#i understand Percy wholeheartedly

[isolophilian]

Sally Jackson has single-handedly made me feel more loved than my mom ever has. i sobbed so loud when she said "you are not broken." she loves her little boy so much

[helenofsparta2]

Having the whole plot between Nico and Percy be resolved simply with “You’re not my type” in Blood of Olympus was such a huge disservice to both characters

They are pivotal parts to each others journey. No person in PJO influenced Nico as much as Percy did, aside from Bianca, and no person represents Percy’s guilt and the responsibility he had to shoulder more than Nico does. The writing for both characters really suffers through this lack of a real satisfying resolution.

First to talk about what Percy represents for Nico:

Percy, first of all, represents Nico’s introduction to the mythological world

He is the first demigod Nico ever came in contact with

He saved him and Bianca from the manticore (somewhat)

Nico stated in Blood of Olympus than Percy had reminded of the heroes of his mythomagic game come to life

Nico wholeheartedly believed that Bianca would be safe, if Percy was with her and created this image of the perfect hero in his mind, putting Percy on a pedestal

2.

In Nico’s mind Percy is irrevocably intertwined with Bianca and everything that happened to her

Despite Nico naively believing, that Bianca would be safe if Percy were around, he was instead the last person to ever talk to her, and present when she died

Percy informed Nico of her death (Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn’t believe nobody had told him yet. Then I realized why. They’d been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person, Titan’s curse)

Nico turned him into the scapegoat for her death, so that he could let all his grief and anger and bitterness out on him

Bianca sent Iris-messages to Percy, so that he would find and help Nico (“Percy has been worried about you, Nico. He can help. I let him see what you were up to, hoping he would find you.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Her ghost only appeared to Nico when Percy was with him

Percy is the only person Nico knows of, who also grieved for Bianca (“Bianca,” I said. My voice was thick. I’d felt guilty about her death for a long time but seeing her in front of me was five times as bad, like her death was fresh and new. I remembered searching through the wreckage of the giant bronze warrior she’d sacrificed her life to defeat, and not finding any sign of her. “I’m so sorry,” I said. Battle of the Labyrinth)

3.

Percy is the person who protected and cared for Nico more than anyone else in pjo

Tried to convince Bianca to think more deeply about her decision of joining the hunters, especially thinking of him (“Biance, this is crazy,” I said. “What about your brother? Nico can’t be a hunter.” (Titan’s curse)

Searched the woods in the dark for hours after he had disappeared (Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.)

Didn’t tell Chiron about Nico’s parentage to protect him from the Gods. (I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—") Titan’s curse)

Decided to completely commit to the prophecy, solely so Nico didn’t have to bear that burden and go trough any more suffering(It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it. "I can't let Nico be in any more danger," I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I… let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more." ) Titan’s curse)

Searched for Nico in the months after Titan’s Curse (Now, six months later, I hadn’t even come close to finding him. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Battle of the labyrinth, chapter 3))

Saved his life on Geryon’s farm. (“Either way, you get my friends,” I said. “But, if I succeed, you’ve got to let all of us go, including Nico.”)

Always offered Nico a place at camp half-blood to the best of his abilities (“We missed you at dinner,” I said. “You could’ve sat with me.”“No.”“Nico, you can’t miss every meal. If you don’t want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the big house. They’ve got plenty of room.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Invited him to join him on his birthday (“Is that… is that blue birthday cake?”He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. I wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he’d ever been invited to one. “Come inside for cake and ice cream,” I said. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot to talk about.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Reminded him that he was still a child (I smiled. “Maybe it’s okay to still be a kid once in a while.” I tossed him the statue, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Helped him to get the sword of hades back to impress his father (Then I looked at Nico. Unfortunately, I recognised the expression on his face. I knew what it was like wanting to make your dad proud, even if your dad was hard to love., Sword of hades)

Acknowledged everything Nico did in The last Olympian and is one of the main reasons why Hades has a cabin at camp. ( “But your children should not be left out. They should have a cabin at camp. Nico has proven that.”)

4.

Percy was Nico’s first, and after Will, his biggest love

Nico had feelings for Percy, which didn’t leave him for around 2 1/2 years, and accompanied him throughout the most challenging parts of his life. 

Feelings, which were so deep, the god of love personally acknowledged them.

Favonius even called Percy, the person Nico cares about most in House of Hades.

This was more than just a mere crush

Percy is so completely intertwined with most aspects of Nico’s character arc, in both PJO and Hoo, be it his feeling of ostracism, his relationship to Bianca or him coming to term with his own sexuality, that them not having a final interaction, makes his writing feel shallow and unfinished. Especially Nico coming to terms with his crush on Percy opens up the opportunity for a really heartwarming conversation and a moment of character growth and maturity for both of them, instead of it being wasted on one throw-away line.

And it’s the same the other way around. Nico is also a huge part of Percy’s journey.

He especially represents Percy’s biggest failure.

The first five Percy Jackson books are characterized by Percy having to take up responsibility and him being afraid of not being able to fulfill them. Be it responsibility for camp, the world, Bianca’s death, the prophecy, his friends, teh unclaimed demigods, or everything else. Most of the time, Percy was able to make sure everything turned out fine. He saved camp, he saved Olympus, he finished his quests, made the right decision for the prophecy, and he made the gods swear upon teh styx. But there’s one exception. And that is Nico.

