#t reads: mark of athena

[t-lostinworlds]

this is the second time I've read a Mark of Athena. I already knew what was coming. I KNEW what's about the to happen. I've been preparing myself for The Scene but goddammit. I still wasn't ready to read Annabeth and Percy falling into Tartarus again. my fucking heart hurts. I'm fucking crying. I just—

[bettsfic]

i can't stay quiet about this anymore. for weeks now i've thought, noo i won't write about knights of the zodiac on my blog. nobody cares. BUT it is the weirdest fucking movie i've ever seen and i need to tell you about it.

knights of the zodiac is an american made live action adaptation of the anime/manga saint seiya. before this film, i'd never even heard of it, but that doesn't matter, because i watched an interview with mackenyu (who plays seiya) who said that the director told him not to bother watching the anime or reading the manga, because he wanted this movie to be its own thing. you know, which is always a great way to bring in your core audience.

with that said, i'm viewing this film entirely on its own merit, with no context of the source material. so saint seiya fans may not want to read this.

the movie came out this past may. i was excited about it for no other reason than mackenyu starring in an american action movie. i'm honestly a little surprised people weren't more jazzed about that. there aren't a lot of japanese actors starring in big budget american action movies.

other cast members include sean bean (who, spoiler alert, dies), famke janssen, and mark dacascos. in case you don't recognize those names, they are, respectively, boromir/ned stark, jean grey from x-men, and the iron chef. if nothing else, i think it's worth watching for the utterly bizarre casting.

the premise, sort of: mackenyu, who appears to be contractually obligated to play angsty younger brother characters (i think this is the 7th thing i've seen him in where he is an angsty younger brother), has an older sister who is missing. he's a poor orphan boy who gets by on winning cage fights. or something. so boromir finds him and tells him he's destined to be athena's bodyguard, and he gets on board with this alarmingly fast, but not after antagonizing athena (who is not yet athena) and throwing out some snarky one-liners. he trains in the middle of nowhere with a masked lady who repeatedly kicks his ass, and he never changes clothes the entire time. there's other stuff too but it's secondary to the absolute batshittery of this movie.

i saw it on premiere night, which was also the premiere night of the new guardians of the galaxy movie. again, A+ move by the promotional team. so there i was on a saturday at 7pm. prime movie going time. and my best friend and i were the only ones in the theater.

although i had no real expectations for this movie beyond Mackenyu Hits Things And Is Sad, i believed one of two things would happen: it would be as terrible as it sounded, or it would actually be phenomenal. but no, it was neither bad, nor good, but a secret third thing: it scratched a deep and rabid part of my id.

and by that i mean, it appeared to be a very high budget love letter to glaringly submissive men.

here's my letterboxd review that i wrote in the brief hypomanic episode succeeding my initial viewing:

okay so first and most importantly, this scene made me actually scream:

it's a joke line, sure, but 1) he definitely means it, and 2) he immediately calls her "princess," which if you've ever read my fic, you'll know that that's a one-hit KO for me.

(putting this under a cut because it's already long)

you see how athena is framed above seiya? that is one of approximately 1000 shots where this occurs. to every male character. at one point, mackenyu perches gingerly on the back of athena's motorcycle. in fact the only male character who attempts to be dominant aggressive and toxically masculine becomes the punching bag of the film.

in the beginning, seiya is in a cage match where people are getting angry at him for "dancing," which means he doesn't fight so much as avoids getting hit and looks pretty doing it. a solid third of the movie involves a very large lady beating the crap out of him. the premise of the film is getting him to devote his entire life to a goddess and obey protect her at all costs.

i'm probably the only one who watched this movie and was like, hmm is this kink coded? am i insane for seeing this? usually when i think of kink coding i think of quentin tarantino's foot fetish, these long gaudy shots of women's feet hanging out of car windows. it's in the imagery and shot composition and power dynamics.

here, the imagery is a lot of kneeling men, the shot compositions repeatedly place the men lower than the women, and the power dynamics are simply that the women have all the power, and the men have a little, as a treat. jean grey is a straight-up femdom, leather and all.

by the end of the climax, seiya is naked, having been stripped of his (magical and very powerful) armor as pre-athena becomes athena and uh, blasts his clothes off in the process. there's probably something to be said there about, you know, literally stripping him of his power.

i think what i find particularly remarkable about this is that the repeated feminization of the male lead is treated as a good thing. a self-actualizing thing. it's the process through which he accepts himself and his destiny. that's the reason i say it's a love letter--i've known a lot of submissive men and many of them really struggle to accept that part of themselves. i had a friend once who was so ashamed of himself--not just that he was submissive, but that submission was an integral part of his identity--that he had a breakdown in my car over it. so i think it's nice seeing a vaguely positive portrayal of finding oneself through (textually) devotion and (subtextually) submission.

god help me, seiya spends the entire film being irritating and bratty. this movie is my personal kryptonite.

don't get me wrong, it's a terrible movie. the writing is awful, the direction is awful, and if it gets a second film, i'll be shocked. it received a 1.9 (out of 5) on letterboxd and a 4.4 (out of 10) on imdb.

but i've also always been a lover of the star wars prequels (and oh boy there's a lot to be said there about submissive men) and so my patience for bad writing is infinite in the face of interesting things happening on a character level. in a world of disneyfied stock plots and bloated marvel franchises, i appreciate when a movie tries to do something different, even if it doesn't do it very well.

anyway, i can't in good conscience recommend it, but i for one plan to watch it at least a hundred more times.

[coinandcandle]

Brigid Deity Guide

Who is Brigid?

Translated as “The Exalted One” in Old Irish, Brigid is a Gaelic-Celtic Goddess of many things including fire, poetry, fertility, spring, and craftsmanship. Other spellings of her name are Brig, Brighid, or Brigit.

Not unlike many of the Tuatha Dé Danan, Brigid is thought to be a Triple Goddess, similar to The Morrigan. Some believe this means she is three sister goddesses or that she is one goddess made of three different aspects. These sisters, or aspects depending on your belief, would be Brigid the Healer, Brigid the Smith, and Brigid the Poet.

By far Brigid was one of the most popular goddesses of the Celts, as she had variations across the Celtic world where her name was Brigantes or Briganti.

The Welsh know her as Ffraid, in Scotland her name is Brìghde/Brìde.

Parents and Siblings

Dagda (Father)

Aengus (Brother)

Midir (Brother)

Aed (Brother)

Cermait (Brother)

Bodb Derg (Brother)

Lovers or Partners

Bres

Children

Ruadán

Epithets

The Exalted One

The High One

Brigid of the Hearth

Notes

Though the Dagda has been established as Brigid’s father, it’s not certain who her mother is. Some say Danu, others say The Morrigan, though this is less likely. I personally have yet to find anywhere that names a mother with any evidence.

Brigid is considered a Mother Goddess.

Brigid has been conflated with the Catholic St. Brigid, who was the daughter of a converted Druid. It is believed by some that St. Brigid of the Catholic church was inspired by the Goddess. The two share many features and even a holiday.

St. Brigid’s day is February 1st and lands on the same day as the Irish-Pagan holiday Imbolc, leading some folks to believe that the saint is a Christianized version of the ancient goddess. However, no study has found there to be any historical link between them.

Brigid was likened to the Roman Minerva, the Greek Athena, as well as the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn.

Brigid has also been known to go by Dana or Danu, though they are also separate deities.

In mythology, Brigid invented Keening, which is a mix of weeping and singing while mourning the death of her son.

Brigid is heavily linked to Irish Holy wells.

Brigid is also known for prophecy as she was worshipped by seers.

She is associated with fire due to her associations with the hearth and smiths

Ultimately there is very little historical information about Brigit, surprising considering she is so popular now and was popular even in the past.

Modern Deity Work

Disclaimer - Not all of these are traditional or historic correspondences nor do they need to be. However, any correspondence that can be considered traditional will be marked with a (T).

Correspondences

Rocks/Stone/Crystals

Gold

Brass

Iron

Fire Agate

Warm colored stones

Herbs/Plants

Oak (T)

Rowan

Clovers

Heather

Chamomile

Early spring flowers

Blackberries

Animals

Boar (T)

Oxen (T)

Serpents

Offerings

Milk (T)

Honey

Alcohol

Candles

Coins (T)

Acts of Devotion

Light a candle

Hold a bonfire for her (or use your fireplace)

Create or recite a poem for her (T)

Hone your craft, whatever it may be!

References and Further Reading

Brigid, Bright Goddess of the Gael - Mythicalireland

Brigid - Mythopedia

Brigit - Britannica

Brigit - Mythus Wiki

Brigid - Druidry.org

Myth and Legends of the Celtic Race by Thomas Rolleston via Sacred Texts

Song of Brigit - Celtic Wonder Tales by Ella Young via Sacred Texts

The Spirit of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses by Carl McColman and Kathryn Hinds

Devotees and Followers to check out:

@mrs-k-cottage-witchch

@polyteleology

@the-purvashadha

as recommended by the community.

Edited for accuracy.

[denimbex1986]

'If you go look at the Patreon-exclusive Discord thread I have for this episode—and yeah, I recognize this is an extremely venal opening sentence—there’s a moment where I note that the second pre-released clip, with the “David Tennant spits out ‘the Toymaker’ in the same voice he did ‘the Macra’” moment, was squarely at the twenty minute mark, and where I bet on another big turn at 40. And yes, I knew my spoilers and was expecting bi-generation, but I still just want to start by pointing out the fucking clockwork of it. In fact there’s another turn at roughly 30–that’s where the “return to 2023” beat happens, neatly bisecting the second act. And I think that’s key, in the face of the sheer, stupid cheek of this episode, to understanding why it works so well.

I mean, it’s worth saying it out loud, just so I can get it quote-posted on Tumblr—a pantsless Ncuti Gatwa emerges like Athena, instantly establishes himself as the faggiest Doctor ever to fag, then hits the TARDIS with a giant mallet because “we won the game, you get a prize honey” to split it in two so that David Tennant can be the Doctor forever. You can’t make it up, not least because Russell T Davies already did. It sounds like a joke, and in many ways is—the clue’s in the title and all. It was essentially spoiler-proofed, because anyone who’s the sort of fan that’s pouring over spoilers reads that and is just left wondering how this could possibly work out. And the answer is that it’s being done by a damn maestro of the form who understands how to structure the mother of all throat clears before you go and reset the show for gen alpha TikTok users.

The central trick is, of course, that third act pivot into doing a multi-Doctor story for the anniversary after all, with David Tennant having turned out to be the past Doctor all along. That is, above all else, simply fabulous television, and Davies understands that all you actually have to do is put it on a platter. Everything around it is just a series of decisions about tone—an almost mechanistic execution of scaffolding to ensure that moment is a thunderous drop that sends the dance floor wild instead of landing with a damp thud of authorial perversity. It’s fitting that he has the Toymaker attack through television because at the end of the day this operates through literally nothing save for the fact that Davies understands how to use the medium to engineer what is at the end of the day its original pleasure—its creation of cultural events. At the end of the day, there are rules, and Davies knows how to play.

