#Also before I read hoo I honestly though Nico was also a part of the seven and was very confused when I found out he was not

[thatonefandomjumper]

Nico and Reyna should have been a part of the seven. Not Percy and Annabeth.

I am long past the point of being upset about this, but it’s still something I feel is worth talking about.

Percy and Annabeth had their story. They had five books of that story in fact. Their arcs were pretty much completed by that point. Sure, there was room to expand the scraps that were left untouched, and I definitely think they should do that, but to do that there was no need for them to be parts of the seven.

I am aware that this would completely change the narrative of the story, but they can still be parts of the Argo crew

Now, when I say that, I mean that they'd function in a similar way that Nico and Reyna did in the original books

Reyna is a new character and Nico is one that’s far from having been developed to his fullest. Making them parts of the seven would give them more time to shine. Especially Reyna. The dynamics of the characters on this shp would need to shift and change from the beginning!

Like- Think of how this would effect the politics of Camp Jupiter? The fall into Tartarus? The blood of Olympus!?

And honestly I’d love for Percy and Annabeth to be tagging along to the quest, just not as part of the seven.

But of course, the people wanted Percy and Annabeth, and Percy and Annabeth was given too the people. They were even thrown into Tartarus for the people.

Judging from the reaction people had to Jason in The Lost Hero, the reason why Percy and Annabeth were a part of the seven is, of course, very clear, but that doesn’t mean I think a more interesting story could have been told if it had been Reyna and Nico.

[everythingannoyingpjo]

I hated everything Bob the Titan. Like I was a PJO super fan, so I read all the books (so I did know who Bob was BEFORE reading HoH), but that doesn't excuse having him be such a titular part of Percy and Annabeth's Tartarus experience while being introduced in a side book. In what world does that make sense?

This isn't even mentioning how strange it is to blame Percy for not wanting anything to do with Bob/manipulating him. Sure, perhaps Percy MAY have been a little out of line there (truly, I don't think so, though, it IS an argument), and it also didn't help that he was being blamed by the narrative for Bob and Calypso, as if either were ever really HIS fault.

(Finally, Percy has ALWAYS been like that. Bob wasn't needed to show him to be a slightly manipulative person. There were much more interesting ways to go about introducing Tartarus and exploring both Percy and Annabeth as characters. Percy especially).

Not much for me to add here. Bob being in the book never bothered me personally, but I can see how it would be annoying to have the focus taken away from Annabeth and Percy. Percy's POV is actually largely absent in Tartarus, and I think the reason for this (the only reason I can think of) is that Percy's PoV was probably quite dark during this part of the narrative, especially since it's the lead up to his break down when confronting Akhlys.

Percy has always been prone to blaming himself for others misfortune, so the fact that he blamed himself for what happened to Calypso, Bob, and Nico is not surprising to me, what did surprise me is that the narrative played it completely straight. Honestly the scene with Leo and Percy also really bugged me and I know I'm not alone in this. I honestly think Rick bit off more than he could chew with HoO trying to balance the arcs of about 10 different characters with conflicting viewpoints. (I'm counting Reyna, Nico, and Misc side characters here too.)

I think Leo suffers the most from this since his character arc required the most development imo, but so do Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Jason. These characters all have relatively "healthy" coping mechanisms so they didn't need as much focus and were pushed to the side as a result. Percy, whether because we know him better or because he's easier for Rick to write (experience will do that to you) didn't have as much of a problem, except again for those things which required a certain amount of nuance, which is a weak point in Rick's writing already!

I never considered the point of Bob's character was to show that Percy could and would mislead people in order to survive, but it's an interesting point and I like it. I slightly disagree, but only because I'm of the opinion that Percy was being honest with Bob when he said he would let Bob bring Hyperion back if he really wanted to. And we never find out if he is, because that scene is from Annabeth's point of view and she admits she isn't sure if he's lying or not. Another one of those things it would have been nice to come back to. ALAS!

But also we already knew Percy was willing to trick people to survive, didn't we? He tricks his opponents into doing stupid shit all the time in the first series. I guess this is just the first time we as the audience feel sympathy for the character he is potentially deceiving so it FEELS like a betrayal. Definitely something for me to think about. Thanks for your submission.

[bananamitz]

hey!! pjo fan here to debrief you!

TSATS comes late because it’s a standalone novel and in the timeline, occurs most recently. It’s not a core element to the bigger series, it’s a small focus on Solangelo and Nico (so it’s much more romance-driven, and though there’s romance in other books, it’s not as much as TSATS). To be honest, you could technically start with it, even though it is the most recent in the universe, since it has very brief mentions of previous events and the mentions you do get are vague enough that honestly, it just builds up more hype. I will say that when reading it, it did feel like the intended audience is much younger, and the novel is co-written so the writing style is very different and it doesn’t exactly have the same essence as the other books.

The main series (Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Trials of Apollo) have one major theme that stays pretty persistent and that’s family and abuse (well, HOO not so much, but the other two really hit it with the message). Percy Jackson is the one with the TV adaptation rn, and just to be a bit critical: the adaptation improves a lot on certain parts of the story such as Medusa, but fails on some vital exposition on the gods and why they’re there. It’s the first main series in the timeline, so if you want to follow it from the beginning, go there. Family and neglect is such a vital part of the story and characters, it’s the reason for the main conflict. It’s a middle grade series, and follows Percy from 12-16. It introduces you to the world, and if you start from there, you get the most understanding of the rest of the franchise.

Heroes of Olympus comes after PJO. I haven’t seen anyone start with it, and though it does debrief you on the established world, I don’t recommend starting with it since two main characters are in PJO and you’ll miss out on their main character development. Also: Rick Riordan IMO is a bit worse at 3rd person POV than he is at 1st, so it might not live up to PJO. IRRC, it’s a lot longer and has more action. Lots of new characters and a lot of interesting world building that I think you’ll find fascinating! It’s a lot different than the other two series in terms of setting as it centers more on the ancient world and there’s less aspects of the modern world/technology here. Might not be doing the series a lot of justice since it’s been a long while, but I think that the theme of abuse is mainly present in character backstories, and otherwise is not as much focused on. Found family is a bigger focus.

Trials of Apollo is the second most recent, takes place only before TSATS. I’ve seen people start from there too, and you can do that since neither main characters (Meg & Apollo) had barely any previous character development, and though it’s not as in depth, there are quick debriefings on the world like in HOO so you can get a basic understanding. Previous characters also appear, but only briefly. It’s not romance-centered, so it really gets into that family/abuse message. Like a lot more than PJO or HOO. Tip for reading: narrator is the unreliable narrator, and though admittedly he has done terrible things, he also wants you to think he’s much worse than he is. Also, I do think the audience is older than that of the other series. If I may, @/fearlessinger has a lot of incredible analyses on the narrator.

And if it’s a dealbreaker for you, Solangelo becomes canon in these books and appears in the first and last book of TOA. There’s not much build-up in the other books, so most content of them comes from TOA (minus TSATS, ofc). Only other book where they interact in is around the end of Blood of Olympus, which is a part of HOO.

Rick Riordan also has other series with a similar idea but with different mythologies (because if you haven’t noticed, PJO is all about the merging of Ancient Greek mythos and the modern world) and funny enough, they all take place in the same universe. Those series are shorter than the 3 pentologies, but from what I know, they’re really good too. The Kane Chronicles takes place around the same time as PJO + HOO, Magnus Chase is the same time as TOA. AFAIK, they don’t have as much about family and abuse as the others.

