#and the beat thalia lives her life to

[igotanidea]

New rules: Damian Wayne x reader

part 4 of "Family rules" series.

A/N: bit of a filler, cause it's been 3 months(!!!!), but promise next part will be more eventful :D

***

„What is this?!” her father yelled, almost throwing the Gotham newspaper in her face.

“I—”

“Let me tell you what this is! This is you kissing Damian Wayne! And your face is all over the newspapers’ front pages!”

“Stop screaming at me!” she spat back feeling her self-control slipping.

“You better tread carefully young lady. Last time I checked you were still living in my house.”

The nightmare began the second she got back from school, still reeling from everything that happened in the principal’s office. Y/N could barely step over the threshold when a tight grip on her shoulders yanked her back, pushing her into the chair in the living room, with a very angered Mr. Y/L/N hovering above her. Felt like a freaking interrogation because she dared to behave like a teenage girl falling in love for the first time in her life.

If her mother was still alive, she would understand. She would sit down with her, ask a lot of questions, let Y/N blush and be supportive as a mother could.

Instead the young girl had to deal with her father, who clearly forgot that part of the role, focusing only on acting as a CEO, whose daughter was fraternizing with the enemy.

And it made her feel guilty.

Guilty for her own feelings, as if falling in love was something shameful. As if he had to pick the right person to whom her heart should start beating. Or not. Not that she could have experienced that, yet¸ but judging by the screams and rage she could say that in the future her father might try to marry her off out of reason.  

“Dad, please listen, I –” her pleading tone was supposed to make the man realize that she wasn’t just a bargaining chip in his business’ development.

“I understand.” The response was cold, emotionless, almost ruthless, leaving no space for arguing.  

“No you don’t understand! You don’t understand! How could you possibly understand love when even mom was nothing more than a trophy wife for you-!“

Her outburst was immediately cut off by a slap and sharp stinging on the cheek followed by the reddened skin and pulsing blood.

“This is what your mother’s upbringing caused.” Her father hissed “ungrateful, stupid, snouted brat. But let me tell you something. This ends here. And if you want to keep living on my expense, you will do as I tell you!”

“I’m 17! I’m underage, you can’t just cast me out!”

“Unless you want to find out what I’m capable of, I advise you to listen to the plan you’re just a pawn in.”

***

“What is it, Damian?” Bruce asked his youngest son when he came back from school. If there was any anger or disappointment in him, he did a great job hiding it.

“It’s nothing.” Said youngest muttered bellicosely.

It obviously had to come to this stupid awkward conversation with his father but Damian was not going to admit anything easily. And the fact that the boy only just realized that he might be slightly in love with Y/N Y/L/N was causing him to act even more coldly and aloofly than usually.

“Son…”

“I said it’s nothing!”

“So you kissing that girl was just you having fun? Or maybe you were trying to humiliate her?”

“What? No!”

“Look, you are a boy. It's okay if you want to blow off steam. It’s understandable.” Bruce smirked, clearly setting a trap for Damian with the reverse psychology trick.

“You understand? Because you had so much blowing off steam when you were younger?" Obviously the boy raised by Thalia Al-Ghul and Ra’s Al-Ghul was smarter than to fall for something so childish. “Besides, it’s such a humiliating experience. I have no interest in primitive youthful pleasures and amorous activities, father.”

“You sure about it?”

“Positive.” Damian crossed arms over his chest, having his face expression under perfect control.

“Good. Get ready for patrol then. We’ll be leaving soon.”

Damian nodded and with stern look and pursed lips left the room, allowing Bruce to finally let out a sigh of worry. His son may have been a skilled vigilante trained in restraint of emotions, but he could not trick Batman himself. It was impossible to notice how Damian’s eyes were focused on that little Y/L/N during all of last night’s gala. Showing much more than just resentment. And then the dance, which Bruce didn’t even have to force him into. And the way his boy was holding that girl. It was almost obvious that Damian had in fact an interest in amorous activities.

And unlike Y/n’s father, Bruce was not mad about it. In fact, he was quite relieved. As long as possible the relationship would not detriment Damian’s Robin duties of course. But seriously, as a father of a 17 year old, Bruce knew that it was only a matter of time when dilemmas and problems related to love and adolescence would come forward.

And unlike Y/N;s father Bruce was going to watch it carefully, intervening when needed, giving a push here and there, but without obvious control.

***

She was crying a waterfall, holding onto the bruised cheek wondering how to best cover it up so no one at school would ask silly questions.

Locked in the room on the first floor, making the most stern resolution to avoid Damian Wayne for dear life. Even if that was the last thing she would do in her life, she wouldn’t get closer than three rows of desks in the classroom.

For what Y/N cared, Damian Wayne was now officially dead to her.

***

He was sitting on the branch of a giant tree next to her house, dressed in Robin costume, observing how the girl walked into her room with a hand on her cheek, though the distance didn’t allow him to uncover why. Was she sick? Would she be at school tomorrow? Maybe the press got to her and she hurt herself running away from the paparazzi?

“Damian.”

AH! He almost fell to the ground.

“Yes, father?”

“What are you doing?”

“Observing.”

“What?”

“The target.”

“Hm.”

“What now?”

“Unless the target changed age, gender and appearance—”

“Our criminal is currently running down 34th street.” Damian cut his father off abruptly and roughly “his tires are about to burst in about 100 meters due to the explosive I planted there. The explosion will give us enough momentum to jump into action and catch him with the stolen goods in his trunk. That is if we get into action in 3…2…1…” he swiftly shot into the air without paying attention to his companion and even less to his words.

As if Batman was trying to suggest Damian might have been watching her.

Huh! Ridiculous!

***

“Hey Y/n, what happened to your face?” The same girl that used to laugh her out about ending up on the pages kissing Damian, guffawed the next day seeing the poorly covered bruise on Y/N’s face.

“None of your fuckin business -“

“Oh, such bad words coming out of the little princess' mouth, isn’t it?”

“Get lost Lisa!” Y/N shut the locker and tried to walk past her bully.

“You will not ignore me!” Lisa hissed and yanked the other girl’s hair back.

“GIRL FIGHT!” someone yelled and in a blink of an eye the corridor was filled with students cheering on one or the other girl as they started to circle around each other waiting for the moment to strike. Before teachers arrived Y/N was on the floor, blocking the hits that Lisa, who was sitting atop her kept on throwing.

“GET OFF ME!”

“YOU WILL RESPECT MY POSITION IN THIS SCHOOL!”

“YOU’RE A BULLY!”

“I’M A QUEEN!”

“OF MENTAL SICKNESS!"

“HE’S MINE!”

“Wait… what?” Y/N stuttered and the moment of confusion ended up in the perfectly aimed nose punch and a quite decent bleeding. Followed by Lisa’s vindictive smile.

“Now your nose matches your cheek.”

“ny-noze….”  tears pricked from Y/N’s eyes from the combined pain and shock. It was not just about the fight, but everything that happened in the last couple days. Her father’s abuse because of falling in love and now Lisa’s torment because of pretty much the same followed by a girl’s jealousy.

“What is happening here?” Fuck, why were the teachers always appearing  after the drama happened.

“She attacked me!” Lisa exclaimed, putting on an innocent face. “So aggressive, I suppose it’s because she was raised only by one parent.”

For a second the principal and the tutor were looking between untouched Lisa and beaten up, bleeding Y/N. It was clear who was the casualty, nonetheless it was Lisa’s family who’s been giving generous donations to school.

“Get up from the floor Y/N.” she was finally instructed and on shaky legs and with dizziness she clumsily stood up still clutching her nose. “This is your second stunt this week. You’re coming to my office and this time, I won’t go lightly on you.”

“It was not her fault.” Someone from the crowd of the students dared to speak up and the people parted, revealing the fuming….

Damian Wayne.

“it was Lisa—”

“Oh, I don’t feel well!” Lisa exclaimed accidentally falling right into Damian’s arms “I feel like I’m going to faint—”

“Mr. Wayne, take Mrs Thomas to the nurse’s office so she can be tended to.”

“What-?” Damian swiftly avoided Lisa’s fall and the girl almost ended up on the floor. “No.”

“N-no?”

“No. Y/N was the one who was attacked. And for crying out loud, she’s the one bleeding and needing medical attention. So no, I’m not taking her—” he threw a glance at Lisa “anywhere when there’s someone else in need.”

“U-uh…” the principal still had in mind the humiliation he was subjected to last time when he had Damian and Y/N talk to him. “Fine! Fine, you take her to the nurse, though it’s completely unnecessary and –” half a sentence and two of them were already halfway away “Fuck. I mean, you all go back to your classes! There’s nothing to see here! Now go, before I put you all in detention!”

***

So her resolve to avoid Damian was broken on the first day. 

And it was about to get even harder from now on. 

_________________________________________

part 5: Cracking

@6000-fandoms @beyond-your-stars @mikyapixie

@heartz4miz @crookedmakerfury @mariam12344 @celestair

@faimmm @hornyslasher @urdarlingali

[witchhazelevesque]

I just finished rereading The Lost Hero and here are some notable things and stuff I’d forgotten:

Will had a quiver of arrows on his back when the trio arrived at camp- so his characterization was changed for BoO

Mr. D left a veritable forest of grapevines in the living room ‘to remember him by’

All the Hephaestus kids have Murphy beds except for Beckendorf/ Leo

3 Hypnos kids

Rachel has a prophecy pit crew that get her a stool and take care of her when she swoons from oracle business

Annabeth made an oath on the Styx to Jason not to tell anyone yet about Thalia being his sister

Piper is a really quick thinker

Jason is very good at reading people

Leo wishes Madea goes back to the fields of punishment “where she belonged” (resentful lil guy 💕)

Leo DID get to attend his mother’s funeral, glad to hear

In the 5th grade Leo made a ‘steam powered chicken chucker’ as a science project (precursor to the chicken nugget smoke screen mayhaps)

At least 12 Hephaestus kids at camp

At this point summoning lightning almost makes Jason pass out

There’s a parallel of Lityerses not being able to beat Jason’s Roman style sword fighting and the Romans not knowing how to combat Percy’s Greek style in SoN

Jason jokingly calls someone ‘General Eisenhower’, so a hint about him having military knowledge and knowing it so well he uses it as insults/jokes

He recognizes TV news broadcasts, so he prob watches those

Jason vaguely recognizes Piper’s dad in a picture because he has seen him in some movies

Piper calls Hedge by his first name by the end?? Leo uses Tempest as a power source- just plugs an electric saw into him and vroom vroom

Jason fought two different giants in the same day and both times literally went “guess I’ll die”

Jason refers to himself a praetor of the First Legion, though it is officially called the Twelfth Legion. Unclear if this is a mistake/ oversight or if it relates to Jason’s desire to change the Legion’s name that is later mentioned in SoN. Probably a mistake since it’s not brought up again to clear it up

Jason got back most of his memories, except for the location of Camp Jupiter (or the name actually)

Piper sleeps (at least once) with her dagger under her pillow

There’s a reference to 2009 and 2010 Party Ponies events

Hedge is Piper’s dad’s life coach

Piper tells Jason she’d follow him anywhere, paralleling how Frank later says he’d follow Percy anywhere

Chiron calls Lupa his ‘counterpart’

Leo was the one to figure out that Jason and Percy had been exchanged by Hera but then the story makes him forget this by the end to let Jason be the one to explicitly deliver that info??

