#Nico’s fault is holding a grudge ?

[helpmeimblorboing]

Nico deserves so much more than what canon gives him MY GOD. Like I swear literally no one in canon is worthy of him. Except Jason. And not because he didn’t hurt Nico. Because he redeemed himself by not being an asshole about Nico’s forced outing

But guess what ? Jason’s fucking DEAD. Because Rick HATES Nico for some reason.

And Will, I guess. He seems okay. And he hasn’t betrayed, insulted or hurt Nico in some way, unlike the others

[fireylesbianhell]

when people (i am people. it’s me.) imagine Nico having powers over grief i think of Will’s never discussed fatal flaw, and i think that it’s that he can’t let go

i think his flaw is something with grief, and being stuck in the past almost. it’s being stagnant and static and unable to properly have especially negative emotions because he has to be people’s rock. he’s sunshine boy and he’s your doctor. He needs to be reliable, he sees his friends die every day, if he breaks down then nothing is stable anymore, nothing is keeping anything afloat.

but the idea of nico, a son of hades, who’s experienced grief like he has and was unable to move on and unable to do what Will can’t do, helping him come to terms with his loss and to “accept his darkness” like persephone said to him.

A first nudge from nico and some support from Kayla and Austin especially (and maybe Drew, the Stoll’s and Clarisse if you headcannon them as friends) he’s able to to it, he cries over the people he lost and he’s angry and selfish about the fact they’re gone and starts to grieve properly.

He starts to change and starts finding little moments of progress everywhere he looks. even though his demons aren’t little actual creatures following him around unlike his boyfriend, he does start comming to term similarly. He’s begun tearing the walls down and talking and letting himself cry on someone else’s shoulder. he lets go and starts to let himself be not okay.

[drvscarlett]

About You Pt 9

Sebastian Vettel x Webber!Reader

Summary: Everyone knows about the history of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. But there's a well kept story within the paddock about Sebastian Vettel and another Webber. This is that story.

About You Series

A/N: were getting a lot of perspectives for this chapter. i have been sick for the past week and i couldn't upload this. i hope everyone enjoys

Taglist: @spideybv28@randomcuboidshape @mehrmonga @casperlikej @cliosunshine @honethatty12 @randomgirlnumber-13 @sugyomama @ririyulife @skywalker1dream @vicurious28 @khaylin27 @0710khj @its-elias-world @vizzzashley @allisonwoods @taytaylala12 @miarabanana @ceciii-b @lindsayjoy444 @mploopssek @snakelore @toldyouitwasamelodrama @lordpercevalcharles

2012, Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit

If anyone asks, Mark was not looking for his sister. He was just merely concerned that Jenson is running around with a new press officer that seems to be too flustered to know what she is doing. He had an urge to ask the British man if Y/N has been sacked but he probably looks like a hypocrite if he criticized Jenson of his decisions.

He lets out a heavy sigh.

It was weird to not see Y/N during his home race. He knows that everything was a shitstorm ever since he removed her from her position and said a lot of awful things. The winter break gave him a lot to think about especially with the new emptiness in the Webber household. Mark was hoping that this home race will be a way for them to reconcile.

"Mate, are you alright?" Nico appeared out of the blue "You seem distracted"

"Oh you just caught me in a bad timing"Mark shrugged.

"For a second I thought you were looking for Y/N"Nico is not blind, he noticed the way Mark has been eyeing the McLaren garage "You should know that she will be missing this race"

"She'll miss it?"

Y/N never misses this race, its their home turf.

"Yeah, Lewis told me yesterday. She is currently settling to her new apartment in London and McLaren gave her some time off"Nico informs.

For Mark it was so weird to hear how he have been missing key important things in Y/N's life when he used to be so updated with every little detail in her life. He couldn't hide his emotions because he knows it was all his fault.

As someone who have been long friends with the two siblings, Nico had a sense of the regrets that Mark is feeling. He gave a gentle pat on Mark's shoulder.

"You should own up and apologize to her when she gets back"Nico suggested "For what its worth,you are still her brother and she can never hold a grudge against you"

"Even when I say stupid shit?"

"Even then"Nico was confident. The Webber siblings are thick as thieves just like him and Lewis, surely they can find a way to forgive each other.

"Here, Lewis will probably kill me but this is her new cell. Give her a message or a call"Nico offered.

Nico pulled out a paper and borrowed a pen from a nearby staff. He scribbled messily a set of new numbers with Y/N's name. Mark's eyebrows furrowed because it was another thing that he didn't even know. It was his fault again as he never tried to reach out to her again.

"I might get blocked"Mark weakly jokes.

"I mean I would block you too with everything you said to me"

That was a good thing about Nico, he is the type of person who will speak his mind and doesn't sugarcoat things. Nico heard from Y/N herself about the things Mark said and it was surely something painful.

"but you have to start doing something to earn her forgiveness" Nico added.

Mark could only hope for that. As the two drivers walked back to the media pen and talk about the start of the new season, Mark was still thinking about the number. The weight of the paper seems to be heavier than anything in this world right now. But nothing is heavier than the feeling of missing a very important person for this Grand Prix.

2012, Sepang International Circuit

By Malaysia, Y/N was back on track. It was another rainy session for the race and honestly it didn't surprise her anymore. Malaysia was quite known for the sudden switch of weather from a good hot summer to a turbulent wet race.

But the weather isn't the only giving mixed signals over the race weekends.

Y/N watches from the McLaren garage how Sebastian seems to be flirting with another reporter. She knew the man was quite charming as she have been a subject to her flirtatious and cheeky advances in the past. The growing popularity of Sebastian as a world champion seems to pave a way for him to be confident to do that to other girls.

There was this ugly feeling bubbling in her chest and she didn't like it one bit.

"You're staring" Jenson, ever the nosy one, commented "Keep on staring and you might burn a hole at the back of their head"

"I am not staring"

"Oh yeah, I stand corrected. You are glaring"Jenson corrects.

The female Webber only rolled her eyes as Jenson erupted in chuckles. She crossed her arms because she doesn't see anything laughable in this situation. Honestly, she pities Britta for this whole PR mess that Sebastian might intertwine himself into.

"Is he always like this" Y/N wondered out loud.

"Not so much"Jenson replied "I still think that I'm the biggest slag of the grid"

"No one can ever beat you for being a PR nightmare"Y/N agrees.

"Yep but atleast you are well compensated for all my troubles"

Jenson finds himself slinging an arm over Y/N as they share an umbrella together.

For onlookers, there is this certain chemistry between Jenson and Y/N. Even if they denied it several times, they are always seen close like this with one another that people cannot help but speculate.

The German driver who was previously enthralled into a conversation immediately saw the duo from his peripheral view. His face scrunched up from the closeness,do they have to stand so close like that? And what was so funny that they have to be laughing like that?

Probably the last straw for Sebastian was realizing how Y/N was not wearing a jacket. Given the rainy circumstances, she might catch a cold if she continues in that state.

"Would you excuse me a moment"Sebastian left the reporter.

He made a beeline towards the McLaren garage and took off his rain jacket. He knows that the Red Bull brand is all over the place but he'll be damned if he lets Y/N stay there without any warm clothes.

"Hey there Sebastian"Jenson greeted.

"You need warmer clothes"Sebastian ignored the greeting as he placed the jacket over Y/N.

"Are you insane? This is a Red Bull jacket?" Y/N was bewildered.

"You forgot your jacket, you need one and I'm lending you mine"Sebastian states.

"But I'm a McLaren employee, be rea-"

"I'm sure McLaren doesn't appreciate you missing out any races" Sebastian said

"But Sebastian-"

"I'm not taking that back"

"Sebastian!"

The Red Bull driver was off running with his umbrella. Of course, Y/N followed in suit with her newly acquired rain jacket and an umbrella borrowed from Jenson.

Jenson scratches his head as a bystander. He doesn't know how much longer does these two have to give mixed signals before they say something or do something. At first, this whole thing was cute but now its frustrating because its been years.

"Still no progress with those two?"Lewis asked.

"Not a thing" Jenson sighs.

2012, Silverstone Circuit

Heike Vettel has long resigned that she cannot control her son's decisions in life. From an early age, Sebastian was the one calling shots in his life and she would simply support his son's decision on things. However, if there was one thing that Heike wanted to dabble into Sebastian's affairs was in his love life especially when it concerns a particular Y/N Webber.

The first time that Y/N was mentioned in the household, Heike already knew that she was a very special lady in Sebastian's life. It was rare for Sebastian to talk about something other than racing so his constant chatters about Y/N piqued Heike's interest.

They don't go to races often so she haven't received the opportunity to meet the girl but an invitation email to celebrate Sebastian's birthday paved the way.

"This is such a wonderful surprise Christian"Heike noted as she enter the restaurant with the family.

The designs were simple but it was littered with bits of things that could be related to Sebastian Vettel. The designation of the tables has also been well thought of because Heike noticed some familiar childhood friends placed on the table.

"Thank you for doing this for Sebastian, my family is very grateful for everything"

The team principal grinned and raised his hands as if he is taking a step back from the compliments.

"I may have funded this restaurant reservation and your flight tickets but I'm not the one who planned this all together"Christian admitted.

"Then who did?"

"That would be the lady over there, Y/N"

Y/N was busy with her clipboard and she seems to be all over the place doing her last minute checks. She was just as organized and reliable as Sebastian told Heike.

"It was her idea from the start because the British grand prix is in a few days and its Sebastian's birthday" Christian further explained "She made sure to choose the food which is a lot of Sebastian's favorites, the invites, and making sure this whole thing is a secret"

"She seems to be an interesting lady"Heike muttered, gazing at the hardworking girl.

"You should get to know her before Sebastian arrives, he is quite fond of her" Christian urged.

She took this as a sign to get closer to the girl. Heike immediately made her way to Y/N and politely tapped her in the shoulder to get her attention.

"Miss Y/N Webber, correct?"

At first, Y/N seems confused but the facial structures was so familiar and her face suddenly brightened in recognition.

"It's so good to finally meet you Mrs. Vettel" Y/N hugged "I have heard so many great things about you and I'm so excited that you could join us"

Y/N was warm and bright, there was a certain aura that clearly makes her a likeable individual. Certainly, she was someone that Heike didn't mind being a daughter-in-law someday.

"Please just Heike, Mrs Vettel is too formal"

"If you insist Heike" Y/N smiles "Oh is there anything you need? I hope the accommodations are comfortable"

Caring and attentive, another factor that Heike pointed out in her head.

"I would just thank you dearie for being so appreciative and doing everything for Sebastian. This takes great effort to arrange and as his mother I really appreciate that"Heike explained.

"Heike this isn't even a fraction of what Sebastian did for me" Y/N counters.

But Heike knew. Every time that Sebastian was doing something for Y/N, he would run it through his mother to make sure that he could get a female perspective about his plans.

"I'm really glad he has you in his life, thank you"Heike reiterates.

As Sebastian's mother, she couldn't help but worry about Sebastian as he races in different parts of the world. She doesn't have any idea if he is being taken care of or if he has someone he can count on. But seeing Y/N in the flesh and confirming that she is everything that Heike had heard from the stories, she felt relieved.

A grateful smile graced Y/N's face as Heike pulled her in a hug.

Heike could only pray that her son finally grows some balls to ask the young lady out. She would literally smack Sebastian if he missed out the chance.

2012, Interlagos

It was another tough season for Mark and he couldn't even push for celebrations right now. He had found himself hiding behind the Red Bull garage to sulk for a bit before he had to go to the media pen and put on a face of sportsmanship to celebrate his teammate.

He opens his phone and his fingers refreshed the texts but no new messages were out for him.

Another frustrated growl comes out of him as he messed up his hair.

"Sebastian I have something to tell you"there was a whisper that floated around.

Mark could only squint as he made out a figure of a woman with his teammate. He have seen the girl before in the garage and Sebastian introduced him as a friend but Mark couldn't remember her name.

"Can't this thing wait Hanna?" Sebastian's voice was hushed like he didn't want anyone else to know about their conversation.

Mark knew that this was a private conversation but his curiosity is getting the best of him. He crouched lower as he tried to get a better view and hearing range of the conversation.

"I like you Sebastian and I have loved you for so long"

The usual confident and flirty Sebastian seems to be taken a back. He seems as frozen as Mark who is now regretting his decision to eavesdrop on them.

"I know I may be ruining years of friendship but I cannot hide it anymore, I really like you" she stated "You have always treated me so well and special so tell me I'm not the only one feeling that way"

"Hanna you are a nice person-"

And there was a pair lips of together. Mark finally decided that he has invaded too much of their privacy and left the couple to settle their own devices.

Meanwhile a group was huddled on the other side of the paddock. The drivers were like schoolgirls with the way that they are giggling.

"I'm being serious here guys, why are you guys acting like this"Y/N wanted to hide with a pillow. It was a bad idea of her to tell Lewis, Nico, and Jenson that she likes Sebastian.

"Honestly, we were making bets on when and who would be the first to confess" Jenson laughed.

"You bet on us?"

"Yes and let's just say we are 200 euros richer"Nico confirmed.

"Who else is on this bet?"Y/N groaned.

"Michael and Christian said that Sebastian would grow the balls. Martin also bets on Sebastian."Lewis enumerates "Don't worry, Niki and David believes in you"

If Y/N could only sink in her chair and disappear, she already would. She couldn't believe that everyone is up on their business all this time.

She could only just hope that she won't be as embarrassed as this when she finally confessed to Sebastian.

[bomber-grl]

Nico Di Angelo x Son of Nemesis 🥀

Pairing(s): Nico Di Angelo x male!reader

Ps used some of the fanon powers since they’re cool

You’re a child of nemesis and it’s to be expected that you’re probably on your own and don’t have much siblings

Surprise

Well ofc Nico never took note of you

He was going through his own thing but it was only when he began reflecting that he turned to you

It wasn’t easy to turn to a complete stranger but since your godly parent is nemesis- well he just assumed you could sense his want for revenge or sum idk he didn’t really think it through, ok??

And you? You laughed at him

He knew it was too silly and stupid and was about to grumble away before you held him back and offered him your help

Which he accepted with some reluctance

I mean you didn’t really know how to go about basically giving him some therapy but in the end it never really was about his issues

You two just became used to being around each other naturally and he was able to improve on his own.

It was a surprise that the two of you even interacted, you’re known to have an intimidating aura- not to mention your rare ability of controlling someone’s luck so 🤷‍♀️

Of course your godly parent gives you a bad rep but you never really cared for it

And neither did Nico, he knows how it feels

That’s particularly what gets you closer

You both were sorta disliked all the time, Nico because he’s a child of hades and you?

Mostly because the majority of your siblings left to be on Kronos side of the war….🧍‍♀️

It was sorta a sore topic and was particularly why it was awkward for others to be around you

But Nico being Nico, well he never payed much attention to it

Looking back it was ridiculous to think that you could ever be a therapist for him and you still tease him about it till this day

But you have a lot of things in common

A particular one being grudges

Nico holds them and despises whoever crosses him

But you? You take it up a notch and make plans to enact revenge

Maybe it’s a bit over the top

But who cares?

It’s not your fault you always remember insults or wrongs against you

Honestly I feel like in this world you really get to know someone once you fight alongside them

And boy does Nico fear and have a new found respect for you now

Your powers consist of using vengeful emotions and manipulating them to the greatest extent

And even when someone has great hate for someone, well you can twist it and make them use it to take revenge

It’s a pretty useful power to get your comrades to fight with all they’ve got

And you use it on yourself too, but had you known Nico would be affected the way he was, well you wouldn’t have done it

You had been fighting some monsters while you were traveling back to Camp half-blood

You both decided to head on back from your little vacation at your house but on the way back herds of monsters just began going at you

Your guess? They hadn’t seen a couple of demigods in a hot minute

Well regardless you fought as one does except for the fact that Nicos summoning of the dead was a bit more uncontrolled than usual

Yup, he actually lost full control

Hurray

I mean he almost took you down with him

If you didn’t immediately take away your influence who knows what else he would’ve done

Just goes to show how much emotions he’s got bottled up I guess

It’s sort of awkward from here on out

Well, maybe only on Nicos part

He was afraid you’d run away and never look back if he were to show you the more scarier aspects of his powers

Which like, Nico honey

There was plenty of time to do so before

Of course you give actual reassurances to him but yknow alls well that ends well

I think a son of Nemesis x Son of Hades is a pretty interesting dynamic considering the similarities

Honestly you’d never be too hard core for the other

You feel deeply, Nico feels deeply

(Yknow feelings of hatred but still)

Maybe that means you understand it on a deeper level, maybe it’s the exact opposite

So much potential

[somewhereincairparavel]

Hazel and Jason's dynamic is SO fucking disappointing now that I'm binge reading the books again. It was so frosty and distant. Jason was literally just mistrusted and "not like what she expected him to be" in 90% of her Hoo POVS it's sad really. I really wish they would bonded properly. So much potential for friendship just down the drain.