AHHH tysm for this!!! It was seriously super helpful, thank you <3

[jankwritten]

More TSATS opinions and whatnot//Not spoiler free I wasn't the biggest fan of Solangelo going into it either, honestly. It felt like a very forced relationship in ToA, and there were multiple instances in which I cringed on behalf of poor Nico when Will just- Said things. With no regard to what Nico might think of it, or what Nico might want other people to know, like practically outing him against his will again in the 'significant annoyance' scene that so many people heralds as this cute couple moment even though Nico had been forcibly outed by Cupid maybe six months before that. Which feels,, Really gross. The way Jason is mentioned, the 'part' that he plays in this book, lit an insurmountable rage in my chest that was only minorly quelled by learning that Harley is asthmatic because it took me so far out of the book I had to regroup. Jason's death being used to further yet another plotline is a punch to the gut as someone who loves Jason dearly. Nico yelling at trees about Leo not telling anyone his plan feels like more chemistry than Nico and Will have ever had, even with Will being the one to introduce him to the idea, and I am still upset that we weren't at least given Nico and Leo being friends. Nico giving Will the ring that Bianca gave him makes literally not a single drop of sense why would he give up the last thing he has of his sister? I know it's maybe supposed to be a moment of growth, showing that Nico has finally accepted her death and moved on. Maybe that he's trying to share more of himself with Will, but seriously? He couldn't have given him a pack of mythomagic cards or something? The whole Nyx and Nico children thing is- Profoundly strange and discomforting. Maybe they're sort of cute at the end, but the idea of them being referred to as his kids brings an uneasy feeling to my chest I haven't experienced since reading Nico being forcibly outed in HoH. Don't get me started on Reyna. Her being mentioned in the way she is, is such an aggressive disservice to her and Nico's friendship that I literally had to put the book down and yell into my pillow. What happened to their bonding on the trip back to CHB? Where's any of Nico's internal conflict with the fact that Reyna joined the hunters and Bianca died as a hunter? Where's any actual showcasing that they were ever friends? I'm also reading this as a fanfic written by an unknowning young camper now, that's a great idea. The only important parts in this story to me are Nico's leather jacket having a hood, and Hiss-Majesty hearding cows.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of this for fucking real. So many latantly out of left field, wrong choices were made, things that entirely undermined MASSIVE parts of HoO that were really important to Nico's character, things that just didn't make any sense whatsoever (WHY WERE MARIA AND BIANCA ABLE TO COME BACK??? BIANCA CHOSE REINCARNATION????), there's just so much that I'm genuinely not even ready to dive into.

I've put the book down for the night, as it was upsetting me too much LMAO, but rest assured: i will be attempting to finish it tomorrow.

(God. nothing pisses me off more than how Jason has continued and continued and conitnued to be nothing but a pawn. at least Nico at the beginning of TSATS made mention to his grief and how much Jason really meant to him, but if that later just gets used as a plot stepping stone I'm going to be so fucking angry about it it's unreal.)

[riddlerosehearts]

🐍 oh my god i had no clue there was a way around the character limit, thanks tumblr for being inconsistent across platforms 💀

Nico was my fave when reading the original series as well! Though I did end up latching onto Leo more when HoO came out, I still always have a soft spot for Nico.

Funny you say that about Jamil, I just saw some super awful takes abt him recently (again) that just made me feel like people are reading a completely different story, though part of that can be blamed on how the EN translation changed some stuff that kind of completely change the context of his situation.. honestly, given what you wrote abt Annabeth I think Jamil would also fit in Athena cabin - he's smart, capable, cunning and a strategist, plus he already has the gray eyes. He'd likely be the head of the cabin too.

I agree! Lots of people have pointed out there's a lack of Leo & Nico interaction in canon despite their similarities and I think that's such a shame, while I don't ship it romantically I really wish there could've been a friendship between them. I wish there was more emphasis on platonic relationships in general in HoO, so many things could've been explored further but we didn't get to :(

Nico being allergic to cats despite liking them is actually so adorable, I'm totally accepting that headcanon now. He tries to hold Grim then starts sneezing uncontrollably.

Me too! I'm usually reluctant to share my thoughts in case anyone reads it and thinks "there's no way you actually think that/that's stupid", but I'm really glad I can share with you and chat about ideas because it's so nice hearing what someone else thinks. Along with that I have made PJO OCs that I have been faaar too shy about showing people, but I they're precious to me and maybe I will post them one day...

Leo just using latest shows as bg noise would fit so well and be so funny lol, he'll know a few things here and there about whatever's going on but be completely wrong about some things that die-hard fans get mad at and give him a long lecture about the series that he barely retains because he didn't expect it. And Leo having fire hair can be uh, just a terrible accident where he lit his own hair on fire, for my "i just want to see it one time" convenience.

Now for a fun question, how do you think Leo & Nico would wear the NRC uniforms or dorm uniforms? Like how Idia never wears the blazer, Jamil wears a hoodie etc - how would they prefer to dress?

tumblr is such an inconsistent, buggy mess it's ridiculous sometimes. recently i discovered that i had blocked someone whose url i recognized but who i didn't ever remember blocking and don't know why i would've, so i unblocked them immediately but i was just like?? how did that even happen?? could've been a mistake on my part but i also wouldn't be surprised if it was a glitch 😭

i latched on so hard to nico as a kid because i was an edgy emo kid who really related to him ADKJGHDK. so of course as an edgy emo bisexual teenager i started loving him even more when house of hades came out. but like i said before, leo is easily my favorite of all the new characters from HoO! i have some criticisms of HoO as a whole but i like leo so much that i used to want to be a hephaestus kid mainly so he'd be my brother (and before that, i wanted to be a hades kid for reasons that are probably pretty obvious LOL).

oof, yeah, i do play twst EN and... okay, i was going to go off on a whole tangent here about jamil and kalim and how the localization watered down their entire fascinatingly tragic dynamic but it got so long that i realized it could practically be its own post. so i removed it and expanded it into its own post. it's here if you'd like to read it, but tl;dr is i agree with you completely lol. jamil is one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized boys in the fandom and i think the changes EN made definitely have something to do with that, which frustrates me immensely because outside of certain choices made with both scarabia and pomefiore i tend to really enjoy the localization. the way they translate idia's dialogue is comedic gold.

anyway, though, i was also thinking athena might make sense for him! and i know i previously said riddle could be head counselor of the athena cabin, but i can totally see it for jamil too. although, i wonder, how would it affect things if kalim was also present at CHB? would jamil still need to keep his head down, make sure not to outdo him at anything, and reject any sort of position of authority so kalim wouldn't look bad? would he give the head counselor position to someone else (not kalim, i don't think they'd be in the same cabin) if it was offered to him? which reminds me, another idea i had is that i think it could be interesting if jamil was the son of a minor god while kalim was the son of an olympian, possibly giving jamil even more reason to resent him. or it could even be the other way around (say kalim's parent is a minor god and jamil's is an olympian, so jamil is more powerful than kalim but has to act like he isn't) too.

personally i do think romantic leo/nico is cute and it's a ship that i have a lot of nostalgia for since i read a ton of fics for it way back in the day lol, but i'm not shipping them in this twst AU! i'm a multishipper who loves nico and will together too and i really just wish leo and nico had gotten to be friends in canon. i strongly agree with you that HoO should've focused more on platonic relationships, and i actually basically said all of this recently in a post here!

okay, it would actually be hilarious if nico was still allergic to grim despite grim's constant insistence that he isn't a cat. and nico being like, well, i'm allergic to cats and i don't think it's the ghosts that are making me sneeze, sooo. and now i'm also thinking about nico coming at grim like idia in his labwear groovy askjdghd.

i feel like in general i'm so bad at explaining my ideas and i get worried about not making any sense lol! but at some point in the last few years i just sort of started saying fuck it, if i have something that i really wanna post on my blog i'll go ahead and post it and if someone thinks it's stupid then they don't have to follow me. i bet your PJO OCs are great, and you shouldn't be afraid to share them!

HMMM oh man, i'm nowhere near as creative as i wish i was when it comes to fashion because i'm bad at visualizing how things go together lol. but my first thought is that nico canonically insists on wearing his worn out old aviator jacket everywhere up until it literally gets torn to shreds. and then in TOA he buys a black leather bomber jacket and starts wearing that everywhere instead. so i think he'd insist on wearing his bomber jacket over his school uniform like idia does with his hoodie! he'd wear a black shirt instead of a white one, like vil does, and i could see him wearing the vest but i don't think he'd bother with the tie, blazer, or gloves. he'd also wear black converse and maybe he could add some more of his Emo Kid flair by wearing a cool studded belt or attaching chains to his pants or something, i think that'd be fun.

for leo, i would love to hear if you have a different idea than what i say because i'm not as sure about how i think he dresses! but i get the vibe that his main consideration is comfort and how well he'll be able to work in something, like he doesn't necessarily dress badly but he's very casual and doesn't wanna put a ton of time or thought into his clothing. so i could see him maybe wearing the gloves and blazer, but not bothering to put on the vest or tie or button his shirt up at the top, and just grabbing a pair of work boots for shoes.

