#~though a good majority are in Gaea

[feraecor]

"Flaer is out there trying to find him now, Azus...if any one can find Satan, we know its Flaer...but that's probably as good as its going to get right now."

"I know...you have to know how appreciative I am of this. Considering everything that is going on...I know you need to worry about the children too."

Lilith sighed, patting Azus' cheek gently. "You are family too, Azus. I know how worried you are right now, with Pythius and Satan...the family is almost all accounted for, even the Corrupted ones. They are contained for now on Gaea and there is not much we can do to help them."

The demon prince runs his hands through his hair with a slow exhale. "How is Zaz...? Is the compound completely shut down now...?"

Lili winces. "Honestly...it was only a matter of time. Once one of the great grandchildren came back with the Corruption, it spread everywhere...the last contact we had from him was the day after Pythius."

"We're containing the spread to parts of Pythius' domain as much as possible...let us hope it does not get worse."

[aroaceleovaldez]

actually in hindsight why did Rick repeatedly have Piper solve all the ghost problems on the Argo II when. Hazel was right there. A daughter of Pluto. who by all logic should be able to control ghosts even a little bit. like, we know she has at least some of those types of powers. she just never gets to actually practically use them. ever. and then when there are zombies Hazel once again. does not get to use her powers about it. what.

[crossdressingdeath]

A thing I find really interesting: in the Riordanverse so far we've seen two sixteen-year-old children of the Big Three have to face the question of how to deal with the issue of the minor gods rebelling due to feeling abandoned, disrespected, neglected and otherwise unwelcome. First Percy at the end of PJO when he makes the gods swear to give the minor gods a place at camp, then Jason in BoO when he and Percy fight Kym and Polybotes. And the different ways they respond to that says a lot about I think both them and the way they've been trained.

Percy's solution is... actually surprisingly naive, if you think about it. I mean, first off he basically just assumes that an oath on the Styx will hold the gods to their word. He of all people should know that that's not true; he's the result of a broken oath on the Styx, after all. And we know from Piper and Leo—who are both past the age of thirteen and not Roman demigods, but still haven't been claimed or brought to camp even though according to the oath they should have been—that... yeah, the gods broke that oath basically immediately. Surprise surprise, the gods suck. And no one likes being forced to make a promise against their will, even when it's a promise that is basically "do the bare minimum as a parent and don't be dicks to people who've proved they'll turn on you if you do that". But aside from that, Percy's reasoning seems to have basically been "make the gods give the minor gods a place at camp = profit", which... yeah, that's the sort of reasoning I'd expect from a teenager whose leadership experience mostly boils down to sometimes making solo decisions during quests. I've mentioned before that Percy doesn't tend to think in terms of long-term planning and specializes in getting what he wants in the immediate short term, and it's the same here: he's focusing on an immediate problem (all the unclaimed kids at camp, some of whom are the kids of minor gods), and forgetting about or just not noticing the larger issue (the minor gods switch sides not because of their children not getting recognized but because they feel neglected because no one worships them anymore and the major gods don't care).

To be clear, those unclaimed kids are a problem and dealing with them is a good and very decent move. Percy turning down personal gain in favour of doing his best to ensure improvements for all those kids in the Hermes cabin growing angrier and more resentful with every day they go unclaimed is a very good thing, we love to see it. But it's treating a symptom, not the underlying cause of the issues that caused so many minor gods to turn on Olympus, and so would only ever have been a stopgap even without Gaea rising. And Percy didn't have any further plans to deal with the problems outside of this one aspect; he actually seems genuinely surprised to learn that the deal he made didn't solve the problem and in fact didn't even ensure that all the minor gods were recognized. Percy's solution also relies on the gods; as we see, there's no plan in place for if the gods fuck up or fail to keep their promise! The gods failed to do anything for Kym, and there was nothing in place to even check on that because the plan was just "force the gods to promise to do the thing" (and how do you hold gods who can smite you if you annoy them accountable for their fuckups, anyway?). The whole thing is reliant on the gods not breaking their oath, when again Percy especially should know they aren't great at that.

Jason, meanwhile, has a much more solid understanding of the overarching issue causing the minor gods to keep turning on Olympus and has a plan to combat it. Why do the minor gods keep turning on Olympus? They feel disrespected. Why do they feel disrespected? They aren't being worshipped. What's the best way to ensure they get worshipped? Build shrines and educate demigods about them. What's the best way to do that? Well... just go around both camps and see it done yourself. There's no reliance on the gods, because the gods aren't involved! Jason intends to handle this personally, and we see in ToA that he puts a lot of effort into it. And it makes sense that Jason is focusing on an actionable plan that he can keep an eye on personally, because he has years of leadership experience as a praetor of Camp Jupiter. He must be more than used to having to handle situations where two groups who should be on the same side are in conflict for one reason or another, so he knows how to figure out a solution and how to keep an eye on the implementation of that solution in a way Percy wouldn't. It also makes sense that he has more of an understanding that the issue of the minor gods not getting any respect isn't going to be solved as easily as just making the major gods promise to play nice; first off he again is used to leadership and mediation and nothing is ever that easy, and second he came from the Fifth Cohort, which is still mocked even though the much-vaunted son of Jupiter rose from their ranks.

And I think a lot of the difference in how these two approach this particular problem comes from how the two camps treat young demigods? While in both camps the kids end up doing most of the work, in Camp Half-Blood Mr. D and Chiron are in charge. They're the ones who call for quests and decide activities, people have to run decisions by them. And quests tend to be more team projects; one person is the leader, but the quests we see usually feature the quest-goers working together to make decisions and plan their next move rather than having one person in charge. Percy's not good at coming up with a solid, long-term game plan because that's never been his responsibility. Not to mention that the Greek gods interfere in things constantly, so poking them and saying "Hey, you owe me, fix this nonsense" is often a valid strategy. Meanwhile at Camp Jupiter they cut out the middleman and put the kids in charge from the start, seeing as they're going to be doing all the work anyway. So Jason knows how to plan for the future, because... well, that's been his job for some time, of course he knows that. He wouldn't have gotten far as a praetor if he didn't. Both camps absolutely traumatize the fuck out of their campers, but hey, at least at Camp Jupiter you might get leadership skills out of it! And also the Roman gods are more hands-off, so it makes sense Jason wouldn't put this whole mess in their hands. Especially since he now also has Percy's example to tell him that won't work at all. Basically Percy holds a position of respect and some level of power at Camp Half-Blood because he's one of their best fighters and not bad as a battlefield commander, but he's not a leader the way Jason is, which is likely part of the reason why he's so quick to give up the praetorship when Jason gets to Camp Jupiter in MoA. Jason is a leader, meanwhile, because he's had years of experience in that role and is used to handling it even if it wouldn't have been his choice. Both of them care about the people around them and want to do right by them, but Percy only does so as a friend; Jason does as a friend too, but also as someone used to being in a position of meaningful authority over the group and so in a position where they have a very real and concrete responsibility to the group in a way that someone who's just a friend doesn't. You can also see this in things like how when Nico says he isn't welcome at camp Percy's response is basically "Yyyyyyyyyyyeah, that sucks, huh" while Jason's response is to try to make him feel welcome. Percy feels bad about it but wouldn't know what to do about the problem even if he tried, while Jason's probably used to helping people who don't fit in find a place where they belong as part of his job and would do his best to do so here even if he didn't care about Nico on a personal level. I don't know, it's just a really interesting difference between them and I wish the books had gone more into the difference between authority born from Being Strong and authority born from being in a position of concrete leadership as decided by the group (although unless I'm misremembering there are a couple points where it's pointed out that Annabeth is really much more Jason's counterpart on the Greek side than Percy is, and I love that, it's very true, Percy is not the one in charge, that is absolutely Annabeth) instead of just Percy and Jason calling each other "bro" all the time and having the occasional Big Three squabble.

[soulsxng]

"Aya, you're having too much fun with this" HECK YEAH I AM, I'M SITTING HERE GIGGLING LIKE A CRAZY PERSON WHILE ALSO FEARING FOR MY LIFE. Anyway, so the initial 8 spins:

In case the pic doesn't load for someone, here's the list! Plus some commentary, because why not.

Asedim (the djinn realm) x15. This one isn't too bad, if only because the djinn species as a whole is extremely closed off from everywhere else. It's rare that a djinn leaves Asedim for any reason, so the spread will be almost entirely isolated there.

