#I do think this devolved into liper with valgrace endgame

[crookedghosts]

these mfs have been haunting me since my failed attempt at the lost trio week godswap au prompt (I'll put what I know of it under the cut)... cabin10!Leo and cabin9!Piper live rent free in my mind and they actually still refuse to reveal their dynamic to me...

this is truly just a ramble now but believe me when I say I did my best to throw this together over lost trio week and then liper got ahead of me:

Piper McLean is the daughter of Hephaestus and a set designer, who practically raised her in design workshops. Neglected by her mother and actor step father, she's prone to skipping class and picking up side projects, including stealing cars from set and fixing them up with swapped out (and probably illegal) parts to get them working again.

She gets attacked one night (there was particularly strong half-blood smell around, and no mortals in sight) and a fire starts around her in defense. Unfortunately, it gets out of control, and half of the set is burned down, with footage pointing to Piper's trespassing. In this mess, the production team finds out about her makeshift workshop built out of their property, and she's sent to Wilderness School for both the arson and the stealing.

Oddly enough, hours before this, news broke involving a vintage car she had fixed up that got stolen from the set and was used for a drunken teenage joyride.

She didn’t know it at the time, and they wouldn't know for the entire beginning of their friendship/relationship, but the rebel teenager responsible was none other than Leo Valdez, who was also sent to Wilderness School for the trouble he caused.

To be fair, he wasn't trying to go as far as he did—he just wanted to know what the limit was for what he could get away with. A son of Aphrodite and an actor, Leo's often facing unintended consequences with his charmspeaking.

Leo had always been in some sort of boarding school. He also always managed to get kicked out. Wilderness School was his last straw after he'd convinced his classmates to leave a school dance, break into a nearby movie set, steal a car, and get drinks from the gas station—all by asking.

Piper's more mysterious at Wilderness about her past, but Leo connects the dots that they're from the same set.

Leo's in awe of her sharp mind, and Piper sees through his facade, because his curiosity is genuine and he's clever in his own ways, too

Eventually they make it to camp and there's a lot of grappling with their powers. I.e. Leo "do ppl actually like me or am I tricking them" Valdez and Piper "did I ever actually connect with my mother and am I talented at all or is it just my dad's powers" McLean.

They eventually find their footing and are besties (quite possibly, they're so confused at some point that they don't know where they stand w each other and go through stages of changing their relationship lol) to the point of being honorary members of each other's cabins. Leo braids Piper's hair etc etc headcanons.

Jason joins later. He's a son of Zeus, and now we can imagine like... a BotL era, pre-Great Prophecy (#1) group forming where the trio is like 15 and everyone is afraid of Jason and The Implications so it's really just Liper showing him around. (Annabeth and Percy aren't around for this, but when they get back, Jason is grateful to speak to this 'Annabeth' that Piper keeps saying 'will explain it better later'.)

I've not yet decided what this means for the Grace siblings or for there to be a Greek Jason with Percy being the child in prophecy's question (or is he?) but I do think Leo and Piper are the only ones who could get Jason through it. They'd be the most open to this mystery kid, I think.

Thematically they'd still be these misfits who happened to have overlapping/questionable pasts. (cars and Hollywood, man....)

Leo I think particularly would know the dark side of the acting industry from his community and his dad. all 3 of them trauma bond <3

Jason doesn't know who's who for a minute there (re: honorary cabin members) but eventually the Blob of them all are considered honorary cabins 1, 9, and 10

Ppl joke that he's not the prophecy kid bc he's not a child of the big 3. He's obviously from Aphrodite's cabin bc he's with Leo all the time etc