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aonungyoufuck · 1 year

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hi! i hope my request will be okay to you rules but im thirst for smth like this ;

y/n is sully, and mated with aonung (aged up obv)

so in the first part they do yfkyn (smut) and in the second part y/n is pregnant and all alone in the shore bc everyone went to fight with sky people. the birth started but there is so much complication so she end so messed up with so much blood coming out from her v and half conscious. when aonung come back he found her and first he loose his mind he was so scared but then he take her to ronal who need to do all the things like sew her and everything - her condition was tragic.

firstly im so sorry for my english (it is not my first language so yeah) but i decided to write because i see that youre aonung specialist 😂❤️

Ma Baby Ma Baby

Warnings: Obv birth, Some tear kinda gore? Graphic for sure.

Ao'nung (22) Reader (21)

Thank you for the request Anon! Sorry it took me a while since i dont typically write Smut i tried making it up with it some more with the rest of the story (Also i was lowkey coughing up my lungs so excuse my tardiness i hope this was okay!)

Finally. was all you can think about as you felt the stinging pain of the tattoo now being painted over your skin. Sure You dint really need to do this Given your darker complexion and the fact that well you weren't really metkayina well... But that didn't matter. You had stated this is what you wanted for you. For him.

"Almost done don't worry"

Truth be told this was only one Tattoo of many you were sure to have. One of your spirit sister, No doubt later came the mate tattoo.

Just the thought sent shivers down your spine. You had never thought this would happen. That you would be Mated to Ao'nung. Truly no you didn't see this coming.

Had you told yourself when you arrived and hated the poor man's guts. Well You'd probably ask you to drown. However now it was different. He had changed along side you.

"How gorgeous you are"

"Oh stop that i just came to show you" You said slapping his hand off of your hip. No doubt some time later you'd see your spirit sister with one too.

"And yet you take my breath away anytime i see you"

"Oh hush. Do you like it or not?" You asked moving your loincloth just a little bit more to show him fully the full thing.

Feeling his hand stroke your inner thigh and beginning to whisper in your ear. "I do"

"Stop that" You spoke slapping his hand feeling the other now rest on your back and pull you into him.

Now you were not much shorter than him. Not by a lot but right now you felt so utterly small, and in a good way too. Feeling him rub against you, the loincloth now rubbing right above your own.

"Ao'nung stop we cant stop once we start"

"Who said i want to stop" He whispered again now pushing you two down at full force. Him atop you feeling you and you in turn him.

It honestly felt like a bunch of little things were crawling on you with the excitement that you felt.

You two never done anything more than hug or kiss. Never taking it too far. You two knew better than doing anything before mating. But maybe it was time to try something new.

"Ao'nung seriously! Your mother and my father will kill us if we do anything right now"

"Its a good thing your worth it then" He spoke. Kissing your neck and lowering dangerously. Feeling his hand messing with your top.

Jake was a very strict father, It was a blessing he even gave Ao'nung the blessing of courting you. But if this went on any more you were sure you'd lose your mate before he even officially became your mate.

You may as well go out together, you thought now pulling him closer to you. You were thankful that right now it was well past eclipse and no doubt everyone was asleep. So if anyone were to see anything, well it was really their fault.

"It seems even you want this my love"

"Oh shut up"

Almost like messy teens trying to get something from each other. You two messed around with the knot of each other's loincloth. before Finally being expose to one another.

You couldn't help but avade looking at him. Before he placed a hand on your cheek making you turn to him. "Look at me my dear"

Taking in a gulp the air now thick with a tension you had only ever heard of. Looking at him fully. His tattoo on his shoulder wrapping around to his back and little over his peck.

"No need to hide now, dont you think"

You smiled letting him feel you. And you in turn touching him.

"May i ?" He asked looking down to your core. If you weren't high on the emotions you were sure you would have slapped him away to not look. But right now you didn't care.

You chuckled now going to sit at his lap. You wetting him and him in turn causing a friction you so desperately wanted right now. Kissing him. So desperate and yet so gentle.

Both your breathes becoming labored as you smelled each other. Kissing his head and then his collarbone before looking into his eyes.

"Take me as you see me"

He took in a gulp. Feeling you. Seeing you and tasting you. It was all he ever had dreamed of.

And with a prayer on his lips he guided himself to your core. The feeling engulfing you two as he bit your shoulder to hold back a growl that he had been holding.

Now exactly nine months later here you were standing and waiting for Ao'nung to return. Just like you had predicted Your parent's weren't pleased to know you two had laid with each other. Not that you had admitted to.

Actually you had a whole four months to prepare for your ceremonial bond. But Ronal wasn't stupid neither was your mother. Neytiri was talking to jake when the suspension came on. You had been eating too much and so she asked Tsahik to make sure of it.

Sure enough your parents. Especially Jake was beyond furious. And by default you two had your ceremony much sooner than expected.

Now To say Jake and Ronal were the only ones who were furious was an understatement. It really felt that Tonowari, Tuk and Tsireya were the only ones that were happy.

Bless Ao'nung for handling your family.

Unfortunately that short lived bliss of being mates was interrupted. Roa had been found dead with her calf. Now you all stood watching as your father told them to warn the Tulkun. You couldn't move. You weren't allowed.

You just waited watching as Lo'ak and Neteyam were now arguing.

It all happened in a flash. You were in the arms of Ao'nung, and then the next you were asking him to be safe in bringing your brother's back.

Taking yourself into your pod.

You prayed. The pit in your stomach now hurting as you felt your breath hitch. You still had a few months to go. But it felt painful suddenly.

"Eywa please please let this fear leave me" you begged. Hand on your stomach as you couldn't even hear the horns sound.

War didn't just hurt those to went to it. Soldiers bled but the innocent stay and suffer that pain.

The silence of the village was what alarmed you. You were completely alone. Perhaps the stress? The emptiness of it all but you felt your water break.

Panic seeped into your heart. It was far too early. Too dangerously early and you were alone. Nobody in sight. Without even thinking you let out a cry unbeknownst to you calling your Ikran 'Ana.

You didn't even know what to do. All you remembered was what little you had learned from Ronal and your mother. You thanked 'Ana for being ever so patient as you pulled at her face and held her there while you went into the water.

Let Gravity help

That's all you were told was your best of friends. And so you did. Feeling 'Ana Grumble and growl along side you. Perhaps too she was scared of what was happening.

You felt the sting. And then the shooting pain. You began to push on instinct too But that sharp burning pain didnt stop. Looking down at the water you saw red.

Blood. A lot of Blood

'help'

it was the only thing on your mind as you finally felt the relieve of the growing tension ease.

But that wasn't the end of it. Yours lungs ached and the bleeding was getting so much worse. Looking at 'Ana you looked at her finally.

"Please..get mom"

That's all you wanted letting her fly off. You looked down again. Placing your hand down to feel. An open wound. And the head of your babe poking out.

Screaming again as you began to push. Feeling yourself get lightheaded. You looked to the open sea. Cries. War. And you were all alone delivering your babe by yourself.

Begging, Silently praying to Eywa as you felt your legs shake.

Ao'nung along side Tsireya was now dragging back a wounded Neteyam. He made a promise to bring your brother's back. Jake Had told him to take him back to shore and that's what he did.

His people Some wounded and some not so much. Some being dragged. To the safety of his mother's healing pod.

And that's when he saw you. He was so sure he didn't let you anywhere NEAR the battle. He was so sure he didn't see you there. But there you were.

He was one of the very first few people back. And there you were laying on the shore. The water around you red.

"Ao'nung!" Tsireya yelled now taking Neteyam in her arms as she saw him run to you.

So much blood. So much blood. Dragging you he saw the cord that now left your legs and he began to search the water. Scared. Terribly scared, frightened to his core to think that something happened to you or the babe.

And then he brought the small thing up. Its movement now erratic before he let out a shrill cry. He wanted to be happy. He wanted to be so happy

But this babe was so so small. So terribly tiny. And you were bleeding.

"Go take her to the pod! Go" Tsireya yelled again struggling to drag ao'nung but noticing some people coming back.

Ao'nung didn't think he just picked you up and placed the babe in your arms as he took you to his mom's pod.

Now he was no healer. But his mom had taught him how to stop the bleeding So while she would take a while to get here He could do what was the best for the meantime.

Jake now stood in front of the pod where you were being taken care of along side Neteyam. He was both thankful and yet Furious with himself that he let this happen.

He looked at his son in law. his face a distant memory of when he let home tree fall. A loss and yet being so lost in thought.

"kid?"

He didnt respond possibly to shell shocked as he waited

"Hey it'll be alright okay?"

"Will she be alright?" He asked like a little kid. Looking at his family and then Tonowari both parents dealing with having to protect their kids.

Before he could speak. Ronal opened the veil of the pod looking at all of them and then her son. "she's alright"

"and Neteyam?"

"He's alright as well. Hasn't woken up yet but is stable. Come" She said stepping aside and letting them all in.

You kept looking at the ceiling. As you had been the entire time you were conscious. Ronal having to stitch you up and while painful it wasn't as traumatizing and enduring labor alone.

You saw Ao'nung and then your father. And that's when you began to cry. You had been so scared and you were terrified as Ronal had not said a word about your baby.

"Shh its okay. Its okay sweet girl" Your father said stroking your head as you couldn't help but cry.

Ao'nung holding your hand before he felt his mother tap him on the shoulder. A small bundle. Barely the size of a healthy babe in her arms.

"He is tiny. Premature. But he is healthy" She spoke watching as all your family now surrounded her and watched.

She was right. Such a tiny little thing.

Ao'nung smiled. Kissing your head as he just held you. "healthy my love healthy"

You couldn't help but laugh a little through your sobs as you felt ronal lay the small thing on your chest. Sure now came the path of having to care for such a premature babe. But you were just glad all that pain. All that panic was worth it. Because as you two stared at your little son. It made it all worth it.

"Welcome to the family little one" You heard Neteyam say next to you. and Oh Eywa. Was it the thing you wanted to hear after hearing your babe cry too.

#ao'nung x reader #atwow #avatar the way of water #ao'nung #aonung x reader #ao'nung x you #ao'nung x y/n #atwow ao'nung #ao’nung x reader

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extra-vertebrae · 9 months

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Picked up Tears of the Kingdom for my birthday this year and played it over an art sabbatical. After beating it, I have some thoughts about a pair of critters.

Consider this a "spoiler" line for those who haven't beaten the game.

I've been pondering over the Light Dragon and the Tears associated with her transformation. When you take everything given about the transformation at face value, this dragon bursts into being with no sense of self, but presumably still carrying intact though likely scattered memories of when she was still Zelda. Her first act is to shed tears, presumably created through an intense sorrow borne out of thoughts, concerns, and memories that she no longer understands. Her "new" mind is struck with immense emotional pain that now probably just repeats itself over and over as she aimlessly patrols the skies of Hyrule for thousands of years until a man pulls a toothpick out of her forehead. Alternatively, the shedding of tears is symbolic of the final vestiges of Zelda's self as it ebbs away in her new existence, leaving her mind a blank slate unable to recall, process, or attribute anything to anything.

Of course, the game pulls a cop-out and goes "oh, she was just sleeping this whole time!" at the end, which I think is bullshit, but fine, we can't have Zelda scarred for the remainder of her life. We'll just say her memories of flying aimlessly for however long were just yeeted by the mercy of Sophia and Rauru and leave it at that. The implication is probably a reversal via some super powered Recall, but still.

Then comes Ganon, who takes the same road in an effort to cling to power. A new dragon that, just like Zelda, has no self - just a ream of memories and what is probably a deep, directionless, unfathomable anger towards an insignificant entity. How awful must these paired existences be? How aware are they, truly?

A repeated note in the compendium entries for all of the dragons is: "it causes [x deadly phenomena when people are in close range], but it means no harm." I thought about this later and played with the idea that, what if, even taking story circumstances in hand, Ganon's dragon was the same as the rest in this specific regard - creating phenomena out of no actual intent to harm so much as an instinctual self defence mechanism against an unknown "thing" approaching him. Does Ganon still actually recognise Link from all of 30 seconds ago? Or is he just an animal with the same blank slate as Zelda? Whichever the case, despite all the damage he's done, this feels like an especially tragic end for Ganondorf in the sense that, he technically becomes an entirely new entity that has done absolutely nothing except be confronted by a pair of unfamiliar creatures, and is smote in barely a few minutes. Minutes of existence either fraught with confusing memories of anger and violence, or a blank mind with no comprehensive ability, snuffed out due to an inherent danger he poses through, in a way, no "fault" of his own in this new body and mind.

Just a fun thought I had. I've been wondering since I started playing and seeing all of the Memories, if at any point Ganondorf (or Link and Zelda for that matter) has ever actually possessed free will in being the manifestation (?) of the Triforce of Power (or its spirit? My Zelda lore is rusty as hell and super limited).

ETA: also, I really appreciate the addition of a pig's nose on Ganon's dragon form. A+, I love it.

#tears of the kingdom

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androgynousblackbox · 2 months

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Welcome to Hazbin Vale. 2 [Appleradio]

Good morning, listeners. Your good friend Alastor is here once again. Today you may forgive me for not being on my usual high spirits, for I find myself rather annoyed.

But Alastor, I know you must be asking. What could possibly annoy the always friendly and law abiding radio host that we know and love? That doesn't sound like you at all! I know, I know, I am nothing if not patient, dear listener, but even I have my limits. There are certain things in this world that must not be tolerated.

