tower of babel enthusiast

Sophie is free from Howl’s attentions and therefore safe from harm (a big part of the book is the fact that Sophie believes he eats women’s hearts, and him chasing girls proves this to her).  she takes solace in the fact that she’s old, and finds it freeing.  when she learns more about Howl (notably: that he doesn’t eat hearts and that he’s not evil), she starts to curse her age and resent him chasing girls.  BUT she remains old OF HER OWN VOLITION - Howl notes that she’s perpetuating the spell by wishing to remain “in disguise”.  there are SO many layers to this, and lots to do with gender politics - if she’s still old Sophie can’t get hurt, she likes the freedom, etc.  but of course on a personal level being old is her denying her feelings for Howl, and also a representation of her low self esteem - being old is a defence mechanism and protection, both on a gender level and a personal one.

Anakin gets called in by Republic HR a few months into the new government’s administration. He shows up feeling vaguely nervous (as everyone does when called in by HR), but without any idea what this is about.

The Sullustan man behind the desk is very apologetic (probably a little too apologetic, Anakin thinks, cringing a little and trying to make himself look smaller and less, well, less like Darth Vader). He explains that they just need Anakin to fill out a few forms, and really they’re so sorry it’s taken them so long to get to this, but everything’s been in disarray the last few months, you know how it is. (The please don’t kill me remains unspoken.)

Sure, Anakin says, attempting a smile that probably does more harm than good. No problem.

“We just need you to fill out the basic tax forms,” the Sullustan says, still sounding abnormally nervous for someone talking about basic forms. “And we need an account for your direct deposit, of course.” He chuckles awkwardly. “And, uh, Muhil in office 382 has your pay stubs for, uh, the last…couple months? You, uh, you haven’t picked them up.”

Anakin blinks. “Pay stubs?”

The Sullustan laughs again, but it sounds even more nervous now. “Well, yes,” he says. “It’s taken a while to get everything sorted out, and we are very sorry, so I believe there’s an additional stipend included with your back pay.”

Anakin blinks again. “Back pay?”

Another awkward laugh. “Of course,” the man says. “You didn’t think you were working for free, did you?”

There’s a long, awkward silence.

Anakin shuffles his feet. He looks down at the forms on the datapad the man gave him. He’s signed off on a few underlings’ forms similar to these, though usually it was other staff with actual military ranks who handled them. But he’s never filled one out before.

The Sullustan is staring at him in slowly growing dismay. “You…have deposited a pay check before…right?”

Anakin feels like he can’t breathe. “Um,” he chokes. “Can I…can I call…”

He doesn’t manage to finish, but luckily the Mirialan woman at the other desk seems to know what to do (and later he’ll wonder what exactly Mon Mothma has told her staff about him), and in less than fifteen minutes, Leia is there and he can breathe again.

“Dad?” she says. “What’s going on?”

Wordlessly, he hands her the datapad.

Leia frowns. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s go through this.”

They sit down, and Leia walks him through the employment forms. There are a lot of questions he doesn’t have answers to. Some of them she says don’t matter, but others make her frown deepen and an angry line appear between her brows.

Luke shows up about twenty minutes later, out of breath and still dressed in his flight suit, just as Leia’s saying, “All right, that’s the hard part done, now we just have to set up the deposit into your account.”

“What account?” Anakin says, and now Leia and the Sullustan and probably everyone else in the office are staring at him.

“The one we’re going to set up today,” Luke says cheerfully. His smile is bright but there’s the desert in his eyes, and Anakin is intensely glad his son is there.

He tries not to notice the fury that’s building in Leia’s face, or the half-pitying, half-terrified glances the HR employees are shooting one another. “Can I - ” he mumbles, and the man behind the desk nods desperately and says, “Feel free to take the datapad.”

So they go to a bank. It’s the same bank Leia uses, and Luke now too, so Anakin figures it must be a decent choice. You need to have some money already to open an account, so Leia uses hers and glares so hard that Anakin doesn’t even think of protesting. He signs all the things they tell him to sign and leaves with a string of numbers to memorize. Luckily he’s always been good at that.

Leia is still fuming as they make their way back to their speeder. Luke claims the pilot seat this time, and that leaves Leia free to vent. Anakin braces himself.

“The Jedi didn’t have stipends, I suppose?” she begins levelly.

“No.”

“Of course not. And the Imperial military doesn’t pay? I’m quite certain that I signed off on more than one military funding bill in my time in the Senate.”

Anakin only sighs. She wants to make this difficult, apparently. “I wasn’t military,” he says. “You know that.”

Leia’s eyes narrow. “The Inquisitors didn’t receive any compensation?”

Anakin grinds his teeth. “I wasn’t an Inquisitor.”

