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youdontknowhowtodiequietly · 1 month ago

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Aaron and Andrew as children of Aphrodite.

TWs: Mentions of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic/child abuse, SA + CSA (not explicit), drug withdrawal - just general Minyard trauma.

Btw, this is a long ass post I'm so sorry. Idk if I should put it on AO3 since it's not really a story.

I imagine Tilda as quite young when she had the Twins.

She was maybe 19, 20 years old. She hadn't gone to college despite her parents' and brother's insistence, and instead took to finding her own way in life. I think she was quite full of life before the Twins.

But she did dabble a little in drugs. It was California, she dabbled in a little weed occasionally. She went out for drinks with friends. She was quite known for hookups, mainly with men but she did sometimes go home with women.

One night at a club, she sees this absolutely stunning woman. Just breathtaking. And I think Tilda was a beautiful woman, and Aphrodite was not only intrigued by this, but also by her fire and passion for life. So she approaches Tilda, chats her up, and then Tilda is taking her home and- y'know...

I also think that pregnancies between the same sexes happen just as accidentally and sporadically as pregnancies between the opposite sexes - so, Tilda gets pregnant. And it's the worst thing that could happen to her.

(She definitely thinks it's from some random guy, obviously. Mortal (cis) women cannot procreate with other (cis) women.)

I think that Tilda didn't really start abusing drugs until after she had the Twins.

To me, Tilda was afraid of motherhood, of having children. She had so many dreams. But now she'd have this...creature, this parasite...in her life.

It only worsens when she finds out they're twins. She cannot abort them, she doesn't have the money and she'd rather die than ask her family for help - not like they'd give it to her anyway, with their suffocating orthodox Christianity.

Then, she discovers she can put the babies up for adoption as soon as they're out of her womb.

It's the best day of her life, so she gets all the paperwork sorted for it and a weight is lifted off of her shoulders.

She carries them to full term, and doesn't look back when she leaves the hospital after having them...except she does.

The guilt gnaws at her. Those two golden-eyed babies, looking up at her with such trust...

She turns back, but is only able to convince herself to take one home with her. She just cannot fathom having two children running rings around her. She ignores the disappointed glances the nurses give her as she leaves with her other son - Andrew, she notes, then forces herself to forget - behind, asleep in his cot.

But God taking care of a baby as a single mother is hard.

She soon gets rundown, and soon that bitterness she felt at the start of her pregnancy starts to seep back in.

She begins taking more and more drugs, the harder the better, and starts mixing some with alcohol.

She's barely sober for even a few hours by the time Aaron is 6. And she's a shit mother, but by this point she doesn't know or care too much.

She first hits Aaron at 8, when he returns home late from school one night.

I think that whilst Aphrodite is primarily the goddess of physical and romantic love, it can manifest as other types of love, and has influence over parental love due to her being the goddess of fertility and procreation.

This, however, does not save the Twins. In fact, I think it puts a curse on them, really. Because they so desperately want to be loved by a parental figure, but no one wants them, because they're not their kids - there's something off about them.

They never really develop any kind of powers, beyond the usual Demigod strength and agility, but it's like they give off an air of otherness to Mortals.

And in the case of Andrew, the curse manifests into a misplaced "love" with the men around him.

His trauma and Aphrodite also being the goddess of sexuality, also puts a curse on his issues with his own. He works through some of them in juvie, like he does in canon, but he still has a lot more to get through.

Aaron's trauma and being a son of Aphrodite, puts a curse on Aaron's relationships with the girls at his school - we hear from the EC (or the BC's I can't quite remember rn where this information is from) that Aaron had a bad habit of "dating" (bc his and Andrew's deal didn't allow dating) girls who exploited him and hurt him - this would manifest a little differently in the PJO universe but not massively as they still go to school.

I think they end up at Camp Half-Blood just after Andrew kills Tilda.

A Monster attacks them whilst Andrew is in the hospital recovering, and a Satyr helps them escape.

Naturally, due to how far away they live from CHB, it takes a while to get to the Camp. They fight the Satyr the whole way. But even Andrew can understand the importance of relying on this Satyr to get them to safety, after all, he was nearly eaten by a Monster - a real, actual, hideous Monster from Greek Mythology, not the men who'd creep into his bedroom at night with sly fingers (though they were still monsters, just of a different kind).

