#triple threat as part of the serpents hand

[sirofreak]

Whollies hear me out,

SCP foundation x unwind au⁉️

I already have sooo many ideas for it but I wanna draw them out first so I’m gonna make a reblog chain with all my ideas

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Jughead//No Serpent Stands Alone

Request: Could you write a reader/Jughead where reader’s from a rival gang (ghoulies maybe?) You’re sent to learn everything you can about the Serpents to break them from the inside out, of course you have to fall in love with the leader, who’s playing as a newbie alongside you, knowing what you’re been sent to do, he slowly realizes you’re not a threat and trapped in the gang for some reason?

Two and half weeks ago you’d joined the Serpents. Being initiated around about the same time as their new leader, Jughead Jones. Of course the two of you didn’t go through the same initiation, however every time you saw any of the Serpents, it felt as though you’d been punched in the face by Sweet Pea. 

You see, you’d been sent as a spy. And not just by anybody, by Penny Peabody and her stupid gang the Ghoulies. They’d heard of the change in leader and thought that this would be the perfect time to infiltrate. To send somebody in to take it down from the inside. And lets just say, to the Ghoulies, you were the perfect person to send in. Plus you didn’t have much of a choice about it. According to them ‘you owed them’.

For the past two weeks things had mainly been quiet. With their being a new king, it was just people getting used to changes and setting new things up. Nothing big, but that wasn’t good enough for the Ghoulies. After the fifth meet up with no news, they’d sent you back to the Serpents with a black eye. Which, to no surprise, literally everyone noticed. 

Sweet Pea was the first to say something. 

“Nice eye Y/l/n! Now you’re actually one of us.” He teased as he walked passed you in the school corridor. This was closely followed by Fangs, who after he pushed Sweet Pea mouthed an apology to you and asked if you were okay. You quickly smiled and nodded at him before continuing your walk to class. 

Toni saw you next, she looked at you confused before asking what had happened, to which you simply replied Ghoulies and she gave you a knowing look. 

A few of the Northsiders sent you dirty looks and glares, until you finally made it to class and sat at the back. Once the teacher walked in she looked around the room, stopping on you and sending you a concerned look. You smiled slightly at her and she nodded before starting to teach. 

For the rest of the days you were bombarded with questions from practically everyone you saw, the only person who hadn’t talked to you was Jughead. But, when you thought about it, you hadn’t seen him all day. The end of the day rolled round and you were by your locker, sorting your bag out. 

“Hey Y/n.” Jughead appeared beside you and you jumped slightly. “Sorry.” He apologized and you shook your head. 

“Its fine.” You closed your locker and smiled at him. 

“Wow. Sweet Pea told me about your eye but I didn’t think it was this bad.” He scanned the rest of your face, checking for any other injuries. “What happened?” 

“Just some Ghoulies.” You shrugged. Please leave it at that. You pleaded in your head. 

“Why’d they do that?” 

“I dunno. Cause I’m a Serpent?” 

“Hmmm, sorry.” 

“Its fine.” You shrugged. “I chose to be a Serpent.” You added, the feeling of being punched coming back. 

“True.” He replied and the two of you walked out of school in silence. “Do you wanna lift to the Wyrm?” 

“Why?” 

“Serpent meeting.” 

“Sure.” You forced a smile. Oh shit.

--------

“What’s this about Jones?” A Serpent shouted from the back of the room. Once you’d gotten to the Wyrm, Jughead had bought you a drink and the two of you chatted until the rest of the Serpents arrived. Within twenty minutes, everyone had got the Wyrm, and some were happier than others. 

“Yeah! The next meeting isn’t until tomorrow.” Another one shouted. 

“We have lives you know!” Fangs added. 

“No you don’t.” Several serpents shouted back and you laughed softly. If you hadn’t been sent by the Ghoulies, you could have actually enjoyed being part of a gang. When you were younger you’d heard stories of the gangs of Riverdale, the wars they had, the sense of family with one, the sense of dread with the other. You never thought you’d join a gang, and now you were part of two, both against your will. 

“Its the about the Ghoulies.” Jughead interrupted and looked at you. 

“What are you doing?” You whispered. 

“What do those low life want?” Toni asked.

“Yeah, I thought they would have crawled back to the rock they live under.”  Sweet Pea added and your breathing quickened. 

“Apparently not.” Jughead started. “They’ve started to victimize our newest member.” He said and everyone looked at you. You waved awkwardly before staring at the floor and hoping it would swallow you whole. 

“What are we gonna do about it then?” Toni asked. 

“You really don’t have to do anything.” You said. “I’m okay, really.” You tried to reassure them. 

“No Serpent stands alone.” Jughead placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder and you forced a smile. 

“I’m not a Serpent though.” You mumbled. 

-------

“Y/n.” Penny drawled your name out. You’d met her and a handful of Ghoulies on the darkest part of the Southside. You’d considered not telling them what was happening, to just let the Serpents turn up and beat them, but you knew someone would figure out you knew and then you’d be worse off than any Ghoulie would be. “For what do we owe this pleasure?” 

“They’re gonna attack you. Tomorrow night, at 8.” 

“Why?” One of her henchmen asked, walking towards you. You moved back a little, bumping into another one. 

“Because of this.” You pointed to your eye. “I told them it was you because I thought they’d leave it at that, but apparently they aren’t.” 

“How many?”

“I dunno. A few?” 

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to be more specific.” Penny replied and you sighed. 

“Maybe five?” 

“Five? Good. You did alright Y/n, better than usual, even if it is your fault. But thanks for telling us, we’ll make sure we have triple what they will.” Penny slapped your face slightly, a sickly sweet smile gracing her features. “Give her another one.” She shouted behind her back as she walked away. “Just to send a message.” 

-----------

As soon as you got to school the next day you were running around to try and find the Serpents. All last night you’d been worrying about what you’d manage to get into and how you were gonna fix it. You could tell them that the Ghoulies know what’s gonna happen. But then they’d ask how they know, and then how you know that they know. And then it all just get a bit complicated. So you’d decided to try and persuade them into either not going or bringing more people. 

“Jughead!” You practically shouted down the corridor before weaving your way through the mass of people. 

“Oh hey Y/n. What happened to your other eye?” He asked. 

“Not important.” You shook your head. “Are you sure its a good idea to fight the Ghoulies.” 

“Yeah.” He nodded. 

“They attacked one of our own.” Sweet Pea added. 

“Of course we’re gonna get payback.” 

“Yeah, but don’t you think its kind of a silly reason to attack them. I mean they only punched me in the face, its not like they killed me. I just feel like there’s no point.” 

“I get that you don’t want to make a big deal out of it.” Jughead started. 

“If we let them get away with this shit then they’ll think they can get away with even more things and we can’t let that happen. The Ghoulies don’t run the Southside or the Serpents.” Toni interrupted. 

“And we won’t let that happen.” Jughead smiled at you and you felt your heart rate pick up. You decided you were going to blame that on the nerves of everything that was happening, and not on the fact that you suddenly thought he was cute. 

“If you’re really doing this, why don’t you take a few more people.” You suggested. 

“Why?” Sweet Pea narrowed his eyes. 

“Just in case they bring more people.” You replied. 

“Okay?” Jughead agreed. “But how many?” 

“Oh, I dunno. Twenty, twenty-five? Just to be safe.” 

“Twenty-five?!” The Serpents around you repeated. 

“Twenty-five?” Jughead asked and you nodded your head. 

“Ya know. Just to be safe.” You smiled awkwardly and he sighed.  

----------

9pm 

You’d been at the Wyrm for an hour. Jughead had told you to wait there with a few others so you could patch Serpents up when they came back. A part of you wanted to go with them, wanted to fight for them and protect them. Protect him. The other part of you was thankful that you’d been told to stay, you didn’t know if you could fight against the Ghoulies. They had always given you the black eyes and the broken ribs, not the other way round. 

A few Serpents that had been sent back early had been patched up and sent home, and now you were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jughead and the others. 

The door to the Wyrm swung open and you were the first to greet them. Serpents carrying other serpents, stumbling through the doors, bleeding, bruised, but smiling. They won! 

“We did it!” They all cheered. 

“You won!” You smiled, the other Serpents congratulated them as they spread out across the bar. You hugged Jughead making him flinch slightly and you pulled back quickly. “Shit sorry.” 

“Its fine.” He laughed. “Just a bit bruised.” He added and wrapped his arms around you. You hugged his as tightly as you could, burying your head in the crook oh his neck. You could get used to this, you thought before your eyes widened and you pulled back. 

“Thank you.” You said quietly. 

“No problem.” He shrugged. “It was an honour and a privilege to defend you.” He teased and you laughed. 

“Come on.” You pulled away properly, your arms dropping by your side reluctantly. “Lets clean you up.” You grabbed his hand and pulled him to an empty table. “Sit down.” You instructed and he sat on the table. You grabbed a first aid kit, as well as a few other things you might need before starting to work on his face. 

“So what happened?” You asked as you dabbed the cut in his eyebrow. 

“We got there and there was a lot more than we thought, but luckily I took your advice so there was more of us.” He smiled brightly at you and you looked at him. “You’d make a great leader! A great queen...” He trailed off and you both looked at each other. 

“Anyway.” You changed the subject and moved to a different cut. “Any plans for the weekend?” 

“Not much.” He shrugged. “Me, Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs were gonna go to Pop’s but they’ve got other plans now soooooo. Oh! Maybe we could go?” 

“Just us?” You asked. 

“Yeah.” He smiled. “If thats okay?” 

“Yeah. Of course. Its a date.” 

“Yeah.” He nodded and the two of you froze. 

“I mean, not a date date.” You said quickly. 

“Yeah. Oh God yeah. Us? On a date? Can you imagine.” He laughed awkwardly. 

“I know right.” You replied, also forcing a laugh. The two of you stayed silent for a while as you cleaned the cuts and scrapes. By the time you were finished there was only a few Serpents left in the bar, and the majority of them where cleaning up the stuff they’d used. “I’m gonna need you to take your shirt off.” 

“Excuse me?” He asked. 

“When I hugged you it hurt. I need to see if you have any cuts on your chest.” You explained. 

“Oh.” He said, a blush appearing on his face as he took his shirt off. 

“You’re good.” You smiled at him. “Just bruised.” Your fingers brushed the large bruise forming on his chest before you coughed and pulled your hand back. “I can’t do much with a bruise, just put ice on it when you get home.” You smiled at him and turned away, putting the stuff back in the box. 

“Thanks.” He replied. 

“No problem.” You said, still focusing on tidying. You felt movement, until Jughead was stood behind you. Turning around you, you jumped slightly, realizing just how close he was.

“Y/n?” He asked, and tipped your chin up with his finger. 

“Yeah?” You asked breathily. His lips ghosted over yours making you close your eyes. 

“How’d you know how many Ghoulies there was gonna be?” He asked and your eyes snapped open. 

“Lucky guess I suppose.” You said quickly and gathered your bag. “Thanks again.” You said before practically sprinting out the door. 

