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reasoningdaily · 19 days

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So far we have given little or no attention to the evidence of comparative religion. The study of ancient religious history is important, for religion, like philosophy, changes but slowly. Institutional religion, being conservative and static in its outlook, has preserved much ancient lore that would have otherwise been lost to the modern student.

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes (572â€“480 B.C.), pointed out a profound truth when he observed that the gods men worship very closely resemble the worshippers. In the words of this ancient sage: “Each man represents the gods as he himself is. The Ethiopian as black and flat-nosed the Thracian as red-haired and blue-eyed; and if horses and oxen could paint, they would no doubt depict the gods as horses and oxen.” This being the case; when we find the great nations of the world, both past and present, worshipping black gods, then we logically conclude that these peoples are either members of the black race, or that they originally received their religion in toto or in part from black people. The proofs are abundant.

The ancient gods of India are shown with Ethiopian crowns on their heads. According to the Old Testament, Moses first met Jehovah during his sojourn among the Midianites, who were an Ethiopian tribe. We learn from Hellenic tradition that Zeus, king of the Grecian gods, so cherished the friendship of the Ethiopians that he traveled to their country twice a year to attend banquets. “All the gods and goddesses of Greece were black,” asserts Sir Godfrey Higgins, “at least this was the case with Jupiter, Baccus, Hercules, Apollo, Ammon. The goddesses Benum, Isis, Hecate, Diana, Juno, Metis, Ceres, Cybele were black.” (Anacalypsis, Vol. I, Book IV, Chap. I.)

Even the Romans, who received their religion mainly from the Greeks, admitted their debt to Egypt and Ethiopia. This may be well illustrated by the following passage from The Golden Ass or Metamorphosis, by Apuleius. The author, as an initiate of the Isis cult is represented as being addressed by that goddess: “I am present; I who am Nature, the parent of things, queen of all the elements â€¦ the primitive Phrygians called me Pressimunitica, the mother or the gods; the native Athenians, Ceropian Minerva; the floating Cyprians, Paphian Venus â€¦ the inhabitants of Eleusis, the ancient goddess Ceres. Some again have invoked me as Juno, others as Bellona, others as Hecate, and others Rhamnusia; and those who are enlightened by the emerging rays of the rising sun, the Ethiopians, Ariians and Egyptians, powerful in ancient learning, who reverence by divinity with ceremonies perfectly proper, call me by my true appellation, Queen Isis.” (Doane’s Bible Myths, Note, p. 478.)

A study of the images of ancient deities of both the Old and New Worlds reveal their Ethiopic origin. This is noted by Kenneth R. H. Mackezie in T. A. Buckley’s Cities of the Ancient World, p. 180: “From the wooly texture of the hair, I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of India, the Fuhi of China, the Sommonacom of the Siamese, the Zaha of the Japanese, and the Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans, the same, and indeed an African, or rather Nubian, origin.” Most of these black gods were regarded as crucified saviors who died to save mankind by being nailed to a cross, or tied to a tree with arms outstretched as if on a cross, or slain violently in some other manner.

Of these crucified saviors, the most prominent were Osiris and Horus of Egypt, Krishna of India, Mithra of Persia, Quetazlcoatl of Mexico, Adonis of Babylonia and Attis of Phrygia. Nearly all of these slain savior-gods have the following stories related about them: They are born of a virgin, on or near Dec. 25th (Christmas); their births are heralded by a star; they are born either in a cave or stable; they are slain, commonly by crucifixion; they descend into hell, and rise from the dead at the beginning of Spring (Easter), and finally ascend into heaven. The parallels between the legendary lives of these pagan messiahs and the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible are so similar that progressive Bible scholars now admit that stories of these heathen Christs have been woven into the life-story of Jesus. (These remarkable parallels are discussed and interpreted in a pamphlet, Christianity Before Christ, by John G. Jackson, New York, 1938.)

The late Mr. Maynard Shipley, President of The Science League of America, made a very scholarly study of the various mythologies and religions of the world, and in the concluding passage of a brilliant essay, Christian Doctrines in Pre-Christian America, he offers a profoundly thought-provoking statement:

That the ancient pagan creeds, legends and mythsâ€”part of the universal mythosâ€”should be found embodied in the religion of the ancient Mexicans, and that all these again are found to be but the original sources of the modern orthodox Christian religion, is by no means inexplicable, and need not be attribute to the subtlety of the Ubiquitous Devil. The explanation is that all religions and all languages of the civilized races of men had a common origin in an older seat of civilization.

Where that original center of culture was is another story.

The evidence seems to show that the “original center of culture,” referred to by Mr. Shipley, was that vast domain known to the classical geographers and historians as Ethiopia. A study of religious images throws much light on this early civilization. The tau (T-shaped) cross is thought by many Christians to be a unique emblem of their faith. The fact is that this cross is of ancient Ethiopian origin. In the words of an outstanding student of symbolism: “The Ethiopic form of the tau is an exact prototype of the conventional Christian cross; or, to state the fact in its chronological relation, the Christian cross is made in the exact image of the Ethiopian tau.” (Sex Symbolism. P. 9, by William J, Fielding, Little Blue Book No. 904.) The cross was known to all the great ancient nations, and was sometimes shown with the image of a man upon it. The Church Father, Minucius Felix, writing in the early part of the third century, severely rebukes the Pagans for their adoration of crosses: “I must tell you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them; you it is ye Pagans â€¦ for what else are your ensigns, flags and standards, but crosses gilt and beautiful. Your victorious trophies not only represent a cross, but a cross with a man upon it.” Commenting on the preceding extract, the American scholar, T. W. Doane, notes that:

It is very evident that this celebrated Christian Father alludes to some Gentle mystery, of which the prudence of his successors has deprived us. When we compare this with the fact that for centuries after the time assigned for the birth of Jesus Christ, he was not represented as a man on a cross, and that the Christians did not have such a thing as a crucifix, we are inclined to think that the effigies of a black or dark-skinned crucified man, which were to be seen in many places in Italy even during the last century, may have had something to do with it. (Bible Myths, p. 197, 7th Edition.)

The same writer also refers to “the Mexican crucified god being sometimes represented as black,” and that “crosses were also found in Yucatan, as well as Mexico, with a man upon them.” (Ibid., p. 201.)

The numerous black madonnas and infants in European cathedrals are discussed in detail by Sir Godfrey Higgins in The Anacalypsis, Vol. I, Book IV, Chap. I, to which the interested student is referred. However, the remarks of Mr. Shipley on this point are worthy of our attention:

Very suggestive is the fact that representations of the virgin mother and infant savior are often black. This is true in the case of the paintings and images of Isis and Horus, of Devaki and Krishna, and in many cases of Mary and Jesus. The most ancient pictures and statues in Italy and other parts of Europe, which are adored by the faithful as representations of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, reveal the infant draped in white, but with face black and in the arms of a black mother. â€¦ How does it happen that the Virgin Mother of the Mexican Savior-God so closely resembled the Black Virgins of Egypt and Europe? Had they not all a common origin?” (Sex and The Garden of Eden Myth, pp. 50â€“51, by Maynard Shipley, Little Blue Book No.1188.)

Mr. A. H. Verrill, an American archaeologist, visited an Indian shrine in a small town in Guatemala a few years ago, and found that on a special festival day Indians traveled to this little church to bow down to the image of a Black Christ. From the attendant ceremonies, Verrill judged the rite to be of Mayan origin. (see Verrill’s Old Civilizations of the New World, New York, 1938.) The Mayas possessed knowledge of the arts and sciences equivalent to that of the ancients of the Old World, but upon that we cannot dwell, since limitations of space forbid it. The reader is referred to Professor Paul Radin’s fine book on the American Indians, where after surveying the marvelous scientific achievements of the Mayas of Yucatan and Central America , Dr. Radin admits that: “No excavations have ever revealed to us any civilization of a simpler nature from which this very elaborate culture could possibly have been developed.” (The Story of the American Indian, p. 77, Garden City, 1937.)

Egypt and Western Asia tell the same story. “In each case we have a standard or measuring-rod of authentic historical record,” declares Samuel Laing, “of certainly not less than 8,000 and more probably 9,000 or 10,000 years, from the present time; and in each case we find ourselves at this remote date, in the presence, not of rude beginnings, but of a civilization already ancient and far advanced. We have populous cities, celebrated temples, an organized priesthood, an advanced state of agriculture and of the industrial and fine arts; writing and books so long known that their origin is lost in myth; religions in which advanced philosophical and moral ideas are already developed; astronomical systems which imply a long course of accurate observations. How long this prehistoric age may have lasted, and how many centuries it may have taken to develop such a civilization, from the primitive beginnings of Neolithic and Paleolithic origins, is a matter of conjecture. All we can infer is, that it must have required an immense time, much longer than that embraced by the subsequent period of historical record.” (Human Origins, by Samuel Laing, p. 30, London, 1913.)

Much more could be said on this subject, but since this essay is addressed mainly to readers who have little time for the study of history, it must be made as concise as possible. The numerous citations from standard scientific and historical works, it is hoped, will be of some benefit to students who are out of reach of large public libraries, or who lack the leisure time necessary for reading and research along these lines.

#The Black Gods: Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization Part 4 – By John G. Jackson (1939)#Ethiopia #Black Gods

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my-random-ocs · 3 years

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians OC Masterlist

(Now with new characters and faceclaim changes)

Come Hell or High Water; Patchwork Family

Name: Andromeda Blue ‘Andy’ Hernandez

Story: Come Hell or High Water, Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Scarlett Estevez and Isabela Merced

Godly Parent: Hades

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary: Andromeda Blue Hernandez. A special name for a special girl. The twelve-year-old is in what feels like her millionth school in the past few years. Her only real friend is Percy Jackson. He’s the only one that will sit with her at lunch, who doesn’t care about her ADHD and dyslexia. He’s the only one that is just as much a loser as she is. Then Percy blows up a school- not his fault- and Andy is taken to a camp for ‘special’ people.

Name: Calliope ‘Callie’ Ayelen

Story: Come Hell or High Water, Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Sadie Sink and Abigail Cowen

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary: Callie Ayelen always knew she was different. Dyslexic and ADHD, she had never really fit in with the other kids. All except one: Percy Jackson, Callie’s next door neighbor and best friend. Ever since they were five-years-old, and Callie moved into Percy’s building, the pair had been through everything together. And when they find out they’re demigods, arrive at a camp that thinks sword fighting is okay to teach to children, and Percy’s mom is kidnapped, well, they’ll get through that together, too.

Name: Danaë Gray Hernandez

Story: Come Hell or High Water, Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Sofia Carson

Godly Parent: Boreas

Love Interest: Travis Stoll

Summary:

Name: Darshini Bahl

Story: Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Godly Parent: Minerva

Love Interest: Frank Zhang

Summary: The daughter of the goddess of wisdom and a mortal man, Darshini Bahl always knew she was different. And unfortunately, Camp Jupiter was the same. Being the only daughter of Minerva, Darshi felt ostracized at the place that was supposed to feel like home. Except from the Fifth Cohort. She always felt safe with her best friends. Then the war against the Titans came, and Darshi wasn’t as safe as she thought she was. But she got through it, and she started living her life again. Then, barely three months later, one of Darshi’s best friends goes missing, and eight months later, a son of Neptune carries Juno herself into camp, followed by gorgons that refuse to die. That same day, Mars himself issues a quest for Darshi, Percy, and three others- including newbie Frank Zhang, who she may or may not have a crush on- to go to the land beyond the gods and rescue the god of death. Well, Darshi’s summer was going to be boring.

Name: Libertas ‘Libby’ Kekoa

Story: Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Auli’i Cravalho

Godly Parent: Neptune

Love Interest: Jason Grace

Summary: Libby has always been the pariah of Camp Jupiter. Claimed by Neptune as soon as she got there, then stuck in the fifth cohort with all the other so-called losers, didn’t make her very popular. But still, her life was good. She had a few friends, she enjoyed war games, and she even had a boyfriend. She was happy. Then her boyfriend disappears, and another boy shows up eight months later. Libby knows this can’t be a coincidence, especially when Percy Jackson ends up being a child of Neptune as well. And when Mars himself tells Libby, Percy, and three others to go on a quest to Alaska to get the Legion’s missing eagle- something no one has survived- Libby knows something is going on.

Name: Nathaniel ‘Nathan’ Castellan

Story: Come Hell or High Water, Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Jared Gilmore and Joe Keery

Godly Parent: Hermes

Love Interest: Annabeth Chase

Summary: Nathan liked Camp Half-Blood, he really did. He liked his siblings. He liked Capture the Flag, and archery lessons with Chiron. Then after Grover, Annabeth, and newbies Percy and Callie got back from returning Zeus’ lightning bolt, it all fell apart. Luke betrayed his friends, the camp, and worst of all- his little sister. And now everyone is looking at Nathan like he’s going to betray them, too. But he won’t, he swears. Come hell or high water, he will do anything to protect his home, and his family.

Name: Poppy Bloom-Chase

Story: Come Hell Or High Water, Patchwork Family

Faceclaim: Anna Cathcart and Kaylee Bryant

Godly Parent: Persephone

Love Interest: Piper McLean

Summary: When Poppy’s mom married Annabeth’s dad, neither girl was happy about it. The only good part was now they had each other. And even if Poppy didn’t consider Frederick her father, and Annabeth definitely didn’t consider Lisa her mother, the girls did consider each other sisters. And, as sisters, they made a pact to stick together. To them, that meant running away together, going to camp together, training together, and yeah, going on a dangerous quest to get an egotistical god’s lightning bolt together. Or, Poppy thought they would go on the quest together. But then Annabeth leaves her behind for Nathan, Grover, and two newbies with highly unusually parentage. But the Chase sisters have been through a lot, and if they can get through this, they can get through the coming war.

Miscellaneous

Name: Adelaide ‘Ada’ Kennedy

Story: Battle Cry

Faceclaim: Holland Roden

Godly Parent: Alala

Summary: Ada didn’t know what to think. One minute, she was having dinner with her family, and the next, everyone just collapses, snoring, like they’re asleep. Or, almost everyone. While Ada’s dad, step-mom, and step-sister were unconscious, Ada herself remained standing. But no one else in all of Manhattan is awake. So, naturally, Ada thinks this is the apocalypse, arms herself with her dad’s baseball bat, and goes out exploring. What she finds- a large group of demigods in the Plaza Hotel- is nothing short of the most abnormal thing Ada’s ever experienced. Then they tell her that if Ada is awake, she must be a demigod, too. And it turns out, her assumption about the apocalypse wasn’t far off. Greek mythology is real, Kronos has risen, and Camp Half-Blood needs all the help they can get. Fighting in a war was definitely something Ada never saw coming, but she is anxious to show this egotistical titan what a pissed off teenage New Yorker with a bat looks like.

Name: Alessandra ‘Alessa’ Lupo

Story: Gods We Choose

Faceclaim: Shelley Hennig

Godly Parent: Lupa

Summary: When her mother took in Percy Jackson, Alessa didn’t know what to think. Percy is nothing like any demigod she’s ever encountered. First of all, he has no memories, and keeps asking about some mysterious girl. Secondly, he’s a son of Neptune, something that hasn’t been heard of in decades. Her mother ignores her questions, instead sending Alessa with Percy to Camp Jupiter, hoping that the daughter of Rome’s protector will give Percy some credit. So, she goes. And when Mars issues a quest that includes Alessa, she goes. She has no idea what’s going on, but she has a crappy boat, three outcasts, and one week to figure it out.

Name: Ariadne 'Ari' Sideris

Story: To Hell and Back

Faceclaim: Madelaine Petsch

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary:

Name: Arzu Aman

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Iman Vellani

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary:

Name: Aurora Gonzales

Story: Afraid of Heights

Faceclaim: Paris Berelc

Godly Parent: Hades

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary:

Name: Bela Bradbury

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Danielle Rose Russell

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary:

Name: Brynhilde ‘Bryn’ Chase

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Brec Bassinger

Godly parent: Freyja

Summary:

Name: Colin Michaels

Story: Dissonance

Faceclaim: Elliot Fletcher

Godly Parent: Persephone

Love Interest: Malia Tate

Summary:

*crossover with Teen Wolf

Name: Damon Ciel

Story: Firestorm

Faceclaim: Peyton Meyer

Godly Parent: Zeus

Love Interest: Lucy Vitale

Summary: When Damon’s mom was killed by a vampire, he tried telling people what really killed her – his social worker, the police officers, the therapist he was required to see – but no one believed him. So, he left. He resigned himself to always being alone, until one night, he was attacked in the alley he had made his home. He thought he was a goner, but then two teenagers came to his aid and turned the monster to dust. Thalia and Luke told Damon all about the godly world, and about monsters. They decided to take Damon under their wing, being their own little family. And when they found Annabeth a few weeks later, their family grew. Soon, they were found by Grover the satyr, who was tasked with taking Thalia to Camp Half-Blood. But Thalia didn’t make it. So, Luke, Annabeth, and Damon spent their years at camp, a little family that was missing a member, and thought it would be like that forever. Until Percy Jackson comes stumbling into camp in the middle of the night having just killed the Minotaur.

