and eva be straight. secondly, it was framed like it was drunk eva doing something dumb. (”i have to stay to make sure eva doesn’t do anything stupid” “how do you think that’s going?” [turns around to see evilde making out]) like it was ACTUALLY referred to as eva doing something dumb, because girls kissing girls is considered stupid by skam.

and then the “feelings that arise” comment! so noora is worried about having been potentially raped by nico, so she wants to go talk to mari about it. chris asks her what the WORST thing that could happen is, and noora says “that i slept with her as well”. why is sleeping with a girl worse than getting raped? anyway, then vilde says: “it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. i made out with eva, for example. the feelings that arise don’t necessarily mean you’re a lesbian.” we all thought this was leading to lesbian vilde, but, of course, it wasn’t. she had “feelings arise” when she made out with eva, but she was still canonically straight, because, again, lesbianism isn’t valid. the only time lesbianism exists on skam is when it’s something that can be made fun of.

[shleezaemour]

Yet another 3 days in the infirmary fic!!

I followed him. It was stupid I know but I followed the stupid blonde to the infirmary. My blue eyed captor smiling his brightest smile luring me into a confined corner. Part of me wanted to be normal. Wanted to enjoy the attention. I wasn't raised that way. Not by my mother and not by myself. Setting me up in a corner of the infirmary, turns out Will had everything all planned out. It was concerning. "Ok so here's your room you will be here for three days minimum until I deem you fit for camp. First we are going to do a routine check up and get a history on you. From what I pulled from your records we don't have anything from the last four years but it seems we still have stuff from when you and your sister first arrived." Bianca. Will knew about Bianca.... "Yeah well not much has changed." "I'll be the judge of that sir. Ok I need you to strip down. First shirt then pants. You may keep your underwear on." "Is this really necessary?" "Yes I need to make sure everything is ok Nico. I promise I'm not just trying to get you naked. " I blushed at the idea. Breathe Nico breathe it's just a doctor exam. I took off my clothes and sat on the white canvas cot all made up for me. The ones here in the back were bigger. Must be for stays longer than a night. Taking his time and moving slowly Will moved around me like I was a feral animal. Must be used to kids with PTSD. Kids who look at their swords a little to long and pull from sheath from the sound of a dinner plate breaking. Coming over he sat on a low wooden stool setting out medical implements in a neat row. The more he organized the more nervous I became. I fought monsters and gods and yet Will Solace lining up reflex testers and swabs made me start shaking. Looking me over I could feel his blue orbs absorbing everything from my body. In all honesty I haven't been this undressed in a very long time especially not with someone looking at me. Long warm fingertips grazed my scars. I had so many from the years. Wordlessly he went to work on the Lycon scratches. Mumbling about taking out the stitches and redoing them. "Nico I need to do something and it's going to hurt a lot. I need you to hold still can you do that?" "Yes of course." "Would you like something to bite on? I have a belt." "No I can take it." "Ok. " Pressing his hands on the marks heat swarmed in the area ripping my skin apart. He was reversing what had already healed to the original state of the scratches. The stitches broke as he did this snapping off, barely noticeable compared to the rest of the pain. I could feel blood running down my back. I didn't scream. I didn't even make noise. Taking a hot pad he staunched the bleeding. Grabbing the tools from the table he prepped the area. "I'm going to put some stuff in these to numb them then I'll redo the stitch work." I nodded silently afraid to open my mouth, who knew what would fly out. Will was so concentrated when he worked like nothing could pull his attention away from what he was doing. I had never seen such focus. Especially not in the ADHD hub of people we were around. "What was it you used to numb it?" "Cocaine" "WHAT!" "Geez deathboy it was a joke. It was powered unicorn horn." "Oh good." "Are you saying you have used cocaine?" I was silent. "Nico, I need to know certain things for medical use and drug use is one of them. I'm a doctor for all intents and purposes I can't and won't talk to anyone about it. I need to know for drug interaction though." Damn him and his using logic against me. "I ugh.. I've used it before. And pain pills the mortal kind." "Like Motrin pain meds or like Percocet?" "Vicodin and Oxy." "Last time you took these?" "Before the Doors of death and right after I boarded the Argo II. I ran out." "Did you go through withdrawals?" He asked calmly. "No I've never really been on them regularly enough to withdrawal." "Are these used recreationally?" "Yes." I admitted pitifully. "Hey stop that!" He held his fingers below my chin not allowing me to look down. "Nico, you are not the first demi God to self medicate. You are also not the last. It's ok. We have all done it. Let's just hope we can make it so you don't have to anymore ok?" "It's just... I'm so tired of being in pain all the time." "I know. I can see that. You have so many marks it's hard to count. I finished your stitches they should be able to come out tomorrow with some ambrosia and nectar. I