"Hevoslinja" (Trans-Horse) is a European art project started in 2014 by Finnish artist Eero Yli-Vakkuri - according to his own words 'skilless in riding and afraid of animals' at the start.
The aim of the project was to travel 270 km / 168 miles between Helsinki and Turku in Finland, and to highlight the possibility of horse travel in modern society. Since then they've took to promoting horseback efforts in urban landscapes with several European collaborators and artists.
Yli-Vakkuri and collaborators first spent eight months practicing riding to become safely self-sufficient in saddle, and bought a Finnhorse gelding Toivottu Poika ('Awaited Son'). The route followed, as closely as possible, the old coastal royal country road of the premodern era, Kuninkaantie/Suuri Rantatie, and took 9 days.
Toivottu Poika is a very average example of his breed, standing at some 155 cm / 15.1 hh tall. The Finnhorse is a relative of for example the North-Norwegian Lyngshest breed, the Icelandic horse, the Swedish Gotlandsruss pony and the Estonian landrace horse and Tori horse breed. It is a mid-sized light draught and trotter, a sensibly realistic mediaeval country travel horse equivalent.
For more hardcore short-term treks, looking into competitive endurance riding can be helpful. Mongol Derby might be one of the most intense races, as it recreates the Chinggis Khan era postal system of swapping horses continuously over a 1000 km / 620 mile route.
By only including skilled endurance riders, keeping up a constant fast speed and swapping horses every 40 km / 25 mil, the Mongol Derby route only takes 10 days even though it's several times the length of the Trans-Horse project. This is the speed of highly organised imperial messengers with the supporting cultural infrastructure, professional marathon runners where Yli-Vakkuri and Toivottu poika were leisure hikers.
The Mongolian landrace horse is a very distant relative of the breeds above, but much lighter and smaller than the agriculturally focused modern Finnhorse - typicaly standing at 142 cm / 14 hh at most. (This would've also been common for Finnhorses before the 19th century.) What really differentiates them from Western breeds, however, is the way they're trained and raised in semi-feral herds, and it's said that while the rider may decide where the pair is headed, the horse is the one to decide how to get there.
also it's not quite google maps, but there is a lovely site called Viabundus!
the last i checked, the map of roads stretches from Calais, France to Moscow, Russia west to east and from Košice, Slovakia to Tornio, Finland south to north. it doesn't cover all of Europe, for example Sweden and Norway are empty at the moment, but it is quite extensive and still being worked on! in addition to showing the old roads, you can calculate the distance and travel time from one city to another, and there are a lot of options:
and that's not all! here's a description from the site itself (emphasis mine):
"Viabundus is a freely accessible online street map of late medieval and early modern northern Europe (1350-1650). Originally conceived as the digitisation of Friedrich Bruns and Hugo Weczerka's Hansische Handelsstraßen (1962) atlas of land roads in the Hanseatic area, the Viabundus map moves beyond that. It includes among others: a database with information about settlements, towns, tolls, staple markets and other information relevant for the pre-modern traveller; a route calculator; a calendar of fairs; and additional land routes as well as water ways."
it's quite neat and also free! i hope someone else finds it as fascinating and cool as i did :)
At Zuko and Sokka’s wedding, Katara should tell the story of the time Aang was like “Maybe we shouldn’t leave Zuko to freeze to death in this blizzard” and Sokka was like ‘‘No, fuck that guy”
The nightmare started off quite normal, as far as nightmares go. I'm sure you've all had one like it before, where it starts out relatively innocent and then turns dark or violent, wrenching at the most sensitive, squishy parts inside your body.
This kind if nightmare is the type Crowley was having on the third night of December, 3021. And his gut really had wrenched. The terrible, sickening feeling of being thrown off a cliff assured it. Or more accurately, falling. You see, in his dream, Crowley had been falling for five days so far, and it wasn't going well. At the bottom was nothing, and at the top was clear beautiful skies.
