✦ 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐒. independent && highly selective original character for percy jackson & the olympians. a child of 𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄 once imprisoned in a traveling circus, then a member of kronos' legion who abandoned ship just before the battle of manhattan in hopes of saving her own skin. what do you do when you want to see the world, but the world has no want for you ??
my old man killed the idea of a loving god being up there when i was six years old. nothing capable of kindness could make a man like him.
well. turns out there are other gods. hateful ones.
like the one in our my head.
𝐇 𝐀 𝐒 𝐓 𝐔 𝐑 𝐒. an independent && highly selective original horror character. heavily influenced by eldritch horror and existentialism. as adored by tally (he/it, 25). template.
ᯓ☆ one book pulled, then two, then three. NONE of these are what she wants if the steep furrowing of her brow is any indication. her free hand rises to tug her beanie down snug over her temple (over her horns which, as a result of the LAST bit of magic, haven’t exactly SHRUNK BACK DOWN completely yet) then raises by her side and waves from left to right, hoping to snag the attention of a passing ATTENDANT.
THE CASUAL ASSURANCE WITH WHICH SHE DESCRIBED EGO DEATH WAS INTERESTING and, in a way, even amusing. It seemed as though she were merely describing the weatherwhich was a notion that scratched pleasantly at her nerves. ❛ That really is worse than dying, ❜ he murmured in response, his gaze flitting briefly to her chalk-smeared fingers. The dusting of bright pink chalk on her skin looked almost like dried blood. ❛ You make it sound frighteningly efficient... fifteen minutes or less, you say? Now that’s what I call extremely generous customer service, ❜ he joked. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly as he watched her work; and when she asked him to step aside, he obeyed without hesitation, though he shifted his weight only just enough to give her exactly the space she needed. His gaze followed every deliberate curve she traced anew upon the asphalt. His attention focused less on the symbols themselves than on the ease with which she handled them, for he knew all too well that this was by no means a simple task. Yet she executed it as if it were second nature to her. It was... interesting, but in a certain way, also admirable. Minkyu would have loved nothing more than to find out exactly what she was up to, yet he already suspected that an answer would not be easily obtained. At least, not right now. Who would tell this to a simple stranger anyway?
By the mention of getting turned into a pig, Min couldn’t resist to let out a fake indignant gasp. ❛ A pig? Well, look at that…now that feels personal. ❜ He rested an arm casually on his knee as he remained crouched beside her, tilting his head slightly. ❛ And sold off to a butcher shop.. ? Excuse me... that’s just brutal! I feel deeply insulted. ❜
Of course, he didn't.
Nevertheless, for him, it was merely playful banter though he knew full well, the moment he would did something truly foolish, his laughter would likely vanish very quickly. Perhaps that was precisely one of the reasons he was still sitting there, still watching her, instead of letting her do her business. For a brief moment, his gaze lifted from the chalk circle and wandered up to her face, observing that deliberate refusal to shut down his curiosity, a reaction she had already granted him once before. Most people would have rebuffed any form of curiosity the instant they noticed it but not her. He wondered WHY.
❛ You know, the curious thing about this is... someone who truly had no interest would have told me to get lost long ago. I mean you did but accepted me being here very quickly. However, they might even have already followed through on that threat about the frog... instead, you just keep talking to me. Threateningly, yes, but you are talking. ❜ he continued softly now, even a little thoughtfully, though the playful undertone in his voice still lingered. A smile, too, remained on his lips. ❛ So.. either you’re waiting for the perfect moment to ruin my life... or you’re just as amused by this whole thing as I am... OR you simply find me interesting enough. I wonder which of those is actually true. ❜
ᯓ☆ it was mostly stupidity, really. stupidity and a quiet want for SOME kind of company during this whole rotten affair. in the absence of any decent podcasts to listen to or a bustling far-off city’s ambience, someone else’s nagging voice became the only sort of strange consistency lavender could count on. it had a thin line of patience for any man, ESPECIALLY men who appeared interested in their particular arts, but they had a goddamn TRENCH of willingness to put up with the strange or abnormal for the sake of a few spells. this was what it told itself while etching hot-pink chalk markings onto the stone, hearing tuned for the next bout of madness from the stranger.