[sparkysparklightning]

Okay listen

Yes this is the “longass post” I mentioned in my previous Tratie HoO post hgjkfsh I decided to publish it and see what y’alls think!

Anyway, I saw this post, like...a week ago?? And all of a sudden, everything related to the HoO series that I’ve held back just came charging full-force. So I’m here to grace y’alls with my ideas and thoughts about HoO.

Honestly, if I talked abt everything that went off-kilter in that series, we’d be here all day, so I’ll just stick to the mere basic point that was also the basis of my HoO conceptual rewrite idea, and that point is...

Percabeth shouldn’t have been a part of the Seven.

Yeah yeah, half of you guys must be throwing stones at me, the other half is probably nodding in agreement. But seriously, Percabeth already had their time to shine--they had an entire five hecking books, they ( and their characterizations ) definitely do not need another five more, yeesh! I love Percy and all, but pls, five more books in which his and Annabeth’s and their relationship’s character were diminished? Yeah, no thanks. 

I love Percabeth, but in HoO, they became so...bland??? Idk how to properly explain it, but I didn’t like what happened to their character arcs at all lmaoo

But then, I got an idea: what if, instead of Percabeth, it was TRATIE who was a part of the Seven, instead? 

Now this idea was inspired both from the post mentioned above plus another post that talked abt Tratie as a part of the Seven in a bit more detail, which I cannot find no matter how many times I scoured the rr-crit tag ( smh, if anyone else knows of this post, pls lmk and link it, I’m sorry 😭 )

And yeah, I know a lot of ppl have been hopping on the ‘Nico & Reyna as part of the Seven’ train when it comes to making HoO rewrites, but see, hear me out, just think about the potential of Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner--two children of minor gods--getting their spotlight in a series of their own ( plus more indirect spotlight on the minor gods in question ) plus a slowburn ( kinda ) relationship?? Heck, I already have some ideas for this, that I’ll jot down below the cut along with some conceptual ideas about the rewrite. If any of y’alls end up reading this whole post, can you...just, idk, lmk whether it’s a solid plan and if I should actually take it forward and plan on writing it? Bc I’m being rlly indecisive rn ahaha ���

So. Tratie instead of Percabeth. Let’s take a closer look at the potential:

Honestly, I hate to admit it, but Percabeth didn’t do much to the plot as a whole, so it wouldn’t make much of a difference if they’re taken out. Though there are some things they did to move the plot forward, although little, and that’s what I’ll touch on before I discuss Tratie in general:

( oh yeah, disclaimer: I read the HoO series about five years ago?? I’m trying ( key word: trying lmao ) to reread the series currently, but it’s just not sticking lmfao. Probably the main reason why I wanna rewrite it so badly, other than the two posts that boosted my inspo )

--> THE ATHENA PARTHENOS: Annabeth went on a solo quest in MoA to track down the Athena Parthenos bc it was crucial to sealing the rift between Greek and Roman. BUT, any other demigod could go on that same quest instead of her. Like Piper, whose mother had told her that she was essential to sealing the rift but never ended up doing anything for it bc RR just...flopped idk; or someone like Leo who has similar abilities as Annabeth and would be able to outsmart Arachne in a similar fashion as well; or even Reyna could come earlier than she did in the series and work with the Seven or some of them to track down the statue? Idk, there are lots of options, tbh, there’s honestly not that much relevance to Annabeth being the daughter of Athena so she has to track down the Athena Parthenos. I mean, sure there was the Arachne ordeal, but other than that, nothing major rlly happens

Percy, himself, didn’t rlly...do much for the entire series, other than fight. I mean, there were some minor aspects of HoO where his powers or relations to other characters vibed well, so we’ll check those out:

--> KANSAS: In MoA, Jason and Percy fought each other bc they were forced to. That could easily happen even without Percy. Instead, of Percy, it could be Hazel and Jason fighting each other due to their connections as the Big Three children being taken advantage of. It could be sort of like a mirage of Thalia and Percy’s fight back in TTC. Plus, again, it gives way for more bonding and discussion after between two other characters that never got much interaction time together in canon

--> KYM AND POLYBOTES: okay this is the scene that takes place in BoO where Percy and Jason face off against Kym and Polybotes. But, Percy...does literally nothing here other than get poisoned lmao. It was Jason who did the heavy-lifting bc Percy got a t a d bit arrogant, thinking he was invincible underwater. So honestly, you could take out Percy and replace him with another member of the Seven (who would seem reasonable, in the context, so no Piper or Annabeth or Leo, etc bc none of them can survive even a minute under the water and doesn’t have a way like Jason to breathe). Tbvh, I can see Frank and Jason go together to face Kym and Polybotes. Frank can shapeshift into a sea-creature while Jason can use his ventus vacuum thingie, so it all works out, and nothing too drastic is changed! 

There’s probably a couple more of little scenes where Percabeth was mostly significant in some way to the series, but let’s be very honest...there weren’t a lot of them. So long story short: if you want to, you can easily take out Percy and Annabeth from the series and replace them with another pair and it wouldn’t be the end of the world, lmao.

Now onto Tratie ideas in relation to if they were a part of the Seven instead. Here are some bullet-points of some ideas that I thought of:

It could be a lovely parallel, where when Jason woke up, all he could remember was Thalia, so when Travis wakes up, all he remembers is Connor, his younger brother. I think it would be nice bc it shows that not everything has to be romantically coded like how Percy only remembered Annabeth in canon. It would emphasize Travis and Connor’s sibling bond more so, and I can just imagine Connor giving Travis reuniting noogies and trying not to burst into tears in MoA, and Travis whispers something like “you’re here” and the floodgates open, and it’s just crying and hugging and the like 😭😭

Katie is a daughter of Demeter, so she would have a somewhat connection with the Earth aka Gaea, hence there is now a plausible reason why Gaea would want to spill her blood to rise. Also, when the time comes to defeat her, instead of charm-speaking her to sleep or whatnot, Katie could be a significant crux to the primordial’s defeat bc her powers tie in with the land/earth, so she could use her powers to forcibly push Gaea back into the earth.

 Instead of them going to Tartarus, they end up going to Cupid (so some other pair will fall into Tartarus instead), and instead of a stupid forced outing, Cupid takes one look at them, senses their underlying emotional tension and goes “oh boy, yeah, you two have a lot to talk about” and actually (tries to) help guide the two into confessing the feelings they’d hidden, instead of being a little shit like in canon. Plus I just adore the idea of Travis calling Katie “flower” after they get together, and Katie calling him “key” not just bc he steals stuff but also bc he’s like the key to her heart and all that sappy bs, I literally love them sm 🥺 literally such wonderful nickname opportunities that have a deeper meaning

Travis and Jason might have a subtle rivalry, but unlike Percy and Jason’s weird ‘I’m stronger than you’ thing, it could be bc Jason felt a bit jealous of how everyone was looking for Travis, including his sister, while no one pulled much of an effort to look for him? It’d give an opportunity for them to talk things out and end up growing closer after talking

Juno/Hera saw Travis’s need, his desire, to redeem the Hermes name and as a result, used that fire to kickstart her plan by plopping him in Camp Jupiter while Jason got switched to CHB. Hence there is now a reasonable concept as to why the switch happened, because honestly, the whole Percy-Jason switch didn’t make all that sense bc Jason, yes I can sort of understand why he got switched, but Percy?? There was literally no solid reason that was explained as to why he was chosen to be switched lmao. But with Travis, Juno/Hera takes pity on him and uses this as an opportunity for him to bring glory to the Hermes name after the Titan War

I have a ton more ideas for the rewrite as a whole tbvh. Stuff relating to ways Gaea could actually be defeated, more on Octavian’s backstory and why he hates the Greeks so much, and other tiny scenes between the demigods that could bring about more characterization and details to their arcs.

