#i really didn’t mean to rant this much but i will always be at thalia’s defense

[heavensincarnate1111]

I AM THALIA GRACE’s #1 DEFENDER ALWAYS!!! it makes me so sad when people misunderstand her choosing to be a hunter and putting the prophecy on percy.

like it was ALWAYS gonna be percy, he was always going to be the prophecy child. a main theme of pjo is that you can’t escape fate, that’s why chiron asked percy why it was important for them to know the story about kronos trying to dodge his own fate. you can’t escape it no matter what and thalia knew that better than anyone (since she literally was a damn tree, she knew her fate wasn’t that of the prophecy child)

plus, thalia’s character development is so underrated. when we first meet her, she’s very headstrong and assertive. she likes to be in charge and doesn’t have any interest cooperation, just like her father.

but as ttc goes on, she learns to work together with percy and zoe and by the end, she realizes that she wouldn’t even be able to be the prophecy child because she just isn’t cut out for it. THATS THE MAIN FOCUS OF HER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!

the incident with the ophiotaurus showed her that she isn’t immune to temptation, she isn’t loyal to people, she’s loyal to power, just like her father.

and that’s the exact opposite of what percy is, which is why thalia gives up the prophecy because she knew it was never meant for her. it wasn’t out of her own selfishness (if selfishness was her motive, she would’ve kept the prophecy for herself!!!!)

and lastly, i really hate that “thalia didn’t think twice before putting the prophecy on percy but percy kept the prophecy bc he didn’t want to put the burden on nico” because it just shows even more how much thought was put into thalia’s decision.

like i said, thalia knew percy wasn’t loyal to power, he was loyal to people. he’s loyal to nico in a way and that’s why he doesn’t want the burden of the prophecy on him. that just shows EVEN MORE how much better suited percy was for the prophecy because thalia wouldn’t have been able to make that decision. and she knew that.

TLDR: they will never make me hate you thalia grace.

[valewritessss]

Reasons why people hate Annabeth Chase and why I disagree. Warning: this a very long rant and some of these might be a little controversial

1. Annabeth didn’t have any trauma as a child compared to Percy she was only being dramatic.

Does being attacked by hundreds of spiders and waking up in webs every night sound pleasant to you? With nobody believing her because they would go away?

Whenever they say she didn’t suffer at home there are always some underlying tones of them thinking abuse isn’t abuse if it isn’t physical, and then translating that into Annabeth having a good childhood and making things up.

Why would she want to have a bad childhood is my question? And true it may seem like it wasn’t so bad since Percy even said it didn’t seem like it was as bad as she described it upon first meeting her parents, but I don’t even agree with Percy thinking that because why would he, of all people, not understand that people can hide behind nice faces? I honestly think that part was on Rick because he’s kind of gone back and forth with Annabeth’s home situation so it’s a little confusing.

But back to why would she want to have a bad childhood I think those people are the kind that compare trauma and thinkhaving more trauma=being better. But last time I checked, having a bad home situation/childhood isn’t really something people should want for themselves.

Annabeth may have not been physically abused but being accused of playing tricks to make webs appear on her skin instead of being comforted, being reprimanded for accidentally scaring her brothers even though she was the one being attacked, being blamed for attracting monsters even though she can’t control it, that doesn’t like like a happy time to me.

2. Annabeth is possessive of Percy too much she gets jealous way too easily.

Jealousy isn’t really a bad thing unless it is toxic, and I’ve seen no signs of Annabeth’s jealousy being toxic. Her haters, however, probably say otherwise.

The first time we see her get jealous is when Rachel shows up, and if I’m going to be completely honest why shouldn’t she be a little jealous? When she first sees Rachel it’s when Percy and her were supposed to go to the movies and she’s 14 years old so she’s going to act a little petty. Sorry, a traumatized 14 year old girl isn’t exactly going to handle her emotions like a mature adult. Annabeth has her little “was it hard?” moment and it was pretty obvious it was supposed to come off as funny and many people do think it was. If you didn’t think it was funny that’s fine and it’s also fine if you think it was wrong. But toxic? Really?

The next time we see her get jealous is when Percy comes back from Ogygia and she hugs him and storms off. Her best friends just died for two weeks but suddenly came back I think it’s understandable why she would be a little overwhelmed. Chiron says that she’s jealous because she knows where he was. She never really brings it up but she probably had some internal jealousy because why wouldn’t she be jealous when Percy could have chosen to live a peaceful life in Ogygia with Calypso, war-free. But he didn’t, and she didn’t bring it up(I think). Safe to say she was definitely not being toxic here.

The most prominent time she was jealous is when Percy says they need Rachel for the labyrinth and again, why wouldn’t she be jealous? It’s HER quest, and she was already insecure about Percy leaving her for Rachel so him telling her they need her for her quest is obviously going to make her mad. And she did act pettily towards Rachel and she did get ticked off very easily but let’s not forget where this all stems from.

Her entire life people have been abandoned her and left her for other people. Her dad, Thalia, Luke, and now she meets a mortal girl that has her best friend and crush’s attention which to her means she could potentially take Percy from her. Yeah, no shit she’s gonna be jealous. And it’s also a normal teenage emotion to be jealous of another person. So sorry, if a teenage girl doesn’t handle her emotions maturely.

Then, Percy reasonably spends his “last” summer away from camp and unfortunately for annabeth, with Rachel. This is not me saying Percy or Rachel did anything wrong but neither did Annabeth in being mad at him. It was mostly that she was just heartbroken because she was about to lose him, but he chose to spend his last moments being normal, something she could never be. She also spent most of her life being abandoned by someone so this was like it was happening all over again.

I’ve seen someone say she was jealous of Hazel and it was possessive because she automatically assumed Percy and her had something. Huh???? She thought of the possibility for 3 seconds and then was like, nah, she’s dating the other guy next to Percy. And it was a possibility because she saw Jason, who had lost his memories and didn’t know if he had someone waiting for him, get together with Piper so who’s to say it couldn’t have happened with Percy?

None of these seem toxic to me and it’s fine if you don’t like it for your relationship but clearly, Percy doesn’t think much about her jealousy afterwards once they got together. In fact, Percy gets jealous a lot too he’s just not as expressive about it.

3. She physically abused Percy.

This seems to be a popular one and people love to use it out of context. Annabeth and Percy both have sparring and fighting history together, so naturally they’re not going to be the gentlest of people with each other. They know how to punch, hit, and shove each other so that it doesn’t hurt since they train together. And while it is mostly annabeth that does it, Percy has never said it hurts or that he doesn’t like it. And last time I checked, he’s pretty good at calling people and gods out on their shit. If he had an issue with it he would say it.

An example of the abuse they are referring to is the judo flip. The context for this is that Percy went missing for months and Annabeth being overwhelmed, relieved, and just emotional decides to judo flip him upon reuniting with him. What a lot of people forget to mention is that right after, while he is being pinned down by Annabeth, he laughs. He laughs and they all move on. Judo flips, according to my research, are not supposed to hurt. They only hurt if they are done wrong. There is a chance my research is wrong so if anyone wants to correct me go ahead. But assuming it is right, the judo flip Annabeth did to Percy probably didn’t hurt nor was it meant to.

And Percy has experienced physical abuse before, and he hated the man that did it. He most likely would not get into a relationship with someone who does that. And he has called Annabeth out on things before, he had no trouble getting mad at her in botl, so if he seriously didn’t like it he would most likely say something.

Again, if you don’t want that in your relationship that’s great, YOU should set those boundaries with YOUR partner. But you can’t speak for a fictional character that clearly doesn’t have any issues with the way his partner treats him.

4. Annabeth makes jokes at the expense of Percy and makes him feel dumb.

There are some times when she does make jokes about Percy to his face, and he either laughs or doesn’t care. The books are from his pov, it’s not hard to see how it doesn’t bother him.

The nickname “Seaweed Brain” was her teasing him at first but it then became endearing for the both of them. This was the same for the nickname “Wise Girl”. Percy even likes the nickname and he has never said it makes him feel belittled or dumbed down.

I think where this stems from is people who think giving Annabeth credit is discrediting him. Someone mentions how she helped Percy with something and they will go on about how Percy isn't dumb and it's like we know he isn't dumb, no one said he is. Giving her credit isn’t taking credit away from him and many people need to hear that. Someone will mention how Annabeth will teach Percy something that he wouldn't have figured out on his own and oh my god people go feral. "Annabeth held up the sky" they translate that to Percy didn't do shit. Someone will say Annabeth is one of the smartest and they think that means they're saying Percy is stupid. Sorry that a girl being smart makes you insecure? Because that’s what I’m getting from that take. Percy is smart too but taking that away from Annabeth to give it to him isn’t exactly how that works. Life isn’t a competition, you don’t constantly have to be ranking people. There’s enough smartness for everyone. No one is taking anything away from Percy by admitting she is super smart or by giving her credit for stuff she did!!

You don’t hear people saying Annabeth can’t swim because Percy can control water, so why do people think people are saying Percy is dumb because Annabeth is incredibly smart? Annabeth knows she is smart, and she herself says Percy is smart TWICE, not that because she is smart that Percy is dumb. She is smart, and that takes nothing away from Percy and vice versa. They both think differently and do different things while in combat you just can’t compare those. Intelligence doesn’t just come in one form and admitting one is smart doesn’t make the other not smart. Say it with me, Annabeth is smart, Percy is smart, those things can both be true at the same time. Annabeth can be credited for things and that does not discredit Percy. For the people who say it makes Percy insecure that Annabeth shows her intelligence I promise you when Annabeth says something nerdy it doesn’t hurt Percy’s feelings.

It is true that Percy’s intelligence is overlooked, that is an issue. But you don’t have to bring someone else down to build him up okay there’s many great moments showing his intelligence use those instead. Also because if you have to bring someone else down to make your fav seem better you’re not doing your fav any favors it makes them look like someone needs to come down to their level and that’s not what’s happening with Percy. Don’t do him dirty like that he can be smart on his own you don’t have to mention Annabeth.

Sorry I kind of got off topic I just saw a chance to address an issue I’ve seen where people think giving Annabeth credit is taking away from Percy. This sometimes happens the other way around but it’s mostly the people who do this that hate her.

5. Annabeth defended Luke and it was inconsiderate of her since he tried to kill Percy.

She didn’t really defend him she just said there’s still good in him. And I mean this did make Percy mad. He was mad at her for even mentioning Luke because he was jealous, and because he didn’t understand how she could still think there’s good in him after all he did. And that’s valid. But that doesn’t mean it’s “a heartbreaking realization for a Percy that Annabeth chooses Luke over him” in the words of someone who used this argument, when she said there’s still good in him. Annabeth was betrayed by Luke too, and say what you want about her holding hope but it makes sense that she still sees good in him. I mean, that’s the guy who she views as a hero, who was a hero to her. And in the end her holding onto that hope is what broke Luke’s trance and he decided to stab himself. So if you found it annoying that she believed in him that makes sense, but don’t pretend you can’t understand why she did it.

6. Annabeth was a bitch to Rachel and is not a girls girl.

Honestly, was she nice to Rachel? No. Did Rachel deserve Annabeth’s comments? No. Is Annabeth valid? Yeah. I’m not justifying her behavior but I am justifying her reasoning because it is so obvious it went beyond jealousy.

Rachel not doing anything wrong and Annabeth being valid can co-exist. Seeing Annabeth’s perspective of this is so easy we just have to think about how the person she loves might pick someone normal over her since she can’t be normal. On his last summer too. This wasn’t just “jealous girl is mean to other girl” trope it was showing how deeply Annabeth cherishes Percy and how when she sees him picking someone else over her she is going to not be nice.

Should she have said those things to Rachel, um probably not. But she is a teenager also and it’s super normal for a teenager to get jealous and bratty when her crush and best friend spend time with a girl that also has a crush on him. It wasn’t Annabeth’s finest moment but it was entertaining and personally I thought it was funny. I swear a lot of people act as if she grabbed Rachel by her hair and smashed her against a wall but it was just some catty remarks. And a lot of people forget that Rachel and Annabeth are friends now, they like each other, they forgave each other.

And on her not being a girls girl? I think some people need to touch some grass because why should she have been a girls girl at that moment? Was she supposed to tell Rachel to go for it? I understand wanting her to just leave Rachel alone but after Rachel had to lead HER quest I’m not sure what they were expecting. She made up for it anyway when she saved Rachel from a helicopter despite still disliking her.

7. Annabeth got scared of Percy which made him feel like he deserved to die.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before but I guess I’ll go over it again. Her boyfriend did something scary, that probably reminded her of Luke since they both went too far, so she got scared. God forbid scary things scare her.

And secondly, did Percy ever tell Annabeth he was having those thoughts? No. Stop blaming her for everything this time she is actually 110% innocent.

8. She is powerless and therefore she is useless.

She doesn’t have any unnatural powers but being crazy smart sounds pretty useful to me. Bonus points because she’s good at many kinds of combat too.

If they think they don’t need her fine, but they did in fact need her so we’re never gonna know the other possibility.

Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.

This doesn’t mean the other demigods don’t have wisdom but like it’s Annabeth Chase wisdom is kind of her thing.

Anyways, I kind of got tired of writing this and I can’t think of anything else so I’m gonna end it here. I hope this doesn’t come off as hate to any other character, because it’s not, nor do I see how it could be but people will find a way so this is clarification. People can hate whatever character they want to hate but these reasons are not really much sense. And if they expect people to hate her for these reasons too even less sense. And people are allowed to hate her, but they love to talk about it so much it’s like an obsession.