also want to do a sleeping draught for you. I promise it's dreamless. I made it myself." "You promise?" "Yes. I have some in pill form too for you to take with you when you leave. I think two months worth should do the trick. Let your mind heal for a while." "Why are you being so nice to me?" "Because you are letting me." Once again the smile creeped on his face and I couldn't help but smile too. "Ok question time. How many bones have you broken?" "Around 17 or more." "Ok on a scale of 1-10 how tired would you say you get traveling from here to your cabin. Shadow travel that is?" "Umm wow I've never thought about that I guess a 1?" "Ok so that gives me an idea of how far you can go. Do you have an example for me or can give me any insight on your traveling? No other campers can do it so I need your help on this one." "Ok um... I can cross state lines pretty easily. More than 200 miles at a time I need a nights rest by myself. Taking others is more wary. In and around camp is very easy no fatigue. Zero fatigue in the underworld. I can visit my dad easily. " "Ok so let's put a no travel ban on you for a month until you restore your strength. That includes skeletons and earth fissures." "You say that so calmly like you have heard this all before." "Well you would be surprised at some of the powers we run into here. You, Percy, Thalia, and Jason are he most powerful though." "Wait no Annabeth?" "Nope she's no better off than the rest of her siblings. She just happens to have more clout and experience. Makes her seem more powerful when really it's just the confidence behind it." "Makes sense." "Ok I'm hooking up your IV and you will be sleeping very soon." Taking his time and small pinch later he had me hooked up and feeling... feeling really good. I was getting drowsy pulling the covers over me. "Hey Nico?" Yawn.."yeah" "You are staying right? At camp I mean?" "I'll try. I'll give it a real try." "Ok" And I drifted off with thoughts of blonde curls and lapis blue eyes. Day 2 Waking up I could feel the warm covers soft on my skin. My eyes heavy with sleep practically stuck together. "Wake up deathboy time to do checks!" I felt a swat on my behind. "Whoa dude watch the merchandise!" "Merchandise? Are you for sale?" I blushed. "I'm going to reach for your hand now." Taking my hand he looked like he was reading my pulse and other vitals. "Why did you warn me that you were going to touch me." "Cause I didn't want my hand broken." "You just touched my ass and you warn me about my hand." I drawled with sarcasm. "Yeah well I had to get you moving and I knew you wouldn't see it coming. Tell me who else at this camp would even dare try to touch your backside?" "No one unless they have a death wish." "Yeah well see?" "Do you have a death wish?" "Nah but unlike everyone else, I'm not afraid of you." "Oh yeah why is that?" "Because I carried you across camp on my shoulders dangling like a rag doll. You are about the size of a pack of gum." "Oh yeah, short jokes?" "Well I'm sure you have a nice store of blonde jokes you can battle back at me with." He winked. The wink sent a jolt up my spine and made my face flush. "I'll take your blush as a lack of blonde jokes. No worries I know them all!" "Great." "Well we are going to eat now so sit up." Sitting up he had some fruit and oatmeal for me along with a square of ambrosia. Tossing the ambrosia back first I tasted lemon cello cookies. I tried to eat but found it difficult. The apples felt like glass in my mouth. Will saw me struggling with the food. "Hey uh how about we try something else?" "Sure that would be great." Returning ten minutes later after he took the food, he had a large glass of pinkish purple liquid. "It's called a smoothie. " Taking a sip I could taste blackberries mixed with banana and strawberry. It was heavenly. Perfect texture. " I put protein powder in it. Maybe we should think about doing these to put some weight on you before moving into more solid foods." "How did you know?" "Percy. He told me you went through Tartarus. Chiron said he knew a few guys who went through it. Not many escaped alive. He said there is nothing to eat there. He also said that it tricks you into thinking you have food when you don't and you are not really eating what you think you are eating." "Yeah. Something like that." "So until we can get your stomach straight we will do these. No worries we can switch up flavors." "Thanks Will." "Yeah no problem buddy." He ruffled my hair causing me to curse at him in Italian. "Oh none of that now! You were being so good!" "That was before you started treating me like a Labrador that took his treat nice." "Ok no petting you. I think within a month we can have you filling out those tshirts of yours nice. You have a great body already you just need a little weight." "Is this what our friendship is going to be? You and I bickering and making lewd comments about my body?" "Awww did you just call us friends!" "No no no! That's not what I said!" "You did, you totally did!" "Nope you misheard me, my English isn't great." "Your English is fine. Well except how you say my name but I find it kinda charming." "What's that supposed to mean?" "You don't call me Will you say Weel. It's adorable!" "I am not adorable!" "You bickering about it just makes it's more adorable." "I hate you." "What was that? I didn't hear you?" "Oh so English isn't working here I'll help you! ti odio-Italian Daikirai- Japanese ich hasse dich- German je te deteste- French That enough for you or shall I continue?!" "How many languages do you speak?" "Eleven" "Wow! Where did you learn