Astra'alca (the star realm) x20. This is...potentially one of the worse spins. Astra'alca is the single largest realm in existence, and has gates connecting it to literally every other realm that has a sky/stars/space. (so pretty much all of them) It's luckily also fairly closed off for the most part though, and due to its size vs. population density, the spread will be somewhat isolated (in that the Astrecid can freely leave the realm, but others can't freely enter)...though the corruption can affect any creation, not just sentient beings. So yknow. That's why it's only somewhat.

Ivasso and Malusso (Nirbhi's home realm) x10. Twin realms. They're in the middle of a lot of fairly major realms (Hell, Atlantis, the Otherworlds, Wilacri, and Scelure, to be specific), and people come and go fairly frequently. So starting tomorrow, it could potentially spread to any of the nearby realms from here at a medium chance.

Darek. One of Kei (@feraecor)'s kiddos. JJ's former younger brother, Jas' former son. He travels a lot for work, but his main haunts tend to be Heaven, Ahnia, Gaea, Hell, and Ennirem, and Seelie/the Otherworlds. So uh. Starting tomorrow, there will be spread in at least one of those realms. Yippee.

Tee. He's on the "Other Muses" page! A lot of you have heard of Alteo; one of JJ's besties, Co-commander of Ahnia's military, and "Boss" of a rather well known mercenary group that operates out of Ennirem? Tee is his son, and the one that runs day to day things for the mercenary group. Luckily, because of this, Tee tends to stick around Ennirem most of the time; unless he's heading to Ahnia to visit his dad and some other friends.

C2. So that would be 2 out of the necessary 3 cure counts...which is good, but because this is day 0, I'm thinking of bumping this one to be part of tomorrow's roll instead. If only because the initial day is mostly going to be spent trying to figure out what the heck is going on in the first place. If that's the case, then this would turn into the replacement roll of Pirodet x15. More on that later.

Ara. As in Arahamael, one Marshy (@sansloii)'s muses. Um. So Arahamael doesn't really leave Sebiphere, and Sebiphere isn't a realm that anyone can just waltz right into...which is good. What's bad, is that some of her family does leave Sebiphere, and she's around them quite a bit, That's without mentioning the bunches of soldiers that she commands, trains, and otherwise works with every day. So yeah! Definitely not a great roll!

Pirodet x15. Okay. So quick rundown on Pirodet and the Pirodeti. First, the Pirodeti...they're a species that either encompasses the hearts/embodiments of the realms-- the Frei. (in my canon, every realm in existence stemmed from a Pirodeti, at one point. They can die though, so not all of them are inhabited by a Pirodeti anymore. I change this quite a bit depending on who I'm writing with, and what they wanna do though, so...) Or, they're Vysea, who are either primordial deities for different realms, or are full on embodiments of an aspect of existence. (Shilo, for example, is the Pirodeti of sleep, dreams, and dormancy. Enoch is the Pirodeti of divinity.) A third type of Pirodeti exists, referred to as the Rasceine, and they're tasked with...essentially helping to ensure that all of the realms remain healthy and stable, so that Creation only has to step in to fix things sparingly.

Pirodet itself is the realm that all of these beings were born from...meaning that in my canon, all realms were born from, and therefore connected to Pirodet, with the exception of Brinnela, where the four "original" species reside. Meaning that, if the corruption is spreading through Pirodet, there's the potential for Pirodet itself to be corrupted...and thus other realms themselves can be corrupted, as well. If a Pirodeti that embodies some aspect of existence is corrupted, or one of the Primordial deities, that means anyone connected to that person will most likely end up corrupted within a couple days. (ie: All of Shilo's Dreamers would be corrupted if he was. If Baphomet is corrupted, all of his followers eventually be, too)

So that's why rolling Pirodet was probably the worst roll out of all of these. A double roll (if I do decide to bump the cure to tomorrow) is bad, yeah, but honestly wouldn't make a whole bunch of difference, at that point. It's already spreading there regardless, after all.

[shinysamurott9]

2024 Gametalk: Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I want to try making a thread or series of posts talking about all the games I play over this year. I'll start with this one, the Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I've played most of the main Megaman platformers via the Legacy Collections, haven't played BN completely, SF or Legends though. As anyone who has played the main platformers can tell you, quality can vary a lot, especially, especially with the X Series. Base X5 is definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum imo. It's not an awful game but it's a major step down from X4 and it has a lot of issues and poor execution. From what I've read a lot of that comes down to a significantly lower budget and little direction from Inafune beyond "Conclude the story".

I was aware of the improvement hack for a long while but I got curious about it a few days back and decided that I'd give it a shot, and frankly, I was extremely impressed. This game fixes, not every issue with X5, but a hell of a lot of them, along with a lot of miscellaneous changes. This includes, letting X use incomplete armours, Heart Tanks sharing between X and Zero, additional ways to get certain items, letting Zero get all Heart Tanks and all parts being obtainable with no worry about rank.

There's plenty of other notable changes like a proper retranslation to be more accurate to the original script and removal of RNG with the Shuttle, but the things mentioned above are the most important to me because let me tell you, they are absolute game changers when playing through. It allows you to be so much more flexible with the order you fight each boss, making the game so much more replayable, an essential element to Megaman games imo.

It really does feel like you can get a lot more out of the characters tool kits. The Gaea Armour is not just viable for X, but actually really good, because of some rebalancing, and the fact you're not locked out of using it until basically the end of the game. Many of the special weapons are given new functions. Like Dark Hold giving you Spike Immunity, F-Laser and Charged Tri Thunder being able to destroy the bomb in Duff Mcwhalen's stage, Zero's F Splasher being able to push Gaea Blocks and you can even re-enable the Fourth Armour’s Nova Strike if you want it.

There are some issues I have with the game though. Some of the original design decisions don't mesh well with the new changes, primarily the timer, which is made basically irrelevant by all the streamlining. It was never that big of a factor in a playthrough unless you wanted parts but now it's just kind of superfluous. A lot of the not great parts of the stages still aren't great. Duff Mcwhalen is still mostly an autoscroller, Volt Kraken still has the Bike Section, Zero Stage 1 is still a replica of Quick Man and the Shadow Devil still exists. The hack does what it can to remedy this like speeding up the autoscrollers, lowering the amount of energy items you need to get from the bike section to get the Falcon Armour Part and making it so you won't get caught on walls in Zero Stage 1. Shadow Devil still kinda suck though, especially as Zero.

I'm not gonna hold these issues against the hack or it's creators though as the ideal solution would be to completely rework or replace these elements with something better, which is definitely beyond the scope of a rom patch like this. What I will say though is while they did a lot to improve the Gaea Armour, in my playthroughs at least, the Falcon Armour felt really underutilised. It's entirely possible to get everything you would otherwise need Falcon for via other methods such as the more accessible parts, the updated Special Weapons, using Zero or some combination of these three factors. I literally never needed to use it on my second playthrough. This could be just down to my playstyle but in almost every situation, the Fourth or Gaea armours were strictly better in my opinion. I feel like if it had the ability to charge special weapons like X6 then it would at least be on par with the Fourth Armour. Maybe it would have more use in an X solo run but idk.

The complaints here are mostly minor. Overall, the hack is a fantastic piece of work, it improves on X5 in almost every aspect it can reasonably be expected to. I honestly think it brings X5 up to the same level as a lot of the better Megaman games. Maybe not as good as X1 , X2 or X4, but probably not far behind them. If you've ever played X5, like it or not, I'd heavily recommend this hack. I'd put it in A Tier easily.

Why did I rank it like it’s a tier list? Cause it is.

For the last year or so I've been progressively ranking all the games I've ever played. I thought it would be a neat way to look at everything. X5 Improvement ranks in A Tier between Pikmin 3 and Megaman ZX. I'll update it with each game i finish. Feel free to roast me for my taste in games.

[mentality-of-wukong-au]

Greek gods don’t act like this. Also the world would’ve been destroyed 3000 years ago if the gods went to sleep.

And now my good anon, you gave me a good place to put a desclaimer… Ahem.

!Desclaimer!

The whole concept of being asleep for 3000 years is a WIP story I’m making and testing within the world of MOW.

However it is a story separate from MOW so it’s not gonna be all like this…

The main point however is that the Major gods (Except Hades) went to sleep, while some gods stayed awake. Aka the 12 Olympian gods…the rest of the gods maintained the world while they slumbered…

For example: Dionysus’ son that he had with Ariadne is the personification of grapes.