This is interesting because falling from heaven was nothing like that at all. Heaven, as many people do not believe, is not actually located above earth, nor anywhere near it. Where I, and many of my acquaintances dwell is actually on a planet called Thetran, in a galaxy completely undiscovered yet by the human race. I suppose possibly if you were an Australian in August 2019 and somebody asked you 'Is heaven above you right now?' then you could accurately reply with a 'yes.' But otherwise, unfortunately, the answer is no. When you do Fall from Heaven, however, as it is inadequately called, you are forced onto earth. Of course, in order for an undesired angel to get there without their time being wasted, they are shot forwards at a speed that only particles can go at. It is quite unpleasant and usually painful. It also requires participants to burn, slightly, in a precise way which entirely dissolves all Heavenly association. Knowing this, we can only assume Crowley arrived in earth smoking and screaming.
Why, then, was his nightmare of falling so clean? Why did he stare at the sky and only imagine the pits below him? Why did his wings, always failing him, not burn?
The answer, much like the nature of his nightmare, was simple. This way he did not wake up. Crowley, while not yet fully capable at lucid dreaming, was able to now change his subconciously created surroundings if he desired. So what began as his Falling nightmare had now become one only of falling. Which isn't so bad, really, if you think about it.
Unless you are the angel sleeping (or previously sleeping) next to the poor bastard, in which case It's quite distressing. Crowley's features are all scrunched horribly, save his brows, which have lifted in vague panic. And his frame has been absolutely thrashing about. While the demon doesn't speak at all in his slumber, the sort of dream he's having has been clearly communicated to Aziraphale, whose brows have lifted in exactly the same fashion as his husband's. Softly, Aziraphale lets his hand from the covers to carress Crowley's cheek.
"Your nightmares will cease, now, love. Don't fret. See instead what you like best," he coos gently, and almost immediately, Crowley's eyes pop open. A blush starts on Aziraphale, and he curses himself for what could easily be considered a very poor choice in words. Really, well, it wasn't so bad of course because - well, after all their years together the simplest things still made Aziraphale feel so... well.
"Wassa matter, Angel?" Crowley frowns. Though the effects of Aziraphale's calming miracle lingered, a dazed Crowley was just as good as a regular one to see the concern all over his angel's face, and the blush on his face which might even speak of tears. Though, mysteriously, Crowley was the one who seemed to be crying. He attributed it to morning dry eyes.
Even more curiously, Aziraphale chuckled heartily. "Nothing, dear. Positively nothing."
A smile grew on Crowley, and it made him pull sideways. Well, towards Aziraphale. Everything laying down is sideways, if you ask him, and the bed they shared had plenty of room for it. What any of that means, really, is just that Crowley made a very slow job of kissing Aziraphale that morning. Of letting his bare arm over the other being's waist, of biting his bottom lip, of tenderly bringing them closer together.
"Aren't you something," Aziraphale purrs as it ends, his warm exhale meeting Crowley in ways that Crowley's own breath hadn't yet.
Their foreheads press together, and their chests too, and somehow even then Crowley can picture the blue sky above him. Clear as day. Strange how even things miracled away can return. "Angel... why do you think you never Fell?"
Aziraphale feels himself almost become angry, and then repent, instead feeling pity. He had wondered himself why he might give away his sword and perform useless miracles for countless humans and still have been trusted long enough to make it here. Knowing such, he chooses to ignore what might be made of Crowley's comment on his character and instead answer as carefully as he could. "I..." Aziraphale clears his throat. "I suppose I asked too little questions for too long, dear Crowley, for Her to ah..." the way Crowley's features dim wearies the angel, and he changes his course because of it. "I suppose we'll never know."
"I suppose. Do you -" Crowley finds his morning dry eye is striking again. "What if you had Fallen?" He can't quite look up, or sideways, but he does mark a trail from Aziraphale's shoulder along his arm with a few fingers.
The angel smiles. "Then it would have take much longer for us to meet, don't you think?"