That weird static is there again. Please ignore it.

Unfortunately, until that weird static calms down, I am afraid that I will have to keep the suspense alive. For now, let's start today with our favorite piece of news: the obituary!

It seems that last night the old man Jenkins has finally passed away. This morning his neighbors were congregated around his house, in front of the open door. It was a disaster inside, you could see it even from the street, like a hurricane had stopped by and stayed a bit longer than planned. Tragic, absolutely tragic. Jenkings was a tolerable member of this community who we all could more or less remember clearly.

If only his own curiosity wasn't getting the best of him. That was always one of his biggest flaws, whether he would admit it or not. And his imagination, my! He had a bit too many, especially after just a few beers in the local pub. Oh, I know that those who were there know exactly what I am talking about.

Babblering on and on about all these strange and unexplicable murders that happened in our town. Talking about how once this was a pacific and normal place where everyone could feel safe. Truly delirious, that poor man. I almost felt pity siting next to him and hearing his incoherent conspiracy theories. He was convinced that someone in our precious and wise community could be the responsible for those deaths! I could not believe my ears when I hear it.

He even said he had some kind of proof that he was planning to give some friend reporter. But I am sure that if someone were to have a look all over his house, like that hurricane seem to have done, they wouldn't have found anything at all out of the ordinary.

So, clearly, that man was just suffering of some kind of brain tumor that was pushing against whatever rational thinkings he had left after a lifetime of wasting away being a parasyte for society. Quite pitiful.

Of course I had to help him out get home. What kind of monster I would be if I left someone so obviously unwell to go completely on their own at the mercy of the night? Obviously I don't mean it for anyone in our town.

But there are beasts out there who won't stop no matter how much you beg. Creatures that feed on your screams and laugh on the face of your demise. Things that no sane mind could ever hope to comprehend.

I am talking about raccoons, if it wasn't clear enough. Those damn monsters have been making a disaster out of everyone's garbage lately. So this is your friendly reminder to please lock up your garbage tight and keep it close, where it should have stayed in the first place. Don't share no matter how much you want to make a conversation out of it, like some other people could. Some things are best left unsaid.

After a lovely conversation about the stock market, I was off my way. For any police officer who may be listening right now, Husk, first of all, fix your hair, you shouldn't be judging anyone with a hair that messy. Second of all, how about lay it off with the donuts? If you want a heart attack so badly, goodness me… you just have to ask.

Indeed, everyone is going to miss old man Jenking. If I may give an advice, save the ink on the wanted posters. There are dogs who would appreciate the attention so much more and it would be infinitely more productive. At least with the dog there is a possibility to find them.

Unless a raccoon got them. But who would want to hurt the best friend of men, right, listeners? Only if they barked at the wrong moment, I suppose, bringing unwanted attention when it's the least convenient for everyone else. But they tend to be smarter than that. Beasts know to bow down when a bigger predator is around, after all.

The family of old man Jenking haven't officially dennounced his death yet, so I guess this is kind of a spoiler? I imagine it will take around a week for the idea to fully sink in. Someone could probably accelarate the process by showing what was left of our dear old pal. If only something was left in order to do that.

Please, forgive me if I laugh a little too much. I just keep thinking of an old joke I heard one time, one that has nothing to do with what I am talking about right now. I can't help it. Oh, but you wouldn't get it, dear listener. You should have been there.

Ah. I did needed that pick me up. I think I am on a better mood now to relay to you what soured my morning. After I do, I do hope you understand my state of mind.

I was on my way to the station when I remembered, silly me, that I forgot to buy something for lunch. I had a bunch of new meat to prepare, but nothing to accompany it! I was thinking so much about that old joke that it completely slipped my mind. Naturally I went to the supermarket and there, right there, in front of the dairy products, was the single most offensive view I have ever seen on my life.

He was a tiny man. Minuscule even. Such a small being that I could probably hold it on my pocket and squish it until his eyes pop out. Even at a distance I could see that his head wouldn't even reach my own chest. What kind of man lets himself be so small and vulnerable? Don't you have any dignity or it doesn't fit inside that microscopic frame? At least use some heels, women do it all the time!

So that was the first insult, dear listener.

But then this tiny man took out the sun hat that he was wearing and his hair was so stupid that I wanted to vomit right there. Yes, listener, as you heard! So stupid, shiny and silky, as if nobody in this town has anything better to do than to stare in awe and imagine what would it be like to caress it with your fingers. What a grostque display of vanity! How is that even allowed in public? Who gave this tiny man the right to have that stupid perfect hair? Second insult!

Oh, if only had ended there, dear listener. Maybe then that could have been just an unpleasant memory and it could be it. But he wasn't alone, you see. He was talking with that clerk with an eye patch that says "my creepy comments" on here are hilarious. I think her name was Cherri? I don't know what she means by that, but as long someone appreciate my work I guess they can't be that bad. I might even forgive her for what she did next.

She presented us! Right there! With no warning or preparation prior! Because I talked about that damn new toy maker that just moved to town on the last episode, she thought she was doing me a favor by just telling me that this tiny man with the stupid hair was that toy maker all along.

The one time that the youth decide to pay attention to what I say and this is what I get!

Lucifer Morningstar, said his name was. Have you ever heard about anything more pretentious than that? I seriously doubt that is his real name at all. Husk, if you ever want to do anything useful in your life, you should check on that. Someone with that hair and that tiny body and those big stupid blue eyes could never have a name like that. It can't be real. The feeling in my gut is telling me so.

And he said that oh, I was just getting to know the town and everyone told me about you. Oh, and are you really the radio host of this town? And oh, that must be so fun and your job must be great! Oh, I will have to take a listen sometime!

He just wouldn't stop! I wanted to grab him by the collar of his shirt and shake him until he felt as dizzy as I was getting listening to him! I would shake the answer out of him if I had to!

WHY IS YOUR SMILE SO WHITE!? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?! I KNOW YOU MUST BE HIDING SOMETHING. NOBODY IS THAT NICE AND PERFECT!

AND CAN SOMEONE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT STUPID STATIC ALREADY, I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF HERE.

Oh-oh.

FUCK!"

"Apologies, dear listeners. We seem to have an sudden power outage. Luckily we have back up power regenerators while the fusebox is getting repaired. It seems to have exploded out of nowhere for no apparent reason at all. How completely unrelated to anything we were talking about here.

I had time to calm down now. I am good. Just don't pay any mind to the red splatters outside of the building, I am sure it's nothing. Maybe some teenager's new graffity or something as inocuous as that. That would explain the abandoned shoes I had no time to pick up.

Anyway, I think I didn't even finish my story, did I? Well, after that very horrible and disgusting encounter, "Lucifer", if that is even his real name, said that he was looking forward to opening the toy store with some of his new inventions real soon.

Clearly a money laundering scheme. Husk, look it up. Why it has to be me the one to tell you to do your job?

I think we all learned a lesson today, dear listener. Some things are best left unsaid and sometimes people should stay on their own towns and not comes to new places to talk with new people who didn't ask for them to be there. Sometimes change can stay unchanged. Sometimes change can be bad and quite upsetting. Why would you wanna risk it?

Ah.

Now, the weather…"

#appleradio #duckiedeer #radioapple #wtnvau #hazbin hotel au #my fanfic

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et-ceterra · 5 months

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this poem but make it royai

I Am Not Yours I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea. You love me, and I find you still A spirit beautiful and bright, Yet I am I, who long to be Lost as a light is lost in light. Oh plunge me deep in love—put out My senses, leave me deaf and blind, Swept by the tempest of your love, A taper in a rushing wind.

Sara Teasdale, "I Am Not Yours"

Obviously there are different interpretations of this text, I'm just going to point out what stuck out to me. Also for anyone curious here's linked below I Am Not Yours arr. Z. Randall Stroope as well as my biased overanalyzed Royai reading of this lol.

youtube

Today I was listening to the above choral arrangement with this text and since I happen to be rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist at the same time I couldn't help but draw parallels from this poem and, of course, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye.

Side note, coincidence but the text was also first published in 1915 which is right after the climax of the FMA storyline. So I imagine this being from both Roy and Riza’s perspectives, after everything has happened and Ed and Al have their bodies back.

In this poem, the narrator longs to be loved so deeply and intimately. And yet this juxtaposition exists in which the narrator cannot allow themselves to be lost in the other person, or perhaps they are refusing to lose all self control. They want to, need to be their own person and their s/o is their own person as well. It paints this beautifully tragic picture of something that the narrator feels they can never achieve. The fact is that no matter how much they want to experience this love, they feel that they never can because of their circumstances.

Taking some of the imagery more literally, let’s talk about the “lost as a candle” line. As the Flame Alchemist, Roy is extremely powerful. On a smaller scale, a candle is powerful in that it cuts through darkness; a spark can start a flame. But a candle's range is limited. For all the light and warmth he can produce on his own, Riza is Roy's true light in his life; she is "noon" in this scenario. So much of what he does, he does for her. She in turn is the light that keeps him from going astray and giving into his burning desire for revenge against Envy. She keeps him from performing human transmutation (of his own free will).

If Roy is warm, burning, charismatic, driven, Riza is cold, calculated steady, and distant, at least on the outside. Her time in Ishval and in the military has left her hardened. She does not hesitate to take others' lives if it's to protect her loved ones. She also does not hesitate to point a gun at her very own colonel when she knows he is doing something he will regret. I find it interesting that the two similes in the first stanza are so opposite, and yet the meaning is the same. Roy and Riza are two different sides, but the same coin. Roy is the hot, passionate fire, and Riza is the cold winter snow, but they equally desire to be loved by each other.

Although both Roy and Riza may wish for something more between them, and they know that the other is a "spirit beautiful and bright," there are all these legal and emotional barriers that prevent them from being together. Roy has dreams of becoming Fuhrer, Riza has people to protect, the military has laws in place preventing any sort of romance between officers. Riza and Roy long to be loved, completely accepted in the face of the horrible burdens that they carry. But even if they acknowledge that they do love each other, there are so many obstacles that they face to doing anything about it.

The third stanza culminates in what the two deep down truly desire - to be completely enveloped in love and companionship and acceptance. And Roy is the only one who can do that for Riza and vice versa, because of this long, scarred history that the two share. This is something so raw and intimate, something that the two feel they cannot admit - have they even admitted it to themselves? But the reality is that they would give up everything for each other. Roy literally did go blind at one point in the story, after an act of immense love and trust for his lieutenant.

This is a final, silent plea to the other to not hold back, seen in the expression (pain? jealousy?) in Roy's eyes when he watches Ed and Winry get happily married. Seen in Hawkeye's stolen glances across the office to her colonel's desk. Yearning silently, yet desperately, for the day that they can unashamedly be swept up in the other's love and desire, but unsure if that day will ever come.

#fma #fmab #riza hawkeye #roy mustang #roy x riza #royai #Youtube

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wall-legion · 3 months

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Shiverpeaks Sylvari PS: Food for Thought

This is the first quest for any sylvari who has aligned themself with the Spirit of Sun during CC. As a reminder, your character awakes at the base of the Pinefather, and is greeted by your season's esus. The following cinematic happens after you have loaded into Ochtachtoft: Esus: Newborn! At last. I was starting to think you might sleep the whole day away under Father's branches! PC: My apologies, sibling. This is my first time waking up. I'm still new to it. Esus: So you are. My name is (PC's season's esus). I am the esus of (PC's season). Welcome to the world, young one. PC: Thank you. It is a wonder, isn't it? Esus: Indeed, it is. Pinefather's roots truly took hold in a beautiful spot. PC: I must ask you a question, though. The Spirit of Sun has made a request of me. Esus: Is this true? How remarkable. What was asked of you? PC: Sun says something called a "pineshade" is trampling our gardens, and that I must help someone named Emlyn. Esus: I see. Emlyn has been deeply concerned about this problem for some time, and they will gratefully accept the help. Head to the Verdant Haven, and you will see the path to our gardens. That's where you'll find them. PC: I'll head there now. Thank you for helping me. Esus: Of course, newborn. We are family. We aid our own. Open World Upon leaving Ostachtoft, you head into the Verdant Haven and have a quest marker heading to the west. This leads to the point of interest named Emlyn's Bounty, where you find another sylvari pacing back and forth and muttering to themself until you approach. PC: Erm... excuse me. Are you Emlyn? Emlyn: Oh! Oh, yes, I am. Sorry, I was just- I'm sorry. Who are you? PC: I'm (character name). I came to help out. The Spirit of Sun said as I was awakening that there's a pineshade- Emlyn: Oh you'd better believe there's a pineshade! A terrible, awful, gigantic one! PC: Uh... let's pretend I don't know what a pineshade is, Emlyn. Emlyn: What? Oh right, you're new. Well, a pineshade is a big creature, looks like it's an overgrown sentient tree. Usually they're very docile. But this one is... well for some reason it's mean! PC: So you don't know why it's mean? Emlyn: No, not this one. Usually they only get angry if you hit them first. PC: And how do you fend it off? Emlyn: I've been building fences, and that at least slows it down. I've been too busy trying to keep everything watered, since the nearby spring is unusable to go find what's angering it. I'll just be happy to be able focus on that again, if you can figure this out! At this point you'll get a popup of your choices: Charming - Let me see if I can figure out what's bothering it. Dignity - Let me help you build the fence first. Then I can attempt to deal with the pineshade. Ferocious - It seems like the time for reason has come and gone. I'm going to take care of it. If Charming is chosen: Emlyn: That would be wonderful if you could! It would be tragic to cause the loss of a life if we could avoid that. If Dignity is chosen: Emlyn: Oh, that would be lovely! It would make things much easier here, and I can go to get water while you go to the pineshade. If Ferocious is chosen: Emlyn: Oh. If you think that is best. Please try to be swift about it. You head further west after that, into a region called the Silver Needles. At a point of interest called Folly of Toke, you will find the pineshade you are looking for. Like all pineshades, it cannot speak; unlike all pineshades, it is immediately aggressive. After it is defeated, it drops a shard of ice, and your quest marker moves back to Emlyn's Bounty. Emlyn: You're back! What happened? PC: I'm not quite sure, to be honest. I found the pineshade, but it attacked me as soon as it saw me. I don't know if anything could have been done to help it, Emlyn. Emlyn: Well if nothing else, we were trying to help. Thank you. PC: I did find this when it fell, though. Does this hold any meaning for you? Emlyn: Hm. Doesn't spark anything for me, but perhaps someone back in Ochtachtoft will know. PC: Then I'll return there. Thank you Emlyn. Be well.