Name: Dawn Guerra

Story: My Head is Bloody (But Unbowed)

Faceclaim: Nicole Maines

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary: Dawn did not want to be at the Wilderness School. Not an uncommon sentiment among its students. She wanted to be home with her mom, get through high school without being outed – again – and maybe, just maybe have a good life. But all that becomes pretty impossible when a not-so-human tornado attacks her and a few of her classmates. Then she learns that she’s a demigod, the daughter of a mortal and a god. And she has to go on a quest with those same classmates including her least favorite: Leo Valdez.

Name: Genevieve McCall

Story: Force of Nature

Faceclaim: Vanessa Morgan

Godly Parent: Chloris

Summary:

Name: Ghaziyah ‘Zia’ Banerjee

Story: Rise Up

Faceclaim: Naomi Scott

Godly Parent: Aphrodite

Love Interest: Stiles Stilinski

Summary: Zia grew up at Camp Half-Blood, ever since a monster killed her father, leaving her and her older sister orphaned. It was her home. She loved mythology lessons, monster fighting class, and capture the flag. She loved her siblings, and her best friend, Annabeth. She even gained a baby niece. Everything was perfect. But when a war begins, suddenly everything Zia built starts to crumble.

*crossover with Teen Wolf

Name: Hayden Castellan

Story: My Brother’s Keeper

Faceclaim: Chloe Grace Moretz

Godly Parent: Hermes

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary: When Hayden was brought to camp when she was seven, she thought that was it. She spent her days learning how to use a sword, playing capture the flag, and hanging out with her brother Luke, and best friend Annabeth. She was happy- who wouldn’t be at Camp Half-Blood? There was just one thing: Hayden desperately wanted a quest, a chance to prove herself. Annabeth wanted one, too, but Hayden was less vocal about it. Then Percy Jackson comes along, and Hayden finally gets her shot.

Name: Helena Castellan

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Rowan Blanchard

Godly Parent: Mercury

Summary:

Name: Hope Guerra

Story: My Head is Bloody (But Unbowed)

Faceclaim: Danielle Campbell

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Jason Grace

Summary: When Hope was a child, her father drilled two things into her head. One: remember to keep your wrist straight, otherwise you jam it when you try to punch something- or someone. Two: never, ever, under any circumstances, give up hope. It’s why he named her Hope. She’s lived with that mentality her whole life, but when her boyfriend disappears into thin air, Hope has a harder time believing in it. But her father also taught her determination, and Hope is determined to never lose hope.

Name: Kalinda ‘Kali’ Harper

Story: A Light in the Dark

Faceclaim: Virginia Gardner

Godly Parent: Apollo

Love Interest: Annabeth Chase

Summary: Kali and Rue Harper grew up more like sisters than cousins, which was good considering they were each other’s only friends. Then they get expelled from their fifth school, and start to attend Meriwether College Prep. Their first day, they meet Tyson the (literal) giant softy, and Percy Jackson, a boy who is just like them- ADHD, dyslexic, and kicked out of more schools than they were. Naturally, they all became best friends. On the last day of school, Kali and Rue think they’ve finally made it a full year without getting expelled. Of course, that goes out the window when they get attacked by a group of Canadians. This is why the Harper cousins don’t do gym class.

Name: Leda Martin

Story: The Right to Call it Home

Faceclaim: Zoey Deutch

Godly Parent: Minerva

Love Interest: Ocean Carter

Summary: Instead of living at Camp Jupiter, with its barracks and war games and hot meals, Leda lived in a rundown apartment with three of her friends, surrounded by other friends- siblings, more like- in the building. There are few who do not pass Lupa’s training, but Leda was one of those few. Long ago, she decided, fine, if the people of Camp Jupiter didn’t want her, then she didn’t want them either. So she and the other rejects protect San Francisco, depending only on each other. Leda was doing pretty well for herself, she thought, until three Roman demigods show up at her doorstep, telling her that Camp Jupiter has ordered her to join the quest to free Thanatos. Leda didn’t exactly want to go, but doesn’t see much of a choice. So she joins the son of Mars, the daughter of Pluto, and the children of Neptune, Leda’s mother’s sworn enemy, on their way to the land beyond the gods. Well, this should be fun.

Name: Lilith Torres

Story: Golden Death

Faceclaim: Cierra Ramirez

Godly Parent: Thanatos

Love Interest: Jason Grace

Summary:

Name: Lita Castellan

Story: Dissonance

Faceclaim: Kristine Froseth

Godly Parent: Hermes

Love Interest: Ethan Nakamura, Scott McCall

Summary:

*crossover with Teen Wolf

Name: Liv Berglund

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Eliot Salt

Godly parent: REDACTED

Summary:

Name: Lucy Vitale

Story: Firestorm

Faceclaim: Meg Donnelly

Godly Parent: Hades

Love Interest: Damon Ciel

Summary: Being an unclaimed camper wasn’t easy. Stuck in the Hermes cabin with all the other unclaimed and overlooked, it would have been easy for Lucy to fall through the cracks. But she had bright spots, like her mom, and her best friends Grover, Damon, and Annabeth, and her pseudo-big brothers, Luke and the Stolls. She was okay, and she was determined to stay okay. But when Percy Jackson comes to camp, dragging an unconscious Grover with him, and bringing a bucket load of problems, everything changes. And when she’s claimed? Lucy tries to stay optimistic, but as time goes on, it gets harder and harder.

Name: Lyssa Taggaro

Story: Fault Lines

Faceclaim: Ariela Barer

Godly Parent: Gaea

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary:

Name: Malia Chase

Story: Our Time

Faceclaim: Kathryn Newton

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Seth Kline

Summary: When Malia Chase was thirteen, her school was attacked by something the goat- sorry, satyr- called a monster. She was brought to Camp Half-Blood, where she learned her flake of a biological mother was really some goddess, though no one knew who it was. She went through her first couple years at camp- and a war- unclaimed. She was starting to lose hope when Percy Jackson, her friend and her cousin’s boyfriend, goes missing, and on that same day, Malia is claimed.

Name: Maritza Myers

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Malina Weissman and Emilia Jones

Godly Parent: Amphitrite

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary:

Name: Nova Jackson Black

Story: Light

Faceclaim: Kaylee Bryant

Godly Parent: TBD

Love Interest: Cedric Diggory, Leo Valdez

Summary:

*crossover with Harry Potter

Name: Ocean Carter

Story: The Right to Call it Home

Faceclaim: Britt Robertson

Godly Parent: Neptune

Love Interest: Leda Martin

Summary: Ocean was used to being the weirdo of Camp Jupiter. Being claimed by Neptune and shoved into the loser fifth cohort didn’t make her very popular. Eventually, she decided she was done. They didn’t want her? Fine, then, she didn’t want them. She hung out in San Francisco, protecting it with her friends, fellow demigods who also didn’t make the cut at the elitist Roman camp. She made friends with Leda Martin, the only daughter of Minerva in existence. Life was fine, good even. Until three people show up on her doorstep, saying she is part of a quest to find the god of death. Well, Ocean would be lying if she said she didn’t like a little danger.

Name: Rhiannon Aldric

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Crystal Reed

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: TBD

Summary:

Name: Runa ‘Rue’ Harper

Story: A Light in the Dark

Faceclaim: Olivia Holt

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Name: Sage Nakamura

Story: Better Than Revenge

Faceclaim: Arden Cho

Godly Parent: Nemesis

Summary: Sage and Ethan came to Camp Half-Blood when she was seven and he was nine. Even though they were claimed almost immediately, Nemesis didn’t have a cabin, so the siblings were stuck in the Hermes Cabin. Both of them hated it. They hated how other campers looked at them like they were evil. They had that in common. They had a lot in common, besides the whole eye situation. Another thing they didn’t have in common: Sage had friends, however few, and Ethan didn’t. And when Luke came to the Nakamura siblings, telling them of how he was going to raise Kronos, make the world a better place for forsaken demigods like them, Sage knew where her loyalties lay. She stayed at camp and Ethan threw everything away for some Titan. Sage wanted nothing more than revenge on Kronos and his army for taking her big brother away from her, and she was determined to get it.

Name: Seth Kline

Story: Our Time

Faceclaim: Dylan Sprayberry

Godly Parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Malia Chase

Summary: Seth grew up at Camp Jupiter, but unlike most of his fellow campers, he was never claimed. He had absolutely no idea who his father was. Then one day, a boy named Percy Jackson shows up at Camp, and rattles everybody. Rumors about the graecus fly through the camp, and after a particularly odd war games, Mars himself is issuing a quest for Percy, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, and Seth. And then Seth gets claimed.

Name: Sybil Rhys

Story: Untitled

Faceclaim: Sophie Turner

Godly parent: REDACTED

Love Interest: Percy Jackson

Summary:

Name: Theodora ‘Teddy’ Drake

Story: Promises Kept

Faceclaim: Natalie Alyn Lind

Godly Parent: Bia

Love Interest: Leo Valdez

Summary: The day her sister died was the day Teddy’s life fell apart. Before that, life was great. Both girls lived with their dad in Boston, they went to school, and Sam went off to some mysterious camp in the summer. On August 18th, 2009, Sam dies, and Teddy is never given an explanation as to how. Then on September 30th, Teddy’s father dies in a car accident. On December 17th, Teddy and her classmates are attacked on a field trip to the Grand Canyon, taken to a place called Camp Half-Blood, and learn that they are the children of Greek gods. And Teddy finally gets her explanation.

#pjo #pjo ocs

15 notes · View notes

mango-dolphin · 3 years

Note

bestie

give

details

about your ocs

and that

jason prequel fic

pleeaaaaase? <3

of COURSE bestie!!! <3<3<3 thank u for enabling me. it's time to f,uckgin., Oh god i have no clue how to format this i didn't think i'd get this far

jason grace prequel fic stuff

(side note: may actually be multiple fics in a series, we'll see how wordy/invested i get)

about the it

i don't have a title for this yet (thus "Jason Grace Prequel Fic"), but essentially the goal is exploring Jason's life from before Camp Jupiter to right after the Titan War. written in first person and in Jason's perspective (usually...), i want to use the fic to develop and build Jason as a person to see just how much he lost after Juno had to spirit him away for his Gaea quest. (And, potentially, how much he may have gained afterwards.)

The Titan War is a looming threat that exists for the majority of the fic, even though they don't precisely know it's a war yet for part of it. Camp Jupiter had been facing some real rough times the past few decades apparently? I'd like to imagine that, at the point Jason joined in, these guys were buckling in and preparing for the worst.

I'd also like to explore the involvement of both the Lares and the greater city of New Rome. Where are these guys? What the fuck they doin? Pspspspspspsspspspsspp? i'd also like to explore the Roman side of the Titan army, that must be fun as FUCK considering all of the turmoil and bad feelings going around.

I will be creating illustrations and brief comic strips for this project because I'm just that unhinged. Don't talk to me (DO talk to me sorry for giving you a contradictory desire)

my wants

Jason get friends :)

exploration of Roman culture and their spirituality/religious practices/etc. I also wanna talk about how much these guys apparently loved agriculture most of their gods were dedicated to that. Gods bless (literally) they know what's important

i wanna talk about people who aged out of the legion too. Hehe.

Octavian stuff. I've already posted about my headcanon of him having shit parents & 7 other siblings, and we are gonna Get. into That.

i'm intrigued about Riordan setting up stuff about reincarnation and the Isles of the Blest. I'm gonna do something with that.

it's also been implied & off-handedly mentioned that there are mortals in the Legion and New Rome as well. also a bigger monster population! I'd like to include some perspectives of like, the implications of That!

also some headcanoned Legacy lore why the fuck not. the "photocopied until nothing special" comment that was written in Blood of Olympus about Octavian still rubs me the wrong way and i have some bones to pick (but not in the way you might expect by my tone here LOL)

forgot to put this in initially. WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT REYNA IN THIS FIC. reyna ilu i am so sorry i forgot to mention you in the og version of this post. You are becoming real in five seconds.

Exploration of some major Roman gods that were just. Unexplored. In HOO.

in particular i'm thinking about Janus, they gave him a funny lil sonboy that did whore things (michael varus) and i love that for him. But also holy SHIT he was confused for a minor greek god in PJO and that's! SO! FASCINATING! TO ME IN A WORLDBUILDING SENSE. like. Percy happened to ask for a Janus Cabin in camp halfblood THAT'S SO FUNNY. THAT'S SO FUNNY HE'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN GODS AND HE DOES HIS FUNNY LITTLE SONG AND DANCE TO ANNABETH, SOME GREEK FREAK BRAINCHILD OF HIS IN-SOME-MYTHS GREAT-NIECE MINERVA'S COUNTERPART, IN THE LABYRINTH AND HE FUCKS OFF AND THEY DON'T EVEN GIVE HIM A GREEK CABIN IN HOO BECAUSE RIORDAN REALIZED HIS FUCKING MISTAKE I LOVE JANUS PJO SO MUCH I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM WHAT IS HE DOING WHAT IS HE UP TO DOES HE KNOW THAT HE'S AMAZING

What was I talking about.

oh yeah! Jason get friends :)

origin story

this project is coming about since hyperfixation hit me hard and there's a lot about Jason's history that i'd love to see expanded and elaborated upon. i'm of the belief that not everything in a story needs to be explained: some things are better left up to interpretation, or may stand stronger without trying to explain every last detail.

however, i feel there were a lot of opportunities and connections that came and went throughout the final product of Heroes of Olympus—a lot of which that came about in order to either preserve a status quo of "protagonists right, antagonists wrong," or have their cake of systemic critique and eat it too by never changing anything fundamentally.

we also do not see much respect—or exploration, really—of the Roman perspective, which troubles me as a lot of it seemed to be sidetracked. the Greeks are deeply individualist (sole heroes, groups of up to three on quests, frequent focus on one's worth as an individual rather than strength in numbers as well as singular people's achievements rather than working as a collective army, etc); the Romans provided an alternative unity that we just. never saw, as they were condensed into one collective "bad" that didn't want to be "bad" but were being led by OOooOOoOOOne bad LeeaAAAaaAAaader I'm bitter about this to the point of being incomprehensible

i don't have a lot of coherent thoughts honestly i just. Feel it. deep within my Bones. and i wish i knew more about greek & roman history & mythology to provide a more nuanced take. but i DO obsess a lot over the human condition and the extremes that one goes through; i think New Rome is potentially an amazing setting and i'd like to find a way to explain, in-universe, how Camp Jupiter became so melancholic and hollow (and, on some extent, how Jason seems to be this way as well. We never actually received clarification on if he got all of his memories back, and considering how he felt so Nothing over Octavian... well. let's just say i came up with a weird fanfic theory for it and we will be EXPLORING it god DAMMIT)

i have realized that i may have gone on a tangent for awhile and did not even talk about my OCs for this fic

i'm tempted to like. split this answer up so that the kids i wanna talk about get their own post? i think it feels appropriate. but it also might cause me to procrastinate on tlaking about them.....................

eh. fuck it gonna make another post LOL thank u for reading this far. i don't wanna get anyone's hopes up too high idk how well i'm gonna write this fic. I just have a lot of ideas and i'm trying to sort them out in a journal, i'm typically a pantser haha

#thegodswereneveronourside #ask #my writing #mango's writing #jason grace #jason grace prequel fic #pjo #percy jackson #hoo #heroes of olympus #toa #trials of apollo #ahahaha! ahehehehe! ummmmmm!!! Wow I had more words than I thought on that #though to be fair my journal is starting to get more full as the days go by #i haven't written this much in awhile so i feel a lot of joy about this #the worldbuilding feels like it'll be the biggest concern for me atm. because i still don't know much about history #wasn't exactly my best subject in school.#but i DO wanna learn it. i am just mentally ill </3 but i AM going to learn it #there's a lot of mythological stuff i wanna tackle as well as cultural so it'll be important ghrhghghghngvbhnhfgfj girl help #also i will never not be thinking about janus. nor janus pjo #love that two-faced little god of thresholds #did u kno the king of sacred rites was the one who carried out janus' ceremonies. he had no flamen. at least APPARENTLY he didn't #citation needed etc. but that's an interesting thing to write.#i need to learn more about him too i like that god the most #also janus & saturn have an Interesting relationship in mythology made interesting by pjo's titanomachy!#saturn is the roman aspect of kronos! did you know this! fun fact!!!#januaia

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halfpintofanxiety · 3 years

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AC Prompts

“Fear not the darkness but welcome its embrace” Ezio Auditore da Firenze

When you literally read most of the AC fanfics so now you have to write ur own Rip

I have never posted anything on any fanfiction site, nor anything worthwhile on Tumblr because procrastination and social anxiety is a bitch. For some reason though I have felt the powerful urge to jump right in and I have written various prompts that most likely will never actually get written because I doubt my motivation or memory will live long enough but here we go.

