#& she doesn’t even go here! ( misc posts )

[anistarrose]

taz balance one-shot recs!

I've been meaning to make this post for a while now, so here we are! The majority of these are from the past three years or so, because I love a fandom classic as much as anyone, but I particularly want to shine a light on some gems from after the peak of traffic in the fandom tags! There are of course also exceptions that are older, though.

Also, April 19th-21st are Just Leave a Comment Fest, so please show these authors some love!! They're all so deserving!

a recipe for home by @journalofimprobablethings: Taako tries to cook for the first time since Glamour Springs. When things go awry, Lucretia is there to lend a hand.

Gen (Taako & Lucretia), 3.5k. Early B.O.B. era hurt/comfort centered around cooking, with a delicious dollop of sentimentality and dramatic irony on top.

Seven Times Magnus Burnsides Gave Someone A Hug + One Time He Received One by @barry-j-blupjeans: Magnus wasn't really any good at— at words. He was more of an action man. Or, y'know, a "I'll take this hit so you don't have to" man. Talking to someone about their feelings was all kinds of weird, so usually he just left the space for someone else to talk. And, well... Magnus wasn't good at words. But there's a few different ways to get his support across.

Mostly gen with some Magnulia, 8.6k. You've all heard of the classic 5 Plus 1, but obviously Magnus deserves a 7 Plus 1! I don't know how to describe it without spoilers other than being full of incredibly sweet, gentle takes on so many fraught or bittersweet moments. Super underrated, do give it a read.

Embrace the Dark by @ceilingfan5: Bookstore coworkers Kravitz and Taako get more than they bargained for when Taako tries to use his powers to fix Kravitz's migraine. But it's okay--it's an excuse for them to spend time together until one of them can nut up and ask the other out.

Taakitz, 8.9k. Modern with Superpowers AU! Super sweet interactions between Kravitz and Taako, paired with lots of fun background worldbuilding. And, of course, a very special grilled cheese sandwich.

Break This Heavy Chain by Punka_Writes: In the immediate aftermath of Story and Song, Barry Bluejeans could really use a hug.

Blupjeans and misc. platonic interactions, 2.3k. The absolute epitome of comfort food in written form, with excellent Barry characterization (and of course, he does get that hug)!

birds of a feather steal sweaters together by @holdmecloser-gandydancer: When you're a big, burly guy it seems that your clothes just become free reign for all your friends. Normally Magnus is a reasonable guy, but everyone has their limits.

Gen (IPRE crew), 1.9k. Starblaster era fluff! Everyone is written absolutely delightfully, and every time I read it I snort out loud at least twice.

Security by @ceilingfan5: Barry has finally made it--his incredible scientific discovery has landed him a huge fortune...and a lot of problems. The only good thing that's come of it, honestly, has been his bodyguard, Lup. (And the science. That's good also.) He's just gotta stay normal about how nice it is to have someone like Lup around, and also not perish by way of press circuit, and everything will be fine.

Blupjeans, 6k. Modern with magic AU from Barry's POV, featuring equal parts anxiety and pining. Also, it's straight-up extremely funny.

Lonesome Dreams by @jerreeeeeee: Taako wakes up one morning from a nightmare, fast fading. There was a guy in glasses, and they were… somewhere high up? Something terrible happened, but he doesn’t remember. He wakes up in a wagon he’s never seen before, but it has his name on it. There’s tons of food inside, more than he’d be able to afford. And he’s alone. Thinking back to the last thing he remembers is difficult. College? No, he’d graduated. Top of his class, obviously, he remembers that. But what- what happened after? Where is Lup?

Gen (Taako & Lup), 10.2k. Everything starts out the same, except Taako remembers Lup, even if not how she went missing, and it's incredibly underrated and full of phenomenal characterization. I won't spoil how things shake out, but it's a great emotional ride and I genuinely reread it all the time.

it's my party and I'll mope if I want to by @holdmecloser-gandydancer: Taako's birthday is just another Thursday. A detective and an old friend have a different idea.

Gen (Taako & Lucretia & Angus), 2.1k. Short and so sweet! Fics about voidfished!Taako's birthday never get old, and this is one of my absolute favorites. Nailing the angst-to-wholesome ratio.

Tedious Familiarity by @barry-j-blupjeans: Déjà vu. Noun. A feeling of having already experienced the present situation. A tedious familiarity. Barry Bluejeans woke up in a cave, fresh out of a pod filled with green goop, and saddled with an unsettling feeling that he had been here before. If you had asked forty-year-old Barry if he would follow instructions left by a talking coin, he probably would have asked you what type of drugs you were on. But, y’know, fifty… two? Fifty-one? How old was he? Fifty-two sounded right. But, y’know, fifty-two years old Barry didn’t really have that many other places to turn, so this couldn't be all that bad.

Gen, 4.1k. Missing scenes based off Barry's decade alone, written in such an effective style, where all the little details truly make it. Mandatory reading for fellow Barry angst enjoyers.

Angus McDonald and the Wonderland Escape Rooms by coppersunshine: When Angus gets grounded from detecting, to keep his skills sharp he becomes a patron of the Wonderland Escape rooms, run by Edward and Lydia, who quickly decide he's their new nemesis. To their surprise, Angus and the collection of weird adults he's accompanied by decide otherwise.

Gen (Angus & Edward & Lydia), 7k. Modern with magic AU, putting Edward and Lydia in the absolute funniest possible job, at which a little boy detective torments... and maybe, even gives them a chance to turn over a new leaf. I am of the opinion that Angus and the Wonderland twins have a criminally underexplored dynamic, and this fic gave me everything I wanted.

If the Sun and Moon Should Doubt by Punka_Writes: Merle Highchurch, on the brink of a bad decision.

Gen, 1.6k. Merle character study immediately before running out on his marriage. Truly the incredible characterization that Merle deserves; this was a fic that really ignited my love for him.

Greensleeves by @sgrumby: Kravitz has never seen a lich like this before, and he's seen a lot of liches. Merle is just trying to save the universe, thanks very much.

Gen (Kravitz & Merle), 2.2k. A unique and also absolutely genius Lich!Merle AU where Kravitz inevitably comes after him, and Merle is... well, the Peacemaker, of course!

#taz #taz balance #taz balance spoilers #fic rec #long post

[aroaceleovaldez]

Tumblr kept breaking when I tried to reply to the ask about this since the post is too long, so answering this here finally:

A non-comprehensive list of misc things I’d change in HoO, since apparently people wanted me to elaborate further (Re: [This post]). Semi-off the top of my head since I don’t feel like re-reading all of HoO with notations right now. Also this will be followed up by a Things I Would Change About TOA post as well at some point, since that was also requested and kept breaking, but my brain is exhausted from getting this post set up so that will wait. I will link it [here] when I complete it.

Going under a read-more cause it’s very long. Literally Tumblr crashed like three times while I was trying to answer the original ask:

As said before (and what is a given):

1. Goes without saying - fix all the distasteful offensive character descriptions/traits. Similarly, fix the whole "these characters inexplicably look down upon their cultures" cause that's stupid and it's really annoying every time one of the Argo 2 crew brings up something about their cultures only to immediately go "but THAT'S SILLY and WEIRD."

2. Remove Calypso from the active plot, rather than the current canon retconning that doesn’t work saying that she was never actually released from Ogygia like she was supposed to be. There's no excuse for why she wasn't, unless it's supposed to be the gods sent Leo to release her to fulfill that promise, but that's not really implied to be the case at all. There's no excuse for the Olympians to just go back on their promise, since Hephaestus is established to visit Calypso regularly and basically is her only friend. It isn’t the type of thing he’d let be overlooked given all the characterization we know about Hephaestus, and given they are explicitly friends it can’t be that Olympus just “forgot” either. Also Calypso doesn't actually add anything to the plot of HoO or TOA besides serving as a love interest for Leo (not even a motive, just a love interest that "fixes him,” because he already has motive in saving Jason from being the hero of the prophecy and helping save the Argo 2 crew/camp/etc from Gaea etc etc.  Leo's romance arc completely derails the established depressive spiral/destructive character arc that's been set up for him and it basically ruins Leo's entire character. He's a tragic character! Let him be tragic until he's done being tragic and then the end of BoO and TOA can be him starting his recovery arc! (I have some thoughts for how Calypso could work removed from HoO but an active character in TOA but that’ll be for the TOA post.)

If Leo still ends up on Ogygia, then have it be clear that Calypso's already left and the island is abandoned (which imo is WAY more narratively compelling for readers of the first series, because you already know the context of the island, but for readers who don't have that context it leads to this being an interesting mystery - who was Calypso? What was this island and why do all the signs/notes left by her imply she wasn't always alone but usually was and was desperate to leave?) and Leo has to collect the scraps left behind to build an escape for himself while he goes through a fun identity crisis. At some point maybe Hephaestus shows up and Leo gets an interaction with his dad that probably does not help his identity crisis and then he goes back to the Argo 2 to have a further identity crisis about how the rest of the crew got along in his absence (a good identity crisis or a bad identity crisis? depends on how they did without him! you decide! I personally like "they managed okay" and Leo feels Really Horrible About That Cause It Feels To Him Like They Don't Need Him. I like Leo's tragic arc, okay? It's compelling.) Iirc Leo’s also the only member of the Seven who doesn’t get to have some kind of direct conversation with their godly parent, at least in-person, so yknow. It’d be nice to have. Also if you want Aro/ace Leo Valdez this is the perfect spot to put it while he's having his identity crisis on Kiss Kiss Fall In Love Island, or when he gets back.

3. Jason's stab wound in BoO is not healed by the Power Of Friendship, and instead they use the Physician's Cure for that so it doesn't feel like they're literally deus ex machina-ing their way to cheating death like 3 times in the same book. It makes more sense to use Potion Of Don't Die on Wound Of Excruciatingly Painfully Slowly Killing You instead of Whoops You're Already Dead, Just Get Better. Ctrl+Z That Real Quick.

Given they already used the Physician’s Cure on Jason, Leo doesn’t die/get revived at the end of BoO. Instead he just almost dies, probably lands in CHB’s woods somewhere, and is found and patched up with the series ending on him being on the mend and starting on the path to healing and getting help for his Numerous Issues that he was putting off for The Entire Series. Which parallels nicely to Nico basically having the same thing (overexerting his powers to near death, ends series getting medical treatment/being on the mend and the indication that he’s moving on to a happier period of his life). Again, grand happy ending rather than aggravating fake-out.

Further notes: 

- Heavily tweak Ella's character cause I get what Rick was going for, but the execution is… not awesome! Please, there's already so much ableism in HoO just. hmm. We can do better.

- Jason and Piper break up in HoO, probably around MoA when they start seeing Percy and Annabeth interacting and after they’ve had time to hang out with each other and realize their arranged relationship is Kind Of Fucked Up, Actually. (Probably something something them having gotten to spend time actually getting to know each other between TLH and MOA while they’re both at camp.) They have no problems with each other specifically and do genuinely like each other, but it just gets really awkward given all the memory manipulation and being set up as a "picture perfect couple" - emphasizing stuff like them both being children of really famous movie stars in their universe, or Jason as a son of Jupiter/Jove (an "all-father" type god) [and Juno - mother figure goddess and goddess of marriage]/"son of Rome" and Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite (goddess of love, also Aphrodite/Venus indirectly is associated as a sort of "mother of Rome" due to Aeneas). They just feel like they have too many expectations being put on their relationship and even though they do both like each other it feels too forced for them, but they’re comfortable staying just friends. This just gives way more opportunity for low-stakes character conflict among the Argo II crew outside of Monster Of The Week Chapter so things don’t feel unreasonably busy and chaotic and we actually get some consistent development. Just a nice mini-arc to follow in the downtime. Also while we’re here, more directly establish Piper’s bisexuality earlier on. If she’s already having an arc where she’s contemplating her romantic life, throw in a couple of nods to like “Piper thinking about her old childhood crush on Shel, the kid of a family friend she’d see when her and her dad visited Oklahoma” or something. Literally anything just to establish some kind of set-up to her getting a girlfriend later. Just for consistency’s sake.

- Bunkernine has a very good post about wishing the Argo II didn't have the magic plates from CHB, which I agree with in concept. Like I was just saying, MoA through BoO lacks a lot of little moments where we get to really focus in on the characters, probably in part because Rick was struggling to juggle so many parties given this was his first foray into writing a major cast that size. We can definitely cut out a lot of the random unnecessary fights and dramatic moments that don't really do anything for the plot and instead replace them with little moments of casual life on the Argo II - the scenes like those that do exist in HoO are some of HoO's most memorable moments to me! And they'd help a lot with how the characters never felt fully and properly fleshed-out. Let them exist as a cohesive group without two-to-three of them being absent at any given time! I don't think we necessarily have to remove the magic plates entirely because they do solve a fundamental problem ("where are these kids getting food?") but like, there is nothing stopping them from still cooking and just using the plates to get ingredients! Let these kids bake or something! Even just for fun! Though also I have personal headcanons about the Argo II crew's cooking skills and I really like the concept of like, during HoH or something at like 3am everybody hears something and they all suspiciously shuffle into the mess hall. And it’s just half-dead Nico standing there in his PJs making food for himself because Dammit They're IN VENICE and he’s FROM VENICE and they DON’T HAVE TIME TO STOP AT HIS OLD FAVORITE RESTAURANTS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT STILL EXIST and he Hasn't Had A Proper Meal In Weeks so By The Gods He Will Make His Mom's Old Recipes At 3am before he keels over from this quest. He just stares at everybody and goes "What are you all looking at. go away." and the rest of the crew just shuffles away awkwardly and leaves him to it. (Is Nico’s 3am meal actually good? Who knows. It is left a mystery.)