When burnout Will gets a crush on the band geek, he’s a little embarrassed, and a LOT flustered. He’s never had a crush before, and certainly not on “clarinet guy.” Thank god, Leo, one of his best friends and an absolute lady-killer, is there to help him get his guy!
Note that if you want to read the final part for this series, there will have to be 70+ notes on this post, as the series was unpopular on all of my other accounts.
When burnout Will gets a crush on the band geek, he’s a little embarrassed, and a LOT flustered. He’s never had a crush before, and certainly not on “clarinet guy.” Thank god, Leo, one of his best friends and an absolute lady-killer, is there to help him get his guy!
80s Highschool AU - Watch: Freaks and Geeks S1E12
WC: 2 000 +
Part One
"Oh, hey, you know what? They're doing laser Floyd at Laser Dome tomorrow night," Leo said, hoping his friends would agree to go with him. Laser Dome wasn't like, a super cool place to be, but it was an excuse to zone out to some Floyd with Piper, and considering right now he was contemplating a crush on her, that was more than enough for Leo. Plus Thalia could come and maybe shave off a bit of her too-badass-for-this attitude.
Unfortunately Piper had no respect at all and wanted Leo to die of loneliness. "Oh yeah, I heard that," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "It was in ALL the newspapers." She pushed open a door for them, all three heading into the school.
Leo narrowed his eyes. Crush cancelled! "Oh, and you're too good for a laser show? You guys, it's Floyd!" He was so not cool with them dissing the most ultimate band of all time!
Thalia scoffed, rolling her eyes as she and piper passed him. Leo followed with an incredulous look in his eye, starting up again, his energy more frantic. "IF YOU DON' EAT YOUR MEAT, YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY PUDDING!" he cried, a desperate act that meant he was practically begging them to go. And sure, he'd gotten the quote completely wrong, but... it was kind of funny. Piper broke first, cracking a tiny smile. Leo saw it and zeroed in, his own smile breeding mischief. He was so going to get her on his side.
"It's Floyd!" he opened his arms up in explanation, hoping that would do it for her.
It obviously didn't. Piper looked doubtful at best.
Leo shook his arms around. "Come on, they're not gonna do laser Floyd for another million years," he groaned, needing them to give a sort of assent.
Piper actually laughed this time, lifting her palms up in surrender. "All right! We'll go! Shut up!" she chuckled.
That was when Will came in, just catching up with them from his english class around the corner. Luckily they had been moving perpendicular to Will's actual classroom, so he didn't have to chase them too hard. He'd seen them as soon as he left the doorway. "Go where?" he quizzed.
Thalia shook her head, crossing her arms as she gave Leo a judgemental look. "Oh, to uh, laser dome."
Will's brows jumped. "You're making me go to laser dome?" he complained.
"Yeah," Thalia shrugged, seeming to give up her attitude. "Be happy."
But... "Isn't laser dome just a bunch of squiggly lights on a ceiling?"
Leo was about to astral project from disappointment. "No, it's NOT just a bunch of squiggly lights on a ceiling. What is wrong with you people? Laser dome is a metaphysical experience."
Piper snorted. "Yeah, especially if you have your hand up Wendy Franklin's shirt."
Leo immediately looked sheepish, while Thalia started at a vague laughter. "Ooh. Yeah," she added helpfully, which just made Leo roll his eyes.
He turned to Will, ignoring Piper and Thalia as the group turned a corner. "So, do you want to go or not?"
The blonde shoved his hands in his pockets, shrugging. "Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I've gotta go to Bio class okay?" Will jerked his thumb towards the other end of the hall. The one they hadn't walked by. Everyone else's third period was in the second wing anyway, they'd have to seperate eventually.
"Yeah okay," Piper sighed, each of them pausing a bit to see Will off.
"Bye!" Thalia waved, Leo also adding a 'see ya!' before they all left. Will waved back, turning to get in the right side of the hallway. Unfortunately, he was met with a massive reason to fall over and die.
