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appocalipse · 2 years

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Pancakes & Secrets | eddie munson x reader x steve harrington

Fandom: Stranger Things

Pairing: Eddie Munson x henderson!reader (female pronouns used) x Steve Harrington

Words: 2.8k

Summary: After witnessing enough mutual pining from the guy you’re in love with and his ex-girlfriend, you leave under the pretense of bringing food to “Eddie the banished”, as he likes to call himself. But things take a turn for the worse when Jason and his gang finally find out where Eddie is hiding, and you have to spend the night outside in the cold, with no way to let your friends know you’re okay, and only Eddie for company....but actually, maybe he is not so bad.

A/N: hello! it’s me again. this time I bring you a new series that (if you guys enjoy it) will eventually split into two “routes” — one for Steve and one for Eddie, following the events of season 4 and beyond. I’ll try to keep from writing the scenes we already watched, though, so I’ll only briefly explain what happened in said scenes when needed and focus on the scenes that involve Eddie x Reader or Steve x Reader for this chapters. Also, IDK why, but I’m obsessed with the henderson!reader concept, so it’s here once again lmao sue me.

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You take a look at Reefer Rick’s old house, plastic bags in hand, car turned off behind you, and wonder how on God’s green Earth you ended up here.

The answer, actually, is very clear: making bad decisions.

You move straight to the door, but hesitate; should you knock? By now, Eddie has surely heard the car, or your footsteps, and you’re hardly trying to hide your presence. But after everything he’s been through, you think it’s not fair to risk scaring him anymore, since you couldn’t even let him know you were coming because the walkie-talkie stayed with Dustin at the mansion — along with a few pieces of your broken heart, most likely.

You balance both plastic bags in one hand and use the other to gently but audibly knock three times, still thinking about all the stupid things you've been doing lately. Eddie opens the door two seconds later, looking like someone who has just seen a fish climbing a tree.

“Hey,” he says uncertainly, tilting his head to the side as if trying to decipher you. “Is something wrong?”

Eddie reaches out and indicates the bags, waiting for you to give him permission to take them. When he closes his fingers around the straps and you don't protest—in fact, you look relieved; it was a little heavy—Eddie takes both bags in one hand and politely holds the door open for you to walk through with the other.

“Thanks,” you say, also walking on eggshells. Your knowledge of Eddie ends with him being the leader of Hellfire Club and the newest idol of your little brother Dustin; you’re not exactly friends, to put it simply, but now you’re also hardly strangers. “And no, nothing is wrong. I just thought I’d bring you some...pancakes.”

You realize mid-sentence how absurd that sounded. Eddie is wanted for murder, and you thought it would be a good idea to make him pancakes of all things.

By the look on his face, Eddie thinks the same, though his tone is far from judgemental. “Pancakes?”

You take the frying pan out of one of your bags, now on the table where Eddie put them down for you. He watches you curiously as you take out all the items you would need. “You don’t like pancakes?”

“Love them,” he is quick to respond, in a tone that’s energetic and charming, very Eddie-like.

“Good.”

He sits around the kitchen table, resting his chin on his hand, trying to act casual as he watches you work. But Eddie Munson is not casual. He's not normally calm and patient, but under the current circumstances, it's a miracle he sits back and watches you long enough for you to at least finish mixing the ingredients—which doesn't take even five minutes. When you put the batter in the frying pan, however, Eddie's curiosity gets the better of him.

“So...don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have company and all, but...why are you here?”

You take a deep, annoyed breath — but it’s not his question that annoys you; it’s the answer. Because, for some reason, you end up saying the truth. Angrily.

“Couldn’t stand the mutual pining any longer, I guess.”

Eddie’s eyebrows shoot even higher, no doubt sensing something juicier behind what you just said. “Mutual pining?”

“Never mind,” your brain catches up to your mouth as you carefully flip a pancake; it lands perfectly back on the frying pan, and Eddie lets out a low whistle.

“Impressive,” he compliments, genuinely enough. When you look at him over your shoulder, his expression reminds you of that of a small kid full of joy and dreams, and somehow you know he is genuine in his attempt to cheer you up. Eddie seems to be a glass-half-full kind of guy, and for a moment, you feel tempted to forget all about Steve and Nancy.

When the first pancake is all done, the right shade of golden on both sides, you place it on a clean plate and hand it to Eddie, hiding your anticipation.

He takes a big bite, eyes going dramatically wide, a satisfied smile on his face. Eddie then stops for a second and says, covering his mouth full of pancake, “You’re my new favorite person, Y/N.”

He sees when you smile; sweet and embarrassed in equal measure; but he also notices that it doesn’t quite reach your eyes.

“You look suddenly so sad for someone who just made the world's best pancakes.”

“I highly doubt those are the world’s best pancakes,” you say nonchalantly, but the longer his gaze lingers on you, the harder it is to keep the words at bay. There is a part of you that desperately wants to get it out of your system...Maybe it will help?

Before you know it, your mouth is opening, more than ready to spill the words way too quickly.

“Okay, fine, you win,” you shrug. “There is this guy I-” Love? “-like, but he is in love with someone else. There. Satisfied?”

There are a lot of things going through Eddie Munson's mind right now. First, you are not what he expected; of course, Dustin always made you seem nice when he talked about you, but he's your brother, so Eddie tended to take his opinions of you with a grain of salt — especially because he knew you had your fair share of admirers and you were far from being an outcast like him.

But now, seeing you up close, the smell of freshly made pancakes in the air, and hearing you confess to what is probably a big secret, he understands.

Honestly, he is glad to have something to occupy his mind with other than monsters and murder.

“Uh...would this someone happen to be his ex-girlfriend?” he asks, his curious nature once again getting the better of him.

You’re halfway through flipping a pancake over, the last one, and it almost falls to the floor as his words sink in.

“Sorry...I pay attention.”

“It’s okay,” you sigh, placing the pancakes on the table and taking the seat opposite him. “I guess it’s obvious.”

“Have you told him?”

You scoff. “No. Why would I?”

Eddie happily takes another pancake. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because. He is clearly into her and she is clearly into him...basic math there.”

Eddie smirks — he has a nice smile, you think, like sitting under the sunlight on a cold day; easy, comfortable. “You know, Henderson once told me his older sister wasn’t afraid of anything...does he have any other siblings I don’t know about?”

“Very funny,” you mock, letting out a forced laugh to further prove your point. “I’m not afraid of telling him. I just think it’ll get me nowhere.”

Eddie is going for a third pancake, seemingly very pleased with himself. “If you say so, Y/N.”

You are definitely afraid of telling Steve.

Eddie opens his mouth, and you think he's going to say more about your little crush on Steve, but then he stops; for a second you feel relieved, but Eddie freezes, trying to listen better, putting down the pancake he was about to take a bite of.

Something is wrong.

“Did you hear that?” he murmurs, color slowly draining from his face.

That's when you hear it— a car door closing, voices, loud angry voices, and then… footsteps. Eddie is faster than you. He reaches across the table to grab your hand and crouches down, bringing you with him, trying to keep you both out of sight of the kitchen window. A look outside confirms what you feared: it's not the police, but just as bad (or maybe worse): is Chrissy's boyfriend, Jason. And he's coming straight to the front door.

“Eddie-”

Placing a finger over his mouth, Eddie signals for you to follow him — although his fingers are still firmly closed over your hand, so there’s little you could do but follow behind him.

You get to the back door at the same time you hear the front door opening. Eddie points to the boathouse, all focused on the best route to get away; you nod. Then, you run — silently.

When the door is safely — and silently — closed behind you both, Eddie lets go of your hand to grab a hold of the walkie-talkie, hands shaking.

“Dustin?” he pleads, wide eyes reflecting your own as you wait. No answer. “Dustin...please. Are you there?”

Through the small window of the boathouse, you can see movement inside the main house. Jason and the others must be searching it right now, looking for any leads to get Eddie. You've never exchanged a single word with Jason, but you know the chances of him having any sympathy for you are slim; Dustin is part of Hellfire Club, and now you’re hiding Eddie — well, more like hiding with Eddie, but still. Trying to talk to him would be simply stupid.

“Let me try,” you snatch the walkie-talkie from Eddie, who only shrugs, moving away to look around for something you could use. “Dustin, c’mon. We kinda need help over here.”

It’s funny — he is always with the damn thing on his hand when you don’t actually need him to be.

“Hey.”

Eddie is holding the tarp that covered the little — and no doubt old — boat, the same in which he was hiding when you found him the first time, broken bottle in hand and all. He extends his hand to you. “C’mon.”

You stare at him. Then at the boat. Then at his hand.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope.” He gestures towards the boat dramatically. “Your carriage awaits, milady.”

He may jest, but beneath all that, there’s the desperation, the tension, the eagerness to get away. Not that you’re not feeling those yourself.

“Also,” he adds, as if reading your mind, “please hurry.”

“I’m not a fan of boats.”

He takes a step closer to you, hand still outstretched. “I’m not a fan of getting killed by high school athletes.”

Well...fair enough, you think. And take his hand.

–

In spite of all the ways you thought your night could end, this one slipped your mind.

It's dark and cold, and you and Eddie are walking to seemingly nowhere after witnessing what is probably the worst scene of your lives — well, it sure does make it to the top three for you, at least.

You let Eddie walk ahead, hurried steps but soft gaze every time he turns around to make sure you're following. The entire path you are walking looks the same to you, but he seems to know what he's doing. You don't protest.

What was his name again? You think, trying to keep the grotesque image of the last few minutes of that boy's life out of your mind, and failing miserably. Patrick, Jason had called him. Desperately, as every bone in his body began twisting and breaking...

A hand on your shoulder startles you, and you look up to meet Eddie’s concerned gaze, only then noticing you had stopped walking. “You okay?”

That’s what Eddie saw the night Chrissy died?

“Yeah.” No.

Eddie drops his hand, nodding. “Let’s stay here for a minute. I don’t think they are still following us.”

He sits down, leaning against a big, old-looking tree nearby, slowly patting the ground beside him. The moonlight is the only thing available to guide your movements as you sit down, hugging yourself, mind anywhere but there with him. You’re both still damp from the little dive you had to pull when Vecna made another victim, and you rub your own arms to fight the cold creeping up your skin.

Eddie stares down at you, feeling anxious, worried, and guilty all at the same time.

He’s not oblivious to the way you reacted when the boat shook and you fell down to the water. You look like you’ve just been through hell, wet hair sticking to your neck and hands shaking as you hug your knees to your chest. But what really makes Eddie worry is the look on your face; staring but simply not seeing...a look he knows well.

You feel more than you register it happening; a heavy — still very damp, but kind of warm — thing being gently placed over your shoulders. Eddie’s jacket.

He gives you a nonchalant wink when you look up at him.

–

Eddie didn’t mean to leave you behind. Not even for a minute. But, once he heard voices nearby, he knew the right thing to do was investigate. You two couldn’t keep sitting there in the forest forever; he needed to find a way to contact Dustin.

And so he did.

But, he had to leave you behind in the process. You had eventually fallen asleep, head against the trunk of the tree...and he just couldn’t bring himself to wake you up. What is the worse it could happen?

Just a minute.

When he gets back — fist closed safely around a newfound walkie-talkie he proudly and subtly stole, ready to use it — you’re not fucking sleeping where he left you.

He freaks out.

There is a sane part of his mind that says, maybe she just went home. Maybe she found her way out of the woods and left you here. It’s not like she is a police fugitive; it was dark yesterday, maybe Jason and his idiots didn’t recognize her?

He keeps calling your name anyway.

“HENDERSON, I SWEAR TO GOD-”

Eddie hears rustling...and then a small hand is somehow placed over his mouth. “Jesus fucking Christ, Munson. Yell a little bit louder. I don’t think they heard you all the way from California.”

He blankly stares at you, bewildered a curse word just left your mouth. You’re now wearing his jacket properly, arms through the sleeves, he notices. You drop your hand.

“Where did you go?” he asks.

“Where did you go?”

He lifts his arm, showing you the walkie-talkie. “To get this little guy.”

Finally, good news.

“You wanna do the honors?” Eddie is quick to tune in to the correct channel.

“No, thanks.”

He wastes no time. “Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?”

Not even a second later, you hear your brother’s voice through the radio, voice frantic, words slurred.

“Eddie, holy shit, are you okay? Is Y/N with you? She said she would bring you food yesterday and-”

“Yeah, she’s here.”

“Is she okay? What happened?” a voice frantically asks from the other side, but that’s not your brother’s voice.