[poppitron360]

Raise your hand if you have a million bajillion works-in-progress!!!

Because I sure as hell do.

Anyway, I want to see which ones I should prioritise, so I’m doing a poll. Out of the 97 fic concepts i have in the vault, all with varying levels of completion, I have narrowed it down to 12 (the max number of poll options on Tumblr).

Please Vote!

Category 1- ANGST:

1. Ok not too many spoilers for this one but it’s SUPER angsty. All I can say is Leo faces a very creative punishment from Nemesis for cheating the prophecy and coming back to life, and it’s called “The only sad person in paradise” (undertones of Valgrace).

2. Leo deals with coping with the trauma of dying. LOT of angsty headcanons, including one where the design for the chb bead for the summer hoo is set in was the moment of Leo’s death. And he just has to keep that around his neck the whole time, and it’s chocking him. The opening line is “Every so often, Leo needed to remind himself that his heart was still beating.”

3. A curse befalls camp half-blood that’s slowly reversing the effects of their powers. Hecate cabin’s spells are being undone, plants are un-growing, arms healed by Apollo cabin are re-breaking. Magic is being unwound, and then Leo’s body starts to ache, and he realises… does that include a certain Physician’s Cure?

Category 2- VALGRACE

4. Platonic Valgrace (Romance implied)- “Never go to bed angry”- Leo and Jason have an argument on the Argo II. Jason thinks Leo won’t understand him because he’s never had to live up to the expectations of leadership that come with being a child soldier. Leo thinks Jason won’t understand him because he’s never had to fend for himself, he believes everything Jason has is because of who his father is. They storm off (Jason in the literal sense), argue with themselves for a bit- I did a really cool thing where I switch POVs every line or so, as their arguments parallel each other, like in a TV show where two characters are rehearsing a conversation with the other, but using the HOO multiple-POV thing- and then they go to sleep. They both have weird vision/flashbacks/prophetic dreams, where they experience a day in the other’s childhood. They then realise they completely misunderstood one another, and they’re not as different as they thought.

5. Jason and Leo go to New York pride. That’s the whole fic.

6. Instead of… whatever that ending to BOO was, the Gods reward Leo for his sacrifice by bringing Esperanza Valdez back to life. She thanks Jason for taking care of Leo while she was gone, and they have a heart-to-heart. They are officially boyfriends in this. Jason keeps being reminded of his own reunion with Thalia, and how Leo had stayed with him through that. He vows to do the same.

Category 3- MARRIED VALGRACE:

7. Leo and Jason get married (A classic “Wedding Episode”)

8. Just a fic describing married life with Leo and Jason- it’s called “Violets and Marigolds”

9. A fic from the POV of Leo and Jason’s kid, Isabella Valdez. Some angst, but I don’t have the full plot outlined yet. She’s adopted, and they don’t know her true godly heritage, and Leo suspects she might be mortal, and maybe Lupa made a mistake. Leo and Jason argue over whether she should join the Legion (They’re living in New Rome). Leo struggles with his fear of hurting the people he loves with his powers.

Category 4- MISCELLANEOUS:

10. Platonic Perleo- Percy and Leo get captured by government agents and have to escape Area 51 (Vaguely inspired by an episode of Helluva Boss)- VERY NERDY. This is a very fun one.

11. Leo talks to Hestia about… life, I guess. I started writing this while still on TLH and never found an ending, but it’s a good concept. Leo learns to accept his powers as something that can be good, when he only sees the bad. Hestia tells him “If fire was only about danger and destruction, then it would be the symbol of Ares, not Hephaestus.”

12. Thalia, Luke and Annabeth find little Leo while on the run. Leo and Annabeth bond over engineering. Luke tries to use Leo’s trauma as leverage to get Leo angry at the Gods. He tries to put the blame of Leo’s mom’s death on Hephaestus, since he’s responsible for giving Leo his powers. He points out how the Gods are all-powerful, and yet they leave the four of them- their own children- to starve on the streets. Leo in canon harbours a lot of resentment for his situation growing up, and Luke could easily spin that to justify his own anger.

Tagging people who might be interested:

@four-leafed-queer-gal @lavenderfairiez @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @imasimpdealwithit @123letsgobestie @ginnyluna @euryvices @ollieisanerd @sleepyycapybara @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @keefessketchbook @frankzhang-appreciation-posts @hollow8007 @fairytalesociology @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh

If you have any suggestions for things to add to these fics- leave them in the comments. A lot of these I’ve struggled to flesh out/find endings for. Any help is much appreciated and you will be tagged in the fic if I use it.

Also, Lmk if you want to be tagged in any/all of these!

[mororlesbian]

I think that what the PJO TV series is doing, at least so far, is impressing just how dangerous monsters are to young demigods and how lucky our main trio is in surviving this long. The books did this too, of course, but when comparing them to the TV series and the minor changes made when adapting them and being able to fully realize that yes these are 12 year old kids facing ancient terrors ready and willing to murder them, they accomplish slightly different things. Namely, in TLT, the Disney+ adaptation shows us the dangers of the world demigods live in, while the books communicate, sometimes unintentionally, just how strong Percy is and how much potential he has.

For instance, the Furies. Mrs. Dodds is the first monster Percy faces in both, that stays the same. However, in the books, Alecto takes Percy away to a secluded place, interrogates him, then tries to kill him. In the series, for simplicity's sake, we skip the seclusion and jump straight to the interrogation. Percy, scared and confused out of his mind for good reason, stumbles and falls over, and manages to stab Alecto before she reaches the killing stage, taking her by surprise. IN THE BOOK, Percy immediately starts fighting for his life. He dodges a godsdamn Fury, catches a pen out of the air, and then does 'the only thing that [comes] naturally': SWINGS THE SWORD and KILLS A FURY. A reminder that Furies, in the original myths, were ancient creatures of violence and destruction that Athena herself had to pacify, thus earning them the moniker 'Kindly Ones.' And Percy, a 12 year old child, kills one with no training. Like, yes, she clearly didn't expect him to be armed, but she's older than the Olympians. She and her sisters hunted Thalia down, too, so it isn't like she's out of practice or something. Percy just has killer instincts and intrinsic talent to match. This sets a little bit of a different tone going forward: where in the show, Percy survives purely by catching Alecto off guard, showing the full danger of the world and the monsters and gods within it, in the book, he beats a Fury with just about every disadvantage imaginable. He's still terrified, and it effectively communicates just how much danger a demigod is in at any given moment, but it also shows that Percy is ridiculously dangerous in his own right.

The bus encounter takes this a step further. Whereas the book places Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in imminent danger, the show takes a different approach, instead opting for the Furies' goal to be somewhat clear, to the point of Alecto talking to Annabeth and proposing a deal. Annabeth, with all the skill of 5 years of training, distracts a Fury and lands a knife throw, but even as the trio escapes, Alecto is largely unconcerned. She lets their diversion play out, allows them to run, and confronts them at Medusa's lair knowing full well that she has the upper hand. She's not distracted, she knows every trick each of the questers could pull out. To her knowledge, there is absolutely no way they can win as they are, and the audience recognizes this by the way she acts. The only way they beat her is by, once again, taking her by surprise. Medusa's severed head made invisible is something Alecto never expected, and thus the danger of the world and the luck and genius of our trio is reinforced. The bus scene in the book, though, continues with the trend of making Percy an inexperienced threat to the status quo. Upon revealing himself, the Furies hesitate. Dodds wraps her burning whip around his hand, impeding him and making his hand feel like it was 'wrapped in molten lead', but Percy is still able to fend off both of her sisters at once, knocking one away and killing the other. Again, these monsters are older that the Olympians and wildly dangerous. Annabeth and Grover both take on Alecto, and in the time it takes for them to restrain her, Percy kills the third Fury and has a moment to tell Dodds to eat his pants in Latin. It's a tense encounter, and the risk posed to all three heroes is felt throughout, but once again, Percy is shown to be a force unto himself, taking out two Furies with his sword hand not at full capability.

The books definitely aren't always the most accurate in terms of in-universe power balancing, but I think we can look at The Lightning Thief like this. Book!Percy is an example of why Big Three children were forbidden. With no and minimal training, and very little in the element of surprise, he manages to amass kills on all three Furies. The world is deadly, and the books and his narration definitely get that point across, but it also gives us a glance of what Percy has the potential to be, if he survives long enough to grow into it. The series, with the visual of three literal children on a quest while being hunted by terrors, some older than anybody they know, including Mr. D and Chiron, shows us exactly why Camp Half-Blood's population is so sparse and young, why Thalia never made it to safety, why Luke's quest was the last until now, and why the gods ignoring their children is such an issue, aside from the obvious of making their kids feel unloved and unwanted. Their world is hazardous, and the demigods are in constant danger outside of Camp. The Furies are relentless, only able to be beaten when caught off guard and largely unconcerned by the heroes they face. Monsters are forces of nature, overcome with a combination of luck, surprise, and skill. The danger is pervasive, even in media made suitable for kids, and the alternative perspective this medium is able to take is going to make the progression of the series so satisfying.

[thesummerstorms]

Look, I hope for her sake that Thalia has had some time to process her shit show of a life while she was with the Hunters.

But I'm just really convinced that in the Annabeth Wayne verse, seeing Annabeth return to Gotham and, willingly or not, reunite with her family would kick at a bunch of old, barely closed wounds.

She will never get the image of tiny little Annabeth in the alley out of her head. Grey eyes in a dirty, scared face. Tattered pajamas and beat up pink and purple sneakers. A tiny hand wrapping around Luke's knife. This little girl's willingness to go away with complete strangers if only someone will believe her about the monsters thrown in sharp contrast with her fear when Luke asked if she had family.

When she came back to life, that little girl was all grown up, no longer clutching at Thalia's hand for comfort. But Thalia has never forgiven or forgotten.

She never forgave herself for what happened to Jason. Why would she ever forgive Annabeth's family, who had so many more means of protecting her and still so utterly failed?

And don't get me wrong, I love Thalia. But based on her interactions with Percy in The Titan's Curse? I can totally see her deciding to make that Dick Grayson's problem.

Bruce Wayne is an obvious target for her contempt- and boy does she give it to him, without hesitation or second guessing whether she's being fair. Here's one more parent who has failed their demigod kid. The richest man and greatest detective whose daughter took to the streets and begged not to be returned to his home.

But with Dick I feel like it would take on a really personal element because of how similar and yet how different their situations are as Annabeth's adoptive older siblings.

Maybe it's a little bit jealousy, some subconscious fear that if Annabeth "forgives" Dick, she not only won't need Thalia anymore, she won't need Thalia to be her sister anymore.

But a hell of a lot of it is projection, looking at this older sibling who failed to protect their younger sibling and lost them for years, thinking they were dead.

Thalia doesn't stop to acknowledge that Dick was a grown man with his own life living in another city. That he wasn't even in the solar system when Annabeth ran away. That doesn't matter.She stayed for Jason. Jason was her whole life until he wasn't. And she still failed him.

The resentment is familiar and sharp and bitter. Dick failed, she failed, how dare he not do more.

Thalia may try to hide it from Annabeth because she knows Annabeth won't approve, that it would hurt her more than anything. And so much of it is subconscious anyway.