#gw2 fan tree #shiverpeaks sylvari #spirit of sun quest path #gw2 ps rewrite

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missmewachu · 16 days

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🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favourite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨

Oh, Wisy, you're a treasure, thank you SO MUCH for this!! ^.^ I have an absolute WEALTH of music on my Ryou playlist, which I'm now delighted to showcase!! 1. In the Garden by Red Vox This song is the Ryou song to end all Ryou songs- between the lyrics, melody, tone, atmosphere.. Everything about this track tells a tragic story of Ryou's gradual descent into the jungle, Millennium Ring right there tangled in ivy with him. It so perfectly captures all his thoughts, feelings- fears, adjustment, and eventual content being buried so deep in the ground, with the ring, that's all that's left after a long, arduous journey together... If you're a Ryou enjoyer of any kind PLEASE give this track a listen!! 2. The Temple by Red Vox Another Red Vox classic, this one I IMMEDIATELY picture the Dark RPG, Ryou in such a state of desperation to reach out, connect somehow with Bakura, he puts his entire heart into crafting the most intricate stage for the Spirit's final battle- even if he can never have the connection he yearned for, he can at least be sure Bakura will go out in a fireworks display. Again- the lyrics, melody, tone, atmosphere.. All of it captures everything so incredibly perfectly, I'm in awe whenever I listen to this and hear the parallels between Ryou and Bakura. 3. Burnt Out Star by Pond Now for a smoother track.. This one is so delicate and serene, I feel like it reflects so much of Ryou's heart, tender and self-sacrificing, whilst also being so very worn down, of his own volition, and quietly existing in any space he comes to awake in. It's a longer track but goes through so, so many moods and sensations, that which I've just shared is only the first half of the song- the rest is an absolute feast for the ears in its own right. And between that melody, lyrics, mood.. I feel it captures Ryou's essence so very well. 4. Little Dark Age by MGMT Oh, THIS song.. This song was the track that started it all- the very first thing I heard that truly resonated with my Ryou muse.. It's spectral, with a softness amidst the sharp lyrics, and once more, everything contributing to its atmosphere paints the perfect picture of Ryou. Every time I hear it I have such vivid images of Ryou, standing upon a stage, presenting the endless shadows of himself before a stunned Bakura.. And it's CAPTIVATING.....! I really could sing so much more praise for this track, and all the others on this list, but for the sake of keeping it brief I'm holding back, gahaha! 5. Too Sweet by Hozier A recent addition to the playlist- there's so much here again, with the lyrics, mood, atmosphere.. I can't separate this from Ryou if I tried. Ryou of course has an inherent sweetness about him, he cares so deeply for his friends.. Though- if you're daring to peel back enough layers, the sweetness you get is one so potent, pungent, and raw that it's sickening- a syrup that tastes so incredible you fall a victim to its delicious taste, and never leave the forest.. This song I feel captures that realm of Ryou so perfectly~ And that's it!! Of course, I can't share all of this without linking my Ryou playlist- if you've read this far here's your reward, please enjoy for plenty more hand-picked music with such delicious, satiating atmosphere and lyrics!! I've put plenty of love into my Ryou playlist over the months and I'm always adding to it~ ^.^

..Now then, I won't pass this on directly to anyone else- if you're reading this and by chance have music you want to showcase please go ahead! But I can't think of Ryou and music without drawing upon @crush3dmary's incredible Philosophy playlist..! Sair, if you have some recent tracks from it you want to showcase, myself and I'm sure others would be so very eager to hear it~ I personally LOVE what your playlist has done for my own music tastes, casting a net out so far I'm now enjoying such a wealth of songs~ Thank you so much for your incredible playlist!! ^.^

#ask #wisyhana #ryou bakura #yami bakura #character inspiration #mew showcasing music ehehe :3c #music #bakura ryou

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afaramir · 1 month

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hiiii denethor anon here!! wow you’re really IN IT now (denethorposting). not to add more fuel to your anger but last week i saw someone say they hated denethor. and i just realised god they don’t get him even on tumblr do they. since then i’ve been silently fuming in rage. anyway… i am very Very Intrigued by both your faramir-goes-to-rivendell-au and denethor-thorongil relationship (if you ever want to write another 800 words about this, i am here for it 👀) and this line “each of them sharpens himself upon the whetstone of the other…” fuck. fucking insane actually.

unfortunately i won’t be replying for several days (i’ve had to keep my phone in another room to keep myself from getting distracted) . my exams have started AND i’m going through some shit irl :( it’s alright tho i’ll have more Faramir and Denethor Hours soon <- chanting this constantly haha. but i am with you when denethorposting IN SPIRIT okay. oh and can we please please please have denethor december? 🙏 bye will be here soon after my exams (that will be after the 23rd march i’m afraid)

hiii denethor anon <333 i am SO sorry this is so late truly attempting to figure out how to write AND see my friends AND do things like clean my apartment and go to the grocery store while working The Job...it has eaten my life. and this week my regular coffee shop switched their hours bc i live in my old college town and they are on spring break and it has sent me directly to hell. the death of My Routine…i have coped by INCESSANTLY denethorposting on tumblr dot com. i am somehow EVEN MORE in it than i was when you sent this ask. i hope you enjoy me being truly crazyinsane whenever you get a chance to look at all those posts lol. would love 2 hear your thoughts on them. but ANYWAY as always it is so lovely to see you, i'm sorry things have been tough but truly with my whole heart i bestow upon you the strength of denethor's sixty-year psychic war (with none of the associated madness) to make it through. looking at the date i hope you are free now.

here is the mandated readmore because i have never met brevity in my whole life. u said write another 800 words and i took that as a challenge um this post is like 2000 words. well...back on my bullshit

i mean this with all the love and joy in my heart but i laughed so much. no my dear friend they do not get him on tumblr. they have not gotten him on tumblr from the beginning. if you have been spared the incessant tomato jokes i truly…[crying] I Wish I Were You So Bad. this guy doesnt even know about the tumblr denethor slander (POSITIVE) (YEARNING). its the trenches out here for real. i just live in my little bubble with me and you and like four other mutuals/Denethor Understanders and that is it.

speaking of denethor and the rivendell au. i miss the days when i was working on the faramir-in-gondor scenes. emotionally it felt like dying but i kind of knew what was going on. now i am in rivendell taking and failing this history of middle earth exam. and i am so very….the next time we see denethor for real is in return of the king. now girl…how will i survive another 80k words. i miss my boy my dear darling my tortured victim of the narrative. and according to the paragraph i just wrote faramir does too but is Refusing to admit it to himself<3

im also RIDICULOUSLY torn on how i want to resolve his arc. now just between you and me. and anyone who bothers to click that read more. I DONT WANT TO KILL HIM I WANT HIM TO LIVE. GOD I WANT HIM TO LIVE. I WILL WRITE YOU A THOUSAND HAPPY ENDINGS. except its not a happy ending its a you are not allowed to die you are forced to contend with your choices you must keep living ending. because he will always be tragic no matter what. but its ALSO a you can rest now you can be at peace son of gondor you have won your war. all you sacrificed has been worth it. you have given your all when that's what duty asked you for and it has been enough. and that makes my poor heart weep.

like on one hand the idea of resolving his storyline with faramir.......the opportunity for some kind of reconciliation, some kind of understanding between them...god. delicious. i know in my heart that faramir comes home and IS the lord that denethor once dreamed of being. not playing at it...he is high and lordly and gentle and the world bends around his will and he knows exactly what to bow to and when to stand his ground and his powers are honed to a keen edge that he uses with the utmost care and. AUGH. he walks into the citadel the IMAGE of his father. it makes me feel FERAL. and how would denethor react to that. man.

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND HOW DO I END THE STORY. like. LOL. do u know what i mean. likelihood of me being able to just have a triumphant coronation and tie it all up with a bow is soooo small. the narrative contortions i would have to go through. to have denethor accept that and still be in character. Girl....no thank u <3 so we havent worked THAT out yet. like how much of the madness and despair do i want to put into the narrative. We Shall See. IM not politically savvy enough to get real into the weeds with it all so im kind of rotating just. a beautiful set of reunions with the fellowship. eowyn and faramir get engaged. boromir and faramir see all their dreams of a gondor restored come true. we skate over the political minefield and deeply navigate the beginnings of denethor and faramir's relationship in this new world. and among it all, within it all, is hope, and a new dawn. and curtain.

i got distracted but re: we are in rivendell. it IS kind of fun to think about the themes and narratives. i am pushing my Let Faramir (And Denethor) Be Numenorean + Let Numenoreans Be Weird agendas so so sooo hard and i am having the time of my life with that specifically. birds follow him around and pick up the tunes he sings. he hears the voices of the people he loves in his head. he falls into a river and after having a breakdown about it promptly decides that The River Is Testing Him And He Has Passed. he gets to rivendell and INSTANTLY knows that there is someone Very Like Him Here (its elrond. the elrond-elros-faramir connection has me FROTHING at the mouth. faramir looks at elrond and sees his father and sees every statue of elros in minas tirith and Knows that this here is the son of earendil, gil-estel, his brightest north star. elrond looks at faramir and sees his brother, his dear dead doomed brother, and every numenorean descended from him and all their sins and all their glories and yet, kind as summer, sees beauty and knowledge and a strange quiet man who carries all the weight of his country on his shoulders and yet knows him, knows the legends; perhaps the blood of numenor is not yet spent in the south)

i just think that Every Elf that meets faramir along the way is like woah...hold up. there's something up with THIS guy! men ARENT supposed to do that! not anymore anyway! galadriel is Lowkey Threatened by him. and isnt that beautiful. woman who could be queen of the earth sees god's special chosen boy and goes hang on a minute. Fuck. i think they work out their shit by the time the company leaves lothlorien but like...just thinking about how faramir lowkey blamed her for boromir's death in rotk! idk how their dynamic is exaclty gonna manifest but there's definitely some sort of similar mindreader2mindreader tension!

AND. um the idea of faramir travelling with the fellowship discovering that maybe...well. he has never wanted to be a warrior but he has been honed into a blade anyway. by his father and by necessity. and perhaps for the first time in his life...outside of gondor he does not need to be all that. he can be mithrandir's pupil without censure he can be scholarly and witty and cunning - he is all these things, in gondor. but there he has to be them, and now he can discover that yes, this is what he wants to be. and he has never let his father and the expectations of his position STOP him but there is always a weight, there is always the knowledge that your actions are disapproved of, and being away from that for a while is i just think. really good for him. see above re: he comes home the image of his father in a gentler time. keep honking im sitting in my car crying about denethor ii twenty sixth steward of gondor.jpg (<- my greatest creation PLEASE click the link lol)

ALSO IM THRILLED YOU LIKED THAT WHETSTONE LINE LOL i kind of blacked out when i typed it on the page. i think truly the crazy thing about denethor and faramir is that they SHOULD understand each other. they know so much about each other and yet are so incompetent at actually putting it to any good use towards, you know, improving their relationship. faramir is incredibly emotionally intelligent AND can read minds AND has taken so many of what he probably views as denethor's worst traits and turned them to gentler uses. (im talking about his powers but im ALSO talking about that thing he does when he encounters frodo and sam where he plays woe is me my brother is dead and i miss him sooo much to get on their good sides. yes of course he misses boromir more than anything else in the world. no he is not above using it to his advantage. and we see the SAME THING when gandalf and pippin come to minas tirith. hey isn't it crazy that both of them use boromir as a. manipulation chip. even after he's dead. hey thats kind of fucked up actually!) and denethor is…well denethor is denethor. ok im mostly messing around and thought that sentence was funny. i think he Knows most everything that goes on in faramir's head and yet Wilfully Chooses to interpret it in the worst ways because its just soo....very I Thought I Raised You Better Than That/I Honed You To Be My Blade Stop Defying Me. and despite all that the Problem is that they understand each other right up until they don't. they know how THEY feel about each other (incredible love that they can only express in the worst ways/think they're expressing only to be spurned by the other) but cannot POSSIBLY imagine that the other feels the same way.

