#Frank is a big three kid for the romans

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Can we bring back the Big Three fics where it's just Percy, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, Jason, Hazel and sometimes Frank doing the most unhinged, ultra powerful stuff for the stupidest of reasons (and also no one is dead)?

[cr4zy-cycl0n3]

Yo! I'm doing a Heroes of Olympus rewrite!

I'm not a huge fan of how some scenes go in canon and how the characters esp the gods are handled in Hoo, and after reading one too many rewrite/AU fics, I've decided fuck it, imma make my own.

I'm changing quite a few things, like:

- making Piper's memories not be tampered with and as a result be way closer to Leo (credit to Heroes of Juno by @queenjunothegreat for this idea!)

- MOTHERLY HERA/JUNO WHO PSEUDO-ADOPTS JASON FTW also parental Lupa but that'll be more apparent in a Jason prequel/sequel(depends on how I wanna format it) I’ll write after TLH is done

- slowburn valgrace instead of comphet jiper

- Leo and Piper QPR(+Jason when Piper stops being his #1 opp). Jasipereo ftw babyyy

- the whole series is just gonna have a good deal of focus on the Lost Trio. I'm not gonna shaft anyone ofc but my favorite punching bags characters are just gonna get extra love :3

- Jason's gonna be considerably more feral cuz CMON MAN WAS RAISED BY WOLVES(this is more prominent in the later books cuz in TLH he was alr feral, going at 2 giants with his BARE ASS HANDS)

- Jason has more bite cuz DAMMIT HE DESERVES TO BE ANGRY/BITTER AND CLAP BACK. HIS LIFE IS SHIT, LET MY BRO BE MAD

- more exploration into Jason's character cuz man was shafted so hard :(

- exploration of characters' powers in general, def buffing the Big Three kids to be as strong as Percy cuz holy cow he's OP. I love Percy and his OP-ness, but the other Big Three kids should be just as OP

- Zeus is the God of Justice, which we don't see much of in PJO's characterization of him, but Jupiter is Roman and hence is much more strict in the RRverse, so consequently I think his domain of law and order is more central to Jupiter than his greek counterpart, so I'd like to explore Jason having powers related to that and being an absolute powerhouse when it comes to debates and politics despite hating them

- characterizing the Gods differently from canon as I'm a Hellenist and writing them as they are in canon makes me like. Kinda uncomfortable. I will be using mythic literalism as that is what PJO/HoO's based on and I'm not rewriting the very foundations of the series, so they will still have committed the things they did in mythology, though I'm keeping them largely unaltered from the Og greek mythos and unsanitized as this isn't intended for a young audience like PJO is. Their behavior won't be exactly like their depictions in myths nor how they actually are irl, it's a mix of both(Ex: Zeus has still done heinous shit so he won't be as great as he is irl, but he isn't supremely petty and bitchy like he is in PJO.). This uhh. Will probably mean that PJO events would go differently which would influence HOO but if I think about that too much I'm gonna wanna do a PJO rewrite too and akbhdhd so just imagine that everything that goes on in PJO goes as canon (for now at least) for some reason or another.

- Octavian and Jason are were best friends cuz I said so. This change is inspired by To Storm and Fire(a Heroes of Olympus rewrite) which I am in LOVE with. The antagonistic side characters(like Drew and Octavian) got very little development or character exploration so l'm definitely giving them that in my rewrite!

- The Seven feel and are much closer together

- delving more into the sevens' trauma pre-camp, might also do a one/two shot for each of them. Jason’s a given cuz I���m writing a whole ass fic or even series dedicated to his past, Leo and Piper definitely, probably also Hazel and Annabeth, not sure on Percy and Frank cuz for Frank I’m def going into the trauma that comes with growing up in an Asian household but don’t have too many ideas on how to execute that, and for Percy I don’t have all that many ideas in general outside of the little we know in PJO(I used to think we knew a lot but honestly, we really don’t? Like we know Poseidon left, Sally had to work a lot, Gabe sucks, and he got kicked out of 6 six schools in 6 years and the reasons, but we don’t have any concrete details. There might be more in HoH, I haven’t read it yet so lmk if there is). Open to any ideas for this!

- camp is. Tense. It's been only a few months since the war, grief is still fresh, and Jason being tall, blonde, and blue-eyed with a scar ain't helping 💀 some people think Silena was a hero, others think she was a villain, some people sympathized with Luke, others despised him, there's a lotta differing views.

I have loads more ideas that I won't get into here cuz the post'll get way too long, but l'd love to hear what you guys think! What scenes/characterizations should I change? What topics would you like to see handled differently? What should I add? I'm open to any and all suggestions!

Currently outlining TLH, will start posting it on my ao3 once I have the first chapter and 4-5 buffer ones written so I'll prolly start posting it in a month or two? Idk, depends on my workload irl and if I get hit by writer’s block. Maybe less, maybe more, who knows. I'll be writing a bunch of shorter stories for specific moments, time between books, and namely a prequel/tih sequel focusing on Jason's past and who he was before Hera wiped his memory. Open to any suggestions for additional works too. Feel free to drop any questions and suggestions bout the rewrite here or in my ask box!

[darkmagyk]

percabeth baby fic/teacher au!

“Constantinople.” Jason said. Ms. Dare nodded, meaning Jason had gotten the question right. He glanced at Dr. Chase to see if she had noticed, if she would give the little nod of approval that all guys on the Jupiter School quiz bowl team craved.

But Dr. Chase wasn’t even looking at them. She and Mr. Jackson, the Juno’s Academy coach, were talking in a low voice, Mr. Jackson showing Dr. Chase something on her phone that was making her frown.

“The 2015 hit movie King of Sparta features this Hollywood leading man?” Mr. Pace asked.

Jason knew this one, he had seen all 4 King of Sparta movies…

Piper, the cutest of the Juno girls, rang in first, and hung her head even as she said “Tristan McLean.”

“Correct.” Ms. Dare said. She glanced down at her tablet to look at the next question, but she was stopped because Mr. Jackson had walked back over to their quiz bowl scrimmage, and put a hand on her shoulder. He leaned down and whispered something to both Ms. Dare and Mr. Pace. Who both nodded.

“I’ll be back,” He said, mostly addressing his Juno students. “I have to go run an errand really quickly.”

Then he left. But it meant Dr. Chase could redirect her attention to the team.

Mr. Jackson was not back through another 2 rounds. But Jason got the coveted Dr. Chase nod 3 times for answering the math questions correctly.

They were nearly tied up, though Jason had just face palmed when Connor had answered “What city was helped by the French, Spanish, and French again before being sold to the United States?” with “Montreal.” Much to Frank and Hazel, who got the answer “New Orleans” correct, chagrin, when Mr. Jackson came back. He was not alone.

In one hand he held a baby carrier were a sleeping infant in a blue onesie and blue beanie, wrapped in a blue knit blanket was laying. On the other side, a slightly older child, but still probably a toddler, was resting on his hip. And trailing after him was a slightly older girl, maybe 4 or 5.

“Sorry, everyone,” He said, “babysitter had an emergency.”

“Isn’t your babysitter Fred?” Mr. Pace asked.

Mr. Jackson nodded.

“What kind of emergency do history professors have?”  Ms. Dare asked.

Mr. Jackson shrugged, “Well, everyone,” He nodded to the teams, “this is Junie,”

The oldest girl waved, but then ran to Ms. Dare, giving her a hug. Which might have confirmed the rumor he had heard from Reyna and Hazel, that Mr. Jackson and Ms. Dare were a couple, if not for the fact that Junie then immediately also hugged Mr. Pace.

“Lucie,” Mr. Jackson said. Setting the very very blonde toddler down on the floor. She stood on a second of slightly unsteady legs, before she found her balance and waved with a wide grin, adding “Hi.”

“And hopefully Sofie will stay asleep.” He slung a bag, a diaper bag Jason guessed, off his shoulder, and started opening it, digging out some duplo blocks and a coloring book and some crayons. With a little bit of effort, and Dr. Chase’s help, the older girls were set up in two of the desks, with the toys, and then they refocused on the practice.

“What three Roman gods made up the Capitoline Triad?”

Oh, good, Jason knew this one. He hit his buzzer.

“Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.” Everyone looked over where the oldest girl. Junie, was grinning at them, having answered the question.

“Sweetie,” Mr. Jackson said, “this is practice for the big kids. Why don’t you finish coloring a picture for my desk.”

Jason glanced to the back corner of the room where Mr. Jackson’s desk was, and now he could see what looked like a dozen children’s drawing and coloring pages.

“But I’m right,” She said.

“You are,” Ms. Dare agreed, not hiding her smile at all.

“Let’s keep going,” Dr. Chase said.

And then Mr. Pace asked his next question.

“Falling on December 20th or 21st, what is the shortest day of the year?”

“Winter Solstice.”

“Junie,” Mr. Jackson said again, “if you answer all the questions, they students can’t learn.”

“Ok,” She said. Going back to her coloring.

Ms. Dare turned to the next question, “Finished in 1936, this public works project was one of many used to hire people during the great depression.”

Jason paused, he knew this one, it was on the tip of his tongue. Leo’s buzzer beat him to it.

“Hoover Dam.” Mr. Jackson’s daughter said.