--------

“Y/n?” Jughead’s deep voice makes you jump and you look around the empty Wyrm. “You okay?” Two months you’d been part of the Serpents and so far you’d told the Ghoulies about the fight and a few of the jobs they’d been doing. You’d also told them a few of the rules and some stuff about how they worked, but that was it. You liked the Serpents, they were all really nice to you, they accepted you and they never made you do anything you didn’t want to. 

All the serpents were having a party at the trailer park, Jughead had invited you, but you’d decided against going. You wanted to, you really did. But you’d already infiltrated so much of them, you thought you’d let them have one thing un-poisoned by you. 

“Yeah.” You nod and try to avert your gaze. 

“What are you doing here? I thought you said you were busy tonight.” He asked, sitting opposite you. 

“I was, but then I finished being busy and I just wanted to hang out here.” You shrugged. 

“Its okay you know. I know...” 

“Know what?” You asked and stood up quickly. 

“That your anxious. Its normal. Ya know, new gang, first gang all that.”

“Yeah, first gang.” You gulped. 

“I was just as anxious when I joined.” 

“Oh, I’m sure you weren’t.” You mumbled and he raised an eyebrow. “I mean because you were leading it.” 

“True. But its still scary.” 

“Yep.” 

“If you ever want to talk to someone, you know I’m around.” 

“Thanks Jughead.” You smiled at each other softly and picked your jacket up. “I er, I need to go.” You interrupted the moment you were having and walked to the door quickly. “I’ll see you around Jones.” 

“Bye Y/n.” He replied and you looked at him one last time. This couldn’t be happening. You can’t like him, you can’t fall in love with him. Nothing good will come from it and either way, one gang will kill you if they find out.

---------

You couldn’t handle this. You absolutely could not handle this. Five months you’d been doing this and every time you met up with the Ghoulies they demanded more and more information. So much so that sometimes you just made up mundane shit to get them off your back. 

But both gangs were starting to catch up, poking holes in stories, asking where you’d been and it was starting to get too much. 

An emergency serpent meeting had been held and you had just gotten to the Wyrm after meeting up with the Ghoulies. Nobody had told you the nature of the meeting, just that it was urgent. You were about to walk into the Wyrm when you realized you had your Ghoulie jacket on. 

“Shit.” You mumbled and took it off quickly. Dumping it round the side of the Wyrm before walking in. 

The bar turned silent as you walked in and you looked around to try and find Jughead. Over the past five months you’d been getting closer and closer, the two of your sharing God-knows how many almost kisses. 

“Whats the meeting about?” You asked. “Where’s Jughead.” 

“He’s not here.” Sweet Pea replied and moved towards you. 

“Okay?” You looked around confused. “So whats this about?” You repeated your earlier question. 

“We have a traitor. A mole.” Sweet Pea continued and you started to back up. Frantically you looked around, the Serpents were closing in on you and you were sure you were going to die. The feeling of being punched in the face came back, this time 1000 times worse, and then you realized you had actually been punched in the face. To be honest, it was the least you deserved. 

“I found this out back.” Toni said and your eyes widened. She’s walked in holding your Ghoulie jacket. 

“Shit.” You muttered. 

“Shit indeed.” 

“Just wait until Jones finds out who you really are.” Sweet Pea smiled evilly and pulled his knife from his pocket. 

“Please don’t tell him. I’ll leave and never come back, just don’t tell him.” You pleaded. 

“I wonder what he’s gonna do when he finds out he’s been sleeping with the enemy.” Fangs added.

“He’s not gonna do anything.” The door opened and making everyone look. 

“What?” 

“Yeah, what?” You asked in disbelief. 

“I said, I’m not going to do anything.” Jughead repeated. “And we haven’t been sleeping together. Now, everyone go home. This Serpent meeting is over.” He instructed. Serpents started mumbling and whispering between themselves while leaving, but you couldn’t hear. You were stood in the middle of the Wyrm, a bruise forming on the left side of your face, while you tried to control your breathing. 

Once everyone left you rushed towards Jughead. 

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do this, I literally have nothing against the Serpents but the Ghoulies they made me and I can’t get out of it because they know stuff about me that is best kept to themselves. But I promise I didn’t tell them anything important, and to be honest I told you more than them. I’m really sorry Jughead. I screwed everything up.” You rambled, tears streamed down your face while you hugged yourself. You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t see, but you could feel a pair of arms around you. “Jughead? What are you doing?” 

“Comforting you.” He replied and squeezed. “I’m not mad.” 

“You’re not?” 

“And I’m not upset, or angry, or sad. Well I am but I’m sad for you that you were put in this position.” 

“Why?” 

“Because you didn’t have a choice. And I knew who you were within the first few weeks of you joining.” 

“What?” 

“Do you really think I wasn’t going to do a little research on a new member that came from nowhere? I was going to say something but then I followed you to one of your meetings and you seemed so scared of them. I figured there was something more to you. And there is.” 

“Yeah...” You trailed off. 

“I know that you’re part of the Ghoulies because you had no other place to go when your parents went to prison.” 

“Yep. You err. You really hit the nail on the head with that didn’t you?” 

“I asked around about you.” 

“Oh.” You sighed. “Sorry I didn’t tell you.” 

“Its fine. We all have a fair few secrets that we’d rather no one know. Its just yours put you in a shitty situation.” He replied. 

“Thats an underestimate.” You laughed bitterly and he smiled softly. 

“Yeah.”  

“You can stay if you want? In the Serpents I mean. You were really good and I’d hate to let you go to waste in the Ghoulies.” 

“I don’t think they’re gonna be very happy about that.” 

“We’ll deal with that.” He reassured you. “We’ll get you out of this. I promise.”

“Thanks.” You pulled away from him. “For everything.” 

“No problem. Like I said before, no serpent stands alone.” He replied. You leaned in slowly, your eyes fluttering shut and taking a deep breath. No better time than now to kiss him. He closed the gap between the two of you and kissed you softly, his hand cupped your cheek, and it was everything you’d built it up in your head to be and more. 

I’m not a Serpent though.” You said after pulling away. 

“You are. No matter what.” 

[haruhi1087]

The Sound of Silence

an Erasermic retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice. Studying myths and figured rewriting them would be a good way to do that, so here y’all go! I expound a little, but for the most part it’s me rewriting all the details of the myths just with anime characters subbed in for the main roles.

A cloud of gloom hung over the festivities, but Yamada tried to ignore it and focus on his friends dancing to his music, to Aizawa smiling softly in the distnace. Despite the happiness that should have accompanied the occasion, however, a tension was present in each tight smile and every worried glance.

Hymen had come to their wedding, a presence that should be a blessing to their union, yet the god hadn’t stayed for Yamada’s song. There had been no happy omen delivered or a sacred speech or even an approving glance. Not only that, but the god’s torch had wavered in the wind, it’s flame flickering and almost disappearing at some moments, at others filling the guests’ eyes with smoke.

None of those were good signs.

Yet Aizawa was here with him, and they were married, and Yamada couldn’t help but rejoice. He picked up his lyre and began to sing again, watching as his husband chatted quietly in the back of the gathering with some well-wishers, then walked into the garden with his friends.

They were married.

Whatever the omens meant, they would face them together.

But then there was a scream coming from the garden, and Yamada was running as fast as he could, his legs tripping over themselves as he raced to his love.

Aizawa lay there, limp on the ground. His face that had smiled at Yamada merely minutes before was now pale with death, his ankle punctured by serpents’ teeth.

Yamada fell to his knees.

This… this couldn’t be happening. They were supposed to face the omen together! Not…

Not alone.

He cried out in anguish, falling on top of his love, tracing the warmth as it fled from his touch.

He filled the heavens with his cries, dragged the world into mourning as his voice called out for his love again and again.

He wouldn’t let it end like this!

Yamada buried his love in tears, and then began his journey. He would find Aizawa again, even if he had to leave the realm of the living to do so.

The tunnel to Styx was darn and damp, the walls crowding around him as he brushed against their mossy sides. All he could hear was his breath as he descended, treading carefully lest he slip and fall.

Smoke drifted around him, gradually growing thick and thicker, clawing down his throat and making it hard to breathe. Shadows drifted through the smoke, pale-glimmering phantoms that warned him to turn back. He couldn’t follow their advice. Not when he was still separated from his love.

Yamada’s eyes watered as he entered the cavern to the underworld. He searched and searched, climbing over rocks and through rivers, dodging the clinging grasps of tortured souls. And then he found them. Persephone and Pluto, the king of the shadowy realm.

Yamada swallowed, slowly unstrapping his lyre from his back. His voice had never failed him before. Surely it wouldn’t fail him now.

And so he sang.

“Gods of the dark subterranean world, where every mortal must descend! Despite nature’s law against entering the winding ways of forbidden truths, if you will hear my plea, I have come not from a curious heart to view Tartarus’ gloomy depths, nor do I desire fame from strangling the three necks of your Medusan Monster with its vile snakes. I have come from grief at the death-poison that a viper spread through my love’s veins, cutting off his years.

If I could bear this wound, I would, but I have been conquered by Cupid, a deity well-renowned across the word, and I doubt not that he is known here as well, unless the tale that you, Lord Hades, were urged by his shaft to steal your wife Persephone. Love has joined you just as it joins others. So I beg of you and your love, by Styx and its void, silence, and shades, renew my love Aizawa’s life-thread!

You control all things, and though we marry on earth for a short time only, and slowly or swiftly must come to your realm, this will be our final home and we will dwell here for as long as you wish, your mastery over us is unquestioned. She will be yours! But I ask that first she will have lived a full life. I beg of you, grant me what to you is a mere few days! If not, if the fates prevent my wish, then my constancy commands me to remain here with her, and you shall rule over two souls having taken merely the one!”

Yamada’s voice echoed in the caverns, ringing smoothly throughout the realm. Bloodless ghosts wept around him. Tantalus’ fingers froze, pausing in their search for water. Ixion’s wheel stood still. The vultures spared Tityus’ liver, the Belides sieve-like bowls sat still, and even Sisyphus sat idly on his rock.

Fame was conquered.

The fierce Eumenides sat, their cheeks wet with tears, and neither Persephone nor Hades could deny his prayers.

Persephone summoned Aizawa, who approached with slow, limping steps, his ankle still stiff and sore.

Yamada ran to him. His arms wrapped around the still cold form, holding him tight and murmuring grateful whispers into his hair. He would never take even a second for granted. Not again.

Hades pronounce that Aizawa could return and they could ascend the path to earth once more, but that if Yamada turned to glance backwards, then Aizawa would once more be forced to descend.

Tearing his eyes from his love made Yamada’s soul churn, but they carefully picked their way through the rocks and back toward the entrance.

Each step terrified him. Each tug of the current, each rock that shifted under his weight, each shadow that stretched toward his form—they were all threats that could steal his love once more.

