#posting this quick sketch to show im still alive

[thelongestwalk]

thinking about The Seven growing up and getting emotional ... normal things

my kofi

[aknosde]

Fátima I’ll have you know that I wasn’t actually going to drop all of this but then you told me to and I can’t fucking resist you. This is really long I’m sorry. Percy Jackson tiktok au:

This au is like 99% fluff. The only thing that keeps it from being 100% is that I’m maintaining Percy’s history of child abuse, Annabeth's tenuous relationship with her parents, Leo’s mom’s death, The death of Carter and Sadie’s parents, as well as Hazel’s issues (minus the dying), but these things don’t actually come into play.

As you can deduce above, the characters are Percy, Carter, Sadie, Hazel, Annabeth, and Leo. For the sake of my sanity, they are all sophomores in high school.

Character Histories

Percy and Hazel met when he was five and she was four. Hazel’s mom brought her into Sweet on America while Percy was hanging around Sally. They quickly became inseparable, had playdates most weekends until they could control their own schedules, and at around 8/9 years old they started referring to each other as siblings.

Percy: *standing, having a serious conversation with another child at the park*

Hazel: *climbing him*

Percy: WHy are you doing this? The jungle gym is right over there?

Hazel: *continues to climb him*

Percy: You’re a gremlin *pats her affectionately*

      Annabeth and Leo met when they started middle school. Annabeth’s relationship with her father and stepmother has reached a nice area, not perfect, but good, and she doesn’t really talk with her birth mother. Leo’s mom died when he was in fourth grade, he’s fostered by a middle class family, and goes to private school with Annabeth on an academic scholarship.

Leo: –so the problem is that this formula doesn’t work with the diameter of a cylinder but I need...

Annabeth: speak english please

*fifteen minutes later* Annabeth: I think I’ll put vertical supports her, although triangular would be more stable, but according to the building codes...

Leo: I beg of you,,,

     Cater and Sadie’s history stays much the same, they were raised separately until Julius died, except he died during a cave in on one of his digs, and Ruby died in a construction accident. (She was walking by when the supports failed) They started living with Amos in eighth grade. Yes, Amos still has a baboon, an alligator, and an indoor basketball court.

Carter: And so that’s why Amos named his baboon Kufu.

Sadie: You are literally the most annoying person alive, can I have your fries?

    Carter and Percy met on the subway when they were ten, going to a day camp in the summer while Julius was giving some lectures in the city. They were inseparable for the week, and then didn’t speak to each other for four years.

Hazel’s mom has a few mental illnesses that developed when Hazel was around 10, she’s still present in Hazel’s life, and they live together, but she’s not always all there. Once Gabe is out of the picture Hazel spends a lot of time at the Jacksons’ apartment, enough where she keeps a toothbrush there.

As for Gabe, he remains his normal abusive self. Things come to a climax when Percy is 11/12 after Gabe throws a bottle at him. There’s no reasonable excuse for this, and Sally comes home while Percy’s still crying. Gabe’s dealt with swiftly, but Percy has some scarring on the left side of his face.

Also quick note: in this au Percy is 1/2 black, 1/4 moreno, and 1/4 native american. (Moreno and native from Sally and black from his dad)

Their Accounts

So as in the post that got this all started, Percy’s account is largely Ancient Greek and Roman mythology and history. He also does some stuff for indigenous mythology, but he’s super into the greek and roman stuff. (Insert this meme (it’s the thirteenth one down)) He also does skateboarding and some light gymnastics/parkour/acrobatics.

    Hazel is a gymnast. She’s also just super nice and supportive so she makes those motivational videos, but mostly it’s gym stuff and her and Percy hanging out. She’s not quite as popular but she doesn’t really care. She is also the #1 horse girl, and rates horses. Percy would tease her, but he’s also a horse girl.

    Sadie does comedy. Some if it’s scripted or little skits, but there’s a lot of her just ranting at her camera. Also her life is just weird (*cough* alligator and baboon *cough*) so people just like to see what she’s doing. Also a theatre kid™, sorry, I don’t make the rules.

