#(also I know we don’t have details about how Thalia’s last stand went down but.

[seaglassdinosaur]

See, Grover got to Percy’s side, made to help him down the stairs when Annabeth said one of them needed to stay behind to buy time.

And you know he immediately had a memory of Thalia, saying she needed to stay behind to protect them from the monsters, and he immediately felt that same guilt and fear and anxiety rush over him.

And he pushed back against her staying behind, because he wants everyone to make it through this, and he wants to be hopeful, but when Annabeth explains herself, he no longer verbalizes his objections. Because on some level, he knows that quests require sacrifices. Sometimes demigods die and they die young and it isn’t fair, but it happens and you can’t stop it.

Maybe a part of him recognized Annabeth was the best choice. She’s the best equipped because she’s had the most combat experience, and Percy’s on death’s door so he can’t stay behind, and arguing would waste time, but whatever justifications Grover had in his head, you know he felt awful. He felt history repeating itself, of him turning his back on one demigod companion to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable of the party. Him forced into a position where he will always feel a coward.

And then Percy flips the script and starts to talk, and Grover can’t even maintain hope that the combatant will make it out of there.

[remosdeerica]

Batshit AU Pt #2: The Grandkids

So I mentioned in the last post Batshit AU Pt. #1 that I cover Dick and Jason's kids but since I've been thinking (read: fantasizing) about the future of the Batfam I figured I'd just do a post with ALL the grandkids!

Just a heads up: this is a LONG post.

First we shall start with the Grayson's:

Mar'i and Jake (Jake is not my original name I've seen it pop up in other media- dunno if it's canon in any timeline but I'm going with it).

Mar'i Grayson: Mar'i is the biologically daughter of Dick Grayson and Koriand'r of Tamaran (aka Starfire). Kori is unknowingly pregnant after one last one-night-stand with Dick before going back to her home planet to take over as queen. Unfortunately, because of Kori's sister Komand'r (aka Blackfire) causing civil unrest to try and usurp the thorn from her, Tamaran becomes unsafe for Mar'i as she is Kori's only heir.

-Kor'i goes back to Earth with an infant Mar'i and begrudgingly hands her over to Dick so she can live with him and be safe from Blackfire.

-Kori of course visits while she can but has a lot of responsibilities on Tamaran. When Mar'i is older she is able to go back to Tamaran to visit her mother.

-A few years later when Dick and Barbra get married, Barbra officially adopts Mar'i. Seeing both Kor'i and Barbra as her mothers Mar'i decides so call Kori "Mama" and Barbra "Mom/Mommy".

Jake Grayson: don't have much of an exciting backstory for him. He was basically just an orphaned infant Dick and Barbra decided to adopt after his bio-parents had been murdered.

Now he have the Todd family:

Because I am a heartless monster I decided that since Roy died in the comics without any sign of Lian and Jason was pretty fucked up about it, I would have Jason adopt Lian because Roy wasn't round to take care of her. So this is basically what happened:

Lain Harper-Todd: 1 year or so after Roy's death, Jason is visited by Jade Nguyen (aka Cheshire) who is carrying an infant Lian. Jade explains that she hadn't realised she was pregnant with Roy's child until after he was already dead and since she is not ready to give up her life as an assassin she states that Lian is better off without her. She then asks Jason if he would be willing to take Lian in as Roy's former partner (read into that how you will).

-Jason agrees, and decides to hyphenate her last name Harper-Todd so that she will always have a piece of Roy with her even if he can't be there for her in person.

it's not that I don't think JayRoy is cute! It's just that I honestly I don't really picture Jason dating anyone in my mind and the thought of him being a single dad is just precious. I'm also allergic to OC's (of my own making) so I usually try to keep to characters that are at least canon in some timeline and Lian was the first to come to mind.

Also I'm a angst-hungry monster so...

Drake-Wayne/Dowd/McGinnis household:

Lol, this family has too many names.

I already went over Terry and Matthew McGinnis' backstory in Batshit AU Pt. #1 but if you are too lazy/ don't feel like reading it I'll try to make sure to cover the important details.

Terry & Matthew McGinnis: A few years down the road, Tim is the current Batman and married to Bernard Dowd (my new fave batship). One night on patrol he finds the boys hunkered down behind an garbage container and approaches them.

-Terry is extremely protective of his younger brother Matt and becomes immediately aggressive, swinging a baseball around and threatening Tim to leave them alone.

-Tim finds it admirable/endearing that Terry is willing to face Batman alone in order to protect his brother and tells him so. He then asks them where there parents and and Matt (trusting Batman) tells Tim that they were killed by the 'Bad Men' who are now looking for he and Tarry.

-Tim is worried for the boys safety and offers to take them to the Police, but Tarry only says that they already tried that and that there are spies in the GCPD who ratted them out to the 'Bad Men'.

-Tim figures out that the boys are in more danger then he first realized and takes them home with him in order to protect them.

-Tim eventually finds out about Project Batman Beyond, an experiment orchestrated by A.R.G.U.S. in order to create the perfect child to usurp the Cowl and give A.R.G.U.S and 'in' with the Justice League and the super-community as a whole. A part of this project is making sure the children are biologically Bruce Wayne's in order for them to also gain influence over Wayne Enterprises.

-Tim realizes that there is no real safe place that he can send the boys and after discussing it with his husband, Bernard, the two decide to adopt the boys.

I think this adoption story is one of my favourites. Especially because I find the idea of Bernard not at all being surprised by his husband brining home black-haired blue-eyes orphans, hilarious.

Bernard: I figured since you are now Batman it was only a matter of time.

Tim: >:(

Wayne-Kent situation:

DamiJon is one of my absolute favourite ships in existence. But since both boys are so young in canon my version of their future relationship truly is creature of my own design, I will explain them a little and then the kids. I'll be quick about it. Promise. (There is also a 2 part series I'm working on that goes into my version of events called "Jon and Damian" if anyone is interested. Jon's chapter is done but Damian's is still in the works).

Jon: he is the one that I really have to explain. I call my version of him "Dark-ish Jon" or 'dark ish jon' for the tags. For those of you who already know the deal (or don't really care) y'all can skip to the *** for the kids.

-basically Jon was kidnapped by Jon-El (Clark's Kryptonian Bio-dad) in order for Jor-El to mold Jon into the perfect weapon for his plan to conquer the universe. They have a machine that Jumps through various timelines so no one can find them, and Jon-El trains/tortures Jon for 2 years.

-Jon eventually discovers new powers that allow him to kill Jor-El and escape but he ends up spending the next several years trying to find his original timeline.

-He eventually meets the Legion of Superheroes that help him get home, but once he arrives home he realizes that for him it has been 7 years since he was kidnaped, but only 2 weeks for his family/friends.

-Because of this he and his family find it hard to adjust to the new situation and Jon ultimately decides to return to the Legion but visit occasionally.