He had lost Aizawa all because he had failed to watch him! Failed to pay attention to the threats around his love! How could… how could he trust that he would make his way to the surface unharmed?

Just one glimpse, one look to be sure he was still there, still safe…

And he was falling.

Yamada ran. He ran as fast as he could, stretched out his arms, grasping at Aizawa’s hands, but all his fingers clutched was air. He had to rescue him! Had to hold him one more time!

Aizawa’s eyes held only love, no reproach as he shouted farewell, and then disappeared.

Yamada could barely hear the whispered voice.

Aizawa was gone.

He’d fallen to Hades’ realm once more, and was truly lost.

Yamada stood frozen, as if in fear at the sight of Cerberus’ triple necks chained to the floor. His husband’s absence filled him with a terror from which there was no hope of escape. He was petrified, like Olenos, changed completely to stone from the guilt of what he’d done.

Unfortunate Lethaea! You were boastful of your beauty and separated from the lover with whom you were once united, now merely two stones upon mount Ida, moist with tears.

Yamada ran to the ferryman, he begged and pleaded for passage once again, that he could at least stay here in death, but he was denied even that hope.

For seven days he sat upon Death’s river bank, motionless as he stared out over the waters, heedless to the spirits that passed by him. In his misery he was numb to the world, fed by his grief, anxiety, and tears.

Without hope, bewailing his fate and the pitiless gods, Yamada slowly wound his way back through the tunnel, up its steep slopes, and onto the mountain peaks, the chill of the north wind buffeting his very soul.

The sun rose over the world, running its cours across the watery Pisces three times, and still Yamada did not leave—could not leave.

Aizawa was lost, and therefore all company was lost. He would spurn the world. Only Shirakumo from Thrace knew where he was.

[southsideprince]

aftermath - sweet pea/reggie

[ a solo para - written by cari, permission given by cc to write reggie. set after the removal of FP from Jaz’s trailer. 1,671 words 8,897 characters. tw: swearing, tw: mention of death ] @mantlethemcgnificent​

How had the night become this? All he had wanted, was to get his boyfriend back and enjoy spending the evening without any drama or bullshit. But as always, it seemed to follow them, determined to get in the way of them. It was hard to imagine, not even six hours ago they were on the sofa, peppering each other with kisses and whispered promises and declarations of love. To when the stranger interrupted their making up time, to the fear and anxiety both experienced as he went back and forth between the Stranger. The threat to his life, on Reggie’s, on Grace, Fangs and Hanna had dampened the mood. But with their new rules, total transparency and the fact they did anything reckless and stupid together the night which should’ve been simple ended up with them doing drive-bys, dropping off packages for the Stranger. This time, Sweet Pea had his own list which still remained in his pocket. Another to pass to Betty when he could see her next.

At least when that was over, they could go back to his. Make up some more, reassure each other both were fine. It had been fine until the texts came. Then before he knew it, he had a body on his hands, a boyfriend in tow, and now a freezer at the Wyrm currently holding the deceased FP Jones. It felt surreal, ridiculous even that they ended up with this. But the only thing that had remained in his head as a constant, was Reggie. How the hell could this man put up with him? Or want to be with him after tonight? He hated dragging him into it, he should’ve just left him asleep, he could’ve kept this hidden or bent the truth slightly. He’d rather do that than remember seeing the look of disgust, of sadness, of discomfort, and then some on his face. But here the man was, curled up in his arms on the small bed in the backroom. He wanted to take it away, to make him forget. No amount of whiskey would help, even if he had made sure to get a few shots down his throat when they arrived.

Sweet Pea wouldn’t sleep, couldn’t sleep. His mind was pondering what to do, his plans having plans, trying to see every angle. He had to break it to Jughead, they couldn’t just dispose of a body without his input. It was a conversation he was dreading. How did one bring up the fact your dad is dead and currently chilling in a freezer. But just why did the Stranger land it on Jaz. What had she done? It just didn’t seem it would be done over a few texts and a delivery. 

“You think too loud.” he was snapped out of his internal thought process by the quiet voice of Reggie. They were led on the bed, his arms wrapped around him as Reggie rested on his chest. “I thought you were asleep....” he replied, hand gently beginning to rub his back. “How can I sleep after....that.” he sounded haunted, it was enough for the guilt he had been feeling to triple. This was a part of his world he never wanted Reggie to get involved with. 

“I’m so sorry.” but even sorry wouldn’t be enough. He could apologize a million times but nothing would erase this from their heads. Was this going to be a constant thing with them? Tragedy, horror, drama, trauma- like a cosmic force was constantly wanting to test them. Would they ever just get a simple, unproblematic relationship? “Will you tell him?” the feeling of movement on his chest, he looked down to see Reggie looking up at him, chocolate irises questioning. “Yes. Despite my own feelings towards FP- it's still his dad. I’ll figure it out.” he had tried, to the best of his ability to move FP with dignity. Even if he had removed his jacket, a personal judgment he had made. FP didn’t deserve to wear it. 

“I won’t mention you, as far as I’m concerned you weren’t there. It will remain serpent business.” he didn’t think it would go over at all well if he mentioned just how many people were involved in transporting his body. “If you’re telling him....then that makes it slightly better. I just feel awful for him.” Sweet Pea felt awful also. FP might not have been the greatest within the serpents, nor the best father but at least he’d been present in his life. It was sometimes hard for him to consider emotional ties to fathers, with his own out of his life and a disappointment he supposed for a long while that FP became the man he looked up to. Who he based himself on. Only for it to become apparent he wasn’t the role model he wanted nor needed. But Jughead had always been different with his dad. “Same.” 

They fell into silence once more, Sweet Pea continuously running his hand up and down his back in a soothing manner. His other hand fell into Reggie’s hair, fingertips gently running through the strands. Until he felt fingers catch his wrist, stilling the motion. “What is that?” Sweet Pea looked down to find Reggie’s gaze on his arm. “What’s what?” More movement, Reggie sat up some more, finger tracing the picture on the inside of his wrist. “That.”

Oh. In the mess of the entire night, it had slipped from his mind completely. He focused on the tattoo which adorned the inside of his wrist. A football, entwined with a snake and two sets of numbers. “Ah...” he felt embarrassment and worry seep in as he watched Reggie’s continuous gaze on it. “I didn’t want to show it yet- if it's too much I’m sorry but I just wanted to show you how much I’m in for us. For this relationship. I thought, if you could see how serious I was, it would help in us getting back together properly. I wanted to surprise you. It’s weird isn’t it? Too much? Fuck.” he made to sit himself up further, pulling himself away from Reggie in an attempt to hide the embarrassment. 

“No- it’s-” a hand came out to grab his arm, stopping him from getting up completely. “It’s just a lot. That’s pretty fucking permanent, Pea.” it was permanent, it was a bold move to make. But Sweet Pea was, as always, a romantic. “Maybe that’s because I want us to be a permanent thing- look, I know I put the brakes on us. But I needed to figure out everything properly, and I came to the decision that you’re it for me. Okay?” he turned to look at him, eyes boring into his intensely. 

“I’ve been through this before, being in love and after that ended, I swore I wouldn’t ever go through it again. But then you came along and all this happened and I guess I just wanted to do something to not only reassure you but show you that you are now and forever the love of my life. And if this ends badly, I don’t want to regret it. I’ve never had a lover tattooed on me in any sense, but you’re the first and the last and if this ever is over, it will be my last everything. You could’ve walked away tonight, you didn’t have to stick by me but you did and I love you so much for doing so. I guess, I just love you. And I’m hoping, fate allowing, that I get to spend the rest of my life with you. Because I want too.” his words were earnest, his tone vulnerable. 

He just laid it all out, knowing others would think him crazy or ludicrous for saying and thinking such things at the age they were. High school relationships never did have a good rep for lasting. He was waiting for Reggie to say something, or do something, anything really to stop his heart from racing out his chest or the twisting feeling in his gut stop.

He was soon met with a dopey, besotted grin from Reggie enough to make him think it was a good thing and before he could say anything else, lips were upon his in a loving, passionate kiss which had him sighing with relief and pleasure as his arms wrapped around him to pull him close. “I love it.” the words sounded god-like against their lips. “I love you.” his heart soared at the affirmation, enough to know that despite what had happened that evening, that they were going to be okay. He decided, then and there, that this was the man he’d spend the rest of his life with. It was far off in the distance, but Sweet Pea knew that Reggie was it for him and when the timing and moment were right, he’d make that next step towards having him forever.

“I love you too.” he whispered, barely a breath as he captured his lips once more quickly. “And my offer still stands...” he added, pulling away slightly as his hands ran up and down his sides. “Of taking you away from here. If you want to. We can go, wherever we want.” his tone was sincere, his meaning truthful. “I’d like that.” and with that, lips met once more in a bruising, amorous kiss as both led back onto the bed.

For the rest of the night, contented in the fact if they’d survived this they could survive anything both gave in to each other over and over, each kiss, affirmation, touch, groan, sigh and movement made was nothing but love and a promise between them. It wasn’t until the early hours of daybreak, were both finally collapsed from exhaustion of the events which had occurred since the early evening before and as sleep caught them both, wrapped in each other it was almost easy to forget just what had happened. For now, it was just another hurdle jumped.

[nehetisingsforhekate]

Epithets: Epipurgidia

Epipurgidia

On the Tower, of the Bastion

It was Alkamenes, in my opinion, who first made three images of Hekate attached to one another, a figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the temple of Nike Apteron (Wingless Victory) [on the Akropolis]. - Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.30.2 (trans. Jones, as presented on theoi.com)

Central to this depiction of Hekate is Her triplicity, something we find in many descriptions of Her as well as Her epithets. Hekate Epipurgidia is Triaucheros (Three-necked), Triformis (Three-Formed), and Trikephalos (Three-Headed). There have been many debates regarding the symbolic value of this depiction. Historically, all three aspects of Her form are the same age and appearance, though they may hold different objects in their hands. Zografou (I think rightly) suspects that there were varying and diverse reasons why Hekate might have had this triplicity emphasized. Perhaps it reflects some element of Her connection to the Moon, Her preference for three-way crossroads and Her ability to see all directions, Her dominion over Her share of the Heavens, Earth, and Sea, She might have been syncretized with some other divinity, or perhaps the reasons are lost to time.

Images of Hekate like this were kept enshrined in Athens at the entrances to homes, and given offerings at the end of each Lunar cycle, as part of a purification rite, and a means of blessing the home.

Kraus holds that Hekate’s three-fold nature comes from Her role as a Chthonian being, and suggests that this phenomenon is also found with Cerberus’ three heads. This conception of Hekate Epipurgidia is one that emphasizes her role as a Goddess of death, of the Restless Dead, and Her association with the cemetery. Appearing as three-in-one is a supernatural feat, one that can also reflect Her connection with a variety of animals. Particularly in the Late Antiquity, Her heads can be bestial: the most common being dog, horse, serpent, bull, or goat. However, if the image of Hekate is one of a malefic or terrifying nature, then one wonders why it would be presented in a place of honor at the Akropolis, much less at the home. The prevalence of Hekate Triformis in the home cult seems to stand at odds with the theory.