Much as with Rose, there’s a real temptation to break it down scene by scene, but this is the fast reaction, so let’s work in outline. Like I said, three act structure. Act one uses a cold open to put two premises on the table: Neil Patrick Harris is a weird evil guy and he’s done something to television. Then, on the other side of the credits, it shows Harris again as an evil clown and has him wave goodbye and exit the story. Davies proceeds to enter the UNIT show—a backdoor pilot for an entirely coherent Kate Stewart show complete with whatever the fuck the V’linx is besides an absolutely gorgeous reveal (one of the rules there—if the Doctor just accepts something so will the viewer). We tarry in its pleasures a bit—reintroduce Shirley, reveal/establish Mel, and give everyone a couple good beats, including for the first time bothering to use the fact that you’ve got Jemma Redgreave in the part (her shattered horror at her own actions and apology to Shirley!). And we have the Doctor and Donna catch up with the cold open, untangling the “evil television” thing so it can be explained more slowly to the viewer. Twenty minutes in, he dutifully brings Harris back, catching the other ball thrown by the cold open and moving into the second act.

As I noted, this one’s bifurcated. We do ten minutes of spooky horror set pieces while we reiterate the emotional beats from Wild Blue Yonder (another rule there—explain something twice to the audience in rapid succession and they’ll both understand it and understand it as important), split the Doctor and Donna up, give them each a scene’s worth of puppet horror, then get them back together so the Doctor can confront the Toymaker. This mostly just means monologue set pieces—Davies rolls out a bit of rhythmic poetry and gives it to a good actor. We gesture at the past, then conspicuously throw a ball for the future to catch, thus reminding the audience there is one. And in a puff of smoke we vanish back to 2023, crashing the Toymaker back into the first premise. Ten more minutes of the UNIT show round out the act, anchored by the musical number because hey, you did hire Harris for the part, and then do a monologue duel before the Toymaker kills the Doctor fifteen minutes early to kick off the third act.

And it is here, of course, that Davies makes his move. At first it looks like we’re just going to do a shock pivot to Gatwa, which is already clever—an unexpected use of the rules right as the narrative collapses, like you do. And then we do a record-scratch moment—literally, as Gold cuts the soundtrack—use the Doctor accepting something to sell it (lol at the shrugged reprise of “feel’s different this time”), swirl the lights a different color, strike up the band a second time, and bigenerate (even bigger lol at splitting the triple what across characters).

From here, everything hinges on one bet—the same bet, ultimately, that everything hinges on in the larger cultural context. Davies has given us two hours and forty minutes of nostalgic greatest hits reprises. Now he needs to give us twenty minutes of Gatwa being phenomenal. There’s scaffolding, of course—it’s the mother of all “use the predecessor’s cast to establish the new guy” new Doctor stories, and an astonishing amount of the heavy lifting is done by Tennant’s no doubt entirely sincere reinvention of his character as “past Doctor fannishly awe-struck by the future.” But at the end of the day it comes down to Gatwa. And what can you say but that you see why Davies gave him the part.

There’s a trick that’s useful sometimes in analyzing horror films where you figure out the theme by just literally stating the premise—It Follows is about how the stigma of sexuality follows women, Us is about how Black people have suppressed second selves, Tetsuo the Iron Man is about the constant agony of living in an industrialized society. And here it seems relevant to note that Gatwa defeats the Toymaker through sheer physicality. In his underwear. Which is to say that his performance is electric and charismatic—an instantly libidinous Doctor so charming the plot stops mattering, collapsing instead into a queer-off between Gatwa and Harris. Gatwa wins, of course—how could he not with all that beach-off experience from Barbie—and Harris is ushered offstage with ten minutes to go.

All that remains is for Tennant to hand over the keys, which he does with grace, dutifully reprising the Time Lord Victorious in all its burnt out horror so that Gatwa can pull him into a hug and say “I’ve got you” before sending him off to heal himself in a queer platonic relationship with Donna. Gatwa’s the Doctor now. It happened, just about five hours ago. It’s majestic. I can’t wait for more.

* So here’s the most criminal act of burying the lede I’ll ever commit. TARDIS Eruditorum Volume 8 is out. Covering the strange and surreal wilderness years of Paul McGann and the show’s triumphant return in the birth of what I suppose is now the RTD1 era. I’m hitting publish on the ebook edition as we speak, so it might be a bit before it’s live on Amazon—here’s the Smashwords link, which is live now if you want to use that—but the paperback is available for order right now and will arrive before Christmas.

* Also, my Patrons have my Wild Blue Yonder podcast with Eruditorum Press’s very own Jack Graham and Christine Kelley. It features Jack learning, live on the air, what the Timeless Child is. I’ll be doing one on The Giggle with Kate Orman and Jon Blum, and I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be joined by Rachel Stott and Penn Wiggins for The Church on Ruby Road in two weeks. Patrons also get all my ebooks automatically, by the way.

* As for Church on Ruby Road, man, that trailer looks fun. Introducing the Doctor in a club is breathtakingly fresh, and the trailer handles the goblins reveal so well. The whole thing looks completely mad. Can’t wait to hear the single on Monday.

* So, um… Tennant and Tate pretty much have to come back some day, right? Like, Davies has season finales to execute, and he’s not going to leave a gun that big just sitting on the mantlepiece, is he?

* A detail I like is that this mirrors the plot of Journey’s End, right down to the spare Doctor going off and living a quasi-normal life with the companion. There’s a lot of quiet parallels to be had here actually—the fact that Rose was also a toymaker, for instance, or the fact that the Toymaker and the Not-Things largely share motivations. All left entirely to subtext, acting as thematic reverb to give the episode more heft and weight.

* For all that it’s funny to read the lack of Chibnall companions in the Toymaker’s monologue as a dig, the real shade is being playfully thrown at Moffat for his tic of fake-killing companions. Once that’s gone three iterations, Davies structurally has to move on and so captures the Chibnall era in a reprise of the Flux angst from Wild Blue Yonder. No, the Chibnall shade is “I made a jigsaw of your history. Did you like it?”

* Speaking of the rule of three, using “Mavic Chen” to round out a list with the Time War and the Pandorica is god tier.

* All right, all right, I’m obliged to give my Toymaker take. Which is that Davies is very clever retconning the Toymaker as a character who just likes doing absurd caricatures of various nationalities. It doesn’t actually make The Celestial Toymaker any better, but it’s enough to salvage the character for a reprise.

* The more interesting reprise to my mind is Mel. We knew she was coming back for Gatwa, so her appearance here is more a moment of fleeting surprise, but it’s yet another example of Davies’s cool-eyed savviness—Bonnie Langford is by an order of magnitude the highest profile actor to serve as a classic series companion, and as with Jemma Redgrave Davies doesn’t have to do much more than actually give her stuff to do. The callback to her nonexistent debut story to establish her as an orphan is such a deft bit of characterization, and an intriguing parallel to Ruby, and for that matter the Timeless Child, whether or not that’s ever picked up on explicity.

* Which, it has to be said, gives at least some setup justification for bigeneration, if only because it justifies a slightly more “eh fuck it” take on regeneration in general. I gather Davies goes further in this direction on the commentary, which I’ll catch before I do the podcast.

* The fact that the Toymaker claims to have killed God is given entertaining credibility by trapping the Guardians in voodoo dolls and the Master in a gold tooth. Which, love the “cultist hand saves the Master” reprise.

* The invocation of the Gods of Ragnarok makes the absence of Fenric conspicuous. Think I’ll place a long shot bet on him as the big bad for Gatwa’s first season.

* By far the best bit of continuity fetishism, however, is the Alex Jones remake of Trinity Wells.

* Also if you complain that I said Gatwa was pantsless because he was properly just trouserless I will fire you into the sun.

* Let’s close this out with a note on Fourteen, even if we’re probably not saying goodbye to him. First of all, I love him accepting regeneration calmly—“it’s time” instead of “I don’t want to go,” and a cavalier “allons-y” to match Whittaker’s “tag you’re it.” But more to the point, I love the Doctor relaxing into found family, building force fields for his beloved moles, happier than he’s ever been in his life. Tennant commented that he and Davies largely decided to approach the task of how to handle the fact that this version of Tennant’s Doctor is older by just assuming that the fact that they were both older would come through. And I think there’s nowhere that’s clearer than Davies having the Doctor find peace in a distinctly queer shape of love.

Rankings

1. The Giggle

2. Wild Blue Yonder

3. The Star Beast'

[heliotrope-journey]

An Artisan's Bestial Retribution

Good evening, vampire hunters.

Scroll past this post if spiders give you the creeps. Skinwalkers and rotting corpses laying in the dirt aren’t the only monstrosities that found a home in the Lachrymose Blood Forest. If you’re cautious enough to look up, you’ll find a colony of venomous spiders have woven a dwelling in the treetops and their queen is none other than the forsaken Arachne. Read on if you dare.

The punishment that Athena inflicted on this monstrous, humongous creature has done little to tame Arachne’s arrogance. She has spent a couple millennia plotting her revenge against the goddess she competed with. She treated her craft in textile as a representation of her individuality. In Lydian and Greek society where women are taught to be subservient to their husbands and fathers. To see value in the clothing and the tapestries they weave is considered to be a seed that could eventually blossom into independent thought. Arachne had no qualms to spending her days at home, but it angered her that her hand with the needle would be used only for her elders to profit off of. So she chose not to marry against her father’s wishes and sell her textile pieces herself. Her success as a business owner has allowed her to defy the status quo and the mark of the goddess of wisdom was her just reward for inspiring her customers to perceive sewing as more than a burden forced upon them. In her eyes, Arachne was undeserving of Athena’s wrath. She expected her of all deities to be understanding of her desire to revitalize the use of textiles, but her punishment has caused the spider to see her as another lackey to her promiscuous father. Years have passed and in the twentieth century, upon learning that Athena had begun to conceive demigods along with the other Olympians, Arachne vowed to get her revenge by hunting them like prey. Using the knowledge she recalled from her days as a famed weaver, she climbs on top of the trees and builds a nest to store her kidnapped victims for her dinner. Due to its close proximity to Mt. Greylock, she chose the Lachrymose Blood Forest to hide in. Photo by HAMZA-CHERIF Elias on Unsplash.

Michaela sees Arachne as nothing more than a monster that must be slain to protect the defenseless. It is because she does not recognize nor understand the misfortune she has suffered, but she knows no soul should answer to someone else’s misery. No matter who she is up against, her drive to do what she thinks is right always erodes the hopelessness of the conflict. Episode 3 of Son of a Hustler will have her and Einsam’s helplessly witness Arachne’s kidnap three schoolchildren, but the second time she encounters her in a future installment, she’ll be quick to put an end to the now-depraved spider’s plan for revenge.

Thanks for supporting the series as always and have a great week!

Sincerely,

WN

P.S.: I gave an old weapon I designed in 2014 an upgrade before it can be used by the students at Caspian Academy. In comparison to their peers at magic schools in the Conifers Kingdom, they were taught to fashion their own wands from the bones that litter the Lachrymose Blood Forest. Their spellcraft instructor believed that doing so would get them t.

[the-knight-of-the-stars]

Mark of Athena, first reading thoughts:

—Forgot to post this again, who knows how long this has been on my notes.

—First, I loved having Annabeth's pov, I missed her as a central character and I loved the development she had here.

—BRO, they are all TOGETHER NOW AND THEY ARE IN A FLYING SHIP HAVING ADVENTURES. This the perfect setup, I would have read a 10 books series of just this.

—I liked so many diferent povs, at first I thought it may become confusing, but far from it, it was fun and so dinamic. I already love all these characters and getting in their heads throught the book was great.

