#artemis internal monologue is so much

[tiny-huts]

I read Empty Joys and really loved how much he leaned into the married couple banter for that one. Also Artemis your internal monologue is....

#it was a delight lmao #great dialogue #artemis internal monologue is so much #every sentence describing jarlaxle is like #he looked so handsome and delicate and hot and #like buddy #pal #men say im fighting demons and the demons are bisexuality #also read the short story ahout Liriel too #havent read daughter of thr drow yet #i really like how that author writes about Menzoberranzan #also omg the last like paragraph of that story was like a slap in the face #what makes a true drow despair #like bruh #the forgotten realms #the legend of drizzt #slap in the face in a good way #im sad #also Kimmuriel did you take a few levels in artificer #does he #you know #make all his magic items #meg reads lod

[zooophagous]

Strauss marched stiffly behind his companion. No, companion was far too friendly a word. She needed a different descriptor. He mentally combed through what English his racing mind could cling to. She was something more of a jailor, or perhaps a carnivorous bird of prey, more of a captor.

If there was an English word for someone who captured another and forced them to commit violence, he couldn’t find it in his lexicon. He had an idea, however, that he may fit the definition of “hostage.”

He had tried to imagine himself more of a shepherd, or a “sheep dog,” a chaperone or someone who could perhaps persuade Frau Pietra not to behave badly- at least while he was with her. How foolish to imagine this was a sheep, and not a wolf. 

Sylvain’s psychic prowess did not, as far as he knew, extend to the wholesale reading of minds. She didn’t really need to. Her confident posture and the sense of direction with which she was leading him gave the sense that she already knew very well what he was thinking.

“I hope this walking is working up your appetite.” She called glibly back at her shadow. “I know it’s working for me.”

“I am not hungry.” He replied glumly.

“Yes you are. I can hear your gut growling at you. We are going to find something, and you WILL eat.”

“Where are we going?”

“To find a worthwhile target.” She muttered. “Don’t you worry, Herr Strauss. I know you. I know you’re picky. Too picky to take just anyone. I’ll have you know I hand picked a vile, nasty little son of a bitch who’s evaded justice for quite some time. Just for you. I know that’s your MO.”

“What is MO?”

“Modus Operandi. The mode in which you operate.”

“Is that how you think I operate? Picking off alleged villains to slake my thirst and spare my conscience?”

“Am I wrong?” She looked over her shoulder at him. “We both already know your history. You really gonna try and deny it?”

“If you truly knew anything about me, you’d know I subsist on charity.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Not murder.”

“Don’t sell yourself too short. You also subsisted on medical malpractice and on soldiers and prostitutes. A crook isn’t much different.”

“I do what I have to, Frau Pietra. I am not always proud of it. I do not need to do this.”

“Oh no, you do. Just not for your usual reason. I went through the trouble and you’re going to follow through.”

“Where are you even taking me? You still haven’t told me.”

“You can see it from here.” She pointed at the skyline of the city. It wasn’t an impressive skyline, but part of it stood proud against the dingy orangish clouds of the light polluted sky. A black, barbed spire, the pointed shape of which was nearly reminiscent of the stakes found hanging in the halls of the Van Helsing Institute. 

“The cathedral?”

“Got it in one, chief.” She smirked. “What’s the matter, scared of a little crucifix and holy water? I don’t know how much you’ve bothered testing it, but that doesn’t work.” Her face grew dark. “Ask me how I know.”

“God would have to care for that to be real, and he does not.” Strauss replied softly.

“There is no God.” She snapped. “For at least one poor asshole, we’re going to prove it.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You won’t.”

Strauss crossed his arms protectively over his torso. His mind raced while his footsteps deliberately dragged, trying to buy precious moments to think. The looming silhouette of the cathedral only grew larger with every step. 

Maybe he could make a break for it. No, she could find him. Unless he ditched the watch, but then Artemis wouldn’t be able to find him either. Maybe he could tackle her. And be publicly rent limb from limb. Also less than ideal. But, to save a human life perhaps? He wasn’t sure his altruism stretched so far as to sacrifice his own life for a stranger who meant nothing to him. As bleak as it sounded, perhaps it was better the stranger than himself. What an awful way to think, though, and one he was sure would disappoint Artemis if she could hear it.

His internal monologue had failed to illuminate the correct way to proceed. What was worse- it also had failed to buy any time. The pair of vampires walked abreast down the sidewalk to the tall form of the church that stood lit up in warm light against a starless sky. 

Sylvain stepped into the lawn of the holy place, undeterred by the watchful gaze of a marble statue of Mary that glowered down at them. She stalked around the side of the building, away from the main doors, with a purpose that indicated she knew exactly where to go. 

“This way.”

Strauss obediently trailed behind, stooping low to try and hide in whatever shadows he could afford with his height. Sylvain found her spot by the wall, and, placing her hands against the bricks, began to climb. 

Her claws deftly found whatever thin holds the bricks could offer her, and she scaled it fearlessly to the second floor. A little window glowed from within- some poor soul working late in the office wing. She peeked into the lit room and tapped ever so gently at the window pane, catching the attention of the occupant. Even from his position on the ground, Strauss could see her face twist into a cruel smile. She curled her finger in a beckoning motion. She was a difficult request to resist.

A man appeared at the window. He had no sooner opened it when Sylvain shot her claw into the opening and seized him by his shirt and yanked him off his feet. She clung to the wall with one claw, and turned outward to hold the terrified, whimpering target with the other.

She dropped him.

Strauss ducked forward and caught the dead weight of the half-hypnotized prey item roughly. He stumbled onto his knee, and spilled the stranger onto the yard. The man scurried backwards away from his savior. Sylvain dropped down in front of him and landed squarely on her feet. She reached for him once again and dragged her prey to a standing position.

“Keep your Goddamn mouth shut or I’ll rip your scalp off.” She growled to the terrified man. She could have spared threats, her psychic sway was more than enough to keep him quiet, and he was too scared to challenge her. 

“This is your worthy target?” Strauss snarked at her. “An elderly priest? I have no love for Catholicism, but I thought you had a bit more… suitable fare.” He almost sounded disappointed as he quietly mocked her. “The only thing going for him is that I suppose he’s technically supposed to be a virgin.”

“Not just a priest, Lu. What you have here is one Father Gregor White. He’s a bit new at this parish, aren’t you Greg?”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Nothing. It’s just that before he was moved here a year and a half ago, he was in South Carolina for four years. And then in New Jersey before that for two. Seems to have a hard time staying put, doesn’t he?”

“And?”

“You can’t be this dense, Lu. What big important high profile reason might the church have for sending a priest away to a new parish? Do you think perhaps they had a few complaints?”

She stressed the last word sharply. Gregor feebly muttered a stuttered response of “it’s not true!” before receiving a kick in the ribs for his protests.

Strauss winced with empathy and stepped forward to separate the two. Sylvain pointedly stuck herself between them. 

“What, this one not good enough for you? After all the trouble I went through to really pick out a good one?”

Strauss glanced down at the glassy eyed and lost looking priest. 

“I recognize him. The day I escaped, I had no shirt. I fell from a roof, and he gave me his jacket.”

“Oh, so that little act of kindness covers a multitude of sins?”

“No. But I still have little interest in killing him.”

“Why not. Did you go soft? Did Ursula defang you? Or maybe she just neutered you.”

“I simply refuse to bite when there isn’t a need to.”

“You’ve killed pedophiles before.”

“Yes, and that killing is what got me hunted down and captured in the first place. I lost my home and my freedom and my entire life was permanently upended. I would be an idiot not to think of consequences now.”

“Should have known better. Practically gift wrapped a hot meal for you and you turn your nose up at it like a spoiled lap dog. I was told you were a tiger. Now I can’t tell if I see stripes on you or just the outlines of your ribs. Do you think you can survive on altruism? Would you starve to death to let this scum live?”

“I have survived on altruism for over two hundred years. You have barely survived five, and have done so by living on the periphery of humanity like a kicked dog. Abandoning my harmlessness and hunting humanity is what nearly got me killed.”

He stepped towards her with his teeth bared. “Go ahead then, if it’s that important to you that he dies, you do it. That seems to be your “modus operandi,” as you so aptly put it. Why bother making it mine? Clearly you’re the superior hunter here. Show me! Show me how it’s done!”

“This isn’t about me, Lu.”

“Then tell me straight up. Why does it matter so much that I be the one to spill blood here?”

“Because I’m fucking TIRED of you denying your nature.”

She shoved him hard in the chest. Strauss stood firm and didn’t move. Sylvain stumbled backwards a step from her own force. 

“You and I both know you’ve got a hungry mean streak deep as the sea beneath that meek little facade, Strauss. You won’t control it if you don’t fucking acknowledge it, don’t you get that? Maybe you could get away with that in that stupid fucking hole in the ground but that’s long gone. Now you’re HERE. Here and pretending you aren’t one bad day from ending everyone around you.”

“I believe you’re projecting, Frau Pietra. I may have bitten, yes, under duress. But I am not the one leaving spent corpses in the park like a drunk leaving a trail of broken bottles.”

“What the Hell are you talking about?” She tilted her head to one side. “You think I kill people? You think I’m stupid enough to pick off people in the town Ursula Harker comes to get coffee every day? Do you honestly think that little of me?”