But it's just so fun if Thalia loathes Dick because they both love their sister, Anna Elizabeth Wayne.

[hyperfocuscentre]

Cupioromatic Leo Valdez being obsessed with the idea of having a relationship, imagining himself in one ever since he knew what love was. Cupioromantic Leo Valdez never being able to truly put someone in the place of the blank shadow of a figure that played the role of his imaginary lover. This figure being the wrong fit for all the people he thought he had a crush on, yet him pushing them into it's place anyway.

All the people.

Hazel, who was one of the easiest to imagine because for a moment, it seemed like she liked him ‘back’. For a moment only, because then Leo found out she liked Sammy and god did he find it so shocking, so uncomfortable to actually see himself, or someone who looked almost identical to him, in a relationship with an actual, living person. To see someone so identical to himself flirt and feel for another.

He may want it, but he didn't want it.

Calypso, who seemed to be in a similar place to him. She too, longed for something that was so, so far away. She too wanted romance, but it was out of reach, an unfortunate thing that tortured her from above but never fell into her palm.

For a while, they tried to create something, force feelings, and love, and a happy relationship, but it wasn't true, it wasn't real. She left, decided to try and have a real life; something that she had also been denied for so long, but could have now. She left, and Leo was alone again.

Khione. Thalia. Jason. Names that he attempted to force a meaning upon, but failed. They weren't crushes, or loves or anything of the sort. They were just Tantalus' desperate grabs at ripe fruit, a desperate attempt for something deemed impossible by a higher figure.

Cupid or Aphrodite or whatever other stupid love god with their stupid love plans, had condemned him.

All the people, all the fish in the sea, yet none made Leo's heart beat a different tune.

[captainsophiestark]

Each Others' Constants

Annabeth Chase x Platonic!Reader

Gif is originally from this really cool Happy Birthday Annabeth post! Go check it out and give the creator some love!

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2022! Requested by Anon :)

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Prompt: “I’m not alone and neither are you”

Summary: Y/N first came to Camp with Annabeth, Thalia, Luke, and Grover. Their lives have all taken very different, winding paths, with many ups and downs, and after the betrayal of Luke, Y/N’s first boyfriend, they decided to go far, far away from Camp Half-Blood for college. They come back regularly, but when they return for the winter break of their senior year, after the Battle of New York, they realize they might need to make a point of coming home a little more often.

Word Count: 2,464

Category: Angst, Fluff

A/N: Major spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, if you haven’t read it, and spoilers for the beginning of HoO! If you haven’t read either, check them out, they’re great!

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I came to a stop at the top of Half-Blood Hill and put my hands on my hips as I looked down into the valley below, a smile on my face. I looked over my shoulder to find the cab driver still staring at me, a curious look on his face, so I gave him a cheery wave. He scowled back at me and then drove off, like a typical New Yorker.

I’d missed it here.

Camp Half-Blood had been like a home to me for years. I’d first arrived eight years ago with a group of other Half-Bloods and our Satyr, and over that time, a lot had changed.

Thalia, one of my best friends, had died and come back to life. Grover, my other best friend, became a member of the Council of Cloven Elders. Luke, my former friend and first boyfriend, had turned traitor only to give his life defeating Kronos. And Annabeth, my baby sister in everything but blood, had grown up into an incredible, beautiful, strong young woman.

I couldn’t have been more proud of her.

As for me, I’d left Camp Half-Blood just before Luke had turned traitor, about four years ago now. Instead of staying around the Camp I’d basically grown up in, I’d left for college, deciding to go abroad and see the world after so many years in the same place, happy but afraid of the outside world. I’d come back last summer, to help fight the Battle of New York, only to leave again once the dust had settled for my senior year of college.

Now, I’d just gotten back for winter break. Camp Half-Blood had been my only family for a while now, so of course, I’d come back to spend it with them. Our normal protective bubble had let just the lightest dusting of snow in, and in the wake of the changes Percy, Annabeth’s boyfriend, had called for after the Battle of New York, the Camp was livelier than I’d ever seen it in the middle of the winter.

I took one last beat to survey the scene in front of me, then started heading down the snow-covered hill to say hello to everyone. They’d known I was coming back for the holidays, but so far, no one had noticed my arrival.

As I got closer and closer to the Big House and the familiar (but newly expanded) ring of cabins, I started to get a little worried about why that might be. I could feel a tension in the air that had only ever meant something bad in my experience here, and as I got closer the tone of voices coming from the people rushing about sounded more urgent than excited.

“Hey!” I called, stopping the first camper I came across. I didn’t recognize her, which felt a little strange, since I used to know everyone at Camp, especially those who stayed over the winter holidays. I pushed the thought out of my mind however as I noticed her worriedly looking behind her, like she had somewhere to be. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know…” she started, giving me a bit of a suspicious look. I stared right back, and after a second, she apparently decided I probably wouldn’t have been able to get into Camp if I’d been a threat. “I woke up and everyone was freaking out about something. One of my friends said they heard somebody’s missing, but I don’t know who.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. We’d just survived a war. We did NOT need some new danger, especially not so soon.

“Where’s Annabeth?” I demanded. “Or Grover, or Chiron?”

“I don’t know… you could always check the Athena Cabin?”

I grit my teeth, incredibly frustrated but trying not to take it out on some kid who’d done her best.

“Alright, thanks,” I said, then took off without another word. If Annabeth had gone missing, especially while I’d been away, traveling the world instead of here, with her…

“Y/N!”

I turned around at the sound of my name to see Malcolm Pace, one of the Athena kids around the same age as Annabeth, speedwalking towards me. I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or more concerned.

“Malcolm! What’s happening? I found a camper who said someone was missing-”

“Percy. Percy went missing sometime last night.”

I put a hand to my forehead, trying to process the news. My gut reaction was incredible relief that it wasn’t Annabeth, but that quickly faded back into a horrible, sick feeling. I loved Percy like a little brother too, and he and Annabeth had finally gotten to their happy ending. This was not good, in any way.

“Annabeth’s in the Athena Cabin,” he said, taking a step towards me and Cabin 6. “I think you should probably come see her.”

I nodded, dropping my hand from my forehead and letting the urgency of the situation clear my mind. I could sort through the worry and fear later. Right now, there were things that needed doing.

First and foremost, checking on Annabeth.

I marched through Camp with Malcolm, laser-focused on my goal. I passed a few other campers I knew and we exchanged curt nods, but neither of us tried to stop and chat. We all knew there were more important things going on now. Hopefully, we’d have the time for small talk later.

We reached the Athena Cabin, and I found a few younger, worried-looking campers hovering outside. I headed for the door and Malcolm made to follow me, but I paused and put a hand up.

“Malc, I think it might be a good idea if I go in and talk to her alone, for a second,” I said. Malcolm nodded and took a step back.

“Of course,” he said, then turned to the campers still hovering around the door. “C'mon guys, let’s go check in with Chiron and see if there’s something productive we can do to help.”

I nodded my thanks to him as he rounded up the stragglers and got them to leave, then turned back to the door. I took a deep breath, then opened it and stepped inside.

I found Annabeth in the middle of the room, papers and notes spread out all around her. She wore one of Percy’s favorite hoodies, and my heart broke a little at the sight.

“Annabeth?” I said, my voice quiet as I slowly approached her. She whirled around as soon as she saw me, and even though I’d seen her just a few months ago, I couldn’t help being struck with the realization of just how grown up she was now. It felt like yesterday she was a little seven year old wielding a ball peen hammer, ready to brain Luke, Thalia, and I when we’d first found her. Now, she was a junior in high school and almost as tall as me.

And she looked absolutely heartbroken.

“Y/N,” she breathed, staring through me as much as she was staring at me. Her blonde hair was a mess in its pony tail, and she had mascara smeared around her eyes like she’d been rubbing at them. I took a few more steps across the room, and she didn’t move an inch the whole time. Finally, I got close enough to pull her into a hug. As soon as I wrapped my arms around her, she collapsed into me, and I could feel her sobbing even though the tears were silent.

“Oh, Beth…” I breathed as I held her tighter. I wanted to take the pain away, but I knew from plenty of experience that there was nothing I could do except be there for her.

We stayed like that for a few long minutes, not speaking, and I could tell this was an emotion dump that Annabeth had been fighting off for a long, long time. Finally, though, she shifted a little bit, resting her head on my shoulder as the tears slowly calmed.

“We were supposed to be done with this,” she finally muttered. I rubbed calm, slow circles on her back as she continued. “When we beat Kronos in New York, it was supposed to be over. Some terrible prophecy from Rachel for the next generation of demigods. Not us.”

“It’s not fair,” I echoed, squeezing her as tight as I could. “It’s total bullshit that after everything you’ve been through, you have to deal with something else, Annabeth.”

She took a few more shaky breaths, but didn’t pull away from me. She breathed in like she was getting ready to say something, but then paused. I stayed silent, waiting, letting her take her time. Finally she breathed, barely above a whisper, “I’m just sick of feeling so alone. With Percy, I finally stopped being alone.”

My heart shattered in my chest, and I had to fight back a few tears of my own at her words. I could deal with my own emotions later, but right now, Annabeth needed me.

“Why did you feel alone before Percy?” I asked, being careful to keep any kind of judgment or opinion out of my tone. She shuddered, and I held her closer, trying to give her all the love and support I could without saying words. She didn’t pull away to look at me as she responded, her words half-mumbled like thoughts she was still working through.

“When I was a kid, we had such a clear, close group, you know?” she started. “It was you, me, Luke, Thals, and Grover against the world. And then… and then Thalia died. And Grover started working on other assignments and his own quests and goals. And… and you and Luke… got together, and you always included me, but… it wasn’t the same. And after Luke’s quest, he started getting more distant anyway, and then you left for school and Luke turned on all of us, and I’ve made other friends here, but… for most of my life, I’ve had to rely on myself. Take care of myself, be enough for myself. And I am enough for myself. But with Percy… it finally felt like I had a partner to go through everything with. And now, after we survived a war together, he’s gone. And I’m alone again.”

I waited as Annabeth finished her statement, gathering my thoughts and just in case she had something else to say. When she didn’t continue, I held her a little tighter, then spoke.

“Annabeth… I’ve felt that. A while ago and even this past semester away from Camp. I don’t know exactly what you’re going through, but… I remember when Luke started pulling away, after his failed quest. He was my partner in things, we told each other everything. But after that, he stopped talking to me. A little wall went up, and no matter what I did to try to tear it down, it was always there. It only got worse as time went on, and then as you know, we both basically lost him for good when he joined Kronos.”

Annabeth took a shaky breath, and I held her a little tighter, as much for my own comfort as hers. I’d worked through a lot of the trauma that had come from everything to do with Luke for the past few years, but not all of it. Still, I shook it off as well as I could and continued.

“Even in college, it’s been the same thing,” I said. “I’ve gone to all kinds of new places and met so many interesting people, but there’s a big part of who I am that I just… can’t share with them. I’m independent, and I’m glad I’m independent, but… I understand feeling like you’re not really connecting with anyone as deeply as you want to. And it sucks.

"But you will always have me, Annabeth. Just like I’ll always have you. And we will find Percy, and then you’ll have him too. No matter how much it feels like it sometimes Annabeth, I’m not alone and neither are you.”