Spoilers for Valhalla and most of the other games but you should’ve played them by now

A Desmond Miles fic where he got he woke in the same simulation that Aletheia made for Kassandra (because in the DLC we saw other characters that have died so now i am using it as the AC universe’s afterlife) only he was too much of a loose cannon for Minerva who was salty that he let Juno out so she had him imprisoned. So after discovering that his entire life was planned out for him only to die, lied to about it for months, watched his ancestors suffer for this plan, and died painfully despite being told it would be instant only afterwards told he was now being punished for doing his job....Yeah no he decided to be a problem.

FemEivor/Basim where Loki didn’t have absolute control and so they were tag teaming in the same body. So Basim returns with Sigurd to Ravensthorpe and is reeling from Sigurd’s behaviour Teehee because Loki was almost positive that Sigurd was kind Tyr and Eivor was arrogent Havi, but this newly acquired attitude says otherwise. Possibly a trauma response or true colors coming to light so Basim keeps an eye out. Eyes wide enough that he also could see the new furry wolf member of the village, Mouse and his wolf mom and Basim do be like...O///O.

Valhalla AU where Eivor pulled a Rosta and ran towards her fallen parents before Sigurd could get a hold of her and so she was captured and going to be sold as a thrall in Ireland but there was a storm where they settled in England first, Wessex to be specific, to recuperate and restore their longship. Possibly escapes she does, run into Zealot she does, impressed by stamina and strength he is, trains small traumatized girl maybe, becomes well known to get an audience with a king who could use an assassin to wipe out order members?...who knows? I don’t.

Hearing about Harold’s growing forces, Halfdan is pushed by Faravid to seek an allience to possibly gain support in England with another army. To prove good tidings the siege on Kjotve’s land is earlier than expected as well as Harold’s plan to unite Norway with him as king. Eivor who was struggling to find a purpose after killing her enemy (I like making characters more realistic, there’s no way she was not depressed and with Sigurd gone and Styrbjorn’s displeasure with her, she had no support other than Randvi) requested to offer her axe to Halfdan’s army. (Maybe a few months before Sigurd’s return)

Something with Leofrith because that man was too pretty to not have a reappearance or longer than 5mins worth of screentime. The first time I saw him I made this chocking sound that greatly concerned my mother who was in another room. Gave off wonderful Jaime Lanister vibes without the incest which was poggers and there is literally only 2 pieces on AO3 with Leofrith/FemEivor.

Unity AU, I’m aware that the french templars didn’t know that Shay was there but i only recently read the book so for a few years now I headcannoned this idea and I have too much of a hatred for Elise (i’m trying to get over it but nothing is working) to let it go. Elise was in the know for years and technically her first “assignment” was to distract a little boy so that Shay could retrieve the Precursor box. So it was either grief or guilt that led to De la Serre taking him in. Not implying but heavily implying that Charles and Ballec were a thing but they totally were.

I feel like I got this idea from @esamastation a couple months ago where they made a list of maybe prompts and I thought to myself at the time ‘Oh i could never because then I’d feel guilty about not writing them’ so now i am here guilt tripping myself into getting these works done.

aNd WhY DO wE dO THiS because I attend college and everything else has priority when I have papers to write.

#Assassin's Creed #fanfiction ideas #eivor varinsdóttir #basim ibn ishaq #leofrith #probably more ships #maybe might also destroy some characters dynamics #we love angst #desmond miles #he is baby #soft boy #but not really #murder he commits #but thats okay #it happens #ac unity #arno dorian #ezio auditore

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transfemlogan · 2 years

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I could talk abt my pjo au 4ever BUT i wont . Its still in the works.

1. Roman, Janus, and Remy are all roman. They go 2 Camp Jupiter. Patton, Virgil, Logan, and Remus are all greek. They go to Camp Half-Blood. C!Thomas and Emile (+ the rest of the charactsrs) dont have anything rn </3

2. Janus gets 2 godly parents (because he's special and cooler than you). I still don't have everything planned just yet, but he was a child of Fortuna in his past life and is currently a child of Nemesis. He remembers his past life due 2 the prophecy i will have set 4 them i think. He is able to use his abilities from his past life, it just takes him awhile to remember them.

3. Roman is human, he is not a demigod or anything, but he does have powers. I have been viewing it the same as how Juno took Jason away from his mother at a young age and how Hera was Leo's babysitter. Minerva doesn't have children, so Roman isn't at all related to her, but she took a liking to him (points at the prophecy) and gave him abilities. Can she do this? Yes because i said so. (She's the 1 who whispered ideas in2 Ulysses head for the Trojan Horse so I think it works) I am calling her Roman's Patron Goddess, just because Idk if there's a better term.

4. Remus and Roman are still siblings, they just aren't twins. Theyre half brothers. They share the same mother, just not father. Remus' godly parent is Zelus, the god that represents/daimon that personifies dedication, emulation, eager rivalry, envy, jealousy, and zeal. For my AU Zelus will be a god. I couldn't find a straight answer if he was a god or a spirit/daimon, but it's ok.

5. PATTON IS THE CHILD OF HADES. sorry Patton being covered in pastels and stickers, but radiating death and being able to raiss the dead means literally everything to me. I have had the thought of hades being Patton's dad since 4ever. I love it.

5. Logan is Hephaestus' child. And yes, Logan does have the fire power that hephaestus gifts (or curses?) only a few of his children with. Logan being abke to control fire means so much to me. I love anything to do with Logan and Fire. I think Hephaestus really fits Logan and I really like the idea of Logan, the child of a craftsmanship and creation god, working with Roman, who's patron is a goddess of wisdom and war and the arts, working together.

6. Everything here isn't supposed to be "obvious" choices. Like Hades-Virgil, Aphrodite/Ares-Roman, Ares/Athena-Logan, etc etc. I didn't want to assign them Gods that were... painfully obvious. I wanted to have fun with it, hence why Patton is a child of Hades. I think the only 1 that might be obvious is Zelus for Remus, but Zelus isn't even in the books and I haven't seen a PJO au include the God. So I thought it was a good choice, even if it might've been a little obvious. (I wanted Janus to have a god that represents something that could be both bad and good, but either gets a really bad rep despite their good traits or really good rep despite their bad traits. I think Nemesis and Fortuna fit both of those, respectively.)

[ID: a screenshot of a discord message. It reads, "Patton: hades (greek) / Virgil: zeus (greek) / Logan: hephaestus (greek) / Roman: Minerva (patron) (roman) / Remus: zelus (greek) / Janus: fortuna & nemesis (roman) // C!Thomas: / Remy: oracle / Emile:" /end ID]

#revy.txt #revys aus!#uhm. this au needs a namd. uh uh uh.#UHM.#pjo au #SURE SORRY IF THATS A POPULAR TAG !!

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outoftimewriting · 4 years

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Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids) Son of Neptune AU (2/7) or (7/12)

Hello! Before reading, check the PJO AU and the TLH AU - the links are on the masterpost - because they are essential to this one. Don't forget to check the warnings before reading. Review and make suggestions! And have a good reading :))

TW: This post in special has sexual harassment, racist slurs, and mentions of whipping.

Perseus wakes up in a semi-destroyed building full of wolves with a black ax in one hand and a Warhammer in the other. And that's just the beginning of the worst months of his life - or the only months of his life he can remember.

Then everything hurts - too much, like his skin is melting from his bones and his eyes are being gouged out. His skin feels like it's melting, and he promptly passes out.

He has no idea of who he is - except his name, but he might just know it because the wolf woman told him - and the talking wolves don't know - or can't tell him anything else. Either way, Perseus is getting nowhere.

Oh yes - he is also pretty sure wolves aren't supposed to shapeshift. And rope you into training - which, he must've been a bodybuilder or something because he is pretty good at wrestling.

Shoving the wolves into the ground and destroying the monsters that try and defy Lady Lupa's pack are the highlights of his week.

Lady Lupa is... - Lupa is everything he knows. She is the one who, for some reason, let's him stay. She tells him about the gods and the monsters - about how she found him in her doorstep after her home was sacked by Earthborn.

How he must be the sign of the Olympus that Lady Venus promised her. The one who comes to help.

Perseus doesn't know her - he doesn't know who she is or if she is telling the truth. But he has well-trained powers that he has no idea how to utilize, nowhere to go and no way of searching for his family - no one knows who he is, except for his first name (which sounds wrong).

And he tried to run away once - it didn't end well, because monsters are immortal - and everywhere.

Lupa tells him he had a curse upon him, so he has to train himself all over again now that it's gone. It doesn't sound like the truth, but he prefers Lady Lupa's carefully crafted half-truths than sleeping in the streets.

Lady Lupa teaches him - and tells him to expect the signal of the gods. They will guide him - even if they give him no answers.

Perseus doesn't like the gods much. They've left him here - which is a good place, but not his home, wherever it is - with no idea of who he is or what to do - except train and learn.

Mother Lupa - as most call her in the Wolf House - educates him like one would an unruly puppy. She corrects everything - from the way he addresses the gods at evening prayers to the way he sits - and he obeys.

Because in the midst of all those wolves? Perseus is just another puppy. So he sits and read hours of Vergil, Ovid and Horace in ancient Latin out loud - even if he would prefer not to.

Sadly - he does not have an opinion. Lady Lupa won't hesitate on using her whip on him. Oh yes, she has a whip - a black whip, which she uses to educate them. His back hurts sometimes when he rests upon the cold floor.

He prays to anyone - his godly parent - who is some Underworld God if his hold on shadows and stone means anything - or a friend, someone who's missing him, anyone really, for them to come and gives him answers.

It doesn't happen.

So he trains and he trains. He has no idea how much time has passed - how much time he has been slashing and cutting and killing, how much time he has heard every detail of Julius Caesar crusade through Europe.

It's still cold when the gods send their signal - they send him a maiden. She holds her hand to him like he is an old friend - and he goes.

She makes him only one question - "Do you want peace or answers, Perseus? Choose carefully, for no path will be easy, but the harvest comes for those who plant the seeds" - and when he answers, she climbs to his back and flowers create a path in the ground.

She doesn't talk anymore. He follows the trail and the girl threads her fingers through his hair, humming to herself a melody only she is able to hear.

In the way, there are two gorgons. Lady Lupa taught him about them. It's an easy battle - until he discovers that they just don't die. They keep reforming, like evil pottery.

They attack again and he picks up his ax to continue racking them into bits, but she tightened her fingers in his hair - like one would steer a horse.

So before they reform, he runs. Perseus runs - with a beyond beautiful maiden on his back (which would be really uncomfortable, if he wasn't so pissed with the gods for giving exactly no answers) doing nothing but play with his hair and eat granola bars - and he gets to a military outpost.

At least, it's what it looks like. There's a wall who must be at least 20 feet high. Its not a normal wall - because he can see eyes in its crevices, looking at him.

Perseus is really tired. There are people there - he is seeing them, do they think he is stupid? - and he has a person in his back.

So he kills both gorgons again with his stone spikes - he is pretty sure the guys that aren't opening the doors can deal with them when they eventually reform - and shadow travels inside.

He doesn't do this often - it takes a lot out of him and he might end up stuck in the wall if he is too tired, but he is too angry to care.

Perseus could've destroyed their door. He should've, really. It might have stopped those people from surrounding him with weapons.

These people - the people looming over him now that he crossed the barrier, who are using togas just like him, so different but so familiar - would've let him die for nothing. Perseus growls - a bad habit he picked up living only with wolves for an undetermined amount of time.

He should kill every single one of them. He should open the ground - and let it swallow them, let their bones turn to dust, return their weapons to molten metal.

But the maiden tightens her fingers in his hair, and he obeys - because Perseus has been well trained, and he doesn't bend.

"Who are you?!" A boy with a bow asks harshly, and Perseus wants him to rip him apart - he is so done. Perseus is a Roman - is what Lupa taught him - and Roman wolves don't roll over.

"Lady Lupa sent me." They don't look like they believe him, but they take him to their leader.

He feels like an alien - behind the wall, there's a whole new world - hundreds of people stare at him with a mix of fear, disdain, and curiosity. It feels familiar.

Perseus is reluctant to leave his weapons with a statue - specially while entering the territory of people who won't protect him and might try to kill him, but he is not one for scandals - so he thanks Lord Terminus, and goes on.

They enter the Senate after walking for about an hour - his head held high, even with the extra weight in his back - in the middle of the session. Lady Lupa would find this appalling.

Everyone turns to them - the tall black muscular man, dressed in a dark red toga, with a woman in his back also clad in a toga - they look like normal citizens, and yet, somehow, completely foreign.

Their escorts - a black girl no older than fourteen and the archer, that must be around his age - kneel to the Praetor - but as soon as they start explaining, they are interrupted.

Their promagistrate - a man Perseus will later learn is named Justus - looks at them once and shrieks.

"Lord Pluto!" They call him, and the whole Senatus knee down "Lady Ceres!"

The goddess he didn't recognize comes down of his back, chuckling to herself. All gods are mad - Perseus thinks, but keeps stoic in front of the government of this Rome copycat, else they kill him for disrespect or something.

"Rise!" She starts "You're almost correct, child of Justitia. For I am Ceres, but this is not Lord Pluto."

The promagistrate seems offended with Perseus somehow - like it's his fault the man is an idiot.

"This is his only mortal son and my daughter's champion, Perseus of Styx. He has been under Lady Lupa's tutelage in her command." This was new.

So his father was the king of the dead himself - which was not surprising. But he was apparently Lady Proserpina's champion - a goddess who left him with Lady Lupa, apparently with his father's, Lady Venus' and Lady Ceres' approval.

Perseus (apparently, of Styx) wants to tear Olympus apart. He wants a lot of things - but for now, he shall observe and do what it's told of him.

Ceres leaves him under the "care" of the Romans. Immediately, the Praetor takes him to be interrogated.

He tells her the truth - or at least, what he can bender: He has been with Lady Lupa as long as he remembers. Yes, he is trained. He can control earth, shadows, metal. Sometimes, vines and skeletons. No, he doesn't have a last name. No, he doesn't know Jason Grace.

In return, the woman (a daughter of Bellona with brown skin that he feels he should know) explains where he is.

This is Nova Roma - and they are in Jupiter's Capitol, also known as the First City of Twelve, where is localized their Forum Romanum - which is composed by the Comitium (where the Senatus is localized), the Pluton Denar Domum (their bank) and a temple for all the gods - decorated with gardens and founts mainly used by the politicians in session and augurs.

The other non-military districts are Juno's Urbs, where most families live; Minerva's Scientia et Quaerere Centrum, which contains schools, colleges, libraries, and research centers; Phoebus Apollo's Salutem Receptum, a whole district for health care and who mainly takes care of cleaning the city; and Vesta's Forum Boarium, where the temples reside, including the Hearth of Rome, with their sacred fire.

Then there the indirectly of military nature; Ceres' Agris, fields who produce all food of the city; Mercury's Via, where communication and post are handled - also, the main place for entertainment; Vulcan's Caminus, the forges and armory; and Neptune's Militiarum Equestri, battle horses, pegasi, hellhounds, elephants, wolves and hounds.

There's also the military ones: Venus Victrix's Feminam Lorem ad Bellum, the training camp for girls; Mars Ultor's Masculum Lorem ad Bellum, the training camp for boys; and Diana's Venari, a forest they use to hunt monsters.

Praetor Arellano shows him around. The praetor shouldn't be doing that, but he seems to be important enough - he got here with a goddess in his back after all. His step-grandmother?

"Everyone is involved in the war effort - Everything for Rome. Everyone capable is obliged to join the training as soon as they're eight. When you're ready, you join the Legion, for fifteen years, in any capacity. Some - the ones with specific talents - join the field healers or the forges."

"Most join the legionnaires. Later in life, some go to college - training to farm, teach, own business, plan buildings, weave, research, write, go exclusively into politics, or become doctors - for either animals or people. Some never leave until they absolutely have to - it's an honor to serve Rome."