them?" "I would shadow travel a lot ending up in different countries. You pick things up." "That's actually really cool. Would you be willing to come translate when we get new demigods that don't speak English?" "Oh uh yeah sure that's fine. I didn't really think you would want me in here after I'm discharged. The aura of death isn't great in a place of healing." Will sat on the bed and took my hand. Wills hands were strong and warm. Callused over from training and healing. My heart began to race as he touched me. What was wrong with me!! "Death is a natural part of life Nico. I understand that. I've seen more death than most demigods. I was in the last war. My brothers died. Many died under my hands as I tried to bring them back. I'm roughly the same age as you. If people don't understand that then.. well screw them." Wills face was serious and had this little V that formed when he frowned. "Don't frown Will." "Sorry." He tried for a small smile. It was cute. CUTE!! What was this dude doing to me! I snatched my hand back quickly only leaving him chuckling. The rest of the day Will would come in and out of my room. Jason brought me some clothes from my cabin. Sitting with me on the cot we played cards for most of the afternoon. "So how's the vacation?" "I wouldn't call this a vacation. I can't travel for a month. After that I'm thinking maybe a real one would be nice. Maybe Jamaica. " "You hate the sun." "Yeah well maybe I've been in the dark to long." "Sounds like Goldie locks is rubbing off on you." "I don't know what you are talking about. And you are Goldie locks in my head." "Aww you have a nickname for me in your head!" "Why is everyone doing that!?" "Doing what?" "Doing the Awww Nico likes me bit." "You like me!" "Shut the fuck up Grace!" "Language Nico!" Wills voice chimed in as he walked threw the partition. "I seriously need to rid my life of blondes." "Oh gods Grace what did you say to him." "I did the awww Nico likes me thing." "Yeah I did that when he called us friends." "I did not call us friends we are not friends!" "We are so friends, we are best friends." "Yeah we'll go fish best friend." I said with acid dripping from my mouth. (Later that night...) Wills POV I heard thrashing from the back corner of my infirmary. Running back I realized it was Nico. The IV I had him on came loose in his sleep! Shit! A nightmare! Plugging his IV back in his arm I started to rush his hair back out of his eyes. Nico dreams in Italian it seems from the mumbled words coming from his lips. Soon he started to settle, maybe even waking up a little. "Will..? Is that you." He said sleepily not even opening his eyes. "Yeah it's me. Your IV fell out but I put it back." I whispered. "Oh good... will you stay with me incase he comes back?" " Yeah sweetie I'll stay." I took his hand. I know it seems presumptuous to call him sweetie but I was tired and I was used to scared patients. They like endearments when they are scared. Nico must have been sleep talking because he didn't even budge at my words. I took his hand clasping it in my own. Fingers long and thin like a piano player or a violinist. More scarred and callused than any warrior I've treated. Honestly he is probably the most broken of anyone I've treated. Asleep his name fit him perfectly. Angelic was the only word. He has those big heavy lidded eyes and pouty lips that drive me crazy. I've had it bad for this boy for years now and this may be my only chance to indulge in this kind of contact. Soon I fell asleep still holding his hand. Day three Nicos POV I woke up with something hot in my hand, almost burning compared to my naturally low body temp. Wills hand. I almost snatched it back until I realized he was asleep. Hmmm he's a quiet sleeper even sitting up in the chair? I allowed myself a few moments of daydreaming. Will was really attractive. I hated to admit that but he was. Also he wasn't afraid of me the way others were. I liked that. I pushed him away countless times yet, bam here he is holding my hand. I tried to remember how this could have happened.... the nightmare! My IV fell out that's right! Did I? Did I ask him to stay? I did. Shit! Well to late now. I circled my thumb across his palm. Smooth and even. Not scarred like me. I've seen him with his shirt off at the beach once before too. Will was smooth and unmarked everywhere. Perfection if there is such a thing. Why was I feeling this way it's not like we haven't spent a bunch of time together. We have only really interacted like five or so times before this. Of course that just made me realize how much I have noticed him in the past. Looks like I have a thing for nice tans and light eyes. Never really liked blondes but on someone like him it looks really good. Reminded me of his father but less selfish. Will was upbeat and humble. Qualities that are worth prizing. Will Solace should be shadow boxed and put on display. Damn this is worse than Percy. Stirring in his seat I decided to play possum so I could still hold his hand. Closing my eyes I stayed still listening to his movements. Instead of bringing his hand back he rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. Readjusting his hand he laced our fingers and began rubbing small circles on the tender flesh of my inner wrist. The motion was doing things to me. When I was little I remember this being a very forward gesture. A man would flick the button of s woman's glove open and caress the veins of her wrist. It was the equivalent of putting your hand up a girls blouse in public nowadays. I may be wrong... but I think he might like me.