It’s Steve’s. Eddie notices too.

You cross your arms. He gives you a meaningful look. “She is okay, man, do you wanna-”

You shake your head emphatically, sure he's going to ask if they'd like to speak with you. Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up, but he doesn’t insist. Girls. So complicated.

“I mean, she’s uh, she is sleeping now,” he says, shrugging at your unreadable expression. “But perfectly fine, I assure you.”

There’s a collective sigh of relief from the other side before Dustin’s voice speaks again. “Where are you?”

After directions are given and goodbyes are said, you and Eddie are once again left with no other thing to do than wait, and so you sit back down, hands running through your now almost completely dry hair. It’s not long before you hear rustling behind you, and turning around, you’re faced with none other than Steve Harrington himself, half walking, half running down the hill as he spots you.

“Y/N,” he says, relief clear in his features, gaze finding yours.

“Hi,” you utter, breath caught in your throat.

Somewhere in your mind, you register that the others are following behind him, beginning to come into view. Dustin first, then Robin and Nancy, Max and Lucas...the whole gang. But that information barely has time to sink in, because Steve steps forward and wraps his arms around you like it’s nobody’s business, so fast and firmly that you stumble back one step.

What the-

You want to say something, anything, but you feel like your brain is short-circuiting now, body suddenly stiff, lips parting to say words you’re not able to get out.

“We thought one of you had died,” Robin explains, catching your gaze from behind Steve’s shoulder. “Vecna made another victim.”

He pulls back, keeping you at arm’s length, eyes scanning over your face with intent. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

Then, his eyes fall over what you’re wearing — Eddie’s jacket.

“No, no, I’m okay.”

Steve may try to hide the frown that threatens to appear over his features, but Eddie himself is the first one to catch on to the puzzled look in his eyes; he could almost see the kinds of thoughts running inside his mind.

There, Eddie thinks, as Dustin is letting go of him to hug his sister next.

taglist: @sweet--em

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edgyonporpoise · 11 months

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Prison of Plastic

Hey so I just finished reading/listening to Prison of Plastic, Epithet Erased’s book continuation, and my heart! Is full! My soul! Is nourished! And there is something spoilery! I have to scream about! Under the cut!

OKaY, so. I haven't seen Anime Campaign and I have no intention to, I wanna experience this story as it releases. BUT. Naven is absolutely 100% the secret final boss, right? They could be doing the whole "You thought the obvious twist villain was a villain, but there's a twist to this twist! Ooo~ooo~oo~~" but for now I'm operating on the assumption that he is and like. Fuck dude, he was so MAD.

In his little (hah, fairy) speech to Molly about talking to brick walls? That right there, is a normal person in a world with superpowers. Silly superpowers, but still, this story is very clear about how dangerous those powers are. This is a speech from someone who has Tried to talk it out, to have Mundie voices heard. He has tried to claw his way up, to build a respectable business run by, employing and catering to Mundies, to shove it in their dumb superpowered faces that normal people are still capable people.

And he is tired of being put down.

Tired enough to swing the wrecking ball through society, to tear down Epithets and everything they stand for. Think about it! Even if he is actually that nice guy we see, think about all the bullshit Epithets can cause. Think about the 17-year-old, so traumatized and scared of herself that she threw a tantrum so hard it took up his entire evening and nearly seriously injured 3 different people! (She threw Molly down a dumbwaiter. She nearly toppled literal tons of cake on him. She DISAPPEARED Rick's HEART!) Sure, it was an evening he had set aside for a speech class, but three hours late to finish it? He's a CEO of a multinational conglomerate. How many cross-timezone meetings did they have to reschedule? The fact that he takes the time out to make sure to urge Lorelai to check the message from Giovanni, even though no-one can see him and it doesn't seem to further any goal for recruiting Lorelai for his terrorist org besides making her feel better, makes me thing there's some sincerity to him. But that makes it all the juicier!

Makes me think of the line where Gio's spouting about people who think they're good but still do bad stuff! Makes me think about how Naven, snarky little pixie who's been playing along with Gio's rambles in any other way suddenly stops speaking at that point and doesn't come back in until after. (And maybe that's just for the flow of the scene but I can just imagine him floating in the background with suddenly flinty eyes while no-one's looking)

Makes me think of the little girl, the little girl he has implied he would kidnap (from what Molly's flashbacks said anyway) if it weren't for the laws holding him back, who crumbles under the weight of the world, of her family's business expenses. Yes, maybe Molly is right, maybe absolutely no-one knows what they're doing. But it is a human instinct to shield the children from the horrors of reality, to give them some small amount of time where they can be carefree. A shitty father, a bratty sister, and Epithets took that away from Molly.

Maybe Naven is just salty at Epithet users for looking down on him for being Mundie. Maybe he thinks he'll be doing the world a service, bringing it back to normal. Maybe he just thinks that these things are dangerous, and should be... Regulated in some way.

Maybe he's right? Even to people who do have these powers. People like Lorelai, who are scared of their own abilities. Or people like Mera, actively harmed by their Epithets. Or the whole IDEA of Ocean Country citizens being farmed for EXP. Damn, the idea of Down With Epithet Society makes a whole lotta sense.

And guys who make you think "Huh, that makes sense." are the most dangerous of all.

Silver-Tongued businessman, indeed.

#prison of plastic #epithet erased #eepop #lorelai blyndeff #molly blyndeff #giovanni potage #theory #ramblings #epithet erased spoilers #prison of plastic spoilers #naven nuknuk #if that IS your REAL NAME SIR

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itsscatballou · 1 year

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The End Will Justify It All - Chapter 5

A Negan Series

Chapter 4 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 1

Warnings: adult themes, adult language, rough/slightly violent smut (18+ only)

A/n - my husband got a new video game so my Friday night was wide open to work on this. It's my favorite in the series so far, and I apologize for how long it is. Feedback is welcome! And a quick inspo credit to @green-eyedladywrites - she reblogged this photo of a statue in a sex museum in Korea several weeks ago, which stuck in my brain and brought about this sex scene. I hope you all enjoy! (ps - I was having major keyboard glitches so if there are bad typos I'm sorry!)

Being part of a Savior crew seemed to come naturally to her. It wasn’t a surprise; she’d been part of groups like these before. She’d learned how to work them to her advantage many times over. Simon started her as a grunt, sending her on the errands and tasks no one else really cared to do, but she didn’t mind. Every task gave her more information about the place, another advantage in her planning.

One of the tasks she was assigned was to check on Dwight’s guard team. Dwight and a couple of his guys took shifts guarding Daryl’s cell door or taking him out for his work with the walkers at the gate. She would check in with them a few times a day, bring them meals when they were on duty, and occasionally kept them company for a while. She cherished this task, the chance to be so close to Daryl. She had to force herself not to pay him any attention, but she stole as many glances as she could when his guards weren’t looking.

All the guys in the crew took to her quickly. They began including her in jokes, games, often inviting her for drinks after their shifts. Simon especially seemed to enjoy her company. They soon had a rapport full of banter and laughs. It didn’t take long for her to move out of grunt work, although she suspected being a wife helped her rise in rank, too. No one wanted to be the one sending Negan’s wife on dumb errands and risk his anger. As her status on the crew rose, Simon began asking her advice. Much like Negan with Rick’s group, he was looking for the best ways to exploit the weaknesses of leaders of the communities he collected from. It was unsettling to her how good she was at it. She had always been good at reading people. She’d used that in the past to survive, but this was different. This was no longer survival, this was… dominance. She couldn’t deny there was a part of her that found naming a stranger’s weakness and using it to get what the Saviors wanted somewhat thrilling. The more Simon asked that of her, the better she got at it. It became a point of pride for her amongst the crew. After a few successful runs, Simon started asking her to stay behind. They would spend hours debriefing or discussing the next run, sometimes over drinks.

It was during one of these after collection debriefs with Simon that she noticed a shift in him. She was sitting on the edge of the back of a refrigerated truck where Simon was leaning against it right beside her. They were laughing about one guy that wet his pants when she had gotten in his face, whatever threat she made hitting the nail on the head.

Suddenly Simon wasn’t laughing, he was staring at her. An intense look in his eye, like he’d just seen her for the first time. She squirmed shyly and nudged his arm gently with her shoulder.

“We make a good team, huh?” she grinned at him.

“We do… but I think it’s more you than me.” He replied, nudging her back.

She heard boots crunch in the gravel nearby. She put a hand on Simon’s arm and leaned a little closer as she said in a low voice, “I’m glad Negan put me on your crew.”

A Savior appeared from around the corner of the truck and both she and Simon quickly separated, attempting to look as casual as possible. The Savior stared at them for a moment, seeming to debate saying something. Finally, he informed them, “Negan called a gathering in the warehouse. He wants everyone there, you especially,” he looked at her. “You should find the other wives for this.”

She did as she was told, finding where the wives were standing, and making her way to stand beside Sherry and Amber. Amber looked pale and gaunt. Y/n raised an eyebrow at Sherry to ask what was up with Amber. Sherry jerked her chin to show her. Following the direction Sherry motioned, she saw a handsome guy strapped to a chair, in front of a blazing fire.

Oh no. Mark. Amber’s lover. They’d been stupid – they’d been caught. She’d tried to warn Amber it was a bad idea – Negan only had one rule for the wives: do not cheat on him. She was honestly amazed only Mark sat before the fire now. Someone must have done some convincing to get him to let Amber off… She looked around, seeing Dwight at the fire with the poker – her blood boiled. She already despised him, but the more she learned of him from Sherry, and the more she saw how he treated Daryl, her dislike had transitioned to blind hate. Her eyes moved from Dwight to the person beside him and she nearly gasped when her eyes met Daryl’s. They locked eyes and she instinctively began to move toward him.

She was stopped short as Negan entered then, walking forward to talk to the crowd. She didn’t hear a word he said, though, as she saw who came in behind him. The Sherriff’s hat gave him away first, and her heart stopped. Why was Carl here? When had he gotten here? Had Negan taken him?

Her eyes shot to Daryl, and she found him still looking at her. What the fuck? She mouthed at him. He subtly shook his head, and she turned her attention back to Carl, willing him to look at her. His face changed at something Negan was doing, she felt Sherry move to Amber and saw her embrace her, so she turned her attention back to the spectacle. Dwight was pulling the hot iron from the fire and Negan was gloving his hands to take it.

She couldn’t let this happen. Mark and Amber had been dumb, but they didn’t deserve this. Amber was not the strongest, she wouldn’t handle this well at all. And Carl… Carl didn’t need to see this. How could she stop it?

She didn’t know what drove her to do it, barely registered her own voice as she called to Negan, “wait!” He put his outstretched hand down and looked at her, fury building behind his eyes at the public challenge. If she shut up and sank back now, he’d probably let this go. That would be the smart thing to do. She felt all eyes on her as her body did the exact opposite and she found herself standing in between Mark and Negan. Idiot. What are you doing?

“I’ll take it. Burn me instead.” She heard some gasps and murmurs from the crowd. She refused to look at Daryl, who was no doubt readying to fight off every Savior in this building for her.

Negan tilted his head as he asked, “Now why would you do that? Why would I do that?”

“Mark is an incredible shot, way better than I’ll ever be, and very valuable to his crew. If you burn him, he’ll be down healing for weeks, and you’ll be lucky if his aim is ever the same going that close to his eye” she pointed at Dwight’s scarred eyed. “I’m barely more than a grunt. If I’m down a few weeks, the worst that happens is Fat Joey doesn’t get his sandwich delivered and he has to go get it himself.” Some guys chuckled behind her.

She could feel the crowd lean in, could feel their pity, and their gratitude – Mark was beloved by a lot of these people. He was a good guy, that’s why Amber liked him so much. And she’d made good points – his crew needed him. They were already short-handed with the redistribution of men following Rick’s massacre at the satellite station. Losing another one from their barebones crew would hurt. They would not be happy about it.

“That’s so very noble of you, sweetheart,” Negan cooed at her. “But what lesson would that teach Mark? How is he going to learn the importance of following the rules if someone else can just step in and take his consequences?’

After a long pause, Negan reached again for the hot iron and added, “and your face is plenty hot enough as it is.”

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the crowd as Negan advanced toward Mark. She stumbled back with them, and as the screaming started, she turned and left. She could feel the rage of the crowd behind her as she exited. She walked until she reached Negan’s apartment and sat down against the wall outside his door to wait.