Damian: Honestly I don't think I really have to explain much about Damian for y'all to get the kids but I do want you to know:

He has long hair

He has peirced ears

Possibly tattoos?

He's has more of a slim figure than Bruce's bulky one

He is a fashion icon and kinda has 'bitchy white girl' energy

Bacically he very pretty and looks a LOT like Thalia

And yeah. The two eventually reconcile after Jon is done moping in another timeline and they decide to retire from crime fighting and build a cottage/farm and live in peace.

***

Athanasia: So she is actually Bruce's bio-kid from the Injustice timeline. And for my AU she is still Bruce's biologically and she does recognize him as her father, but because she and Damian are 13/14 years apart and she knows him better she lives and defers to him as her caretaker. I shall explain:

-Athanasia was created by Thalia in a fit of madness after Damian's death. Because of what happened to Damian, and because Athanasia turned out to be a girl (and therefor Ra's would have no use for her), Thalia keeps the little girl locked away and a secret so that no one can harm her.

-Years pass and Athanasia has never seen the outside would. Eventually something happens (will depends on the Fic -because I will get around to writing this shit eventually) and Athanasia is given to Damian (the only other person Thalia ever told her about.)

-At this point Bruce is getting older and most of his current children already have their own kids, so both he and Damian agree that because Athanasia is mostly attached to Damian and doesn't really know who Bruce is outside of being her father, that she will live with he and Jon.

-Athanasia get's older and eventually meets another girl at her school named Carrie Kelley. The girls form a quick bond, Carrie's louder personality complementing Athanasia's more quiet one.

Carrie Kelley: being best friends with Athanasia leads to Carrie spending a lot of time over at her house. This allows Jon and Damian to get to know the girl and become quite fond of her.

-one night after a sleepover at Jon and Damian's house with some of their other friends, Carrie's father comes to the house drunk and carrying a shot gun. He accuses Jon and Damian of being pedophiles because of their sexual orientations and calls them a variety of homophobic slurs.

-It's his attempts at shooting Jon that leads to Carrie calling 911 and having her own father arrested.

-Because her mother had already left and Carrie only had her dad to take care of her, Jon and Damian offer her a place in their home and eventually adopt her along with Athanasia when the girls are teenagers.

So, yeah! That's it for now. I am absolutely obsesses with this AU. I just love the idea of Bruce deciding to take in Dick leading to him having an army of children and grandchildren so large that all family gatherings have to happen at the Manor because nowhere else is big enough.

[sumu-samu]

Broken

“Hi i saw that you were gonna start writing stories and we're looking for ideas and things,, maybe a Luke x f!reader oneshot around the time of The Lightning Thief. I think it would be cool if the day before he snapped and revealed himself as the thief,, he confessed his feelings to someone or took an s/o on a special date as a type of "goodbye" without saying anything. There's not many luke fics and his TLT story is so fun to explore :3″

Pairing: Luke Castellan x daughter of Poseidon!f!reader

Genre: Angst basically. Some fluff, but angst.

Warnings: non that I can really think of

A.N: Literally listened to The Lightning Thief musical while writing this.This was super fun to write ngl, I also may have gotten carried away with the back story and such but meh :3. I also took a few freedoms and made you Poseidon’s daughter, hope you don’t mind it too much, and I changed the ending of the book a bit because I can’t remember exactly how it ended, just the basics, and I can’t find my book to fact check myself. Hope it doesn't bother you too much and that you like it.<3

Y/N sat at her cabin table, her newly found brother had just come back from a stupid quest he had to go on because her uncle was throwing a fit (as he usually does) about someone stealing his lightning bolt, and he immediately blamed it on her family. She knew all about the prophecy and the whole half-blood child of the big three turning sixteen and having the power to either save or destroy the world. Thing was she had already turned sixteen (if you’re not sixteen yet, just go along with it please) and nothing special really happened, so when Percy showed up at camp and killed a minotaur on the first day, Her and Chiron had been a bit weary of the new half-blood.

When Percy was claimed by Poseidon you’d think she’d be happy that she had found family, after losing her mother at five and never seeing her father, but she wasn’t, She was more worried than anything. Worried that she would lose the family she had just found. And when Percy left to go on the quest, Y/N felt like she couldn’t breath. She didn’t know him very well, but Percy was a good kid, she could just feel it, and she wanted to get to know him more. The thought that he may not come back from this quest in one piece terrified her. And what made it even worse was that he brought Annabeth with him. Annabeth was like Y/N’s little sister.

Ever since the day she found the seven year old blond they had been through alot together. She had run away from camp after getting into an argument with Chiron, she soon learned that it was a big mistake, then ran into the little girl somewhere in Pennsylvania. She then met Luke and Thalia, and then ran into Grover. The five had been through alot, especially when they lost Thalia, she was yet another pice of family she lost. She hadn’t walked into the camp with the other three, she just stayed and watched as Thaila’s body formed into a tall standing pine tree. She cursed Zues for letting this happen to his own daughter.

As the years went by she took care of the spunky little blond, and Luke liked to help every now and then. Feelings grew for the blond boy, no doubt about it, but she also remembered how Annabeth would squeal to her and rant about her little crush on Luke.

When they came back, all three of them, in one pices to say she was relieved, was an understatement. There had been a lot of events that happened after they were back, her favourite being the look on Clariese’s face when she heard that her father had stolen the bolt. The whole cabin was angry and Percy, and the fact that he had made their father look like a fool. But what she really cherished was right now. She was able to catch up with her brother and everything. Talk about his life, get to know him and how much of a good kid he really was. They talked about the prophecy and how he was confused about being betrayed by a friend and failing to save what matters the most.

“People who know nothing about prophecies may say something like ‘oh well you know the prophecy is crazy and could be wrong in some way,’ but, I know that isn’t the case. So I’d say, that the prophecy isn’t done with you yet.” She shrugged.

“Oh, how great.” he rolled his eyes.

“Hey, Y/N” She heard the smooth deep familiar voice and looked up to meet bright blue eyes. “Right before curfew… could you uh,” he scratched the back of his neck. “Just, meet me by the lake.” he quickly stated then walked off. She sat very confused, she had never seen Luke like that before. He was usually a cocky, joking fellow. Seeing him shy and flustered,and maybe even worried, had concerned her.

When the sun had fallen, and curfew was about twenty minutes away, she snuck out of her cabin and went down to the lake. “Luke?” she called out not seeing him anywhere.

“Y/N.” she then heard from behind her. Turning around she saw a familiar silhouette, She couldn't see his face due to the lack of light but she knew it was him.

“Hey, what’s up?” She walked towards him.

“I-” He looked around and took her by the arm to drag her further away from the cabins so that they could be somewhere where he knew they were truly alone. “I have something to tell you.” He sounded sorrowful and serious. This made Y/N’s heart race faster in worry for the boy in front of her.