ive gone on for SO SO LONG ALREADY LOL but. what do i have to say about denethor and thorongil. not enough and too much all at once. they're so toxic and awful for each other they're MADE for each other they're beautiful narrative parallels they're homoerotic besties they're bitter rivals they're pawns in a proxy war they're locked at all times in a psychic psychosexual situationship. um the enemy of my enemy is kissing me with tongue. idk i have more symbolism and actual analysis especially of the denethor-ecthelion-thorongil Issue. but we are just getting into it. so i will start with the situations bc i have two angles for this. on one hand i do think it is very fun if they constantly homoerotically circle each other for years and years and never do a THING about it. like...this is a stitching up wounds wiping blood off each others faces battle couple/situationship situation that THEN turns into a ridiculously high functioning political rival partnership bent together over books long into the night catching each others eye in council meetings using their very real disdain for each other for Manipulation Purposes and getting uh. SO hot over it. like.....Do You Know What I Mean. just. truly unresolved sexual tension THROUGH THE ROOF. it DELIGHTS me. they are always putting themselves in situations. and then NOT making out about it. AND THEY CAN READ EACH OTHERS MINDS!! THE WHOLE TIME!! SO THEY KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH THEY WANT EACH OTHER AND STILL ARENT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!! like thats just really good. but on the other hand.......the idea of just an absolutely terrible beautiful toxic rivals with benefits codependent situationship. i hate you so much and you know what we DO need to make out about it. every time they fuck it is a power play and they are having SO much fun with it. they will both start arguments with each other (AND IN PUBLIC TOO) just so they can fight and make up. the mind reading...Oh You Know What I Mean. taylor swift voice we had this big white city all to ourselves we blocked the noise with the sound of i need you and for the first time i had something to lose! logically thorongil is not yet in his grubby ranger era but the idea of him being dirt smeared all the time and hanging out with prim proper polished denethor. in the fic (which does exist and DOES follow the second model) theres a scene where hes just chilling with his head in denethor's lap and denethor is actually rather delighted and devoting ALL of his copious braincells to pretending not to be. Man. well never say im not a slut for contrast. and now the rest of what i could say is simply straight up redacted for indecency so it is time for this post to be over. the last thing i have to say is that it absolutely ruins denethor's life forever when thorongil up and leaves. sometimes a situationship....anyway. MUCH LOVE TO YOU AS ALWAYS yes we will have denethor december i already have an url saved.

#from the inbox #Anonymous #denethor anon #WAIT I PROMISE ILL TALK MORE ABOUT DENETHOR AND THORONGIL NEXT TIME BUT THE POST WAS ALREADY TWO THOUSAND WORDS #I HAD TO CUT MYSELF SHORT A BIT. I HAVE A LOT MORE TO SAY LOL #i hope this ridiculously long post made up for the THREE WEEKS it took me to reply<3 #denethorposting #<- funnily this IS the url i have saved. for denethor december. life is beautiful

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im-not-here-im-dead · 2 years

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hmm let's go with... Toriel? for the analysis thingy? :P

(also very tempted to ask about Berdly- and also asgore but-)

ask game

I’ll do Toriel first !

My overall opinion on the character:

Someone pleeeeease get this woman some therapy please stars I am begging you !

Okay but in all seriousness she goes through a whole heckin’ lot (and no one talks about it ???) like, she losses her kids, her husband starts a war she knows they can’t win without so much as consulting her (not to mention the possibility that the both of them could have lived through the previous war), she decides to flee to the ruins where she is almost completely isolated for who-knows-how-long, she develops a binge-drinking problem, she ends up losing six more children!!! And she does all that she possibly can (in her mind) to avoid losing a seventh. She’s even willing to sacrifice her life so Frisk can have a way to go home. I can only imagine how betrayed, how guilty, how miserable, and how hopeless she must have felt going through all that. She tries so so hard and still fails. Still makes mistakes. Still grieves the loss of eight children that she could have protected if only she was a little more watchful, or strict, or whatever. And I think that’s why she acts the way she does with Frisk. I think she’s a very complicated and tragic character (which I appreciate greatly) and I really hope that she gets a chance to heal from all the extremely traumatic things she’s gone through. And I trust that she will.

One virtue they have:

She’s just. Really freaking strong! Like in general. She’s a really determined and resilient person despite having gone through so much. It feels a bit… odd? to praise her for something that she had to be in order to survive/cope (I know I feel that way about a lot of my own attributes) but it’s something about her that I admire a lot.

One flaw they have:

She can be really strong-willed. For better or for worse. I think it was a major detriment to her during her time in the ruins, and I think it’s most evident when we try to leave the ruins. If she’d been more flexible or impartial, things might’ve gone down differently, but that’s not what happened. I don’t know how much of her rigid thinking can be attributed to personal flaw or maladaptive coping mechanisms, but either way, it’s something that she’s gonna have to work through. I dunno what else to say. This isn’t something that I’ve thought about a lot tbh.

Favorite moment from their arc:

I think in those moments between when we leave her in the ruins and when we see her again in the true pacifist route is where she truly shines the most. I could talk about this all day (if given the energy) but I think this post sums it up better than I could.

Least favorite moment from their arc:

The scene where she confronts Asgore in the true pacifist route -_-

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly dislike that scene. For what it’s worth, it is funny. But that’s the problem. I think it would have been so much better if it had been a more serious and emotional scene and it could have really shown just how tragic their estrangement was. How they once loved each other more than life, and now they can hardly bear to look at each other. I also think there would have been less mischaracterization of the two in fan works with Asgore being overly clingy and Toriel being overly mean-spirited if things had been done differently. But oh well. It’s not like you can change canon anyway. That’s what fanfic is for after all ;}

One relationship they have with another character:

Her friendship with Sans makes me melt TvT

They just click so well with each other. And I think, in a way, they’re kind of what the other needs. A companion they can confide in and share a good laugh with and a reason to keep going/get better. They’re so. Great. They’re great. Their interactions are so wonderful to hear about. I think they should start a prank war. They would absolutely start a prank war.

One relationship I’d like to see explored with this character

I’d like to see more of her and Flowey! He obviously cares about her at least somewhat. Maybe she’ll eventually find out who he used to be, or maybe she never will. Either way, things will never be the same between them, but I’d really like it if they started to form a new sort of mother-son relationship. Mostly I wanna see all the twists and turns and things that their dynamic takes.

What I would have liked to see happen with them in the media

Honestly, I just wanna see her. I wanna see her being happy and being herself. I think she deserves that.

I’m gonna put the other two under the cut :]

Next up, Berdly !

My overall opinion on the character:

When I first got into deltarune, I unfortunately jumped on the bandwagon trend of hating him for no reason ☠️

But that changed soon after chapter 2 came out. I think he’s a really fun, delightfully obnoxious, and surprisingly relatable character. What more can I say? He’s like a little brother to me :>

One virtue they have:

He really cares deep down. We see it in the neutral route where he overrides Queen’s mind-control and fries his wing to save his friends. We see it in the weird route when he drops the act and puts himself on the line the moment he notices that Noelle is truly in grave danger. If we squint, we can see it in every route when he talks about and interacts with Noelle. Sure he’s extremely annoying about it a lot of the time (most of the time actually) but he really does care about her a lot. He cares.

One flaw they have:

He’s really self-centered. I don’t necessarily mean in the self-important way. I mean in the has-a-hard-time-taking-other-peoples-perspectives-into-account kind of way. He frequently talks over Noelle. His rivalry with Kris seems to be pretty one-sided. He’s at least partially aware that Queen does not want him around and still tries to kiss up to her anyway. Instead of asking people what they think, he assumes based on his own narrow frame of reference, which causes him to have a lot of very awkward and unpleasant interactions. It seems to put a lot of strain on his friendship with Noelle as well. To me he seems like what a younger Papyrus who never got proper support might have been like :( Let’s hope he’ll learn some gosh dang communication skills! But for now, I suppose we can appreciate the character development he’s gotten so far.

Favorite moment from their arc:

I think the bluebird of misfortune sequence was really. Yeah. I didn’t know what to make of it at first, but now when I look back on it, it’s such a sincere moment of vulnerability and accountability. Course, he still has a lot to learn and things to work on, but it’s a start. I’m really proud of him for opening up like that. That takes guts.

Least favorite moment from their arc:

“If I can’t base my entire identity around being smart anymore, I guess now I’ll base my entire identity around being stupid!”

Buddy. My dude. My guy. You missed the whole friggin point !!!

Well, I guess I can’t expect him to do a whole one-eighty just like that. But still. Urrg! I think it’s another one of those moments where I feel like it might have been a lot better if it was taken more seriously instead of being unnecessarily played for laughs, but it’s fine. It’s fine and it’s funny! Aaah!

One relationship they have with another character:

His friendship with Noelle is so… ;-;

They study together. They play video games together. They feel like they can be the most themselves around each other. They’re terrified of letting each other down. They’re attached at the hip. They drive each other insane. They’re inseparable. They care about each other so much and they’re always there for each other no matter what. They’re besties.

One relationship I’d like to see explored with this character:

I’d say him and Kris, but that’s too easy. I’d like to talk about him and Susie! I think they have a lot in common. They would absolutely be the kind of friends who are constantly (playfully) butting heads and roasting each other. They know it’s all in good fun, but maybe once in a while, one of them might go a bit too far and the other would lash out and they’d both feel really crappy about it, but they’ll make amends. They always do, and their friendship grows stronger for it. They also would do a bunch of ridiculous daredevil stuff together. Sometimes Kris joins if they feel like it. It’s hard to say whether Noelle or Toriel has gotten more gray hairs from these two heeheehee

What I would have liked to see happen with them in the media:

I wanna see him let loose! I wanna see him just being a kid and not feeling like he needs to put up a front all the time. I want him to be able to just relax and have a good time. I want him to take a freaking nap.

And last but not least, Asgore !

My overall opinion on the character:

I think Asgore’s story is a heart-wrenching one that is (besides the one scene) wonderfully written, and one that is sadly under-appreciated. My feelings about Asgore himself are a wee bit complicated, which makes sense as he is a complicated individual. To put it briefly, he makes me feel a lot of feelings, and I mean A Lot. He’s a guy with a big heart who went through tragedy after tragedy and a kind ruler who cares so so so much and that’s exactly what led him to do awful things that I can’t ignore even if I wanted to. He loves flowers. And gardening. And tea, and puns, and floral-patterned shirts. He’s gentle and patient and soft-spoken. He’s such a goddamn pushover. He’s worryingly prone to denial. He’s so painfully self-aware to the point of self loathing. He’s a misguided and incredibly traumatized old man who wants only the best for those he cares about and thinks only the worst of himself. He did every single bad thing that he did, and he is not a ‘bad person’. I care about him a whole dang lot. I guess cause a lot of what he goes through hits surprisingly close to home. Not everything of course, but some things. Particularly feelings of profound hopelessness and self-hatred. In my mind, if there’s hope for him, and there is, then there’s gotta be hope for me too, right? And that means a lot to me.

One virtue they have:

His tender-heartedness. He regularly visits his people. Teaching kids how to take care of flowers, dressing up as Santa for Gyftmas, giving his friends cups that look like them, things like that. He gets nicknames like ‘King Fluffyboy’ and ‘Big Fuzzy Pushover’ without any kind of animosity behind them. In a no mercy run, when faced with an entity who will most certainly end his life, he offers them tea. And in a neutral run, when spared by the person who brought him to his knees, he offers them a place in his home. Beneath all the terrible decisions he has made and the tragedies he has endured, he really is a big softie with a big heart, and that’s what I appreciate most about him. Complexities.

One flaw they have:

While Toriel is strong-willed to a fault, I think that Asgore’s fatal flaw is his passiveness which stems from his indecisiveness. When he finds himself in a difficult situation, he’s paralyzed by his doubt and apprehension. And he just. lets things happen. Even when the world is ending, he remains in standstill. To be fair, the situation he’s put himself in is a very difficult one, to put it mildly. He’s working with what he has. I highly doubt I would have done better in his place. Sure, he might have handled things better in theory, but, well… that’s not what happened. His actions as well as his inaction had and will have grievous, lasting ramifications. And he knows that.

Favorite moment from their arc:

The moment where he destroys the mercy button. It’s such a phenomenal moment. It’s the moment where you realize that it really is kill or be killed this time. One of us has to die. And he does everything that he can (in his mind) to make sure that Frisk is not the one who dies, starting with showing them that giving him mercy is not an option. It gives me chills every time.

Least favorite moment from their arc:

Well, I already covered the scene where Toriel confronts him in the true pacifist route. I’d feel bad to leave this section basically blank, but the only other scene that I can think of that I could put here is not necessarily bad story-wise, but it is my least favorite because of how upsetting it was for me to witness. I’m still not sure if I’m ready to talk about it directly. If you’ve seen/played a route where neither you nor Flowey kills Asgore, then you already know what I’m talking about.

One relationship they have with another character:

Him and Undyne! I think their sort of father-daughter relationship is criminally underrated! He practically adopted her right after she had just tried to murder him! And then they bonded through combat training and tea making! And the way she looks up to him almost as a father-figure! It just! Ngaaaahhh! It warms my very soul TvT

One relationship I’d like to see explored with this character:

Him and Chara! The two were clearly very close. And then after everything that went down… well. they’re gonna have a lot to unpack. I think it’d be really interesting to see them together post true pacifist, each thinking that the other hates them. should hate them. But in reality, they just hate themselves. And they both blame themselves for everything that happened. I wonder if they’d slowly, tentatively talk it out over time, or if they’d avoid the inevitable and bottle it all up until they can’t anymore and have a very emotionally charged discussion that comes to a mostly healthy conclusion that isn’t perfect, but it’s a start. I dunno. I would also just like to see them gardening together

What I would have liked to see happen with them in the media:

I want to see him recover. I want to see him learning to forgive himself and let go of his self-hatred. I want to see him learning to love life again and I want to see him genuinely happy and content. Mostly I want to see him with an emotional support cat. He will have an emotional support cat.