Hazel's unwillingness to forgive Jason for suspecting Nico was genuinely pissing me off I'm sorry 😭 like I never thought I'd get mad at Hazel of all people bc she is literally a sweetie, but she's infantilized way too much in the fandom, so her flaws are easily overlooked, but like she literally went all volcano on Jason and held a grudge against him till House of Hades too? Like I get that she worried about her brother and stuff I'd be mad too. But it's the fact that she selectively forgave Leo SO quickly and never even yelled at him (even though he's the one who started the suspicion in the first place even jokingly called nico creepy and stuff behind his back not that I'm trying to fault him or anything I love him)

look I'm not saying it's all Leo's fault or anything, in my opinion, both Jason and Leo were right to suspect nico because of how back and forth nico went from both camps without saying a word and also pretended to not know percy and stuff. So it's realistically shady behaviour from their pov.

But Hazel gets all sweet and soft on Leo because of Sammy and forgives him in a heartbeat, tbh tho she never really directed her anger on Leo in the first place so there was nothing to forgive. But when Jason apologizes, she gets all cold and frosty like accepting his genuine apology is the hardest thing she has ever done?? Like?? Hazelnut I love you and all, but you just accused Jason of unfairly judging nico but you ironically unfairly judged Jason and went all sweetheart on Leo?? Contradiction much?? Either forgive both of them or don't forgive either of them? Why the bias?

Then in HoH she goes on a whole lot of yapping about how she doubts his capabilities as if she didnt just idolize him like 5 minutes ago RIGHT after he encouraged her that she was doing well and included her as a part of the team?? Idk, she was so petty with him and for what?. I just found it unfair that Jason considered hazel a friend but she didn't consider him one and just fully went all judgy mode on him for the rest of the series. she holds on an even bigger grudge than nico lol. she literally did anything but forgive him or give him a chance. so ooc.

Also, In TOA, I found out Hazel told Apollo that she talked to Jason's ghost after he died, to yell at him about how much his sacrifice had hurt Piper :/ like rlly? Out of all the things you could say to a person you idolized who made a lifechanging sacrifice, you guilt trip him for the sacrifice instead of gratitude? Ig she may have been raging out of grief or something but I honestly didn't like the way their dynamic ended. So incomplete. Just another reason of why I found fanon way better.

Hazel coming in terms with the fact that jason is a boy, and not a legend would've been sm better. since the seven basically signifies friendship and comfort. him being a boy with feelings is basically the whole point of his character, but it only gets acknowledged by nico and leo. hazel of all people would've understood jason's internal struggle, she has literally come back from the dead, if anyone knows about struggle, its her.

[misty-moth]

✨Ikémen Birthdays/Zodiacs✨

I decided to put the Ikémen suitors’ zodiac signs together, and put mini-summaries of each sign.

This also has all of their birthdays in order.

(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ

Divider: kgymz

Last edit: Aug 23, 2024

Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 19)

~Competitive but insecure~ There is nothing an Aries cannot achieve once they set their mind to it—no mountain is too high. However, you will also find them nursing a hidden imposter syndrome that can chip away at their confidence if allowed free rein.

-Ray Blackwell, Mar 23

-Vincent Van Gogh, Mar 30

-Oliver Knight, Apr 5

-Musashibou Benkei, Apr 7

-Sasuke Sarutobi, Apr 10

-Nico Meier, Apr 12

-Rio Ortiz, Apr 13

-Fenrir Godspeed, Apr 15

-Leonardo Da Vinci, Apr 15

-Motonari Mouri, Apr 16

Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20)

~Loyal but stubborn~ Loyal to a fault, a Taurean is the most reliable person you can have in your corner when the chips are down. However, they have a stubborn streak a mile wide and can hold a grudge like no one else, so make sure you don’t cross them.

-William Rex, April 24

-Theodorus Van Gogh, May 1

-Sirius Oswald, May 7

-Minamoto no Yorimoto, May 9

-Nobunaga Oda, May 12

-Albert Burckhardt, May 17

-Luke Randolph, May 19

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)

~Versatile but impatient~ Throw a Gemini to the wolves, and they will come back leading the pack—the air element in this sign means that they can adapt easily to any situation. But their fuse runs short and once they run out of patience with someone, there is no wiggle room for second chances.

-Arthur Conan Doyle, May 22

-Harrison Gray, May 30

-Kajiwara Kagetoki, June 2

-Vlad, June 6

-Seth Hyde, June 10

-Clavis Lelouch, June 17

-Osamu Dazai, June 19

-Dean Tweedle, June 20

-Dalim Tweedle, June 20

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)

~Passionate but uncommunicative~ Behind the brooding fortress that a Cancer has erected to protect themselves are abundant reserves of deep, undying love and loyalty. Pity that few will get to experience it because they aren’t the best at communicating what is in their hearts.

-Ranmaru Mori, June 27

-Ellis Twilight, July 4

-Akihito, July 7

-Yukimura Sanada, July 7

-Kyle Ash, July 17

Leo (July 23 – Aug 22)

~Confident but dominating~ Born to be under the spotlight, there is nothing that this lion enjoys as much as being the cynosure of all eyes. However, this innate conviction that they are always in the right means that they can often run roughshod over others’ feelings and sentiments.

-Silvio Ricci, July 23

-Nasu no Yoichi, July 23

-Kanetsugu Naoe, Aug 1

-Leon Dompteur, Aug 1

-Alfons Sylvatica, Aug 8

-Yoshimoto Imagawa, Aug 13

-Napoleon Bonaparte, Aug 15

-Adachi Morinaga, Aug 18

-Lloyd Grandier, Aug 22

Virgo (Aug 23 – Sept 22)

~Perfectionist but self-critical~ Meticulous, organized and diligent, if the world were to end tomorrow, you would want a Virgo to lead the march into the new dawn. However, that pesky niggle of self-doubt in their head means that they are often harsher on themselves than anybody else can be.

-Edgar Bright, Aug 23

-Luka Clemence, Aug 24

-Matthias Ausprink, Aug 24

-Masamune Date, Sept 5

-Kurama, Sept 6

-Liam Williams, Sept 6

-Francis Drake, Sept 7

-Robert Branche, Sept 9

-Blanc Lapin, Sept 10

-Yves Kloss, Sept 16

-Sebastian, Sept 22

Libra (Sept 23 – Oct 22)

~Empathetic but indecisive~ If you are looking for someone to lend a comforting shoulder during times of distress and truly put themselves in your shoes, ring up the first Libra in your contacts. This empathetic side of theirs can sometimes get derailed by their inability to make up their mind, compounded by a fear of confrontations, which means that you never truly know which side they stand on.

-Mitsuhide Akechi, Oct 4

-Tamamo, Oct 5

-Licht Klein, Oct 9

-Nokto Klein, Oct 9

-Zero, Oct 10

-Darius Vogel, Oct 14

-Louis Howard, Oct 16

Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21)

~Intense but secretive~ The fiery, intense personality of a Scorpio can make any time spent together a wild, dizzying ride. But while they will go the extra mile to take care of your emotional needs, they remain notoriously secretive about their own—good luck cracking open the spine of this closed book.

-Comte De Saint-Germain, Oct 25

-Galileo Galilei, Oct 31

-Chevalier Michel, Nov 1

-Mitsunari Ishida, Nov 6

-Giles Christophe, Nov 11

-William Shakespeare, Nov 11

-Azel Radwan, Nov 13

-Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Nov 14

-Kicho, Nov 15

-Jonah Clemence, Nov 18

Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

~Spontaneous but flighty~ There is no storyteller quite like a Sagittarius—they can have the entire room hanging on their every word. But while they can show you grand dreams, it can sometimes be hard to pin them down and make them deliver on their promises.

-Roger Barel, Nov 23

-Shingen Takeda, Dec 1

-Byron Wagner, Dec 7

-Harr Silver, Dec 12

-Jude Jazza, Dec 13

-Gilbert von Obsidian, Dec 21

Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

~Goal-oriented but unforgiving~ Not everyone can conquer the world but if a Capricorn were to set out to do it, nothing would deter them until they had accomplished their goal. With a personality that is hardwired in practicality, they can often fail to appreciate nuance and are known to be unforgiving of others’ mistakes.

-Kitsuji Sueharu, Dec 24

-Isaac Newton, Dec 25

-Jean d’Arc, Jan 6

-Kennyo, Jan 7

-Lancelot Kingsley, Jan 11

-Taira no Shigehira, Jan 16

Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

~Philosophical but detached~ A deep-thinker with a humanitarian streak, an Aquarian has grand plans to change the world. Shame that they left the party early though because their reclusive nature makes it hard for them to establish bonds with those around them.

-Sariel Noir, Jan 20

-Alyn Crawford, Jan 23

-Leo Crawford, Jan 23

-Elbert Greetia, Jan 27

-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jan 27

-Ieyasu Tokugawa, Jan 31

-Kagari Amagase, Feb 7

-Mousse Atlas, Feb 10

-Charles-Henri Sanson, Feb 15

-Kenshin Uesagi, Feb 18

Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

~Whimsical but over-sensitive~ If you are looking to escape the mundane everyday grind, a Pisces’s imaginative mind can whisk you away into a realm of fantasy. Their kind, nurturing personality can prove to be a double-edged sword though, because their overly sensitive heart is easily wounded, further compounded by a tendency to play the victim.

-Keith Howell, Feb 20

-Victor, Feb 20

-Loki Genetta, Feb 22

-Ibuki, Feb 27

-Johann Georg Faust, Feb 29

-Nika Schwarz, Mar 2

-Ring Schwarz, Mar 2

-Keiji Maeda, Mar 3

-Jin Grandet, Mar 5

-Abe no Yasuchika, Mar 15

-Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Mar 17

-Rayvis Harneit, Mar 19

[wormzandgutz]

hi hi I'm back again pl.ease t ell me more

hi sorry this took a bit, This post will include what I currently have figured out of the main group and ideas im considering. First introductions, this is the main group, from left to right we have..

Nico (in the process of being renamed), Atlas, Star and Clover

Ph is a collaborative story I made with a friend in 2018, since then I have made these characters completely my own and I’m currently doing some renovations with it, since it’s last canon was made in 2019.

Atlas, 19(may change), they/them, 5’11” Atlas lives with their older sister (pictured below)

I haven’t fully figured out the situation with their parents, the current idea is that they work overseas. Atlas loves friends more than anything, they would go to great lengths to help a friend in need and they are fiercely loyal. they are honest to a fault and hate beating around the bush. they’re stubborn and hold grudges, they trust their instincts when it comes to people more than anything. They don’t know what they want to do with their life. I cannot decide on their pronouns or gender for the life of me TToTT

Recently I’ve been taking inspiration from 80s anime boys when drawing them. This idea has a strong possibility of being cut but the idea is that animal hybrids that are born during the full moon become werewolves (in the way that they turn into more anthro animals of what they already are, and lose their human consciousness, aka going full animal) why does this happen?…..magic ✨✨ this means that during full moons they go through incredibly painful werewolf transformations, the transformation then lasts anywhere from half a day to a week. The condition is very misunderstood socially due to legends surrounding werewolves and also a lack of medical research (due to it being magic and all) Think people not understanding just how painful it is, thinking people can control it or thinking that they turn violent

Clover, 19, she/her, 5’7” Shes focusing on getting her life back together after her fall through with Valkyrie, with the help of the friend group, she’s slowly regaining her confidence and self worth. She distracts herself from depressive thoughts by throwing herself into her studies, her friend group is against this and is trying to find better alternatives for her. Clover isn’t actually very shy or awkward, once her walls start to crumble, her true personality begins to flourish. Shes actually quite snarky. Her antlers do shed once a year, yes it’s gnarly and yes I know that only male deer shed their antlers but I don’t careeeeeeee it’s fantasyyyy. maybe they shed due to the unstable and weird biology of the hybrids, I don’t careee she isn’t blind in her right eye, it’s just white, she has heterochromia (fantasy heterochromia oooo)

Star, 19, she/her, 5’4” Star is an absolute troublemaker, she has no qualms with confronting and insulting people 10x her size. She is fiercely protective of her friends. She is quick to assume if a person is good or bad, and she stubbornly won’t admit that she is wrong until given hard evidence. She loves her name and wears stars constantly because of it. Comfortable clothing for avian hybrids is hard to come across due to their wings. And even clothing made for Avians is difficult because wing sizes are different person to person, some have very large actually functional wings and others like Star have small wings that can only glide. She does not care about eating bird meat, in fact she really likes chicken. She is the kind of cute that’s creepy, Like her eyes are really big and she stares. She also has a kind of v shaped smile Nico (not final name), 19, she/her, 6’2” Shes been the star runner of every track team she’s been on since middle school. Prefers sportsy and easy to move in clothing, mostly just so that she can start working out at the most random times. she’ll be hanging out with friends in town and suddenly just starts jogging. But she also enjoys dolling herself up. Largest advocate for self love you’ve ever seen, she WOULD date a clone of herself. If you self deprecate in her presence she will aggressively compliment and hype you up like a fitness coach. and then she will somehow rope you into some sort of physical activity “it keeps your dopamine levels up!”, how she keeps doing this is a mystery. She eats like a horse (ha!) and hates wasting food. while she means no harm she has a hard time understanding how some people can struggle with light exercise (like some people have disabilities that make it exhausting to just walk for a few mins) She does eventually get around to understanding and immediately becomes a personal coach “YOU WALKED FOR A MINUTE TODAY, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO”

Now that I’m thinking about it, there’s some interesting world building questions that arise when thinking about hybrid differences. Like do horse hybrids have separate track teams? Do they have an actual genetic advantage? And then my mind immediately thinks of gender debates and allowing trans women in women’s sports and trans men in men’s sports. I don’t know if that’s a topic I want to address in this story? I could make it so that it depends of the person (like in real life, while men have an easier time building muscle and such, it isn’t 100% and it depends on them actually building it) But that also dampens the idea that the animal counterparts actually affect the biology??BUT ALSO MAYBE IM BEING DRAMATIC AND ITS NOT THAT BIG A DEAL???

it’s just that I don’t want this to be a cat girl type of thing, where the animal parts are just cosmetic?? I don’t know if I want to include such a thing in my story BUT THINKING ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS ARE IMPORTANT!!!

I don’t knowwwww ( T^T) ( T^T) for now I have a to do list with this story: - give Nico and Star more significance other than being Clover and Atlas’ friends - Figure out the power system - see if I can salvage the current version of the story or if I’ll need to do a total rehaul - give the characters some interests and hobbies - THINK OF THE IMPLICATIONS

[footy-fictionist]

Is this it? - Julian Brandt

Pairing: Julian Brandt x female Schlotterbeck reader, Nico Schlotterbeck x sister reader, Karim Adeyemi x ex-girlfriend reader

Warnings: mentions of cheating, mentions of fear of commitment/abandonment, reader is a student, little bit of fluff, nervousness, mentions of the game against Leipzig

Word count: 1281

Note: If this one works well, I will post more parts for this. As always, English is not my first language. I do not know any of the players personally, this is completely fictional. Let me know what you think, should there be a part 2 and maybe 3? Please do not copy or publish my work, reblogging is fine!