“If you don’t even hunt, why the Hell should I?!”

“I already told you this isn’t about me. Honestly Lu, you want the truth? It’s not about you either.”

“Then what is it about?”

“It’s about HER!”

Sylvain yelled in his face. “It’s about Artie, ok? You happy?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of fucking course you don’t. You don’t understand fucking anything. Or at least you’re real good at playing dumb. I told Artie, I fucking warned her not to keep messing around with vampires. I BEGGED her to quit. I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to her.”

Gregor tried to crawl away, only to be snatched by his shirt collar and flung against the wall.

“I was the best hunter they ever had. Maybe even more so than Ursula. If I could fuck up and get turned into… THIS then it could happen to anyone. It wasn’t worth it to keep the Institute open. But no. She was just like you. Weak. Too weak to make a hard choice. Too weak to finish me off when she had the chance. And even losing her eye wasn’t enough to teach her a lesson. After losing me, she goes and gets you. You! A half feral grave dweller, who had just skinned a man alive.”

She laughed bitterly as she ranted.

“Getting you out of there and letting you loose is what you deserve, I’ll give you that. But it wasn’t about you. I had to get you away from her. I had to get vampires, including myself, away from my girlfriend before she got herself fucking killed. Now here I am handing you freedom, and you’re too stupid to take it and run.”

“Ex girlfriend.”

“Excuse me?”

“Artemis is your ex girlfriend. Not your girlfriend. I don’t think you can rightfully call her yours after you took out her eye.”

“What’s it to you if she’s my girlfriend or not? Are you jealous or something?”

“Artemis is my friend. Is it not natural to want to protect your friend from a former lover who injured them?”

“Please. She isn’t your friend. She’s your OWNER if anything. She doesn’t care about you beyond her project.”

“I know for a fact that isn’t true.” He replied a bit more slyly than he should have.

“What do you mean by that?” Sylvain asked suspiciously.

Strauss was silent.

She abandoned her assault on the priest and turned now to Strauss. She grabbed him by the throat with sudden ferocity.

“I SAID what do you mean by that?”

Strauss stared wide eyed in shock at her. He was instantly aware that she was exerting her will on him. Quite a bold move, to try that on another vampire. He had only a split second to decide whether or not to fight it. Such a distraction would probably get her mind off of ‘hunting,’ but only at his own expense. While his mind grappled for a foothold, his mouth was already bending to her will.

“I know because I love her.”

Sylvain laughed cruelly in his face. “You love her! That’s rich! I knew you had Stockholm syndrome but woooow Lu. This is pathetic even for you. You really think she reciprocates?”

“Yes. Considering how many times we’ve slept together.”

Oops. 

Strauss clamped his claw over his mouth. Too little too late. Sylvain stared him down with a hard incredulous stare. She was in apparent shock, and for a moment was silent, though the heat of her anger rising out out a noise at a frequency only vampires could hear.

“You… and Artie.”

Strauss shot a look to the priest, who was now slowly rising to his feet and trying to slip away. He hoped the look conveyed “you’re welcome and get out quickly,” but that was a lot for such a stoic face to say. He made hard eye contact with Sylvain.

“Yes.”

She struck him. She struck him again. One two in rapid succession across the face. Hot pain seared his cheek from the rip of skin under her claws. She made to swing again. He caught her arm and swung her bodily into the wall. She stopped stunned for a moment.

Her eyes were wide and her breathing heavy and ragged. A deep growling voice choked out of her between desperate angry breaths.

“I’ll kill you. I’m going to wait for her to show up and I’ll kill you right the fuck in front of her.”

“She isn’t showing up.”

Strauss pulled the smart watch from his pocket and crushed it in his fist.

Sylvain descended on him with a shriek. She jumped and caught him in her claws and sank her teeth into his neck.

Strauss felt her many rows of sharp teeth pop through the skin like a man biting an apple. He returned the favor sinking his own teeth into her neck and shoulder. Vampire blood was some rare delicacy. Metallic and viscous but cold. Difficult to consume.

He didn’t have long to play sommelier. Her hand was on his face, trying to find an eye with her claws. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her off of himself. She clung to him and left long blood trails down his body with her claws.

He held her aloft by the scalp, she dangled and hissed and spit like a feral cat. He slammed her head first into the brick. She fell into a crumpled heap, but shot out a leg and caught him squarely in the groin. He doubled over and she jumped him once again, raining blows on his back and head.

He flung himself to the ground, using his superior size to pin her. She kicked and fought beneath him and threatened to split his hide and spill his guts. He got up and backed away from her. Strips of skin and pulled hair hung from him in bloody tatters. 

Sylvain did not get up. She groaned and grunted, and writhed on the ground as if in terrible pain. Dark hair began to appear around her face and her arms.

Time to go. 

Strauss turned and broke into a run away from the church and down a dark alley. Sylvain’s cries of pain echoed behind him, soon replaced by a mighty rush of wind that bore down faster than he could run.

An immense bat, larger than any eagle, swooped low and swiped him with its sharp clawed feet. He fell to the ground on his stomach. Before he could think, it was there again, piercing his body with claws like meat hooks.

She ascended into the sky with her captive. Straight up and out, over the city, and gaining altitude quickly.

The faint tears in Strauss’ eyes began to congeal into frost as she bore him higher and higher into the dingy clouds. Thick mist surrounded him, blinding and confusing. He didn’t need to breathe but the air still felt cold and thin and hurt his chest.

She brought him to her zenith, outside of the city, alone in the dark ove a desolate barren field.

She dropped him.

Strauss fell like a stone. The rush of cold wind cut through his clothes and froze his hands and feet into stiff useless shapes. He fought with his shirt, desperate to maintain composure to escape it and focus. The cold dampened the pain of transformation. Newly sprouted black fur flew in the wind and offered no protection from it.

He fell out the bottom of the cloud and saw the earth growing larger beneath him. He bit his lip and forced his frozen fingertips to spread. The earth was closer. He willed his torn skin to right itself enough to form a wing membrane. Closer still. He beat his arms in a frail attempt to catch the wind. Closer. He righted himself and positioned his keel even with the earth. Now below the height of the tall cathedral spire. Impact imminent.

Twenty feet before becoming a bat-shaped crater, his wings took, and he flew. Up and up and away quickly, but not quickly enough. Sylvain shrieked at him once again and slashed at his back from above. He went straight up back into the clouds to lose her. 

She was on him still. He turned to face her. The two great bats flew at each other hard and fast and clipped into each other like jousting knights, each trying to break the other’s wing. Sylvain turned in a wide loop and flew at him with her jaws wide. Strauss ducked and swiped at her with his clawed feet, catching a stray piece of her leftover clothing.

The two spiraled downward, the centripetal force swung them wide in a useless circle as their altitude plummeted. It was a game of chicken now, who would let go first. It wasn’t a game he could win. Sylvain hung on and became a dead weight, content to crash and take her opponent down with her.

The earth was approaching rapidly again, but this time Strauss had no time to change trajectory. He let go of Sylvain and she was flung afield. He braced his wings out like a parachute to slow his fall. Too late. He made contact with the earth and bounced, and bounced again, and skidded roughly through the dry hard sticks of a former corn field. 

His skin had given up the ghost. Holes decorated his wings like bloody stars. He shrank painfully back into his now naked human form. He was spent. He began to crawl away on his hands and knees, only to have the nude form of Sylvain appear before him, glowering down at him with fire in her eyes.

“I should kill you. I should rip your dick off. I should give your head to Artie as a Christmas present.”

“Then do it.” He grunted in defiance.

“No.” She grinned, and let out a choked laugh. “Don’t need to. Sun will be up soon, and you don’t have so much as a shirt.” She looked around, pleased with herself.

“You know what, Lu? I’m not even mad you broke the watch anymore. Artie can have you. If she can fucking find you.”

She turned and walked off, her proportions growing weirder with every step until finally she was fully winged and flying off once again, leaving Strauss mercifully alone in the dirt.

Or perhaps unmercifully. Strauss shakily found his feet and took a few wincing steps before falling to his knees in exhaustion once more. He repeated this process, though unsure of where he was actually going.

This field was a wide gape of treeless expanse. Beyond it, a gravel road, and more field beyond that. The faint rosy fingers of dawn began to claw at the horizon. Strauss forced himself to stand. The ache of fear produced a low whine in his chest. He needed rest, rest he couldn’t afford. 

Shaky step gave way to shaky step. The air was growing warmer now. Larks, singing beautifully, heralded the break of morning. At last the bloody red sun crested on the horizon and bathed the field in awful color.

Strauss tried to run, to even jog, but his battered body was at its limit. The light became warm, and soon after, became uncomfortable. Itching gave way to burning. Strauss hunched over, covering his face with one hand and his genitals with the other and turned his back to the sun and began walking as quickly as he could in a blind straight line. Whatever he ran into would have to be shelter.

A wetness began to trickle down his back. Sweat? No. Blisters had begun to form on his burned skin, and the largest of them had already burst. New blisters formed swiftly beneath the old, and in minutes had burst anew, rapidly spilling the water in his already dehydrated form.