    Carter gives detailed accounts of every Egyptian myth he thinks is cool (all of them), but he makes more comedic abridged versions too. He’s also known to make videos laying out archeological digs. About a quarter of his videos feature Sadie insulting him in the background.

  Leoooooo! He has a lot of comedy, the first video of his to do well was a situational comedy, he always has a sarcastic comment or a bad joke. Most of his stuff now is for robotics. He’s on the robotics team at his and Annabeth’s school, but he does a lot of stuff on the side just making crazy cool contraptions. He has a series of him going scrounging for parts because he doesn’t exactly have the money for a lot of his stuff. Also skateboards occasionally.

 Annabeth’s account in verging on booktok. Every time she reads a book she reviews it, and if it’s popular she’ll record herself reading it and put the best clips together. She’s still really into architecture, she talks about it often, shows some of her sketches, and has a series where her followers can pick videos in New York and she’ll go and critique them. Also has some lifestyle videos about staying organized, but only for school stuff because otherwise she’s pretty messy.

Prequel Stuff

Carter and Percy reconnect when they start duetting each other’s mythology busting videos. They have two series together, one on parallels between Greek and Egyptian myths (called Percy and Carter’s Mythological Mashup) and another about hellenistic culture, specifically about Egypt during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. (Working title: Colonizers suck,,, but the Aesthetics)

Them getting closer forms a friend group of Percy, Hazel, Sadie, and Carter, and they hang out most weekends. Their parents are all friends now.

Okay, The Actual Thing

I lied, there’s a prologue: everything starts at the very end of freshman year when Percy posts a video of him, Hazel, Carter, and Sadie at central park. (caption yet to be determined). It ends up on Leo’s fyp and his though process goes something like ‘oh, it’s a bunch of pretty people who aren’t white.’ He follows Percy and forgets about it.

 So Leo’s life is going pretty normal, Percy’s videos pop up on his following and for you pages. Nothing really happens until Percy makes a video detailing a type of ancient greek technology (im thinking torsion catapult but its not set in stone). Leo thinks it sounds really cool, so he makes it and duets Percy’s video

From there, their friendship develops. Leo keeps making models and prototypes of ancient tech for some of Percy’s videos, and eventually he starts doing his own research. And in turn, Percy duets Leos videos and talks about the historical significance of certain mechanisms or their origins. By now, they’re mutuals and talk pretty often. 

 Annabeth also follows Percy after one of his videos appears on her fyp, but much later then Leo. In fact, he’s on her page because she follows Leo. She’s with Leo when this happens, and asks him about Percy and checks his profile before following him. He follows her back the next day. 

The first time they interact beyond liking each others videos is when Annabeth takes part in one of those ‘creators are struggling like you’ with her ADHD and dyslexia, which Percy continues from her.

 One day Percy and Leo (quite literally) run into each other, and as they’re mutuals and do text, they decide they might as well hang out in person, thus Leo is indicted into Percy’s friend group.

Leo eventually brings Annabeth along too

And the rest of it would be shorter 4+ panel comics and maybe a few mini arcs. I have specific videos outlined for each of them.

[alyssa-ward]

Alyssa Ward and the Curse of the Hanged Men

It started with a cup of coffee.

Alyssa sat in the park at Lion’s rest in the early morning, a cup of coffee brewed from the Recluse sitting beside her on the bench, a sandwich of eggs and ham to her other side, and her sketchbook open in her lap as she worked on a new design.  That should have been it, a quiet start to her day.  Yet she couldn’t help but continue to notice the Kaldorei man nearby, leaning against one of the lamp posts in the park, struggling to keep his eyes open.

The man looked a mess, pale, bags under his eyes, hair all a tangle.  He wore the garb and uniform of the Night’s Watch of Duskwood, but for all appearances, he’d watched for far too many nights.  

“Y’look like y’need this more than I do.”  Alyssa lifted the coffee cup, gesturing towards him with it.