She swore off footballers after one of them broke her heart. She had been in a relationship with Karim for almost a year, when she found out he was cheating on her. He was her brother’s best friend and she had to convince Nico to forgive Karim, not being able to forgive herself if they wouldn’t be friends anymore. Even if that wasn’t something that would be seen as her fault, since it was Karim that screwed up big time. But for her it meant not going to games anymore and cutting off all the footballer friends she had made. She had to process everything and get over Karim before even considering going to a game and seeing other footballers again. 

Nico understood and never forced his sister to go anywhere. Everyone loved her though, so they were all a bit cold towards Karim the second they found out that she wasn’t going to be around anymore. Especially Julian, he was livid when he found out what Karim did. He would never admit it to anyone else, but he fell in love with her the second he met her. But he never showed it, because he would never try and ruin her happiness. He settled on just being her friend instead. If she was happy with Karim, he would accept that. He never expected her to cut off all contact and it hurt him more than he expected. 

It is the reason why it took him a long time to warm up to Karim again. Everyone else let it go once they saw that Nico didn’t take any further action. But Julian still held his grudge. It took weeks to warm up to Karim again and even then it was only small steps at a time.

It took her a few months to get over Karim. She enjoyed having almost zero contact with football, even if she missed some of the friends she made. She could completely focus on school and didn’t have any other distractions. Of course she watched the games for Nico, but she didn’t participate in anything else. She didn’t expect one footballer to jump back into her life though.

It was another day of classes and in the early morning she went to get her coffee at her favourite café in Dortmund. It was small but cozy and they knew her order by heart. After getting her drink, she thanks the barista before leaving the café, only to bump into someone. She manages to not spill anything but stumbles a little. The person helps stabilize her and she looks up to thank them. Only to find the eyes of Julian Brandt. The second they lock eyes, both of them send each other a bright smile. She puts her coffee on the small table that’s outside the café and immediately wraps her arms around his neck, his arms wrapping around her waist. 

“Oh my gosh Jule, I didn’t expect to see you here! I’m sorry for bumping into you, but also not sorry for bumping into you! How are you?”

Julian is thanking his lucky stars for bumping into her. He answers her whilst still holding her in his arms. They pull away and just talk for a few minutes. That is until she checks the time and sees she’s running late to class. She goes to say goodbye, but Julian can’t let her get away again, not now that he’s had contact with her again. 

“Please, please don’t cut contact again. I miss you.” He knows he sounds a little desperate, but he can’t help it. He won’t lose her again.

“I promise Jule. I didn’t realize it till I just bumped into you, but I really missed you too. A lot. I’ll text you. I have to go now, but I promise.”

And she does. The second she’s sat in her class she’s texting him. And it’s the restart of their friendship. Soon enough they’re talking everyday, both of them happy to have this much contact again. Smiles on their faces, that no one can get rid off. Nico asks her about the way she smiles at her phone, she just smiles at Nico and doesn’t really give him an answer. But it doesn’t bother him, because whoever it is, they’ve brought back the sparkle in her eyes. 

With Julian it shows in the way he plays on the field. He’s back to the skill level everyone was used to when he played for Leverkusen. He’s probably even better than he was back then. And she always finds a way to congratulate him on the way he played. He never saw her at the games though, but that is something he wanted to change. Not just the seeing her there part, but who she was supporting. But instead of just asking her, he sent her a box in the hope she’d understand what he was asking. A box with his jersey and a ticket to the game against Leipzig. The box arrived at her apartment whilst Nico was there with her. 

She didn’t expect a package but opened it nonetheless. She gasped when she saw the contents of the box, only making Nico curious. Whilst she was still processing what she saw and what Julian was asking, Nico looked into the box. When he saw the jersey with Brandt on the back, his eyebrows almost touched his hairline. So this was who was making her smile all the time, she got back into contact with Julian. And from the contents of this box, it wasn’t just regular contact.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

The question confuses her a little, as she’s still processing what Julian is asking of her. But then she realizes Nico is with her and that he just looked into the box. Her cheeks start to burn and she starts stuttering, trying to explain. Nico just smiles at her softly, knowing that she was scared. Scared to admit that she likes Julian, scared to get back into a relationship with one of his teammates. Scared of what he, their family and everyone else would say. 

“You know you don’t have to worry about me when it comes to things like this. I’ll give him hell if he hurts you, but if you like or love him, I won’t hold you back.”

She didn’t think Nico could make her cry over something like this. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted this, especially not after what happened with Karim. So she threw her arms around her brothers’ neck and started crying a little.

“I’m scared. What if he does, what Karim did? What if he ends up breaking my heart? I don’t think I can go through it a second time. I don’t care about Karim anymore, but what if this all backfires.”

So all Nico could do was hold her and try soothing her. He reassures her about everything, that even if it did happen, she wouldn’t be alone. But he didn’t think it would happen. He’s seen the way Julian looked at her when she was still with Karim. He knew back then that Julian was in love with her. No matter how bad he felt about it, he thought Julian was a better fit for her then Karim. So when Karim broke her heart, he was pissed, but also not surprised. He knew Karim wouldn’t be the one for her. So to see that she got back into contact with the boy that has loved her for ages and him finally shooting his shot, made Nico happy. 

“So, what are you gonna do? Will you accept what he’s asking of you?”

Part 2?

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 4: HERA HIJACKS RACHEL

What an auspicious day to be posting that I’m sure has no relevance whatsoever to this fic…

HOOPJOHOOPJOHOOPJO

Will sighed and casually told them it just said Piper’s name again, though nobody had really expected otherwise. It was somehow continually disappointing though. Percy had a vivid mind that was usually fun to get glimpses of, those little chapter titles were like a part of him to gauge themselves for what was to come, even a brief moment of a laugh. Despite all Percy complained of them being needless, he more than suspected Percy had grown to secretly like them too, even just to brace himself.

Plus, the minor detail that Percy had very agreeably had no problems sharing his thoughts. Jason had known this was coming, and made no protest.

Piper wasn’t here to tell them she didn’t want her mind wide open for all of them to ogle at. This might not have literally ever happened to her as this was portraying, but Will had no doubts it would likely dig into her backstory, her private thoughts, her dreams. It had already started doing that by continuing to admire Jason and clearly making him uncomfortable about it.

No, all in all, Will was not happy about this turn of events and he wished they could skip back to Jason already.

But one look at Annabeth’s steely expression and he knew he’d be outwitted real quick and she’d either read it herself or talk the others into joining. This was about Percy to her, Piper was just the vessel. This was about what Percy would have been going through right now if he wasn't safe here.

He could still walk out and avoid this if he wished, she wouldn’t push that far, but he couldn’t see the point in confessing to Piper one day that he’d just sat idly by and not listened while he’d allowed others. He didn’t think he’d earn her confidence for just being a bystander because he sat out.

“Will?” Nico asked in concern when his hesitation kept lingering, he couldn’t make his tongue unstick to start no matter what he told himself. 

“I don’t like doing this to Piper, she has no idea we’re all sitting around talking about her own private thoughts,” he admitted.

“Annabeth didn’t get a choice either,” Percy bluntly reminded.

Will had felt bad for that too, but he’d had confidence she wouldn’t hold a grudge when she found out why, and he’d been right. She’d never batted an eye anymore than Percy at her life on display, because it had helped keep her boyfriend safe in the long run.

“Listen Will,” Thalia said gently, “Piper’s going to have to learn the hard way the same as the rest of us did, this isn’t our fault. We don't get to control what we see in our dreams, we don’t get to tell the monsters to go away because we’re not in the mood. We’ve never been able to truly convince the gods against whatever plan we’re all involved in. I am sorry as well, I’d never do this to her if I had a choice, but we don’t. She’s clearly in Jason’s life, and we need to know why. Whoever did this to Jason did this to her and Leo too, and if we want to stop them, we need to know what they’re planning. We won’t if we just politely ask whoever wiped the boys' minds to give us a clear answer.”

“They’re not here.” Annabeth agreed. “We are. For all we know they’re dead or taken by those storm spirits as captives for Jason to turn up, or sitting around in happy ignorance at this Wilderness School. We won’t find out until we get out of here, and then we’ll find a way to make it up to them both whenever we finish this.”

Will nodded and took a deep breath. He still didn’t feel great, but he knew that sometimes you had to rebreak a healing fracture to insure it would be better in the long run. It was hurting Piper, but he wanted to believe it would save her too from these dangers they would have to face.

PIPER IV

PIPER SOON REALIZED ANNABETH’S HEART wasn’t in the tour.

“Shocker,” Percy snorted, rubbing his hand gently up and down her arm. “You're telling me you wouldn’t take her right up to Thalia’s tree and then Zeus’s Fist with every gory miserable detail while I’m away?”

“Drew’s the one trying to scare away the newbies, not me,” she said with that smile only he brought out of her.

She talked about all this amazing stuff the camp offered —magic archery, 

“We have magic archery!” Percy yelped.

“Dammit, you weren’t supposed to find out about that,” Will chucked, but it was just slightly awkward enough for them to believe he wasn’t kidding.

“You cause enough problems with a regular bow and arrow, nobody’s going to show you the enchantments that cause plague arrows,” Annabeth reminded much more severely.

Percy still looked a little miffed, but he couldn't deny her either…it was more weird than anything Piper was seeing new things her first day there he hadn't in years though!

pegasus riding, the lava wall, fighting monsters —but she showed no excitement, as if her mind were elsewhere. She pointed out the open-air dining pavilion that overlooked Long Island Sound. (Yes, Long Island, New York; they’d traveled that far on the chariot.) Annabeth explained how Camp Half-Blood was mostly a summer camp, but some kids stayed here year-round, and they’d added so many campers it was always crowded now, even in winter.

Percy looked so proud. He’d stood on top of that hill looking down on all this and never felt a more tangible sense of accomplishment as he’d touched Thalia’s tree. He’d done this. All those cabins, all those kids running around. Even as he’d stood there, he’d seen the glow go up of another camper being claimed who’d arrived earlier that morning.

He’d never seen Alex or Magnus with a more hopeful face hearing of this either. He suspected. He’d seen those lean, hungry faces on the streets and knew where they were headed. They’d be safe there too instead rather than out in the cold, he’d make sure of it no matter who their parents were on what pantheon.

Piper wondered who ran the camp, and how they’d known Piper and her friends belonged here. 

“More questions Annabeth isn’t going to answer, it’s like she’s got her own list,” Alex smirked.

“I make sure they know the relevant information,” she shrugged.

Percy opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it. She was distracted and miserable in this gods-awful future, he didn’t want to tease her at this particular moment when she was clinging to his hand so hard it should have hurt.

She wondered if she’d have to stay full-time, or if she’d be any good at the activities. Could you flunk out of monster fighting?

“Yes, but it’s one of those pass or fail grades,” Nico said with a sardonic smile.

Magnus opened, then closed his mouth, deciding not to ask. He much preferred his idea of the kids who ‘failed’ were just told to go work on healing or anything else to help rather than, well, being eaten.

 A million questions bubbled in her head, but given Annabeth’s mood, she decided to keep quiet.

Annabeth sighed, feeling bad all the same. She’d never strived to be on the welcome committee, she usually had enough of her own projects going on to give much attention to it. She only usually made this kind of effort when they were obviously a half-sibling, which Piper could be. In recent months some had turned up that finally weren’t blond haired and gray eyed, as if her mom had lost taste in some sort of joke. She didn’t think that’s why she'd singled Piper out though.

As they climbed a hill at the edge of camp, Piper turned and got an amazing view of the valley—a big stretch of woods to the northwest, a beautiful beach, the creek, the canoe lake, lush green fields, and the whole layout of the cabins—a bizarre assortment of buildings arranged like a Greek omega, Ω, with a loop of cabins around a central green, and two wings sticking out the bottom on either side. Piper counted twenty cabins in all. One glowed golden, another silver. One had grass on the roof. Another was bright red with barbed wire trenches. One cabin was black with fiery green torches out front.

“Well she got all the important ones,” Thalia chuckled.

“I’m surprised she didn’t notice Iris’s, that thing’s a work of art with all that stained glass,” Annabeth looked almost disappointed Piper hadn’t offered her a complete structural description of every building, it would have been fascinating to hear of it from another mind than how her own viewed it.

All of it seemed like a different world from the snowy hills and fields outside.

“The valley is protected from mortal eyes,” Annabeth said. “As you can see, the weather is controlled, too. Each cabin represents a Greek god—a place for that god’s children to live.”

She looked at Piper like she was trying to judge how Piper was handling the news. “You’re saying Mom was a goddess.”

Annabeth nodded. 

“Or her dad, why doesn't anybody ever mention that,” Will looked like he was writing Annabeth note cards he’d sew into her jacket for her next tour.

“I try to ease them into that, not everybody’s so accepting Will,” Annabeth shrugged. She got enough strange looks from her own mom’s ‘birthing process’. She never strived to start with new kids other ideas just as strange as how a demigod came into the world.

“You’re taking this awfully calmly.”

“A storm spirit pushed her off a skyscraper this morning and some guy she thought she knew flew down to catch her,” Percy reminded nobody. “At some point she got maxed out on weirdness.” He said from experience.

Piper couldn’t tell her why. She couldn’t admit that this just confirmed some weird feelings she’d had for years, arguments she’d had with her father about why there were no photos of Mom in the house, and why Dad would never tell her exactly how or why her mom had left them. But mostly, the dream had warned her this was coming. Soon they will find you, demigod, that voice had rumbled. When they do, follow our directions. Cooperate, and your father might live.

“Oh!” Will looked like somebody had just punched the last sentence out of him and then slammed his face into the floor for dessert. He finally lost any lingering reservations against not doing this for Piper’s own good. This was happening to her right now. If he’d ever had a way to stop this from happening to Percy he would have done it, now he would use this as the gift it was from his dad or whichever god had seen fit to string all this together.

“Gods, that poor girl,” Percy murmured, heart immediately out for her, hand curling towards his pen with the need to draw it and head out for the Underworld all over again.

Annabeth and Thalia exchanged an uneasy look though. It was Luke and Percy starting all over again. A voice in her dreams manipulating her now? Even before she’d arrived at Camp! Another power was stirring.

Piper took a shaky breath. “I guess after this morning, it’s a little easier to believe. So who’s my mom?”

“We should know soon,” Annabeth said. “You’re what —fifteen? Gods are supposed to claim you when you’re thirteen. That was the deal.”

“The deal?”

“They made a promise last summer … well, long story…

“Like, five books and counting?” Percy asked innocently.

“Even if I trimmed it down to just relevant information it would take half the day,” Annabeth murmured, her mind twisting a complicated path. Of how she’d try and explain Luke, of where Percy would be right now and who was talking to him about his empty path, of Piper and Leo and that prophecy she hadn’t wanted to believe could already be stirring…

 but they promised not to ignore their demigod children anymore, to claim them by the time they turn thirteen. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but you saw how fast Leo was claimed once he got here. Should happen for you soon. Tonight at the campfire, I bet we’ll get a sign.”

Piper wondered if she’d have a big flaming hammer over her head, or with her luck, something even more embarrassing. A flaming wombat, maybe. 

“Wombat’s are adorable,” Magnus said stoutly. “I’d be okay with having that as my symbol!”

“I don’t think the Greek’s even knew marsupials existed,” Annabeth told her cousin fondly with twitching lips. “Unless Echidna finally embraced a new side of herself, I don’t think you or Piper will be so lucky.”

At least giving the others a small moment to chuckle.

Whoever her mother was, Piper had no reason to think she’d be proud to claim a kleptomaniac daughter with massive problems. 

“Pfft, there’s a rumor Ares has all of his kids' criminal records as wallpaper,” Will shrugged. 

“On the other hand, Aphrodite might have a heart attack if she looked at her ragged hair,” Thalia rolled her eyes. “Expecting any god's reaction is basically throwing a hundred sided dice out.”

“Why thirteen?”

“The older you get,” Annabeth said, “the more monsters notice you, try to kill you. ’Round thirteen is usually when it starts. That’s why we send protectors into the schools to find you guys, get you to camp before it’s too late.”

“Like Coach Hedge?”

Annabeth nodded. “He’s—he was a satyr:

Will winced at Annabeth clearly thinking him dead, but had no heart to argue the point. He knew she’d know best on the matter.

 half man, half goat. Satyrs work for the camp, finding demigods, protecting them, bringing them in when the time is right.”