And to those who told me to tag them I hope this wasn’t a waste of your time because I tried and it took me forever😅

@annabethmyfave

@illneverforget365

[thedemigodoracle]

BOOK SPOILERS:

Ok, soooo, not saying this was bad or anything but who’s with me on the “I feel like they’ve reduced Thalia and Luke’s closeness before annabeth as a family unity in here to maybe make him less redeemable”? I mean I know it’s also a tool in narrative in case we never get to see Thalia but - it’s kinda like how when adapting gale hawthorne in THG they had to make him angrier and less morally grey as to solve the “triangle” with less of a divide.

I just really dislike the order of the sentence “Thalia didn’t make it (first) BUT Annabeth and I did and we are family ever since (after Thalia, like this dude isn’t at least 70% motivated by his tree hugger ass)”? It’s not just the ship thing (tho yo if u turn into a tree and then a guy raised a war against the gods because of u and then he dies and u give up on men entirely maybe that’s u know a romantic Greek tragedy) but also because so much of Annabeth’s romantic feelings for Luke and his power over her are NOT just based on her sisterly love but on how he knows it’s not sisterly love and how it he has never seen annabeth that way because it has always been Thalia and him adopted annabeth. The show could have reduced this too because age gaps and stuff but my man, my man: Luke would never see Annabeth that way and it IS a lot to do with Thalia and their family unity and a lot of what he does (the whole sea of monsters book) is just a tangent to HAVE HER BACK.

“Oh u need this girl back from the dead to mess up the prophecy? Sure titans I will totes do it haha no second intentions at all lol. Son of Hermes are known for honesty especially me now excuse me while I manipulate demigods, gods and titans to get Thalia back….FOR THE CAUSE HAHA. The cause.” The cause is he breaking the system again because Luke only picks sides to be a winner himself. And his winning narrative has his girls with him.

EDIT: oh forgot to mention: the thing with Thalia and Luke for Annabeth’s character writing is exactly that she is so so young and naive that her whole thing with LUke (that he uses over her) is that she is too young so he sees her as a little sister when LUKE AND THALIA CLEARLY HAVING FEELINGS FOR EACH OTHER showcases just how naive and young and even annabeth’s hubris. She was so young and blinded that she didn’t even see the very obvious dynamic. And if u think this is just me ranting about a ship that doesn’t actually exist please let me remind you that riordan sold a whole book of short stories leading with Luke’s diary tales and his time with Thalia.

Thalia and Luke and their motives, hidden feelings and journeys/destinations are actually a major plot point AND shines a giant light on Annabeth’s own shortcomings and growth arcs that go beyond trusting Luke blindly. Arguably, Luke liking Thalia and having her be disrespected by the gods sets in motion the whole first series.

Luke is a handsome, talented, charismatic, and CLAIMED demigod. Aside from his time running and his cabin being crowded what would make him angrier and selfish to the point of joining the titans? Would anyone say I dunno THE FACT THAT THE GODS KILLED THE ONE PERSON HE LOVED AND CARED FOR ABOVE ANYONE ELSE AND THAT WAS RECEIVED WITH GRATITUDE BECAUSE WOW A PROTECTING MAGICAL TREE? COOL.

Opinions?

The ultimate betrayal.

[achillesmonochrome]

“I can bend characters to my liking, making my own versions of them where they’re more distinct and developed. I like the books more for what I want them to be than for what they are.”

I really didn’t know how to explain my love for HoO until I saw this, and honestly? Yeah, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Originally I was going to make this post a reblog, but the original poster block me, I think because they hate jasico and I talk a lot about it, and if is for that? fair.

In any case, this actually hits the spot not only for HoO, but in general.

Like, 95% of the time if I join a fandom (and by that I mean making content of it) it means I have some type of problem with the source material.

My first fandom, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, was because the ending was too open and I wanted the main characters to stick together. My Hero Academia was more in the desire of wanting shit to be gay, because at the time that was my only issue (now that changed but let’s not delve into that). How to train your dragon, because that last movie is trash and I’m DYING ON THAT HILL-

My whole point is: I think this break fanfics to the bare essentials, and that is: you feel something is missing from the original story.

I cannot talk for every single fanfic writer in this community, but I feel you wouldn’t be writing if you thought the story was perfect as it was and didn’t need anything else.

Sure, a lot of people write fanfic as a love letter to the source material (My style is mostly “I am adopting the kids you don’t deserve them”) it just feels you need to want something else in order to make you write.

I just accepted the fact that Heroes of Olympus (I could say riordanverse in general, but let me honest I rarely talk about TKC or the Magnus Saga, I only acknowledge ToA when is convenient to me, and rarely write or do stuff with pjo alone) is the piece of official media I love the most. 

Of the 381 stories I had written (in a lot of different accounts) 206 are pjo related. 6 of my 8 fandoms shirts are pjo ones. I still have some of my original pjo/hoo books in spanish, despite having pjo and hoo in english already, because sentimental value. Is the only fandom I had ever come back, is the fandom where I wrote my longest one shot (15k) and the one that made me able to write something novel lengthy and win nano (that fic is around 84k words, but I am still editing so is unsure what would be the final length)

Funnily, of all the fandoms I had ever been, THIS, is the one where I can pinpoint more issues. Sure, in httyd I can pick apart the last movie for days, but without that I am mostly okay. HoO? I could pick apart all five books, and still have issues with pjo. When I say “I can roast this for hours, yes I love this saga more than any other piece of media in the world” I am not joking. 

But I always wondered why that was the case; like a lot of people would hate seeing criticizing of something they love this dearly, yet I find fun in ranting about it. So despite being pro-criticizing and salt, I was always puzzle by this.

It wasn’t until I saw that comment that it suddenly made sense.

Curious fact, I was actually a mythology fan before I read pjo. My mom had tons of books, and one of them was about mythology; and I read for days the section of greek and roman gods. Not sure why, I was like 9 or 10 (maybe too young for unfiltered greek myths, but hey no one watched over me when I was a kid) and it was for that reason that when my cousin told me about the series, I accepted to read it (he recommended me a lot of shit)

My love the idea of urban fantasy, and my love for mythology works amazing for this setting. Negligent parents also helped me connect; and in one way or another, I connected so much with the HoO cast.

Like look, I loved Percy, Nico and Annabeth before HoO, I certainly loved Thalia (she has been my favourite character since book 1, literally just learning her backstory put her in that spot) yet it was after HoO that I actually became obsessed. Maybe the bigger cast helped, or hearing a voice other that Percy, but it was that.

Ultimately, as much as I love the nine, is more my idea of them that them. Like fact aside having so many protagonists is more that what RR could cope (to be fair too many protagonist or a large cast is difficult to manage to any writer), he fucks up the characterization of them constantly. Sometimes Octavian looks like he legit cares about New Rome, others he is ballocks. Nico is absolutely scared of people knowing he is gay, next book he literally confessed in an open space where anyone could hear. Hazel curses a lot in SoN, then in BoO saying “gosh darn” makes her blush. 

So is impossible to like them for how they are written without wanting to leave something behind, because shit literally gets contradicted constantly. 

Overall, the fact that they had potential is what makes this series so good for writing fanfics, you can fall in love with the characters enough while still wanting to write and talk about it.

And to be honest, I am baffled of how good it works out.

[sumu-samu]

Broken

“Hi i saw that you were gonna start writing stories and we're looking for ideas and things,, maybe a Luke x f!reader oneshot around the time of The Lightning Thief. I think it would be cool if the day before he snapped and revealed himself as the thief,, he confessed his feelings to someone or took an s/o on a special date as a type of "goodbye" without saying anything. There's not many luke fics and his TLT story is so fun to explore :3″

Pairing: Luke Castellan x daughter of Poseidon!f!reader

Genre: Angst basically. Some fluff, but angst.

Warnings: non that I can really think of

A.N: Literally listened to The Lightning Thief musical while writing this.This was super fun to write ngl, I also may have gotten carried away with the back story and such but meh :3. I also took a few freedoms and made you Poseidon’s daughter, hope you don’t mind it too much, and I changed the ending of the book a bit because I can’t remember exactly how it ended, just the basics, and I can’t find my book to fact check myself. Hope it doesn't bother you too much and that you like it.<3

Y/N sat at her cabin table, her newly found brother had just come back from a stupid quest he had to go on because her uncle was throwing a fit (as he usually does) about someone stealing his lightning bolt, and he immediately blamed it on her family. She knew all about the prophecy and the whole half-blood child of the big three turning sixteen and having the power to either save or destroy the world. Thing was she had already turned sixteen (if you’re not sixteen yet, just go along with it please) and nothing special really happened, so when Percy showed up at camp and killed a minotaur on the first day, Her and Chiron had been a bit weary of the new half-blood.

When Percy was claimed by Poseidon you’d think she’d be happy that she had found family, after losing her mother at five and never seeing her father, but she wasn’t, She was more worried than anything. Worried that she would lose the family she had just found. And when Percy left to go on the quest, Y/N felt like she couldn’t breath. She didn’t know him very well, but Percy was a good kid, she could just feel it, and she wanted to get to know him more. The thought that he may not come back from this quest in one piece terrified her. And what made it even worse was that he brought Annabeth with him. Annabeth was like Y/N’s little sister.

Ever since the day she found the seven year old blond they had been through alot together. She had run away from camp after getting into an argument with Chiron, she soon learned that it was a big mistake, then ran into the little girl somewhere in Pennsylvania. She then met Luke and Thalia, and then ran into Grover. The five had been through alot, especially when they lost Thalia, she was yet another pice of family she lost. She hadn’t walked into the camp with the other three, she just stayed and watched as Thaila’s body formed into a tall standing pine tree. She cursed Zues for letting this happen to his own daughter.

As the years went by she took care of the spunky little blond, and Luke liked to help every now and then. Feelings grew for the blond boy, no doubt about it, but she also remembered how Annabeth would squeal to her and rant about her little crush on Luke.

When they came back, all three of them, in one pices to say she was relieved, was an understatement. There had been a lot of events that happened after they were back, her favourite being the look on Clariese’s face when she heard that her father had stolen the bolt. The whole cabin was angry and Percy, and the fact that he had made their father look like a fool. But what she really cherished was right now. She was able to catch up with her brother and everything. Talk about his life, get to know him and how much of a good kid he really was. They talked about the prophecy and how he was confused about being betrayed by a friend and failing to save what matters the most.

“People who know nothing about prophecies may say something like ‘oh well you know the prophecy is crazy and could be wrong in some way,’ but, I know that isn’t the case. So I’d say, that the prophecy isn’t done with you yet.” She shrugged.

“Oh, how great.” he rolled his eyes.

“Hey, Y/N” She heard the smooth deep familiar voice and looked up to meet bright blue eyes. “Right before curfew… could you uh,” he scratched the back of his neck. “Just, meet me by the lake.” he quickly stated then walked off. She sat very confused, she had never seen Luke like that before. He was usually a cocky, joking fellow. Seeing him shy and flustered,and maybe even worried, had concerned her.

When the sun had fallen, and curfew was about twenty minutes away, she snuck out of her cabin and went down to the lake. “Luke?” she called out not seeing him anywhere.

“Y/N.” she then heard from behind her. Turning around she saw a familiar silhouette, She couldn't see his face due to the lack of light but she knew it was him.

“Hey, what’s up?” She walked towards him.

“I-” He looked around and took her by the arm to drag her further away from the cabins so that they could be somewhere where he knew they were truly alone. “I have something to tell you.” He sounded sorrowful and serious. This made Y/N’s heart race faster in worry for the boy in front of her.

“What is it Luke?” She moved her hand to his cheek so he could look at her. He just stared into her eyes for about a minute. He was dazzled by her (e/c) eyes, that she had gotten from her mum and her dark hair that she got from her father. His hands moved to her waist before he viciously pulled her close to him, foreheads touching. Her heart sped up even more, this time from the closeness of the two rather than worry. “Luke?” she questioned.

“I’m so sorry.” He squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “I’m so… so sorry Y/N.” He wrapped his arms further around her waist, pulling her into a hug. She took in his scent as he did hers.

“Luke, I don’t understand, why… why are you sorry?” She pulled away to look into his eyes again.

“Y/N, I… I like you… I like you so much I think I love you. And it hurts me, ever since we lost Thalia, you were there, you were alway there. And I don’t know why I couldn’t be satisfied with just you and Annabeth, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out. But in the end, I want you to know that it was you, It was always you.” And that's when he did it. He made her heart completely stop, He leaned in and kissed her. His kiss soft and gentle, the kiss was passionate. She melted into it, wanting it to last forever but alas he pulled away. “I just hope you will forgive me at some point.”

“Luke, what’s going on? What do you mean forgive you?” She was seriously done with this mysterious way he was talking.

“I can’t tell you, not yet. Just, stay with me, for the night. Tonight only, sleep beside me, let me hold you one last time.” He pleaded.

“Luke, where are we gonna sleep, we can’t go to your cabin, because… well,” She thought of the cramped cabin 11 and how embarrassing it might be to wake up in the morning with all those kids around her laughing, or how maybe the twins would try playing a prank of them in their sleep. “Percy’s asleep in my cabin, and we can’t stay out here… the harpies.” She shuddered at the thought of being attacked by those bird ladies.

“Y/N, i’ve seen Percy sleep, there's no way he's gonna wake up before us. I’ll be sure to leave before he even knows I’m there.” He rested his forehead on hers.

She thought for a while. “Alright fine.” She smiled and they walked back to the cabin.

That night she had the best sleep she had ever had. Luke’s warmth,and his scent. It relaxed her in a way that she didn’t know was possible. But he held true to his word of getting out before Percy knew he was there. In fact, she had to sit there for a while trying to be sure it was real and not just a dream, because when she woke up, he wasn’t there. Her heart dropped. It was too vivid, too detailed, too… too real, to be a dream. She got out of bed, and got dressed before hearing a snore. She grabbed her pillow and threw it at the drooling boy, still asleep in his bed.

“Wake up ragworm. You’re gonna miss breakfast.” She said, waiting till he got out of bed and started getting changed to leave and go to breakfast.