- Tweak the god characterizations. Remove the "gods splitting" thing and maybe play more with different aspects of gods/verisons of gods across history/city-states/etc presenting themselves instead. The Roman gods are not wholly equivilent to the Greek gods and it's actually really interesting from a historical perspective, and I think there's a lot you could do with that but instead it gets flatted in HoO which is sad to me. Just generally though, with the god characterizations, like. [uncomfortable pagan noises]. Which is almost impressive because it is difficult to write the Greco-Roman pantheons poorly since a good portion of them are basically just very complicated metaphors turned into personifications and characters. So they work fine for narrative purposes when applied accordingly, and yet! and yet!! Rick managed it! He managed to really bungle it in HoO and TOA. Because instead of leaning into the aspects of metaphors and dynamic characters he just fell into 2D tropes, gimmicks, and stereotypes. Off the top of my head the only deities written Okay in HoO is like. Hades/Pluto and Thanatos. (even Chiron in TOA is extremely lackluster, it's sad.) In the first series it ranges from “okay” to “actually really interesting” so it’s sad to see that drop-off and I would like it to be fixed.

Some potential examples for this: Play with the historical ties combo of like, Athena, Minerva, Enyo, Bellona, and etc! Annabeth and Reyna parallels! if the first 2 books are about the trios, let MoA be about Annabeth and Reyna and both their connections to Athena(/Bellona). Let Reyna be a second half in the Athena prophecy! It'd be cool and fit with her thematically and would set-up the whole Getting-Blessed-By-Athena thing later in BoO and make that scene feel so much cooler!

- Also retcon the whole "Hestia appears as an 8 year old for no reason" thing. And maybe also Artemis only appearing as a teen, because while Artemis has a mythological excuse, Hestia doesn't, so it just feels weird and at worst comes off as a little aphobic (depicting a character who explicitly is uninterested in relationships/romantic love as a child despite them being an immortal god with no basis for appearing as a child or even being comparatively young to other gods) with how it relates to aphobic tropes about disinterest in romance being "childish".

- Remove the "no children of Minerva" thing. Also maybe emphasize the aro/ace vibes there cause Athena being implied to be the only ace character in the entire series who a.) isn't literally a child/teen nor appears as one, and/or b.) hasn't had an unfortunate relationship that makes them disinterested in romance, but also at the same time being the only one out of herself/Hestia/Artemis to have relationships of some sort (having kids, implied to possibly be romantic but unclear) issss bad! actually! Bad tropes, don't like that. (Again aphobic tropes of disinterest in romance being “childish” and something that can be grown out of, or a result of trauma. Also it feels weird that the only a-spec characters in the series are all women. Can we have a male a-spec character please.) Just let Athena be aro/ace and vibing and occasionally having brain children cause she can do what she wants and everyone is aware of this and chill with it (And being a-spec doesn’t mean she’d be disinterested in having kids). Also maybe make her feel less cold cause "a-spec character is cold and loveless" is also an aphobic trope that PJO!Athena falls into, actually.

- Speaking of aphobic tropes, fix the Hunters! Please. Please just redo the Hunters of Artemis entirely. Holy cow. I wrote up an entire alternate oath/rules set for the Hunt because it's just so weird and poorly done. There were male Hunters of Artemis in Greek Mythology! Multiple! And most of them were chill! The "swearing off all romance" thing is also questionable, because depending on what versions of myths you’re looking at it’s potentially implied the Hunters had romantic relationships among themselves. And in Greek Mythology all the Hunters were definitely not all pre-teens. And it feels especially bad that the only adult Hunters we ever see are explicitly ex-Hunters who are heavily implied to be not ace and definitely aren't aro and are also implied to have "grown out of" being disinterested in romance. (That gagging noise you hear is me being sick of how many aphobic tropes the Hunters are juggling).

The version of the Hunters i have written up is, and I quote (from my notes): "Hunters can be any age, species, and gender identity (so long as they are comfortable enough being occasionally referred to as “Huntresses,” “Sisters,” “Maidens,” and etc). Relationships between Hunters are allowed so long as it will not endanger/distract from the Hunt or endanger any other Huntresses. Having a child is not allowed within the Hunt and any Huntresses who wish to do so must leave (purely because having a pregnant person/young child on the Hunt is dangerous, and safety is the number one priority - especially as Artemis is a protector of youth and goddess of childbirth. Once they turn like, 12 they can join, that’s fine. Everyone knows middle schoolers are the optimal combination of bloodthirstiness and ability to wield a weapon)." Also, just as like, a side-thing, I wanna see a clear-sighted mortal Huntress, because we're told thats a thing but we never see them. Closest we get is like ancient semi-immortals and Technical Nymphs, or other Huntresses who are of unspecified mortal/demigod status.

- Similar deal - fix the Amazons. they're… better but still a little wonky.

- Some slight tweaks to the Cupid Scene - Nico still has a confrontation with Cupid cause that is a very compelling scene that works well for Nico's character and informs a lot about him (and serves a purpose in a very meta way - not so much for the plot but reflecting something the first series did occasionally which was a kind of showing an example of a situation, usually a negative situation that either mirrors or directly references a type of situation a kid may find themself in, and explains and shows sympathy for the character being hurt in that situation. Which is notable because the demographic for the series is young middle schoolers and particularly neurodivergent kids, who are probably approaching a lot of new social situations or may struggle with empathy. It acts as an introduction to “unfortunately this is a bad thing that happens sometimes, and it hurts people, which is why you should be nice to this kid. Look at beloved character. Here’s an elaboration on why they’re hurt so you can understand.” So for the purposes of that, the scene of Nico getting outed would likely remain, but it would still keep the very overt “WOW THIS SUCKS, THIS IS A BAD SITUATION.” stuff) Most of the tweaks are just slight adjustments to minor prelude dialogue and/or setting, like. Jason does not forget that being gay is a thing for a second. And etc. But Nico having a very literal metaphorical conflict about grappling with how he views the concept of love by LITERALLY GETTING KICKED AROUND BY THE GOD OF LOVE is actually kinda badass from a narrative analysis perspective. This is exactly what i meant in the previous bullet points about the gods in a lot of myths and classical stories playing the roles of personifications of metaphors and that being used well. Admittedly I'm 50/50 on tweaking Cupid's general attitude in the scene itself, because a more hostile Cupid lends itself better to the meta use of the scene as described before but a more sympathetic-to-Nico Cupid who is nonetheless still kicking the shit out of him is interesting from a metaphor standpoint (something something Nico overcoming internalized homophobia but in the very literal form of it’s the god that literally presides over protecting gay love [yes that is an actual thing Eros/Cupid is the god of] beating him up).

- Remove Reyna's “prophecy” entirely. It's stupid and pointless and doesn’t make sense with her character at all. Just say she's ace. There is not a single scene in any of the series that ever indicates that Reyna believes that she can only be happy if she’s in a relationship and that’s some kind of internal struggle she needs to overcome. The closest we ever get is Reyna being upset that her best friend disappeared and when he returns she finds out he had forgotten about her completely. Which does not apply to the “prophecy” at all. We just don’t need it.

- Absence of "a character" can work! Jason's lack of personality and backstory can work but it works best if it's absence is felt and properly explored. This works best if we get more information about Camp Jupiter from SoN and from the other Roman characters, especially Reyna (and maybe even Nico referencing his trips there!) because that inherently informs us about what Jason's life was like there. Have other characters note things about Jason and highlight the fact that this is absent from Jason's own POV! He's lost that part of his life! It was taken from him! That's such an interesting dynamic to have and explore! But we don't get any of that!

Side-note: Part of the problem with Jason's amnesia is that it feels so awkward especially compared to Percy's amnesia because we already know what Percy can't remember. We have the context that informs his character, even though he can't remember it, so that absence is felt and it feels really compelling! Also, Percy is unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, and we're unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, so it feels new and interesting (even though we don't actually get much about it so we never actually form any real attachment to it and that's a problem later on in every subsequent scene when we're supposed to care about what happens to Camp Jupiter but we. don't). The reason it doesn't work for Jason is because we don't know what's absent and we already know CHB. Jason also already knows about demigods and stuff, so if you're a new reader starting at HoO it just doesn't work. Because Jason already knows everything and we're being led from his POV primarily for that portion of TLH, and even Piper and Leo's backstories both heavily include being pushed around by Gaea/and or Hera/Juno, so if you aren't familiar with the universe you're just being hurried along and it ends up feeling weak. At least with Percy even if you don't know the contexts of his backstory, we can feel the implications of other characters referencing things about him extremely often, so you feel the weight of his memories being gone, and he doesn't know about the roman gods and you, the reader, aren't expected to know much if anything about it either. We don’t get the full demigod debriefing (but that's also the second book) but we at least get a Camp Jupiter debriefing. The first two books are a bit messy in those specific regards with setting up the camps for the series, and we don’t really see the camps much for the rest of HoO (except for CHB, of course).

This is personally why I stand by that if we ever get a roman series it should be a three-part series from Reyna's POV, because leading with Jason is basically like trying to lead PJatO with Annabeth - a demigod raised in camp and surrounded by the knowledge of this stuff their entire life. It doesn't work as a character who's acting as an introduction to this world for the reader. There's no real clean way to work that out for HoO unfortunately, since literally all our protagonists are given established pasts involving knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology being real and half of them are either already at camp or have been to a different camp. I'd say best solution would probably actually be leading from Piper for TLH and tweak her character set-up slightly in that she Does Not Know What's Going On At All re: Gaea and the Giants. She just knows Something Happened To Her Dad and she's the POV we follow into TLH, because that mirrors Percy in beginning of TLT well (with Sally being kidnapped)! It's a fun call-back for the old readers and a good lead-in for the new readers.

- Fix Nico backstory inconsistencies caused by Rick almost making his birthday in March and confusing himself over it. He's 12 in TLO, 13 in HoO. He was born January 28th, 1929, and got put in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in 1939 (If you wanna be cute, we can specifically say May 1st, 1939, to reference the musical). Hazel is one month older than him chronologically and one year older than him post-revival. Something something also smooth out the inconsistencies about Nico being raised in Italy and how Maria met Hades and stuff. Fill in the rest as you will.

- I do stand by that the entire PJO timeline is not one-to-one with the real world. That's always been a thing with the series. We're basically condensing everything from ~1998 to ~2020 into an 18 year timeline. We don't need to be exact with things. Don't get too bogged down with it.

- Make the whole "injuries caused by celestial bronze/imperial gold for demigods makes their souls self-destruct" thing specifically relating to cursed weapons/materials or feature some more volatile abomination combo weapons like Backbiter (with Backbiter being described as unstable due to being both celestial bronze and mortal steel). (Ex.: the spear used to stab Jason in BoO is just cursed, and maybe Octavian's catapult plan is a "well i put a bunch of mortal steel and imperial gold in a pot and melted them together a bit and now it really wants to explode so im gonna just chuck the entire thing and hope it kills everyone lots and lots <3" which is tbh significantly more dastardly and fucked-up, which makes Octavian a bit more compelling). Having it just be a plain trait of celestial bronze/imperial gold doesn’t make any sense and is only referenced like twice in HoO and never again in basically the entire three series. Again: consistency.

- Make a more prominent reference to the whole "btw there are retired adult Romans just living wherever but they're legally required to help any campers who request aid" thing, cause you could totally do something really fun and cool with that but idk what.

- PICK A THEME! First series theme was family! Second series theme is….. we don’t know! It felt like maybe a theme was intended at some point but we lost it. Forging a new life for one’s self/choosing your own path/etc could be a good theme, or something similar. or found family. or both. We’ve got a bunch of characters absolutely ripe for “I didn’t think i’d get this far and now I have to like, actually consider what i want to do in life. huh” arcs! (Frank! Leo! Hazel! Jason! Percy! Nico!) Do something with that!

- Lean more into the characters having aspects inspired by myths, or legends being mirrored in plot points: 7 against Thebes, the Argonauts, etc etc etc. The first series leaning into it heavily worked really well! More of that! HoO and TOA suffer a lot from lack of mythological basis to lean their plots on, despite there being plenty to work from. It instead just kind of messily mashes random misc myths (haha, alliteration) together into a very incoherent plot. Annabeth is known to be explicitly based off Atalanta, Percy is mostly based off Perseus and Theseus, Leo has loose connections based off of Demophon of Eleusis and possibly also his brother Triptolemus, etc etc. There’s stuff to work with! Poke around at the mythological figures of the original Argo and maybe match them up a bit (though most of the Argonaut myths were used in Sea of Monsters, so focus more on the figures/archetypes rather than just exact myths of what they did. For more plot-things, maybe consider Seven Against Thebes, though admittedly the plot of that is just Kinda Depressing.)

- Slightly related to that - lean into Piper presumably mirroring Orpheus! Or even if she isn’t supposed to, let her do that, because it fits with her thematically SUPER well. Her charmspeak is OP and that needs to be appreciated. In canon she brings Jason back from the brink of death in TLH and just straight up gives Festus a soul/free will/sentience. Let her go Orpheus-mode on everybody. You can even tie that in with the half-hearted snake theme that Rick tried to throw in there that didn’t work at all. We can make this work, just lean into it. It’ll be fun.

- Remove scene of Nico confessing to Percy at end of BoO. it’s just. random and feels sudden and OOC. Give Nico time. You could maybe replace it by having him come out to Reyna on his own terms while they’re on their quest discussing their adventures thus far and them having a very sweet little emotional moment rather than it being a weird out-of-place afterthought comical scene.

- Remove Bob and Damacus. They’re just half-literal dues ex machinas for Percabeth in Tartarus that don’t make sense. It feels extremely cheap and doesn’t fit with the established mythos of either figure (and Bob feels extra awkward without the context of knowing Sword of Hades). If they do run into a figure who helps them out in Tartarus, Arke could possibly be a good option - especially since in SoN Percy meets Iris. There’s a lot potentially you could do there with Percy mistaking her for her twin and stuff like that. If we want a figure to more-so take the role that Bob fills (Nico encouraging an immortal to be sympathetic to Percy and thus indirectly helping him later) that role could be filled by Nyx instead of making her a minor antagonist - imply Nico encountered Nyx in Tartarus or something and she took pity on him as someone who also understands the dark, and he told her about Percy and so Nyx is willing to help Percabeth escape. Plus imagine how COOL a Nyx & her children vs Tartarus/Titans/Giants fight would be. That’d be a significantly more memorable scene than the Tartarus fight scenes we did get. (“Why would Nyx help though?” One of Nyx’s kids is LITERALLY a goddess of friendship [Philotes], we have excuses.)