— PERCY AND ANNABETH FINALLY REUNITED. 😭 It was so cute, 10/10

—The Argo II WAS SO COOL. It kind of reminded me of Legends of Tomorrow and I fricking love that show, I wish this dynamic of the seven on the ship lasted forever, I adore that kind of premise. Even the moments when they just weren´t getting along were interesting.

—I felt a vein popping out of my eye with all the Camp Jupiter hunting them down thing, because it was just a misunderstanding, but I do understand why it happend (a little), and it was just so frustraiting.

—All the interactions with Nemesis, Echo and Narcissus were such a trip, jesus.

—God, I fucking love Leo, not only because he is so funny, but because he is so incredibly smart. Is a diffrent kind of smart then Annabeth, wich I really love, they both bring interesting things to the table and is a delight to read.

—Wich is why Leo feeling so left out and like the "seventh wheel" was much more heartbreaking. He makes concernig comments the whole book, but because is just in his head nobody notices. I dont like where this is going...

—As much as I loved all the adventures, I was so stressed out for Nico the whole time, it was driving me insane.

—GJFHUYREGFEU Every single pov is so interesting, this book was GOLD. This is a masterclass in how to make distinctive narrative voices, it was so good.

—The break between Percy and Jason was actually very interesting. I was afraid it would be reduced to petty jelousy (wich it is a little, but I mean, they are teenagers), but there was some nuace there. Like, I felt like it drew interesting parallels of what makes them so opossite despite being the " "liders" " of their camps. It even drives home what makes the roman demigods and the greek demigods diferent.

—Jason being so serius and even cold, and Percy being as hotheaded as he is. Jason not knowing any other life apart from being a soldier vs Percy rejecting that life every chance he gets. Even the diferent perception they both have of the gods because each know a side of them the other doesn´t.

—Their possesed fight was kind of funny tbh.

—I also love having the chance to explore each characters powers with every obstacle, I feel like it was very well used, I never thought, "well, why didnt they used x power."

—"Please, she thought, wondering if her mom, the goddess of love, could hear her. Don’t let it be Jason’s final breath. If love means anything, don’t take him away" Oh, Piper, honey. These kids are legit breaking my heart.

—I really liked the scene of Annabeth and Percy on the stables, it was so sweet.

—I dont know exactly what it is, but I can tell this is a much more curated, experienced writter. And is absolutely fantastic to get so far into the series because I can tell by now Riordan knows these characters so well. They have so many layers, is specially interesting with Percy and Annabeth because we see them grow so much.

—The scene at the aquarium was very creepy and fun.

—Percy developing a fear of drowning was like, so sad.

—Ok Leo, I love you, but dont need to be a bully, come on.

—Jesus, the whole conflict Annabeth had with her mom in this book made me so sad. The way all the gods just use their children (and have been for generations) gets more unberable with each book, I dont respect any of them, these kids just... still try to make them proud and not think ill of them and its so unfair.

—Even the interaction with Aphrodite, I just kept getting angry. I got bad flashbacks from her praising the other two girls in front of Piper and making those weird comments.

—On this one it hits harder and harder that all this kids want is a future, a good life, and they just never get a chance.

—“You dropped this,” he said, totally poker-faced.

Annabeth threw her arms around him. “I love you!” (I died, actually)

—Was not a fan of Hercules´s aproach. Moving on.

— "Percy blinked. “So your brother is a winged horse. But you’re also my half brother, which means all the flying horses in the world are my... You know what? Let’s forget it.”

He’d learned years ago it was better not to dwell too much on who was related to whom on the godly side of things. After Tyson the Cyclops adopted him as a brother, Percy decided that that was

about as far as he wanted to extend the family." - Percy, I love you.

—Wisdom’s daughter walks alone. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

—The minute Annabeth went on her own I was so nervous, my heart was racing the rest of the book.

—Geez, I wanted to hug her so bad, everything just kept getting worse and worse.

—Gaea is seriusly getting on my nerves.

—There’s too much going on,” he said. “And honestly…before last month, I didn’t even know

when my birthday was. Thalia told me the last time she was at camp.” - That is so fucking sad.

— “What is that?” Jason asked nervously.

Piper slipped her hand into his. “The ghosts are dancing."

Dude! That entire scene of Piper, Percy and Jason and how it ralted with the story of the flood was AMAZING. Easy one of my favorite scenes from the whole saga.

—Rescuing Nico had me so stressed

—"Entertain me, heroes of Olympus." I- Im gonna kill him. I´m gonna kill ALL THE GO-

—Ok, but I liked Percy and Jason coming together and fighting alongside each other.

—Oh my poor Nico, CAN HE GET A BREAKE FOR ONCE

—My girl Annabeth, she is so smart, ahhhhh!

—But Also, WHAT WAS THE NEED TO MAKE HER SUFFER SO MUCH

—Few scenes had me in such a hold and as emotionally invested as the scene when Percy and Annabeth fall to Tartarus. What the Actual Hell. I was speechless for like an hour. The emotion, the tension, the terrible, brilliant moment when everything suddenly conects.

PEAK LITERATURE

— Nemesis wanted him to wreak vengeance on Gaea? Leo would be happy to oblige. He was going to make Gaea sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez.

I am filled with dread, and fear, and hype.

[travelynx]

My first "solo" travel... with random people.

Being a book worm has its own perks and I savoured the fruit of my weirdly-inspired academic excellence at the age of 11 years old, in 1996. My beloved teachers signed me to a general knowledge contest on the last grade of elementary school, and by the grace of Quetzalcoatl, Athena and Thot, I managed to be a finalist and win a week-long trip to Mexico City (along with a bunch of kids of my state). The prize included to meet the president, but to be honest, that was not even interesting for me, it kind of came with the "package" and was unavoidable.

As I said before, I liked Mexico City because of my multiple trips with my mom, I loved the good food and the city buildings, so the trip for me was similar to my regular vacations... But in fact, it was my first time to travel without any supervision from my parents (or any other people I knew before). However, I´ve always been very open to the "unknown", and back then, I didn´t mind much who I was going with and I wasn´t expecting much, but to my surprise the whole thing turned out to be a great experience.

All the nerdy and good hearted bunch of kids that I went with were friendly and all the places we visited were spectacular. We had planned activities back to back for the whole week, and I was barely able to sleep and have a thought for myself, and I think I only called back home once in the whole week (I will check this later with my mom, but I´m pretty sure I was a very detached child).

The week went away through a whirlwind of places: La Secretaría de Educación Pública, el Palacio de Gobierno, el Zoológico de Chapultepec, el Campo Marte, el Heroico Colegio Militar, Teotihuacán archaeological site, a fancy dinner with the president (Ernesto Zedillo back in the day), a bunch of other places I barely remember and a farewell party at the end of the week with all the smart boys and girls in the huge hotel we all were staying (easily around 400 children). One of the things I remember the most was talking with some military men, as we were having lunch with them in the Campo Marte (a military base), asking them about their schedules and regular life. Not a common thing to do.

Now that I think of all of it, it was a little bit surreal, and it marked my life for good. Making a quick search, I found that nowadays the prize for the same knowledge contest in Mexico (Olimpiada del Conocimiento Infantil) is a boring and lame "scholarship" of $1,000.00 MX pesos (or $50 USD) every month for 3 years and only if they maintain their excellent notes. A total bullsh*t I say. That´s not a decent price for being the most badass book worm of the whole elementary school, and I say they need to change it back to this amazing trip with great food, guided (educative) tours and fancy hotel.

#bookworm #elementaryschool #throwbackstories #travelynx

In this photo: Edinburgh, Scotland.

This was the first city out of México that I ventured to live in. The only thing that I knew about it was the things I had read in some history books about the Jacobite rebellions, their national hero William Wallace and a romantic and fictional novel called "Outlander". For this first adventure, I got a scholarship (a good one!) from the goverment that allowed me to apply -and finish- a master´s degree in the University of Edinburgh (with merit!). Also, it gave me the opportunity to mingle with people from other countries and make everlasting friendships. All the things they say about europeans being cold is a lie, I must tell you. Just give them enough time (or alcohol) and they will chill enough to crack some jokes and relax. #Edinburgh #scotland

A bad quality picture of my dearest elementary school teachers, with my fancy school uniform. #elementaryschool #nerdgirl

Some years later with my teacher Emma, the kindest soul in the whole school.

Some of my Edinburgh Super Friends. Love you guys.

[oceanblueeyesoul]

Hiii. Can I request a PJO matchup please? This is my second time on your page so I’m just reusing what I had before hope that’s ok!! Tell me if it’s not(I adjusted it too) I am bisexual. Im Victoria but I mostly go by Vivi, 17 year old girl , 5 feet tall, Libra and my hp faculty is Ravenclaw. Im the youngest child of three. Im half Puerto Rican and half Scandinavian. I have almost black brown eyes, I have bleached blonde hair(naturally dark brown), Im short (not skinny but also not chubby??) and I wear clear glasses. I have little beauty marks all over my body. Im ENFP-T But I can be aggressive (I’m short and weak sass and aggression are my only defense). I also feel like I wouldn’t be as weak in the PJO universe(yet again lol bc ✨magic✨. When someone raises their voice, I get scared. My grades are mostly A's. Im allergic to strawberries. Im tan because I spend a lot of time outside. I have a lot of depression and anxiety struggles from losing someone close to me. I love love LOVE sour candy. I am an artist. I love music and I mostly listen to Alt. Rock. I spend my free time studying, playing mobile games, reading books and drawing. Crocheting/reading are my passions. I have my black headphones on 24/7. I cry randomly.. My biggest fears are feet, driving, and I hate touching/ feeling slimy or mushy food. I love rainy days and Im the biggest bookworm ever. Books are literally my life and you can see me neither with book, or headphones. I can be really shy and I stutter when Im nervous. I can also be very loud and ✨extravagant✨ when I’m comfortable but I usually stick to a level most people are comfortable with because I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. That’s all I have to say thank you so much bye!! ✨❤️

Also yes I’m comfortable sharing my user now 😌✨

Hi there sweetie, I really hope you like this a lot!

PJO Cabin Matchup

You give me Cabin 5 (Athena) vibes! You and your siblings would study a lot together and also reading books to the younger campers as well.

PJO Matchup

Your PJO soulmate is...

GROVER UNDERWOOD!

He would give you so much sour candy because he likes to spoil you and also he knew you really love sour candy the most.

He would buy you so many books just for you to read because he knows that you love reading books so much as well as he does too.

The two of you would dance in the rain together and having fun with your younger siblings playing in the muddy puddles as well.

Taurus x Libra lovebirds!

Hufflepuff x Ravenclaw soulmates!

[nola-lee]

(WARNING: The following content contains explicit descriptions of violence, torture, and death. Please read with caution!)

[oh mother, tell your children not to do what I have done;  spend your lives in sin & misery in the house of the rising sun]

@outterridge @aurormax @katiethxrne

Under any other circumstances wherein Dona’s safety was in question, Lee would have stuck by her side like spice on rice. But as it was, mambo had him by the throat against a wall in her quarters.

“You will stick to your instructions this time, Boy…” Taitu commanded in harsh Haitian Creole. She squeezed Lee’s neck, her sharp nails leaving marks on his dark skin. He could hear commotion coming from outside Taitu’s closed door. “…do not let your foolish need to protect the Lost Daughter interfere with our carefully wrought plans again. You have your orders. You will not stray. Everything that is happening is part of a higher directive that is under my control. Disappoint me again, and it will cost you. And know that I will be watching.”