The only problem is...with the way this is going in my head, I think things might end up diverging more or less from canon as the series progresses? Like there will obv be the canon scenes, but there might also be non-canon scenes that might change the series plot a little bit?? And idk how many of y’alls will appreciate that lmao ghjksfgh but I have started writing it. It’s a super long process lmfao, so idk when I’ll publish it (probably on Ao3, if I do), but I just wanted to let y’alls know bc a lot of you guys liked my first post abt this and I saw your lovely tags and it made me super happy and honestly, those tags are the reason why I even started writing this in the first place! So thank you guys so so much for the positive feedback!

[nowujustlooklikeanyone]

The Sevens Voices (with spoilers for pjo, hoo and toa)

disclaimer: i saw a post like this on here, and wanted to add my ideas! when i can think of more for the others i’ll add to it lol. Also these are headcannons for the most part.

jason

* lisp from childhood sometimes peeks through

* its hard to notice though

* piper liked it, leo made fun of it for a while but started to realise it wasn’t funny

* his voice is so steady, it doesn’t matter if he’s yelling or whispering it’s just like he’s changing volumes

* pretty good at reading aloud, and gets really frustrated with himself when he stumbles over words in speeches and stuff

* booming, clean laugh

Piper

* pretty low voice, and she likes the way it sounds

* deeper than leo’s voice

* when she’s charm speaking, her voice has characteristics the person she’s talking to likes.

* so like percy is reminded of annabeth, hazel hears a New Orleans tinge. one time nico got mad at her because he realised she sounds like bianca when she charm speaks him, and she’s never used charm speak on him ever again. this was what got them closer (btw, they definitely talk to each other about stuff all the time, have deep conversations that the two of them find difficult with other people.)

Nico

* all the way to when he was 15 it was really hard to tell if his voice just hadn’t dropped or if he’d have a high voice. his voice is deeper now but he never went through the awkward stage of voice cracks, and percy once joked that nico never hit puberty, with this as one of the reasons.

* he sometimes has other accents for specific words and says specific words weird, because he spent so much time with people around the world stuck in the Lotus Hotel in Las Vagas. like for the word volume he says it without the y sound before the ume. one time hanging out with friends in the Hecate cabin he said “can you up the volume” and everyone burst out laughing, and though the seven weren’t there, people frequently reference it after they were told.

* another reason he talks kinda weirdly because he had the least formal education, he only learnt English in the hotel (need to fact check this cos i can’t remember his timeline, him being dipped in the river lethe would factor into his voice)

* he doesn’t laugh at peoples unfunny jokes, and definitely doesn’t laugh AT people, so you know he really likes you if he laughs at your jokes

*will once said he’s constantly trying to do a try not to laugh challenge and it’s really funny

* he comes across as really suave and chill, because when he’s worked up about something he just goes quiet. when he was little he was whiney but after bianca’s death he’s way more reserved. after jason’s death he started talking even less, and it was very hard to get through to him; they were really close.

percy

* he talks fast a lot of the time, when agitated and stuff.

* i love the idea that his voice cracked really often during puberty (all through the original pjo books) which is another reason he said nico never hit puberty, above if you remember, because honestly he’s more thinking about how unfair it was he had to go through that and nico didn’t.

* frank thinks he sounds soooo new yorker but then he told annabeth and she said she didn’t think so, and he realised she kinda had it too cos of so many years at camp half blood. it’s funny cos frank never thought of annabeth as new yorker, but percys just so stereotypical (loves pizza and NYC) that he couldn’t help but point it out.

* sounds like poseidon sometimes and phrases things like him, like when explaining things?? leo joked that he could tape percy doing a poseidon impression to sneak into zeus’s palace (like leo makes a robot type thing and it has Percy’s voice and they sneak into mount Olympus, i think that would be so funny)

frank

* literally sooooo Canadian

* polite lol, reserved and slow to speak, generally

* him and grandma kinda sounded similar (i love her)

* pretty quiet, and at dinner he forgets he needs to talk louder for people to hear him and he often is told to speak up or repeat what he said. doesnt happen as much now he’s Praetor and had a lot of experience needing to be smooth talking, but still happens more than the general person

* deeper than jason’s voice

* voice stayed relatively the same after his transformation (btw i hate the idea that after that “transformation”, for lack of a better word, he just got skinny, i see it wayyyyy too often in fan art. he’s still a plus size man even if he bulked up.)

Hazel

* really nice and calming

* could be described as a squeak when she’s uptight (is that the right word) about something

* she’s a pretty good public speaker

* this isn’t really voices more personality but one time hazel raised her hand when everyone was talking over each other and now mainly Leo, and everyone frequently references it for a while, with increasing energy, like leo literally waves his hand around and starts jumping up and down.

clarisse (just adding her because her voice is so easy to picture)

* raspy voice

* when she yells it’s even more croaky

* like frog in her throat

* new jersey voice maybe but i forget where she’s actually from

LMK how you feel about these, i feel like my mind could be changed pretty easily about all of these if there’s like evidence of it in the books <3

[criminalmutantsins]

Jason Grace Deserved Better

*This is just my opinion. I don’t care if you like TOA

Like most fans, I at first didn’t like Jason too much. Compared to most of the main characters, Jason seemed pretty bland. However, after rereading the books and analyzing Jason’s character, I realized how interesting he is. All his life, Jason has always been the “golden boy” leader type without really exploring himself. After the HOO series though, Jason started exploring more of himself beyond people’s expectations. When I learned about him appearing in the TOA series, I was expecting more exploration and growth for Jason, but it was ignored and he was killed off. This made me very upset.

Jason had a mission to commemorate every god (Greek or Roman) and live his own life. It would’ve been great representation for people who have trouble with their identity. If Rick wanted to add something tragic to Jason’s story then he could’ve done something else. Or he could’ve prolonged his death after doing at least a bit of Jason’s development.

With his relationship with Piper, I didn’t care much for the romance in HOO but felt it was getting better when they both agreed to restart their relationship in BOO. When I read that they broke up, I was upset because the reasoning contradicted what happened in BOO, and Rick didn’t show us (the readers) why it didn’t work out during that time skip. And Piper moving on so fast after Jason’s death left a bad taste in my mouth. It was shown before Jason’s death that the two still had feelings for each other after the breakup. The timeline from Jason’s death to the end of the TOA series was around 2-3 months, which seems a bit short for someone to move on after their first love died. Maybe Piper’s girlfriend is a rebound but I’m still meh with Piper moving on at that time. Also note that I’m not upset about Piper having a girlfriend. I’m a part of the community and am all in for representation.

Jason not reuniting with Leo was so bad. He deserved to see him again as much as Piper. Coach Hedge assuming Jason broke up with Piper and being mad at him was so disrespectful. A big part of Hedge is him caring about the Lost Hero trio and it was disregarded because of drama. I consider TOA worse than HOO and non-canon. Honestly, the series made me not care about the new releases for the series. I’m only interested in the Nico story because he’s at least well-written and justice for Bob.

I’m thinking of writing an essay on how I would rewrite Jason’s character and development but it would take a while and I don’t have the time.

[sodamnbored]

Jason and Juno

I just want to talk about them. I have so many feelings and I can’t find anyone else that cares about them. But, like, why not?

Because Rick ignored Jason in HoO and I still haven’t got my Roman prequels, that’s why.

I freaking love Jason anyway and I always have. And I admit, reading original PJO, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Hera, but we weren’t really supposed to be I don’t think. But Juno? Nah man, Juno is cool.

Everybody seems to write her off because she’s Hera and we all know Hera sucks, and obviously Percy and Annabeth don’t like Hera so makes sense that we kinda subconsciously take their lead. But Juno is cool - and I will absolutely fight that corner forever. It’s like, Ares was kinda a dick in many regards, but Mars was a good dad to Frank, Mars was cool too.

Juno was one of the only gods interested in actively helping demigods, particularly her favoured ones, sure, but she still tried to help. And she obviously cared about them too. Not just Jason, it was very evident she liked Leo a lot too (and I love that too). And we know - at least from ToA - that she had a soft spot for Frank too (and honestly who can blame her).