"You are neither a son or legacy of any construction or any health deity, so you'll go directly to be tested by Mars Ultor's Masculum Lorem ad Bellum - to see if you are qualified to be a soldier or if you need to undergo more training, and how much."

"A fight, Praetor?" He asks, as respectfully as Lupa indoctrinated in him, even if he hated this situation from the start.

"It's part of it, yes. But a fighter is not a soldier - you'll be expected to know rhetoric and show resilience, to be able to think and strategize. Put on a good performance - the Centurions choose which Cohort you go."

Then, she explained the Legion and its Five Cohorts - and the Centurions - before leaving him with one of his escorts from earlier. He doesn't think it matters much - if one of the Praetors is from Third Cohort and their last Praetor, from Fifth, while the Consul himself was from Fourth - what does it matter?

The guard seems uncomfortable in his presence - as if she knows exactly who he is. She introduces herself - Hazel Levesque, daughter of Jupiter. And part of the Fifth Cohort - mainly because of the previous Praetor - the one who's missing.

Her buddy, the archer, - Frank Zhang, unclaimed - is also part of the Fifth Cohort. But it's not him they meet - it's a boy way too familiar to be a coincidence - three times today.

"You know me, don't you? You know where I come from?" He snarls, and the boy denies it.

Shadows start curling at his feet - and he's told later that his eyes darken to black from their usual forest green. Perseus is a second away from killing the little lying gremlin when Praetor Arellano shows - and he immediately reverts to parade rest.

She doesn't ask - and he doesn't volunteer an answer. He leaves the guy trembling - and flustered, for some reason - and goes with the Praetor to his "test".

Hazel is having a very bad year. A very bad life, to be true, but mostly, a bad year.

She died, and she was walking aimlessly for years - until she met a boy. She thought, initially, that was a god - for his beauty was insurmountable.

He talked with her - he was named Perseus Jackson. He was powerful and kind - but still a mortal, so she latched into him. Hazel isn't a good person - her mother always told her that - and she used his kindness to drawn just a little of his powers. Just enough.

When the Doors opened, she was strong enough to escape - even if she left Perseus drained for a week, apparently. Hazel didn't go far - she got caught by Ceres.

Ceres - who was in her greek form - took pity of her and brought her to Hazel's father and stepmother, pleading for her usefulness in the war to come. The dead aren't their domain - but as long as Pluto didn't discover it, they would turn a blind eye.

Her brother - who was the first bridge between the two demigod settlements - took her to Nova Roma. She adapted - she learned about the ending of segregation and the world they now lived - and made friends - Frank and Jason.

But she never forgot the boy who gave her the chance, the chance to be more than the cursed child Marie Levesque told her she was. Her curse is supposed to be washed away by a descendant of Pluto.

Perseus gave her a chance, and now he is probably her salvation from this poisoned existence. He is in Nova Roma, and both Hazel and Nico are too ungrateful, too proud, too involved in the gods' plans to help him.

Her father's curse rang true - for children of Zeus aren't supposed to control unaltered energy through minerals. Metal is not theirs to use - and Hazel is paying the price.

Perseus does well in his test - so well, the First Cohort wants him. He is not generally rude, but the way Octavian - their apparent Centurion and Leader of the Augurs (the priests of Apollo) - calls him "Excellent, for a colored one with a graecus name" makes him mad.

So he rejects Octavian - no one gets to mock his name, the slur for greeks matched with the blatant racism almost makes him clock the guy in the face - and, since no other Centurion wants to go against the white supremacist, he joins the Fifth Cohort.

"Well, there's the place for filth, anyway. What could you expect from a nigger ape, like that one?"

If in the training that followed, he left Octavian unconscious - well, everyone turned a blind eye. Perseus saw the Praetor laughing discreetly from where she was polishing her spear.

He is given a bunk to sleep on, a probatio tablet and a date - it's March 18th, 2012. He remembered that, when he ran away from the House of the Wolf, was still January's first week.

Almost three months for the gods to bother with him, and he has no guesses how much time he is missing. Did his family give up on him? Did he have a family?

Perseus doesn't know. He spends the next weeks following the army's routine - wake up with dawn with the horn, muster, morning prayers, then the morning drills - stretching, an obstacle circuit of three miles with a lake in the middle and running five times around Ceres' Agri.

After the drills - which Perseus and Hazel bond over hating, because there's a lake - they go to breakfast, then classes - for the younger ones. Perseus is old enough (and did well in the school tests), so he has a free slot where he allots his power training - under Praetor Arellano's watchful gaze, as she tries and brings him to his full potential.

Reyna (as he is allowed to call her during free time) also does power training - she has a different kind of charmspeak - the kind that makes people motivated or defeated. She can make armies have a burst of energy, or drop-down with exhaustion - possibly. Nova Roma has very few wars nowadays.

There's lunch, then weaponry training - where he kicks Octavian's (and all of his little friends who look down on Perseus because of his name, his lack of family or his skin color) ass with pleasure every single day - followed by weapon cleaning - which always takes forever because Perseus has both an ax and a giant Warhammer.

On Wednesdays, they have horse and pegasi riding. Both Perseus and Hazel have it slightly different - she mounts a venti, Tempest and he mounts a hellhound, Spot. On Fridays, they have hunting lessons in Diana's Venari - which always end up with some Apollo's child or legacy waving their victory in everybody's face - except for that one time where Frank and Perseus joined forces and won in an hour.

At four p.m. every day, those who did well enough get to have two hours of free time before evening prayers, which can either be followed by dinner or competitions - wrestling and gladiator games are really popular on weekends.

Then, if it's Sunday, they are allowed to go to Mercury's Via to drink, party, dance, go to karaoke - whatever, if they're over fourteen. It seems young - but Perseus has seen younger kids, at the training camps, sneaking in wine.

If it's not Sunday - they are free to do anything if they don't drink and are in bed by 21h30. You are only excused of the routine if you are escalated for border patrol - generally twenty different people every day. Perseus's patrols are on Thursdays - because Reyna loves him. Octavian's are on Sundays - they're just not on Saturdays because he has Augur functions and is excused of everything on Saturday.

Saturdays are days of prayer - there's no training and no feasting. They go to the temples and see the Vestal Virgins - a custom Perseus though would be outdated by now - and do basic chores - like washing their togas and sheets, mending their leathers, or airing the blankets.

When Hazel's brother leaves, he actually bonds with the girl - over being a child of the Big Three, of having big expectations thrust upon them - and consequently, with Frank - who is also his bunkmate. They spend their free time on the small fountain that overlooks the aqueduct, just in front of the Vesta Temple.

It's weird to see the Vestal Virgins - they are six girls between 8 and 24, wearing white stolas and veils, of incredible beauty and vowed to modesty and chastity. They spent their days tending the fire and giving blessings, cleaning the temple, and visiting the Senatus.

They didn't choose to be priestesses of Vesta - Vesta herself chooses them, and they have to leave their families and vow their lives away for thirty years. The other priests are there of free will - they never join the Legion, if they choose to serve a specific god.

Perseus goes to his father's, Lady Proserpina's and Lady Ceres' temples regularly - if only to ask for answers. His father's priests treat him as royalty - which, to them, he probably is. There are not even legacies of Pluto, as far as they know.

Every Sunday, Perseus goes to the Comitium - while people don't generally like him, he is good in rhetoric, and well respected for a probatio - so they hear him. He is good at politics. Reyna looks like he is measuring him, when he rises to debate - like he can be the next Praetor instead of the campaigning Octavian - who the Senatus is divided into loving or hating his guts.

Perseus is happy - or something. He hates not having memories - not knowing who he is, who his mother is, pains him. He has friends - Frank, Hazel, even Reyna and Dakota, his Centurion, who lives half-drunk in wine most of the time - and a life.

It doesn't feel like his life. By the third week of his staying in Nova Roma, he starts having dreams - a blonde boy, doing everything Perseus is doing now. He is afraid of telling anyone. Perseus is already called slurs by Octavian and his hateful friends - he doesn't want to attract attention now that he is settling.

By Reyna's pictures, he finally names the blonde in his dreams. It's Jason Grace.

Jason Grace is, for lack of a better word, graceful. He is loved by everyone - so different from Perseus, who is more feared then liked - and a troublemaker - if the vision of him being whipped in Mars Ultor's training camp is to be believed.

Romans don't hesitate in corporal punishment on children. Nor in adults, either - misdemeanors are punished harshly. Perseus is lucky Octavian has no direct authority over him - the number of times he put him on his ass would get Perseus bleeding on the floor for days.

However, he didn't escape the whip completely. In his fourth week on Nova Roma, Hazel is disrespectful to one of Octavian's friends - he called her a "good piece of monkey meat" and touched her ass, so she kneeled him in the balls. Reyna is out on a mission - and the guy just happens to be Questor Cicero.

Questor Cicero is twenty-eight - and everybody believes him when he tells them Hazel kneeled him without reason - a grave offense because it can affect his descendants. Hazel gets sentenced - by the Consul, in absentia of the Praetor - to a hundred lashes.

Everyone is obliged to watch - and neither Perseus nor Frank can last after she sobs. They rise from the crowd and volunteer to take the rest of her punishment. The executioner of it - a girl named Domitia - is surprised and asks why when they rise up to take Hazel's place - not a lot volunteer, generally older siblings or partners.

Hazel protests, while she is taken by a daughter of Aesculapius, Lavinia - "No, Perseus, no, it's my fault, Frank, I can take it, please!" - But he doesn't care to hear. Hazel is a child, and something stirs inside of his memory - No child shall suffer under his watch. - He wants to stop Frank - the boy is only sixteen - but there's no stopping the guy about his best friend.

"She could take it. I just don't want to see her, or anyone I care about, do it. She is too young. A child - one that shouldn't feel the injustices of life."

"That's my best friend. I won't let her pay for something she didn't do, and I won't let Perseus do this alone."

It's rational enough that no one will see weakness when she starts whipping them. Domitia is a good girl - they become a sort of friends after it, but Perseus can never understand why the daughter of Nemesis would dispense unfair punishments.

Perseus endure the whole thing awake - the forty-five lashes, under the jeers of Octavian and his friends - and they walk out of the stage supporting one another, before collapsing in a pool of their own blood, in the arms of Caelius - the youngest of Apollo's offspring working on the hospital.

They take both of them to the UTI - he doesn't remember a thing. He wakes up three days later - they aren't allowed to use any magic to heal him, or anesthetics to numb his pain. He suffers for a week, while his godly blood slowly heals him.

Hazel sits by their bedside - he and Frank are in the same room - her own back fully healed by now - and tells him stories about how Dakota kicked Octavian's ass in training in their name, or just plays with his hair. Sometimes, when she thinks he is asleep, she cries - it's heartbreaking.

Reyna comes back by the time Frank is out of the hospital - Perseus moved to much and his stitches came out - and is fueled by rage. This kind of punishment is hers to give - and with through interrogation before - and she has been trying to eradicate them for years.

She does insist on an interrogation with Aurum and Argentum - perhaps because she knows what a sweetheart Hazel is. She uncovers the whole story - how Cicero called her names and sexually harassed her - and the guy is stripped off his post and exiled - sexual harassment is a crime punishable by lashing, but together with lying to a court of law and supplanting his direct superior - oh well, he is not coming back for the next five years.

With Hazel's absolving, the doctors are allowed to heal them with magic - but it's too late. They can repair the nerves and muscles, take away all the pain - but the flesh will remain scarred.

Their backs are now a crisscross of scar tissue - it's a reminder of Nova Roma's failings - and he revels on taking his shirt off to drills, even if Frank is ashamed of it, for some reason.

Praetor Arellano thinks "Perseus' loyalty to the Roman Law and his Cohort" is enough to give him an SPQR tattoo instead of his probatio tablet. He didn't cry when they put the mark of his father on his arm - just later, in his bunk, for the eleven-year-old that was tattooed together with him.

After the tattoo, Perseus discovers he has money. Like, really, lots of money in the bank - which is named after his father, who is their patron god - and apparently filled his account with denars. Perseus solves to donate part of it - and part of it he keeps because his wages as a foot soldier are meager.

Hazel, on the other side, is brimming with remorse - and protectiveness. She will do her absolute best to protect Perseus Jackson - this is the second time he saves her. She can't tell him anything - but she can make his life as easy as possible.

Hazel dreams about Frank - Frank, and a terrible price that is a piece of wood - and she thinks she likes him, even if he is older and braver than she'll ever be.

It's June 18th - and Perseus has been in Camp for three months when the war games take an unexpected turn.

Frank is leading the Fifth Cohort - Dakota is hangover somewhere - and their battle formation is impeccable. They also have the two biggest powerhouses - Perseus and Levesque.

Hazel - while a child of Jupiter - is unable to fly - or any air or climate control. Her power lies on energy - publicly, she controls lighting and thunder - and can get bolts to basically incinerate whole canons or dismantle phalanges.

Perseus, however, can raise skeleton soldiers to fight for him - and stone spikes to block his enemies. His vines are of no use - the First Cohort has two sons of Ceres who out-do him any day. He can also use the shadows to confuse their rivals or make the ground tremble - under the cost of their own stability.

Frank is very proud of having such powerful and amazing people as friends. He didn't expect Perseus of Styx, the boy who didn't have to fight to be recognized - the one who came with a goddess at his back and muscles in his arms and a father on his blood - to be friends with Frank.

He is a very okay guy, you see. Frank had - has - three best friends, but no one openly dislikes him. He doesn't have someone - he has no use for quick tumbles under the cloak of darkness, and that is all people like him can ever have.

But he is not like Perseus or Jason. He doesn't defy Octavian. He was too anxious to muster the courage to volunteer to take Hazel's punishment alone - Perseus had to do it first.

He is not like them. He isn't anything like his mother. Frank feels happy, at least, that at those little things like war games he has better strategies than anyone else. It was Perseus who motivated him to take the lead while Dakota is otherwise incapable - under Hazel's cheerful applause.

This time, there are elephants involved - Perseus loves elephants - and they burst through their rival's doors - the 12th consecutive victory for the Fifth Cohort since Perseus arrived.

Gwen - the only openly ficatrix girl that Perseus knows, a Jewish daughter of Venus Genetrix - dies probably by Octavian's hand - and doesn't stay dead.

This evokes Lord Mars Ultor - who claims Frank, gives him a quest to find Letum and ropes Perseus into it - "Your father's domain, your responsibility" - so they choose Hazel as a third member - because who else - and get in a car to go to Alaska.

Before that, for Dakota's negligence, the Fifth Cohort is passed to newly-coined Centurion Frank - with Hazel as his second in command, while Gwen - who is not respected because of her preferences - steps down the second position to go study - apparently, she wants to be a teacher.

They have to be back by June 24th - or die. That gives them six days - it's at least two days going and two days back from San Francisco to Alaska, so they have two extra days to localize and rescue Letum.

Hazel, Frank, and Perseus battle the karpoi in Mendocino - this time, they're easily defeated, because no one leaves Hazel alone. Frank actually kills a lot of them - under the sheer appreciation of both his very supportive friends.

They see Polybotes army - and run away in their car, which crashes in the front of the R.O.F.L.

Perseus IM's Reyna - he thinks it necessary, for she is their Praetor, their leader. Hazel is right by his side - and then goes to call her brother - which he doesn't stick around for, examining the drachmas - the weird graecus' coins that Perseus recognizes

Iris remembers Perseus of someone. He doesn't know who, or why, but that night, for the first time in months, he doesn't dream of Jason Grace. He dreams of red hair spilled into the snow, blond curls around his fingers, a mechanic leg whirring in his ear, a spear coated with blood, shoes with wings and pan pipes - and wakes up crying for a past he doesn't remember.

He hugs the tie-dye bag against his chest - and cries. Perseus doesn't care - his chest literally aches with missing, for someone he doesn't know.

Frank doesn't ask questions when he finds Perseus crying. Frank cried a lot when he first got to Nova Roma.

"Are you missing someone?"

"I'm missing everything" And that's how Frank discovers Perseus doesn't remember anything at all.

Everything spills up - Lady Lupa's house, the dreams about Jason, the way he just dreamed of what could possibly be his friends, and what if he was a graecus like Octavian said - and Frank does not judge him.

He knows what it is to have a gigantic secret pressing upon his shoulders - and he has known Perseus for three months now. He knows Perseus is a trustworthy person.

"We'll discover who you are - but if you don't like it, we won't judge you. It doesn't matter what your past life has been like, it doesn't matter if you're a graecus - you're one of us now."

Because Frank is the absolute best - Perseus can't think of a friendship he deserves less than Frank's.

They trade stories about their rage against the gods - things they would never be able to utter at home. Their lives, their insecurities, their shared hate of Octavian's racist ass - everything they can share.

