CHAPTER ONE
RAINA
Raina Starfall did not have many needs or wishes. Actually, she had one, and one only.
She wished for another mother.
She would see the daughters of Jupiter and Neptune and Apollo and Minerva and even Pluto, falling in love, having friends, living normally(for a demigod, that is), and she would wish she could be like them.
However, it seemed the Fates particularly disliked her.
Raina Luna Starfall was not a daughter of Mercury, or Apollo, or Athena, like she would've wanted. She was the one, only, and very lonely daughter of Nyx, the goddess of night.
Often, Raina was called an abomination-the mere thought of Night itself falling in love with a mortal man was almost impossible. And yet Raina existed. And she wished she didn't.
It wasn't like Raina was suicidal. In fact, Raina didn't want to die quite yet. She was afraid she hadn't been noble enough in this world, and she wouldn't get Elysium, getting the Fields of Asphodel instead. She did not want to spend eternity living as a sad, lost soul in the barren fields.
But still, Raina strongly disliked her rather unhappy life. She was a lonely girl.
Nyx, being a primordial goddess, was extremely powerful. Her demigod children (or demigod child) were powerful, strong, and almost fearless. However, being so powerful came with a price.
When Raina was born from the snow and dust of a comet and the light of a dying star, and carried down to the earth by a nightingale in a cradle of ebony, most of the Olympians were afraid her power would surpass their own children's, and she would overthrow Olympus, paving the way for her mother to take their place. And so they placed two terrible curses on the child.
The first is that she would remain lonely and distant forever, for whenever she got too close to someone, he or she would die.
The second, and the most terrible, was that she would die painfully and slowly before she turned seventeen.
The first curse took away Raina's kindergarten best friend, her father, her best friend in Camp Jupiter(in various ways), and was slowly killing her uncle with lung cancer, before she had found out about her curses on her fifteenth birthday.
The curse was cruel-she had the biggest crush on Caelius "Cal" Grace, praetor of New Rome, the son of the legendary Jason Grace and Piper McLean, who was already going out with Laelia Jackson, the daughter of (the even more legendary) Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. She knew it was hopeless, and that Cal would never even notice a lowly Fifth Cohort legionnaire like her, but she still couldn't suppress the admiration that rose in her chest whenever she looked at him, and then the pain that followed.
And she really, really tried not to think about how she had less than a year to live, seeing as her seventeenth birthday was only five months away. It would've helped if her death could be quick and painless, but now she knew she would die in probably the worst possible way. Like from humiliation if Cal found out about her crush on him. Ha. Ha. Ha.
This particular day, however, was a war games day, Raina's favorite day of the week, and she could not wait for evening. Even if most of the time she didn't win, she loved the rush of a fight, the feeling of power in her veins as she sped like a shadow across the battle field. It was also a bit more fun this year-she was finally made a centurion, even if the other one was Julia Kahale, the daughter of the much-feared Michael Kahale and one of the scariest, most unpleasant people she had ever met. She was also augur (apparently augur was reserved for the worst of people-wonderful), which meant she knew a lot of secrets about Raina that gave her a lot of leverage on her. They often argued-Julia always gave harsh punishments for no good reason, and used her rank to boss the Fifth Cohort around, while Raina tried to pass judgment as fairly as she could. Currently, the Fifth Cohort was torn between two centurions-they wanted to listen to Raina because she was fairer, but they often listened to Julia out of fear of her position and power. Besides, nobody really knew Raina-she sat alone at dinner, didn't participate in friendly conversations, and avoided people, out of fear that her curse would take yet another life. So the others just thought she had some sort of antisocial disorder.
She was sharpening her gladius when she heard the explosion.
She looked up to see legionnaires rushing towards the general direction of the Little Tiber, shouting and running and shoving. She stopped one guy and asked, "What is going on?"
"Monsters at the gates," was all he gasped before he pulled out of her grip and continued his sprint for the gates. Raina, grabbing her scythe (she had found it on her thirteenth birthday and liked to think that it was a present from her mother) and dropping the gladius, followed the rest of the legion's lead.
After a few minutes of running, she arrived at the Little Tiber, where a crowd had already formed. Raina could barely make out anything above the heads of others, but she could see what seemed to be a bunch of Cyclopes.
Suddenly, the air got colder, and heavier. The ground opened up. Around ten or so skeletons clawed their way up to the surface and seemed to attack the Cyclopes. In around five or so horrifying minutes, the Cyclopes had been reduced to dust and the skeletons crumbled back into bones. She heard an awed whisper. "A son of Pluto."
