Other People's Heroics

Love it.

Oh my god

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 

——– FANFICTION MASTERPOST OF STAR WARS ——–

So, to celebrate my love for FanFiction and the amazing authors who made them, I made this FanFiction Masterpost compiled of some of the best stories I’ve read to corresponding fandoms. Enjoy! (FYI, I edited some of the synopsis. These are ordered according to my favorites but the bolded ones are those stories that are especially dear to my heart because they break it into a million pieces with so little words arranged in the right, heart-wrenching way.)

Obi-Wan Kenobi-Centric

1. An Uncertain Path by Red rose knight

Summary: Four years after “The Phantom Menace.” Obi-Wan is a lone knight looking for a purpose. Qui-Gon survived the battle of Naboo to train Anakin. This is the tale of the different path Obi-Wan’s life has taken.

2. The Long Twilight Path: An Uncertain Path Sequel by Red rose knight

Summary: Five years after “An Uncertain Path.” The Republic is divided and on the verge of civil war. Key political figures that have held the fragile galactic government together are being systematically assassinated. Now it is up to Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Bali Tiro to find the assassin.

3. The Book of Paths: The Chosen Path by Red rose knight

Summary: Six years after “The Long Twilight Path.” As sentiments are turning against the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Bali Tiro return to help keep the Republic and the Jedi from falling to the encroaching Darkness.

4. The Master by LuvEwan

Summary: The overlooked can be underestimated.

5. My Yesterday by LuvEwan

Summary: Obi-Wan awakens to a vastly different Universe.

6. Shadows of the Future by Stormqueen873

Summary: Obi-Wan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occurring?

7. Set It Alight by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet

Summary: It is better that one man falls to darkness than an entire Galaxy. It turns out the price of the future is a certain man’s soul. Was it worth it? What if Ventress had actually understood the subtle, if despicable, art of breaking a man?

8. You’re Nowhere by LuvEwan

Summary: Insomnia brings brief illumination to a monumental rift between Master and former apprentice.

9. If I Needed Someone by LuvEwan

Summary: The mission to Naboo ended in a bitter severance of the friendship between Master and apprentice. Four years later, a chance for reconciliation arises. A follow-up to “You’re Nowhere.”

10. What You’re Missing by LuvEwan

Summary: The decision to train Anakin Skywalker cost Qui-Gon Jinn his friendship with his former apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Three years have passed, and the void left by the events on Naboo are taking their toll. An alternate follow-up to “You’re Nowhere.”

11. Whispers of the Future by cywsaphyre

Summary: A step to the right and the future shifts. A decision made and another future is created. A hundred terrible endings and all the roads that lead to them; and Obi-Wan has always been able to see them all.

12. Mask of Duty by Arldetta

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has another Master. Qui-Gon Jinn is sent to retrieve Obi-Wan when a mission goes awry.

13. New Arrangements by Syntyche

Summary: Qui-Gon Jinn is less than pleased when the Council assigns him a new Padawan – one who should be old enough to undergo the Trials instead. But why isn’t Kenobi a Jedi yet?

14. Chasing Redemption by Estora

Summary: When Anakin Skywalker dies, Obi-Wan Kenobi is left to pick up the shattered remains of their lives. The Supreme Chancellor seems to offer escape from the grief and guilt – unfortunately, he’s also just decided that Obi-Wan will make a perfect replacement apprentice.

15. The True Chosen One by Bloody Phantom

Summary: Qui-Gon knew he was meant to train the Chosen One. What he didn’t know, was that he was already training him.

16. Snapshots From The Chosen One’s Life by Lincoln Six Echo

Summary: The Chosen One, in this story, is not Anakin Skywalker. This is about Obi-Wan’s life, his relationship with his masters, his friends, his padawan and his destiny.

17. Strokes of Colored Grey by Elfpen

Summary: Obi-Wan has been drawing since he was a small youngling, but only a few people know, including his teacher, Vianro Dleka, and the elderly, trustworthy archivist, KinWan Terius. But what happens when his master discovers his secret?

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader-Centric

1. Hindsight Is Not Perfect by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet

Summary: It has been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and the road back a difficult, slippery slope. Now Anakin has to face himself and his choices, avoid the suspicion of everyone from the Jedi Council to Palpatine and try to prevent the future from turning out as badly as it did before all while somehow finding a way to balance the Force…again. Time Travel.