“What is it Luke?” She moved her hand to his cheek so he could look at her. He just stared into her eyes for about a minute. He was dazzled by her (e/c) eyes, that she had gotten from her mum and her dark hair that she got from her father. His hands moved to her waist before he viciously pulled her close to him, foreheads touching. Her heart sped up even more, this time from the closeness of the two rather than worry. “Luke?” she questioned.

“I’m so sorry.” He squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “I’m so… so sorry Y/N.” He wrapped his arms further around her waist, pulling her into a hug. She took in his scent as he did hers.

“Luke, I don’t understand, why… why are you sorry?” She pulled away to look into his eyes again.

“Y/N, I… I like you… I like you so much I think I love you. And it hurts me, ever since we lost Thalia, you were there, you were alway there. And I don’t know why I couldn’t be satisfied with just you and Annabeth, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out. But in the end, I want you to know that it was you, It was always you.” And that's when he did it. He made her heart completely stop, He leaned in and kissed her. His kiss soft and gentle, the kiss was passionate. She melted into it, wanting it to last forever but alas he pulled away. “I just hope you will forgive me at some point.”

“Luke, what’s going on? What do you mean forgive you?” She was seriously done with this mysterious way he was talking.

“I can’t tell you, not yet. Just, stay with me, for the night. Tonight only, sleep beside me, let me hold you one last time.” He pleaded.

“Luke, where are we gonna sleep, we can’t go to your cabin, because… well,” She thought of the cramped cabin 11 and how embarrassing it might be to wake up in the morning with all those kids around her laughing, or how maybe the twins would try playing a prank of them in their sleep. “Percy’s asleep in my cabin, and we can’t stay out here… the harpies.” She shuddered at the thought of being attacked by those bird ladies.

“Y/N, i’ve seen Percy sleep, there's no way he's gonna wake up before us. I’ll be sure to leave before he even knows I’m there.” He rested his forehead on hers.

She thought for a while. “Alright fine.” She smiled and they walked back to the cabin.

That night she had the best sleep she had ever had. Luke’s warmth,and his scent. It relaxed her in a way that she didn’t know was possible. But he held true to his word of getting out before Percy knew he was there. In fact, she had to sit there for a while trying to be sure it was real and not just a dream, because when she woke up, he wasn’t there. Her heart dropped. It was too vivid, too detailed, too… too real, to be a dream. She got out of bed, and got dressed before hearing a snore. She grabbed her pillow and threw it at the drooling boy, still asleep in his bed.

“Wake up ragworm. You’re gonna miss breakfast.” She said, waiting till he got out of bed and started getting changed to leave and go to breakfast.

They sat at the table eating their food when Mr. D. had stood up to tell everyone to decide whether they were staying for the year or leaving before noon. “What are you gonna do?” Percy looked at his sister.

“I'm staying here.” She shrugged as if not going home was something she was used to.

“You’re not going back to your family?” He sounded confused. But he too was confused if he wanted to go back and see his mum or if he wanted to stay with his new found family. He was kinda hoping she was gonna go so that it would make it easier on him.

“Have no family to go home to, Perc. This right here,” she motioned to all the other kids at their respective tables, “this is the closest thing I have to family.”

As the day had progressed the thought of what happened with Luke last night being real faded as Luke had avoided her all day. And as she was walking around Camp, enjoying her last day with some of her friends she saw some wood nymphs carrying a body wearing blue jeans and a bright orange camp shirt. “Percy.” she gasped as she saw the black head of hair. They carried him to the infirmary where he was tended to and given some nectar to recover.

Once he woke up he started ranting off nonsense. “Luke, it’s Luke we- we need to look for him.” he tried to get up but Chiron stopped him.

“What do you mean it’s Luke, Perc?” She was worried by the tone of her brother's words.

“The… the friend who was supposed to betray me… it’s Luke. He’s the lightning thief” At Percy’s words Y/N’s head went fuzzy, her stomach turned. “He’s serving Kronos, hes trying to bring him back.” she didn’t want to believe what she was hearing, “ Oh… and Y/N… he said that if I happened to survive, to tell you… he meant what he said last night, and that he is really sorry.” Percy said that as if it was irrelevant.

“No, you're lying. Luke, he wouldn… He isn’t... “ She shook her head trying to deny it but then something came back to her.

“I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out.” She ran out of the infirmary, tears stinging her eyes and her head steaming. She ran into the cabin, and without thinking rationally started to throw things around out of… well, she wasn’t really sure what she was feeling, she just needed to get it out.

Once she was done throwing things around, and the cabin was totally trashed, she knew exactly what she was feeling. She ran to the lake, feeling angry and sad. She took her shoes off and sat at the edge with her feet in the water. Tears running down her face.

“I just hope you will forgive me at some point.” Luke’s words rang out in her head. “I don’t think I ever can.” She thought. It wasn’t because of the fact that he had betrayed her friends, her family, betrayed her. It was more the fact that Luke was so selfish, so so stupidly selfish that he had to dump that onto her. He had to tell her how he felt and then go and break her like that. Because of that, she hated him, but at the same time, deep in her heart she still loved him, something small was telling her that this wasn’t actually Luke, that he was really the Luke that she loved and that something was controlling him.

She looked up at the sky, the clear blue sky. To anyone else, on any other day, it would have been a beautiful day. But no matter how much the sun shined, all she could see was grey. “Why? Why can’t I be happy? Why do you insist on torturing me constantly. What did I do to make you decide I don’t deserve happiness? Was it because I was born? It’s not my fault that my father can’t keep a stupid promise. It’s not my fault i’m alive. I never asked for this. So why do you do this to me? You petty little brat! I hate you with every bone in my body.” She screamed at her uncle. Zeus wasn’t listening to what his pathetic niece was saying, but someone was.

His chest felt heavy. Listening to what the beautiful broken girl was saying. He had wanted to hold her like he should have for every heart breaking moment of her sixteen years. “I’m sorry i couldn’t save you from that. But I gave you Percy. You have each other now. Take care of each other like I can’t.” Poseidon sighed.

[flightfoot]

A Convergence of Apollos Chapter 4

Percy’s POV

We caught the subway to the Empire State Building.

I know, I know. We could’ve just walked, it wasn’t THAT far. But none of us felt like hauling an upset metal bird around farther than we had to. Plus, while I felt great (that rain did wonders for my energy), and Grover and Meg looked reasonably energetic, Apollo was BEAT. He’d been so excited about the new clothes he’d crafted... and had crashed a few minutes later. I’d thought I’d have to carry him to the subway, which would’ve been hard since I was already carrying the birdcage. I guess summoning all those things took a lot out of him.

Some other passengers looked at us disapprovingly as we hauled our bird cage around. I guess they didn’t like how rough we were being with our ‘pet’, but after what the Celedon had put us through, I REALLY didn’t care.

Apollo collapsed on a nearby seat, breathing hard. He didn’t look sleepy at least, just exhausted.