However they weren’t Major deities/weren’t well known even in modern times. (Ex: Eros who is also the god of love, yet his story is rather vague and sometimes mixed with Aphrodite, where instead of her rising upon the sea, it was Eros and in the Psyche and Eros story he’s her son, so it kinda gets confusing from there)

As for their personalities, I’m still working on that, which is why MOW is being used as a testing grounds… (Honestly he had already did when I made an original story for myself but have yet to work on the lore)

So to summarize:

1.) The Greek Mythology arc is a testing grounds for a story I’m making and currently planning that has NOTHING to do with MOW or LMK.

2.) The Major gods were the ones that went to sleep, while the rest of the gods that weren’t well known (Yes that could mean Hercules is alive- I’m not really sure about that though) maintained the world around them. (I also read somewhere that the Sea is also a personification like Gaea? Though that’s something I’m not sure of)

3.) Personalities are also still WIP, they’re not the final result, I could make Ares more of a bully if you want. I based Hermes’ personality off of ‘Epic the Musical’ because it seems to fit his personality as a trickster god.

4.) If you’re wondering about the monsters, some of them went extinct during the time the gods slept.

5.) In MOW, there are other deities maintaining the world around them, though Jade Emperor’s Mythology is mainly called ‘Chinese gods’ it’s because most of their beliefs are directed at China (I.E JTTW is a mix of Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism) however, I have implied that they DO maintain the world around them, not just China, they’re just stronger there. (Probably in Japan as well) They can’t be called ‘Asian gods’ because some Asians don’t believe in them and have different beliefs. (Like the Philippines, which is mostly Christianity)

6.) The reason I did that is because I tried to do a Rick Riordan kinda thing, where deities of Egyptian Mythology, Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology and Norse Mythology are involved in the same world. (Like Percy Jackson meeting Kane Chronicles or Magnus Chase being related to Annabeth Chase despite Annabeth being Greek Mythology and Magnus being Norse Mythology)

So yeah….uhm if you have any thing to criticize, I’m free for it.

[dude1818]

Final review of Nona the Ninth

I thought it was supremely adorable until it wasn’t, and that was a fantastic way to jump the stakes. (To be clear, Nona getting shot in the school isn’t when it stopped being adorable; her embarrassed “yuck” when Hot Sauce said she saw her brain splatter? Still adorable! No, it was the tantrum scene for me.)

The last few chapters wear where it fell apart for me. All of Nona’s story felt self-contained and satisfactory, but the tie back to the main plot of the series felt unnatural. A lot of things were happening on New Rho that went over Nona’s head (what’s Blood of Eden up to? Our narrator doesn’t care), and it’s understandable that big picture events were happening in the six month time skip (of course John had to reorganize the Cohort and his Lyctor crew), but the end of the book threw in a bunch of updates that didn’t feel earned by what had happened in the book.

The biggest offender was the surprise demon incursion when they returned to the Ninth House. GtN established the existence of these entities and that they can possess your body if you vacate your soul for too long, and there was a single line about how the Cohort was fighting “a bigger threat” on Antioch (a planet we never heard of before and will never see again) than Blood of Eden, but the Ninth House being overrun by them felt like a complete non sequitur. For one thing, they don’t do spirit magic, so there should be no in for the demons. (Unless the new shipment from John was contaminated? But that seems like a major stretch. Their souls were just in stasis.)

I’m also not a fan about what happened with Palamedes and Camilla. Paul seems well-adjusted and friendly, but they’re not Pal and Cam. Pal and Cam experienced ego death to form the new Lyctor. The previously two books seem to establish Lyctorhood as a bad thing, even John’s perfect Lyctorhood version, and they especially establish sacrificing yourself for another, even out of love, to be a terrible thing to do to the other person. The entirety of HtN is Gideon’s punishment for sacrificing herself to save Harrow. The only exception in the whole series is Palamedes, who can freely sacrifice himself for Camilla multiple times and it’s always framed as a good thing. I hoped this gets addressed in AtN.

I’m glad for the flashback sequences to establish what led up to the Resurrection. I know there was a lot of debate about whether John was the one who launched the nukes that ended the world or merely took advantage of it, so all the additional background about what led to that action is appreciated. The timeline is a little sus though. Not the detailed timeline, which we know John fudged a bit (like immediately changing the order he said the nukes were launched in to absolve his murder of Gideon Prime), but the whole “climate change is cause the complete extinction of humanity on a single day” thing. That feels more like an external threat (e.g. Project Hail Mary) than the way climate change is actually going to kill us.

That’s more of a “Muir isn’t a scientist” complaint, which I’ve definitely made before w.r.t. her descriptions of space travel (the shuttle from the Ninth House to the First House either needed FTL, or to travel at least 0.98c with time dilation). Narratively, I’m disappointed that it was revealed that necromancy was just actual magic all along. The first two books really established the series as being science fiction (even if it was the softest possible), so it’s a letdown that John was just gifted magic powers by Gaea and sent to Earth as a Jesus savior figure, rather than making an actual fringe science breakthrough and establishing necromancy as “real.”

Kiriona ... I think I need a separate post for that. It stresses me out.

I didn’t expect this review to be so long. There are a few points that I have strong opinions of, but overall I really did like the book. The cover promised that I would love Nona, and I 100% do. The biggest shame of all is that she won’t be around for the next book. Given how much I enjoyed the first 75% of this book, I think I would still rank it higher than HtN (although my opinion of HtN improved on my recent reread). Overall, NtN mostly suffered at the end when Muir had to hard-steer the story back in line to establish AtN.

[wrathfl]

Major changes were made to MARVEL/MCU verse for Mercy. She's no longer a sorcerer from Kamar-Taj  but a wandering witch. Changes were made to make her more available to both mcu and marvel rp muns who prefer only one setting. More info below and her verse page. ♥

+ After years of serving as a dedicated deputy in her beloved hometown of helena, Mercy made the audacious decision to leave it all behind. restless and eager to expand her magical knowledge beyond the limited teachings of her mother's old books, she set out on an adventurous journey to explore the world.  with a heavy heart yet an insatiable curiosity burning within her, Mercy packed up her belongings and bid farewell to familiar faces and comforting routines. +  During her journey, Mercy found herself drawn to a sacred grove nestled deep within an ancient forest. it was there that she encountered Gaea, one of the powerful elder gods. the very presence of Gaea stirred something profound within Mercy's soul. Impressed by Mercy's devotion to magic and her desire to learn just like her mothers, Gaea bestowed upon her a blessing. As the gentle whispers of the wind melded with the harmonious songs of nature, Mercy felt a wave of ethereal energy enveloping her being. it felt like the last kiss of her mother before she left her. + Though Mercy held a deep desire to use her powers for a good cause, she soon found herself embedded in the unsavoury underbelly of society.  driven by her own sense of justice, mercy embraced her morally grey nature—an intricate blend of light and shadow. She used her powers not solely with noble intentions but also with an understanding that sometimes drastic measures were required to achieve any semblance of balance.​​​ + She aspires to learn more about the magic systems that are used around the world by other sorcerers, she doesn't care whom they worship demons or cosmic beings - she just wants to learn from the best. + ​In a world full of superhumans Mercy still can't find her purpose, but to make use of her powers she started to take small jobs around the cities from protecting anonymous clients to a bit more complex jobs to pay her bills. police experience comes in handy on those assignments.

[sardonic-the-writer]

c!Dream x Reader

━"Allies"

━Dream

━Tw: None

━Notes: The only Dream one shot I'll probably ever do lmao. I just dont see him (or Gogy, or Sapnap) like that. Sorry

━Song: "Rebels" By Call Me Karizma

Dream twirled his axe in his hand, which took quite a bit of effort. With an upwards tilt of his lips, the man brought down the shiny metal on the wood below him. It split into two mahogany halves, splintering as it went. The axe had cut through it like soft butter and a hot knife. Meanwhile, you sat next to him with your crossbow while playing with the hem of your shirt. It was obvious that you were bored.

"Dream, when are we going to get to kill something again?" You spoke up after a minute of your 6'1 commpany cutting more wood. He barely glanced over at you to respond, instead focusing on his task at hand.

"Soon." His voice was strained with the labour of his current task, muscles pulling at the green fabric of his rolled-up hoodie sleeves. But you didn't care. Your eyes continued to gleam with blood lust as you thought about plunging a sword into soft unprotected flesh. It had been a while since you had spilt that lovely red liquid upon mother Gaea's soils, and it was tearing you apart from the inside.

Dream knew for a fact since the beginning that having you on his side was dangerous, considering your past record of unrelenting havock in the SMP. But there were defiantly some plusses. He rarley had to watch his back for major threats anymore, and you made great brownies. But brownies could only keep the masked man at bay for so long.