Frank tells Perseus about the piece of wood - which is very important when Perseus tells Frank that, sometimes, he can conjure a weird green fire of which he has little control over, so is better to keep that wood far away from him.

Some things are kept in secret - Frank is not sure Perseus will be repelled by his preferences, by the way, no woman ever caught his eye - and Perseus is afraid of telling Frank about the way that, sometimes, he wants to see the world burn, skeletons beneath his feet and blood coating his hands.

They travel through Portland - which means half the journey is done - and meet Ella - which Perseus immediately wants to take away from the creepy old dude because that's a child.

Ella is hungry and cold and in pain - and neither Perseus nor his quest mates are having that.

So he does a gamble with Creepy Old Dude and Lady Terra - which he isn't sure is in their side - and kills him. Because he is not dealing with a creepy old man who is trying to capture children, even if those children are monsters.

They take Ella with them - she's such a small, innocent girl-bird. They can't send her to Nova Roma alone - they would either kill her, hunt her or use her as entertainment - and they can't stop the mission, so there's that.

Hazel and Frank are sharing memories - with each other and Perseus. Perseus himself has no private memories to talk about - except for his dreams of Jason, which he already told Frank and now relays to Hazel.

Ella says is because their destinies are connected - says that their curses will be gone by their hands. Frank gives Hazel his piece of wood - "I would give it to both of you, but your fire is weird" - And Hazel tells them about being dead.

Perseus has an inkling of suspicion - that maybe - just maybe - he brought Hazel back. Maybe that's why his memories are gone. Either that - or he has a sibling, and wouldn't that be amazing? Siblings, cousins - a giant family. Just for him.

He doesn't ask though - because Hazel is sad and he is not an insensitive ass.

They head to the Amazon Headquarters - where Perseus has the amazing idea of going in, even if he knows Amazons just have one utility for men - sex.

They get caught - just this time, while Hylla does recognize Perseus, she is grateful. Perseus did kill Circe, yes, but he didn't free any pirates - Hylla and Reyna sailed away and never got any trouble.

Hylla is grateful for Perseus - but she cannot help him or Frank - Amazons are misandry warriors, and they are too young to be lovers, but too old to be reliable to let go. So they lock them up, and Hylla and Hazel make a plan to free them.

Otrera is dangerous - because the Amazons will follow anyone, they aren't connected to any goddess. So, when Perseus shadow travels from his cage with Frank, Hylla helps Perseus - who is way too tired - to mount Tempest - Hazel's venti - so that they can reach Letum - or, how Hylla calls him, Mors.

They go North - then further North - to the house of Frank's Grandma.

Everything goes the same - Frank's Grandma is cryptic, Mars appears, the house catches fire, they flee. A bird is seeing flying out of the window - but if it's her or no, they don't know.

Frank and Perseus discover they are related - by a lot of generations, but does it matter really? They are shield brothers - and fight in the same Cohort, for the same Rome.

Hazel feels lucky - both her best friends are related to Pluto. Both can be the one to save her - and she really hopes is not Perseus, for she can't own him any more debts.

Frank tries to control his abilities - and between Perseus' own training and Hazel's unwavering belief on him, they get him to shapeshift. Some. He is not good at it at all - but he'll get there.

They don't fear Hazel - not even when gold slips between her fingertips. Perseus calls her sister, for their connection shall be forged on metal and fire.

They fly to Alaska - this time, Perseus entrusts Ella to a General skeleton and tells him to take her somewhere safe.

During the travel, they cuddle together - all three of them - to share body warmth. Hazel is flushed - for she never had such close contact with a boy, least a boy she really likes, like Frank.

Frank, on the other side, has never been so close to a boy as he is to Perseus now. Perseus is just a brother to him - but he can't help but blush like a virgin maiden.

Perseus observes the situation with confusion - for he doesn't understand Hazel's flustered expression - which makes her look a lot like her brother any time Perseus even glances at the guy - nor Frank's blushing cheeks - which must be because of the cold.

Perseus almost drowns on Earth - the single thing he fears the most, in his own element. It pains him, and he wants to destroy Lady Terra for her trickery and mockery.

They stay in a little motel, just out of the way. No way that Frank nor Perseus would make Hazel go back to where she was abused and mistreated.

They shared basically everything in the past few days - they know almost everything about each other. Hazel tells Perseus she knows him - but is under oath to not tell anything.

Perseus is frustrated - but that is Hazel. Soft, trustworthy Hazel. She isn't doing this to hurt him. Her brother, on the other hand, can go to hell. He obviously knows Perseus - but lies to him. Explicitly. Nico Di Angelo is as bad as the gods are in Perseus' eyes.

He can't sleep - he keeps dreaming of the Earth swallowing him like it did many of his enemies - and Frank hugs him as Hazel inches closer to their shared embrace - it feels, for the first time since he woke up, like family.

They fight against Alcyoneus. Frank frees Letum - waisting part of his life on it, literally - Hazel takes on Alcyoneus - vengeance for herself - and Perseus raises an army to fight against the Undead Roman one - it's easy to defeat them, and then turn them against the giant once he has the Twelfth Legion Eagle.

Perseus - and his army that is getting harder and harder to maintain - helps Frank (who has finally managed to shapeshift) and Hazel to drive away Alcyoneus - and finally kill him, once he is out of Alaska.

They head back to Nova Roma - Hazel on her venti, Tempest, with Frank as an eagle and Perseus mounting Spot - the hellhound he was able to call from Nova Roma - pushing a chariot of Imperial Gold weapons - something rare and essential.

They meet Mrs. O'Leary - another hellhound - Blackjack - a hellhound that can speak with Perseus - Ella - who apparently found safety - and Nico Di Angelo with the cyclops Tyson - which immediately spark Perseus memories, even if he has no time to think about it.

Perseus leads the Romans - they look at him, and see the boy that has spent three months with them and three months with Lady Lupa, the boy who has been invaluable for Nova Roma's safety - their own Julius Caesar, their Augustus.

He fights against Polybotes one on one. Polybotes may be the bane of Neptune - but Perseus is also an earthshaker. He makes the Earth - Lady Terra's earth, who they are oh so proud of, the earth that swallowed him - fight against her own son.

With help from Terminus - and lots of backup from the army, his army - Polybotes is gone. The monsters - defeated.

There are thirteen dismemberments and fifty-three gravely injured. These are rushed to the hospital, while the other 184 soldiers rest and prepare for the burials.

Thirty-eight dead - men and women alike - plus nine that succumbed to their injuries. They do the procession - followed by cremation and the burial of the ashes in the temple of Pluto.

What follows is the eulogy - and the laurels. The families who have dead members are given money and prestige - it bothers Perseus. Is not enough - it won't fullfill their childrens, siblings and friends places.

Then come the laurels of the living. Frank, Hazel, Di Angelo, and Reyna are awarded Civic Crowns - the second biggest award any commander can win for battle. Everyone else is rewarded Golden Crowns - the fourth-highest decoration of battle, for their bravery.

Perseus himself is the most celebrated - he not only wins a Grass Crown (Corona Obsidionalis) for being credited for saving the whole Legion - he charms the Senatus with his acts of heroism - enough that they give him the Praetor Peregrinus title - for he also has a reputation of a good politician, as he often spoke on the Forum - while Reyna holds to the Praetor Urbanus one.

Frank himself also gains a promotion - he is now Legatus Legionis - the overall Legion commander - a title that was vacant since Jason Grace rose to Praetor, but with him missing for six months - it is time to fulfill both positions. Hazel raises to be Centurion of the Fifth Cohort.

The Consul holds the ceremony for both of their awards - where they vowed to serve Nova Roma with their lives, to put Nova Roma above their personal lives and interests - and later, they feast.

Perseus is happy with his new position - While Reyna is in charge of all judicial matters - the matters of the law - he is in charge of all defense, war and foreign matters.

That's why - when Lady Juno gives back his memories - he is infuriated. Not only he has a whole life waiting for him - one that conflicts directly with his new life - he has now a giant pile of paperwork.

The first thing he does - still in his toga praetexta, the worst garment to ever be done, even if he pities Reyna for having to use a stola on most occasions - is to punch Nico di Angelo in the face.

Then he hugs him. The boy apologizes - stuttering through words - promise to make up for it - and promptly leaves to not be seen again.

Perseus goes to the Senatus, and tell the truth: Lady Juno has sent him a vision - and in the war to come, they have to fight alongside the greeks.

Octavian wants to discredit Perseus for being a graecus. It doesn't work - for the Romans love their new Praetor - and Octavian wasn't even in the battle.

That night, Perseus doesn't even remember Jason Grace - he is just a shadow of some dreams he had for two weeks, more nightmarish than not. He dreams of Nico di Angelo - who is walking around ruins - and fears for the life of the boy who betrayed him.

He doesn't think much about it.

Perseus shadow travels to his mother - not yet to Camp, he is not ready to see them yet, and Hera/Juno told him they are coming, so it would be a waste of his energy - and hugs her for about four hours before his duties call him back.

She is happy to see him alive and well - even if she doesn't like he is fighting in yet another war for the gods. He doesn't like it either - after this, he is retiring and making them promise to never bother him again.

Perseus spends the next days preparing - for his friends, for his two lives to collide - and working his very difficult political job - Nova Roma is a homophobic and racist place, and he won't stand for other people like Gwen to be killed for it - he isn't tolerating "ficatrix" instead of lesbians or the clearly prejudiced priests anymore.

He has a long way to go. But it's fine - he and his friends are the government. Talking about his friends...

"Call me Percy"

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arienheart · 3 years

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0. 6. 13. 20. 21. for mini ~

selectively accepting — @sanctidente

00. the fool : what are your muse’s thoughts on new beginnings ? does it frighten them or excite them ?

honestly? minerva doesn’t really know how to handle new starts. she’s been on the same road all her life, with the same goals, never really considering anything else. the idea of starting over really does scare her a lot, even if she’d never admit it. add in the fact that it makes her feel like she failed at what she was doing, and her huge fear of failure... it’s just not a good mindset for her usually.

06. the lovers : how important are relationships to your muse ? do they value having a significant other ?

minerva wants to be loved, so badly. she grew up with the love story of her parents, hearing how her father defied his father to marry the woman he loved. seeing the evidence of jiemma’s love for juno in how he refuses to even consider remarrying after her death. she loves like her father does, in that she doesn’t fall out of love easily once she’s in it for real. the difficult part is letting people in though, considering all the secrets she’s keeping close to her chest.

13. death : is there anything in your muse’s life that they should be letting go of ?

her desperate craving for her father’s love? her intense fear of being seen as anything less than strong? how about her blaming her mother for leaving her behind to try and hold her family together? let’s just say there’s a lot of things.

20. judgement : is your muse forgiving of themselves ? how about of others who wrong them ?

NO. on both counts honestly. minerva holds grudges, and she doesn’t forget those who she feels have wronged her. however, as cruel as she can be to other people, she’s even harder on herself, sometimes spending her nights beating herself up over the smallest mistake.

21. the world : is there one thing in life that your muse must accomplish ? what will they do when they complete that goal ?

it’s more... hazy than a real goal? like, she wants to make her father proud of her, to prove that she is worthy of the orland name she is so proud of. but that means so many things, and it’s difficult to actually complete. and there’s a high chance that she’ll never feel like she accomplished it, so... who knows really.

#▌✤ ❝ minerva ;; headcanon #long post //#mini is a mess but we knew that.

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sonofsallyjackson · 4 years

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Heroes of Olympus should have been in first-person.

@jo-march-is-a-lesbian wrote a really wonderful post about how “Percy Jackson and the Olympians is better than Heroes of Olympus…because it understood simplicity and character development.” It highlights some reasons I also found HoO less rewarding namely that it was an overcomplicated story with limited character growth, lacked a common thesis, and was super jarring when it switched perspectives.

And with that my little brain went: I can fix this. Which frankly is ridiculous. I can’t come up with a compelling thesis like “The idea that we should place our hope in our loved ones, our friends and our family, and if we do that, we won’t be tempted to give up hope again.” But I can imagine a simple change that would have solved some of the issues and also played to Rick’s strengths as a writer: Each book should have been written in first person and narrated by a different character.

With so many people on the quest, I often felt like I was watching a bunch of one-dimensional characters fight for their right to be the main character. I didn’t know who to focus on but I was also dissatisfied. There were all these new wonderful characters in front of me who I wanted to love, but I didn’t feel like I actually knew them. I mean I don’t feel like I know the Stoll Brothers either, but I’m not concerned about that fact because they are side characters. When everyone is painted as the main character, I have certain expectations for growth, personality, and voice. The story would have been better served if the characters took turns narrating the action, allowing us to settle into their perspective, see their growth, and better understand their personality.

Plus Rick kills first-person. While I’m not particularly a fan of Trials of Apollo, it’s not because I don’t know the characters. Apollo is so very different than Percy. Their voices, even though they can both be jokesters at times, reflect their different life-experiences, thought processes and provide massive insight into their characters. If the Seven (and Nico and Reyna) got the same treatment, I would be absolutely giddy.

I recognize that rewriting the HoO series in first-person is something a talented fanfiction writer with a lot of time on their hands could actually do. But I am not talented like that and I certainly don’t have the discipline to actually write that much fic, especially if I was trying to keep the events vaguely the same just with different narration and pacing. So instead I’ve included who I think should have narrated each book below the cut. I’d love to hear any opinions people have regarding this idea, especially who they would have wanted to see to narrate each book.

In addition to picking the narrator, I’ve highlighted what should be the “quest” so to speak of each story. Personally, MoA, HoH and BoO are kind of a blur to me despite reading them all recently. It’s hard to distinguish what happens in each book because it’s all one massive quest with a whole bunch of mini-quests. While the different narrators would obviously make the books more distinctive, splitting the series into seven books would also help simplify each book’s individual goal. Eight books would have allowed for better integration of the plot to find the physician’s cure, but with the prophecy of seven, it seemed like seven books was the best option, if I was going to be doing something as blasphemous as splitting books.

As a note, I ran out of steam as I went so not all opinions are fully fleshed out.

Book 1: The Lost Hero The Quest: Rescue Hera/Juno Narrator: Jason

Why this would be cool:

He is literally Juno’s chosen sent on a quest to rescue her. It’s poetic enough to give him the book.

Jason’s journey is just as much about rediscovering himself as it is about saving Juno. Of the new characters, I feel like I understand Jason the least. Mainly because I felt like I was missing the entire first half of his story. Jason, like Percy and Annabeth, is a hero of the Titan War. I know some of his accomplishments, but I don’t have any bearing on what his life was like or how he felt about it. He doesn’t seem like the type to relish Praetor-ship since he doesn’t have the same intense need to get back to his camp as Percy. Was he just hoisted on his comrades’ shields after killing the Titan without any real choice in the matter? Give me Jason’s memories coming back slowly over the course of the quest (with potentially a fractured memory of a mistake he made in the Roman’s final Titan battle that makes him doubt their ability to both rescue Piper’s dad and save Hero but he makes the decision to anyway because he can’t just hurt his friend like that. Let me understand how Jason is the person he is today. Give me glances of the Roman Camp with emphasis on the heavy expectations that have always followed him as the son of Jupiter and foreshadow why he eventually chooses to design all the shrines for the minor gods so he can have his own place in the world as a figure between the two camps.

Let’s dive into those feelings of anger/guilt/resentment when people at camp are disappointed with him for not being Percy or in Chiron’s case are nervous about what his presence means.

I want to dig deeper regarding Jason’s feelings about reconnecting with Thalia. He knows that if the gods hadn’t been determined to keep the two camps completely separate, he could have grown up with his sister.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

We miss some of the internal turmoil regarding the fact that Piper’s Dad has been captured and she must betray her friends.

We also don’t feel the tensions of Piper’s relationship with Aphrodite. I don’t see Piper bringing up the conversation with her mom saying that her mist memories were so strong because she automatically sensed the potential of a romantic relationship with Jason.

We don’t have any of Leo’s conflicted feelings regarding rescuing Hera or his fear of being made an outcast for his fire abilities. Jason has to go with Leo to discover Bunker 9 and Festus.

Leo doesn’t actively save the day with the Cyclops.

We don’t know how Piper feels about her charm-speak or see her defeat Madea (as the boys are in their weird trance thing).

Knowledge about Gaea’s involvement in wrecking Leo’s life will come later.

Book 2: The Son of Neptune The Quest: Free Thantos Narrator: Hazel

Why this would be cool:

The stakes are so incredibly high. Hazel is literally risking her second chance at life by agreeing to go on this chance. She’s going to the place she died to fight the monster she created. She also has to deal with the trauma of knowing she may have bought the world time with her first sacrifice but it now means nothing if she can’t succeed again.