“Annabeth Jackson,” And that was Dr. Chase, who Jason knew’s first name was Annabeth. It was an unusual name. Had Mr. Jackson named his daughter after Dr. Chase? “It’s ok to know you’re smart. You don’t have to prove it.”

“Like mother, like daughter.” Ms. Dare joked. Mr. Pace laughed, Dr. Chase shot her a glare.

“Next question.” Mr. Jackson offered.

“Right, yeah,” Mr. Pace read the next question, “What name could you give to an Empire that lasted from 1299 to 1919, or to a small piece of upholstered furniture.”

Oh, that one was easy, too.

“Otto Min.” It wasn’t Junie Jackson who spoke this time. It was the younger one. Lucie. She waved when she saw everyone was looking at her.

Dr. Chase sighed, but Ms. Dare and Mr. Pace broke into a giant about of laughter.

“It’s ok,” Mr. Jackson said, patting Dr. Chase on the shoulder. “She’s just jealous they’ll be on my team when they get older.”

“We’ll win, Daddy,” Junie announced.

“Absolutely,” Mr. Jackson said.

“Did you marry me just to create the ultimate quiz bowl champions?” Dr. Chase asked Mr. Jackson.

“Yep,” Mr. Jackson said.

“I knew it.” Piper announced. She turned to her team, “you all owe me $20.”

[the-star-rigel]

I forgot how funny SoN is. The Romans spending 50% of their time complaining about the Greeks (who’ve never once mentioned them - giving big winning the idgaf war energy). Two gods showing up and everyone being terrified vs at camp half blood where they’ll show up randomly to the campers’ annoyance. Everybody majorly side eying Percy and Hazel compared to camp half blood’s greater respect for the big three. People telling Percy “Saturn must’ve faded away 🤷‍♂️ 🤷‍♀️” while he’s like huh… Mars’ prophecy is kind of iconic too “go there kill this guy be back by this date” 😭??Also side note but Frank being very Pluto pos is a little incredible I just know Pluto loves this kid

[northlt03]

I love Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel and Frank so much but I do believe Rick could have done so much better with HOO.

With all the emphasis on minor gods and children ALL the gods getting claimed, I do believe he should have made the seven a group of ragtag unlikely to work together demigods of minor/ gods other than the big three.

And I mean kids who are only just figuring out their powers, dealing with internal trauma, who start out respecting the shit out of the gods (both Roman and Greek). They were young in the battle of Manhattan so they don't remember a time before that. And HOO should have taken place long after PJO.

So now, you have cameos from out beloved characters. Rachel gives prophecies, Percy trains them with swords like Luke trained him, Nico could be the oldest demigod with them (either on the team or just helping them)

[demigod-shenanigans]

Lean on Me

Summary: After the war, Leo finally has some time to process some pretty big feelings he’s been avoiding. Thankfully, Piper is there to help.

Shoutout to my friend @halcyon-hyacinth for beta reading!

Word count: ~7K

So, I passed 250 followers a while back and I thought I’d take this as an opportunity to do a test run of tumblr fanfic posting (Ao3 version linked in the title). Therefore, have my very first HoO fic from all the way back in March! Feat. lots of Leo and Piper friendship, Leo being an oblivious pining little idiot over Jason and some very minor background pipeyna.

———

Even though it had been weeks since they’d gotten back home, Leo was sometimes still in disbelief about the fact that he was back at Camp Half-Blood after how long they’d been away. It felt weird not falling asleep to a rumbling engine anymore. It felt even weirder to wake up in a cabin full of people.

The number of people being home involved was something he didn’t think he’d ever grow used to. He’d grown up with just his mom and the very occasional visit from family who couldn’t be bothered to care about him after she’d passed away. Then there’d been the foster homes… well, the less said about those, the better. Point being, it was strange how different things were here, and despite the months he’d lived here before the mission, it never stopped feeling that way.

Leo liked his half-siblings, but he wasn’t great with people. He was even worse at being any kind of role model. Most of his time as head counselor for the Hephaestus cabin had been spent on constructing the Argo II. What exactly being head counselor involved now that that was done… that was a problem for future Leo, he supposed. Current Leo was perfectly content hanging out in the same space as some of his siblings, watching their various contraptions grow as he worked on his own. So far, no one had asked him to do anything else, save for the occasional question about his epic adventures. Those he could handle just fine.

Part of Leo missed the time on the Argo, beyond the soothing familiarity of piloting Festus. Not all of it—not the constant monster attacks or knowing the world might end or having to replace the mast four times in the same week. Not the lonely moments when everyone seemed perfectly content without him. But he missed the group breakfasts, and the peaceful bits of the night time watches he’d had with his friends, before something inevitably tried to eat the ship. He missed running into Jason when he got up for a midnight snack, the strange comfort of knowing neither of them could sleep. He missed teasing Frank, and spending three hours arguing with Annabeth about one of her architectural sketches that was as gorgeous as it was physically impossible to construct. Something about the contained space of the ship had made certain things easier. Camp wasn’t huge, but most of them got swept up in their respective tasks, and it just wasn’t the same, especially since Frank and Hazel had left. Some of the Romans had stayed to help with the rebuilding effort, but they’d needed at least one praetor back at Camp Jupiter, so he’d gone, and Hazel had gone with him.

Still, for the most part, Leo was glad to be back home. It was nice to not be fighting for his life every thirty seconds for a change. It was even nicer to be back in his usual tinkering space. Note to self: if he ever built another flying ship, it desperately needed to come with a furnace. His own fire was handy, sure, but setting his limbs alight wasn’t the safest or the most effective way to forge Celestial Bronze. Kid Leo really should have thought his crayon sketch through better.

Speaking of projects he should have spent more time thinking through… he dipped the hot metal disc into cold water, waiting for a moment before he retrieved it with his bare hands.

He’d always felt kind of silly wearing protective gloves considering he could reach into the furnace just fine without it affecting him. (He’d done that exactly once, before a very startled Nyssa had ruined his fun by insisting that the head counselor maybe shouldn’t be teaching his not-fireproof younger siblings that it was fine to stick your bare hands into the furnace. Being a role model was seriously boring sometimes.)

Leo eyed his device, uncertain. It looked better than it had before the last correction, but… yep. Like he’d suspected, the folding mechanism still wasn’t working right. On the last few attempts, the helmet hadn’t unfolded at all, and now that it had, it wasn’t retracting correctly. He had a feeling it had something to do with uneven volume distribution, but he’d gotten too attached to this prototype to just start over now. There had to be a way to make this work. He’d rebuilt a whole metal dragon nearly from scratch, for crying out loud. Like Hades was he going to let a piece of armor defeat him.

Leo was still thinking about whether to take a break and try sketching out the prototype to see if that would help or continue to just wing it when Piper appeared.

“You busy?” She looked tired, but satisfied, like Leo felt when he had a breakthrough on one of his projects at two in the morning.

She’d been dropping by more often since they’d gotten back. Jason was about a million times worse.

It felt… not like old times, exactly, since the time when they’d been a trio of friends and Piper and Jason hadn’t been dating had mostly been Mist memories. But it did feel nice.

“Very. Currently having a staring contest with my newest project. Don’t distract me, or it’s going to win,” Leo joked.

He was met with an eye roll, but Piper’s smile didn’t waver.

“Right. What are you working on, and how worried do I need to be about it blowing us all up?”

“Not very, I hope. That’d kinda defeat the purpose.” He showed her the palm-shaped device, a few parts of metal still sticking out of the sides where they weren’t supposed to. “Retractable helmet—though currently not as retractable as I’d like it to be. I’m tired of Jason constantly getting concussed. There’s only so much brain damage any demigod should be subjected to, ambrosia or no.”

Piper snorted.

“Yeah, he could really use that.”

She was looking at Leo in a strange way—like he’d just answered correctly on a game show he hadn’t even known he was participating in.

“Why are you in such a good mood? Do I need to be worried?”

“Reyna said my combat skills needed more work. She’s spent all morning repeatedly disarming me in three moves.”

“Your girlfriend is terrifying.”

“Yeah, she is.” Piper sighed contently.

Leo was happy for her—she hadn’t been dating Reyna for long, but he’d never seen Piper smile this much before. In some ways, it was easier than seeing her with Jason. It didn’t come with the same weird pang in his chest.

That didn’t mean being around Reyna had stopped feeling weird to Leo, though. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she hadn’t fully forgiven him for getting possessed and firing on her home. Not like he’d fully forgiven himself for it, either. He was still seriously considering that Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine. He was unfortunately pretty sure there’d be more opportunities to use it in the future.

“I really don't get what Reyna’s problem is. You’ve got excellent aim when it comes to firing smoked hams at monsters. We just need to come up with a convenient way to carry those around now that we don’t have the cornucopia anymore.”

“Har. Har.” Piper rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, any chance you could interrupt your glaring contest with the helmet for a bit? I need to talk to you.”

Leo’s mediocre mood had started to improve slightly since the start of their conversation, but now it took a massive dip. Those words never meant anything good.

He squashed down the first question that popped into his head—that being ‘who died’—because Piper was still smiling, so even if someone had died, it probably wasn’t anyone they liked.

More likely, Leo was about to be scolded for something.

“Whatever it is, it wasn’t me, and if it was me, it probably wasn’t on purpose,” he tried, mentally running through all the ways he’d messed up lately to figure out which one she was most likely to be mad about. It wasn’t that Piper scolded him a lot—half the time, she was a very enthusiastic participant in his nonsense—but maybe her rule-abiding girlfriend was being a bad influence. “If it’s about the glitter bomb I placed in Drew’s handbag-”

“You did what?” Piper asked, crossing her arms.