❝ i’m an efficient lady, ❞ replied the witch with a shrug. efficient !! what an understatement. when the tome was opened and the chaos of greater forces let free, PIGS were as simple to make for it as SNOWMEN were for children. a few good shoves, deft hands, and BAM. how remarkable it must have been for a mere four word response to hold such staggering pride and (earned) confidence. any other witch would mind their tongue, watch what they say - and any other witch, then, was a COWARD.
those who hide their claws aren’t deserving of them, she thought, and so she never BOTHERED to hide them again.
case and point: the man was asking more questions. more aptly, he was electing to grab a shovel and start digging a hole for himself to die in. emerald hues flicked to him, eyes locked onto his shape in her peripheral, then danced away from him just as quick as though to look at him was to look at SIN ITSELF. maybe that’s what he was. maybe THAT was why he was as curious as he appeared to be. maybe this was another kind of magic at play, another strange visitor… or maybe it was already overthinking things. lavender dismissed those thoughts in their ENTIRETY, turning their focus back to their project.
the last few lines to tidy up were the hardest. she repeated the same stroke of chalk once, twice, three times total before it seemed to meet her standards. it was then that the witch sat her chalk down by her side, brought her hand to her mouth, and BIT. teeth sheared through skin like a knife through butter, only in so far as to get COPPER on her tongue. a few droplets, nothing more, though the bite no doubt looked more VICIOUS than it truly was.
❝ you like looking gift horses in the mouth, don’t you ?? ❞ lavender asked, pressing her slightly bloodied hand to the chalk. a low HUM reverberated through the markings, then the pavement, then her ribs. healthy. STRONG. not perfect, but good enough for her purposes. if the other could feel it or not, she didn’t know nor did she care. the mystical often could, but this man seemed… well, beyond his strange curiosity and a lack of shock about the affairs proceeding in front of him, NORMAL.
❝ running your mouth a LOT for a guy who hasn’t introduced himself. ❞ said the witch who also had neglected to give her name. ❝ maybe this ritual IS going to ruin your life. could be watching your own destruction there, casanova. ❞
RAVEN ( @wantdawn ) said, " you act like i would have an issue spending time in a graveyard, lav. " they take a long draw from the cold brew straw. " it'll take more than that to phase me. "
ᯓ☆ jesus christ, raven is nuts. it knows this. it’s KNOWN this. and yet still, goddamn. GRAVEYARDS tend to be the worst place for normal people. they get all antsy or sad surrounded by the stones representing their dead loved ones (something lavender can NOT relate to). the idea was SUPPOSED to be a free way for raven to pass on it without causing any great rift or issue between the two, not… not just ACCEPTED with no issue.
lavender purses her lips in a half-hearted pout, her shoulders slouching and her eyes narrowing at the other. she opens her mouth as if to respond, then seems to think better of it and instead wraps her lips around the straw of her frappe. she rolls the blend of chocolate and coffee over her tongue for all of a beat, not taking her gaze off from raven even when she pulls the cup away and says,
❝ you are fucking INSANE, ❞ but the smile betrays her fondness, if not an obvious sense of SURPRISE over the other’s willingness. lavender’s eyes dip from raven to her straw, which she begins spinning about in her brew by the tip of her index finger. drinking in public is weird. sitting in a cafe is weird. ALL OF THIS is weird.
raven is weird.
goddamnit, raven is WEIRD.
❝ okay, well, what if the dead GET UP ?? what about if zombies happen, huh ?? i can’t guarantee they won’t. the bitch-ass book might pull a evil dead rising on us. what THEN ?? ❞ she immediately feels bad for insulting the tome, but it doesn’t rattle about in her messenger bag in protest, so she takes that as a sign of odd acceptance for its new label.
what's good, i made a new promo. life has picked up a little bit in terms of being busy as shit, but i'm gonna get back into the swing of it next week or tomorrow (i have ttrpg this weekend hehe).
#𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐒— an independent & highly selective 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 for percy jackson & the olympians, as adored by tally (he/it, 25).
a daughter of hecate once trapped in a circus, then freed by the titans army... only to abandon them when the final battle rolled around in favor of joining the enemy. always one to save her own skin.