Piper had no trouble believing Coach Hedge was half goat. She’d seen the guy eat. She’d never liked the coach much, but she couldn’t believe he’d sacrificed himself to save them.

“What happened to him?” she asked. “When we went up into the clouds, did he … is he gone for good?”

“Hard to say.” Annabeth’s expression was pained. “Storm spirits … difficult to battle. Even our best weapons, Celestial bronze, will pass right through them unless you can catch them by surprise.”

That didn’t really sound like what happened though, Annabeth knew. Jason had just, swung. Some innate skill holding the blade, obviously, but those monsters were facing him and had no reason to be tangible enough for the blade to pass through them. It seemed stronger than Celestial bronze.

“Jason’s sword just turned them to dust,” Piper remembered.

“He was lucky, then.

Annabeth held her hands up and uttered a quick apology Jason hadn’t needed. He knew Annabeth didn’t know everything then as she did now, and besides, Jason knew it had been minor luck as well. Instincts could only take him so far.

 If you hit a monster just right, you can dissolve them, send their essence back to Tartarus.”

“Tartarus?”

“A huge abyss in the Underworld, where the worst monsters come from. Kind of like a bottomless pit of evil. Anyway, once monsters dissolve, it usually takes months, even years before they can re-form again. But since this storm spirit Dylan got away—well, I don’t know why he’d keep Hedge alive. Hedge was a protector, though. He knew the risks. Satyrs don’t have mortal souls. He’ll be reincarnated as a tree or a flower or something.”

Piper tried to imagine Coach Hedge as a clump of very angry pansies. That made her feel even worse.

It made them laugh, but only in a subdued way. Grover bleated in the back of their mind, of how many of his people he’d lost over the summer. Any others that followed felt like a kick while they were down, no matter how angry the pansies turned out to be.

She gazed at the cabins below, and an uneasy feeling settled over her. Hedge had died to get her here safely. Her mom’s cabin was down there somewhere, which meant she had brothers and sisters, more people she’d have to betray.

“Oh boy,” Percy muttered, his stomach in knots. He felt for this girl deeply, he’d do anything he could to help her get her dad back. He couldn’t even be angry she’d showed up in his home with a pretty rock solid resolution to go through with this betrayal, she didn’t know them, had no reason to care.

But there was this. She was hesitating. She wasn’t evil and dismissive and uncaring of what she was doing. He had hope he’d be able to help her before it got this far, or hold out his hand and pull her back if it went too bad while finding another way to rescue her dad.

Do what we tell you, the voice had said. Or the consequences will be painful. She tucked her hands under her arms, trying to stop them from shaking.

“It’ll be okay,” Annabeth promised. “You have friends here. We’ve all been through a lot of weird stuff. We know what you’re going through.”

Percy ran his hand down her back in gratitude, and she took a deep breath of relief knowing that’s what he would have said. That they meant it and hoped Piper would trust them enough to ask for help if Annabeth gave her a good reason. She was starting off well.

I doubt that, Piper thought.

That caused the somberest of chuckles as well. Oh if only she knew.

 “I’ve been kicked out of five different schools the past five years,” she said. “My dad’s running out of places to put me.”

“Only five?” Annabeth didn’t sound like she was teasing. “Piper, we’ve all been labeled troublemakers. I ran away from home when I was seven.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah. Most of us are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or dyslexia, or both—”

“Leo’s ADHD,” Piper said.

“Right. It’s because we’re hardwired for battle. Restless, impulsive—we don’t fit in with regular kids. You should hear how much trouble Percy—” Her face darkened. 

“Not in the mood to brag about the number of fires I’ve started?” Percy lightly teased as she tensed beside him no matter what she told herself.

“Not until you’re there to put them out,” she sighed.

“Anyway, demigods get a bad rep. How’d you get in trouble?”

Usually when someone asked that question, Piper started a fight, or changed the subject, or caused some kind of distraction. But for some reason she found herself telling the truth.

Annabeth’s smile still had a dimness to it as she looked at the book, but she was happy she’d really made a connection to her and hoped it would be enough. Piper and Leo were key’s to figuring this out, even if Annabeth didn’t know what locks they went into yet, they’d be beside Jason’s. She knew that much.

“I steal stuff,” she said. “Well, not really steal …”

“Is your family poor?”

Piper laughed bitterly. “Not even. I did it … I don’t know why. For attention, I guess. My dad never had time for me unless I got in trouble.”

Annabeth nodded. “I can relate. But you said you didn’t really steal? What do you mean?”

“Well … nobody ever believes me. The police, teachers —even the people I took stuff from: they’re so embarrassed, they’ll deny what happened. But the truth is, I don’t steal anything. I just ask people for things. And they give me stuff. Even a BMW convertible. I just asked. And the dealer said, ‘Sure. Take it.’ Later, he realized what he’d done, I guess. Then the police came after me.”

“Charm speak,” Thalia said with confidence this time, “and a powerfully useful one at that if she’s doing this untrained.”

“A self-explanatory word in essence, but,” Alex cajoled.

“They can do, that,” Thalia waved at the book. “She could ask me for my bow and I’d hand it over, if she puts enough intent into her words she could ask a group of people to jump off a cliff and they would. Sorceresses can enchant their voices, much like Circe was doing to Percy, but some children of Aphrodite are born able to do it naturally, with less of a punch unless they work at it.”

“It’s an extremely rare gift though,” Annabeth was shaking her head. “It’s just as possible she’s a child of Hermes, she sounds like she can be very persuasive if she wants to. Her fake memories didn’t show her asking Jason to date her and him instantly agreeing.”

“I don’t think that’s much evidence,” Nico frowned. “We have no idea who put those false memories there, how much they’re aware of Piper’s parentage.”

It did always seem to circle back to that, though Jason wished it was a more linear circle with more answers than questions.

Piper waited. She was used to people calling her a liar, but when she looked up, Annabeth just nodded.

“Interesting. If your dad were the god, I’d say you’re a child of Hermes, god of thieves. He can be pretty convincing. But your dad is mortal…”

“Very,” Piper agreed.

Annabeth shook her head, apparently mystified. “I don’t know, then. With luck, your mom will claim you tonight.”

It made sense enough Annabeth wouldn’t give Piper false hope about some super rare awesome gift and go with her gut, but Will still made a face she didn’t even test the waters of the idea Piper could have two dads. It was a topic he’d tackle with her another time.

Piper almost hoped it wouldn’t happen. If her mom were a goddess, would she know about that dream? Would she know what Piper had been asked to do? Piper wondered if Olympian gods ever blasted their kids with lightning for being evil, or grounded them in the Underworld.

That got a good laugh out of all of them, though Nico’s was a tad sour just because that last one was true, but only for him. Annabeth wished she’d asked, she could have given her the empty comfort that gods didn’t interfere so directly with their kids lives.

Annabeth was studying her. Piper decided she was going to have to be careful what she said from now on. Annabeth was obviously pretty smart. If anyone could figure out Piper’s secret …

“Come on,” Annabeth said at last. “There’s something else I need to check.”

They hiked a little farther until they reached a cave near the top of the hill. Bones and old swords littered the ground. Torches flanked the entrance, which was covered in a velvet curtain embroidered with snakes. It looked like the set for some kind of twisted puppet show.

Rachel’s digs, Alex quickly grasped, and by the look on his face, he obviously approved. Magnus had to agree. Bones and stabby things on the path aside, (because gods forbid anybody in that camp have a normal aesthetic!) he knew they’d put her up in a nice place with velvet everything instead of a smelly tiny hole.

“What’s in there?” Piper asked.

Annabeth poked her head inside, then sighed and closed the curtains. “Nothing, right now. A friend’s place. I’ve been expecting her for a few days, but so far, nothing.”

“Did we delay her trip?” Percy asked apologetically. 

“Possibly,” Thalia nodded, or more Oceanus had by bringing in the wrong girl again, but there was nothing to help that now.

“Your friend lives in a cave?”

Annabeth almost managed a smile. “Actually, her family has a luxury condo in Queens, and she goes to a finishing school in Connecticut. But when she’s here at camp, yeah, she lives in the cave. She’s our oracle, tells the future. I was hoping she could help me—”

“Find Percy,” Piper guessed.

All the energy drained out of Annabeth, like she’d been holding it together for as long as she could. She sat down on a rock, and her expression was so full of pain, Piper felt like a voyeur.

Percy pulled her as tight into his side as he could and she was already there, pressing every part of herself into him she could. She wanted to be hateful and angry that this would have gone on until gods didn’t even know when if she wasn’t in here, to dig and keep digging into this puzzle with no interruptions or distractions to stop all this, but the relief was too strong to have him here. Making silly faces and observations only he could about this road they were being dragged down.

She forced herself to look away. Her eyes drifted to the crest of the hill, where a single pine tree dominated the skyline. Something glittered in its lowest branch—like a fuzzy gold bath mat. No … not a bath mat. It was a sheep’s fleece.

Okay, Piper thought. Greek camp. They’ve got a replica of the Golden Fleece.

“Replica,” Percy echoed with a laugh. He wished it had been as easy as going down to the mall and getting sprayed with perfume to rescue Grover and grab that thing in the same aisle with a golden chalice and ariadne’s string on the next shelf.

“I’m impressed she knew what it was. That’s not a popular myth to the average person,” Annabeth said, putting more force into her voice than was really needed, but she was genuinely impressed…and a little leery of why.

Then she noticed the base of the tree. At first she thought it was wrapped in a pile of massive purple cables. But the cables had reptilian scales, clawed feet, and a snakelike head with yellow eyes and smoking nostrils.

“Oh good, Peleus is still alive and kicking,” Magnus tried to say like somebody hadn’t just reminded him there was a dragon around for anybody to mistake for a pile of pool noodles.

“They’re immortal,” Percy reminded cheerfully, as if giving Magnus the best of news. The smirk on his face meant he knew full well Magnus would not take it that way. “He’ll be there as long as that Fleece is, you know, forever!”

“Great-” Magnus stopped there because his voice cracked and he slumped into his seat so he could stop pretending he wasn’t about to start trembling. Will gave him a commiserating nod of understanding at least. One chore he’d blatantly refused to do was feed him, that dragon looked too much like a snake with extra pointy bits for Will to ever be comfortable around him.

“That’s—a dragon,” she stammered. “That’s the actual Golden Fleece?”

Annabeth nodded, but it was clear she wasn’t really listening. Her shoulders drooped. She rubbed her face and took a shaky breath. “Sorry. A little tired.”

“You look ready to drop,” Piper said. “How long have you been searching for your boyfriend?”

“Three days, six hours, and about twelve minutes.”

Annabeth still clenched her jaw so hard Percy felt the tension and fought back the urge to draw Riptide. He knew that kind of anger could make a god cower, and they would be if she hadn’t already promised Oceanus help instead.

“And you’ve got no idea what happened to him?”

Annabeth shook her head miserably. “We were so excited because we both started winter break early. We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together. It was going to be great. Then after the campfire, he—he kissed me good night, went back to his cabin, and in the morning, he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom. We’ve tried to reach him every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared.”

Percy had never really wanted details of her desperate search, but the way she’d appeared in here would haunt him for the rest of his life. After two days, she was only just beginning to look like herself again, color in her cheeks, the cracks in her eyes from a week of sleepless searching starting to ebb just the slightest. He kissed her temple, his lips lingered there as he took a ragged breath. He loved her so much, and he was sorry he hadn’t been able to tell her that the moment she’d appeared and attack kissed him. The way she sighed in relief and leaned into him the only answer he needed.

Piper was thinking: Three days ago. The same night she had her dream. 

Jason twitched like a fly had landed on his nose. Nico tried for a smile, but it quickly fell flat. Jason’s goofy, repetitive joke of always noting when that number showed up was not the slightest bit funny anymore.

“How long were you guys together?”

“Since August,” Annabeth said. “August eighteenth.”

“Almost exactly when I met Jason,” Piper said. “But we’ve only been together a few weeks.”

Annabeth wrinkled her nose up like an aged pug, and Percy felt an unpleasant gut feeling for the same reason. “Why would her fake memories be that specific?” He asked, already guessing the answer was going to be the usual, no clue.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Thalia agreed. It was so entirely unpleasant to realize, repeatedly, Jason had been alive on the same continent as her all this time. Obviously not at some school for troubled youths, but the idea that all this had been orchestrated while they were in the middle of defending Olympus sat unwell in here. Like none of it mattered, like the gods were already gearing up and preparing these poor kids for the next thing. Setting them aside in the back corner to be sprung at their convenience.

Annabeth winced. “Piper, about that. Maybe you should sit down.”

“That poor girl is about to have her legs knocked out from under her, thanks,” Jason agreed, tapping his coin on his knee in agitation. He knew in his head it wasn’t his fault someone had done this to her, to both of them, but he still felt responsible for her now the same as he did Leo.

“I’d say any time, but I’m really hoping this doesn't turn into a recurring event!” Annabeth groaned.

Piper knew where this was going. Panic started building inside her, like her lungs were filling with water. “Look, I know Jason thought—he thought he just appeared at our school today. But that’s not true. I’ve known him for four months.”

“Piper,” Annabeth said sadly. “It’s the Mist.”

“Missed … what?”

Will had to enunciate that very clearly for them to get the joke, and Alex was always ready to deliver. “Missed Percy’s birthday, and she should be very sorry!”

“I’ll accept a card from her with cash, apparently she can afford to pay for late taxes,” Percy snorted.

“M-i-s-t. It’s a kind of veil separating the mortal world from the magic world. Mortal minds—they can’t process strange stuff like gods and monsters, so the Mist bends reality. It makes mortals see things in a way they can understand —like their eyes might just skip over this valley completely, or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables.”

Piper swallowed. “No. You said it yourself I’m not a regular mortal. I’m a demigod.”

“Even demigods can be affected. I’ve seen it lots of times. Monsters infiltrate some place like a school, pass themselves off as human, and everyone thinks they remember that person. They believe he’s always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened—”

“But Jason’s not a monster!” Piper insisted. “He’s a human guy, or demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren’t fake. They’re so real. The time we set Coach Hedge’s pants on fire. 

That at least was a nice, fresh burst of laughter that nobody thought twice about feeling guilty over, and it had been far too long since they’d felt that. Jason tried to babble something about lies and besmirching his reputation, but they knew it was in vain. He wasn’t all the good golden child of perfect humbleness, they’d seen hints enough of that when Percy and Thalia riled him up.

The time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof and I finally got the stupid guy to kiss me...”

But their amusement drained just as fast as Jason flinched again, covering his mouth like someone was about to lunge at his lips. Why would a god do that to him! Why couldn't the god have just made him friends with Piper and Leo, why’d they have to implant this, this crush in their heads! It felt creepy and invasive the longer he thought about it! “Is this why I can’t remember a single damn person from my own past!” His voice sounded more ravaged with anger and frustration every time he kept asking a question he knew he wouldn’t get an answer to. “This, Mist memory with Piper just, blocked it all out!” But he didn’t have those, he’d woken up with nothing! So his brain was just an empty bowl instead!

Thalia put her arm gently around him, and he didn’t brush her off, so she left it there for a few moments. 

She found herself rambling, telling Annabeth about her whole semester at Wilderness School. She’d liked Jason from the first week they’d met. He was so nice to her, and so patient, he could even put up with hyperactive Leo and his stupid jokes. He’d accepted her for herself and didn’t judge her because of the stupid things she’d done. They’d spent hours talking, looking at the stars, and eventually—finally—holding hands. All that couldn’t be fake.

Jason bit back a sob. The worst part of himself, the part of his mind that had been sitting in the dark for nearly a week hearing Percy’s rich life, envied this girl’s fake memories, that he hadn’t gotten those too. Even if they weren’t real. He was so tired of having nothing to cling to, even this fake paradise would have been a balm on his mind.

But that only would have cracked, and left him with an even bigger identity crisis. He knew that. It would have been like accepting a gift from a monster, all the strings attached were there to pull the rug out from under him.