- On a similar note, this is more of a TSATS thing, but for goodness’ sake STOP THROWING CHARACTERS INTO TARTARUS. You’re overusing it! It only works when we use it sparingly! In fact, just in general Tartarus works better the less we see of it! Nico going through Tartarus once in SoN-MoA, yes, that works! Especially since we have almost no idea what happened to him down there, just that it was Terrifying and Horrible and he Barely Survived. Not going into much detail means we get more out of it. The only exception to that really was when Percy realized that Nico saw Tartarus as it truly was the entire time, because that’s one hell (ha) of a punch to the gut in terms of added information! Percabeth falling into Tartarus in MoA? Eh, fine, sure, because we’ve established that Nico (who is implied to be more resilient to that environment on virtue of being a child of Hades) talked about his experiences down there so they know what to expect and how to survive. Though it does kind of just feel like Rick went “Oh wait hey I can use this to make angst!” and then overused the hell out of it. It feels way weaker in general in HoH because of how much detail we get, because Tartarus has been built up so much until that point that literally anything we get will feel lackluster in comparison, especially with how it kind of feels like Percabeth just. breezed through it with little more difficulty than they’d usually face on their quests. Solangelo jumping into Tartarus in TSATS is honestly just a blatant “Oh boy we can make Solangelo into Percabeth 2!” and it doesn’t work at all because NICO HAS ALREADY BEEN TO TARTARUS.

The only way you could make Nico going into Tartarus two times work is if he fell into Tartarus a second time to replace Percabeth falling down there. Because we’ve established he knows what it’s like down there, he survived it once, and he is actively sparing someone else he cares about from suffering his same fate. And then he can return once again even closer to death and A Little Fucked Up and it turns into a rule of threes where we know “Oh, Nico can’t go back to Tartarus again because if he does he’ll Lose Himself Completely” which is way more interesting than romance angst for the sake of romance angst. Especially since again, we don’t see it, it’s all only implied. Also it then also turns Tartarus into even more of a “Nico is probably the only demigod who could ever even hope to survive Tartarus” which keeps Tartarus as an ominous thing. Percabeth falling into Tartarus lessens that by a lot because it implies that it doesn’t matter that Nico is a child of Hades; that had absolutely no bearing on his ability to survive down there. TL;DR: Stop throwing characters into Tartarus. Either throw Nico in twice in a row and no Percabeth or Nico and Percabeth once only and never touch it again.

- More heavily set up Percy’s emotions/mood/etc being influenced by water around him. If we keep most of Percabeth in Tartaurs, then this would really make the Achlys scene pack a bigger punch. Up until HoH everything is “oh how quirky” but the minute Percy’s surrounded by the rivers of the underworld and the acid/poision you get hit with the “oh shit” realization that Percy Is About To Get SCARY.

- Maybe have Annabeth keep her blindness from Tartarus, or trade Jason having glasses to her having glasses as a result of that, since vision is actually an aspect of Athena so it kind of fits her more, thematically-speaking.

- Change the judo flip percabeth scene in MoA to Annabeth picking Percy up and spinning him around in a hug/swinging him into a dip cause that’s cuter, makes more sense given Percy’s PTSD, and still highlights Annabeth being very strong and showing off in front of the Romans while they’re still being lovey-dovey.

But also, related to that, you could potentially make a sub-arc for Percabeth throughout HoO (so that they actually have like. some type of character development that fits them rather than them feeling stagnant the entire time) about Annabeth learning she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought (learning about Gabe [since as far as we know she actually doesn't know much if anything about that!], seeing his behavior change with different types of water, etc) kicked off by the judo flip scene, and possibly vice versa (Percy learning more about Annabeth’s time spent traveling with Thalia and Luke, growing up at CHB, her relationship with Athena and other campers at CHB, etc) so they gain a deeper understanding of one another. If Percy keeps his curse of Achilles, that could also factor in (contrasting Percy’s “perfect” image [relationship, near-immortality] against Annabeth realizing she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought [could also parallel that dynamic to Jaspiper, which opens opportunities for Annabeth/Piper and Jason/Percy bonding] [Or Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy bonding! I want more Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy parallels so bad. They’re almost there but we never get them. Please.]/ the Argo II crew learning about Percy’s past) with Percy being more prone to seek out conflict or solve problems with violence due to the Curse of Achilles and eventually recognizing that [possibly after Tartarus] and it scaring him just as much as it frightens Annabeth. Maybe at that point Percy tries to make some sort of deal to rid himself of the curse.)

- Maybe also explicitly parallel Percy getting the curse of Achilles with Nico’s help to Poseidon giving his lover Caeneus iron skin. There’s no really smooth way to do it, but maybe even just a during Nico’s pov him going “I heard about this myth once and got an idea. It didn’t work.” Just for that added through-line of connecting the series and further establishing “yeah, no, Nico’s been gay this whole time. this isn’t a new thing. we aren’t pulling this from thin air.”

- Give Piper a different weapon than the knife from the beginning cause she stops using it eventually anyways. Also just... no cornucopia. That part is just stupid and there’s no point for it. If we have to keep it as a plot object, give it to someone else - Nico could work because then there’s actually at least a valid relation there regarding his godly parent (yes, Pluto sometimes has cornucopia associations). Also Nico having a cornucopia would be kinda funny in a subversion of expectations thing. Maybe even have Nico go on a little exposition-y rant complaining about Hades/Pluto versus Plutus (the Greek god of plenty/wealth, later merged with Pluto).

- Similarly, either remove Diocletian’s scepter (if we have multiple characters who can boss around skeletons, why do we need an entire separate extra object whose sole purpose is to let them boss around skeletons?) or let Nico keep it but it loses its abilities, so it’s literally just “well now he has a cool bashing stick for bashing things.” Or let him use it as a cane to highlight him being disabled!

- As I slightly touched upon in a previous bullet point, give Piper more connections to her dad’s community in Oklahoma - where’s all her family friends? Tristan is a major pop culture figure in the Riordanverse, so it’d make sense that people from the community he grew up in would like. know him? But all we ever hear about is Piper’s Grandpa Tom. Even though apparently Piper is already good enough friends with Shel presumably before Piper moves to Oklahoma that the two start dating soon afterwards. Heck, again, have Piper reference Shel specifically. Just at any point. For any reason. Just to establish that she knows people her own age that exist outside of CHB.

Similarly, flesh out the background Romans in Camp Jupiter more in SoN and possibly also BoO, particularly the ones Jason references by name but we never see anything of, besides at most maybe more background references. Highlight them either through the SoN trio interacting with more characters while at camp (and we’re left to glean specific details of Jason’s past through others, which would make Jason more compelling and how these details are absent from himself but present to those around him, playing into his memory loss more) and possibly also through Reyna (and maybe Nico)’s POV(s) in BoO. (And maybe if we get a Reyna POV in MoA, then there as well).

- Let Reyna use magic! We establish that she studied under Circe and then never see anything come of that other than referencing her Tragic Backstory™. It could be a fun point for Reyna and Hazel to bond over, even!

- Remove the random “Hunters of Artemis death fodder” scene with Orion in BoO. There’s no reason for that. It’s just kinda dumb and feels bad given it’s basically just “We’re gonna kill a bunch of nondescript allegedly a-spec coded characters now for no reason. <3” like ???. That served no purpose. It just felt weird.

- Also just as a like, logistics thing - change the route Team Statue takes in BoO from the huge jump over the Atlantic into Peurto Rico into them traveling up into like the UK, then over to Iceland and Greenland and then Canada and down the east coast rather than the huge jump and up the east coast. The smaller jumps make more sense given the entire POINT of their quest taking as long as it does is that Nico can’t make extremely large shadow-travel jumps at that time. Plus if they’re traveling south then they could pass through Maine and we could maybe cameo Nico’s old school and that’d be fun. The pit-stop in Puerto Rico doesn’t really give us much that we couldn’t have just gotten from Reyna explaining it anyways. If they pause in Maine that can be where Nico and Reyna have a heart-to-heart about their tragic backstories and past experiences with horrible ghosts that they had to exorcise.

- If Team Statue travels a northern route we can make jokes about Nico learning specifically 1930s British English before he moved to America. The gang goes to London and Coach proceeds to incessantly make fun of Nico for not only using British slang, but using OUTDATED British slang (which is made weirder given he doesn’t have a British accent).

- Also extremely tiny detail but a specific acknowledgement that Piper was helping out Nico once they got back to the ship when Nico’s getting rescued from the jar. Since Piper just kind of drags him off-screen. Just any kind of follow-up to that. Like Nico doing his classic “You were vaguely nice to me. I would now Die For You.” Just them having basically any kind of interaction or acknowledgement of that scene, mostly cause I think it’s funny.

- Let Annabeth keep her laptop, and get rid of the sphere of Archimedes cause it just feels kinds pointless and random? We don’t really have any emotional connection to Annabeth’s laptop (and her hat gets replaced in Demigods & Magicians anyways) so her losing it doesn’t really feel impactful at all. Maybe have Leo use Annabeth’s laptop while she’s in Tartarus and that acts as the point of guilt for him rather than weird random curse stuff with a random new introduced object. Instead of “oh no fortune cookie thing or whatever” it’s him feeling guilty he saved Annabeth’s laptop but couldn’t help Annabeth herself. Especially since Leo would also have his Ogygia identity crisis in the same book so he can feel extra bad about himself for a bit, to lead up to his role in BoO nicely (sometimes a character negatively spiraling is more narratively compelling than them having positive development for the majority of the series and that’s okay! Let him be tragic but again he gets a happy ending and an implication post-BoO that he’ll begin a road of healing/recovery surrounded by loved ones. It works out.) AND there could be a very sweet moment once Annabeth gets back from Tartarus and Leo gives her the laptop back and it’s a huge relief to her that one of her prized possessions was in safe hands while she was gone and that she has it back when she thought she might have lost it.

- Further highlight Jason’s whole Greek/Roman/etc identity crisis. Bonus points if we go further into acknowledging Jupiter/Zeus’s epithets and roles and Jason having some epiphany that the Romans look to him with the expectations of Jupiter/Juno as king and queen of the gods making him some kind of perfect leader, but he’s not that at all. He’s the son of Jove and Juno, father and mother of the gods. He doesn’t want to be a general or praetor or anything like that, he wants to spend time with his friends and family at a summer camp where they’re safe. He wants to regain the childhood he lost being raised as a perfect soldier and get the chance to go to school and learn about his long-lost family and do cheesy summer camp activities. He is a wolf but he is not a creature built for the hunt - he is part of a pack.

- Touched upon it briefly in a previous bullet point but Curse of Achilles can stay/go, does not particularly matter to me either way. I do think it’d be funny though if Percy does keep the Curse of Achilles that he also randomly gets the Nemean Lion’s pelt back. Initially maybe as like a gift from Hera/Juno to help him cover his Achilles’ Heel while he’s running around with no memory just as insurance so he doesn’t die (with bonus points of the Romans being introduced to Percy either wearing the stupidest looking coat ever or wearing just a straight up bullet-proof lion’s pelt, which would even further solidify his “Are We Sure This Guy Isn’t A God In Disguise” vibes). But then later on into the series it’s just kind of part of his outfit or maybe even a running gag. The praetors have their magic bullet-proof cloaks, Percy has a very silly looking bullet-proof fur coat that is sometimes a whole lion.

- Keep Hazel’s blackouts. There’s not really a reason for them to disappear altogether for her? They’re somewhat tied to her powers and are a consequence of her coming back from the dead, which also helps keep the concept running in the series that death is a consequence that can’t just be easily evaded, even while we’re operating with the Doors of Death being open. That way future deaths in the series don’t feel like they could be as easily negated/avoided. Also, Hazel is disabled! This is a disability of hers! Why are we somehow magically getting rid of it without even an explanation as to why? Heck, if we’re getting rid of Piper’s knife, Hazel’s dreams when she has her blackouts could be used to supplement the dagger’s insight into the future, since we’ve already established that Hazel gets prophetic dreams sometimes anyways. Also fun thematic matching for the Death Sibs with them both having disabilities and random ways to glean the future (Hazel’s blackouts, Nico talking to ghosts). Her blackouts would probably improve slightly over the course of the series but never fully disappear, and it ends up mostly a thing of she can tell when they’re about to occur and prepare quickly for that or let someone know before she passes out.

- Get rid of Frank’s curse in SoN instead of waiting until The Tyrant’s Tomb. If we’re going to get rid of it eventually anyways, do it during the big scene of him freeing Thanatos. Let him have his cool big moment of embracing his destiny and that breaking the curse the first time he does it rather than him doing it twice but it only breaking the curse the second time? Also if the curse is broken earlier on then Frank’s entire arc gets to be about him realizing he has a life to live, since in SoN a major part of his character is that he’s not afraid of death because he’s used to the idea that his curse could kill him at any point. He’s actually pretty reckless for the beginning of HoO because of that. If he realizes that he no longer is at risk of dying at any given moment because he thought about candles too hard, then that opens the opportunity of him having a whole existential crisis about what he actually wants to do with his life and him looking to the future for once.

Bonus opportunity for this - maybe Frank actually gets fire powers as a result of his curse breaking. Ares/Mars has an association with fire so it would fit for him as a son of Mars. Plus, then we could also have an even more overt dynamic of Frank and Leo acting as each other’s parallels and foils and the two of them slowly growing more used to one another and actually becoming close friends. Lots of bonding over getting used to their fire powers and overcoming their mutual fears of fire and probably also solidarity in having lost their moms. Just - the boys are bonding! The boys are bonding. Fire boys hours.

- Related to Frank’s curse, give Hazel and Frank parallel narratives of them realizing they have a future ahead of them (Hazel re: getting a second chance at life and Frank re: realizing he’s no longer at risk of spontaneously combusting) and them grappling with trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives and how they want to live them after everything is said and done. And also being motivated for once to make it out the other side in one piece because they’re determined to not waste the opportunity they’ve been given. The two of them coming to terms with realizing they have a future if they can make it through this (which is also a fun contrast to Leo and Nico actively almost sacrificing their own lives for others and having essentially an opposite character arc for the majority of the series).

