When Death's Due

Teyvat's "Most Down Bad" Award Goes to Alhaitham for a Second Year Running

Seeing everyone making fun of Alhaitham for his "stalkerish" tendencies in this event is funny, because I feel like a lot of people missed that "Be literally everywhere Kaveh is" has been Alhaitham's MO from the day Kaveh appeared in the game.

From only grabbing his house keys after Kaveh returned from the desert (he couldn't have had both sets of keys at the end of the Archon Quest unless he went home and got Kaveh's copy) to ditching conversations to get back to his house only after Kaveh came home, to showing up without any warning or explanation in Kaveh's hangout with some ridiculous excuse about hearing his voice through noise-cancelling headphones... Refusing to offer any help in the Temple of Silence story quest other than staying in the library with Kaveh...

Since when does Alhaitham willingly cover anyone else's duties?

But this trend of "Be everywhere Kaveh is" didn't start when they were adults. It was already in place when they were still Akademiya students--and it's a trend that didn't end even when they had their fight.

Even when they weren't speaking, Alhaitham dogged Kaveh's every step through published responses to Kaveh's research articles in academic journals. He insisted on keeping a line of communication between himself and Kaveh open, even if the only way to do that was through very public ideological clashes. Pulling Kaveh's pigtails to get his attention lolol. It's implied that, for at least the few years between their fight and Kaveh moving in, this was the only communication between them--Alhaitham's refusal to allow their connection to entirely fade away. (And the fact that this is revealed in Kaveh's character stories--through his precious journal that records the moments of his life that had the most impact on him--shows just how deeply he values the fact that Alhaitham didn't give up.)

Another relevant side note: Alhaitham never asked Kaveh to give up his half of their house. Knowing half of it belonged to Kaveh, knowing that Kaveh may one day want to reclaim his part of it, knowing that it was listed as theirs, Alhaitham moved into the house and made zero effort to change its ownership. He was completely fine with living in "his and Kaveh's house." The stories suggest it was only months later (or even longer) that Kaveh even noticed he had the house, and he transferred away ownership of his portion without Alhaitham ever asking him (or even seemingly wanting him) to do so.

Please, let that sink in. Alhaitham actively left his grandmother's (presumably comfortable) house to move into "his and Kaveh's house," with no apparent explanation for why, and after doing so, he made no attempt to change that "his and Kaveh's" label. He moved into the house with no promise that Kaveh wouldn't show up on the doorstep the very next day and move in too. It almost feels like another deliberate provocation--I've moved into our house, are you going to come stop me? LBR, if Alhaitham had had his way, Kaveh would have been living there with him from Day 1...

There's also the fact that Kaveh literally can't write on a single message board anywhere in the entire nation of Sumeru without Alhaitham hunting his messages down and responding to them (which absolutely no one else does, by the way).

"NUH-UH!" "UH-HUH." "NUH-UH!"

Alhaitham's own character stories tell us explicitly that one of Alhaitham's defining character traits is "He is never where you need him to be," yet somehow...

Shot, and chaser:

Any time Kaveh is in the slightest bit of need or danger or just wants Alhaitham near, Alhaitham is "coincidentally" exactly where Kaveh needs him to be, whenever Kaveh needs him to be there.

Alhaitham didn't just "happen" to run into Kaveh in Port Ormos, an entirely different city from where he was supposed to be working. He didn't just "happen" to read the same terrible book as Kaveh when we know he otherwise would not waste a moment of his time on poorly-written literature...

He didn't just "happen" to appear when Kaveh was upset and needed a distraction in the House of Daena during Kaveh's hangout. He didn't just "happen" to be sitting around waiting when Kaveh needed answers after the Archon Quest. He didn't just "happen" to find Kaveh's academic publications and every single message board posting and respond to them at length and in public.

Which is exactly what Kaveh's mother told Kaveh he needed.

What level of down bad is "Abusing your powers as an Akademiya employee to keep tabs on your crush's library loans"? Just asking for a friend.

The only person for whom Alhaitham just "happens" to be available is Kaveh, over and over and over again--because he is very deliberately making himself a constant presence in Kaveh's life.

(Like, out of all things, I think people really underestimate the devs deliberately paralleling the romantic relationship between Kaveh's mother and father with Kaveh and Alhaitham's relationship. If you want to point to one thing that says "These two characters are intentionally queer-coded," it doesn't get any more obvious than this.)

Alhaitham, are you not embarrassed to be this transparent??? 🫣

The ropes were incredibly thick, bounding the hero tightly to the chair. They tried to wiggle their way out but the ropes only dug deeper into their flesh. Shoot shoot shoot.

[Hero] gazed at their friends who banged against the container desperately, cursing at the criminal as they stalked towards the hero.