Annabeth pursed her lips. “Piper, your memories are a lot sharper than most. I’ll admit that, and I don’t know why that is. But if you know him so well—”

“I do!”

“Then where is he from?”

Piper felt like she’d been hit between the eyes. “He must have told me, but—”

“Did you ever notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you anything about his parents, or his friends, or his last school?”

“I—I don’t know, but—”

“Piper, what’s his last name?”

Her mind went blank. She didn’t know Jason’s last name. How could that be?

She started to cry. 

Jason’s weary, crooked smile felt mean, but he couldn’t help it. He felt like crying himself. He sat torn between the rotten wish of fake answers Piper would have been supplied with or wrapping her in a hug and promising he knew exactly how she felt. Neither was doing either of them any good at present.

He had his sister though, and friends. It was going to be a long, miserable path he’d be taking barefoot with jagged rocks and thumbtacks and lava every other step, but he’d figure out how to get to the end with them.

She felt like a total fool, but she sat down on the rock next to Annabeth and just fell to pieces. It was too much. Did everything that was good in her stupid, miserable life have to be taken away?

Yes, the dream had told her. Yes, unless you do exactly what we say.

“Hey,” Annabeth said. “We’ll figure it out. Jason’s here now. Who knows? Maybe it’ll work out with you guys for real.”

Jason sighed and flopped in his seat, that feeling of misery curling up to get nice and comfortable. He wasn’t even sure he’d want that if Piper were in here, it would just be a connection that had no meaning outside this room. He was Roman and at the wrong camp, his life was going to be complicated enough with his sister being Greek!

A selfish part of him was glad she wasn’t here all of a sudden, so he wouldn’t have to constantly see the reminder on her face he wanted to go backwards, though he knew that was a terrible thing to think because gods knew where she actually was.

Not likely, Piper thought. Not if the dream had told her the truth. But she couldn’t say that.

She brushed a tear from her cheek. “You brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?”

Magnus laughed in surprise, but Annabeth grinned and didn’t deny it. She knew the main reason she’d singled out Piper had been to talk to her about Jason’s mystery past while Chiron dealt with him directly, but this was a kindness she was happy to provide while doing so.

Annabeth shrugged. “I figured it would be hard for you. I know what it’s like to lose your boyfriend.”

Annabeth twisted her fingers together painfully to stop them flinging around Percy’s neck and never, ever letting go. If this is what was happening to Jason…

“But I still can’t believe … I know we had something. And now it’s just gone, like he doesn’t even recognize me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How’d he get there? Why can’t he remember anything?”

“Good questions,” Annabeth said. “Hopefully Chiron can figure that out. But for now, we need to get you settled. You ready to go back down?”

Piper gazed at the crazy assortment of cabins in the valley.

Her new home, a family who supposedly understood her—but soon they’d be just another bunch of people she’d disappointed, just another place she’d been kicked out of.

You’ll betray them for us, the voice had warned. Or you’ll lose everything.

Annabeth’s eyes burned with unshed tears for this future. She’d already lost everything out there. Even if Piper had confessed all of this to her, she’d be no help to the girl. They had no way of knowing who this voice was or what they wanted, and as was their usual track record, very likely wouldn’t understand until it was nearly too late. 

And Percy wasn’t around to help her over that hurdle for the win.

She didn’t have a choice.

“Yeah,” she lied. “I’m ready.”

On the central green, a group of campers was playing basketball. They were incredible shots. Nothing bounced off the rim. Three-pointers went in automatically.

“Apollo’s cabin,” Annabeth explained. “Bunch of showoffs with missile weapons—arrows, basketballs.”

“Don’t ever give Will a tennis ball,” Percy agreed as he rubbed the side of his head. “Mrs. O’Leary will never forgive him any more than I do.”

Will’s face was a mask of innocence as he said, “you can’t prove the wind didn’t catch it!”

“My dog nearly bit off my head, and I apologized for knocking over that skeleton!” Percy huffed. 

“It was an antique,” Will shrugged, “and an heirloom from Asclepius. I still haven’t found several chunks of the skull!”

The others were snickering lightly under their banter, enough so that when Will turned poshly back to the book Annabeth’s face had smoothed back to its usual calm under Percy’s arm.

They walked past a central fire pit, where two guys were hacking at each other with swords.

“Real blades?” Piper noted. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Nothing can be to dangerous when you have a medic around,” Percy shrugged.

“You will not go spreading that around!” Will looked at him in horror for all the new kids running at each other with swords.

“Fine. Don’t say I never tried to give you practice dummies though,” Percy said.

“You’re the dummy in this situation Perce,” Thalia snorted.

“I never denied that, Will could probably get an MD from treating me alone if he didn’t have ambrosia,” Percy agreed.

“That’s sort of the point,” Annabeth said. “Uh, sorry. Bad pun.

“Why would you ever apologize for a pun, bad or otherwise?” Alex demanded.

“Because some people have a good sense of humor,” Annabeth smirked.

Alex gasped as if he’d been stabbed and Annabeth laughed without remorse to be holding the blade.

 That’s my cabin over there. Number Six.” She nodded to a gray building with a carved owl over the door. Through the open doorway, Piper could see bookshelves, weapon displays, and one of those computerized SMART Boards they have in classrooms. Two girls were drawing a map that looked like a battle diagram.

“Speaking of blades,” Annabeth said, “come here.”

She led Piper around the side of the cabin, to a big metal shed that looked like it was meant for gardening tools.

“Nobody took me on this part of the tour,” Nico said in a wounded voice that was mostly joking, but not really. 

“The price of admission is Annabeth has to make you cry first apparently,” Jason snorted. “You don't hear me or Leo in there.”

“I had to find out about this place on accident,” Percy agreed with big pouty lips at her.

“You came in with a magic weapon, who would be crazy enough to arm you double?” Anneabth demanded, resisting the urge to kiss him at the end with godly self restraint.

Annabeth unlocked it, and inside were not gardening tools, unless you wanted to make war on your tomato plants.

“Don’t tempt Mr. D.,” Will sighed. He’d be drinking virgin bloody mary’s every other meal and stain his lips read and it just would not be pretty.

“Or the satyrs,” Percy agreed. They were way to proud of those strawberries and had grown bias.

 The shed was lined with all sorts of weapons—from swords to spears to clubs like Coach Hedge’s.

“Every demigod needs a weapon,” Annabeth said. “Hephaestus makes the best, but we have a pretty good selection, too. Athena’s all about strategy—matching the right weapon to the right person. Let’s see …”

Piper didn’t feel much like shopping for deadly objects, but she knew Annabeth was trying to do something nice for her.

“You really should have showed her the dummies first, that would have put her in the right mood,” Thalia agreed she’d missed a step. Target practice and striving to be the next to hack the most heads off was a great motivator.

“I should have shown her Hera’s cabin, that would put anybody in the right mood,” Annabeth scowled.

Annabeth handed her a massive sword, which Piper could hardly lift.

“No,” they both said at once.

Annabeth rummaged a little farther in the shed and brought out something else.

“A shotgun?” Piper asked.

“Mossberg 500.” Annabeth checked the pump action like it was no big deal. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt humans. It’s modified to shoot Celestial bronze, so it only kills monsters.”

“Um, I don’t think that’s my style,” Piper said.

“A pity,” Will snorted. He loved going in and oiling the guns personally, though he rarely got a chance to use them. His cabin preferred arrows for their range of enchanted capabilities so he never even got to borrow one from siblings, but he still had a few John Wayne movies in his head when he held them and imagined monsters with red bandanas covering their mouths.

“Maybe you could show me,” Nico offered, he’d never held a gun and hated the sudden feeling he had that if someone got his sword away he’d have to resort to raw power that drained him. He could use a backup weapon.

Will’s delighted grin promised it was going to be a trade worthy of the Mythomagic knowledge he’d been receiving.

“Mmm, yeah,” Annabeth agreed. “Too flashy.”

She put the shotgun back and started poking through a rack of crossbows when something in the corner of the shed caught Piper’s eye.

“What is that?” she said. “A knife?”

Annabeth dug it out and blew the dust off the scabbard. It looked like it hadn’t seen the light of day in centuries.

“I don’t know, Piper.” Annabeth sounded uneasy. “I don’t think you want this one. Swords are usually better.”

“You don’t put cursed stuff in there do you?” Magnus asked uneasily, hoping she wasn’t being called to by some possessed knife that would make her never hit her target or something.

“Those stay in the attic,” Annabeth promised, but then she hesitated, and couldn’t bring herself to lie to him. He’d be living there soon too. “Sometimes accidents happen, new kids show up with stuff they shouldn't. You shouldn't go in there alone until you know what you’re doing.”

“Oh trust me, you can skip this part of the tour for me,” Magnus promised, already resound to the fact he’d be making an F in that monster class.

“You use a knife.” Piper pointed to the one strapped to Annabeth’s belt.

“I think someone has an admirer,” Alex chuckled.

“Piper’s turning out better by the second, I’ll be happy to have her around,” Percy obviously agreed there was no one better to be like.

Annabeth blushed faintly and rolled her eyes at the two, but smiling all the same. She was used to her siblings looking up to her while crouching to be at her eye level, but it was still nice to hear of it continuing to happen.

“Yeah, but …” Annabeth shrugged. “Well, take a look if you want.”

The sheath was worn black leather, bound in bronze. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy. The polished wood handle fit beautifully in Piper’s hand. When she unsheathed it, she found a triangular blade eighteen inches long—bronze gleaming like it had been polished yesterday. The edges were deadly sharp.

Her reflection in the blade caught her by surprise. She looked older, more serious, not as scared as she felt.

“Lots of people do when they have a deadly weapon in their hands,” Alex grinned, though he looked far from innocent on a good day. When he got too bored and pulled his garret out and wound it through his fingers, he looked like a cat curled up, and ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

“It suits you,” Annabeth admitted. “That kind of blade is called a parazonium. It was mostly ceremonial, carried by high ranking officers in the Greek armies. It showed you were a person of power and wealth, but in a fight, it could protect you just fine.”

“I like it,” Piper said. “Why didn’t you think it was right?”

Annabeth exhaled. “That blade has a long story. Most people would be afraid to claim it. Its first owner … well, things didn’t turn out too well for her. 

“Piper and I could be blade buddies,” Percy chuckled.

“You’ve got to stop going around starting all these clubs Percy, we’re going to run out of space in camp for these meetings eventually,” Annabeth giggled.

“I refuse,” he sniffed, “we need more support groups! Have no fears though, you’ll always be there to make sure we don’t go crazy at the podium!” He gave her a gallant smile that only made her laugh harder, and wash away the stinging reminder it could have held why she’d be there herself. He’d seen the ghost in her eyes as she’d pulled her knife from the ashes where Luke had dropped it and tucked it away on Olympus.

Her name was Helen.”

Piper let that sink in. “Wait, you mean the Helen? Helen of Troy?”

Annabeth nodded.

Suddenly Piper felt like she should be handling the dagger with surgical gloves. “And it’s just sitting in your toolshed?”

“What am I missing?” Magnus asked with the kind of dread meaning he knew he didn’t want the answer.

“Um, she was a queen, her abduction was a chasm-” Percy began ticking off like a dreaded pop quiz, but he butted in first in hopes to get the important stuff to appease him before anybody else like Thalia wanting to go off about that story, or Nico saying how he’d met her ghost. 

“Cataclysm,” Annabeth reminded.

“Cataclysm of the Trojan War, she had a daughter named Hermione,” Percy paused and watched Alex and Magnus startle in surprise as he knew they would, the nerds. He went back to looking at the fingers he’d been ticking off and frowned. “Crap, I’m coming up blank, I know I listed five on that stupid test with more details.” He tapped his foot for a moment before he said, “oh, the Simpson guy depicted her as regretful for all the chaos she caused but most others claim, something about Dionysus,” he sighed in frustration and looked at Annabeth.

“Homer,” she corrected, “and you know this, her death…”

“They threw stones at her,” he knew that wasn’t right, but it was as close as he was getting.

“Stoned her, and not the way we mean it today,” she agreed.

“I’m not hearing why that made Piper freak out about it,” Magnus admitted.

“Piper seems very caught up on her Greek mythology, it’s a long sordid story with not a lot of pleasantries mixed in, and don’t get me started on Paris,” Annabeth summarized with interest.

Percy figured it would come up and bite Piper in the ass as usual no matter what Helen did or didn’t do, so he was very relieved when Will went on rather than letting his girlfriend give Magnus the whole chapter he’d skimmed. “Hey, weren’t there two dudes involved who also tried to kidnap Persephone?” He asked as he looked around at Nico. “Why did so many people want her?”

“Got me,” Nico shrugged.

“Just let it go Perce,” Magnus finally chuckled. “I assure you, I don’t need the myths to know when to run, or when Annabeth tells me to do this plan. She’ll just hand me the thing and we might all survive.”

“Works for me,” Percy agreed.

“We’re surrounded by Ancient Greek stuff,” Annabeth said. “This isn’t a museum. Weapons like that—they’re meant to be used. They’re our heritage as demigods. That was a wedding present from Menelaus, Helen’s first husband. She named the dagger Katoptris.”

“Meaning?”

“Mirror,” Annabeth said. “Looking glass. Probably because that’s the only thing Helen used it for. I don’t think it’s ever seen a battle.”

“Not a fan I see,” Alex snorted. “I’m guessing you skip right past the tragic romance section.”

“I don’t read for fun,” she said. Alex clearly looked at her like she was nuts, but he didn’t need a lecture on the difference between studying and entertainment when you could mix them as he turned away.

Piper looked at the blade again. For a moment, her own image stared up at her, but then the reflection changed. She saw flames, and a grotesque face like something carved from bedrock. She heard the same laughter as in her dream. She saw her dad in chains, tied to a post in front of a roaring bonfire.

She dropped the blade.

“Talk about your waking nightmare,” Will managed with a thudding heart. Gods, this poor girl. If Jason and Percy were being used as pawns because of their dads, then Piper was just a discarded piece before the game even began in this giant mess.

“I almost hope you take that knife back away from her,” Magnus agreed in pure dread. The last thing they needed was more chances to see different ways of the torture going on!

“But she won’t,” Thalia said grimly. Annabeth wasn’t the coddling, dotting kind of girl who would shield Piper from this harsh look into her future. She’d try and help her figure out what it meant, even if it didn’t involve Percy somehow.

“I won’t,” Annabeth agreed, wishing she could give her cousin an answer he’d want to hear at least once. ‘Mirror’ indeed. She’d looked into that blade twice just to study it when she had the history book open, but she’d never seen any such thing. Her books and Deaduls himself had suggested a few options for how Helen had stayed informed of the war through her tower, and here a theory was finally confirmed. She should have been ecstatic. Instead, she was all the more confused. It couldn't be possible Piper was a child of Zeus too and that was what activated it for this new girl…

“Piper?” Annabeth shouted to the Apollo kids on the court, “Medic! I need some help over here!”

“No, it’s—it’s okay,” Piper managed.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I just …” She had to control herself. With trembling fingers, she picked up the dagger. “I just got overwhelmed. So much happening today. But … I want to keep the dagger, if that’s okay.”

Jason whistled in deep appreciation of this girl. Whatever mess he was going to get into, he was more grateful by the word she’d be there with him. Piper had looked into the face of danger and picked that dagger back up without hesitation. She’d stab him in the back with it to save her dad or ask him for help, and at least now he’d be ready for either with complete understanding.

Annabeth hesitated. Then she waved off the Apollo kids.

“Okay, if you’re sure. You turned really pale, there. I thought you were having a seizure or something.”

“I’m fine,” Piper promised, though her heart was still racing.

“In other words, she’s your definition of fine,” Percy told his girlfriend accusingly.

“Meaning I have better cause than most to understand how fine she is,” Annabeth sniffed.

 “Is there … um, a phone at camp? Can I call my dad?”

Annabeth’s gray eyes were almost as unnerving as the dagger blade. She seemed to be calculating a million possibilities, trying to read Piper’s thoughts.

It was hard to pin exactly what she got out of all that. Annabeth’s mind could be as chaotic as Percy’s when it came to her ideas, theories, and strategies. 