Was all of this tiredness just from playing the lyre?

Then again, I didn’t know what he’d been doing BEFORE he materialized in the park...

Now seemed as good a time as any to find out.

“Hey Apollo?”

He looked up at me wearily. “Yeah?”

“How DID you wind up time traveling anyways?”

He let out a long sigh. “Meg and I were looking through Tarquin’s Tomb-”

“Who’s Tarquin?”

“The last Roman Emperor. He was SO bad, he was overthrown and the Roman Republic was instated.”

Apollo continued, “Anyways, we were looking through his tomb for the Sibylline books, which contain a lot of ancient prophecies. I always thought they’d been burned, but apparently not. At least, not all of them. We didn’t really know where to look, so Meg and I just kinda wandered around trying not to die.”

I nodded sagely. “Always the best plan. Dying sucks. No blue food in Elysium.”

Ok, so I didn’t actually know whether that last one was true. But considering how happy the dead were with simple Happy Meals, I figured that they didn’t have very good food down there.

Apollo laughed, a bit more life returning to his face. I grinned back at him. Was this really the same person who’d proclaimed that heroes were for running the god’s errands? He just seemed like another kid, like another demigod, fighting beside us and trying not to let anyone he cared about die, or die himself.

I still didn’t get how a god could change so drastically, but maybe... maybe they really weren’t that different?

This kind, dorky teen... maybe this side of Apollo was hidden away in the present Apollo too.

I hoped so.

Apollo chuckled, “Well, I don’t know about THAT, but I agree about dying. Pretty sure my sister would charge into the Underworld herself, drag me back, then kill me again for dying on her.”

Yes, that did sound like Artemis.

“ANYWAY, getting back on track here, we searched the tomb for awhile with no success.”

“Unless you call ‘getting chased by your nose moss’ a success,” Meg cut in.

“Eurynomos,” Apollo corrected.

“Whatever.”

“So I asked my magic prophetic arrow where I needed to go-”

I knew I shouldn’t interrupt, but I HAD to ask. “Magic prophetic arrow?”

“The Arrow of Dodona. It talks in a fake Shakespearean accent and insults me constantly. It’s quite annoying. Plus I’m the only one who can hear it, so I look like a crazy person when I consult it.”

Well, not the weirdest thing I’d heard of. Heck, not the weirdest thing I’d heard of TODAY.

“The arrow told me to go to a particular room and find a cloth woven from Fate’s threads. We searched around for awhile and found it tucked away in a chest. Then SOMEONE-” Apollo glared at Meg, who looked back, completely unperturbed, “-thought it was a brilliant idea to grab hold of something woven by the Fates themselves. I grabbed onto Meg, we vanished, then fell onto the ground with a bad case of motion sickness. And, well, you know the rest.”

I frowned. “Do you know how to get back to your time? WHETHER you can get back?”

Apollo closed his eyes, his brows furrowing. “I- I hope we can get back. No, we MUST get back. Our friends need us! I have to believe that the Arrow set us on this path for a reason.”

“Wow, you have a lot of faith in that Arrow,” I observed.

Apollo laughed wryly. “Nope. But if I allow myself to believe that we’ll never get home and that all our friends and family will die, I’m going to panic.”

Oh. Fair enough.

I decided to change subjects.

“So anything you can tell me about what’s gonna happen? Anything that will help?”

Apollo was quiet for a moment, thinking. Finally he spoke.

“First of all, you should know that I’m only from two years into the future. It’s going to be a BUSY two years. And I don’t remember that much. I wasn’t paying much attention to the world around me all of the time. Also, shoving four thousand years of memories into a mortal brain REALLY doesn’t work well. I’ve forgotten a lot, and what I DO remember isn’t always useful. But I’ll try to help.”

“Typhon was freed, and we gods left to fight him - well most of us, anyway. We didn’t succeed against him until Poseidon joined the fight.”

Apollo looked at me thoughtfully. “I believe that you were the one to convince him to intervene. I don’t remember how you persuaded him, unfortunately.”

He continued while I mulled that over, “Typhon was a distraction. While he kept us gods busy, you demigods defended Mount Olympus from Kronos’s forces.” 

He frowned, looking at me, “I don’t remember a lot of details, but I remember this much: the fight started a few days before your birthday, and ended ON your birthday. You’re the child who reached sixteen, but NOT the Hero of the Prophecy. LUKE was the hero. He chose to save Olympus at the last second.”

Wait, what? “Uh, Apollo, you realize that I’ve never actually heard the full prophecy, right?”

He blinked.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You should probably learn it then. If I remember right, it goes:

A half-blood of the Eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen, against all odds.

And see the world in endless sleep.

Hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap.

A single choice shall end his days,

Olympus to preserve or raze.

Well that didn’t sound great. Then again, prophecies rarely did. 

I pressed Apollo for details, wanting every bit of foreknowledge I could get. “What choice did Luke make? What endless sleep? What’s the cursed blade?”

Apollo shook his head. “I’m sorry Percy. I don’t remember.”

Looking at his mournful face, I believed him.

“So what else CAN you tell me?”

He hesitated for a moment. Carefully, he asked, “Percy? Do you remember how I mentioned Thalia’s brother?”

I nodded. How could I forget?

“Well, the reason he and Thalia were separated, the reason she was led to believe he was dead... is because he’s ROMAN, not Greek.”

What?

The confusion must have been clear on my face. Apollo elaborated, “We gods change to fit the culture we’re in. The longer and deeper the impact of that culture on us and the more different that image is, the more we differ. For most of us gods we default to Greek as our sort of ‘base’ form, but we have Roman forms as well who can look act differently. We sometimes have kids while we’re in Roman form. Those kids don’t go to Camp Half-Blood. Instead they travel to the Wolf House, where Lupa decides whether they’re strong enough to train. If she accepts them, then she’ll train them off and send them towards Camp Jupiter. If not... well... let’s just say that Lupa isn’t kind to the weak. And she doesn’t mind the taste of demigod flesh.”

I felt slightly ill. “How many does she... erm... usually fail?”

Apollo thought for a moment. “You know, I can’t actually remember her failing anyone in recent decades. I wasn’t paying much attention to Camp Jupiter though, so I can’t say for sure.”

Well that was comforting.

“Anyway, Hera was FURIOUS when Jason was born. Bad enough Zeus cheated on her with that mortal, but to then go back a few years later and have ANOTHER child with the same woman? He went too far. Jupiter, Zeus’s Roman form, gave Hera - or rather Juno - Jason’s life, even naming him after her favorite mortal as an attempt to appease her. Because naming one of his kids in her honor went SO WELL with Heracles. Luckily she took a liking to Jason. By ‘taking a liking’ I mean that she told his mother to hand him over to the wolves when he was two years old. Both she and Thalia assumed the wolves had killed him. No one corrected them. Greek and Roman demigods were supposed to be kept separate.