Dream looked up from his large pile of hacked wood to steal a glance at you and your distracted state. The way you watched a bird fly above your head in the air with sharp calculating eyes nearly sent chills down his spine.

Everything you did was perfectly planned so that way you came out on top. Even if for the better or worse of those working with you.

He felt his emerald green eyes harden with determination behind the ceramic mask of his. In Dreams experience, he was the only mastermind that could be around these parts. You were smart. Perhaps too smart for your own good...

Tonight.

He had to do it tonight.

Shortshortshortshortshortshort-

Finals are almost here and I am going to tear my hair out. Sorry for the tiny snippet of a chapter by the way. I just haven't been feeling it that much lately. Plenty of ideas, zero motivation.

More of an imagine than a one shot. Oh well

Drink water my children <3

Edit: I realized halfway through that I mead this a diffrent perspective than the rest of the book. Im too lazy to chang it though ahhhhhh-

493 words

-WayToSarcastic

[seattlesea]

✨My (maybe) Unpopular Heroes of Olympus Opinions✨

(maybe part one??? idk)

-I don’t really ship any of the main canon ships in HoO. None of them had any chemistry and most of them are either pedophilic, forced and rushed, or toxic in some way

-Most of the characters that were shoved into relationships (Leo, Nico, and Hazel especially) really did not need a love interest to complete their character arcs and their relationships ended up boring and flat cause Riordan just wanted everyone to have a love interest and it never went deeper than the skin

-Piper took advantage over Jason’s amnesiac state and manipulated him. She really went ‘But what if he has a girlfriend he can’t remember 👉👈 it would be wrong to start a relationship with him while he still has amnesia 👉👈 and cause it was based off lies and fake memories 👉👈 lmao imma just jump all over him and make him fall for me while he’s still amnesiac 🤪’ as if that’s not taking advantage over someone’s mental state

-And then she blamed her relationship being forced on Aphrodite and Hera saying they ‘forced her into a relationship’ and ‘arranged their relationship’ even though Aphrodite never said anything about or did anything to them and Hera gave Piper fake memories of them being a couple but it was Piper’s conscious choice to act out on those memories she knew were fake and her relationship was in no way influenced by anyone (especially Hera and Aphrodite) other than herself

-Shelper and Solangelo were way too rushed and forced (inside and outside of the books) and were only added for publicity, plus it seems like most of the fandom only like them cause they’re LGBTQ+ ships

-I hate Pipeyna and Pipabeth. My girls (especially Reyna) deserve better than some manipulative little girl who went ‘we were friends? no weren’t ❤️’

-The fandom portrays the characters really inaccurately (tweaking them a bit for humor is fine, but changing their entire personality is a different thing)

-The movies actually aren’t that bad when not compared to the books (I mean, you gotta admit- it’s pretty good effects for 2010)

-And speaking of the movies, they did a better job at portraying Thalia and Annabeth’s relationship in one movie than Riordan did in 5+ books

-Speaking of which, Riordan wrote pretty much every platonic friendship that weren’t Thalia/Nico and Reyna horribly and most of them shouldn’t have been friends and wasted all the potential for the good friendships

-Calypso should’ve joined the Hunters, not Reyna

-Annabeth and Piper are horrible friends lmao (separately and together)

-Silena is a hero and deserves redemption, but Luke doesn’t despite most of the fandom agreeing he does (he was a pedophile y’all)

-The fandom over-exaggerated the Tartarus fall, it wasn’t really that bad tbh

-Reyna is stronger and a better leader than Annabeth

-Annabeth’s intelligence is more tell than show (and quite a few characters including Leo, Reyna, and Octavian have shown more intelligence than her)

-Riordan over-glorifies and overpowers Percy way too much. Just cause he’s the main character doesn’t mean he has to be the best of the best after barely 8 months of training (four years at CHB only in the summers is 8 months total)

-Speaking of which, Jason can beat Percy (8 months versus Jason’s twelve years) and so can Annabeth, Reyna, Thalia, Hylla, Luke, Hazel and maybe Frank and Nico. Percy’s skill is overrated and unrealistic

-And I feel like most of the fandom knows that Jason can beat Percy but just doesn’t want to admit it cause they like Percy more

-Same thing with the Greeks and Romans- the majority know the Romans are stronger and can easily beat the Greeks but they don’t want to believe it cause they favor the Greeks more

-Percy and Annabeth shouldn’t have been part of the Seven, they already had their chance to shine. Riordan should’ve brought minor characters into light instead

-And Piper shouldn’t have been part of the Seven either. Riordan really expects me to believe that she’s stronger, more powerful, and a greater/better hero and deserved to be part of the Seven more than Reyna, Nico, Clarisse, Thalia, etc.?

-Riordan’s women line-up of Reyna, Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper was really cheap and boring (Avengers: Endgame women line-up who?)

-Percy (in HoO) and Piper are easily some of the worst, most underdeveloped characters Riordan has ever written

-Annabeth got really bland and weak in HoO and couldn’t do shit for herself without others (especially newbies) having to help and/or save her. She pretty much became exclusively Percy fangirl

-As much as I like them, Frank and Hazel don’t have what it takes to be Praetors and Reyna and Jason should’ve stayed as them

-Jason’s whole ‘am I more Greek or Roman’ arc was dumb af

-Riordan’s bias towards the Romans is also dumb af (the Romans could beat the Greeks in an instant)

-Jeyna is and always will be 1000x better than Jiper

-Hazel is the most powerful demigod (way more than Percy and even Jason)

-My hot take on who should’ve been the Seven: Reyna, Nico, Thalia, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Clovis (son of the god of sleep puts Gaea back to sleep who?)

-Riordan confirming Piper bi was a cheap move to make her more likable. It didn’t even make any sense. A character is confirmed LGBT only after they become a minor character despite being a main character before and kisses some random unnamed girl only three months after her ex-boyfriend whom she still loved dies??? girl what??? Kinda obvious it was just for publicity. Like- Riordan, honey, the LGBTQ+ community is not a circus you can plop your characters into to make them more entertaining❤️

-The PJ series as a whole isn’t that creative. It’s legit just a copy of exactly what past mythological figures have already done and a bunch of character tropes and clichés shoved into one book

-And in general it’s not even that well-written (like HP, it’s over-exaggerated a lot)

-All of the romantic relationships and platonic friendships are extremely unrealistic. Like they never argue/fight, disagree, etc. (then grow stronger from those fights) at all??? Even if they’re complete opposites???

-Reyna is the best-written character in the whole series and a queen she deserved better and y’all sit on her too much

-Theyna is ✨amazing✨ their dynamic and chemistry was just *mwah Pansexual Muslim blessings to you* and people are allowed to ship them even though they’re Hunters and swore off love

-Rachel doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets. Y’all hate on her cause she crushed on Percy when half of you are doing the same thing and then y’all go and ship Percy with Nico, Jason, Artemis, Athena, etc. 

-If y’all want to hate on Jason for ‘not having a personality’ you’d also have to hate on most of the main HoO characters except Reyna, Nico, and Leo (and maybe Hazel) for the same reason cause they have the exact same problem tbh

-Zoë and Bianca’s deaths weren’t actually that sad. We didn’t get to see them enough nor did they have enough development for their deaths to have a real impact. The only sad thing about them was Zoë’s last words and Nico’s reaction

-Thalia needed more time in the books

-Reyna was the only main female character in HoO that wasn’t a boring, bland Mary Sue that all the other characters automatically loved. She was the only one with real flaws and distinct personality traits she’s my queen

-Piper, Annabeth, and Calypso did have flaws but the fact that they weren’t called out by other characters or even noticed are what makes them Mary Sues. It doesn’t matter how many flaws a character has, if they’re not called out by other characters (more specifically, other protagonists who actually like them) they don’t count as real character flaws

-Riordan can’t write female characters for shit

-Clarisse, Drew, and Octavian deserved better than being completely antagonized for no explained reason other than to make the protagonists seem better and to make the readers root for them. Those three had more potential than most of the Seven combined

-The whole ‘Aphrodite kids don’t train’ thing is bs. It’s specifically stated that all the demigods follow a strict schedule and have to follow it or they’ll be on stable duty or smth and the Aphrodite kids shouldn’t (and can’t) be excused from that

-Therefore, Drew should be way more powerful and skilled than Piper, at least enough to not back down automatically from a duel by a newbie who hasn’t even learned how to fight (Drew can control an entire cabin of people at once and Piper can barely control one person at a time, who’s more powerful again??)