My theory, which also held by numerous scholars, is that the dangerous and chthonic nature of Hekate is why She was welcomed into the home. As a being associated with nightmares, disease, madness, as well as death and the dead, She was also one of the best to hold the same powers at bay. Much like the Gorgones existed as protections as well as threats, Hekate has numerous protective aspects, and can withhold or extend Her gifts as She Wills it. Indeed, Zografou suspects that Hekate’s role as the Protectress of Doors, Harbors, and Roads may be one of Her earliest.

More interestingly, Zagrafou points out that in other contexts, the association of a deity with a threefold appearance, suggests an emphasis of their range of power. Her example is Zeus Soter who was sometimes described similarly, as Zagrafou puts it (pardon my shite translation skills):

“…three can signify all…”

If Her consideration is accurate, then Hekate’s triplicity may suggest that a conception of Her as a vast and powerful Goddess could be an earlier idea than what I have previously believed. Generally, I have taken the grandness of Her role in the Chaldean Oracles and the PGM to be partly born of the ages in which they were written. In spite of my own practice’s emphasis on Her role as a greater Power, as the World Soul, Source, and Nature, as described in late antiquity, I try not to assume that my conception would be one recognizes by a Classical Athenian. But if Zografou’s consideration is accurate, perhaps Hekate’s role has been larger than I have previously considered.

Artemis, too, could be called by this epithet, another overlap which has contributed to the conflation of the two Goddesses over the eons. Though Artemis is not shown having the same propensity toward triplicity (nor, for that matter, does Selene, in spite of the theory that Hekate’s triplicity is tied to the moon somehow.)

Ultimately, Hekate’s three-fold appearance has come to dominate Her cultus today, even though one could also encounter Her as singular or even in groups of four. The question as to what that means for you in particular is something you have to consider based on your own experiences. I cannot answer the questions as to which theory might explain. Epipurgidia, which best translates as on the Bastion, suggests, like Apotropaia and Soteira, seems, I think, to best apply as a protective aspect. I could be mistaken, or misinterpreting that, however.

Khaire Hekate Epipurgidia! You, Goddess, who stood guard in Athens, Stand firm now, Before _________ Let Your grace protect them From the danger which would single them out. Let Your light reveal That which would trouble them. Let Your immortal wisdom Guide those who can best help them In this time of tribulation. Do this, and my gifts will be manifold. Hekate Epipurgidia! You, Goddess, who stood guard in Athens, Stand firm now.

Sources:

Theoi.com

Cole, Susan Guettal. Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience, Univ. Cali., 2004.

Parker, Robert. “The Problem of the Greek Cult Epithet,” in Opuscula Atheniensia 28, 2003. pp. 173-183.

Pausanias. Description of Greece, trans. W.H.S. Jones, Harvard, 1918.

Zografou, Athanassia. “L’Énigme de la triple Hécate. De l’entre-deux à la triplicité,” in Conflit et normalité by Christophe Batsch, et al., Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, pp.57-79.

 Image:

 “Hekate,” photo by Rob Koopman, statue now in the collection at Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, in Leiden. Via wikicommons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLANL_-_koopmanrob_-_Hekate_(RMO_Leiden).jpg

[jflashandclash]

Traitors of Olympus IV: THE LAST CHAPTER!!!

           Their lunch went over the amount of time Pax had allotted, but there was no way he would cut it early. The appreciation on Merry’s face and the relief on Kally’s were worth every second of catch up he had to play, even as he bantered into the phone.

           “Are you suggesting this meeting is more important than my own affairs?” Pax let the iciness slip into Santiago’s voice. The other end of the line went into panicked silence. Everyone thought Santiago had disappeared for good, but he couldn’t yet. Not when there were so many unresolved legal issues to attend to and so many people Pax could mess with.

           Other than his phone argument, the van had been marked with uncomfortable silence. Alabaster spent the time doing his jaw stretches and exercises. Pax wanted to make a comment about a few other ways to work out Alabaster’s jaw, but—after one very awkward bathhouse incident where Pax forgot who he was—Pax had promised to check the mirror before he tried hitting on anyone. Or give tackle hugs. That had ended well with Axel.

           Axel couldn’t stand to look at him when he did this. He didn’t even like hearing Pax talk. Some disturbed part of Pax enjoyed it, like Muahahha! This is how if feels! But, Pax knew that was about as fair as betting against Prometheus or Tyche.[1]

On the note of feeling vindicated about triggering Axel’s trauma and why, Pax admitted, it was unfair, Pax had chosen to hang the Triple A Chimera masks in their throne room. That way, he would cringe every time he caught saw the Leonis Caput helm and had to rub the stump where his hand used to be. Call it the espresso shot of incentive for whenever he wavered on their cause or thought about painting weasels instead of going to one of Santiago’s business meetings.

           Axel didn’t choose to see Santiago again the way Pax chose to see the helm. Axel had voiced his opinion on the matter very thoroughly and with a lot of violent gum chewing. If Pax kept this up, and they found a way to attach an electrical plant to Axel’s mouth, Pax suspected they could power the entirety of Camp Othrys (Remastered) with his vehemence.

           As their white van pulled alongside the other pharmaceutical vans, Pax ended the phone call. He grinned at the others, shuffling to his feet. No matter how often he turned into Santiago, he never got used to the limp.

           “Good news everyone!” he said.

           Curiosity sparkled in Alabaster’s green eyes. He sat up on the opposite bench. “Did you get a dead body?”

           “I got a dead body!”

           Axel didn’t say a word or react as he exited the driver’s side. He didn’t wait for them either, going ahead through the back entrance’s hidden doors.

           Pax tried not to let Axel’s anger dampen his spirits. Instead, he focused on this opportunity: Axel had left Alabaster to his mercy.

Pax rose to his feet, almost stumbling on the bad leg.

           Alabaster hopped out of the van. He sighed and extended a hand to help him.

           Pax fished around his suit jacket—it became easier wearing the same clothes his dad did when he was morphing this often—and nipped a bite of his golden apple. He didn’t need to anymore. He had morphed into Santiago as soon as they dropped off the girls, but he enjoyed the sensation. Before Alabaster could withdraw, Pax morphed again.

           That way, when he staggered down and leaned against Alabaster for support, Pax looked like a voluptuous, hot chick whose curves barely fit in the now-tight business suit.

           Alabaster had a hard time looking at him. “Ajax,” he growled, though in threat or complaint, Pax wouldn’t know until Alabaster set him on fire.

           Pax grinned up at him. “The corpse is super fresh, only an hour dead. It’s the right height, weight, race, and age. How much time will you need to give him a proper, evil gimp leg and some Iago fangs?”

           That had been a fun experience. When Alabaster set to work making a mold of Santiago’s mouth from Pax’s morphed one, Pax had a hard time not trying to eat the bubble-flavored molding. Eventually, Alabaster switched the flavor to something much less delicious.

           Pax tightened his—her? Unlike Lapis, who demanded a certain pronoun, he never really cared what pronoun he used, even when his family jewels turned into… that didn’t seem fair that girl’s parts weren’t also called family jewels. They were as precious. Maybe family pearls? He’d have to consult Urbandictionary later. Regardless, her for now. Pax tightened her hand around Alabaster’s tie. The bracelet that Alabaster had made for Pax glinted along her wrist in the sunlight.

Witch boy had a much harder time rebuffing her when Pax was a girl.

           Alabaster swallowed at their proximity but didn’t withdraw. He looked exhausted, probably from hot-girl-overdrive from seeing Kally earlier. “To trick a mortal, a few hours. If the coroner identifying him ends up being a demigod…” he shrugged.

           Pax had forgotten, for a second, they were talking about altering a body. She nuzzled her face against Alabaster’s shoulder, her longer hair spill out the ponytail and across the two of them. Although the child of Hecate’s spell pouches were all by his belt now, his scent still hinted at the herbs he carried.

Other than that bathing house incident, Pax had been an upstanding gentlelady… gentleman… gentle person? Whatever. Which really meant she hadn’t had time to disrespect anyone’s boundaries, or so Pax kept telling himself. That and she feared she’d breakdown if she let herself get cuddly with Alabaster. She had to be strong. Strong Pax baby that used all that bottled up fear, pain, and anger to scheme. Muahaha.

           But Pax wanted hugs after not touching Kally the whole meal. And Pax had been so well-behaved recently. So much so, that Alabaster hadn’t set him on fire in months. Maybe…

           “So, I see you get hot and bothered by corpse talk. If I keep chatting about it, will you let me give your neck a makeover? Look at Axel. It’s all the rage these days,” Pax said. It had been so long since she properly flirted, she almost forgot to make her eyes super wide when she blinked up at him.

           “Ajax, I appreciate that you’ve kept to your promise for the last two months,” Alabaster said. “Don’t—”

           Someone cleared their throat by the back entrance of the temple.

           Axel must have doubled back from inside to give Lucius the automaton donkey a bucket of oil. He leaned against the door, arms folded, glaring, though Pax couldn’t tell if it was more at her or at Alabaster.

           Pax pouted.

           Alabaster tapped Pax’s bracelet.

           Pax’s Mist hand dissolved. The glove collapsed into nothing, leaving the red scarring of a stumped wrist.

           All his concentration faded. Pax morphed back into a boy, clutching his stump and empty glove against his chest.

           That was meaner than anything Alabaster could have said, but Pax carefully kept his pout. Making Alabaster question his sexuality for a few seconds: a victory that trumped all other loses, including that of a functional limb. Probably.[2]

           “Even if the Belizean coroner is a demigod, he isn’t paid enough money to pay attention to something like that,” Axel said, like his little brother hadn’t been trying to seduce his friend and use a van with sleeping bags the way teenagers were supposed to use a van with sleeping bags.

           Alabaster fixed his tie. The skin under his freckles was bright red despite the way he tried to glare. “If we can properly set up the body in the swamps of Belize, it’ll look more like a suicide than a murder.”

            “See, that. That’s exactly the kind of violence I want. Good ol’ autosacrifice!” Pax kept his smile strong. He refused to puff up his cheeks and pop them while thinking about autosacrifice: the amount of blood that he and Lapis had shed to contact the Vision Serpent recently. This time, he wanted to proceed as carefully as possible and get all the supernatural, visiony approval as possible before things went wrong. No more rash Pax baby.

           He led the others towards the backdoors of the temple. He was pleased to see some new recruit had graffitied kittens around the door entrance. The next hallway wasn’t nearly as cheerful—Matthias had been focusing so much on restructuring the new housing that he’d only managed to put up posters of bands for this area of redecoration.

           “Santiago is making a huge point to say he’s traveling to his home town for something important next week,” Pax said to and winked at Axel. “After that, Mr. Soon-To-Be-Legally-Pax-Patriarch, you and Lapis will never have to look at him again. Except in family photos. We should burn all our family photos.”