He didn't, of course.
He just froze up entirely and wished he could die.
Right in front of him, walking towards him, was Nico from the diner. Nico from band class! And his hair was swooping over his eyes just a little, sort of concealing them but not really. And he was wearing this silky black button up that fit him tightly and was unbuttoned at the top so you could see his collarbones. And... and...
Wow.
Wait. Nico was going to see him! Nico absolutely totally noticed Will staring for like five years and would beat him upside the head with his clarinet case and - wait. Nope. No. Nico passed Will wordlessly, not paying any attention or noticing him at all. Oh god.
Was Will blushing?
***
The band was practicing in the school's spatious music room, generally sounding terrible. It wasn't their fault of course; they'd only had the piece for a few days. Not that 'When the Saints Go Marching In' was very ambutious of them.
Will knew this because, like a total creep, he'd been watching most of the senior band practices. Well, he'd been watching Nico anyways. Thinking about him. For example, Nico's hair was definitely not from the bottle. Will could tell this because the roots of his hair were the same shade as the rest of it, even though the undersides seemed a little less 'sunkissed.' Another thing Will had thought about was the way Nico's relaxed posture stiffened when he was playing. His eyes narrowed a little, deep concentration in them as he blew into the reed. Which, by the way, Will had made a point of not thinking about too hard. Instead, he was very civilized in his -
"Hey!"
Oh no.
"What ate you doing?" It was Leo's voice. Will whipped around.
"Nothing," Will said, trying to sound normal. Like a normal person would sound.
It didn't work.
In reality, it was entirely suspicious, and the obvious fact that Will had been oggling someone through the tiny window was not helping him out.
Leo looked ready to judge him, eyes narrowing slightly, one brow raised. "Who are you looking at?"
Will still had hope. He could still get out of this. "Oh, I was just, you know, making fun of the band geeks," he tried to explain, scratching the back of his neck.
"Oh? By yourself? Let me see." Leo started towards the window which Will had been peeping from. Will tried to get in the way.
"Let me see!" Leo pushed in again, and they had a little scuffle, but Leo quickly won out, and took over where the now embarrassed Will had been only moments ago. There was only a small section of the band actually visible because of the minimalistic approach to the window frames, and Nico was right at the front. "Is that who you're looking at? Clarinet guy!?" Leo burst out laughing. "You're in love with CLARINET GUY!?" He elongated the last words of the phrase, mimicking the oblong nasally sound of the instrument.
Will wanted to actually hit him. "Shut up, man. Just forget it," he shook his head, stepping past Leo and - and Leo stopped him, holding Will by his shoulder.
"Hey hey, hey." Leo sighed, glad he managed to slow the tyrade of his angered friend. "I'm just excited," he tried to reason, "we've been waiting since the third grade for you to like somebody," Leo hit Will's shoulder amicably, "It's great."
Will shrugged. He was still embarrassed, and a little concerned hoenstly, but he was kinda glad one of his friends knew about this. "You think he has a boyfriend?"
Leo cracked a big goofy grin. "Not even an ex. He's a clarinet player," he joked, making the nasally voice again.
Will's face screwed up a little. "Screw you, Leo."
"Hey, man, I'm just joking." Will tried to push past him again, and Leo stopped him again. "I'm joking. Relax."
Will did try to relax. Leo was making it hard.
But... Will seriously needed some help with this stuff...
"He's cute," Leo said, like 'I get it, man.' He was striking the right chords.
"Yeah," Will sighed, pinching in his brows a bit.
It was gonna be so much harder for Leo to patch this up than he thought. Will was really hard for that guy! If Leo was a friend at all, he would have to be of some sort of assistance.
"He's friends with Thalia," Leo remembered. "You want me to talk to Thalia for you?"
Will nodded. "Yes." This was a good idea... holy shit, was he actually getting somewhere? "That's... that's exactly what I want you to do."