-Also I have no idea why Riordan portrays all the Aphrodite kids as weak and girly in the first place. ‘Femininity’ and ‘weakness’ are not synonymous and ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ don’t equal ‘feminine’

-Speaking of which, love is actually really powerful but Piper doesn’t stand for love or ‘inner beauty’ and all her ‘thoughtful/insightful’ quotes in ToA/TBM about love were complete bs

-Riordan using the LGBTQ+ community for the sole purpose of making Piper seem more likable and ‘special’ was disgusting and proves he thinks that straight is the default- “...Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her” my ass. In other words, he’s saying ‘The expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are a heterosexual relationship, and anyone who 'finds their own way instead of the ones people expect’ are different’. ‘Different’ and ‘default’ are antonyms, so if you think LGBT people are different, then you think that straight is the default. Aphrodite is the goddess of love not heteronormative bullshit. Like Riordan, honey, you’re the one who thinks that the expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are heterosexual couples, not fictional gods from a fictional mythology. Remember kiddos- an author writes their own beliefs

If you don’t agree with some of these that’s fine sis it doesn’t matter if you have different opinions than me❤️

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

trials of apollo tower of nero reaction

sooooo major spoilers and all that jazz here are my main reactions.

-i love love LOVE that Apollo does not get into a new a romantic relationship. same with Meg. Riordan finally breaking his own trope? 

-i feel so bad that Dionysus is STILL being punished 100 years to run camp half blood for chasing a nymph that Zeus wanted. That feels disproportionate to Apollo, who got punished for “possibly starting the Gaea war”. (Altho at least Dionysus got to keep his godly powers.)

-I like the Python fight at face value more than I expected- it was what the BoO Gaea final fight *should* have been like. There wasn’t much buildup to how scary Python could be and i wish there was. However, the fight was actually difficult, required multiple stages/methods, Apollo was believably at a disadvantage. Python, his lair, and his powers, once we saw him, was actually kinda scary/threatening. I will await a few days to see if i still think this.

-I dislike Caleo, but I like this “ending”- Leo stays at Waystation with Jo & Emmie as adopted parents and some positive platonic female role models in his life. I personally headcanon that after Calypso finishes band camp, she & Leo realize that they can be good friends but not good relationship. Calypso might have needed someone to rescue her from Ogygia, but she does not need a relationship to fix her once she’s out.

-Piper and Shel *literally* came out of nowhere. Her Jason breakup made sense to me. Her getting over Jason *that* fast, though, does not. 

-How come Lavinia doesn’t get an epilogue moment?

-Nero was a joke. Why the fuck did he make like 20~ remote controls. Even Commodus was more threatening than Nero.

-How did all the camp halfblood + trogs escape the tower when Nero pushed the gas thing?

-Badass Nico is back yay! But dammit, a lot of it is offscreen again. I also like that he still has the “please dont touch me unless I’m ok with it” thing. I also do appreciate that he’s not OP- his fight attempt at Nero was the only thing that made Nero seem any bit frightening.

-Apollo did not need to summarize every terrible thing that happened to Nico. Nico is arguably one of the most popular characters and I’m sure Riordan knows it. I also wish it was Nico (or maybe even Will) that confirmed for us that he was gay. I dont mind Will saying “I think Nico has PTSD”, but it feels pretentious coming from Apollo.

-Did Nico ever find out Reyna became a Hunter of Artemis? I wonder how angry he’ll get... 

-Lu & Apollo’s jailbreak wasnt bad, but I still like Hazel/Percy/Frank’s jailbreak from the Amazons during SoN more.

-ok so education plothole: Annabeth was on the run at 7yo, then she was a year-rounder at camp halfblood. camp halfblood, unlike New Rome/Camp jupiter, does not have a schooling system. Annabeth also has dyslexia/ADHD- how did she manage to keep on track with her education enough to test into UC berkeley? I might make a post about this some more. 

-ok i like that paul blofis is basically a rick riordan self insert. 

-the dryad fight in nero’s throne room was actually threatening :( i also like that the nero throne room fight had several stages and, despite the trogs & nico, it did not feel like 20 deux ex machinas like in TLO

-why was apollo all giggly in the control room when nico rescued him? he’s gotten knocked in the head before, but this is the first time he was giggly.

-How did Apollo manage to claim 3 new kids while he was Lester? I can believe that he impregnated 3 people 10~ years ago and forgot about them tho.

[demigodsanswer]

What are some more of your takes on improving/fixing Heroes of Olympus? Similarly to aging up Hazel and making better antagonists than Octavian Gaea and the Gigantes?

I hesitated to answer this because of how much hate the last post I made about this routinely gets me, but fuck it: 

1) I honestly don’t think Percy and Annabeth should have been part of the seven. I think Rick should have waited a few years in between the series’s, set Heroes of Olympus a few years in the future, and let Percy and Annabeth just be cameos. 

2) I’ve made this post before, but if Percy and Annabeth are going to be there, Clarisse should have played more of a role in the story as well. She should have had a role similar to Reyna’s where she wasn’t part of the seven, but she was one of the camp leaders. This would have worked to emphasize the bifurcation of the gods by having Clarisse side-by-side with Frank, as well as the bifurcation of the camps, with two war-god kids on each side. 

3) There never should have been serious conflict between the two camps as long as there was some major existential threat. Like, neither of the camps were pro-Gaea, so why were they fighting? It was just another conflict without an antagonist. 

4) While I do appreciate that this series had a totally different structure and style than PJO, I think it did lack a Luke-style villain. It had it’s big bad with Gaea, but we didn’t have that antagonist that we really cared about. That duel villain structure works so well It worked in PJO. We had the guy we had to defeat (Kronos) and then we had the guy who’s motivations, humanity, and potential for good we actually cared about. You could argue it was suppose to be Octavian, but that just fell flat. 

5) Drew shouldn’t have been such a flat character. It was misogynistic and racist, on top of just being flat out lazy writing. It would have been really interesting to show Silena as having a kind of ambiguous legacy at camp. Nuance around the effects of the first war would have been a really neat detail that could have fleshed out what camp was like after those events. 

It seems like The Trials of Apollo gets some of this treatment. I think Rick did find more footing in that series in terms of how he wanted to continue to explore the world, which is why I wish he’d taken the time in between PJO and HOO to prep the novels more.  As much as I love the HOO characters, I have never reread the series. There’s nothing about them that routinely draws me back in. In contrast, PJO just has so much heart and love and humor and wit that, even though I’m 25 and have read so many “better” books in my life, I still go back to The Lightning Thief. 

[awesomerextyphoon]

A Warrior’s Heart

Prologue 

Main Paring: Stucky x Black!OFC (Ifekerenma ‘Ife’)

Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, War Crimes, Corruption, Smut, Mentions of Anxiety, Depression, and possible Panic Attacks

Rating: 18+/Explicit

Word Count: 1,461

Summary: Ife didn’t mean to have her employers be the subject of a hostile takeover by Stark Industries. She just held up the city of Novi Grad long enough for the Avengers to defeat Ultron. So naturally, Tony finds and blackmails her into joining the team. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

A/N: This is my first long form (12+ chapters) story. I’m including characters and/or aspects from Disney’s Atlantis: the Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Big Hero 6, Gargoyles, Inuyasha, and Toriko. Furthermore, I will be including elements of Netflix MCU and Agent Carter as well. Special thanks goes to @jtargaryen18​ for the title. Reposting on any site without my permission is strictly forbidden. Reblogs are welcomed! 😊

Series Masterlist 

Main Masterlist

Just keep the lie going.

That’s the line many of us have to repeat every day, and by us, I mean Non-Humans. Throughout history, humans have created myths and legends about us; some are true, others complete nonsense, but most are somewhere in between.

Let’s rewind a bit, okay?

Life on Earth lines up with most of what the textbooks say until about 5M BCE. Beings that would later be called gods and goddesses start to form with Mother Earth (the Amazing Gaea) as the focal point with other beings such as dragons, elves, and giants start to show two million years later.

The Celestials (sanctimonious assholes) came to Earth to see what’s happening after hearing about various fantastical anomalies (or that they were just bored). Gaea encouraged some (about 30K) of the human ancestors (Homo Erectus) to ‘the Space Gods’ direction. It took a few months, but they were able to create the species that later be known as Eternals. They also did some other shit but Gaea kicked them out when they wore out their welcome.

Around 200KBCE, the Kree (galactic genocidal nationalistic maniacs) happened upon a group of Eternals living on Uranus and traveled to Earth to ascertain whether other beings had similar potential. They experimented on a good number of early humans (about 150K survived) thus creating the first Inhumans (Inhomo Supremis). Several members of the Kree expedition tried to turn the Inhumans into weapons of the Kree Empire but were kicked off the planet by remaining Eternals and Non-Human factions.