We get to see Camp Jupiter from the view of someone who loves it but doesn’t really fit in. Hazel joined Camp Jupiter just after the final battle. She enters a community that has learned to fight as a well-oiled machine but that has lost people. Dakota or the others may remark to her about how things were before or the people who are missing. Hazel sees a community that she’s not quite a part of both because she didn’t fight in the war and because she’s in the fifth cohort with a feared godly parent.

It would explore her relationship with Nico more (because I love their dynamic and I want more). She knows she can’t replace his real sister, but she feels comfortable and happy at the opportunity to have a brother, especially one who is out of time like she is.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

Frankly, the largest pushback would be from the fans who expected this to be Percy’s book since we just watched Jason rediscover who he is.

Percy’s phone call to his mom doesn’t have the same intensity.

Frank’s relationship with Mars and how desperate he was to be claimed but now he doesn’t think he can live up to his father’s expectations.

Frank and his grandmother. We aren’t in Frank’s head as he changes shape till later.

Book 3: Mark of Athena The Quest: Close the Divide Between The Two Camps by finding Athena’s statue and Rescue Nico Narrator(s): Annabeth and Leo

Why Annabeth:

So I can have all the emotions at the reunion with Percy.

Annabeth’s relationship with her Mom has never been great, but imagine beginning the book with Annabeth being given the Mark of Athena. They haven’t left for New Rome yet and her nerves are already all over the place. Then Athena/Minerva comes, gives her an impossible quest, and breaks her hat. Annabeth wants to prove to her mother that she’s worthy because despite everything she still values her mother’s opinions. Also her fatal flaw of hubris makes her believe she will succeed where everyone else failed.

Much of the book already follows her in third person limited so we just get things with a little extra emotion.

Why Leo:

Leo has to grapple with the fact he started this war by being the one to fire the cannon even if he didn’t have any control. He is motivated to fix it

If we’re going to include the Sammy plot, we need to do it now. Leo doesn’t like being the odd one out on the ship but he certainly doesn’t like the feeling of being notable because of his grandfather.

We still need to get into those feelings of abandonment and anger at Gaea for killing his mom.

Nemesis

Leo comes into his own with the discovery of the Archimedes sphere and the decision to value people over objects.

What does telling the narrative like this sacrifice:

The aquarium shenanigans

The fight between Jason and Percy in Kansas needs to happen differently so that the others are present and try to stop it.

Neither of them went ashore to meet Hercules.

I think we might need to move up the Calypso meeting to this book, but that also kills some of the suspense since Frank will have the fireproof coating prior to his adventures in Venice when he gains faith in his abilities. It also might mean Leo opens the fortune cookie from Nemesis unless for some odd reason he doesn’t have it. There’s a lot more narrative weight for it coming later, but in order to get in as many book events as we can in, it might need to come earlier.

Book 4: House of Hades Pt. 1

The Quest: Survive Tartarus Narrator(s): Annabeth and Percy

The first time I read House of Hades, I read it out of order (reading all the Percy and Annabeth chapters until they were on the elevator out of Tartarus before going back and reading the others), because I couldn’t handle the back and forth. I felt like the tension would build, I’d be invested in this plot and then we’d switch to the other plot. Plus I was very concerned for my children. So I feel fully justified in saying that there is more than enough material to give the two of them their own book.

I just feel like all the feelings would be magnified.

Percy’s commentary slowly losing its humor because he can’t anymore.

Annabeth’s guilt at having pulled him in being extra loud.

Downsides beyond adding an entire book: Just imagine all the outrage at two cliffhangers in a row, because you know the book would end with them in the elevator remembering Bob’s words about the stars.

Book 5: House of Hades Pt. 2

The Quest: Close the Doors of Death Narrator(s): Frank and Hazel

Frank and Hazel experience the most growth on the quest to close the doors so this book is all theirs. Hazel learns to control the mist. Frank experiments with his transformations. I want nothing but them growing into themselves and their abilities.

The good thing about turning the two warring storylines from House of Hades into separate books is that we lose very little plot.

Book 6: House of Hades Pt. 3/Blood of Olympus Pt 1 (Personally I would call this one Ambassador of Pluto)

The Quest: Unite the Gods’ Personalities. Narrator: Nico

To clarify what I mean by HoH 3, I just mean anything done with the intention of trying to cross paths with Reyna, including the adventure with Cupid, in addition to the existing Nico&Reyna plotline in BoO.

Nico dealing with all the emotions and his most recent near-death experience.

He kept the secret of the camps so the world wouldn’t end in chaos, but now that the world is in chaos he will be the one to fix it.

In the short time he’s on the Argo 2, Nico realizes that even though this wasn’t his quest; this is his family and he needs to protect them.

The reader has a pretty good idea Nico is gay, even if the word isn’t explicitly said from the descriptions (his guilty Percy thoughts - he let down the man he loves even if he won’t admit it.) This means that Cupid’s forceful outing is potentially less surprising so the reader can be properly outraged at Cupid.

Downside: Reyna definitely has adventures when Nico is passed out, especially the whole waking up with the Hunters, but I think it’s excusable for a whole book from Nico’s perspective.

Also, the battle between the camps and gifting of the statue needs to happen in this book, but we shouldn’t find out if the gods have regained control of their forms yet. We alleviate some tensions because Camp Half-blood is likely to be overrun with Octavian’s monsters instead of the Roman armies and Gaea could awaken any second, but there’s an odd moment of calm and an uneasy truce. (Octavian is potentially taken under custody to be held for trial only to escape in the next book.)

Book 7: Blood of Olympus Pt 2 (and the aftermath)

The Quest: Like The Last Olympian, the final book’s focus is entirely on defeating the series’ big bad, in this case, Gaea. Leo’s quest for the Physician’s cure parallels Percy’s River Styx visit.

Narrator(s): Leo and Piper

Leo has his death hanging over his head. He has decided that he will be the one to die not any of his friends. He got the cloth from Calypso so the “fire” portion of the prophecy applies to him and not Frank. (Yes I know you can’t control prophecies, but do you think that’s going to stop Leo.)

It’s the ultimate revenge for killing his mom. We can have memories of both the happy times with Esperanza and the fear he felt for thinking he caused the fire.

Piper’s perspective is necessary as we need to be with her during the fight with the giants.

This series began with Piper, Leo, and Jason. It ends that way too with the three of them killing Gaea and the two of them narrating.

Downsides:

The Percabeth I love you-the feud is over scene remains in Piper’s perspective.

Since we’re not following Reyna’s delivery of the statue concurrently we don’t know when to anticipate the healed gods appearing in the battle with the giants.

The book can still get away with not showing us Percy’s reunion with Sally or forcing Leo to tell the others he’s alive so they’re all grieving.

#pjo meta #pjo fandom #pjo/hoo #hoo #riordanverse #heroes of olympus #my meta #percy jackon and the olympians #the seven #jason grace #hazel levesque #leo valdez #piper mclean #percy jackson #annabeth chase #frank zhang #the fandom once again improving hoo

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years

Text

Pure Blood (Sirius Black xF!Oc)

A/N: New series!! This time coming from the wonderful world of Harry Potter, something we’re very fond of here <3 We haven’t established a day to post this though!

Words: 1,793

Warnings: None :)

Next part --->

Chapter 1: Pure Blood

The Singh family has lived in the British wizarding world for several decades. Their policy of purebloods has prevailed along with their hatred for muggles.

This ideology is shared by many families, but especially with the Malfoys and the Blacks. All the wizarding world knew who these families were, and they were respected and admired, even feared.

The last Singh generation was conformed by Ares Singh II, his wife Amelia, and their five children: Apollo, Isis, Juno, Balder, and Persephone. As expected, this family attended Hogwarts and they all have been part of either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Their pride is lasting, and the adults make sure to inculcate all traditions to their children.

But their story will soon be threatened by the changes that the youngest Singh is trying to accomplish. And it all starts when she and her best friend Sirius Black begin their first year at Hogwarts in 1971.

—————————————————————————

“We’ll be waiting for your letter, Persephone. To let us know you’re in the right house.”

The eleven-year-old girl nods at her mother’s petition. Amelia Singh fixes the long, black hair of her last daughter and gives her one final, small hug.

“And remember, don’t mix with the mudbloods,” Adds Ares Singh. The girl nods again and her father smiles, also giving her a hug, “be careful, dear.”

“I’ll be fine, daddy,” She says when they break apart.

Balder, take care of your sister and chaperone her if it’s necessary,” Demands the man to his fourth son, who only nods as a reply.

The adults keep giving the rest of their children indications and words of farewell, especially to their oldest one, Apollo, who only has one year before he graduates.

The little girl didn’t want to stay for the rest of the lectures, so she started to look for her best friend. Her eyes went from one side to the other without being able to find him.

“There they are,” Mentions Isis while signaling to a column in the distance, the whole Black family is there. Persephone thanks her older sister and runs towards their direction.

While pushing and apologizing, she gets there the moment when Walburga Black is giving her own lecture to her oldest son.

“I understand,” The boy sighs.

“Good,” The woman nods and turns around only to notice the presence of the girl, “Persephone, where are your parents?” She asks with a small smile.

The little girl shivers at her expression, smiling wasn’t something that Mrs. Black did quite often.

“Next to the big windows, Mrs. Black”

She nods and takes her husband’s hand to drag him with her, following the indications of the girl.

“Your mother is scary,” Says the girl to her friend. The boy only laughs at her comment.

“Tell me about it.”

“Are you nervous, Sirius?” She can’t help but notice how his hands are shaking.

“I don’t know, Percy. It’s…” He holds his hands trying to control them, “Nevermind, it’s not important.”

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” Sirius stares at her intently, He feels the safety he’s always felt around her. Her dark eyes are looking at him with worry but, How could he tell her? Maybe they’ve been best friends since they were born, but they never talked about those subjects before.

How would she react if he tells her that he doesn’t want to be in Slytherin like the rest of his family? Or that he’s not so sure about what his parents say about the muggles and “mudbloods”?

“I know…” Sirius smiles, “It’s nothing, I promise.”

“It’s not fair,” Says a voice beside them, “I want to go with you too.”

Persephone laughs at the funny face the younger Black is making

“Next year you will, Reggie.”

The boy groans but hugs her by the waist. She surrounds his shoulders and brings him closer.

“Reg, leave Percy alone.”

Before Regulus can answer, a loud noise interrupts their chat. The train is about to leave. Sirius and Percy finish their goodbyes and hop on the train. Both search for an empty compartment.

“Percy, here,” Says the boy, opening one. The girl walks closer but soon realizes it’s not completely empty.

“Hi,” Sirius says, “can we sit here? all the others are taken.”

“Sure.”

Both kids get in and they sit in front of the other boys.

“I’m James, James Potter,” Says the kid in glasses.

“I’m Remus Lupin,” that kid causes certain curiosity to Percy, his face has several scars.

“I’m Sirius Black, and this is Percy.” The girl smiles politely.

“Is your name really Percy?” Asks James. She laughs and shakes her head.

“It’s short for Persephone.”

“Brilliant.”

On the way to school, the three boys and Percy had different conversations. James and Sirius animatedly talked about what they could do at school, Sirius can’t help but get excited about not being under the supervisión of his mum and James has tons of ideas to have fun. While Persephone and Remus shared the joy of being able to learn everything that the books were promising. Both couldn’t wait to read more and to start the school year.

From time to time Sirius teased his friend about always being a “brainy", but she ignores his comments and keeps chatting with Remus.

When they arrive to the station, they stop and all the students are guided on different routes. First years must go on boat and have a fun little trip on their way to the castle. All the kids are amazed before the tall, huge castle.

“First years, get together!” Says a woman in green robes.

She gives indications once they go through the entrance and takes them towards a corridor.

“Very well,” She says once we’re in front of some wooden doors, “When you enter the great hall you’ll be assigned a house for the next seven years. The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a new family in your house.

Persephone can’t wait to keep the family tradition alive, she knows her new he will be Slytherin, and she can imagine how proud her parents will feel. She’ll be around her siblings without being scolded for not behaving properly like a Singh, something that could often get annoying. But what excites her the most, is being able to spend more time with her best friend. She was glad their families had the same traditions.

However, Sirius’ nervousness does nothing but increase, he knew there was no way he would end up in Slytherin, any other house would be nice but the snake house.

The woman raises her wand and the giant doors open, everyone walks through them and watches as the magical details of the great hall welcomes them warmly. From the floating candles, the sky pictured on the ceiling, to the four tables before them, each one representing a house.

The first years stop in front of the teachers’ table and a small stall. Persephone turns to the table on her right and sees her older siblings, Apollo and Juno, both wearing a green robe. They look at her with a small smile, wave, and turn their attention back to the teacher.

The professor introduces herself as Minerva McGonagall, then she pulls out a ragged, pointy hat and leaves it on the stall. Everyone stares in expectation until the hat starts to move, he sings a welcoming message, when it ends, everyone applauds and the ceremony starts.

The professor extends a parchment and starts calling each student by name, every boy and girl are selected in different houses.

“Black, Sirius.”

As soon as Persephone hears the name, she reaches for his hand and gives it a soft squeeze. Sirius smiles a little, walks towards the bench and McGonagall puts the hat on top of his head. It’s silent for a moment, Percy watches, biting her lower lip.

Why is it taking so long? He’s a Black, he belongs in-

“Gryffindor!” Exclaims the hat. The lions’ table applauds and screams out of excitement for the new kid. While the youngest Singh stares in utter horror while her best friend walks towards the table.

Sirius can’t believe that the hat chose to put him in a house that wasn’t Slytherin. He’s happy, and this happiness only increases when the kids that were on the train with him and Percy joins him on the table.

The kid was forgetting, though, that certain little person did not want to belong in that group.

__________________________________________

“Professor Mcgonagall?”

“Yes?” She lowers her eyes to find the little girl beside her.

“My name is Persephone Singh”

“Of course, you’re the youngest of Ares’ children, aren’t you?” The girl nods.

“Yes, professor, but…” She frowns, “I didn’t come here only to introduce myself”

“What do you need, Miss Singh?”

“You see,” She says, trembling a little, “I think the sorting hat has made a mistake.”

McGonagall looks at the child in mild surprise.

“You think?” Persephone nods, “What makes you think that way? ”

“My best friend, Sirius Black. He was put in Gryffindor, but he has to be in Slytherin… with me,” She adds slightly anxious.

“Miss Singh, I’m afraid that if this is about wanting to be with Mister Black only to spend time together, I can’t help you”

“You don’t understand!” She insists, raising her voice a little, “He has to be in Slytherin, otherwise his parents…” she stops, giving a second thought to what she was about to say, “they were there too. All his family it’s from Slytherin.”

“Sorry, Singh, the selection is over,” The woman puts a hand on her shoulder, “and it looks like Black has the characteristics of a Gryffindor.”

Persephone panics at the thought of the punishment Sirius will face when he tells his parents the news. She, better than anyone, knows how Walburga Black wasn’t a loving mother, and Persephone was sure this wouldn’t be accepted by her. She was worried about Sirius.

On the other hand, someone else had listened to her conversation, a boy, hiding behind one column close to where the girl and the woman were standing.

Little James Potter didn’t mean to spy on them at first, it was at hearing his new friend’s name that he couldn’t help but stay. When the conversation ended, James was upset with the girl, misunderstanding Persephone’s intentions, he thought that she didn’t want Sirius away from her and that she, like the rest of the Slytherins, hated his house. It seemed unfair to him, on the train she acted all nice and he even considered being friends with her even after hearing that she got sorted in Slytherin, but at that moment, he realized she was nothing but another one of the snakes.

#hp fanfic #sirius black #sirius black x reader #james potter #remus lupin #minerva mcgonagall #regulus black #twoidiots writing

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thiswasinevitableid · 4 years

Note

For a fic prompt! How about Duck and Indrid are childhood best friends who are college roommates. Indrid has been in love with Duck for years, but when Duck starts dating Minerva it throws Indrid into a deep depression. Ideally Duck and Indrid do get together in the end (though hopefully Duck and Minerva’s breakup isn’t nasty) and you can get as angsty as you’d like! Honestly the angstier the better is my motto! Also I’m all for Indrid still having future sight, if you’d like! Thank you SO MUCH!

Here you go!

Quick content note: it contains trans Duck, including a scene where Indrid takes his side when he comes out in PE and, it’s implied, that coming out is not well recieved.

Indrid Cold lays face down on his bed. His phone is shoved under the black cotton of his pillow case, and he’s drawn the windows shut against the warm August air.