They sat at the table eating their food when Mr. D. had stood up to tell everyone to decide whether they were staying for the year or leaving before noon. “What are you gonna do?” Percy looked at his sister.

“I'm staying here.” She shrugged as if not going home was something she was used to.

“You’re not going back to your family?” He sounded confused. But he too was confused if he wanted to go back and see his mum or if he wanted to stay with his new found family. He was kinda hoping she was gonna go so that it would make it easier on him.

“Have no family to go home to, Perc. This right here,” she motioned to all the other kids at their respective tables, “this is the closest thing I have to family.”

As the day had progressed the thought of what happened with Luke last night being real faded as Luke had avoided her all day. And as she was walking around Camp, enjoying her last day with some of her friends she saw some wood nymphs carrying a body wearing blue jeans and a bright orange camp shirt. “Percy.” she gasped as she saw the black head of hair. They carried him to the infirmary where he was tended to and given some nectar to recover.

Once he woke up he started ranting off nonsense. “Luke, it’s Luke we- we need to look for him.” he tried to get up but Chiron stopped him.

“What do you mean it’s Luke, Perc?” She was worried by the tone of her brother's words.

“The… the friend who was supposed to betray me… it’s Luke. He’s the lightning thief” At Percy’s words Y/N’s head went fuzzy, her stomach turned. “He’s serving Kronos, hes trying to bring him back.” she didn’t want to believe what she was hearing, “ Oh… and Y/N… he said that if I happened to survive, to tell you… he meant what he said last night, and that he is really sorry.” Percy said that as if it was irrelevant.

“No, you're lying. Luke, he wouldn… He isn’t... “ She shook her head trying to deny it but then something came back to her.

“I’m sorry. I was just so pissed, I needed to get it all out.” She ran out of the infirmary, tears stinging her eyes and her head steaming. She ran into the cabin, and without thinking rationally started to throw things around out of… well, she wasn’t really sure what she was feeling, she just needed to get it out.

Once she was done throwing things around, and the cabin was totally trashed, she knew exactly what she was feeling. She ran to the lake, feeling angry and sad. She took her shoes off and sat at the edge with her feet in the water. Tears running down her face.

“I just hope you will forgive me at some point.” Luke’s words rang out in her head. “I don’t think I ever can.” She thought. It wasn’t because of the fact that he had betrayed her friends, her family, betrayed her. It was more the fact that Luke was so selfish, so so stupidly selfish that he had to dump that onto her. He had to tell her how he felt and then go and break her like that. Because of that, she hated him, but at the same time, deep in her heart she still loved him, something small was telling her that this wasn’t actually Luke, that he was really the Luke that she loved and that something was controlling him.

She looked up at the sky, the clear blue sky. To anyone else, on any other day, it would have been a beautiful day. But no matter how much the sun shined, all she could see was grey. “Why? Why can’t I be happy? Why do you insist on torturing me constantly. What did I do to make you decide I don’t deserve happiness? Was it because I was born? It’s not my fault that my father can’t keep a stupid promise. It’s not my fault i’m alive. I never asked for this. So why do you do this to me? You petty little brat! I hate you with every bone in my body.” She screamed at her uncle. Zeus wasn’t listening to what his pathetic niece was saying, but someone was.

His chest felt heavy. Listening to what the beautiful broken girl was saying. He had wanted to hold her like he should have for every heart breaking moment of her sixteen years. “I’m sorry i couldn’t save you from that. But I gave you Percy. You have each other now. Take care of each other like I can’t.” Poseidon sighed.

[thehopeofitalll]

you've been stressed out lately (yeah, me too)

read it on ao3!!

Percy wakes up with a dull throbbing in his head. It’s how he wakes up most of the time these days. He gazes at the stars above him, the faint snores of his friends nearby creating a cozy atmosphere.

He shifts to his side with a grunt, beginning to close his eyes to try and doze off when he notices a silhouette in front of him.

He sits up straight and squints. “...Annabeth?”

She jumps, clearly startled. Turning around to see him, she says, “Oh good, you’re awake too.” Even in the darkness, he could feel Annabeth roll her eyes.

“What are you doing?” He asks, scooting towards where she sat, on the soft grass.

“Couldn’t sleep, so...I was just sitting here and thinking,” she replies, glancing at him for a second.

“Thinking?”

“Yeah...quest stuff, you know?” Annabeth shrugs.

Percy knew how rare it was to have peaceful conversations with her. Lately, all the times they talked ended up in a fight. He hesitates briefly, not wanting this talk to end up with them storming away from each other again.

“Wise Girl…” he begins, noticing the way her eyes soften at the nickname as she stares at the stars (and him gazing at her), and desperately trying to ignore the familiar knot in his stomach. “I know you. And I know you aren’t just thinking about the quest.”

She takes in a sharp breath. “I’m...scared.”

“Scared?”

Percy could think of a million words to describe Annabeth Chase: she was smart, wise, annoyingly right most of the time, and one of the bravest people he’d ever seen.

But scared? He’d never thought of her like that.

“Scared of what?” he asks.

“I...never mind, it’s nothing,” she mumbles, turning away from him. “Go back to sleep, Percy. You don’t need to hear me ramble in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I do,” he says, placing his hand on her shoulder, gently forcing her to look at him. “Annabeth, you can tell me anything. Even the most stupid things you think about.”

“I just feel so useless,” she says, her fingers pulling at the grass they’re sitting on. “A huge war is coming on our way, and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“Annabeth, that isn’t your fault,” he replies. “You strategize and lead quests that make us win. You are helping, even if you can’t stop the war.”

She sighs. Percy doesn’t know what she does. He doesn’t know about how Luke had come to her, unarmed. If she’d just done something, anything, they wouldn’t be facing Kronos now.

The prophecy that kills Percy wouldn’t be coming true.

“Hey…” he continues, his voice barely a whisper. “You aren’t blaming yourself right?”

“Yeah, no, I’m fine,” she answers. “A bit...worried, I guess.”

“Worried about who?”

Annabeth meets his eyes. “You.”

Percy’s eyes widen, as if he hadn’t expected that answer. Annabeth was suddenly very aware of his hand still resting on her shoulder, brushing against her neck.

The moment felt far too intimate, considering the way they’d nearly strangled each other the past few months. And maybe , she thinks, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“And...this war, Luke, and the campers and everyone, of course,” she hastily adds.

“Yeah, Luke,” Percy mutters, his hand leaving her shoulder. Annabeth missed the warmth almost immediately.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the upcoming battles,” she says. “Any of us could die.”

“I know,” Percy says, lying down on the grass.

Annabeth glances at him, before lying down beside him. “We could die.”

“I know,” he simply repeats.

He said it with such ease, as if he was prepared. It pained Annabeth to know that he would actually die, according to the quest.

She didn’t know who she was mad at this point.

She hated herself, hated him and the rest of the world. She hated the Fates for making her fall for him, despite knowing that he was a dead man walking.

Annabeth thought she was numb to pain. She was used to seeing important people in her life leave. Her father, no matter how much they tried to reconcile, was still distant. Her mother was a Greek goddess, whom she could never contact even if she wanted to.

She lost Thalia when she was seven. She spent years walking to the pine tree, sitting down and recounting whatever happened as if Thalia could hear.

Now, Thalia was back. But she was still so far away, a Hunter of Artemis.

She lost Luke. Lost him when she decided to waste her chance to save him when he came to see her. She still hoped, hopes , but somewhere deep down she knew he was doomed.

And now, Annabeth was slowly losing Percy. She was tired of chasing him, and trying to reach out only to realize that she’d lost him since the day they met. All because of some stupid prophecy.

Percy doesn’t deserve to die, she thinks, as the familiar sinking feeling starts. He needs to live.

“I’m so tired, Percy,” she says. “Everything feels so hopeless. It’s like there’s this darkness around us that we can never escape.”

“I know.”

She pauses, choosing her next words carefully. “I’m also tired of fighting. With you,” she continues. “I miss us.”

“I hate this too,” he replies. “I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to go back to being friends.”

Annabeth ignores the twinge of disappointment she felt. She didn’t want to be just friends, and she wishes she could tell him that, but she pushes the urge away.

“Gods, I’m so stupid,” she mumbles, softly laughing. “Talking about all this when we have to continue our quest tomorrow.”

He smiles. “I don’t think it’s stupid. Maybe talking about your feelings helps?”

“Really cheesy, Seaweed Brain,” she says, his smile mirroring on her face.

“Well Rachel’s cheesy all the time, I think I’ve been spending too much time with her,” Percy says, grinning.

And there it was. One of the reasons why she kept pushing Percy away, even if she wanted to spend time with him. It hurt, knowing that he was with Rachel way more than he’d been with her for months now.

He slightly tenses up, and Annabeth wonders if he was bracing himself for a fight, since it’s all they ever do.

“Yeah, you have,” she replies, hoping that he doesn’t notice the bitter undertone to her seemingly well remark.

(And he doesn’t because he’s so oblivious, she sometimes wonders how she ever fell in love with him.)

“But maybe you are right,” Annabeth continues. “I do feel strangely a little bit calmer after that rant.”

“Aha! Who’s the wise one now?”

“Still me,” she says, smirking as she bumps his shoulder playfully. “Also, thanks. You could’ve gone back to sleep, instead of sitting here with me.”

“Nah, I probably couldn’t have slept. I’d have just stared at nothing till either the sun rises or I get tired and fall asleep.”

“I’m trying to say a nice thing, Percy!”

“Of course,” he says, trying hard not to grin. “Continue.”

She takes a deep breath. “What I’m saying is that...it means a lot to me, that you sat here, listened to my ramblings and didn’t judge me.”

“I’ve never judged you,” he says, shrugging.

“Twelve year old Percy would disagree,” she says.

“Hey! Twelve year old Percy was the most respectful boy you’d ever see!” Percy exclaims.

“Sure,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Just...thank you. For everything.”

“Anytime, Wise Girl. And…” he begins. “There’s always going to be some things that you can’t control.”

“Ugh, I hate those kinds of things.”

He smiles softly. “I know. But you can’t blame yourself for how those things went down, you can’t try to control them either. And even though you’ve never told me about it, I have a gut feeling that you worry about things like that a lot.”

“Wow,” Annabeth says, impressed. “That was really wise.”

“So, who’s the wise one now? ” he asks.

She shakes her head and laughed. “It’s still me. But you are getting closer.”

“And that’s a victory as far as I’m concerned.”

She rolls her eyes again. “Of course it is, you dork,” she mumbles, feeling the most peaceful she has in months.

She watches the stars twinkle as they settle into a comfortable silence. She turns, finding Percy’s nose an inch away from hers. He’s closing his eyes, and she thanks all the gods he doesn’t see her ears rapidly turning pink.

She almost thinks he’s fallen asleep, but then his hand falls on hers, and he gives it a slight squeeze.

Annabeth smiles, and squeezes his hand three times. I love you. She doubts she’ll ever say it to him, but for now she doesn’t mind just talking with him for hours.

—

something gave you the nerve to touch my hand, it’s nice to have a friend.

[tessathaitea]

To Think it Started With COVID-19

"Mr. Jackson, I need you to please introduce yourself to the rest of the class," his teacher Mr. Green asked through the computer. He sighed.

He and Annabeth had broken up, not on exactly mutual terms (by now he had moved on and they were both still very close friends). He held no grudge against her, for it was part of figuring out who she was, nor against the certain daughter of Aphrodite she had been crushing on.

Percy proceeded to type in the chat that he could not unmute, unless the class wanted to hear a bunch of pandemonium.

"Mr. Jackson, I assume you don't want to be failing class on the first day, am I correct?" Mr. Green asked (his name should have been Mr. Blue. That would be much better). Percy sighed, and hit the unmute button.

"Um, alright. Hello, I'm Percy Jackson and-" he started before being interrupted.

"GET OVER HERE YOU LITTLE PUNKS! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" a voice Percy later recognised as Clarisse shouted. A bomb-like noise then went off.

"Sorry about that. Okay, so-" another voice then shouted out, interrupting him for the second time in thirty seconds.

"Shut up you load of Minotaur dung!" it said. Another boom sounded. The Stolls must have been pulling another prank and went too far.

"Right, Mr. Jackson, you may refrain from introducing yourself. Now, please mute yourself. All that noise is going to end up giving me a headache," he said. Percy quickly muted himself, and then sighed with relief. At least he didn't ask where Percy was. It would be hard to explain as to why Percy was at a summer camp during the school year. He zoned out the rest of the lecture, making it when Jason snuck up behind him an even bigger scare.

"Hey," Jason said. Percy jumped in surprise, and he couldn't help noticing Jason's bright blue eyes staring right at him, and cursed himself for thinking. Turning his camera off, he turned towards Jason.

"Something you need? I think you know I'm in class right now," he smirked. Jason laughed. He gave Percy a sad smile.

"There's been a new quest issued for you, Nico, Thalia, and me," he said sadly, his smile gone. Percy's heart sunk.

"Right. I'll be there in a minute," Percy said. He told his teacher that there was a family emergency.

"I can wait," Jason said, sitting down on a bed. Percy smiled.

"Ha, no. You need to get your stuff ready. Now, shoo," he said. Jason rolled his eyes, but left the cabin.

After getting his work in advance for the next seven weeks from his teacher, he packed a bag of nectar and ambrosia. There was a soft knock on the door, and Annabeth came in.

"Hey Wise Girl. You get your crush yet?" he asked teasingly. Annabeth turned red, and glared at him.

"Shut up. You getting excited to be going on a quest with a certain blond haired blue-eyed Son of Jupiter?" she said. Percy turned around and pretended to continue packing, so the girl wouldn't see the light blush along his thoroughly tanned cheeks.

"I don't know what you mean Wise Girl," he said, fighting down the blush.