Ten thousand years later (190KBCE), other early humans congregated around ‘magical hotspots’ which led to the births of the Homo Magi, Homo Superius, and Homo Animalis sub-species.

Soon after (okay, 15,000yrs later. Leave me alone.), the Mother Crystal (a semi-sentient comet, or Matag Yob) descended onto the island continent of Atlantis, imbuing the human inhabitants with longevity, knowledge, prosperity, and protection. At its height (around 55KBCE), Atlantis became the technological/cultural center on Earth (besides the Eternals).

It didn’t last long, though.

Five thousand years later (50KBCE), the first (and hopefully only) Pantheon War broke out. What exactly happened is lost to history (none of the people involved will fess up.), but what we do know is that shit went down.

Hard.

All that is known (admitted) is that almost all of the pantheons got into a Pantheon War (probably over some dumbass reason), a failed invasion by the Kree (really?), and the whole continent of Atlantis ‘sank’ into the sea in the span of three years (though some escaped).

Neat.

Fast-forward about 38K years (yeah, we’re making some jumps here) to the beginnings of the three most technologically advanced human nations of Earth: Wakanda, Sypavê, and Fetuilelagi; each with their own extraterrestrial metals/minerals.

Earth was pretty quiet until the ‘Christianity Dilemma’. So around 90CE, several ‘deities’ from the Greco-Roman, Norse, Germanic, and Celtic pantheons called for a Council of the Godheads’ to discuss ‘the ‘threat’ with Archangel Michael. It worked out well enough (no one wanted another Pantheon War).

Most of the world was in a pretty good state with a few ‘hiccups’ until the Bubonic Plague aka ‘The Black Death’ hit in 1346/7. It ravaged Eurasia and North Africa killing at least ½ the population and was seen as the start of non-belief in Europe. Worse, it was the beginning of Non-Human persecution and discrimination. You see, while the Black Death took out humans left and right, the worse a Non-Human got was a two-day flu. Many started to return to their respective realms once the Plague subsided and their once friendly neighbors started to accuse and persecute them.

The feeling of unease did not end but rather subsided. A tip from a Non-Human in Queen Isabella’s court alerted several groups in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Genocidal rapist, sex-trafficker, and all-around monster, Christopher Columbus does make it to the ‘New World’ (people were already there, dumbass) and devastated the indigenous population for centuries to come. By the time Columbus was executed in 1498, it was too late.

As many as 40 – 70% of the indigenous population was wiped out due to ‘virgin soil epidemics’ such as smallpox and influenza. Pantheons from negatively impacted areas called for a Council of the Godheads and demanded the ‘deities’ of the colonizers take action.

It went about as well as you’d think.

Earth was about to be embroiled in another Pantheon War until a few ‘level-headed’ individuals struck a bargain. No one was to interfere with human affairs whether it be good or ill. It was later amended to not have any ‘divine’ intervention (Sure). So by 1593, they had ‘bowed out’ of Earth affairs outside of their respective demi realms.

Outside of the matters of the ‘gods’, the rest of the world was dealing with its own problems. Tensions between humans and non-humans grew since the immediate aftermath of the Black Death. The Age of Enlightenment had started to pop up in intellectual circles across Europe around 1647. It focused on reason and free-thinking (Neat), but it also stoked up fear and anxiety towards Non-Humans (Boo!). Things came to a head in the 1670s. It got so bad that the Inter-Realm Parliament ordered all Non-Humans that weren’t exiled to return. They later founded the Bureau of Non-Human Affairs, BNA, in 1692 to deal with such matters in the future.

Two white-passing Non-Humans, Marcus Ashton and Jakob Schwartz founded Ashton & Schwartz Inc in 1809 along with a private partner. The company made waves in biomedical, chemical, agricultural, and climate science (they had to explain it to the populace) as well as pollution cleanup/prevention. One of their biggest inventions was a truly biodegradable plastic-like substance called biokivó̱tio or biokivo for short. The company made an even bigger impact with Non-Humans by solving issues pertaining to agriculture, large scale portal creation, and maintenance.

When the founders’ private partner decided to shut down the company in 1928, Ashton & Schwartz were a household name (especially since all major fossil fuel investments ended in 1900).

Barely ten years later and the threat of World War II rocked the planet to its core, especially the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war Council went behind current President Henry Wallace’s back and had them done on the same day,  August 7, 1945.

Well, that got everyone’s attention.

The Inter-Realm Parliament issued an edict that every one of ‘age’ (biologically 18+) would have to spend at least five consecutive years amongst the humans. It didn’t take long for BNA to lay the groundwork.

Wakanda, Sypavê, and Fetuilelagi (who will now be known as The Unconquered Alliance or UA.) saw this as a ‘we need to end this’ type of situation. Within three weeks of the bomb dropping, they formulated a plan and got to work kicking the colonizers out of Africa, starting with Belgian-colonized Congo (80% of the uranium used in the bombs were mined from there). They also made a deal with British-colonized India.

Once they were successful in their test run, The U.A. moved forward with similar models until they were to liberate the continent in 1955. Meanwhile, Sypavian forces kicked out most of the Nazis that fled to South America and ended US/European influence in Central and South America.

The United States tried to play it neutral until The UA (mainly Fetuilelagi) freed Hawai’i from US occupation in 1951. The war was sold as “We must fight to preserve our freedom!” (Keep telling yourselves that).

Once both South/Central America and Africa were liberated, other colonized nations asked for their aid. UA agents/dignitaries offered to relocate Black people from the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. As many as five million African-Americans took the offer, including former Howling Commando, Gabe Jones. By then the US was clamping down domestically through the FBI and local/state police.

Irked by the knowledge that the UA had satellites, the US jumpstarted the Space Race (they had more than a few satellites, but good for you).

As with most wars, both sides partook in some ‘questionable actions’ (i.e. Syria, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Cambodia, and Laos).

The war climaxed in 1977 when a UA (Sypavian) agent discovered plans for a super-weapon in the US. A Special Ops team led by N’Jobu realized that the weapon was a mega bomb that would’ve wiped out the African Continent.

After weighing their options, The UA came to an agreement with BNA: BNA would gather their most powerful Homo Magi and cast a spell to erase the memory and evidence of the war from every human outside of the UA in exchange for letting some Non-Humans live openly in UA borders.

They shook on it, unaware of the chaos that would follow.

Next>>

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Taglist:@opheliadawnwalker3​ @sherrybaby14​ @stargazingfangirl18​ ​ @hevans-angel​ @threeminutesoflife​ ​ @cockslut-padalecki​ @golden-ariess​  @sapphirescrolls​ @holylulusworld 

[bright-eyes-strawberry-lies]

Annabeth “triflers need not apply” Chase

In my last post, I said “another Annabeth hot take” as if I’ve ever posted any of my musing about Annabeth’s character (the posts Percy’s Personal Sense Of Evil  and Every Time Annabeth Is Mean To Percy In The Riordanverse] do not count) here on the blue hellscape.

Two disclaimers before I write this: the first is that PJO is my jam. I’ve read those books forward and back more than five times this year. HOO...I’ve read as a whole once; read Son of Neptune twice; and recently skipped through House of Hades specifically for the parts about Tartarus. Every series beyond that in the Riordanverse (Kane, Magnus, Apollo) have been woefully neglected by me as in I haven’t even cracked the spines on them. 

The second disclaimer is that I don’t like Annabeth, she’s basically the Christian Gray of the Percy Jackson series. I ship Percy with everyone who isn’t Annabeth because I think he deserves to be happy. But some people were calling for meta so here are your hot takes, folks. 

Annabeth is only with Percy because he’s the chosen one. 

She disdained Percy from day one, thought that he was worth less than the mud on her shoes and made sure that he knew it. This was before she found out that he’s a child of Poseidon so you can miss me with the “well their parents are enemies” bullshit. After Percy got claimed, Annabeth invited herself on his quest because she’s all about obtaining personal glory and he couldn’t say no because he only had two friends at camp (Luke and Grover). 

“He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to until...somebody special came to the camp.” [...] “Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she’s been waiting for.” [Luke] (TLT, pg 102)

“I’ve been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain.” [Annabeth] (TLT, pg 147)

She was silent for a few more steps. “It’s just that if you died…aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world.” [Annabeth] (TLT, pg 169)

Well, that’s not the only reason she’s with Percy. 