That elicited a chuckle.  The man making a crack about how rude it was to call out his obviously exhausted appearance.  Still, he took her offer all the same, sitting beside her on the bench to nurse the cup of coffee while they talked.  It came to light as they spoke that he’d befallen some sort of curse while researching a series of murders in Duskwood.  He spoke briefly of a legend involving the Hanged Men of Deadwind pass.  Even now outside and above the tower of Karazhan, bodies swayed by the neck from dead trees, long forgotten.  Myths and rumors had abound for years that they would come to life and attack passer bys.  Only a myth.

Curses, the purview of Witches and Warlocks.  Not exactly Alyssa’s area of expertise, her knowledge focused on demons, but even so, “‘ave y’considered tryin’ t’find someone ‘o knows curses ‘ere in Stormwind?  Anyone that might be able t’elp figure out ‘ow t’break it?”

He hadn’t, of course, and for the obvious reasons.  The same reason she hadn’t said as much of herself so far.  How do you openly ask for a Warlock in Stormwind while avoiding the stockade?

Alyssa sighed, “Right...I can ‘elp you.  M’like as not an idiot f’offerin’ it t’a stranger, but y’obviously need it.  Don’t make me regret this?”

(Cut for length, and NSFW Violence content below)

As night fell the day following, Alyssa found herself riding slowly through Westfall towards the bridge that lead to Duskwood.  Far too many of the problems in her life have centered around this particular path.  Damien.  Raen.  Mackerel.  Name after name of issues and complications that have walked this very road.  Yet here she found herself.

She’d met Grey again, the Night Watchman from the day before earlier.  Her night previous spent pouring through her books on curses, an aspect of her ‘profession’ if it could be called such, that she had largely neglected.  The description he gave of his condition gave her some points to work with.  When Grey slept, his dreams were vivid and vibrant, as though seeing through the eyes of another creature.  When he slept in Duskwood while researching these deaths, the eyes he saw through crept through familiar woods, drawing ever closer to him, startling him awake.

When he came to Stormwind to seek aid, and slept here, the eyes stalked the outside of the Walls, working their way into the city.  Whatever had done this to the man was stalking him.  Either closing in his dreams, or relentlessly pursuing, she wasn’t sure, but ultimately the recommendation she made was simple.  “Y’need t’sleep.  Let me watch over you.  M’pets and I will stop whatever comes.  M’specialization is summonin’.  Give me access t’the thing ‘untin’ you, and I can either stop it, or figure out what controls it.”

The man, exhausted as he was agreed, willing to try anything at this point, including put his faith in this odd practitioner of fel magic who so good naturedly offered her aid.  So they agreed to meet at the border to Duskwood, he wished to retrieve some supplies from the Watch, and she needed a place she could fully practice her art without risk of bringing the guard down on them.

So she found herself on that road.  Up ahead the wooden bridge that separated Westfall from Duskwood.  She spurred her mount on, more brazen about her magic here.  Haag, one of her two hounds materialized beside her, shedding its usual cloak of invisibility as it romped alongside the horse.  Vix, her other, was already ahead, watching over the Kaldorei.

Even as she approached, there was a sense of something wrong.  Flickers in the corners of her eyes, like silhouettes moving around her.  The distant chiming of bells, though she was certain they were too far from Darkshire proper to hear them from here.  As she closed, she noticed a form slumped against one of the bridge supports.  Grey sitting there, had found his exhaustion got the best of him, and the man slept.

“Idiot.  Y’were supposed t’wait f’me.”  She sighed as she hopped off her horse.  There was supposed to be more time to prepare.  The warlock knelt in the dust, quickly sketching out the strongest summoning circle she could produce in short order.

The bells chimed louder as she worked, speaking in low demonic, holding up a soulstone.  Rebecca Mills.  That was the name on the gem when she took it out of her collection.  Never use one without remembering where it came from.  “Thank you f’this Miss Mills.”  Muttered as part of her incantation.