           Axel clenched his jaw in his best illustration of I can be hot, mysterious, AND mopey. “I don’t like that you’re doing this.”

           That was a conversation that Pax wanted to hear again about as much as he wanted to watch Alabaster cut off his useless hand again. Sure, in a few ways, he’d asked for both, but that didn’t mean he needed another bonding experience with a hatchet or a grumpy older brother.

           Nausea threatened his stomach as he thought about how much easier it could have been with Kally there. She wouldn’t have let the procedure continue without him being sedated. But, she wouldn’t have let a lot of things happen that Pax knew needed to happen.

           He shook off the feeling, jamming his stump harder into his ribs to force himself to focus. They got to the elevator at the end of the hall. It was already opening with the auto sensor Matthias had installed.

“Yea,” Pax said, “And I don’t like that my brother got attacked by an empousa and won’t tell me about it. You said you were going to find a way to easily change the subject from our updated style. You didn’t say you were going onto Vampire’s Anonymous. Did you at least give as good as you got?”

           Axel sighed. When he rubbed his bruises, his expression turned wistful. They got inside, and Axel pressed his finger into the scanner for a quick blood sample to get to the top floor. “Ajax, I’m pretty sure I’d kill someone if I tried to do this to their neck. And, I would never give you a lead that obvious.”

           Pax grumbled in Mayan. If Axel was leaving territorial marks, he could have looked into whether or not Reyna or Thalia had gotten a sudden propensity for scarves.  Pax couldn’t believe he’d been so busy that he didn’t even have a guess as to which girl was Axel’s new best friend and which was his nibble buddy.

           “When she’s ready for it to become public…” Axel trailed off. He puffed up his cheeks and popped them. “Then you’ll know. I’m not exactly fond of keeping our relationship a secret.” There was a hint of bitterness.

           Pax huffed. “Augh, that’s no help either! Is it secret because of Thalia’s connection to the huntresses or Reyna’s position as praetor? You wouldn’t violate Thalia’s vows, but you also wouldn’t want to jeopardize Reyna’s already shaky claim as praetor. And I don’t know whether or not you thought relieving sexual tension through neck play was a way around Thalia’s vows—”

           “Ajax,” Axel warned. “Girlfriend or friend, I don’t even let Jack speak disrespectfully of someone I care about.”

           “Does Jack know?!” Pax demanded.

           Alabaster cleared his throat. “I think Lapis may have let it slip.”

           Which meant Lapis knew. Dude, Axel sucked at keeping secrets. “Ha! You didn’t mention Bast! Besides, if it was her, she’s not one to get catty with the other girls, but would be prideful about her including Axel in her pride.”

           “Not necessarily,” Alabaster said. “She’s supposed to be in the Duat. She’s been sneaking off to visit us.”

           Axel’s cheeks grew red.

           Pax’s eyes widened. “Oh?”

           “It’s not Bast,” Axel said curtly, eliminating one. “She’s a bit too… maternal and and—um—aggressive for me.”

           Pax shook his head. “Ah, having a hot familial figure that wants to bang you. Now you know how I feel when I go on lunch dates with my half-sister.”

           Before the elevator dinged for the complete stop at the top floor, something phased through the shiny metal. It scurried up Pax’s pant leg, tiny nails tearing into the silky fabric, saving Pax from Axel and Alabaster’s glares.

           Between the “Aye! Aye! Aye!”s, Pax laughed. Baller, his weasel, burrowed into Pax’s sleeve, nesting into his armpit. Once the door opened, two more weasels scurried about their feet. Axel knelt down to pet Hunnie on the nose and accepted when the weasel wrapped around his hand in a battle strike. Alabaster tossed Nietzsche, the albino, something.

           All three took off after whatever the dark object was as it scuttled further into the atrium. Obsidian doors were in the wall across from the elevator doors, one ajar to allow the rodents to enter. Pax wasn’t sure what to do with remodeling the atrium yet. It was imposing, as he felt like it should be, but they also lacked something fun, like bean bags and a dartboard with Jason Grace’s face.[3]

           He really wanted Matthias to design a twenty story slide or fireman’s pole from this room to the bottom of the temple. Matthias said that would kill too many new recruits. Pax argued that it wouldn’t if they made it end in 20 feet of feathers. Alabaster said Pax didn’t understand the science of impact, but that Alabaster would see if he and Lou Ellen could make some kind of Mist buffer to accomplish the task.

           Giggles interrupted Pax’s thoughts.

           Just inside the doorway, he could see three girls duck out of sight. The sunlight in the room had glinted off their crimson skin so they looked like vanishing demons or, as Pax preferred, ethnically-ambiguous cartoon characters.

           “Huh, Euna must be tending to the—” Alabaster started.

           Pax gulped and sprinted for the door. “Cho!”

           Axel immediately caught up along his side as they busted through the doorway. “What?!”

           “I let Hiro loose!” Pax said. He’d meant it as a kind gesture—honestly, his littlest brother needed to get out from time to time, but Hiro and Euna hadn’t been in the same room since—

           They skidded to a stop inside. Everything sounded peacefully quiet. In Pax’s not-peaceful life, he knew that meant everyone had probably killed each other. The sound that shredded the peace was a blade sliding against another blade.

           Comforting.

           More giggles erupted.

           Axel and Pax scanned the room. There had been a lot of adjustments. The massive walnut trees expanded to form a canopy over the front section of the enormous throne room. Light could still come from the square dome at the top of the ceiling, especially with the mirrors they added to optimize the amount of sun, but the atrium was still dimmer than pre-forest times.

           In the center of the room, where Eris’ pithos once sat atop an alter, was Joey’s statue, still smiling with pride. That and the throne were lit magnificently. Pax had made sure of it. Both to honor Joey and to annoy her if she could still sense the brightness.

           The two tables that had once been used for meetings had been removed, leaving the throne in the back as the only piece of real furniture.

           In a maze across the ceiling, Pax had added metal bars, like monkey bars constructed by a maniac, with ladders installed on either side of the wall to reach them.

           That’s where they found the chaos.

           A fourteen-year-old half-Japanese boy dangled from the bars beside a tree that was further from the rest. His legs bobbed uselessly under him as he scrambled to catch one of the crimson nymphs.

           Pax knew there would be sixteen of those monstrosities in total, but he only spotted about a dozen in the branches, playing Keep Away with his littlest brother.

A crimson nymph curled up in a softly sobbing ball away from the others. Near her, Pax caught sight of Euna. She was, Pax assumed, pruning some of that nymph’s branches. Although most of the branches were thicker than her arm, Euna snipped them off with single strikes.

           He knew the last nymph would be by the former fire pit, and was too small to play with the others. Euna had already named that dryad Resilience since it was a sapling stubbornly sprouting from Santiago’s tree stump.  

           The walnut trees had red leaves, like the color of the nymph’s skin, hair, and eyes. Something about not having enough light for typical photosynthesis—bla-bla-bla—chemistry—bla-bla-bla—child of Demeter. All Pax cared about was the fact that Euna had NOT decided to prune Hiro’s functional limbs.

           Axel and Pax sighed in relief. Alabaster strolled in behind them, unconcerned.

           At their hurried entrance, some of the nymphs disappeared back into their trees. Euna set her shears down, then touched the snipped off sections. The bark rippled, healing over the nubs to leave little more than a scar. She knelt down beside the sobbing dryad, gently brushing away her tears with her work gloves. “Your branches were criss-crossed. We had to pick the strongest branch, since they would have been sickly if we kept both,” she said.

           The nymph sniffed and crawled up to lean into Euna’s long, black hair that hung over her shoulder.

           Euna awkwardly patted her back. Then, she gently set the nymph back into her tree.

           Once done, she brushed her gloves on her jeans and walked towards them. The vines and leaves dangling from her hair and limbs seemed to whisper with each step. Pax loved the fact that she hadn’t learned to control the whole “god glow” thing. It meant he wouldn’t trip over her when she found odd areas to nap or that he could use her as a nightlight.

           At Alabaster’s raised eyebrow, Euna shrugged. “It’s not their fault that they’re full grown and have the mental capacity of toddlers.”

           As much as Euna looked disinterested, she had been tending to these trees, and the former-fire-pit-new-garden, religiously. Axel and Pax had been worried about their favorite homicidal Korean until they brought her into this room and the dryads flocked to her like creepy, Satanic ducklings to their mother. When they were a little more developed, he was sure they’d run shrieking, “Mom’s home!”anytime Euna returned from missions.

           The creepy blood-born babies brought Euna peace and purpose beyond murder. Plus, it sort of solved the satanic dryad infestation. Still there, but at least they were more like pets and Hiro’s playmates than unwanted rodents. (Pax heard that most people didn’t want rodents in their houses, which he thought absurd.)

           Euna smiled at Axel as she tossed something at his head from her pocket. “Happy early birthday.”

           Axel caught it, flashing a fanged grin. They’d been playing a lot of “surprise” catch to work on her situational awareness. He held up the glass vial with something gold and fleshy inside. Attached to the lid were a pair of familiar sunglasses that seemed to glow with an internal fire. “Is this—”

           “A trophy from our fight last week?” she said. “Yea. Congrats. One down. Eleven to go.”

           Axel looked ecstatic. He hugged the heart-jar close to him with one hand, then held out the other in a fist. “Pound it,” he said.

           She fist bumped him. Her dark eyes searched around in lazy confusion. “Why isn’t Kally with you?”

           “Yea, Ajax, why did we deviate from the plan?” Alabaster asked, shooting him a side-glare.

           Pax had been hoping to avoid this conversation for as long as possible. At least now he had the perfect illustration as to his reasoning. “Because you just gave Axel a heart in a jar as a birthday gift.”

           “I thought it was very considerate and sweet,” Axel objected. He stepped around the group, walking towards the back wall. As he crossed paths with Joey’s statue, he nodded a greeting, then he continued forward, to put the jar in the section they’d designated for trophies.

Pax pondered over installing a modern art piece on the back wall. They already had the Triple A Chimera helms mounted there and Phobetor’s piccolo-hatchet. If they were going to have a menagerie of random godly item and organs, you might as well shape them into a weasel.

“Where’s Lapis?” Pax asked, watching Hiro snatch at a dryad. The girl giggled and hopped to a different branch. He swung down from the monkey bars, onto the tree, not realizing how hard he’d smashed his knees into another branch. They needed to buy him shin guards or a riot shield for his legs.

           “With the new recruits,” Euna said. “How’d the talk with Reyna go about the soldiers defecting from New Rome?”

           Axel snorted. “We’re protecting defectors and her reputation is on the line. How well do you think it went?”

           “So it was the huntress!” Pax said and snapped his fingers.

           Euna gave Pax a confused glance. “Do you mean Thalia? She hasn’t been a huntress for… um…” Her eyebrows furrowed. “The middle of the sweet potato harvest?”

           The fact that time had become difficult for their sprouting godling wasn’t the part of that sentence interested Pax.

