(A/N:
So…. Hi?
…
Holy shit this was updated in 2018? Wtf? Where does the time go?
Ok, so for all of you that might be holding out hope for this story, I owe you an apology and an explanation.
First of all, I am truly sorry, but I won't be updating this fic anymore. I had so much fun planning this multi-fandom disaster of a series, but I've come to realize that that the thought of completing it or even writing it doesn't make me happy anymore. If anything, it feels like a chore, and I never want my writing to feel that way. The last time I truly enjoyed writing fanfiction was back when I wrote Living Fireworks in 2016.
Yeah…. Hm. Not good.
Even though I haven't worked on this fic in forever, I still feel guilty and very mildly stressed every time I think about it, so I figure that I need some closure. So, I've decided to write this update.
Some of you might have seen this in my author's notes somewhere, but I'm studying creative writing in college at the moment. I'm a few weeks into the second half of my junior year right now and I've come to realize a few things.
One, I don't have the time to write anything other than what I need to for my writing classes. I'm hella busy constantly, so even when I want to write my own stuff, I usually can only do short-form stuff like flash fiction or poems.
Which brings me to my second realization: I don't like writing long works. I thought that I was going to be a novelist when I first got to college! How wrong I was! After experimenting with other genres, I've found that I have an intense love for poetry and visual storytelling, like comics. Long, complicated works like The Mandala Effect tend to feel more like burdens than anything else and as I said, I never want my writing to feel that way.
Finally, I've just kinda strayed away from the fandoms that I originally planned to have in this fic. I haven't been interested in any of these fandoms for quite some time.
However, I feel like you guys still deserve some closure, so after I finish off this nightmare of an author's note, I'm going to give you all the bit that I managed to write for what was supposed to be the sixth chapter of this fic. I'll also tell you all what was supposed to happen next and how the story ends.
I hope you all enjoy!)
"We've lost them." Halt grunted at he set his bowl on the inn table in the corner of the inn, voicing what they all were thinking. He dropped into his seat between Will and Clint, his mouth slightly skewed in frustration. This was the third village that they'd visited that had no witnesses to point them in the right direction. At the first village, they'd been optimistic, sure that they'd find
"Maybe we should split up," Will suggested. "I could go with you and Gilan could take Clint. We'd be able to broaden our search and cover more ground."
Gilan took a bite of his stew and shook his head. "What if they decide to turn and head North or South? We'd have no way of notifying the other group."
Clint hummed in thought. "We could do something in between," he suggested. He shifted his collapsed bow into a more comfortable position, shifting on his stool. "We could split up to search one village to the north and one to the south, then meet up in one that's along the route that we've been traveling. It'll be slower than how we've been traveling up until now, but we'll be able to cover more ground while still keeping each other informed."
Halt nodded. "It's not a bad idea. But we're only a two days away from the coast, at most." He scratched his hand through his beard with a huff. "If they really are heading there, then it's safe to say that they're going to board a ship. If we split up and slow down now, we run the risk of missing their departure."
Gilan shrugged. "Maybe, but what other choice do we have?"
"Alyss!?"
Gilan and Clint whip around to look towards where Halt and Will are staring. Across the room, a young woman is staring at them from the doorway, her eyes wide as a grin spreads across her face. Clint thinks that she must be about Will's age, with steel-gray eyes and blond hair that's been pulled back into a long ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her simple white dress and short blue cape flow behind her as she quickly crosses the room. A bronze pin in the shape of a laurel branch gleams on her right shoulder and hanging at her side is a leather satchel.
(Alyss greets them all and they get down to talking. Gilan, Clint, Halt, and Will explain why they're there and Alyss gets very excited. She tells them that the night before, she had been camping beside the path that she had been travelling along on her way to Seacliff to deliver some important documents. She had been woken up by a group of people going past, some knights and a group of women.
The five of them leave the tavern shortly after they finish their meal and go after the knights. By nightfall, they've finally reached the coast, where they find a secluded inlet with a ship beached on the sand.
Thirty-three women are tied up on the beach, seated in three groups, with each being guarded by a knight. The rest of the knights, of which there are five, are seated around a roaring fire and feasting on a roasting sheep's carcass.
Despite how the women had been described before, they didn't look happy to be with the knights anymore. Many of them had visible bruises on their arms and some scrapes on their knees where they might have fallen. Many were sniffling or outright crying and a few of them had rips in their clothing around the necklines, as if someone had manhandled them by grabbing the backs of their dresses or tunics.
As they overlook the scene, our five heroes can immediately tell that something is horribly wrong, so they quickly get down to devising a plan. Halt, Will, and Gilan sneak down to the beach and position themselves so that they'll be able to quickly take out the guards that are keeping watch over the captured women. Clint and Alyss sneak up around by the five feasting knights in order to provide support after the three rangers take out the guards.
As Alyss and Clint lie in wait, they hear a bit of what the five knights around the fire are talking about. Apparently, none of them are actually knights (Alyss can't help but think that Horace would have a conniption) and they were planning on selling the women into slavery.
The knights are swiftly dealt with and the women are treated to the rest of the roasted sheep as the knights are trussed up and left under Gilan's careful guard.
Halt genuinely thanks Clint and shakes his hand. Before any of them can say anything more, Clint disappears in a flash of light and next thing he knows, he's in an unfamiliar hallway with the other Avengers in a tangled mess on the floor.)
After taking another look at my planning document for this fic, I realized that I also planned out Tony's timeline, which was going to be a crossover with Percy Jackson. The basic gist of is that with his replusors knocked out, Tony finds himself in the middle of New York, unable to fly back to his friends. At first glance, everything seems normal. Sure, the people that he passes think that he's just cosplaying as Iron Man, but that's nothing new. He's been mistaken for a cosplayer before, wasn't the first time, won't be the last.
But everything comes crashing down when he realizes that the tower is gone.
In a daze, he walks through New York until he reaches Central Park, where he hears panicked screams in the distance. He runs towards the source, where he sees monsters attacking three young kids who are being defended by several teenagers with… swords?
Tony manages to distract the monsters long enough for the teens to swoop in and take them out. The kids thank him and ask him if he's a son of Hephestus or Vulcan and why they'd never seen him around before.
Tony is, understandably, confused.
Tony tells them who he is, but they don't believe him. He tells them how he got there and Hazel, who had been visiting Camp Halfblood when she, Percy, and Annabeth had decided to go into the city to see a movie (stupid, they know, but they're allowed to be kids, too, y'know), said that she could sense magical residue on Tony.
They take him back to camp and tell him about who they are. Tony learns that they've been having problems at camp and witnesses several automaton attacks on the camp borders. Some even break through, damaging Tony's suit in the process. Leo gleefully builds him a new one out of some celestial bronze scrap that he had lying around.
Tony and Leo both study one of the carcasses of the automatons and manage to trace it back to its source. An older roman demigod had been sending them to attack the camp. He was very pissed off by the truce between the camps, but he's brought to justice after Tony helps to take him down.
(A/N: So yeah, that's it. If you'll remember from the prologue, Steve doesn't have his shield when he reappears. That's because it's in a magic, bigger-on-the-inside-than-the-outside bad that's under his robes. Idk, I just felt like I should clarify that. I hope that if any of you were still thinking about this story, that this update helps. I know that it's helped me to get some stuff off of my chest. Now that I don't have this fic hanging over my head, I might even start writing one-shots. :) I hope you all have a great day, week, month, and year!)