[frozenbluecookies]

My @feastoffortuna2017 gift for @feanor-no. Hope you like it :) It’s also on AO3.

If Given A Chance Word Count: 2453 Nico takes Will to the Underworld to officially meet his father. Things do not go according to plan. Or: The one where Will goes to meet Hades and meets Persephone instead. Will is wonderful, Persephone is surprised and Nico needs a hug (and a mother).

Just for the record, this was not Nico’s idea.

Standing outside the gates of Hades’ palace, he glanced over at the boy standing beside him. Children of Apollo really didn’t fit in down here, he thought. Will looked entirely too sunny for the underworld, with his golden hair and the cheerful sparkle in his sky-blue eyes. Even his clothes looked summery; a camp t-shirt and shorts. He looked ready to head to the beach, and not at all like he was about to meet the Lord of the Underworld.

Nico shoved his hands into the pockets of his aviator jacket. “I thought Meet The Parents was supposed to be the nerve-wrecking stage of the relationship.”

Will laughed. “Oh I’m nervous all right. I’m just taking a moment to take in the scenery.”

“Seriously?”

“I’ve never been to the Underworld before,” Will shrugged. “I’ve been curious.”

“You can sight-see later,” Nico grumbled, setting forward for the palace gates. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Falling into step beside him, Will glanced over curiously. “You really think it’ll go that badly?”

Sighing, Nico shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I doubt he’ll blast you into smithereens or anything, and he’s been trying to be a better dad recently, but he’s not exactly a people person.”

Will grinned, nudging his boyfriend with his shoulder. “No mystery where you get it from, then?”

Nico rolled his eyes and nudged him back, but otherwise ignored his comment.

They passed through the gates and into the garden beyond. Will’s eyes widened with wonder, and Nico smiled slightly. Awed Will was cute, not that Nico had any intention of telling him that.

He probably should have figured Will would like the garden. True, he probably would have preferred sunshine and fresh air, but the Garden of Persephone was more than beautiful enough to make up for it. It was like something out of a mortal fairy tale. Silver bushes gleamed in the dim light, luminescent mushrooms of every shape and colour lighting up the gloom. Precious gems the size of watermelons glittered in the flower beds and the orange flowers of the pomegranate trees glowed, almost flame-like, in the darkness.

Turning his thoughts back to his father, Nico frowned. “Maybe I should have sent word ahead, let him know I was bringing you with me on my visit this time.”

“Why didn’t you? You had time.”

“You make it sound like this was planned. You convinced me to bring you along literally yesterday.”

“Still.”

Nico sighed. “I don’t know. I guess because he isn’t exactly a normal dad, even by demigod standards. But, besides Hazel, he’s the only family I have. I’m just…nervous, I guess. I want him to like you.”

“I want him to like me too,” Will grinned, trying for levity as they ascended the palace steps. “I mean, it would be kind of awkward if your boyfriend’s godly dad hated your guts. Besides, my dad seemed to like you enough.”

The skeleton guards by the doors stood firmly at attention as they walked past, heading for the throne room. Nico snorted. “Your dad was in the body of a mortal teenager. Besides, Apollo has always been one of the friendlier gods. Hades is not.”

The black marble doors to the throne room swung open as they approached. As they entered, Nico’s eyes went straight to the balcony overlooking the Fields of Asphodel, upon which sat the thrones of the Lord and Lady of the Underworld. Immediately, he stiffened.

The larger throne made of fused bones, where his father usually sat, was empty. The throne beside it, however, was not.

Upon her black, flower-shaped throne, Persephone looked as though she’d rather be just about anywhere else. Her eyes narrowed as they landed on him. “Nico.”

She clearly hadn’t been in the underworld long. As the autumn and winter months wore on, she tended to grow pale, her colour fading away. At the moment, though, she was vibrant, her ebony hair lustrous and her dress flooded with the shifting colours and shapes of various summer-bright flowers. Her brown eyes, which might seem warm to some, were stone-hard as she surveyed her stepson.

Nico gritted his teeth. Of all the people to run into down here, his stepmother was the one he least hoped to see. “Lady Persephone. You’re back early.”

Irritation tightened the corners of her mouth. “Yes, I am. My mother has been rather busy this time around, and the harvest season seems to have started somewhat early this year. So I have returned. And so have you.”

“I’m just visiting,” Nico ground out. “Where is my father?”

“Called away for the moment. There’s been a re-structuring of the Asphodel overpass system, or so I’m told. He should be back by the end of the day.” She turned her gaze towards Will, eyeing him curiously. “I see you’ve brought a companion. Welcome to the Palace of Hades, son of Apollo.”

Will bowed slightly. “Lady Persephone.”

Nico smiled tightly. “This is my boyfriend, Will Solace.” He turned to Will. “Come on, I’ll show you around a bit. I can have one of the servants notify us when my father returns.”

Will glanced between his boyfriend and the goddess before nodding. “Okay.” He offered a respectful nod to Persephone, “My Lady,” before allowing Nico to lead him out of the room.

They’d made down three consecutive black marble hallways before Will ventured, “I guess you two are always like that.” Nico had told him about his strained relationship with his stepmother, but it was one thing to hear about it and another to see it himself.

Nico nodded tersely. “She doesn’t like me much, and the feeling has been pretty mutual ever since she turned me into a dandelion.”

“You never did tell me why-”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

After a long moment, Nico sighed. “I was nervous, you know, the first time I met her. I was… I guess I was resentful, because, I mean… She wasn’t my mother. But at the same time, I couldn’t really remember my mother much…and I wondered what it was like, you know, to have one. Guess I’m still wondering,” he shrugged.

They walked on in silence for a minute or two. Nico’s shoulders seemed to sag, weary and worn in that way that reminded Will just how much his boyfriend had suffered in his short life.

He made the decision without a second thought. “This winter, I’m taking you to meet my mother.”

Nico stopped dead, staring at Will with a wide-eyed expression that was somewhere between shock, awe and terror. “And I can promise,” Will continued, “that she will love you. She kind of already does; I tell her about you all the time,” he admitted sheepishly.

For a long moment, Nico was frozen. Then his expression melted into the tiniest of smiles and he wrapped his arms around Will and hugged him tight. “I love you.”

Will grinned and hugged back. “I love you, too.”