And just when Lee thought he was on the verge of passing out, the Queen disappeared amidst a black cloud of smoke. Lee slumped a half-foot down the wall, rasping for breath. He could hear Dona calling for him, and her voice is the only thing that gave him strength to push himself up and into the chaos of the raid.

Issac was readying her office, an attempt to give their lackey some level of competence in the more delicate aspects of being in I&S. Thus Athena Howell was behind the vanguard that made yet another push into the darker dealings of the wizarding underworld. There were signals the bulk of the fight was completed from her aurors, all hard faced men and women who tucked their chins at the snap of her cape. It was dramatic, but a necessary show of flamboyance; Reese respected her occasional bout of showmanship in the field if only to remind everyone that real power laid in crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s.

The fight was still raging, the world tilting on its axis while glares of spells shot past her ear and whizzed into the idle protection barrier Athena had conjured the moment a toe went across the threshold. Her soldiers were holding their own, and then some, smashing through the Daughters’ little hidey-hole, making a game from how they chased them through the halls. Sending them scurrying like so many rats that oft sniveled in corners before snakes and hawks, Athena snapped her wand out into her palm, sending an electrical current through one, vomit covering the tips of her shoes and she took the time to smear it on the downed person’s cheek before moving onward.

There were screams, yes of course there were screams; Athena had learned to parse through each kind—rage, horror, agony, defeat, and best of all pain. She knew the screams of pain, had made a game of learning what sorts of whimpers and cries could exit a person’s mouth, just how much they could take.

The one that cracked through the house was one of panic, of agony, of someone who’d made a kill for the first time and was watching the lifeforce slip away, completely unprepared for how it could split someone’s soul into so many pieces Humpty Dumpty was unable to fix you. Athena never wondered if fixing a soul was viable, all that mattered was the sanctity of innocence and peace. Her soul was well worth the cost of children happy in Hogwarts.

"The tablecloth. Lee, get me the—Come on, the tablecloth!" Dona's voice became more panicked as she felt the blood seep into her jeans, her knees slipping on the floor.

She could've summoned it herself, if her hands weren't already multitasking. Her wand, slick with blood, was clumsily waving along a deep cut, practicing a stitching spell she'd only ever observed. Her other hand was pouring dittany liberally over the auror's entire body.

"Lee! Get me the tablecloth!" She looked up from her work this time, eyes widening as she took in the situation more broadly.

The secondhand shop that hid Lee’s family’s home was filled with aurors—more than two, was it three or four? Her vision was blurry without her glasses. But Lee was hidden from sight, or had he apparated away? The sounds alone were terrifying, spells shot off walls, shouting, boxes thrown aside.

"Help me..." she begged aloud, shaking hands desperately trying to go back to work. Someone, anyone—she needed help. "...she's not breathing, help me, please.”

Lee clutched the tablecloth inside a shaking fist, and crouched beside his soleil awkwardly. He tried not to focus on the cops in strange robes who were tearing the secondhand shop apart with little regard and certainly no respect for its occupants or their business. He tried not to focus on anything but Dona—her big brown eyes, pleading and scared. Lee glanced helplessly at the raven-haired woman convulsing on the floor and said, “Do ya…do ya know who she is?”

He was moving so slowly, no urgency at all—or was it just because Dona’s own hands were doing so many things at once? Her wand, shifting up and down, desperately trying to coax muscles back together. Throwing aside the empty dittany bottle, then ripping the tablecloth out of Lee’s grasp to press it over the auror’s stomach, wrapping it tight, trying to stop anything else from spilling out. It was the first—the only—time Lee’s presence hadn’t comforted her.

“She’s an auror...” Dona’s voice came out in a gasp as she tied the tablecloth tighter, then went back to her wandwork, “...im-important, I think, her uniform…” But no, Dona didn’t know her personally.

She leaned across the auror’s body and slipped where she knelt, the auror’s warm blood soaking her thigh. It was getting increasingly difficult to see, between her lack of glasses and the hot tears gathering in her eyes, “I—” She gasped, wet hands reaching up to wipe her tears, smearing the red in the creases, “I don’t know what to do—”

Dona looked around, head whipping about, “I-Is anyone here? M-Mags might… She would know, I—” And when Dona turned back around, to try something, anything—as soon as her hand put the slightest touch on the auror—it disintegrated underneath her.

That was what broke her.

Auror. That was the same strange word Lee had heard that friendly white boy boulanje from the witch fruit market use to describe cops who used magic. And Lee absolutely held no love in his heart for law enforcement. But as he heard Dona slipping in blood spilled from the body of a stranger, as he watched that body disintegrate into grey-black soot beneath their hands and their knees, as he heard the light of his life wailing in terror and anguish beside him—Boy LII wished he’d been born for a fate that did not demand such sacrifices, that did not reap such a cost of needless destruction and despair.

He tried to offer words that might calm Dona, but what could he say? That despite her wondering desperately if Mags could have helped, Lee recognized this magic as being woven from the Lady Magdeleine’s own hand—and a merciful annihilation, at that—by Mags’ and all of the Daughters’ own standards? No—Dona’s pure heart was not yet conditioned to the darkness of the magic she was soon to inherit that she would find much comfort in that.

Athena snapped open the door where the wails came from and stopped.

Ashworth was a thorn in Reese’s side, her Commander oft bitched about her comrade and ex-schoolmate. She was a pillar in the Auror Department, a mentor, and a powerful tool in the necessary violence for the protection of the Wizarding World.

But as Athena watched Ashworth slowly morph into a pile of dust, she could only think about three things: 1. Cmdr. Reese was going to become the Auror Department Head 2. They needed a new C&F Division Commander 3. She was about to become very familiar with the ways this girl screamed.

“In the name of the Ministry, put your hands in the air or I will cut them off.”

There was no time for consolatory words. Because before Lee or Dona could even think clearly enough to lift themselves up from the death muck that encompassed and incriminated them, a woman with black eyes that smoldered like brimstone was threatening them if they did not surrender.

Dona was terrified of getting in trouble. She remembered the exact number of times she’d gotten a detention—each of them because the class was being punished as a whole. She remembered each and every time she’d been sent to her room by her Mom, the loneliness in her room made her cry and cry until Catelyn relented.

And now, with a Ministry auror pointing a wand at her, threatening to cut her hands off, Dona was petrified. Her hands visibly shook as she raised them in the air, one hand still clutching her wand.

And despite Taitu’s grave warning, Lee’s protective instincts kicked in; he threw himself in front of Dona, bellowing, “Pa oze manyen li you—!” But before he could finish the statement of defiance and foolish valiance, he felt an electrical current like a bolt of lightning scorch through his body and knock him out cold.

“Lee, no—!” Dona shrieked, but she barely had time to try to stop him from making any sudden moves before he dropped to the ground, muscles seizing up and spasming. She went to move forward to check him over, but put her hands back up, looking at the auror. “I’m—I’m a Healer, I can… Let me… Please, I—”

But before she could do anything, her hands were pulled behind her back, her wand clattering to the ground next to her. She pulled against the sudden bondage instinctively, sending a shock of pain all the way up her arms. And Dona, who cried when she got a paper cut, screamed. Her shoulders hunched up to her ears and she struggled to stay balanced on her knees. Her scream died down to a low wail, tears sliding down her cheeks.

“Oh, shut up,” came a low, male voice from behind her, before a hand was placed on her shoulder, and she was apparated away.

***

[ Interrogation Room, Ministry of Magic ]

They were in the same room. Which was a mercy and a torture, by itself. Her hands were bound behind a chair, and Dona learned very quickly that moving or straining would only mean more pain. But she could move her head, turning to watch over Lee, who was still slumped in his chair.

“He needs a Healer,” Dona sniffed, blinking back more tears, “Please, he’s… He’s recently had surgery, he—”

“Spare me,” the auror spat, and Dona looked up, genuinely puzzled. “We know perfectly well how your kind treat people like him.”

“I—” The statement was so obtuse that Dona was truly lost for words, stretching up her shoulder to wipe her cheek. She sniffed again, genuinely trying to stop snotty crying in front of so many people. “C-Can you take the handcuffs off? We didn’t do anything wrong, I was trying to help.”

Athena had heard that plea before, a dozen or so times. They never meant to hurt anyone, they were only trying to help, they had no idea the backlash that they’d caused, surely this wasn’t against the law. Couldn’t she just let them go? They were kids, they were parents, they were grandparents, they were just following orders. Athena reached out with a hand and grabbed the front of the girl’s shirt, dragging her a short way up.

“You just killed an Auror Commander,” she hissed, “We’ve made meat for less than what you’ve done. You’ll be lucky if we decide to just toss you in Azkaban once her subordinates find out what has happened.” Athena could hear it now, the roars from the basement brats beneath her feet, their lab rats coming out of the pipes and crawling the steps to find Ashworth was simply dust in the wind. Scrambling for new leadership, and all of Ashworth’s little ‘projects’ doubtlessly stalking Athena’s crime scene looking for someplace to put their rage.

Athena disliked Ashworth, but she respected the loyalty the old Slytherin had drawn from her subordinates. She knew where to strike the ground and find oil, digging up potential like a miner, shining them to a polish and kept leashed to the Department. The Commanders were all Beast Masters, and even Athena loved her own. So as she stared at the sniveling girl groveling with reddening cheeks, she smiled.

“I think you’re lucky it’s me. There is going to be blood fertilizing the ground soon, once we find your little rat friends, and it will be all your fault. Their deaths around your neck—a noose, an albatross...”

Dona’s shoulders hunched up as she was lifted, eyes wide and terrified. She shook like a leaf, shaking her head desperately at the accusations, genuinely too afraid to talk, to deny it. The experience had been traumatizing enough; although a healer-in-training, the auror’s death was the first patient she hadn’t been able to save, and she wore the woman’s blood all over her. Dona could feel it drying into her jeans, her skin, her hands still tied behind the chair, straining against the wood as she was lifted. Tears continued to slide down her cheeks at the memory of it, and she sniffed, trying to stop long enough just to explain.

Athena let her grip drop and began to shuck off her peacoat; it was decorated with tools of the trade—knives, hooks, ropes, lighter fluid, especially brewed potions for her skill in these rooms. Janitors were often paid overtime for cleaning up Athena’s space, and Athena tipped them for the citrus scent they sprayed afterwards. She enjoyed it, kept her head clear and focused.

“...But you can stop some of the bloodshed, we can take them quietly. Oh they’ll be harmed, you can’t stop that. But you can stop a massacre.” Athena shucked off her white outershirt, folding it up neatly and laying it upon the equally meticulously folded peacoat. Both left in a far corner box, leaving Athena in her heavy black boots, wool pants and thin black undershirt.

Dona was still shaking her head when she was put back down, still trying to force words out as the auror continued on her spiel, but it was like her sobs were choking her, holding onto her tongue. The best she could manage was a stuttered, “I-I d-didn’t—”

Athena twirled her wand and mindlessly shot a cutting spell at the girl, watching blood ooze from her arm, slicing through layers of fabric. It was a shallow stinging cut. Her cries were stirring the boy, and that wouldn’t do.

Dona gasped at the sudden stinging sensation, crying out and turning to look at her arm. She was in genuine shock that the auror had hurt her, having always been under the impression that the Ministry’s job was to keep her safe. She’d never been in trouble, she voted, she submitted her census papers and carried her work ID in her back pocket. She blinked, shrinking back in her chair as the auror suddenly approached, flinching down into herself, frozen in fear as her pale finger caressed Dona’s cheek.