Chiron made Annabeth swear on the River Styx that she would try to keep Percy from danger. Which comes in handy during the Last Olympian, when she takes Ethan’s dagger for Percy (saving his life) but sucks for her because now her life is tied to his forever. Maybe that’s why she calls Percy crazy literally every time that he has a plan. 

“Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger,” he insisted. “Swear upon the River Styx.”

“I-I swear it upon the River Styx,” Annabeth said. 

Thunder rumbled outside. [SOM, pg 54) 

Actually Annabeth is the creepy one.

Luke always refers to Annabeth as such: daughter, little sister, cousin, family. From the moment he saw her, it was a familial love for him. He constantly reminds her that they were a family and that he wants to be a family. 

Annabeth, on the other hand, likes to call him “family” but she has a mad crush on Luke for the entire series that has got to be super weird for Luke. It was super weird for me, the reader. This girl can’t even hug Luke without panting like a bitch in heat (yeah, I said it, and I refuse to take it back). 

“This is Luke,” Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could’ve sworn she was blushing. (TLT, pg 84)

Annabeth blushed, like she always did when Luke was around. (TLT, pg 151)

Luke patted Grover’s head between his horns, then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out. After Luke was gone, I told her, “You’re hyperventilating.”  (TLT, pg 151)

It isn’t until Luke is literally on his death bed that Annabeth finally agrees that he’s a brother to her.

“Did you...” Luke coughed and his lips glistened red. “Did you love me?” 

“You were like a brother to me, Luke,” she said softly. “But I didn’t love you.” 

He nodded, as if he’d expected it. (TLO, pg 337/338)

NO SHIT HE EXPECTED IT. LUKE HAS BEEN AIMING FOR THIS FOR FIVE FUCKING YEARS. HIS ENTIRE LIFE IS ALL ABOUT FINDING A FAMILY THAT LOVES HIM (and equal rights for all demigods).

Then there’s the other creepy stuff

Remember that time that she stalked Percy and fans are like “well it’s so romantic!” You’re the same people who thought Edward watching Bella sleep without her knowledge or consent was sexy. 

I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass – a humanlike shape.  (SOM, pg 3)

As I stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight – a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one. Then it rippled and vanished.  (SOM, pg 7)

 [Percy realizes Annabeth has been stalking him] “Pretty much all morning.” She sheathed her bronze knife. “I’ve been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone.” [ … ] “There’s no time to explain!” she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. (SOM, pg 23)

For those of you who are like “well she was waiting for him to be alone!” First of all, bitch it’s called knocking on the door and asking to speak to someone like a normal human being. But if that isn’t good enough for you, HE WAS ALONE RIGHT AFTER HE WALKED OUT OF HIS BUILDING. Talk to him then. 

But we all know the real reason she’s creeping outside Percy’s window. She’s a peeping tom. Anyone who has been around teenage boys (like, say, the girl who lived with teenage boys for five years) would know that the morning isn’t really the best time to be creeping outside a dude’s window unless you’re hoping for a show. 

All she cares about is glory.

Look, we know she’s a glory hound. Annabeth is in this war for the sweet, sweet recognition. She doesn’t care about the unclaimed demigods, she doesn’t care about all of the minor demigods being shoved in one cabin (here’s more info on that). Annabeth is off in her own little world where she’s the only thing that matters. 

Meanwhile, our boy Percy is fighting for his mom. And then he’s fighting for his best friend. He actually looks at Camp Half-Blood and goes “maybe this isn’t really right...” Yes, it takes him forever to get to the point where he’s like “Oh, Luke was right about everything” but he does get there. 

And then there’s our sweet baby angel, Luke Castellan, fighting from the get-go for fair treatment. Because Luke has suffered his whole life (since he was literally an infant); because Hal Green died to save Luke; because Luke has spent five years in a cabin full of kids who are hurting and whose pain is entirely preventable; because at fourteen, he thinks of himself (and Thalia) as heroes but Hermes says that he needs to go on a quest to be a great hero, so Luke does and it turns out to be the worst mistake he made in his life (up until Kronos). 

Which brings up a point, Luke always thought that they were heroes. For him, just being demigods and fighting monsters made them heroes. He didn’t need to go on a quest to prove himself to anyone. But for Annabeth, that is never enough. She needs to go bigger and bigger and bigger. 

Glory and being better than everyone else...

Wow, here we are again talking about Annabeth and Percy’s relationship. I really wish we couldn’t, because I’ve already taken literal days to find every instance of Annabeth being a dick to Percy (in the PJO series) and writing them down, conveniently located here if you’re interested in reading it... But it just keeps coming up. 

So, being better than everyone else. Where do I begin with that? How about the times that Annabeth thinks that the children of Demeter, yes Demeter the major goddess of the earth, are weak? Or the children of Aphrodite, you know, like Piper who charmspoke Gaea to sleep or Silena who charged into battle against a drakon are nothing but whisy washy airheads? Or really, anyone who isn’t booksmart like her. Like Percy, for instance. 

Annabeth’s nickname for Percy means stupid. Every time she uses it, she’s calling him stupid. You know, when she doesn’t actually use the word stupid or idiot. She’s also very fond of calling Percy’s plans crazy, every time he has a plan, despite the fact that his plans have never failed. Now who’s crazy, Annabeth? 

For real, though, she’s doing this because she wants to keep him in his place. Annabeth is shit for Percy’s self esteem. She constantly berates him for every little thing he does. She threatens to (and does) hit him on multiple occasions. Every time Percy says or does anything around Annabeth, he always thinks she’s going to punch me. 

GUYS THAT ISN’T CUTE. GUYS REMEMBER HOW PERCY USED TO GET PUNCHED INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS BY HIS STEPDAD? 

Oh, and does everyone remember where Annabeth mocked Percy’s every choice in TLT but in Battle Of The Labyrinth where Annabeth is put in charge of the quest for the first time and she spends most of it freaking out and cracking under the pressure. It sounds like someone isn’t actually as good as she thought was. 

I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about this but in Tartarus, Annabeth is scared of Percy. He’s stronger than even she knew. Percy just wakes up from passing out and kills Arachne before Annabeth can even move. That caught her by surprise. Percy manipulates poison in an attempt to kill the goddess of misery, who has just tricked them and is planning on killing them. Annabeth immediately shuts that down. Because Percy isn’t allowed to be that powerful. She also freaks out when Percy jumps blind over a 20ft chasm while holding her because she didn’t know he could do that. 

And Percy is so used to not arguing with her (because she’s going to kick his butt, because it just isn’t worth it) that he just accepts it.

Her home life didn’t suck that bad. 

Because I was just talking about Tartarus, Percy says that it smells like Gabe in Tartarus and Annabeth....laughs? She thinks he’s joking. She thinks he’s trying to cheer her up. Why would she think that when they’re in literal hell and Gabe abused Percy for years? Because she’s on a different plane of existence than everyone else.

Annabeth’s home life didn’t actually suck in the way that she’s told everyone it did. It sucked that she got attacked by monsters. It sucked that Arachne sent spiders to scare her for three nights. 

Her parents don’t suck. Not even Athena. After ten years of hanging around all of these abused, neglected, traumatized people she finally got...what is it called? Oh yeah, some fucking perspective.

Frederick and Mrs. Chase (who doesn’t even have a name) did their best. There’s absolutely nothing unreasonable about Frederick not wanting Annabeth when she floated down from the heavens like the little Grinch she is. The dude had a few conversations with a woman and the next thing he knows, she’s dropping off a baby and won’t even help him raise it? Yeah, no thanks.

Either way, the entire family was getting attacked because of Annabeth’s presence in the house. So Mrs. Chase not letting her kids play with Annabeth? Makes total sense. It’s like quarantining the kid with chicken pox so that the rest don’t get it. 

Fighting about how to handle being attacked regularly? Also makes total sense but the fact that Frederick and Mrs. Chase stayed together is like couple goals. They’re the real power couple of the series. 

You know what else makes total sense? Thinking that Annabeth had a series of bad dreams about spiders because Mrs. Chase and her husband are mortals with mortal sight and cannot see divine shit. 

Is all of this terribly confusing for a child? Yes. Does her family deserve to die or be vilified because she’s too young for logical thought? No. 

Plus they kept asking her to come home. And when she finally did, she ran away again shortly after? She does this twice. Frederick literally flew into battle for her. She is so ungrateful for what she has (she’s rich, with a family who loves her. Literally her only problem is monster attacks).

Annabeth wasn’t homeless for that long

Look, Annabeth ran away  from home between July 12, 2000 (her 7th birthday) and was at Camp Half-Blood by December 22, 2000 (which would have been Thalia’s 13th birthday). Her first couple of months were spent alone...unless you count Athena helping her fight monsters and guiding her towards Luke and Thalia. 