- Especially while Frank (and Hazel) are having these arcs, going back to the idea of Leo getting stuck on Ogygia alone for a bit - very strongly contrasting the arcs of Frank’s mental health improving over the series while Leo’s is very steadily decreasing (until BoO at which point again the series ends with Leo getting help and beginning to improve/heal).

- Also further emphasizing Leo and Nico’s parallels throughout HoO. They’re both autistic on top of the usual adhd/dyslexia and have issues with social interactions and care a lot about Hazel and are having a majorly bad time throughout the entire quest and are pretty depressed, etc etc etc. Again, parallel narratives at the end of BoO with them healing and things looking up for them - I think I’ve mentioned that like four times now you get the idea.

- Make Frank ADHD/dyslexic. There is literally no reason for him not to be and him being the outlier for being neurotypical feels weird and doesn’t fit with the literal entire worldbuilding we have for demigods. If it’s part of “demigod instincts” or whatever then Frank should be ADHD/dyslexic! And it’s not even a “the Romans aren’t ADHD/dyslexic” because we’re explicitly told they are! They are specifically also ADHD and dyslexic! So why isn’t Frank? There’s no reason. It annoys me.

- The Frank/Hazel/Leo “love triangle” can stay but it’s significantly more one-sided. Frank is mostly just intimidated by Leo for multiple reasons (mostly fire-related reasons) and Leo is mutually intimidated by Frank (because Frank is bigger than him and Leo is scared of everyone, really, but especially people who are bigger than him, because they could beat him up. Which is basically everyone). Hazel is not romantically interested in Leo and Leo is not romantically interested in her, though they are very close and do have a very confusing time trying to figure out the whole Sammy situation. Frank still misinterprets this as Hazel and Leo being romantic. Leo does not realize Frank is misinterpreting that as them being romantic and think Frank just hates him for the general reasons that Leo has found people usually hate him for no reason over. Leo wants nothing to do with that situation though. Eventually they all sort it out and become a very strong trio.

- Again as I briefly touched upon before, maybe give Reyna a protagonist role in MOA if not an outright POV. Probably an outright POV, with the main POVs of the book being her and Annabeth. Again, themes of historical associations between Athena and Bellona and playing with that, alongside making Reyna more of a prominent player earlier on in the series and letting us see more of the Romans. Use this opportunity to heavily parallel her with Annabeth (and also highlight her parallels with Percy, and Annabeth’s parallels with Jason).

- Really I just want more Annabeth/Jason and Percy/Reyna parallels. There’s so much you can do there. The blond(e) gifted kid/smart aleck raised at camp and their best friend, the former newbie raised with a difficult home life. Percy and Reyna both have dogs (Mrs. O’Leary / Aurum and Argentium) and pegasi (Blackjack and Skippy). And a sibling they don’t see often (Tyson / Hylla).  You could have notes about Jason and Thalia and Annabeth and the dynamics within that and how those internally parallel each other. Or more about when Reyna encountered Percy and Annabeth while on Circe’s Island. Really anything more about Reyna’s time on Circe’s Island. Heck maybe you could parallel that to Percy’s difficult time in school, since Circe’s whole thing was that she was training the sorceresses living there, so that’s kind of like a school environment. Paralleling first quests between Reyna and Jason with the events of the first series with Percy and Annabeth.  Etc. etc. etc.

- We are taking BoO and just. Throwing it out the window, really. We don’t have time to unpack all of that. Just start mostly from scratch, same extremely rough overarching elements are there.

- Also actually just. Rework the whole main prophecy too while we’re at it. It kinda sucks. It’s just kind of a weak prophecy. “To storm or fire the world will fall” or whatever; we can do better. I don’t have the brain power to write a better prophecy right now but just [see my recent post] for notes about what I think makes for a good prophecy in the series and why the main HoO one is kinda lame.

Footnotes:

Again, I will be following this up with part 2 electric boogaloo: Things I Would Change About TOA* (*That I can say without spoiling Deadangelos too much) at some point and I will link that when I make it. If you made it this far, gold star.

#pjo #percy jackson #riordanverse #hoo #heroes of olympus #leo valdez #frank zhang #jason grace #piper mclean #Hazel Levesque #reyna ramirez-arellano #annabeth chase #nico di angelo #toa spoilers #toa #trials of apollo #(< for that one bit about Frank) #and maybe also the bit with Shel I guess #tsats #the sun and the star #(< for that one bit about tartarus) #bunkernine #< mentioned briefly. good post. #analysis #meta #< i suppose #long post // #< not an exaggeration. my apologies for those of you who click on that read more #ask to tag #i dont even want to think about how to tag this further

[neonknightjaey]

What if Chihiro Fushimi Joined SEES (Part 2)

Had to rewatch the P3 ending to amp myself up to do this. Don’t mind the tears…or the river of em flowing through the post. That’s normal. Anyway. This part will be covering some misc stuff like School life, minor changes, and right up to the June full moon operation. With that being said. Lets get into it.

TW//Bullying

“SOTERIA!!!”

Soteria is Chihiro Fushimis persona. The goddess of safety and salvation, deliverance, and preservation from harm…funny that she will exactly USE harm to protect others from it.

While Soteria does learn spells like Tetrakarn and Makarakarn and some defensive increasing skills. That’s not all her Persona can do.

This persona is well known for its high magic stat, but more importantly…she’s the teams nuke button.

Her most upgraded move besides the Agi skill line is the Megi skill line. For those who don’t remember. Megi moves are pure almighty damage, a damage type that can’t be blocked.

Why did I decide to give the terrified nervous wreck a nuke? Cause I thought it would be funny. Don’t worry, it drains her magic fast so you can’t go spamming it. You’re gonna have to actually use her fire skills until much later on when she gets an sp cost reduction skill.

Soteria is best described appearance wise as a graceful looking woman with angelic wings yet in her hands are a giant shield and a crackling hand mixed with agi and megi effects. She’d have some unique patterns on her arms and would have her eyes covered by a flower crown.

Now enough about Chihiros Persona, lets see how this girl is with the rest of the teammates and what she does outside of battle.

Of course she’s still the student council treasurer so she’s in there with Mitsuru from time to time but really, it’s more of a “friendly business partners” relationship rather than a true genuine sisterly friendship for right now.

Now on the other end of things are her dorm-mates. Yukari is often really close with Chihiro. She talks to her quite often about her mangas and how club meetings go while Yukari just listens or at least tries to act engaged at the very least.

Yukari can be a bit protective of her but not often. Just helping at times when she gets too nervous around Akihiko. Other times though, despite Chihiros protests, she throws the girl to the wolves with one particular man to help her overcome her fears. That one man is…

Junpei….is…an interesting case with Chihiro. They both like manga and nerdy things at times so besides the male fear thing, you’d think they’d be the best of friends. Well, kinda. She’s too nervous right now to fully hang out with him and watches from a corner usually. Often wondering how he has so much time to slack on his studies when she’s seen his exam scores. She’d reprimand him if she had the courage to…

Yukari is definitely gonna help this girl slightly tolerate this man if it kills her.

Or at least have her join the “Stupei, Ace Defective” roasting club.

Both options work too.

Chihiro doesn’t have much to talk about with Akihiko. If Junpei was a bit much for her at this level, then a guy who talks about getting stronger and fighting with, to her, not much in common is gonna put her off a bit more…but then again, she seems fine with Hidetoshi so who knows? Maybe they’ll be better friends in the near future.

Insert Makoto Yukis/Door Doors social link here.

What? You thought I was gonna write something for Makoto now? It’s basically going the same as her SL. They’re friends and she likes being around him.

…

…

…

Okay fine, maybe I’m planning something but you’ll have to wait until later in the story. For now. They’re friends. Like…rank 4 at best.

In the overworld, Chihiro can often be seen staring at Bookworms, thinking of going in. Heck maybe even considering asking for a part time job, this girl surrounded by books would think it’s a dream job.

She can also be spotted around the mall, checking out the CD shops or wondering if maybe someday Makoto will take her into Club Escapade…but she’s gotta get her own courage in check so we’ll check in on this subplot later.

At night, there is a rare chance that you won’t be able to use the computer there because Chihiro’s on it.

She’s either gonna be studying or looking at this weird new webcomic. It’s apparently about a boy and his three friends playing a video game? You aren’t sure yet because all you see is a boy kissing his poster goodbye while his friend plays the violin. It’s weird but hey, nobody said she can’t have weird interests.

Now that the current dorm life is out of the way, lets get into the story this time.

A reason Yukari may be a bit protectivr if Chihiro is because she’s been hearing about this currently being bullied by three girls.

It’s really starting to piss her off actually. But she bites her tongue for right now.

Most of May and such plays out as normal but instead of the ghost hunting team being just you, Yukari and Junpei, this girl gets in on it too…she wishes she wasn’t because she didn’t know wether to be afraid of ghosts or Junpei in the dark, or confused by how laughable his missing girl story was.

Nevertheless she joins their investigation with some reluctance…mainly Yukari saying it’ll help her.

For once though when they decide to go to the sketchy alleys of Port Island Station at night, she’s siding with Junpei in possibly wanting to back out.

Dear lord the girl was not only not made for scared, but for seeing Junpei get headbutted by a terrifying guy while being harassed by others.

And then there’s Shinji…

Poor girl just about fainted when she saw him. He’s downright terrifying. He seems nice but the poor gi-oh…she passed out. Poor thing.

When she gets back to the dorm she’s out for the whole night, cuddling with a pillow from fear…yeah Yukari may need to apologize later to her for doing that.

Weirdly enough though, the fact she felt like she “survived” something like that feels a bit relieving in her. Like she CAN do scary stuff and will be braver…eventually. For now though. Fuukas case takes high priority.

Hearing this Fuuka girl was getting bullied by Natsuki was bad enough, learning she could be dead is slightly pissing her off…then she learns Mr. Ekoda hid this information from everyone…someone hold this girl back she’s gonna take her paper fan and jam it down his throat.

Thankfully she heard Mitsuru got to him but she’s still pissed. Who knew this sweetheart could have a tipping point that deep.

It doesn’t make her fear into a hatred thankfully, I mean…seeing Junpei get knocked down at the station made her feel scared sure but like she wanted to help and just felt powerless…maybe that’s why when he heard this girl was being bullied and her missing status was hidden was what caused her to lose her cool for a little.

Come the time to save them, she begs Makoto to please go with him to save Fuuka. She feels like she needs to meet this girl.

He doesn’t care

But she’s in the party with Aki and Junpei.

In retrospect, not a good idea for her but she’s holding back her fear to save this woman.

Authors realization: OH SHIT, I FORGOT HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT NATSUKI!!!!

So with Natsuki she feels, understandably, upset that she would bully this girl and locked her up. Though she does promise she’ll help find Fuuka.

Now back in Tartar Sauce, she’s slightly relieved yet worried to be split from the all guys party. When she finds Makoto though, she’s much calmer. When they find Fuuka though…dear lord this girl is so glad she’s alive.

Then she sees Mitsuru and Yukari are down for the count and hey, she can actually do damage to them…it’s weak damage though. If only there were some persona user who could read enemies weaknesses an- oh Fuuka did it.

The rest of the story here mainly plays out as normal.

Now with Fuuka on the team, how are she and Chihiro gonna get along?

Dear lordy, these two are like sisters. Scared, timid, shy, other similar words can best describe them to a T.

Fuuka looks up to Chihiro as her Senpai while Chihiro looks up to her as someone much smarter than her.

These two have a lot of study sessions together and it’s sort of the opposite of Yukari so far.

Instead of having Chihiro try and work past things asap, she’s more into having her take her time and do things at her own speed.

They even suggest starting a manga/book club too.

Fuuka isn’t fully into Mangas? Well by golly Fuuka will try for her new friends sake

And this is where we end for this part. Sorry it’s a bit sloppy and has so much run offs, it’s unorganized and all over the place. Okay a lot more work is needed but there was a lot to go over and I set my ambitions a bit high. I’ll try and organize things a bit better next time and make things more coherent.

Special thanks to my co-author @maze-of-my-design for the relationships list for this gal and helping with ideas for this series.

Hope you enjoyed reading it y’all.

#persona 3 #au idea #persona series #persona what if #chihiro fushimi #sees #SEES Chihiro #fuuka yamagishi #persona 3 reload

[shellyseashell]

HARRIET HOOK

decided to do some posts of descendants characters and my headcanons for them. made a claudine post, so here’s harriet!

nicknames: she’s called captain a lot to differentiate her from harry, and she’s essentially the leader of the vks. she set up a system of safehouses and has connections in most gangs, and established an alliance between her, uma, and mal to protect the isle. she hates the nickname though, because hook made her and her siblings call him captain, and never father or anything like that.

age & birthday: she’s 19, and definitely a virgo

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: bi with a preference for women

height: 5’11, so she’s tall, but not taller than harry. it annoys her eternally.

faceclaim: currently it’s vanessa marano, but i’m not solid on her, so if anyone has suggestions

powers & species: her mother is zarina, so she’s part pixie. as such, she has an affinity for pixie dust, though she leaves that for cj.

mbti: can’t decide if she’s an estj or entj

background: as probably the oldest vk, she’s always been in a position of protecting others. harry is a year younger than her, and cj around 4 years younger, and she’s given up a lot for them. food, sleep, even school. she protects them from hook as well, who often has violent rage episodes no one can calm. not even zarina, who used to be able to. so harriet has taken the brunt of his anger, and most of her scars are from her father.

as she grew older, she realized a lot of kids were in similar positions as her, with unsafe homes. so, she started developing a system of safehouses to protect these people. she’s made connections with other vks and the better adults, like the faciliers. she started an alliance with uma and mal (i’ll go into this more in my mal headcanon post but my mal is completely different to canon mal) to protect the isle from the worse villains. she’s easily the real leader of the isle, and everyone knows not to mess with her.

residence: currently lives on her ship, but i haven’t been able to choose a name for it

affiliation: her pirate crew, the lost revenge, wyverns (mal’s gang)

relationships: has an on-again off-again relationship with ginny gothel, who is her ship’s medic

weapons & fighting style: fights with her sabers the most, but can and will beat anyone in wrestling

hobbies: burning down auradon dancing with her crew

misc

- never shows her anger, so when she does, run

- always drinking something, probably a spiked energy drink or rum

- she’s always grumbling about helping people, but she’ll go to war for anyone she knows in a heartbeat, and kill a man for someone she doesn’t

- she considers killing hook herself a lot, but she knows what it would do to harry and cj, so she doesn’t

- she has a lot of piercing, and a tattoo of her ship’s flag

- saw someone say she keeps a list of all the kids who died on the isle so. yeah she does that.