Like an older sister Athena patted the girl’s head, gentle and soft, shushing her softly, “We don’t want to wake him, do we, pretty girl? He needs his rest, it’s just you and me together…” Athena reached out to drag a single nail down the curve of the girl’s cheek. “...now, will you be a good girl and stay quiet for me? Tell me what I need and make sure he—” She pushed her cheek, still endowed with baby fat to the shallowly breathing boy, “—gets some well needed attention?”

Dona trembled, turning to look at Lee when she was forced to do so. She was immediately worried for him—she’d lost track of time, sure, but she was sure it wasn’t normal or healthy for Lee to be unconscious for so long, especially following his intense period of hospitalization, treatments and surgeries. He was so fragile. So breakable—

But Athena didn’t wait for an answer as she stuck the wand up against the girl’s knee and whispered a breaking charm. The girl’s answered shriek made her tsk.

Dona cried out, letting out a shattering wail at the bursting sensation in her knee. The proximity of the wand tip to her knee split her patella clean in two, and her knee immediately collapsed in on itself, shattered. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she strained against her restraints to lean forward, desperately trying to free herself—to do anything to stop the pain.

“Oh you’re weak, that’s cute. Even our trainees can get through a little breaking charm. C’mon stop crying, we’re just getting started.”

“Why are you doing this?” Dona managed to wail through her cries, shoulders shaking as she begged the auror for help, “I didn’t kill her—I didn’t, I didn’t—I didn’t have enough dittany and I—” That was all she could manage before her sobs won out again.

Athena hummed jauntily as she sat back down on her ass, the picture of relaxation, letting her hands hang over the peaks of her knees. In this way the girl was looking down at her, it was an old trick, such a position usually signaled defeat but instead Athena displayed an arrogant grace.

“Why am I doing this?”

Were she a weaker auror, she might’ve balked, might’ve had some flashbacks to her youth, found err in her ways. She might’ve felt sympathy or even had evoked some guilt. Might’ve cried a bit and stared at her bloodied palms in disgust for the person she had become. Might’ve been horrified and begging for mercy from a benevolent God who’d turn her away at the pearly gates.

Fuck God, and benevolence, and forgiveness too. Hell was on Earth and the aurors were there to keep it tamed. Athena was born to bring justice, by any means necessary.

“Because this is what I am—” Athena gestured to the room around her, “—a peacekeeper, keeping children safe in their beds, their parents from worrying, students safe at Hogwarts and professors snuggly drinking tea in the mornings as they grade.”

Athena was good at grand speeches, had made rousing ones when she was a prefect for Slytherin House, keeping order in her House in the wake of the Second Wizarding War and ending fights before they began. Spilled blood on the stones of Hogwarts still haunted her dreams, the screams of students dying and being torn apart, the inaction of those around her...

It made her sick.

“I am incapable of inaction.” Athena stood, dusting herself off. “So we’re going to try this again, baby Healer—why are you wrapped up with such dark magic that it’s making the veterans of the Wars nervous? Why are you so entrenched in them that you’ve taken one of them as a lover?” Athena reached out to tilt his head to the side, and walked around her, fingers running over her hair, blood flaking off while she tutted. “Merlin this is gross—yeck, blegh…” with a spin of her wand the blood was gone, the viscus and the muck. “…and I can play nice—I just need answers.”

Athena tapped his shoulder, sending a jolt of electricity with the tips of her fingers.

“Wakey wakey, Loverboy! I need to know what you and your lot were up to— quickly, otherwise I’m liable to break every bone in your girl's body. Then I’ll take your ears so you can’t even hear her screams, hmm?”

She watched his eyes slide open, watched his mouth move and open. With the accuracy of a sniper she fired off a curse with her wand. “Tumidus lingua veritatis,” she hissed, watching as his hands jerked to cover his mouth, the girl shrieking, “Oh both of you relax, it’s just a curse. Swelling Truth. The more you lie, your tongue swells, as do your gums and throat. Until eventually you close your own airways and asphyxiate. So let's play a game—I ask you a question boy, and if you don’t answer I break something in her body. If you lie, you get to hang yourself. It’s a win-win! For me! I’m brilliant.”

Athena sat back on the floor, criss-cross applesauce, perching a chin on her fist with a sharklike grin, and regarding the panicking captives. “Tell me nothing but the truth and you get out unscathed, you get Healers and auror protection, then walk your lives along unharmed. Tell me lies and get broken down, then tossed to the wolves of the Forensics & Crime. They’ll have fun with you I’m sure, and they won’t be as nice as me about it.”

***

[ Interrogation Room, some time later ]

All efforts to communicate the catch-22 situation in which Lee was caught to the sadistic woman who held them captive were a fool’s errand. The intricate wards that were rooted into the very core of his mind, his memories, since infancy held strong; they allowed Lee to say nothing that would damn the Daughters, nor give the faintest hint as to any of their secrets, no matter how fiercely he strained against them as Lee was forced to watch the horrors the woman wrought upon Dona, slowly and meticulously draining all the fight and the will from her battered body (not to mention a dangerous amount of blood).

And oh, did she try to turn her wrath on him. What appeared to Athena to be brute determination from Lee in employing his so-called right to remain silent—even as he pleaded through choking sobs for the girl to be spared—only drove the auror to push more brutally, and ruthlessly, and viciously upon the pair of captives. 

But it was no use; the Daughters, of course, had ample preparations in place to safeguard their secrets from being extracted via torture. Like magical anesthesia, Lee could feel every bit of physical pain that Athena inflicted upon him, and yet his body doggedly failed to react—aside from coating Lee in a thick sheen of feverish sweat, and the way he trembled head to toe as he wrestled with his will, and all that he was unable to do. 

And soon enough, his inability to be forthcoming caused his throat, his tongue, his lips and mouth and cheeks to swell up so much that he could barely move his head, barely breathe but through tiny passageways still available to his nose. Even getting enough air to audibly groan was veering toward impossible. His head slumped to one side and Lee looked at nothing but Dona, beaten and broken and still so beautiful, and his vision started to blur; he was losing Oxygen…

Dona’s reaction to her senseless torture remained consistent: insisting throughout tearful hysterics that she didn’t know anything. Even the curdled screams that she wailed in response to each and every bit of pain took a while to dull—but they did dull, eventually, until she’d been reduced to being unresponsive save for whimpering, her nostrils and lips and chin caked with blood from the broken nose Athena had given her when the interrogation was interrupted by a younger, male auror demanding a routine blood test. It was the restraints, not strength, that were even keeping the girl sitting upright.

And perhaps the Auror Captain never would have admitted defeat—perhaps she would have wrung the young captives body and soul between unrelenting fists until their lives were drained out.

Perhaps, but not today—the male auror who was Athena’s clear inferior hustled back into the room and said, “Christ, Howell—did you bother to check that brat’s background at all? Her blood test came back—she’s pure. Some American family with their noses up some powerful peoples’ asses—Reese is pissed. She’s headed here now so I hope for your sake you have a fuckin’ good excuse—“

His warning was cut short when the Commander—now the acting interim head of the entire Auror Department—threw open the door.

Seren Reese watched with a curled lip as Athena shook in place, there was blood on her cheek, and her hair was matted to her skull from sweat. There was a feverish sheen in the woman’s eyes, and Seren admired how her little monster coiled away from the doorway when it tapped gently against the wall. It was nice to know that her subordinates still feared her.

Her two aurors parted, heads bowed, eyes to the floor, letting her view the damage Howell had wrought. It was impressive, and obvious she needed to let Athena get off in the interrogation rooms more often if this was the result.

“You’re quite sloppy today, Athena...” Seren grabbed the boy's head and turned it side to side, admiring his swollen skin and throat. No doubt he’d been suffering this whole time, his skin and blood stank of wards to high heaven. “...you’ve gone and let your bloodlust cloud you Athena, perhaps you will need supplementary lessons?”

“Yes Commander,” Pierce was grinning beside Howell, always happy to watch someone else get dressed down, seeing as he was the usual thorn in her side when it came to getting wand- or fist-happy. “I apologize.”

“Apologize to her.” She gestured to the pureblooded girl strapped to the chair, blooded and mangled.

Athena’s jaw worked once, then twice. She bowed her head when Seren raised an eyebrow, “I apologize for my heavy-handed... methods....miss.” Each word a grind from her throat.

“Oh that’s not an apology...” Seren held her hand out, and Athena went willingly into her palm, head bowed as Seren studied her favorite little protege, the one she’d trained since exiting Hogwarts in the fickle arts of their station. Her hands glided through sweat matted hair, fingers curling as she gathered the strands into her hair, before slamming Athena forward, yanking her head forward and forcing the girl into a bow. Seren’s nails dug into Athena’s scalp pulling up hair and blood. “Grovel, girl—you have fucked up, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Athena whimpered, skin on the back of her neck red.

“You ought to just die right here, for failing your station so miserably, right?” She shook Athena like a bad puppy, and the girl nodded.

“Yes ma’am...” Athena cowed as Seren shoved the girl to the ground. Isaac was behind her, lips pulled into a joyful grin. “...I don’t deserve this station, I have failed you miserably.”

“Get out.” Athena stumbled out the door, slamming right into Cadmus, who grabbed the woman by her jaw and dragged her down the hallway. “Pierce—” The boy snapped into place. “—Get me a healer, and the proper legal documents.” With flick of her wand she transfigured one of Athena’s buttons into a metal stool that she perched on, spreading her broad patterned skirts daintily around her knees and tucking her ankles behind.

“Miss Outterridge,” she began with a purr, “I do so apologize for the mauling one of my trigger-happy aurors has given you. I know we likely will not escape the wrath of your family, for good reason, but we must have answers...” Pierce came rushing in with a Healer, who got to work on the damage. “...you have found yourself in a pickle with a terrorist magical cell of insurgents that we’ve been tracking for a long time. Their misdeeds and evil have sunk their claws into this world, and the aurors are tasked with ripping them apart. It’s unfortunate that you’ve come under their sway...” Slowly, the visage of the girl was put back together. “...and now you’ve been cited as an accomplice to one of my colleague’s deaths—a very high ranking member of the Auror Corps, one not so easily replaced and who will be vehemently missed...” Seren kept the emotion out of her voice, though her stomach churned and throat tightened at the thought of Ashworth having escaped this earth before her, and not beside Seren. Were they not meant to die with hands wrapped around each other's necks? “...so you must understand where we are coming from. Our job is dangerous, and you’ve become involved with insurgents with more blood on their hands than you may realize.”

Dona’s eyes were glassy as she stared ahead, her tears long dried, her screams long silenced. She felt like she wasn’t quite inside of her own body, mangled as it was. She didn’t know when it had happened, and it wouldn’t matter anyway; Dona had no sense of time passing as she sat there, staring.

She had no reaction to another auror entering the room, then another. She barely managed to lift her head to listen to the new auror’s spiel, most of it going in one ear and out the other. She spoke of terrorism? This auror didn’t know the fucking meaning of it.

They’d been sitting at home, lounging around on Lee’s bed when it happened. Dona had jumped up and scampered out, wand drawn, to see what the commotion was—and that’s when she had found the cursed Commander. Lee hadn’t followed.