This is a misery of his own making, he knows this. He can’t decide if the fact that it’s a misery nearly two decades in the making is impressive or pathetic.

To understand the origins of it, one has to rewind the tape of his life back quite a ways.

——————————————————-

Duck Newton is six years old and hunting for miners lettuce in his backyard, when he feels like he’s being watched.

Looking up, he finds a face framed with shaggy dark hair, glasses perched on a pointy nose, peeking over the fence at him. As soon as the face sees him, it ducks back down.

Weird.

He goes back to foraging, only to find the face watching him again a minute later. This time, when it disappears, he clambers up the oak tree alongside the fence and scoots carefully out onto a limb that sticks out into the neighboring yard. The face, which belongs to a boy about his age, is staring up at him, as if he expected Duck to appear. He’s standing on the edge of the decorative fountain the old neighbors put in the yard.

“Why’re you watchin me?”

“I wanted to know what you were doing.”

“How come?”

“I’m bored. My dads are putting the house together and I don’t want to draw anymore.” He points to a stack of pictures, next to some crayons that are melting in the sun.

Duck thinks; he hasn’t had anyone to play with since school got out. Leo, who lives down the block, is nine, so not as interested in having Duck trailing after him like a little brother as he used to be.

“…You wanna go see a huge crawdad?”

The other boy perks up, “I have no idea what that is. But yes.”

“C’mon, meet me in the front yard. What’s your name?”

“Indrid.”

“That’s a weird name.”

“What’s yours?” Indrid crosses his arms, eyebrow raised

“Duck.”

Indrid stares at him, wide mouth curling up at one side. His stare is a bit unnerving, and Duck feels the need to explain himself.

“It’s a nickname.”

————————————————————

“I think that’s the same large one from last year.” Indrid peers over his sketchpad, staring down at a crawdad scuttling through the clear creek.

“Told you we shoulda put a colored tape on them or somethin so we could keep track.” Duck looks at the crustacean, and then back at the project he’s working on.

They’re nine years old, hazy and sleepy in the summer afternoon. This part of the creek is shaded, keeps them hidden from passersby and parents alike (they’ve learned to tell at least one parent where they’re going, after Greg, one of Indrid’s dad’s, panicked looking for them).

“What are you making?” Indrid wiggles next to him in the grass, gnawing his pencil as Duck shows him.

“S’a reed raft. I’m gonna see how far I can float it down the river.”

“I will draw a flag for it.” Indrid scribbles, and Duck grins at him. He continues, “I’m glad you’re back. I hate when you got to your uncle’s during the summer. I have no one to talk to.”

“You could talk to Dani.”

“She’s busy a lot.”

Duck looks a little guilty, “Did you get the postcards?”

“Uh huh.” Indrid nods, smiling at his friend to show there’s no harm done. He knows it’s not up to Duck where he goes. The postcards are pinned to his wall, along with his own drawings, some horror movie posters, and the postcards from the last two summers.

“Oh, look at what I found while we were at the lake.” Duck reaches into his pocket, pulling out a smooth, wiggly-striped stone, “Uncle Jeff says it’s agate.”

He holds it out and Indrid takes it, runs his fingers along the smooth, cool surface. It feels lovely. And it reminds him of what he likes most about being Duck’s friend; Duck can make anything, even a rock, seem interesting and special.

Indrid is reminded of another reason he is lucky to have Duck the next morning.

All the adults are down in the living room, talking worriedly. There’s been a car crash on the nearby highway, and one of the trucks was carrying something toxic. The school is closed, and everyone has been told to stay home because the air could be unsafe.

Indrid is under all his blankets, his sketchbook thrown to the other side of the room.

“‘Drid?” The door creaks as Duck enters the bedroom.

He wants to beg him to hide under the covers with him. He wants to tell him to go away.

He sniffs, wipes his nose on his arm, and hears Duck turn towards the bed. The covers slowly lift, and Indrid blinks blearily, tearily up at him.

“Have you been cryin?” Duck looks worried.

He nods.

“Did you know someone who got hurt?”

“No. I, I saw it happen. In my head. Over and over last night. I thought I was imagining it. But then it happened. Th-that happens a lot, ever since my birthday. It’s like, like I see things and then sometimes they happen and sometimes they don’t. I draw them but, but I’m afraid if my dad’s find out they’ll, they’ll think I’m wrong, somethings wrong with me.”

As he’s talking, Duck sits down next to him, rests his arm around his shoulders.

“Nothin’s wrong with you ‘Drid. This is weird, but it don’t make you bad. You should tell you dads. They’re nice, they’ll help you.” He squeezes Indrid’s arm, smiling at him as he rests his head on his shoulder, “I’ll help you too.” He slips the agate from his pocket and into Indrid’s hands, moves their fingers over it in tandem until the motion soothes Indrid’s breathing down, then tucks it into Indrid’s pocket.

————————————————————————————–

“You okay ‘Drid?” Duck plops down on a cafeteria bench Kepler Middle School, Indrid poking glumly at his fruit salad.

“We had oral presentations today. I did mine on my moth.” He taps the jar in front of him. A week or so ago it had contained a caterpillar that he and Duck had identified as belonging to a Banded Tiger Moth. Indrid had decided to raise it into adulthood, Duck helping him figure out which weeds to feed it before it went into its cocoon. When it emerges, he and Duck have the perfect spot picked to release it.

“What’s wrong with your moth?”

“Nice glasses, mothman!” A voice yells, two boys high-fiving when Indrid shrinks in on himself.

“Hey, fuck you, mothman rules!” Duck thanks his lucky stars none of the cafeteria monitors heard him. He recognizes those two; they’re in Indrid’s CORE class with him, meaning the nickname has already spread. Indrid, with his tics and his tendency to finish people’s sentences, his glasses and scraggly appearance, has been pegged as a target for months. It makes Duck’s blood boil to see them turn something Indrid spent time looking after into an insult.

That night, he grabs a sharpie and one of his grey t-shirts.

The next day, he turns up with “Mothman Rules” scrawled on his chest. Indrid’s smile is worth the lecture he gets about messing up his clothes.

———————————————————–

Indrid and Duck sit side by side in the principals office. Their gym clothes in Kepler Middle’s colors, grey and maroon, seem even grimmer right now.

They haven’t done anything wrong, not as far as Indrid is concerned.

Duck stood in the boys line-up during P.E, that’s all. When he refused to move to the girls line, the teacher told the rest of the boys to line up all over again, elsewhere. They all moved, except Indrid, who insisted that Duck was in the right line and refused to play along with a bid to deny that.

They have been sent to the principal for “causing trouble.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Duck murmurs.

“I did. You’re my friend, Duck. And Mr. H is an asshole.”

He thinks, but does not say, that it would take far more than a gym teacher and the threat of detention to leave Duck’s side when he’s in trouble.

———————————————————

It’s Indrid’s 16th birthday, and his dads are throwing a very subdued sweet sixteen. He dyed his hair silver, and they’ve ordered an entire table of desserts from a local bakery, and he, Duck, Juno, Dani, and Barclay have stuffed themselves while watching movies and teasing Dani for being ga-ga over her long-distance girlfriend, Aubrey, who she met playing an online tabletop games.

Once the other three leave, Duck grabs Indrid’s jacket and hands it to him.

“C’mon, lets go to the creek. Got somethin to show you.”

Indrid follows him, teasing him as they turn down the creekbed, “We’re not going to have a repeat of the beer incident are we?”

Duck laughs, “No. Learned better than to give that hummingbird palate of yours booze.”

They hit the familiar dirt of their favorite spot, and Duck gets on tiptoe and reaches into the trees above them. Strings of lights, red to match Indrid’s new glasses, and white, snap on. Below them is a blanket, and Indrid sits down with a perplexed smile. Then he checks the futures, and understands.

“Is this entirely sanitary?”

“Enough.” Duck grins, pulling out a lighter and safety pin, “I did it on mine and I still got the ear.”

“Very well.” Indrid crosses his legs, checks the futures it be double sure this won’t end in infection, and braces himself, “left ear please.”

“Right. Okay, one, two-”

“OWowowowow.”

“Done!”

“Ow.” Indrid winces as Duck cleans the newly-pierced ear, loosens his grip on the agate in his fist.

“Can’t believe you still carry that thing around.”

“I find it soothing. Ooh, how nice.” Indrid picks up the black moth-shaped earring Duck hands him.

“Figured it’d be better to start with a smaller one. And now that you’re all done, you can officially burn your list.”

Indrid pulls a worn sheet of binder paper from his pocket. When he, and then Duck, turned fifteen, they wrote out lists of things they wanted to do before they hit sixteen. He crosses out get ear pierced, then mutters, “I’m still missing one.”

Duck looks at him quizzically. He turns the paper around and points to first kiss.

“Wait, I thought you and Carlos-”

“Nope. Never got that far before we broke up.”

Duck sits next to him, gets a mischievous grin on his face, “Think I know how to help.”

“How’s tha-”

It’s barely a kiss, Duck bringing their lips together just long enough for Indrid to feel him sigh happily. Then he pulls back, still grinning.

Indrid is certain that if he looked down at himself, his veins would be pulsing technicolor, his body lit up like the cheap neon in their tiny downtown.

“Ta-dah, list complete.” Duck whispers.

“Thank you.” Indrid whispers back.

He doesn’t think much of it for the rest of the night, figures it’s just a meeting of Duck’s goofier side with his desire to help a friend.

It’s only when he’s laying in bed, playing the kiss over and over again like a favorite song, that he realizes he might be in trouble.

————————————————————-

Indrid knows the likely outcome, but that doesn’t stop him from leaping up excitedly when Duck bangs the front door open.

“‘Drid, I got in! did you, oh, hey Mr. Cold, did you?”

“Yes.” Indrid grins from the bottom of the staircase.

“Oh hell yeah! Juno got in too! Maybe we can all be roommates.”

As much as Indrid would like that outcome, the arbitrary housing system of UWV Huntington has other ideas. Duck ends up partnered with an affable if often absent psych major, Juno gets a single in the same dorm, just two floors down, and Indrid is stuck with a frat-boy business major.

That doesn’t stop them from making the most of their first year of college. Indrid crashes on Duck’s floor some nights, and the two of them manage to swing having a film class together during spring semester. They each dip their toes into the wild sea that is college dating, with mixed results, trading advice and anecdotes in the dark of Duck’s room.

And none of that, not one single bit, does anything to dampen Indrid’s romantic feelings for his friend.

It’s not that he doesn’t try, just as he’s been trying every day since his 16th birthday. He loves Duck as a friend, wants to be in his life forever. He can’t afford to love him any other way. It’s too risky. And so he tries, over and over and over, to quash those feelings. Sometimes they ebb, sometimes Indrid happily dates or hooks up with other people.

But they always come back, like a faithful hound finding it’s way home.

Because Duck will laugh in that ridiculous way of his, be vulnerable with Indrid in those private moments, make Indrid feel understood in a way no one else can. And he falls in love all over again.

(And that’s before he even gets to the moments where Duck will strip his shirt off on hot days, or wander into the room in his boxer shorts, and Indrid feels the urge to plead with him for the privilege of feeling him up).

It’s because of all this that, when Duck asks if Indrid wants to move in together their sophomore year, he almost says no.

But then he and Duck are sharing celebratory take-out in a half-unpacked apartment and he’s happier than he ever thought he could be.

It’s not perfect by any means. Indrid can be messy, Duck can be terse, money can be tight. But Indrid is so at home with Duck, all that fades into the background. They have friends over, compare notes on dates, have junk food strewn study sessions on the couch, keep each other company during all nighters.

Then, in May of their Sophomore year, things change.

“‘Drid? Oh good, you’re still up. Um, I wanted to tell you somethin. Minerva and I are goin out.”

“Oh. That’s a bit unexpected.” Indrid sets his drawing aside.

“You tellin me you don’t use that magic-eight ball brain to spy on my love life?” Duck teases, plopping down onto the bed with him.

“Never. So…why the switch from work-out buddies to this?”

“Dunno, just seemed like we’d been spendin a lot of time together. She actually tutored me back in high school, remember, so it’s kinda fun to be around someone who’s known me that long. Y'know, someone who watched me grow up.”

“I see.” Indrid kicks his jealousy until it goes limp and sinks back under the surface of his feelings, “well, that’s awesome then. I’m glad you’re excited Duck.”

And he is. It’s not a lie, goodness knows he’s well aware he has no claim to Duck’s affection or time. And Minerva does seem to make him happy, encourages Duck’s good habits like going to the gym (something Indrid has tried once and will never do again. Yoga and walking are fine by him).

But soon he cannot go anywhere with Duck, including his own apartment, without Minerva there. Duck spends all of his time with her, and Indrid learns it’s not just him; while Minerva is gladly included in their group get-togethers, Juno hasn’t seen Duck in weeks. And has barely heard from him. She is also a bit loud and Indrid, who has always had trouble with over-stimulation from noise, finds himself out of the apartment more and more often.

Indrid can’t blame Duck for spending time with Minerva rather than him; she’s jockular, active, attractive (even if she does call Duck by his first name). Indrid is odd, reclusive, and well, weird looking.

It all goes to hell at the end of August.

“‘Drid! The study abroad program offered me a scholarship. I get to go to Brazil. This is so fuckin cool!”

“Wonderful!” Indrid claps his hands, “I know how badly you’ve wanted to go. You have to promise me to send me pictures of brightly colored bugs for art inspiration. Oh, and now we can tell Dani she has somewhere to stay while she and Aubrey look for a shared place.”

“Exactly. And guess what, it gets even better.”

“How-” he sees the answer coming, tries to keep his face neutral.

“Minerva’s comin with me!”

“I wasn’t aware wildlife conservation and management was her area of interest.”

“It ain’t, but she’s comin as part of a grad study program. It’s gonna be so fuckin amazin.”

“I’m sure it will be.” The pull between his true feelings and his need to seem supportive renders his answer flat.

“What’s up?” Duck sits down in the kitchen chair opposite him.

“Nothing. Or, well, I suppose I’ve just now realized that I’ll be without a good friend for a semester. I’ll miss you.”

“Aw, I’ll miss you too, you big sap. Don’t worry, I’ll write you a bunch, send pictures too when I can.”

Indrid looks at the futures, then down at the table, “No, you won’t.”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t I?” Duck looks hurt.

“In all the timelines, you send me one postcard at maximum. In most of them, you send none. I slip your mind entirely, it seems.” His voice is tight.

“The fuck? How is that pos-”

“Any time not spent in the field, you are too engrossed by her to do anything else.”

Duck’s face hardens, “So that’s what this is really about.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He lies.

“You’ve been bothered by her since the start! You don’t think I notice that forced smile you get when she’s around, or the fact you leave the house when she comes over?”

“I get overstimulated when there is too much noise, you know that.” Indrid snaps back.

“You hardly come out with us anymore, and you make it sound like she’s controlin me or some shit.”

“I, I do not. I just don’t enjoy when she barges in randomly.” He rubs his temples with his hands, trying to keep calm.

“Christ, you really makin me choose between my best friend and the first girlfriend who’s made me feel this way? Why the fuck can’t you just be happy for me?”

“Because it should be me and not her!” Indrid spits out, hands dropping to the table and gaze meeting Duck’s own.

Duck blinks back at him, “Really? Really? You had a million goddamn chances to confess how you feel and you choose now?”

“I, I didn’t, I tried so hard to ignore it, but, fuck, I didn’t mean to say it now but since I did: I’ve been in love with you for years. And, and I just, after everything, we’ve been so close-”

“What, you think that what, because we’ve been friends since we were kids and you been pinin after me for however the fuck long, I should just date you? Like it’s destiny or some shit? What the fuck man?” He stands and Indrid mirrors him.

“Do not put words in my mouth. I never wanted to interfere in your life, I never, you can’t possibly know how I feel!”

“Oh yeah? You think I’m really that fuckin oblivious? I suspected you felt some kind of way about me, and I gave you chances to show me I was right!”

“Name one.” Indrid growls, stepping closer.

“Homecomin, my eighteenth birthday, about a dozen times last year where I asked if you had your eye on anyone and you’d change the goddamn subject,” Duck counts out on his fingers, closing the remaining distance, “hell, coulda used those weird powers of yours to see what would happen if you told me.”

“I was too scared to. And if you were so observant, and apparently not opposed to the idea, why didn’t you make a move on me?”

“What do you think me kissin you on your birthday was?”

“A joke! Goodness, Duck, you know I’m not great with social cues. I didn’t think you’d ever care about me that way.”

“You think I’m that fuckin shallow?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” He growls.

“So what was your end-game, huh? Just wait out everyone else, circle me like a fuckin vulture until I’d settle for you? Fuck, Minerva was right, you are creepy.”