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juniperhillpatient · 1 year

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The Library Re-Watch

This episode is possibly the strongest Book 2 episode (with no Azula anyway) yet. I like that it starts out with the group talking about taking mini vacations & you think that it's going to be more of a goofy side adventure plot & it turns out to be a very integral episode that moves the plot forward a lot. I've been complaining a lot this season about how Sokka keeps getting relegated to the butt of the joke so I really enjoyed everything he got to do in this episode from pushing to find a Fire Nation map to staying behind in the sinking library to learn the date of the next solar eclipse.

This isn't saying anything new, but I continuously love the world-building of ATLA. Of course if a lunar eclipse weakens water-benders a solar eclipse will weaken fire-benders. I wonder if there is an equivalent for air or earth benders? I can't think of natural phenomena that would weaken either of their elements on a certain day, but it's interesting the way different settings affect Toph's earth-bending, with the sand making things fuzzy (although I suppose she could probably technically learn sand-bending eventually? I guess her style & technique is less fluid & more grounded though, which I think would make sand-bending very difficult for her...side tangent. anyway!)

Professor Zei is a fun character & I can't believe he literally stayed behind to get buried in the sand because he couldn't tear himself away from the books. That's some dedication to your profession as a historian! Also, pretty dark.

I love Wan Shi Tong. He's a truly fascinating neutral spirit. The idea that he doesn't care about which side has committed which atrocities and wants to prevent humans from seeking methods to destroy one another altogether is fascinating to me. I just really loved this scene:

Sokka: You don't understand. If anyone's evil, it's the Fire Nation. You saw what they did to your library. They're destructive and dangerous. We need this information.

Wan Shi Tong: You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified? Countless others before you have come here seeking weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies.

Aang: We had no choice. Please, we're just desperate to protect the people we love.

Wan Shi Tong And now I'm going to protect what I love. [Flaps his wings and the library starts shaking.]

I just loved everything about this scene. It's scary & also tells you a lot about Wan Shi Tong. Also, can't believe Zhao is dead & he's still ruining things. I never thought about the library's origins & how Wan Shi Tong & his foxy knowledge seekers became the guardians but now I am. It's a really interesting setting & it's tragic that it had to be destroyed.

The ending scene actually made me emotional. I just felt so horrible for Toph for trying to hold up the sinking library & not being able to protect Appa. And Appa....Appa getting taken just hurts so bad. I remember the first time that I watched the show I could barely even enjoy the episodes following this one because all I cared about was where Appa was, & I'm dreading 'Appa's Lost Days' in this re-watch. That's a rare ATLA episode I've only ever seen once because it makes me too sad.

Points for Iconic Behavior this episode: Well, no one made me mad in this episode & it was a great episode but I didn't have too many moments where I was like "oh, that's iconic" for what the characters were doing or how they were acting, which is how points are assigned. Only Sokka earned any in this episode. 1000 for bravely staying behind to learn when the next solar eclipse will be & insisting on this adventure in the first place / generally leading the episode.

#the library #atla re watch #atla book 2

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 2 years

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Psycho Analysis: Durza

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Eragon. A series as wonderfully creative as it is wonderfully cheesy. Yes, the first book is horribly derivative of stuff like Star Wars, but Christopher Paolini threw in just enough spice to make it work, and overall the series does come into its own in later installments. One of his more interesting ideas was Shades, which were basically a sorcerer whose body was turned into a shell containing multiple evil spirits. Yes, it’s not wholly original, but it did give us the badass antagonist of the first book, the red haired, red eyed Durza. He even ultimately had a pretty tragic backstory, and inspired a truly cringeworthy poem that Eragon wrote to try and get some elfussy (elf pussy).

Now imagine taking that, draining everything interesting that I just mentioned, and turning that into a generic evil sidekick and you have Film!Durza, pictured above reading the original novel and wishing he got that badass final fight instead of whatever happened here.

Eragon is a bad movie. Sure it’s not the worst thing in the world—really, it’s just dreadfully dull—but it managed to miss the mark on adapting anything from the books without sucking the creativity and fun out of it. The Urgals probably have this the worst, going from hulking horned humanoids to just unwashed barbarian hordes, but Durza got hit pretty bad as well. Losing any sort of compelling characterization or explanation for his existence, what we’re left with is a shade itself: an empty husk filled with awful things.

Motivation/Goals: He’s the evil emperor Palpatine’s Sauron’s Galbatorix’s right-hand man following the death of Morzan, his previous right-hand man. To this end, he has to do evil right-hand man things like torture elf girls until they start getting way too into it (Arya looks like she’s about to bust it at any minute in the film) or steal the kills of other characters from the books because the filmmakers didn’t think through who they’d need in this series. There’s really not much too Durza, I’m afraid; he’s really a bland antagonist.

Performance: Look, Robert Carlyle is a cool guy. He was in Trainspotting, he was in Once Upon a Time, this man has a great resume! And I imagine when he turns that resume in for a new job he leaves this film off, because he does fuck all with his performance here. Oh, he’s certainly trying, that much is clear, but the dismal script and the fact they fucked anything interesting out of Durza really just hampers what should have been a deliciously hammy villain role. At least he’s having fun and clearly seems to get how bad the movie he’s in is.

Final Fate: He dies, sure, but in a way that is unbelievably lame compared to the book. We don’t get a cool moment where Arya and Saphira explode a giant gemstone to save Eragon’s ass and let him deal the killing blow, followed by him absorbing Durza’s tragic backstory; no, here we get a crappy CGI smoke monster battle. Cool. Great. This is so totally better. Kind of like how it’s so totally better that the Ra’zac were made into gross mummy ninjas Durza created who die halfway through the movie, ruining any chance of a sequel making sense (not that this film ever had a chance of getting a sequel with how dismal it is).

Final Thoughts & Score: Durza somehow manages to be one of the lamest villains ever despite getting a massive boost in competency from the books. Here, he’s way more badass, constantly having the heroes on the ropes, never really losing a fight, and even creating the Ra’zac out of bugs; in the books, the dude is an absolute jobber. The thing is, in the books he still gets more characterization that makes him an interesting character, while in the movie, the most he gets is progressively uglier as the film goes on. It’s just so incredibly insulting to just about everyone.

Still, Durza isn’t the absolute worst villain ever or anything. Much like the movie itself, he’s really just a bland, forgettable waste of good ideas and talent. I think that Carlyle is at least trying his best with what he’s given, even though what he was given is basically nothing, and Durza at least still looks pretty cool. It’s not really enough to save him or make me be more generous with the score or anything like that, but he’s not the bottom of the barrel. He is, however, about an inch from it.

The movie version gets a 2/10, while the book version deserves a nice 7/10. It really is bad when you give a character the role of killing the hugely important mentor figure, the one who is a badass former dragon rider and the secret daddy of the protagonist, and he still fucking sucks.

#Psycho Analysis #Durza #robert carlyle #Eragon

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archiveikemen · 1 year

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Abe no Yasuchika Main Story: Chapter 05

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Yuno: To me, it still seems like you did all that out of kindness.

Yasuchika: … It’s too bad you think that way.

Yasuchika suddenly stopped walking.

There was a faint bitter smile on his face.

Yasuchika: I was only pretending to be kind.

(What do you mean…?)

I felt like I had touched on Yasuchika’s true nature, and yet I couldn't quite grasp it.

Yasuchika: — It’s you.

Yuno: What?

Yasuchika: You were terrified of the living spirit last night, but today you were furious at Lord Sanemitsu for hurting that woman.

Yasuchika: I was surprised when I entered the room.

(Is that so?)

Yasuchika: Weren't you scared when you were targeted by someone of higher status?

Yuno: — I was afraid. In fact, I hesitated to resist him.

Yuno: But being the straightforward person I am, I let my anger get the better of me.

Yasuchika: I don't think that was the case. You were putting others before yourself.

Yasuchika: If there’s anyone here who’s truly kind… it's you, Yuno.

Yuno: … That’s too big of a compliment.

Yasuchika: You just don’t see how valuable you are.

(How do I convince Yasuchika that he actually did help someone?)

Yuno: It was thanks to you that I got that courage, Yasuchika.

Yasuchika: Me?

Yuno: Have you forgotten what you taught me?

Yuno: You said that no one enjoys being a living spirit, and that there are people who lead sorrowful lives.

Yasuchika: …

Yasuchika: You still remember that.

Yuno: Human beings can get hurt because of another person’s malicious intentions, and they end up becoming like ayakashi.

Yuno: That’s why I couldn't forgive Lord Sanemitsu.

Yuno: … You’ve encountered such tragic events countless times, haven't you?

(I wonder what he feels each time.)

Yasuchika: You…

Yasuchika’s voice trailed off for a moment, as if he was searching for the right words.

Yasuchika: Now I understand why Tamamo chose you, Yuno.

(Ah…)

He reached his pale hand out to touch my cheek.

Yasuchika: Your perseverance is attractive yet dangerous.

Yasuchika: And you seem like the type of person to forgive even the worst people.

(Why are you looking at me like that?)

Yuno: I’m not as great as you make me out to be.

Yasuchika: I hope so.

Yuno: What?

Yasuchika: I won’t be able to take advantage of you if you’re that respectable.

Yasuchika: Evil materialistic people are much easier to deal with, don’t you think?

Something flickered behind those dark-coloured eyes.

When I noticed it, my heart started to beat faster.

Yuno: What do you mean by… take advantage of me?

Yasuchika: Something that will happen eventually. Are you prepared for it?

Yasuchika: But for some reason… I want you to remain the way you are. I know it contradicts everything I just said, but I just think so.

(... What.)

I couldn't tell whether he was being serious or just joking, and my cheeks were turning red.

Yasuchika chuckled at the sight of my reddening cheeks.

The next day—

Yasuchika: Oh? Yuno.

Yuno: Good morning, Yasuchika. You’re up early.

I ran into Yasuchika at the library in the morning and greeted him with a book in my hand.

(Maybe he just got off work, so he’s not in his usual work attire.)

(This look is kind of new to me…)

Yasuchika: Were you reading?

Yuno: Yes. Since I’m working at the castle, I thought I might need to increase my medical knowledge.

Yuno: I also want to know more about the history of the army and Imperial Court, so I borrowed some books on that too.

Yasuchika: … You sure are studying hard.

Yasuchika: Honestly, you’ll be important even if you don't work that hard. You have the fox powers anyway.

Yasuchika: You disagree with me. Yup, I’m starting to read you more easily.

(It's embarrassing to get called out like that.)

Yuno: Being around you and the people in this castle piqued my interest in the Imperial Court and Shogunate. Does that reasoning satisfy you?

Yasuchika: Oooh I’m honoured.

Yasuchika: But I kind of get where you’re coming from. I enjoy collecting information on stuff I’m interested in too.

Yuno: … You mean ayakashi?

Yasuchika: Bingo. I’m so glad you understand me.

Yasuchika’s happy face suddenly turned into a serious one.

Yasuchika: … By the way, there's something you haven't told me yet.

(Is it something so serious that he’s looking like this?)

Yuno: W-What is it?

Yasuchika: What was it like when you formed a pact with Tamamo? How did it feel? Were there any physical changes in your body? I want to know every little detail!

Yuno: Hold on, you’re confusing me.

Yuno: Wow you really love ayakashi a lot, don't you?

Yasuchika: They are much better than human beings.

Yasuchika: Especially Tamamo… he’s amazing. He’s so gorgeous, powerful, and carefree.

Yasuchika: That's why I’m especially interested in you who got chosen by Tamamo.

(Uhm…)

Yasuchika rested his hand next to my head on the bookshelf and peered into my face.

The sudden lack of distance between the two of us made my heart stir.

Yuno: I don’t think it’s a good idea to suddenly talk like this…!

Yasuchika: Why?

(Even if you don’t have that sort of intention, you'll be easily misunderstood.)

Right when I couldn't peel my eyes off his alluring gaze—

???: That’s enough!

Yuno: Eek.

Tamamo: Yasuchika should remain at least 10 feet away from Yuno at all times. This is an official notice from the Shameful Deeds Management Union.

Shigehira: Uh… I’m not a member of that strange union, right?

(Tamamo!? Shigehira?)

Tamamo successfully broke into the library without losing his air of elegance.

And he was gripping Shigehira's arm very tightly.

Yasuchika: Wow, good morning! Shigehira and Tamamo.

Yuno: Good morning to both of you.

Tamamo: Good morning, Yuno. I’m sorry to hear that Yasuchika is disturbing you this early in the day.

(As always, he has no mercy on Yasuchika!)

Shigehira: I’m only here because I want to read in peace.

Tamamo: I’ve been tailing Yasuchika.

Tamamo: Yasuchika, you must be the one who cast a weird spell on my room’s door.

Yasuchika: No, no. That was an act of kindness, okay?

Yuno: What spell…?

Yasuchika: Glad you asked.