"Then I'll do it," Leo agreed, like the reasonable and awesome friend he was. Will seemed cool with this, for the most part. It could go wrong in a lot of ways... but it was also his only shot.
What Will was most afraid of was Leo turning around and making fun of him behind his back. A warning couldn't hurt. "Hey, you know, if you tell anyone about this, you're a dead man."
Will's finger was pointed at Leo's chest, and Leo raised his hands in a respective surrender. "Hey, come on. I would never."
The little standoff ended, Leo giving Will a wink as he started digging in his pants for darts. Once he had them he clapped Will on the back, passing him to get to the doors. "See you later, stud."
Will watched him go, a pile of nervous energy writhing in his gut.
***
It was like, the third day in a row Will was spending his after lunch spare watching the school's marching practice. It was kinda cool seeing them all work their little buts off. They were getting a lot better. But he wasn't there for that really. If he was totally honest he didn't know why he was there at all. It was kind of a stalker move, hanging out under the bleachers just to see Nico play botched versions of band songs on the field.
All that band stuff was sort of impressive actually; being able to make turns and do all those weird stepping movements while playing had to be difficult. Especially when you had to memorize the music. Will could never imagine pulling all that shit off while playing the guitar, especially not if he was forced to wear a Beatles getup while he did it. Nico had a lot of balls to feel confident doing all that during high school.
The beat picked up a bit, and Will subconsciously ticked his head in time, genuinely enjoying the songs now that he sort of knew them. He was glad Leo had snuck up on him during fourth period yesterday instead of, like, now, because Will was kind of making a massive fool of himself right now. Not that he wasn't before, but at the moment it was just sort of worse. Plus he was probably going to keep making a fool of himself as long as Nico was involved.
Maybe the whole Leo thing earlier was just making him anxious. And for good reason. Will didn't trust Leo to really get the message across the way he wanted, or to make it seem like Will actually gave a damn. Not only that, but there was no way to actually know what the hell 'having Thalia talk to him' actually entailed. What would she even say? Oh hey Nico! Did you know my buddy's been staring at you for like a solid hour every day because he's got a hopeless crush on you!? I know, crazy right?
But she wouldn't necessarily know he'd been so weird. She would only have Leo's famously gigantic mouth giving her the deets.
Shit.
"Hey, Will."
Oh! Awesome! Speak of the devil! Will was doomed. "Oh. Thals. Look-"
"I was talking to Leo--"
"And he said that I wanted to like, nail Nico, and you're here to tell me that it'll never happen," Will kicked at the grass. That was probably exactly how it went down! Shit, he was stupid to think any of this would go well.
"He didn't say you wanted to nail him," Thalia looked absolutely weirded out all of the sudden. "He wanted me to ask if Nico wanted to go to laser dome tonight."
"Oh." Will's cheeks felt warm.
"So..." Thalia crossed her arms. It was a bit chilly out. "Do you want me to do it then? 'Cause I want to make sure that you want me to do it before I do it."
Will nodded. Screw it. Who knows, Nico might agree to going. This might work out okay. "I want you to do it."
"Are you gonna be nice to him? Cause I'm not gonna do it if you're gonna be a jerk," Thalia warned, as if it was actually likely Will would be a massive dick to Nico at this point.
"Of course I'll be nice to her. I'll be an angel," Will rolled his eyes.
Thalia, assuming Will was just being his usual sarcastic self, wasn't having any of it. "Forget it," she sighed, turning away.
"Thalia," Will sounded a bit desperate. "I'm serious."
She considered him, then nodded a little. "Okay."
"Hey. Do you think..." Will rubbed the palm of his hand nervously. Thalia was nice. Thalia was friends with Nico. She could offer an honest opinion. She could help ease his nerves. "Do you think that there's any chance this may actually happen?
Thalia looked like she'd been hit by a freight train. Her eyes bugged out of their sockets. "Oh, my god." Her mouth set itself wide open, hanging like only cartoon jaws are supposed to do.