           “A month,” Axel supplied, patiently “You and I celebrated her physical sweet sixteen with her, Percy, and Annabeth about a month ago.”

           “Holy Titans,” Pax whined, “So she—”

Before he could start guessing, Euna waved him off, sprinkling him with dirt from her gloves. “It didn’t have to do anything with me or Axel.”

           Axel shook his head. “The prophecy she was trying to prevent is over and she has paid proper homage to her fallen friend. She had some other reasons, but they didn’t have to do with any current romantic intentions.” The way he said it labeled the topic clearly with Off Limits.

           “Hrm, and an argument between you and Reyna could easily end in a nomnom fest. Augh!” Pax ran a hand through his hair, messing up the gel and pulling more out of his ponytail. “How have I become such a terrible information gatherer?”

           “I don’t know. You were gone on one of your ‘business’ meetings,” Axel said.

           The first month had been insane. Pax had to meet with a lot of contacts, both in the pharmaceutical world and mythological one, to prove Santiago wasn’t dead. He and Claymore had spent many a torturous session on how to conduct a business meeting without discussing anything serious, so Claymore could handle emails that involved real dealings. And, there had been the rebranding. Pretending Santiago had found God or whatever they decided to change some of the “business” practices.

           Technically, Pax supposed, Santiago had found some god.

           Pax’s stomach clenched to think of some of the stuff that happened to him when Axel was too “busy” during their time at Camp Othrys. One glance at Axel’s bitter glare, and Pax calmed.

           “Hey,” he protested at Axel and Alabaster’s scowls, “I got this. You promised me. Six months. I know that’s an insanely long time for neither of you to have an aneurism, but I have four more months of unquestioned Pax tyranny and I think I’ve been taking pretty good care of us so far. Reese’s Sticks for everyone!”

           “Yea, but how much of that time have you spent as you?” Axel asked. His ears flattened against his hairline.

           Alabaster nodded. “You haven’t pulled a single prank in a month or worked on any art projects. Matthias has a calendar recording it.”

           Euna made a face. “How does Matthias have time for that?”

           Pax puffed up his cheeks and popped them, swearing prank vengeance on Matthias as soon as he had time to conduct a proper prank. He pressed the stump of his hand into his ribs. His eyes drifted to Joey’s statue, to what Hera had done to her, and to the Leonis Caput helm and to what the god of war—former god of war, he corrected gleefully—and the goddess of love had done to Axel. That was why he had to do this.

           That’s also why he couldn’t break down in front of the others. They needed a strong leader, else Alabaster wouldn’t be able to focus on cracking the curse of Joey’s statue, Axel wouldn’t be able to finally relax enough to play bump in the night with the girl he liked or set up the training regiment for their newbies, Euna… Euna would probably do whatever Euna wanted to, but he liked to think she’d have a harder time focusing on her new god-powers and sanity without him putting forward some effort.

           And, he wasn’t ready to admit to them the problems he was still in denial about, like the times he’d gotten stuck as Santiago and called Atë in a panic as he scratched and clawed at his own face. At Santiago’s face? Pax looked too much like the photos to glance in mirrors anymore. That’s when the private lessons started of How to Be a God 101. Atë had taught him how to alter a single feature on his face, so no one would notice the gashes. She had taught him a lot.

He forced himself not to tremble.

           Pax gave them a devilish smile, realizing he must have missed a response from Axel. “If I fail, you’re allowed to pull my ear off. If it works, I’m punishment-free for another six months.” He winked at Alabaster. “Then I can coddle Witch boy without interruption.”

           Alabaster sighed. “Ajax, don’t make me sabotage Camp Othrys to maintain my dignity. I will.”

           “I will be allowed to court him in polite, gentlefolk fashion,” Pax corrected. “Girls can court people too nowadays, Witch Boy.” He winked again.

           “You’re not a girl,” Alabaster said, not looking at him or Axel. Axel made the terrible mistake of thinking Alabaster was the older of the two, so would blame anything that happened on him.

           “I can if I want to be,” Pax said. This was when he was supposed to bump Alabaster’s hip if he was acting normal, but he couldn’t bring himself to, not when he had been Santiago so often. He wished he could pretend, like he had for that second by the van.

           “Kally hits hard now,” Axel observed, saving Alabaster a response. He rubbed his shoulder, the same spot that Kally had given each of them a solid welt.

           Pax refrained from touching his with his stump. He and Alabaster exchanged a glance before Pax glared at Axel. “I know your vetting process for Axel’s List of Requirements for Taste in Sexy Ladies. Don’t get any ideas.”

           Axel laughed, clearly not catching onto Pax’s threatening tone or the way Alabaster had set a hand on his spell pouches. “I’m just saying that she must still be training with Mr. Paine,” Axel said, “She must be bored, or even scared having to deal with monsters on her own. You said you were going to bring her, Ajax, and tell the others about this.” That bitterness returned to his voice. “And I think Lapis is going to kill you if we don’t have Merry start sessions with Hiro.”

           “Look at him. He’s as happy as a condor with a deer carcass,” Pax said, gesturing to where Hiro had latched himself to one of the braches and was biting at the bark. They really needed to get him down before he fell again. Hiro didn’t need the lower half of his body when he was doing the horizontal swing of the monkey bars, but he struggled more with the vertical jumps on the trees.

           Hiro, as they discovered, did not like looking up. It sent him into a fit. So, Pax reasoned, they would just make it so Hiro could move all around the temple without much up to look at. That didn’t work though when one of the more malicious dryads tricked him to the lower branches and he couldn’t boost himself up to climb and couldn’t use his legs to jump down.

           “For now. You know he’ll fall apart when his medication wears off,” Alabaster muttered.

           Pax couldn’t argue. “We do need a healer…” he said softly. “I just don’t know if Kally is ready for… this.” He gestured widely to Santiago’s throne room with its demonic dryads and eerie gloom and doom.

           “Are you trying to make sure someone is comfortable?” Euna asked skeptically.

           “No, I live to discomfort others,” Pax said.

           Alabaster sighed. He reached into Pax’s pocket to withdraw his phone and set it into Pax’s hand. “We need a healer in more ways than one.”        

           Axel’s shoulder slumped. “And maybe someone to keep us in check. If it ever gets to the point that you don’t feel like you can have Kally here, maybe we’ve gone too far.”

           Pax wanted to say Exhibit A and point to the heart in a jar, but he knew they were talking about his recent fad for dress up. Just one more week though. Then some poor Belizean tourists would find “Santiago Pax” dead in a swamp and his will would divvy up his fortune with his recently acquitted son, Axel Pax, as the executor.[4]

           Would that change anything for Pax though?

           There was still so much to do. Others could do it so much better than Pax, well “Pax” as himself. It had been so much easier not being himself.  

           If Kally were here, he would have to do things a different way. She could read all of them like a book. Stupid authors and their assumptions on people’s—haha—character. She wouldn’t let him do his weekly visits with his half-sister, or sequester himself in his room under the guise of business meetings, or talk to the new recruits as Santiago because Santiago was so much better as a leader than he was.

           Maybe she could help him find a balance between serious, tyrant Pax and that soft child-prankster. What he normally was. If nothing else, her presence would get Alabaster and Axel off his back. Kally would probably be so lost adjusting the first week, she wouldn’t be able to keep track of him and his movements or who he was. If he set Alabaster up as her tour guide, then they’d both be too distracted—

           What was Pax thinking?! He had to be there if Alabaster and Kally would be battling for cutest and most oblivious flirt.

           Axel had thought this through too well.

           Pax sighed heavily. He shoved the phone back into his pocket, squared his shoulders, and tried—as best as he’d learned with one hand—to smooth his hair back into a tighter ponytail.

           Alabaster tapped the bracelet on Pax’s wrist.

           Mist emanated from the silver and gold band and twisted until it formed a hand. Pax still got phantom limb spasms, but at least the Mist hand worked. He smoothed the gel back down. His stray hair, this week he took to calling it One Who Dodges Hair Ties, popped out to curl down his cheek.

           “Can I at least make an official announcement?” Pax pouted.

           Axel stepped out of the path to the throne. After a split second of her staring off into the trees, he dragged Euna out of the way too.

           Pax walked through the room. As he passed Joey’s statue, he gave their marbled friend a quick kiss on the cheek, something he’d done every day they moved her here. Had he found out that she had a crush for him before she died, he’d have teased her relentlessly, and decided to make up for it during her stone age.

           “I bought you a pre-released recording session for EXO,” he said, “I heard Suho’s vocals can crack any girl’s hardened heart.”

           He set the CD at her feet. He still couldn’t believe people bought CDs. That was supposed to be for creatures that walked the earth hundreds of years ago. Later, they would have to pull the old CD player they’d salvaged out of Santiago’s room to give her some easy listening.

           Pax continued forward, forcing himself to look at the Leonis Caput helm on the back wall. It felt right to have a heart in a jar nearby. The sight made him wonder if Alabaster had put Pax’s severed hand in a bottle of formaldehyde and it was now floating somewhere in the Witch Boy’s laboratory. Pax wished he could still move the limb despite being severed. Then he’d make it wave to Alabaster every time he knew Alabaster was in his lab. Questions to ask Atë when next he saw her.

           Finally, Pax leveled with the throne of bones that was sewn together with tendons. He’d thrown a smiling panda car seat over it. Baby steps in remodeling.

           When he sat down—bones were very uncomfortable; Pax didn’t know what his father had been thinking—he saw Alabaster mid-eyebrow raise, Axel trying not to avert his gaze, and Euna staring off at Hiro as he chased a dryad around the canopy.

           He cleared his throat. “I promise to kidnap Kally—”

           “Bring Kally with parental knowledge and consent,” Axel corrected.

           “Hey.” Pax glared at the interruption. “We’re not shooting for gold and diamonds here.”        

           Euna shrugged, proving she was paying attention. “It went well with my dad.”

           All three boys shifted uncomfortably. “You call that ‘well?’” Alabaster asked.

           “Your dad hits really hard for a mortal,” Axel said, though Pax couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or a complaint.

           “He kept up with his military training,” Euna said, “I think he’s supposed to be visiting sometime this week.”

           Alabaster and Pax groaned. Mr. Song had a very strict expectation for his daughters’ livelihood and Camp Othrys II didn’t meet it.

           “Anyway,” Pax said, “I hereby say that Kally shall come here, but under one condition and one condition only.” He pointed a finger at Axel. “You tell me which girl got your neck.”

           Axel’s jaw started to clench, but his lips curved into a tired smile. “You know what? Deal. You bring in Kally, I’ll leave hints that any capable spymaster should be able to figure out.”

           “Ah, a challenge,” Pax said. He couldn’t decide if he was thrilled or annoyed. The fact that it was a question between the two emotions made Pax wonder if Alabaster and Axel were right: he needed to relax and smell the puff pastries.

           “Assuming you have the time to take said challenge.” Axel examined his claws on his right hand. His pointer and middle finger barely had new growth from when they ripped off in the Labyrinth. Pax decided not to ask, since it was so inappropriate—

           “Is it easier to court your girl now that those fingers have become more versatile?” Pax asked.