Now it was Annabeth’s turn to squeeze me tight, so hard it almost hurt. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. After a few long moments, where plenty of things passed between us even without speaking, we finally pulled apart enough to look at each other. Annabeth still didn’t look happy, but she seemed more determined and settled in herself. That shattered look I’d seen when I’d first come through the door was gone.

“Thank you, Y/N,” she said. I gave her a light squeeze.

“Always. And hey, I promise I’m going to make more of a point of staying in touch while I’m gone, alright? This semester especially, I think I was running from… well, almost everything associated with Camp Half-Blood and all the history and pain that comes with it. But I don’t ever want to run from you. So letters, more frequent visits, an illegal cellphone, whatever. Whatever it takes to stay more in touch, yeah?”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay, good. Now let’s see what your notes are looking like on the Percy situation, huh? We’ve got a son of Poseidon to track down.”

Annabeth nodded and we finally broke completely apart as she turned to start taking me through all the notes, clues, and evidence she’d gathered so far. I stood by her side as she walked me through it all, and whenever it looked like she might be overwhelmed again, I put a hand on her shoulder and did what I could to keep her calm.

Annabeth deserved nothing but happiness, especially after everything she’d already been through. But if problems and trouble were going to keep popping up and getting in her way, then I was going to be right by her side, through all of it. No matter what.

We’d find Percy, and Annabeth would get her partner back. But I made a vow as we stood in that room, pouring over information and trying to reason out where Percy might be, that I was never disappearing on my little sister again. No matter what directions our lives took us in, or how separate our paths became, I would always be there for her. We’d been the only real constants in each others’ lives for about a decade now, and we were going to stay that way for many more decades to come.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989

Percy Jackson Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[jupitersrising]

How do we think Annabeth coped with going to college in New Rome? Genuinely. She grew up at a camp where she was sure every moment could be her last. If she didn't train hard enough, if she couldn't outthink a monster or beat a trap or plan accordingly, she'd die. Her friends would die, her siblings would die (she already lost Thalia, even though she came back. She lost Luke, even though he betrayed her. Not to mention the countless siblings that must have died in the war.)

But...it's not just that. I feel like we've talked about how Percy and Annabeth would feel when they saw a city of grown up demigods with great grandkids something that's literally unheard of.

How do we think Annabeth coped with actually life? I mean cleaning the house and doing the dishes. I mean making sure she made time for herself besides work. I mean filing taxes and learning to drive and going grocery shopping. (She'd probably never work a retail job, but if she had to for some reason, what about that?)

You'd think it'd be obvious at first: she'd do great. But really? She grew up at a camp where she knew she was going to die young—hopefully in a blaze of glory. Where she was raised by other teenagers, where she was raising the kids younger than her. There's a solidarity in that, that New Rome won't have with their military system.

Not only would she lose her community, she'd lose the family and friends she'd spent her whole life around. The campers that are still alive were there for almost all her firsts. She went to camp at seven, seven years old, those people are her entire world.

So, now she's eighteen and living with her boyfriend in an actual city for the first time. Think about all the struggles she would have? New Rome would obviously have dyslexia and ADHD accommodations, almost everyone there has both. But...that can't fix everything. Those dyslexia accommodations are in Roman, not Greek, so it doesn't help any of the Greek demigods. The ADHD accommodations might not even exist because of New Rome's army. I feel like they would've been taught to suppress their ADHD and not let it get in the way of conformity and discipline (the roman way of fighting). It'd be seen as a form of weakness if they let those impulses take over them. (See how Jason and Hazel and Reyna act in the books. Though this could be chalked up to inconsistent writing.)

How does she deal with rigid scheduling of New Rome vs the lax, teenage-run camp of her youth? The discipline aspect can't mend well with her ADHD, especially when she's spent the last eleven years around people who get it. When she's spent the last eleven years not having to comply to "normal society" standards. Do you think she had problems with deadlines for classes she didn't like? Because she hyper fixated on architecture design, she wouldn't have had a problem with designing Olympus. But for her English class that she's has to take to graduate? No way, she'd procrastinate the hell out of it. What about waking up for her eight am when she has a really good idea for a new design and just needs a couple more minutes...and suddenly its hours later and Percy is home and she's losing participation points because she can't remember to go to class.

What about anxiety? Annabeth hasn't been around these people before. Not like at camp, where she knew everyone. That must ease the anxiety quite a bit. The social aspect gets easier because most everyone grew up with that little girl who stumbled into camp. She already knew Grover, and had Luke to hold her hand through social interactions when she was younger. By the time she got older she has that confidence in herself to be able to mess around and have fun with these people. But to New Rome, she's a war leader, she's a Greek demigod. She's an unknown variable that they don't know how to deal with.

How could she talk to them? None of them knew her as the kid who would take any dare. Or heard her ramble on and on about her hyper fixations to anyone who would listen. They don't see her prank the Stolls back (you can't tell me she wouldn't) or run through the strawberry fields after a rainstorm and get covered in mud for the fun of it.

No, all they saw was a war leader and someone who had clawed their way back from Tartarus. They saw how she spoke about the Gods when they still respected them. They heard that she traversed to Olympus all the time while she remodeled it. She spoke to Gods that none of her peers could dream of being in the presence of.

How could she make friends with those people? With people who didn't understand the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get here. With people who respected an institution Annabeth had long since given up on. With people who saw her for her titles and her quests rather than who she was as a person.

Looping back around, let's go to real life stuff. Annabeth had to pay for things on quests, but do we really think she knows how money works? At camp, everyone basically uses drachmas. And even then, their basic needs are being met. They don't have to pay for food, housing, water, etc. You can't tell me Chiron takes the camp van to the mall whenever year-round campers want clothes. They're either bought for them, or the Aphrodite kids make it, or one of the older kids goes out with the camp credit card and just...buys the whole store to bring back. Drachmas are usually only used for bets and dealing with entities on quests.

For the first time in her life, (since she was seven and really seven year olds don't understand how money works, not matter how smart they are. Plus Luke or Thalia would probably be the ones buying stuff, since they were older and it'd be less questionable if they walked into a store by themselves than a little kid.) her basic needs aren't guaranteed. If she fucks up, it's her fault. Do you think she drained their bank account buying something at the store (because, again, she hasn't really gone to those other than when she's on a quest) and had a panic attack over the fact that she, Annabeth Chase, who commanded armies over two wars, who was known as one of the greatest demigods to date, just fucked up big time? Because she wasn't used to having to spend the money on rent and textbooks and supplies for her architecture business. Because food was always there for her to eat when she was hungry and the water always ran and the lights never went out? Do you think that after all this time she forgot that stuff like that wasn't always going to be there?

She grew up thinking she was going to die young. She was going to die at Camp Half-Blood where those things would always be in full stock.

What about the apartment? She's not used to having her own kitchen, or bathroom that wasn't communal. Do you think she sought out the snacks her siblings liked before remembering that she siblings weren't there, they were hundred of miles away in New York. Do you think she knew how to clean an entire house? How to keep a house clean? Obviously as Head Counselor of the Athena Cabin, she'd make sure it was clean in time for inspections. But did that include kids using chemicals to deep clean? Did that include remembering to vacuum under the furniture every so often, or did they leave it since Chiron didn't look under there. (Again, everyone here is teenagers at the oldest, they're not gonna want to deep clean). Do you think that she didn't pick up clutter because she was so used to rushing last minute to make sure her and her sibling's clutter was clean in time for inspections that the thought of doing it regularly just...never crossed her mind?

Also, driving. We know Percy learned for Paul when he turned fifteen (aka the iconic horse hooves on the hood of the car scene), but who taught Annabeth? Did any of the older campers know? Did Luke? They either got drove around by Argus or didn't leave. They had pegasi to fly around camp and boats of war. Who was going to sit down with fifteen year old Annabeth and teach her how to drive? Especially with the war getting close. Nobody would have time, even if they wanted to. Who was going to take fifteen year old Annabeth Chase to get her drivers permit when they were making plans of attack instead. After the war, Percy went missing and all her time was taken up looking for him. You can't tell me she took driving classes when she was tearing the world apart to find him.

We also know Annabeth doesn't like to have to depend on other people. Since they either died or betrayed her. So how would she feel walking into a world where it's hard to get around without a car. Buses can be inconsistent and close early. Idk about a subway system in California, but still there's that dependance on other peoples' schedules. She'd have to have friends drive her to and from places, but again, she left most of her community behind in New York. She can't just use Blackjack to get around if she goes into the mortal world.

I'm not sure, I'd just like to see more explorations of Annabeth dealing with mundane tasks she never learned how to do. I want to see the impact of living when she thought she was going to die young and not knowing how to deal with adult things. I want to see how she reaches to the institution of New Rome and how people treat her. I want to see how she feels when she never thought she'd have to pay taxes or worry about apartments and yet...there is she.

[lux-17]

Thalia stroked her lover's dark hair.

She knew it was the last night she would be able to see him, she had to return to her father. So in the safety of a dark mansion, she let her loved one sleep as she felt her heart break, leaving a fragment behind.

Although that fragment was recovered the moment she had her son in her arms, it had her nose and she could already notice how she frowned in the same way as Bruce when he concentrated.

Then she tried to separate from Damian, he deserved to live in a home where he felt loved every second. But she couldn't do it, she couldn't get away the moment the little Damian held her finger and it seemed like he didn't want to separate from her either. So she trained him to be strong, so that one day he would be stronger than her.

With her father's gaze behind her, she taught him the league's mission. She held him the first time someone took his life, letting him sleep next to her like he did when he was a baby.

Then Jason arrived (catatonic, there was nothing of that boy hiding behind Bruce's legs), so she loved him the only way she knew how. She taught him to be strong and allowed him to be with Damian, when Thalia couldn't keep her son safe she knew Jason would.

Then she heard her father say that Jason wasn't productive, something hurt inside her chest. Thalia knew the well was more counterproductive, but it was his only option.

Or so she repeated to himself as he watched Jason reemerge, a boy he considered his son with a white streak and green eyes connecting him to something heavier than blood.

The boy left, she knew that the fire of revenge was something hard to put out. Again she felt like that fragment broke.

Then something dangerous happened in the league (it had never been good for Damian, but that were the only place she could keep him safe), so she took her pain and finally let her son go. It wasn't like that time he let go of Bruce, letting go of Damian was letting go of a fragment of her soul.

Then she gave him a katana and a mission, he would grow up safe and she would take care of those who endangered her son.

Things had calmed down when she was able to see him again.

She had been kept informed of his progress but watched the boy drink hot chocolate, with almond milk. Having Titus on his leg, while Jason casually read next to him. Such a casual and soft image.

One of her shadows approached her and gave her a piece of paper. When it unfolded, she saw a drawing of her. Thalia knew Damian's capabilities, but seeing how he had drawn every detail of her face. Even the small freckle on the side of her eye.

For once Thalia heart beat calmly, she knew her son would be safe.

[mx-nii]

Do yall ever just zone out and start thinking about how Percy probably holds some resentment towards Poseidon, not for - for lack of better words - simply abandoning him but for leaving him with Gabe. Instead of getting a good dad and getting to experience that joy, he had to be raised by an abuser because Sally had no other choice. She had to protect Percy, there was no other way. He was a son of the big three, and that put him at higher risk than if he was a child of any other Olympian or minor God/Goddess.