"Of course you do! You're always glancing over at him, and you sometimes even blush around him," she said, rolling her eyes and giggling uncharacteristically. He glared at her, forgetting about the blush on his cheeks. Annabeth's smile widened. As Percy walked out of his cabin, he told her something he would never regret.

"If you don't admit your feelings for Piper by the time I get back, you owe me twenty golden drachma," he called, and then bumped into the same daughter of Aphrodite he was talking about on the way out.

"Wait, what?" Piper asked. Percy winked at both of them.

"Don't start doing the deed in my cabin now, as I don't need more of a mess," he said teasingly. Leaving both girls a blushing mesh, he skipped out the door.

Once he arrived at the Big House, he was met with Thalia interrogating a flustered Jason, which Percy thought was sort of cute.

"You know that he's head-over-heels for you, right? I still don't get why you picked that-" Thalia continued ranting at Jason, until she noticed Percy was there. After Thalia saw him, she started to immediately change the subject.

"Are we all ready to go?" Nico grumbled. Percy suspected he had been pulled out of the infirmary after another round of 'doctors orders' stays. Percy bet that a certain Will Solace was just making excuses to fuss over Nico and spend time with him.

After everyone at least mumbled at yes, they all took hands. Percy later could have sworn Thalia nudged Jason closer to him. He realized with a jolt that Jason was actually holding his hand, and then cursed himself for thinking like a lovesick middle school student. He was jolted out of his thoughts by the sudden darkness of shadow-travel, and the burst of cold air that came after it.

There was a yell, and all of a sudden Nico and Thalia fell over the skyscraper that they had landed on.

"Thalia, concentrate on the winds and not anything else. If all else fails, Nico see if you can shadow-travel back to camp!" Jason yelled. Thalia concentrated, but only managed to stir up a miniature thunderstorm. Nico sighed, and touched Thalia's shoulder, trying to touch her as little as possible as they shadow-traveled out.

Percy sighed with relief, but then realized the situation they were in. They were on top of some sort of skyscraper with two antennae, and one was lit up red and the other lit up green. The city had an amazing skyline, but didn't look like anywhere in New York.

"Any clue to where we are?" Percy asked.

"Nico said we were going to start out in Chicago, but didn't say where. I'm guessing we're on the Sirius tower/ Willis tower," Jason answered. Jason had his legs dangling off the roof, and was staring at the skyline. Percy sat down next to him.

"You know, you guys never actually told me what we were doing on this quest," Percy said.

"We were waiting for you to ask," Jason said. Was it Percy's imagination, or did Jason move closer to him?

"Yeah, well I'm asking now,"

"It was for me to do something," Jason said. Percy had the urge to roll his eyes.

"Do what?" Percy asked. Jason turned towards Percy, his blue eyes sparkling.

"This,"

Jason grabbed Percy's jaw and smashed his lips onto Percy's own. Suddenly, the night's colors became sharper, and Percy's senses cheered. When they finally pulled away, both boys were blushing.

"You wouldn't believe how long I wanted to do that," Jason said, his fingers tracing one of the scars on Percy's face.

"Yeah? How long?" Percy asked.

"Since the day I met you," he said.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Are you sure you don't want me to sleep on the couch?" Jason asked. They were staying at a hotel room, and there had been a mix up in the room so that there was only one bed.

"Jason fucking Grace, I said it's fine. Now go to bed," Percy mumbled from his spot in the bed. He heard Jason sigh, and felt him lay down in the bed. Percy moved so that he was in Jason's arms, and sighed contently. He heard the equivalent from Jason a couple minutes later. For once, Percy didn't have to worry about anything from the mythological world.

TIMESKIPTOAFTERWHENEVERTHEIRSPRINGBREAKENDS:

"Mr. Jackson, could you please state the answer to this question?" his teacher asked. Percy sighed. He would have to spend the rest of the day correcting his other teachers.

"Fine. Also, it's Grace-Jackson now."

“COME BACK HERE! YOU DIDN’T TAKE A COVID-19 TEST!”  shouted someone in the background. Probably Will hounding Nico because he shadow-traveled to Europe on accident again. 

Oh, well. Camp Half-Blood was his family after all, and a great one at that.

[melancholic-pigeon]

WIP Wednesday #12

Set shortly after Percy and Jason meet in freshman year of high school (14/15 years old). Content warnings for domestic violence, child neglect and abuse, alcoholism and food insecurity.

"That's horrifying. You know that's horrifying, right? Please tell me you know that's horrifying." 

Sally hears Percy's voice before she gets to the kitchen. She's heard it like that before, and it never means anything good. 

She makes her footfalls heavier so that the boys aren't startled by her approach. She's ready to appear in the doorway and smile like she didn't hear a thing and ask them how their studying is going and if they'd like a snack— but Percy cuts her off before she can even open her mouth. 

"Can Jason borrow you for a second? I'm trying to prove a point." 

She looks at the two of them, textbooks and notepads and mechanical pencils spread out on the table. From the work on the paper, they haven't done much more than they had the last time she checked in, an hour or so ago. 

Percy's frenetic, though he's trying to hide it. She doesn't know Jason all that well yet, but he's sitting very still, and she gets the feeling he's holding something in, too.

"If he'd like to, certainly." She rinses out her mug and puts on the kettle, her back to them so that Jason has a second to think about it. "Hot cocoa or tea?" 

When she turns around, his face has changed. Not by much, but she can see a tiny shade of nervousness. 

"Cocoa, please. Thank you." 

He's almost painfully polite, much more so than a fourteen year old boy should be in such a casual setting. She keeps hearing her son in her head, and tries not to speculate on what he found horrifying. 

"It really wasn't that bad." 

"I'm gonna make the cocoa." Percy gets up from the table in an explosive movement. "Because otherwise, I'm just gonna interrupt you every two seconds to tell you that it was worse than you're making it out to be."

Jason rolls his eyes, but it makes him relax a little, too. 

"I never said the whole thing wasn't bad, just that I didn't suffer. All of the really terrible parts happened to Thalia, not me. She made sure of that." 

Percy makes an indignant noise. There's a picture starting to form in Sally's head, patchworking together from the pieces she already has, and she doesn't like it. 

"You don't have to say anything until you're ready, sweetheart." 

She doesn't even think about it. It's second nature with Percy's friends by now. Jason, she reminds herself, has only been around for four months; his eyes widen, like it's the first time anyone has ever called him that. 

Maybe it is. Maybe that's why he's so nervous. 

Percy clatters around behind them. She can hear the kettle starting to rumble and the soft exhalation from across the table. 

"It seriously wasn't," Jason repeats, like he's trying to assure himself more than Sally. 

She can remember thinking the same thing, going through the same process, telling herself that at least her first husband only used his fists. 

"Tell her what you told me," Percy insists over the clinking of the spoon as he stirs the cocoa. 

Jason meets Sally's eyes, with a vulnerability she hasn't seen him wear so plainly.

"I don't know how much Thalia's said about it. I'd assume not a whole lot. There's stuff she still won't tell me, either." 

"She's trying to protect you." Percy puts Jason's mug across from him and takes his seat again. "And she's allergic to sharing her anxieties, for a much better reason than I thought." 

"It's a habit. She was maybe nine years old, tops, when she started shoving it all down." Jason frowns, running his fingers over the handle of his mug. "I didn't have a clue how bad it actually was, because she hid it from me. All I knew was that when Mom was gone for a while, we'd play a game where we'd hunt for all of her empty bottles and cans, and Thalia would let me win and take us to the gas station and buy me a snack as a prize so I wouldn't whine at her while she was getting the rest of our groceries." 

There aren't really any good possibilities in a situation like this, but Sally's heart still plummets into her gut. 

"He thought it was fun," Percy mutters darkly. "Like a field trip where he got treats, instead of his third-grade sister stealing, skipping meals and collecting booze receptacles to exchange for coin deposits because their mom was too busy getting plastered to feed them and their dad cared more about his reputation than the welfare of his children."

There are a million things she could say, including every word that's come out of Percy's mouth so far. He's looking at her, weighed down by the same helpless rage he often carries when they talk about things like this. She feels it too, just as bitterly, though she's no longer apt to show it on her face like that.

"That's awfully young to be left on your own," she tells Jason, taking his hand. She can feel her eyes stinging as he squeezes back, hard, his jaw held tense. "And kids notice. It was hard on you, too, even if you didn't know why." 

She feels Percy grab her free hand under the table. She'd tried everything she could think of to shelter him— and all he learned from it was how to keep his own secrets from her. 

If she hadn't found his stash of concealer and powder, she'd never have known he'd somehow learned the same trick she used. If he hadn't walked in on her with the palettes in her hands and tears streaming down her face, he never would have known it wasn't just him.

They don't keep secrets anymore. It's terrifying, but it's worth it; with honesty comes trust, and now Percy doesn't try to hide when something's wrong. At least not with her. 

"Sometimes I wonder if that's why she's so tiny." Jason stares into his cocoa, still holding onto Sally's hand. "I don't think I went to bed hungry more than once or twice. Thalia used to do it all the time. She'd tell me she ate while I was asleep, and since I was, like, two, I didn't know any better but to believe her." 

Suddenly, Sally understands why Thalia was crying so hard.

("He's gotten so tall— I couldn't feel his ribs—")

She can still vividly remember staring at the cupboards while her little boy clawed at her leg, realizing there wasn't enough for them both and she was still two days away from getting paid. She went that long once, and only broke her fast because she fainted at work. 

Her manager— one of the rare good ones she'd had— had kept her clocked in, hauled ass across the street to buy her a peanut butter milkshake and made her sit in his office and rest for the remainder of her shift. After that, he worked hard to push through the promotion that the store manager kept finding excuses to avoid, and with it came enough of a pay raise that she didn't have to do it more than once or twice a month. 

She'd been twenty-four at the time. Thalia wasn't even in double digits, apparently.

"I'm okay, Ms. Jackson. It was a long time ago." 

She realizes she's tearing up only when Jason cuts through her thoughts. He's smiling, and he really does look healthy and cared for, if a little coltish.

"Honey." She lets go of his hand to grip his shoulder, her grip almost as tight as her throat. "I'm not your teacher. I'm a friend who wishes she could go back in time and adopt you. Please call me Sally." 

It lightens the mood like a match illuminating total darkness. Jason slumps in the chair with a breathless laugh, glancing nervously at her. 

"It's a hard habit to break, but I'll try." 

She wants nothing more than to pull him into a hug, but she doesn't want to spook him. She smiles back at him instead, as warmly as she can possibly manage.

"Trying at all is something to be proud of." 

-Untitled WIP from Sally's POV! stellarverse AU, shortly after Jason and Percy meet freshman year of high school. Some additional excerpts of published fics for context below the cut.

On the one hand, it makes him giddy to expose Jason to unconditional parental support, but on the other, the fact that he has to go to Percy's parents for that support because he can't get it from his own is spittle-frothingly rage-inducing. 

When they're at home, the only thing they have to worry about is not getting too handsy in front of the baby or scarring Percy's parents for life, or at most, doing the dishes because Jason felt it was his duty as guest. He'd vehemently insist, saying it was the only way he could think of to express his gratitude, which would make Percy's mom tear up and hug him tight and tell him that being good to her firstborn was all the thanks she needed. 

She's always liked Jason, and she's always worried about him, too. She's certainly heard enough of Percy's ranting to stay on top of the situation, and was already known for remembering everything she's ever been told about someone's tragic backstory. Jason, like most of Percy's friends, was desperately lacking that energy in his life, and by the third visit he'd given her a rundown of his entire life history. 

I feel like I can tell her anything, he'd said to Percy later, thrown off his game by a particularly raw word-vomit. Every bit of it is massively unfair–that Jason's stepmother takes out her anger over her spouse's infidelity on the children who'd had no choice in being born, that his father didn't care enough about him to do anything more than show up once or twice a month and give him a blistering, vaguely threatening lecture, that his mother had barely even remembered he existed, and only by enough to make herself look more pitiable. 

Most upsetting of all was that his sister–seven or eight years old then–had essentially been forced to parent him through toddlerhood by herself, because no one else was paying enough attention to stop a two-year-old from trying to give himself a lip piercing with a stapler. Half the time, nobody else was paying enough attention to feed him, either.

It makes Percy want to throw something out a window. Fortunately for everyone, while she's in agreement, his mom has a lot more experience in channeling her anger productively than he does, and isn't prone to agitating herself into letting it boil over. She focuses instead on making her apartment the coziest, homiest place she possibly can, on showering Jason with all of the maternal adoration and pride he'd been missing out on, and letting him know he could show up on her doorstep at three in the morning without notice and she'd welcome him inside with open arms and a mug of hot tea. 

- I Guess You're Just What I Needed

Thalia had made a game out of collecting the recyclables strewn over the floor, which just meant that she'd cheer him on and make a huge celebratory fuss when he found something plastic. The glass and aluminum were 'big-kid stuff', so she didn't have to worry about him hurting himself on sharp edges or hard surfaces; she diverted his desire to be just like her by pretending his contributions were heavier, so he could feel like he was helping. 

She'd gather them all up in a little red wagon and take Jason to the convenience store down the street to exchange their loot for deposits. His job had been putting the plastic in the machine, one at a time, while she held him up so he could reach. They'd put the change in a coffee can, already rattling with whatever bills and coins she'd found in the mess of the apartment, and use it to re-load the wagon with as much prepackaged, shelf-stable food as it would get them. 

Sometimes, they'd get someone nice behind the counter who asked where their parents were and went thin-lipped when she tried to deflect it by lying that their mother had a migraine, and they'd end up with twice as much food as they had money for. Those trips always made Thalia more nervous, and she'd tended to startle every time the doorbell rang for at least a week afterwards. 