“But why?” I asked. “Wouldn’t we be stronger together?”

He tilted his head towards me, giving me a small smile. “Indeed you would be - if you could stop fighting.”

I frowned. “Why would we fight each other?”

“Greeks and Romans have a long-standing grudge against each other,” Apollo explained. “It didn’t help that some gods and goddesses did NOT take the Greek-to-Roman transition well. Most notably Athena.”

Annabeth’s mom?

I leaned forwards slightly. Annabeth would DEFINITELY want to know about this, if she didn’t already. “What happened to Athena?”

“The Romans stripped her of her status as a war goddess, reduced her to a goddess of crafts and wisdom, and stole her most sacred statue. They tried to break Greece’s spirit by stealing the Athena Parthenos. They succeeded, but they made a powerful enemy. Athena has NEVER forgiven the Romans for disrespecting her like that. She’s pushed the two sides to fight ever since, hoping that the Greeks would crush the Romans. There’s already a natural animosity between the two sides, it doesn’t take much of a push to get them fighting. After the Civil War, which had Greeks and Romans fighting and killing each other, we gods decided to interfere to stop our children from murdering each other. Athena disapproved of course, but she was outvoted. We increased the level of Mist around your groups, erasing all memories of the others existence from your minds. We kept an eye on any quests where you guy were likely to pass close by, increasing the Mist whenever you almost stumbled across each other. It worked! ... For a while.”

“What changed?”

Apollo grimaced. “Great-grandma started waking up.”

“Who?”

Apollo shook his head. “I don’t want to say her name. Best not to attract her attention. Ask Annabeth. She should know.”

I filed that info away for later. “What’s so terrible about your great-grandmother waking up?”

“She wants to destroy all of humanity and all the Olympian gods. She actually had some kids, the Giants, who she made for the sole purpose of destroying each of the Olympians.”

“She had kids JUST to use as an army?”

“Yep.”

“That’s messed up.”

“I’m not going to disagree with that.”

“Anything special about these Giants? Are they just like the Titans, but bigger?”

Apollo looked pained and... guilty? “It’s worse than that. The Giants can’t be defeated by a mortal or a god working alone. They can only be killed by a god and a mortal working together.”

My heart sank. “So the gods obviously teamed up with all of us demigods and helped us send them packing, right?”

“Well...” Apollo rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed and ashamed. “You see... Father thought that maybe if we gods holed up and didn’t interact with the mortal world, that great-grandma might settle down. She didn’t.”

“Gods disobey Z- your father all the time, though! They helped, right?”

“I... guess so?”

“You guess?”

“I was kinda hiding for most of the war, so I was out of the loop.”

I frowned. “Why were you hiding? Shouldn’t you have been helping fight the Giants?”

Now he REALLY looked ashamed. “I... may have had a role in making things more difficult. Unintentionally, of course.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to continue. After a moment, he did. “One of the Campers at Camp Jupiter was a descendant of mine named Octavian. He told me that he’d make Rome strong, like it was back in the old days. That he’d make sure I was honored as one of the most important gods, above even Zeus! I liked the sound of that. I gave him my blessing. I ignored his hatred of the Greeks and his growing instability. He told me what I wanted to hear, so I ignored the warning signs.”

Apollo avoided my eyes, but kept on talking. “When Camp Half-Blood sent an envoy to Camp Jupiter, it looked like things would go well... at first. Then an Eidolon, a spirit, possessed one of the Greek demigods and forced him to fire on the Camp. The Romans assumed that the diplomatic envoy was a trick and promptly declared war on the Greeks. Luckily they didn’t know exactly where Camp Half-blood was. All of the Seven had to get out of there in a hurry.”

I frowned. “The Seven?”

Apollo blinked. “Oh yeah. You guys don’t have that prophecy yet. It went like this:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,

To storm or fire, the world must fall,

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death

“The ‘world falling’ sounds pretty bad,” I observed.

Apollo rolled his eyes. “It’s not, actually. This is one of those cases where the prophecy is PURPOSELY deceptive. ‘The world’ is great-grandma, it’s foretelling her defeat. As for the Seven, they are you, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, Hazel Lavesque, and Jason Grace. Frank, Hazel, and Jason are Roman.”

I wasn’t thrilled about being part of ANOTHER prophecy, but at least I’d survive past sixteen. 

Apollo continued his story. “We gods are reflections of the culture we come from. When our two groups of children started fighting, the Greek and Roman sides of ourselves started fighting too. Gave most of us SPLITTING headaches, incapacitating us. Well, except for those of us who were either exclusively Greek or Roman, or who were pretty much the same in both forms. So most of us couldn’t help even if we wanted to. But I had an additional problem.”

Apollo stared at his feet. “One of the Praetors, Reyna, was pretty reasonable. She tried to rein in the Legion. But then she had to leave, and OCTAVIAN took control of the Legion. He took my blessing as a sign that whatever he had planned had my full support. He thought that the best way to ‘solve’ the gods’ headache problem and ‘save’ New Rome, was to wipe out the Greeks entirely. Father blamed me for Octavian’s poor decision, and decided to blame me for basically the entire war.”

He smiled bitterly. “I think he just wanted to scapegoat someone, pin the blame on anyone who wasn’t him. Him sticking his head in the sand had made things way more difficult than they needed to be, and he didn’t want to look weak or stupid. Not after the embarrassment of the Second Titan War. He was SO angry with me. But he couldn’t harm me on Delos, mine and Artemis’s birthplace. Being on Delos also protected Artemis and I from the incapacitating headaches. We sat out the whole war there, until the Greeks and Romans made up. That united us gods’ essences, allowing us to FINALLY recover enough to fight back. All of us gods rushed in to fight off the Giants with you Seven, defeating them easily. Then Father called me forwards, blamed me for the war, and sent me to Olympus. I can’t remember anything else until six months later, when I awoke, mortal, hurtling out of the sky, and landed in a dumpster.”

I winced. Sounded like gods weren’t necessarily any more caring towards their divine children than their demigod ones. 

Apollo’s voice cracked, self-loathing seeping in. “I discovered just how BLIND we gods had been! Some Roman Emperors managed to make themselves immortal. They’ve been plotting their takeover for MILLENNIA. They helped fund Kronos’s army and Octavian’s attack on Camp Half-blood. They’ve been kidnapping young demigods and raising them to serve in their army.”

The subway started to slow down. “What do I need to know?” I asked hurriedly. I had a nagging sensation that I wouldn’t get to talk to Apollo much longer after this.

Evidently Apollo felt the same way, as he spoke hurriedly while the four of us (plus the bird) departed the subway and headed towards our rendevous with the current Apollo.