A roar across the bridge, and her hazel eyed gaze flickered up for only a moment to take in the thing she faced as part of this.  Mostly human in form, with a burlap sack over its head.  A rope hung from its neck like a noose, and its hands elongated out into wicked claws.  Another roar, and it charged, not at the sleeping man, but at her.

Alyssa’s palm slammed down in the centre of the circle, smashing the Soul gem into the structure, and from it sprang forth a Wrathguard, ripped from the Twisting Nether to this plane, the most powerful demon she could reasonably maintain control over.  “Protect me.”  She shouts a quick command as the hanged man’s claws tear along the bridge.

As quickly, it ended.  Grey’s eyes snapped open in a panic, and the creature vanished in a puff of smoke just before the Demon could meet its charge.  Alyssa stood braced, felfire already forming in her palms.

“Alyssa, I’m sorry.  I saw through its eyes as it charged.”

“Y’should’ve stayed asleep.  I could ‘ave andled it.”  She sighed, moving to offer him a hand up.  “At least I know what it is now.  It looked physical, touchable.  We can fight that.”

The man still wanted his supplies though, and to see this handled at the source, the place he was certain he was cursed.  Deadwind pass.  So they walked through the night.

They spoke at length as they traveled.  He told her about being part of the Night Watch, of the creatures that lurked in Duskwoods shadows.  She told him of fighting in Hillsbrad, of surviving on the edge of Alliance lands.

He confessed he wasn’t sure she wasn’t crazy, and could actually help him until the moment he woke, seeing her standing ready for battle with a powerful demon at her side.  That meeting in the park, she looks so innocuous.

For Alyssa though, this project was invigorating.  She felt alive, excited.  In the months since she’d come to Stormwind, her life’s complications had become about interpersonal relationships.  Subterfuge, saying the right things to the right people.  Tact and complication, nothing the last four years of her life had prepared her for.  This though.  Summoning demons to fight monsters in the night, this is Alyssa’s wheelhouse, what she’s good at.

(Some suggested listening for the rest of this post.  Lady Maria - Bloodborne The Old Hunters OST)

“Why are you helping me?”  The man stops her at the entrance to Deadwind pass as her Wrathguard scouts ahead.

“Y’needed it.”

“Is it really that simple?”

Alyssa sighs, “Y’needed specialized ‘elp that not many can give you.  Y’were in a dire situation that could ‘ave ended badly at any time, well before y’could find anyone else t’do it.  If I turned you away, y’could be dead by now, I couldn’t ‘ave that on my conscious.  M’not as good a person as m’brother is, but I still want t’make ‘im proud.  Y’don’t learn what I know without ‘avin regrets, ‘elpin’ you solve this lets me balance m’books as it were.”

He seems satisfied with the answer, “Well I owe you after this.”  He leads the way deeper into the pass, past hanging bodies, and onto the bridge of cracked stone that spans the gap over the canyon below.  “Does this work for your purposes?”

“It does, I like a chokepoint.  ‘Opefully it comes at us from the Duskwood side, but I can adapt.”  She orders the Wrathguard into a defensive stance as she draws fire into her hands.

“Good, I’m so exhausted I could sleep anywhere.  I’ll wake if it looks like you’re in danger.”

A nod of assurance from the Warlock, and the man lays himself in the center of the bridge, letting slumber overtake him almost immediately.  The exhaustion of his curse, of their travels, carrying him away.

Silhouettes in the corners of her vision and the chiming of bells.  Alyssa braces herself, both of her hands dripping liquid felfire.  On the Duskwood side of the bridge, the Wrathguard stands ready, massive axes in its hands.  The creature hates her for this, but in the moment, that doesn’t matter.  At her side, Vix and Haag, her loyal hounds, some of the first demons she summoned, and her constant companions.  

The thing crawls up the pass on all fours, claws digging into stone, the rope around its neck dragging along the path.  And then another.  And then another.  The sound of claws on stone pull her attention behind her, and she whirls to find more of the hanged men amassing along the edge of the bridge on the Swamp of Sorrows side.  Echoing chunks of climbing creatures sound up the valley, and a brief glance over the edge shows more of them ascending from the pass.