           Alabaster choked on a laugh.

           From somewhere in the trees, Hiro whistled.[5]

           Axel’s face deepened to crimson. Those fingers curled into a fist. “Ajax, you have four months left before I can rip off your ear.”

           “Allegedly,” Alabaster said.

           “I think it was a reasonable question,” Euna said, “Those claws have gotta get in the way.”

           Axel tried to keep his expression neutral as he changed the subject. “How are we going to tell Kally about this?” He gestured to their trophy wall: trophies from the minor gods that they had killed—two tiny gods and now one major. Ta-da! Pax was really proud of them for sticking to their New Year’s Resolution. Some people went to gyms. Some people slew a deity per month.

           “Maybe we should ease her more into this,” Alabaster said.

           Pax had to agree. Glancing from Joey’s statue to the Leonis Caput helm, he felt a smile crawl onto his lips. A malicious glee made him tap the armrest of his bone throne. In an instance that made him realize just how desperately they needed Kally to keep them in check, he leaned forward and asked, “The real question is: One down. Eleven to go. Who are we going after next?”

 ***

All the Author’s Notes!

This concludes the Traitors of Olympus series. For those of you who have made it through all of this madness, I can’t thank you enough for taking this journey with me, and it has been a crazy journey. (Pax is sobbing behind me. I think I saw Axel wipe a tear away too. Nope. Nope, that’s just him showing off his claws…) I hope you were able to enjoy this ending (it is VERY different than its original conception) and I really hope you’ve enjoyed the ride! As always, I’d love to hear any of your thoughts on the series, favorite ships, favorite scenes, favorite characters, or even for you just to say a quick, “Hi!” XD You guys rock and made this possible! (I’m not crying while writing this, I swear)

By September, I’m aiming to have the first short from Tales from Mount Othrys out, the prologue to this series, so you might not be rid of me just yet. Hold onto those pitchforks!

 ***

Thank you so much to Mel, my betatester and close friend, for inspiring me and encouraging me to keep going (and doting on my babies while I traumatize them). I would have crashed and burned forever ago without you. <3

And, lastly, I wanted to write a quick dedication to my Merry: I know you’re never going to read this, but this is how I wish things could have gone for you and your Nikhil. I’m sorry everything didn’t turn out like a storybook ending—you did everything you could with what was given to you. Please, remember that, and remember to take care of yourself. Nikhil, I hope you’ve found your favorite place to jam to comedy R&B in the Elysian Fields, hanging with the other heroes, like you, who are so good at bringing a smile to people’s faces.

***

Footnotes:

[1] Tyche vs. Prometheus. I think Tyche would win, because luck always destroys careful planning.

[2] Yea, I know Pax hit on him as a girl. Pax will still consider that making Alabaster question his sexuality, since Pax believes Alabaster’s sexuality is exclusively dedicated to his laboratory.

[3] Some things never change. Though Jack does think Jason Grace and Axel are now friends much to Pax’s pouty distaste.

[4] In Mel’s betanotes, she read this first as the Pokemon, “Exeggutor” and thought of an Axel version of that. I mean… Axel is both a psychic and nature type….

[5] Melbeta note, “HIRO FUCKING WHISTLED YOU GO YOU SMOL CHEEKY LITTLE PAX GET YOUR KICKS WHERE YOU CAN GET THEM XD XD … OH GOSH THAT PUN WASN’T INTENDED AND WAS MEANER THAN I EVER MEANT I’M SO SORRY!” Jack, “I couldn’t stop laughing at this. I think you understand why I needed to put this in here XD”

[findmeinpops]

Chapter Two: I Predict A Riot

Summary: A sequel to I’m On Fire. The six of you were all happily joking, squeezed into a single booth. No one saw the man stood outside the diner watching. The relationship between you and Sweet Pea was growing stronger, it would make getting to you even harder but he was determined to do it. One way or another, he would get his revenge.

I’m On Fire: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

I Predict A Riot: Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14

Abbreviations: Y/N - Your Name            Y/L/N - Your Last Name

Trigger Warning: Slut-Shaming

A/N: Now that the first part is out of the way, I Predict A Riot will be updated every Friday from now on! I hope you enjoy this! x

Your parents had gone to your room, perhaps they had found something, or someone had broken in and stolen your stuff. Were the windows broken? Had a candle set fire to the curtains? Maybe they had packed all your things and were just waiting to throw you out…

Your ponderings came to an end as your reached the door and saw what they were all worried about.

In big letters on your bedroom wall, someone had written ‘Go to hell, Serpent Slut.’ The words sent chills through your whole body. Every muscle was shaking and you felt tears well in your eyes. It was red, either blood, or paint to look like blood. Either way, there was no mistaking it, this was meant as a threat.

You were lost for words, there was nothing you could say. You were in shock. Who had done this and why? Did they know about last night? How had they gotten in? Had they taken anything, done anything else? What more were they planning? Had there actually been someone watching you earlier today?

Your dad’s face was still filled with anger but also disappointment. He knew exactly where you had been last night. He seemed less concerned about your well-being and the potential threat this person held but more about what they implied. He didn’t care. The two of you had never been close but this hurt.

You looked to your mum for reassurance. She was hovering near you, undecided on whether to give you space or to hug you and comfort you. Your eyes were still wide with shock and she took this as permission to embrace you. Her tears fell onto your shoulder and allowed you to give way to the flood of tears that you yourself had been holding back.

You cried out of terror and fear for your own safety. Someone wanted to hurt you, whether physically or emotionally, either way they meant it. The idea that someone had been watching you, knew you were out that morning, knew you had slept at Pea’s last night chilled you to your core. 

What if your mum or dad had walked in whilst they had been here? You cried out of guilt for you being the cause for the threat. If either one of your parents had gotten hurt, it would have been because of you. 

This person had come into your house. Not only was it no longer safe here but you were also a burden upon the family, upon the neighbourhood.

You felt guilt because Pea had to see this. Pea.

You twisted out of your mother’s arms and, although your eyes were clouded with tears, you could see him standing in the doorway. Waves of anger were practically rolling off of him, his hands were tightly fisted and his jaw was clenched. His eyes were fixed on the words, taking no notice of you. He would blame himself but he would also go looking for revenge. He would get himself hurt and you couldn’t stand the idea of it. He was your Sweet Pea and there was no way that you would be the reason that he would get hurt… or worse… Whoever this person was, they meant business.

Slowly, you walked towards him. You saw your dad move to stop you but your mum gave him a warning glare, holding onto his wrist tight.

Only when you placed a hand on his arm did he look at you. His eyes flitted over your face, trying to gauge your feelings. You could see his emotions were conflicting. On one hand he wanted to protect you, stop you from getting hurt. He wanted to rip whoever threatened you to pieces, angry at the prospect of someone even thinking about trying to get to you. But he was also angry at himself. He was a Serpent and he didn’t belong with your crowd. He should have known better.

“Pea?” Your voice shook with the overwhelming emotion you were feeling. That was all the permission he needed before engulfing you in a tight hug, squeezing you closer to him. You were still here, no one had hurt you and he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt you.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled into your shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry, Y/N. This is my fault.”

Closing your eyes, you leant your head against his. He would protect you.

“Take me home, Pea.” It was no longer safe at your house. Whoever it was had gotten in and they would easily do it again. Someone had been in your room and you wouldn’t be able to sleep in your own bed knowing that.

“Yes, of course. Whatever you want, Y/N.” Surprise was evident in his voice. He pulled back slightly but you clung to his neck for support, you were weak.

‘I won’t let anyone fucking touch you’ were the last words you heard before you collapsed into Pea. The past few weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. It had taken a toll on you, you hadn’t given yourself a break and the prospect of this new threat had completely overwhelmed you.

Pea effortlessly bent down, sliding an arm under your legs, before standing upright again, holding you bridal style. Without looking at your dad, he turned to your mum.

“Mrs Y/L/N, would you mind giving us a ride to my trailer? I brought my bike but I don’t think it’s wise with Y/N in this state…” His voice was soft, just above a whisper, as he shifted so that your head was nestled in the spot where his neck met his shoulder.

“No way in- ” Your mum cut your dad off with another warning glare. He started to protest but thought better of it, giving up. He walked away, giving Pea a meaningful look as he passed.

“Of course, Sweet Pea, anything for my daughter.” She smiled before leading Pea out the house and to her car.

The two of them travelled in silence. Pea was sat in the back seat with your head resting on his lap as you lay on the other two seat. He mussed with your hair, lazily running his fingers through it as his thoughts were consumed by you. 

He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have you and no one would get within a yard of you without your permission. And if you came to realise that you deserved so much better than a kid with anger problems, born on the wrong side of the tracks, then he wouldn’t stop you. He would let you go but he would keep watch. You may not want to be with him but no one would hurt you, not even him.

Pea had been too caught up in his own mind and was surprised when the car pulled up at Sunnyside Trailer Park. Your mum had obviously been here before and Sweet Pea would be sure to ask you about that later.

“It’s just this one here.” He gestured for your mum to pull up outside his trailer.

She held the car door open to allow Pea room to carry you out of the car. “Look after her.” She pushed your hair from your face, placing a loving kiss on your forehead. “Please.”

“Of course.” Pea nodded and shared a look with your mum before making for his trailer.

You stirred as Pea cautiously manoeuvred his way through the door, taking care not to bash your head or any part of your body for that matter. He noticed your eyes begin to flutter but didn’t acknowledge it until the door was shut.

“Can you stand?” he asked, slowly releasing your legs and helping you test your balance. You held onto the countertop for support and he ensured you weren’t going to collapse again before removing the arm that was around your waist.

Pea locked the door, triple-checking that it wouldn’t open, before turning to you. He brushed back the hair that had fallen over your face and bent over so he could look into your eyes.

“I will be back in a second. I want to check everything is as it should be.” He wandered around the trailer, checking the rooms for anything suspicious and shutting and locking each and every window.

He eventually returned to you and silently wrapped his arm around your waist again, leading you to his bedroom. Pea helped you sit on the bed and removed your shoes and, pulling back the covers, he gestured for you to get in. You half expected him to tuck you in and read you a bedtime story too...

Awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, he stood beside you for a moment, working out in his head what to say. “You make yourself comfortable here and, er, I’ll be on the sofa if you need me.” He turned to walk away but you grabbed hold of his wrist in protest.

“No.” You said as firmly as you could in your drowsy state. “Stay with me, I need you.”

Undecided, he looked to your hand before crouching at the side of the bed. You turned to face him, resting your head on your other hand.

“Are you sure? Y’know after, after what they wrote?” You scoffed at the idea, to which Pea was taken aback. He truly did not know what to expect from you and he wanted to make sure you were comfortable. He understood the toll something like that could have on you and was putting you before himself. It was then that you fully realised and comprehended that he did care about you and would continue caring and protecting you whether you wanted him or not. 