ᯓ☆ it cranes its neck behind them, absent all cautious. as if the nature of the world is not one defined in whole (rather than in part) by it’s CRUELTY, lavender peers back and clicks its tongue against the roof of its mouth. the DISINTEREST rolling ‘bout its person is goddamn tangible as it turns its attention back to the other and shrugs, jabbing a thumb over its shoulder at perhaps the world’s most obvious threat. or, well, the world’s LEAST SUBTLE threat. after all, if it were truly obvious, EVERYONE would be running for their lives.
not it, though. it has a goddamn spa day and twenty five dollars to its name, and it is NOT about to lose a rare chance to treat itself because of some RAT BASTARD.
❝ yeah, but i don’t really give a shit about THAT GUY, and neither should you. ❞ it slides its hand back into its pocket, turning its gaze forward with all casualness of someone remarking about the weather. if it is aware of any serious threat, it doesn’t show: lavender remains entirely unperturbed, the observation by the other nothing more than a light SUGGESTION for action as far as it’s concerned… at least, assuming that IS the threat some ways behind them.
in all actuality, lavender isn’t blind to the potential that it might be somewhere else. someone on one of the nearby building rooftops might be keeping an eye on the two, or it could be someone in a car that hasn’t stopped tailing them, or it could be… anything, really. it goes for the simplest scapegoat merely because it can, not wasting thought on the notion that the figure might be ENTIRELY HARMLESS.
❝ if anybody is watching, we can probably handle them. and if we can’t, we run. but i am NOT going to miss my fucking spa day because some freak decided to try and throw hands with me, and YOU are not getting fucked up by it either. ❞ it huffs and tips its head back, glaring at the world ‘round it with some ethereal vendetta.
❝ only ‘cause you’re walking with me, obviously, and if you get pulled into shit then i’m gonna be LEGALLY OBLIGATED to make sure someone doesn’t die, ‘cause otherwise i’ll probably get questioned by COPS again. ❞ it sticks out its tongue. a beat passes before it adds, ❝ if it’s a cop watching us, though, you’re on your own. i won’t snitch, but i’m not staying around them either. ❞
A FROG. EATING HIS LEGS. That really should have sounded ridiculous enough to end the conversation, instead, however, it captivated his attention, much like a match ignites dry paper. A soft, breathy laugh escaped his nose as he cast another glance at the ritual circle as if he was attempting to mentally piece together the connections she had not yet even revealed to him.
So she did have some bite after all.
Hm… good.
❛ Turning me into a frog, now that’s something new, ❜ he said lightly, more amused than mocking. ❛ I’ve heard of curses, of hexes, of warnings involving blood and bone... but frogs... that’s almost considerate. At least I’d still be alive. ❜ He smirked as his gaze wandered back to her crouching figure and watched her closely as she worked with the circle.
To avoid invading too much her space, he crouched down beside her as well, his eyes still fixed firmly on the circle even as he took in her next words. ❛ You know what’s actually funny? You say all that.. yet when I stepped closer, you made no move whatsoever to act against me. So either you’re simply patient... or you’re curious enough to let me stand here and talk. I’m leaning to think it’s the latter. ❜ There was no accusation in his words, however, it was merely a little observation, one that simultaneously bespoke genuine interest.
Deep within him, meanwhile, something else entirely stirred though. In a situation like this ( whatever exactly this was supposed to be ) most people would resort to a mere theatrical display of danger — they exaggerated wildly, filling the silence with threats, merely to feel bigger and more significant than the moment actually warranted. Yet she sounded by no means as if she were merely playing a role. Rather, she sounded as if she were weighing, in real time, just how much of his presence she was willing to tolerate.