The pain had nearly stopped now, his skin ruined to the point of numbness. Dead strips of it clung to him like snakeskin. He hazarded a glance up, un-shielding his eyes for a moment to get his bearings. The light painfully blinded him, and as he blinked through the dancing green after image he saw nothing. Nowhere to run to, and nowhere to hide.

His knees gave out again. This time, for good. He would not be standing back up. He gripped the dirt with his now stinging, red hands and braced for the end. Insects and birds assaulted the field in a cacophony of annoying noises. He would not even die in peace. 

Another animal was in the field, at the periphery of his blurred vision he saw a small brown shape. It was a mouse.

A wild field mouse stopped just short of his hand. It looked at him with blank black eyes, then turned back to the dry dirt of the field. It began to dig in the loose dry soil, and was gone.

Strauss watched it go, and shifted the loose earth beneath his claws a moment. He gathered his failing strength and furiously began to dig.

#wayward souls #writing #writeblr

[theallegedbird]

hi so i finally listened to the new ep of ethics town and

whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck!

major spoilers under the cut because i have been replaying the episode especially the last scene on loop for over an hour now and i might implode if i don’t talk about it

ok so first off i’ll get the to the big thing in a bit but just the whole vibe of the town?? the identical houses?? was just so unsettling like what is this a domain of the lonely??

and the building dread i felt as people didn’t know who january was that led up to the big reveal,,

also shoutout to liz’s performance this episode because my god did it make me feel things, the way artemis broke down,, wth man

look i was prepared for artemis finding out about her mum BUT GOD DID IT HURT

and then when she found the picture of the mayor,, hell i was internally screaming please no

WHAT DO YOU MEAN JANUARY IS THE MAYOR

THE PIECES WERE ALL THERE BUT WTF??

HES the one that killed artemis’ mum??

so what were the broadcasts for? to try and clear his conscience? project out his self hatred?? some much more fucked up thing???

maybe it’s some kind of jekyll and hyde situation because otherwise ian is one HELL of an actor

there has to be some sort of explanation i cant do this

AND THE LAST SCENE,, JANUARY’S(?) IAN’S(?) VOICE??

i am begging for answers next episode because i have so many thoughts but none of them are expressible through words and most are my internal monologue going “whatthefuckwhatthefuck” over and over

thanks louis great episode it one shot killed me

#god i am drawing the last scene how can i not #“you can call me ian“ #WHATTHEFUCK #LISTEN TO ETHICS TOWN #IM NOT ASKING ANYMORE #IM TELLING YOU #ethics town #ethics town spoilers #avery rambles #ethics town the ones who walk away

[seijorhi]

Happy Thursday Rhi :))

Time for your regularly scheduled dose of Artemis's Thursday Rants and Raves of the Collection of Seijorhi's Works <33

I know I've been talking about a ton of your older fics for the past few months, but I absolutely loved 907, and it's definitely more recent than most of your other fics

I absolutely love the whole concept behind it, especially since the reader is actually in what some might consider a position of power over Suna (considering she can read minds), but despite that, she still ends up being subjected to a similar fate as the readers in many of your other fics

I really enjoyed the way you set it up, it really seemed inevitable once you reach the end of the fic - like despite the reader's abilities and precautions, her fate would have been the same regardless

Also the overall creep factor?? He knows she can read his mind so he purposefully tries to freak her out, it's so great, very psychologically daunting for the reader

And lastly the open ended interpretation of Suna himself - was he also a mind reader or just a normal person?? I'm not sure which would be more terrifying (likely the latter), but again, the way you set it up was just amazing

But yay, my first instalment of Rants and Raves for 2023 :))

I love all of your Haikyuu fics to the moon and back, they really hold a special place in my heart

Okay Rhi, see you next week <33 and I hope that the year has been treating you well so far

Okay so I read this like first thing after waking up, before putting my glasses on and I read the third line as ‘I absolutely loved 907, definitely more than your recent fics’ and I was like oh…. That’s cool :’)) dgdhdjjdkdkdld

I know I tend to get a bit of push back about the ambiguity in endings and stuff with my fics, but I genuinely love leaving so much of Suna up in the air. And this premise works so well with him (imo) because canon wise, he doesn’t say much, but his internal monologue?? Different story

But yeah, it’s a different kind of helplessness when you know someone’s evil, guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, and have absolutely NO way of proving it, much less stopping it. Ahh, my poor readers do suffer terribly :))

#ily!! as always <33 #rhi answers #artemis32 #I hope ur doing excellent my love #and there will be a new fic this weekend #every Thursday I get one of these and think to myself #‘okay there’s gonna be a new fic before the next one’ #but this time I feel like i mean it #probably #most likely #no but I’m gonna try real hard :))

[immobiliter]

so i already have a lot to say about the telltale game but i just find it super interesting that they've set this immediately after camina leaves ceres, and actually had her leave ceres on such bad terms with anderson dawes that the OPA has a bounty on her head and star helix have an arrest warrant for her ( also let's talk about the fact that her internal monologue tells us that she won't sell anderson dawes out to star helix in order to save herself dfghdfg god i love her so much ). and that she literally left ceres with nothing ( also that she had a dating profile before leaving ceres lmaooo ) and presumably hasn't actually met fred johnson yet? or if she has met him, they aren't in cahoots yet since she has no allies and is stuck on the artemis's crew because cox was the only one who would take her

also let's talk about maya. i love maya. she is exactly the kind of girl that camina would be heart eyes all over and i love it so much already

#* / be yourself. everyone else is taken ( ooc. ) #also i need to replay before episode 2 but i feel like we don't find out exactly what went wrong between her and anderson dawes either #obviously from the show we know that camina wanted to get away from him and didn't agree with his approach regarding the OPA #but i'm hoping the game delves into the inciting moment before camina left #i'm just very excited for where this is going and knowing that the show/book writers and cara were heavily involved makes me even more hype

[just-my-thoughts-about-stuff]

Hera and Persephone

Episode 119 was very striking to me, in many different ways. Hera’s speech/internal monologue in the cold open is quite possibly one of my favorite lines in the series. It gives us so much information on her character we’ve never seen before, and it’s powerful and tragic. 

There’s a lot to unpack there that I can’t get to in this post, and it makes me even more curious about her past than I already was...But there’s one particular aspect of it I want to unpack, because that little speech made me realize something important about her character I never saw before. 

I was already very struck in ep78 by just how sweet and gentle Hera was in the past. (Actually I was struck by the contrast between then and now in ep20). She’s so badass today, and can even be rather cold at times, it’s strange to see her as this sweet and innocent, warm and down to earth girl scared of a little blood. It almost doesn’t seem like she’s the same person.

It’s especially strange when compared with how she interacts with Eros and Artemis later in ep119. Despite knowing how she acts in modern day, I was actually surprised at how she treated them. 

Despite being Queen, she treats Persephone with kindness, (a kindness that allows me to see that that sweet girl she once was is still there). Zeus is the main person we see her treating more coldly (with good reason), so I kinda thought she treated most people like Persephone and was surprised at her almost callousness towards Eros and Artemis. 

The one thing I was surprised (but not ungrateful) about in her treatment of Persephone is that she is almost obsessed with her vision of Apollo. It made me happy that she is so concerned for Persephone, but I also wondered why the Queen of the gods put so much of her time and energy into this minor goddess and a vision. 

But when I was saw these shots of 119...

And they finally made me connect something. 

Young Hera...

Reminds me of someone. 

And suddenly, when I connected that, a great many things about her made sense to me.

She treats Persephone the way she does, with such kindness, wanting to protect her, she is so reactive to her being hurt by Apollo...because she reminds her of herself. 

She sees this sweet, on innocent girl, who loves the Earth, and her mother, and (who would kill for) her friends, but who is lively and full of fire...and she sees herself. 

Why, in the end of ep119 she even becomes Persephone, further cementing to me that we are supposed to see the connections between them. I’m guessing she’s the only one with that power, and that’s why they asked her to do it, but I still think the implications are interesting. I wonder if it’s possible the reason she was able to pretend to be her is because they’re similar (or were once).

In the myths Zeus preys on Hera’s kindness...and ends up raping her, forcing her to marry him. I don’t know if that happened in LO, (I sincerely hope it went differently)...but if it did, it makes even more sense why she’d be so reactive to Apollo raping her. 

Let’s not forget (though I’d very much like to)....

I do actually like Zeus in LO, but he does do terrible things at times...and this ^^ is probably my least favorite line from him in the entire series right now. But if it’s true he raped Hera like in the myths...the connections are even stronger. Apollo even talks about making Persephone his Olympian...I really hope that’s not how things went down with Zeus and Hera back when...but it’s very possible.

Hera is as angry as she is at Apollo because...that’s what happened to her. except this time, she can do something about it. So she is going to (see end of ep120).

She reacts the way she does towards Hades way back in ep20

because she is so scared what happened to her is going to happen to Persephone.

At the time I thought she was just being nice to, and protective of, her, like any older woman should hearing that kind of talk. But it’s more than that. I think perhaps those lines could be applicable to her own past self too. Perhaps she was young and impressionable...and didn’t argue with Zeus. (I could see Zeus trying to impress Hera with little trinkets like he does Semele...and maybe if Zeus did make a speech similar to the one Apollo made Persephone...maybe Hera didn’t argue...)