Which directly breaks the Don’t Interfere Rule. You know, the one that Hermes used as an excuse for not helping his nine-year-old son while he was homeless for five years. Yeah. That one. 

Luke and Thalia took really good care of her for those few months. Annabeth mentions that the three of them built shelters all over the place, and since Luke doesn’t mention shelters in his diary or any (pre-Annabeth) flashbacks, we can assume that they built those specifically because they adopted a little girl. 

The whole “Family, Luke. You promised.” Is bullshit.

Here’s why. First of all, Luke was fourteen, a baby, barely out of puberty when he made that promise to be a family. He’s only ever wanted to be loved his entire life so that was him desperately trying to add another member to what he considered to be his family (Thalia never considered them family). He also never hurts her (see my post about holding the sky for more details). 

Annabeth was with Luke and Thalia for a couple of months at maximum. Then Thalia dies. Luke and Annabeth are split up into different cabins so they cannot eat, sleep in the same room, or do activities together except during the off-season. Annabeth does her best to get into Luke’s pants because I don’t know what else to call it when you pant all over the person hugging you. 

Luke also asks Annabeth to join him and be a family again for three whole books to which she repeatedly says no. His last attempt at being a family and keeping his promise happens literally before Kronos possesses him (after which, it is far too late to be a family because Luke barely exists anymore). 

“He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him. [...] I told him no way. He got mad. He said...he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I’d get.” [Annabeth] (TLO, pg 201). 

Luke asks her to kill him because if he can’t escape Kronos and can’t have his family back, then Luke just doesn’t want to live anymore. Then he dies knowing that Annabeth doesn’t know that familial and platonic love are things so her “you’re my brother but I don’t love you” actually means that Luke dies thinking no one loves him. Probably why Luke immediately turned to Percy with his request for positive change. At least Luke can count on Percy to let him know that his entire life and death weren’t meaningless. 

.Fin. Fucking finally. 

[soulsxng]

Most of the scars on Darrow's body are relatively well-healed-- with nearly all of the ones that came before he ascended to godhood having vanished completely over time. If not just being extremely faded. The most noticeable ones all came from special circumstances, however, which is why they've lasted as long as they have. I'm gonna talk a little bit about each one!

1. The scar on his left ear.

It takes off the tip of his left ear in a sort of irregular tearing pattern. The edges that make up this scar are blackened, and feel a bit hard to the touch...as though charred by some sort of flame. If you look closely. you can see that the skin beneath his fur closest to this scar is actually a bit greyish and discolored-- with what look like smattering of black "freckles" around it.

It was given to him by Sachiel-- one of the seraphim/archangel siblings, and carrier of a disease known as tzowld. An affliction that began with Heaven's original God, and was known for being highly infectious among angels, but also possible to pass to other species as well. It causes the affected person's mind and soul to slowly degrade over time. Often making them extremely violent, destructive, impulsive, and irritable, until the tzowld spreads through them completely, and their soul finally gives way and collapses in on itself-- resulting in the death of that being.

During a period of time that the tzowld was far more common, Sachiel had found out that it was his powers that was spreading the tzowld in the first place, and with this...on top of quite a few other things that he'd been dealing with, at the time, he had something of a mental breakdown.

Because he was living in Ativere at the time, this caused a high number of Ativere's population to contract tzowld. And in a panic, he tried to flee.

Aro, who has been close to Sachiel for some time, tried to stop him from leaving, and Sachi lashed out before he even realized it. For the most part, the attack missed...and because at that point, Sachiel was nearly out of energy, Aro was lucky enough not to contract it, as well.

But his ear has still never been able to be healed in any way. Sometimes it prickles and stings, or gets really itchy, but otherwise it doesn't bother him, much. Aro thinks of it as a sort of reminder of the time he felt like he failed Sachi.

2. The scar under his left eye.

This scar was given to him by Gaea's Inari...the original goods, essentially.

I know in Aro's bio, it says that he was a nogitsune for a long time. When he was really young...and honestly even now, that just means that he can be a bit mischievous at times. Something of a prankster, but never really meaning any ill will toward anyone.

However, during the time from which he had his fourth tail, to shortly before getting his ninth as a kitsune, that changed. He became far more malevolent, and caused a lot of major trouble-- eventually to the point where he was causing problems for Inari themself...and then later on, for other gods as well.

It was only once Inari found out that Darrow had stolen something from them, that they finally drew the line. He got the scar when they demanded their wish-giving jewel back, and he initially not only played dumb, but showed them further disrespect in his words to them.

In return, they lashed at him with their whip-- the tip of which, caught him under his eye. There used to be more scars from the flames the whip carries, but those faded over time.

He returned the wish-giving jewel, and was immediately cast out of not only his home, but the mortal realm as a whole. That's what led to him meeting Clio, and settling in Alfheim for a century or two.

This scar, despite only being about an inch long, still burns to this day. He's gotten used to it, but if it's touched without warning, it'll be enough to get a small wince out of him. It feels hot to the touch, as well.

3. The scar on the right side of his back/hip.

By far his worst scar-- raised and angry looking, and easy to tell that the wound it came from was a near mortal one. It was given to him by Irazor, the man who once stole Darrow's God Seal, and used it to force Aro to do his bidding. All the while conditioning and training him to become little more than a feral beast, by any means he could.

When Aro nearly managed to escape him after 8 or so months, but was caught after being betrayed by someone he had thought he could trust. When he was returned to Irazor, the man commanded him to kneel before him...and unable to resist, he obeyed.

As Irazor circled him, talking about what he should do as a punishment, and just...generally getting himself more and more worked up, he pulled Aro's sword from its sheathe. The vicious slash that came after is what caused the wound, and resulting scar.

This is by far his worst, as-- after receiving the wound, Aro purposefully wouldn't leave it alone to let it heal. Over the weeks after he got it, he allowed it to become infected, he stopped taking care of himself entirely, to the point where he was delirious...all in a gamble to force Irazor to call for a healer. The closest of which, he knew was Clio, who would save him.

The gamble paid off, but with how bad it got, even Clio wasn't able to heal it in a way that wouldn't leave a scar.

It's usually pretty painful for him, and causes a lot of aching, and periodical stiffness in his right shoulder, back, and hip, even to this day. This is the only scar that he's especially self-conscious about.

[fantasyfan]

Why Luke is worse than Octavian

Don’t run screaming. Hear me out.

If you hate both characters, then I can accept that. If you just hate Octavian though, as a large majority of the fandom does, then go look at my previous post here. Now listen up.

1. Luke tried to kill our main character multiple times. He gave him cursed shoes that were supposed to drag him down into Tartarus. He stole the Lighting Bolt and had Ares sitr up some trouble, which ended up in Percy fighting Ares. The stolen Lightning Bolt also caused everything in the first place. He also poisoned Percy at the end of the book. And of course, that’s only in book 1.

2. Luke carried out Kronos’s plan all the way, even becoming his host. If it weren’t for Luke, Kronos’s plan might’ve failed unless another demigod was stupid enough to host Kronos.

3. Luke didn’t really have the right to go absolutely ballistic. Sure, his mother went crazy and his best friend died before his eyes and go turned into a stupid pine tree because of her dad. But Annabeth watched someone who was basically her sister die, and she was only 7. She would’ve known about the concept of death, being a demigod. Yet Annabeth didn’t go crazy ballistic. Other demigods at CHB probably experienced the same pain as him, and they seemed fine.

4. Octavian sacrificed himself to save the world, and so did Luke. But if it weren’t for Luke, the world might not’ve needed saving in the first place.

5. Luke betrayed Annabeth, his oldest and closest friend. Annabeth adored Luke, and he just took advantage of her, broke her heart. Octavian didn’t betray anyone, not really. Maybe Reyna, but he thought she was corrupted and thought he was doing good for the world.

6. Luke was literally insane. What kind of person thinks “Oh, yeah, I’ll resurrect Kronos, the crazy Titan who literally murdered his own father and ate his children all because he wanted power.” Octavian at least was rational and gathered an army to first wipe out the Greeks who he thought was conspiring with Gaea since he was brought up to believe they were evil and Leo fired on New Rome. Luke was taught that the titans were evil, yet he resurrected the worst titan of all.

7. Luke was ready to have all his friends die if they didn’t join his side in his fight against Kronos. Octavian sacrificed himself so not all his friends needed to die.

That is all. See reason as to why Octavian is a good character.