Yasuchika: The spell was triggered by opening the door in the morning and Tamamo’s ears became dog ears for a while!

(What the heck.)

Shigehira: … What are you talking about?

Yasuchika: Eh? It was specially made for him.

Yasuchika: Tamamo has lost an amount of his powers, that means his ability to shapeshift is likely to be affected.

Yasuchika: So I thought he’d want a makeover.

Shigehira: What a waste of your talents.

Tamamo: Let me teach you some basic principles of human society. What you did was harassment, not kindness.

(It’s not every day you get to see an ayakashi lecturing a person about morals… Yasuchika, you really are a different breed.)

Yasuchika: You did a good job blocking the spell, Tamamo. You’re still as cool as ever.

Yasuchika: I hope you regain your powers soon and show us the beautiful woman you used to be!

(I think I just heard something very questionable.)

Shigehira: Beautiful… woman?

Tamamo: You mean “EXQUISITELY” beautiful.

Yuno: Tamamo, you can even shapeshift into a woman?

Tamamo: Yes but I only need this form now.

Tamamo: Changing our appearance is an ability unique to foxes.

Yuno: It's like that fox back then…

Shigehira: The woman Tamamo disguised himself as was definitely vicious…

Yasuchika: It was awesome! Right, Tamamo no Mae?

Yasuchika’s lips lifted into a bewitching smile.

Yasuchika: He infiltrated the Imperial Court using that disguise and seduced court nobles one after another. None of them could resist his beauty…

(He really did that!?)

Tamamo: You're still lacking basic human decency, aren’t you?

Tamamo: — Nevermind, you’re slightly better compared to back then.

Yasuchika: …

(Yasuchika?)

It was rare for him to be left speechless.

(I thought they’re enemies only because they're an Onmyoji and an ayakashi…)

(Maybe there was something that happened between them in the past and only they know about it.)

Yasuchika: Oh my, did you hear that? Yuno. I’m so cute.

Tamamo: Like hell. I’m clearly cuter.

Shigehira: I don’t care! Both of you are weird, so neither of you are cute!

Shigehira raised his voice when he could no longer stand their non-stop bickering.

Yasuchika • Tamamo: …

Tamamo: — I beg to differ, but I won't say anymore since Shigehira said so.

Yasuchika: Yeah. I agree I wasn't being mature.

Shigehira: What? That was quick. Scary…

(What’s going on?)

Tamamo and Yasuchika placed their hands on Shigehira’s shoulders.

Tamamo: You’re the cutest. Let’s just leave it at that for now.

Yasuchika: Even your personality is cute.

Shigehira: Tch…!

(Uh… as much as I agree with them, I feel kind of bad for Shigehira.)

Shigehira: I’m going back to my room!

Tamamo: Wait. Didn’t you swear during sunset that we’d work together to expose Yasuchika’s immorality?

Shigehira: When? Where? Who? What month, day, and time? How many times did the sun set!?

(He’s so furious that he’s losing his cool…)

Yuno: S-Shigehira-kun. Please calm down.

Shigehira: Huh?

Yuno: Ah, I’m so sorry. I accidentally called you in a casual manner, Shigehira-san…

(Oh my gosh! I got too comfortable while watching them playing around.)

Shigehira: … It’s okay if you want to address me casually. No matter how many times I stop Yasuchika, he calls me “Shige-chan”.

Shigehira: You don’t need to use honorifics with me. Well, you do seem like you have a lot more common sense than these two.

Yuno: Really? Thank you! Shigehira-kun.

ℹ️ for consistency sake and to avoid causing confusion, i’m sticking to using their actual names throughout the story without honorifics, except when the characters are addressing someone of very high authority like Akihito, Yoritomo, Yoshitsune.

Tamamo: Well done, Shigehira.

Yasuchika: The way Shigehira initiated to get closer with her makes me want to cheer him on.

Shigehira: Don't do anything creepy. Please.

Shigehira's anger had subsided slightly.

Yasuchika: But if we’re competing based on who's closer to Yuno, then I’m the winner.

Yasuchika: We’ve already shared a bed.

Shigehira: … You did something that shameful?

Tamamo: Execute him.

Yuno: Yasuchika!?

(That was purely for work purposes—)

???: Are you ignoring my existence? Yasuchika.

Yuno: What.

Yoritomo: Yuno is my property, she belongs to me. Don’t you touch her without my permission.

(Yoritomo!)

Yoritomo spoke in a complacent tone as he approached us.

Yasuchika: It's fine, I only touched her a little bit.

Yoritomo: That's still not allowed.

Yoritomo: More importantly, Yasuchika. I haven't heard from you in a while, but I received a report from Kagetoki.

Yoritomo: I heard that you’re almost done with that case of strange happening at a mansion, and all that's left is the follow-up work.

Yasuchika: … I wonder how Kagetoki got that information. He might be an ayakashi.

Yoritomo: You have a lot of free time on your hands, right? Rejoice. I’ll give you work at the castle.

(Ummm…)

Yasuchika: Ow ow ow ow— my stomach hurts so badly out of a sudden.

Shigehira: Hold on. Isn’t Master Yasuchika an outsider, even though he works with the Imperial Court?

Yasuchika: Exactly! I might discover your secrets and expose them to the Imperial Court.

Yoritomo: I don’t have an ounce of trust in Yasuchika, but the Kamakura Shogunate runs on a meritocratic system.

Yoritomo: I've always thought that this guy is too capable to be left to rot in the Imperial Court.

(...! Yoritomo thinks that highly of Yasuchika.)

Yasuchika: But I’m only a prodigy when it comes to Onmyoji magic.

Yoritomo: Negotiating, laying the groundwork, blackmailing, bribery…

Yoritomo: Did you think I'm unaware that you’re capable of doing all that?

Yasuchika: …

Yoritomo: You lived in the Imperial Court ruled by that sly old dog, so you’ve encountered all sorts of people.

Yoritomo: I’ve been wanting to see for myself how good you are at business affairs. This is a good opportunity.

Yasuchika: … I didn't do anything worth that much praise.

Shigehira: Wow, it’s the first time I’m seeing Yasuchika look this uncomfortable.

Yuno: Indeed…

Tamamo: Justice has been served.

Yoritomo: Tamamo. You will continue to spit out everything you know about ayakashi and the underworld.

Tamamo: How strange. My fur is suddenly in a bad state. Maybe it's shedding season.

Yoritomo: I’ll get Morinaga to give you a haircut later.

Tamamo: You’re so violent. Did you get so busy with work that you've lost your heart?

(As expected of the Seitaishogun. Yoritomo is the strongest…)

Yuno: Um, are there any tasks I can help with?

Yoritomo: Heh. You’ve got guts to be asking for work.

(I’ve been involved in things I’m not familiar with, in unfamiliar places.)

It was Yasuchika who gave me the opportunity to do so.

...

That night—

Yasuchika: …

On a hill in the outskirts of Kamakura, Yasuchika sat alone gazing up at the sky in silence.

???: Is that an Onmyoji reading the stars? Yasuchika. Tell me if there’s an unlucky star.

Yasuchika: … Ibuki.

Ibuki: Hey, I’m here. How’s everything?

Ibuki was a tall man with horns on his head. A sign of his immortality.

Yasuchika: Seeing your face ruined my mood.

Yasuchika: Whatever. Just give me that thing I asked for.

Yasuchika coldly dismissed Ibuki and held out his hand.

Ibuki put a letter in his hand.

Ibuki: Here. It's from him.

After a quick glance, Yasuchika snapped his fingers.

The letter burst into flames and its ashes fluttered into the night sky.

Yasuchika: Thanks for your effort. You can go home now.

Ibuki: Don’t say that. He’ll want to know what you’ve been up to.

Yasuchika: … Nothing special. I’ve resolved the problem with the strange happenings and Sanemitsu is now our pawn, as per our plan.

Yasuchika: I’ve been observing the Fox Princess—

Yasuchika: For some reason, she’s been helping me with my work at the castle.

Ibuki: Oh?

Yasuchika: If I try to cut corners, she’ll see right through me and pressure me, so I have no choice but to go with her flow…

Yasuchika: It’s kind of annoying that I actually find her easy to work with, even though she zooms into even the tiniest details.

Ibuki: It sounds more like you’re complimenting her.

Yasuchika: — You must be joking.

Ibuki: Maybe. Remember you can’t go over to “that side”, Yasuchika.

Yasuchika responded to Ibuki ridiculing him with a thin, scornful smile.

Yasuchika: I’m a fish born in polluted water.

Yasuchika: I know better than anyone that I can’t swim in clean water.

…

(Ugh I can’t seem to fall asleep.)

I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall asleep again, so I decided to go for a stroll in the castle’s garden.

Then…

Yasuchika: What are you doing here at this hour, Yuno?

#ikemen genjiden #ikegen main story #ikemen yasuchika #ikemen series #cybird ikemen #cybird otome #otome #yasuchika main story

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halothenthehorns · 2 years

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How Do You Say Gods;

Chapter 20: WE FIND OUT THE TRUTH, SORT OF

"Oh well that's a relief, because if you found out the whole truth things would go easy and we can't have that!" Jason groaned.

"The truth about what exactly though?" Alex smirked. "Who stole the bolt? Annabeth's imaginary friend? The president?"

"It probably means more half-truths and figuring it out for ourselves, so I'm not looking forward to it any more than you guys," Percy sighed, clenching and unclenching his hand with unease. It was unblemished like the rest of him, but he would swear there used to be a scar on his palm...

Will felt for the guy, truly, Percy had been drafted into this, accused of and lied to this entire time and now he had to face an impossible choice no one would envy. It was moments like these he truly understood Luke's cause, the gods that had done this to Percy couldn't have mercy for their kids, but they were all here. Getting Percy's memory restored because of Poseidon. Some good had to come of this, whatever the original plan had been on how they'd gotten here.

Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans.

Nico grimaced, sounded like his personal torture.

Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd. Something tragic has happened backstage. Whispering masses of people are just milling around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.

It only then occurred to Nico, hearing it out loud like that, spending all of his time in this place might be why he'd grown to loathe being touched and in large crowds. He knew he was looking for someone he had no hope of finding and yet persistently kept at it with no other hope of a connection gone. The ghosts crowded him though, their whispers his ears could detect better than anyone's, impeding his progress all the more.

He'd never admitted it before, but Will put it so simply the parallel was impossible not to draw.

Nobody would bother him in Tartarus, he concluded.

If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp.

"Are we sure this isn't a form of punishment?" Alex demanded.

"Doing nothing will leave you with nothing," Thalia uneasily reminded. "It was their choice not to face the judges for something better, their average lives that lead them to, well an average eternal-ment."

Alex bared her teeth, not at Thalia, just the world in general. She'd never go down without a fight, not in the mortal world or any other realm. Hearth already got the sense she was going to be an einherjar no matter what became of her in the world above.

Black trees-Grover told me they were poplars-grew in clumps here and there.

The cavern ceiling was so high above us it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. I tried not to imagine they'd fall on us at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass. I guess the dead didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactites the size of booster rockets.

Annabeth, Grover, and I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer. They all look slightly angry or confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away.

The dead aren't scary. They're just sad.

Nico watched Will say that, really seem to mean that, and it surprised him all the more Percy seemed to understand that too. What did it say that most of the campers thought he was creepy, yet a very important person around there didn't?

Thalia was looking a bit forlorn herself, that this was the best she could hope for Luke instead of receiving some punishment from Hades for his actions. She didn't even know if she should want this for him instead.

We crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read:

JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION

Welcome, Newly Deceased!

Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines.

To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. I could just make out a tiny hill, with the ant-size figure of Sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top.

For a moment Thalia's eyes glazed over again, just a bit, just a hint of still wanting to go back and try again before she mentally smacked herself.

And I saw worse tortures, too, things I don't want to describe.

The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls-a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking. Elysium.

In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium. Immediately I knew that's where I wanted to go when I died.

"Don't we all," Will said graciously.

Thalia thought she was at least lucky in that regard. While it wasn't part of the guarantee of being a Huntress, you were most assuredly going to get Elysium for doing the goddess's work unless you'd done something outstandingly stupid to earn her wrath.

"Sounds sort of boring," Alex dismissed, this felt no better than eternal nothingness. "Getting a perfect afterlife, everything you could ever want just handed to you. Where's the, drive, where's the goal?! People need motivation to do something or they'll go nuts."

Magnus was watching her avidly, he was pretty sure he could spend eternity watching her do whatever she wanted and never grow bored of it.

"Who said the Isles of the Blest doesn't do that," Nico had an odd sort of smile on his face as he challenged back. "Nobodies ever been there and back to report of course, it's impossible to sneak in, you have to be escorted by Hades himself. Yet I find it hard to believe the ultimate goal of the dead could ever be called bad." He was thinking though, that if other gods existed, it was possible other forms of death did too. Maybe even his dad didn't know for sure what happened out there, but Hades spoke of the place with confidence while watching him...like he pictured him going there one day.*

"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. "That's the place for heroes."

But I thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people did good in their lives. It was depressing.

"Most people aren't good or bad, they just don't try," Alex said with an eerily calm look as she twined her garrote around her fingers. "Too wrapped up in their own worlds to make that effort. I suppose, in that way," she trailed off this did seem just.

"Doesn't mean we stop hoping they will," Will insisted, it never hurt to hope for the better, even when disappointment was all you got, the trying had to make it worth it on some level, even Hades's.