She didn’t have to wait long before Negan and Carl approached. She stood as they neared Negan’s door and gave Carl a hard look.

“Carl,” Negan drawled, “I don’t believe you have met my new wife!” Carl scowled at her at the realization.

“Negan, could I speak to you?” she asked him, glancing at Carl pointedly, “privately?”

“As much as I would love a little romp in the sack with you, I am a little busy right now.”

“Negan.”

He moved closer to her, a cat on the prowl. “I said not right now.” He leaned in close enough to whisper in her ear. “I’ll find you later. I have some things to discuss with you too.” His breath on her neck tickled, causing goosebumps to rise. He gently kissed the area, and she saw Carl tense and clench his fist. Negan left her in the hall, leading Carl into his room.

Frustrated, and still confused about Carl being here, she stomped back to her room to wait.

-----

Her time with Negan since the night he held her while she cried in her room had been, well, confusing. He called her to dinner again the following night and they played their question game again, both seeming to ask more interesting questions about the other. She’d learned a lot about him that night, his softer side. It surprised her. She’d also been given a gift, a “reward” he’d called it for such good information about Rick.

“Anything thing you want, ask. A new, badass gun? A bottle of the whiskey we took from Hilltop? Name it. I am in a giving mood, and you earned a good gift,” he’d told her, flirtatiously but genuine enough.

“Do I have to name it right now, or can I think on it a bit?” she’d asked.

“My generosity does have limitations, but you can take the rest of dinner to think on it.”

After dinner, and a few shots later for each of them, she’d chosen what she would ask for.

“I know what I’d like my reward to be,” she declared after he downed his 4th shot, dodging a question about his love life before the old world fell. He smiled at her and nodded in invitation to ask.

“I would like…” she said, drawing it out to tease him a little. The three shots of Whiskey she’d taken had her in a playful mood. He raised an eyebrow suggestively at her. “Oh, you wish,” she fired back. “No. Nothing like that. What I’d like is, well... 5 free questions. I let you know when one of my questions will be the free pass, and you have to answer, 100% truthfully, with no option to back out by taking a shot.”

She quickly saw the loophole in her request so she added, “and I can use them whenever I want, no time limits.” She replayed her words in her head, making sure they were airtight. She felt like she was dealing with a genie from a fairytale.

Negan studied her, a mix of pleasant surprise and something else behind his eyes. “I will give you 3.”

She grinned at him, about to agree when he added, “but I get 3 of the same.”

“Wha- how is that a gift if you get it too?” she whined back.

“Because the gift is from me, and those are my conditions. If you’d like to change your choice to that gun or something a little more… intimate, I will allow it.” He bit his lip, and something in her heated. Stupid whiskey.

She knew it wasn’t a good idea, it was risky to commit to that. But the thought of him having to answer her with no possibility to back out was too tempting to pass up. She prayed the reward would be worth this risk.

“Deal.” This was the second deal she’d made with the devil in a week.

The following nights were unpredictable. She wasn’t invited back for dinner for a few nights, and by the third, she felt unnerved by it. Not afraid, just... bored. On those nights she’d make her way down and usually found Simon eating outside by a fire, where she’d sit and drink and talk with him until she felt tired enough or tipsy enough to go to bed.

The nights she did have dinner with Negan were the same: eat, questions, drink. Sometimes she’d ask to play a boardgame, and they’d continue their game of questions over Scrabble (which she always won and let him hear about it).

One night, after a brutal placement of the word “quiz,” she used her first free question.

“Negan,” she approached it gently. He looked up from his scrabble tiles with curiosity. She didn’t use his name often. “I’d like to use my first free question.”

He slowly grinned at her. “Alright,” he agreed, “let me finish my drink first. I’m sure I’ll need it.” And he downed the remainder of his whiskey in one go. “Okay, shoot.”

“We’ve had a lot of these dinners together,” she prefaced, “and at our first one, you said as a wife I would have to perform ‘wifely duties.’” She paused.

“There a question in there?” he teased her.

She took a deep breath, suddenly nervous to ask this. “Well, you haven’t, um… touched me. At all. You haven’t even asked to… so I guess my question is, why not?”

Negan chuckled. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s not your looks, if that’s your concern.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. He knew that wasn’t what she was asking.

“Fine. No, I haven’t tried or asked, but it isn’t because I don’t want to.” He winked at her. “In fact, I want to so bad it drives me crazy when you leave here at night. None of my other wives leave here until I’m satisfied… but I knew from the night you came in here and told me to make Rick hold Lucille that you wouldn’t be like my other wives.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue.

“You’re different. I want it to be different with you. I told you before, I have enough obedient dogs. So as badly as I want it, I will not touch you until you want it too. And trust me, darlin’, you will want it,” he purred in that Negan arrogance.

She would never want it, she told herself. She told herself so many times she started dreaming it. But no matter how much she told herself she would never want it; it didn’t stop a part of her from heating every time she thought of those words.

She was invited back the next night, where instead of their typical drinking game of questions, Negan upped the ante with a rousing game of strip questions. If they didn’t answer a question, they had to remove an item of clothing.

She was thanking her lucky stars she’d come straight to dinner from a collection with her crew, so she had a lot more clothing on than she normally would at dinner.

With such high stakes, the questions got very personal. “Where is the craziest place you’ve ever fucked?” started it off, and it moved into first loves, worst heartbreaks, hardest kills, and eventually biggest fears. They were both on the couch, him sitting a little too close to her, and both down to their underthings when he used his first free question.

“Free card question,” he stated, leaning a little closer to her. He kissed her bare shoulder, and it sent goosebumps down her arm. Tracing circles with his finger where his lips just were, he asked in a growly tone, “why did you really volunteer to come back with me that night in the woods?”

Uh oh. She sent a silent thank you up to whoever was listening for not being three shots deep into this game. She paused a minute, what could she tell him?

“What?” she flirted, buying some time to think, “you don’t think you impressed me enough for me to want to go with you?”

“No,” he replied, still tracing circles on her shoulder. “I knew when the words left your mouth it wasn’t true. I’ve been trying since then to figure out why you’re here. I thought maybe it was to spy, help Rick take us down from the inside. But you’ve proven to be working against him, and other communities, over and over since then.” She cringed inside at that. Had she gotten that bad? “Then I thought, maybe you were just biding your time to get close enough to kill me. And that could still be true, but the way your body is reacting to my every touch right now, I am doubting it. So, I’d like to know now, what was your reason?”

Think, y/n. Think. It had to be believable. She obviously couldn’t tell him the truth. She feigned a little nervousness, hoping it sold her story.

“I… well…I wanted to kill Dwight,” there was plenty of truth in that. “Honestly, I still wouldn’t mind doing it. I thought my best bet was to get inside here with him.”

He waited for her to continue. “He killed the girl I was seeing. The doctor in Alexandria. Shot her through the eye with Daryl’s crossbow.”

“Wow,” Negan replied. “You play for both teams? I did not see that coming!” He laughed. “I will remember that for our future. As for Dwight… well, I don’t hold a special place in my heart for him, but I’d like him to stay alive for the time being. If or when that changes, you will be the first to know.”

He seemed satisfied with her lie.

“I’m glad it wasn’t to kill me,” he purred, leaning into her neck, “I think you would have missed things you don’t want to miss…” his hand found her knee and began slowly trailing from up her thigh. His lips found skin again, this time on a tender part of her neck.

No, no, no, no. She thought, though her body was responding differently. She franticly searched for any sort of distraction to stop where this was headed. Her eyes scanned the room, anything to ask about, to suddenly find fascinating enough she needed to look at. Then she saw it, leaned against the wall under a window.

“I have a question now. A free one.”

“Mmhmm?” he moaned out, still kissing her neck in a way that was making her quiver.

“Lucille,” she said, putting a hand against his chest and pushing a bit. “Where did you get the name?”

He froze, his lips no longer on her skin. He didn’t seem to breathe for several long seconds. Then he was standing, putting on his pants, and walking toward the door.

“We’re done here,” he said firmly, holding the door open for her.

She stared in shock for a moment, and when it was clear he was not joking, she quickly grabbed her clothes and fled his room.

That was the last time she’d seen him, until now, with Carl in tow. It had been days, maybe a week. What she’d thought was an innocent question had really struck a nerve.

-----

Negan didn’t send for her until late in the evening. She’d had supper already, a bath, and was about to settle into bed with a book when the guard knocked on her door. She didn’t bother dressing up, she decided her leggings and cropped sweatshirt would be just fine if he was pulling her out of bed. She had half a mind to tell him he could see her at a decent hour tomorrow, but she desperately wanted to know what was going on with Carl.

She didn’t knock when she got there, she just walked right in, to find him sitting on the couch with a drink in one hand, and the other hand dragging down his face in exhaustion.

“Long day?” she quipped, looking around for any sign of the Grimes boy.

“You could say that,” he replied, humorless.

She decided not to waste any time with flirting or working up to her questions.

“Where is Carl?” she demanded.

He stared at her, and she was not sure he was going to answer her at all when he finally said, “he’s back home with daddy and baby Grimes, safe and sound.”

Relief washed over her. “What was he doing here?”

Negan chuckled. “He was here to kill me. You weren’t lying when you said the kid was reckless. I like the little bastard.”

“He just showed up to kill you?” she asked, surprised but not shocked. It was a very Carl thing to do.

“He snuck in on a supply truck earlier today. Killed two of our guards before we got to him.”

She didn’t let her face show the pride she felt. “And you just let him go?” she accused.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to question anything I do,” he replied angrily.

“What the hell does that mean?” she challenged. He’d shut her out and ignored her for a week now, she’d lost any desire to filter her annoyance with him.

“I think you know exactly what it means.”

She glared at him, at a loss. What was he accusing her of?

“Tell me,” he said, standing up and taking a few slow steps toward her. “How many people were you screwing in Alexandria?”

“What?” she asked, incredulous.

“Carl seemed real pissed when he learned you were my wife. I just wonder how many people in Alexandria you went through before coming here to expand your selection. Rick, obviously. Your little girlfriend, who else? The redhead? The mullet guy? Spencer? Yeah, I met that douche bag today. Is there anyone else I should know about? I hear you’ve gotten mighty friendly with Simon. Practically throwing himself yourself at him, touching all over him, going to him every night, not days after licking your lips and batting your lashes at me. Anyone here you got your eye on?”

She heard a slap, Negan’s face turned abruptly to the side, she felt a sting in her palm, and a redness began spreading across his cheek.

She’d slapped him. Shit, she’d slapped him.

She bit down the terror of the realization – she’d seen very bad things happen to people who’d done a lot less to him. She willed her face into a rebellious glare, daring him to retaliate, promising hell if he did.

Negan’s stare was just as hateful, never breaking eye contact as he rubbed his cheek and flexed his jaw. Suddenly he sprang toward her, his hand was on her throat, and he was shoving her backwards, she could barely keep upright they were moving so fast. Her back slammed against the concrete wall. Negan’s face was within an inch of hers, she could feel his warm breath on her mouth as he growled, “that. will. not. happen. again,” pausing on each word like a forceful bite. She was prying at his hand with both hands, trying to loosen his grip enough that she could take a breath, refusing to show him the panic rising in her.

He let his grip loosen a bit. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she breathed out as she gasped to fill her lungs again. He did not remove his hand from her throat or yield even a centimeter to her. He continued to stare daggers into her eyes, but there was something other than anger behind them. What is that?

Desire, she realized. Animalistic desire. It was then she noticed just how close their bodies were, his hips pinning hers in place against the wall, her feet barely touching the floor. She could feel his growing erection pressing into her. She felt a tingle in her core, her body betraying her. Her breath suddenly felt heavy, her chest heaving against his. An image of their naked chests pressed together flashed in her mind, it was as if she could already feel his bare skin. Did she really want this? From him? After all he’d done? She knew she shouldn’t, but with him pressed against her, hand still on her throat, and looking at her like that… she couldn’t deny the desire growing in her, verging dangerously close to need.

He must have read that on her face, because suddenly Negan’s mouth was on hers, crushing her lips with his, his scruff scraping her chin and cupids bow as he sucked, unrelenting. His tongue began forcefully pushing against her lips, like a battering ram, demanding entrance. She conceded. He tasted her mouth like he was eating for the first time in a week - hungrily, greedily, but savoring the taste of each section of her mouth he explored. Then she was kissing him back, just as greedily – no, angrily. It became not a dance of lovers, but a battle of opponents. His tongue pushed, hers pushed back in turn. Her lips sucked, he fought for dominance with his. She bit – not gently- down on his bottom lip and slowly dragged against his lip until it was free. He pulled away from her face at that and his eyes met hers, amusement dancing in them now. He’d met his match. He grinned at the realization.