Back then, the routine felt normal, even pleasant; he learned quickly to associate it with a full belly and a feeling of safety. Like so many of his scars, he hadn't realized how deep it was until he related the story in the Jackson-Blofis kitchen, Sally's eyes filling with tears as she took his hand and squeezed until it hurt.

-We Should Have Each Other With Cream, chapter 11

See also my "thundersibs" tag.

[fallentri]

Okay... Finally finished our TOA and I've got feeeeeeeelings. I love it but also... I'm disappointed about some things. I feel like this series would have done better with another book to expand on ideas.

I still really wish that we could have explored more of the good things Apollo did as a god. Like... I love that Apollo feels shame about the bad things he did. Like seriously that's great! I just dislike everyone always going at him about stuff. I dunno. Personal preference I guess.

I just think it would have been cooler going into the psychology of gods. Because they're different than humans. They're literally on another level. They don't necessarily have the same morals as us. Or need to hold themselves to that stuff. Should they? Maybe. But would they without being pushed into it? I... I don't think so. But honestly I think that's way more complicated than what was shown there.

How about things I loved.

Reyna not getting or needing a love interest. Heck yes!!! That's what I wanted. I did want Reyna and Apollo to bond together though. Since they both have trauma in their pasts... But I was never into the ship personally. If anyone is that is totally completely valid! Or if they ship Reyna with Thalia or... Anyone else. Your ships are valid! I just never really wanted her with anyone personally. Regardless of gender.

On that note. Proud aro-ace Artimus/Diana is my fave. That's all I've got to say.

Plus I love that Apollo is into everyone and Artimus isn't. Opposites and all that poetic stuff that I'm rubbish at.

Meg and Apollo? Cute siblings! I love them so much. I demand a short story where they and Artimus hang out. That would be amazing. I'd write it but honestly I've lost faith in my writing skills. (Brain big dumb)

Oh. Also Apollo not getting with anyone too. I mean I enjoyed reading him crush on a ton of people. But like Reyna I think he needs to get through some things before he tries dating again. And I want him to bond more with his kids.

Also is there a god of therapy? Cuz guys I think we need a god of therapy. And... I don't know if Asclepius counts? Like I dunno man. I think he also needs therapy. His grandpa killed him with a lightning bolt.

Idea. Zeus make a god of therapy. Maybe someone who's not related to you guys. Someone who's not biased.... Dang now I have an idea for an oc. Hmmmm...

Anyway... Wow rambling sorry but I'm not done. Just trying to get thoughts out.

Hera actually like being on Apollo's side was interesting. I mean it was because of reasons but now I'd like to see her try and bond with Apollo and maybe apologize about how she treated him. And maybe realize "hey... Maybe blaming the kids for my husband's adultery isnt fair." I think that could be interesting.

Uh... Some more things that disappointed me off the top of my head.

Leto doesn't reunite with Apollo... Guys that breaks my heart. I really wanted her to be crying and holding her baby boy. And not want to let go. And then adopt Meg. (Sorry Demeter)

The gods being.. callous to Apollo like it makes sense but also... Hermes? C'mon.

I did love Dionysus though. And the fact that he's apparently Apollo's annoying little brother who followed him around. Anyone with younger siblings can probably understand this.

What else..

Oh. Just that this is apparently the end...it didn't feel like the end. I mean some things were wrapped up but... I'm not ready. I'm just not ready. And I want a series where Apollo tries to help as best he can. Where he is sympathetic and trying to do what's right. I want to explore more with Zeus and his reasonings for this... And honestly I want to see the council actually become a council.

I want the gods to be forced to take a look at themselves like Apollo did. Again. Therapy god. Please and thank you.

Just... Blegh. I dunno. I'm sad guys. I've been following this series since the fifth grade. I grew up with Percy and everyone... And I'm glad that he's found happiness but... I'm not ready to say goodbye to this world. There's just so much more to explore.... Agh. Well I've rambled enough. Hopefully this makes sense. I've been up since 1 am and I'm dealing with medical stuff. (Not corona thank goodness) but I finished TOA and just... Kinda needed to rant. Anyway bye guys.

[cartoonfantic8]

Friendships in PJO (Part 1)

I know a lot of people talk about headcannons of the couples or ships and sometimes people forget some pretty great friendships in the books. These are headcannons of friendship that didn’t really happen but I think these would be pretty good friendships.

Trials of Apollo Spoilers

Also I’m ignoring Jason’s death because I don’t consider that cannon.

Percy and Piper

A lot of people talk about this pair and honestly these two would be such a good duo.

One night, Piper wakes up from a nightmare from the war. Jason was at Camp Jupiter so she went to go the Posiden Cabin. She knocks on the door and Percy answers. They both couldn’t sleep and start talking about there nightmares and they really bonded after that.

They would be such a sassy duo. Like both of them would not really listen to authority and pretty much piss of the Gods a lot.

They like to go skateboarding together and make stupid vlogs about all the tricks they would do or something stupid stuff like either of them falling. Afterwords they would get their nails done and this was mostly Percy’s idea, and sometimes when they go to a mortal salon, someone might give Percy a dirty look. Saying some excuse like “Oh he’s a boy, boy’s shouldn’t get there nails done that’s for girls”. Piper curses that person and is like “Bitch no!” Otherwise they go to the Aphordite cabin and those guys are chill and really don’t care, they like to make people feel beautiful or handsome.

They both go surfing togther too. Piper misses the beaches in California and Percy takes her to the closest beach near Camp Haft-Blood. They like surf and collect seashells by the beach. Percy likes to take Piper underwater using his water bubble thing and they see all the sea life and coral under there.

They watch “Dance Moms” or any drama show, and get so invested in all the drama.

Piper and Percy cuff there jeans and listen to Sweater Weather togther. They would blast it at full volume in the Posiden Cabin at 3:00am, singing it at the top of their lungs. Sometimes Leo joins them (those three are all bisexual, no one can convice me otherwise). They like to go to Pride together with other LGBTQ+ campers and they both paint small bi flags on there cheeks.

They also help each other set up dates for Jason or Annabeth, during anniversary’s or just dates in general.

They both would really support each other in anything and have a very chaotic friendship full of teasing and so much sass.

Jason and Frank

At first Frank never really knew Jason. Jason was missing for a while and let’s face it, at Camp Jupiter, Jason was talked about like a hero. To Frank he was important and once he met Jason, he was a normal guy. During Argo ll, they never really got to know each other since they were saving the world from LITERAL MOTHER EARTH

After the war, the Romans were going back to there Camp meaning Reyna, Frank, and Hazel were leaving soon. Jason had to go, to bring his stuff and move to Camp Haft-Blood and teach Frank about being a Praetor. During there few lessons, they became close and got to know each other.

Anytime Jason gets stressed, Frank turns into a kitten and calms him down. When Frank gets stress from being a praetor, Jason tells him to rest and take a break.

They love to watch cheesy Rom-coms and Disney Channel Original movie and either laugh about stupid it is or cry of how sincere it is.

They like to train together and honestly they are both the moms of the demigod friend group (The Seven + Nico and Reyna) They plan hangouts for there friends.

There really just a nice, chill duo who hangs out and just have fun.

Rachel and Hazel

Hazel and Rachel never properly met. Mostly because Hazel is Roman and at this point Rachel is just Greek like everyone just considers her a Greek. One day, Hazel came to visit CBH, to see her friends and Nico.

Chrion asks if she would like to help Rachel out repainting the Camp’s van and making it more different and less boring. She agrees and properly meets Rachel. At first Hazel is sort of scared because Rachel is the Oracle but once she gets to know her, she’s really just a goofy, fun-loving person and they really hit it off.

They like to paint or draw together and just talk. Sometimes Hazel would be Rachel’s muse or Rachel would be Hazel’s muse. Rachel would also go on art rants and Hazel’s a pretty good listener, so she listen’s even though sometimes she has no idea what Rachel’s talking about.

Rachel introduces Hazel to Disney which she got hooked on. They like to have Disney marathons in Rachel’s cave and will spend hours watching Disney.

Rachel also helps Hazel navigate the mordern world and technogly. Hazel also taught Rachel how to ride a horse.

Rachel is pretty adventurous which Hazel loves and they try new things every time they visit each other.

They were overall a very fun loving pair of friends who are artisy and obsessed with Disney.

Nico and Leo

I know a lot of people ship Valangelo, I love these two but I personally see them as a really great friendship. Sorry to Valangelo shippers but here’s there friendship.

At first Nico and Leo hate each other. Nico just finds Leo annoying and Leo just thinks of Nico as the creepy Hades kid. After hanging out a lot more since there in the same group of friends, they become closer.

If Nico ever feels sad, Leo would always cheer him up with a dumb joke which surprisingly makes him laugh. Anytime Leo is sad, Nico will attempt to make a joke and Leo would look surprised and yell across the room “Hey guys, Nico made a joke!”

When Leo overworks himself, Nico will go to Bunker Nine and brings him a Happy Meal. Leo takes a break and they both play Mythomagic, which Nico got back into.

Leo built them motorcycles and they like to race around the woods with them, Calypso and Will would be cheering on the sidelines being supportive.

Leo introduces him to Pop Culture a lot more and even gives him (and Hazel) lessons on what’s been going on in the world and how it’s changed since the 40s

During the days when Bianca and Esperanza died, most of there friends and campers would leave them alone execpt there significant others (or annoyance in Will’s case) and each other. Nico and Leo both empathize with each other because Esperanza and Bianca were there rocks and there only family (besides the gods but there not really around)

Overall, they would be the Keith and Lance duo. Leo being the more jokey one and Nico being the more tough and cynical one. Its one of the more unexpected friendships.

Reyna and Annabeth

Reyna and Annabeth never were really friends at first because of the whole Greek and Roman war going on and once Reyna helped them, the seven had to go stop Gaea and she had to go deliver the statue to Camp Haft-Blood.

After the war, the Romans and Greeks became friends, Reyna and Annabeth made a peace treaty/alliance togther. They became pretty good friends after that.

Annabeth helps Reyna make renovations to New Rome and Camp Jupiter. Reyna helps with a few new battle plans for Camp Haft-Blood so there a lot more prepared for another war or battle.

If either of them are stressed, they will play Minecraft or Animal Crossing online. Like they both have those gaming headsets and will go online for each other.

When they visit each other, they go to a small, quiet coffee shop and get coffee or pastries and just chill and catch up with each other. Afterwords, they go to Centeral Park or a park in California and have a walk.

Annabeth introduced Reyna to Harry Potter. They both finished the movies in like a week and the books take them longer because of there dyslexia but Reyna fell in love. Reyna takes the Pottermore quiz and gets Gryffindor. Annabeth and Reyna are that iconic Slytherin and Gryffindor team.

Once Reyna becomes a hunter, Annabeth, Reyna, and Thalia all go hunting together. I feel like all three of them have completions of who can hunt the most. Sometimes Annabeth will tag along with the hunters and go camping. Artemis is fine with it because she likes Annabeth.

They would be that badass duo that you don’t mess with or else they won’t hesitate to snap your neck.

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

Empires on the Horizon IV

Jason is a CEO: Part IV

Here’s my masterlist for the next part and my other stuff 

new beginnings

look fragile

like glass

but when grabbed

sparkle

like diamonds

-badpoetry

“Good morning Mr Grace,” Grover Underwood smiled from his usual spot behind the coffee machine.

“Morning, how are you?”

“Much happier for seeing you less like someone kicked your puppy,” He gave Jason a knowing look.

“How?”

“There are some things the brain cannot hide, matters of the heart are often one of them.”

He didn’t really have any reply to that, so he gave the man an awkward smile and shrugged.

“Your usual then?”

“Yes please, and an iced coffee for Hazel.”

“Ah where is the darling this morning?”

“She’s coming into the office later, something about needing to go home first? She must have stayed at a friend’s place.”

Grover raised a dark brow, “Mhmm and where is your driver this morning? I noticed you drove yourself in today.”

“Uh I think Frank took the day off,” He frowned trying to piece the conversation he’d had with his friend in his sleep-deprived brain.

“Oh interesting,” Grover’s chocolate brown eyes twinkled in amusement, but before Jason could question him a warm cup was being shoved into his hand and he was being ushered away to wait for the iced coffee.

Collapsing into a chair, he pushed his glasses up his nose and wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck. Winter was beautiful but gods it was cold. He glanced around the café taking in the familiar forest green walls and dark wood floors. There was no sun streaming through the windows today so the gold accents on the tables were dulled and dark, like hidden bronze. He traced his fingers around the edge of his cup, losing himself in the motion, in the feeling of heat on his cold fingers, in the small gusts of wind against his cheeks as the door opened and closed, in the noise of a bustling store, in the–

“Hello Jason,”

“Luke,” He took a deep breath, “Fuck off.”

“Aw don’t be like that,” He sniggered.

“Please Luke, I don’t have the energy for this right now,” Exhaustion was a thousand-ton weight on his bones.

“That’s your problem Jason you never wanted to take things head on. It was always let’s wait for this, let’s get their opinion first, let’s just give it a couple weeks. You could have had the world begging at your fingertips if you just went for what you wanted.”

“Are you done?”

Luke’s responding laugh was malicious, “You are so-“

“Leave.” His voice was stone.

His ex-boyfriend scoffed, “Pathetic.”

Jason watched as the face he had been so in love with sneered at him, the scar running down a pale cheek twisting into malice. His soul ached for what could have been, it burned for what now was. It always surprised him how drained he felt after every interaction with Luke- like crashing down from a potent high. Being with Luke was a high, was euphoria and hope and sin. What the fuck went wrong? 

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Talk to me,”

“Why do you insist on answering the phone like you’re some sort of mafia boss?” His sister grumbled.

“Hello to you too Thalia,”

“I just wanted to let you know that I’ve set you up on a date tonight. Six-thirty at Sun and Songs.”

He groaned, “No. I am not in the mood.”