Pluto? Raina had to see this. She pushed her way through the crowd. In front of the Little Tiber stood a boy maybe her age. In his hands he held one of those kitchen knives. It was stained with blood. He had longish dark hair that framed his face, and dark green eyes that seemed to be confused, afraid, and amazed at the same time. He was holding the knife like, I have a knife and I'm not afraid to use it! He looked scrawny and travel-worn, and very, very clueless. He actually looked kind of like a puppy.
Caelius stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The new kid looked nervous. He wrung his hands. "I'm…Amicus. Amicus Grave."
"We will question you at the principia," Allison Stephens, daughter of Mercury, the other praetor, commanded, her voice strong and steady, resonating around them. "But you need an escort. Hm..."
Of all people she could've chosen, her vibrant green gaze rested on Raina. "Starfall! You will be the escort to Mr. Grave here."
Oh, great.
"Yes, praetor," Raina said wearily, saluting half-heartedly. Allison shrugged.
She closed her eyes and opened them again. Caelius and Allison were already ordering the other legionnaires back to their activities, while the new guy, Amicus, warily made his way towards her.
"Come on," she said, her voice clipped. It came out harsher than it meant to, and the poor boy looked scared half to death (ha, ha, son of Pluto, death, get over it). Raina did look rather creepy. Oh, well. Better to scare him off.
AMICUS
Amicus was really fed up with being a demigod.
The wolves had been okay. Strange, but okay. The journey from Philadelphia to Berkeley had been long and hard, but fine, he could handle it. The monsters, especially those pesky Cyclopes, had been pushing it.
But his "escort", as General Blondie had most delicately put it, was the last straw.
Amicus was going to admit it; that chick was scary. An inch or two shorter than him, but scary, especially with that Grim Reaper stick of death she was holding. He'd heard of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold and Stygian Iron swords and knives, and bows and arrows, and clubs and maces, and spears and javelins, and shields too. But seriously, what kind of demigod carried a freaking scythe?
She took off her helmet and got a good look at him. Amicus' ADHD went, hey, she's actually kind of pretty. She had long dark hair the curled around itself at her waist, and pale, clear skin. Her eyes, dark blue, like the night sky, bored into his green ones with such an intensity that he had to look away.
"Welcome to Camp Jupiter!" she feigned enthusiasm. "You're a son of Pluto, right?"
He nodded. His mother had told him so on the very day he found out he was a demigod.
She lowered her voice so the praetors couldn't hear. "That means you have to lay low. Demigods get uneasy about underworld gods like Pluto and Somnus and Nyx. One mistake, and you could be kicked out of the legion and taint the name of your brothers and sisters forever. Of course, being a relative of Hazel Levesque and Nico di Angelo's, there may be some leniency…"
"Who are those?" He asked. He'd heard of the di Angelo name once-some famous heart surgeon, maybe…but he couldn't be sure. "Isn't the di Angelo guy a doctor or something?"
Starfall (was that what Blondie called her?) shrugged. "He's a son of Hades-the Greek form of Pluto. He grew up to be a famous heart surgeon. He's known even more in the demigod world for being the first-ever demigod to go through Tartarus, which is basically Greek hell, alone and live to tell the tale-at the age of fourteen." She spoke about him with awe. "As for Hazel Levesque, she was one of the seven demigods who saved us all in the second Giant War, which was like twenty or thirty years ago or something. Of course, now their glory days are over, so they don't stick around at camp much. None of the real legends do, really. Anyway, Lupa explained the Giant and Titan Wars, right?"
"Yeah," he said. He still remembered the disbelief he felt the day Mama Wolf and her clan came to get him. They'd trained at the Wolf House and then left him to go to Camp Jupiter on his own.
"Yeah, well, anyway, don't use that as an excuse to slack off, okay? By the looks of you, you'll be in my cohort, and I'm one of the centurions, and if you step a hair out of line I'll throw you in a sack with a rooster and give you and Cluck a swim in the Little Tiber. Am I understood?" She said, her eyes narrowed and hostile, like she was trying to get him to hate her.
"Huh?" What? What was a cohort? What was a centurion? What was going on?
She rolled her eyes and began to explain to him how things worked in the legion. Basically, the First Cohort had all the privileges and stuff, and it got worse the lower you got on the food chain, until you hit rock bottom, AKA the Fifth Cohort, the Cohort Grumpy Cat, his perfectly grouchy escort, was in, which was where all the losers went.