Sally did what she had to do, and even afterwards, she was a victim too and probably felt like she couldn't leave for a number of reasons: to protect Percy - from the monsters, the Gods, and Gabe; because Gabe was probably emotionally manipulating her - it's extremely common that abusers will manipulate their victims into staying with them with multiple ways, either by hurting them, threatening them, pretending to love them, etc.

My point is this, Sally was dealt this shit hand and yet she still managed to be an amazing mother - we all know how rare that is with halfbloods - and managed to raise Percy into the wonderful young man we all know and love. That was SALLY, not Poseidon. Poseidon, on the other hand, he fucking left. The one thing he has going for him is that he didn't have a choice and all that shit but in my personal opinion, HE HAD FUCKING OPTIONS- literally anything other than "sit and watch some drunk bastard beat the living crap out of the mother of my son & said son". I know there are rules and everything but like literally all of the gods have broken rules, AND ALL OF THEM WERE WORSE THAN THAT ONE. ALL OF THEM.

If I remember the books correctly, Percy's on decent terms with Poseidon, however at the beginning, in TLT, he was upset with the gods for just up and leaving all their fucking kids. My personal HC is that he was/is upset with Poseidon for leaving him, not only without a father figure, but with fucking Gabe. He was raised in a household with an abusive alcoholic gambler (wow, what a yummy combo - totes father material) and whilst Sally did a marvelous job of keeping Percy mostly safe/giving him a half-decentish (fuck I can't even say it because of how much a stretch it is) childhood, Gabe ruined Percy's life. He hit him and his mother, took money from him and his mother to gamble it away, drank heavily - so much so that it is literally cannon that Percy refuses to drink/do drugs/smoke/etc because of Gabe (same with Thalia and Jason & their mother)

I'm guessing/hc-ing that Percy holds some resentment towards Poseidon for putting him and his mother in that shitty situation to begin with, for not stopping it, for not being his father instead. I understand it isn't 100% Poseidon's fault but there were things he could have done to stop it. There were things so many of the gods could have done, but they stuck to their rules ONLY WHEN IT WAS CONVENIENT TO THEM.

[illym]

This week's wallpaper actually doesn't feature a specific fandom; it's my birthday this month, so I decided to draw my favorite OCs all hanging out. And a cake.

Let's pretend they would make me a cake instead of beating the shit out of me for all the trouble I cause them.

The small character with Sylv (bottom left) belongs to my friend (off-tumblr), and the small character with (NAME-PENDING) (bottom left) is Yuray, who belongs to @daeofthepast. The small character with Thalia (central top) is my own, Yvette.

I like this one. I don't draw half of them often enough.

I'm going to talk about them a bit now. Because I like all of them, and I think you all deserve to know some of their information.

Thalia Otrava (White hair in the center of the photo.) - A young woman who works as a maid. Dealing with a mysterious curse, she covers nearly every inch of her body to prevent its effects. Currently trying to find a cure, but she's losing hope. Needs a lot of sleep, and takes a while to wake up. (She/Her)

Yvette (On Thalia's head) - A demon responsible for many of the miseries within Thalia's life. A mother figure to her, though perhaps only so she can inflict emotional wounds that much worse. She becomes close with another member of the cast for their shared enjoyment of misery; Within some time, they're driven to utter hatred of each other for the differences in said misery. (She/Her).

Rye Fortuna (Brown hair next to Thalia) - A genderfluid teenager who left their father by the wishes of their mother when they were merely 10 years old. He didn't understand the realities of his situation for a few years, and was forced to take charge of other's safety at too young an age. Currently she lives with her mother's other children, trying to avoid the attention of those who fought the man she worked for in order to avoid being killed. While they're extremely anxious, they naturally take charge in situations that require a leader because of their prior experiences. The ribbon was a gift from her mother. (She/They/He)

Sylv Clayflower (Brown and teal hair in the bottom left) - A fixer by trade who only cares about things that interest xem. Considers social norms to be a social contract that individual parties agree to in order to keep public peace; thus, if one breaks them, she will shed them herself. Horrible with names and faces; there are many awkward situations in which one greets xem and she cannot recall them. (She/Xe)

[ NAME PENDING ] (Purple hair in the bottom right) - A bigender free spirit to the extreme, he cares little for those outside his friend group. She travels the continent with her friend Yuray, stealing from the rich and giving some of it to the poor. He finds enjoyment in flirting with others in order to take from them, or indeed to make fools of them. Within the story, she gets into severe trouble after making enemies with a dangerous man. He's very easy to get along with as long as he isn't deliberately being difficult; the jobs he's worked in the past have allowed him to develop a flexible personality. (She/He)

[penelope-regulus]

Headcanon

TW: Derrick is forgiven and lives happily ever after

After Judith is born, Reynold decides that he wants to become a swords master and beat Callisto to being the strongest man in the empire and Derrick redeems himself before becomes the next Duke Eckhart.

One day, when things are going about as usual, a girl about 8 years old appears before the gates of the Eckhart estate and claims to be the dead daughter of the house!

There's utter confusion, shock, and chaos at first, but it's undeniable by the way she explains herself -- she recites all the events that occurred after the goddess of Leila turned up at the doors of the Eckhart mansion and even has detailed memories about their lives before that, which everyone notices can't help but notice while she's explaining everything. It turns out that Yvonne was reborn into the body of an orphaned commoner with all the memories of her previous life.

Winter, who's present when she appears, says that it is possible for her to get her original body back, but they need a part of her original body for him to do the magic (Callisto passed a decree allowing magicians to live side by side with normal people after becoming the emperor since his wife and daughter). At this, Callisto, who was actually not there when Yvonne appeared, suddenly went "Will some of her hair do?" somehow holding out a lock of her brilliant pink hair. No one knows what to say, so they silently agree on thinking 'ignorance is bliss' and Winter casts a spell that brings her back to her original form!

Winter falls in love with Yvonne, Reynold falls in love with Emily, who is now Yvonne's new maid, and Thalia, who was with Winter the entire time as well, develops feelings for Derrick, who is calm and collected and doesn't entirely erase the fact that Callisto has a lock of hair of his little sister from his mind throughout the event, and well we all know the rest.

[negative-speedforce]

your OCs are suddenly faced with small child versions of themselves! what do they do?

Siv: Is ridiculously creeped out because her near-catatonic younger self was creepy af

Jay: Celebrates with his younger self because he got to grow up to be the man he really was

Cassandra: Teaches her how to control her magic bc she does not need little Cassandra blowing a hole in her roof bc she doesn't know how to use her magic yet

Hailey: Tries to hide any evidence that she died and is now a ghost because that would traumatize her younger self

Arya: Teaches their younger self how to commit tax fraud and arson

Esme: Gives her younger self a hug and tells her that yes, someday she is going to feel loved and wanted

Gina: Traumatizes her younger self because she's dead so her younger self just finds a blood-covered corpse on the ground

Ember: Just hangs out with them and lets her younger self be a kid for once

Cat: Teaches her younger self how to commit cyberattacks against the government

Kyle: Beats his younger self at Mario Kart

Max: Tells his younger self to go annoy Kyle

Eric: Let's be honest his younger self is going to be like "Wait- what the heck? We're trans???"

Jacob: Teaches his younger self how to do cool things with magic

Khalil: Lets his younger self follow him along to work as a makeup artist because he knows little Khalil will think his job is cool

Antonio: Gets annoyed because he's at that age where younger kids are SO annyoing

Ameerah: Gets her younger self to help her rob a bank

Rania: Hands her younger self off to Eobard because Rania is a workaholic and has no time for children

Reggie: Shows her younger self cool tricks she can do with her magic

Director Hawke: Gives her younger self a stack of anti-meta propaganda

Meredith: Hugs her younger self because she spent the first few years of its life locked up in a lab

Pippa: Gives her younger self a speedster piggyback ride

Jessi: Just foists responsibility of her younger self onto Hyun-ki

Onnie: Forces their younger self to access her eldritch powers way too early, therefore causing a temporal anomaly by accidentally killing her younger self

Hyun-Ki: Keeps his younger self as far away from Jessi as human possible

Athena: Teaches her younger self how to perform vivisections

Laila: Allows her younger self to be a kid for once because she was trained to be a killing machine from the moment she was created

Thalia: Tries to hide any evidence that the Jedi were all massacred because that'll traumatize her younger self

Reyna: Gives her younger self a giant snake because she thinks its cool

Liah: Hugs her younger self because little Liah definitely needs it

Marie: Traumatizes her younger self because little Marie was absolutely TERRIFIED of getting assimilated someday

Qiara: Gets her younger self to help her with stuff because her disorder only started affecting her powers when she was almost an adult

Soraya: Puts her younger self in a playpen and gets back to work because Soraya's a workaholic

Aldrich: Stays as far away from his younger self as possible because he's still not 100% in control of his bloodlust and he doesn't want to cause a temporal anomaly

Samira: Lets her younger self mess around with a kid's chemistry set while she works

Matt: Impresses his younger self with the severed thumb optical illusion hand trick

Vanessa: Shows off Stevie, her gecko, to her younger self

Sohelia: Teaches her younger self how to shoot a gun because she's gonna need it

Dolores: Cooks food for her younger self because she really misses eating regular food and she can live vicariously through her younger self

Victorie: Traumatizes her younger self because Victorie is very obviously a vampire and little Victorie didn't want to be a vampire

[all-the-dam-fandoms]

D&D OC Backstory

My friend and I made twin characters for our upcoming campaign because we wanted to be menaces lol. This is my OC’s (Delphine Azurewave) POV…I may have gone a ~little~ insane lol. The characters are sea elves, mine a ranger and my friend’s a fighter. Also, we used elven “baby” names for our child selves. Delphine = Talia & Atlantis = Thalia, DM, we regret nothing. If you read it, lmk what you think!

Here’s her character portrait:

Delphine Azurewave

The silent swish of our dresses was the only sound to be heard in the vacant hall where the library was. From experience, my sister and I knew a beating would come our way if we disturbed the dusty tomes with our voices. Thalia, the more outgoing and bolder of us, ran full speed ahead to the larger-than-life mahogany doors which guarded the library. 

“Thalia! Slow down and be quiet lest Father hear us and throw us out by the ears!”, I silently shouted. 

“Who cares? You’re no fun, Tal. Plus, don’t you want to know why Mother and Father are meeting with the high priest?”

“I-I guess so…I just don’t want to be caught,” I stammered. 

We slipped through the crack in the doors and paused to listen for our parents’ and the decrepit high priest’s voices. 

“I think they’re in Father’s study, let’s go,” motioning to Thalia for her to follow.

We found the study and then headed towards the bookshelf that shared the same wall. I hesitated for a moment then slowly opened the bookcase revealing a small room with a grate that allowed us to peer into our father’s study.

“Move, I want to see too!” Thalia whined as she shouldered her way next to the grate.

“Shut up or they’ll hear us,” I warned.

“…because of your insolence,” we heard the high priest spit.

“Please understand Father Albright, we are not trying to suggest our little ones are more important than the entire kingdom’s sake but that we simply want to protect our only children. Do they also not deserve to live?”, we heard Mother say.

Thalia and I exchanged frightened glances. Father Albright sounded angry and I still couldn’t understand what was going on. All I knew was that the ocean would freeze over before I let someone hurt my sister.