Their noisy, shallow breaths filled the otherwise silent room, awakening her from the trance his tongue had put her in. She fought to stay above the fog, forcing herself to remember the things he’d done, to remember Daryl, but the memories would not come. All there was in this moment was him - his body, and hers. His dark eyes held her stare a moment longer, and then they were closed, and his lips were crushing hers again. His hands began lifting her sweatshirt from around her waist, his fingers trailing up her stomach. He explored with gentle fingertips, caressing up and down her sides, his knuckles grazing across her lower abdomen, leaving no patch of skin untouched, a trail of goosebumps in their wake. As his hands creeped up her torso, his touch became fiercer. He reached her breasts, found them bare under her shirt, and groaned into her mouth as each hand took a full palm of breast and began massaging. He was not gentle, but she did not pull away. He backed away from her only enough to allow room to remove her shirt and expose her fully. His lips were back on hers in an instant, no less demanding than before. They moved to her neck, and she felt one of her traitorous hands move to the back of his head, tangling her fingers in his short hair. She hadn’t planned on encouraging this, but she gripped his hair harder as he his trailed his lips down her chest, finding a breast and softly biting down. An involuntary moan purred in her throat. He moved to her nipple and began a rough pattern of sucking and biting, causing the heat between her legs to flare.

Again, it was as if he read her mind, as he worked her breast with his mouth, he quickly pulled down her leggings, taking her underwear with them. She was thankful she had not put on shoes to come here tonight, providing no obstacle to kicking out of her pants as he sank to his knees and began moving his lips down her stomach. Further.

“Jump,” Negan growled against her stomach.

“Wh- what?” she barely stuttered out.

“Jump.”

She hopped slightly, then she was being lifted her by her backside, her thighs placed on either side of his head, her bodyweight now shared between the wall and his shoulders. He did not waste time kissing those thighs, or staring lustfully, or slowly working his way to her center. Hungrily, almost angrily, he dove straight for her, parting her lips with his fingers to make way for his tongue. He lapped at her liked a parched animal at water, and found she was just as wet. She arched away from the wall in response. His warm tongue hitting her clit at every angle as it moved. He sucked, and her eyes rolled back in her head as she cried out. Both hands now in his hair, gripping in response to each flick of his tongue, encouraging his rough movements. She rode his face, rolling her hips, her thighs unapologetically pressing in on his head. She wouldn’t last much longer; she could feel her climax building quickly. Now his tongue was at her entrance, teasing as he gently licked around it. She pushed his head into her, needing him to be inside her, desperate to be filled and to find release. He plunged his tongue in, flatting it as he found the underside of her clit, and slowly dragged it back out and up, never breaking contact. He plunged in again with no pause. Dragging, plunging, dragging, plunging. He worked her with expert pressure, she was all but screaming at the sensation. On the last slow drag of her clit, he swept up as he exited, an unrelenting pressure on her sensitive bud, sending her orgasm exploding through her. She threw her head back and did not recognize the noise that escaped her open mouth as she came against his face. He lightly flicked his tongue against her until he was sure she had fully completed.

Before she knew it was happening, she was back on the floor, and he was walking away from her.

“You’re dismissed,” was all he said as he moved to open the door.

She gathered her clothes – she would need to have a word with him about this new habit of sending her from his room undressed – and made for the door. She paused in front of him and turned to meet his eyes, letting him see a twinge of hurt in them.

“Since you asked, and I am counting this as one of your free questions, I did not sleep with Rick or anyone else in Alexandria. And I have about as much romantic interest in Simon as you do,” and with that she made her way back to her room, naked but not caring who saw her.

Back in the dorm, she raced to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before vomiting. Sherry must have heard her, because moments later she was sitting beside her, holding her hair back. Sherry sat with her until she was finished, and then let her lay her head in Sherry’s lap while Sherry stroked her hair.

She didn’t cry. She didn’t shake. She wasn’t traumatized. She hated herself. She hated herself because she knew then she didn’t hate Negan, and she didn’t hate what they’d just done. She hated herself because she wanted more.

It’s time, she vowed to herself, tomorrow we leave, even if we have to burn this place to the ground to get out.

#the walking dead imagine #the walking dead smut #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead fic #the walking dead daryl #the walking dead x reader #the walking dead negan #twd negan #negan x y/n #negan fic #negan smut #twd daryl #negan imagine

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redfish-blu · 1 year

Text

An Open Letter to the Danger Days Tumblr Community:

Now that you’ve read that overdramatic title and are wondering who fucked up, I have something to say about the Danger Days Tumblr community: I Love You.

Danger Days was the first fandom I ever posted for on any site. All the way back in middle school (ho-ly shit). And let me tell you what I found out even way back when: this is not an easy fandom to be in.

For one, most people don’t even know it exists. For two, even less know it in the way it’s been cultivated on Tumblr. Almost every single person has such a niche interpretation of every little detail, that it’s impossible to draw a line through any two versions of the story. Which is a fact I personally love, but I also think it scares a lot of people away. You have to work to be in this fandom. Both as a passive and active fan. It requires patience and tolerance for disappointment.

But that’s exactly why I want to encourage everyone who creates and everyone who listens to Keep Doing That. Like I cannot stress this enough, that is what keeps this fandom and IP alive. Danger Days as a universe would be absolutely nothing without fan work (re: the California Comics), especially a decade later. Without fans who care about this story way more than it has warranted us to care, it would be six feet under. And sometimes I really think that’s what it deserves (and maybe the writers think that as well), but for the life of me I just can’t let that happen. I’ve tried to let this fucking thing go, believe me.

And funny enough, that exact feeling is evidenced by the community on this site too. Which has changed faces almost completely from what it was three years ago for better and less better in some cases. And it’s something I still struggle with adjusting to, but I look at the tag daily. I look everyone’s posts and blogs and art and effort. If you have posted even once in the dd tag my eyes have 100% seen it. So even if I still feel a little out of place, like a ghost of fandom’s past, at least I know everybody. And I know people feel the same way: No rest for the wicked.

When I reanimated from my fandom coma I was fully expecting to find that the community had gone extinct. Partially because all the blogs I used to frequent had straight up died in the three years I was gone. But I pulled up to the gates of the Danger Days tag like Rick Grimes outside of Alexandria, fully expecting to be devastated, only to find New People tilling the fucking field. And it didn’t matter that I now had no idea who any of you people were, it was The Most welcoming thing ever.

I’ll be the first to tell you this fandom bares almost no resemblance to the one I left, and I’m not going to lie and say it’s better now, but the foundation didn’t get blown away in the storm. That’s what I find uniquely profound. That everyone here still wants to try. And that makes me really want to try. And I’m sure everyone would agree that there is often little reward for the effort; but that’s precisely my point in saying all this shit. That even despite the not fun aspects, we all still clock in; and there’s a new post, headcanon, drawing, or fic every freaking day. It’s commendable, really.

If you’re lurking, or post sometimes but feel afraid to actually take a leap here because (the fandom is comparatively tiny to the greater MCR fandom) you’ll be way more out there, and the already established figureheads of the fandom will definitely see your stuff: post post post. This is my formal endorsement to Just Post That Shit. And Interact With That Shit. I spent a year gathering the courage to publish the tiniest thing while behind the scenes I literally wrote about 60+ works. You have to respect your own creativity and trust that other people will give it the time of day.

So do not feel crazy or discouraged about your ideas here! Like we literally need them to function, I would not be here if it wasn’t for all the people three years ago who just posted all their thoughts about Danger Days. About everything. Obscure or not. It’s truly a gift that this fandom has attracted people who are willing to work their brains because the original creators let it fall flat. I cannot tell you how much being in this fandom has actually helped me out in my writing and analysis skills.

So yeah. I fucking love this fandom, I love being in it and I love seeing that people are still stoking the flames. I wanted to say all this crap because I knew I’d be able to articulate it for the people who can relate but don’t want to be the first to say it. Which is okay, understandable. As I said earlier this fandom is like yelling your thoughts out into a very echoey room that only has a few people in it. So I’ll shout first and maybe it’ll make other people more comfortable to shout back.

#i tried to make this as easy to read as possible #this is also an open discussion btw. welcome to the fuckin conference room #we’re all on the council #danger days #mcr #ttlotfk #ttlofk #kobra kid #killjoys #the true lives of the fabulous killjoys #party poison #jet star #fun ghoul #danger days: the true lives of the fabulous killjoys #cas types #long post

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puppypopcornpizza · 7 months

Text

Nicholas

Warnings ➳ death, descriptions of violence

Pairing ➳ Daryl Dixon x F!reader

Word Count ➳ 457

The screams scratched at her brain, replaying a scene she thought only possible in horror movies. Snarling and tearing, the utter fear in his eyes that burned into her. She couldn't imagine how Glenn was feeling.

"Nicholas!"

"Stop."

"Don't let go."

Her limbs ached at movement, legs shaking as she moved to the porch. She felt the panic build in her chest but it never came, crying seemed impossible.

"Hey." Rick's boot came up next to her, all his weight onto his knee. He looked tired.

"Deanna can 'exile' me if she wants to, he fucking deserved it."

"Nobody's gettin' exiled, I'm just checking on you."

She had him at gunpoint, she could have pulled the trigger. Noah wouldn't be back but she would have felt better, Glenn too. They should've left him.

"We should've left him-"

"Yeah, but you ain't like that. You or Glenn."

Rick's features went soft, the kind of look he reserved for Carl or Judith. She didn't need to be coddled, he knew she didn't.

"He just needed to wait."

"I know."

Glenn looked how she felt. Sunken eyes and hair disheveled, blood stained into his clothes. He looked like he'd seen too much. He had.

"Daryl was looking for you."

"He'll find me."

The conversation fell into silence, emotions heavy on their shoulders. Her throat burned with words unsaid, weariness sinking into her bones. They both felt it.

"He's with his dad now, Glenn."

"He shouldn't have to be, he was gonna do things for this community. Didn't you see the book?"

"I saw the book," her jaw tensed.

"And fucking Nicholas gets to live while Noah doesn't, how is that fair? "

"It ain't."

The archer's arms crossed over his chest, eyes on Glenn. She watched the energy drain from his eyes as he stood and mumbled something about finding Maggie.

"He's angry."

"Yeah," Daryl took Glenn's place. "Ain't the only one."

"I should've shot him," he held out the cigarette box.

"That ain't you."

She scoffed, smoke in the air. Daryl's gaze wouldn't leave her.

But what more could she say? Her breathing stopped while she watched her friend die and the person responsible got a nap out of it.

"He didn't deserve that, Daryl. Glenn didn't deserve to see that."

"And you?"

"Me?"

"D'ya think you deserve the weight of carryin' it all? You saw how Sasha got, don' wanna see that happen to you too."

"She got a pretty sweet character arc out of it, though."

"M'serious."

His eyes pleaded with the words he couldn't think of, begging behind a dark curtain. She knew what he wanted her to say but the words sat in her throat.

"It should've been an easy run."

"That ain't on you, sunshine."

#daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon x you #daryl dixon #daryl dixon fanfiction #twd daryl #the walking dead #the walking dead fanfiction #fanfiction #my writing

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rvieskie · 2 years

Note

why do you like solangelo? the relationship is super toxic and weird because of the age gap and will is literally nicos doctor. they didnt have any development at all and nico would have been better off with percy or even leo their personalities make much more sense than just a random occurring character. also, wills behavior towards nico is super toxic and doesnt respect him at all.

hi who are you and did u post this as an anon because u didnt want fangirls to come for u?

okay moving on “the relationship is super toxic” im gonna need some evidence for that because from what we’ve seen so far both nico and will are so so supportive of eachother and honestly one of the least problematic ships in the pjo fandom imo

for the age thing i think we can all pretty decently agree that despite rick being an amazing writer he is so bad at ages and even so, wills age is never canonically mentioned. rick also addressed this saying that will is the same age as nico so i think its pretty much accepted by now that the “age gap” is not a valid argument

next, will being nicos doctor is definitely not an issue in their relationship because a) will is literally EVERYONES doctor b) he technically doesnt have a professional interest in nico because he is just someone who patches people up when needed and c) according to this logic, basically none of the apollo kids can date

next point, “they didnt have any development at all” solangelo was definitely one of the ships that we didn’t see alot of canonically and hopefully we’ll see more in the upcoming book, however, you have to consider that there were, in the rr timeline, at least 6 months in between them having a *thing* and them seen dating. this is actually quite enough of time for relationship development especially considering they’re teenagers and if you look at some of the other ships in the fandom (mostly caleo)

now lets look at the other ships you have suggested as better for nico - these include percy and nico (percico) and leo and nico (valdangelo). i would probably need more of what you mean by “their personalities make more sense” but I’m pretty sure that both leo and Percy are 16-17, and age difference is obviously something aforementioned by you to be “weird”.

as as for will being “toxic” and “not respecting nico” well, the most common arguments for these two are in the last few scenes where will is urging nico to not shadow travel because if he does, nico will literally melt into shadows and die??? so, looking at it in this angle, was will really being “toxic” and “disrespectful”? doubtful, really

i mean, of course you are perfectly entitled to your opinion but personally i think given all of the arguments stated above we can saely say that solangelo might not be the most well written ship, but honestly, thats not a valid reason to hate solangelo or the characters in this ship

#nico di angelo #pjo #rick riordan #leo valdez #percy jackson #anon ask #anon answered #anonymous #anti solangelo #pjo fandom #solangelo #will solace

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dadvans · 3 months

Text

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by the lovely @rcmclachlan!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

37 + 2 Orphaned Works on main (and two fics that have been removed from AO3 but reposted on Tumblr) 3 under a sock account 1 on a shared account

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

256,810

3. What fandoms do you write for?

All current WIPs are either Hockey RPF or Supernatural

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

five theories about victor "my husband" nikiforov (+ one fact) [YOI]

Family Dinner [The Old Guard]

Lonely Hearts Club [YOI]

the warmest part of winter [YOI]

Modern Marvels [Rick and Morty]

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to, but get overwhelmed pretty quickly. I'm trying to be better about this!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

the blue house [Hockey RPF, SidGeno]. I would consider it an ambiguously optimistic ending instead of unhappy, but it definitely was written for an angst fest!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

the warmest part of winter, which is at risk of being too cutesy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never seen anything specific on AO3, but I know some people got pretty annoyed with some tropes I helped popularize in Yuri On Ice fandom (Victor Nikoforov Has a Foot Fetish, Yuuri Katsuki is a Huge Slut)

9. Do you write smut?

I sure do!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

Sort of. Some people have considered Not Just Nothing [SPN] a crossover instead of an AU. It's a Ken Doll AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I've seen

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, and it is honestly the biggest compliment in the world

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I don't know if I should be revealing this, but I was definitely one of the people who wrote Popular Slut Club under the SturgeonGuy29 name 🤫

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

What an impossible question! Probably SidNate, considering they've been making me see shrimp colors for 6 years now.

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, I don't want to jinx anything here. I really do intend to finish everything I start writing. I have a doc called Starz 4Ever, where Geno becomes a porn star out of spite.

16. What are your writing strengths?

When my dialogue is good, it's really good. I think very highly of my characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing shit!

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I used to do this, and I meaningfully don't anymore unless it's crucial for the plot. I was actually embarrassed going back to a Yuri on Ice fic to see I had written some Victor dialogue in Cyrillic.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I want to say I was writing Seiya/Usagi for Sailor Moon in like, 1999 or 2000, but I couldn't tell you what it was about or where to find it.

20. Favorite fic you have written?

I'm really fond of Say When. Sid/Nate/Andy feels so personal to me at this point. It has my favorite sex scene I've ever written, and I'm eager to post more for the universe.

I also am still proud of we should be stars and perfect tens (Rick and Morty, heed the tags), which is a little rougher with age but I think the execution of two parallel narratives both written in second perspective is well done, and the blue house considering the subject matter.

Tagging: anyone who wants to do it!

#about me #delaney writes #fic

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aroace-hunter-of-artemis · 1 year

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Okay thoughts on the preview of TSATS .

Spoiler alert obviously

I think that a lot of nico seemed to be mischarecterised in the preview. I am all for nico healing and changing and stuff and I am not saying he should stay the same as he was when we last saw him in ToA but it was only been a few weeks from that point so its a bit out of character. It seemed like Mark was trying to write Nico with percy or Leo's character.

The scene with solangelo+Kayla+Austin was super cute but I do think it could be written better. As in made more riordanversey.

Nico being a fan of grey sisters is probably one of the most accurate thing in this book about nico

I have made a separate post abut the mygrumpyballofdarkness

Apart from nico the other characters too were a bit out of character

Camp empty doesn't make sense. I think they should make it into very few campers or give a different explanation like the CHB campers being able to go to new rome and study there during winter as long as they serve in the legion during their stay or something like that

We saw Will's outfit in the dream coming.

The Jason scenes.... idk felt a little bit weird. I adore their friendship and do not ship them romantically. I think that the dynamic wouldn't work. I think they are better of with Jason being nico's older sibling (mom) type friend. I don't think that anything described in the book is inherently romantic btw. Friends can totally do that . But I do feel like they are trying to build something there and I hope I am wrong

Nico not having Hade's dream control is against canon cause not only does he have that power it also is important to the story line in more than one occasion. I say it would make sense if he was unable to control this one dream or his recent dreams

That being said

Mark definitely knows how to write horror. I could even say that they seem to write horror better than Rick.

That dream was the best riordanverse dream of all time imo.(plot wise)

I mean nico's mouth stitched close. Yea we are getting good plot in this.

The first scene . This is going to be amazing. By that I mean heart breaking and terrifying

No matter whether the characterisation is nice or not the plot is going to be good

What if the voice is Jason not Bob.

Nico's mom and Bianca 😭

Also Will's face turning into a monster in the dream could be a foreshadow. We all think that the turn back part is Orpheus Euridice . But what if they are misleading us. Or what if there is further more that just that. Now as good as dark!will is i don't think will is a secret villan. There is however a chance that a monster could disguise itself as will in some point of the book or maybe some haunting. Or maybe the monster wasn't attacking nico. Maybe will has more super powers up his sleeve still unknown to us and him. Tartarus brings out the worst. Maybe will can turn into something. Maybe he does that at one point to fight some monster but it terrifies nico the way Percy's poison control terrified annabeth . I know ast this point I am talking out of my ass but I am expecting this book to have multiple twists and turns that we would not have seen coming

All in all. This preview was good in terms of plot but did not do the best job in terms of characters. I say that we don't have to worry much tho cause this is just the first draft that Mark wrote and Rick would have most likely made changes to the characters to fit canon. I do think there will still be some inconsistencies but all riordanverse books have some inconsistencies.

#tsats #tsats spoilers #tsats preview #nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo

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sunbeamstress · 4 months

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i jumped on the Walking Dead train really late, but i got to finish the show with the fans and i thought it was excellent. it also marks the second or third time i've binged a piece of acclaimed media that became noteworthy for fucking over its fans - the last time was when i beat the mass effect trilogy, a decade late. i thought that was excellent too.

of course it's a lot easier when the game you're playing already has the patched-in ending option and all its DLC, and walking dead was definitely easier to get through since when season 5 ended, i could go right into season 6 without The Cliffhanger

it's clear that the show i watched wasn't the show that AMC presented. scrubbed of its social media gaffes and godawful pacing, it was honestly a thrill ride. it takes a little time to stumble its way through the first two seasons, and the third is definitely more of a slow burn of dread, but if you can punch your way through those you're rewarded with a tense thriller that rarely wastes its time - every scene demands your attention and reveals something new. the moment my life settles down again i want to binge-watch it all over again with a friend.

in my early/mid twenties, i'd fallen in love with an artsy little tech-fetishist webcomic about a few kids struggling to avert the end of the world. you might have heard of it, it was called Homestuck. it would go on to balloon into a very different sort of work from the one it began (i miss the Amiga graphics and quotes from poets/novelists), but also it was the first time i looked around to realize i was in the middle of a fandom. and in those days it wasn't a lovely sight.

my problem was i hadn't been inoculated against this sort of thing yet. from the moment i discovered the MSPA forums, it was impossible for me to experience homestuck without also crossing over to get a life feed of how the fans were enjoying it, and that was uhh, complicated. i have a lot i could say about Andrew Hussie as a creator and maybe one day he'll get his very own rambling not-quite-essay from me, but i maintain that i didn't get to enjoy Homestuck the way it deserved because i am the sort of person whose opinions can be influenced by others. you are too, don't judge.

i hold fast to my conviction that the best way to enjoy something is to enjoy it pure and alone, or with at most perhaps two friends whose tastes you can trust. all too often i've seen people try to make it through the walking dead, or better call saul, or mass effect, or homestuck, or anything, while tapped into the overwhelming torrent of fandom opinion.

it actually makes things worse.

as the internet is fond of saying: the walking dead was a hell of a lot better without a bitch in my ear telling me it sucked.

there's a lot to say about how they reused the same ol' same ol' plot: zombos force the crew to move, they get settled in, then they solve some zombo-related problems until the newest batch of Desperate And/Or Corrupt And/Or Treacherous Humans comes to prove that actually we were the monsters all along

except it's fucking dope? they bare-knuckle brawl a shitload of walkers in a prison and take it over? and then they fight a war with the neighboring town??

Terminus, to me, is a singular point in the show that stands out in my mind. it was the moment i was like "oh shit. i think actually like this show." nevermind the way they began cranking up the horror factor (watching them slit that guy's throat in the horse trough was wild), but then Carol shows up and fucking Judge Dredds the place?

and then we see Rick turn from do-gooder cop to feral den mother who is willing to rip a guy's throat out and fjksdhgfjkhgjkhg oh my GOD how did you people not like this show

and then:

it was genuinely incredible watching Rick's role in the universe transform. we see him as an agent who is only ever acted upon: first by the emergence of walkers, then by a revolving door of people he can't trust, people he shouldn't trust but does, and people who have a funny way of doing the right thing just when you expect them to fail you the most.

but it's no way to live a life after the world has ended, and he has to get tough. his role changes, quite quickly, from agent to actor, and now he is the one with the control. he's the one sniffing out your bullshit, doing that unhinged lupine head-cock of his, and sending you to hell at the end of a colt python.

maybe if i was a man, i'd feel a little of what the fans seemed to have felt when Negan showed up. maybe i would have put myself in Rick's place, and found a little vicarious pleasure in the feeling of being a respected leader, building a new home with my bare hands; maybe i would have experienced disappointment or defeat or whatever the moment a bigger guy with a bigger gun shows up.

but what i saw was a hornet's nest being stirred; the natural reaction of a world much bigger than you just when you've begun to think you might control some of it. negan wasn't some Bigger Guy, he was a symbol, a walking metaphor for how things are always going to go when men like rick try to purchase peace with violence. if it wasn't Negan it was going to be someone else. i adamantly believe the fans hated negan because negan was holding up a mirror to them.

when i go on about this show, i genuinely do love all of it (even the nightmarishly slow seasons 9 and 10), but the images in my head all come from season 5, especially when they raid the hospital back in the city. the walking dead does not disappoint with aesthetics. the sets were phenomenal.

long, dramatic shots of broken chain link fences, sun-baked highways, half-abandoned urban streets with boarded windows and nothing left but graffiti. honestly feels a little like my childhood. i'm an urbex bitch at heart and i never wanted ANYTHING so desperately as the chance to get in there with Carol and Aaron and Maggie et al, and go plumbing the tombs of Atlanta for rocket launchers and medicine.

and while i never want to see backroads or quaint country towns ever again in my life, i won't deny that the backdrops of rural georgia and virginia gave the walking dead a unique visual language, a kind of run-down western vibe that really helped cement the feeling that these were just regular salt-of-the-earth people, forced to do extraordinary things. most of my dreams now usually have the same hickory and pine trees that dotted the countrysides.

i don't really know what i was trying to accomplish when i began this post (it's the only way i know how to write baby!) but to summarize, i fucking loved this show. i genuinely hold it to be one of the seminal works of modern zombie horror and also just an incredibly good survival soap opera about what it means to be alive in a world that has violently rejected you. i'm genuinely glad i gave it a chance and i'm so grateful my brother recommended it to me. i love you, bro.

#twd #the walking dead #less review more ramble

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once-upon-an-animation · 1 year

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Some thoughts on Trials of Apollo…

I’m rereading ToA since I don’t remember much. I like it better than HoO, but not as much as PJO. This may be either due to nostalgia, or just becoming more critical of Rick’s work over time. I think it’s the latter, as I’m also becoming more critical of the original series. Generally, I like how much research went into ToA, and I think Apollo is going to have a great arc. I love the inclusion of more minor gods too. I also like that the HoO characters are given to us in small doses, as I didn’t really care for most of them.