"You've got two choices, dear hero." [Villain] murmured as they held a controller with two buttons in front of their face. "Incinerate the rest of the city or incinerate your friends."

"Screw you." [Hero] spat in [Villain]'s face. Their lover simply laughed as they wiped off the spit. If the hero knew who the love of their life really was, they would've never said yes.

"If you don't make a choice, I'll just press them both. And remember either option, you choose..." [Villain] pressed their lips onto their captive's cheek, grazing a finger over the ring on [Hero]'s villain. "You're stuck with me."

"You're a child." Villain spat out, horrified as they stared into the wide eyes of their clearly underage rival.

"Wh-no I'm not!" Hero yelped, then winced as the higher pitch gave them away further. They hunched into themselves, subconsciously trying to appear even smaller.

"Where are your parents?!" Villain demanded, storming forward to grab Hero by the shoulders, "do they know you're fu-freaking doing this?!" Angry as they were, Villain tried not to swear - kids didn't need to hear that kind of language, after all.

"..."

Hero averted their watering eyes, trembling as Villain stared them down. They'd never seen the other so furious.

"I don't..." they licked dry lips nervously, "I don't have parents."

Villain's mind went black for a moment, vision filling with the shivering form of the literal child they'd been fighting.

"...you're an Orphan," it wasn't a question, but instead a surprisingly bland statement, "of course you are."

Something in Villain's tone made Hero look up, made them gaze into the unwavering form of their adversary, where they found a glint of determination in the other's eyes.

"Screw it-" they scooped Hero into their arms, ignoring the spluttering and struggling, "you need someone to keep an eye on you, and I've always wanted kids."

"I'm your parent now Hero"

the suffering never ends

Prompt #1490

“It’s not that I’m trying to control you,” their parent said, a comforting hand on their shoulder, “but I have to keep you safe. You know that right?”

“By any means necessary,” they repeated dully, thoughts whirling too fast to spare any inflection.

Their parent squeezed their shoulder. “So becoming the city’s most feared supervillain isn’t that outrageous, right? Definitely no worse than Kiera’s mum baking 800 cupcakes for the PTA bake sale.”

Elphaba Thropp, The Wicked Witch Of the West

Curse my friend. I asked her what she think Aeolus would sound like if they were voiced by a dude instead of a gal and she said “like Eurylochus”.

So fuck. Now I hear fucking Armando Julian when I mentally sing Keep Your Friends Close-

Rebirth

Here it is guys! The 3000+ word story for the 1k follower celebration! Altough I got a bit carried away so this wound up being 5500+ words instead of 3k+ nearly twice as long! I hope you all enjoy and thank you once more for 1000 followers!

This contains some adult themes and creepy super villains, also a major character death and some swearing. Do be advised and please enjoy!

Contiuation

[Hero] couldn’t tell when they woke up or even if they were truly awake. Everything was dark, and their head felt too full and completely empty at the same time. Like a whirlpool was swirling around their brain, leaving anything the liquid touched utterly numb. The only two things they could feel were a cool hard metal against the back of their body and several warm, soft appendages, fingers their brain supplied, massaging their temples.

It felt good, great even, the comforting pressure grounding them in a world where everything was too close and so far. [Hero] wanted to lean into the touch, to hum in appreciation, to do something to make sure that sensation continued. But they couldn’t, their entire body was weighed down by some invisible force, and their limbs wouldn’t respond at all. So all they could do was lay there, in the dark, imprisoned by their own body as the foreign fingers comforted them.

[Hero] wasn’t sure if they had fallen asleep or for how long, but the world slowly faded into being. Their pitch-black world began illuminating with light. The numbness fading as they felt stale air around them, the leather straps holding down their body, and the ever-present fingers gently scratching their scalp, gliding through their hair as the stranger hummed above them.

“You’re awake.” The stranger spoke, a warm smile evident in their voice as [Hero] blinked their eyes open, bright lights shining down upon them. They struggled to tilt their head, their body still weak, to look at the stranger. Their face was upside down as they sat behind [Hero]’s head, next to whatever table they were strapped to. The stranger smiled down at them warmly, pride gleaming in their eyes as they continued to run their fingers through [Hero]’s hair.

[Hero] opened their mouth to speak, but their tongue felt foreign to them, they tried to say something, but they couldn’t figure out how to form the syllables, only able to groan tiredly in response.

“I’m sure you have so many questions.” the stranger continued, “Don’t worry, I’ll answer everything you need to know.”

“Your name is [Hero], and I am [Super Villain], although you can simply think of me as your parent as I have gifted you with rebirth.” [Super Villain] gently smiled down at them.

Rebirth? [Hero] thought to themselves, What does that mean?