Great. So she hadn’t known, and Leo had just snitched on himself. Good job, him.

“I needed to test the mechanism for a new monster fighting gadget.” He shrugged.

“And you didn’t let me help?” Piper did actually look kind of offended. So Reyna wasn’t being that bad of an influence. Good to know.

“Hey, I can’t let you have all the fun. I’m head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, remember? Someone’s gotta teach Harley about strategic glitter bomb placement. I take my responsibilities as an older brother very seriously.” Piper snorted, and Leo knew he was forgiven. Still, he wasn’t willing to risk any more guesses. “So what did you want to talk about, if it isn’t that?”

“Walk with me?”

“Slightly ominous request, but okay.”

Leo dropped the prototype into his tool belt to be retrieved later, then started fiddling with his rings until the crutches folded out obediently. Those weren’t his own design, unlike his prosthetic leg. They’d been a gift from his siblings. He didn’t need them as much at the forge, where he mainly went from briefly standing up to sitting down a lot, but outside of that, they were extremely convenient. It was great to not have to worry about where to put them so they wouldn’t topple into the campfire during singalong.

Relearning to walk was more frustrating than he cared to admit, but hey, at least he was about ninety percent less dead than the Fates had wanted him to be. That was pretty great.

“And me wanting to talk to you is ominous, why, exactly?” Piper asked, an eyebrow raised at him.

“She said, luring me into the woods like any half-decent murderer would,” Leo joked. It wasn’t that he actually feared for his life—not after Piper had put up with him for this long—but the whole situation did make him nervous. “For the record, I will be the world’s most annoying ghost, so, you know. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I was actually going to help you, but I think I’m pushing you into the canoe lake instead,” Piper deadpanned. “Or maybe I’ll just ask Reyna to-”

“Alright, alright, message received. No need to actually threaten my life.” Leo lifted his palms in surrender, which was a bit of a ridiculous balancing act with the crutches, but entirely worth the effort as far as he was concerned. “Just tell me why you’ve dragged me out here.”

Piper moved to sit on a large rock at the edge of the water and patted the spot next to her. Leo flopped down next to her, his crutches obediently folding back into the jewelry. He swung his legs back and forth, the celestial bronze parts of his prosthesis clunking whenever it hit the rock. That maybe wasn’t good, but he’d fix it later if it got dented. His fidgeting always got worse when he was nervous. There wasn’t much he could do about it.

He pulled a spring from his tool belt and started bending it with nothing specific in mind to keep his hands busy. Maybe he’d end up with something handy to use for one of his devices later. Maybe he’d just end up with a completely ruined spring. Who knew.

“Like I said, I wanted to talk to you. Preferably alone—or as alone as you can be here, with the dryads and the harpies everywhere.” Piper sighed. “I feel like we’ve not done that in a while.”

“Yeah.” Leo looked down at his sneakers. “Not that I can remember most of the time we did spend alone.”

That still stung. For the first few weeks after they’d freed Hera, Leo had assumed his and Piper’s real memories of Wilderness School would come back—that the influence of the Mist would fade. It hadn’t. They’d saved Hera’s life, but she wasn’t quite so grateful that she could be bothered to fix the memories she’d messed up by interspersing them within a bunch of fake memories of Jason.

Leo wasn’t even sure what was made up completely, and what had been Hera taking memories that should have been him and Piper messing with Hedge and testing out some of his faultier contraptions during lunch break and replacing her with Jason. Part of him wondered if it had been the two of them sneaking onto the roof for the meteor shower, sitting next to each other and lamenting about how romantic this would be if they weren’t both so painfully single.

Wondering was all he could do, for most of these moments. He couldn’t remember.

Some memories were clearer than others, like Piper telling him about her dad, or when she’d realized he was down on the anniversary of his mother’s death. She hadn’t pushed him to talk about why he was upset—just suggested they sneak into the kitchen for some low-stakes theft. He remembered being sprawled out on the carpet in her room afterwards, laughing, victoriously splitting a box of strawberry ice cream. But even in those memories, Jason was there, distracting the staff and laughing with them.

It was like Hera had pressed Control-Alt-Delete all over those first months of their friendship, leaving only fragments. File that under even more reasons to hate his evil babysitter.

“It doesn’t change anything, you know,” Piper said gently. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad that Hera messed up our memories. But memories or no, you’re still my best friend. I wanted to make sure you know that.”

“Hate to break it to you, but Jason is my best friend,” Leo joked, because he absolutely could not let Piper get away being this sappy, no matter how relieved it made him feel.

Piper raised an eyebrow at him. “Sure.”

He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and honestly, he was afraid to ask.

“So did you bring me out here just to talk about how amazing I am? Because I’m absolutely down to talk about that any minute of the day, obviously, but we really could have had that conversation back at the forge.”

Piper rolled her eyes at him, though it was in a way that Leo knew was more fond than anything. He’d learned to tell the difference at some point. Which, if nothing else, really did say something about how much she rolled her eyes at him.

“I actually wanted to talk about why you spent so much of the mission avoiding me and Jason. A lot of the time before the mission, too, honestly.”

Oh, great. Part of him had hoped she wouldn’t notice, naive as that had been. He kind of wanted to bolt, but that would just make her bug him about it more. Besides, running with crutches was really inconvenient, and Will would not be happy with him if he overdid it again. Forget Nico being scary. Will could be terrifying when he wanted to be.

“Maybe I just thought you wouldn’t appreciate my presence as much as you should,” he joked, but the words felt hollow in his throat. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but he couldn’t exactly skirt the topic forever.

Avoiding them hadn’t been a conscious choice—not at first. It had been a lot of work to finish the Argo in time. Then he’d had to fix it. Then he’d had to work on Festus. And, well, a bunch of their missions required him to go with Hazel and Frank instead of Piper or Jason. Most of them, really.

Leo wasn’t sure at which point he’d realized he was just making excuses to not be around his two closest friends. To not see them be perfectly happy without him. He loved them both so much, and he’d hated the resentment he’d felt looking at them. So he’d found reasons to look somewhere—anywhere—else.

“Well, you were wrong.” Piper looked at him, expression soft. She’d known him too long. His humor deflections only worked so well when the other person was aware that was what he was doing. “We both missed hanging out with you. I know you couldn’t see it, but you’ve always been part of the group. You were captain of the damn ship. We couldn’t have done any of it without you. No matter what some goddess says.”

Leo tensed. “Hazel told you? About the Nemesis thing?”

“She’s been worried. So have I.” Piper squeezed his shoulder. “Talk to me, please. Tell me how you’re actually feeling.”

Piper wasn’t charmspeaking him—she’d done it enough times by accident that Leo knew how to tell when she was—but he still found it nearly impossible to refuse when she looked at him like that. It was obvious she cared. So few people in his life had, since his mom passed away.

The truth came tumbling out, then, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“It’s just, you were probably the first real friend I made, and Jason’s my best friend, and when you two started dating… it sucked, okay? It felt like you didn’t need me anymore.” It was like something burned inside him every time he thought about it. His chest felt hot and painful enough that he kind of wanted to cry. The spring he’d been carefully uncurling snapped in his hand. “I finally got myself to stop running and tried to fit in somewhere, and it still didn’t work. I just found new and exciting ways to be alone.”

No matter what he did, he’d always be the odd one out. The seventh wheel. The sacrificial lamb that no one would miss too much. That was the only role he’d ever been promised.

“Oh, Leo.” Piper hugged him, then, fierce and warm. He sunk into her, hands cramping into the back of her shirt. She didn’t seem to mind. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because, as we all know, I’m the ‘talks about his issues’-guy. Key defining Leo feature.” He tried to smile, but he wasn’t even fooling himself with that embarrassing attempt. His heart was a piece of burnt-up wood, fragile and aching. Human emotions sucked. “Besides, we were so busy saving the world and trying not to die. Me feeling a little excluded seemed kind of unimportant in comparison.”

For a while, they stayed curled into each other like that, in a way they hadn’t really done since Wilderness School. Gods, he’d missed this. But being around her and Jason had just stung too much.

“It’s not. I’m sorry that I made you feel like it was. I haven’t exactly been a great friend lately.”

“Hey, you saved my life a couple times, that counts for something.” Leo nudged her. “It’s not your fault that I’m not great at the whole feelings thing. That’s just part of what you signed up for when you agreed to be my friend. Unfortunately for you, I’m non-returnable. You get the honor of being stuck with me forever.”

Leo had never minded being an only child when he was little. Then he’d met Piper, and for the first time he’d realized how much he liked having a sister. He teased her, sure, but that came with the territory. That didn’t mean he liked seeing her upset.

“I wouldn’t get rid of you even if I could,” she said, nudging him back. “But I know you. I know talking about stuff like this isn’t easy for you. That means I need to pay more attention to it, not less. I should have realized something was wrong. I should have been there for you, and I wasn’t. I was so caught up in my own problems that…” Piper trailed off. She looked seriously unhappy with herself. “I can’t believe I didn’t even notice how jealous you were until after Jason and I broke up.”