As for cons, I don’t like Meg that much. Her background is cool, but her personality is kind of annoying. I’m a little tired of the trope/pattern where most of the major female demigods are all tough, aggressive girls who regularly hit/are condescending towards their male counterparts. I think Hazel might have been the only exception? Anyhow, I would like to see more soft/gentle major female characters. The tough girl who looks down on her male companion is overdone. I also feel that Meg might be a little overpowered, but that’s just me.

I don’t mind that Percy and Annabeth take a backseat in this one, but Percy’s decision to do nothing does surprise me to an extent. I’ve always thought that fatal flaws were a lifetime thing, and given his flaw of personal loyalty, I feel like he should have shown more concern about the emperors and what it might mean for his friends. Maybe he ultimately decides to do nothing, but it would have been nice to see him grapple with the decision a bit more or show some regret/doubt in the his final scene with Apollo, just something to show that his flaw is still active.

I’ve always felt that Caleo was unnecessary, and was not all that happy to see them return in this series. Their relationship dynamic is kind of lame even for a couple that doesn’t even work that well together, so I genuinely do hope they break up. I liked Calypso more when we knew less about her; I don’t really love the way she was characterized in this series. Maybe it’s more of that tough condescending girl stuff that I’m tired of.

Jasper is a couple I also didn’t care for, but I have to admit, Piper’s reasons for breaking up with Jason don’t seem that convincing/seem a little contradictory. I don’t mind the breakup itself, I just wish the reasoning had been a little different or had been explained differently. The whole “Aphrodite kids are supposed to break hearts” thing felt silly and kind of negates the sentiments she had in TLH. Also, I wish Rick had let Piper explore her attraction to girls with a known character, not just a random mortal whom we know nothing about and literally exists to be a device. I’ve never liked “throwaway” relationships where major characters are involved, and Piper/Shel is no exception.

Jason’s fate invokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s good for Apollo’s development and adds a sense of stakes to the story. On the other hand, depending on who you are, it may lack emotional weight. As we all know, Jason is not the most well loved character out there, and his introduction/arc in HoO is not what it could have been. As a result, Jason might lack meaning as a character for many, and his fate might not mean that much to some people. I’ve seen people argue that Rick chose this fate because he didn’t know what to do with Jason anymore, and I can see why people would say that. Jason was done a little dirty as a character from start to end and I think that’s the true tragedy.

I haven’t gotten to the book with Frank/Hazel, but I remember a little bit about what happens with Frank and his firewood and honestly? I feel like it was a little cheap. Frank should have either had the same fate as Jason, or should have paid some kind of price

#trials of apollo #toa #pjo hoo toa #rick riordan #percy jackson #annabeth chase #apollo #lester papadopoulos #meg mccaffrey #jason grace #piper mclean #leo valdez #calypso #anti caleo #anti rr #rr crit

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summersmithlatinxgyatt · 11 days

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Okay so I did watch some of Bethic Twinstinct but it did not dissuade me. Even if the episode was good, I would be more mad because of missed potential and falling off. So let's not have that as a suggestion against me because this episode was HORRIBLE. I will try not to ramble and still provide enough information for each argument

Bethcest is awful and toxic. I think there's no saving it without fundamentally changing the entire dynamic and Space Beth, meaning it's not even the same ship at that point

Let's start with Space Beth herself. She has almost no unique attributes. What I hate is how she's useless most of the time. All of her dialog is just slightly raunchier and meaner/sarcastic but it just comes AFTER Beth speaks and has the same message behind it. Why even bother

And when was the last time she contributed so much to the plot or was even at the center of the conflict?

She feels way too similar to Beth. It feels so weird seeing this completely different Beth just adjust to living in the household kinda fine? I wish there were more episodes where she’s the center of the conflict because it must’ve been hard to live with a woman like that. It feels wrong to see someone like this…do nothing most of the time? She doesn’t even really have a personality outside of being a slightly edgier Beth, like I said. Her dialog patterns reflect that and she rarely is seen alone without Beth

Not to mention that I feel like The ABC’s of Beth did this topic WAY better. We got to see Beth embrace bloodshed AND trying to realize that her flaws come from herself as well, needing to embrace that and take some level of action against it. I always see Space Beth and Bethcest as a whole as an embodiment of that episode. The only difference is that episode was actually good

I’ll detour quickly to talk about how Beth’s character has changed over the show. Season 3 did SO MUCH FOR HER and I’m glad it even exists. The Rickshank Rickdemption shows her drinking her sorrows away and later on choosing Rick over her own husband. And as much of a meme Pickle Rick is, that episode shows that Rick refuses to change mentally and emotionally - yet will change his entire body and willingly put himself into situations where he doesn’t change his MINDSET, just his body. And Beth allows it to happen because she holds him to a higher regard than anyone else in the family. Again, there’s The ABC’s of Beth that continues this theme of Beth and Rick’s relationship

I really wish that Space Beth would’ve instantly been at Beth’s neck for this. Beth has been trying to move away from this level of relationship by changing how she thinks. To get better, she has to change her way of thinking AND her relationship with Rick. So why is it okay to have her date a clone of herself? That is literally making things worse

Bethic Twinstinct has that scene of them in space where they claim that they’ve been more emotionally tied together and growing together, but we rarely got to see that and it’s already episode 3. And I fucking hate how, to illustrate how close they are, they just start talking about how they find themselves attractive and attracted to each other. It just shows that this is a sexual relationship, not a romantic one

To tie things back to Jerry, it would be retconning the relationship Jerry and Beth has by implying that sex was the void in the relationship. That retcon stays consistent because Beth pursues a sexual relationship with Space Beth and eventually ropes in Jerry. It doesn’t help how most of the time, the cliche of a woman cheating on her partner with another woman is less about sexuality afterward and is more about trying to fill in the void - even though in the moment it’s just yearning for sex and understanding. And even worse, it portrays the sapphic relationship as ONLY being sexual. This is another stereotype and YET AGAIN, this is so fetishistic in so many ways

By having Beth love herself this way, we already are retconning the faults of her relationship with Jerry. But even worse is the fundamental idea happening. Everyone points out that “It makes sense since she’s so self-absorbed”. But she ISN'T. Beth RUNS AWAY FROM HER FAULTS, when has she ever fully embraced them? She is known for drinking and dwelling in sadness before acting like it didn’t happen. She also stays around Rick to fill that void he left so many years ago and upholding him higher than the rest of the family she built and regrets (for the most part). If she was so self-absorbed that she wanted to have sex with herself, then why does she follow Rick around the most? If she was so self-absorbed, why is one of her traits being ignorant to her own faults without first mentioning that they apparently aren’t flaws? This is such a small thing people overlook. Even if the idea that she’s narcissistic and deflecting applies to this dynamic, there’s still more that would contradict it and her character

I would have LOVED it if Space Beth was actually ruthless. She feels so watered down and just stands in the background. Here’s my approach:

Try to build up the relationship in brief interactions or even having it be a subplot at first. I don’t think Space Beth can even interact in a family in any healthy manner. She would probably be trying to remove all of Rick’s failsafes to replace them with her own. She’d be trying to take the kids to school. In fact, she’d probably stand there shellshocked at the SIGHT of Morty and Summer because it’s an overwhelming sight to see the other Beth having kids

Even if she settled differences with Rick, the dynamic should persist if you want to make the character different. I would’ve loved to see Beth and Space Beth actually be a thing. YES. As much as I hate this and have listed its issues, it can be salvaged a bit

Imagine if the plot started with Space Beth and Beth having an actual romantic moment that’s interrupted with Space Beth saying something about her and Rick’s relationship. Maybe while saying she loves her, she says she wishes she could stop being around Rick all the time

Or maybe, as Rick takes Morty and Summer out for an adventure, she says they cannot go with him and instead offers herself, leading to her and Rick having a quiet yet tense drive in his ship because she doesn’t want the kids hurt and wants to watch him closely

These two ideas would serve as ways to start the conflict of the episode. To show she’s different, MAKE HER DIFFERENT. Have her actually hate Rick and be so protective of the family actively. This would lead Beth to try to step in, but here’s the thing - Space Beth is right

The internal conflict for Beth would be having to change for herself twice over, because she’s appeasing a clone. In trying to fall in love with Space Beth, she’d have to be better for herself, LITERALLY. That’s the entire point. Maybe she changes how she interacts with Rick but also tells Space Beth that everything will be okay. That would be the wake-up call for her. Yeah, maybe it’s very late to do this kind of thing, but you can insert it with any kind of conflict that would normally be fine with Beth and divide Space Beth

If she’s going to date herself, she’ll change herself. She needs to change

Space Beth needs to be VERY distinct. She needs to serve actual narrative purpose. Also, this relationship can stop hinging on sex because it completely changes Jerry and Beth’s relationships and even characters. Finally, CAN THIS NOT BE FETISHISTIC AND FOLLOW HOMOPHOBIC STEREOTYPES? Not to mention have such a random build-up to just drop the idea over the course of several episodes?

That’s all. If you ship Bethcest, I don’t hate you. But I hate the actual dynamic shown in the show. This could be WAY longer but this is more condensed. I just want her to not have a boring character and serve a bigger purpose to the show and Beth

Because honestly, we could use a sweet sapphic relationship if Sumncy doesn’t happen. I WANT them to succeed, but none of it feels genuine at all. It's so much missed potential I can still go on about

Oh and also i fucking hope that this level of bad writing doesn’t happen to summer.

#rick and morty #bethcest #beth sanchez #space beth #sapphic #bro pls #idk what else to say or tag i might do a fanfic where i fix it my way

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twdmusicboxmystery · 1 year

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My Re-Watch of Ghosts, Part 4

@wdway:

I can't wait to read your next Carol/Beth timeline segment, @galadrieljones! It fit well with @twdmusicboxmystery's thoughts from Ghosts. The photos below I believe was to emphasize the white cross on the black crate (that also has diamond shapes) and the black car white cross car that carried away Beth from the funeral home.

I don't know if you realize though that there is another tie with Carol's car and Beth, on top of the crate is a IV bag. Which would connect to Beth's IV bag and foreshadows Carol at Grady being watched over and protected by Beth. I can envision the scene and hear Beth telling Carol, "I just want you to know I was here," (paraphrasing.) Loving all of this!

@galadrieljoness:

Oh I forgot about that line. I feel like the fact that Beth speaks to Carol solidifies that Carol was embedded in her timeline, even if only for a little while!! I’m actually super relieved my thoughts are coherent lol. I was so tired when I typed this and I feel like I reordered it and reread it like three times before hitting send so like my brain had gone to bits and I was like “Welp here goes nothing!!”

@wdway:

I've been thinking about how Carol somewhat has no time nor physical boundary. I just wanted to point out that that Maggie, Glenn and Company came in the front. Rick and Company came in the back and reunited in the A train car, but even though we saw Carol shooting rockets into Terminus, we never actually saw her enter nor did we see her leave. It is as if she didn't physically come or go. She was simply there, suspended in space and in time. See, I have been reading and thinking about what you are saying about Carol and time.

@galadrieljones:

That’s super good! It’s true. She just sort of materializes inside and then suddenly she’s in the woods taking off her camouflage. That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about!!

I mean honestly Carol really is sort of like a ghost. Her entire strategy for survival is basically to remain as invisible as possible. It makes a lot of sense based on her past abuse. Daryl exhibits similar tendencies but while Daryl will literally just disappear or simply stay quiet, Carol is more of a chameleon. She can be anyone, fit in anywhere. The ruthless killer, the happy homemaker. She infiltrates the CW via her connections with Lance. She infiltrates the Wolves, infiltrates the Whisperers by manipulating Negan. She infiltrates Terminus. If and when Melissa returns she would be the perfect character to infiltrate the CRM.

@wdway:

I think I have mentioned this before but I'll tell you about it again it concerns codas. There are two others I think we could call them official TWD coda's although they're not in season episodes.

The first coda I believe that we ever saw in the series was in the official trailer for s5 that aired at Comic-Con that summer. The trailer ended and then we had a coda of Beth being slapped by Dawn. Of course we didn't know who the officer was at the time or anything other than that Beth was in hospital scrubs and a policewoman slapped her.