Keep reading

My issues with Chiron is like a whole nother thing. Like that guy is just allowing all this shit to happen. You can’t say he has no power here because he fucking runs the damn camp. He sent this kid with 0 training on a quest right after looking over the fact that kid almost died. Chiron bashing is a tag I adore because he is also a jackass. He gaslighted a 12 year old into thinking he was crazy. He never answered anything Percy asked. He’s never shown actually teacher any of the demigods, these kids are teaching each other??

I will say, while I do enjoy enough of Percy Jackson books… I think I prefer the fanfictions that take that world and lean into the darker parts of it.

I really enjoy fanfics I find that have the gods be more… godly I guess. The gods in PJO just feel too much like regular people. Like just annoying people. Also they just suck in general… Luke was an asshole but I kinda get why he was doing it you know? They are fucking gods. They can’t like make sure they’re kids don’t have to struggle and fight just to fucking exist??

I will say, I live for fanfiction where Percy ascends even if he didn’t choose to. Beautiful and tragic and honestly with the shit Percy does thats all I can see happening.

Another thing i enjoy in PJO fanfiction is when it becomes critical of certain characters (if you like Annabeth Chase and Percabeth please leave) and of camp half-blood and camp Jupiter. I cannot stress this enough, those camps are cults making child soldiers. They are not a safe space. They are cults training children to willingly sacrifice themselves for their parents who don’t give a flying shit about them. Chiron literally looked over the fact Percy could have died in that capture the flag game. Camp Halfblood sent out a kid with the like 0 training to go on a death quest just because his father got accused of a damn crime, and they sent him with the girl who nearly gor him fucking killed (Im so sorry I don’t like Annabeth). Camp Jupiter is so much worse because Im sorry??? There are adults??? Why are the children the military??? Thats not even mentioning the fact that so many of these kids are year rounders. They don’t have an actual home to go back to. Thats terrifying, they are stuck in these fucking death camps. Once again, no wonder there are kids who joined Kronos’ army. Not a good thing but I kinda fucking get it.

Also oh my god Percabeth. I love Annabeth bashing fics. Those feed my soul. I don’t care much for Annabeth Chase. She’s interesting but she’s also fucking shit. She beats Percy everytime she gets and is praised for every shitty thing she does and I hate that so fucking much. Im actually so scared for Leah because when people start putting together how shit Annabeth is as PJO get adapted into shows Im so scared she’ll get the brunt of all the problems when it was just how her character was horribly written. Fandom made Percabeth cuter and healthier then they actually are in canon (she didn’t know his Achilles curse was gone yet judo flipped him. Percy. Could. Have. Died.)

Anyway… anyone have recommendations for any fics that lean into the more fucked up side of these books? I’d love to hear it

Redcreste Academy: The School For The Struggling And The Dangerous - Chapter 1

AO3 Ver

Chapter 1: Welcome To Redcreste Academy

“In our world, powers evolve and grow alongside humanity. They are part of us all, after all. Everyone around you is born with powers, whether it be small or large, quiet or loud, innovative or destructive. Some will use their powers for little things in everyday life or maybe they’ll grow up to be someone… “righteous”… like a hero. Children are well… children. They are still growing and do not properly understand the world nor do they understand the powers they have been gifted, so more often and not these powers may get out of hand. It's normal for everyone of course but sometimes they will lose complete control, causing an incident or two. Perhaps even a tragedy. 

This is why our government and the great heroes that guard and guide us founded Redcreste Academy, a power specialty school for the children who are struggling with their powers. If your child’s powers are causing harm to others or to themselves, then we here at Redcreste Academy will provide them with all the facilities and resources, all the care and guidance they’ll need. Alongside providing them with the best of education and guidance to set them up for their futures, we will provide them with help them understand and control their powers and give them a safe environment to be free of judgement and fear of themselves.

We will provide one on one sessions with specially chosen trainers, doctors, or whoever it is you’ll need. If your power is causing others harm, causing yourself harm, or even if no one is being harmed yet the world shuns you for having the audacity to exist with such an ability, then we will provide whatever you’ll need to feel safe and supported in this world. So what if one or two things get destroyed, wouldn’t be the worst our students have done.

Yes, we are fully aware of our school’s reputation. Many call our children unpredictable, uncontrollable, villainous but I assure you that our children are simply that. Children. Children in need of care, respect, and help. Many of our children may have been forced into administration by law and court because of behavioral issues, destruction, or whatever incidents might have occurred but they’re getting the help they need to take back control of what they are doing but their presence doesn’t distract from the fact that many enter this school willingly because of health reasons or perhaps to get away from the judgement other schools have given them.