Hera sees this sweet, down to earth girl, who loves the earth, and her mom, and is wild and free...and she doesn’t want her to be torn apart for Olympus. For a god. For a king. For a marriage...Like she was.

They call Persephone “something nice” in ep20, and she hates it...because that’s exactly how she was treated.

If Hades is going to be with Persephone, she wants to make sure he isnt going to treat Persephone like Zeus did her. (Notice that she only checks Hades as an acceptable suitor for Persephone until after it’s clear he’s moved on from her. ...I guess that was a test?? I’m not super familiar with the myths, just a few stories).

It goes without saying that I’m super excited to see what she does to Apollo in the next chapter. But I also am really hoping we get to hear more about their pasts at some point. Why is she his “golden traitor”? How did she get that scar? There were so many things that intrigued me. And how similar are Hera and Persephone, and Apollo and Zeus really? maybe the past will answer.

#hera lore olympus #lore olympus #lore olympus webtoon #hera lo #lore olympus hera #lo hera #lo persephone #persephone lo #lore olympus headcanon #lore olympus theory #zeus lore olympus #lore olympus zeus #lore olympus persephone #persephone lore olympus #rachel smythe #usedbandaid #hera #zeus #persephone #webtoon lore olympus #webtoon #lore olympus hera theory #hades lore olympus #lore olympus hades #hades #apollo #lore olympus apollo #apollo lore olympus #lo apollo #apollo lo

[july-19th-club]

we don’t talk about it as much but the fact is: the reason butler & artemis get along so well is partly because butler is exactly as balls-to-the-walls ridiculous as him, it’s just a lot harder to notice. oh, he’s a quiet, centered man, that’s for sure, he’s got the largest helping of common sense in the whole cast. absolutely. but he’s also got a keen sense of dramatic tension and a yen to exploit it, and if he sees a suit of plate armor he’s gonna put it on, like. he gets kicked off artemis’s school grounds because he got sick of sitting around at home and pitched a tent on campus without asking. because he already got turned down about sleeping in the dorms. that's. a wild response to ‘your charge is at boarding school.' like he could’ve taken a couple months off; he’s always internally monologuing about the difficulties of working for the world’s youngest bond villain. but if he did that he’d be bored, because as a matter of fact he loves his job. don't get attached, they said at the academy, and he said yes sensei you got it and immediately went out and happily did the exact opposite of that. he disguises this side of himself fairly well, but hooooo boy. i mean he gets shot and his response is to mere days later fly across the country to talk to the guy who shot him in a spooky voice and convince the man he’s a ghost coming back to exact vengeance. you know. that old chestnut. people are always telling juliet “why can’t you be more like your brother he’s so disciplined he’s so professional” but what those people don’t know is that everyone in this family has a terminal addiction to melodrama, butler’s just the best one at hiding it

#artemis fowl #me and my hashtag drama family are gonna concoct hashtag wild schemes

[heartofarcanum]

My new Rage of the Titans theory:

Jason is Orion, Artemis's hunter.

Here are my reasons:

1. In mythology Orion was a son of Poseidon, which tracks with the fact that Jason wore a Poseidon outfit to the party in season 1. He knew at the time that the gods were real, even if he didn't know his friends were gods, which means he picked the Poseidon outfit on purpose.

2. Orion was Artemis’s hunter (one of very few men who ever were) and was killed by either Apollo’s agent Scorpio, or by Artemis after she was tricked into killing him by Apollo - either way this would track because Jason doesn’t care at all about the gods and was annoyed to find out his friends were gods. If the gods were responsible for his death (godly infighting specifically), he would definitely hate them, and hate them for ruining his second chance at a life.

3. Orion became a constellation because Artemis cared so much for him that she put him in the sky - Jason as an character seems to only care about Andrea/Artemis. He doesn’t care about any of the other gods, only about her. If he was once her cherished hunter, this would make sense.

4. In his first diamond scene Jason says he’s loved Andrea ever since he first met her. If he’s talking about Artemis, then Orion did love Artemis. If he’s just taking about human Andrea, then it would make sense for him to remember Artemis enough to fall in love with her all over again.

5. In season 2 when you ask him who he is, he says nothing and instead does this:

And then this happens later on in the scene during Artemis's internal monologue:

Jason knows the gods, he knows enough about them to talk Hades into protecting Theo, and he knows enough to hate that they're back in his life. He won't tell Andrea who he is, which probably means he's someone she'll recognize. Orion, thanks to the constellation, is a pretty recognizable figure.

So that's my theory.

#rage of the titans #RotT theories #RotT #romance club #rc #RotT Jason #I know like 3 people are romancing Jason rn (me included) but still this is cool #it means he'll probably be totally loyal to Artemis over everyone else #which could be very interesting

[maeshmallo]

so i folded and binge-read lore olympus

im just gonna talk about it cause im bored and there’s stuff i wanna discuss about it. i’ve always been in love with the hades x persephone story (the first version i read was consensual so that’s the one that resonates with me the most) 

im gonna start with the good stuff

- i love the animation! the colours are so fun and cool and i like how captivating they are, and the pink of persephone and blue of hades works well together

- i like that the time frame of olympus and the underworld is expedited compared to the modern world, that’s really neat

- the comedic timing is spot on, both the dialogue and animation can be so great and make me laugh to tears

- hades and persphone’s moments can be so tender and sweet, one scene between them that just sticks with me is when they are cooking together, or the first time she asked the names of his dogs and he lit up. they are so soft for each other and it makes my heart so so warm ;-; and i like their banter too

- i like hermes, and artemis, and eros, and basically everybody who’s become a friend in this series, they’re great (ares is an honourable mention bc he’s funny with amazing character design imo)

- the fact that therapy is a thing here??? pls they all need it omg 

- the exploration of cycles in different extremes (the cycle of fertility goddesses being used for power, having shitty people around you in turn making you shitty to those you love, the fear of becoming one’s parents, etc)

- i like that none of the characters are “good” or “bad”. as it goes with deities, they are as morally grey as you can get especially in regard to mortals. (with the exception of apollo. i hate his character.)

- i appreciate the discussion of boundaries between hades and persephone, letting fluffy moments just be fluffy and sweet

- their relationship in general has very sweet moments and warms my heart a lot of times

- honourable mentions: baby hades being very worrisome for such a small boy, hades with his stars, hades with his crowns and earrings, hades with his little glasses, hades’ scars. hades. 💕 

all in all, it’s a very fun read with many intriguing and cool themes that I love and i’m excited to see how it is concluded

now for critiques 

- why did persephone have to be 19/20??? not 119, not 190, that young compared to everyone around her??? i mean even though on our (mortal) terms, she is legal and perfectly capable of making her own decisions. but the issue within most age gap relationships is not primarily the difference in years itself, but the difference in mindset and stages of life (a relationship between a 14 and 18 year old is vastly different from a relationship between a 30 and 34 year old). there doesnt seem to be a point to make her so young and then pair her with a being literally older than death itself, ya know? but that’s just me 

- not necesarrily the characters, but more so the reactions to them. why is it that hades, modeled to be a capitalist business owner that keeps the dead souls as slaves and does things that are so cruel (i.e tear out some kids eye for a photograph or threaten an employee for asking for ID) is seen as a precious baby that can do no wrong?? now please understand that I love his character, I adore him!!! but he is no baby, and there is nothing stranger than seeing a morally grey character or straight up villain (who doesnt love a good villain every now and again amirite) be coddled and have excuses made for them while their female counterparts are villainized for the same or lesser offenses, which brings me to my next point

- minthe. she is no saint, and i dont like her all that much. she was petty and catty, and an awful and cruel partner towards hades. however, she is complex in that we see her internal monologue and can see that most of these things come from a place of insecurity and deep rooted issues with herself. not to excuse her behaviour because it is all very immature and lame, but i hope to see an arc from her that allows growth and letting go of being forced to see herself as nothing more than a trashy nymph. and learning to apologize properly

- also why was it funny when hecate smacked him across the face like three times but a crime when minthe hit him upside the head. my point is both were bad, but one gets forgotten and forgiven. 

- man why is persephone drawn so mf tiny? i mean it’s cool to be short, but in some frames she’s legit at his waist which is a bit odd since you’re kind of already toeing the line of what is appropriate and what isn’t in their relationship (employer/employee relationship, extreme age difference, somewhat childish nature). i cant lie this feels nitpicky but it’s just so jarring everytime i see it combined with everything else, ya know??

- i dont know if the apollo incident was necessary. i feel the story would have been the same if had just been a pushy jerk trying to marry persephone because she is a fertility goddess for his own advantage. it was just an awful thing that provides very little substance to the plot and made me struggle to read it.

- im still a bit lost on where we are with what’s going on with persephone. when she goes into her “death bringer” state, why does it seem like she’s been possessed instead of it being embraced as who she is? i’d like to see her gain more control of these powers and maybe trained properly by someone so that the next time they are used, they are used with intent and purpose.

- lastly, why is persephone’s growth being stifled? we see her make mistakes, and fall short in certain areas, but i would also like to see her excercise agency and fix things for herself. we only got to see a glimpse of that, but i want more so that she can figure out for herself what and who exactly she is and what she wants without having to think about others and what they need from her. if she is to become the queen of the underworld we want her to be, she doesn’t need to be coddled all the time.

if there is anything more to be added to the conversation, pls feel free too!! i like conversation and this is an interesting topic!