“If campers start to go missing a few months after the Second Giant War ends, it’s probably due to the Grove of Dodona regrowing itself in Camp Half-blood and calling for help. Nero tries to burn the grove and attacks Camp Half-Blood with the Colossus Nero. The Cave of Trophonious is in Indianapolis. Georgina was being held prisoner by Commodus. If that happens in this timeline as well, you’ll need to break into Commodus’s palace to rescue her. She also might be my daughter, not sure on that one. And- and then there’s-”

His voice cracked, ”There’s Caligula. His forces attacked Camp Jupiter shortly after I consulted Trophonious. Leo flew away to warn them. Meanwhile, Meg, Grover, and I left to rescue Herophile, another one of my Oracles, who Caligula had locked up. But we needed to retrieve his sandals in order to navigate the Labyrinth - that’s where she was being kept, yes it came back, no, I don’t know how. That’s when everything went wrong.”

A small sob escaped Apollo’s throat. “Jason, he- he’d gotten a prophecy MONTHS ago, saying that we’d only succeed if he and Piper came with Meg and I on our quest, but that either he or Piper would die. He decided right then that it WOULDN’T be Piper. He fought off Caligula long enough for us to get away, but died in the process. Crest - he’s a Pandos - he helped us get away. He helped us the next day too. He held off Medea, stopped her from destroying me, at the cost of his own life. We would’ve been finished if not for-”

Apollo startled, wide-eyed. “The Silver Wives! The Meliai! If we had just waited until they’d woken up, Crest would still be alive!”

He grabbed me urgently. “Percy. There are several special seeds that Meg’s family had been working on for MILLENNIA. They’re at her childhood home, Aeithales. Meg MUST be the one to plant them. Only she can make them grow. Wait to attack until those dryads are awake if possible. They’ll be invaluable.”

I nodded. “I will.”

Apollo let out a breath of relief and let go. 

The four of us rounded the corner. I saw the god Apollo pacing around by the Empire State Building, waiting for us. And beside him...

Mortal Apollo stood still for a moment, slack-jawed. Then he came to his surges and surged towards the second figure desperately, the three of us following in his wake.

[demi-italian-god]

ᴊᴀsɪᴘᴇʀ ᴀᴇsᴛʜᴇᴛɪᴄ

ᴀʀᴛ ʙʏ: @indigonite

❀ ɪᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ sᴍeʟʟs ʀɪɢʜᴛ ❀

Soulmate AU where …

Everyone has a specific smell, but no essence gives you particular emotions, except your soulmate on.

***

The smell of your own mother for many was reassuring, but for Jason was terrifying, or at least what he was used to smell: alcohol. The child barely remembered what the fragrance of Beryl Grace was: lemon, aerosol and … What else? By now it was always covered by the revolting smell of alcohol. The blue eyes expressed all his terror, while his mother, for the umpteenth time drunk, was screaming at him things that a child couldn’t yet understand, he was only two years old after all.

Before the situation could degenerate, the door opened and a nine-year-old girl appeared in the doorway, so different from Jason that few would have understood that they were brothers. Two things united them: blue eyes and the smell of storm. «Thalia!» the blond squeaked running towards his sister and hugging her. The black-haired girl hugged him back as their mother looked at them with disdain, a look that the newcomer returned «Quiet I’m here, now we go to our bedroom, ok?» Jason nodded and took the older by the hand.

Unfortunately, their only parent didn’t seem to have appreciated Thalia’s glare, so she came up with staggering strides «Where do you think you’re going Miss?» she slurred, grabbing her by the hair with an unexpectedly solid grip. «Now the two of us will have a talk!» she jerked her away from her brother, causing panic in the two.

Jason began to cry again and tried in vain to help the girl, with the only result of being pushed to the ground. But Thalia was anything but docile, so she began to wriggle like a trapped animal. «Ah, you stupid brat!» the woman let her daughter go, bringing a hand to her face, where she had been scratched. The two brothers were already running down the corridor to their bedroom, where they locked themselves up. The screams went on for a few minutes, but in the end Mrs. Grace gave up and the last thing the two children heard from her was the door that was being slammed. That day, former actress Beryl Grace died in a car accident.

- - -

Jason didn’t see the ball coming, that explained the reason of the incessant laugh of his friends Nico and Reyna. The fact that this was one of the rare occasions in which Nico laughed so much was a great source of disappointment for the boy. Reyna wiped a tear «Are you okay Jason? What has been more painfull, the ball or falling from the clouds?» the latin-american girl scoffed him, sitting next to him and offering him a bottle of water «Aha, funny» he replied, raising his eyes to the sky and taking a sip of water. The dark haired boy let himself fall on the grass «Yes, very funny, anyway, Reyna is right, today you seem rather distracted» Jason chuckled «It must be your heady smell of chips» Nico glared at him. The smell of the boy was quite special indeed: pomegranate, chrysanthemums and fries, Will, however, swore that when he was in a bad mood he could even hear the smell of wet earth. Reyna instead smelled of ebony, magnolia and burnt, but it wasn’t a stink, it didn’t bother. Nobody knew where the essence of a person came from.

«See, you’re getting distracted again» the girl scolded him «Did something happen?» she asked, suddenly serious. The blond shook his head «No, it’s just that today I seemed to smell a peculiar fragrance, but the moment was too short» he sighed «It was the result of my imagination». Reyna and Nico exchanged a knowing look, but they didn’t say anything, not wanting to give false hope to their friend, so they changed subject and the afternoon passed quickly.

- - -

Once he returned home, Jason immediately understood that Annabeth was there with Percy and that no one else was at home. He didn’t smell the essence of Paul, nor that of Sally, nor that of Thalia. The living room smelled of lemon, ink and paper. The boy hoped he hadn’t arrived at an inconvenient time, but just then his cousin came out of the kitchen, bringing with him the smell of sea, biscuits and chlorine. «Did my arrival interrupt you two?» he asked, part joking and partly serious. Percy punched him on the shoulder, giggling «Luckily no, Annie is helping me study and now she’s upstairs. I ran off with the excuse of having to go to the bathroom, but in reality I simply could not stand it anymore» he said, letting himself fall theatrically on the sofa «As if I had not understood it by myself». Jason turned around, finding behind him the blonde smirkingly smiling «Hello Jason» the boy returned the greeting, while Annabeth was lying next to his soulmate «For today it may be enough» she sighed, referring to the study, and receiving a kiss on the cheek as a thank you. Jason smiled, he was happy that his cousin, even if they were like brothers, had a girl like that at his side. So he decided to go to his own room to leave them a bit ‘of intimacy, but as he walked away he was struck by a phrase said by the blonde «She will start school tomorrow, today she just came with her parents to discuss the last details …» for a moment the boy thought about stopping and asking her who she was talking about, but then he shook his head and continued up the stairs.