Percy at least comforted himself that if he was there, he’d be just as confused anyways.

“We aren’t allowed phones,” she said. “Most demigods, if they use a cell phone, it’s like sending up a signal, letting monsters know where you are.

Alex made a deep throated noise of disbelief, half convinced Chiron had made up that rule just to have a blanket ban of them at Camp, but he couldn’t prove it until he got out of here. And actually got his own cell phone.

 But … I’ve got one.” She slipped it out of her pocket. “Kind of against the rules, but if it can be our secret …”

Piper took it gratefully, trying not to let her hands shake. She stepped away from Annabeth and turned to face the commons area.

She called her dad’s private line, even though she knew what would happen. Voice mail. She’d been trying for three days, ever since the dream. 

Percy’s heart went out to her with every word. He’d wanted so badly to believe the delusion it had all been a bad dream too, but he’d never woken up from this new world. He just hoped she’d be able to get real friends in Jason, not this fake memory crap that had been forced on her. He already knew Jason would help her without hesitation as Grover and Annabeth had once done for him.

Wilderness School only allowed phone privileges once a day, but she’d called every evening, and gotten nowhere.

Reluctantly she dialed the other number. Her dad’s personal assistant answered immediately. “Mr. McLean’s office.”

“McLean?” Percy said with interest, the name ringing some vague bell. Her dad was obviously rich and famous, that part wasn’t fake. “Do we know that name?” He asked Annabeth, that annoying feeling he’d thought he was done living through clearly had never left his brain, but a plague he’d lived with all his life he couldn’t really blame on a god. Hadn’t they sat around laughing at that for some reason?

She shrugged, thinking she’d seen it on some movie poster or other when they went to the theater, but they were terrible about keeping up with the newest popular celebrity. They went for the fun thrill of fake action heroes living through the dramatic stories while eating candy, not who did what behind the actors faces.

“Jane,” Piper said, gritting her teeth. “Where’s my dad?”

Jane was silent for a moment, probably wondering if she could get away with hanging up. 

“If she uses that going through a tunnel gig, I better hear some good fake static,” Alex sniffed.

“I’ll go crumple up a bag of chips right next to your ear just for you,” Will promised, always happy to help with production so long as Alex’s games only stayed in joking levels of violence.

“Piper, I thought you weren’t supposed to call from school.”

“Maybe I’m not at school,” Piper said. “Maybe I ran away to live among the woodland creatures.”

“She’s not entirely wrong,” Thalia snorted.

“Better than bragging she was abducted into a  cult who already had her armed,” Nico grinned.

“Mmm.” Jane didn’t sound concerned. “Well, I’ll tell him you called.”

“Where is he?”

“Out.”

“You don’t know, do you?” Piper lowered her voice, hoping Annabeth was too nice to eavesdrop. 

“She is not,” Annabeth shrugged.

“How could you accumulate wisdom if you don’t get it from the source?” Percy mock agreed.

“When are you going to call the police, Jane? He could be in trouble.”

“Piper, we are not going to turn this into a media circus. I’m sure he’s fine. He does take off occasionally. He always comes back.”

“He’s not a stray cat,” Will looked truly wounded for this poor girl’s fears being brushed off like this.

They’d all lived through the incessant problem of adults never taking them seriously and felt Piper’s fear and anguish deeply. 

“So it’s true. You don’t know—”

“I have to go, Piper,” Jane snapped. “Enjoy school.”

The line went dead. Piper cursed. She walked back to Annabeth and handed her the phone.

“No luck?” Annabeth asked.

“Because people usually curse when there is good luck,” Magnus sighed.

“People who like to be creative and keep everyone else guessing,” but Alex just said that to make a quip.

Piper didn’t answer. She didn’t trust herself not to start crying again.

Annabeth glanced at the phone display and hesitated. “Your last name is McLean? Sorry, it’s not my business. But that sounds really familiar.”

“Common name.”

“Along with all the Jacksons and Cambells and Olyolyoxnfree’s out there,” Percy shook his head. Piper was never going to wiggle out from underneath Annabeth’s questions if she was going to try playing dumb.

“Yeah, I guess. What does your dad do?”

“He’s got a degree in the arts,” Piper said automatically. “He’s a Cherokee artist.”

Her standard response. Not a lie, just not the whole truth. Most people, when they heard that, figured her dad sold Indian souvenirs at a roadside stand on a reservation. 

“Huh,” they all muttered. It didn’t seem to track with the joke Leo had made and the media circus his disappearance would cause if he was just popular in a niche community. More likely that was just the job Piper wanted her dad to have.

Sitting Bull bobble-heads, wampum necklaces, Big Chief tablets—that kind of thing.

“What’s a wampum?” Percy asked. It sounded like something that would be adorable while trying to kill him for a change.

“Kind of similar to pooka necklaces,” Alex eagerly answered, and Percy immediately regretted this. Alex very well could be about to con him into putting on a deer skin dress and moccasins if he wasn’t careful. “Jewelry that’s adorned with shells, to be specific. I’ve looked into their designs and rituals, but a lot of customs go into that I wouldn’t try to replicate, I just think they’re neat!”

“Cool,” Percy said honestly. He wondered how that related to shark teeth necklaces, he could make a hundred with ease if he wanted to.

“Oh.” Annabeth didn’t look convinced, but she put the phone away. “You feeling okay? Want to keep going?”

Piper fastened her new dagger to her belt and promised herself that later, when she was alone, she’d figure out how it worked. 

“The strap to the dagger, or the dagger itself?” Magnus asked in sympathy.

“Well I can help her with the latter, you stick them with the pointy end,” Percy smirked.

“Cannot wait to watch you train the swords class,” Jason snorted.

“Sure,” she said. “I want to see everything.”

All the cabins were cool, but none of them struck Piper as hers. No burning signs—wombats or otherwise—appeared over her head.

“Well this is just building up to be as dramatic as possible,” Will chuckled.

“She might be the child of some minor goddess who doesn't even have a cabin built yet at this rate,” Nico agreed in sympathy for her.

Cabin Eight was entirely silver and glowed like moonlight.

“Artemis?” Piper guessed.

“You know Greek mythology,” Annabeth said.

“I did some reading when my dad was working on a project last year.”

“I thought he did Cherokee art.”

Piper bit back a curse. “Oh, right. But—you know, he does other stuff too.”

Piper thought she’d blown it: McLean, Greek mythology. Thankfully, Annabeth didn’t seem to make the connection.

This was growing weirder by the moment. How was her dad related to Greek mythology, and famous, and they hadn’t heard of this guy?!

“Anyway,” Annabeth continued, “Artemis is goddess of the moon, goddess of hunting. But no campers. Artemis was an eternal maiden, so she doesn’t have any kids.”

“Oh.” That kind of bummed Piper out. She’d always liked the stories of Artemis, and figured she would make a cool mom.

“She makes a great big sister no matter the parentage though,” Thalia promised, her voice nothing but fond assurance. She already knew she’d be happy to have Piper join if she wanted.

“Well, there are the Hunters of Artemis,” Annabeth amended. “They visit sometimes. They’re not the children of Artemis, but they’re her handmaidens—

“Not my choice of word!” Thalia huffed at her sister, everybody instantly knowing this was a long running argument. “We don’t sew up her dresses and empty her chamber pots!”

“It’s the traditional word,” Annabeth insisted, a tease in her voice.

“It’s also traditional to throw other maidens into the ocean if they displease their elder sisters!” Thalia huffed.

“What an interesting story I haven’t come across, glad that tradition has faded,” Annabeth chuckled.

this band of immortal teenage girls who adventure together and hunt monsters and stuff.”

Piper perked up. “That sounds cool. They get to be immortal?”

“Unless they die in combat, or break their vows. Did I mention they have to swear off boys? No dating—ever. For eternity.”

“Oh,” Piper said. “Never mind.”

Thalia laughed and nodded that did tend to turn away most recruits. She’d been happy enough it was true. They said that the longer the heart was absent of something, the harder it became to feel that again.

She knew that wasn’t true though. Her fierce love for her brother had only grown more palpable with his absence as she’d unwillingly been trying to find him again in Percy and even Luke all these years, neither to real success. 

She hoped Artemis would understand. She desperately hoped her patron wouldn’t shun her…

Annabeth laughed. For a moment she looked almost happy, and Piper thought she’d be a cool friend to hang out with in better times.

Annabeth smiled in surprise. There was something she rarely heard. She was the girl she expected people to come to with their problems, not just to hang out. Percy had been a strange exception.

Forget it, Piper reminded herself. You’re not going to make any friends here. Not once they find out.

Annabeth sighed. It figured. The girl who decided she might be good friends with, wanted to burn down her camp and possibly the world too. Seemed those were the only friend’s she’d make outside of Percy.

They passed the next cabin, Number Ten, which was decorated like a Barbie house with lace curtains, a pink door, and potted carnations in the windows. They walked by the doorway, and the smell of perfume almost made Piper gag. “Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?”

“Oooh, I’m stealing that one,” Thalia laughed in delight.

“I’m worried Drew might consider that some kind of compliment,” Will frowned.

Thalia scowled and clearly began work shopping the insult with great scorn so that wouldn’t be possible.

Annabeth smirked. “Aphrodite’s cabin. Goddess of love. Drew is the head counselor.”

“Figures,” Piper grumbled.

“They’re not all bad,” Annabeth said. “The last head counselor we had was great.”

“What happened to her?”

Annabeth’s expression darkened. “We should keep moving.”

There was a collective wince around the room. Yeah, not easy to explain, and not a happy ending even if Piper did have sympathy for why Silena had done it.

They looked at the other cabins, but Piper just got more depressed. She wondered if she could be the daughter of Demeter, the farming goddess. Then again, Piper killed every plant she ever touched. 

“So do I, maybe she’s a long lost sister of mine,” Nico smirked.

“Eh, I don’t think it exempts her, maybe she just specializes in something specific, like she’ll be great at creating new environmentally healthy pesticides,” Will chuckled. 

“Or maybe she’ll trade in that dagger for a scythe at some point,” Jason agreed, “and just be really good at flinging dirt at people.”

Athena was cool. Or maybe Hecate, the magic goddess. But it didn’t really matter. Even here, where everyone was supposed to find a lost parent, she knew she would still end up the unwanted kid.

Everybody felt that way, often times even after they knew who their godly parent was if they couldn’t find an easy way to make a connection to them through their realm. It was a miserable feeling they had no way to tell Piper she wasn’t alone in.

For all they knew, they were hearing of the next Luke simmering in their camp if she was truly set on this path.

 She was not looking forward to the campfire tonight.

“But, s’mores!” Will said aghast.

He got a few small laughs, but they were starting to feel more on edge the longer this dragged on. They’d thought they were going to be here for Jason. This strange girls life was giving them anxiety, reinforcing more with every word they had no clue what was coming.

“We started with the twelve Olympian gods,” Annabeth explained. “Male gods on the left, female on the right. Then last year, we added a whole bunch of new cabins for the other gods who didn’t have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—”

“What are the two big ones at the end?” Piper asked.

Annabeth frowned. “Zeus and Hera. King and queen of the gods.”

Piper headed that way, and Annabeth followed, though she didn’t act very excited.

“Of course not, she doesn't have a bucket of eggs ready,” Alex smirked.

“Let alone toilet paper,” Percy chuckled, while the others paled in considerable fear at the vain hope these two were just kidding.

 The Zeus cabin reminded Piper of a bank. It was white marble with big columns out front and polished bronze doors emblazoned with lightning bolts.

Hera’s cabin was smaller but done in the same style, except the doors were carved with peacock feather designs, shimmering in different colors.

“A shame her cabin sounds so pretty, I’d almost hate to throw excess chicken at it,” Alex huffed.

“Almost,” Percy rolled his eyes. He’d stoop to cow dung if he could get away with it.

Unlike the other cabins, which were all noisy and open and full of activity, the Zeus and Hera cabins looked closed and silent.

“Are they empty?” Piper asked.

Annabeth nodded. “Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods—they’re called the Big Three. Their kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last seventy years or so, they tried to avoid having demigod children.”

“Tried to avoid it?”

“Sometimes they … um, cheated. I’ve got a friend, Thalia Grace, who’s the daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he’s a son of Poseidon. And there’s a kid who shows up sometimes, Nico—son of Hades. 

The three almost wanted to laugh, but it wasn’t happening. Summed up like that almost made it sound like none of them were destined to be there, even though Thalia and Nico did so by choice.

Except for them, there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods. At least, not that we know of.”

“That you know of,” Jason echoed with interest. He was still trying to reconcile the whole Zeus/ Jupiter thing in his head. He’d been wondering constantly in the back of his mind if he might even have more half-siblings at his Camp, but somehow he knew that wasn’t right. Children of the Big Three, as everybody in here called them, felt as much a rare oddity to him as they would at Camp Half-Blood. It wasn’t a great feeling to be so universally an exception.

Annabeth laughed in awkward agreement, but the look of heartbreak on Thalia’s face left room for little else.

“And Hera?” Piper looked at the peacock-decorated doors. The cabin bothered her, though she wasn’t sure why.

“Anybody who looks at it too long starts feeling residual shame and guilt for their many sins,” Nico mocked.

“If you start lecturing us on Catholic Guilt I’ll throw a cross at you,” Percy promised, even if he was pretty sure Nico was being serious. He’d easily believe that was one of Hera’s talents, she liked throwing the blame off herself whenever she could after all.

“I might risk it just to prove to you I’m not a vampire,” Nico rolled his eyes. 

“Goddess of marriage.” Annabeth’s tone was carefully controlled, like she was trying to avoid cursing.

“Haven’t got to hear that,” Alex said with interest, dual eyes on Annabeth as if already assessing how much pushing it would take to get her there.

“You don’t want to,” Percy promised, and Alex nodded and agreed to let it go for now.

 “She doesn’t have kids with anyone but Zeus. So, yeah, no demigods. The cabin’s just honorary.”

Magnus knew it was an unpopular opinion, but he still felt kind of bad for her. She could at least start her own club or something like Artemis to make some connection to the kids down there, otherwise nobody would ever have reason to remember her for anything other than Zeus’s cranky wife.

Jason was more than happy with Hera keeping to herself wherever she was the rest of the year though. He had a nasty feeling as he rubbed absently at his tattoo that even with good intentions, her stepping in didn’t always turn out well.

“You don’t like her,” Piper noticed.

“We have a long history,” Annabeth admitted. “I thought we’d made peace, but when Percy disappeared … I got this weird dream vision from her.”

“Telling you to come get us,” Piper said. “But you thought Percy would be there.”

“It’s probably better I don’t talk about it,” Annabeth said. “I’ve got nothing good to say about Hera right now.”

Still all to true, but Annabeth was looking between Jason and Percy now with a sense of having wool over her eyes. She’d been too angry by being sent on a wild goose chase to put it together before, but there was no way Hera would send that kind of vision if she didn’t have something planned. Hera would never care if a son of Zeus lived or died, why send her after him? She was missing something, and as her hand held tight to Percy’s, she had a nasty feeling where this was headed.

Piper looked down at the base of the doors. “So who goes in here?”

“No one. The cabin is just honorary, like I said. No one goes in.”

“Someone does.” Piper pointed at a footprint on the dusty threshold. 

“Nobody even goes in there to clean it?” Magnus asked blankly.

“Are you volunteering?” Percy snorted.

“No,” he agreed.

On instinct, she pushed the doors and they swung open easily.

Annabeth stepped back. “Um, Piper, I don’t think we should—”

“We’re supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?” And Piper walked inside.

There was at least good hearted laughter around the room from that, Annabeth’s sounding particularly fond. This girl was either very brave, or very stupid ignoring Annabeth hesitating over something and charging in like this.

But there was an uneasy feeling in the room all the same. An unreasonable instinct of their home being invaded, again, with Jason there amongst their cabins while Percy was off with the unknown. Changes and questions now lingered in every page of this as Piper once again flushed out like startled birds, another oddity in a place it shouldn’t be of their home.

Hera’s cabin was not someplace Piper would want to live. It was as cold as a freezer, with a circle of white columns around a central statue of the goddess, ten feet tall, seated on a throne in flowing golden robes. Piper had always thought of Greek statues as white with blank eyes, but this one was brightly painted so it looked almost human—except huge. Hera’s piercing eyes seemed to follow Piper.