He’d taken his sweet time to help her—time that might have prevented the dark-haired auror from dying, and then when they were arrested, he’d kept his lips shut. He didn’t answer a single question. Not when they broke her legs. Not when curses spasmed down her body, forcing broken limbs to move. Not even when they’d cut off her fucking finger.

Voodoo would always be misunderstood, mambo had taught. As long as colonialists existed, so too would their oppression. They saw the magic that Lee and his family did, and didn’t understand it, so they called it dangerous, called it terrorism. And then they tortured her for it. Terrorists.

Dona was barely aware of her body being healed, muscle and bone knitting itself together. It was easier to breathe when her nose was in one piece.

The decision was made, at some point, to move Dona to a different room where she could be healed easier—somewhere she wasn’t bound to a chair, at least. She tried to mumble a protest, but words didn’t come out, her arms weakly pushed against the Healer before the choice was made for her, and Dona found herself being propped up, stumbling out of the room.

She swallowed the potions they gave her, snatched the salve jars out of their hands to rub it in herself. When they eventually located her wand, which had been confiscated from Lee’s family home, she used it to heal herself, too.

And then she was left sitting there in an Auror Infirmary, glaring at the wall in front of her. She would have walked straight out if the same cocky-looking auror wasn’t standing just outside the door, and if she knew Lee had a reliable way home. Not that Dona particularly wanted to wait for him, she just wanted to be able to look him in the face when she screamed at him for his silence.

[ Meanwhile, in the Interrogation Room... ]

Despite looking well-close to dead where he sat, when the girl was removed from the room, the boy stirred.

Seren studied him, like a cockroach in a jar, and mused, “You’re under some complex spellwork, boy—it’d be impressive if it weren’t so primitive. I’m sure I could break these little wards and curses…” Childsplay, though Ashworth would have done it quicker and painlessly. She’d always been better with curse-breaking, and curse-making, damn her.

But Ashworth wasn’t here, and Seren knew pain came with growth. With a flick of her wand she lifted the curse Athena had put on him, one of the girl’s own creation, and gestured.

“Speak boy, defend your terrorist cell, and perhaps we’ll allow an easier release alongside her.”

Just when Lee was about to surrender to the darkness that was creeping along the edges of his vision, to stop fighting and just let himself be pulled beneath the surface to be buried in the muck by Death’s muddy vines, those sweet ghastly tendrils that had tethered Boy LII to the Depths Below since birth—

Once more, just as before, he was spared; for attestations of some other realm that were not for a worthless boy to know, Death released Lee and he buoyed back to the shoal of life.

His features shrunk back to their proper shape and he gasped air back into his lungs, choking on it as if he’d been drowned. A new woman, with gray hair, was sitting before him. Lee thrashed, his eyes flashing like a spooked horse; where was Dona? What had they done to her?

“Please, ya gotta listen to me—the other one didn’t understand, wouldn’t listen, it’s—Dona doesn’t know anything, you’ve got to let us go, you got no idea what’s comin’ if ya keep…”

He convulsed for a moment, as if some unseen force was passing through his body. Then he sat upright, his back straightening unnaturally given the injuries he’d incurred. He looked straight at the gray-haired woman and his pupils blew all the way out, until his eyes were clouded over entirely with a sinister, unreflective black.

The boy blinked his stygian eyes. Blood trickled slowly down from one nostril and then the other, trailing over the edges of his lips, but he paid it no heed as he spoke in a flat, chilling tone that sounded entirely unlike the voice he’d spoken with but a moment ago: “By Tituba's will, and the Spirit of her Daughters, vengeance will come. She will flood acid rain on your prejudice, burn your lies over the fire with which you burned us, and boil your posterity in blood. This we swear, to be followed through in this world and those to come.”

[ Back in the Infirmary... ]

Eventually, the door to the infirmary swung open, and a blonde woman marched in, looking frantic. Dona averted her gaze, looking to the ground. The woman’s auror-issue boots were grimy, muddy. She’d been at the house when it was raided. Her gaze flicked up to glare at the older woman.

“My name is Major Max Squint. I am so, so sorry for what happened—it was never meant to be like that...” the woman said, pulling up a chair. She sat on it, putting her elbows on her knees, “...this Operation was put in place to help you, and the boy with you. I’ve been looking into the Daughters for years, and we’ve never had the opportunity to help someone before it’s too late. Miss Outterridge—Dona—it’s not too late. Whatever they’ve told you, it’s not true. We can help you.”

Dona’s chin wobbled before she leaned forward to spit at the auror’s face. “Go fuck yourself.”

Max put her hands over her face, wiping away the spit before massaging her temples, wringing her hands down her cheeks. “Please, let me help you—”

“Fuck you.” Dona snapped, exhaling sharply. It took everything, everything she had not to reach for her wand. To hurt this person like she’d been hurt. To blow everything up. To set the world on fire for what it had done.

Max looked especially stressed at this, standing from her chair. “Please—”

“Get the fuck away from me.” Dona’s voice shook, and the woman shook her head, leaving the room and swinging the door shut behind her.

Max was livid as she stormed back down the hallway toward the Interrogation Room; her mission, months if not years of work and preparation and carefully-gathered intel, just for Reese to pull rank and that rabid creature she called a protege to blow it all up in a couple of hours?

Not only had this botched mission gotten Ashworth killed, but Max feared the Daughters had vanished into the wind again. The identity of their mark—the most promising lead Max had gotten in ages—was well and truly lost, turned against working with her and horrifically mistreated for nothing, all on Max’s tip from the Free Traders. But the boy…

Max knew that all boys who were kept in the service of the Daughters eventually became missing persons. She’d written the damn case file herself, in meticulous detail. So although she knew that the damage done by the Nest may have been too much to correct, although she knew it was likely too late to reach him…

Max knew she had to try.

[ Interrogation Room ]

Lee’s eyes fluttered, the white returning to them. He was breathing heavily, sweat shining on his face and neck. He looked empty, and utterly broken—a filthy dishrag that had served its purpose and was all wrung out, waiting to be disposed of. “Please…let us go. Ain’t got…nothin’ else to give ya.”

Seren nodded to herself, tutting. “Well that was enlightening, and rather cute. I’d love to pick apart that type of spell work, must be tied into blood...” The woman fluffed up her skirts as she stood. “Thank you dear boy, you’ve given us plenty.” She reached over to run her nails over his head, dragging along his skull even as Lee flinched from her touch.

“My poor darling did a number on you—my girl is fierce, I’m quite proud of her, you know…” Seren walked around him, studying the set of his shoulders and face. “You’re a walking tomb, boy, like those of pharaohs, warded and cursed into the next world. It wouldn’t take much to break them all down…” She leaned down, “…give you a clean slate, a working body, a tongue and hands that belong only to you and those you’d gift it to…”

The Auror Commander straightened and nodded to the Healer who ushered over, his face white and pinched.

“…You’ll be with your girl soon enough, but if you ever want a free life, do ask. We’ll hand it over, as long as we can charge the cost to the information in your head. Be well, and tell the Healer what your favorite candy is—she’s so very good at finding every flavor. Like an American Baskin Robbins.” Seren didn’t wait for an answer as she shut the door behind her, a few of her loyal henchmen around her.

But Max was waiting there to head her off.

On any other day, Max would not have had the nerve, but she was at the end of her rope enough to snap at Seren, “Do me a favor, Reese—the next time I ask you for backup, would you mind controlling your fucking rabid dog? You’ve got no idea the damage that your squad has done!”

Ignoring the accusations entirely, Seren just smiled at her with a black widow’s venom in the sharp curves of her lips. “I believe congratulations are in order, Major Squint? It appears you’re up for a rather unexpected promotion.”

It took Max a moment too long to understand Seren’s response, her hands on her hips, jaw locked. Reese, now the Head of the Auror Department, was giving her Ashworth’s role. It was a promotion, on paper at least. But Reese knew as well as anyone else in the Department worth their salt that Thorne had been groomed from the beginning to step into those shoes—and that Max had practically grown the Infiltration Unit with her own two hands. Becoming a Commander of Forensics, a role currently ‘reserved’ for her pseudo-girlfriend, was as good as a slap in the face.

The blonde pursed her lips, desperate not to speak further out of turn lest she fuck herself over even more, before stepping around the Commander to have a word with the boy—Max’s asset—that Reese’s cronies were manhandling.

And to her back, Seren added, “And one more thing, Max—at least all of my beasts are on leashes. Are all of Ashworth’s?”

The door closed, and Seren waited a beat before chirping to the henchmen who flanked her, “Well, hop to it then! We don’t have all day to fix Squint’s investigation. Chop chop!” The aurors all turned with a puff of white smoke, dissipating into streaming columns through the corridors, off to execute plans Seren had made when she’d beaten Ashworth for Head Auror position.

It tasted like ash, but Seren popped a lemon candy into her mouth, and walked down the hall whistling as Pierce came from the shadows to her side, a hulking shadow who kept throwing glances at the boy and the Auror Major they had left in the Interrogation Room.

[ Interrogation Room ]

Max let herself in, beyond caring about the insubordination of interrupting a ranking auror’s proceedings. The battered boy struggled against Seren’s loyal subordinates. Max waved them away, trying to dismiss them, but they hovered doggedly nearby even after releasing the boy.

Wasting no time, Max looked at him and begged desperately, “Please, don’t go…I know that my colleagues’ treatment of you has given you no reason to believe that anyone here would be on your side, but I am not like them. I can help you, I want to help you, if you’ll let me—I won’t try to make excuses for how my colleagues handled things today, but let me ask you this: is it any worse than the things that have been done to you at the hand of the Daughters? Can it even compare to what will happen, if you return to them?”

But the threat of his own life, the danger of crawling back to his lifelong abusers, seemed not to phase the boy at all. With deep and unshakeable resignation, he said coldly, “Appreciate the concern, ma’am, but I know my own people and I don’t need some uppity avocat cop with a white savior complex to save me. I know what I’m meant for, I’ve known where my life was goin’ for a long time…ain’t nothing you can do or say that’ll change it. So unless one a you wants to get in a few more lashings…?” Lee spared a hateful glance toward Seren’s goons, who returned to him blank and remorseless stares. “…I’ll find Dona, and we’ll be outta your hair.”

And he didn’t grant Max a reply before shoving his way out the door without looking back.

Max sighed, pressing fingers against the pressure points at her temple. And finally, she thought about what Seren had said; ‘All of my beasts are on leashes…are all of Ashworth’s?’

[ In the Auror Corridors... ]

“Thorne!” Athena strode down the hall as if fiendfyre was after her, Cadmus’s words echoing in her brain: “Tell Ashworth’s pet that she’s dead, make sure to tell her Squint knew, and make sure it hurts.”

“Hey, Thorne!” The woman Athena was addressing turned, a donut half hanging out of her mouth, papers stacked up to her chin, ink stains on her arms and blood around her cuticles. The Killer Case was taking it’s toll; how quaint. “Can we talk?”

Thorne raised a brow over her elfish face, spitting the half eaten donut onto the top papers in her arms. “What about?”

What a disgusting little cretin… Athena looked around, and said, “Not here. In Ashworth’s office. It’s sensitive information.”

Thorne nodded, humming to herself. “Joint mission? Must be, Ashworth’s been quiet last few days or so... but you know how the missions for the Uppers are. Always so secretive. Honestly, she forgot we had a dinner reservation last night…must be important if she’s dragging your Division Mum into it.”

