#and on the subject of hades kids i love that nico is ''''ambassador from the underworld''''

[words-writ-in-starlight]

pjo for any mix of 2, 5, 8, 14, 19, 20, and/or 21?

I have a bunch of asks for this meme but I have finally seen MY BOY again in Son of Neptune and I missed him desperately, so.

2) Emotional/moral weak spots

Percy “let the world burn to save a friend” Jackson’s emotional weak spot--his Achilles heel, if you will--is always the people around him.  Not always just friends, either.  Anyone he thinks of as his responsibility will qualify, from his civilian parents to his camp rivals to outright enemies (Ethan Nakamura, anyone?).  He’s good at muscling through it, at bearing up and fighting on, but deep down he’s still a twelve-year-old kid who’s risking his life for someone who lied to him and watching his mother turn to dust.  Deep down, Percy never really left that hill, and you can tell.

This is also the single most powerful trap that Percy’s good heart can fall into, the biggest moral blindspot he has.  Once someone crosses that line, hurts someone Percy considers his to protect, they’d better hope the judges of Hades have mercy on them, because Percy sure won’t.

5) Guilty pleasures

Percy mostly embraces the attitude that if anyone has earned some junk food and trash TV, it’s him.  He and Annabeth watch cooking shows when they’re too tired or insomniac to function--stuff like Cutthroat Kitchen, where they can watch people get really intense and high-adrenaline about relatively low-stakes issues.  They find it calming.  The closest Percy really comes to a guilty pleasure--in the sense of never ever admitting to anyone how much he genuinely enjoys it--is watching Annabeth’s architectural shows.  You know those shows on Netflix and YouTube that are just a couple of people gushing over weird buildings?  Annabeth loves those.  Percy has never retained a single piece of information from the shows themselves, but he likes to sit with Annabeth’s back against his chest and his chin on her shoulder and his arms around her waist, so that she can pause it every five minutes to provide color commentary without asking him to move.  Annabeth has Some Thoughts about the pseudo-brutalist concrete-facing-and-bulky-squares aesthetic and Percy can repeat that rant word for word.  He has no idea what half the words mean but he sure does know every single one of them.  He puts up a good front of being dragged into watching her nerd shit, but Annabeth Knows The Truth.

Also, related, but Percy finds it very soothing to have Annabeth on his lap or asleep on his chest and something like a firm couch or a wall at his back.  He thinks it’s something about the pressure--it’s a little like being underwater.

8) Bad memories/experiences

What isn’t, to be honest.  But I think for a while there after Mount Saint Helens, Percy was really, truly, deeply afraid of fire.  Hard to hold onto a phobia when you’ve got a world to save, but sometimes when he’s standing too near to a fire, he still feels the heat seize up in his chest and the instinctive craving for water.

14) Ingrained habits/forces of habit

Percy’s number one top habits are clearly being enthralled with Annabeth, taking over armies, and terrifying acts of demigod, based on the 20% of Son of Neptune I’ve gotten through.  In that order.

As far as headcanons go, I’m firmly convinced that Percy is the worst fidgeter in two camps full of fidgeters.  He plays with his necklace and drums Riptide on tables and knocks his knuckles into his ribs or knees or temple and clicks his tongue and paces and plays with Annabeth’s hair and and and--  Annabeth, whose ADHD is much more inattentive type than Percy’s raging combined type, finds it charming, her personal perpetual motion machine.  She jokes that if she hooked him up to a generator, she could power all of New York.  Really, some kind of pressure stim, putting him under five blankets or putting someone on his lap or something, is the only way to get him to hold still.

19) People they’ve hurt or indirectly killed, and how it affected them

I already mentioned Michael Yew, but honestly I think Percy is...pretty haunted by the Battle of Manhattan.  He’s a leader by nature and a soldier by training and a hero by blood and none of those things make him okay with knowing how many people died on his orders.

On a slightly less morbid and more ADHD note, Percy has a mental list in excruciating detail of every single time he’s made Annabeth cry and sometimes when he’s already in a bad headspace he finds himself kind of obsessing over it.  He thinks a lot about her face while she burned his shroud.

20) What Ifs/Alternate Timelines

I described this to my girlfriend as “Big Three kids but one to the left,” soooo.