We left the judgment pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin.

After a few miles of walking, we began to hear a familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark batlike creatures: the Furies.

"Darn, I was hoping it was gargoyles," Magnus said.

"They're a good resemblance," Percy agreed.

I got the feeling they were waiting for us.

"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.

"I'm sure you still have time to make it to Maine and back," Jason snorted.

"We'll be okay." I tried to sound confident.

"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like, Elysium, for instance ..."

"Come on, goat boy." Annabeth grabbed his arm.

Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth.

"What the-"

Percy made a wild grab for the book before Thalia snatched the back of his shirt and yanked him back into his seat, but the other four all took the hint and knew not to ask what was going on as Percy narrowed his eyes with confusion, for now. Something was about to happen though, the air in here was starting to feel a little thin...

He landed flat on his back in the grass.

"Grover," Annabeth chided. "Stop messing around."

"But I didn't-"

He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.

No, he didn't, Grover hadn't done this, but something evil was doing this to him. Percy had Riptide in hand and looked prepared to stab Thalia, Will, and whoever else he needed to find out what was being done to his friend.

"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word seemed to have no effect. "Maia, already! Nine-one-one! Help!"

I got over being stunned and made a grab for Grover's hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.

We ran after him.

Annabeth shouted, "Untie the shoes!"

It was a smart idea, but I guess it's not so easy when your shoes are pulling you along feet-first at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces.

Jason felt like his imagination was in active overdrive as he tried to keep up with the chaos being described, fingers twitching like he had the maddening desire to try it now and see if he could.

We kept after him, trying to keep him in sight as he ripped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance.

I was sure Grover was going to barrel straight through the gates of Hades's palace, but his shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged him in the opposite direction.

The slope got steeper. Grover picked up speed. Annabeth and I had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and I realized we'd entered some kind of side tunnel. No black grass or trees now, just rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.

Percy's breaths were coming in short, sharp pants as he wished he could do anything to stop this, the feeling was creeping around him more every moment of where his friend was being dragged to and he couldn't breathe-

"Percy," Thalia gave his shoulder a vigorous shake, "you're sucking all the water out of our air!" She was starting to get a nosebleed!

"Sorry," he gasped, literally, and so did the others as they exhaled in relief and some of them rubbed their throats. It was like he'd been trying to pull Grover to him any way he could, bend him back to his side no matter how ridiculous the thought. If he concentrated though, really hard, he just knew somewhere Grover was alive and okay, though he still had no clue what gave him such an assurance.

Thalia kept her nails dug into his shoulder all the same at the horror of what had almost happened.

"Grover!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Hold on to something!"

"What?" he yelled back.

He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.

The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on my arms bristled. It smelled evil down here. It made me think of things I shouldn't even know about-blood spilled on an ancient stone altar, the foul breath of a murderer.

Nico was taking calm, calculated breaths like he was preparing to take that lunge right now. Whatever Kronos had started by awakening had not stopped by his death. There had been zero hope of finding Percy in the Underworld, but he'd looked all the same until he heard the whispers from the dead, mother earth herself was stirring, and he would go down to the deepest parts on display right there to find out what.

"Nico, pay attention!" Will was nudging him persistently, speaking just a tad louder than was necessary. "I'm sorry if you're afraid of heights, but that's not helping!" The guy was turning gray and they would all swear the earth was starting to roll just a bit beneath their feet.

Having two such powerful demigods in such a state of distress was about to literally tear the roof down around them if they didn't hurry up and get away from this chasm!

Then I saw what was ahead of us, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block.

Grover was sliding straight toward the edge.

"Come on, Percy!" Annabeth yelled, tugging at my wrist.

"But that's-"

"I know!" she shouted. "The place you described in your dream! But Grover's going to fall if we don't catch him." She was right, of course. Grover's predicament got me moving again.

He was yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging him toward the pit, and it didn't look like we could possibly get to him in time.

It took every ounce of self control Percy had not to throw himself forward again, hand extended towards no one here to stop this from happening. He could do this, he could stop this, if he just stabbed his sword into the ground and reached far enough, he wouldn't lose him.

What saved him were his hooves.

Percy laughed. He slumped back in his seat in relief and looked punch drunk like all this water was making him high. Thalia sighed in relief and smacked his shoulder calling him a turnip brain, before Will shushed them both so the rest of them could hear for themselves and get away from this creepy cavern Nico was still far to uneasy hearing about as far as he was concerned.

The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging him along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself down by grabbing on to the big rock and using it like an anchor.

He was ten feet from the edge of the pit when we caught him and hauled him back up the slope. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around us angrily and kicked our heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.

"I have never been more afraid of shoes in my life," Jason looked a little faint.

"Did those Aphrodite kids curse them or something?" Alex demanded.

All at once it seemed to hit the five of them who had given Grover those shoes. Percy began looking at Thalia, Nico, and Will so intensely, they could practically feel the water boiling around them.

"The bolt Percy," Thalia forcefully reminded him, "focus on getting out of that place, not going farther in."

He struggled to swallow for a moment as his headache screamed in protest like he was going to split in half. He should let this go before he blacked out from pain, but he couldn't, he was right and they were going to admit it-

"Let it go Percy," Jason coolly stepped in. "We've got enough to deal with when we get to the surface to hash this out." A mole in their midst was certainly a priority of his, and he wasn't even sure he had any loyalties to this camp yet.

He was right though, Percy would have to admit as he backed down. His mom was the priority here, finding that bolt and getting back to Annabeth. The second he let go of the idea, he was already drawing up a blank on what he'd been demanding before anyways. He just knew he wanted out of that cavern.

We all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. My limbs felt like lead. Even my backpack seemed heavier, as if somebody had filled it with rocks.

Thalia had her lips pursed up so tight she looked like she was chewing on a lemon, and Nico and Will were fidgeting in the exact same way. Great, now he knew he was missing something! That stupid backpack had nothing to do with those shoes, right?

Grover was scratched up pretty bad. His hands were bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupiled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.

"That was freaking cool if it wasn't so awful for him," Alex muttered.

"I don't know how ..." he panted. "I didn't..."

"Wait," I said. "Listen."

I heard something-a deep whisper in the darkness.

Nico looked least surprised of all, Will felt a cold chill as he watched. There was something so wrong with the calm way he knew of this place, his head tipped slightly to the side as if he were listening for it now. Nico had never been Kronos's spy though, had helped Percy and them fight in the Titan's war, so what his familiarity with this place was greatly disturbed him if it was somehow even worse than that.

Another few seconds, and Annabeth said, "Percy, this place-"

"Shh." I stood.

The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below us. Coming from the pit.

Grover sat up. "Wh-what's that noise?"

Annabeth heard it too, now. I could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Anaklusmos.

The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.

I could almost make out words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek. As if ...

"Magic," I said.

"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.

Together, we dragged Grover to his hooves and started back up the tunnel. My legs wouldn't move fast enough. My backpack weighed me down.

"Just drop the dang thing already!" Magnus blurted, he had no more need of it.

He watched all four Greek kids grimace at the suggestion and realized Jason had been right to question it.

They were lucky, or grateful Ares had enchanted him to not do any such thing, Will very much wanted to protest! If Krono had gotten that, he could have resurrected even sooner! Though, it might have saved Luke's life, maybe he would have made the right choice sooner...

Percy kept shifting his weight around like he was trying to readjust the straps, that stupid purple thing was lingering in his mind like it was full of Oreos again and he was being denied a treat, and no way was he crazy for thinking so with the way Thalia would no longer quite meet his eyes.

The voice got louder and angrier behind us, and we broke into a run.

Not a moment too soon.

A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, I lost ground, my feet slipping in the gravel. If we'd been any closer to the edge, we would've been sucked in.

All eight of them shivered at once. It had never left their mind just how close the thin layer of ocean floor could be separating them from this very fate if this was all somehow a trap.

We kept struggling forward, and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. A wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel. Something was not happy we'd gotten away.

"What was that?" Grover panted, when we'd collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades's pets?"

Annabeth and I looked at each other. I could tell she was nursing an idea, probably the same one she'd gotten during the taxi ride to L.A., but she was too scared to share it. That was enough to terrify me.

I capped my sword, put the pen back in my pocket. "Let's keep going." I looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"

He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway."

"He managed to hit Medusa with a branch with them, it's almost worth the trade," Alex disagreed.

"Now I know what kind of footwear you prefer, the life and death kind," Magnus didn't seem all that surprised.

He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as Annabeth and I were. Whatever was in that pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Even Echidna hadn't given me that feeling. I was almost relieved to turn my back on that tunnel and head toward the palace of Hades.

"You guys didn't question this at all?" Magnus whispered in a tiny voice.

"We were focused on the deadline," Percy said with such dread in his stomach, he was beginning to wonder if he'd swallowed that backpack.

Almost.

The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.

Up close, I saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death.

"Did we expect anything else at this point?" Alex said, but a very large part of her did want to see such twisted artwork in person.

Some were from modern times, an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls-but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. I wondered if I was looking at prophecies that had come true.

"He actually has a bit of premonition power about death," Nico answered, "a sort of, gut feeling, like a ticking noise that steadily grows louder the nearer it draws, that all sound slightly different when something is about to strike and increase his workload," he finished sourly. Boy did he always hear about the paperwork of that.

"All gods have that to some degree," Will added with less cheer than usual. "It's not that they can see the future, except the Fates of course, that's their shtick, but they get this, feeling. A sense like they should grab a raincoat even though there's not a cloud in the sky and it works out for them later in the day when a bucket falls on them."

"This feeling that stretches over millennia, mind you," Thalia nodded.

Alex grimaced with distaste, she had plenty of experience with Loki's uncanny assurances about the future, but the others felt a bit small for the reminder of how the gods could easily view them as pawns in such a widespread cosmos.

Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as my fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues- petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs-all smiling grotesquely.

In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."

I understood why she wanted to move on. The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming. I had a sudden desire to eat them, but then I remembered the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. I pulled Grover away to keep him from picking a big juicy one.

Nico sighed with distaste, it was a particularly popular story for cabin four to hiss at him during meals. You'd think the guy who got regularly turned into a plant by their mother and his own stepmom would get some kind of pass from them!

We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades.

"And house is putting it mildly," Percy told them.

"Not an adventure I envy," Jason shuddered.

The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. I guess they never had to worry about rain down here.

Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.

Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.

"That sounds like the coolest haunted house in the universe though," Alex said with just a touch of longing.

"Only if you acknowledge there's no exit," Magnus swiftly reminded.

"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."

"And here I thought the Bible Thumpers would be lining the block to get in there," Will snorted.

My backpack weighed a ton now. I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.

"Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should ... knock?"

"At that point it's just redundant," Thalia rolled her eyes, "you've already snuck into his kingdom, might as well barge into his home." She was mostly being sarcastic, but it didn't feel like there was a right answer to that either.

A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.

"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.

The room inside looked just like in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied.

He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really struck me as godlike.

Nico straightened up in surprise, but he wasn't really going to get his hopes up Percy had anything decent to say about his dad, nobody had before.

He was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold.

His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.

Will sounded as if he meant every one of those powerful words.

Apollo had come to visit him in his dreams sporadically and he'd only seen his dad in person twice as a happy go lucky teenager. The last time he'd been to camp he hadn't even popped in to say hi, though admittedly his sister had been missing at the time, they'd all quietly wondered to each other that summer why he'd never instigated a quest out of any of them, nor had he gone out of his way to ever show them around Olympus when they got the chance to visit there. He came across more as a 'cool' parent who just blessed them with amazing gifts when he remembered they existed.

He glanced curiously at Nico, and now actually felt a little jealous of how common place this environment was to him. How much time did Hades spend with him?

I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master.

"I think the wine dude is still my favorite," Alex said with a scrunched up face. "I'll take trailer-park cherub over any auras these other two give off."

"Please don't ever say that to him, I am begging you," Will said with even more fear than seconds ago, which appropriately made the reading sound even worse now.

Nico managed to laugh of all things, taking that in stride as he imagined Will eating this book before Dionysus could get his hands on it instead.

Then I told myself to snap out of it.

"Which I'm only semi-confident you can do at this rate," Jason frowned, considering how rude he'd been to Mars. Pluto at least was coming across exactly how he would have expected.

Hades's aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.

"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

'It's amazing how thin that line is,' Hearth uneasily agreed. He'd never wanted to hear depictions of Hela, let alone her male Greek counterpart.

Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever.

I fought the feeling and stepped forward. I knew what I had to say. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."

Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?

And then the tension was broken by nearly hysterical laughter by them all. Thalia tried choking something together about child molesters and rapists but the answer wasn't very clear, while Alex said loud and proud, "you make me wish I had ADHD for these thoughts!"

"At least now you acknowledge I have them," Percy grinned indulgently, glad it was all fun and games for them when his voice had been squeaking like a mouse in front of someone who could wave his hand and turn him into one any second.

"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."

Nico bore a very striking resemblance of that unimpressed look now, Percy absently noticed, as he grumbled inaudibly he'd been going about making him laugh all wrong. Man that guy was weird.

I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared.

I glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.

Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back.

"Lord Hades," I said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad."

"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.

"Grover the unsung hero of this quest," Magnus snorted.

"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," I said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."

Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"

I glanced back at my friends. They looked as confused as I was.