One she felt confident in.  This though is well beyond expectations.  “They don’t pass you f’anythin’.”  She shouts back to the Wrathguard as it sets its massive form to protect one side of the bridge, meeting the first charge with a clash of axe blades, sending ichor and burlap and limbs spattering across the stone.

Trust.  People are hard to trust.  Demons she controls are easy, the guard may hate her, but it has her back, and so she focuses on her side of the bridge.  “Haag, Vix, go.”  The felhounds charge forward as the hanged men start to advance.  One goes high, the other low as they tackle one of the creatures to the ground together, ripping into it.  An arm flies into the gorge, ichor slicks the bridge on that side too.

Alyssa flashes back to the basement in Gilneas so very long ago.  Similarly trapped, pinned in by ravenous creatures.  Now though she’s so very much more experienced, her mastery of Felfire much more controlled.  She pours gouts of liquid fire from her palms, sickly green spraying across Hanged Man after Hanged Man, sending flaming beasts careening over the bridges edge to crash into the ones still climbing, toppling them to the river below.  Still they come.

There’s a rumble beneath her feet, the faint sound of cracking stone as more and more of them pile onto the narrow outcropping of earth that connects the two sides of the canyon.  A reminder that the bridge is natural, not made.  She ignores it, stepping backwards as her and her demons are pressed in closer to the sleeping Kaldorei.  

She loses sight of her demonic hounds in the pile, until a whimpered yelp sounds, and she sees one of the Hanged Men lift Haag into the air, impaled through on massive claws.  The creature rends her hound, and sends its lifeless body over the edge into the abyss, drawing a startled cry from Alyssa’s lips.  “No…”  She lays down more fire, forming a wall of Felfire between her and the creatures, and more of them pile against it, burning and charring.  

The bridge is slick with ichor, fire, and demon blood, and moment by moment, Alyssa can feel herself weakening.  She’s poured too much into this fight already.  She needs to wake the Elf, come at this again after some rest, with more help.

Hazel eyes turn for a moment back towards him, just in time to see one axe fall, than the other as the Wrathguard at the other end of the bridge is overwhelmed.  Torn to pieces by the creatures.  Demonic blood, the smell of copper and the ozone scent of the Twisting Nether as the Wrathguard dies screaming.

The moment of distraction is enough, as one of the hanged men leaps through her wall of flame, tackling the warlock to the ground beside Grey.  Her head strikes the stone, dizzying her, sending stars flashing through her eyes.  Then a sharp stab of pain as a hand full of claws spike through her shoulder, grinding against bone as they punch through skin and muscle into the bridge below.

“You ‘ave t’wake up,” she shouts in a panic, trying to use another wash of Felfire from her palm shoved into the creature’s burlap covered face.  Its other claws rake along her side as it scrambles for purchase.  There’s another crack and rumble of earth.

The world collapses.  The strain of more bodies and battle as the swarms of Hanged Men flood the tenuous expanse overwhelms it.  The bridge crumbles under the weight, sending Alyssa, Grey’s unconscious form, and the Hanged Masses into the canyon below.  She has time to shriek in terror, twisting in the air as she plummets, trying to angle herself to miss the jagged rocks that line the narrow river.  She can feel her form twist and change as she does so, the adrenaline and panic bringing out the beast within.

The river is choked with bodies and dark ichor.  Muddy churned bottom, it’s practically black.  The fall feels like it takes forever, the world in slow motion.  Time to regret.  Time to worry about what Damien will think.  About her friends who constantly warn her not to tackle things like this alone.  

The warlock strikes water, and the world goes dark.

To be continued obviously.

Mentions to @dardillien-ward and to @kel-greyleaf!

Relevance I’m sure to many people, but Alyssa has at least contacted @alliesweetsong-wra; @thetobaccoman; and a character of @valdim-heyworth as part of leaving on this journey.

(Updated with Grey’s Tumblr)