#lore olympus #like literally no hate at all but i like being critical of the media i consume #lore olympus critical #lore olympus positive

[supernaturallyliterate]

Just finished the last book in the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan & I have some thoughts:

- Apollo did not change as much as he thinks he did

- Jason Grace did not deserve to die just so Apollo could grow and develop as a character. And this is coming from someone who’s least favorite main character is Jason. The worst reason for a character death is another character’s growth (plot-wise).

- I want more Solangelo content (but don’t we all?)

- Piper being canonically LGBTQ+ gives me LIFE. I appreciate that it was subtle and yet explicit, since Apollo walked in on her kissing another woman.

- I also don’t know if it’s in character for Piper to be romantically involved with or interested in someone so soon after Jason’s death, regardless of the issues in their past relationship

- Rick/ Apollo loses points for immediately friend-zoning them by referring to Shel as Piper’s “friend.” My critique against this is because of the historical connotations of two wlw in a romantic relationship constantly being referred to as “just friends” (also see “they were roommates” jokes/memes/critiques)

- The fight with Python felt way too short after 5 books of build up & 3 nearly impossible to kill emperors

- the chaos scene was kinda cool. I liked that Styx appeared and was basically a disapproving mother chiding him with a non-vocal “I told so you so.”

- I want the Seven’s reactions to Jason’s death from their POV and not Apollo’s. He just skims by it and we get internal monologue of him feeling guilt that feels half-assed.

- I don’t like Apollo as a narrator. And it’s not just the arrogance and occasional callousness of his internal monologue, which I understand is intentional. He just… isn’t interesting and doesn’t grow much as a character. I don’t believe in him. I don’t root for him. I am not invested in his story. Only how it has affected the characters I DO care about, like the 7, Nico, Will, Reyna, etc etc. And I get that this doesn’t make sense cuz I read all 5 of the books. But still. Apollo just isn’t it for me. I would be infinitely more interested in this story if it were told from Meg’s POV.

- we all know Percy & Annabeth only show up at the end to appease the OG fans

- I don’t like the message that Apollo sends at the end with his interaction with Zeus. He basically admits that Zeus is an abusive and horrible father, and that he won’t ever change. He decides to avoid interaction with him without completely cutting off contact or setting boundaries. And it just feels like it sends the wrong message to readers who may be in similar situations with toxic family, a kind of *shrug* “well they aren’t gonna change so just grin & bear in!” Attitude. And it feels like this generation is much more inclined to break cycles of abuse and generational trauma and set boundaries. Which is not the full message here. Sure, Apollo says he’ll be a different person that Zeus, but it stops there.

- topic shift but I loved the inclusion of a demigod who uses a wheelchair just casually ramming into enemies during combat

- Let’s talk about Reyna. I loved the scene where Reyna opens up to Apollo about her experiences with romance and realizing she doesn’t need a man to complete her. But that turning into “my only option is to join the hunters of Artemis & resign as praetor” doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, I saw it coming, but it still felt out character.

- I do love Reyna & Thalia becoming besties, it’s super cute. Badass independent women for the win!!

- Hazel & Frank as praetors… I’m on the fence. They both seem to young and … almost too compassionate? For the role? But yet they’re also fierce and hardened warriors and leaders. Obviously they work well together, as partners in leadership and romance. But idk I still have some doubts there

-I probably have more thoughts but it’s 1 AM so I’ll save them for another time.

#percy jackson #trials of apollo #trials of Apollo spoilers #spoilers #tower of Nero #tower of Nero spoilers #Rick Riordan #Apollo is a shitty narrator #Apollo doesn’t change and I need more people to understand this #trials of Apollo headcannons #headcannons #book review

[nymphsupremacy]

Miss Kronos much! And I don’t think he’ll be shown as his own person, rather he’d do something bad to hxp, and everyone will be sad and angry at him! For example in one of hades’s dreams he hold P captive, and it would likely to be played off in the story ( not till now, he still needs to grow on some meat, because I doubt RS will draw good skeletons!) so he kidnaps P! Hades, probably Hermès will be involved, are going to find her in the underworld, Demeter, Hera, Hestia have a breakdown probably. And only Hera would likely to be portrayed the most motherly out the three, throwing Demeter in the background! Artemis left in the shadow as always, Athena will a word or two, nothing more!

So when P spends some time with Kronos, he’ll point some remarks about “ her small pink curvy shaped body”, at this note hades find where he’s keeping her! And then after a lot of crying and kissing she tells hades what his father said about her, and yada yada overcooked papa Smurf gets mad and grows kaiju, and oh wow the twins are fighting! ( You know? Because he looks the same as Kronos!) They will fight, H will get physical injuries, and Kronos will tell how he grew and his little copy, making H cry! To which P react by turning kaiju as well and punch Kronos, and after gets to calming down blue Jeff Bezos and mending injuries!

So long story short they defeat Kronos by the power of? Love? Flowers? Ps cat? But definitely something connected with her body and! And after all that fighting there will bea joke, because there always should be a joke at inappropriate times to make a serious situation less tense!

Sorry for the long post! Hope you have a nice time of existing!

...why is this frighteningly plausible?

Also yeah, Kronos probably won't have a character of his own, no internal monologue and reflection just bad guy stuff towards hxp

#asks

[ectonurites]

for the character headcannons ask game, jason and cass?

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT im putting this one under a cut because it got SUPER long bc i cant shut up ever

lets start w jason

A (realistic headcanon): 

ok using the ‘realistic’ category here loosely but GOD i love the idea of Damian & Jason having interacted while Jason was staying with the League before getting dunked in the Lazarus Pit. like. this obviously would need to be set more in preboot and following the Lost Days & Batman Annual 25 version of Jason’s resurrection, but god the idea of it just makes me scream in a good way. Like... these are things Jason likely doesn’t remember very clearly once he’s brought back to life more fully by the pit because he was uh pretty catatonic, but Damian being a little kid and knowing about the boy that his mother keeps around the base, that she’s trying to help bring back to health. Damian not even knowing that’s his big brother, just that he’s a presence that shares his mother’s attention. Jason again being unresponsive but like, ok god you know that part of lost days where Talia shows the others observing him that he only fights back at those he perceives as genuine threats trying to hurt him, 

Because Jason can perceive that she’s safe, she’s not actually trying to hurt him, he trusts her because she saved him? thinking about lil child Damian who is ya know already being trained in fighting stuff and like the idea of him trying to provoke Jason just to see what happens but Jason not fighting back because on some level be it his connection to Talia or even little baby Damian visually reminding him of Bruce, he knows that Damian is safe too 🥺 

and then when Jason and Damian meet again in Gotham as Red Hood & Robin respectively, Jason not really remembering because there was so much going on back then for him, but Damian realizing that oh... that was Him

B (hilarious): 

alright so if we are looking at comics currently, in modern stuff jason is what, like 22? hes old enough to drink in the US but still definitely early 20s so around my around my age, thats what im using as a basis here. if we adjust timeline and still consider his death having happened when he was 15, that puts it around 2013. and then coming back to like interacting with people about three years later if we still kinda base things off of the preboot timeframe (since we never got a super solid retelling of the timeline of death -> resurrection -> training -> tries to get revenge aside from knowing he went to the all-caste instead of the lost days version of the story) making him reenter the regular world and stuff around age 18 in 2016. meaning a solid three years of pop culture that he was entirely missing, and like im sorry but he really doesn’t strike me as the type to bother looking into what he missed, he’s kinda busy focusing on other stuff. lets take a quick look at some major things from those years. 2013 gave us ‘what does the fox say’ and ‘the harlem shake’ . 2014 had that time U2 just put a fuckin album on everyone’s phones, The Fault In Our Stars movie came out. 2015 introduced the phrase ‘Netflix and Chill’ and the whole blue & black vs gold & white dress debate happened. imagine any of the other batkids (or even arguably roy during rhato stuff) bringing these things up and jason’s ensuing confusion. thank you for your time

C (heart-crushing): 

so. there are two specific instances from rebirth era Jason i want to bring up here and much like a lot of these it’s less a headcanon and more of an inference based on observations, but i wanna take a sec to discuss Jason’s relationship with other people’s death. early in rebirth, Tim ‘dies’ from that whole thing in detective comics. he didn’t actually die, we as readers know, but in-universe they all very much so thought he was dead. frustratingly a lot of the batfam wasn’t really shown mourning him aside from in the Detective Comics Rebirth title itself (which just. when a major character dies even if its temporary- that should have a ripple effect) BUT an exception to that is in RHATO 2016, where we get this offhanded comment in Jason’s internal monologuing

similarly later when Roy, who like, had an incredibly close relationship w Jason that had just gotten mended before Heroes in Crisis, gets fuckin murdered in that whole thing... Jason doesn’t go to his funeral either. He leaves a dramatic voice mail and then visits the grave on his own later, choosing to instead keep working on the mission they’d started rather than going and taking the time to mourn properly.