2. The Dangers of Foresight by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet

Summary: Anakin’s 9 years old again and back at the Temple, bound and determined to change destiny. To do so, he has to juggle trying to stop Dooku from joining Sidious, freeing his mother, avoiding Palpatine, and his training all while maintaining his cover as a 9-year-old initiate. Too bad keeping up a facade isn’t one of his strong points.

3. Purgatory by HelenT

Summary: As if the comment Obi-Wan had made to Luke about Anakin ‘dying’ when he became Darth Vader was literally true, a newly dead Vader wakes in a strange world—as a twenty-three year old again.

4. Ambient Dreams by Sohna

Summary: Sometime following his dream of Padme dying, Anakin has another dream that shows him what will happen if he turns to the Dark Side.

5. Lord Vader’s Limpet by Frodogenic

Summary: Several years post “Return of the Jedi,” Lord Vader finds himself with a new role to fill- Grandpa.

6. Driving Lord Vader by Frodogenic

Summary: Companion piece to Lord Vader’s Limpet. Sixteen-year-old Anakin Solo is on the manly quest for a space license, but the only person who can take him to the Department of Space Transportation is…his grandfather.

7. For Family by Nanuk888

Summary: What if Vader, wanting to be with his son again, had taken a very different approach after Luke escapes him at Bespin? How far would he go to regain what he has lost?

8. Misunderstood by Quill of Molliemon

Summary: Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi stumbles upon a strange young man injured and fleeing from the Dark Side. Protecting and hiding the boy is made no less easier when he calls himself Vader.

9. Like Fragile Glass by Shtuff

Summary: He’s a mess, broken and lost after too long in the dark. Now he just has to prove to the Council that he is worthy of the title of Jedi Knight once more. If only the woman he has to protect wasn’t so stubborn.

10. Angels by Jade-Max

Summary: What if Anakin had been older than Padmé at the time of their first meeting on Tatooine?

11. Caught by Disco Shop Girl

Summary: Anakin is caught being affectionate with a child in the temple arousing Obi Wan’s suspicions.

Anakin and Obi-Wan Brotherhood/Family-Centric

1. Goodbye by QueenYoda

Summary: An alternate ending to Episode III. In a universe where Obi-wan helped Anakin and Padme escape the council’s preying eyes, sending them to a happy existence on Naboo, the prophecy is still fulfilled. And Obi-wan’s destiny, too, is unchanged. The only difference is that this time, he has a chance to say goodbye.

2. Imbalance by Tashilover

Summary: There is a sudden imbalance in the Force. And Obi-Wan must pay for it. Time Travel.

3. Threads of the Past by Magier74

Summary: Obi-Wan and Anakin make an unexpected detour returning home from a mission.

4. Fire and Ice by Yesac

Summary: Anakin wins the duel on Mustafar, but doesn’t kill Obi-Wan. Along with Padme, Obi-Wan finds himself living in a chaotic world where the man he thought he knew has become the thing he swore to destroy. Can Anakin be turned back? If so, what then?

5. Everything You Wanted by Obaona

Summary: Anakin is now Emperor and has captured ObiWan. But things are never that simple.

6. Shadow of a Name by Yesac

Summary: Padme Amidala of Naboo has agreed to a marriage with Lord Vader. Vader is not considered a good man, unless, of course, one asks the opinion of Obi-Wan Kenobi-though Padme cannot say why that is, considering Obi-Wan’s position in the royal household.

7. An Education of Sorts by Imadra Blue

Summary: Anakin isn’t entirely sure what to make of Obi-Wan. During his first Padawan’s haircut, Anakin decides to educate Obi-Wan on what he’s supposed to do now that he’s been charged with Anakin’s care and feeding.

8. The Finer Shades of Why by Yesac

Summary: When Dooku realizes far earlier Sidious’ intentions to replace him, Sidious’ plans never come to fruition… but Dooku’s do. Across the galaxy, Anakin and Obi-Wan are shot down by their own men and try to make sense of why.

9. A New History by Annie Walker

Summary: During a heated battle, Dooku escaped into the past! Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker follow to stop him, but discover that Dooku went to the past where Obi-Wan is a young padawan to a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn. Now, the two must go undercover to stop Dooku’s plans from coming to fruition in order to save not only the future, but also young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn.