- - -

Jason closed the locker and found Reyna at his side «You don’t seem to have slept well» the girl noticed. The blond leaned his forehead against the green cabinet «Not at all» he sighed. He had spent the whole night thinking about that scent and what he had heard from Annabeth, the result: he was dead tired and had not come to any conclusion. At that time they were also reached by Nico, who sipped coffee with disappointment «This brodaglia sucks» he frowned and Jason looked at him imploring «Can I have it then?» The Italian didn’t hesitate and left the drink to the blond «This is the ‘last time I don’t do it at home» he mumbled. On that day the three began with the same course, so they headed together to the history classroom, where Mr Brunner was waiting for the class.

Once inside Jason sat down with Nico, while Reyna found herself next to Frank. However, although they were all present, there remained an empty desk, next to Gwen and Hazel were, who both looked confused, and Chiron, or Brunner, had not yet made the appeal. It was then that a girl who no one seemed to know entered. He had chocolate-colored hair cut irregularly with a few braids on the sides, the skin of a color similar to that of the Native Americans. Her clothes were simple, but his beauty was still breathtaking. But it wasn’t that thing that hit Jason, it was her smell. It invested him completely and then he understood: it was the same he had smell the day before. Even the girl looked dazed and at the moment their eyes met they both understood what was happening «Oh here your are Miss McLean, guys, welcome your new school mate, Piper McLean».

- - -

«I swear, no scent has ever affected me that way, it was a strange feeling, it just seemed … The right one» Reyna looked skeptical «How can something smell right?» Nico intervened in defense of the boy «Well, it’s not a feeling that can be explained, when you’ll meet your soulmate you’ll understand it» there was a moment of silence «That was rude» Jason said, but Reyna smiled and shrugged «No, he’s right» so she bit her slice of pizza and looked at her friends. «So, what was her fragrance?» Nico asked «The first thing I perceived was the smell of roses, much stronger than I had ever smell» the blond recalled «Then strawberries, but not the fruit itself, more like a strawberry lip gloss» he put a hand under his chin, dreamily «And then cinnamon, sweet cinnamon» he concluded. The shortest of the three pretended to vomit «You look like a teenage girl in love» the Puerto Rican girl gave him an amused glance «You talk about Will the same way».

Before the boy could reply, someone approached their table, Annabeth and Percy. The blonde took the word «Guys, I have to introduce you a person» she beamed and moved to show the newcomer «She’s my friend Piper, Piper, they’re Jason, Nico and Reyna» Piper greeted them all, but Jason noticed the look she had reserved for him. So they must have done the other two sitting at the table «Nice to meet you Piper, can you excuse us a second?» with that said, Reyna got up and, along with Nico, took away two more than confused Percy and Annabeth. The girl smiled «I guess they both know it» Jason smiled and nodded «Would you like to go out and talk?».

- - -

«What do you mean with Jason is your soulmate ?!» Annabeth shouted «Shhh» said her friend, putting a hand on her mouth «No need to scream, and anyway yes, I had already figured it out this morning when while entering the history class rain, white moss and metal have been my welcome». The curly girl for once set aside the pudor and began to bounce around the room «And so today at lunch you have spoken?» the brunette joined the euphoria «Yes, this evening we’ll go out to get to know each other better». From that moment there was no trace of tranquility in the McLean house.

- - -

By the time Jason stopped the car, Piper was ready to take off the blindfold «No, hey, wait a minute» said the boy, taking her hands. The girl snorted and the blond got out of the vehicle, then went to the side other, helping her out. «Now let me guide you. Here, sit here» he said, letting her get on the hood. Once he stood at his side, he took a deep breath «Take it off» Piper wasted no time, but once the command was done she gasped «Jason it’s…» she didn’t even find the words to describe the landscape in front of them. They were probably on one of the hills that surrounded the city, and the latter stretched before them, studded with lights. The sky was clear of clouds, and without the light pollution the stars had never been so clear. Everything was so perfect and peaceful that it seemed surreal.

The chocolate-haired girl put her head on Jason’s shoulder «If you celebrate the six months anniversary like this, I expect great things for the year one» she chuckled «With you I can have rain with a clear sky» she raised her eyes up to him and Jason got lost inside for a while, as it often happened, while he watched them fade from green to brown, then go on blue. The smell of cinnamon inebriated his mind.

Finally the blond tilted his head and let their lips meet. The boy smiled in the kiss, feeling the taste of strawberry lip gloss on his lips, while his perfume covered the cinnamon. It wasn’t passionate, it wasn’t intense. But for both it was perfect.

- - -

Piper could not wish for a better evening. They were under the stars, holding hands and everything seemed just right. As well as Jason’s scent. The brunette moved her head from the shoulder to the boy’s chest, inebriating with the smell of white musk, which made her feel safe. Then there was the rain, a perfume that Piper loved madly. The metal wasn’t strong, but the girl had come to the conclusion that it only increased when the blond was angry, that was certainly not the case.

So they stayed there, side by side, with silence acting as a soundtrack, the stars as a backdrop, love as a protagonist.

[andromedahawking]

NaNoWriMo Day 3

5000 words!! 1/10th of the way! (Italics mark yesterday’s work)

“All the more incentive to do well in school, so you never have to deal with that,” Maria said, pouring her glass. “Heck, you could be the young boss surrounded by older people.”

“Okay, I can get behind that. I would enjoy asserting my power over the elder masses.”

“You would, wouldn’t you.”

“What, like you wouldn’t?”

“I would,” Maria admitted. She downed her shot. “But then again, once you’re in your 30s, age stops mattering so much, so you wouldn’t really have as much of a power play.”

“Really?”

“Think about it, Thalia. What’s the difference between 41 and 45, compared to 18 and 22?”

“…Oh. Okay, that makes sense.”

“Yeah. The longer you live, the less a year is to you.”

“Age is weird, man.”

“You’re telling me, sis. Bean-counting paradise.”

They turned on the TV briefly, but nothing good was on. There was only the usual sitcoms, crime procedurals, and, unfortunately, the news.

“Yeah, no, I don’t need to hear any more about election day.”

“Me neither.”

Thalia ended up going to bed, and Maria stayed on the couch, letting the alcohol kick in. After a few minutes of staring at the wall, feeling her body get warmer from the inside out, she stood, and walked into the kitchen and opened her computer back up.

Group Chat with: Adrien, Hannah, Tatie, Graham

Maria: Okay, full disclosure folks, I’m texting under the influence. But. We need to get this project staarted ASAP.

Adrien: You are drunk if you’re saying things like that However, you probably have a point.

Maria: *started I do have a point.

Hannah: We should get together during free tomorrow if we don’t have anything else planned then.

Tatie: I can work that in.

Graham: Yeah, free is free for me too.

Maria: Sweet. That’s 4 for 4. Adrien?

Adrien: I can make it.

Maria: 5 for 5.

Hannah: Excellent. We’ll hash out details of what we’ll be doing when we meet then?

Tatie: Sounds good to me.

Maria: Where will we meet?

Hannah: Library?

Adrien: No go. Library doesn’t mix well with me.

Maria: Outside somewhere? By the dorms?