"What?" Will asked, feeling uncomfortable about the way her eyes changed so much.
"You really like him, don't you?"
"Well I..." Will searched his brain for a good way to put it. He scratched behind his neck. "I feel... odd."
***
"Nico!" She called out, waving her hand a little as she approached.
"Oh, hey, Thalia," Nico looked a little surprised by her arrival. "What are you doing here?" Marching practice had just ended, and Nico carried his still assembled clarinet with him across the field. Thalia met up with him. They kept walking while Thalia started to talk.
"I just came to say hi," Thalia lied. "That was really great. The performance at the end? Makes me wish I played an instrument." That was a good conversation thing right?
"Yeah, you should join band," Nico suggested, oblivious.
"Well, I'm kind of taking a break from activities," Thalia excused herself. "I quit the mathletes. Twice." That was true.
"Yeah, Rachel told me," Nico shrugged.
Alright. This was officially pretty weird. Straight to the point then. "So, anyway, um, I know this is kind of out of the blue, but I know this guy -- Will. He's got a crush on you."
Nico's brows jumped a bit. Why would someone Thalia knew be interested in him? Or really anyone? That sort of thing didn't happen to him a lot.
"Do I know him?" Nico asked.
"Well, you kind of met him the other night..." Thalia admitted.
Nico was immediately disappointed. Four days ago in the diner, the only guy who was with Thalia that stood out... "Was he the guy that was making fun of me?"
Oh god. Thalia had to fix this. "Yeah... uh, he's a total wise-ass," she rolled her eyes sympathetically, "but that's how he shows that he likes you. It's just this weird sense of humour, I don't know." Was that working? She hoped that was working. "So, if you're not doing anything, we were gonna go to laser dome tonight?"
Nico looked sceptical. "Why? Laser dome sucks."
"Yeah," Thalia said too quickly, trying to play it off. "That's what I thought you'd say. I totally understand."
"But I'll go." Nico amended.
"Really?" Thalia was genuinely surprised. Will was kind of... a whatever kinda guy and laser dome sounded like an absolutely terrible first date idea.
"Yeah," Nico shrugged again. "I mean, why not? Will's kind of cute, don't you think?"
"Uh-huh..." No. Thalia absolutely did not.
"I love that funky hair," Nico kept going. "Don't you just want to reach out and touch it a little?"
Will's ugly blonde mop? That hair was thicker than the stuff on a gorilla's back. "Heh. Do I..."
When burnout Will gets a crush on the band geek, he’s a little embarrassed, and a LOT flustered. He’s never had a crush before, and certainly not on “clarinet guy.” Thank god, Leo, one of his best friends and an absolute lady-killer, is there to help him get his guy!
80s Highschool AU - Watch: Freaks and Geeks S1E12
WC: 1 700 +
It was so fun reimagining PJO and HoO characters in the world of one of my favorite tv shows!
All four of their faces crammed into the two tiny slot windows, looking like prisoners staring through their wire inserts and into the noisy band room ahead. You could see the concentration on their faces as they tried to decipher the minds of the people who bothered with School Band. Kids who put all their energy into trash music, when they could be playing Van Halen. They probably all had good grades, too. And teachers liked them... madness. Well, teachers still liked Will, because he wasn't near as much of a 'rebel' as the other three. But the group certainly had an air to them that got them into trouble. Even when they weren't actually getting into trouble. For example, right now they were just a group of perfectly innocent students talking about the band nerds as they watched their practice. But it looked suspicious as hell.
Leo didn't appear to like whatever was going on. Or, at least, he liked it even less than the others. The limp hand of his limbs distracted from the dilapidated frown on his face, which twitched irritably. "What are they doing to this song?"
Piper scrunched her nose up in curiosity, shoving herself further between Thalia and Will to get a better view, as if it might improve her hearing. "What song is it?"
Leo waved his hand, backing off the window. Apparently he was done listening to the saxophones destroy the key change. "It was 'Chicago's 25' or '6 to 4', but now it's totally unrecognizable."