When Annabeth is twelve, she tries to go home, because her father just moved to California and all but begged her to come.  It lasts like three weeks and then she’s got her bag and her knife and a sour expression and she’s...figuring out transportation back to Long Island.  “Hitchhiking” makes it sound so dangerous.  Technically the driver of this truck doesn’t even know she’s here.  She just waits for him to stop and bails out and counts her forty-nine dollars and tries to decide what she’s going to do.  She’s already used one of her three drachma to tell Chiron she’s on her way, and really she shouldn’t use any more until she hears that they’ve sent someone to meet her, and--

And gods she’s tired.  She thinks she’s maybe in Vegas?  It’s only October, so it’s not real cold, but she’s angry with herself, for thinking it would be different with her dad, and angry with the truck driver, for stopping somewhere so glittery and confusing, and angry with the whole damn world for being like this.  She’s so angry that she doesn’t realize she’s gotten off the Strip until she practically slams into a wide gilt-glass door, which a doorman opens for her with a huge beaming smile.

“Welcome,” the doorman says warmly as Annabeth eyes him.  “We’ve been expecting you.”

Annabeth spends a few hours in the hotel’s game room, before she finds a strange boy about her own age who mentions offhand that he’s expecting his mother to come get him, after the war has settled down a bit.  They talk a little, and then the boy blinks at her, narrows his eyes, and says, “Something’s--not right here.”

Perseus--Percy, he tells her after giving her his full name, with a rueful smirk like it’s an old argument with someone else--hauls her out of the Lotus Hotel and Casino just after the winter solstice, and he has a few hours to gape around at Las Vegas before every monster in a forty mile radius descends on them.  Percy, in something of a panic, yells, and an entire graveyard bursts out of the ground.

Oh boy howdy is Olympus not amused at the sudden appearance of a son of Hades, two days after Zeus’ master bolt goes missing.

Also ft Bianca as a pine tree forming the gate to Camp Halfblood, and Thalia and her baby brother Jason, children of Poseidon, running scared from a manticore.  Thalia martyrs herself saving the quest to recover Annabeth, Bianca becomes lieutenant of the Hunters, and eventually, a kid who calls himself Nico shows up not long after Percy disappears.

[firesofdainix]

all my wolves begin to howl, oh wake me up the time is now

Fragments of Jason's life before The Lost Hero.

.

His mother told him that she would be back, but it has been hours since he had last seen her and Thalia. He calls for them as he crawls through the Wolf House with his hands and feet. Then he starts to cry, and he feels his ordinary life, from his sister, his mother, tearing itself apart inside of him. As if his childhood is finally done, and a new life is ahead of him.

But still, Jason wishes to hold on, to hope that his mother and sister would come back for him. That fades when a lone howl pierces through his baby ears, and a figure steps out from the shadows.

Sadly, Jason wasn't afraid.

Sadly, Jason Grace was taken away from his old home to a new one with the wolves.

And the cycle continues.

Life with the wolves had been fun. Frolicking in the house where his mother and sister left him, spending the day in the woods trying to catch prey.

Lupa is quite a mother wolf, a strict one, but still a mother whom he barely remembers.

Finally, after months of training, Jason Grace at age three is now ready to face on the cruel world to find Camp Jupiter.

To say he didn't look back was not true. He did look back, to see another kid older than him being taught by the same wolves he considered as a family.

His family of wolves seem to have moved on like the family he barely remembered as a child.

They all look up at him, Jason Grace.

Jason Grace.

Son of Jupiter.

Jason Grace.

The King of the God's son, everyone says.

The son of a no good Dad, he wishes to say, but those words were stuck in his throat, refusing to come out.

He wonders if he'll just become like his father, which is his worst nightmare.

Instead of joining the First Cohort like everyone expected him to be, he joins the Fifth Cohort, filled with what they say, the sea of nobodies.

It's good to be a nobody.

The first time he got his mark, it hurts like Hades. There was a brilliant flash of light... and it's there now.

The eagle, symbolizing his father, the SPQR, and a line representing his first year.

The others say he'll get used to the pain.

He already did.

He just chooses to feel numb.

Being marked was supposed to be the most special time. It means that he is fully accepted into the legion, into the arms of the cohorts. He isn't a probatio anymore; he never is treated as one.

They try to make him join their cohorts.

Anything other than the Fifth Cohort.

And he just glares, because he knows they're not being any fair to the members of the Fifth Cohort.