What they said about Sweet Pea was not true. He was made out as someone who slept with copious amounts of women, throwing them aside the next day, not caring for their feelings or really taking into account that there were any human beings other than himself. Sure, he had some anger issues but his intentions were all in the right places. Maybe, just maybe, what they say about the Serpents wasn’t true either…

“Just because some asshole called me a slut,” a smirk tugged at Pea’s mouth, ah, you hadn’t broken him after all, “does not mean that I suddenly hate you.”

“That same asshole did also threaten you.” He quipped back but despite the weight behind his words, that playfulness was back. “In blood, might I add.”

“I don’t care, Sweet Pea.” You gave him a semi-serious face but the twinkle in your eye gave you away. “I want you.” 

He hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should join you or not.

“Shove over then.” You grinned back at him, happily obliging. He slid in effortlessly and you curled up against his side, pressing your face to his ribs.

Very soon you were drifting asleep again and you began to snore softly. You looked so innocent and vulnerable like this, your face relaxed and your lips parted slightly. Pea could watch you for hours. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have found you and how much luckier he was that, against all odds, you liked him back.

“You are my weakness, Y/N.” He whispered to you, knowing full well that you couldn’t hear him and wouldn’t reply. In that moment it was just you and him. There was no threat, there was no danger, you were just two teenagers who, unknowingly, were well on their way to falling in love. It was just peace, quiet and hope and an obliviousness to the events that would unfold the next day.

Sweet Pea woke up first the next morning. He hadn’t shut the curtains the night before and sun was streaming into the bedroom. So as not to wake you, he untangled himself from you and slowly made his way off the bed. Pea had closed one of the curtains when he heard you stir; he was worried he had woken you but you simply rolled over onto your front and continued sleeping. You were a real-life sleeping beauty. The dress you were wearing had ridden up slightly, not to be indecent, but so that it exposed your upperthigh. The slither of sun still reaching the room hit your skin just right, giving your legs a glow that just enhanced them more. The position you were in meant that your back was arched, your bum slightly raised and your face was nestled in the pillow. Your hair was dishevelled but in a cool, effortless way, it framed your face. Your lips were apart and an almost-smile graced them. You were an angel, a peaceful, beautiful, heavenly angel asleep in his bed. You were a picture, worthy of being painted by the greatest artists. And you wanted him.

@swordsandserpents @justmesadgirl @galaxy-hale @nepriaa @wybcalum@happilydeadontheinside @we-chemical-kids @iamaunicorn4704@quinzzelx @forever-the-broken @celestialcastiel @abundanceofcarolines@ashwarren32 @alien-tribute @fangirlbitch02  @maiasjacket @marauders162 @cherryblcssm @mari-cross @caleigh-bugg @harusaru07 @poolpartyingwithjaws

[shaniahnoel]

Buttercup Pt 1/?

A/N: Well, this is my first time dabbling in Fanfiction, please let me know what you think! It’ll be a romance between Sweet Pea and an OC, but I wanted to actually build it so we’re not there yet. 

Word Count: 1538ish

Warnings: None

Part Two

“Hey Sweets, can you do me a solid?” Fangs asked, a little hesitantly. 

Sweet Pea looked up and cocked an eyebrow, waiting. 

“Can you come to dinner at my house tonight? My aunt is gonna be there, and she just gets on the Southside all the time.”

“And you want me to go there why...? To get insulted?” 

“No, P, me and my mom, well this is family y’know so she gets tongue tied and doesn’t want me to say anything and I gotta respect my moms. You don’t have that limit.”

Sweet Pea’s lips turned up in a smirk. “So you want me to champion the Southside? What kind of Serpent are you?”

The last words were a challenge and Fangs stiffened. 

“The kind that puts his mom above anything. This is how I care for blood. Getting you in is how I care for family. I don’t even want to fight with her. I want her to get us.”

There was a moment of tension where Sweet Pea looked down at the newer member who, to his credit, didn’t blink. 

“Alright Fang, for your mom though.”

Fangs’ mom fluttered nervously around the kitchen, triple checking every dish. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail and she hastily pulled the tag off the blouse she was wearing. Fangs was setting the table while Sweet Pea stood back and took in the scene. His annoyance of the whole thing faded as he listened to Fangs mom lecture him about the way he had spoken to his aunt before. Fangs had defended the Serpents. 

“Oh, and Fang? Soph’s coming too.”

Fangs face was somewhere between a smile and grimace, like he couldn’t quite decide how he felt about that. 

“She’s my cousin, P. A year younger.” He said in response to the question in his eyes.��

“Great more Northsiders.”

As he spoke the gravel crunched outside and Fang ducked to grab the glass his mom had let tumble. Setting it carefully on the table, he took one last look at the settings, knowing his aunt would complain anyways. He heard his mom answer the door. 

“Angela, it’s good to see you!” she tried to sound enthused.

“Yes, yes, Rachel please let me in before any of the riffraff around here get ideas.”

Sweet Pea turned to the door. Fangs’ aunt was nearly identical to her sister, except a few inches shorter and many degrees colder. His cousin shuffled in behind her, clearly uncomfortable in the South Side already. She smiled softly at her family and gave them each brief hugs. Sweet Pea came forward then and held out his hand. Sophia’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked up at him. At first Sweet Pea took it to be fear but, before he could react, he felt her hand in his. 

“I’m Sophia,” she said, “and you are?”

“Sweet Pea.”

“Sweet Pea,” she repeated, clearly trying to match the name to the giant in leather before her. 

“These gangs and their stupid names. Still, it’s a nicer sounding name than ‘Fangs’, Michael.” 

Fangs gave a weak chuckle, as if something about that was funny to him. Sweet Pea bit his tongue on his reply. Instinct said to put the Northsider in her place, but family said to help his fellow Serpent. He would endure for now.

They made it through most of the meal decently. Aunt Angela briefly traded in her South Side comments to instead remark on Rachel’s cooking. Rachel had the best homecooked food in the South Side, so Sweet Pea was left to assume this woman was capable of no positivity. Sophia and Fangs were catching up, whatever had caused his indecision later seemed to have passed. She leaned forward then to talk to him.

“So, Sweet Pea, what year are you?”

“Junior, same as Fang.”

“And how long have you been a Junior?” Aunt Angela asked.

As he heard the implication, Sweet Pea’s face darkened and he didn’t trust himself to answer. Fang looked at him apologetically, but it was Sophia who spoke.

“Mom, what is your problem?”

“My problem? My daughter is on her way to becoming valedictorian and going to go on to an Ivy school. I don’t have a problem. That my nephew is on the fast track to joining his father in prison is my sister’s problem. One I’ve been trying to help her see since she married that Serpent.”

“James is a good man.” Rachel snarled.

“Yes, Rachel, because good men end up in prison.”

“Mom, shut up, Uncle James is a good guy. So is Fang.”

“Sophia! Only a few hours in the South Side and you’re already under their influence. Good people don’t join gangs. Fang isn’t just some stupid nickname for Michael, he’s joined the Serpents, just like his parents.”

There was a brief moment where Sophia looked at Fang and then her mother. She should have pieced it together, but she just couldn’t picture her sweet cousin in a gang. Her silence lit a match under Sweet Pea.

“Yeah, Northsider, can’t defend a Serpent now, can you?” he said scathingly.

“You see, Sophia? They’re all the same on the South Side. Belligerent idiots who think manners and laws don’t apply to them. I knew I should have eliminated all contact once James went to jail, but being good hearted I thought Michael could use your influence. But now here he is becoming this obstinate little—”

“Mom,” Sophia’s voice cut across. “The only thing I care about is how Fang feels about Buttercup.”

There was a brief pause. Angela and Sweet Pea both wore a look of confusion, while Rachel looked surprised. Fang, however, smiled and answered:

“I say to hell with the other two, Buttercup is my girl.”

Sophia smiled then and turned to face her mom.

“Mom, I don’t care if Fangs is a Serpent. I don’t care that my Uncle is in prison. I don’t care that Aunt Rachel still lives on the South Side. This is our family, and it’s time we act like it.”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that. We are going home and we’re going to discuss your punishment.”

“No, you can go home. It’s a Friday, I’m staying the night at Aunt Rachel’s. If it’s okay with her, that is.”

“Soph, you are always welcome in my home.”

Angela’s lips were in a thin line as she stood up.

“Sophia Margaret, come with me this instant or you will regret it.”

Now, Sophia wasn’t afraid of her mother, but she hesitated. Staring uncertainly between her cousin and aunt but it was Sweet Pea who spoke.

“You’ll be fine, Soph, Serpents take care of their family.”

With renewed confidence she spoke, “Just go mom. Take your bigotry with you.”

The door of the house slammed shut and gravel spun as her mother drove away. There was an awkward silence when she left and Sophia began to get flushed as she realized what had just happened. Her mother’s threat started to sink in. Rachel came and put an arm around her.

“Hey,” she said, “it’ll be alright. Thank you, for sticking up for us all.”

Tears were forming in Sophia’s eyes.

“I shoulda stood up to her sooner. I missed you both. I just couldn’t get through to her. I thought maybe a nice dinner like we used to have would change things, but clearly nostalgia doesn’t bring miracles..”

“Hey, it’s all good.” Fangs responded warmly. “At least I got my girl back.”

Sophia bit back a laugh while Rachel groaned.

“Ugh, worrying about what the two of you are gonna be up to is worse than worrying about the Serpents.”

“I’m not sure why you’re worried, it sounds like they just talk about powerpuff girls?” Sweet Pea said with a smirk.

“Hey no, no, it’s not what you think,” Fang quickly countered.

“I think that my boy Fang just confessed to liking Buttercup the Powerpuff Girl… what am I missing here? I want the full story to tell the guys.”

“He was defending me,” Sophia stepped in with an eye roll while Rachel laughed in the background. “When I was 12, I was fighting with my friends about the best powderpuff girl. I know it was stupid, but they were making fun of me, and Fang overheard them. So, he came and joined my side and when the guys he knew asked if he really watched a chick show, he lied to them and said he did. He sacrificed his friendships to support me. It was about time I sacrificed for him.”

Rachel wiped her eyes at the remark, but Sweet Pea just snorted.

“I’m still telling them that you’re into Buttercup.”

“Well, personally I’m confused about how you immediately recognized the name as a Powerpuff Girl?”

The quip came out before Sophia really thought about it, but it had Fangs cracking up immediately. Sweet Pea’s face flashed with annoyance but something about her eyes as she said it calmed him down. His lips quirked up in a partial smile.

“Okay, okay, I’ll keep it quiet… for now.”

Rolling her eyes, Sophia turned to Fangs.

“So it seems like we need to catch up forreals, Serpent.” She teased Fangs. 

A/N: Obviously I don’t own any of the Riverdale characters, but Sophia and her relationship with our beloved Sweet Pea are my personal creation as well as the plot lines herein. There may be some basis on events currently happening in Riverdale, but not necessarily.