Amicus was so sure he'd be in it, given his wonderful luck lately.
She then explained the pegasus program with the Greeks, and how one day he could go in his free time once he became used to the life in the legion. She said after the questioning(she said it would blow over) and the augury(she warned him not to blow up-in annoyance, that is, but she didn't explain why there was a possibility) they would get his weapons and things, and maybe train him a little bit for "war games" whatever that was.
Amicus looked around. " I see…dead people." He said.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Those would be the Lares, or the household gods," she explained. "Humor them and they can give you pointers. Anger them and they can pull nasty pranks on you. Yes, stop gaping, those are unicorns. We don't ride them, so don't even think about it."
"Then what's the point of this stupid camp if we can't ride unicorns?"
"Oh, I dunno, maybe provide a safe sanctuary for demigods everywhere?" she said, feigning surprise.
Amicus sighed. He hoped that not everyone was like this, or he'd be in for a very hard year. Or two. Or three. Who knew?
After he got over his initial trance with the unicorns, he spotted a guy with…were those goat legs? And horns? He was walking along, waving to his goat friends and high-fiving legionnaires. "Is that Mr. Tumnus?" he asked in disbelief.
"We're in Camp Jupiter, not Narnia," she said scornfully. Gee, what a surprise. "What you call Mr. Tumnus is called a faun. Just thank the gods above that they aren't homeless anymore ever since Grover Underwood did that Fauns are People Too! campaign. They work as counselors for the younger kids, and on the Greek side they find demigods and bring them to camp."
After a while, Amicus said, "What's your name, anyways?"
She tensed, then relaxed. "Raina Luna Starfall," she said quietly.
"Who are you the daughter of?"
She froze, and didn't relax this time. Amicus wondered if he'd crossed the line. "Nyx," she said icily, without looking at him. "The goddess of night." She remained coldly silent the rest of the way. Amicus wondered if all demigods were this touchy about the subject.
A few moments of walking later, they arrived at what Raina called the principia. She said it was kind of like the headquarters for the praetors.
They entered to find a oval-shaped table, with a chair at each end. Raina remained standing respectfully, holding her scythe like she was a guard. In the meantime, the praetors seated themselves in the chairs. The dude picked a jelly bean off the bowl full of them in the center of the table.
"So," the girl said, as if attempting an awkward conversation. "Amicus Grave. Son of Pluto. We don't get a lot of those, even if we're getting hordes of Jupiter and Neptune kids. Where are you from?"
"Philadelphia."
"Do you know if your mother is aware of your father's true identity?"
"She was aware," Amicus said, his voice clipped and sharp all of a sudden, the way it did when he didn't want to talk about something. She and her coworker shared a meaningful glance. They caught the meaning of the word was. He even saw Raina soften a tiny bit, her eyes lowered to the ground; her dutiful scowl turning more into a sad frown. A knowing frown. Hm.
After a pause, the girl said, "We express our condolences, Amicus. It is not uncommon for our kind to lose their mortal parent while growing up."
The boy nodded grimly.
"Moving on," he said, after heaving a long, awkward sigh, "You went through the usual training with Lupa, right?"
He nodded.
"You know the full extent of your powers?"
"Not really," Amicus said. "The skeleton thing was an accident the first time, really."
"As expected," the girl said, her tone relieved. With a start, he realized she was afraid of him.
The rest of the questioning went smoothly, with questions like if he had dyslexia and ADHD (he did), if he had any siblings he knew of(he didn't), and other stupid questions Amicus thought they were only asking him because it was a standard procedure or something.
Later, after being dismissed, Raina took him to the temples. "Where are we going?" he asked her.
"To get your augury," she said grimly as she wove her way through temples. "To determine if you can be accepted in the legion or not. They're performed by the augur, who, in the old days, used to use animal entrails. Now, she uses…" She said this as they stepped into the biggest temple of all. He could make out a figure seemingly summoning red lightning and cutting something.
"Teddy bears?"
"Less messy," she said shortly, and gave him a look, like, leave the talking to me. He sensed that the augur wasn't a very nice person.
A toga-clad figure turned around, the hand holding the knife resting on her hip. A bunch of stuffed animals hung from her belt. Stringy brown hair hung loosely around her shoulders, and her blue eyes seemed to be analyzing the best way to gut him alive. She sneered. "Well, well, Starfall has a new friend!" she said with fake enthusiasm.
"Shut up and do his augury, Julia," Raina growled.
"That's no way to speak to someone higher in rank than you," Julia said absently, infuriatingly examining her knife.