When they pulled apart, Will glanced around. “By the way, where are we going?”

Nico blinked and glanced down the hall. “Oh. Right. I was supposed to be giving you a tour.”

Will frowned as Nico shook his head as if to clear it. “You’re tired.”

His boyfriend sighed. “I didn’t sleep much last night. Too busy worrying about,” he gestured wordlessly back in the general direction of the throne room. “The shadow travel didn’t help.”

Will laid a hand on his shoulder. “You should go take a nap before your father gets back.”

Nico frowned. “But-”

“I can look around on my own. I’ll probably just end up back in the garden anyway.” Will smiled. “Go get some rest.”

With a last, searching glance, Nico nodded. He leaned in to peck Will softly on the lips before heading off down the hall.

Once he’d turned the corner and vanished from sight, Will stuck his hands in his pockets and began to amble back the way they’d come. He took his time, stopping to peer into every room he passed. Finally, as he’d expected, he stepped back out into the garden.

He moved slowly through the flower beds, just taking it in all over again. It really was incredible, that all of this existed so far away from the sun’s warmth. He followed the side paths as they wound away from the palace doors. He lost track of time as he meandered, stopping to look at every new kind of plant that he came across.

Some time later, he rounded a dense cluster of gold-leafed bushes and found himself in a small clearing, a round garden table at its centre with a chair on either side.

In one of those chairs sat Persephone, contemplating the garden around her with a small frown, a quartered pomegranate on a plate at her elbow. Without looking at him, she asked, “How do you like my garden, Will Solace?”

“It’s amazing,” he answered honestly. “One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.” Right next to the view from Half-Blood Hill at sunset and Nico laughing in the sun.

The goddess smiled slightly. “Yes, it is truly lovely. It was a gift from my husband, originally. It has grown since then, of course, but it was one of the first things that won Hades my heart. It is something of a sanctuary of mine, now, a reminder that there are some things that I love down here.”

She gestured to the seat across from her. “Please, join me.”

Will took his seat obediently, watching the goddess warily. She noticed his look and smiled slightly. “I feel it would be remiss of me as a hostess not to offer you some refreshment.” She indicated the pomegranate, her smile turning wry.

Respectfully, he shook his head. He was perfectly aware of what that would mean. Much as he loved Nico, he had no desire to spend the rest of his life down here. “Thank you, My Lady, but I’m fine.”

She chucked softly and took a dainty bite for herself. After a moment, she said, “I have always liked Apollo’s children. They tend to appreciate nature more than some.”

“Most of us do love the outdoors, I suppose,” Will said with a polite smile.

“And yet, here you are,” she said, regarding him contemplatively. “For the sake of that boy.”

Will regarded her carefully. Then he ventured, “Lady Persephone, I mean no disrespect, but… Why do you dislike Nico so much? I understand that he’s your husband’s son, and not yours, but…”

The goddess straightened in her chair, eyes cold as she glared at him. “He is a product of my husband’s infidelity.”

“I understand that, but… That’s not Nico’s fault. He didn’t ask for it.” He really, really, didn’t ask for it.

Persephone’s voice was frigid when she replied. “You would do well not to question a goddess, boy.”

Will hesitated, wary, then persisted. “My Lady, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, it’s just that, well… Nico doesn’t have much in the way of family. And he was separated from his mother too soon, something I think you can relate to.”

Persephone seemed to soften slightly at that. Will pressed on. “Nico never got to see his mother again. And he hasn’t had a mother figure since. Some kindness from you might help him more than you realise. He can’t help that he was born, and he’s not a bad person. At all. He might surprise you, if given the chance.”

Persephone considered him for a long moment. Then, she spoke, slowly, as though she were tasting every word carefully before letting it fall. “You are bold, Will Solace. Few would dare presume to convince a goddess to change her mind.”

Will’s lips twitched into the ghost of a smile. “Maybe not as few as you’d think.”

“Hmm, yes, you demigods do tend to be a troublesomely strong-willed lot, don’t you.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Most gods would have turned you into some form of plant or animal for daring to question them. I’m sure Nico has told you about his brief tenure as a dandelion.”

“He has, but he hasn’t told me why you turned him into one.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn’t. Perhaps that shall remain a family secret.”

At that moment, a skeleton appeared around the corner and approached the goddess. Bowing, it clacked its jaws together rapidly before straightening and awaiting a response.

“It seems my husband has returned.” Persephone stood, the picture of elegance and poise. Addressing the skeleton, she said, “You may go.” It bowed and turned on its heel, disappearing back into the garden.

Will got to his feet, smoothing out his shirt nervously. Persephone turned to him. “I will consider your words, Will Solace. I will guarantee you nothing, but I shall consider them.”

The sound of running footsteps approached from the path. Then Nico burst into the clearing, breathing heavily. He froze upon seeing the goddess. “Lady Persephone,” he said, eyeing her cautiously.

“Nico.” She stared at him for a long moment, tilting her head pensively. Then, “I would like you to join me for breakfast here tomorrow. My mother left behind a vast assortment of cereals on her last visit that will be suitable for you to eat.”

With that she swept past him, pausing at the edge of the clearing to add, “You are fortunate to have a significant other who cares for you so. You have chosen well.” Then she turned the corner and vanished from sight.