The other coda came the following summer during Comic-Con in the official trailer for s6. Again it was after the trailer ran and then credits came up or the TWD logo if I remember correctly then it went into the coda of Daryl being tied up by Dwight. We found out later when it aired that it was from e6 Always Accountable. I don't know if this would mean anything to you but I just thought I would tell you or remind you of these two other coda's. Now I'm going above and read what you just sent.

@galadrieljones:

Ever since the TTD guy (I think?) referred to the WB coda as a “coda” I feel like this is all really important.

I want to come back and talk some more about Ghosts. I also think I might rewatch The Same Boat now. I honestly think I’ve only seen that episode once lol. I don’t remember liking it that much. But now, with a better lens through which to view the episode, I have a feeling that might change.

The whole theme with Ghosts is “seeing,” or “not seeing.” We just got done talking a lot about how Carol has seen something others have not. She’s the only person who was inside Grady with Beth, who was in Beth’s story and may have witnessed what happened, and how this is connected to what’s going on in Ghosts. Everyone in Ghosts is “not seeing” something, aka they’re in denial, except for Carol.

As I said earlier, Carol is “unstuck.” I think because of this she lacks the blinders that many other characters seem to have, in terms of the truth. In Ghosts, everybody has the thing they want to believe, and the thing they can’t see. The main thing is the question as to whether or not Alpha sent the walkers. Mary says it isn’t Alpha and so does Lydia, but this can’t be true, because then who could it be? The actual truth is too much to handle. It’s too big and the possibilities are ferocious. This is just a precursor to a lot of other ways the characters are in denial.

Michonne and Daryl are repeatedly appeasing Alpha to prevent further bloodshed, and to prevent another war, but the thing is, they need a war. Their inaction or indifference, while simultaneously having overstepped their bounds with Alpha and her “rules” causes them to lose more land, only pushing things further to the brink. The Highway Men are right, in that Alexandria needs to fight. But Michonne and Daryl are like a snake with its head cut off. They aren’t the leaders the community needs. They are still mourning Rick.

Aaron, meanwhile, is in denial about what happened with Eric. Eric fought willingly in the war with the Saviors and died per his own choices to do so. Aaron blames Negan, so Negan projects on Aaron in an uncomfortable way, which is to say, he didn’t protect his wife, and she died. Negan, too, is still in denial about his role in what happened to Lucille, something he doesn’t let go of until Here’s Negan.

But Negan doesn’t really see clearly either, not until he has to face Maggie in 11A, when he reminds her that it was Rick who started that war, and he doesn’t regret his actions. He regrets that Glenn had to pay the price, but he commits that no matter what, somebody had to. That it was Glenn, that’s just fate, and for this, he is sorry, but he wouldn’t go back and change a thing, and he’s not going to grovel.

But Carol. In Ghosts, Carol is having bad dreams but she is able to see the whisperers because her subconscious, cracked open by drugs and lack of sleep and a lack of inhibition or greater purpose, leads her straight to them. Carol sees Alpha for what she is. She knows that Alpha needs to die, and she is sick of the dance they’re doing to appease her. Carol is RIGHT about this but her approach is all wrong, bringing that gun to the meeting, because, just like always, she’s brash and selfish.

Even in Find Me, I want to point out that Carol is right to question Daryl’s sanity, his emotional stability, and what went on with Leah. It’s just, she already fucked that up with what happened to Connie, so nothing she says or does will ever reach him. She was also right btw to try and pursue Alpha in season 10 after what she did the Alexandrias, but again, she did it all wrong. Because rather than find a way to lead, Carol tries to do everything on her own, and it just doesn’t work that way. Carol’s intentions are often right. Her instincts are often spot on. It’s just her approach that causes so many problems.

In Indifference, she grovels to Rick. She says she had to do something, because Rick wouldn’t. She earlier says, “You can be a farmer, Rick. You can’t just be a farmer.” I think in the episode, we are drawn to think of Carol as the indifferent one, because she seems only to be out for herself and what she thinks is right, and this might be true, like what Daryl accuses her of during their fight in Find Me; however, I think Rick is also truly indifferent. He drives Carol away because he can’t commit to dealing with Tyreese, dealing with what to do when somebody does what she did. He can’t make this choice so he just…removes it.

When she says she had to do something, Rick says, “No, you didn’t.” And he’s technically right. But where he’s wrong is that SOMEBODY had to do something. Maybe not THAT, but something. But Carol is selfish, always focused on her own point of view and her own objectives. She’s not a leader. She’s a mother, protecting her young above all others, only her young are all dead, so she has nobody on whom to project this ruthless, selfish mechanism.

This is what causes people to disbelieve her, including Daryl. They assume she’s only out for herself. Carol is not beholden to anyone or any one set of ideals, just as she’s not beholden to any one timeline. She is, however, highly intelligent, and this is something that we see play out in season 11 a little bit, when Carol is sort of past her internal conflicts and her selfishness, and when she’s no longer putting pressure on herself to avenge those she’s lost, but instead, she makes it her entire life goal to help and protect others, like Kelly, like Ezekiel.

In Hunted, for example, she gets flack from Magna for fuelling Kelly’s hope that they will find Connie, and Carol struggles because she’s not sure: Is she actually doing this for Kelly, or is she only trying to make herself feel better? In the end, after everything that happens with the horses, Carol decides that she’s doing it for Kelly after all, and so she defies Magna. Once again, she’s right. They do find Connie. And because her approach is unselfish, everything is okay.

In his dream story, Daryl says something like, even tho his dad was a drug addict, it doesn’t mean he was wrong. This is right. It’s like Carol talking to herself. Just because I’m a selfish co-dependent ruiner doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

Some other notes, related. In his dream story, Daryl’s dad sees a girl being hit by a truck, who disappears. Odd that this is what Carol’s mind would invent, as, back to Grady, she was hit by a car and disappeared. “There was no girl,” Daryl says. Is this some sort of allegory? Is this some sort of story Carol is telling herself about what happened? Intriguing.

Carol is seeing things. They’re real, but not in the way it seems. She’s being lead around by her subconscious. In Fear, we see this happening with Grace in “In Dreams,” very obviously, and also with Siddiq in Open Your Eyes. The subconscious is a storyteller and a truth bomb.

Per Siddiq, he’s REALLY not seeing. He’s traumatized. Siddiq is having flashbacks, when he is with Dante. It’s like Dante’s voice is triggering him, but he doesn’t know it yet. He isn’t seeing. He’s only hearing.

Per the other storylines: It’s important that Negan is the one who sees, while Aaron is blinded. Negan’s act of tough love helps Aaron see again, literally and figuratively, but it also forces Negan to make a choice. Is he loyal to these people? Yes, he is. Or else he would have run. He wouldn’t have helped Aaron. He might have just killed him or let him die. It’s the same with Rosita. She helps Eugene to see. It’s hard but it sets him free, gives him his “crushing moment of clarity.”

Seeing is akin to waking up. Opening your eyes. Eugene talks about how when one is sleep deprived this “enhances impulsivity” as if one is drunk. “Drunk minds speak sober hearts.” Dante brings Siddiq the moonshine. Dante was also a field medic, same as Bob.

In the end, Daryl is smoking a clove cigarette and for a second I thought it was a cinnamon stick.

Idk why they have him smoke that clove cigarette with the brown paper. I don’t know that they’ve had him do that before. He doesn’t smoke a lot in those seasons tbqh.

I think it’s obviously meant to call us back to Alone, and to what Carol saw that he didn’t see. But ofc I am biased.

The ending dream with Henry is weird, because it seems unsettled. It seems like he’s still waiting for her. The compass calls us back to the day she was unstuck.

Carol’s cast. Why did she get a big old cut like that in her arm? This episode is full of broken glass. “Did you have to break the glass?”

The callbacks to Indifference intrigued me, too, because in Indifference, the B story has Daryl and Michonne’s group traveling to the school to find drugs and supplies. In Ghosts, they also go to a school, and the bleeding eyes is consistent with the theme of “not seeing.”

Like at some point, Daryl says something to Michonne about what they need to do about the walkers and she snaps back, “I have eyes.” Aaron goes blind. I’m wondering now if the bleeding eye disease is just a symbol meant to communcate to us that there is something majorly unseen at work.

There’s also something weird, too, about Judith sitting by the window. She just sits there, the whole episode, and RJ is fast asleep. He sleeps through the whole ordeal, like the little Red King. Had me wondering if he wasn’t just dreaming the whole thing. Made me think of how Michonne isn’t seeing them, or like they don’t exist when she’s not there.

She says something like, “It’s not smart to go to sleep unless it’s safe.” This recalls Carol, who is obviously feeling unsafe. Henry told Daryl that story about the reason she used to cut her hair, because Ed used to grab her by the hair, and the fact she let her hair grow out showed that she finally felt safe enough to do so.

Continued tomorrow...

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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eolewyn1010 · 5 months

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Reading Percy Jackson TLT was an ordeal for me 1 - Writing

Now, as a disclaimer in the name of fairness, I only ever read The Lightning Thief and none of the Percy Jackson series beyond that, so my experience with Rick Riordan's writing is limited (and I'm not planning to change that). It's also a distorted experience because I didn't read the original - I read a translated version, and I often noticed that it wasn't the best translation. For example, whoever was responsible was apparently incapable of translating an imperative mood, crippling quite a lot of dialogue. So I'll give Riordan that: I have probably not seen the best of his work.

That said, I massively disliked this book. Yes, even within the boundaries and rules of Kids' Fantasy. I won't tag this to the fandom because it seems nigh impossible to find anyone who so much as tolerates negative criticism of Percy Jackson. I've been called brain-damaged for not liking it, which is certainly a mature take. But I will feel better listing it all down that one time, getting it out of my mind, so here we go.

These dialogues are weird, these people are weird

I constantly catch myself thinking, "no one talks like that??" Even taking the translation aspect into account, a lot of the dialogue sounds just stilted. After the bus crash, some of the passengers are described by Percy as literally running in a circle yelling "We're gonna die" - no one behaves like that. It's a funny, over-the-top imagination that would fit in a cartoon, and it completely breaks with the serious tension of the preceding scene, and with my suspension of disbelief. People, even hysterical people, don't do that seriously. It feels like a scene in a theater play.

It appears equally forced when Annabeth apparently mutters to herself as she walks away from Percy: "Mission... Poseidon? ...[some cussing]... need a plan..." And I sit there like: Really? You mutter that to yourself? I can believe that you mutter a curse to yourself, but this "shreds of sentences" thing? Why would she talk to herself in the first place? So Percy can randomly hear some incomplete thoughts? No. It's to tease the readers. Riordan, you shouldn't make me aware of the author's presence all the time. Annabeth never talks to herself otherwise. It isn't even a character thing for her. And made out like this, it's so unnatural.

Same goes for Percy talking in his sleep... apparently very clearly and comprehensibly, so that Annabeth can piece together what he's been dreaming of. Except. People who talk in their sleep? They mumble. They hardly get a cohesive sentence out. How am I supposed to believe that this is playing in the real world? These people don't behave like people.

And one more thing that struck me as odd: A description of Grover with "his eyes narrowed; there was fear in them." Hm. Have you ever tried to look afraid with your eyes narrowed? It isn't actually that easy. When people are scared, their eyes widen. Tell me when you can narrow your eyes and get your expression not to look angry, not distrustful or doubtful, but afraid.

Is this plot ever going anywhere?

So, it's one thing that this structure of quest-hopping isn't how I personally like my books. A bigger problem seems to me that it's lacking coherence. Most of the kids' stops on the way and monsters to slay have nothing to do with their mission. Why is all of this so disconnected? Did we learn anything new from the Medusa adventure, from the episode with Echidna?

And at times, it feels like the plot is artificially prolonged. This is really bad in the beginning when no one can be arsed to tell Percy what the hell is going on. Neither Chiron nor know-it-all Annabeth can just give him a straight answer to anything. Which, Chiron comes off as plain gaslighting Percy at his human school when he denies that Percy just fought for his fucking life, and Annabeth? Percy even lampshades it; at one point he's like, "as if I was supposed to already know all that." Well, HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WHEN NO ONE OPENS THEIR FUCKING MOUTH? And the one time that Annabeth actually wants to tell Percy something, she gets interrupted by a random outside occurence that isn't even important. Can anyone get this shit moving already?

The worst foreshadowing since Stephenie Meyer

I wish Riordan would stop slapping me over the head with Dead Herrings (aka Red Herrings that don't work the way they should). Telling me something very specific and then going "Nooo, it's couldn't possibly be that highly specific thing!" will not redirect my thoughts the wrong way; it will just make me wait jadedly for the moment when, oh, such surprise, it turns out it was exactly what you thought of first.