Duck may as well have punched him. He sort of wishes he had.

“Fuck. you. Wayne.” He hisses out, stepping around him and towards his room.

“Nah, fuck you, Indrid. Fuck you for makin me think you actually cared about me when all you were doin was bidin your goddamn time!”

“That’s not, no, nevermind. I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

Duck tosses back, “That’s as good as a confession in my book, you creepy, mothman lookin motherfucker,” and Indrid slams the door.

There’s ten minutes of hurried, angry movement in the rest of the apartment, and then the front door bangs shut.

He cycles through anger (at himself, at Duck, at these obnoxious powers for not helping him prevent the fight), hurt, and numb acceptance that he has blown his oldest, closest friendship to smithereens.

When he finally calms down enough to think clearly he realizes that, if nothing else, he doesn’t want that to be the last conversation they have before Duck leaves.

He faceplants onto his bed, pulls out his phone, and types.

Indrid: I’m sorry for losing my temper, and for not telling you the truth sooner. Even though it would have been helpful if you’d been clearer in the past. Can we talk about this tomorrow, and try again?

The answer is immediate.

Duck: Staying with M until we leave. Don’t text me again unless the apartment is on fire.

He stares at the response, then slides the phone under his pillow, presses his face to the mattress, and lays there numbly until he falls asleep.

——————————————————

“Nope, you are not having a sad hook-up on my watch.” Barclay’s tone freezes Indrid in place, and he slumps back down into the booth at the bar.

Barclay is only a year ahead of him, but at times he reminds Indrid of a mother hen. A very, very large mother hen.

“I cannot believe I allowed you to drag me out on Homecoming weekend.”

“Indrid, you’ve been miserable for almost two months, and I’m honestly really worried about you. Plus, this place has super cheap, real good appetizers.”

“Thank you for not saying ‘apps.’’ Indrid sips his soda.

“That word is an abomination. And you’re avoiding the actual topic.”

“I destroyed my best friend’s trust in me, and am wallowing here while he cavorts in the rainforest with his girlfriend. I’ll survive, but there’s no rule that says I have to enjoy it.”

Barclay sighs, “Look, if I give you permission to be miserable while you do it, will you come to trivia night with me, Joe, and Jake? Dani’s usually out fourth, but she’s helping Aubrey get her magic show up and ready to open.”

Indrid blows a strand of hair from his face (the black patches are getting worse, he needs to dye it again), “I can mope as much as I want?”

“You can cry into your beer for all I care, as long as you let me buy it.”

Trivia night turns out to be much better than anticipated, though Joe, Barclay’s boyfriend, is terrifying to behold in a battle of information.

Movie goes better, game night even better still, and soon Indrid is hanging out with the others more days than not. He even helps Aubrey design and draw up some last minute posters for her show.

It’s the morning after opening night (and the following celebration) that his phone alerts him to a new email. The subject simply says “Bug.”

It’s from Duck.

All it contains is a photo, clearly taken at night on a phone, of a moth with bright pink wings and red eyespots.

He types, Neat! Then, after a moment, adds What species?

He doesn’t expect a response. But the next day, another email awaits him.

Dr. Graslie (Entomologist here) thinks it’s Leucanella apollinairei. Here’s someone more familiar

This picture is of a small crustacean. Indrid smiles; it’s a crawdad.

He replies Careful, maybe it followed you all the way from Kepler. Seen anything else interesting?

This time he waits two days for a response, but it opens with, sorry, internet is real spotty. Big shock, I know.

This is followed by two paragraphs describing trees. Indrid has never been so happy to hear about root systems.

Soon Duck is emailing him whenever he can. At first, it’s only about the wildlife, the field work he’s doing, and the terror of trying to practice hygiene in the middle of a rainforest. Slowly, other details appear; the things he’s homesick for, the ways in which he and Minerva are starting to grate at each other (you’d think being in the middle of nowhere’d get you some peace and quiet. Nope).

Indrid responds with updates from school, pictures of the outings he and the others go on, news about the promo art several places in town have hired him to do after seeing the posters for Aubrey’s act. Says he hopes Minerva and Duck are able to work things out.

Winter break comes sooner than seems possible, and he assumes the next time he sees Duck will be when they’re home visiting their folks.

Which is why, when he’s sitting at home reading after his last final, the door opening alarms him (Dani has already moved out). That is, until he glimpses the future.

“Duck?” He calls softly.

His friend appears in the doorway, luggage left behind him in the entryway.

“Hey, ‘Drid.”

“I, ah, assumed you’d be staying with Minerva until you could officially move out.”

Duck shakes his head, “I ain’t movin anywhere. Unless you want me to.”

“No.” Indrid fidgets with the agate, tucked safely in the pocket of his sweatpants.

“We, uh, we broke up. Minerva and me. It was, uh, mutual, though she was the one to pull the trigger, so to speak. Just found there were some things we didn’t agree on. Weren’t compatible on neither.”

“I’m sorry.”

Duck snorts what’s almost a laugh.

“I mean it.” He stands, voices earnest and gentle, “I know you were happy with her, and the relationship meant a lot to you.”

“Yeah” Duck sounds tired, “It did. But it turns out another one meant more.”

Indrid stops moving. Also, possibly, breathing.

“I…well, I sent you that first email instead of apologizin because I was still kinda hurt, but I realized I missed you. I didn’t want you gone from my life. And the longer I was gone, the more times I turned around wanting to tell you somethin and was sad you weren’t there, got excited at the thought of showin you somethin or sending you pictures, I realized I did plenty to fuck things up. And that’s before we get to the fact I was dreamin about you most nights.”

Duck steps awkwardly forward, until they’re toe to toe, “I missed you, ‘Drid. So fuckin much. And I’m sorry for the things I said durin the fight.”

“As am I. I ought to have thought how my confession would appear to you. I’m sorry I did not.”

“I guess, what I’m tryin to say is I feel like a real dipshit for havin to go halfway across the globe to realize what I really want.”

“And what do you want, Duck?”

Duck cups his cheeks, and then Indrid is tipping forward, into a kiss he’s dreamed of for years. His arms close around Duck’s shoulders, his lips taste chapstick and cold night air. He pulls away to breathe and gets only an instant to do so, Duck chasing his mouth for kiss after kiss, his eagerness sending them tripping onto the bed.

Indrid lands on top of Duck, hears him whimper when his name leaves Indrid’s lips.

“‘Drid, ‘Drid, please-”

“Yes” He kisses his cheek, “whatever it is, the answer is yes.”

Duck giggles into his neck, “You got no idea how bad I wanna make a goof on that. But, fuck, ‘Drid, I can’t, all I want is you.”

“Likewise.” He purrs, hooking Ducks leg around his own, nuzzling up his neck before attacking his lips with kisses.

“That, that a rock in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” Duck tugs on his lower lip.

“Both. See?” He produces the agate, holds it where Duck can get a look at it.

“Holy shit, is that the one I gave you a million years ago?”

“Indeed. It became a sort of grounding object, because it was pleasant to touch and reminded me of you. Later it morphed into a sort of good luck charm.”

Duck closes Indrid’s fist around the rock and kisses it, grins, “There, now it’s twice as lucky.”

Indrid holds him close, basks in the love radiating from him as he murmurs, “It’s not the luckiest thing in the room, though. That honor, I believe, belongs to you and I.”

#Indruck #indrid cold/duck newton #reader request #college au #duck x indrid

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morsking · 5 years

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7 years later i’m still mad desmond died because he had so much potential as a character. another post already talked about it better than i could’ve by pointing out how they squandered desmond being an assassin in the modern day, climbing high rise buildings, undoing abstergo’s overwhelming influence around the globe and restoring the assassin order in an amazing counterattack that would make his ancestors proud.

but more importantly, desmond’s entire life, eons before he was even born, was already something that was out of his control. he’s the culmination of the first ones’ hopes for and more egregiously juno’s manipulation of ezio and altair’s efforts. ezio, connor, and altair suffered tremendously because they were meant to be mouth pieces for a person they would never live to know and could never understand why that person is so important that they risked their lives, families, and peace of mind. what desmond could’ve had was a character arc where he says “fuck that” and reaches the epitome of the assassin principle by liberating humanity from the eternal, suffocating grasp of the first ones and finally allowing it to determine its own future free from the past it does not know. just absolutely saying “fuck you” to the enslavement of his genes, the forceful servitude juno’s misanthropic ambitions and jupiter and minerva’s past patronizing short-sightedness, and vindicating ezio, altair, and connor’s struggles.

desmond deserved to be there with his son, whose genetic destiny was even more cursed because he was meant to become a sage and have his personality overwritten by aita. desmond deserved to destroy juno alongside elijah and be the father william couldn’t be because of the obligations of the order. imagine, the first ones who were functionally parents to humanity being surpassed by the actual bond between parent and child in the very existences they created. poetic fucking cinema.

as touching and well-written as desmond’s voice diaries were in assassin’s creed 4, i still can’t help but to feel desmond never should have died. that we shoud’ve gotten to see desmond grow even further and have a much more satisfying character arc.

desmond miles deserved better.

#assassin's creed #desmond miles #assassin's creed spoilers

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hetalia-pjo-au-hub · 4 years

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Welcome to the APH Percy Jackson AU!

INTRO

Hello! Welcome to the APH PJO AU. We’re the creators, Wonder and Theo, and this is our first time running an au. You may know us from our involvement in the My Heta Academia AU as the muns of ask-hetaaca-nyoprussia and ask-hetaaca-nyogermany, as well as many others. Before we ramble about us, this is what the au is about:

The APH PJO AU is an ask blog based group run by us (Wonder and Theo) that takes place in the Percy Jackson Universe at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter where the countries are mortal demigods instead.

In this AU, there are endless possibilities for which godly parent your muse has! This means that your muse can’t be a god or a normal human. This also means that your character cannot be the oracle; and only a second muse can be a satyr.

The Hunters of Artemis are available! They are the only characters that can be either demigods or just plain mortal.

Hera, Artemis, and Hestia are not on the table for being godly parents. Hera won’t have relations outside of her marriage, and Artemis and Hestia are maiden goddesses*

*Athena is also a maiden goddess, but her children come out of her head

The Major Gods and Goddesses**

I. Zeus/Jupiter

-Zeus is the god of the sky, lightning and the thunder in Ancient Greek religion and legends, and ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the sixth child of Cronos and Rhea, king and queen of the Titans.

II. Hera/Juno

-Hera is the Queen of the Gods and is the wife and sister of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon. She is known for being the Goddess of Marriage & Birth. Despite being the Goddess of Marriage, she was known to be jealous and vengeful towards the many lovers and offspring of her husband Zeus.

III. Poseidon/Neptune

-Poseidon was god of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses and is considered one of the most bad-tempered, moody and greedy Olympian gods. He was known to be vengeful when insulted. He is the son of Cronus and Rhea and was swallowed by his father along with Hades, Demeter, Hestia and Hera.

IV. Demeter/Ceres

-Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and presides over grains and the fertility of the earth. Although she was most often referred to as the goddess of the harvest, she was also goddess of sacred law and the cycle of life and death.

V. Ares/Mars

-Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war and is the personification of sheer brutality, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.

VI. Athena/Minerva

-Athena is the Olympian goddess of wisdom and war and the adored patroness of the city of Athens. A virgin deity, she was also – somewhat paradoxically – associated with peace and handicrafts, especially spinning and weaving. Majestic and stern, Athena surpassed everybody in both of her main domains.

VII. Apollo/Apollo

-Apollo is a god in Greek mythology, and one of the Twelve Olympians. He is the son of Zeus and Leto and the twin brother of Artemis. He is the god of healing, medicine, archery, music, poetry and the sun. He is the leader of the Muses. He also is a god of prophecy, and his Oracle at Delphi is very important.

VIII. Artemis/Diana (Hunters of Artemis)

-Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature, and chastity. The daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo, Artemis was regarded as a patron of girls and young women and a protectress during childbirth

IX. Hephaestus/Vulcan

-Hephaestus was the god of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forges and the art of sculpture. He was the son of Zeus and Hera and married to Aphrodite by Zeus to prevent a war of the gods fighting for her hand. He was a smithing god, making all of the weapons for Olympus and acting as a blacksmith for the gods.

X. Aphrodite/Venus

-Aphrodite is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess Venus. Aphrodite's major symbols include myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans.

XI. Hermes/Mercury

-Hermes is a deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods, as well as the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quickly and freely between the worlds of the mortal and the divine, aided by his winged sandals. Hermes plays the role of the psychopomp or "soul guide" — a conductor of souls into the afterlife.

XII. Dionysus/Bacchus

-Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wine, winemaking, grape cultivation, fertility, ritual madness, theater, and religious ecstasy. His Roman name was Bacchus. He may have been worshiped as early as 1500-11000 BCE by Mycenean Greeks.

XIII. Hades/Pluto

-Hades, in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although the last son that was regurgitated by his father.

XIV. Iris/Iris

-Iris, in Greek mythology, the personification of the rainbow and (in Homer's Iliad, for example) a messenger of the gods. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, she was the daughter of Thaumas and the ocean nymph Electra.

XV. Hypnos/Somnus

-Hypnos, Latin Somnus, Greco-Roman god of sleep. Hypnos was the son of Nyx (Night) and the twin brother of Thanatos (Death).

XVI. Nemesis/Nemesis

-In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous"), is the goddess who enacts retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods).

XVII. Nike/Victoria

-Nike, in ancient Greek religion, the goddess of victory, daughter of the giant Pallas and of the infernal River Styx.

XVIII. Hebe/Juventas

-Hebe in ancient Greek religion, is the goddess of youth or the prime of life (Roman equivalent: Juventas). She is the daughter of Zeus and his older sister, Hera.

XIX. Tyche/Fortuna

-Tyche, in Greek religion, the goddess of chance, with whom the Roman Fortuna was later identified; a capricious dispenser of good and ill fortune. The Greek poet Hesiod called her the daughter of the Titan Oceanus and his consort Tethys; other writers attributed her fatherhood to Zeus, the supreme god.

XX. Hecate/Trivia

-Hecate or Hekate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches or a key and in later periods depicted in triple form. She is variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery.

**There are plenty of minor gods, and we are willing to work with muses that are children of the minor gods but please try to stick to the main 20 we have listed

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO BE PART OF THIS AU?

- You must apply according to the application form

-You have to follow the set rules

-You need to be a writer and/or an artist

-You need to have at least one visual reference of your muse. This does not have to be good or in the application, but it does have to be somewhere on the blog.

-You don’t have to be fluent in English, just decent enough to be understandable, as most interactions will he in English.

APPLICATIONS

There will be announcements as to whether or not applications are being accepted. The applications are to be submitted before creating a blog. The application form can be found here.

FAQ

“Can I join even if I’m not that good of an artist/writer/not that popular?” Absolutely! Your skill level and popularity don’t matter, just follow the rules and have fun!

“Can I apply a second time if I wasn’t accepted in the first application phase?” Yes, and we encourage you to do that!

“Is it possible to be part of this au even if I don’t know much/anything about Percy Jackson?” You can join even if you know nothing about the series, just please don’t appropriate the gods.

“Can I have two muses?” Yes, but you can only apply for one at a time, and have to have been part of the au for at least a month before getting a second muse.

“Is Discord needed?” No, but it is recommended as it makes interactions and event planning easier.

“Can I apply even if I know I will not be able to update regularly?” Yes, but update at least once a month. Real life comes first, but if something major comes up, talk to one of the mods. We will try to be understanding.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

It's important to mention that there are people who do follow/work/worship these gods, and that while this is an AU, some Pagan/Wiccan followers may not be too keen on how gods are presented in the PJO series. Please be respectful of their beliefs, and listen if they wish to further educate you. Please make sure that you do your own research into modern practices and interpretations as well, it is one thing to understand ancient practice and mythology, but another to understand modern practice. There are many resources and people online more than willing to help educate, please take advantage of that. And please understand that media portrays the gods and goddesses in ways that are not completely accurate and it is best to be somewhat critical when enjoying media such as PJO, Lore Olympus, Marvel, etc.. Followers of the pantheons should also understand that not everyone knows what you know, and to understand that this is an AU and does not reflect the true beliefs and practices one may come to learn and practice under their own deity work. Please be gentle and kind when correcting or educating those who are not practicing. This AU is not meant to be a completely realistic and accurate interpretation of the pantheon(s) and some wiggle room is acceptable when interpreting. Please only correct and educate if it is a common mistake. Please think critically before you jump in to correct, and remember that not everyone is involved on quite an intimate level of knowledge.

#auinformation #intropost #mod theo #mod wonder

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