“Jason Grace,” She started; he could feel a rant coming on, “You cannot stop living your life because you have a wanker of an ex-boyfriend. You have been in a slump since Luke and it is affecting you in ways you’re too scared to admit.”

“It is not affecting me,” He was tired of having this fight, “I literally dated Piper for like three months.”

“Mhm and were you happy? Did you put all you could into the relationship?” She didn’t wait for his response, “No, you may have been a little happier, but you weren’t you. So you will go on this date tonight and in five years when we’re planning your wedding you better be thanking me in your speech.”

“Gods Thals,” He snorted, “We haven’t even gone on the date yet and you’re already planning a wedding?”

“Wait does that mean you agree to it?” She squealed through the phone.

“Yes loser,” He held in a laugh, “I’ll go on the date. But if it doesn’t work out you drop all of this. No more setting me up, no more interfering.”

“Yes sir. Now, how work’s going?”

“Besides the fact that Project Hestia is on hold because of this stupid contract everything is good.”

“Isn’t your fancy lawyer lady sorting it out?” She muttered.

“Reyna is a great lawyer and you know it.”

“Yea but she’s also my ex-girlfriend so I get to be a little resentful.”

He snorted at that, “Of course, and how are you?”

“I’m good. The Conservatory is still standing so I can’t be doing too many things wrong.”

“Didn’t you guys get cheetah cubs this weekend?”

“Oh Jase!” His sister cried, “They are just the absolute cutest things. Did you know cheetahs are so shy that some conservationists and wild-life biologists recommend giving them emotional support puppies?”

“So what you guys got puppies and cubs?”

“We haven’t got the puppies yet; they’re only arriving this week.”

“Well send me pictures when they’re together, maybe I’ll have them framed and hung around the office as a morale booster.”

She laughed, the sound crackly through the speaker, “Will do little bro. Listen I have to go but call me tomorrow to tell me about the date.”

“Wait!” He yelled, ignoring the weird looks from the café patrons as he walked out, “What’s her name?”

“Zoe.”

***

Jason was nervous. That was the only explanation for his shaky hands and the zoo of creatures in his stomach. He had gotten to Suns and Songs fifteen minutes early with a lavender and daisy bouquet in hand. The restaurant his sister had reserved was nothing short of incredible. Dark maroon draped over each table, and opulent candelabras sat in the center, lit only if the table was occupied. Glass and crystal chandeliers swung slowly from the high wooden beams, catching on the light and making a kaleidoscope of the room. Even the way the air smelt was decadent here. Like wood smoke and perfume, some hint of chocolate, maybe. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he wanted to bottle the scent and bathe himself in it. Trying not to be suspicious he took another deep breath in; it calmed his nerves if nothing else.

“Mr Grace?” someone put a soft hand on his shoulder, “Your guest,”

He thanked the waitress, getting up to greet his date and pull out her chair. He tried to muffle his gasp when he finally turned to her. She was stunning. Midnight skin contrasting elegantly with the pastel yellow dress she wore. Braids intertwined with glittering strands; it cast a pale silver halo around her head. Small hoop earrings glinted as she moved, and the bracelets at her wrist clinked gently when they shook hands.

“Hi, Jason Grace,” He smiled.

“Zoe Nightshade.” She flashed beautiful white teeth.

He handed her the flowers, “You look unbelievable.” He truly was in awe of her.

“Thank you,” Her smile was soft, but her voice was crisp and direct, “And these are gorgeous.”

“Would you like to order drinks?”

They scanned the menu quickly; Zoe ordered a cocktail he hadn’t heard of and he ordered the first thing he saw that didn’t have tequila in it.

“So,” He asked, and then cringed at himself internally. Starting any conversation with so was bound to make it awkward.

He cleared his throat, “How do you know Thalia?”

“We work together at the Conservatory. I moved here a couple months ago because I got transferred from the wildlife center in Germany.”

Jason didn’t know what but something about her voice made his insides melt. She said everything so undiplomatically– like if it wasn’t a fact it wasn’t worth uttering.

“Oh that’s cool. What do you do?”

“I’m a veterinarian. You?”

“Well I was a structural engineer but somehow over the years I got roped into being a town and regional planner.”

She frowned, tilting her head assessingly, “You did not finish your engineering degree?”

“Oh no I finished and got my masters in structural but then I started my company and I realised I needed other qualifications to run it the way I wanted to so I had to go back and get a degree in urban and regional planning. By the end I felt like I had been studying since the dawn of time.”

She laughed at that, and a look of surprise crossed her face, as if it was as unexpected to her as it was to him. “I know how you feel. I love animals and I’m passionate about my work but when I was done studying, I vowed never to go back. Studying for seven years after school and then trying to do it all over again feels like a one-way ticket to the end of the road.”

He mirrored her smile, “How did you get into veterinary sciences anyway?”

“My father was always busy, and my sisters were… interested in anything that could make them more beautiful, or richer. So I was pretty alone for most of my childhood. At some stage I convinced my father to get me a dog, Ladon. We were inseparable. But he got hurt when this man,“ She said it with such disgust he almost flinched. “This man hurt him. Kicked Little Ladon out the way when he was just trying to say hello. We had to take him to the vet, and I remember them being so sweet and kind to my dog and I knew I wanted to be exactly like that when I grew up.”

“Any chance you know where this man is so we can kick his ass?”

She laughed, raspy and bursting, “Don’t worry little eleven-year-old me kicked Mr Alcides as hard as I could in the shins.”

“Good,” he nodded with conviction, “He deserved more but you found your passion so there is some balance.”

She hid her grin behind a sip from her drink.

“Sir, ma’am,” Their waitress stepped to their table, “Would you like to order?”

Hours later, cheeks flushed from the liquor, laughing over Thalia’s antics and their shared need for structure, they finally decided to call the dinner to an end.

“The focaccia was to die for,” Zoe groaned, patting her stomach.

“Honestly, I may have to marry the pasta.” He sighed contentedly.

She giggled, and he knew it was a rare thing for her because her face caught that surprised look again.

“Want to grab dessert?”

“Oh gods no,” She shook her head in alarm, and then frowned as the realisation of what that meant washed through her.

“I had a really great time tonight,” He started softly.

“Do you want to walk to the park? We can stop and have gelato?” Her dark eyes were full of nervous hope.

He blinked at her, a little shocked she wanted to continue the date, “I thought you didn’t want dessert?” He teased.

“Maybe the walk will burn off some of these calories and i’ll have space for a little ice-cream.” She scunched her nose.

He knew the gelato was just an excuse, so with a grin that lit up his whole face he grabbed her hand and nodded, “Let’s do it Miss Nightshade.”

Her face glowed with relief and enthusiasm as they tucked their chairs in and exited the restaurant.

“Tell me about your family. How come you weren’t interested in the rich side of life like your sisters?”

“I guess being the youngest kind of made it all seem pointless. I had seen what happened when their vanity became malicious and I didn’t ever want to turn into something I couldn’t recognise. I went to stay with my Aunt Diana through high school. She owned a bird sanctuary. That’s where I interned in my college years.”

“Wow,” He looked down to her, awe evident in his face, “And it didn’t bother you to be so far away from your father and sisters?”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure they noticed when I left.” She shrugged, “It was a long time ago. I really only see them for family functions now.”

“And your aunt?”

“She still has the bird sanctuary, but she mostly works in the background now. My cousins, Bianca and Phoebe, run it full time.”

“Do you miss it? Were you guys close?”

“Much closer than my sisters and I. I do miss them, but I definitely can’t say I miss the sanctuary. Some of those birds were evil.”

Just then a loud squawk came from above them. She scowled at the sky, “I’m talking about you Auretta.”

He tried to hold in a laugh but Zoe stuck out her tongue childishly and they both bent over in laughter.

“Maybe we shouldn’t hurl insults while we’re out in the open.” He managed to gasp.

“Good thing the gelato shop is right there.” She grinned, grabbing his hand and sprinting towards the small, illuminated store at the end of the cobbled street. Her dress shimmered, moved like rays of light. She looked like a star.

“Come on,” She yelled, tugging at his hand harder.

‘Alright, alright,” He snapped out of his admiration and let her lead him into the shop.

“Hi, what can I get you?”

“Want to share?”

“Sure, you choose,” He waved a hand towards the abundance of flavours behind the glass.

“Please can we have one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of vanilla and,” Her brow furrowed as she scanned the tags, “And one scoop of cookie crumble.”

“Why did I think you were a sorbet girl?”

“Sorbet in the summer, anything else for the rest of the year.” She said matter of factly.

He nodded solemnly, “Yes makes sense.”

She swatted his arm, grabbing the cone from the lady with a thank you, “Gods I feel like a teenager again,”

“I know what you mean,” Her excitement was infectious.

“I have to ask,” She swallowed a chunk of cookie crumble, “What on earth were you thinking when you decided to eat a stapler?”

Jason groaned, “Why did Thalia tell you that? She swore she wouldn’t tell anyone and if asked I would say I fell off my bike or something.”

Zoe giggled, “Come on, spill.”

“Okay, first of all I was two,” He sighed, embarrassment heating his cheeks, “And it was shiny, and it made a cool clicking noise, and I wanted to know what it tasted like.”

“I can just picture a little Jason crawling onto the kitchen counter and trying to bite down on a stapler.” She teased.

“Yes well now I have this scar,” He pointed to his upper lip, rolling his eyes.

“Battle scars. Very worthy.”

He shoved at her shoulder lightly and they dissolved into laughter once more.

It was almost midnight by the time he had dropped her off at home and stepped into his apartment. He looked at his phone to see a couple work messages, and something from Hazel– things he could reply to in the morning he decided, tugging off his tie and discarding his clothes as he walked to his room. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow, his phone still glaringly bright and open on the chat with his sister.

You were right. We’re going on a second date.

-----------------------------------------------------

Grover is like some other worldy deity that spews life lessons every time they meet and i am so here for it! Anyway what y’all saying??? How are we feeling?

Tags (if you want to be added to/ taken off the tag list just let me know, all my channels of communication are open):

@lesbian-peanuts

@leydiangelo

@queen-of-demons-and-hell

@msdrpreist

@sparkythunderstorm

@nishlicious-01

@lucyisblue​

[demigodsanswer]

Clarisse & The Lord of the Rings

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” 

When she was 12, Chiron noticed that she was the only year-round Ares girl. He pulled her aside one day and offered her a room in the Big House for herself, figuring she could use some privacy and alone time from her brothers. 

The room had a small TV and DVD player in it, and she had the only key to the room. She could use it when ever she wanted, as long as it wasn’t during training or school work. 

That’s where she found The Lord of the Rings extended edition DVDs. She watched all of them in two days. 

She cried when Boromir died, but nothing prepared her for the raw emotion of this scene from The Two Towers . She thinks about this scene constantly, and it’s probably her favorite scene from any of the movies in the long term. The only scene that rivals it is the Battle for Osgiliath in The Return of the King. 

What really fucked her up though, was the Battle for Osgiliath/Pippin’s song from Return of the King. That scene made her realize, more than anything she’d encountered before, the ways in which war, while it can sometimes be comprised of glorious moments of good triumphing over evil, it could also be comprised of moments of leaders gluttonously and recklessly consuming those willing to fight for them. 

After she watched all the movies all the way through, she asked Chris to re-watch them with her. He agreed, because she was his best friend. She didn’t expect to cry at all, because she knew what would happen, but she cried twice, once at the Sam scene in The Two Towers, and "I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”. Chris didn’t judge her. 

When Chris was really sick, she would sometimes sing “The Edge of Night” to him, and it would calm him down. 

Chiron had large text print copies of the books, which he gifted to her. 

She read them all in one summer. She rereads them every summer. They’re ear marked and annotated to death. 

While she always loved Faramir in the movies, when she read his line: “War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” She was so overwhelmed that she had to lie down. 

Tolkien’s ideology, philosophy, and stories have shaped her understanding of war, its purpose, and its consequences. 

Her favorite part of the main three books is the scouring of the Shire, because it is the part that helps her cope with the war the most. Camp had always been her home - her idyllic home where she could be herself, study at her own pace, and train as much as she wanted. But after the war, it had been changed. Thalia’s tree had been poisoned, people had died there, and it was no longer the same place it had been in her childhood. But she had also been changed by the war. Like Frodo, she felt like there wasn’t a way to remain in the place after a while - she couldn’t go home again. Unfortunately for her, there are no undying lands for her to sail to.

Her favorite book is The Silmarillion. When people (read: annoying Athena boys) question this, she just looks them dead in the eye and asks “Oh, I’m sorry, are mythological wars not in my DNA?”

She went to Tolkien’s grave once on vacation and read the tale of Beren and Luthien out loud and left flowers. 

Do not talk to her about The Hobbit movies or she will put forks in you. She was nearly kicked out of An Unexpected Journey when Thorin charged at the Orcs at the end because she yelled “THAT’S THE RINGrWRAITHS’ THEME!” and then spent a few minutes explaining to Chris that “thing mean things” and that “the ringwraith theme is a poem written by Philippa Boyens about the wraiths and then translated into the ancient language of man. It’s not just some random, intense battle music!” 

She slept through most of Desolation of Smaug. She was so out cold that Chris actually left the theater to walk around the mall for a while. He came back before the end, just in time for her to wake up. “How long have I been asleep?” “Since dwarf barrel boing boing. I brought you a soft pretzel, thought.”

She straight up left the theater during Battle of Five Armies when she heard Thranduil say: “Go north, find the Dunedain. There’s a young ranger among them; you should meet him. His father, Arathorn, was a good man; his son might grow to be a great one. He’s known in the wild as Strider, but his true name you must discover for yourself.” 