Bigots.

Bullies. He hates them. He hates them all.

They think they're so high and mighty, picking on the younger probatios, but just one glare from Jason Grace and they'll be running another way.

Jason's just a kid.

A six year old.

Ten year olds run away from him.

Jason Grace tries to become a blank slate one time, resulting in him hearing most of the conversation of the bullies he had driven away.

"The Fifth Cohort thinks they're so powerful, just because Jason Grace is with them", one says.

"Just wait until Jason Grace realizes what he's done wrong and leave the Fifth Cohort", another one says.

Fury engulfs Jason. He didn't know what he was doing, unaware.

He didn't know he summoned lightning and killed three people on the spot.

He isn't a blank slate anymore.

Therapists are common in New Rome, of course. Some descendants of the gods had been involved in wars or had been put through many traumatizing moments throughout their life.

Jason thinks he doesn't count as any of those people.

He doesn't even know what war is supposed to be like.

No one here knows how much damage a war will cost.

"All right Jason", the therapist says in a warm voice, just like all the other therapists before her. "I want you to tell me what you have learned the past year in Camp Jupiter."

It was such a simple question. Jason didn't know where every thing went wrong.

"That the Fifth Cohort is the best cohort anyone has ever seen", Jason says nonchalantly.

The therapist nods slowly. Sooner or later she'll give up on him, like all the others. "Anything else."

"Everyone who tries to say other wise are bigots."

"Mister Grace, your language."

"What is even the point of this? To see if you think I regret killing those assholes a year ago."

The therapist nods. "Yes. You should be ashamed of yourself. We would've sentenced you to death-"

"But you don't want to, since I'm a son of Jupiter, is that right?"

The therapist doesn't reply.

It was his eighth birthday today, and everyone from all cohorts gave him a simple phrase of Happy Birthday.

No one asked him if he was fine.

No one dared ask him what happened in the ward.

He just wants to talk to someone, anyone.

He was elevated to a centurion of the Fifth Cohort, along with Dakota.

Together they kill bassilisks in the temples, and lead the war games with their comrades.

Jason is the reason why sometimes, the Fifth Cohort always win in the war games.

Twelfth Legion doesn't bring pride to Jason at all.

He has no idea to why everyone would be okay to be called 'the twelfth best legion'.

Now that he's a centurion, maybe he can change the minds of the campers of Camp Jupiter.

Rename it to First Legion, he says.

They're hesitant.

He knows why.

Only Octavian stands in the way.

He has no Roman pride.

He only has pride within himself.

Octavian was handpicked as the augur and it made Jason's blood boil.

How could he become an augur? Why had their praetors done this? Do they know how much political power and blackmail Octavian has?

Maybe that's why.

The praetors were also scared by his absolute power.

Jason cannot let him be a praetor given a time.

Then a marvelous and life threatening idea looms over his head.

Yes.

That's how it's going to be.

Jason is standing over Octavian's lying body, blankets covering most of it.

Jason was holding his ILVIS sword, tightly too.

He's going to kill Octavian.

He's going to do it.

He trudges over the legacy of Apollo's bed, but something stops him.

Jason regrets stopping because after that Octavian yells something about murder.

He jumps off the window and into the night.

Fuck you hesitation.

Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano.

That's her name.

A daughter of the war goddess Bellona.

That's nice.

She loves Diocletian as much as he does, and they'd stare at portraits everyday while getting lost at the subject of history.

That's good.

She's also his first friend.

That's the best news.

Reyna's been acting strange lately.

After that little quest, their relationship was never the same.

What did that woman do to Reyna?

Sure, they were still talking, but Reyna seems to be distant, as if thinking of something.

Being wary around Jason Grace.

But Jason tries not to give up, trying to still rebuild their friendship.

"So, you're Bryce Lawrence." Jason looks at the boy with the mix of disgust and indignance.

This-this no good son of Orcus really thinks that a little murder is entertainment.

He should've been dead, but his family is one of the most influential families in all of New Rome.

They can't just execute him and face his angry relatives.

But he was a goddamn psychopath.

Gods, Jason already hates him.

A lot of Roman campers have been missing lately.

The praetors said that they were rewarded a quest by the augur.

But they don't come back after a week.

Jason sighs as he flips his coin, transforming it to a sword.

He's going to find those campers and bring them back here.