Graham: Yeah that could work

Adrien: Better

Hannah: Okay, let’s meet up outside the dorms at noon.

Maria: Not to jinx it or anything But the fact that it was this easy to set this up might mean the project won’t be too hard

Adrien: Oh boy I hope so I was always the one doing the work in groups

Graham: Same

Maria: Same

Hannah: Same

Tatie: S a m e

Adrien: …

Maria: Well how about that

Tatie: If that means we’re all good at pulling our weight this should be okay

Graham: Agreed. Let’s all do our part.

Maria: If not we will probably kill each other for it

Adrien: Tbh, tbh

Hannah: I’m going to bed. I’ll see y’all at noon outside the dorms tomorrow.

Graham: See you then.

Tatie: Good night.

Maria: Buh-bye.

Adrien: Sleep well.

—

That morning, Maria woke up to a very thick, oppressive fog outside the windows. She could hardly see the other side of the road from the living room. “Why does California have to be so foggy?…”

She knocked on Thalia’s door. “Hey, kiddo, it’s 8 now. I’m heading out. You gotta be out the door by 9:30, m’kay?”

“Mmmrrmph.”

“You better have set your alarm to go off in the next thirty minutes, otherwise you’re gonna have to make some sacrifices to make it on time,” she said. “See you later.”

She got to school just as the fog was starting to thin, and the ground started to catch some light through the gray that seemed to have eaten the city. “Cool, so now I have four hours to kill before free,” she muttered to herself. “What to do, what to do…?”

She ended up going to the library and got a head start on doing research for the project. The material was enough to give her a headache, but it was somewhat interesting:

2056. Presidential election of. Took place on November 7, 2056, with four major candidates running. The Republican candidate, Silvia Mazer, won in a landslide in Round 3 of voting, 297 to 240. It was the first election won by a Republican since 2028, and the first election when the Electoral College’s proportional voting went into effect. If the winner-take-all system were still in place, one source said, Mazer would have won Round 3 with 405 electoral votes to Darius Scott’s 132, only 7 votes short of her predecessor’s first victory of 412 votes.

Silvia Mazer had apparently spent most of her life in politics up to that point. She was born in Oakland, California (Hey, that’s just down the other side of the tunnel from here, Maria thought, ain’t that something special), and served one term as the representative for District 13 before being tapped by President Gabbard in 2040 to serve as the Secretary of Energy, and then tapped by President Plenard in 2049 to be the Secretary of Defense.

This was where things got a bit interesting: Mazer was a member of the Progressive Party up until 2043, and then became a Republican. Suddenly this made a lot more sense for Maria. They always drilled into them in high school that Mazer shifted the Republican platform in a big way, but they barely mentioned that she had ever been anything other than a Republican. They’d made it sound like she’d been a member of the party, but had different values all on her own; this made more sense, that she defected from the Progressive Party and kept some of their principles and campaign planks to incorporate into the Republican platform. Basically, she was an outsider, and she turned out to be one of the best candidates they’d put forth in an election in the 21st century, much like Plenard had been for the Democrats.

So, did that mean a basic formula for victory was “Party + Outsider = Win”? Probably not, but hey, it worked twice in a row in the 50s.

Everybody also talked about how Mazer was nearly unprecedented in that she was one of a very small group of former presidents who served in Congress following their presidency. She had been elected to the Senate in 2076, and re-elected in 2082. Maria had actually voted in the 2082 midterm, she’d just turned eighteen the month before. She hadn’t really thought much of it at the time, but now that she was looking at it, it was a little bit strange to think that a former President was still actively influencing politics on the national level. Most Presidents sort of went off the map when they finished up in the White House, right?

Then, before she knew it, it was nearly noon. She packed her stuff up, and ran out to the dorms.

Adrien and Hannah were already there, computers and notebooks out, pens and pencils at the ready. “Hey there, Maria,” Adrien said. “How’s it going?”

“I just spent four hours reading up on anything and everything Mazer-related,” she said. “Got sort of… lost in it for a while there.”

“That’s dedication,” he said. “I wouldn’t be ale to sit still for 4 hours, let alone spend all that time reading.”

“If it makes you feel better, Maria, I spent last night doing a lot of research on the primaries,” Hannah said. “There’s gobs and gobs of stuff on the 'net about this election.”

“No kidding,” Maria said. “They’re still talking about it, even today.”

“Good for us, I guess?” Adrien said. “Means we have contemporary stuff.”

“I think a lot of these people could stand to get outside a bit more,” Hannah said. “Or get better jobs than analysing one election to death.”

“Same here,” Maria said. “Like, points for being thorough, but seriously, see the sun, stretch your legs. Eat some ice cream once in a while.”

“Oh no, don’t make me hungry, I haven’t had lunch yet…” Adrien groaned.

“What?!” Hannah gaped at him in shock. “Adrien! Go to the cafeteria! Get some food! You can’t work on an empty stomach!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go!” he said, laughing weakly. “Back in ten minutes.”

By the time he got back, Graham and Tatie had shown up as well. “Okay. So,” Hannah began, “how many of us think we found something we can each concentrate on for this project?”

Maria, Tatie, and Hannah raised their hands. “Okay, what are those things?” she asked. “Mine is the primaries.”

“I can focus on Mazer’s campaign,” Maria said.

“I’ve got a pretty good idea on how to cover the Progressive campaign,” Tatie said.

“Okay, cool, cool,” Hannah nodded. “Graham, Adrien, what do you guys think?”

“Um… I mean, to be honest, I have sort of a vague idea on how to cover the whole thing,” Adrien said, “but I don’t really have a handle on one specific aspect of it.”

“I have ideas on how to cover some of the campaigns in the general,” Graham said, “but I don’t really have a full picture for it yet.”

“Alright. Well, we can work with that,” Hannah said. “So, even without you guys knowing qute what you wanna do, it sounds like we have a few things already sort of hashed out. I can do the primaries, Maria can cover Mazer, Tatie can cover Hanover, so you guys could probably take Birch and Scott for yourselves.”

“Okay, I think I can do that,” Graham said. “Adrien, do you have a preference between either of them?”

“Not really,” Adrien shook his head, biting on the end of his pen. “I guess if push came to shove, I’d wanna take Birch over Scott.”

“Cool. I’ll take Scott, then.”

“Nice!” Maria said. “That didn’t take too long to get figured out.”

“If we can keep up a similar pace through this whole thing, I would absolutely love that,” Hannah said. “Okay. I set up a shared doc for us all, so you should have the link in your e-mail now. Do y’all wanna start by just adding your stuff in and then editing, or go one by one and we’ll all edit together?”

“Let’s edit together,” Tatie said. “Coordination is underrated in these sorts of things.”

“What an incredible irony,” Adrien muttered behind his hand.

—

It made Maria feel a lot better seeing how smoothly this meeting went. Nothing like the previous group projects she’d been a part of. Everybody contributed, everybody had something to say.