- lies a lot. to this day, her siblings, ginny, and sammy are the only ones who have never fallen for her lies.

- she would never admit it, but she misses the days her siblings would follow her aeound

#harriet hook #disney descendants #captain hook #harry hook #cj hook #mal bertha #uma triskelion #ginny gothel #harriet x ginny #do they have a ship name #descendants headcanons

[megamindsupremacy]

Misc PJO fic recs (Part 1)

Trading tomorrow by darkmagyk and losingletters

Percy Jackson arrives at Camp Half-Blood bruised and bleeding, with the knowledge that he's the son of a god and his mother is dead. His little display with the Minotaur has caught the attention of the camp. But he’s not sure it is good attention, yet.

Only the Hermes Cabin's not-quite Co-counselor Theseus, ‘call me Theo,’ doesn't treat him like a fascinating zoo exhibit. Which would be a relief, except he looks exactly like Percy: same green eyes, same trouble making smile, same black hair. The only differences are the fact that Theo is six years older, covered in battle scars, and the black tattoo on his arm. A trident and the letters SPQR.

Theo is eighteen, powerful, and unclaimed. And his resemblance to Percy could set a dangerous precedent.

-

Why don’t we rewrite the stars (changing the world to be ours) by thewritingmaniac

Percy is six when he learns he can travel in time, and nine when he tries to change the past. He certainly doesn’t expect a blond girl about his age to stop him, telling him bossily that she’s a Time Guardian (and he definitely doesn’t expect to see her again). Percabeth, AU

-

thatjacksonkid by TheGermanGrim_Reaper

Following an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, several twitter users do their best to uncover the truth about Percy Jackson. They get surprisingly far.

-

The Jackson files by ideasofmarch

Makin’ pancakes @makinbaconpancakes Does anyone know who the fuck Percy Jackson is???

Oranges are spicy @ronaldmcd Whomst?

Makin’ pancakes @makinbaconpancakes Check rachel dares insta story

Oranges are spicy @ronaldmcd k

Oranges are spicy @ronaldmcd Okay somebody find out who this kid is right damn now.

-

Rachel Elizabeth Dare posts a video of Percy on her instagram story. it all just spirals from there.

-

Three and a half stars by inkncoffee

Food is terrible, decor tasteless, weekend shifts seem to correspond with the onset of natural disasters??? Serving staff is pretty great, though, overall 3.5/5 would probably go again

p.s. is tipping sand dollars standard now or is the creepy, semi-regular customer just crazy?

-

In the amber of a moment by rynna_aurelia

Nico di Angelo wakes up in Westover Hall again.

And again.

And again.

-

A rose by any other name by izzymrdb

It wasn't Poseidon who met Sally on that beach on Montauk, but rather a far older, much more ancient version of him.

Percy is born far older and younger than he should be.

-

Five times percy leaned on his friends, and one time he stood alone by kitty_pryde_bi_pride

Percy meets his friends on the battlefield and they all know he’s unbeatable, even alone. And he is alone, even with the sea and the earth and the blessing of the Styx and the blood in their veins- he can tell they think he’s gone as mad as Luke.

-

We have each other now by professorrjlupin

“You’re in Asphodel.” She doesn’t know how to respond. It wasn’t a question. He takes his hands out of his pocket. His nails are coated in black, and a thick band of metal is on one of his fingers. He’s twisting it like a bottlecap. Hazel looks away. “I can get you out of here,” he says. He’s still twisting, brown eyes unfocused and glazing.

Hazel’s lungs are filled with water. “What?”

“The Doors of Death are open. You can leave.” Hazel doesn’t know what the doors are, but he’s looking at her now and she knows he isn’t lying. She knows she can follow him, she knows it by the cold feeling down her spine. She can do it.

“Okay.”

He nods. “Let’s go.”

Nico brings Hazel to Camp Jupiter from Asphodel.

-

FLIP by IcyDeath

Instead of Percy, Nico gets taken by Hera for her 'exchange program' between the Romans and Greeks. A certain son of Apollo isn't happy about that.

-

Falling for you by 1967hogwartsgoddess

Annabeth was slipping and Percy dived to save her; something went wrong. On the surface, Annabeth leads the Seven, desperate to rescue him and unite the camps. Alone in Tartarus, Percy finds himself making harsher choices, discovering darker methods, unlocking deeper powers, tortured and fighting for his life. He swears he's still a good kid. Post MOA

Final chapter is an AU following on from chapter 66.

#mads posts #fic recs #pjo fic recs #pjo fic rec list #riordanverse fic recs #riordanverse fic rec list

[rattle-em-spooky-jones]

Complete List of All My WIPs

You know when you’re bored and simultaneously procrastinating. Yeah.

Anyway, here’s a comprehensive list of my WIPs which are sorted by fandom. In order, it’s Gintama, DC, Jujutsu Kaisen, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and then some misc. fandoms. It’ll be updated as I get more WIPs. Few have playlists that I made for the fic specifically, or for the general ship/ characters.

(Edit: adding a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure section because I started it like a week back and already know I Will be having WIPs)

If any of you guys want to know more about any of the fics, just send me an ask. I’d be happy to answer. (*´▽`*)

Gintama:

1. The Misadventures of Mutsu and Sakamoto

Self explanatory, just a little comedic thing.

2. Everyone’s crazy about a sharply dressed man, or in this case… an idiotic merchant?

The only thing I've written for this is 'Essentially the story of different people realizing that Sakamoto is actually really hot.' I can't even say anything to defend myself, Chief.

3.Copper veins, Hands clenched tight

Kouka on Kounan fic. Follows different epithets she has throughout her life [The Blessed, The Cursed, The Lonely, The Master of Kounan, Kouka]

4. Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep 

Premise has huge spoilers so I’ll just give a sparknotes version - Takasugi fakes his death, manages to piss off Sakamoto, Zura, and the entirety of Kabukicho.

5. Digging too Deep 

Sakamoto thinks about his childhood, realizes its more messed up than he thought.

6. As Winds Pass By 

Also has huge spoilers in its premise. Sparknotes version is that this takes place in a world where the canon ending of Gintama happened, and then the second movie's premise of the epidemic happens. Somehow, in the midst of all of this, Sakamoto realizes that he's now immortal.

7. For all the stars in the universe (I was entranced into orbiting you) 

 Atmospheric 2nd person fic following Sakamoto and his unrequited love towards Gintoki. Lots of space metaphors.

8. A person by any other name would still be just as stupid 

Absolutely no clue what's it about, I have written a page though.

9. You know you have cool friends when you guys would be considered an invasive species

My Hero Academia crossover where the Joi 4 get dropped into the MHA universe, get annoyed at the league of villains and decide they're gonna create a better one. A very crack-y fic.

10. Star Eater 

Sakamoto isn't quite human. follows his life from birth to just after the end of the war. I have been half-jokingly calling it my magnum opus.

11. Kakashi’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Posted, will update)

Naruto crossover where Kakashi gets dropped into the Gintama universe. No I have not abandoned it, yes it has been like 3 years since I last updated.

DC:

Gen:

12. Unfridged (Reforged)

Alexandra DeWitt’s journey as a ghost through Greek lands, with Nyx (?) wanting to her to be their presence in the real world, but she has to go through trials before she can do so.

13.  Mirror Mirror On the Wall

A Hal Jordan angst fic grappling with identity. Written in second person and has the style of ‘Bluets’ but focuses on green.

14.  It Will Come Back

In the 25th century, the wards around Gotham keep out creatures that for some reason only Booster's family can see. The 21st century doesn't have those kind of wards.

TimKon:

15. Fingers Entwined, Hearts in Beat

An Orpheus and Eurydice TimKon au. Angst is at full throttle.

16. Top Gun Superboy (working title) Top gun AU with Kon as Maverick and Tim as Iceman. 

Boostle:

17. And I’d Make A Deal With God

Booster Gold grieves over Ted in their shared apartment.

JayKyle:

18. Fire of Unknown Origin

A Bioshock au. Jason and Kyle are trapped down in Rapture. Separately, they both figure out that someone is acting as 'Atlas', a freedom fighter who is supposed to be long dead. After a chance meeting, they decide to work together to figure out what the hell is going on.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3rWWOrT7LDGM0wggI9Zl9D?si=43ce8e0a98a8463e

19.  New Wave Starhunters

A Cowboy Bebop AU. Both Jason and Kyle were cryogenically frozen after two separate accidents years apart. Kyle loses all his memories when he wakes up. Jason remembers, but it has been long enough that everyone he's ever known and loved is dead. They both end up as bounty hunters, and this is their story.

HalBarry:

20. Fleeting Touch 

Hal's a ghost stuck in the apartment he used to live in. Barry moved into his new apartment two weeks ago. Can I make it anymore obvious?

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6kM0uBYmqeVAEW7VCQwsHO?si=edb27b2977a14853

21. It's Gettin Hard, this Holdin' back

Just a fluff piece where Barry notices how often Hal touches him, and starts to become hyperware of it because he has a crush on Hal.

22. In the Cracks Beneath Our Feet 

 A Pacific Rim au set in the early days where Jagars where piloted by one pilot. Hal witnesses the destruction of Coast City by Cyborg Superman, but the whole thing is covered up by the board of directors. Hal lashes out at the, and as a result he is put on increasing dangerous missions to get rid of him. They also get Barry (who figured out the one person system is severely harming pilots but isn’t allowed to go public with the findings) to monitor his health and to attempt to ‘spy’ on him. They both ending up slowly realizing the other also hates the Shatterdome and try to fight the corruption of the place. 

23. Wasted Sunset, Forlorn Sunrise [Complete!] A 'the summer hikaru died' au. Hal as Yoshiki, and Barry as Hikaru. Worked on this for the HalBarry Big Bang 2023 in collaboration with @chocolateteapotsvis ! You can see the accompanying art here.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1pB2LnhyaO6bAYAIloLVVr?si=0723f6ab9caa4741

Bonus [Complete]: And One Day Closer to Death Fic I worked on for the Superboy Superzine. It's late at night. Kon contemplates.

Jujutsu Kaisen:

24. AFTER HOURS

Museum au - gojo is a new museum curator (for art pieces) and geto is the ghost that haunts it (with no memories of the past).

25. At the Tip of Your Tongue, In the Back of Your Lungs

Second person Gojo POV, following the timeline from when Gojo and Geto meet for the first time till the end of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie.

26. An Endless Sea

A SatoSugu Pacific Rim Au. Also set in a time before the two pilot drift technology was developed. They’re the greatest pilots in the world until Riko and tengen’s mission where they had to protect Riko goes wrong. Gojo becomes even more stronger with his Jager after the mission, but Geto seems to find his limit and has to have a specific number of missions he can go per day. Geto centric.

27. Jujutsu Textin’ (Posted, but still updating)

A modern day twitter fic where most of the characters are in college.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure:

28. La Ciruela

It’s late at night, yet both Caesar and Joseph are here on this balcony outside. Joseph hides his heart well. Caesar pines.

29. You Gonna Do Something Killer?

....this is so embarrassing I can’t believe I’m adding it in. Caejose smut fic based on that tequila joseph tiktok and art. Joseph bets that he can seduce Caesar. Caesar- very stupidly, and already in love with Jojo - agrees to it.

30. Distant Dreams, Distant Hearts

Kujo family dynamics (Holly-Jotaro, Jotaro-Jolyne) centric fic with a focus on cards.

31.  Before My Body Is Dry (working title)

A Spiderverse au with a twist, with Jolyne as Miles and Jotaro as Jefferson Davis. 

Miscellaneous: 

32. Red Heaven, White Hell

A Daredevil exploration fic based on colours: red blood, red fights, red justice – white hospital, white crimes, white grief.

33. Time Wounds All the Heals (working title)

An Alex Rider (show) fic. A timeloop story where Alex keeps returning back in time, usually after he finds out Ian dies. Card games will be definitely used as some sort of metaphor.

34. The Oddball Blues

A comedy/ romance Giant Killing fic centered around Tsubaki and Kubota’s spare time in Abu Dhabi.

35. Biohazards, Ballistics, and Global Political Tension: An investigation into the impact of bio-organic weapons on modern society (Posted, but still updating)

Collab with @fangirl-on-fire3 ! A collection of accounts about different events in the resident evil universe in the format of a draft of a PhD report. 

#writing #i love starting fics #but finishing them #.... #jujutsu kaisen #dc #jjba #gintama

[demonicintegrity]

So season 2 of Helluva aired today and I have some misc thoughts.

- the child voices were amazing and spot on. I feel like I’ve heard them before, probably have considering the crew’s ability to somehow get a ton of big voice actors

- I adore all the children. Blitzo and Fizz were so close and Im sure we’ll get a heartbreaking episode about what tore them apart. Stolas was just a nerdy child who needed friends.

- Speaking of which, a Youtube comment which I’ve since lost suggested that Stolas probably suffers from some form middle kid syndrome and was overlooked at lot. The reasoning for this was because there are ~70 goetia demons and Stolas is about midrank. Even Paimon mentioned he had a lot of kids. Judging by how consumed by books he was and the little friends he had I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case. My only question would be why haven’t we seen his siblings around? My only explanation would be that the crew is taking liberties with the demonic interpretation and made him the youngest and all his siblings were older and working. We shall see.