Jason didn't know what got into him.

One moment, he was fighting a dracaena and another moment he was fighting one of his own kin, a demigod.

But the demigod isn't Roman.

He said he was a son of Hermes.

And he looks a lot like him.

Who is he?

And how could he do this to his Roman kind?

"Join me, Jason", he says.

Luke.

His name is Luke.

"Together we can tear Olympus apart stone by stone!"

Jason shoots lightning at him, but he seems unharmed.

At the end of the day, he fed the traitor Romans to the sharks.

Nico.

Nico di Angelo.

That was the Ambassador of Pluto's name.

People were wary of him.

Jason? He wasn't wary of Nico.

Finally, a cousin.

He seems secretive, but that's alright.

Jason has a lot of secrets.

And one day Nico brings Hazel, also a child of Pluto.

He cherishes them both.

There's a battle.

And he's in it.

Everyone is in it.

Against the Titan Kronos who has escaped from Tartarus.

He didn't tell anyone about that Greek demigod.

But before they go to New York, they have to face Krios first in Mount Othyrs.

It's going to be a long battle.

Their praetors are dead, and many are wounded.

Everyone is panicking, and Jason and Reyna tries to stop them from that.

Reyna comes up with battle tactics, and Jason is quite proud of her.

They march into Krios' domain, where they're faced with a dragon and the Hesperides.

Reyna kills them singlehandedly as the legion descends into battle.

Jason reaches Krios, and that is where it gets messy.

Hand-to-hand combat.

Why is Jason so impulsive?

His face burns.

His legs are tiring.

His right arm is broken.

And the entire legion is watching them, weapons ready.

They want to see if he lives or dies.

He looks up at the sky as he finally kneels for what felt like years, exhaling.

His lungs are burning.

His heart is beating too fast for his own good.

He feels blood on his face, and his eyes hurt.

He finally prays to his dad for the first time in his life.

And he's overcome with strength he had when he and the Romans scaled Mount Othyrs.

Krios is disintegrating, slowly but surely. He growls, but Jason just kicks him in the face.

"Who even are you?", Krios spits out.

Jason smirks. "I'm Jason fucking Grace bitch. And you'll remember me for centuries."

He watches Krios fully disintegrate with a self satisfied smirk.

And he faces his comrades, all full of amazement or intimidation.

Reyna starts to clap.

Sooner or later everyone starts clapping.

They made him and Reyna praetors of the first legion.

He dreams.

He dreams of his achievements, of his mother and sister, of his family.

But something is still missing.

In all his life, he never called anything a 'home', or a 'family'.

Even in Camp Jupiter, where it was supposed to feel at home, he never feels like it.

He finds Juno staring at him with a smile.

No.

He cannot be used as a pawn ever again.

Juno chuckles.

"It is your time now, little hero. Your destiny awaits."

No.

NEVER AGAIN.

Who is he again?

Where is he?

What is he doing here in a bus, in the middle of wilderness?

He feels something warm on his hand, and he looks over to see-

The most beautiful girl he's ever met.

And, suddenly, he feels a pang of hope, that maybe, just maybe, he will find a home and family.

Maybe is a strong word.

"Jason? Are you alright?"

[fireandgloryrpg]

Congratulations Bah and welcome back! We’re so happy to accept your application to play Nico di Angelo with the faceclaim of Ezra Miller in Fire & Glory RPG! We can’t wait to begin roleplaying with you so please remember to look over our checklist!

Out of Character Information:

Name: Bah

Pronouns: They/Them

Age: I’m old please leave me alone

Timezone: I think because of daylight savings it’s GMT – 2 atm but it’s usually GMT - 3

Activity: well I finally got off that damn training so I’m free all day everyday and until mid-January I should stay that way, after that I still don’t know how many lessons I’m gonna be assigned but summer course is usually just part time so it should be a solid 6 to 8! Gimme the ghost boy please?

Skeleton Character Application:

Desired Character: Nico di Angelo

CHARACTER BIRTHDAY: January 28th, 1924

Reason you want to play this character: Because my gothic heart says so. Also because of the Canon characters Nico is the only one I'm comfortable enough to play, I think he's great and has so much potential. I really want to play him more adult in contrast to his ~teens in the books.