"Why do you even know this song, man?" Will was impressed with Leo for knowing anything besides rock. Band t-shirts were all the guy would wear, besides his tattered jeans and converse. But, unlike Leo, Will was still observing the band with full interest. His eyes fell over the trumpets, then the percussion, and the clarinets. There was only one boy playing clarinet out of the six, which Will found funny. The kid's hair matched the instrument's black sheen, and it was straightened into a fringe. Geek gone edgy. A tragic, yet common case among high-schoolers.
Leo immediately got defensive about the question, maybe concerned about his reputation. "'Cause it's a good song, man."
Thalia snickered suddenly. She'd evidently been ignoring them up until then, her keen eyes scrutinizing every move of the Greenville High's Concert Band. "Oh, my God, you guys. You guys, check out the pizza face dork with the clarinet."
"Why doesn't he just pop those things!" Piper joined in on the tease, her greased-back hair not moving an inch, exactly how it was supposed to be.
Thalia fired right back. "I think if he did, he'd die of blood loss." Of course, she thought this was hilarious, and laughed.
Thalia, Piper and Leo were all having good fun with this now. The song picked up and the clarinets of all things had a solo. Leo nearly cheered. "OH, OH, HERE WE GO. LOOK, LOOK, IT'S EMO BOY. HEY! HEY, YOUR CLARINET IS SO BIG AND SEXY!" He thrust his hips ridiculously, mimicking holding a clarinet as he did so. "IT MAKES ME HOT LISTENING TO IT, BABY! PLAY ME SOME BILLY JOEL! YEAH!" Sarcasm dripped through his (ridiculously loud) humour, giving it enough edge to pull another good laugh out of Thalia, Piper chuckling too.
Will's next move was a question of God, because at that point he had no fucking clue why he was pissed off by Leo saying all that, or why he wanted to defend the clarinet kid. "Hey, at least he can play an instrument."
Leo, still caught up with the attention his joke brought him, only grinned. "That's not playing an instrument!" he exclaimed. "It's like blowing into a noodle!"
"It sounds better than your singing," Piper shook her head, scoffing. Each of them chuckled at Leo. Will wasn't even paying Leo the time for eye contact. He was still watching through the window, even though Piper and Thalia had both pulled away.
Leo scoffed. "Ooh. Oh, my, Piper, here's an idea! How about you break up our band so that you can go make out with Jason! Oh, wait, you already did that, that's right."
The drama got Will to pull his gaze away, turning around to lean against the door with his arms crossed disapprovingly.
"Shut up, man!" Thalia punched the side of Leo's nonexistent bicep.
"Ow!" Leo protested, grabbing his arm, a pissy look on his face. He wasn't mad at Thalia of course, that just actually hurt.
Meanwhile, Thalia sidled up to Piper, ready to comfort her. "Hey, listen. I'm really, really sorry he said that."
Piper just shrugged as if it was no big deal, shoving her hands into her army jacket. "Ehhh."
"No, really. He didn't mean that, you know?"
"Whatever, no big deal." Piper shrugged again, pretending to be interested in whatever the kids across the hall were doing.
"Yeah?" Thalia wanted to be sure. She was like the mother of the group, protective and strong. But mostly she was protective of Piper.
"Yeah." Piper nodded, only for Thalia to copy her. Agreement was what they'd have to settle with. Thalia knew not to press Pipes about that stuff.
***
Thalia's Dad had held him late at dinner, and she'd ended up having to use 'going to the library' as an excuse for leaving halfway through his spaghetti and meatballs. Thalia had learned to be a pretty good liar, so she wasn't surprised it worked, even if she'd had to shove three meatballs in her mouth all at once. Her Dad shouted about how that didn't count as finishing her supper as Thalia ran out the door, but Thalia didn't care. Her and her friends were gonna hang at the diner, she'd munch off of Piper's fries if he had to.