Jedi Apprentice Characters-Centric

1. Intermission by Princess Electra

Summary: Twelve years after he left the Jedi Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi returns to Coruscant with a new mission. Anakin and Qui-Gon, Kenobi and Palpatine. AU.

2. Shades of Light by Shannz

Summary: When Qui-Gon Jinn returns to the Temple, he encounters his former fallen but redeemed apprentice’s padawan named Obi-Wan Kenobi.

3. Point Me Toward Tomorrow by JediJewel

Summary: Knighted after defeating Darth Maul and saving Qui-Gon’s life, Obi-Wan Kenobi, with help from an unexpected party, moves to put Naboo and his relationship with his master behind him.

Padmé Amidala-Centric

1. Keep Breathing by Yesac

Summary: Padme doesn’t die at the end of Revenge of the Sith. Instead, she decides to take the twins and join Obi-Wan in exile.

Empire Era-Centric

1. A Princess and a Guy Like Me by  Fialleril

Summary: In an AU where Alderaan was never destroyed, Han Solo doesn’t quite take naturally to royal life.

2. Symbols by JayCee’s RedGold

Summary: In a universe split in two, a peace treaty is made, but what is a treaty without visible support to show the galaxy? The two governments decide to give the galaxy a tangible symbol of peace… an arranged marrage between Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade.

3. Take My Hand by Sillimaure

Summary: A rescue mission goes awry and the last Jedi Knight must fight to save the lives of his friends - and the soul of a woman he has never met. As their lives intertwine, they discover that sometimes even the Force must give way to a greater power.

The Force Awakens-Centric

1.  In The Place That’s Made of Old Relations by Fialleril

Summary: The one where Rey grows up alone on Jakku. Well, not completely alone. It turns out her grandfather knows a thing or two about living in the desert.

2.  Don’t Forget (Your Bones and Skin) by  Fialleril

Summary: Kylo Ren has spent years seeking the guidance of Darth Vader. But he never expected this. (Or, the one where Kylo and Rey have a heated existential debate about the true nature of Anakin Skywalker. And there are ghosts.)

3. So Show Me Family by Inksaber

Summary: Finn accidentally uses Poe’s last name while on a mission. Rey thinks this is a great idea. Things escalate from there.

Alternate Universe

1. For Such A Time As This by Magier74

Summary: The Jedi Order was disbanded as part of the Rusaan Reformation and both Jedi and Sith have been extinct for 1000 years - or have they?

2. The Broken Cadence Rolls by LuvEwan

Summary: Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice encounter a terrifyingly skilled-and familiar-warrior during the epic battle of Naboo.

General/One-Shot

1. Legends by Princess Electra

Summary: Beyond his mortal coil, Dooku reflects on the line of legendary Masters and Padawans, and their ultimate downfall. Yoda, Dooku, Jinn, Kenobi, and the Skywalkers.

light:

glows when they talk, dewy eyes, radiates with a blessing from the sun, calm in the air and goodness in their hearts

ocean: 

bodies full of stories, a will that ebbs and flows, lazy smiles, no real devotion to anything but existence itself, wordless lullabies

earth: 

minds like caverns, hands like stone, to hold or to hurt, heavy irises, earthquake tempers, stubborn desire for constant reconstruction

poison: 

Source: [x]

Linseed oil and rust on the outside prevents fungi, moss (moss hates iron, rusted or otherwise), and mold, which can damage and decay a wooden structure far too quickly…but the “whitewash” used to make the insides of dairy barns and houses white was literally paint made from slaked lime mixed with water.  The slaked lime, being rather alkaline, would kill bacteria and viruses landing on its surfaces, helping to keep the dairy barn, buttery (milk-processing workroom), chicken coop, lambing shed, and so forth much, much cleaner.

More facts:

Linseed oil is made from the seeds of flax plants, aka the same plant most commonly used to make linen, but they often came from separate crops of flax.  How so?  Well, to make linen, you want the fibers to be as long as possible, with few branching bits, so you sow the seeds closely together, forcing all the flax to grow up as tall as possible, trying to get high enough to crowd out its neighbors for the most sunlight.  You’ll still get seed pods, but only at the tips where the flowers eventually grow.