To his surprise, Leia is silent for a long moment, but he doesn’t miss the way she and Luke look at each other.

Percy’s neutral expression is a natural brooding look that he gets from Poseidon

That when he does smile it’s crooked and makes him look like a trouble maker

When he talks it’s usually very sarcastic and/or impertinent 

His inner monologue is actually very negative and while we, as the readers, take it as a joke he’s usually pretty pessimistic for a good portion of the time

That when he’s fighting his expression is fierce and is hard to tell whether he is the good guy or not

That Leo Valdez equated Percy’s angry expression to the feeling he gets when Jason is about to shoot lightning. Let me repeat - just the look on Percy’s face when he’s angry was considered on par to Jason controlling flipping lightning

That he’s very very vindictive and loyal only to those he considers his friends and once you lose his trust it is nearly impossible to earn back 

That while he had the curse of achilles, he laughed crazily while he was single handedly destroying hordes of monsters

He made an entire volcano erupt, awakened a giant, and almost wiped out the northwest of the united states

He tortured a godess just so she would feel his misery

That he’s actually very manipulative and it made Annabeth step back for a moment and reevaluate her perception of him

That while his dark side came to it’s peak in house of hades and wasn’t mentioned in blood of olympus, there was no confirmation that it suddenly and completely disappeared after they left Tartarus.

Has been the child of the prophecy twice.

He manipulated Bob to kill his own brother by simply convincing him that they were friends and that is what friends did for each other

He was physically abused by his step father

That with absolutely no training at all he killed the minotaur with it’s own horn at the mere age of twelve

He wins a good majority of his fights by simply outsmarting his opponent 

He has scared not only Annabeth but his friends and peers on more than one occasion with his attitude and powers

That he’s considered extremely powerful for a demigod and for a child of the big three and makes the gods slightly nervous

That when he’s upset his powers act to mimic his emotions without him even trying

Has been offered immortality

That he is actually really sorta intimidating without trying 

Percy has been to anger management classes. 

The name Perseus literally translates to “To Destroy.” Do with that what you will. 

Percy and his mother systematically murdered his abusive step father. And not only did Percy not feel a bit of repulse at the idea of killing someone, he offered to kill Gabe by himself if his mother couldn’t do it, then felt regret that he wasn’t the one who strike the final blow. His exact inner thought was - “How could I turn down the perfect chance to take revenge on him?”

After Percy killed Arachne in Tartarus, his exact words to Annabeth was “She died too easy, considering how much torture he put you through. She deserved worse.” And it unsettled Annabeth so much that she was almost glad Arachne died quickly.

Like dam, if you haven’t figured it out already, Percy kinda has a thing for revenge.

Percy’s powers grow extraordinarily fast, show no signs of stopping any time soon, and are no longer bound to only salt water or pure water liquids but now encompass all water-based liquids.

Percy blood bended in Tartarus.

“He didn’t want to stop. He wanted to choke this goddess. He wanted to watch her drown in her own poison. He wanted to see just how much misery Misery could take.” - Perseus Jackson while torturing Akhlys.

Luke and Kronos when talking about Percy not only referred to him as a weapon, but an unreliable one at that.

Frank literally compared Percy’s fighting style to a demon.

Percy pretty much took out half of the Roman Legion single-handedly during the War Games and basically just caused mass chaos and panic.

When Frank, Hazel, and Percy were traveling in SoN, street gangs didn’t bother them because one look from Percy sent them running in the other direction. One look.

and I have to keep telling them that the redhead with the white forelock is Jason Blood; they are not the same person in any way whatsoever.

Mama bird and her baby Robin.

Wynafryd and Wylla

[ID: a colored pencil drawing of Wylla and Wynafryd Manderly from A Song of Ice and Fire. The girls stand in the foreground, standing close together. Wynafryd, who is taller, wears a high-collared pink tunic, a white long sleeve undershirt, a green skirt with the image of seaweed and a shark tail visible, a double layered pearl necklace, a pink hair ribbon tying off the end of one of her braids, with large shell earrings, pearls in her hair, and two cartilage piercings in each ear. Wylla is shorter with green hair and a similar outfit, but her tunic is purple, and her skirt is blue with the image of a boat with a red sail struck by lightning on a stormy sea, a purple hair ribbon, and a shark tooth pendant necklace. Wynafryd’s right arm crosses her body to tuck into Wylla’s, in a manner that looks protective. Wylla’s left hand hangs at her side. Both girls look off to the left side of the picture, Wylla expressionless, but Wynafryd seeming suspicious or indignant. The floor is green cobblestones, the wall is turquoise with a scale pattern, a merman tapestry hangs on the wall to the right of the girls, and purple, turquoise, and green drapings hang from above. /end ID.]

Closeups below cut.