Jason’s relationship with death is incredibly complicated, obviously. He has died, he has come back, and he now is willing to cross the line most other bats won’t and will kill people when he deems it necessary. I think thats something important though- he doesn’t just like... go around killing for fun (usually, some writers preboot made him a little murder happy but even then usually this still was vaguely followed) he kills people he thinks deserved it. Like, even looking back at the mess of Morrison’s Jason during Batman & Robin 2009, Jason was still trying to bring a sense of justice with who he was killing (”punishment that fits the crime”), it wasn’t killing for the sake of killing. He sees things in this kind of almost black and white ‘people who deserve it’ and ‘people who don’t’ way, and he has no problem dealing with death when it’s with the people he thinks deserve it. 

but when someone who doesn’t in his mind ‘deserve it’ gets killed? i think he just goes into total avoidance mode. throws himself into other things he’s doing, tries not to dwell on it too much no matter how much he still thinks about it (this is especially evident in him consistently telling people “i’m fine!” after what happened to Roy, despite bringing Roy up literally like every few issues for a WHILE after he died and very clearly still struggling with it, Artemis is the only one who gets through to him on it a little bit) 

but yeah, I just think that from Jason’s relatively unique situation of having been murdered, he knows what it’s like and he is perfectly fine wishing that on people he thinks are bad and deserve it, but it crushes him to imagine the people he loves and cares about having to experience something as painful as what he went through. not to mention the whole “I came back, why do I get a second chance at all this when they, who are a much better person than I am, probably won’t” mindset we get some implications of him having 

D (canon is a coward and won’t) 

hello DC i am once again insisting a batfam member is bisexual

CASS TIME

A (realistic headcanon): 

ok so we know cass likes ballet. thats canon. however i think we also should in general explore cass experiencing other types of dance/performance as well, be it herself as a performer or even just watching. like... god imagine her & like my brain just automatically for group activities puts her with tim steph and duke but also for this in particular I feel would be a Jason embraced activity, but like them going to see a broadway show or some other professional theatre or something, and her just being enthralled by the reading of body language of the performers! like again by any point in current stuff cass does have like, the ability to speak fine (reading still hard tho) but even so I think like. okay im a theatre kid if that’s not obvious from the Everything About Me but one thing I always do after seeing a show is ya know spend dinner afterwards discussing it with whoever i saw it with.

I just think that like, bringing those people i just mentioned to the table to discuss seeing a show after would be so FASCINATING because cass would bring this whole perspective of critiquing their acting on a whole different level- not based on how well they delivered lines out loud, but by what their body language was saying as they moved on stage. like im very amused by the idea of cass getting a totally different picture in her mind about what a character’s motivations were because she was paying way more attention to what their physicality was saying vs the words that were written and how they were delivered. i think the debates her and the others would have would be EPIC there. jason defending the text as it was written adamantly and cass being like ‘ok yeah sure but thats not what they did’

B (hilarious): 

cass having no concept of money because why would she bother? is SO funny to me. like it’s not that she couldn’t be reasonable if she wanted to, but like, she knows that the Waynes are well off so it’s not something she actually needs to be concerned about, so she just goes hog wild. takes steph out to fancy dinners and makes steph order for them since cass ya know doesn’t really read the menus, and steph’s like ‘jesus christ this costs-” “don’t worry about it” “but cass-” and she just holds up one of bruce’s credit cards and steph’s still like “but you don’t even know the range-” “it is fine”

bruce does not have the heart to tell her to stop

C (heart-crushing): 

i mean this is pretty much canon but especially now after death metal where she’s remembering, not just being told by a guy using weird alternate timeline technology, that she used to be an adopted member of the Wayne family... like that hurts so bad. To look at these people who have ya know been kind to her, Bruce has still been a father-like figure to her (i mean literally from the moment they met in New 52 canon during the flashback in Batman & Robin Eternal, where he’s telling her that she’s not a monster just because of what people forced her to do.... that she’s a hero... that hug.... dad behavior), and they do to some extent treat her as family... But to then really know, to feel and remember that she was actually adopted! She was a part of their family. To look at how she’s been calling herself Orphan while working with them this whole time... that’s so heartbreaking! I have cried about this idea so much! I want so badly a conversation between her and Bruce now where he offers to officially adopt her again, I need it so bad and if it doesn’t happen at some point in the next year or two I will be so distraught.

D (canon is a coward and won’t) 

i want an in-depth exploration of cass’ relationship to her own gender. being raised without language and you know with so much of her life being independent (remember: CASS RAN AWAY AROUND THE WORLD WITHOUT REALLY KNOWING ANY SPOKEN LANGUAGE) and outside of an organized society impressing too much of gender expectations on her, i feel like the way she experiences it would be very unique! like sure she’s so far been fine with being assigned ‘girl’ (ya know that comes with batgirl, and how people just automatically treated her based on how she looks) but in terms of gender expression and like her actual relationship with ‘traditional femininity’ etc like... because of how she was raised I just think she’d have a really different perspective on it that could be cool to explore, and I think she’d fall outside of the binary after she really thinks about how she identifies.

tldr on that: she/they nb cass is what i’m getting at here

#onwater #jason todd #cassandra cain #sam writes

[ufonaut]

Prompt: Alive!Alan has his two kids, and lives in BV with everyone else. Jen, probably not Todd lbr, is on the same team as Artemis, and Larry makes it his business to try to land this hot blond who is obviously ignoring him.

had to change some stuff around so its a lil bit closer to canon, alan doesnt live in bv etc. post s1 finale

---

The diner is a Blue Valley original, must’ve been kicking around for years long before Jordan had made it into town all starry-eyed and coming off the heels of the JSA’s miraculous defeat. Hell, it’s probably why he’s chosen Nowhere, Nebraska as their base of operations in the first place -- Jordan’s spent his whole life nursing a chronic tendency to fall for that Norman Rockwell, All-American bullshit of a world that never was.

Larry doesn’t get the specifics of it, doesn’t like the diner much either no matter the rave reviews that keep getting thrown his way from everyone around and rare visitors alike. It’s not some health freak thing, though Larry’s under the firm impression that it’s his own business if that was the case, but rather the constant reminder of what this town with its Little House on the Prairie sensibilities isn’t.

It’s no Gotham, for a start.

Now, if going down to the diner meant getting served by a relic of a waitress that’s been no doubt chain-smoking since early childhood and the whole place smelled like it’d been deep-fried twice over, Larry would be all for it. That’s a diner. It’s Gotham tradition not to trust any restaurant that thinks itself above being a literal hole-in-the-wall.

As luck would have it, Larry’s walking past the offending place just now because Blue Valley believes in having every single business on a literal Main Street like it’s yet to move on past the 1900s. He’s on his way to Ripped City, which does sweeten the deal most mornings, and his light jog is accompanied by this fascinating internal monologue that comes to an abrupt and sudden stop in the face of the impossible. Larry stops in his tracks.

“No freakin’ way,” he mumbles and takes out his earbuds in what he’d call one of those instinctively idiotic attempts to see better. Wasting no time in laughing at himself, Larry steps closer to the diner’s window and squints at a reality he doesn’t-- can’t make sense of.

Fact of the matter is that he’s seen his fair share of heroes. There’s nothing humiliating about a defeat at the hands of the JSA Jr. when that used to be par for the course in the heyday of the real Justice Society of America. It’s probably why Larry’s bounced back quick enough, decidedly in action a couple months after that momentous occasion when he and Paula had decided there’s no real reason to put Artemis through the stress of changing schools after all.

The ISA is on something of a hiatus, sure, but Larry suspects an extended break will do Jordan some good whenever he finally decides to come outta hiding and, if nothing else, they could do with a less neurotic would-be leader. As always, he’s pleasantly willing to see it through out of a sense of novelty.

Point being, other than his own prevailing existence, Larry doesn’t see any reason for any big shots to be hanging around their neck of the woods and he doesn’t see any reason for dead men to be struggling with a travesty of an apple pie either. It’s not the neon-green teenage girl Larry’s spent these past few minutes staring at, as much of a worthy contender as she is in her drab surroundings.

For the first-- well, it might just be the second time total, Larry walks into the diner with the kind of determination he reserves for the field.

There’s nothing unassuming about the blond man sharing the last booth on the right with the aforementioned teenage girl and a boy with mousy brown hair that can’t be any older than her. Larry would recognise that face anywhere, the roll of his shoulders, his voice. For one thing, no one’s that big. He approaches without thinking, eyes wide at a surprise almost too good to be true.

The Green Lantern looks up halfway through a laugh and says, all traces of amusement fading like they’d never been there to begin with, “You.” 

It’s a delight to be recognised. An honour, even. Larry knows his grin’s gone a little manic and finds that he doesn’t mind it in the least. “Me,” he agrees, much more fond than any possible guidelines for the chance meeting of one’s most-likely-deceased nemesis would dictate. Variations on that exact sentiment sort of come spilling out. “Bud, I missed ya so goddamn much, you have no idea how boring it’s been without your nonsense. Jeez, it’s been too long! C’mon, bring it in, Green La--”

Being suddenly faced with the undeniable shock of Green Lantern’s full height gets Larry shutting up like nothing else.

“We’re taking this outside,” Lantern says, as serious as Larry’s ever heard him, and indifferent to the multitude of stares now directed at their little extravaganza, he turns towards the kids to add, “Todd, make sure Jennie doesn’t follow me.”