“I-” Leo stared at Piper for a long moment, then he burst out laughing, despite his charred coal of a heart. The thought was so completely ridiculous that he couldn’t help it. “Gods, Pipes, I’m not- you’re great, but I don't like you like that. You do realize I can hang out with girls without falling in love with them, right?”

Piper quirked an eyebrow, as if to say ‘can you?’ But the next words out of her mouth were, “I didn’t say you were jealous of Jason.”

Leo felt like he’d just walked face-first into a wall. “I- hang on. You think I- with Jason?” He didn’t feel much like laughing anymore. He felt a bit like he was suffocating, actually—like the time he’d been in that underwater cave with Frank and had accidentally set his oxygen supply on fire.

“You didn’t realize?” Piper asked, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Oh great, we’re both idiots. No wonder we’re best friends.”

“Pause. Can we take, like, fifteen steps back, maybe?” Leo felt like he’d missed about an hour of this conversation. And sure, he zoned out sometimes, but not that much. “What exactly makes you think I’m into Jason?”

“Do you want the list in alphabetical or chronological order?” Piper deadpanned. “You were literally napping on his shoulder at campfire yesterday. Clinging to him like a freaking koala. Apparently he had some trouble getting you to let go once he got you to bed.”

Leo’s face burned. He had vague memories of drifting off to the crackling fire, his head lolling to the side. He had wondered how he’d gotten back to his cabin. “I haven’t gotten a ton of sleep lately. And I just- I cling to stuff when I have bad dreams. You know that.”

Now that he thought about it, that did explain the strange looks he’d gotten from his siblings this morning.

“Right.” Piper looked amused in a way Leo wasn’t sure he liked. “Then there’s the fact that the project you’re working on at the moment is for him. Or how you’re always trying to make him laugh. Oh, and the wistful little looks you give him. You stare at his mouth a lot.”

“Making people laugh is my thing, that’s not exactly Jason-specific,” Leo protested. Of course he liked making Jason laugh. He was so serious a lot of the time, like at some point someone had decided to drop the whole world on his shoulders and he had just taken it and carried on. Whenever Leo managed to make him laugh, something inside his chest softened. That didn’t mean anything aside from the fact that he liked to see his friend happy. Did it? “And it’s not my fault his stupid scar is so distracting.”

Piper grinned. Yeah, well, he’d walked right into that one. “So?”

“Fine, I do think he’s attractive. Obviously. I have eyes.” Leo shrugged. His face still felt hot. Part of him was worried he’d catch his nose on fire again. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Right, and me walking around grumbling about Reyna being all ‘how dare she be so beautiful and powerful and competent’ was peak heterosexuality.” Piper’s tone was teasing, but her expression was soft. “You know it’s fine if you like him, right?”

“It’s not that. I’ve liked guys before. There was this kid across the street from my mom’s shop…” He trailed off. Okay, so maybe the kid had been a blond guy with glasses. Getting into that probably wouldn’t help his case. “But I get crushes on people a lot. You’ve witnessed an embarrassing amount of them. They’re not- they don’t usually feel the way it does with Jason.”

“So what does it feel like with him?” The teasing had melted out of Piper’s voice. She sounded sincere, like she really was just offering to listen in an attempt to help. Somehow, that didn’t make it any easier.

“It’s… I don’t really know how to describe it.” Leo sighed. “I’m not great at this stuff. ‘This stuff’ being people, just in general. But it’s easy with Jason, in a way that it’s never been with anyone else. I like being around him. It just makes me feel good. He treats me like I’m competent, even when I feel like a colossal fuckup. And he won’t always get it when I ramble about my inventions or fidget with whatever new thing I’m working on while we talk, but he listens like he’s actually interested in what I’m saying. Sometimes he’ll just sit with me, and we don’t talk at all, but it still doesn’t feel weird the way it would with other people. But it’s not… that doesn’t mean I have a crush on him.”

His legs tapped a discordant rhythm against the rock. He couldn’t believe he was actually saying all this. He wasn’t the type to talk about things so openly. Not even with Piper.

Never mind the fact that he wasn’t sure what there was to talk about. Leo’s crushes tended to be pretty easy to pin down, usually. Jason was just… different, somehow.

“So, let’s recap: the reason you think you can’t have a crush on him is that he’s easy to be around and it feels nice?”

“Uhm.” Well, when she put it like that, he just sounded like a moron. “I mean, doesn’t it feel like that for everyone? Do you not feel like that when you’re around him?”

“Not… exactly.” Piper looked embarrassed. “You remember the incident with the giant killer shrimp?”

“No, I fight those about twice a week. You’re gonna have to be a little more specific,” Leo replied sarcastically. He had no clue where she was going with this. It felt like he’d lost several minutes of the conversation again.

“When Jason and I were cleaning up after, I kept wishing we were more like Percy and Annabeth. There I was, dating the guy that was everything I thought I was supposed to want, and didn’t at all know what to do with him. Jason’s great, I’m glad he’s my friend, but we never had those kinds of easy silences. Us being together romantically was a total disaster. I’d just sit next to him with nothing to say, being all ‘wow, this is awkward’ and trying to convince myself that some relationships were just like that.” Piper laughed dryly. “Some daughter of Aphrodite I am.”

“Hang on. Are you telling me that the times you two ditched me to hang out, you just spent sitting awkwardly next to each other in silence?” Leo felt bad for her, truly, but he was also trying not to laugh.

“I plead the fifth.” Piper still seemed embarrassed, but also a bit amused. “Honestly, it’s gotten better since we broke up, but we’re still not great at it. There’s a reason we don’t hang out much, just the two of us.”

“I thought that reason was mostly you and Reyna being attached at the hip, but that’s honestly way funnier.”

“Well, it’s also that.” Piper got that dreamy, faraway look in her eyes again, and Leo briefly hoped he’d successfully distracted her, but his luck didn’t hold. “And it doesn’t help that Jason followed you around everywhere for days after you got out of the infirmary.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Leo snorted. That experience had been so ridiculous that it was easy enough to talk about. “He spent a bunch of time hovering—and I do mean both metaphorically and literally hovering—while I was at the forge. His feet were not touching the ground.”

Piper burst out laughing. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish. I don’t think he even realized he was doing it until I pointed it out.” Leo probably should have minded that. He didn’t need a babysitter. But honestly, getting all that time with Jason had been kind of nice, even if Jason was being an overprotective idiot about it. “You die once, and suddenly everyone’s all worried you’re gonna drop dead a second time. Like, no thanks. Been there, done that, never doing it again. Death really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Yeah, you better not.” Piper flicked him in the head. “You scared all of us pretty badly.”

“Sorry.” Leo shrugged. “Next time I go up in flames and get half my leg chewed off, I’ll try to be less dramatic about it.”

“I really don’t know why I’m friends with you.”

“Because I’m hilarious and smart and I make great tofu tacos?”

Piper put a hand on her chin like she needed to consider this. “It’s mostly the tacos.”

“I can’t believe you.”

“Unfortunately for you, I’m non-returnable,” Piper said with a wink, echoing his words from earlier. “Suppose we’ll just have to be stuck with each other.”

“Suppose we will.”

“Circling back to your little Jason issue,” she said, just when Leo had been starting to hope he’d finally escaped that topic. Damn the fact that Piper knew him well enough to realize he was trying to derail the conversation and didn’t let him get away with it. “I really think you should just talk to him.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen.” The piece of coal in Leo’s chest flickered with heat. He’d snapped the third spring in a row in half, scooping the scraps back into his belt. The dryads didn’t take too kindly to littering. He’d learnt that the hard way. “Jason’s… I don’t know. He’s a born hero. He’s brave and powerful and kind. He trusts other people to lead and know what they’re doing. Even me. He’ll tell me I can do something, and I’ll feel like I can. And then instead I’ll get possessed and blow up half of New Rome, or I’ll make a crappy deal with Nemesis and everyone else suffers the consequences. I’m a huge mess, Pipes. Even if I was into him, what chance would I have with someone like that?”

“Right, you only sacrificed yourself to save us all. Not a heroic bone in your body.” She rolled her eyes again, this time in a distinctly fond but annoyed way. “Putting aside the fact that you did save the world, that’s not a requirement for someone to like you. There’s a reason you were my best friend way before you were ever a hero. And Jason cares about you. A lot. You know that, right?”

“No, I thought he just hung out with me because I’m so hard to get rid of.” Leo was back to looking at his sneakers. Wow, those were some thrilling shoelaces, alright. “That’s just how he is, Pipes. He cares a lot. About many people. That doesn’t really mean much. Besides, I don’t want to mess up a perfectly good friendship. I don’t get to have these a lot.”

It was too much and too raw and he barely resisted the urge to throw another joke at it to make it hurt less.

“With all the love that I have for you, sometimes I think you’re the dumbest smart person I know.” Piper squeezed his shoulder. “Jason wouldn’t leave the infirmary the first three nights after we revived you. He barely slept. We all visited a lot to check on you, obviously, but Jason refused to move.”

“I did tell him he looked like death when I woke up,” Leo commented, not thinking about it.

Not thinking about the days he’d spent drifting, not registering much except faraway voices and the warm feeling of a hand in his and fingers brushing softly through his hair. Not thinking about waking up to a hand pressed to his cheek and blue eyes like storm clouds. Not thinking about the way Jason’s entire face had lit up when he’d said his name. Leo’s brain had still been so filled with fog and charcoal at the time that he hadn’t been sure how much of it he’d made up after.