But yeah, so I actually dig Juno in HoO. She helped out, she was awesome, she was actively nice at least to Jason.

So that’s the first thing to get over. Hate Hera if you want to - but let me convince you that Juno is better. Re-read the books and look for her being nice and cool. Because it’s there.

On top of that though, the relationship between Juno and Jason just makes me so happy and warm. I love it so much, even though I haven’t seen anyone else that seems to care.

Jupiter was at least as much of a dick as Zeus was - that’s something everyone agrees on I think. And I think a lot of us if not everyone can agree that he was a worse dad to Jason than he was to Thalia. And maybe that’s because he washed his hands of responsibility for him after he gifted Jason to Juno. (Dick move btw.) but either way, he basically ignored Jason his entire life and throughout HoO. He was hands down one of the most distant godly parents of the seven and of a lot of main heroes we’ve followed in the series’. So Jason couldn’t really depend on him for help or guidance an awful lot and basically felt like he didn’t have a father. But at least he had Juno.

Juno was a good patron to him. She helped him where she could. She actively and genuinely cared about him. She tried to make herself available for chats when he needed them as much as she could. Gave him presents (his gladius) and praise when he did well, pep talks for what was ahead. As pseudo foster mothers go, she really wasn’t bad. Closest thing Jason had to a parent, and yeah, he could’ve had worse. He did have worse with his alcoholic slightly off the rails actual mother who gave him away, and had worse in a dad who never spoke to him or saw him or lifted a finger to help him until the very last second and who also gave him away. I kinda gotta figure after that kind of treatment from both your actual parents, getting what he got from his patron was probably very appreciated.

And Juno/Hera is the goddess of marriage and family among other things. Throughout the series it’s pretty much her biggest hang up. And obviously she wasn’t always the best mother (poor Hephaestus) to her actual kids, but she kinda held Olympus together. Stopped them all tearing each other apart. Family was important to her and something she valued. Obviously she hated when her husband cheated on her and had someone else’s kids. Honestly? That’s pretty reasonable to be unhappy about. But she watched the rest of her family, literally forever, having kids willy nilly when they wanted to. Obviously Artemis didn’t, but she didn’t want kids and she had the hunters so that’s fine. For someone that loves family so much, it’s very possible she could’ve been a little envious of everyone else having huge families. She still had her Olympian family, but maybe she would’ve liked to have some demigods of her own, if it didn’t involve cheating which she just won’t do. She favoured original Jason and was his patron too, so she was happy enough to adopt them, but it still wasn’t something she did often. So she didn’t get a lot of mortal kids and might’ve felt like she was missing out. But at least she had Jason.

So, being given another little adopted demigod, hell yeah she probably loved mothering him. He was totally her kid. He didn’t have any parent or family to be there for him, she didn’t have any demigod kids of her own and knew she never will. That’s hella cute that they can adopt each other.

Everyone loves found families lately - well this is basically that. Kinda forced at first but doesn’t mean they wouldn’t grow to love each other. They helped each other, could depend on each other. Juno is literally the patron of Rome as well. So even if Jason hadn’t known from the off that he’d been given to Juno, he’d have still had the sense that she had his back along with the rest of Rome, so he might’ve asked for a little help or guidance before HoO, maybe while he was Praetor too. And Juno being New Rome’s patron would’ve probably kept an eye over Camp Jupiter and especially when Jason rose to Praetor she could’ve been paying more attention to him from then. Watched out for him during the Titan War.

I want to know more about them. Especially if Jason was fully aware that she was his patron the whole time before HoO. I want them to have had some sort of relationship. I want them to like each other at least a little. Nico and Hades got closer eventually. Percy and Poseidon (and honestly a bunch of the gods) got on well. Mars adored Frank. Aphrodite seems pretty cuddly with her kids in general. I don’t think it’d be a terrible stretch for Juno and Jason to have each other’s backs.

I want to know if Jason ever made offerings for her along with Jupiter. Burnt food at CHB for her as well as his dad.

I want to know if Juno ever helped him out on earlier quests at all, whether he knew it or not. If she ever gave him and maybe Reyna too, sort of a Praetor deal, counsel.

I want to see Juno fully lean into having Jason as her favourite, as her chosen hero. I want to see her lend some power to him when he needs it. I want to see Jason with the Blessing of Juno. How many demigods would’ve ever gotten that? That’s unheard of. I want it for him. I want to see him marching on Mount Othrys to take down Krios and topple the throne, not with the blessing of Jupiter (although I would also love to see him with that, that would be so cool!) but with the blessing of Juno, patron of Rome. I wanna see him monologuing Krios into intimidation like he did to the giants: I'm the son of Jupiter, I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion. I slew the Trojan sea monster, I have the blessing of Juno: Patron of Rome. And she also happens to be my stepmom, dick.

I talked about it in another post before, him getting her blessing. Supposedly with her Roman counterpart she’s supposed to be militaristic, strategic, etc. A blessing from his dad would be like an explosion of power, don’t get me wrong. It’d be like Thor in Infinity War. Magnificent. He could totally burst into the palace and fry Krios and destroy the throne. But I think it’d also be pretty damn awesome if he got zapped with her blessing and became like the ultimate military leader (kind of like Frank with Mars’ blessing I suppose, but more strategic instead of hitting the protein shakes), leading the troops in the invasion and being a total Praetor before he even became Praetor.

Side note: It’s probably not possible but can you imagine if he got blessings from both of them?? I doubt you can have two at a time, but that would be spectacular if he did. Especially from Jupiter and Juno. He would be incredibly powerful, no wonder the Legion made a big deal out of him in the early part of the series. Always was a little disappointed we never got to see cool Roman Jason. I love Jason, I do, but he wasn’t exactly what we heard about in The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune. It never felt like we saw his full potential. So I’m just gonna sit in my corner and dream it up instead lol.

Anyway, this was purely for me because I have a lot of feelings about these two and I couldn’t find anything about them at all or not anything positive. But if anyone else likes them or has ideas or there is stuff you can point me to, please do, I want to get involved in it and find people that are into this so bad!

[sunlitdemigod]

Since I finally finished re-reading Heroes of Olympus, I thought I would share my thoughts on each book:

The Lost Hero: 9/10. Honestly, before I started I thought this was the worse book in the series because 1. I barely remembered anything (I was like 11 when I read it so it makes sense) and 2. I saw a LOT of people saying they just straight up skipped the book. Well I am going to be very straight forward and tell these people that: you really missed a really good book. It is kinda boring in the start because we have literally no idea what is going on and there is a lot of introduction since we have many new characters, but once the mission start it is really enjoyable. Also, Piper from The Lost Hero is superior to Piper in the rest of the books, I said what I said. Finally: shout out to Rick for putting Lacy and Drew in both The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus.

Son of Neptune: 9.5/10. Hands down one of the best books in HOO. Frank? An icon. Hazel? The love of my life. Percy? Do I need to comment??? The trio in this group works so well, I loved how we could see Percy slowly regain his memory, and their adventure is one of the best among them all. I would say I thought it was kinda anticlimactic how they defeated the giant but honestly that's all that's holding me from giving it a 10/10. And the ending with the Argo II coming to New Rome is iconic.

The Mark of Atena: 9.0/10. What a GREAT book that is. The beginning is fine, to be honest, there are some highlights but it's the end that makes it for me - specially Annabeth following the Mark of Athena through Rome. That part is so well done, I don't see many people talk about it, it literally gave me chills. Don't think I have to mention that cliffhanger. Also I love those scenes in the beginning where Octavian is trying to talk and literally everyone wants him to shut up and keeps dismissing what he is saying.