"Um ... Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"

"At this rate what haven't you done," Alex threw her hands up in exasperation this pantheon seemed no better than her own. "Shoot JFK? Started World War 2!"

"Can't say I'm looking forward to finding out," Percy groaned.

The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization.

'That is a lot of dead bodies,' Hearth's mind boggled at the madness.

'And those were just the ones he summoned,' Magnus reminded, his mind on all the dead who had ever passed his domain, Genghis Khan's ruling alone must have been a mass import.

They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.

Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"

I wanted to say, Well, these guys don't look like peace activists. But I thought that might be a dangerous answer.

"You get a gold star for that restraint alone," Thalia promised.

"You are the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"

"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"

"Oh, here we go," Nico couldn't stop the little sigh of defeat, but he did it quietly just for Will. He knew this speech so well he could have said it with him.

Will had to really concentrate all of a sudden on the book, and not the fact he shouldn't be able to feel the warmth of his breath down here.

"Well..."

"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"

Magnus opened his mouth with that curiosity of his again, but Nico gave him a small shake of the head silently hoping he wouldn't persist. He didn't, to Nico's relief, who for once would have felt guilty for not answering, and yet that kind of knowledge was really pushing the limits of what he should and shouldn't know of this place.

I opened my mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll now.

"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"

"Charon wants a pay raise," I blurted,

"I take my gold star back!" Thalia whacked him hard enough to make him see stars.

Percy couldn't even be mad as he rubbed the spot, he already wished he hadn't let that one slip too.

just remembering the fact. As soon as I said it, I wished I could sew up my mouth.

"I will help," Alex promised.

"Maybe later," Percy sighed, though he hadn't ruled it out yet.

"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."

"That was fascinating," Jason looked like he regretted not having a pen and paper to jot all that down. "Did none of the other gods take that into consideration? It's like Zeus wanting more car factories to exist."

"We certainly didn't think of it that way," Will agreed regretfully, "and Hades has no, ah, ambassador to speak for him, nor is he welcomed on Mount Olympus to ask, so, yeah, sounds like a recipe for disaster in hindsight." He'd thought Nico would take up the role, but he'd have to be a camper longer than two weeks to manage it!

"But you took Zeus's master bolt."

"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, towering to the height of a football goalpost. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."

"Great, can he explain it to me?" Percy sighed.

"How have we not all died yet from these three?" Alex looked plenty disturbed these idiots apparently thought their two brothers were out to deceive them at the drop of a hat.

Nobody answered her, which wasn't exactly encouraging.

"His plan?"

"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, you took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"

Hearth was starting to get a headache trying to keep in line all these different fabrics the gods were weaving over this one lie in the first place. How was it even possible to hide away a demigod child if monsters could so casually smell him, wouldn't the gods have known when he was born? The same deity who had foreknowledge of plagues and natural disasters couldn't pick up on the fact Percy had no idea about any of this? Immortal clearly didn't mean all-knowing like Odin.

"But ..." Annabeth spoke. I could tell her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"

"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the satyr have been helping this hero, coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"

"Percy has literally not said a word about any of that," Jason said dubiously, "he's been weirdly polite to this god during his rude rant."

"You try telling him that," Percy waved at Jason with such agreement he blasted a current of water that splashed his face. He spat out the ocean from his mouth and asked himself how long he'd have to put up with these Greek kids nonsense.

"No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't-I didn't-"

"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."

"You didn't try to stop us? But-"

Magnus was going back in his head and ticking up all of the interruptions, and only the first on the bus had most definitely been Hades. After that it was Medusa and Procrustes by accident, Zeus had sent Echidna, and Ares had helped them the rest of the way there. It did seem that if this guy had wanted to impede their progress, he might have been trying harder. Hell, they'd walked right through his front door!

"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson, your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."

"Was that a threat or a compliment for your brass?" Alex asked.

"I could not tell you, gods do I hope we don't find out," Percy groaned.

The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.

At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with that.

Percy's defiance in the face of the gods didn't surprise anyone this time. This quest had been nothing but infuriating from the start, everyone pointing the finger at everyone else and even this twelve year old made the gods seem like a bunch of children arguing over a toy.

"You're as bad as Zeus," I said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"

"Of course," Hades said.

"And the other monsters?"

Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you, I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"

"Easily?"

"Return my property!"

"But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."

"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"

"But I didn't!"

"Open your pack, then."

A horrible feeling struck me. The weight in my backpack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be...

I slung it off my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.

"I don't understand," Percy looked very much like he didn't understand his own words coming out of his mouth. "Did the pit put that in there! It wasn't there until, but-"

"I know Percy," Thalia sighed, "this is a really multilayered crap sandwich. It took Annabeth ages to explain it all to me, and with not nearly so much detail as this."

Will was glancing anxiously from Percy, to Nico, to the surface to get this over with already and kept reading loudly before he could ask anymore leading questions he wasn't ready for.

"Percy," Annabeth said. "How-"

"I-I don't know. I don't understand."

"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish,

Nico felt his heart shrivel up, did his dad think that of him too? Hades only tolerated him most days, had a rare conversation on a good day, and ignored his presence the rest of the time while roving in the Underworld. He didn't consider himself a very prideful person, but he'd never been officially claimed either, so he didn't feel he had anything to be proud of.

thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now ... my helm. Where is it?"

I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten into my backpack. I wanted to think Hades was pulling some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy. But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from ...

"There's that sort of truth," Alex narrowed her mismatched eyes with distaste, and the look seemed all the more striking for it.

"There's no way Ares was the one who orchestrated all this," yet Magnus would believe it at this point. Would the war god ever have a reason for not wanting to start one out of boredom? He'd admitted himself he'd put this idea in Poseidon's head, but, "he can't take their godly items."

"He's had help," Jason agreed, those shoes still bothering his mind greatly, but what motive would a child of Mercury have for helping him? Luke could be being framed for that bad gift just like Percy had been. None of this explained that grotesque pit's involvement either.

Thalia made a hissing noise and was slashing across her throat to shut them all up before Hearth could get his hands moving. It was heartening to see them piecing this together, but bad for her friend who had his eyes closed and fingers drilling into his forehead to alleviate the pain.

"Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is all a mistake."

"A mistake?" Hades roared.

The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. The one with Mrs. Dodds's face grinned at me eagerly and flicked her whip.

"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come, I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."

Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.

Percy reached his hand out again; he was twelve years old standing on the rain soaked hill of Camp-Half Blood where Thalia and his mother had made a sacrifice that had paid off, he was at the edge of that pit willing to throw himself over the edge to pull Grover back. He would burn Hades's palace to the ground jewel by jewel to get her back.

...and yet...

I couldn't speak. I reached out to touch her, but the light was as hot as a bonfire.

"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."

I thought about the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get me out of this. If I could just get my mom free ...

"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."

My hand moved against my will and brought out the pearls.

"Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."

I looked at Annabeth and Grover. Their faces were grim.

"We were tricked," I told them. "Set up."

"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-"

"I don't know yet," I said. "But I intend to ask."

"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.

"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt-"

"I know that."

"Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on your mom."

"No!"

"I'm a satyr," Grover said. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."

"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."

"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."

"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.

"Stop it, both of you!" I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had both been with me through so much. I remembered Grover dive-bombing Medusa in the statue garden, and Annabeth saving us from Cerberus; we'd survived Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that I'd be betrayed by a friend, but these friends would never do that.

They had done nothing but save me, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for my mom.

"I know what to do," I said. "Take these."

I handed them each a pearl.

Annabeth said, "But, Percy ..."

I turned and faced my mother. I desperately wanted to sacrifice myself and use the last pearl on her, but I knew what she would say. She would never allow it. I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. I had to stop the war. She would never forgive me if I saved her instead. I thought about the prophecy made at Half-Blood Hill, what seemed like a million years ago. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.

Percy's breath shook loose with such sorrow, the powerful wave it sent through the realm probably had surfer's owing him a prayer of thanks. Thalia had promised him this was inevitable, the line that comforted and tormented him in equal measure all condensed into this one moment. He had done the right thing, his mother would be proud of him, even if he never got to see her again. It did not feel like a sacrifice he could ever make, and yet it had stopped the world from falling into doom.**

"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."

Magnus couldn't believe what he was hearing. He'd come on this quest for her and nothing else, and now with the moment at his grasp, all he had to do was offer the bolt to have her back, or even throw the pearl for her and leave himself behind. He wasn't so sure he could have done the same in this moment what Percy had done.

The smug look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godling ... ?"

"I'll find your helm, Uncle," I told him. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."

"Do not defy me-"

"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."

"Those are the best parting words I have heard in my life," Alex said in admiration. "You could write speeches."

"You are the only person who would give me that power," Percy said with a reluctant, halfhearted grin. The only thing stopping him from curling up in a ball and crying about never seeing her again was the confidence he would find that way. He would see her again.

"Percy Jackson, you will not-"

I shouted, "Now, guys!"

We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.

Hades yelled, "Destroy them!"

The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.

Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments at my feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.

Annabeth and Grover were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.

"Look up.'" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"

Sure enough, we were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us.

"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.

"I don't think you do!" I shouted back.

We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and ... Darkness.

Were we dead?

No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized; What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.

"Thank you father," Percy said instantly aloud this time. They all heard it, felt it as the cold depths of the ocean parted for a moment for the message to pass unimpeded. The Olympian Gods, in their narrow minded fields, still existed because of their toying, tangling relationship with humanity. Not always good, not always bad, it just existed same as the shark and the seal.

For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor.

"A shame, some archeologist and geologist would kill to get a look at some of those layers in the earths crust," Alex smirked.

"I'll have Poseidon send them a Christmas card if I'm ever allowed back in LA," Percy chuckled.

"Now I'm just grateful they didn't catch sight of any buried bodies and any amount of things under the surface," Jason frowned at her.

The two other milky spheres, Annabeth and Grover, kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And- ker-blam!

We exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"

I grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. I caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling us, a great white about eleven feet long.

I said, "Beat it."

The shark turned and raced away.

The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from us as fast as he could.

"I think that's karma on some level, you might have saved his life," Thalia said saintly.

"Now who's giving out crappy PSA's," Percy rolled his eyes.

Somehow, I knew what time it was: early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.

In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city.

There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after me right now.

Nico was staring at the floor with a touch of fascination, he'd never equated his gift to Percy's as shaking the very earth! The idea fumbled in his mind though, not quite flying high enough to make his mind race off and hope one day Percy would realize the same. It just stayed there, level, as an interesting comparison rather than being a good or bad one, which left him feeling more flummoxed than if he had just tried to shove his crush back down.

"That is the coolest thing I never wanted to imagine," Will smiled casually, and he had seen the end results of those hordes bursting out in New York.

"It's something alright," Nico casually agree, staring at his fingernails oddly.

But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't my biggest problem.

"You know it's a big thing when every supernatural thing under the earth isn't your biggest problem!" Jason nodded.

I had to get to shore. I had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus.

'I will take a moment to pause and be grateful he didn't zap the whole ocean with that thing,' Hearth frowned.

'Magic!' Magnus mocked back with a laugh, which only made his friend smile in delight.

Most of all, I had to have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked me.

Alex's eyes sparked with particular interest as Jason took the book. Ares was no Loki, but she could not wait to hear this godling give that jerk a piece of his mind!

Jason looked like he was being handed a live bomb and was tempted to let somebody else read the appalling idea this idiot was about to challenge a god!

PJOPJOPJO

*I do imagine all the worlds overlap in a sense, so Isles of the Blest is quite possibly Hotel Valhalla in some aspect. Regardless, I've seen The Good Place one to many times not to nitpick at this anymore, and being atheist means I simply think people just poof, vanish, and that's more comforting to me than eternal anything.

**Considering Percy's fatal flaw is told to be that he would sacrifice the world for his loved ones, I find it hard to believe he allowed it this first time without putting up more of a fight. Don't get me wrong, he made the right choice taking his mother's want into account, it's commendable, but still. It comes true in the third by what he does for Annabeth and all following books he risks the world for her, but it does rub me the wrong way his romantic love seems to outrank his familiar love in the definition here.

I personally think his fatal flaw is more clearly defined as impulsiveness like his half brother Theseus, he doesn't think far enough ahead and choses in the moment what's most important. Like all children of Poseidon, his erraticness would be his undoing; his short term solutions having long reaching problems due to their ever shifting ways. Adaptable, but problematic.

He chose this quest to go save his mother, not to stop the war, that's just what he correctly chose in the end, he over came his fatal flaw, but it's still what almost came to his death before he corrected thanks to his mother and friends willing to do the same for him in that moment.

This of course is in reverse of Jason, who's fatal flaw is most definitely to much deliberation, and I adore they balance each other out! I've yet gotten to it but they are going to be besties by the end!

Will, on the other hand, absolutely deserves the title of sacrificing the world for a passing stranger. He's too sweet for his own good and needs Nico's to balance him out, which we all know is holding a grudge too much.

Alex and Annabeth have the same in my mind, Pride, they're too confident they can do anything better than anyone else.

Magnus and Hearth's could arguably be the same, self-doubt.

I've yet picked a clear winner for Thalia, and it's good enough for me not everyone needs a fatal flaw, but I'm looking forward to exploring this and more as the series goes on.

#percy jackson #pjo #percabeth #Nico di Angelo #Will solace #solangleo #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #Magnus Chase #Alex Fierro #fierrochase #big three kids #reading the books #fanfiction #Hearthstone

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