He’d known Jason had worried about him, with the hovering and all. He wasn’t going to feel all warm and fuzzy just because it was a bit more than he’d realized. Absolutely not.

“Leo…” Piper looked at him, exasperated. Having a friend who had a love goddess for a mom and could read you like a book on top of that was really inconvenient sometimes. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then her eyes widened in alarm. “Leo, your shirt is smoking.”

“Crap.” So maybe he was feeling warm about it. Maybe a bit more than was convenient. His thoughts running rampant was always an excellent way to catch himself on fire. So was him being nervous. Both of those combined… well, this should be fun.

He moved away from Piper to avoid lighting her on fire by accident and tugged his rings off to drop them into the tool belt—a burnt-up shirt was annoying, sure, but there was a reason he didn’t get too attached to most of his clothes. Melting the crutches would be way more inconvenient. Once that was done, he started patting down his sleeves, trying to smother the sparks before it could get worse. The dryads would be furious with him if he started another forest fire.

It finally felt like he was starting to succeed, but because his life was a comedy intent on making jokes at his expense at every opportunity, that was when Jason wandered into the area. One of the slightly charred sleeves he’d just carefully put out immediately burst into flame again.

“I was wondering where you two-” Jason started, then stopped. “Why is Leo on fire?”

“Maybe I just really hate this shirt,” Leo joked, distinctly not focusing on the way Jason’s eyebrows knitted together in an expression somewhere between worry and amusement.

“Do you need anything? Should I get Percy so he can put you out? Or a bucket?”

“A hug would be nice.” It should have been obvious that he was still joking, but Jason was chewing on the stupid scar on his lip like he was genuinely considering it. And yep, Leo was definitely staring, heart migrating into his throat where it didn’t even slightly belong. If he got in any deeper, he’d be all the way underwater. “Sparky, I know I'm, like, extremely hot right now, but trust me, those third degree burns are not worth it.”

“Maybe get him a new shirt?” Piper suggested unhelpfully.

She was visibly struggling not to burst out laughing, and Leo briefly considered that maybe her shirt would look better on fire. He was also reconsidering the bolting option. Maybe Gaia could wake up just enough to swallow him whole? That sounded great just about now.

“Right, yeah, I can totally do that. Anything else?”

“A cheese platter would be nice, since you’re offering. Oh, and maybe a new gaming system.”

Leo wasn’t sure if he was being funny or just extremely annoying at this point. Gods, his jokes always got so much worse when he was anxious. Why did any of these people want to hang out with him? He desperately needed some time off from humans after this.

To his relief, the corner of Jason’s mouth just ticked up into a smile, and Piper did not push him into the canoe lake—though if she had, that at least would have resolved the fire situation.

“Gonna have to decline on the other stuff, but I could get some sandwiches, since you two missed lunch. Is it… are you sure there isn’t any other way I can help? I don’t want to just leave if you’re upset.”

Jason was looking directly at him, soft, worried eyes and all, and if he kept looking at him like that, Leo would fully combust. Jason staying right now, nice as it sounded in theory, would be the opposite of helpful. Leo really didn’t want to accidentally melt part of his prosthesis again. He was pretty sure demigod insurance wouldn’t cover that.

“No need to go all mushy on me, Superman,” Leo tried, his voice barely working. Gods, what was wrong with him? “I’m fine. Don’t start hovering again.”

“That was one time!” Jason protested. “And the last time you went up in flames-”

“It was three times,” Leo corrected, because like Hades was he ever going to let him live that one down. “And this isn’t Gaia, okay? It isn’t- I’m not in danger or anything. This is just me being my usual smoking self. Seriously, I’m good.”

Jason still didn’t seem entirely convinced. He glanced at Piper, who looked meaningfully back and gave him a nod in return. That was… slightly worrying. Them communicating in facial expressions was never a good sign. They might have been a terrible fit as a couple, but they’d still spent enough time together to develop some alien language that Leo couldn’t understand. Constantly being in life-or-death situations together apparently did wonders for your ability to silently communicate.

“I’ll make sure Leo doesn’t burn the forest down until you get back, don’t worry.”

Leo thought that was slightly unfair. Sure, his left shoulder was still on fire and currently refusing to go out, but he had managed to keep the fire from spreading after it had eaten his entire shirtsleeve. He’d probably manage to extinguish it completely the moment Jason and his stupid smile finally left the area.

Leo needed to get his shit together and make sure this didn’t become a regular occurrence. If he started to burst into flame every time Jason smiled at him… well, that would be somewhat inconvenient.

“Maybe check in with Reyna while you’re at it,” Leo tried, desperate to change the subject to something that wasn’t him or the fact that he was on fire. “Let her know Piper hasn’t been kidnapped before she sends out a search party.”

Now it was Piper’s turn to blush. Ah, sweet revenge.

“She’s not going to-” she started to protest, but Jason cut her off.

“She was a bit nervous about you not showing up for lunch, actually. She said something about your mom?” He shrugged. “Can’t really blame her for worrying about her girlfriend disappearing, after what happened with Hera.”

“I did tell her what I was going to do,” Piper said, face still burning. “I guess we lost track of time. I didn’t realize we’d missed lunch.”

“Breaking news!” Leo said, extending his arms outward like an overly dramatic TV host, careful to avoid brushing Piper with his burning shoulder. “Two ADHD kids have a shockingly bad sense of time! Also, water is wet! More details at six!”

That got them both laughing, and Leo laughed with them, having to focus really hard on keeping his fire situation under control. It was so easy to feel warm when he was with Jason and Piper. It was a feeling of home—something no place or person had been since his mom had passed away. His heart was all sparks.

“Let Reyna know I’m still hanging out with this dork for a while, yeah? No kidnappings scheduled for the day,” Piper joked. “Oh, and tell her I want a rematch for this morning.”

“I’m honestly afraid to ask, but noted.” Jason met Leo’s eyes again, smiling, and Leo smiled back, trying to calm the live wire feeling in his chest. “See you in a bit?”

“Only if you really do bring sandwiches.”

Jason laughed and gave a thumbs up before he disappeared between the trees, thankfully missing the way Leo’s entire left arm caught fire in a last nervous burst before the flames finally had the decency to flicker out. The live wire feeling stayed behind, and so did the extensive need to fidget, but at least that wasn’t a forest fire.

“Yeah, I really have no clue what gave me the idea that you might be into Jason,” Piper laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. “Gods, you are a complete disaster.”

“The universe is punishing me for giving you shit about Reyna, clearly.” Leo sighed dramatically. “I’m going to get you back for this.”

“You’re welcome.” Piper grinned, elbowing him. “You and Jason would be good together. I really do mean that. As long as you don’t accidentally set yourself on fire every time you try to flirt with him, at least.”

“I hate you.”

So maybe Leo did have a crush on Jason. Worse—and better—Piper actually thought he had a shot. The anxiety he felt about it being out in the open after he’d run from it for so long, the same way he always ran when things got hard, slowly gave way to relief. It might take a minute for him to process all the things he’d been feeling that were suddenly starting to slot into place in a way that actually made sense. But he was glad that, out of anyone, it was Piper who knew. Piper, who understood, even if she teased him relentlessly.

Piper, who was the first real friend Leo had made.

Fate was a funny thing—when it wasn’t actively trying to kill you, at least. Sure, fate was prophecies, and for some people, it was romance, doomed or otherwise. But sometimes, fate was looking at a girl in an old band shirt and faded jeans, and knowing, somehow, that you were meant to be friends.

———

Some notes:

This takes place in a universe where the whole Calypso/Ogygia stuff didn’t happen. The ending of BoO went down a little differently, which is obviously vaguely referenced here and which I’m hoping to eventually do a oneshot about (it’s been sitting in my app at around 2.5k continuously getting neglected in favor of the Orpheus Eurydice fic so we’ll see when I get around to that). Jason and Piper amicably broke up halfway through house of hades, which I do have a oneshot on my Ao3 about that I’ll probably post here eventually.

Yes, technically this fic is part two in a series of oneshots. Why didn’t I post part one first? Excellent question. The thing is, the oneshots are mostly standalone anyway (they obviously take place in the same universe and are loosely connected but aside from missing a joke or two, you’re fine to read them separately or in whatever order you want), and I have a couple more ideas for that universe that won’t be written or posted in order either, so I thought I’d start confusing you early on, lol

…in all seriousness, this is just the only HoO fic that I hadn’t already posted the link to here yet and since it was the first one I wrote, it also just felt appropriate for it to be the first I cross-post to tumblr.

Anyway! Would love to hear your thoughts on this if you have any (here or over on Ao3) and thoughts in general about whether or not you’d like me to keep posting my fics on tumblr. It’s been a long time since I last did that and putting all the italics back in was a little annoying, but it’s definitely doable.

Fun fact! I reread pjo and Heroes of Olympus specifically because I couldn’t afford to get into a new fixation during exam phase. Unfortunately, Leo Valdez whacked me in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and well, here we are. As you can all see, that plan did not go well for me, lmao

Tagging @poppitron360 very specifically since you said you wanted to be tagged if I ever posted any of my fics on tumblr!