But nevermind what you have done to get into this school. We are happy that you are here and we are happy to help you with whatever struggles you are facing. For a brighter and safer future for us, let's start with ourselves first. You can’t help the world if you can’t help yourself first, especially when you need it. 

I am your principal Miss Sullivan, and I welcome you to Redcreste Academy.”

———

Brooke Rovin turned her head to look out the car window as she sat in the very back seat, a hero and their sidekick shooting through the sky, in between the buildings and over the trees, unfortunately too fast for Brooke to get a good look. Flight powers all looked similar but always had very little differences in how they worked and Brooke loved looking for all the little differences.

Human society has grown and shaped itself around powers. The buildings and cars designed to withstand those with inhuman strength, the roads designed to be able to handle speedsters or those with their own ways of travel, the bridges and wires always making room for those with flight, the doctors ready for whatever accidents may occur or whatever way a power may affect your health, the way the government always made sure to keep a close eye on everything to keep things in check.

If you asked Brooke Rovin what she thought about powers she’d tell you they were a part of the nature of humanity that everyone sees and knows exists yet very few understand. It is something everyone is born with, something everyone is blessed with, something that grows alongside you. Something that can be strong and bright or weak and quiet (or so they say). Some use their powers to do good while others choose to do harm and others use it simply for their day to day. 

That's how heroes and villains were created after all. Annoying really how they cause unneeded violence everywhere but Brooke did oh so enjoy watching them fight. She got to study powers when given no rules or restrictions and oh how she loves figuring out every way they channeled abilities and what could be done better and the ways the powers affect the body and theorizing on how the negative effects could be balanced more-

Oh, if Brooke could she would catch bits and parts of them all, store them in jars, and then study them under a microscope. Though that is not physically possible because powers can not be simply grabbed and stored into something and they are immeasurable and can not be cut up. Brooke also has yet to own a microscope, or jars. Maybe she could ask her parents for one…

Though, she will have to wait when they have stopped being upset, them and her older siblings. They have yrt to say a word on the way to her new school. They all were furious when it was said that Brooke would be sent to Redcreste Academy. They didn’t want it known that they couldn’t contain their daughter’s dangerous abilities and were mad at the teachers who yelled back at them. Brooke apologized and admitted she was at fault for not controlling herself and that she will try to understand what upset so many people. 

Brooke can sort of understand why they were at her, but she was doing what her parents had always told her to do. They were always talking about how Brooke should become a hero like them and do good and if in a dangerous situation she should try to calm people down and tell them not to panic. According to most, an earthquake counts as a dangerous situation. She told them not to panic, they stopped panicking. It’s how her power works of course they all immediately stopped. It’s voice compulsion, they’ll do what Brooke says and Brooke said to calm down.  

Maybe they were upset at the morality of what she did? Yes, she did violate consent, and Brooke will admit to that. People do not like being controlled (Brooke’s abilities seem to be able to also affect emotions and thoughts it seems but not enough that the person’s awareness that they’re being controlled is absent… it is probably instinct because people do not like being “mind controlled”). Though they seemed more upset at Brooke’s powers being used at all. Brooke’s parents had always called her dangerous, when they thought she couldn’t hear her, Brooke has yet to understand why. 

But why would any of that make them so upset at having to send her to Redcreste Academy. Everyone says that that school is where they send all the dangerous children. She is dangerous, is she not? This way she’ll get to keep herself under control just as her parents want. Brooke will also get to learn more about her abilities as Redcreste is deemed a controlled environment. Brooke won’t say it out loud but she has always wanted to see what her own abilities could do, the limits it could possibly reach… testing her abilities on rats she managed to catch in the garden had its difficulties and limitations unfortunately.

But studying her own powers is not the most exciting thing. Studying the others will be. Redcreste students are always described as uncontrollable children with dangerous abilities. Oh, the things Brooke could observe and analyze. Brooke got herself a new notebook for this. Matilda had informed her using a camera was stalking so sketching will have to do. She always loved trying to figure out how powers worked and trying to learn the limits of people’s abilities. She was told it was people watching… yes she supposes it is. She is watching people to study them. She fails to see why her brother was laughing as he said that, it was not stalking at the very least. 

She’s only followed someone to study them once. No one realized so therefore, there is no problem.

Brooke could see the car approaching closer and closer to the school, her hand reached towards her suitcase. Other kids wearing the signature red uniforms of Redcreste Academy, were coming into view around the sidewalks and out of the cars parked near the streets. Brooke saw her mother let out a sigh.

Brooke knew they were upset, she wishes that they were not but she always seems to make their moods worse. So she’ll keep quiet for now. She’s got classes to learn from and people to dissect. That is all she will ever need.

It will be a good few years, even if she spends these years alone yet again. Brooke will make sure it will be good nonetheless..