At the goddess’s feet, a fire burned in a bronze brazier.

Piper wondered who tended it if the cabin was always empty.

A stone hawk sat on Hera’s shoulder, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower. The goddess’s hair was done in black plaits. Her face smiled, but the eyes were cold and calculating, as if she were saying: Mother knows best. Now don’t cross me or I will have to step on you.

An expression any of the gods could make and it wouldn’t feel out of place, but there was something about the way Will read it, as stiff and unfriendly as any of them would have, that really reinforced it.

There was nothing else in the cabin—no beds, no furniture, no bathroom, no windows, nothing that anyone could actually use to live. For a goddess of home and marriage, Hera’s place reminded Piper of a tomb.

Magnus only winced again at Will reading that as if he couldn’t fathom her deserving anything else, like it only backed up this idea that her bad attempts to help Percy by throwing Nico aside were just as hollow. Magnus’s eyes darted uncomfortably away, and saw Jason muttering to himself though, tapping on his knee with a far away look on his eye. He’d never liked the idea of God, let alone multiple of them, and he sure didn't plan on offering up any of is food into the fire if he actually could stay there for a time, but he still felt like he had an idea of how Hera probably never felt like she fit in and all this was doing nothing to help. It would probably just piss her off if someone offered redecorating options. Still, it was one of those Greek tragedies that made all this feel a little too poignant to not be the sick of joke of these so called Fates. The marriage goddess trapped in a loveless marriage.

But it suddenly wouldn't surprise him to see soon enough Jason dumping some of his food into the brazier with her name. Magnus clearly wasn’t alone in at least having some mixed feelings on the issue.

No, this wasn’t her mom. At least Piper was sure of that.

She hadn’t come in here because she felt a good connection, but because her sense of dread was stronger here. Her dream —that horrible ultimatum she’d been handed—had something to do with this cabin.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Thaila said acidly. Percy would not be surprised if she risked it all and in fact notched an acid arrow just for this goddess if they ever had the misfortune to run across her again.

She froze. They weren’t alone. Behind the statue, at a little altar in the back, stood a figure covered in a black shawl. Only her hands were visible, palms up. She seemed to be chanting something like a spell or a prayer.

Annabeth gasped. “Rachel?”

The other girl turned. She dropped her shawl, revealing a mane of curly red hair and a freckled face that didn’t go with the seriousness of the cabin or the black shawl at all. She looked about seventeen, a totally normal teen in a green blouse and tattered jeans covered with marker doodles.

Percy felt a deep pang in his heart as he sank in his seat with shame. He didn’t bother to ask, he knew Rachel wasn’t safe at camp doing this now, because she’d been trapped in here when this was supposed to be happening! 

“I know,” Annabeth murmured to him. The most frustrating part of all this was knowing that even when they finished these, they’d still have an endless list of priorities to sort out, starting with where Hearth and Rachel had vanished to in that mad Titan’s delirium of face blindness.

Despite the cold floor, she was barefoot.

“Hey!” She ran to give Annabeth a hug. “I’m so sorry! I came as fast as I could.”

They talked for a few minutes about Annabeth’s boyfriend and how there was no news, et cetera, until finally Annabeth remembered Piper, who was standing there feeling uncomfortable.

Thalia was in no good mood herself, but they’d all been sitting in tense silence for far too long now and she always knew of an easy way to alleviate that even a small bit. “Well at least she’s not like some people who would have butted in by now and probably tipped the fire over asking ten dumb questions.”

Percy grinned. “Only ten? Thalia, that’s nothing!”

Will was more than happy to sit back and let the two antagonize each other half the day if he could, but Annabeth clearly wasn’t going to have that as she threatened to tie them together and throw them in a corner before Percy got past his third stupid question.

“I’m being rude,” Annabeth apologized. “Rachel, this is Piper, one of the half-bloods we rescued today. Piper, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle.”

“I hope you’re not the one to introduce her to everyone,” Alex sniffed. “Apollo did a much better job of all her titles and full name.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, he’s hardly a god I strive to emulate,” Annabeth shrugged.

“The friend who lives in the cave,” Piper guessed.

“See, that’s a proper introduction and should be added to the list,” Alex chuckled.

“Her titles take any longer to announce and we’ll all die of boredom before we hear another prophecy,” but Percy almost made that sound like a good thing.

Rachel grinned. “That’s me.”

“So you’re an oracle?” Piper asked. “You can tell the future?”

“More like the future mugs me from time to time,” Rachel said. “I speak prophecies. The oracle’s spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn’t make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future.”

Alex and Magnus grimaced in particular disgust for that description, but Jason decided not to let the moment pass without any fun since they were a bit on a roll. “The Oracle Mugs Rachel, how’s that for a grand, mysterious chapter title.”

“I like it,” Alex nodded, “but it won’t count unless Rachel actually gets mugged.”

Percy at least wished they’d use a better word, but considering Will was holding proof Rachel probably wouldn’t object, he didn’t bother.

“Oh.” Piper shifted from foot to foot. “That’s cool.”

Rachel laughed. “Don’t worry. Everybody finds it a little creepy. Even me. But usually I’m harmless.”

“Usually?” Percy laughed. She was one of the most dangerous girls Percy knew with her shrewd eyes that nothing got past, and that was saying a lot.

“Harmless,” Annabeth agreed with an eye roll. The girl had a history of nearly ruining her life before they’d made peace.

“You’re a demigod?”

“Nope,” Rachel said. “Just mortal.”

“Then what are you …” Piper waved her hand around the room.

Rachel’s smile faded. She glanced at Annabeth, then back at Piper. “Just a hunch. Something about this cabin and Percy’s disappearance. They’re connected somehow. 

Thalia and Annabeth exchanged grim looks, their worst fears all but confirmed. They trusted Rachel’s hunches.

Which meant Hera was going to suffer for this.

I’ve learned to follow my hunches, especially the last month, since the gods went silent.”

“Went silent?” Piper asked.

It almost would have been funny. The gods were never exactly talkative on the best days. Will almost smiled, to imagine his blabbermouth of a dad with his mouth sealed shut with cement…but the idea instantly lost whatever amusement it had because nobody could do that to one of the Olympians. They were doing it to their children by choice, for a historically bad reason, if they were piecing this together right.

Rachel frowned at Annabeth. “You haven’t told her yet?”

“I was getting to that,” Annabeth said. “Piper, for the last month … well, it’s normal for the gods not to talk to their children very much, but usually we can count on some messages now and then. Some of us can even visit Olympus. I spent practically all semester at the Empire State Building.”

“Excuse me?”

“The entrance to Mount Olympus these days.”

“Oh,” Piper said. “Sure, why not?”

“Appropriate reaction, she’s a fast learner,” Magnus sighed. He was about at that phase too. Hera could show up in person and start handing out ceramic mugs and at this point they’d all just roll with it. This couldn’t get any crazier!

“Annabeth was redesigning Olympus after it was damaged in the Titan War,” Rachel explained. “She’s an amazing architect. You should see the salad bar—”

“Anyway,” Annabeth said, 

“Wow, now we know this is an important update!” Percy agreed seriously. 

“Starting about a month ago, Olympus fell silent. The entrance closed, and no one could get in. Nobody knows why. It’s like the gods have sealed themselves off. Even my mom won’t answer my prayers, and our camp director, Dionysus, was recalled.”

“Your camp director was the god of … wine?”

“Yeah, it’s a—”

“Long story,” Piper guessed. “Right. Go on.”

“Very fast learner,” Annabeth nodded in approval.

“I mean, out of context, it does sound wild someone has the god of alcohol staying at the camp with teenagers,” Alex chuckled.

“With context it’s just obnoxious,” Percy huffed.

“That’s it, really,” Annabeth said. “Demigods still get claimed, but nothing else. No messages. No visits. No sign the gods are even listening. It’s like something has happened —something really bad. Then Percy disappeared.”

“And Jason showed up on our field trip,” Piper supplied.

“With no memory.”

“Who’s Jason?” Rachel asked.

“My—” Piper stopped herself before she could say “boyfriend,” but the effort made her chest hurt. “My friend. But Annabeth, you said Hera sent you a dream vision.”

“Right,” Annabeth said. “The first communication from a god in a month, and it’s Hera, the least helpful goddess, and she contacts me, her least favorite demigod. She tells me I’ll find out what happened to Percy if I go to the Grand Canyon skywalk and look for a guy with one shoe. Instead, I found you guys, and the guy with one shoe is Jason. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Not making any more sense from this end,” Annabeth sounded more disturbed the more questions piled up around them. And the few answers they had scraped together only felt more foreboding the longer they lingered in here with access to the outside world.

“Something bad is happening,” Rachel agreed. She looked at Piper, and Piper felt an overwhelming desire to tell them about her dream, to confess that she knew what was happening—at least part of the story. And the bad stuff was only beginning.

“Guys,” she said. “I—I need to—”

Before she could continue, Rachel’s body stiffened. Her eyes began to glow with a greenish light, and she grabbed Piper by the shoulders.

“Oof,” Alex and Jason winced at their bad joke making an actual comeback like this. 

Jason felt an extra stab of concern. She was getting the quest?! He’d go with her and help all he could of course, but his presence in this camp grew more confusing by the moment if he wasn’t even meant to be of any importance. At this rate, Piper was going to have Annabeth and Rachel go out and find her dad with her.

Piper tried to back away, but Rachel’s hands were like steel clamps.

Free me, she said. But it wasn’t Rachel’s voice. It sounded like an older woman, speaking from somewhere far away, down a long, echoing pipe. Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice.

The room started spinning. Annabeth tried to separate Piper from Rachel, but it was no use. Green smoke enveloped them, and Piper was no longer sure if she was awake or dreaming. The giant statue of the goddess seemed to rise from its throne. It leaned over Piper, its eyes boring into her.

The statue’s mouth opened, its breath like horribly thick perfume. It spoke in the same echoing voice: Our enemies stir. The fiery one is only the first. Bow to his will, and their king shall rise, dooming us all. FREE ME!

Piper’s knees buckled, and everything went black.

Will’s voice was choked with confusion by the end, staring blankly at the words he’d just said as if waiting for them to rearrange themselves into an order that actually made sense.

That was not a prophecy?! “Guys, I don’t think it was the Oracle that hijacked Rachel this time-”

There was a blinding, bright flash of light like a nuclear bomb had just been dropped in the middle of the room.

Will hadn’t even come close to blinking the sunspots out of his eyes when he heard a stranger's voice that warmed him to the bone all the same from hearing it half his life in his dreams.

“It was Hera.”

…”Dad?”

PJOHOOPJOHOOPJOHOO

Yeah, about those changes I mentioned coming up…. :)

 The fic will ‘divert’ from here; I will be posting a separate story altogether about some shenanigans that will ensue before the actual reading of the books continues, it’s sitting at about ten chapters right now. The first of which is up right now, entitled How Do You Triple The Gods. I will be posting again Christmas then onto the usual Mondays. If however you just want to patiently wait for the actual book reading to continue with no context for some changes that will be happening, I will shortly return to this fic on a date sometime soon, with chapter V LEO! Until then, do enjoy!

[poisonpercy]

Nico’s character is misunderstood both by his haters and his fans

(additional question: how would YOU describe his character?)

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I have said a few times that I’m an avid hater of the Nico fandom, but I do like him as a character in canon so of course I’m gonna agree with this opinion. His fans have a very weird perception of his character. I see some people infantilize him (gross) and other make him the stereotypical child of Hades (angry, bad mood, ect.) And for some reason apparently everything that happened to Nico is somehow Percy’s fault (which is weird bc Percy isn’t in charge of Nico, and they’re also both children). Anyways, I don’t really see many actual Nico haters in my sphere of the internet so I can’t say how they tend to characterize him.

To get back to the main point, to me, Nico is a deeply hurt child (they all are), and he was really young when we were first introduced to him. From the start, he’s very sweet and energetic but then Bianca dies. So of course his personality is going to change and it’s only natural for him to blame Percy and lash out at him because of kid logic (Nico asked Percy to keep Bianca safe and she died so Percy must be the reason she’s dead), and also emotions are just confusing. Anyways, I think he’s a very inquisitive and quiet person, but he also still has parts of childhood personality that pokes through. He may hold grudges more and keep to himself, but I that’s because of the hurt he experienced when he was young. Overall, Nico is his own person. His story and character does not revolve around Percy or Will, and I feel like people forget that too often.

[dogwittaablog]

heard he’s a MILF hunter and his friends used to call him Riggins. not sure how much truth there is to that.

his only known girlfriend was during draft year and she commented (or tweeted, don’t remember) on a post that said “Nico and Nolan have talked X amount of times since the draft”. Her response was something along the lines of yeah he doesn’t answer my calls…they broke up shortly after.

dude just wants to fish, golf, and hunt, tbh don’t blame him for the fishing tho. i would also quit and wanna fish all day. the other i don’t get but u do u.

the media was brutal to him, philly went through a terrible development period and i don’t put much fault on the kid. i do however hold a grudge against nathan mackinnon who hit him 11 seconds into his first shift back in vegas. 😡if i ever see natemac it’s hands first questions later

The Riggins nickname sounds like I’ve heard about it before but I also think that’s from puckbunny blogs. Though I know his actual nickname is “Gollasper”back home it’s definitely an inside thing with him and his buddies, so no context I can provide with that.

Yeah one of the rumours was his ex girlfriend was ghosted after the draft, though that was all coming from puck bunny blogs. I don’t remember seeing her tweet about it but this was also 3+ years ago. His ex is still followed by all his sisters and mom, she likes some of his moms post too, time to time. So I really think they just ended cause of own personal reasoning and distance, that’s my assumption.

[iwannascreameurekaa]

YES

Even if Will and Nico were mad at him for "killing their siblings" or whatever you wanna call it (WHICH WAS NOT PERCYS FAULT BTW AND THEY DONT THINK THAT, at least NTO anymore) Nico and Will are not the type of people to hold grudges like that ESPECIALLY after becoming kinda friends with Percy idk what their stand is on their friendship but they're comfortable around each other etc etc

as for Leo y'all need to CALM DOWN he barely disliked Percy and HE DOES NOT HATE HIMMMM honestly I see some people saying that Leo would want to KILL Percy and that's absolutely insane

great points btw ur 100% right sometimes I feel like I need to spoon feed this information to people because they just don't get it!!

Can we please stop making unwanted, antagonistic rivalries between Percy and the people he genuinely cares about? It's getting tiresome.

Like, some of y'all act like Percy killed Bianca and then laughed in Nico's face with how much part of the fandom likes to act like Percy doesn't care. They'll talk about how he said that he wanted to cut Nico's 'stupid head off,' like he would ever actually do that. Like the same guy who hesitated to harm Luke when he was possessed by Kronos would actually follow through on what was a visceral reaction to betrayal when Percy knew that people's lives were on the line. Like he didn't spend months and months of searching for Nico, concerned for his safety. Like he didn't hide his parentage, wanting to make sure that the other campers didn't treat him differently as a son of Hades. Like he didn't steel his resolve to be the one to fulfill the prophecy so Nico wouldn't be in more danger than necessary. Like he didn't introduce Nico when he first appears in Percy's dream in the Last Olympian as 'My friend, Nico.'

And then there's Leo. And sure, Leo was angry at Percy at first because Calypso thought he had abandoned her to her fate, and that was the side of the story that Leo heard. But some people act like he actually did so, ignoring the fact that he made the gods promise on the River Styx to free her, something that they were then bound to do. And then he was kidnapped and put to sleep for months with his memories wiped. Where on earth would he have had the time to ensure they kept their promise? Even Leo, who still didn't know the whole story, essentially went, "Damn you, you're impossible to stay mad at." Yes, they had a rocky start, but they do form a genuine friendship.

And Will. While I think it be cool to explore how Will felt during the second Titan war, and all the angst that came with it, I don't think he'd blame Percy for Michael's death. Perhaps at first, or maybe even as a little voice in the back of his head, but that isn't going to stop him caring about the campers, Percy included. Y'all act like he wouldn't chain Percy to an infirmary bed if he learned just how many times Percy has had suicidal thoughts or feelings.