The House of Hades: 10/10. Yes I said what I said. I think Rick really nailed when he wrote the Tartarus, from the pain, to the struggles they have, to Percy being fierce and borderline Dark, making Annabeth sort of scared of him for some moments, Percy being scared sometimes as well, all those things combined really match the atmosphere and it doesn't make it feel like things come easy for them because they are protagonist. In the overworld, there are also some iconic moments: Leo in Ogigia is everything to me and I realized I ship them more than what I like to admit, Nico coming out as gay was such a powerful scene, and then a friendship begins to form between he and Jason??? I love their friendship so much. Lastly but not least: Hazel proving to be one of the most powerful of the seven by learning to control the Myst AND THE LABYRINTH TO THEN DEFEAT PASIFAE???? Frank becominf Praetor????? Just a succession of iconic things.

The Blood of Olympus: 8.5/10. Not the best, but I think people make it seem worse than it actually is lol. The beginning is kinda anticlimatic, considering how great the last book was. The middle is nice, nothing too much. I don't think that Percy nose bleeding was anticlimactic to be honest, it made an unexpected twist in a scene where it seemed like there was still hope. What I DO think was anticlimactic was how Annabeth bleed but that's another story, people don't talk about this lol. Anyway, the main highlight for me was Reyna and Nico's mission. That. Was. So GOOD. If it was only that I would 100% give it a 10/10 - the drama, the memories from the past, the action, the twists, everything on point, also I love their friendship so freaking much. I also LOVED the ending with Calypso and Leo, dammit yes I ship them very much thank you, if you know any fanfics of them please recommend it to me, and Will is in here and I love my little brother with my life, not to speak of the beginning of Solangelo, I was so forking happy I had to stop to breath a few times because I though I would burst from love from my little OTP, and yes that's very cheesy. Overall the ending actually made me really happy.

In conclusion: The Heroes of Olympus is not that bad, you guys are just mean. I thought about doing the same with PJO but honestly??? Would probably give them all 10/10.

[pastabrand]

Unpopular PJO/HOO/TOA opinions

This is gonna be wordy but I’m not sorry for it.

Percabeth is hella overrated. It’s nice, but I would prefer other ships over it and some of y’all Percabeth shippers are scary as hell

I love TOA. A lot people don’t like it because it doesn’t include the main 7 and another topic that I’ll mention later but honestly, I could care less. I’m glad that the others aren’t there other than cameos. It means they’re getting a chance to heal after everything and honestly, good for them. People like to cast TOA as an unnecessary spinoff that didn’t need to be included yet it gives y’all the type of character development you scream and beg for in other books. It’s literally the perfect character development trope you crave, yet puts a good spin on it.

Some of you haven’t even READ toa and say you hate it. Like what? How is that supposed to work.

PJO was way better than HOO. TOA sits in the middle of the two.

I love TOA because it shows Apollo’s character growth from one of the most arrogant, cocky, and prideful gods. And even then, he doesn’t go from that to a helpless mortal loving fool, he stays arrogant and prideful but less so. Not to mention more understanding of mortals and demigods live and what they go through. He doesn’t go from one extreme to the other, but one extreme to more of a center balance. It’s more natural that way.

While Jason’s death in TOA was sorta cheap, it goes to show demigods can die at the least expected times. If Jason had died during the war, then it would be “oh, well, that’s what war does. It kills people. Nothing new.” Compared to Jason going about life as normal and one small mission is his end. It’s more impactful and realistic that way. It goes to show that life as a demigod is always dangerous, fighting or not.

Jason’s anger to Percy for not noticing Nico’s feelings towards him is absolute bullshit. Fuck that as a whole. Nico acting cold and hateful towards Percy doesn’t and shouldn’t equal “I like you, notice me please”. The internalized homophobia should be Jason’s focus, not Percy’s lack of attention at Nico’s feelings.

Same for Leo about Calypso. Not to mention they both shove the blame onto Percy like its his fault when it really isn’t. Having your memory forcefully wiped mere months after a war isn’t gonna help when remembering stuff like that. Not to mention the Gods are bums who will try to do as little as possible and leave the rest to demigods. It leads to one sided anger and unnecessary confusion and guilt on the other side. Bad writing on Rick’s part tbh.

People need to stop acting like Jason didn’t die. That’s clinging into a ghost and not letting it move on. I hate to be the one who says it, but Jason is canonically dead and acting like he isn’t won’t change shit. It’s gonna lead to unhealthy habits in the future, trust me. You can’t write a fic post TOA then be like “oh yeah, Jason’s alive because I want him to :)))” because that isn’t how life works sweetheart.

People also need to stop pretending TOA doesn’t exist. You might not like it but you have to acknowledge that it is actually there and it follows the PJO/HOO timeline.

Paul was just a card to give Sally a nice man to lean on when it wasn’t necessary.

Percy should’ve been wayyyy more suspicious of Paul when he was first introduced. 6 years of abuse from a “father figure” isn’t just gonna go away because “oh he’s nice.” Guess what? Gabe was nice at first canoncially (even if it was for a very short amount of time).

Percy. Has. Serious. Anger. Issues. He’s sassy and stuff, sure, but he’s also got some severe anger problems that he both inherited from Poseidon and developed and festered over time from living with Gabe for 6 years.

Percy is the type to act like Hades or Apollo, attack a lesser being(s) because he can’t go after the big shot without fear of punishment. I wouldn’t be surprised if some his expulsions were from beating up various kids and/or teachers.

For the first half of TLT, Percy did not like Camp Half-Blood or consider it his “home” other than Grover and Luke. The camp treated him like shit because he was a noobie at first and then because he was a son of the Big Three. He hated Poseidon for his lack of care and lack of help when he and his mom were abused under Gabe. Had Luke talked to him during that time period and/or Kronos spoke to him in dreams, he would’ve joined the Titans. His loyalty for the camp didn’t form until near the end of TLT.

Nico and Percy basically had somewhat personality switches. Nico was an excitable, happy, laid back, and naive kid while Percy was a quiet, angry, and irritable kid. Nico’s switch came from Bianca’s death while Percy’s was more gradual. In the end, Nico became the quiet, irritable kid and Percy became the more happy, laid back kid.

Stop ignoring the fact that Nico, a literal 14-year-old, traversed into Tartarus. Alone. There’s always fics of Percy and Annabeth recovering or suffering from the after affects of the fall and war while Nico is relatively normal. The boy is not and has not been okay. His life has been one shitshow to the next ever since he was ten.

Both Percy and Nico have incredibly dark sides to their powers that they seemingly enjoyed that was fueled by anger. Percy with Achlys and Nico with Bryce. Percy admitted to liking torturing the goddess and Nico, though more subtly, seemed amused by Bryce and his attempts to justify his crimes and then frantic attempts to stay alive. Bryce literally says “I’m Bryce Lawrence! I am alive!” And Nico casually responds with “Who are you?” as he turns Bryce into a souless husk of a person. You cannot tell me that he wouldn’t have tilted his head innocently and cracked a small smile at that.

Piper’s portrayal as a Native American. Do I even need to go into that?

Percy. Liked. Luke. The boy knew the son of Hermes for what? 1 week? 2? Yet considered him to be a friend, possibly a close one at that. It probably went the same route Nico’s crush did. Hero adoration to actual romantic feelings but godspeed. Not because he just wanted to like a boy, but because, other than Chiron, Luke treated him with kindness, patience, and understanding as a male figure, something Percy didn’t really have growing up. Not to mention Luke helped Percy when no one else would. As a 12 year old, those type of feelings were bound to develop.

People who make the characters treat Percy and Leo as dumb, oblivious, or one dimensional sassy bois™️. Percy and Leo would be offended and/or defensive of such a thing because of childhood trauma. How many years do you think they can to endure that when they were younger from people they were supposed to trust or respect? You seriously can’t think they would be fine with it because their friends. Maybe a reference once or twice, but constantly? Absolutely not. Old habits die hard.

Solangelo seemed forced to me. I dunno, Nico’s whole confession felt like a ruse to get him set up with Will right away. I felt as though there wasn’t any real “connection” between the two prior to them getting together. It all felt rushed and out of place for the setting they were in. I’ve never understood it nor liked it and usually try to avoid it. That and Caleo seemed like a way to put all the characters in relationships so that they were “happy”, portraying that they needed to be with someone to achieve their happiness. Leo and Nico would’ve been better off single and learning to love themselves before loving someone else. Same applies to Sally.