It's hell for them. They don't fit in. They're unlike any Demigod children the Camp and Chiron is used to. And because this takes place years before Percy is in the picture, they go unclaimed for a very long time.

Andrew ends up sleeping in the Hera cabin - he is shocked every time why she lets him, and Chiron knows but he doesn't comment of it, after all, if Hera is okay with it, who is he to interfere in the comfort of the two strange blond boys that flinch at everything and everyone (even the stoic, knife-happy one - Chiron sees it, despite how well he hides). After a few sleepless nights where Andrew worries for Aaron's safety, he brings him to the cabin as well - again, shocked that Hera is allowing this. They begin sacrificing parts of their meals to Hera, and thank her every night for her kindness.

It isolates them even more.

People begin asking them why they don't sleep with the Hermes kids - they insult them for being so rude as to sleep in the Queen of the Gods' cabin (Aaron quickly shuts those kids up with a "Have we been thrown out yet? No? Then shut up." As clumsy of an argument as it is, he's 14 after all, the other Campers can't argue with that point). One day, one of the older Ares kids sneaks up on Andrew, wanting to see if he gets scared like his brother, and ends up crying with a knife wound in his arm. Chiron heavily reprimands Andrew for his excessive violence, but had witnessed the event from afar and had seen the genuine, bone-deep fear that crossed Andrew's face for just a second before it was gone again, and he makes sure to reprimand the Ares kid as well.

Not too long after they arrive at Camp, Andrew starts noticing serious withdrawal symptoms in his brother.

He doesn't know what to do - knows that just locking him up to let him sweat it out won't go over well in the Camp - so he very cautiously approaches Chiron one day.

He's playing pinochle with Mr. D on the porch of the Big House, so he's in his wheelchair. It makes him more approachable for Andrew, though he'd never admit it, but Andrew keeps well away from Mr. D.

"Andrew!" Chiron greets him happily. Mr. D grumbles about his interrupted game and Andrew tries not to side-eye the god. "What can I help you with?" Andrew takes a deep, imperceptible breath. He really doesn't know how to approach this, but he has to do this, for Aaron.

"My brother..." he trails off. It's the most expression Chiron has seen on the boy's face since he arrived. If only it didn't seem so worried and world-weary. "His mother got him hooked on drugs. But obviously there aren't any here so he's going through withdrawals. I don't know what to do..." he trails off again, not making eye contact with Chiron. The centaur is taken off guard by a lot of things in that short statement - the way Andrew refers to their Mortal mother as just Aaron's, the awful thing said mother has done to Aaron, the fact that Andrew is coming to him for help, and the uncertain way he finished his sentence.

Chiron chances a glance at Mr. D and sees an unusual expression on the god's face. It is dark and angry - of course Chiron has seen his fare share of divine anger, but it has never manifested on Dionysus' face in such a way since he'd been exiled here at Camp.

Chiron sees Andrew clock the Camp Director's expression, too, and notices the tension tightening in the boy's body.

"Well," Chiron starts, diverting Andrew's attention from Mr. D, "this is certainly a unique problem that I don't think I've ever dealt with before, but I am a healer, and we have quite a few children of Apollo here who are skilled in healing as well. And as a Demigod, Aaron will be far more resilient than a Mortal would be to whatever troubles come from his withdrawal. I believe we can help him." He smiles at Andrew, who searches his face for a long moment. Chiron lets him, knows trust comes hard for this boy. Eventually, Andrew purses his lips, and nods, once.

"Okay." He says, and it is hesitant and distrustful, but it still swells Chiron's chest with pride.

They get Aaron off the drugs. Andrew is there the entire time, except for when Aaron really did not want him in the room with him, and then he only went as far as the other room, not wanting to leave him alone with all these unfamiliar people.

Real trouble comes in the form of school.

Andrew and Aaron don't have any legal guardians left - well, there's Luther but Aaron begs Chiron not to put him with that man, knows that he will be just as cruel as Tilda, even if it's in a different way, and Chiron agrees.