[burgendee69]

Frankly, Argo II should not have been their mode of transport. Not only does it make transport boring and uniteresting (when before it drove the plot forward a lot) it makes a lot of sideplots feel unnecessary? like we have a mission dedicated to finding supplies and then we have more random subplots which don't contribute to the plot and prolong the length of the books and reduces the tension because in the end they go to their own luxury rooms and state of the art technology rooms in a fucking flying ship??

That's just the ship because this makes leo so OP like this is not a struggle for him and it diminishes him as a charater which only gets worse as he discovers Archimedes' sphere which in the end disconnects him from the other characters and the plot because he magically comes up with the solution and ends up with all the pieces in his hands without anyone else's help b the time Gaia's battle comes around.

I don't think this is a problem with just his charcater either- Piper's charmspeak is so powerful it defies all of Rick's previously established rules, Hazel gains control of the mist for no reason while neglecting her actual powers which fulfilled the same purpose and Frank found out how to shapeshift but it's barely used because he has barely any plot significance.

They all seemingly have powers which are somehow even more OP than the big three kids while nerfing Percy's powers, blatantly writing Annabeth out and literally knocking Jason out of every fight to give the other fighters their spotlight.

IMO, the root cuase for this was that he trapped 7 incredibly poweful teenagers together forcing them to face the exact same conditions and therefore had to take out the experienced fighters so that the rest of the 7 would be relevant again. This literally would not matter is he had thought to spread out the seven and idk not had everyone experience the same plot on an OP boat and spend the majority of their time doing nothing?

The seven can still be main characters without ALL of them being on the quest. Hell have Gaia manipulate Percy when he doesn't have memories and coerce him to her side before he remembers his life, have Annabeth struggle with the pressure of being a leader during wartime and athena's quest, make Grover the one who tries to gather allies, stick Frank in the middle of roman politics while he tries to make peace, send Hazel of a desperate search for Nico and there you go! Leo, Piper and Jason are stuck trying to make their way to Greece because there's they're the only hope and get them to form an alliance at the end of the House of Hades so it drives the desperation and tension high as they all rush to save the world. and for Christ's sake let Blood of Olympus be at least half battle so Gaia and her children can be trated as an actual threat?

[maxcreatesthings]

AU: Instead of kidnapping and stealing Percy's and Jason's memories, Hera decided to make a sort of school swap with the Big Three children.

---

Summary: Greek and Roman demigods mix like oil and water.

Greek demigods are far more sporadic, easier to trust, more powerful, and chaotic. But they lack the numbers and the quick but good work the Roman demigods have.

Roman demigods are far more organized, they have more strength in numbers, and they know how to work quickly and get the best results. But they lack the power that comes with being a direct descendant of a god/dess, and the trust that comes with having constant life-or-death situations.

Not to mention the Big Three kids.

Camp Jupiter has two of them, Jason Grace and Hazel Levesque, a son of Jupiter and a daughter of Pluto respectively.

Jason could control the winds, and Hazel could pull the riches from the ground.

Camp Halfblood had the whole set with Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, and Nico di Angelo.

Thalia could control lightning, and Nico could control the undead.

The best way to describe Percy's power? He could control anything that has water in it.

So what would happen if these two forces were to mix?

---

Ships: Jason/Percy (future), Thalia & Reyna (they're in a qpr), Will/Nico (future), Percy/Annabeth (present + polyamory!!!!), Annabeth/Piper (future), Frank/Hazel (future)

---

What I changed from canon:

Hazel's age. Her and Frank's canon relationship sorta gives me the ick since she's 13 and he's 16. She's 14 here, and won't be dating Frank until she's around 15-16 years old.

The Lost Hero + The Son of Neptune never happened here, obviously. Piper and Leo were latecomers, so to speak, but both of them got claimed by the first week like how it happened canonically.

Leo and Percy are balls of ultimate dumbassery and chaos together!!!! We were robbed of their friendship in canon for real. And also, Leo's aroace. Thalia helped him find the terms of his sexuality. He won't stop flirting and being himself, of course, he's just aroace now.

Speaking of sexualities, polyamorous percabeth <3

in this au, Annabeth and Percy are more chill with their relationship. sometimes they go on dates with other people if they want to, their partner knowing full well what happens and who they're dating.

genderfuck + asexual Percy the Beloved

no but seriously, i think he would not give a damn about his gender or sex. he could do either if someone else wants him to, but he generally doesn't care about it

Nico and Thalia getting adopted into the Jackson-Blofis household

the addition of Max Jackson and Ezra Jackson, two of my OCs that Sally fosters for Percy so that he could adopt them both when the time is right.

Nico still revived Hazel and became an Ambassador of Pluto for a bit, but Hera screwed with his plans to keep things hushed up about the Greek/Roman division. He helps (somewhat) with easing both Hazel & Jason into Camp HalfBlood and Percy & Thalia into Camp Jupiter.

did I mention that most of the big three kids are gonna have a sibling dynamic? because they're going to have a sibling dynamic (except for jercy, of course)

pipabeth is… well, it's happening, as much as lesbians who are so dumb about each other can be anyways (they are in a situationship is what I'm trying to say here)

the big three children can be dark sometimes, and that's okay!! we <3 the dark! little big three here

Annabeth isn't as controlling as she is canonically (someone had to say it)

Piper is less "I'm not like other girls"

Leo is a bit more mature, and doesn't make fun of people he doesn't know well like he did with Frank in Mark of Athena

Edit: forgot to mention that percy is a hopeless romantic here! He's the one who remembers any anniversary, gifts, etc form his loved ones

---

If you have any questions about this au, feel free to ask! it's still in development here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about this au <3

[bugwolfsstuff]

Take a snippet of a halloween fic i'm working on

@smileyalater @unubinary @bodeyeen2132 @thel1ghtningthief

Leo Valdez's Pov First person

The meeting room of the Big House was in complete chaos and not of the fun kind when I walked in. No one even said hi to me. 

“What are we going to do?” I heard someone yell. “Miranda is dead!” 

Dios, I thought. Not something you want to hear when you walk in the room. Personally, I’d prefer it if every time I walked in everyone cheered and threw confetti. 

“No, she isn't you idiot! She’s in the infirmary!” Someone else yelled.  

I squeezed my way past a sleeping Clovis to my seat. Since I came back from, you know dying, my siblings made me head counsellor. So, it was up to me, Captain Valdez, supreme leader of Cabin nine to sit at the meeting table (which was really just a Ping-Pong table with foldable chairs around it) with the big kids and help solve the latest camp crisis. 

Whatever that crisis was. I’ve been in Bunker nine working on my latest project for the past...three maybe five days? 

I slid into my chair “Hey, what’d I miss?” I asked. Cabin nine and cabin ten were across from each other and their spots were the same. Which meant I was sitting across from my best girl best friend, Piper, who filled me in. 

“Someone got attacked” Piper said, crossing her arms “In the strawberry fields.” 

Piper was wearing her camp t-shirt. Her long brown hair was braided to the side, looking amazing as usual. Even she looked mildly freaked out, which wasn't a good look on her. I’m gonna change that. 

“Attacked?” I said, trying to lighten the mood, “what, did the strawberries go rouge and start going on a rampage?” 

Piper shot me her ‘not now Leo’ look. “If only, something snuck up on Miranda from Demeter and caught her by surprise. I don’t know the details, but it got her bad. Apparently, it disappeared into the plants somehow when it heard Sherman Yang coming.”.  

I knew Sherman. He’s an Ares kid, big muscley guy, has a big scar going down his face. Really bloodthirsty. Personally, I prefer his Roman big brother, my buddy Frank. I could see why the monster, whatever it was, ran; I'd run too if I heard him coming.  

My best guy best friend, Jason, leaned over. He’s a son of Jupiter, king of the gods. So while me and Piper were living it up, starting super cool clubs and making up secret handshakes next to each other. He was on the other side of the Ping Pong table with the other big three kids, who were only there half of the time. 

He looked serious. The small scar on his lip quivered 

[ramen8008]

Whenever the Romans and Greek come together/ Frank visits there's always whole thing of which team would he be on.

It'd be obvious if Percy would just let him be on the Ares/Mars team but he doesn't. In his words he's his "emotional support Canadian" or something.

One way or another Frank is on Percy's team

(It may also be because most of the other big three kids usually team up against Percy so he tries to get Hazel on his side too before Nico gets to her)

[unubinary]

I’m on way shit again thinking how Percy was aplenty a camp halfblood leader when he barely there, the newer campers would have just met him in the winter. He more a myth than person to the new camper.

Sure The older camper like and respect him that should not make the camps representative to the Romans, and correct me if I’m wrong but Percy was ostracized for being a big three kid. He didn’t get the average experience of the camp.

I remember a post about Percy is the emotional leader when he Bradley there. I don’t think Percy should have been switched with Jason. I think one of the Stoll brothers should have been, specifically Travis.

Travis would have been 17 in the tlo, he would happen the co-counselor to the Hermes cabin for 4 years and ben at camp gods knows how long (my headcanon is when he’s 7 and Connor 5). He knows and met with all camper. He is act like an older brother to everybody in camp.

just imagine Travis enter acting with the younger of the seven. their so inexperienced he would have made sure Hazel, Frank, Piper and, Leo could have switched between Greek and Roman fighting styles like water. And Leo didn’t have a weapon Travis would have made make something with to protect him.