Nico and Thalia would never get along because Thalia would be a reminder of what Nico lost (Bianca) and how easily how she could be replaced.

Demeter kids need more respect. I feel like that’s what Meg is for. To show that they can also technically be considered “Big Three” material because, if you forgot, Demeter is a child of Kronos as well. That means Demeter’s kids are cousins with the Big Three kids as well.

Aphrodite’s kids also need more respect. Aphrodite in the PJO universe is literally older than all gods, as she was born from Uranus’ gentials in the ocean and arose from there. Their powers could be exapanded wayyy more if they were focused on more.

Not to mention Poseidon kids could possibly gain attibutes of what would be considered Aphrodite’s powers since she was born from the ocean and vice versa. The possibilities are endless there.

That’s all I could think of for now! Lemme know what you guys think though.

[solange-lol]

not so typical love song - ch. 1/13

Chapter Title: Rollarcoaster

Words: 3,050

Note: my piece for the @pjo-hoo-bigbang !!! special thanks to @shelbychild and @wisdom-walks-alone for editing and helping me develop this story! it wouldnt exist w/o y’all!

Art by @lizzybizzyo! <3

[ one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight (coming soon)]

read on ao3

—

Nico is staring at his computer, wordless. This isn't writer's block or surprise; it’s just the unknown reality of what this situation could lead to.

Another gay kid in his school. Another gay kid that isn’t Mitchell—who’s been out since 8th grade, and the only one to be out since then. Another kid at their school who’s hiding a secret. 

Nico doesn’t even know if this kid is a boy or a girl or what, and frankly, he doesn’t care. There’s another kid like him. And he has no idea how to respond to the post.

The post is a submission from their school’s gossip blog on Tumblr, the notorious ‘hb-secrets.’ Piper had called him an hour ago, asking if he’d seen it yet.

“Seen what?” he had responded.

“The post on hb-secrets? About the closeted gay kid?” It hit Nico like a wall of bricks as he quickly went to pull up the website. Did somebody know? It was a relief when he saw the clipart Ferris wheel and a few short lines submitted by a blog called blue0919.

“I bet it’s that Brazilian sophomore. Paolo or whatever? Or maybe it’s Connor Stoll! I swear he’s been flirting with Mitchell, but Annabeth keeps telling me that he’s into Lacy or someone,” Piper continued as he read, but it was going in one ear and out the other as he processed the words on the screen

Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck on a Ferris wheel. One minute I’m on top of the world, and the next minute I’m at rock bottom. Over and over all day long, because a lot of my life is great. But nobody knows I’m gay.

“Gotta go. I’ll talk later,” Nico said quickly, switching off his phone. He knew it would raise suspicion, but it felt like time was turning in on itself. Nobody knew about Nico. In fact, nobody ever even suspected. He’s never been called names besides “Death Boy.” And yet, there were the exact words that described his life, written out in front of him like they were a second thought.

And now, he was staring at his computer with an empty Gmail draft open. The original poster had left their email at the end of the post, so Nico after glancing quickly at his Panic! at the Disco poster still proudly hanging on his wall, typed out a new address. He was stuck, though, unsure of what to say from here. 

So, he started from the beginning.

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 6:48 PM

Subject: Hey

Somehow you’ve managed to type exactly what I feel. Sorta scary, as if you’re inside my head or something. Maybe it’s just a gay thing to be speaking in metaphors about the pressure of everyday society.

That’s what I am. Gay. I don’t know if I’ve ever really said it out loud to myself.

It’s weird because I never really had a perfectly normal life. My mom died when I was young, so I never really got to meet her. My sister and I have always been super close until she went away to college. Now, not as much. I guess that’s just what happens when you live a million miles away. 

And I’ve known my stepmom longer than I knew my real mom, but it was only a few years ago when I met my half-sister when she came to live with us because her mom died as well. Meaning, she isn’t the daughter of my stepmom. It’s a long story, and not really one I want to get into.

She’s super nice though. It’s funny, but despite being polar opposites with my older sister, they’re both mushy inside. Same with my stepmom. And my dad… he tries his best. We’re like exactly what you expect from a slightly broken family. Plus my dog who my cousin gave to me during a rough time. Honestly, she’s probably my favorite sibling out of them all. (Both my sisters would kill me if they knew I wrote that.)

And then there are my friends. I have some that are closer than others; Two of them I’ve known for a while now, and one who I only met recently but treats me better than some of the people I’ve known my whole life. While I admit, I’m not the most social person in the world, they’re pretty amazing as far as friends go. 

So there it is. My perfectly normal life. Except for that huge ass secret.

He typed and retyped each line what felt like a thousand times, deleting word after word. He didn't know what was too much. It all felt like too much, really. He didn’t even know if he could trust this person.

Signing it was the worst part; he didn’t have any good pseudonyms. Eventually, he decided to leave it blank.

Without a second thought, Nico hit ‘send’ before leaning back in his chair and putting his hands over his head. Only a second later, a light knock came from the door, causing him to quickly sit up as Hazel popped her head in.

“Dinner’s ready if you wanna eat,” she smiled. She left just as quickly as she came, curls bouncing as she walked away. They had gotten over the awkwardness of having a new sibling only months after Hazel moved in, but there was still some strangeness. To this day, Nico was still a lot closer to her than Bianca was. Either way, Nico knew he would do anything for her. (Not that he would admit that. He didn't even need to, Hazel already knew.)

Nico glanced back at his computer, but there was nothing in his inbox besides the Gmail “Welcome” email. It was stupid to think this person would respond that quickly, seeing as Nico didn't even know if they would respond at all. Heaving a sigh, he got up to join his family for dinner. Maybe he could even convince them to watch Steven Universe instead of The Bachelor.

---

Dinner went as expected. It’d been a while, actually, since they were all together for a meal. Hazel talked about her psycho geometry teacher and a boy she talked in the class named Frank, who seemed sweet but apparently had a shared hatred for math just like her. Nico didn’t say much, although chimed in at the latter, saying he better be the flower boy at their wedding. That even got a short scoff out of his father, which tended to be the closest Nico ever got him laughing. So, that was a win. 

However, he was a little more distant than usual. The pending email response was in the back of his mind during the entire meal.

Even afterward, as they watched reruns of Glee (a compromise made between Hazel and Nico, much to their father’s dismay), Nico couldn’t focus. It felt like a weight was burning through his back pocket. After the second episode (and laughing his ass off at his father’s reaction to Kurt’s ‘Single Ladies’ dance) he finally excused himself. 

He tapped the Gmail app on his phone as soon as he had reached his room. It felt like his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the new notification, a response from the original poster. With slightly shaky hands, he tapped the response, and a message opened up.

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:12 PM

Subject: I’ve never done this before

Dear anonymous person on the internet,

I really don’t know where to begin. I’m also not sure if you're a real person. For all I know you could be some random pedophile like one of those cases they warned us about in health class for the past 5 years, even though it’s never happened within the last decade.

But in case you are real, hello! I’m the original poster from that hb-secrets thread about life being a Ferris wheel. I’m rereading what I wrote there and I can’t stop cringing, so I’ll start by apologizing for that. I’m not usually one for metaphors, even the bad ones.

Anyway, it sounds like you identify with what I wrote. I’m glad you emailed me; I didn’t think anyone would actually do anything with the email that I left. Except maybe be extremely homophobic. But it made me feel less like I was shouting into the void, so thanks for that. And I assume you’re okay with me writing back since you sent me the first email. Though, I can’t believe I’m actually writing to you. I really didn’t think I would.

I guess I’m thinking it could be nice to talk with someone who can relate to how I’m feeling. No pressure, of course, but feel free to write back if you want to. I don’t want to use my real name, but you can call me Blue. 

It was surreal. Someone who was like Nico. Someone who wanted to talk to Nico because they were like him. 

He started to type again, with more excitement than he’s ever felt. He’s never been able to express this part of him before. It was almost like first date jitters-type feeling. 

(Not that he really knew what that was like.)

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:23 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Hi, Blue

Wow, I’m actually kind of flipping out right now, because I seriously didn’t think I’d hear from you, especially so quickly. Wow. Okay. First of all, thanks for your email and also for your Tumblr post. I really liked it, Blue, and it wasn’t cringy at all, I promise.