Nico gaped after her, then whirled to face Will with the expression of a fish who had just been slapped across the face. “What did you say to her?!”

Will smiled. “Just that you’re not a bad person.”

“You convinced her to invite me to breakfast?”

Will held up both hands helplessly. “I had nothing to do with breakfast, I just asked her to give you a chance.”

“You…” Nico shook his head, still unable to believe what he’d just heard. Persephone had just complimented him. He was tempted to look up and check whether the underworld ceiling had started falling on his head.

Unable to find the words he needed, he fell back to the reason he’d come running in the first place. “My father’s back.”

“I know.” Will grinned. “Let’s finally do this, shall we?”

Nico stared at him for a moment longer. “I love you.”

Will’s grin widened. “I know.” He stepped in and kissed his boyfriend gently. “I love you too.”

Then he grabbed Nico’s hand and started leading him back towards the palace. “Now come on. Let’s not leave the King of the Underworld waiting.”

[sinceileftyoublog]

Buzzy Lee Interview: Heavy Spoils

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Musician and actress Sasha Spielberg has been making music for over a decade but finally released her debut solo album under the moniker Buzzy Lee just this past Friday via Future Classic. She describes the record, Spoiled Love, as “understated;” it’s also the most assured batch of songs she’s released to date. 

Early on during her college years, Spielberg collaborated with producer and fellow Brown University alumnus Nicolas Jaar on various projects, eventually culminating in a short-lived duo project called Just Friends. [Disclaimer: I went to Brown the same years as Spielberg and Jaar but did not know them.] In the meantime, she also made tunes with her brother Theo under the name Brother/Sister and then Wardell. She first released solo music with the Jaar-produced EP Facepaint in 2018, upbeat pop tracks that netted her an opening slot on tour for Dirty Projectors and sets at Primavera Club and Pitchfork Festival Paris. 

Yet, Spoiled Love is entirely different than anything she’s released, and certainly doesn’t sound like a debut, whether or not you’re familiar with Spielberg’s previous work. (In an interview with Nylon, she said it doesn’t feel like a debut given the amount of work put into Facepaint.) The songs are years in the making, dating back four years, written about and over the course of multiple breakups, often spontaneously in the studio, and finessed over various sessions, also with Jaar, finally finished in September 2019. From the keyboard-laden title track to piano instrumental “Brie” and ambient “Mendonoma”, much of the album is straight up quiet and solemn, let alone downtempo and with minimal effects, avoiding the expectations of those who’ve only heard singles “Strange Town” and “What’s A Man Done”. It’s confessional without being too outwardly tell-all or overly earnest, a subtle, yet powerful collection.

I spoke with Spielberg over the phone last month from her home in L.A. about the lead-up to the album, including how she decided to work again with Jaar, as well as how she envisions eventually performing these songs. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What’s unique about Spoiled Love as compared to anything else you’ve released?

Sasha Spielberg: This is really intimate, this record. More intimate than any record I’ve ever made. I sort of stripped myself of a live band. I first envisioned strings, an orchestra, live drums, so many elements. But the reason I chose to go with Nico is when I went to the studio with him, and we were just playing around, not expecting to record anything, I was in this process of looking for a producer. He just started recording me playing “Rules” on the piano. He played me back some of the waves he was recording, and I knew immediately that it had to be very intimate and I had to go with him.

SILY: You can definitely hear his stamp. It reminds me of some of the early tracks he was putting out with you and Scout LaRue Willis.

SS: We would collaborate in our college years, where he would push my songs and I would push his songs, and we’d push each other to go a bit deeper. He and I loved to make jammers and fun songs and easy songs, so with this record, neither one of us wanted to make an easy record. 

SILY: What does the term “spoiled love” mean to you?

SS: A lot of different things. It means spoiling something--I have so much anxiety, and nobody wants to hear me talk about anxiety, but I sort of cradle it and am unable to even take a walk. I spoil it. Spoiled love is about spoiling that side of me. At the same time, I was going through two breakups, so it’s about love that was spoiled. Spoiled is also a word I think of often, as I see the way people see me, and I judge myself often, especially during quarantine. [Spielberg is the daughter of Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw.] I think, “I cannot have any complaints, I have to be perfect, happy, and getting through this.” I don’t want to come off spoiled. There’s so many meanings in spoiled love.

SILY: Did that factor in the decision to begin the album with that song?

SS: The title came after the song title. Sequencing is so important on the album. Every song and outro and intro is so deliberate, I wanted to tell the story of love being spoiled.

SILY: What role do some of the more ambient instrumental passages like “Brie” play in the story of the record?

SS: They’re pauses and reflections. I find that instrumentals are inherently cinematic. They feel like part of the narration. They’re moments of breathing. It was a way to sort of get me through each song.

SILY: Where did the field recordings come from on these tracks?

SS: We opened the windows during recording, so that’s what that was.

SILY: It gives it a nice sense of place.

SS: Exactly!

SILY: Why did you decide to release “What’s a Man Done” as the first single?