“Woman, the lives of two little elves are nothing compared to the fate of Lord Deep Sashelas’ realm, you will lose that bet. The reality is Talia and Thalia’s lives have never been their own. One is destined to save our people, the other to utterly decimate it,” said the combative priest.

“Tal, what are they talking about? I don’t understand, what are they going to do to us? Wha-”,

I cut her off with my response, “The high priest just told our parents that we need to die because of some stupid prophecy. We- are not safe.”

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as I spoke. What am I supposed to do, how do I fix this? I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. I can’t sit here and do nothing. 

“Tal, where are you going, don’t leave me!” my sister pleaded while grabbing the hem of my dress.

My dress was ripped from her hand as I stormed out of the secret room connected to Father’s study. I bang on his door as loud as I can, no longer caring that I’ll get a beating for this later. Our father swung the door open to two angry little girls staring defiantly at him.

“Girls, what are you doing? You know this part of the library is forbidden,” Father barked, panic mingling with his anger.

“I-I, we-we heard…” my nerves got the better of me.

Thalia pushed her way past me and pointed a little turquoise finger at Father. She was shaking almost as badly as I was.

“You’re going to let us die! That old man said if we didn’t, bad things would happen because of me and Talia!”

Her lip quivered and tears threatened to roll down her cheeks as she screamed at our father. Before Father or Mother could speak, Father Albright snuck up behind Father and grabbed Thalia’s arm then yanked her into the room.

“Get off me old man! Get off! You’re hurting me!” she wailed.

I burst through the opening and tried to pull her back. We were both screaming and crying as the priest manhandled Thalia. Father drew up to his full height, his shadow almost swallowing all the light in the room. He grabbed Father Albright by the throat, and used his other hand to pry my sister from the high priest’s grasp.

“Leave. My. Girls. Alone. Or you will face the consequences of your disobedience. Leave my house before I decide to crush your throat here and now,” Father thundered.

Father Albright tried to choke out a few words while frantically grabbing at the hands restricting him but Father’s grip was too tight. Mother had her back against the wall, silently weeping as she watched her husband strangle this old man.

“Never come near my family again,” Father growled before dropping Father Albright to the floor.

He crashed with a thud and gasped for air.

“You…will…regret…that,” the high priest said breathlessly.

“You…will pay very soon and dearly,” Father Albright regained his composure.

He walked out of the room and made his way out of our home. Our father brought all of us-me, Thalia and Mother-into a hug and whispered, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I will keep you safe.”

***

“I wonder when the clouds will clear, it’s been raining for days,” I sighed.

“It’s not like you ever leave the library anyway Delphine,” teased Atlantis.

I stuck my tongue out at her and shifted my gaze back to the book in my hands. Even though my twin and I are polar opposites, we have been practically inseparable since we were children. Most of that is probably because we don’t have any other friends. We have spent decades in the grossly extravagant Azurewave manor, doing mostly whatever we pleased. I spend most days in the library, poring over any scroll or book I can get my hands on, searching for answers to an unknown question. Atlantis chose to spend her time pushing the servant’s to their wit’s end with her inane requests to run around with her outside while she swings around whatever pointy new toy she found or made Father buy for her.

She has always been more personable than I but it’s never really bothered me. I enjoy watching her as she trains and how she laughs when she bests someone in a sparring match. My greatest wish has always been her happiness and safety above all else. I’m not sure why but I have always had a weight in my chest that tells me to be prepared for a day when our peaceful life will be disturbed. A day when our peace will be destroyed. 

My eyes refocus and I realize I’ve lost my place in the book. “Damn,” I mutter to myself. 

I’ll have to reread the last page since I don’t remember anything I just read. This has been happening more often lately. Usually, Lantis will have to pry the book out of my hands before I even realize she’s there. I settle back into a reading position on the overstuffed chair I’ve perched myself on when I hear a terrifying scream. My book clatters onto the floor as I jump out of my seat and towards the library’s doors. 

I run into the hall and see servants running frantically every which way. Before my mind can make sense of the ensuing chaos I see an arrow zip past my face and thunk into the chest of a maid. She crumples to the ground instantly. Frozen in shock, I helplessly watch as a manservant dives to the floor towards the body and an agonizing scream escapes his lips while trying to shake the woman awake.

“Dead. She’s dead. I-I…” I stutter, trying to string together a coherent thought. 

Sister, my sister. I need to find her. My feet begin to run towards whatever opening I see and to where I saw her last. The library I just left was on the ground floor so the hallway’s “windows” aren’t covered by glass and just about chest height. I hoist myself through one of the openings and drop out to the courtyard. I have never seen a more horrific sight. I hear metal clashing against metal, the sound ringing in my ears. I see what I presume are soldiers wearing tunics with my family’s crest trying to hold back their enemies. The opposition wears a crest I have only seen a handful of times-that of the royal family’s. Before I can analyze the situation, I feel the wind get knocked out of me as a soldier from my father’s ranks crashes into me. His weight is crushing me, I’m stuck. 

“Well, well look what we have here. One of our marks, the Master will be pleased,” the opposing force’s man sneers. 

I try to slide the man on top of me off but before I can, the enemy soldier rips him off of me. I take a deep breath. I attempt to stand but the soldier pushes me to my knees before he shoves me against the wall.

“You didn’t have to get on your knees for me, darling,” he hisses in my ear. 

I cringe away from his hot breath and try to break free from his grasp on my shoulders.

“Get the hell off me you brute!”

He chuckles and says, “Pretty and feisty? I might have to keep you to myself.”

His grip on my shoulders tightens before I feel his fingers fly off of me. Bewildered, I look around to see where that disgusting excuse for a man went but my eyes unexpectedly meet Lantis’s.

“Gross, what a creep. C’mon let’s get out of here.”

My sister grabbed my hand and the rest of me followed. While we ran, I noticed that she was wearing an ungodly amount of weapons. Gods, where did she even get all those?

“Thanks for the save, sis. Now…where are we going?”

“Away from here. I’ll break it down later but now we just need to leave,” she said.

I scan the courtyard-turned-battlefield and I spot an armored black horse. I point my finger towards it and say, “Look! I think that’s our way out.”

“Hell yeah, Delphine! I’m always down for some petty theft,” Lantis said with a slightly concerning grin on her face.

“Yeah, we’ll discuss my concerns about that ridiculous look on your face later,” I say.

We sprint towards the horse and we hoist ourselves up. I grab my sister’s clothes to stay upright. Falling off of a horse right now would be inconvenient to say the least. Lantis smacks the reins and the horse canters away from the discord. We aren’t far from the front of the manor and have front row seats to the havoc that’s been wrought upon our childhood home. I start to feel tears well in my eyes when I feel my sister start to shake and choke on whatever she’s trying to say.

“Lantis, Lantis, what is it?” I shake her a little.

She yanks the reins up and the horse slows. Her face is frozen in pain and I see tears roll down her cheeks. I look at whatever she’s facing and I see someone I recognize from our childhood-Father Albright. The old priest, who looks just as he did on that day he paid us a visit, is looming over the two bodies on the ground with a vicious smile. The pieces of the sickening puzzle click in my head. I scream. 

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 8: I MAKE A DANGEROUS PROMISE

"Define dangerous?" Alex tapped critically upon her chin, not noticing Nico's uneasy wince as she studied Magnus reading the new chapter title. "A swear upon the river stakes? A dare? You don't have to bathe a cat do you?"

"Her mind went from life or death, truth or dare, to cats." Percy gestured like they'd missed this. "Why are my thoughts being analyzed here?"

"If we could switch points of view we would," Thalia sighed.

"I've always been more partial to charades as far as games," Rachel grinned back.

"Oh, I own that game!" Alex beamed and was clearly only a breath away from challenging her now.

As much fun as that would be for all of them to see, Magnus reluctantly turned to the book when Jason pressed his palms together and begged him to keep reading.

Will didn't disagree, but he was getting worried about Nico again as he had his eyes trained on the ever-growing cracks on the ground. They could easily fit a shoe in one now, any larger and they were all in danger of falling into the unknown surface below anytime they got up to get a snack or use the bathroom.

If Percy lost it one more time, Nico might risk shadow traveling down one of those. This was probably the longest he'd been anywhere, since those first days at camp.

This would be the day he'd said goodbye to his sister, if he had at all.

And there was nothing in the world Will could do about it to make that better. Especially if Nico didn't want anybody to be there for him.

Blackjack gave me a ride down the beach, and I have to admit it was cool. Being on a flying horse, skimming over the waves at a hundred miles an hour with the wind in my hair and the sea spray in my face—hey, it beats waterskiing any day.

"You get to do the coolest things!" Jason was wiggling in his seat like a kid about to ride his first roller coaster. Thalia looked a little green, he looked so like that toddler... but they imagined it was because she didn't go near the ocean much, considering her dad.

"I'll be happy to race you when we get back," Percy proudly agreed, "but be warned, Blackjack's pretty unbeatable."

Jason's face lit with challenge, there was the smallest moment where the ocean breeze ruffled up his straight blonde hair that made Percy look at his own hands in confusion if he'd done that before Magnus cut in, "I call winner!" Then grandly kept reading so they didn't have to wait a whole year to get to that.

Here. Blackjack slowed and turned in a circle. Straight down.

"Thanks." I tumbled off his back and plunged into the icy sea.

I'd gotten more comfortable doing stunts like that the past couple of years. I could pretty much move however I wanted to underwater,

Percy glowered at the water surrounding him now in betrayal. Whatever Oceanus had done to take that way, he clearly took it personally.

The others sort of did too, because it would have been nice if he'd taken all, or nothing.

just by willing the ocean currents to change around me and propel me along, I could breathe underwater, no problem, and my clothes never got wet unless I wanted them to.

I shot down into the darkness.

Twenty, thirty, forty feet. The pressure wasn't uncomfortable. I'd never tried to push it—to see if there was a limit to how deep I could dive. I knew most regular humans couldn't go past two hundred feet without crumpling like an aluminum can. I should've been blind, too, this deep in the water at night, but I could see the heat from living forms, and the cold of the currents. It's hard to describe. It wasn't like regular seeing, but I could tell where everything was.

As I got closer to the bottom, I saw three hippocampi—

"Is Rainbow and the gang back?" Magnus asked brightly, looking all around the room as if still hoping one would pop up now.

"Did they bring Tyson?" Alex asked just as eagerly, though she well knew he probably wouldn't sneak out of the forges. Man she needed to meet that guy and instill a little fun in him as they swapped design techniques.

"I don't think it's the exact same ones as before, and no," Percy seemed just as disappointed as them. As miserable as he was around camp, it would have been nice to see a familiar face like his brother around if he just dipped into Long Island sound.

fish-tailed horses—swimming in a circle around an overturned boat. The hippocampi were beautiful to watch. Their fish tails shimmered in rainbow colors, glowing phosphorescent. Their manes were white, and they were galloping through the water the way nervous horses do in a thunderstorm.

Magnus's voice was pure longing as he read that. It was something that no matter how many times it was described, he knew he'd still have his breath taken away when he saw them in person.

Something was upsetting them.

I got closer and saw the problem. A dark shape—some kind of animal—was wedged halfway under the boat and tangled in a fishing net, one of those big nets they use on trawlers to catch everything at once. I hated those things. It was bad enough they drowned porpoises and dolphins, but they also occasionally caught mythological animals. When the nets got tangled, some lazy fishermen would just cut them loose and let the trapped animals die.