Past the girl’s indignant hey!, outside seems to amount to the secluded alleyway behind the diner. Larry’s walked by Lantern’s side with no complaints, thrumming with an excitement he remembers well and doesn’t often feel nowadays. He doesn’t bother fighting a continued desire to grin nor appreciative glances over Green Lantern’s form. It’s always nice to mix business with pleasure, it only gets nicer when he finds himself slammed up against the nearest wall.

“Oof, someone’s all worked up.” Larry winks. “Missed me, huh?”

“I don’t know what you’re doing here or how you tracked me down but you’re gonna regret it, bud.” The Green Lantern’s eyes are icy blue up-close and Larry’s absurdly reminded of the way frost swallows even the whites of Jordan’s eyes when he lets himself freeze all the way. All the same, even he runs warmer than the present company.

“I live here!” Larry laughs, glances down at the forearm the Lantern’s got pressed hard against his sternum. Something stirs in him. “No, really, I do! My question is, Greenie, what are you doing here?”

Lantern frowns at him, vaguely fascinating in his handsomeness with the way the sun catches in his blond hair and a jawline Old Hollywood can only dream of. Distantly, Larry thinks he’d like to bite him. It’s a thought that comes and goes in the interest of more immediate matters. “I’m looking for my lantern,” he admits, “I heard Stripesy took it.”

“Aw, what’s the matter, pal? Can’t take over satellites without it?”

Oh, Larry’s missed this. No one hovers on the edge like Green Lantern does, he knows that for a fact. Then again, it’s never been wise to taunt him. The smell of ozone taints the air as Larry catches a flicker of green flame along Lantern’s arms for the briefest of moments.

“I can do a lot worse,” is what Lantern settles on and Larry’s grin only widens, wild-eyed with it.

He bites his lip and ruminates on the possibilities. They’re close enough that the woodsy undertone of Green Lantern’s cologne mixes with the scent of that brief show of power, Larry’s even got a couple ideas on how to close the distance between them. “So, are we gonna fuck or what?” he says, blunt as ever. It’s hard not to breathe out a laugh when Lantern jumps back like Larry’s dealt him a particularly low blow. Larry likes to think he spies a flush staining his cheeks.

“Listen, Sportsmaster, you’re not gonna tell anyone you saw me here, alright?” Coming from Green Lantern, who’s turned to leave already, it’s nothing short of an order. “Keep your mouth shut and maybe I won’t be taking it out on you if I can’t find my lantern.”

“Hey, ya know where to find me!”

Larry offers an eager little wave. He’s not, in fact, all that sure the Green Lantern does know where to find him. A problem for the future, then. His smile doesn’t falter.

#ALAN SCOTT #LARRY CROCK #SPORTSMASTER #STARGIRL #GREEN LANTERN #FIC #GOD I HOPE THIS IS GOOD #anon #ask

[intelligentdumbass]

The Walls Have Fallen

(Not sure what this is, I guess Pollo’s talking to himself? Pretty experimental)

If I sing, would anyone listen? Would anyone bother with a song of this god in a foolish war?

’You knew how everything would end.’

I always do.

‘Yet you still kept up the game of pretend’

What else would’ve I done? Would you have rather let them rot?!

‘But isn’t that exactly what you did? When your silver arrows pierced the heart of the Grecian camp?’

He refused Chrysies’ ransom!

‘That is not all, what of the things before it even began? Do you still remember your twin sister, upon seeing the army do her wrong, suggest on giving them an impossible task?’

I thought he wouldn’t dare! We thought he’d never agree to such an awful ask!

‘But he did; all for a change in the wind, but this is not all of what you immortals did. Don’t act like it never happened. You always remember, even if you wished to forget. It could’ve ended quicker, but it didn’t.’                            

But I did wish for that, for it to stop!

‘But you didn’t let it; you couldn’t’

That wasn’t my fault!

‘But not exempt from blame either; you lot never are. Even now you still smell the blood; hear their cries, and see the desperate look in their eyes, and by the reach of the tenth year, you were desperate too.

“Trojans!” you yelled “Rush on the foe; do not let yourselves be thus beaten by the Argives!” all the while as Pallas urged the Achaeans forward whenever she found them slacking.’

I know; it was foolish for me to hope.

‘Well, I suppose there was a brief point in the war, where both sides were glad, for they thought they could finally rest, when Paris declared,

“…Hector, your scorn is as sharp as an axe that a shipwright wields at work, and the rebuke is just. Still, do not taunt me with what the goddess of love has given me. If you would have me do battle with Menelaus, bid the Trojans and Achaeans take their seats; let the victor, who proves to be the better man, take the woman and all that she has, and the rest to swear to a solemn covenant of peace.”’

I remember that, that and so much more. You’re right; I haven’t forgotten anything at all. Oh, if only the peace Paris spoke of was meant to be!

The gods were sitting on their thrones and gazing down upon the earth.

“Well?” Zeus’ voice thundered across the halls. “We must consider what we shall do about all this; shall we set them fighting anew or make peace between them?”

Hera couldn’t contain herself. “Dreaded son of Cronus, is all my effort then, to result to nothing?”

He frowned. “My dear, what harm have Priam and his sons done that you are so hotly bent on sacking their city? Of all the inhabitants under the stars of heaven, there was none that I so much respected as Ilium with Priam and his whole people.”

“Some of my own favorite cities are Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae. Sack them whenever you are displeased with them. Even if I tried to stop you; I would gain nothing from it, for you are much stronger than I am, but I will not have my own work wasted.” Her voice was stern as they locked eyes. “I am a goddess of the same race as yourself, and am honorable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are the king over the gods.”

She continued. “Let it be a case of give-and-take between us; the rest of the gods will follow our lead. Tell Athena to go and take part in the fight at once, and let the Trojans be the first to break their oaths.”

And Athena eagerly went, and Pandarus fired his bow in my name.

‘Why were you so silent?’

I was in Pergamus and there was nothing that I could’ve said to sway them.

Hera wouldn’t be the only one upset, some of the Greeks themselves would complain for their work to have been all for naught. They didn’t come here to toil for some woman they never met; they were here for the glory and the prizes that they would get. For those men, Helen was merely an excuse, to give reason for what they have done. It would also be easier then, for Agamemnon to quell everyone’s frustrations of having to fight for him, when they all get their large share of wealth.

‘Are you mad?’

…Not at my fellow immortals, no. They were only doing their job; they are their patrons after all.

‘But aren’t you as well?’

What of it?

‘Hah, I suppose you must’ve just loved the royal family that much.’

Oh fuck you.

‘Am I wrong? Want me to name them one by one?’

You know that’s not all it was, at least not just that type of love-

Apollo briefly snaps out of his internal monologue when Athena enters the room, but before she could say a word, the god was already gone. He now sits down on the ground, back leaning against one of the many oaks in the garden.

‘…Are you sure you’re not mad?’

I just need time for myself.

‘That’s what you’ve been saying for the past 4 months’

Okay fine, maybe a little bit, but I still try not to be. Even then, in the midst of the war, I tried not to fight them.

‘Like when Poseidon and Artemis insulted you and Hera hit your twin with her own bow?’

I meant when Athena and I were on good terms; proud of our men, and watching them duel while we were vultures perched on father’s high oak-

‘“Idiot, you have no sense, and forget how we two alone of all immortals fared hardly round about Ilium for Laomedon.”

“So you would fly Far-Darter, and hand victory over to Poseidon with a cheap vaunt to boot. Coward, why keep your bow thus idle?-”’

I’d have no respect for myself if I were to quarrel with them because of a pack of miserable mortals-

‘But you already have, and what good did it do you?-’

Ares fought to oppose Athena; Aphrodite intervened for Paris and Aeneas.

I cared for the whole of Troy.

I went before their horses to smooth the way, carrying the Aegis, the Achaeans were afraid. I gifted great strength to Hector, the shepherd of my people, as he gladly sped forward, killing all that stood in his way. I destroyed the Argives’ wall as easily as a child that kicks down a sandcastle on the beach.

Nothing escaped my gaze, for as long as they fought on the plains, Ilium’s walls stood tall, the Greeks frustrated and in a daze. Not even Patroclus could get in, as I beat the helmet off his head, and undid the fastenings of his corset, his shield falling down to the ground.

I was not helpless; I am not useless, and I do not regret a single act.

‘If you believe this to be so, then why do you feel the need to say all of this? Whom are you trying to convince?’

…who else?

I think the answer is obvious.

#Apollo #Iliad #Trojan war #greek gods #greek mythology #Not sure what i just did #soliloquy??? #Well it is what it is #MyWritingShit #idk #experimental

[silenthillmutual]

For the cliche prompts: Artemy/Daniil 4 or 23 (it could be 4 and 23 if you are feeling like mixing both. Tbh I wasn't able to choose)

(hello this is kind of silly and i’m not confident in its quality, but i am planning on writing a follow-up to this for the other number though it will probably be shorter than this! numbers here)

--

Things have been getting, in a word, ridiculous. The rain hasn’t let up in this section of town in four days, setting the scene nicely for all of Daniil’s drawn-out internal monologues about the futility of fighting fate or nature or whatever. His mind continues to grumble to himself as he sits in the hospital, trying to do research and feeling more and more, as time goes on...ridiculous. There it is again. Like the whole world - or at least the Town, which may as well be a world all its own - is laughing at him.