Athena let her prattle on, and together they stepped through the office door and closed it tight.

[carrie-tate]

Top 22 of 2022 End of the Year Game Tag

Well, as I understand it, I, too, have been drawn into this tag game. At least I was to mention @otomiya-tickles and @happyandticklish, thanks for that, in any case, I'm glad to join)

Part 1: Fandom Faves

1. Favorite new fandoms of the year You know, there are no exclusively new fandoms this year. Rather, my love for a couple of old fandoms caught fire in a new way. Like Mob Psycho 100 or Psychonauts. Oh! Milo Murphy's Law, Kaitou Joker, Inside Job, Super 4 (this two actually new…) and Percy Jackson too btw! Balan Wonderworld is deserves a mention too Okay, okay, that's all, otherwise I'll just go into the enumeration of ALL fandoms in general, because I don't know how to choose my favorite

2. Favorite new ships since this year If I lower my impudent ships with s/i, then I will say: Milo/Amanda (Milo Murphy's Law), Annabeth/Percy (Percy Jackson) Well, obviously Terumob and Shoritsu (Mob Psycho 100), haha

3. Favorite anime/TV show of the year Oh I also started watching Supernatural this year and I should keep watching (while I'm stuck on the first episodes of season 4), I definitely like this show Speaking of anime - Mob Psycho 100 and Kaitou Joker, I haven't really watched anything else huh

4. Favorite movie of the year Complicated question, yet I watch a lot of things, but at the same time I remember a little… Only Klaus (2019) and Rise of the Guardians come to mind, which I'm going to review closer to the holidays

5. Favorite character of the year Shigeo Kageyama (Mob Psycho 100), Rasputin Aquato (Psychonauts), Mini-Mini-King (Kaitou Joker), Stoll Brothers (Percy Jackson), Brett Hand (Insider Job)… *mumbles in enumeration*

6. Favorite soundtrack of the year The Meat Circus from Psychonauts (this tune haunted my mind for a month while I was playing the second part and actively sat in the fandom, haha) Crazy Necross from Vangers GO GO REIGEN! from Mob Psycho 100 which I just found but I love it and want to set it as my ringtone lol The whole Gris ost (the ending of the game makes me cry when I need to…), the whole Beetlejuice east… I guess that's it, heh.

7. Favorite book/manga/comic of the year Percy Jackson book series (honestly, I promise myself to still find time and read the Mark of Athena from the second cycle TwT)

8. Favorite game of the year Psychonauts 2, this game literally became the first platformer (well, in general, a game where you need to run, jump and beat enemies) that I went through completely And Little Inferno too

9. Highlight of this year to remember Entrance exams and college admissions, god it was this summer but it feels like it's been YEARS

Part 2: Community Review

10. Favorite Tumblr moments of 2022 To be honest, I haven't been as active on tumblr this year, so I have no idea what happened here in a year. That is, perhaps I know, but most likely I do not attach any importance to this.

11. Favorite fan art of the year Oh, there were two memorable fanarts that come to mind here and here

12. Favorite fic of the year Can I just say that ALL of Kanene's MP100 fics are my favorites at the moment? Like, so much so that I can't remember anything else lol

13. Favorite ask game of the year It's not like I'm involved in a lot of that, is it..? Maybe that recent fandom thing? This was fun

14. My top achievements as a writer/artist/creator/blogger The fact that I was able to get out of the shell and start interacting with really cool people from tk community, and the fact that I literally carring the mp100 fandom with my sketches, lmao

15. My own best fic/post of the year If we talk about the post that I am proud of, then this is one of the last posts with the Kageyama bros. I think I did a really good job on the poses this time

16. My most underappreciated fic/post of the year My posts are related to mp100 Beetlejuice!AU, because I want to develop this idea, but I think that people are not very interested in it

17. A post of mine that got more popularity than expected I'm still surprised by the popularity of that art with Shoritsu, which was one of my first posts on mp100 here, and probably one of my most popular posts in general…

18. Something I changed on my blog since this year Well, my blog is only a year old, so I can't say anything definitive…

Part 3: Next Year

I have such a spontaneous lifestyle that I don't have anything planned for next year huh, so I can't seem to answer the questions below…

19. Something I didn’t post this year but would like to do next year 20. Goals for next year 21. 2023 releases I look forward to the most

Part 4: Spreading Love

22. Shoutouts to people who made my 2022 a better year Well, then I'll throw everything under keep reading

@candyheartedchy, thank you for the fact that formally it was with you that my acquaintance with the existence of such a thing as s/i and f/o began! Your art is amazing and inspiring! @kanene-yaaay, I am sincerely grateful for every reblog of yours, like, this is one of the main incentives why I draw now. You are so emotional and bright, it's just amazing! @misaki-just-doodles and @we-dont-talk-about-potato-nonono, yes, we haven't talked in a while, but I'm really grateful to you two for supporting my work this summer. It was a great time and I hope you are doing well! @otomiya-tickles @ssnicker-doodless @vqler @thecomfortable even if it's still a little embarrassing for me to tag you, I want to say that I admire your creativity and you are like those cool older comrades that you look at and think "I want to be like this when I grow up", thanks for that!

[spacefinch]

Get to Know a Blogger

Thanks for the tag @weisskralle !

Show your wallpaper:

Scene from Samorost 3, a video game I played a few years ago. Highly recommend. Lovely naturey/sci-fi designs and a great soundtrack.

Last song I listened to:

Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra)

Currently reading:

The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. Almost done with The Mark of Athena. I've read it before, but I am not mentally prepared for the cliffhanger.

Last movie I watched:

Ocean's 8

Last show:

Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm on Season 3.

Craving:

Noodles (plain, just ghee and salt)

What I'm wearing right now:

My favorite jacket and sweatshirt, a t-shirt, and khakis

How tall are you?

5 feet, 3 and a half inches

Piercings:

No, and I don't plan on getting any.

Tattoos:

Also no.

Favorite colors:

Blue and purple.

Current obsessions:

Pokemon and Star Trek. Also birds. My favorite Pokemon gen is Gen 5 (Unova region), but lately I've also been interested in the Johto region as well.

Any pets:

Yes. One small dog, named Vivi. Barks at everything, and gets excited for food and walks. Normal dog stuff.

Favorite fictional characters:

From Pokemon: Ingo & Emmet, Iris, Falkner, Serena (game version), Calem, Red, Elesa, Skyla, and Bugsy.

From other places: Data (Star Trek), Annabeth Chase (PJO), Nico di Angelo (PJO), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Marvel), Kate Bishop (Marvel), Natasha Romanoff (Marvel)

Last place I traveled:

To a wetland to do some bird-watching. For Internet Safety, I will not disclose the exact location except "west of the Mississippi River."

I'm going to tag @trek-tracks, @adarkroomandawallflower, @critter-of-habit, @antihibikase, @spottedsplat, @stormears, and @anxious-spider. If you don't want to do this, no worries. This is just (as far as I know) a fun little get-to-know-you game.

[drowninginabactatank]

Books I Have Read: (alphabetical by author)

Total: 63 📚

- Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree.

- The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison.

- Bookshops and Bonedust, Travis Baldree.

- Gods of The Wyrdwood, R J Barker.

- The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett.

- The Cruel Prince, Holly Black.

- The Wicked King, Holly Black.

- The Queen of Nothing, Holly Black.

- How The King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, Holly Black.

- The Stolen Heir, Holly Black.

- Til Death Do Us Bard, Rose Black.

- The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake.

- Krampus: The Yule Lord, Gerald Brom.

- A Tempest of Tea, Hafsah Faizal.

- The Water Outlaws, S L Huang.

- The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia.

- Nothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Khaw.

- The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw.

- Fathomfolk, Eliza Chan.

- Thornhedge, T Kingfisher.

- What Moves the Dead, T Kingfisher.

- What Feasts At Night, T Kingfisher.

- Dragonfall, L R Lam.

- Ledge, Stacey McEwan.

- Chasm, Stacey McEwan.

- Gideon The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.

- Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.

- None the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.

- A River Of Golden Bones, A K Mulford.

- The Octagon's Eight, Mairon Oakley.

- Dark Rise, C S Pacat.

- Dark Heir, C S Pacat.

- Eragon, Christopher Paolini.

- A Study in Drowning, Ava Reid.

- Camp Half-Blood Confidential, Rick Riordan.

- The Demigod Diaries, Rick Riordan.

- The Demigod Files, Rick Riordan.

- Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan.

- Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan.

- Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan.

- Percy Jackson and The Battle of The Labyrinth, Rick Riordan.

- Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan.

- The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan.

- The Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan.

- The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan.

- The Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades, Rick Riordan.

- The Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus, Rick Riordan.

- The Sun and The Star, Rick Riordan/ Mark Oshiro.

- Percy Jackson and The Chalice of The Gods, Rick Riordan.

- Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer, Rick Riordan.

- Magnus Chase and The Hammer of Thor, Rick Riordan.

- Magnus Chase and The Ship of The Dead, Rick Riordan.

- Sixteen Souls, Rosie Talbot.

- Twelve Bones, Rosie Talbot.

- Strange The Dreamer, Laini Taylor.

- Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor.

- Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas.

- The Sunbearer Trials, Aiden Thomas.

- The Cabinet, Kim Un-Su.

- Ander and Santi Were Here, Jonny Garza Villa.

- Waywalkers, Catherine Webb.

- Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell.

- Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros.

[bookwyrminspiration]

You are like a book character thats just. Yeah what did i expect from a name like that bnfjfjfjf

Yo on the reading tho!?? I feel the revitalized pjo interest im staring at my pjo books like. Soon soon i will get to u (THO IM MISSING A FEW OF THEM AND I DONT KNOW WHERE THEYVE GONE. THEYVE BEEN STOLEN I SWEAR) i actually have been trying to read actual books again and!!! I finished one finally!!! Only took me like a month bmgkfkfk i finished call down the hawk and my local library is ab to murder me for how long ive had it-

Dude okay so i work at a movie theater right and ive wanted to see boy and the heron so badly ive just been so busy im staring at it and like ten other movies like pls i need free time. Other than that i got baldurs gate 3 and have been wandering through a world download for a minecraft series i like. And im once again cursed by my inability to finish fics so my solution is write all of it then post and now i have like two 15k wips just sitting in my notes app ive been trying to finish for like two years T-T

I've read so many books I've started to become them, and honestly? There are worst fates. I think I'd make a good like...wise character. Like the one the main character goes to when they have a question and I pull on information I don't explain how I got and set them on their quest or something. Or they discover a cursed magic item and they're like, well Quil probably knows something useful. And then I do.

Anyway! Congrats on the reading! I actually did so much reading, writing, and drawing the past week that I gave myself a headache three days in a row. Like I legit had to just sit for an hour yesterday doing nothing. I've been meaning to read Call Down the Hawk since it came out--I actually started it back then, but for some reason I only got to the part right after the crabs(?) in the dorm where Ronan gets kicked out, and then cries(?) in the garden(?). But I fully intend to return to it, I love the world of trc. And Ronan's my favorite. so.

and the pjo thing!! i've been blasting through them at the rate of about one a day just like oh my god I forgot how much I loved these. the writing style is just so fun. currently half-way through mark of athena, but I had to stop because I do this thing every year where the first book I read is a twilight book for shits and giggles, so I gotta finish life and death before I go back to it (i'm already about 3/4ths of the way done so not a huge detour).