However, if you want a high seed yield for processing into linseed oil (which has many uses) as well as for consumption (flax seeds are indeed healthy in modest quantities), then you sow the flax more sparsely, widely scattered with more room between each plant, so that the plants have room to branch outward and catch plenty of sunlight.  With those branches come many more flowers, and the flowers get turned into lots and lots seedpods.  You can still get some usable fibers out of flax grown for seeds, just as you can get some usable seeds from flax grown for fibers, but in each case, it won’t be nearly as much as you’ll get for the other use of the plant.

Mindful farmers with the fields tos pare would definitely sow two crops of flax in two different styles, one widely scattered and the other closely packed.  Depending upon weather, etc, one type may grow better than the other…but it took a lot of effort.

Rust could be acquired by letting iron or steel (not stainless, of course, but that’s a relatively very recent invention) sit in a container filled with water.  These objects, usually scraps, or broken tools that could no longer be repaired, flakes hammered away during the forging process, so on and so forth, would simply sit in water, occasionally stirred or scrubbed under the water, until the red sludge was ready to be filtered…which could often be done with a couple layers of finely woven flax-fiber linen.

Linseed oil made for a good water repellant for tarps and raincoats (being an oil), but it took forever to dry.  It also could not fill in all the holes in the weave of a tarp, and so some water would still get through.  Rust was often paired with linseed oil for painting tarps because the particles (once filtered and dried) were often just large enough to jam up against each other in those holes.  And being rust, it would help prevent mold and mildew on cloth, just as it would for the sides of a barn.

To more quickly dry the linseed oil, someone discovered that turpentine (spirits of pine sap or pine resin, which required distillation (either a controlled boiling of the sap itself after being gathered from the pine resin trees in a manner vaguely similar to maple sap gathering), or destructive burning of the resinous wood in a distillation kiln, again under controlled temperatures.  The sap collection method, which if carefully managed could be repeated year after year, often required filtering the sap through, you guessed it, layers of linen cloth (somewhere between cheesecloth loose and finespun tight).

All of this, of course, ran the risk of either igniting the turpentine or the linseed oil (if it was being boiled to get it to the right consistency), or the possibility of getting an injury from rusty metal, which might introduce tetanus (commonly called lockjaw, and an utterly unpleasant way to die).  Tetanus shots (or Tdap, for Tetanus, diptheria, and adult pertussis) are a modern invention and literally save lives, so get yourselves & your kids innoculated.

(Author’s Note:  After years of carefully avoiding acquiring any puncture wounds, I finally suffered one this last weekend by accident, and had to get a tetanus shot. I had a distinct, palpable, uncomfortably allergic reaction to the last one a dozen years before, you see.  So my doctor advised me to put it off as long as possible, but if I had to get one, to take an antihistamine before the shot. Which I did.  My deltoid muscle is ow…but soooo much more pleasant than the symptoms of dying from lockjaw, yeesh.  And I do not have a reddish fried-egg-looking allertic reaction on my arm this time, yaaaay for generic benadryl!)

Ahem.  Anyway…

Whitewash is in some ways even more dangerous to make than linseed oil or turpentine.  (If linen is somehow equally as dangerous to make, you’re doing something seriously wrong, just sayin’.)  Not because the final product is dangerous, but because the method of creating it for hundreds of years was to pile layers of limestone chunks and either charcoal or coal into a great big kiln pit, and light it from above…and then keep watch on it day and night as it burns down to the bottom, whereupon you shoveled a lot of dirt on top to seal it off.  The gasses put off by the coal in particular, and the limestone when burned, can be caustically toxic…as in, if you breathe them in, they can sear (& thus scar) your lungs, should you get a particularly thick whiff.

On top of that, once the limestone (chalky off-white stone) is properly baked to drive out all moisture in the kilning process (leaving a startlingly white and very lightweight by comparison chunk of stone in its place), it is quicklime, and has to be slaked.  That involves chucking it into a special slaking pool.  This was often a literal pool, lined and sealed with clay or mortal, but could also be a bucket or basin of some kind…but that basin had to be scorch-proof (i.e. don’t do this in a plastic bucket, folks!), because quicklime chunks + water = excessive thermal reaction.

In other words, quicklime is very, very alkaline, and when it re-bonds with water into slaked lime, it puts out a LOT of heat, literally boiling the water in which it sits while it’s in the process of re-adsorping all that water.  The term ‘caustic’ refers to very high alkalinity, and often means damaging any living flesh that comes into contact with it, giving chemical burns (as well as thermal burns, yeek).  Quicklim is exceptionally caustic in its earliest stages of exposure to water.  However, ones thoroughly slaked, the alkalinity pH drops down to a 9 or so, which can be much more safely handled…though it will dry out your hands with repeated exposure.  It is often good to have a mild acid on hand (such as common household vinegar) to counteract the alkalinity when scrubbing slaked lime (or quicklime powder, yeek) off your skin, to neutralize (level out) the pH.