Andrew is hesitant to rely on the foster system to find them somewhere safe, but Chiron assures that he will find them somewhere good and safe. Andrew doesn't believe him, but there is no other choice.

And so they end up at the Wymack's. Or, rather, the Wymack-Winfield's. Abby and David are married (ik in the EC ((or a Tweet from Nora)) that they don't get married, but idc, they are in this AU) but Abby kept her last name because I said so.

Andrew distrusts them from the get-go. Wymack is gruff and big and could very easily overpower him or Aaron, and Abby is a doctor, with a persona she puts on that reminds Andrew too closely of Cass (except Abby's is genuine, of course, but he doesn't find this out until much later).

It takes a lot of work for Andrew to begin to let his guard down around the WW's.

They find out they have a cousin, Nicky, who is enthusiastic to see Aaron again and meet Andrew. They don't tell him about being Demigods, that's a conversation for later in life when they've grown to know and trust Nicky more (and began to understand what the fuck being a Demigod actually is), but it's not a massive issue since Nicky is in Germany most of the time.

Speaking of knowing about their Demigodness - the WW's know. Kayleigh was/is (unsure if she's alive in this AU yet but probably?) a Demigod (a minor god/goddess, I haven't decided who yet), and Wymack knew about that, so he was already clued in on that whole side of the world. Abby didn't know of their existence until later in her and Wymack's relationship, where he began to tell her about Kayleigh and the Immortal world. Neither can see through the Mist, but they know these things exist, so they're perfect for taking care of Andrew and Aaron, and Wymack's own rough history and him being the Coach of the Foxes (which are an Exy team, and are the band of misfits Wymack is giving another chance to) makes him perfect for dealing with the issues that the Twins faced in the Mortal world.

Okay. So, Exy exists. But it's not Yakuza related. Neil's dad is involved in organised crime, but it's not Yakuza, he's just a dangerous man, and Neil ends up being taken away from his father (his mother died "accidentally") by child services and placed in WitSec when the FBI find out about his father's dealings, and ends up with the Day's (I've decided now that Kayleigh is alive) who live in New York.

It's all a bit wishy washy here but Kevin ends up on the Foxes team when Riko breaks his hand (because, yes, Riko is still an evil asshole in this AU) and Kayleigh tells Kevin about Wymack being his father just before he joins, and lets the decision of if he wants the man to know or not be up to Kevin, so long as he tells her beforehand if he's going to let him know. Neil also joins two years later because he loves annoying Kevin and knows that joining the same team as him will annoy him ("Copying me" "Seriously, Kevin! Are we ten?" *grins mischievously*)

Andrew and Aaron join the team as well - Andrew because he does want to go to college, even though he's unsure of what he wants to do with his life, and he'll get a full ride, and Aaron for the same reasons.

I don't really know what happens after this because I hc (don't know if it's common or not bc I haven't been in the fandom in a while) that the Final Showdown in the last PJO book takes place in, like, 2009-ish, and the AFTG series happens a year before that.

So I have no idea how involved the Twinyards are in the events of PJO, how their Halfblood status affects their life in the AU, or how any of the events that happen in the AFTG books fit-in (I think the Drake storyline can still work since Nicky is there, and obvs no Mafia = not a lot of the canon events taking place, but there's still room for a few things I believe). And I haven't read the PJO books in a hot minute so how any of that stuff interacts with these guys idk as well bc I barely remember anything from the books lmao.

I'm sure someone could take this and run a fucking mile with it. I wrote this post in one go in 2 hours with the only thought initially being "What would it be like if the Twinyards were children of Aphrodite?" and honestly I still think so much can be done there. I kind of went off the rails with this post, but I'd like to note it is now 10:40pm so I'm crashing and brain turning to mush bc so many words. Like, I did not intend for this to be so long lmao.

#aftg #all for the game #andrew minyard #aaron minyard #twinyards #pjo series #pjo fandom #children of aphrodite #twinyards as children of aphrodite #yep #you heard #silly little thing i thought off that took off unexpectedly and i ended up writing a whole ass essay #guys i am so tired #anyway lemme know your thoughts #if anyone sees this #god i hope so #i spent ages writing this lmao #pjo au #aftg au

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