#userethan

BIRTHDAY EDITS: adam parrish for @deadgansey

“The personage was ... about her age and size, and might have been her wraith or double, but for the fact that it was a lady much more beautifully dressed than she. Indeed, comparatively indifferent as Elizabeth-Jane was to dress, unless for some temporary whim or purpose, her eyes were arrested by the artistic perfection of the lady’s appearance. Her gait, too, had a flexuousness about it, which seemed to avoid angularity. It was a revelation to Elizabeth that human beings could reach this stage of external development—she had never suspected it. She felt all the freshness and grace to be stolen from herself on the instant by the neighbourhood of such a stranger. And this was in face of the fact that Elizabeth could now have been writ handsome, while the young lady was simply pretty. Had she been envious she might have hated the woman; but she did not do that—she allowed herself the pleasure of feeling fascinated. [...] The only way of getting a single pleasant thought to go to sleep upon after this was by recalling the lady she had seen that day, and hoping she might see her again. [...] Elizabeth-Jane looked wistfully at her questioner. She found that her questioner was looking at her, turned her eyes down; and then seemed compelled to look back again. [...] ‘I have been staying at Budmouth for a few days while my house was getting ready. The house I am going into is that one they call High-Place Hall—the old stone one looking down the lane to the market ... Now will you think over my proposal ... ?’ Elizabeth, her eyes shining at this prospect of a change from an unbearable position, joyfully assented; and the two parted at the gate of the churchyard. [...] Her mind dwelt upon nothing else but the stranger, and the house, and her own chance of living there, all the rest of the day. [...] When the lamps were lighted, and it was yet not so dark as to render chimneys, attics, and roofs invisible, Elizabeth, almost with a lover’s feeling, thought she would like to look at the outside of High-Place Hall. She went up the street in that direction. [...] The impression that this woman of comparatively practised manner had made upon the studious girl’s mind was so deep that she enjoyed standing under an opposite archway merely to think that the charming lady was inside the confronting walls, and to wonder what she was doing. Her admiration for the architecture of that front was entirely on account of the inmate it screened. [...] The young lady had come.Her presence so exceptionally substantiated the girl’s utmost hopes that she almost feared her good fortune. [...] ‘Well, have you chosen?’ she asked flinging down the last card. ‘No,’ stammered Elizabeth, arousing herself from a reverie. 'I forgot, I was thinking of—you, and me—and how strange it is that I am here.’ Miss Templeman looked at Elizabeth-Jane with interest, and laid down the cards. [...] Lucetta’s tongue had for a moment outrun her discretion ... Elizabeth had tempted her to make free, and a deliberately formed resolve had been broken.It could not, however, have been broken in safer company. Lucetta’s words went no further.”

@wafflesandkruge​ @grishatober​ Sapphic Saturdays - Six of Crows

@wafflesandkruge​ @grishatober​ Sapphic Saturdays - TGT

The Mark of Athena

The Eight (bc i need more than seven demigods) are: Mal, Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Hanne, Nina, and Kuwei. Alina refused to join them because she deserves a break, but they convinced Mal to come for the “wisdom’s child” part of the prophecy. 

Mal, Inej, Nina, and Kuwei arrive on the Argo II; Hanne, Jesper, and Wylan plan to join them to find Kaz and complete the Prophecy of Eight: Eight half-bloods shall answer the call/to darkness or storm, the world must fall/an oath to keep with a final breath/and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

However, right before leaving CJ, Jesper is possessed by an eidolon and fires on the camp; the others get onto the ship and leave.

They stop in Kansas, and Kaz, Hanne, and Nina go to meet with Bacchus; eidolons possess Kaz and Hanne and try to make them fight, but Nina calms them down and knocks them out.

The prophecy: Wisdom’s child walks alone/the Mark of Athena burns through Rome/twins snuff out the destroyer’s breath/who holds the key to endless death/giants’ bane stands gold and pale/won through pain from a woven jail.

They learn that Kaz (his name means destroyer; he knows how to close the Doors of Death) has been imprisoned by the twin giants, Ephialtes and Otis, and is being kept in a bronze jar (twins stuff out the destroyer’s  breath/who holds the key to endless death).

They arrive in Rome: Inej, Hanne, and Nina go to find Kaz, while Jesper, Wylan, and Kuwei scout out the Colosseum. Mal goes to find the Athena Parthenos, alone (wisdom’s child walks alone/the Mark of Athena burns through Rome).

The girls find Kaz and fight the twins; the defeat them with Bacchus’ help and free Kaz

Jesper, Wylan, and Kuwei are trapped underground, but escape (after a bonding moment that is definitely not platonic)

Mal meets and fights Arachne (giants’ bane [the Athena Parthenos] stands gold and pale/won through pain from a woven jail); the others on the Argo II come to get him, but Kaz and Inej fall into Tartarus.