“Go north? Look at any map of Middle Earth and you’ll see that Erebor is the northern-most kingdom on the map. The only thing north of Erabor is desolate dragon territory. And go north to find the Dunedain? Dunedain literally translates to ‘men of the west!’ Why would you go north into dragon territory to find the men of the west?! And ‘there’s a young ranger among them known as Strider?’ The Hobbit takes place 77 years before the Fellowship of the Ring is formed, which means that Aragorn is TEN! When Aragorn was ten he wasn’t a ranger! He was living at Rivendell! His name was Estel! They didn’t even need Vigo to sign on to the project if they wanted an Aragorn cameo, they only needed some kid with black hair! And he wasn’t known in the wild as Strider! He was known in Bree as Strider, and he didn’t even like the name! This isn’t even deep lore! This is just stuff in the main books and appendices and the maps printed on every inside cover!” 

She has three (and a half) Lord of the Rings tattoos. 

The first one she gets is a pretty common design: it’s the white tree of Gondor with the shards of Narsil, but she gets the text “Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king” around the design. She has this on the inside of her right forearm. She likes this line because in the movies Arwen says them as if they are ancient prophecy, but in the books, Bilbo writes them in a song. It’s a little inside joke with herself. 

Some people have asked why she didn’t get the text from the ring itself, and her response is always “It’s an accursed language. Why would I want an accused language on my body?” “it’s a made up language.” “All languages are made up.”

The second one she gets on a bet. She gets a goofy illustration of Gollum from before JRRT republished The Hobbit to be more canon compliant with The Lord of the Rings. She has this one on the inside of her left arm. As goofy as it is, she does love Gollum as a character. 

She then has the door to Moria on her ankle. 

The half is her drakon tattoo. She has a tattoo designed partially after the drakon and partially after Tolkein’s illustrations of Smaug. The drakon is weaving itself through a hand, so it is proportionally very small. This tattoo is on the right side of her ribcage and was the first tattoo she got (Ares paid for it as a gift). 

When she was pregnant for the first time, she played The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and watched the movies a ton deliberately to train her baby to respond to the sounds. Her first kid ended up (by no accident) being calmed by The Lord of the Rings. 

However, her favorite book is The Hobbit, and she proudly proclaimed at three years old that she was going to be a burglar when she grew up.  Chris was very smug. 

(anyway, come talk to me about the lord of the rings @nohomo-mrfrodo​) (did I write this whole thing to go on that rant about that line from battle of the five armies. yes, yes i did) 

[infinitely-orange-paracosm]

Paramay challenge - day 2: Family

Paras: Violet (fairy, she/her), Ro (willar, she/her)

"I don't really get what the ruckus is all about," Violet said. "I mean, I'm obviously happy that Thalia could find a better home, but like... isn't that what you normally do? Leave the people who treated you badly behind, and find ones who care about you?"

"It's not that simple, though," Ro replied with a sigh. "Even after everything that happened, he's still their father. And that's not something one can just forget about."

Violet stared at her for a few seconds, confused. Then suddenly, the realization hit her, "of course! I almost forgot. You guys have this weird "blood bond" thingy where some people are more important than others because biology, or something."

Ro couldn't help but chuckle at her description of blood relatives. "I mean, you're not wrong."

"Look, when you come out of a flower that could've been pollinated by literally anyone in your close vicinity, you're not gonna be able to pick out one guy based on "biology". And especially when you're older, you'd want to surround yourself with people who respect you." Violet paused in her rant, and gave Ro a questioning look. "Is... is that not how you guys do it?"

"It depends," Ro replied. "Some people believe that blood relations are more important than anything else, even if you have shitty parents. But honestly? Choosing your own family is a far better way to go. After all, family isn't about who gave birth to you, it's about who you bond with."

"Well, it's good to know there was at least one decent thing coming out of my shitty ass culture," said Violet. "Sadly, our opinions on family does not outweigh our very broken outlook on species other than ourselves."

Ro gave her an encouraging smile, and hugged her tightly. "In that case, I'm happy you could pick a better family."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've always found the problems regarding family an interesting concept, especially because it's a recurring theme among my paras to talk about how messed up the family relationships are. Some have very bad connections with their parents and siblings, a surprising number of them are literal orphans; and Violet is talking about Thalia, who managed to get out of an abusive household and finally found their place with the only family of the paracosm who aren't just connected through their bonds but through blood as well. So within this context, I was kinda curious: what would it look like if we didn't place such emphasis on blood relatives, and instead "chose" our own families? Obviously this is already very much possible, but what would a society without biological bonds look like?

Anyway that's my take on this topic 😅

[gii-heylittleangel]

Hey there! Yes, it’s another PJO fic because why not, huh? This story came from this post from @sippingdaisies​, which I haven’t strictly followed but I loved the idea it gave me, so I wrote it and it only took me six months yay

I hope you enjoy it!

Read it on AO3 or keep reading here!

*

Percy finds Nico sitting on the grass, watching Will lead the archery class—and why Will is the one leading it, Percy has no idea. At his first look, Percy hadn't actually recognized Nico; he's dressed in black jeans and a camp shirt, without his usual aviator coat, both of which are not usual for him. What does make Percy know it's Nico is the Stygian sword by his side and his silver ring glinting on the sun.

His footsteps don’t seem to startle Nico when Percy stops by his side, sitting with legs crossed and staring at the scenery after a few seconds of looking around. Percy has to give it to him: Nico chose a wonderful spot to sit and watch the camp.

The sun is rising in the sky but it’s warm enough to be comfortable and nice to be under it despite it being autumn—or maybe it’s just the camp’s magical barriers. Percy can also see most of the camp from the place, being on a small hill right in front of the archery area, giving a full view of the class, which Nico seems very interested in watching.

Percy smiles softly, placing his hands on the grass behind him and leaning back. Nico arches a brow at him, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

“Fancy seeing you here, Percy. I thought you were in Camp Jupiter.”

“I was but we got a few days off and I decided to come check on everyone.” Percy nods at the almost empty camp. “Though there’s not much to check on.”

Nico chuckles, nodding. “Yeah, most of the campers decided to go back to the mortal world. Something about ‘living a normal life’. You know, regular teenage stuff.”

Percy laughs, shaking his head. “Teenagers, huh?” He watches the small kids run around Will, playing with the arrows and bows—which Percy doesn’t advise anyone to do—screaming in joy, and seeming very happy about everything. “I’ve heard you were quite the rescuer this week.”

Nico groans, rubbing his hand over his face. “Did Will tell you too?”

“Nah, it was Chiron. He was very impressed and proud, so he called me. Very nice work, I have to say.”

A blush colours Nico’s cheeks and Percy smiles. “Yeah, if you consider passing out for half a day after the rescue a ‘nice work’.”

“Don’t undersell it, man. From what Chiron told me, you saved a lot of lives, the kids’ and the satyr’s.”

“Maybe,” Nico mumbles but the look on his face shows off some pride. “It was nothing, really.”

Percy hums sarcastically and waves at the kids. “Any of those are new? Or I just don’t recognize them for being away for too long?”

“Oh no, most of them are new.” Nico points at three out of the five children in Will’s care. “One of them arrived yesterday and the other two are some of the demigods I helped bring here.”

The three kids seem very young, seven or eight years at the most. Percy can’t help but feel sad and happy at the same time; he knows they’re safe here but he can’t help thinking about them losing their normal lives so young.

“Have they gotten claimed?”

Nico shakes his head. “Not yet but Chiron’s sure they’ll be soon if the gods can keep their promise.”

Percy nods, watching as one of the kids almost hits Will with one of the arrows, the bow too big for his hands. Nico points at the kid, his face in a frown. 

“I rescued him a couple of weeks ago from a sphinx. Gods, this kid was really something. Even the sphinx didn’t seem to know what to make of him. I think it wanted to kill him more out of annoyance than anything else.”

“What do you mean?”

Nico sighs, resting his elbows on his knees and supporting his chin on his hands “Well, since he can see through the Mist, he saw what the sphinx really looked like and, when I got there, he was just walking around it, poking and asking a million questions about it, like why do you always ask the same question? Where are you from? Can you fly? Why do you have a body of three different species? I swear, I think that kid was only still alive when I got there because the sphinx was too confused about him.”

Percy chuckles, turning to look at the kid following Will like a shadow. “I almost feel bad about the sphinx.”

Nico scoffs, rolling his eyes. “You should feel bad about me because, now, he follows me around, asking so many questions that I don’t even know how to answer. All day, he’s following me, going everywhere I go, sneaking up on me, always asking something. Your dad is Hades? Does that mean you can talk to ghosts? Do you see dead people? Are you like the kid from The Sixth Sense? Can you kill someone if you snap your fingers? Are there any ghosts here now? Do dogs have ghosts? Can you see them too?” Nico keeps going, ranting about how much the kid talks, how he never seems to run out of questions, and how he has no filter whatsoever, and how Nico hides around the camp to escape the kid.

Percy only smiles, remembering the time he went through all of that with Nico years ago, how he once got on Percy’s nerves with all of his indelicate—to say the least—questions. Nico doesn’t even seem to notice how much Percy’s enjoying it, too busy gesturing too much, sometimes slipping into Italian when English seems to fail him. It’s entertaining and Percy can only say well deserved.

When Nico finally stops, he turns to Percy and frowns, squinting his eyes. “What?”

“Oh, nothing, it’s just… All of it, it reminds me of something, y’know? It happened a few years ago with me, but I don’t remember exactly what happened.”

Nico shoves Percy to the side playfully. “Oh, shut up. I wasn’t like that.”

Percy smirks. “Yeah, sure, nothing like that.” He tries to fake Nico’s younger voice, high-pitching his own, “Does it ever run out of ink? Do you fight a lot with Thalia? Does that mean you can surf really well?”

“You’re impossible,” Nico grumbles but Percy can see a small smile on his lips.

“Good thing I’m not your type, then, huh?”

Nico groans, burying his face in his hands. “Why did I have to tell you that? I’m never gonna hear the end of it, am I?”

“Gods, no. I need something to annoy you with so I’ll remember you of it every chance I get.” Percy smiles, leaning back on his hands. “Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.”

Nico sighs, throwing his head back. “I hate you.” 

Percy chuckles, elbowing Nico playfully. Nico rolls his eyes with a small smile, muttering about how he has an idiot for a friend. They stay quiet for some time after that, watching the kids try to hit the target, until Nico bumps his shoulder against Percy’s softly.

“Thanks.”

Percy frowns, turning to face him. “For what?”

Nico shrugs, staring down at the grass. “For… everything. I mean, I wasn’t exactly the best person to you for a while and here you are, still my friend.”

“Dude, I completely get it.”

“I’m serious, Percy. The way I acted and treated you after Bianca—”

“Is completely understandable, believe me.”

Nico scoffs, turning his gaze away from Percy. “It wasn’t just that. I ran away after you told me about Bianca, I betrayed you…”

“And then you saved me,” Percy interrupted him again, bumping their shoulders. “Nico, you’re a good person, one of the best I know. The good you’ve done outweights any bad you’ve done or could do, and that’s what matters to me. You saved my life more times than I can count and, in the end, always fought for what’s right. How could I not be your friend?”

Nico’s lips open in a small smile as he looks back at Percy. “Thanks. Sometimes I forget you’re not a complete idiot all the time.”

Percy fakes disbelief, placing a hand on his heart. “You take that back.”

Nico laughs loudly, closing his eyes and shaking his head softly. “You are impossible.”

“And not your type, don’t forget about that.”

Nico rolls his eyes, muttering something under his breath that Percy’s pretty sure it’s him called Percy some very unflattering things in Italian.

Percy smiles, bumping their shoulders again and turning forward to look at the other campers. He can see Nico smile softly as he watches Will teaching a couple of the new kids how to use a bow.

“That’s the kid I told you about,” Nico points at a little boy by Will’s side, his mouth moving a mile a second while Will looks desperate, his eyes searching for the two of them, pleading for help.

“You definitely told the kid to ask Will for his help, didn’t you?”

Nico laughs playfully, nodding. “Oh yeah, for sure.”

The two of them watch as Will gets more desperate and more desperate as he tries to answer all the kid’s questions, the others starting to get into it too, their voices growing louder so they can be heard over the others until the two can hear them all the way over. Neither Percy nor Nico make a move to help, too busy laughing between them.

[intelligentdumbass]

Can't I Get a Break? (part 1)

(Again, beware of typos. I have no idea how this turned into what it is now, but it is what it is.)

Hermes pushed the door open and nearly tripped on one of goldie’s many stray brushes. The floor was also littered with paintings and marble statues of varying shapes and sizes scattered all over.

“Apollo?”

“You need something Herms?”

The blonde was in the corner, sitting down on a cushion, his eyes still focused on the canvas on his lap even when his brother was already standing over him.

“Dude, what’re you doing here? The wedding is about to start!”

“Eh? I thought it wasn’t until two months from now?”

Hermes stared, and wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Look, I don’t know what day you think it is, but I wasn’t lying when I said that the wedding is about to start.”

Apollo frowned, but then laughed when his instincts told him Hermes was telling the truth.

“Ah, shit. The girls are probably wondering where I am-” He immediately stood up and ran off into another room. “You can go on ahead Herm! I swear I’ll catch up.”

When the god took a glance at the painting he left on the cushion, he suddenly understood. It was a work in progress of Asclepius’ worktable covered in ashes.

---------------------------------

Olympus’ garden was breath-taking; bioluminescent flowers blooming under the moonlight. The gods were having the time of their lives, drunkenly singing under the serene night sky.

Hermes couldn’t help but subtly gaze back at Apollo every now and then. Despite all the fun the sun god was having dancing with the muses, their conversation in the studio made him felt like something was off.

Then someone caught him off guard by wrapping an arm around his shoulder, and he instantly knew who it was the second he smelled the wine in his breath.

“Jealous?~” Dionysus wiggled his eyebrows.