"Hey, sorry I'm so late," Thalia sighed, sliding into one of the elbow seats at their table.
Will took on a face of jesting; exaggerated offence. "Well," he raised his arms to gesture towards their surroundings. People passed them on the way to the washroom, having left their 'fast food' at their tables. No one was worried about being poisoned in Greenville. "Thanks to you, we had to cancel our dinner reservations." Will meant of course that there was no real consequences when it came to being late. They'd been friends forever and the midtown diner wasn't exactly a five-star restaurant. It wasn't even technically any sort of restaurant.
Piper shook her head, pulling her loose winter jacket tighter, the front parts overlapping to trap more heat. "Can you ever not be sarcastic?"
"I'm sarcastic?" Will repeated with feigned surprise.
Thalia rolled her eyes and Leo scoffed. "All right, Andropolis," Piper pulled a napkin from the dispenser at their table. "Come on, I'm getting more fries," she said.
***
Will knew that after meeting up at the diner, a night with his friends was never over. They had much more fuckery to bring afoot. But usually that was reserved for after the diner. Unfortunately for him they ran into exactly the boy they'd been making fun of earlier that day. He came in just as they were leaving, and since the entrance-way was a shitty hallway, they were pretty much forced to make some sort of contact with him, terrible marching uniform and all.
Unsurprisingly, Piper seemed to have talked to Nico before. While her exterior was currently super badass, she still talked to about half the school, which was practically unheard of. But she was good like that. (Leo had argued many times that he could be like that if people paid attention to him. Of course this only served to provide a year's mileage of jokes on him.)
Piper raised her brow at Nico, smiling. Jason had introduced them, which had been admittedly strange, since Jason was head of the football team and Nico was just a plain geek. His band uniform only illustrated that, imitating old-fashioned queen's band type stuff, with green satin to rel the school colors and one of those tall fuzzy hats. It was pretty terrible. "Hey, Nico," Piper offered amiably.
Nico answered with surprising gusto, his voice oddly confident for such a small dude. "Hey, Piper."
Unfortunately Leo couldn't stop himself from interjecting, like, ever. "Nice threads," he said sarcastically.
Nico scoffed, raising his voice half an octave and adding a squeak to it. "Nice voice." Thalia immediately burst into chortling laughter. Will kicked a smile. The guy was quick. And funny. But, at the same time, he'd just totally insulted Leo. How to make a good mark on the cute band guy and support his friend? Obviously to invent a really inventive and hilarious insult for him.
"Hey, Sergeant Pepper, where's the rest of The Lonely Hearts Club Band?" The blonde asked, hoping to earn a smile or something. Nico took one look at him and tore him to shreds.
"Well, looks like you ate 'em."
Will gaped, as did the rest of his crew. Thalia smirked. "Ohh," she offered helpfully, sharing everyone's feelings about the insult. It. Was. Magnificent.
"Oh, nice," Leo nodded, then slapped Will's arm, hanging off of Piper. "Yeah, Will, when are the twins due."
"That's not nice," Will protested, hope officially deflated. Nico was just straight-up too good for him.
Speaking of, Nico shook his head, clearly deciding these guys were idiots. "Piper, is this bonehead a friend of yours?"
Piper smirked. "Nah, he's just a pain in my ass." Thalia laughed again, apparently appreciating the humour much more than William was.
Nico seemed appeased by this information. Like 'Oh good, I can still be friends with you,' but with a little less sassy aristocrat energy. "It's all right," he assured Piper, who honestly did look apologetic. Because the guys had obviously been cheesing on this poor helpless man way too hard. Then, to Will's surprise, Nico's gaze fell on Will. Oh, god, was his lungs seizing? There was a sudden lump in his throat. "See you later, Barbie. Good luck with that mop," Nico said, walking past them all with the same confidence he'd had when he walked in.
To top it all off, apparently Thalia was just at a fucking laugh festival. Yeah, yeah, blonde jokes. Original. Will huffed. He had to make a better impression on clarinet guy.