- One of my biggest critiques of the show itself is that it’s writing can be kinda all over the place. There have been episodes where it just wasn’t that good. I’m very pleased to say this wasn’t the case today. Everything was timed and written amazingly. Kudos to the crew. It definitely seems like they’re shifting or at least giving attention to a more serial plotline. I know the show is about I.M.P but I think Stolas’ story is going to be the b plot in season two.

- Speaking of Stolas, we finally get so much context on his relationship with Stella. Before I genuinely didn’t like the fact that he was cheating; and thought significantly less of him for it. Idk how much i’ve stated online but I do think cheating is a very cowardly and shitty thing to do to someone. But now we see their marriage was arranged and Stolas genuinely tried with Stella. Is it even cheating if you two never wanted to be in a relationship to begin with? Maybe not, certainly not to the point of being the bad guy in the situation. She herself acknowledges she had no attachment to Stolas. Her only care is her reputation as a goetia and her entertainment of hurting Stolas.

- We get proof beyond a doubt just how abusive she was. Her screaming and shouting being a clue enough honestly. But now we see how demeaning and cruel she is, purposely insulting him and damaging his image with her gossip. We also see her physical abusiveness again. I say again because she literally threw multiple items at/around him in Octavia’s debut episode. That is a physically abusive behavior and a very concerning one at that. I can’t believe I forgot about that up until this point. She is beyond a doubt the bad guy here. Their is no redeeming or making up for her behavior towards Stolas. (As if there realistically was a coming back from hiring an assassin to take him out.)

- Speaking of her behavior, poor Octavia. I know Stolas was trying to be peacekeeper for her but theres no getting around how unstable of an environment that is. Even if the worst of it started post affair, she had to have witness some of her mother’s cruel behavior towards her dad. I have my doubts about how pleasant she could’ve been towards her. I can already see her trying to pit lil Via against her father. And I fear that when she inevitably feel forced to take a side, Stella is gonna make life hell for her if/when she chooses Stolas. There is no way she won’t be caught in the crossfire of the divorce and I know Stella will either try to weaponize her against him or be abusive towards her if she doesn’t.

- The fact that Stolas somehow pulled himself together enough to be a decent to good enough father to Octavia is honestly miraculous. I have a lot more respect for him now.

- We now have a timeline of events! Them as kids was 25 years ago. With Octavia being born 17 years ago in the present day post date at Ozzies. Assuming Stolas and Stella started trying to conceive when he was 18 that means we saw him around age 10 when he was given his responsibilities. That places him at about 35 rn. It was affair at the anniversary dinner, then over the course of a few months of season one they’re seperated, to post date at Ozzie’s where the confrontation where the divorce is finalized for good. This is Stolas at his final straw, with both Stella and himself. He openly acknowledges he threw himself at Blitzo and sees it’s not recipricated. I think he’s 100% he was lying to himself the entire time that it could’ve been genuine. It was a fantasy he threw himself in because he desperately needed an escape, and what better one than living out a romeo and juliet-esque long lost childhood friends to lovers fantasy? One helluva escapism attempt, but we can see why he was desperate for it.

- Another Youtube comment pointed out a reason he mightve been Perverted Like That is because that’s what Blitzo first responds to. The ravish me bit was a joke but Blitzo went with it and gave Stolas attention with it, fucked him for it, and that’s what Stolas latched onto to keep the relationship. I also think this was the first sex he was actually enjoying, I don’t think he’s had any other partners besides Stella. Unless he dated in his teens it’s very possible he wasn’t having sex outside of what it took to conceive. And it was/is apparently very good to him. This might’ve been the first time he’s having sex and really enjoying it. And sex is very addicting when you’re depressed because it can give you the happy chemicals you’re not producing because youre depressed. His behavior makes a lot more sense now with this added context.

- But yeah. The date at Ozzie’s was the wake up call. This was just a one sided fantasy he pursued for escapism and he can’t ignore that it’s fantasy anymore. So it’s done. As is Stella because 17 years of that is more than enough if it drove him to such an escapism attempt for months. I think he’s about to enter his breakup era and probably try to focus on himself and Octavia more.

- I have more thoughts but this is long enough and took me at least an hour so that’ll be for another time.

#helluva boss #helluva s2e1 #helluva stolas #helluva stella #helluva octavia

[docholligay]

Misc: Ep 2

Hello! This is about up to Episode 2 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 2 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the second episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

Full credit to the pilots for flying all the way to the scene of the crash, as they say, like you’re supposed to as a pilot. 

The crash scene is anxiety-producingly well done.

How DID Van get out, anyhow? I hope we find out. 

I find it interesting that Shauna tries to dodge responsibility in the car crash, when it is…absolutely her fault. I wonder if that’s going to materialize into things from the wild. 

Also, back to Misty, my god, that “you think I’m ugly” thing. Boy, Misty doesn’t GET that she is, at core, unlikeable, does she? She doesn’t get that the problem is not outside of her control. It IS her. 

There wqas no way I could make this into its own post, but let’s all note that the symbol was there when the girls crashed, so whatever it is about has something to do with where they are not them (or both I guess) leading to some light hope that there genuinely is a paranormal component to all this. I would be DELIGHTED if there was some kind of almost…synthesis, like the horrors are real but the horrors are also turning us horrible instead of just being victiims. I think that would be very exciting. CLEARLY, it’s something they end up taking for themselves, and that’s what leads to the postcard. 

I am not surprised that Jessica is not a real reporter, and so, does she work for whoever is sending the postcards? WHo is trying to draw out this stopry? I actually would not be shocked if it ended up being one of Taissa’s political rivals, maybe. Juicy as fuck story. 

I am somewhat relvied that we seem to be leaning into the whole “No, please don’t think nat is cool and the only ‘real one’ she is also a huge fuckup who can’t get it right and not in a neat way’ I’m not FULLY relieved but feeling much more chill about it. I was right so far to have faith. 

Speaking of, so we’re doing a Nat/Travis thing huh? The idea that a solid chunk of these girls would be gay according to my knowledge of soccer teams aside, I wonder if they don’t all just take turns with Travis as “only available boy” 

LOVED the fucking imagery of the Yellowjackets banner over the dead body. Just, great. This idea of pride and tribalism and it all comes to simply cover tragedy, what a brilliant summation. 

WHY DOES LOTTIE ONLY HAVE FIVE DAYS OF PILLS ARE YOUR PARENTS STUPID THAT WON’T EVEN COVER A FLIGHT DELAY

#Doc watches Yellowjackets #Yellowjackets S1 E2

[t4twnyclaw]

theories about RIVER onwards

I thought it’d be fun to post this seeing as some people have access to Sky. For context I had written this immediately after reading RIVER, I had jolted down some insane ideas/events that I thought might happen. I’m going to post them here so u all can see how big my brain is and how wrong/right i was 

i had alot of ideas about specific cats that would get sick/die etc. 

Dewspring from Skyclan succumbs to sickness, so does Sorrelstripe/Sparkpelt

Nightheart’s name-change drama is seen as a bad omen of sorts and he is blamed for TC cats getting ill (blamed specifically by cats like thornclaw and bumblestripe)

I thought Shadowclan and Riverclan would bond more since Frostpaw had only met Sunbeam. In order for them to bond, I thought maybe only Shadowclan would know about Riverclan’s lack of leadership? I don’t know but thats where my brain was at (think of that part where firestar was everyone’s leader for a second in the second series)

Misc Ideas I had for Shadowclan specifically:

Lightleap falls down the same ravine that Reedwhisker and Shadowsight had fallen into. She’s still alive, just missing.

“Sunbeam enjoys Fringewhisker’s company immensely and is quick to see how Spireclaw fell in love with her.” ok gay

 Sunbeam’s relationship with Lightleap doesn’t progress but her relationship with Blazefire is also dwindling. She goes to a gathering where Riverclan's  leader-situation is publicized 

Lightleap urges Fringewhisker to do something risky- in my notes I wanted her to urge Fringewhisker to scare off some new Skyclan apprentices to prove her loyalty to Shadowclan. This causes Fringewhisker to have a hostile relationship with her birth clan and for Sunbeam to forever terminate her relationship with Lightleap

I killed off Gullswoop for some reason in my notes. I also had Tawnypelt dig up her [Gullswoop’s] grave because it was unidentified.

I had this idea that maybe Spireclaw and fingewhisker would run away together (flywhisker and snaptooth style) And that a ‘rescue’ party would get them back.

The rescue party would include Tawnypelt, Sunbeam, Hollowspring and Rootspring -- after Tawnypelt is found passing through Skyclan territory and he feels compelled to join. In my notes I had Sunbeam and the younger warriors do a solo-mission to find the pair but when they don’t return, Nightheart gets concerned for Sunbeam’s safety so he, Sparkpelt, Rootspring and Tawnypelt are the ‘secondary’ rescue party.

ideas for thunderclan:

I was gunning for Squirrelstar in my notes because Bramblestar is sooo pathetic but I know realistically... that might not happen but alot of the drama revolves around this

Bristlekit, Stemkit and Greykit are made into apprentices but Squirrelflight is noted to have had to choose their mentors and basically run the meeting herself, this brings up the Squirrelstar/Bramblestar drama within Thunderclan.

Few cats are pro Bramblestar: Stormcloud, Lionblaze, Lilyheart Birchfall and Eaglewing.

During this drama Nightheart publicly brings up his unconventional idea of leadership-- how it should be decided upon and then switched around. His idea is shot down immediately.

Finchlight and Lightleap are seen together by Nightheart.

Nightheart and Finchlight have a serious falling out because “he finds her blind loyalty towards Thunderclan embarrassing and she finds his lack of nationalism as a sign of betrayal.”

Nightheart goes to the gathering even though Squirrelflight is hesitant about it. At the news of leadership in Riverclan, Finchlight startles Nightheart by declaring that it's what Riverclan deserves due to them having an atheist medicine cat. 

Nightheart is shown to be envious and jealous of the social lives of Bayshine and Myrtlebloom

I struggled the most with coming up for Riverclan drama but here’s what I got.

If Lightleap goes missing- Frostpaw somehow has a vision about this, similar to her ‘vision’ about Reedwhisker

Starclan does not tell Frostpaw who should lead, essentially leaving the decision up to her.  “Starclan doesn't know who should lead Riverclan. They believe that no current Riverclan cat is suitable”

Because Starclan doesn’t know who should lead, nor does Frostpaw as an emergency meeting with the clan’s other leaders are had about this.

Puddleshine is tasked to mentor Frostpaw instead of Mothwing because Mothwing is the acting leader and also an atheist, there’s anxiety from Frostpaw about Mothwing returning to Shadowclan as she is no longer the acting medicine cat or leader, more so Riverclan’s deputy.

Frostpaw is allowed to grieve properly for her mother alongside with her brother and sister

Frostpaw is named Frostfeather 

#asc #asc spoilers but only for RIVER #txt #wc

[msommers]

I would love more Maeve + Superstore thoughts, her friendship with Jonah sounds amazing

(i forgot about this in my drafts for too many days bc i’m a huge dummy don’t look at me here we go slamming post lmfao) oh boy, the tags were a 30 second long goof experiment but i'm always prepared to extend that for any scenario. let's make up some absolute nonsense for the lulz and cuteness.

literally do not ask me why posh brit accent maeve is working at a store in missouri because i don't have time for it and that's not part of the "everything here is for fun" theme.

one of her running gags is that she’s always talking about concepts for stories and tropes that she wants to explore/deconstruct, but anytime she’s asked about progress she’ll have some wild explanation for why she didn’t get very far into writing. there have been at least two rr martin comments made about how long it’s taken her to finish her first book. jonah, amy, sandra and cheyenne have all read some of her short stories/misc chapters of the first book because they’re here favorites full stop. final two seasons are for sure the “oh [bleep], maeve published her book and it’s really taking off” arc for her.

cheyenne is the little sister that she never had, they have matching nails and accessories all the time. maeve often does her hair for her because it’s fun to them and gives them chat time.

she did sandra’s hair and make-up for her wedding 🥰

was genuinely intimidated and putoff by dina for a good while but i cannot be talked out of believing that they wouldn’t have a c-plot in a later season episode of maeve making dina look as hot as can be and trying to teach her how to flirt without being so blunt. is she successful with that last bit?? not really, but she gets to dress dina up and also receive some good advice on not taking people’s shit along the way so that’s fantastic (garrett’s dying in the background and that’s all part of the plan tbh)

obligatory b-plot of maeve having to explain bisexuality and polamory to the breakroom clowns because most of them can’t understand her love life. probably came about as a result of another running gag where maeve talks about one of her dates and it doesn’t add up with her former comments much to the confusion of her coworkers, and then she has to whip out the lecture because she gets accused of straight up lying or fooling around on her partner.

once accidentally made people think she and amy were going on a date because she told justine they were "going out for dinner tonight" and it started an entire Discussion behind their backs (she does, in fact, put out the offer to amy before leaving work. gotta shoot that shot, maybe amy’s feeling a little curious that night who knows a girl can dream)

she and jonah instantly connected and became great friends. they share a specific optimistic outlook in the way that they can see the world for what it could be instead of what it currently is and it’s something that brought them together, then kept them close even through the rough times. she loves his commitment and dedication to any cause that he undertakes, his efforts are inspiring and keep her going whenever her own start to waver. she is absolutely obsessed with how he consistently finds a way to put his foot in his mouth during any conversation, the yin to her yang as maeve’s known for being able to spin a web as quickly and for as long as necessary. their shared need to be validated and praised goes a long way between them because they’re annoyingly nice to each other all the time. they’re those two at the breakroom table talking animatedly about their latest interest or topic they picked up from a podcast/news article/reddit post (toxic masculinity, current politics, feminism, some obscure piece of history or a cryptid of the week, etc). he’s endlessly patient with her and she’s beyond thankful for it. flipside is that she unironically loves listening to him go off on his Woke Rants and gets bullied about it but doesn’t care, she’s there for him through the relationship struggles and does her best to give advice while not stepping over the line (might toe it once or twice but. what can you do, she’s a drama lover). she might have been late because beauty routines but she was also there each step of the way for the union work, besties get it done. maeve sweet talks them and then jonah goes on a righteous rant it’s a win/win.

i think it’s entirely possible she and jonah dated because of how well they get along, but i don’t see it lasting a crazy long time. maybe two, three months at the most (perhaps it’s mostly bc i’m an amy/jonah hoe and they belong together forever but whatever, don’t perceive me). a scenario where they’d both decide it’s better they stay friends and they get away with it without much weirdness, aka maeve’s fine and jonah or the coworkers makes it awkward sometimes before it settles. i do in fact think he’d be the first love interest of maeve’s that i can see her using “baby” as the primary petname because like,,,it’s jonah. you get it. if they dated, she has a photo taken of them from one of their dates taped up in her breakroom locker and it stays up there until she leaves the job bc she adores it so much.

insert bit where maeve makes a threesome joke with her + jonah and amy, and there’s a pause Just long enough with everyone looking between each other that it appears genuine consideration is there but the camera cuts before anything else is said. the world may never know what happened after that

everyone keeps trying to make drama between her and amy because they’re both close to jonah, but i fully believe maeve would adore and respect her far too much to reach any level of rivalry. she’d be in awe of how strong of a woman amy is between raising her children and working her ass off so successfully, and i imagine a lot of their bonding would be maeve persuading her into taking time for herself or them having girls’ nights (whether by themselves or with some of the others).

put the tabby obligated “they have two hands” joke here about maeve/amy/jonah. i haven’t put any thought into if it’d work out or if the other two could be into that sort of relationship but i’m legally and morally obligated to bring it up on the principle that it’s My Thing.