"You and I are both centurions of the Fifth Cohort. You are no higher than I am," Raina replied, like she was fighting to stay calm.
"Ah, but you forget. I'm augur. That's more than you will ever be, am I right?"
Raina looked ready to kill, but instead, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. Her voice was cold, harsh, and quietly calm."You're slacking on the job. I can report this to the praetors."
Julia looked smug. "Mm-hm." She took a teddy bear off her belt and brutally murdered it, taking her time. Finally, she looked up, smiling wickedly. "Amicus can join the legion. Wonderful." Amicus didn't like the way she said wonderful.
Raina roughly grabbed his arm and began dragging him out of the Temple. But Julia wasn't done yet. "Oh, and, word of advice, Amicus," she called. "Try not to hang out with nobodies like Centurion Starfall over there. They tend to be a, ah, bad influence." She laughed hysterically, like it was a hilarious joke.
Raina's grip became even more vice-like on his wrist as she dragged him out. He could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. Amicus didn't really know Raina, and wasn't even sure he liked her very much, but he didn't like the way Julia treated her, like she was blackmailing her or something.
"Why don't you fight back?" Amicus made the mistake of asking.
Raina whipped around, and spoke so fiercely Amicus took a step back. "Being augur, she knows a lot of secrets about everyone. Secrets I very much wish to keep," she said angrily. "And please refrain from asking about my personal life anymore. I don't like it."
Gee, all he did was ask.
KALI
Meanwhile, a very happy twelve year old named Kali Trix was having an awesome day at the legion, as usual. Her mother had visited her in a Mistform, teaching her a few more spells and incantations (seeing as her mother was Hecate, the goddess of magic, this wasn't strange), the swordfighting instructor said she was improving, and her letter back from her dad came.
Kali's dad was a magician. He worked in a circus, which didn't get him a lot of money, but as he always said, "Money is worthless next to love." And he did love his job, being a magician. He wasn't like those con artists, though, with their standard pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat crap. He was a real magician, with voodoo dolls and such, except her dad wasn't spooky and mysterious. Her dad was fun and dorky, like her.
Anyways, since he lived in the mortal world, traveling with his circus, and Kali lived in Camp Jupiter, they exchanged letters, delivered by Mercury Express(it's never failed once and it's with the dirt cheap price of two denarii per letter.)
Generally, Kali thought her life was pretty good. She'd never been exposed to monsters much-only six months ago, her dad had sent her here with the wolves straight to camp, and her life had been drills, war games, and happy evenings with hot chocolate, brownies, and her friends ever since. It was really fun, especially when your mom visited in your free time and taught you incantations. By now, Kali knew at least a hundred- from making a person excrete natural gases to making small purple fireballs.
In Roman terms, Kali was still a newbie. The other kids in the Fifth still treated her like a kid, despite the fact that she got her first stripe last month when she saved that six year old from falling into the Little Tiber. But she didn't really care. The older kids let her sit at their tables at dinner and breakfast, and made small talk with her.
She glanced at her forearm. Two crossed torches, the symbol of her mother, with SPQR underneath, and a single line. She couldn't wait to get nine more.
As she laced up her boots, after a nice plunge in the baths, she glanced into the foggy mirror in front of her. Curly blondish brown hair that was already beginning to frizz under a brightly colored bandanna framed a round, fair face, with two big, innocent, bright blue eyes above a button nose sprinkled with freckles. With a final grin at the mirror, Kali gathered her belongings and bounded out of the Baths. As she exited among the other legionnaires, she could hear snippets of gossip; how a new son of Pluto had arrived at camp. Kali wished she had been there to see it for herself. Unfortunately, that morning, she had been serving an extra-harsh punishment from Julia; as a result of laughing when Julia had tripped on her toga, Kali had been forced to spend her morning cleaning the longest street of New Rome with a toothbrush and bleach.
She raced to the formation. If she was late, she'd serve another punishment of Julia's, and this time, it would be even harsher. She'd gotten her spear and sword, despite the fact that Kali could easily take care of anyone using magic. But rules were rules, and Rome was all about rules.
She took her place near the back of the Fifth Cohort; being young and inexperienced, she was often placed at the back. She didn't mind. In a year or two she was sure she would be near the front. She could hear the praetors taking attendance.
"Kali Trix!"
"Here!" she squeaked.
Eventually, the attendance ended, and then the announcing of war games, ave ave, blah blah blah, and finally they came to the topic of the new kid.