Travis would have been great way to show the trauma and paranoia of the manhattan survivors if he has weapons on him, head to toe. Short sword, throwing knives, daggers. Have these on him as he slept, these aren’t riptide they don’t transform he sleep with them to be taken with them.

hero’s of Olympus would have been a great time to us characters other than Percy and Annabeth.

[grangranarchist]

how I would fix the heroes of olympus series

the great thing about having a blog with 0 followers is I can say whatever the hell I want

structural changes

make it take place at least five years after pjo. percy and annabeth are coming into their own as peacetime leaders, and serving as the adult mentors of a new generation of kids. did their time as child soldiers fuck them up? does perpetuating the system help?

cut the seven down to five. we love all these characters!! but oh my god the pov character bloat. you can still keep povs from outside the main questing party, but the sheer number of characters reduced the kinds of relationship development possible, and flattened outsiders in each scene to flanderized archetypes.

increase the span of time between each book. with each entry the book increased in size and compressed in time. battle of the labyrinth took like 200 pages to convey the same span of time as son, moa, hoh and boo combined. increasing time between books also gives riordan time to catch up to the present day, rather than keeping on a simpsons-style floating timeline where Percy turns 16 in 2009 but still isn't old enough to drink in 2024

character and relationship changes

increase the age gap between Thalia and Jason, or get rid of Jason altogether. I think he's neat but introducing him was kind of an asspull retcon. which is fine, thalias backstory wasn't explored that much, but it means he doesn't really exist on his own terms, he's just a counterpart to her or to percy.

remove Percy and annabeth from the main questing party. they did their time. I'm sure the publisher had a graph that showed books with Percy and annabeth sold much better than books without (as evidence by the fact that pjo keeps getting sequel series while Kane chronicles and Magnus Chase get left to collect dust) but it just feels forced. it also leads to power creep and scope creep.

pick one romance within between the younger characters. one. I vote piper and Leo bc I like them and they always get ignored by fandom. have hazel and frank be like, a buddy-cop duo or something. maaaaybe let Leo have a tragic romance with Calypso NOT as a consolation prize for being seventh wheel. solangelo is cute but also feels like a very cynical introduction of sweaterboy/nightmare archetypes into traditional media. and cut the Sammy valdez shit like why would that even be necessary for a love triangle? truly odd

story changes

split the party! the five questers are out trying to stop the threats of the big bad and coming up with creative and clever solutions that wouldn't be necessary with heavy-hitting big three kids doing most of it! I'm sorry but the "Percy and/or Jason hit the big monster with a sword until it stops moving" parts of the books were so fucking boring

political intrigue! Percy and annabeth have to deal with threats at home. the situation with the Romans is not a gordian knot Percy can just cut through! annabeth's weaponry is literally cloak-and-dagger! let the past come back to haunt them via their treatment of Reyna and how they make amends!

make Octavian an actual threat? like in the books he's just ~craazy~ comic relief who is somehow able to muster an army while also being widely disliked. at least show him as having motivations beyond like, anti-slavic prejudice

explore the actual Romans more? like in the pjo series I do not feel like the main flaw of the Greek gods' system is that they're too chill and loose. but in hoo we're told it is. so I propose it as more a conflict between one united expansionist empire, vs various warring factions that must put up a united front. maybe let Percy "this is Sparta" kick someone into a pit

give gaea actual motivations too? like idk it just felt like, "ohhh you beat my son again, and the giants were next after the first time, I'm evil and a woman" when like. make her the abusive mother of the world. make her mad about climate change. make her have any motivation, please, I beg you

give nico something to do!!! sir not-appearing-in-this-book istg. he's cagey and mysterious in son. he's trapped in a jar in moa. he gets to be involved in the plot of hoh yay! he gets sent on a sidequest in boo boooo

add supplemental materials! use the younger kids storylines to onboard young readers, and have rick keep writing those, bc he does write children's lit well. then have the Percy annabeth Reyna stuff serve as a darker more mature ya type deal and use it as a venue to introduce new writers to the riordan system and audience and each book can also be a backdoor pilot for their own series in this world . also THIS would be the space to tie in other pantheons, please

[vlvtrkii]

It's currently 2:53 am and i just watched the first two episodes of season 1 os succession and tbh it at first looked ike i might not understand as half the things were quite flowing above my head

but then i think i quite got the grip on the ongoing situation and tbh if i try to sum it al up it's really infa t just a shitshow and i really don't want to see a show of bunch of lustful greedy fail trying to take over while lsi being coward at the same time and tryna play safe but terribly failing since none of them actually has anyone's back yk they all just a bunch of backstabbers ready to bite you anytime and take all the profit.... It's just how evryone in the screen is there for the money except some two or three characters i guess

All of logans kids remind me of those useless nepo kids of Hollywood tbh cuz i think Logan was right when he decided to still be the CEO since Kendall is really not mature enough and brave to be a CEO or step up and same goes with the other kids

They all are so emotionally sensitive and want a safe place but also has got the greed and lust from their father

They want to top each other but also don't want to hurt the else feeling or be straightforward with their motives to the others

Funny hw every side character slash spouse of them are gold diggers and just their for money like God damn babes

I think shiv is also quite emotional and vulnerable to stupid people but she has got that bossy instincts and roman do lack maturity to a whole other level

Kendall is just a emotional attached boy with skills but the fact he is not strong for the Bulls game like he can't even convince his siblings, he lack that bossy nature, he is too emotional and sensitive and tbh weak for a job that runs the whole fucking company and i do believe Logan was right when he said he might need a more time to get all that strictness, and he wasn't firing him tbh he is the most appropriate our of all four,,, but the fact Logan decided to do the Marcy thing in the game kinda screwed it up since i think evrybody knows she is a gold digger it was obvious and still Logan did such a stupid thing was maybe just becuz idk it's his third wife and i beleive he has more moments with her and also obvi the NSFW thing,, maybe that's why he is actually attached but i also of beleive that maybe he was just fucking it all up to scre them even harder cuz ain't no way a man running a company and so heartless would be this dumb

And conner was the person i felt quite the best in characters but ohh when he showed up with willa,,,, like why do rich PPL are so nasty and yucky bro

And don't get me started on how big of a loser is Greg i mean yeah maybe he's just a filler or sm shit but it's so annoying and he is not being relatable, he is just purely an ass tbh like how did he not grow up at all and till dream high to play this game when he literally discussed abt shoes with her mom

He is the iconic manchild but with more hairs and leaning on soft side of his way of body language and all which don't make it so annoying but rather tumblrworthy

And Tim is just a dick and i hate how he's technically using shiv to be somewhere in that game like what the fuck

logan has all the CEO qualities except maybe he is too harsh and egoistic and don't suck ppl's dick to get his things done which is impressive atleast he ain't a bitch but he also lacks how to be loyal and yk the man of words cuz of what he did to Frank and the debt thing makes it a lil more clear that he really don't have some business mides strategies and hasn't read books like Kendall has,,,, but yeah a man of words won't fire a loyal co worker of 30 years for a shitty son so maybe he too lacked there in order to support his sons but i think he did it in order to keep the business in the hands of his family after he steps down idk

I just don't want to watch a show where evryone is a shitty person in general but idk i might not continue it altho its just been two fucking episodes but in alr tired for this long ass commitment

[joysmercer]

ok godly parents hc let’s go:

all the americans are roman bc it just makes sense w the context of the show. nina pluto (bc as someone in the notes said, poor girl is constantly followed by creepy things), eddie neptune (mostly because he has big percy energy lol), kt jupiter (she reminds me of jason and also big 3 kids!!!)

sweet’s actually neptune and told eddie’s mom to keep him away from camp for a while because the roman’s don’t really care for the sea, and when eddie arrives neptune pretty much ignores him. idk how this fits into the broader “he was victors protégé and jerome’s dads friend” thing but 🤷‍♀️

benji is a child of mars and legacy of poseidon but unlike frank zhang, he spends most of his time antagonizing eddie by turning into birds and pooping on his head

joy is also roman, except she’s at chb, until one day she disappears and shows up at cj with no memory of what happened to her. nina’s found (by chb satyrs) soon after, and victor deduces what happened but keeps his mouth shut, but that explains why he doesn’t seem to care about joys disappearance. anyway, joy’s a daughter of ceres, gifted with the power to make things grow even in the most barren of deserts, but also a grandchild of nemesis through her dad, who liked to pretend he wasn’t a demigod. (so naturally there’s a natural grudge against pluto/hades and a tendancy to hold it) (and naturally, being “almost greek,” the few people who knew of both camps just assumed she was, especially because her dad dropped her off)

but neither she nor nina are claimed until the camps meet each other, so when she disappears she’s still in hermes/unclaimed, and when she reappears nina is still in the process of moving out of there

no explanations needed: amber aphrodite, fabian athena, jerome and alfie hermes, willow hecate (but in the unclaimed cabin until the start of “s3”)

patricia athena (this is mostly to indulge my own rosa-diaz-ravenclaw hc while also making the perfect percabeth, but also she definitely has the most strategic mind out of all of them when she isn’t getting caught up in her own emotions…much like annabeth)

piper’s a gifted mathematician and because music and math go together, she develops a passion for that as well. the apollo kids don’t understand it, the athena kids definitely don’t, and mr. williamson is just glad only one of his kids is running around with swords all day.

mara…aphrodite. partially because having three athena kids is too much, but mostly because she may be smart, but that isn’t her gift: her true power, and her fatal flaw, is seeing people’s capacities for love, and capacities for change, before they’re capable of recognizing it—-or even ready to—themselves.

amber doesn’t really have a power though and it drives her nuts that mara does, however useless it may be.

it also drives her nuts nuts joy does.

mick apollo. blonde, athletic, definitely capable of writing terrible poetry.

victor dionysius. he’s forced by his dad to become the (reluctant) caretaker of chb partially because mr d didn’t want to but mostly because victor was caught trying to make an elixir to reanimate corbierre and and it was decided that that’s a bit too weird, even for a child of the god of madness

trudy is mortal with the Sight— originally a huntress but not cut out for the hunt life, so with artemis’s blessing she just hangs out at camp and helps hestia and stops the harpies from eating the children

sarah was the oracle before she died, but also a legacy:

rfs was the son of hypnos just because i think that’s funny enough to bend the rules for

rufus was a zeus, hermes, and ares legacy and pissed off about it bc he got no powers despite having the blood of three different gods in his veins

so anyway peddie chb au when

[perceabeth]

Would you be willing to elaborate on why you think hoo broke the rules of the world? I didn’t like the series bc of what it did to the og character arcs but I never caught onto it breaking the rules. No pressure to do so I’m mostly just curious

lol it's okay! WEEEEEEEELLLLLLL where to begin?