SS: “What’s a Man Done” felt really realized, yet understated. I originally wanted to release four singles, and “What’s a Man Done” was always gonna be first. “Strange Town” is the more obvious single, so I wanted “Strange Town” to be the focus of the album, but not the opening of it. I wanted people to get to “Strange Town” by making it through the first three songs.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

SS: I’m very nostalgic as a person, and I’m very inspired by the books I had growing up and my piano composition books. [At first,] I did a record cover shoot, but this didn’t necessarily feel like an album that needed my face on it. So I went back to childhood, looking at the piano books I would write in. All the colors were colors from where I recorded the record, from Mendonoma, from Los Angeles. They were all mementos of the places I wrote the record.

SILY: Are you planning on doing a live stream?

SS: They feel so intimate--and they should be, since they’re in a bedroom or a house. But you’re ingesting the sound right before your eyes, and not seeing it or in the room, so it’s so dissonant. It feels weird to perform this album on a livestream, but I have to do it. I really can’t wait to be in a small venue playing these songs in front of a crowd.

SILY: Have you thought about how you’re going to adapt these songs to a live performance?

SS: Yeah, so the first half is just gonna be me on piano and vocals, and then my dream forever is to be in a small seated theater and have a piano and a microphone, very stripped down. “High on You”, though, really needs the sampler, and I probably need more backups for those.

SILY: Do you have a favorite track on here?

SS: “Rules” is the most important to me, and then “Strange Town”. “All The While” is also important. Those were the heaviest for me. I equate “favorite” with that.

SILY: What else have you been up to lately, and what’s next for you in the short and long term future?

SS: I’ve been painting dogs in watercolor, which has kind of taken over my life. It started out as a fun little gift idea, but it’s become a full business. I got a lot of Christmas orders, so I am very busy with that. I’m not a businesswoman at all, and I don’t know how to do this, but I keep getting commissions and saying yes to them, which is fun and exciting, but all the due dates are Christmas! I have no idea how to cap it.

I’ve been doing a lot of baking. I’ve been watching a lot of movies I’ve never seen.

SILY: Anything of note you’ve been watching, reading, or listening to?

SS: I started reading a lot of Ben Lerner. I’ve been watching lots of film noir. I was getting into neo noir, too, like Body Heat. I had a note on my phone of bucket list movies I’ve been plowing through. I’ve been attempting meditation.

[gcdean-novel]

Erythro - chapter 2

Chapter 1 here

(about 23 years later)

A drop of water hit Perin in the face. He blinked and stared up into the darkness. Another drop came. Annoyed, he sat up and moved over. It must have rained a few days ago, he thought.

The darkness was all around him. He had not seen light in quite a while. How long exactly, he did not know. Days. Maybe a week. A month? It is difficult to keep time when it is constantly dark. He knew where he was – a dungeon, located beneath the city of Pons. The dungeon was enormous, stretching for forty feet straight down and a mile wide. It was supported by ancient limestone caves that had been carved by rain water flowing out into the ocean. When the prisons in Pons had gotten too full, they moved the worst prisoners underground.

Perin’s cell was a small square with an angled ceiling. A normal sized man would have difficulty standing, but Perin was quite short and could at least sit up with no problems. Filling in the spaces around the original cave walls was stone, which was covered in mud and clay. The cells had unique shapes. Each cell had a solid metal door. Because it was underground, there was never any light. Even when the guards brought food, they slid it through a small opening at the bottom of the door so that no light got inside. The prisoners could not even see each other. All they had was the darkness. Sometimes, if Pons got a lot of rain, the cells would flood. Prisoners had drowned in the dungeon. Some had starved. Some had killed themselves. No one ever checked.

Perin moved backward until his back hit the wall and he leaned against the dirt, trying to sleep again. Now that the cell was getting wet, he could smell wet dirt. The cell probably smelled like other things as well, but he had been there so long that he didn’t notice it anymore. He wished that he was more tired. If he were tired he could sleep and not stare at the darkness and smell the dirt. He heard a small noise that made him jump. The rain drops were still falling and making a splash noise as they hit the bottom of his cell. Perin shook his head. I’ve been down here so long that rain is starting to scare me.

Perin sighed and rubbed his eyes. He did not know exactly why he was in the dungeon, but he did not expect to be there for so long. A man named Jerek Tyler was the dictator of Pons. Every so often Tyler would throw his associates into the dungeon to teach them a lesson, but he would pull them back after a few days. Perin expected that he had done something to make Tyler angry, but he was not being pulled out. Whatever happened, it must have been severe.

The dark and the quiet were supposed to affect the mind, to cause the unruly soldier to come crawling out, begging Tyler to let him return to the surface. But Perin knew something that Tyler did not. The same caves that supported the dungeon served as a hiding place for about a hundred women. Several years earlier, Tyler had decided that women were only good for producing children, and so encouraged his men to treat them very badly. In Tyler’s opinion, women had to be “put in their place”. A woman could not do anything without consent from an army officer or from Tyler directly. Those who chose not to produce children for the army were punished in Tyler’s torture rooms. Sometimes, just speaking was punishable by death.