"Where's Artemis when you need her," Percy scowled, "I bet these fishermen wouldn't pull any more stunts like these if they were jackalopes."

"Poseidon doesn't take kindly to them either, they never give proper sacrifices before being so awful to his creatures," Thalia agreed.

Apparently this poor creature had been mucking around on the bottom of Long Island Sound and had somehow gotten itself tangled in the net of this sunken fishing boat. It had tried to get out and managed to get even more hopelessly stuck, shifting the boat in the process. Now the wreckage of the hull, which was resting against a big rock, was teetering and threatening to collapse on top of the tangled animal.

"I've never heard a better reason to get up at 5 am, not even donuts," Percy said without regret now.

"Baby animals, water skiing at sunrise, you sound like you're living a millionaires life," Will grinned.

The hippocampi were swimming around frantically, wanting to help but not sure how.

One was trying to chew the net, but hippocampi teeth just aren't meant for cutting rope.

"Is there a specific set of animal teeth for that?" Jason grinned.

"My money wouldn't be on a herbivore," Alex shrugged.

Hippocampi are really strong, but they don't have hands, and they're not (shhh) all that smart.

"We'll take your secret to the grave Percy," Rachel chuckled.

Free it, lord! A hippocampus said when it saw me. The others joined in, asking the same thing.

I swam in for a closer look at the tangled creature. At first I thought it was a young hippocampus. I'd rescued several of them before. But then I heard a strange sound, something that did not belong underwater:

"Mooooooo!"

"The cow?" Alex did a double take, once again leaning closer than ever over Magnus's shoulder, obscuring the book with her green hair to get a look.

"Well I didn't say mew, did I?" Magnus agreed as he spat a bit out and nudged her playfully back away. She just leaned right back in and he kept going with a smile for this strange habit of hers.

I got next to the thing and saw that it was a cow.

"Ten points, to Alex learning her animal noises," Jason agreed with the same strange look on his face.

Even those in the know Percy had just stumbled across the ophiotaurus like this were slightly taken aback at the randomness of it all and looked appropriately confused.

I mean... I'd heard of sea cows, like manatees and stuff, but this really was a cow with the back end of a serpent. The front half was a calf—a baby, with black fur and big, sad brown eyes and a white muzzle—and its back half was a black-and-brown snaky tail with fins running down the top and bottom, like an enormous eel.

"Naww," Will couldn't help but coo. So long as the snake half didn't wiggle about to much, he liked to think he'd give Bessie a little scratch on the ears.

"Was Poseidon having fun with his doodles and one came to life?" Rachel grinned at the little baby she'd never seen. It was a great description to start her own outline.

"The first cow Percy's met who hasn't tried to kill him," Alex helpfully reminded as she mentally sculpted the cutie.

"Whoa, little one," I said. "Where did you come from?"

The creature looked at me sadly. "Moooo!"

But I couldn't understand its thoughts. I only speak horse.

"I'm sure there's an app for that," Thalia chuckled, "maybe your dad can download the rest of the sea life if you ask nicely."

"I'll hold off on that until I get a sample of what dolphins are actually saying about me," Percy grinned. "My mom would kill me if I came home learning new cuss words from them, she'd take back her custody agreement."

We don't know what it is, lord, one of the hippocampi said. Many strange things are stirring.

"And this one's taking it literally," Jason agreed, imagining the muck it was swilling around in, plus stirring two different animals into one.

"Yeah," I murmured. "So I've heard."

I uncapped Riptide, and the sword grew to full length in my hands, its bronze blade gleaming in the dark.

The cow serpent freaked out and started struggling against the net, its eyes full of terror.

"Whoa!" I said. "I'm not going to hurt you! Just let me cut the net."

But the cow serpent thrashed around and got even more tangled. The boat started to tilt, stirring up the muck on the sea bottom and threatening to topple onto the cow serpent. The hippocampi whinnied in a panic and thrashed in the water, which didn't help.

"I think I'll take the free trial of that app though," Percy said uneasily as he tried to figure out how to be everywhere at once. Soothing the hippocampi, freeing the calf quickly, and stopping the boat from coming down on them. Some great hero he was, couldn't even save a baby animal from a net without making it all worse.

"Okay, okay!" I said. I put away the sword and started speaking as calmly as I could so the hippocampi and the cow serpent would stop panicking. I didn't know if it was possible to get stampeded underwater, but I didn't really want to find out. "It's cool. No sword. See? No sword. Calm thoughts. Sea grass. Mama cows. Vegetarianism."

"Where is Grover when you need him," Percy chuckled along with them, it was just too precious an image not to.

I doubted the cow serpent understood what I was saying, but it responded to the tone of my voice. The hippocampi were still skittish, but they stopped swirling around me quite so fast.

Free it, lord! they pleaded.

"Yeah," I said. "I got that part. I'm thinking."

But how could I free the cow serpent when she (I decided it was probably a "she")

Percy gave Alex a winning smile, and she graciously nodded a potentially wrong guess was far better than calling the little one an it the entire time he was rescuing her.

panicked at the sight of a blade? It was like she'd seen swords before and knew how dangerous they were.

"I'm guessing people in ancient times didn't greet her with sea grass and vegetarianism," Magnus said in sympathy.

"Why is everything either a bad omen or food back then?" Thalia pouted.

"All right," I told the hippocampi. "I need all of you to push exactly the way I tell you."

First we started with the boat. It wasn't easy, but with the strength of three horsepower, we managed to shift the wreckage so it was no longer threatening to collapse on the baby cow serpent. Then I went to work on the net, untangling it section by section, getting lead weights and fishing hooks straightened out, yanking out knots around the cow serpent's hooves. It took forever—I mean, it was worse than the time I'd had to untangle all my video game controller wires. The whole time, I kept talking to the cow fish, telling her everything was okay while she mooed and moaned.

"It's okay, Bessie," I said. Don't ask me why I started calling her that. It just seemed like a good cow name.

"Duddett, that is the most cliché cow name in existence!" Alex laughed. "Are you going to name Cerberus Max too!"

"So says Alex," Percy shot right back. "The first common, gender-neutral name that comes to mind."

"I make unoriginal look new," she swept a hand through her green hair with a very proud smirk.

"Hey, curious," Magnus said quickly before anyone could ask him to keep reading, "if your name wasn't gender neutral, would you change it every time you switched? Or, like, would you just want to be a guy called Sally?"

"It depends per person," she forcefully reminded again, before smiling at him and answering, "I would be okay with being called Sal, but I've met some who would still go by whatever name they pick no matter what gender. I've met those who identify as male go by Alice and females named Tobias, they all have stories. It, it's hard to explain in a short amount of time..." Her mind hovered over Adrian and she quickly waved for Magnus to go on now.

"Good cow. Nice cow."

Finally, the net came off and the cow serpent zipped through the water and did a happy somersault.

The hippocampi whinnied with joy. Thank you, lord!

"Moooo!"The cow serpent nuzzled me and gave me the big brown eyes.

"Round three of pretending to be vegetarian for a week?" Thalia asked mildly.

"I'll get back to you on that," Percy didn't bother to hide the sarcasm in his smile.

"Yeah," I said. "That's okay. Nice cow. Well... stay out of trouble."

Which reminded me, I'd been underwater how long? An hour, at least. I had to get back to my cabin before Argus or the harpies discovered I was breaking curfew.

I shot to the surface and broke through. Immediately, Blackjack zoomed down and let me catch hold of his neck. He lifted me into the air and took me back toward the shore.

Success, boss?

"Yeah. We rescued a baby... something or other.

"Who wants to bet Percy is not going to actually go home and look it up," Jason almost made a longing moan at the deprivation.

"Not on your coin," Magnus agreed with the same disappointed frown.

Took forever. Almost got stampeded."

Good deeds are always dangerous, boss. You saved my sorry mane, didn't you?

I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Nico repeated grimly. Annabeth had saved Percy and Thalia's life with that stunt and suffered greatly for it. His sister had died on this quest. The domino effect of that one action had rippled all over everybody's life.

As Blackjack flew back toward my cabin, I happened to glance at the dining pavilion. I saw a figure—a boy hunkered down behind a Greek column, like he was hiding from someone.

Nico felt a rattling breath pass his lips before he could smash them back shut and lock his jaw tight. Here it comes, he knew. This conversation he'd memorized by heart without the aid of the book. 'I'm not holding a grudge Bianca, I'm trying, I promise...'

It was Nico, but it wasn't even dawn yet. Nowhere near time for breakfast. What was he doing up there?

"Studying the architecture?" Alex asked innocently.

Nico didn't react, even to the joking comment about Annabeth that made Percy wince with longing.

I hesitated. The last thing I wanted was more time for Nico to tell me about his Mythomagic game.

Even now, in the midst of his stupid, childish pedestal he'd held Percy on for so long having its greatest weakness revealed in the aftermath of knowledge in this quest, some part of Nico still felt the rejection of that. He'd never been more than a nuisance to his hero.

But something was wrong. I could tell by the way he was crouching.

"Blackjack," I said, "set me down over there, will you? Behind that column."

Percy did care though, Nico knew. It wasn't the love, admiration, and attention he wanted from Percy, but many other campers wouldn't have stopped to ask the dumb kid what he was doing. The Stoll's had only rolled over in their sleep when he left the cabin and grumbled at him not to get lost in the forest.

I almost blew it.

I was coming up the steps behind Nico. He didn't see me at all. He was behind a column, peeking around the corner, all his attention focused on the dining area. I was five feet away from him, and I was about to say What are you doing? real loud, when it occurred to me that he was pulling a Grover: he was spying on the Hunters.

"I hope Grover's not somewhere around there gawking too, or Artemis might have to start filing restraining orders," but Rachel's light quip fell on deaf ears. Nico's eyes were vacant to all around him.

There were voices—two girls talking at one of the dining tables. At this ungodly hour of the morning? Well, unless you're the goddess of dawn, I guess.

"Another reason I couldn't make it there," Alex made a face, "I will not be contracted into a morning person."

"A minor fault of the gig," Thalia grinned with an exaggerated yawn, but no levity was stopping the darkness from seeming to grow around them, like the cracks Percy had made in the ground had awakened something. They'd swear the dim light that came from nowhere was fading.

I took Annabeth's magic cap out of my pocket and put it on.

I didn't feel any different, but when I raised my arms I couldn't see them. I was invisible.

I crept up to Nico and sneaked around him. I couldn't see the girls very well in the dark, but I knew their voices: Zoe and Bianca. It sounded like they were arguing.

"It cannot be cured," Zoe was saying. "Not quickly, at any rate."

"But how did it happen?" Bianca asked.

"A foolish prank," Zoe growled. "Those Stoll boys from the Hermes cabin. Centaur blood is like acid. Everyone knows that. They sprayed the inside of that Artemis Hunting Tour T-shirt with it."

Magnus spluttered in concern and double-checked the print that looked like someone was flicking black paint on the letters, making them bolder by the word and impossible to miss. "That's terrible! They tried to kill her over a game."

"It would only maim or seriously injure," Alex batted her eyes as she said innocently.