Hermes raised an eyebrow. “Jealous of what?”

Dionysus motions to the muses; it was at that moment that Calliope had her arms wrapped around Apollo’s neck as the god gave her a small kiss. Hermes rolled his eyes, but oh little did he know, he was faintly blushing.

The younger brother sighed.

“Look man, if you’re going to keep this up, then you‘re absolutely hopeless. I mean, at this point literally everyone except the distracted dumbass you haven’t confessed to knows that you want a piece of that-”

“Hahahaha, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, have you seen Eris? I heard she wasn’t invited-”

“Hey! Don’t change the subject.” Dionysus glanced back and frowned. “Huh, where’d he go?”

Hermes followed his gaze and sure enough, Apollo was nowhere to be seen; just the muses chatting amongst themselves, along with a few other immortals. The wine god scanned the rest of the guests at the party, and gave his friend a confused look, who just shrugged in response. Then before he knew it, Hermes was being dragged by the arm over to the group of gossiping sisters.

Urania saw them first and waved, while Thalia gave the messenger a knowing grin.

“You looking for Apollo?”

He internally cursed. His brother was right, everyone did know. Before he could say a word, his companion answered for him.

“Yeah. Wasn’t he with you guys just a minute ago?”

Melpomene and Polyhymnia gave each other a look, before turning to Calliope. She sighed.

“He said something about taking a break.”

“Apollo? A break?” Dionysus looked up, at the moon. “But it hasn’t even reached midnight yet.”

The goddess’ smile became just a tiny bit strained. “I know.”

Hermes frowned. “Did you manage to catch where he ran off to?”

---------------------------------

The garden was huge; its depths filled with paths most don’t even know of. Luckily Hermes knew his way around it like the back of his head. After all, he’s got good experience sneaking inside the garden from one of its many secret entrances.

The other deities’ slurred laughter were getting more and more muffled, until it was replaced by the crickets and the foliage crunching under his steps. Then out of nowhere came the familiar sounds of a certain lyre. His brisk walk slowed into a halt. He found the god of music sitting down on top of a small hill, back resting against the trunk of an old oak. He had a feeling he would’ve found him here. This spot was one of their favorites, because it also happened to be right in front of a giant crevice that overlooked a big chunk of the earth. The view was spectacular.

Apollo didn’t notice Hermes’ presence until he had already sat down next to him, which made him flinch.

“H-” “Hermes!” He glared.

“What?”

“You could’ve at least said something! Gods, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

The messenger resisted the urge to laugh and just innocently grinned, while his friend sighed. His gaze then went to the turtle lyre in the musician’s hands.

“I still can’t believe you kept that. I mean, it’s not just that you kept it. It’s the fact that I always see you actually use it.”

Apollo smiled, with a look in his eyes that basically said, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

“It’s a very good instrument, even if it was just made by some annoying toddler. Besides, the other one gives me bad memories.” He pauses for a moment. “What’re you doing here? You couldn’t find someone to flirt with?”

“I was looking for you.”

“Did someone need me?”

“Nah, if that were the case then I would’ve already told you. I was just… concerned?”

The blonde seemed confused; now Hermes was the one who sighed.

“Did you really spend two months just, holed up in that room?”

“Maybe, what of it?” The lyre went silent.

Hermes frowned, but after a few moments of thought decided to stand up.

“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, but considering what happened, you probably just wanted some alone time-”

“Nono, it’s fine.” His voice was so soft he almost didn’t hear it. “Please don’t leave.”

And so the god sat back down, this time inching a little closer so that their sides were touching. Apollo saw him glance at the lyre again.

“You want to play something? Go on ahead.” He hands it over. “I suddenly don’t.”

For a few minutes that’s all it was, Hermes strumming on his lyre while the crickets sung; Apollo staring into the distance.

“Wait.” For a brief moment, Apollo’s eyes lit up like a pair of miniature suns.

“Hm?” Hermes paused.

“Nonono, keep on playing. It was just… isn’t that the song you played to me? When you tried to convince me that it was totally worth trading half of my cows for?”

“Y-” “Yeah.” He was surprised. ‘How do you still remember that?’

Hermes continued to strum, but now his cheeks were starting to burn up. It doesn’t look like Apollo noticed though.

“Am I unreasonable, Hermes?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m one of father’s older kids, hell, his literal oldest son. You’d think I’d get used to this now.” He picks up a handful of dirt and just lets the soil fall through his fingers.

“Well, it… wasn’t really a natural death now, was it? Dude, if that happened to my kid I’d be pissed at dad too even if he had a reason for it.”

“I don’t know I’m just… I’m so tired of this.” At first it was a hand on his shoulder, but he quickly ended up hugging him; pulling him even closer and wrapping his arms around the messenger’s waist. “I’m so fucking sick of this shit.”

Despite how much that had startled him and the fact that he was internally screaming right now, Hermes still managed a smile. At this point, the blonde had his face buried into his shoulder. The younger god stopped strumming on the lyre and gave his friend a gentle pat on the back.

“I know that I shouldn’t be making a big deal out of this but-” “but I can’t not!” His rants were loud murmurs; like yelling but in soft whispers with the occasional muffled sniffs and whimpers. “I can’t stop thinking about things like this. I don’t know why. Is there something wrong with me? I know everything dies and that what Asclepius did was a crime against the fates, why can’t my brain just shut up about it!”

“Hey, Hey look at me.”

After half a minute of silence, Apollo reluctantly looked up.

“Don’t beat yourself up like that.” Hermes putted the lyre aside and wiped away some of the tears trailing down his cheeks. “You’re not unreasonable. I mean, have you seen the shit the rest of this fucked up family tree of ours has been up to? I’d argue you’re actually one of the most reasonable.”

“Oh, of course you’d think that-”

“Shhhh” He cut him off by giving him a small kiss on the forehead.

Apollo faintly blushed and then started staring off into oblivion again; resting his head on Hermes’ shoulder.

“I guess at least…” He murmured. “At least you guys aren’t going to suddenly die on me.”

“I don’t know about that. I can’t exactly guarantee that I won’t do a very stupid prank that might get me kicked into Tartarus.”

“Tch. Well, there might be a chance that I would’ve been stupid enough to do it with you, so at least with that we’ll both get chucked down into the abyss. Hey who knows, Dio might join us too.”

Hermes laughed, and even the blonde himself couldn’t help but crack a smile.

---------------------------------

“Well” Apollo sighed. “Thanks for putting up with that.”

“Of course.” He takes a quick look at the moon. “Maybe we should go back now. Someone might get worried.”

“I guess.” For a moment there, the god looked like he really didn’t want to leave.

“I mean, I don’t mind spending a few more minutes here if you want to-”

“No, it’s fine. You’re right; we really should be going back now.”

Apollo stood up first, and picked up the lyre; the messenger standing up not long after. The two deities had started to walk back when the younger god suddenly stopped.

“Wait.”

“Hm?” Apollo turned around and frowned. “Something wrong?”

“I… I need to tell you something.” He suddenly felt a little nervous, and couldn’t help but stare a little; maybe even briefly glancing at his lips.

Hermes took a step closer.

“I-” “ACH!-”

But before he could do or say anything else, he felt something hard smack him right in the face. He probably would’ve fallen back onto the ground if Apollo hadn’t caught him.

“Are you alright?”

“What…” Hermes rubbed his nose. “What the FUCK was that?!”

Then there was a distant cackle, and it sounded oddly familiar; almost like it came from a certain goddess of chaos.

Out of the corner of his eye, Apollo saw a speck of yellow on the ground. It was an apple made out of solid gold, and there was an inscription scribbled onto it, but that wasn’t why he was staring.

Once his brother had fully recovered from the shock, he let go, for him to stand on his own. The fruit glimmered and sparkled under the ambient moonlight, enticing the immortal to come closer. He crouched down and picked it up. It glowed against his hand, and it flashed against his eyes.

First he felt the heat, like the sun’s solar flares were gently flicking and liking his skin. Then he smelled the stench of thick, red, mortal blood. His limbs were heavy and his stomach tied itself into a knot; his head filled with the slow rhythmic beat of drums, except it wasn’t drums. He wasn’t in the garden anymore; he was in a temple, his temple. He knew because of the statues, but they weren’t the only company he had in this large, hollow room.

There was a stranger in front of him; their steps the source of those loud, steady thumps as they gradually got closer, and closer…

He was a god, he knew he could easily kill them, but instead he found himself backed up against a wall. Then they grabbed him by the throat, and drew their sword. In the heat of the moment, he somehow managed to catch a glimpse his reflection in the glint of their blade.

What he saw wasn’t his face.

But the face had his eyes.

Apollo instinctively dropped the apple and cursed fruit quickly fell back onto the ground. His face was drenched in sweat; his fingers twitching; breath hitching and heaving.

“Apollo? Goldie?!” Hermes rushed towards the blonde and cupped both of his hands. “Hey buddy, what’s wrong?”

The god inhaled, and exhaled; closing his eyes. He squeezed both of the messenger’s hands and forced himself to calm down. When he started coming back to his senses, he glanced around, but the apple was already gone.

“Hermes, where did that cursed piece of golden shit go?!”

Hermes blinked, surprised. “I… don’t know?”

But what he did saw, was a few black feathers as dark as the sky above them. They were scattered along the path that led back to the main event.

“…Hermes I need that fucking apple.”

“Huh? What? Why-” “Hey, HEY! APOLLO WAIT!!”

Apollo had started to run back towards the wedding, and Hermes was right behind him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next

[lizzibennet]

hey quick q: do you think the rachelxAnnabeth drama was a tad sexist on ricks part? i do think annabeth is the jealous type (pride) + all of the rachel stuff happens after annabeth thinks theyre going on a date& she wanted a quest since she was 7 and this mortal solves it. BUT annabeth has extreme confidence yet gets jealous bc TYSON called rachel pretty?? plus none of the quest stuff is brought up?? and they only become friends after annabeth is dating percy?? & both girls speak up before him?

i don’t think annabeth has extreme confidence, maybe in her wits and knowledge but she’s extremely afraid that people she loves will leave her. it’s the conflict that sets off all other conflicts - her mother left her with a father who didn’t care much about her and when she ran away (from her point of view) he didn’t even care. the only family she really ever had fell apart pretty much instantly with thalia dying and luke going bananas (and then trying to poison the other third of their family which yknow can kinda fuck up the mind of a 13 yr old). and then there’s percy, her best friend who she thinks may want to stay but who she’s always fighting with not to mention his constant impending death

like the only thing she’s really confident of is that everyone, sooner or later, will leave. which is why she is so attached (in her own snarky way) to her friends - tyson included. if anything, i think her being jealous of tyson as well just goes to show it’s not sexist because it’s not her male love interest causing it - it’s another type of insecurity. she is protective of her life and of her world because they are meant to be hers, and when somebody she deems threatening (even if she isn’t!) tries to enter it and the people who are meant to be her people are welcoming her, she is jealous. i think it’s completely understandable for someone whose fatal flaw is pride, thinking she can judge somebody’s worth for her world so quickly.

here is this mortal girl who is beautiful, rich and has true sight, who is leading much more powerful people than her and yet can do something they can’t, something annabeth can’t, no matter how much she tried. the labyrinth doesn’t make any sense yet rachel can navigate it. can you imagine how mad things not making sense makes annabeth? everything is thrown off balance - her intelligence can’t solve this one, and to do so she must let someone she doesn’t like in, not only into her world and life but also into her mission. she has to literally let somebody else lead. she has to, at least for a while, let her world go into anomy. it’s a really difficult thing for a proud person to do, so she does what most of us do in similar situations- she lashes out.

so in short she feels threatened, even if she has no reason to think so (it’s not like her friends can’t find other girls attractive or intelligent and it’s not like percy can’t have other friends or romantic interests - it’s just that it feels more personal to her when she’s already insecure about it). of course she’s jealous, and that is most likely intensified by her feelings for percy which are confusing but are most definitely there at that point. however i don’t think she would’ve reacted any different had it been grover or tyson suggesting they needed a mortal on the quest. chiron is with her when percy suggests it and chiron says it makes sense and even then she throws a fit.

she comes to respect rachel when she understands rachel has always had a place in her world, she just didn’t understand it before. she’s not competing with annabeth, she’s there to be something else entirely. and i don’t mean competing in a ‘percy’s love interest’ way - i mean she’s not trying to be a fighter or a quest leader, she is not trying to infiltrate annabeth’s world because it’s rachel’s too. she was meant to be the oracle from the beginning and annabeth knows the fates work in sometimes unclear ways. she understands and respects that, which is why she has newfound respect for rachel. if it was just a matter of ‘hah, got the guy and you didn’t’ she would have no reason to respect rachel after she became the oracle, the dislike would still be there because technically the attraction could still be too. yet it isn’t, yet it’s implied in tlh that they’re friends, good friends to the point where annabeth just drops by rachel’s place at chb with certainty that if she was there she’d be welcoming and they’d have a nice chat. you don’t just befriend the girl you were mortally jealous of because of a guy out of the blue - unless the reason was not the guy (at least not primarily), it was your own issues that you later resolved.

i have lots of critics towards some of rick’s writing, but i think he knows annabeth (especially pjo annabeth). i think he knew what he was doing when he made her jealous of rachel (and made rachel chill with it). i think the way annabeth reacted to the whole rachel thing was completely realistic, albeit unfair, and i think them being friends after annabeth n percy start dating is just coincidental with the fact that’s also the timing that rachel finds her true place in the greek world and shows annabeth she’s not the judge of it and that a mortal can (and does) have much to teach her still about it. and because it’s more about annabeth’s own personality than it is about percy, i don’t think it’s sexist.

however

the reaction the fandom had to the whole ordeal? especially back in the day? that’s an entire other story. definitely sexist

sorry for the long rant i love them sm (rachel icon and annabeth url yall)