She strained her ears to listen to what Cal was saying.
"…Newbie, Amicus Grave, son of Pluto!" Cal announced. A kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen, walked, then tripped on his shoes as he made his way to the front of the legion. A few people snickered, but Kali studied him closely. A shock of dark hair, kind of scrawny-definitely a son of Pluto. They'd once learned the differences that separated one demigod from another, like how children of Neptune always had green eyes or how children of Mars tended to be big and broad. They didn't always apply-Kali was proof of that-but it was useful if a certain god or goddess didn't want to cooperate.
Cal said, "Before he can be claimed by a cohort, where is your letter, if you have one?" The kid, Amicus, fumbled around with his pockets, then pulled out a seedy-looking piece of paper. Allison took it. "Authorization from…Connor Stoll. A Greek, but a somewhat famous war veteran, so, fair enough. Who will stand for Amicus Grave?"
Nobody raised a hand. Nobody said anything. Kali suddenly felt sorry for the guy. He needed someone to stand for him. Suddenly, and idea bloomed in Kali's head.
"I will stand for him!" She piped up, bouncing up and down so people could see her. One of the things Kali didn't like about herself was how short she was; so short people often mistook her for someone younger than her age.
The crowd parted so the praetors could see her. She saw Raina holding her hand to her face while Julia looked coldly amused. Cal and Allison looked surprised. "Er…alright, then. Kali Trix?"
She nodded.
"Kali Trix, daughter of Hecate, do you accept the full responsibility of Amicus Grave?"
"I do."
"Then Amicus Grave has officially joined the Fifth Cohort!"
Weak applause sounded throughout the clearing. Somebody gave a courageous whoop. Kali admired that person.
Cal put the probatio tablet around the kid's neck and whispered something in Amicus' ear, then realization dawned on the guy's face and he ran to join Kali.
The praetors allowed them to go to the forum for dinner, and then Kali spun around and stuck her hand out. "Hi, new kid!" Kali said cheerfully. "I'm Kali, Kali Trix, daughter of Hecate!"
Amicus seemed surprised by her enthusiasm. "Amicus Grave," he said slowly. "Son of Pluto."
"Oh, this is going to be so great!" Kali said. "I can show you around, and tutor you on demigod history, and help you with Latin, and maybe we'll have the same monster class, and then we'll take you to the armory and you can get your gladius and your pilia, and your armor, and we can be in the war games together, and-"
"Whoa, whoa," Amicus made a stop gesture with his hands, though he was smiling. "One at a time, there, kid."
"Oops. Sorry. I get really excited. Come on, let's get to dinner, you'll love it," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him in the direction of the forum. On their way there, Kali told Amicus about all the things she loved about the legion and New Rome, making it sound so wonderful and happy that it was almost Elysium. She wasn't really sure he was listening very well, but she was happy that she was the one in charge for once, instead of being the one in charge of.
They arrived at the forum. Kali was already pulling him towards the table she usually sat at when Amicus said, "Why don't we sit with Raina?"
Kali was surprised. Why would he want to sit with Raina Starfall? She was kind of gloomy, in Kali's opinion. "Why? I think Raina likes to be alone. She doesn't sit with anyone."
"Well, why not change that?" the son of Pluto countered.
Kali considered. Really, why not? What was the worst that could happen? "You have a point. Let's go."
Raina looked startled when she saw Kali and Amicus plopping into the seats in front of her. She had already begun on her mac and cheese.
"May I help you?" Raina asked.
"We just want to sit here," Kali said, flashing a wide grin. "Figured you'd be a bit lonely."
Raina looked at her weird. Then she said, "Um…sure."
Kali thought hard about what she wanted to eat, and it appeared for her-her dad's homemade cheeseburger, and the punch they always served at the circus her dad worked for.
"So…" Kali said. "Any plans for war games?"
"Not really," Raina said absently. "We're on offense again."
"Why do they always put us on offense?" Kali asked.
"Why do the First and Second get the best of everything?" Raina answered with a question. "It's called a century-old grudge, Kali."
"You mean the eagle thing?" Kali wanted to know. "That's ridiculous. That quest to Alaska twenty years ago recovered it, right? And the members of that quest were all in the Fifth!"
"Some things never change, Kali," Raina sighed. "You can fight for your rights and your beliefs and for your reputation as long as you want, but if humans are convinced of something, they won't change about it. It's how we operate."
"Pessimism," Amicus coughed. Raina shot him a venomous glare Kali was glad she wasn't the receiving end of.