Are there any changes you wish to make? Please explain and provide alternatives: Can I change the FC to Matt Daddario? He’s always wearing black, he looks angry or broody 98% of the time, he has fighting gifs, he wields swords and his SH character is gay so there’s that (he’s also very tall and awkward and I find it hilarious). I don’t mind Devon tbh I just thought it’d be cool to vary a little. But other options maybe Ezra Miller or Landon Liboiron? Also he’s Pluto’s Ambassador and in the books he was part of the Senate so maybe he is still one? Idk if he should be a Nominal/Honorary Senator due to his inconsistent presence or the Camp’s senator? Idk idk.

ABILITIES:

Nico is considered a particularly powerful demigod with his powers encompassing:

- Geokinesis, Osteokinesis, Umbrakinesis, Thermokinesis, Hypnokinesis & Necromancy (All according to the Riordan Wiki); - Ever since the last prophecy Nico found himself good teachers for training his fighting, practicing his sword fighting and he got some bow and arrow training from the Apollo cabin’ kids (cough Will cough) which sure he isn’t any kind of amazing archer but he’s a good learner and distance fighting is more his thing anyway; - He has the silver skull ring given to him by Bianca that helps him drain and control energy from the souls around him; - The Stygian Iron sword he was gifted by his Father;

Biography:

!! tw: death mention !!

Born in Venice, Italy in a torn world in-between world wars, Nico di Angelo’s first childhood was happy and simple though his mysterious father was a rare presence, the boy couldn’t ask for much more. He had his mother and sister, they lived a simple life in a simple place in what seemed simpler times. But if asked nowadays, Nico would only ever remember something else – that it was only him and Bianca against the world, stuck in a whirling colourful place that was the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Nico never got to live the over seventy years that went around him, the Second World War, Vietnam and everything else. In his father’s eschewed ways of caring and also trying to manipulate the prophecy, Nico and Bianca remained at the Casino for decades, forgotten by the world. Rescued by the Fury Alecto (though unknown), Nico and Bianca were told by the phony lawyer that their parents were deceased and then sent to a boarding school. He had no memories of his previous life after a bath in the Lethe, not even of his mother’s untimely demise by the hands of Zeus, if only to protect him and his sister or to protect Hades himself.

His “regular life” after the Casino was short-lived, the military boarding school wasn’t home but it had routine and he still had Bianca. By then Nico was still a naïve, wide-eyed boy, obsessed with pirates and mythology, card games and everything he could put his hyperactive hands on. And then his whole world was thrown away by the presence of the Gods, his father and his ultimate end, Percy Jackson. The first moment everything was too much – he was a demigod, yay! And there were monsters, alright, not so cool. And then his sister abandoned him to join the Huntresses. Though resentful and angry, Nico loved Bianca, she had been his entire world as long as he could remember, his only friend and his partner in crime and then she never came back from the quest. The only thing that did were the news, brought to him by Percy Jackson.

Resentment, self-loathing and anger would plague Nico for the following years and through the probations he ended up facing – Daedalus labyrinth, trying to bring back his sister and being shut down by her, the Sword of Hades, the Titan army, the Battle of Manhattan, Jules-Albert, finding Hazel, Camp Jupiter and New Rome, Percy without memories, Gaea’s resurgence and then being imprisoned in Tartarus. Brought to the brink of insanity and maybe pushed a bit further than just the brink. Trying to save the world once again for a long while paled in comparison to being outed by Cupid, something Nico still hasn’t quite gotten over even after so long. Then the final battle and Leo’s estrange death. Unable to have a remotely regular child and teen years, Nico’s life mostly revolved fighting monsters and hanging out with the undead – and that didn’t change much even after putting Gaea to pieces.

Dividing his time between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood, Nico’s decided to make up for the lost years in terms of studying. Once involved with Roman politics Nico missed having formal knowledge and whilst it was dangerous for him to not be around any of the Camps, he wanted to be in the mortal world, where he was mostly invisible and no one really cared about his pedigree. After a year of intense tutoring with some scholar ghosts in the Underworld, studying frantically, he managed to enrol himself in a New York High School with fake documents (kindly provided to him by some of Hermes kids). While it wasn’t all really smooth all the time, Nico managed to graduate from High School mostly in secret as hard as it was and then moved to New Rome for Law School. He isn’t quite mentally capable of keeping a full-time school course and only takes a few classes a week, and sure, he’s failed a bunch of subjects so far but he still tries.