Magnus snorted in surprise while Thalia winced and did actually answer, "err, yeah, mostly that. She wouldn't have died so long as she got treatment." Phoebe had sworn revenge on the Hermes cabin though and was no longer allowed back at camp after the last time she'd stolen all of their clothes and spread them in the forest.

"That's terrible!"

"She will live," Zoe said. "But she'll be bedridden for weeks with horrible hives. There is no way she can go. It's up to me... and thee."

"But the prophecy," Bianca said. "If Phoebe can't go, we only have four. We'll have to pick another."

Percy glowered at this disastrous group already having its first hiccup and they hadn't even left camp, but he refused to turn his scowl on Thalia again. She hadn't been part of this conversation, of course Zoe wouldn't offer a hand to him next, and he had to stop blaming Thalia. It was unfair of him to even hope now Thalia would refuse to go without him along too just to fill in numbers.

"There is no time," Zoe said. "We must leave at first light. That's immediately. Besides, the prophecy said we would lose one."

"In the land without rain," Bianca said, "but that can't be here."

Magnus was practically having to read with the book pressed against his nose now, the light in here wavering like someone was flicking with the switch. Will made a gentle, humming noise in the back of his throat as everyone glanced at Percy for being the cause, and Nico forced himself to keep breathing. It hurt, and was growing sharper like the oxygen was fighting him.

"It might be," Zoe said, though she didn't sound convinced. "The camp has magic borders. Nothing, not even weather, is allowed in without permission. It could be a land without rain."

"But—"

"Bianca, hear me." Zoe's voice was strained. "I... I can't explain, but I have a sense that we should not pick someone else. It would be too dangerous. They would meet an end worse than Phoebe's. I don't want Chiron choosing a camper as our fifth companion.

And... I don't want to risk another Hunter."

Bianca was silent.

Nobody would have let him go, Nico kept reminding himself over and over. Not any of them, he was too young, a useless child back then, she didn't want him to go. He could have done nothing to change this, and it wasn't Zoe's fault, it was Bianca's choice.

No matter what he kept telling himself, the hurt she hadn't even mentioned him didn't seem to be fading very well. 'Hard to not hold a grudge when you make it so easy sis,' he pressed his lips together painfully tight to stop himself snapping.

"You should tell Thalia the rest of your dream."

"No. It would not help."

"But if your suspicions are correct, about the General—"

"I have thy word not to talk about that," Zoe said. She sounded really anguished.

Zoe was right, Thalia kept her own bitter thought to herself. It wouldn't have helped to tell her. Thalia couldn't honestly tell herself what she would have done with the knowledge. Had a moment of empathy with Zoe as her dad wasn't the best either? Kept her mouth shut and kept it all to herself as she went out to save Annabeth and leaving Zoe's fate to herself? Been even more horrible to the frost princess of a girl for possibly leading them into a trap? It was an unknowable path, and one she didn't wish to dwell on.

"We will find out soon enough. Now come. Dawn is breaking."

Nico scooted out of their way. He was faster than me.

As the girls sprinted down the steps, Zoe almost ran into me. She froze, her eyes narrowing. Her hand crept toward her bow, but then Bianca said, "The lights of the Big House are on. Hurry!"

And Zoe followed her out of the pavilion.

I could tell what Nico was thinking. He took a deep breath and was about to run after his sister when I took off the invisibility cap and said, "Wait."

Like an angel and a devil over his shoulder at once, Nico morbidly thought to himself. His knight in shining armor appearing out of the gloom, making his heart leap at the sight of him before Nico had enveloped himself in shadows to escape the sight of him.

He almost slipped on the icy steps as he spun around to find me. "Where did you come from?"

"I've been here the whole time. Invisible."

He mouthed the word invisible. "Wow. Cool."

Will tried to give him an encouraging smile and wanted to ask him anything to keep his attention right now, but Nico's dark eyes were glowing an almost concerning purple, backlit in the iris's as the shadows on the wall twisted and shaped into pavilions and tables.

All Nico could see was that cold winter morning, smell the salt and feel the warmth coming off of Percy. How was it possible he could do any wrong when he could be everywhere at once in this world?

"How did you know Zoe and your sister were here?"

He blushed. "I heard them walk by the Hermes cabin. I don't... I don't sleep too well at camp.

Will gave up trying to distract him, he had a really bad feeling where this conversation was going coupled with the chapter title, but he did file that question away for later. Was it still true? The dark bags under Nico's eyes proved it was, and yet he hadn't slept at camp in months.

The others were watching Nico with their own concern, especially Percy as he kept nervously looking from him and away like a bad tick. Nobody else ever seemed to want to, or were able to gaze at him long enough to see such things for themselves.

So I heard footsteps, and them whispering. And so I kind of followed."

"And now you're thinking about following them on the quest," I guessed.

"How did you know that?"

The first of many times Nico had thought Percy knew the answer to everything. He knew better now, that Percy was fumbling along on these adventures as much as anybody in the god's world. Still brave, still a hero, still a good person who would likely stop and ask some dumb kid what was going on, but Percy couldn't do everything.

"Because if it was my sister, I'd probably be thinking the same thing. But you can't."

He looked defiant. "Because I'm too young?"

"Because they won't let you. They'll catch you and send you back here. And... yeah, because you're too young. You remember the manticore? There will be lots more like that. More dangerous. Some of the heroes will die."

He shoulders sagged. He shifted from foot to foot. "Maybe you're right. But, but you can go for me."

"Say what?"

"As if you needed him to tell you that," Thalia muttered, half surprised Percy hadn't already packed his bag to do it himself and sneak onto the bus.

"I really was going to go see my mom first," Percy tried to say that like he meant it, but even to his own ears it felt like a lie. Once he'd heard Phoebe was out, he would have kept the impulse to follow them until they all met in that dark cavern with Annabeth and Artemis.

"You can turn invisible. You can go!"

"The Hunters don't like boys," I reminded him. "If they find out—"

"Don't let them find out. Follow them invisibly. Keep an eye on my sister! You have to. Please?"

"Nico—"

"You're planning to go anyway, aren't you?"

I wanted to say no. But he looked me in the eyes, and I somehow couldn't lie to him.

...those sea-green eyes that had lied to him.

"That famous actor parent must be awesome," Alex muttered as she tried to grin at Nico, but it was like looking at a shape in a dark room, the kind of thing that made your heart skip a beat even as you scolded your brain it was just some clothes on a chair. He looked like he was being shrouded in darkness.

"Yeah," I said. "I have to find Annabeth. I have to help, even if they don't want me to."

"I won't tell on you," he said. "But you have to promise to keep my sister safe."

"I... that's a big thing to promise, Nico, on a trip like this. Besides, she's got Zoe, Grover, and Thalia—"

"Promise," he insisted.

"I'll do my best. I promise that."

A black energy crackled in the room that sent everyone's hair standing on end, a sizzling, dangerous power that blasted an icy chill down each of their spines, except Nico.

He didn't seem to realize anything had happened, still sitting stoically, eyes vacant and pushing so hard at nonchalance as the others shivered while blaming it on Percy's continued sense of foreboding on this quest, even himself.

The lights had gone back to their normal vision like nothing had happened. Jason swallowed uneasily as he glanced at Percy and back to the book that didn't have any new dents on it. Percy was rubbing at his temple, his eyes closed.

Will was watching Nico with sad blue eyes, as the Son of Hades stirred and looked around as if just remembering where he was.

"Get going, then!" he said. "Good luck!"

It was crazy. I wasn't packed. I had nothing but the cap and the sword and the clothes I was wearing. I was supposed to be going home to Manhattan this morning. "Tell Chiron—"

"I'll make something up." Nico smiled crookedly. "I'm good at that. Go on!"

I ran, putting on Annabeth's cap. As the sun came up, I turned invisible. I hit the top of Half-Blood Hill in time to see the camp's van disappearing down the farm road, probably Argus taking the quest group into the city. After that they would be on their own.

I felt a twinge of guilt, and stupidity, too. How was I supposed to keep up with them.

Run?

"Hijack another bus?" Jason managed an uneasy laugh, almost wishing for the nearly inky black space around them now. There was a comfort in the dark, not having to see the pain this was causing everyone. Nobody laughed to light the room a little more.

Then I heard the beating of huge wings. Blackjack landed next to me. He began casually nuzzling a few tufts of grass that stuck through the ice.

If I was guessing, boss, I'd say you need a getaway horse. You interested?

A lump of gratitude stuck in my throat, but I managed to say, "Yeah. Let's fly."

Magnus uneasily lowered the book and passed it to Alex as he looked at Percy. If messing with the lights down here was his new resolution to all of this, he couldn't complain, but the way he was studying Nico left a sense of forbidding in them all it might not be Annabeth he'd been so worried about this time. Hopefully the kid hadn't snuck out with Percy anyways and gotten hurt.

[lastoneout]

can we get a refresh on your ocs to ask questions?

Absolutely o7 (also sorry this got long lmaooo)

Eugene: Demon who hates his job so much he ghosted his old boss and is hiding out on earth. Personality of a golden retriever with the guilt complex of a reformed war criminal. Ended up getting caught by a demon hunter back when he first went rogue and was sealed away for about 100 years until Ophelia found and accidentally unsealed him. He decided to deal with this by falling head-over-heels in love with her. Also loves humans and earth and reads wikipedia for fun. Huge fucking dork.

Ophelia: Human, has spent 90% of her life depressed and apathetic and afraid of being vulnerable/honest to the point that she's estranged from her family and has basically no friends. Works at a concert venue and loves music but she pretends she doesn't bcs being liking things means being honest and vulnerable and that's scary. Eugene is the first person in years she's let herself care about, though she's not always the best at it. She is, however, very good at beating the ever-living shit out of other demons, as well as baking and playing guitar, and sometimes softball when she is coerced into playing.

Sasha: Human witch, though less in a cool hex-girls kinda way and more in a mad scientist kind of way. They’re remarkably good at not dying despite having no self-preservation instinct, and are also incredibly charismatic. They’re also Ophelia’s only friend, though they don’t really start being proper friends until after Eugene shows up, because Sasha is totally down to help keep him as hidden from other demons as possible and also thinks being friends with a demon is cool as hell and isn’t gonna pass up the chance. 

Harper: Angel who is bad at her job. She is afraid of demons and witches and all that, but it’s kinda her job to suppress/deal with any that she finds, so when she discovers Eugene she uh...well tries to kill deal with him, but fails miserably.  However, over the course of her repeated failed attempts she slowly starts to realize maybe demons aren’t as bad as she was always told and decides to back off. She is roped into being friends with the main three after apologizing because Sasha is addicted to making friends.

Thalia: Demon, Eugene’s twin sister. Is a pretty massive bitch and starts off being evil(and is the one who initially finds and drags Eugene’s ass back to hell) but eventually comes around bcs while she’s pissed he bailed on hell and, by extension, her, she does love her brother and is a decent person deep, DEEP down.

Cassandra: Demon, Thalia’s girlfriend. Basically the only person with two braincells to rub together among these dumbasses BUT ofc no one ever listens to her. Pretty morally neutral, but obeys any orders she’s given. Her feelings towards Thalia are just that post that’s like “I’d follow her into hell but I wish she’d stop going there”. Willing to call Thalia, and others, on their bullshit even if she doesn’t/can’t do anything about it.

That’s the fast rundown, but you can see everything I’ve posted about them here(which includes art).