"Looks like little Raina Starfall made some new fweinds!" Julia appeared out of nowhere, smiling in a nasty way, talking in a baby voice. "A son of Pluto and a daughter of Hecate. You sure do keep good company, Starfall."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Amicus demanded.
"Nothing you understand, newbie," Julia said. "Be careful, Raina. You might get-gasp!-attached to them."
"Don't you have somewhere to be a loser in, Julia?" Raina said, her voice like poison.
"For your information, you are the loser, sweetie. No friends, no family, destined to-" Julia was cut off by Raina, who looked frantic.
"I think I can see Cal and Allison looking our way," Raina said, her voice a little desperate. "How do you think they'll like a someone bullying the newbie?"
Julia rolled her eyes. "Losers," she said, smiling wickedly. "Really. You guys are such losers. It makes perfect sense for you guys to sit together. I think you should start a band called the Losers. Or, no, wait." She smiled acidly. "How about the Misfits?" she laughed as she sauntered away.
"I really hate that girl," Kali said as she watched her sashay away. "She's so mean."
"It's a camp trait," Raina said, shaking her head, while slightly smiling.
Amicus studied her carefully. "I guess it does."
All, right! That was Chapter One of Misfits! I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING IT! WOO!
OK, first off, I'd like to say a few things. I wanted to write Misfits because I wanted to shed light on some of the darker parts of Greek/Roman Mythology, the PJO/HoO world, and, ultimately, humanity. I want to write more about the more ignored parts of the books-Underworld gods, Camp Jupiter(YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE!), and some glossed-over things. It's not rated T, at least for now, but go away if you like funny one-shots and Percabeth fluff(I love Percabeth as much as the next person, but this isn't a high school AU if that's what you came for, and somehow didn't notice).
I'd also like to say: I know the cover image is of another book/Tv show/anime character called Danica, but the cover is what I envisioned Raina to look like, so, yes, I'm aware that the person in the art isn't even part of the PJO/HoO universe.
Also:
I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS OR HEROES OF OLYMPUS. THOSE BELONG TO RICK RIORDAN.
I DO NOT OWN THE COVER ART, IT BELONGS TO AMAZING ARTIST VIRIA13.
This is the first and last disclaimer I'm doing, because disclaimers are stupid. I'm obviously not Rick or Viria.
Don't expect a lot of "original" characters in here. As said, their glory days are over. There might be a mentioning or two, and one character is going to be particularly focused on, but other than that, this is mostly going to be OC's, which I promise will not be Mary-Sues.
AND IF YOU HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO SAY, DON'T EFFING SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. THIS GOES TO YOU, OC-HATERS, AND YOU, GRAMMAR POLICE. I accept constructive criticism, but if you're going to go:
"Ur fnfic is stupid and dum fuk u" or "In line 10 word six you misspelled you're" than get the hell out of here. I'm not gonna respond, and not going to be affected, but I'd rather my reviews be coherent, intelligent REVIEWS, not some kid who enjoys insulting people. And I know my effing grammar. I use Microsoft Word. I HAVE SPELL CHECK. IT'S CALLED A TYPO, EVER HEARD OF IT?
I'm not going to be random and be an extra-cheerful author who puts author notes in the middle of the story, because this story is mostly dark and gritty. I take my writing seriously, and despite popular belief, fanfiction is real literature. It's so real 50 Shades of Grey got published and got millions of dollars, and it was a Twilight fanfiction originally, I heard(figures it was a Twilight fanfic). Even though I don't really think 50 Shades of Grey is real literature. But I digress.
AND DON'T SWEAR IN THE REVIEWS, PLEASE. I don't need to hear vulgar language to know you liked or disliked my story. There are many, many words in the English language. Use the good ones, for my sake and yours.
And don't be a hater if I don't do super-fast updates. I'm a human being. I have a life outside of this. I don't spend my entire day on this website. I have homework, a family, and other writing projects. Be human.
One last thing. If you're uncomfortable by words such as "hell" "fricking" "dam" "schist"(these exact forms, not the real ones) than I advise you to leave. The main characters are adolescent, they need to swear in some way. This isn't the goddamn Sesame Street.
I dedicate this chapter, and story, to my best friend in real life, malkimo12, who, besides helping me out of a really dark time in my life and sticking by my side through thick and thin, is an all-around awesome person and supports all my stories, fanfic or not. She doesn't have any fanfics yet, but if she does in future, I advise you to go read them. She's pretty cool. Stay awesome, Loki!
-The Mourning Sage