Big Three Kids!

The whole point of PJO was that there was nobody like Percy. That they were rare and were destined to be hunted to death because they weren't meant to be born. So then, of course, you assume they don't exist! The ones who are alive each paid a heavy price- Bianca and Thalia died, Thalia chose immortality, Bianca and Nico each lived in a weird universe where they missed out on their own lives.

There was no real reason for Jason to be a child of Zeus other than to put him in a position of leadership, but the thing about New Rome is that they have a different system about these things anyway with their cohorts and stuff and him being Thalia's sister adds so little to anything it was just a really stupid move imo.

I get what Riordan was trying to do with Hazel by circumventing the rule-- but it feels cheap and tacky. ESPECIALLY because Hazel's powers are so badly plotted out that she could have just as easily been a child of Hecate lol.

The most baffling one, though, is FRANK who is for some reason a legacy of Poseidon? I would have thought that was cool-- like being a legacy and so many generations before you having lived out their lives despite being demigods? SUPER cool. In that case. Why is he also a son of Mars?

It feels like too much is being packed into too little and when you don't have the time to explore these things, they just seem like he's saying hey. I know I said it's rare for demigods to grow old. But that's GREEK demigods. The ROMANS are super cool and super fun and they don't stand by the same rules!

2. The actual powers themselves.

Leo, son of Hephaestus and brother of Charles Beckendorf who died in a fire- now has control over fire! Piper can basically brainwash anyone because she's got Charmspeak but wait! There's more! Her sister Drew ALSO has Charmspeak!! Both of them are, of course, sisters of a girl who was manipulated into betraying all her friends <3 Hazel's a daughter of Hades? She's magic. Also she has power over gems and knows her way underground (I cannot even begin to think of WHAT made him decide the black girl needs to play ANY of these roles but I digress). Frank's just an average son of Mars who can turn into any animal he wants, which is totally cool and normal!

Do you remember how special Percy was in PJO? How hard other demigods had to train in combat because they would be killed if they didn't learn it? Remember how absolutely rare it was to see demigods with that kind of power, to the point where Chiron didn't want Percy and Thalia to be near each other because he feared they'd destroy everything? Not anymore <3 Super Powerful Demigods can now sit together on a ship and face no consequences at all, even when they have minor disagreements because they all come together very organically !!

3. Character arcs

I know you said it, but I can't talk about HoO and not bring up Nico di Angelo. Tell me why he went through his arc TWICE in two series? Here's the reason: because Mr. Riordan didn't want to make any of the main cast gay <3 He did it for woke points, so he was like hey hold on what if. Instead of any combination of the FIVE new characters I introduced being gay... I can retcon my Straight Series so it looks like I'm far more inclusive!

Great job, Mr. Riordan. You have raised a bunch of rabid fans who like Nico now because he's Gay and not because at one point he was an innocent boy who loses everything and fights to find his way back home. His story in PJO was a large part of the Great Prophecy, and yet... all of that was washed away in order to make him Gay Gay Gay.

Percy and Annabeth, we know-- it's a travesty. Stupid Percy and Robot Annabeth we've been through this a thousand times fuck that shit but it's so disappointing because as readers WE know these characters. We know them from PJO where they were each their own person and they had some good moments but HoO effectively wiped off the super strong friendship they already had going.

4. A HALFBLOOD'S LIFE!!!!

WHY has that been cheapened to the point of a joke!! It's literally so insane like the first series is about how difficult it is to be a half-blood. Greek and Roman mythology are not as different as Greek and Egyptian, see, so TKC ad MCGA can afford to change up the rules but HoO can't. That's like. The whole point!! So to randomly say hey actually this group is perfectly fine and the reason they're living so well is because the Greeks aren't as organised is so offensive to the reader because up until now all we had was the Greek camp! He flips it over and then somehow blames US for being stupid enough to think that's the only way to live.... and still decides to give the Roman camp child soldiers?????????????????????????????????????????????? make it make sense im begging

5. The bloody GODS

What did HoO do. Like. What did it do.

Because I can tell you what PJO did. PJO was about the gods learning to hold themselves accountable for the lives they create, drew a parallel between mortals, demi-mortals and immortal beings and dissected the value of life. It was a learning curve for everyone involved: for Luke, for Percy, and for the gods he so unwaveringly served. That was the point. That Luke was right, that the gods were primarily to blame because they don't care enough about human life. That they don't even care about minor gods. They swore to change.

And HoO is like aha I know I made it a whole thing and it was a huge sacrifice on Percy's part because he was offered immortality in place of the gods being held accountable-- but sike they haven't changed, even ONE YEAR down the line.

It makes the ENTIRE first Great Prophecy a TOTAL joke. Like what was the point of ANY of that happening if the gods were jut going to revert to being the exact same???

6. Harrowing realities of war

According to the wiki, there were forty campers fighting at the Battle of Manhattan. Forty. That's how many demigods there were. Yeah, the Hunters helped and the party ponies also came in- but it was a small team of campers. Between BotL and TLO, I can think off the top of my head about Lee Mitchell, Castor or Pollux (whichever one) Charles Beckendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard who died. A lot of these characters have been mentioned before as well! And they died. Because children shouldn't be fighting a war, actually, and yet here they were, dying before they could apply to college. The finale was just this horrible moment when Silena dies and Kronos attacks Chiron and everything seems so bleak and it's when Annabeth loses faith that you know everything is going to change.

Meanwhile HoO is the most absurd final battle, I think, because if I'm being honest, I don't even know who the enemy is. First they're fighting giants then the gods arrive and Fix it for them and then they're fighting Romans and Greeks and then there's monsters in their armies? And SIKE it's actually Gaea who's the Big Bad and defeating her fixes everything as though ANY of that makes sense!! So what, then? All the work that they did in PJO- the friends they buried and the enemies they spared-- that is stupid, right, when you can just get some girl to come and scream "please stop fighting"? What is the point of the war then?

Just because it's more complicated.... doesn't make the writing good.

7. What Theme.

Percy Jackson is about finding your place in the world. It's about home and it's about hope and it's about knowing that you're never alone. That love is always the answer, that faith and belief are the only motivators and that all darkness can be defeated with light. Someoe tell me what HoO is about. Earth Bad, Teenagers Good? It's not even about bridging the gap between the Greeks and Romans which is what it ostensibly claims is the core of the series. Makes it feel like PJO was dumb to have a theme at all. <3

Look at the time lol

In summation,

PJO is a story. HoO is a bunch of scenes sewn together where every scene is designed to be more insane and also to consistently undermine everything that happens in PJO. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[fintensifies]

For the ask game: 1, 2, 37, 38, 39, 40?

holy shit didn't think someone would actually see it. Well:

Favorite ship? In riordanverse I have more friendships than actual ships but I ought to say Percabeth, as a basic bitch I am.

Least favorite? I think it's just a personal pet peeve, but Frank and Hazel. I just think they had a better dynamic as friends I guess? As in, since Hazel is the youngest on-board, its more as if he's an older brother to her. Same goes w Leo.

37. Most Hardcore Demigod? Percyyy. Though he's a good boy, he has full right to get angry. And when he does, it's so, so much fun. Honorable mentions Nico and Thalia too, the big three greek kids really are something else.

38. Most underrated? Sighhhh...Ethan my boy. You were robbed.

39. Best team? that's a toughie. I love Leo Hazel and Frank trio, or any team with Leo. I love my boy sue me. But anyway, I feel like the Thalia Nico and Percy were the good stuff. But, If you were to put Annabeth, Leo, and Hazel in a room...ehehehe

40. Most WTF moment in the series? if WTF as in plot twist, then The ending of Titans curse. Zoe dying, Thalia killing Luke...that stuff got to me pretty deep. But if WTF as in 'why is this happening I hate it' then the ending of BoO. I just...what? What??? Maybe its because I wasn't attached to Jason and Piper but the ending felt well, boring? dull? Why did Nico let Octavian launch himself into the air? Why were there almost no consequences from Gaea? Why did Romans and Greeks gain the power of friendship so quickly? Idk man.