Oh right the boy and the heron! I forgot I mentioned that--I saw it yesterday! I'll admit it did contribute to my headache, because big bright screen in a dark room is...not great. my laptop gives me headaches sometimes, but anyway. I don't think it's my favorite ghibli film, but it had a draw to it. it's quite beautiful, and it's thought provoking in its way. very ghibli-esque.

bg3!! I haven't played myself (doesn't seem my kind of game), but I will admit I did have a few moments of just being enraptured by astarion. which is so cliche of me, but what can I say? his dialogue was funny.

good luck with all of your fics though--I've got a handful that are just waiting to be edited before I post them. but the wings au and then gift exchanges took precedent, so they've been sitting a while. but! those are over now! so I plan to edit and finally post them soon. I've also got this kotlc book 1 but from fitz's pov project in the works I'm very excited to return to :)

anyway, it is very nice to hear from you tater!! giving you the biggest high five rn o7 spicy gatorade or something

[coinandcandle]

Apollo Deity Guide

The Romans knew him as either Apollo or Phoebus, he is the god of the sun, art, and music.

Who is Apollo?

Apollo was also worshipped as god of healing and medicine as well as prophecy and divination.

Unlike his more introverted twin sister, Apollo kept the company of many beings from deities to mortals.

Parents and Siblings

Zeus is his father, his mother is Leto

Artemis is his only full sibling.

Ares

Dionysus

Hermes

Hephaestus

Heracles

Minos

Perseus

Rhadamanthus

Athena

Persephone

Eileithyia

Hebe

Eris

Helen of Troy

The Graces

The Muses

Moirae

Lovers or Partners

Apollo had lovers of both the male and female variety!

Female Lovers include: Hecuba, Ourea, Arsinoe, Coronis, Creusa, Cyrene, Rhoeo, Evadne, Thero, Dryope and The Muses.

Male Lovers include: Cyparissus, Branchus, Admetus, Adonis, Atymnius, Boreas, Helenus, Hippolytus, Hymenaios, Hyacinth, Lapis, Phorbas

Apollo also had many one-sided loves such as Daphne, Hyrie/Thyrie, and Melia.

Children

He had many children including, Asclepius, Orpheus, Ion, Aristaeus, Amphiaraus, Troilus and Scylla. Look here for a bigger list of Apollo's children and their mothers.

Epithets

Paean

Apollon

Phoebus Apollo, or just Pheobus

Loxias” (referring to the god’s ambiguous oracles, called loxia)

“Lyceus” (a word that simultaneously evokes light, wolves, and the region of Lycia) (Mythopedia)

Apollo Daphnephoros

He is often conflated with Helios, the personification of the sun.

Holy Days/Festivals

The Pythian Games

The Delia

Celebrated in Athens, The Boedromia, Metageitnia, and Pyanepsia

Thargelia.) - Apollo’s Birthday, the day after Artemis’, would be the 7th day of Thargelion, which is roughly May 25th in the Gregorian calendar.

The Carneia and Hyacinthia were celebrated in Sparta

The Daphnephoria was celebrated every nine years in Thebes

Notes

From literature we know that the twins didn’t immediately start out as deities of the moon and sun respectively.

The most important temple dedicated to Apollo is the temple and Oracle at Delphi. The priestess Pythia would listen to and deliver Apollo’s prohocies and words. The story says that Pythia had breathed in vapors that rose from a spring underneath the temple.

Modern Deity Work

Correspondences

Disclaimer - Not all of these are traditional or historic correspondences nor do they need to be. However, any correspondence that can be considered traditional will be marked with a (T).

Rocks/Stone/Crystals

Sunstone

Gold

Tiger’s eye jasper

Citrine

Herbs/Plants

Laurel (T)

Hyacinth (T)

Palm tree (T)

Larkspur (T)

Sunflowers

Marigolds (Calendula)

Animals

Swans (T)

Cicadas

Ravens and crows (T)

Wolves/Dogs

Dolphins

Deer (T)

Hawks (T)

Snakes

Mice

Lions

Symbols

Lyre/Harp (T)

Curved Bow (T)

The Sun (T)

Plectrum (pick)

Sword

Laurel Crown (T)

Offerings

Any of the items listed above, or iconography of the items

Art of or that reminds you of Apollo (T)

Signs of the Sun

Honey (T)

Baked goods

Fruits and nuts (T)

Sun water

Wine (T)

Olives, olive oil, olive branch (T)

Oranges

Acts of Devotion

Celebrate the Olympics

Take up a sport

Dance

Read hymns of Apollo (T)

Watch and appreciate the sunrise and sunset

Bask in the sunlight (use sunscreen if you plan on doing this for longer than a few minutes!)

Practice divination (T)

Study philosophy, medicine, and pursue knowledge!

Write or read poetry and songs written for Apollo (T)

Keep in mind that these are only some ideas for offerings and correspondences! Items and activities that connect you to her in a more personal way are just as good, and often better, than those you find on the internet. As with any relationship, feel it out, ask questions, and be attentive and receptive!

References and Further Reading

Apollo - Mythopedia

Mythopedia has huge lists on either page for further reading on both Artemis and Apollo.

Apollo - Wikipedia

Apollo - Theoi Project

More Epithets here

Apollo - Greekmythology.com

Myths of Greece and Rome; Apollo (Phoebus) By Jane Harrison (Via Sacred-Texts)

Fun fact about Coin: I have a tattoo inspired by Apollo, with an arrow going through the roman numeral XIII and a minimalist sun overlaying the middle of the number in honor of my own twin who has the same tattoo but with a moon instead of a sun.

[incarnateirony]

I cannot believe Shea is still stalking your blog. The miserable bitch got no personality of her own except horrible or what???????? Can't tell Mark you didn't warn him. Dudes gonna be in for an awful time when she finds her next, uh, mark. Heh.

Sorry you're still dealing with that bullshit from your past life. I hope she lets it go soon.

She also stole her LATEST branding straight from a personal experience of mine around 2010 and wrote a big bio about it. That's why I'm like, oh you're pretending that's some message from the gods you hear and honor? Cool story bro, what's the name of the woman that shit was said to. Oh, you and "him" won't know that?

After all the time she went uwu ur magic is different than mine, way over my head, calling herself a shaman, she's made a shop for her "services" painting herself as the hermes dedicant, jacking my shit for her own branding, literally just painting "fraud" on her head to anyone that knows history or the origin of Things.

From stolen character design, stolen shop branding, and now down to even stolen practices she doesn't really understand or study, she is literally doing everything she can to like. roleplay being able to be me. It's the weirdest fuckin shit. Literally psychotic shit. And I know for a fact just cuz I know HER, she's going to be pretending to channel him for people, boiling down to her understanding ending at "be flamboiyant, sit on chair wrong, make Funny Jokes". She used to try to use "channeling" as escapism like a LARP, and basically tried to beg me to bother and call Hermes for any time she had a hair up her ass and essentially got mad neither I or he wanted to play, and more chapped when she was told to stop running from her identity and life by him. But dollars to donuts she's waving her hands around like jack sparrow on the seventeenth sequel caricatured telling people she's channeling.

And they'll defend her. If Mark is even REMOTELY like me he's already sorta covered his eyes and looked away and pretended he didn't notice her forgery or overcompensation. But he'd do real well to catch her standing in the livingroom and ask her when she's pretending to not be her to, say, cite the seven axioms. Or the seven or fourteen processes. Something fundamental to who she's pretending to be a dedicant or vessel for that she hasn't even been assed to read, and watch the blank stare and evasion.

But he won't. He'd have to face the same struggle I did at the last few years of our relationship of me realizing she was at large a fraud. He'd have to face that she is literally trying to recreate me being in her life because Mark isn't enough and doesn't provide the things she still wants. He'd have to accept she still hasn't moved on, and she's engaging in a LARP to try to imagine me in an invisible spot while pretending she isn't. And man, wouldn't that be a bitch to realize about your fiance. As a friend said, "Because if she pretends to be you she doesn’t have to admit she’s a failure at being her. At being a decent person or human or admit she was wrong in how she treated you. The reasons stack up honestly."

I cannot emphasize enough how fucking weird it is to watch an ex throw away her defining attributes (native american shaman, later athena) to badly mimic shit after you left. (It went from "I don't understand the things you do" to "lol actually I do it too I follow hermes too!!!" after the detour she took into 5d flat earth lightworker facebook to scream about cursed lemons as her pivot point--not missing of course her trying to make me cast a twined black candle curse on people because she went fuckin WEIRD.)

ITS. WEIRD. FUCKIN. WILD SHIT TO WATCH. Yes, the marvelous dedicant that hasn't read a book of his, can't cite where her branding is from, can't even picture him without copying my work, and encouraged/antagonized/harbors people that tried to delete one of the largest non-closed-lodge epicenters of information about and from him that people were allowed to explore. Like sitting with people that tried to blow up a church and then saying you're jesus' best special snowflake. Literal insanity. I'm not coming back, Shea, and neither is he. So just stop.

Take a gander at why your Etna muse fucked off to the wind. Figure it out sweetheart. These are literally consequences for your choices, you weren't just abandoned for no reason, they left you because of what you chose to do, and doodling mandalas with mirror features or stealing my shit to turn into literal fucking roleplays to mask through will not change it. Even if it actually gives you a vision to draw and present that's interesting again and doesn't look like a character a 14 year old would make on Furcadia like your shit since.

This is gonna be one of those "I'm going to die mad about it" levels of offense, and then when I die, I'll join hermes, and flip through all the death by a thousand cuts troll tortures he put her through for abusing his name for her free pass for misbehaviors or pretending to be him. She might as well have named herself The Incarnate Irony pagan or The Crustdaddy pagan. Fuckin shit. Dig a little deeper, girl, maybe steal his SomeCrumbAugh. Oh, no, you only knew to steal the one I told you about. Funny how that works. Catch up bitch that's so 2010 of him anyway, it's CrustDaddy now. Nerd.

Quite frankly she'd turn inside out in fucking rage if she understood Why Crustdaddy, too. But her mimicry will never explain it to her. And frankly I can't even say what on the timeline, for the same reason I said I had to step back from leaking for people's protection, but like, bitch That Could Have Been You. Your loss. What could have been? IDK. Figure it out. She calls him crustdaddy. Whomst? Too bad, so sad, you'll never get the benefit she was given instead. Your choices. Your cost. Your hilariously scammed bank account. But sure you have the protection of the god of thieves and the internet who let you fall for some shit that even senile geriatrics can smell the bullshit on. She got a glo up. You got an emptied bank account.

[chips-rambles]

tagged by @tomirida aaa thank you!!!

current song: i...i didn't listen music last week and today......I was not at home and didn't feel like listening anything but i've been singing price of perfection by Katherine-Lynn Rose while doing stuff!! her songs are awesome!!

currently watching: ahhhhh i haven't watched anything i sooo long i was too busy with school and i couldn't catch any break T^T

currently reading: im still on ''the mark of athena'' yeah, i had to stop reading for a while because of brainrot and i had school assignments....................................

current obsession: currently im obsession-free ehe!!! yayy, last week i was busy with selling my art prints!! if that counts. I had so much fun, oh wait, i do have an obsession. So i met some new people at the con, and ahhh i keep wanting to talk with them!!! im addicted to talking with people!!!

tag some people (no pressure!): @thecandorist @trashmouthtalks

@im-always-lost-in-a-book