"Oh, Percy can do funny things with water and the only thing he's good at is rowing - who could possibly be his father!"

"This lady is surrounded by scared-looking statues and we can't see her eyes - who could she possibly be!"

"This statue looks like my uncle - what a weird coincidence!"

"Dude keeps telling Percy to put on the flying shoes - wonder what he's on about!"

Honestly, it feels very condescending. My friend said the book is written for 12-year-olds, but does Riordan know that 12-year-olds aren't idiots? It's not a good idea to treat your readers as being dense.

Inconsistent worldbuilding

Do we ever get a reason for Grover eating literal garbage? Oh, I know, the extra-diagetical explanation is a joke I'm not in on and that frankly enrages me (later more on that). But in-universe we are never told how he's capable of chewing tin cans without cutting himself to shreds. We're never told how he can digest that shit. If you have to make this a thing, Riordan, at least make it work!

Camp Half-Blood is... eh. Okay-ish? Riordan doesn't know the first thing about Ancient Greek architecture, and it comes back to bite him with Annabeth. But for now, I have questions about the strawberries. How are they growing so well when they never have rain over the valley? Like. Plants do need water. And there's no reason why Dionysus and his kids should be able to make them grow well, none. Dionysus isn't and has never been a god of nature, ever since he separated from Pan (and Pan IS a separate character in this book). The only plant he has a connection to is fucking grapevine. I can buy that he can make grapevines grow, but everything else should be under the jurisdiction of Demeter and her children. Who are allegedly largely unimpressive, but we'll get to that. Also. All strawberries? Nothing but strawberries, ever? Monoculture is ruining the soil, y'know. That camp should be on dead ground within a decade or so.

Then again, Percy also claims he hasn't eaten anything unhealthy ever since he entered the camp. And then counts, "grapes, bread, cheese, lean barbecued meat." No strawberries then? Anyway, my point is: This isn't healthy. It's a very reduced diet - a balanced diet for 12-year-olds, still growing and physically very active 12-year-olds, requires more than that! How do the kids in the camp not all have deficiency symptoms?

I'm not sure how the disappearing monsters work. Body parts can just randomly stay behind as the spoils of war? Who decides which parts? Riordan wanted Medusa's eyes to still do their work after Percy slays Medusa, because the eyes still working is part of the Perseus myth that he's processing, but that really doesn't roll with "the body just disappears when the creature is slain." Like, what. Why wouldn't her head just disappear with the rest of her; it's a part of her body? Can just the head disappear instead and randomly leave the body behind? What are the rules here?

And there's the bit with "does this actually play in the real world?" again. Because when they wander the forest, Grover complains that they cannot see the stars because of the pollution. Which. This red sheen over the sky shouldn't be a thing in the middle of a forest. This is not how light pollution works, unless they are close to a city, in which case, why are they sleeping in the forest? Or is Grover trying to tell me that there were no clouds before environmental pollution? (Granted, I don't know why they went into the forest in the first place and didn't just sleep at Medusa's shop...)

In a similar vein, why is the police looking after Percy as a criminal suspect and not as a missing child? When a 12-year-old disappears, who in their right mind goes, "he could have murdered his mother"?? Why isn't the reaction, "something really bad happened to them both; we need to look for them both!", but "we need to look specifically for this kid because he has definitely done something terrible to his mom"? What is that for an outlandish approach to a missing kid?

This is a Very American Perspective (and it doesn't work)

Now, telling me that the USA are the center of Western civilisation is obviously extremely subjective, and as a non-American, I'm probably not supposed to agree. That Chiron goes on to declare the nebulous future "fall of Western civilisation" this huge, apocalyptic catastrophe and in the process sounds like a whiny rightwing politican - okay, that's me being cynical. But this really fails as soon as the Olympus and the Greek gods get in on the equation. I cannot imagine any place in the world that's less into pagan polytheism than the USA. The Greek gods aren't revered there, or if they are, it's by very small groups.

So, if Riordan's train of thought is "they are revered by whatever name; they may have different names, but it's always the same gods", then we get into a real conundrum with the multitude of pantheons in various religions. Because the gods in different religions are very incongruent in what functions and personalities they have. It already fails with the Greek-to-Roman transference - close as these two mythologies may be, they don't work in 1:1 accordance (something which Riordan heavily misrepresents, but I'm not going into that here). So, if the modern USA are so central to Western civilisation that the gods moved the Olympus and the Underworld and everything there, how did the gods' personalities and powers not massively shift over the millennia; how did gods not disappear and appear and merge to fit more contemporary notions of God / gods? Are they completely unperturbed by mortal developments and mindsets? Then why would they ever change anything, including their location?

Speaking of Greek and Roman gods... I really enjoy the action scenes. Riordan is good at writing action; it's fun. So. It ires me that I got completely ripped out of the scene by Percy randomly spouting Latin curses. Why Latin? What does that have to do with his prodigious propensity to Ancient Greek? Why. Why does Riordan keep mixing up Roman with Greek mythology, one language with the other? They are very distinct!

Chiron at one point describes the cooperation of gods with mortals as "the dawn of the Western civilisation". This is funny, as Western civilisation hit a real low after the fall of the Roman Empire (and yes, I'm focussing on Europe in this part of my argument - there was no Western civilisation in America before the late 16th century). And it stayed like that throughout a large portion of the middle ages. The civilisation on a roll until about the 11th century was what we'd today sum up under "Arab". They were the big scientists, the big architects, they dominated the trade, they spread all over the place; it was a whole thing. Yet of course gods of Western civilisation cannot be worshipped in Fez, in Tunis, in Granada, in Baghdad, in Alexandria - so where were they in the meantime? How did they not disappear while Christianity became a thing? They were not being worshipped anymore; the majority of people alive in the Western world weren't aware there had ever been other religions in Europe than Christianity because translating the old texts into modern languages was something Arabian scholars did early on, but it was a late fashion to Christians.

"The Second World-War was a war between the children of Zeus and the children of Hades, and the losing side (aka the Nazis and their allies) were the children of Hades." ... There are certainly ways to help kids approach the very complicated layers of politics and social aspects regarding the World Wars. This isn't one of them, and I curse Riordan in the tongues of a thousand historians for the paragraph in which he summed it up like that. This is how you're explaining fascists? "Oh, they're the children of Hades, so I guess they're just born evil." This is just vile.

The weird implications of fantasy creatures being treated as animals

Percy doesn't want to walk behind Chiron because he thinks the dude would just randomly take a literal shit on him. Toilet humor is funny, you guys! Except this isn't a horse, no matter how often Percy calls him one. The nymphs aren't trees. Grover is not a goat. It's one thing to integrate features of these because we're talking fantasy mix creatures, but they are still sentient and sapient on a human level! In case of Chiron, he's hundreds of years old and a wise guardian and teacher to Percy and others. Why are we always accompanied by the implication that they are, in some capacity, animals? That's just plain old Fantasy Racism. Stop dehumanizing people you yourself have established as people, please?

Grover is the most present non-human character in this book; so he's the usual victim of this. I cannot count the times Percy calls him a goat boy, or just plain a goat. He is not. A goat. He's a person. I'm supposed to believe he is Percy's best friend. Why does Percy talk to or about him like he's holding him in contempt half the time? Why does Annabeth? She's been living with intelligent non-humans since she was seven! They make fun of him, they dismiss his warnings and instincts as "whining", even though he turns out to be right. They don't treat him seriously, they aren't friendly, they hardly do more than scold him, boss him around or roll their eyes at him.

We still get the other side of the coin

Despite the former problem, Riordan manages to be contemptuous of humans, too. People inside the camp, Annabeth most of all, but Chiron (in a softer way) as well, and eventually Percy and Grover keep talking down at humans. Chiron says the reason why Percy's sword can't kill humans is because "mortals aren't important enough." You know, I would have been fine with "it's to protect humanity" or something; I didn't need a complicated justification for how this sword works. But it would have been nice to not get the most disparaging version that makes icky humans out to be a lower class of life! "Not important enough"? With all his talk of the precious Western civilisation, Chiron should know that mortals are vital to the immortals. No humans, no gods.

Funny thing is, Annabeth repeatedly describes mortals als blind and stupid because they don't know of the mythological goings-on. I thought that was the Mist(TM)? So, what is it? You are magically protected from being perceived as being and doing supernatural stuff - then it isn't the humans' fault, is it? - or people are just stupid and self-censor in their heads. Then why bother with the Mist. The Mist existing and being explained makes me wanna yell at Annabeth to stuff her high-and-mighty attitude. Granted, the Mist isn't too internally consistent. It hides centaurs randomly galloping across the landscape in plain sight of humans, it hides the furies, but it doesn't hide Echidna and the Chimera. I would have liked an explanation for that.

Harmful stereotyping

So. Riordan really hates dog owners, doesn't he? What was with the pink poodle? I mean, I got it; the owners are terrible - that's why he has an unfitting name and why he ran away. But Riordan has to hammer me over the head again. They dyed the doggo pink. Oof. And then Echidna. Here's wondering if Riordan ever depicts a dog owner as a decent person who treats their dog well.

But I take a vastly bigger issue with his consistently hateful depiction of step-parents. Now, Evil Step-Parents(TM) are a well-worn fairytale trope. And Riordan just... never questions it. Personally, I hate it. If it's a step-parent, they're abusive; no exceptions. Percy's stepfather is beating his wife, Annabeth's stepmother treats her as a freak and isolates her from her siblings; it's all very on-the-nose. Only once, I wanna read an acknowledgment that step-parents are just people, and they are as likely to be good people as everyone else. In fact, someone who decides to take a partner who already has a child usually has to internalize that fact at first and accept that this child is going to be a part of the relationship in some capacity. Can we not shit on non-biological parents all the time?

In that context, Annabeth's biological father being a lousy parent as well looks odd, granted. It's definitely something different than Percy's angelic mom. Is Riordan telling me that Athena just has a bad taste in men? Or is that more shitting on humans?

Oh boy, and he loves him some fatshaming. And no, it isn't just "this fat character turns out to be evil", it is "every single character described as being overweight is a negative character in some way, plus depicted as someone with really poor hygiene, plus just generally physically revolting. Go on, re-read the Echidna scene. Tell me that he doesn't go out of his way there to hammer home just how obnoxious and repulsive she is before she turns out to be a monster. How many unflattering words can he squeeze into one paragraph? Why would a kid care? Why does Percy even look at a complete stranger long enough to study how bad her sense of fashion is? Other big characters include Dionysus (more on him when I talk about Riordan's takes on mythology) who's... not evil, but mean-spirited and grumpy and contemptuous and constantly pissed-off. And Gabe, the stinking, ugly, abusive stepfather who literally lives among trash and is so unsubtle that he complains to his wife's face that he didn't get her life insurance because she showed up alive. Gabe Ugliano, because he's ugly, you see? Rick Riordan is funny. He's also trying to beat me to death with an anvil. And showing his ass, because a lot of domestic abuse is way subtler than that.

Ugly = evil is a shorthand that Riordan keeps reusing - and that his hero has weirdly internalized! And don't even tell me of a judgy 12-year-old as an unreliable narrator - because the narrative keeps proving Percy right. Ares' ugly daughters and the ugly girl at human school are brutal bullies (I mean, Annabeth keeps insulting and bullying Percy, but she's pretty, so it's fine when she does it). That Medusa looks elegant and refined and "must have been a beautiful woman once" makes Percy trust her, but the moment he stops trusting her, she starts looking monstrous. It's really lazy characterization.

Also, a fun little detail from Camp Half-Blood: The phenotype of people with sharp noses? Is associated with troublemakers. Uh-huh. I'm comfy with that. That doesn't sound anti-Semitic at all. ... FUCK THIS. Riordan, stereotypes like this are HARMFUL. Do. Your. Research.

An afterthought

Does Riordan have any faith in his own writing? Because the one time I'm sold on a dramatic moment, he ends up subverting it. I'm all, "Percy's falling towards the river! Monsters! Everything is panic!" And then the new chapter starts, and the moment falls flat. Because Riordan doesn't hold onto the fear Percy feels in that moment; he makes him snark about it in hindsight. It's really not a good idea to set up an emotionally captivating moment and then make fun of it.

#I'm not gonna tag this as Percy Jackson because the fandom would have my head for it #personal opinions #this got way salty #got this out of my system #books

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