Once thoroughly slaked, the rehydrated lime can then be either used as a putty, or dried to a powder and stored for future use as, say, a whitewash paint ‘pigment.’  Please note that after quicklime has been slaked with water, it has been changed chemically, and even though you may dry it in the sun and grind it up into a powder, it is no longer nearly as caustic as quicklime, and will not ever again be that caustic, unless and until it is baked at very high temperatures in a kiln.

It is the high temperatures of the kiln that drive out the chemically bonded water molecules from the rest of the elements in limestone rock, not the mild temperatures of drying in the sun, after all..  Restoring that water via slaking can and will return quicklime back to being the equivalent of limestone once again, albeit in a putty form with no binders. (LImestone often has rock, sand, and/or ancient seashells in it, and to turn it into pure lime putty, these get filtered out during the crushing, firing, slaking, and grinding processes.)

Finally, unlike rust and linseed oil, which were often mixed and applied together to the exterior of a barn to combat rain, snow, mold, mildew, and so forth, the whitewash of slaked lime (hydrated lime(stone) powder) did not need to be mixed with linseed oil to be applied to the inside of a building.  It was not like an acrylic or latex paint, and could rub off, or be worn off by wind & time, so it had to be reapplied every so often–every few years, if the farmers were lazy.  If they were diligent, applying layers every year (or even twice a year!), it would slowly build up and form a natural plaster (drywall) coating on the walls of wherever it was being applied.  Get those walls too wet, however, and it would crack and slump and flake or even melt off the wall.

Do keep in mind, though, that it could be mixed with linseed oil, or more commonly mixed with rendered and melted pig fat, sheep fat, etc, to be applied to the outside of a building, particularly a daub-and-wattle building (the white squares inside the gridwork of Tudor style houses) or a cob or adobe building (think the days of Spanish conquests in the Southwest & Mexico, and all those white adobe haciendas, forts, and chapels) to help repel water.  (Rendered fat, often muscle fat rather than the much more tasty leaf/kidney fat, tended to be used in colder climates since it did not need the burning heat of a desert sun to dry it relatively quickly, like linseed did, plus as it congealed it did a better job of sealing the walls.)

And if you’re wondering, writers, yes, whitewash can come in other colors than crisp white.  Invariably, these colors were natural earthen pigments made from finely ground up stones.  Pigments had to be used since whitewash does not take dyes very well.  Usually, the antibacterial properties are still retained, particularly with pastel colors…but the color white was used both as a method of showing where dirt had gotten onto surfaces, and as a means of amplifying the lighting indoors.

It’s like the opposite of how movie theaters are decorated in dark colors so that you’re not distracted by light from the movie screen reflecting off of paler, whiter walls…and the red of movie theater seats and movie screen curtains further dulls any light being reflected back into our eyes.  You don’t want the rust red inside if all you’ve got for lighting are rushlights, candles, and/or oil lamps.  This includes if your only light source when going to milk the cows in the milking stalls comes from one or two lanterns, you are going to want as much white on the walls of the barn and the stalls and everywhere possible to reflect that meager light off of clean white surfaces.

Nowadays, it’s super easy to get linseed oil, turpentine, rust, and powdered hydrated lime (slaked lime, pickling lime, etc).  In fact, you can still get lime based paints.  You can make whitewash yourself (literally just powdered slaked lime and water, be mindful it’s still somewhat caustic, and will undoubtedly require multiple layers applied with time for drying in between).  But if you want the high quality stuff that can come in multiple mineral-pigmented shades…well, it’s a bit more expensive these days than cheap acrylic or latex paints…but it’s a lot healthier for your living environment, since even the fanciest versions often still retains slaked lime’s mold-killing, bacteria-slaying, clean-enough-for-dairy-making qualities.

Left alone in the cabin, she took the opportunity to examine Cassian’s duffle and its contents: nothing but gear. Weapons and portable medpacs and signal boosters. No holoimage of a dutiful wife or tattered childhood security blanket. He packed impersonal and he packed light.