❛ If it helps, ❜ he finally said softly, tilting his head slightly to the side, ❛ I don’t actually have any strong opinions about frogs. As an ‘ending,’ they do seem a bit unspectacular, though I suppose I’d survive the procedure itself. But tell me, mysterious one, what would you turn me into if I annoyed you properly? I have a feeling the frog option is merely your polite warning. ❜
ᯓ☆ when the forces that be wove her essence together, be it by twilight or trickery, they gave her plenty of traits. WRATH was the loudest among them (sometimes she still tasted the skin and blood of a worthless man on her teeth, and she washed it down with flat soda); HUMOR reared its head back and laughed until it sobbed (it’s the only way she’ll shed a tear, she tells herself, no other reason); chief among them, however, was that of PATIENCE.
she did not spend more time in hell than she cares to admit, nor did she embark out from a bloodied tent in the middle of absolutely nowhere, to RUSH to the end of the line. if her story took an eon or a single week, it mattered not to her: she’d walk at the same pace, maybe even SLOWING DOWN to pluck a flower or two from the side of the road. there was no great PRESSURE on her to figure everything out at once: the world would keep turning, she would get to her destination, all things would be as they were MEANT to be. the stars told her so.
however. holy SHIT. this DUDE.
❝ alive, but not YOU, ❞ lavender corrected, rubbing the pad of her thumb ‘gainst the side of her index finger. hot pink chalk smeared all the more on her skin, and she murmurs a curse before continuing, ❝ frogs aren’t SELF-AWARE. none of them wake up in the morning and think, I’M A FROG. nah. they’re just animals. they don’t THINK. so yeah, sure, your HEART would still be beating, but YOU ?? that’s what we call ego-death within fifteen minutes or LESS. ❞
a point in the other’s favor was that he was seemingly aware enough of the threat’s severity (or maybe just polite enough) to keep from invading her space all too much. that point was immediately stripped away when he continued to speak… though, that wasn’t to say lavender wasn’t in some part THANKFUL to have something to listen to. in the absence of a proper podcast, a stranger talking about the nature of a FROG as an ending was a good enough substitution.
lavender reached into her pocket, withdrew a column of hot pink chalk, and took the retracing the smudged and scuffed circle before her. every curve was well measured and balanced: the average person might have found the ground hard to make a decent curve on, but lavender was PRACTICED.
❝ you annoy me enough, i’ll turn you into a PIG. ❞ came her response, the quiet scraping of chalk against asphalt made nothing more than AMBIENCE. ❝ then i’ll sell you to a butcher shop and skip down the street to the sound of your SQUEALS. move over. ❞ she made a quick flicking motion to him, beginning to inch around the circle proper to reach harder spots in the strange display.
no mention was made, nor response given, to the point of her curiosity. denying it would no doubt make the other more inclined to believe it — and, as past experience warned her, LYING in the presence of magic NEVER worked out well.
LOU ( @nosestealer ) said, "will whisper-yelled at me in the infirmary because i cast a spell through myself. again. had to, though. damien white was talking mad shit about you. i swear, that dude opens his mouth one more fucking time and i'll permanently turn him into a pig."
ᯓ☆ it is easy to forget at times — in no small part due to the infrequency of their meetings — that lou ellen can and WILL throw hands for her family. there’s a level of surprise that comes, too, with the reminder that lavender IS family to her. in sentimentality or in blood, they’re kin.
that idea PROBABLY shouldn’t make its stomach drop as fast as it does. would that lavender had ever taken up one of the countless offers for therapy or constructive talks about her mindset. maybe then, in some ideal life, she could hear that and beam with PRIDE.
in this one, however, she hears it and her nose wrinkles up. she takes one last sip of her smoothie (through a fittingly purple curly straw, of course) then sets it down on and cocks her head to the side at lou as if her half-sister is speaking NONSENSE.
❝ don’t waste your spells on him. i forget the guy EXISTS half the time. ❞ lavender rolls her eyes, ever trained in the fluidity of the motion, and resists the urge to squirm in her seat. MAN, having someone willing to turn a guy into a pig over some stupid insults… it brings back memories. some of them are good. most of them are great. the loudest ones, though, are of monster claws and her father’s scream.
she sips her smoothie again, drowning those memories in a sweet strawberry blend.
❝ just tell me the next time he talks shit. i’ll break his nose. ❞ it’s not said as a threat, but as a perfectly normal observation. she speaks in this moment in perfect prophetical tense: damien white has gotten his nose broken already in a thousand different dreams, so where’s the harm in assuming it will happen in the WAKING world too ?? a girl can dream while awake, can’t she ??