#ch: maeve sommers #i don't know what else to tag this as so i simply won't #days later tabby here: i have vague memories of writing these things super late at night so that's prolly why it was forgotten #between that and dnd the day after lol #a whole load of rambles and y'know what that's tabby all over so i'm leaving it like this #we're not here for neatly organized or fancily worded thoughts #thank you for the ask!!! it was so fun n cute

[lesstheshadow]

A belated fic round-up!

wanted to catch up my fic tag here to fill in the gap between old stuff and a couple of new things, so here’s a list of some of my favourite fics I’ve posted in the last... nearly two years. 

Dividing this loosely into categories for ease — character studies, misc femslash, dimilix, sylvix, and felileth. this is long i’m sorry.

character studies:

love and other lies — Sylvain (implied sylvix), 1.7k, T

Sylvain survives a war. On the other side of it lies the rest of his life.

(also in the sylvix section, but it’s mostly a character study so it’s going here too)

the taste of memory — Dedue, 2.6k, T

Dedue’s time was divided these days. His village, by the Duscur coast, all sharp sun and sea, and Fhirdiad, the castle made of domineering stone and cold echoes—he drifted, never feeling quite at home in either place, always slightly the outsider. His two worlds had been sharply separated, the division enforced without ever having really to think about it. There was nothing of Duscur in these walls, save Dedue. His homeland was an abstract concept, not… not a culture.

Dimitri organises Fhirdiad's first Duscur Cultural Festival, and Dedue finds home in places he doesn't expect.

loyalty weighs — Petra & Dedue, 2.7k, T

Even in wartime, Abyss is the only place you can find some things. Or, Dedue and Petra discuss loyalty.

first starlight — Claude/Sylvain, 7.8k, T

Negotiating peace with Sreng, Sylvain comes across a familiar face where he wasn't expecting it.

(not exactly a character study but going here because I don’t have another category to put it in)

The Holy Heart — Rhea (as Seiros), 2k, T

After her death, Seiros leaves the land which betrayed her mother. But she takes what is left of Sothis with her.

Inspired by Joseph of Arimathea legends.

misc femslash:

what we are to each other — Edelgard/Ingrid, 1.5k, T

It hurt to want to believe her, and to not know if she could. “I am your knight,” Ingrid said. “I am your lance.” “And after?” Edelgard said, almost whispered. “I do not intend to fight forever.”

Loyalty, purpose, and what happens when you defect from the only home you've ever known.

the body kneeling — Mercedes/Marianne, 1.8k, Explicit

It’s easy to kiss Marianne. She responds so beautifully, coming alive under Mercedes’s fingertips. All her stillness becomes a shiver of thwarted motion, and she presses back into Mercedes — matching her, movement for movement.

Mercedes, Marianne, and an empty chapel.

evening coming in — Dorothea/Mercedes, 2.8k, Explicit

Broaching it directly seems like too much, though. The newness of everything between them, the whispered kisses and candlelit evenings — it would hardly stand up to a conversation like that. What could Dorothea say? “Oh, Mercedes, not to force my own views about the pointlessness of religion on you when it’s obviously taken you a lot to turn against the church that raised you and to which you were devoted, but it’s bothering me a bit that you spend your time in an draughty cathedral.”

Dorothea likes to think she isn’t quite that selfish.

Or: Dorothea wants to defile Mercedes on an altar. She gets a little defiled instead.

rosy-fingered moon — Ingrid/Mercedes, 6.7k, Explicit

On the road back to Garreg Mach, Mercedes and Ingrid meet again for the first time in five years.

the root of the root — Edelgard/Lysithea, 2.5k, T

Ten years after the end of the war, Lysithea reluctantly returns to Enbarr, Edelgard, and things she thought she could leave behind.

dimilix:

By Your Hands — CF route, 700 words, mature. PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS.

Dimitri dies on the Tailtean Plains. But it is not by Edelgard's hands.

trust fall — modern AU, 4k, Explicit

Felix tells Dimitri he trusts him. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dimitri entirely misunderstands him. (BDSM, trans Felix.)

circling back — modern AU, 8.8k, T

Dimitri hasn't spoken to Felix in years, but he'll take any opportunity he can get. A story about reconnection, recovery, and falling in love even when everything is more than a little fucked up.

sylvix:

deepens like a coastal shelf — mid-Azure Moon, 3k, T

Felix and Sylvain grow up surrounded by Faerghus’s obsession with battle, its obsession with death. They don’t talk about it.

恋旧林 (liàn jiù lín) — longing for the old forest — xianxia AU, 4.8k, T

Something is plaguing the forest, and Felix has returned to find it. Sylvain is waiting for him.

But you can never quite go back to the places you've left.

love and other lies — post-canon, 1.7k, T

Sylvain survives a war. On the other side of it lies the rest of his life.

(also in the character study section! the sylvix is only implied but it’s there)

felileth:

cut free — canon divergence enemies to lovers, 6k, T

"What are you here for?”

Felix snorts. “Spar with me,” he says bluntly.

Byleth is rarely shocked. “You’ll let me have a weapon?”

With Edelgard defeated, Byleth plans to escape her captivity from an Arianrhod controlled by Fraldarius. Somehow, she finds an unexpected ally.

fire under the skin — modern AU, 3.7k, Explicit

Felix wants to try something new. The problem is actually asking Byleth about it. (Felix gets pegged, the fic.)

Snow on the Locket — post-canon “murder” mystery, 14.2k, T

At Fódlan’s Locket, long-awaited trade negotiations between Fódlan and Almyra are under way. But they’re rudely interrupted when a snowstorm and an assassin all arrive at once.

#my fic #fe3h #sylvix #dimilix #fraldarddyd #felileth #edelys #mercigrid #edelgrid #dorocedes #claudevain

[boygirlctommy]

Listen I know exactly what this is BUT I’m not giving the entire context because it’s embarrassing but here’s something I wrote because it’s midnight and I am TIRED but the words are going yknow?

They watched as he gently rocked back and forth, tenderly holding her in his arms, joyful tears pouring down his cheeks, a smile stretched across his face. It was a heartwarming scene, and it filled them with jealousy. jealousy that burned like a fire in the pit of their soul. All consuming, blinding, hot jealousy. They weren’t sure who it was aimed at, but that didn’t change the wildfire roaring in their heart.

They might have been jealous of her. For being held so lovingly, for being so safe in someone else’s arms. For being so confident and loud about who she cared for, for showing much she loved others, for being so unconditionally loved. For being the one carefully danced with, for being the one who’s hand was always held, for being the one who was always taken care of and looked after and reassured that everything would be okay. They might have been jealous of her hope and innocence and the love she was able to give and receive.

They might have been jealous of him. For being the object of their sisters affection, for being on the receiving end of a scribbly crayon drawing with a shaky signature scrawled along the bottom. for being so recklessly and boldly proclaimed as a loved one, as they stood a few feet off, background noise. For being so kind, so thoughtful, so strong, for his ability to help in the right way. For being the one appreciated, for being the one thanked, for being the one looked up to and marveled at and LOVED. They might have been jealous of his sureness and stability and the love he was able to give and receive.

The jealously burned on, threatening anger and threatening tears as they stood, feet glued to the ground, eyes unable to tear their gaze from the outrageous display of love before them.

He looked up at them, he opened an arm.

An invitation.

they hesitated. Is this what they wanted? was this allowed? Did they deserve this, did they deserve this, did they deserve this?

in a moment of thoughtless, worry-less, utter humanity, they stepped forward. The fire cooled as they sank into the embrace.

maybe I too am capable of giving and receiving love.

#my post #my writing #misc oc tag #the wondrous oc tag #listen all you need to know is that this is just a really strange found family dynamic #enemies to coworkers to friends to siblings (?) arc going on here #so there’s this person. who has a little sister. and a coworker. #and they all live together. lets not get into why. not important. #what’s important is the sister is 4 and sees the coworker as a father figure and is not afraid to tell the world #the the person is afraid that coworker will find this strange of offputting. but coworker is crying and would now die for child #even more than before. and now PERSON is confused bcus #‘bro that’s MY sister why doesn’t she openly care for me like that? and why doesn’t HE ever openly care for me like that??’ #yeah they’re a fucked up little found family #but they’ve got eachother so they’ll be okay :’)

[harvesthollowif]

This post will be updated whenever I have new information to share. I will reblog it mentioning in the tags what the updates are!

Sorry there’s not much here at the moment as the story being written is still SUPER early in development ~! 

Tags and links in the read more !!!

[ DEMO (TBA) ]

🎃 Title: Harvest Hollow

🎃 Genre: lighthearted adventure fantasy

[ TBA ]

🧍🏻‍♂️ Aiden Akiyama 🧍🏻‍♂️

human, he/him, bi, 25

intro post

your best friend, you’ve known each other basically your whole lives as he and his family live in the house right across the street from you. aiden is a lover of modern horror movies (he likes classic ones too but sometimes he just can’t stand how bad the graphics are). he’s attending the local community college along with you where he’s studying graphic design. 

💀 Atlas Hel 💀

child of the grim reaper, he/him, bi, 28

intro post

no one in halloweentown knows much about atlas, he doesn’t go out around town much and likes to keep to himself. his only real friend that he’d admit to is scarlett. that being said, most people in town are intimidated and even scared of him (his father being the grim reaper and the mayor does not help). so not many people want to be friends with him anyway. he comes off as cold and uncaring... but is that really who he is?

🐺 Jude O'Clery 🐺

werewolf, he/him, bi, 27

intro post

being the oldest child of the most respected werewolf pack, and being a very strong looking boi, most are shocked when they first meet jude and he’s literally the opposite of scary and intimidating. he is the definition of having a golden retriever personality. will do anything for his friends and family. the sweetest boy you’ll ever meet. he’s just here to have a good time tbh. kinda a himbo lol.

🔮 Nox Bishop 🔮

warlock, they/them, bi, 25

intro post

there are many covens in halloweentown and in similar towns around the world, the bishop coven is one of the most well known, specializing in healing magic/spells. and nox is specualted to be one of the more powerful warlocks of this generation. and that is probably the only thing they’re humble about. nox is very confident, outgoing, and not shy at all. they’re always ready to make a new friend.

🧛🏾‍♀️ Scarlett Albescu 🧛🏾‍♀️

vampire, she/her, bi, 29

intro post

picture your classic vampire; dark, bloody, spooky. that’s not scarlett. ever since she was a child she’s always been drawn towards the light (even though it burns her lol). her family is more on the classic vampire side but she just never liked the same things as them. scarlett likes to garden, and read, and while it’s unusual for vampires to keep pets, she has a soft spot for cats and likes to take care of the strays in town. a soft girl.

🗡️ Thalia Linwood 🗡️

troll, she/her, bi, 27

intro post

thalia is a town guard. it’s her job to keep the people in halloween town safe, and now that you’re here her job has suddenly got a lot harder. she’s all work and no play and is not looking forward to whatever nonsense you’re about to drag her into. she likes to exercise for fun but being a troll, plants and botany are in her blood. so if you catch her talking to a plant NO YOU DIDN’T YOU WANNA FIGHT?

🎃 “# ro: [name]”

inspiration for the ro’s, things that remind me of them or their route, art of them

ro: aiden

ro: atlas

ro: jude

ro: nox

ro: scarlett

ro: thalia

🎃 “# things [ro] would reblog ”

posts that the ro’s would reblog if they were on tumblr, to give more glimpses of their personality

things aiden would reblog

things atlas would reblog

things jude would reblog

things nox would reblog

things scarlett would reblog

things thalia would reblog

🎃 misc

announcement (any updates or announcements for the game)

.txt (any text posts i post that may or may not be about the game)

art (any art made for the game)

spooky inspo (inspo for the game that is more spooky / creepy)

fun inspo (inspo for the game that is more cute / fun / good vibes)

picrew (picrews / meikers of characters)

ro asks (asks that include all ro’s)

[ TBA ]

#interactive fiction #harvest hollow #if info #announcement

[royal-ruin]

genshin fic recs (part 5)

or the ones involving kazuha. i just realized i have quite a few fic recs that are kazuha centric, so i thought i’d make a seperate post about it. the starred ones are my personal favorites.

genshin fic recs part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

the sunlight feels warmer when you smile by alittleunstable

(~15k)

For Beidou, it’s all just the same as every other job, except her cargo is human. Well, until the boy opens his mouth and she starts to feel things she never has before.