So do you go here (here meaning HBHS)? I do, I’m a junior. And I’m a guy (are you a guy?) Anyway, I could relate a lot to your post, Like, pretty much all of it, but especially the part about being gay. You probably figured that out already though. And I’m not out yet either, which you probably figured that part out too. 

I guess a part of me wants to be out, but a part of me’s like… no. It’s hard to explain. I don’t know. Maybe you get it.

So yeah, it’s really nice to meet you! This is kind of cool, right? Even writing this email makes me feel eleven times less alone.

-Angel (not my real name either, two can play at this game. It’s not like a pet-name type thing. If you ever find out who I am, you’ll understand why.) 

He was worried about the whole name-signing thing. ‘Angel’ was just the easiest thing; it was a direct translation of his last name. He was really hoping Blue still didn’t take it in a weird way, even with that last note.

Relief flooded through him when he read the first sentence of Blue’s next email. 

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 8:41 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

Angel, huh? Maybe like guardian angel perhaps. 

Also, eleven times less alone? That’s oddly specific. :) But I know exactly what you mean.

Anyway, wow. Hi. You wrote back, and quickly too. I’m really glad you liked my post. Now I’m actually happy I put it out there. I have to admit, it’s strange to be writing a somewhat personal email to you when we don’t know each other’s identities. Though, in a way, I guess that makes it easier. Sorta like a therapist, except we’re both blindfolded and have the same problem. So not really a therapist, I guess.

Do you think therapists have therapists? Like, if the problems get to be too much for them? Is there an Almighty Therapist who just absorbs everyone's issues and feels nothing?

Anyway, I am a guy, and I’m also a junior at HB. I think you’re actually the first other gay guy I’ve met here. It’s pretty surreal to be talking to you. (In a good way though.) I wonder if we know each other in real life. 

And I think I understand what you mean. I feel like I’m constantly going back and forth about wanting to come out. I have these moments where I’m almost bursting to tell people. Of course, that’s where I was when I posted the thing on Tumblr. But I always feel so weird about it a few hours later, and sometimes I’m intensely relieved no one knows yet. What about you?

-Blue

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:12 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I mean, let’s be real, eleven is the best number, which is perfect because we’re both in eleventh grade. And I can't believe we’re both juniors. The class is pretty small compared to the others, so I bet we do know each other, which is weird to think about. What if we’re actually enemies in real life? Do you have enemies? I don’t think I do, not really. Various people tend to annoy me a lot. It’s not even their fault; some people just have really punchable faces.

 (I’m usually a really nonviolent person. I’m more like a violent person who at the same doesn’t really want to hurt anyone, so I have to resort to fantasizing about punching people, which just ends in eating my feelings in large quantities of McDonald’s.)

It’s funny for me, it’s actually not so much that go back and forth about wanting to come out. It’s like I simultaneously do and don’t want to be out. Which is pretty freaking exhausting, honestly. Like I’m in this constant state of JUST SAY IT and NO NEVER. Do you think that ever ends? I don’t know, maybe I’m just a really indecisive person. I think part of me is also just holding out until college when I’m away from anyone I know and can just reinvent myself.

So what kind of stuff do you like to do after school and everything?

-Angel

From: blue0919@gmail.com

To: bettertoburn@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:34 PM

Subject: Re: I’ve never done this before

I don’t think I have any enemies, but now I’m definitely wondering if I’m the guy with the punchable face. How do you know if you have a punchable face? I’ve never been punched, so hopefully, that’s a good sign. 

I will say, I’m definitely with you on the issue of eating your feelings. I’m the person who has never smoked a cigarette or gotten drunk or anything like that, and I'm usually relatively healthy. However, I once ate five jars of Nutella in one sitting. I do not recommend, 

I’m indecisive, too, in some ways. Okay, full disclosure: I was really conflicted when you sent me that email. I kept going back and forth about whether I should email you. I was (and am) definitely intrigued, but I guess I was also a little bit paranoid. It’s just that you could have been anyone, and it’s hard to know sometimes if someone’s being a jerk or if they’re being sincere. Plus my cousin sort of actually outed me. Not to anyone else, he’s the only one who knows, but now I’m super paranoid about coming out. (Exactly what you said about holding out until college. I’m thinking I can move to LA or somewhere where nobody really cares. Although I wouldn’t want to reinvent myself. And I don’t want you to reinvent yourself either, you’re pretty cool as you are I think.) Anyway, I’m really glad I decided to email you, though.

So, you’re probably going to think I’m ridiculous, but I’d rather not answer your last question. It’s just… I think I like being anonymous for now. Is that okay?

-Blue

Okay, that last part was fair. Nico understood the wanting-to-be-anonymous thing. Sure, they go to the same school. But Blue had no reason to entirely trust him; Nico didn’t really trust Blue at all. This could entirely be some random asshole anywhere in the world trying to find him and beat him up, or worse. It sucked that homophobia was still a thing in their day and age. 

But Blue said he liked talking to Nico, and it was thrilling to talk to him. It was another secret of his, but not one he entirely minded keeping. So, he chose to believe that Blue was actually who he said he was. 

From: bettertoburn@gmail.com

To: blue0919@gmail.com

Date: Oct 2 at 9:57 PM

Subject: Punchability

Blue, you have so much to learn about the rules of punchability, starting with the fact that it is completely impossible for you to have a punchable face. Rule number one: guys who make metaphors about Ferris wheels are automatically unpunchable. Rule number two: There isn’t one. Just rule number one, so memorize it. Everyone else can catch these fists. (Catch these fists? These hands? This would probably be more intimidating if I knew the correct phrasing)

Also, five jars of Nutella in one sitting is the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life. Challenge accepted.

I don’t think you’re ridiculous, Blue. I totally understand why you don't want to tell me about your extracurricular activities (I’m guessing interpretive dance, though, you seem like the type.) But seriously, I get it. It’s this weird contradiction, right? It’s so much easier to be open with someone who doesn't know you at all. We’ll be each other's Ultimate Therapists. 

(Except I don’t think I could ever be a therapist.)

Anyway, I’m really glad you decided to email me back, too :)

-Angel

That smiley face was really unlike him. 

Nico sent the email, but after nearly an hour, he didn’t get on back, which meant Blue was probably asleep. Which was different from what Nico was used to; he tended to stay awake until the early hours of the morning most nights. But it wasn’t anything he minded. He had a conversation with Blue, and even if that was the last one they would ever have (which, he was hoping it wouldn’t be), it was good to know that there was somewhere out there like him.

[blue--winter]

what the fuck. i just googled everyone’s ages from pjo/hoo. seriously, what. the actual. fuck. i haven’t read the series in forever, but i’m thinking of writing a fic and just now going over/realizing the ages?? i don’t know if this is just because i never paid attention to ages before or just didn’t remember, but i’m shook.

piper and leo and jason are only fifteen? i always thought they were sixteen (a year under percy) or seventeen like the original trio (percy, grover, annabeth). and nico’s fifteen too? what? i thought he was also sixteen, like reyna.

ALSO, SINCE WHEN THE FUCK HAS OCTAVIAN BEEN FUCKING EIGHTEEN WHAT??????!!

however, the biggest thing for me happens to be the fact that

hazel’s only THIRTEEN and she’s dating frank, who’s SIXTEEN??

like, i don’t think three years is that big an age gap, but that’d be if she was like 17/18. but this is a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD (and don’t give me that whole “she was resurrected, technically she’s blah blah blah years old” bullshit. I’M SIXTEEN, that’s a junior in high school (for americans anyway), a thirteen year old is still in MIDDLE SCHOOL. i don’t care how cute frazel is canonically (i honestly wasn’t ever really invested in their relationship, though they were a ship i hadn’t minded when i read the books. they were kinda just there but i digress), this makes me so uncomfortable.

yeah, no, sorry uncle rick, but pairing the thirteen year old with a sixteen year old is a no go on my part. so in conclusion, any percy jackson fics i happen to write, the ages are getting fixed. count on that.