Burakh has been getting better at sneaking up on him; the only way Daniil knows he’s entered the building is from the gentle click of the front door as it closes again. He wishes the man would announce his arrival instead of using the opportunity to always try and catch Daniil off guard. One of these days he won’t have time to build his composure back up. 

Today, he’s safe; the rain makes the other man’s shoes squeak against the floor and he listens to the low-voice swearing with a smirk on his face. “Not today, you don’t,” he mutters to himself as he turns. He takes a moment, before standing, to admire Burakh’s form, eyes softening as he watches the man’s rain-soaked  hair fall and stick to his forehead, fingers weaving between the strands as he tries to push it back. He never manages to catch Daniil watching him like this, his own eyes taking int he sick strewn all about the hospital. Daniil looks away before Burakh can manage to do so. 

Daniil’s eyes manage to land exactly where he needs them to for a plausible escape. “This one,” he says, skipping the pleasantries his colleague never engages with anyway, “Has no sign of any illness. I suspect he’s merely playing ill to get out of the house.” The man even groans, over-exaggerated, on cue, and Daniil feels a little smug, as if that’s proved his point. Burakh doesn’t respond, or even react as if he’s heard, which chips away at the dam Dankovsky has been building, though at the present he can’t see the scale of the damage or the size of the resulting fracture. He files it as distraction, as even in their arguments, Burakh has never properly ignored him, and he is busy with his vials of tinctures.

He tries to clear his throat amidst its sudden buildup without drawing attention, licking his lips as he thinks for a moment on the cadence of his voice. It’s gone down again; maybe he hadn’t readjusted to it, let his voice go out?

Daniil stands, taking a few breaths as he goes, and starts again, keeping his tone steady as he speaks. “No matter. Now that he’s here and taking up a bed, I suppose he could have caught the Pest - or else be a carrier.” The man on the bed curls up suddenly. What Daniil can see of his eyes have gone wide. “So perhaps we should keep him for observation, if nothing else. Probably a danger to let him out now -”

When he turns back around, he finds his face almost against the other man’s chest, and has to fight back the blush that starts to creep up his neck at how very close they are. Dankovsky’s never warm, but good god, this man - between the heat he radiates and the way he makes Daniil feel, suddenly all feverish and flushed - it’s a small miracle Daniil doesn’t pass out from sudden warmth shocking the system. And now he can’t stop staring either, and he really needs to - stop dawdling, stop with the rapid blinking, and continue his thought already, damn you -

“Are you alright, Burakh?” he ask instead, his voice a horrid squeak, an octave or so higher than when he last spoke.

“Look in my eyes, emshen. I want to make sure you’re not lying when you answer the question I’m about to ask you.” His tone doesn’t demonstrate anger, but he may as well have asked Daniil to change the position of the sun and the moon... Alright, while perhaps not so literally impossible, Dankovsky struggles to maintain eye contact even with people he is not so wildly attracted to that a little more than a week’s worth of interaction incurs a massive internal paradigm shift in him. So this task is not so much less Herculean in nature. Burakh, too, seems to recognize he’s perhaps asked a little too much, as Daniil’s focus falters to those lovely cheekbones and lips, where his eyes follow Burakh mumbling, “Alright, that’s good enough.” He feels rather proud of himself for managing to re-establish the contact in time for Burakh to ask him, “What are you doing with a book on local herbs?” Which is when Daniil feels his stomach plummet and panic set in.

Alright. He needn’t come up with anything elaborate for an answer. “Research,” he says simply, hoping he’s not smiling too anxiously.

It’s hard to tell from the way Burakh is looking at him. He guesses his answer can’t have been too believable, because Burakh presses Daniil. “Research into what?”

“Local herbs, obviously!” Daniil smiles, but he can’t feel his face.

He’s still holding out skepticism about some of the truly bizarre things that people here believe, but a few more shoves in the right direction and he might even start to believe in some form of precognition; there’s nothing specific he can pinpoint in Burakh’s manner or expression to warn him that this answer will not be well-received, and yet he feels it somewhere in his stomach. His chest flips before the scowl sharpens and Burakh speaks. “You don’t trust me,” he accuses.

Daniil is back to rapid blinking - though thankfully this time it’s in confusion, as opposed to flustered cornering. He focuses more clearly on Burakh’s eyes, on his pupils, trying to determine what could have inspired this sudden agitation - though of course, Daniil is far from being am ind-reader. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. It’s another chip, another scrape he doesn’t inspect.

“Then why do you keep asking other people about me?”

This, this is probably the suspicious look that Burakh is searching him for. He can imagine his face must have gone pale now, because the heat from earlier is gone. But it’s from a different reason to whatever Burakh is surely thinking, though Daniil is a terrible liar and all he can say is, “Excuse me?”

And not even, Excuse me? like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ But Excuse me? like ‘I didn’t hear you.’

“Capella says you talk a lot about me. Her brother says you’ve been asking about me, and the culture. And he’s not the only one -” But whatever Burakh says next is cut off in Daniil’s mind by panic. He has not, apparently, been as subtle as he’d thought or else pleasantries as exchanged in the Capital were as lost on everyone else as they were on Burakh. Which would have been excuse enough have  Daniil not waited so long to execute it. Stupid, stupid move, Dankovsky, because now it’ll just look flimsy if you try to say your preoccupation with your colleague was intended to be polite.

Burakh’s stopped speaking now, and Daniil doesn’t know for how many minutes he’s been done. It’s enough that he looks perplexed, and suspicious. Daniil scrambles, mentally, to find a response that’s one-size-fits-all, and lands with blurting out, “I’m just interested.”

“And why couldn’t you just ask me?”

“Because you’re busy,” Daniil says, working a calm facade back in place. “As we all are. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

The look on Burakh’s face is disbelief, but until he says something of note, Daniil can’t possibly judge how much damage has been done. “Because I’m busy.”

“Yes.”

“We’re all busy.”

“Aren’t we?”

He looks genuinely upset now, though. Daniil can’t fathom what in his words could have possibly inspired that look. “Right. You’re so busy asking Yulia for books on panacea and Vlad for resources on local lore you can’t ask me,  your actual colleague about these things. Right.” Oh. Oh dear god no. “I thought perhaps we were friends, oynon, but looking for this without telling me? Asking my friends about me behind my back -”

“I just wanted to know if I could help you,” Daniil says. Which is much more honest than he intended to be, but now that this entire attempt to - what, impress him? Is going up in smoke, Daniil’s starting to realize how very bad at subterfuge he is, and that he never exactly thought this plan through. If he had, he might have come to the conclusion that his shift in priorities and ideology was never going to come without some humility and a significant amount of self-humbling. But now he’s stuck in t his fiasco where Burakh thinks - 

Well, he doesn’t actually know what Burakh thinks outside of there being some sort of betrayal of trust. And he does seem upset about it, so maybe there’s still a way for Daniil to get himself out of this mess. “You suck at lying,” Burakh tells him. “So you may as well tell me the truth. What did you do all that for?”

Right. Right! He can do this. “I changed my mind,” Daniil says evenly. 

“But why would you?”

“You’ve proved your panacea idea has ground to walk on.” Yes. This is going smoothly.

“And what changed your mind on that?”

“I fell in love with you.” 

He hears the words fall out of his mouth and listens to his brain scream afterward. It’s not what he wanted to say, not what he was telling himself to say and he’s not even sure how the words managed to come out against his permission or his knowledge like that. He could have, and should have, just said he’d heard it from Aglaya, or one of the children. There’s complete silence for a moment or two, an entire minute or so, until Artemy starts to ask, “What did you just say?” at the same time Daniil laughs a little too loudly, half shouting the words “Would you look at that, my shift is over!” tripping over himself to run out of the theatre.

#burakovsky #daniil is trans AND autistic here and u can tell! #ok to rb #nori writes #stepperous #icarus.docx #mine

[friendlyneighborhoodavatar]

Reyna's love life

I hate what Rick Riordan to Reyna like he shows that she was romantically interested in Jason and then he showed that she was interested in Percy and in his internal monologue he noticed that she wanted to be loved, she wanted someone to share her life(and her love) with and then Venus gave her that prophecy for no reason so even though she's been shown to be a person who actually wants love she joins the huntresses of artemis (I haven't read the new book so idk the details) so she won't ever be able to experience romantical love and that's bullshit for me like I love the huntresses and their different backstories but Reyna's excuse for joining was just weak like "i'm tired of boys rejecting me so instead of looking for someone who actually wants me i'll just give up forever for no reason giving up the job I have for years to maintain and the life I have built for myself " like I get that rick wanted to do the whole" i'm strong and I don't need no man"but it just felt vague and maybe it's just because I identify so much with Reyna and I don't see her being happy living the life of a huntress like my brain just doesn't get it like why?? I was so excited when Reyna was introduced in the burning maze but the end of her arc made me so mad

#reyna avila ramirez arellano #the heroes of olympus #rick riordan #the trials of apollo #the tyrants tomb #i could go on