[fryingpan1234567]

OKAY I SAW A POST ABOUT THIS AND I THOUGHT IT WAS VERY INCORRECT SO HERE WE GO I’M FIXING IT

RIORDANVERSE IN HOGWARTS HOUSES

Gryffindor: Hazel Levesque, Piper McLean, Thalia Grace, Clarisse La Rue, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, Thomas Jefferson Jr., Halfborn Gunderson, Mallory Keen

Gryffindor’s main traits are bravery (obviously), being headstrong, poor impulse control, team players. Hazel? She prevented the apocalypse by killing a giant, her mother, and herself, single-handedly putting Gaea to sleep again. Piper is the girl who told The Daughter Of Athena to ignore her brain and just feel. Thalia was literally immortalized for her bravery on Half-Blood Hill. Clarisse fought the drakon in the Battle of Manhattan and kicked its ass by herself. Reyna’s mother is the goddess of strength and bravery, and she has the ability to share that through her troops. TJ physically cannot say no to a challenge. Halfborn wins brawls with two axes and no shirt. Mallory armed and blew up a fucking car bomb because some stranger pushed her to. This group is the definition of YOLO… I guess except for TJ, Halfborn, and Mallory. They’re more like ‘YOLI’- you only live infinitely.

Hufflepuff: Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Frank Zhang, Magnus Chase

Puff People traits- kindness and patience, balance and mediation. But they also take those who don’t fit into any other house. That’s my main reason for Nico; it’s like his whole character. Will and Magnus are both healers exasperated by their friends and chaotic partners almost dying all the time. Frank is a shapeshifter with crazy diverse lineage, meaning he doesn’t quite fit anywhere as well. This group is needed to be the mediums of their groups.

Ravenclaw: Annabeth Chase, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Samirah Al-Abbas

Before you come at me for stereotyping Annabeth as an Athena kid = Ravenclaw, Ravenclaws are witty, quick thinkers, and as logical as possible. That’s literally her. This is the girl who came up with, on the spot with a broken leg, to trap Arachne with her own webs. Rachel is The Prophet of the Greeks, and she acts the part. Sam has the best work/school/religion/life balance I’ve ever seen in my life, and she’s nailing all of it. These girls are the brains of every operation and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Slytherin: Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Calypso, Leo Valdez, Alex Fierro

MY PEOPLE- Us Slytherins are cunning and ambitious, duh, but also loyal to a fault and would kill for our family, blood or not. Percy is easily a Slytherin- loyalty is literally his fatal flaw. Jason is interesting, but I wanted to put him here because his actual life goal is getting his orange and purple friends to get along. Calypso would have been a major factor in Percy and Annabeth’s deaths in Tartarus because of that curse she threw at him; that girl holds a grudge. Leo Valdez is the most stubborn egotistical asshole we all love to see, and his sarcasm is one of the best things about him (Percy too). Alex… I really shouldn’t have to explain. They’re like the most Slytherin Slytherin ever.

anyways!! Percy Jackson!! is not a Gryffindor!! HIS FATAL FLAW IN CANON IS LOYALTY. THAT IS A DEFINING TRAIT OF SLYTHERINS.

thank you for coming to my ted talk

[facewithoutheart]

Thanks for the tags @fatalfangirl, @captain-aralias, @artsyunderstudy, @cutestkilla, @orange-peony, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @bookish-bogwitch & @you-remind-me-of-the-babe 😍 loved reading your words this morning.

Some bonus-COBB content after the break: an alternate version of their morning after as shared in my latest chapter.

Baz POV

Then he’s standing and wrapping me in his arms, nuzzling at the side of my face, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Did you sleep well?”

“Perfectly.” I’m a puddle of emotions and I cling to him like I might sink into the floor. “Thanks for the goat.”

“Told you I liked them.”

We hold each other: bare chest to bare chest and I’m itching to make light of this. To point out my earlier lapse into puberty and how, back at Watford, it was my good luck to have a voice change over summer and Simon’s poor luck to suffer the indignity of a cracking voice in front of me, a boy who never let mistakes go unnoticed.

(How can the past stay buried when we have so much of it?)

Simon breaks the silence. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Tea, if you have it.”

With one last squeeze, he releases me with a brief peck to my lips. “I’ve Earl Grey but it’s old, unfortunately.” He walks to the kitchen and I follow. “Nico brought it the last time he visited, which was, admittedly, awhile ago. I’ve converted to coffee.”

“So American,” I tease.

He shrugs as he searches his pantry. “I always liked it, and the tea’s never the same here.” He locates the box with an, “Ah hah!”

“Do you miss it?”

Pulling a kettle from the counter to fill under his tap, he looks over his shoulder. “England?” He turns back to his task. “I suppose I miss some of it, but I’ve grown to like Austin. It’s sunny, the people are friendly, and, god, the food.” He sets the kettle on his stove, turning around to lean against the counter. “And it’s not like I’ve family there or anything.”

“You’ve got Natasha and Malcolm.”

His smile misses the top half of his face. “Yeah, but it’s not the same.”

I roll my eyes. “I swear, there were times after the band split where I thought they might side with you in the divorce.”

“They’re your family.”

“That doesn’t mean they don’t still love you. Or that they don’t see your side. Or that I’m without fault.” I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re the one who dropped off the planet and moved to another continent.”

“I was trying to give you space.”

“I didn’t ask for space, Simon. Or, if I was, I wasn’t asking for you to slink off to America.”

He scrubs a hand through his hair. “Then what were you asking for?”

“I don’t know.” I hug myself tighter. “I didn’t know then and I don’t really know now. I think I just wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me.”

“Yeah, well,” he huffs a dismissive laugh, “mission accomplished. You always were good at pinpointing the best place to stick a knife.”

My fingers twitch. “Did you send that tweet?”

His eyes snap to mine. “You’re not seriously asking that.”

“Then who did?”

The kettle whistles behind us. Simon turns to pull it off its burner, dropping it onto a cool one with a loud clunk that makes me jump. With a sigh, he makes my tea, one cream, one sugar. Just the way I like it.

“I’m sorry,” I tell his back.

His head nods but he doesn’t face me, his arms brace the counter on either side of my tea. Finally, he turns around and hands me the mug he’s made up.

“I’m sorry,” I say again, but this time he shakes his head.

“I didn’t–”

“You don’t have to–”

“--send that tweet.”

“--tell me if you don’t want.”

I decided: FUCK THIS ANGST lol and gave them a little honeymoon instead. It didn’t feel right for them to fight about this. Maybe it’s unrealistic to some people, but I just wholly believe that they’re older, more mature, and have lived ten years soaking in regret. They want this to work, desperately. Not that they don’t still have things to fix, but it’s more their own personal guilt, rather than holding onto past grudges.

Ooh also I managed to get a photo of Mr. Face’s Eat Me shirt:

Tags & hugs to @sillyunicorn @mostlymaudlin @martsonmars @urban-sith @whatevertheweather @shemakesmeforget @stardustasincocaine @forabeatofadrum @aristocratic-otter @moodandmist @johnwgrey @takitalks @jbrrring @excalisbury @otherpeoplesheartachept-2 @confused-bi-queer @palimpsessed @tea-brigade @creepyspice @mrskrementz @bazzybelle @gekkoinapeartree @dragoneggo @letraspal @im-gettingby @annabellelux @nightimedreamersworld @messofthejess @ionlydrinkhotwater @basiltonbutliketheherb @ileadacharmedlife @stitchyqueer

[cabinofimagines]

Nico’s ABCs

 Him, I whisper fondly as I try to not replicate the Solangelo’s ABCs (spoilers)

Pairing: Nico di Angelo x reader Request: No Warnings: A few mentions of past trauma, because it is Nico after all. Word count: 2.1k

- Asja

Activities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Going on basic dates in the outside world, getting used to the ‘future’. Nico has already had a lot of experience in the world, but only as a demigod and never as a teen. Tell him where to go and he will get you there, with some detours sometimes. 

Beauty - What do they admire in their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Your determination to go on for so long. Life isn’t easy and he admires the fact that you’re resilient still, even after what your life has thrown your way. He loves how you have passions, or hobbies and how he is a part of your life. 

Comfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

He wouldn’t exactly be clueless on what to do - but he wouldn’t know how to act either. He will talk to you, get you somewhere private and for from there. He is very good at picking up when things are off and he often knows what’s coming before you do. This means that he will take care of you before you figured you needed it. If you need space he grants it to you too, because he understands the need to be alone more than any other person.

Dreams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Your past doesn’t define your future - but it does matter. Nico hasn’t had a good past, and that’s and understatement, so he is scared of what the future will hold. Rather than thinking of dreams and going forward he wants to be here, and go from there. He first needs to close old wounds before being able to form dreams, so he doesn’t picture the future further than tomorrow. 

Equal - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

In terms of togetherness you both are equals, however you need to take the lead in dates and touch. Nico doesn’t have the need to be close in proximity with other people, but he finds calmness in being close with you. He fears he might scare you away or hurt you one day and therefore doesn’t initiate a lot, so you need to be a bit more dominant that way.  

Fight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Grudges are something the son of Hades will hold. If you fight and it is your fault, he will need time to warm up to you again. Do put in effort though, because he won’t try anything out of himself. If it’s his fault that you’re fighting, he will still need time, but guilt then comes in. He might come up to you one day, and very quietly say that he’s sorry, and why he is sorry. 

Gratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Nico is often hyper aware of where you are in his vicinity and what you’re doing. He might not always say it, but he appreciates the times you take care of him when he can’t. He is very grateful for your existence and you putting up with him, and this he does tell you every so often. 

Honesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

This boy has never been able to trust anyone really in his life. His whole story is a secret and you may only know the general lines of it. He just finds it really hard to share and is still working on it, so he will keep stuff from you. Nico doesn’t know how to share what he wants to, and he really wants to, but he has been hurt enough and doesn’t want the same thing to happen to you. 

Inspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Being with you has urged Nico to get better mentally. He has a ‘Therapist’ (Mister D.) which he talks to and he tries to take care of himself more now. He wants to heal, and leave his past but it is hard. You will need to be there for him, but you will also need to draw the line when it gets too much. You are his significant other, not his therapist, and he knows that and respects it. Help him heal and get through the day. 

Jealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Nico won’t like it if you don’t spend much time with him, but he is not possessive of you. He knows that you are his own person, and he too needs time off from relationships some days. Don’t expect him to get all cuddly because you ignored him, because he will just assume that you needed time to yourself and respect that. 

Kiss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Kisses are not Nico’s forte. He might kiss your forehead or cheek, but if you want to kiss him on the lips you need to take your time. Nico often asks if he could kiss you before doing so when he initiates the act. The first kiss was after a date, you just got back and Nico was tired from shadow travelling. His tired mind went ‘I wish I could kiss you,’ and apparently so went his voice, because you told him he could, softly pressed your lips together after which Nico rested his head on your shoulder and promptly fell asleep. 

Love Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

The feelings would’ve been festering for a while now, and Nico was very aware about them. But he wouldn’t confess, scared of losing what you already had together. You will have to ask him on a date, and he will agree on it.

Memory - What’s their favourite memory together?

Resting together underneath a tree, in the shadow. You were ranting about something - he can’t recall what - and the way your eyes showed your passion made him so soft inside. He got lost in your words as kept going, and for a moment it was just normal. Two teens, on a date, talking and listening. He smiled softly and let you lead the way with your speech. 

Nicknames - What do they call their s/o?

Nico will come up with some snarky nickname, but then you know (affectionate). In other times, when he is more tired he might mumble words in Italian, which you figure are very affectionate towards you too. Don’t expect him to use nicknames when other people are around, because he won’t.  

On Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Butterflies in his stomach is the only thing making him aware of his feelings and he hides it. People aren’t aware that he likes you, because the lingering gazes aren’t long enough to be noticed and no one sees his eyes long enough to seem them go soft when you are there. When you both start dating it gets progressively more obvious, but sometimes you have to tell people you are dating before they see it. 

PDA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Hand holding is the furthest he would go in daily PDA. Holding each others pinkies perhaps too. As much as he hates to admit it, he doesn’t want to be seen as ‘soft’ in the public and therefore will hardly show love in public too. He might say ‘Love you.’ real quick as a bye if he feels like it, but that’s how far that goes. 

Quirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

Nico’s shadow travelling is a blessing. You both are easily able to sneak out of camp without being caught and can often go on dates for that matter. Do give him his rest though, by letting him sleep when you get back. 

Romance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He is romantic in the sense of - he doesn’t know better than to be a gentleman in a relationship. Romance is not important to him in a way some may want, he would much rather have a good bond and go from there. First you were friends, and then you were dating, and both times are good times. 

Support - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Nico has a lot going on for himself, but he will try to be supportive and realistic. If you rant to him about what you’re trying to achieve, he will try to give you advice, although it’s not always good advice. If you tell him what he could do to help, he will try to. If you’re struggling he will ask how he can help, if he can, but he understands the importance of achieving your own goals too.  

Thrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice up your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

A break is what Nico needs, not a thrill. You two easily settle for the routine camp gives you and have outings together every other week. Nico needs stability for once in his live, and if you can grant it he will be forever grateful.

Understanding - How well do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Bad feelings are more Nico’s forte than good ones. If something’s up with you he will know and act accordingly, but if you’re happy he is slower to pick up on why. Nico is a very closed off person and finds it hard to trust people and share his story, so don’t feel hurt when he doesn’t tell you stuff. 

Value - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

It’s not easy for Nico to get attached to someone and to built a relationship with anyone - whether it’s platonic or not. Therefore, when he does get a relationship he would be very dependent on it and value it above most other things in his life. He may not show it, but you matter more to him than he would like to admit. 

Wild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He talks about you a lot to his friends. If he visits Hazel, she suddenly knows everything. If Jason asks how Nico has been, it only takes 2 minutes for him to go to you as a subject of conversation. He can’t really help it, because you’re often on his mind and then he just wants to talk about it. 

XOXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Contrary to popular believe, Nico isn’t touch starved. Cuddles sometimes make him suffocate and kisses are just weird in the beginning. When he warms up to you sometime into the relationship, there will be more kinship but nothing over the top. You might cuddle while watching a move and forehead kisses happen more often but he won’t be an affectionate puppy suddenly. For Nico, words of affirmation are more important than touch. 

Yearning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He will lay on his bed, look at the ceiling, and just yearn. If he really misses you he grabs a pillow and starts hugging it. Nico wasn’t aware on how much he needed your presence until it was gone, and now he just wants to see your face and a hug. He might forget to eat at this point, but as soon as you’re there he gets better. 

Zeal - are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Nico would do anything for the relationship when it’s formed. Depending on if said things are actually possible to do or not, he will go through great lengths. He draws the line at sacrificing others for your relationship - you might matter a whole lot to him and he wouldn’t know how to deal with losing you but he can’t lose other people too. 

Taglist:   @beneaththeiceandsnow,  @bandshirts-andbooks

[yonemurishiroku]

Reminiscence to that specific prompt of mine that I’s never write wherein some god of vengeance trying to take advantage of Nico’s sufferings to hurt the rest and they are cheering so excitedly “They wanted to let you die! Make them suffer for everything you’ve gone through!” but Nico has expected it so he’s just like “It’s not their fault to be wary” and in conclusion, Nico never holds any grudge. You can’t be disappointed if you don’t have any expectation.

And what hurts the most is the aftermath, when you realize that you’ve disappointed someone so much they’ve lost expectation from you.

Actually the really sad thing about the Seven seriously considering leaving Nico to die is that if Nico found out he probably wouldn't even get mad at them, he'd just be like "Yeah that makes sense" because he's so used to people not trusting him that even though it would hurt he'd just accept it as normal.

On the bright side I think Jason especially (Hazel too but she was against leaving him so she's not actually part of this) would be very upset about Nico not being furious at him for suggesting they leave him to die and I feel like that could be a really fun fic. Give me Jason going "Nico please you are my best friend, you should be screaming at me right now, please love yourself just a little bit."