A few of the women decided to protect themselves by going underground. Nico had come up with the plan, and Perin had helped to save them. They would pretend to take women into a whore house, doing their patriotic duty. Instead the women were shown to their new home through secret tunnels in the floor. No one ever asked where the women went, and as long as there were not too many disappearing at a time, no one would care. Of course, a few actually were whores, but most chose a life underground. The women that Perin had saved had not forgotten that kindness. When they had found out that Perin was in their caves, they had come to keep him company.

Maybe that is what Tyler is angry about, he thought. Maybe he discovered that the women are missing and he knows that I have something to do with it. No, if that were the case, then they wouldn’t be visiting him. They would be more concerned with protecting their own. They are probably safe. The women had tried to convince him to go underground with them, but he had refused. If Tyler came looking for him, and he was suddenly gone, it would put all of them in jeopardy.

Perin stuck his fingers into the moist dirt below him. Years of prisoners had formed a shallow layer of dirt and grime. He had no idea what was in that dirt, and for once he was glad that he could not see it.

There was not anyone up there who would notice that he was gone. Tyler might notice, but he would not care. No one else would dare to try to help Perin. Well, Nico might, if he were in his right mind. Perin had no family and very few friends. Nothing to think about.

Somehow his thoughts always came back to Nico. Nico had cared for Perin after his family had died. He did not know how they had been killed. It had something to do with Tyler’s conquering of Pons, but other than that, Perin knew nothing. Nico, who was nearly thirteen years older than Perin, had taken the young Perin as a brother. They had joined Tyler’s army together. Perin did everything with Nico. Approximately ten years earlier, Nico had changed. Something very bad happened to him. He started drinking far too much alcohol, and then he became violent and withdrawn. One day Perin found him lying in the street. Perin dragged Nico back home and watched over him all night. In the morning Nico left without saying a word to Perin, and the next night Perin found him on the same street. Again, Perin tried to help him, but Nico shoved him away. Nico told Perin to leave him alone, and when Perin refused, Nico had punched him in the face, breaking his jaw. That was the last interaction he had with his brother.

He heard a scraping sound – the door was being opened, and a small light appeared through the darkness. A guard entered his cell and shackled Perin’s wrists and ankles. He could tell that there were two guards, one who was shackling him and one who was holding the light, but he could not see who they were. The light was still blinding him too much for him to see properly. One of the guards pulled roughly on his wrists, forcing Perin to move. Finally, he was being taken out of the dungeon. Perin was pulled up several flights of grungy stairs, all the way outside onto the streets of Pons.

The sunlight blinded him further, and he stumbled along for quite some time before he was able to see. The warm air rushed into his lungs. He was thankful to not be smelling dirt anymore, but some of the smells of Pons were worse. As they walked, he caught a glimpse of himself in a very shiny window. His dark hair fell over his ears and stuck to his head from the humidity of the dungeon cell. Perin was a small man with a small face, although his eyes were a bit too large for it and made him look like he was constantly surprised. All over, he looked like a child that had simply stopped growing. He squinted at the image of himself. Wow, he thought. You look like hell.

Pons was a large city. The streets were interwoven in an odd pattern that sometimes confused even the city’s oldest occupants. The city was a giant circle, and dead center was the tower, a monumental black stone building that loomed over everything else. Underneath the tower was the dungeon, and Perin had surfaced from a small door in the ground.

Perin looked again at the man dragging him along. In the sunlight he could see the man better. Bomzie, that was his name, or at least what everyone called him. Perin remembered Bomzie when he had first joined the Pons army. He was younger than Perin, but much larger and nowhere near as intelligent, so Bomzie was only assigned duties that required physical strength, not mental strength. Like pulling people out of dungeons.

Three other people were being herded along, two older men and a young girl. The men had graying hair and wrinkles, and their clothes were torn so much that they were barely wearing anything at all. The girl was in a perfectly clean, plain brown dress, although her face was dirty. She had evidently not been in the dungeon with them. She would have looked worse if she had been. The dungeon had a strong effect on anyone put into its depths, more so if that person were a child. Perin knew all about the dungeon and its occupants – he had put more than his fair share of people into it.

He realized where they were going. The city was enclosed by a high stone wall for about three quarters of the circle, and by the sea for the other quarter. They were heading for the wall. He looked at the people being punished along with him. He was not sure what any of them had done to deserve this, especially the girl. The men, well, they had probably done something against whatever law happened to be in effect at that time. He had long ago lost sympathy for the victims of Tyler’s laws. One cannot function as a law enforcing soldier while at the same time feeling sorry for the law breakers. But, what had the girl done? She was so young. He felt pain in his heart for her. She had probably spilt something, or spoke when she should not have, and she was being used as an example. He studied her for a second. Perin had seen her once, when she was younger. He blinked several times. After spending so much time alone in the darkness, his thoughts were very blurry.

When they got to the wall of the city, they were poked and prodded up to the top edge. Jerek Tyler was waiting for them. He was a tall, thin man with blonde hair and very straight teeth. He watched them climb, a broad, menacing smile on his face. That smile was always the most haunting part about Tyler. He would smile as he killed you, he would laugh as you struggled, and if you begged him for mercy, he would smile as he told you that there is no such animal. To anyone who did not know Tyler, the smile gave them a false sense of hope. But Perin knew Tyler well. The smile meant that they were about to die, and Tyler was going to enjoy every second of it.