She’s not mother material. Hasn’t ever wanted to be a mother. Didn’t even consider it. But the universe knows better, and she finds herself every bit the mother she never thought she’d be.

Now, if only there was a way to explain this to Ningguang that wouldn’t result in mocking laughter and a great deal of smugness.

or beidou adopts kazuha. hella cute, slightly angsty at first.

*Enkindle by taiyakii

(~17k)

“Alright. I won’t push it,” Beidou says at last, folding her arms over her chest. “Archons know you’re stubborn. And you’ve got every right to be--you’ve been on your own for a long time, I can tell. All I’m saying is...the crew’s here for you, you know.”

Kazuha closes his eyes, unsure of what to make of the fragile sensation that flutters in his chest, the faintest part of him that likes the sound of what she’s saying, that keeps reaching out when there’s nothing to find.

“I know.”

-

Or, Kazuha learns to grieve.

another beidou and kazuha (platonic) fic cuz i love them. kazuah grieves for his friend.

wanderer of hearts by tooruluvr

(~15k)

When he’s gotten close enough, he peers through the thicket. Gorou’s eyes settle on the clearing before him, on the dozen or so men with their weapons drawn, and then, finally—

Him.

Gorou sees Kaedehara Kazuha for the first time and feels all breath leave him at once.

gorou/kazuha.

Kintsugi by creamyalbedo (bmot)

(~5k)

Tomo’s death had destroyed Kazuha and Gorou's relationship. Grief made it impossible to remake their life as three into a life as two, so Kazuha had left.

Now Kazuha has returned to Inazuma. He expected seeing Gorou to hurt—and it does—but he hadn't expected longing to outweigh it so quickly.

this one has explicit smut, so be warned.

The Sounds of Nature (the world through your eyes) by jello12451

(~5k)

“What colour are your eyes?”

Kazuha tilts his head from where he had been sitting on the rock, meditating. “And what prompted this question, Traveler?”

“Ah, I don’t know…” Aether mumbles before answering. “It’s just that the eyes of vision bearers are so peculiar in this world.”

Kazuha hums, noncommittal. They sit in the quietness of nature before he speaks again.

“I would say that I don’t remember.” Kazuha says, a tinge of sadness in his words. “But Tomo would always say that they were like the brightest reds of the maple leaves.”

OR: In which Kazuha is blinded while escaping Tenshukaku with his friend's vision, and the way his senses have always influenced his life slowly become known (along with a few new family members and friends to go with).

*No Longer a Puppet by thecrazychatlady

(~7k)

This is the story of Kunikuzushi, a puppet who, in one universe, fell in with the Fatui to become their balladeer. In this one, he finds himself a member of Sangonomiya's resistance. But he cares little for politics and more for the two men who recruited him. And so this is the story of his becoming human.

scaramouche never joins the fatui. kinda relationship between kazuha/scaramouche/kazuha’s friend (tomo). not really kazuha-centric, but i thought this was prob the best place to put this fic, so oh well.

misc.

The Master of Dawn Winery Doesn't Drink Wine (and Five Other Things to Know Before Trying to Kill Diluc Ragnvindr) by resince

(~4k)

He receives his assignment on a too-hot day when he’s just arrived in Mondstadt. Diluc Ragnvindr is all it says. That is enough for him. But, the more he learns, the more this target seems impossible.

no ships, but a little hint of plantonic diluc/kaeya

Of Wind and Chalk by sparklinglabyrinth

(~15k)

Albedo suspects a certain bard is more than meets the eye. Numerous developments occur that only continue to fuel his suspicion until the truth is inevitably disclosed. (Or Albedo musing on multiple in game events related to Venti, Mondstadt and Durin)

albedo/venti

what is taken from us, and what we leave behind by Korora8

(~2k)

Head bowed, wrists chafed, Vision burning against his side, Thoma knelt in front of the Statue of the Omnipresent God.

He had seen those who had had their Vision stripped from them, empty husks of people who would never again remember their ambitions, hopes and dreams.

His biggest fear was what memories would be taken from him along with his Vision.

My ambitions…

My ambitions have been long intertwined with yours, my Lady.

Forgive me, Ayaka.

it’s really short, but it broke my heart :(

#genshin #genshin fic rec #kaedehara kazuha #kazuha #kazuha x tomo #kazuha x gorou #diluc #albedo x venti

[kjmsupremacist]

💧 TEASER!! 💧 The Bucket List (doyoung/taeyong)

Doyoung’s always been a bit depressed, but this last year has really put him through the wringer and he’s been pretty suicidal. So his therapist cuts him a deal. Make a bucket list. A real, actual bucket list, of all the things he wants to experience, and then do everything on that list. If, at the end of the list, he still wants to kill himself, then they’ll go from there. His therapist has a feeling that won’t be the case. Doyoung would beg to differ, but he plays along anyway. And then he meets Taeyong, who finds out about the bucket list and makes it his mission to help Doyoung fall in love with being alive again.

ask or reply to this post to be added to the taglist!

Characters: Doyoung, Taeyong; misc family members

Genre: angst, eventual romance, hurt/comfort, college!au (but the collegeness isn’t really there as this occurs over the summer)

Pairing: Doyoung/Taeyong

Warnings: discussions of suicide, depression, self harm, mental illness; homophobia, bullying, family dysfunction. heavy heavy shit!!

Rating: Teen & Up

Projected length in total: 8 chapters, each about 3-6k words

Teaser Length: just under 1k words

Release date: Wednesday, April 13th, with updates every other week (supposedly)

you can listen to the official playlist here!

This work is very heavy, and potentially triggering. There are serious, lengthy, and often detailed discussions of bullying, homophobia, mental illness, self-harm, and suicide. Please proceed with caution.

continue reading for a preview!

The A/C is humming louder than usual today, though it’s no hotter out than it was when Doyoung was here a week ago. How often does A/C need maintenance? Maybe that’s why; maybe the mechanisms inside are heating up, and he won’t even know it before he’s blasted backwards by the force of the explosion.

“Doyoung.” Doyoung snaps his gaze forward, realizing he’s been completely zoning out. “I don’t think your parents are paying me to watch you stare out the window.”

“Sorry, Dr. Cha,” Doyoung mumbles.

“It’s alright.” His therapist leans back, relaxed now that she has his attention again. “You seem… distracted today, clearly. Your mind is distant. It’s been nearly ten minutes and you’ve spoken about five words to me. What is it?”

Doyoung looks down at his lap where his hands lie limp against his thighs. His thumb twitches, chasing a loose thread along the seam of his shorts. “It’s nothing,” he says. “Like literally nothing. There’s nothing in here.” He taps his temple, looking back up. “It’s like… radio static.”

“Ah.” Dr. Cha nods. “Say more. What kind of nothing is it?”

Doyoung thinks for a minute. He tries not to lie to Dr. Cha. He knows she’s supposed to help. He wants her to be able to help him, though he doubts anybody actually can. But it’s nice to pretend, so for the most part he tends to play along. “It’s just… empty. Like most days. But more today than usual, I guess.” He tilts his head to the side, trying to find another way to explain. The more words you use, the more ways I can find to help you, Dr. Cha had told him during their first session. “It just kind of feels like… there’s nothing left.” He snorts to himself softly. “That sounds bad, doesn’t it?”

Dr. Cha offers him a small smile. “Yes,” she says. “I don’t think you’d be here if it didn’t.”

This is another reason why Doyoung tries not to lie to Dr. Cha—because she doesn’t crucify him for telling the truth, or freak out and threaten to call his parents or the hospital. She knows when he’s really in danger and when he’s just expressing some latent frustration. It’s the latter today; they both know it, so there’s no need for panic or crucifixion.

Doyoung spreads his hands. “I just feel… stagnant, I guess. No offense,” he adds. “You’re doing your best. I just… don’t know if I’m ever going to get better. Like I think this is it. This is going to be it for the rest of my life. Which… makes me ask, like, what’s the point?”

Dr. Cha nods slowly. “I see,” she says. “Empty, as in void of meaning or purpose. That’s never good.”

“No,” Doyoung agrees. He doesn’t ask what he should do. Dr. Cha will offer him a solution if she has one.

“How strong is the suicidal ideation?” Dr. Cha asks.

Doyoung likes this about Dr. Cha, too. She doesn’t mince words. She doesn’t waste time trying to trick him into answering with pretty euphemisms. She doesn’t try to dumb things down or talk to Doyoung like he’s a kid. She asks, and hopes he’ll be just as frank in his response.

“Medium?” Doyoung estimates. “It’s there, but nothing concrete.”

“Okay.” Dr. Cha sets her notepad aside; she flipped it to a new page when Doyoung walked in, and it has remained blank. “I have a proposal for you, then. You’re not busy this summer?”

Doyoung shakes his head. “My parents didn’t want me working.”

“Right. Okay, so here’s the proposal. I want you to make a bucket list.”

Doyoung blinks. “What, like shit I want to do before I die?”

“Yes.” Dr. Cha’s tone is light, but her eyes are serious. “That’ll be your homework this week. Make a bucket list, bring it to me, and then I want you to do all the things on that list. Or as many things as possible. We can talk about it once the list is made. And after you’ve completed it, to the best of your ability, we’ll see where you stand. And if, after you complete the list, you still feel like killing yourself, we’ll go from there.”

Doyoung arches an eyebrow at her. “And what if I don’t want to do anything?” he asks, maybe challenges. “What if there’s nothing on that list?”

Dr. Cha regards him for a moment. “I don’t think that’s true, though, Doyoung,” she says. Her voice is gentle. Rarely does she pull the classic therapist card of Telling The Patient How They Feel, so Doyoung knows she means it. “I think there is something keeping you here, and I think it’s more than fear and more than duty to your family, and more than the paralysis that comes with the exhaustion of depression. I’d like you to think about what it might be.”

Doyoung drops the snark. She’s being sincere; he ought to be as well. “Okay,” he says. “But what if my list is pretty short? I feel like not a lot is going to change if I only have, like, three things on it.”

“Well, if there are only three things, then there are only three things,” Dr. Cha says with a shrug. “I’m not going to give you a minimum. But I do want you to go home and think about it, like really think about it, okay? Can we agree to that? You put real effort into this, and I’ll meet you wherever you end up.” She holds his gaze for a second. “Even if it’s only three things.”

Doyoung nods. “Alright,” he agrees. “The terms seem fair. It’s a deal.” 

Dr. Cha smiles and offers her hand to shake. Doyoung accepts it. “It’s a deal,” she repeats. The A/C hums, bearing witness.

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[furnass]

I don't remember if I've seen Viola yet? Then again I'm rlly busy being an adult and what extra space is left in my brain is full of my own things

I honestly haven't posted much abt her, I remember saying some things abt her when she was still in development, I wanted some musical themed quest siblings and that's how Viol came to be!

This is an excuse to go off abt her thank you bugg <33 it'll be below the cut bc this is getting kinda long LMAO (also all art done by @  motor-oil-soup on tumblr thank you sarge <3)

She's one of 3 siblings, and is the middle child. Her older sibling is named Dizzy (jazz-themed, she/they/he), and her younger sister is Delilah (goth/dark folk/folk punk themed, she/her). Viol is themed after classical music and more specifically she is Polish (thank Sarge for that)

Since she's music-themed, I like her attacks to be via music. I imagine her having mostly wind-themed attacks but instead of using any kind of weapon she has a violin she uses. I'd imagine it to be like she plays something and it goes off of that, like some of Orik's attacks, or Thayne's when he gives status effects. I haven’t decided everything for her attack wise so :]

She was raised in a way of like a child musical prodigy, gifted kid burnout type thing. She plays multiple instruments and still loves music, but had issues growing up which included the fact that her & her siblings were All Trans <3 They each ended up going their own way, Viol ended up at the college at the same time Copernica was there, and they became friends :)   (I imagine Delilah to live in the cursed city, and Dizzy travels around and performs anywhere they can go :) )

Viol at that time she was first at the college did have a massive ass Crush on Copernica, but saw how Copernica talked abt Armilly so she didn't try and pursue anything. The two of them had conflicting views on how the college should be handled, and when Copernica left, Viol stayed because she wanted to help change how things were happening, she had faith in the staff. Hyapathia eventually becomes headmistress, and Viol is working under her, and really believes that Hyapathia could help make the college better. So later when the quest group comes back to the college, Viol is sent by Hyapathia to 'deal with them'.

So Viol fights some of the quest crew (Armilly and Copernica are off looking at something so Copernica doesn’t see Viol immediately) and they kick her ass after a fight <3. But then Copernica sees Viol, Viol sees Copernica, and it's kinda a like. HUH??? moment for both of them, like hey what are you doing here? 

Copernica and Viol catch up for a bit and she tells Viol what’s been going on, and at this point Copernica has realized Hyapathia is the new Headmistress, so they probably talk about that. Copernica also is tasked with introducing Viol to the others as she never met anyone besides from Copernica in the group. Viol is a bit confused as to why her ex crush best friend is now in a group with some kids and an old guy but. She’s very glad to see Copernica again.

Okay now for the gay part. Her and Armilly bond together bc Viol shares her energy with certain things and a friend of her friend is also a friend, and Viol bonds with Copernica b/c they were previously friends and they both share a love for magic and Viol learns abt alchemy from her. I have some self-indulgent content of them in the depths of my google drive which consist of when Viol meets the quest crew, and I’ll probably eventually write one of Viol getting together with Armilly & Copernica. There’s more misc things involving @motor-oil-soup ‘s oc Cordi b/c they are Friends. Besties even.

I haven't done much art of her ever since Sarge hit her w the Polish Beam /lh but I'll put some of the stuff it's done :] (Once again Sarge when you see this thank you for doing my girl justice <3) Fun little thing abt her: Her pipe is a gramophone!!!

#viol tag #furnass.txt #!!!! thank you for this ask bugg #sometimes i neglect my beautiful girl viol and this post gives her the love she deserves #since ive mentioned them #delilah tag #dizzy tag #sorry this took a while to post lmao i have lots of thoughts abt viol