Percy did everything in his power to make sure Nico would be spared any more hardships. He took up the burden of the prophecy, explicitly, so that Nico doesn’t have to go through any more hardships

He searched for him after Titan’s curse, kept his identity a secret and even risked himself, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson dying if it meant saving Nico

Still, Nico is one of the characters, if not the character, who has suffered the most in PJO and Hoo, even partly because of Percy (though, of course, Nico having a crush on him was not Percy’s fault at all)

He lived alone at 11 years old on the streets and in the labyrinth, while getting manipulated by an ancient evil spirit

He was isolated and ostracized at camp half-blood

He experienced the horrors of Tartarus completely on his own

He got captured by the giants and slowly suffocated to death in a small jar

He had to deal with internalized homophobia and his complicated feelings regarding Percy

He has been a vital part of two wars at only 15 years old

Had to admit his crush involuntarily in front of Jason, etc.  

One of the things Percy battles with in Heroes of Olympus is this overwhelming sense of guilt. He blames himself for almost everything that went wrong over the last few years. Be it for Iapetus, Calypso, or especially Nico. Having Percy acknowledge this complicated relationship he has with him during House of Hades, but not allowing the two of them to talk it out is genuinely baffling to me, and one of the (albeit many) reasons why I really don’t like most of Percy’s writing during Heroes of Olympus, despite the fact that he is my favourite character by far. This could have led to a moment of character growth, where Nico helps Percy to aknowledge that he feels guilty for things he had little to no control over, while Nico himself realizes how important he actually is to Percy.

They are also so similar in terms of who they are and what they’ve been through, that even if you ignore their history with each other, it seems insane, that they didn’t interact in any meaningful way:  

Both were ostracized at camp half-blood because of their parentage, and so far are the only two half-bloods we know of with that experience

They are (together with Hazel) the most powerful demigods in the Riordan verse, and have feats which far surpass anyone else’s

Both are in some way afraid of their powers

Both went through Tartarus

Both have relatively similar relationships to their godly parents

Both have gone through immense trauma and loss

And if you read heroes of Olympus, it actually very much seems to build towards a final resolution of their relationship

Percy and Nico were, aside from Frank, the two people closest to Hazel; both saw her as a little sister, and Hazel treated them both like her brothers

Nico was the first person Percy met from his old life

Percy was the one, who received the visions of Nico being captured

From everyone present, Percy trusted Nico to lead the others to Greece in his moment of greatest desperation

They both had introspections about the other in house of Hades, Nico having to deal with his crush and Percy with his guilt in Tartarus

But, in the end, after they met again, nothing happened. The only scene we really got was the “You’re not my type” line and Percy being surprised by it for a couple seconds. That’s it.

We saw no meaningful conversation between the two of them, no acknowledgement of what they’ve been through together, no lasting feelings. Nothing.

In regards to their relationship, Percy acknowledging everything that Nico has been through led to nothing. Nico acknowledging his feelings for Percy and finally letting go of this pedestal he had placed him on led to nothing. You could argue that their entire relationship, which has been built up since Titan’s curse led to nothing. And considering that they are so important characters for each of their character arcs, their characterization very much suffers from this writing decision.

The two of them, together with Hazel, are my three favourite Riordan verse characters by a long shot, but some very important aspects of both of their characters fall so flat to me through this lack of a satisfying resolution.

 Both of them deserved so much better.  

They are the friendship with the most missed potential in the entirety of the Riordan verse and probably the most fleshed out and nuanced relationship Rick ever wrote.

R.I.P.  Nico di Angelo, and Percy Jackson, you will always be brothers in my mind.

[xiaofiaan]

anyway i feel so fucking ill. vax becoming so much more serious and pulling himself away from vex, keyleth walking through fire and understanding that yeah !! she can be scared but she shouldn't undermine herself !! we have percy being so utterly grief ridden over what he did to vex and not even understanding why. scanlan making a friend who truly understands him only to lose that friend almost immediately (and also some hefty foreshadowing for his arc). grog and cravens edge as well as what happens to pike. i. AND ANNA FUCKING RIPLEY JESUS CHRIST

[utilitycaster]

Hi! I saw your tags on the escape room poll that Team Liam would be last and I wanted to ask why? While I agree that they wouldn’t be first, I wouldn’t put them last either. Do you think they would just have too much conflict to use their skills?

I didn't realize this was from last night's 4SD and because OP said "Battle Royale" I assumed that it was in some way a combat-oriented escape room, in which the lack of a dedicated/significant healer (Vax has, what, 30 lay on hands and a couple low level spell slots) and the fact that Orym is one decent but not incredible tank among two of the most tissue-paper characters in terms of HP would spell their defeat.

With the understanding that this is a traditional escape room here's my thought process:

From my escape room experience there are four skills that map easily into D&D skills and one that does not map into the D&D character skill chart but does map extremely well onto players. They are:

Investigation/raw intelligence. How good are you at inspecting and comprehending things?

Sleight of Hand/raw dexterity. How good are you at manipulating objects/fine motor control?

Persuasion or Intimidation/raw charisma. How good are you at convincing people to work together or perform tasks?

Perception. How good are you at generally noticing things right away?

The most crucial thing, however, is "do you try dumb shit and push buttons and try to figure out everything quickly." And so:

Toss up between Travis and Sam's character teams in terms of the D&D skills; Chetney and Veth are both particularly suited for escape rooms between strong intelligence and high dexterity. I think Sam's team overall is probably stronger; Tary's mechanical knowledge and FCG's desire for everyone to work together and Scanlan's general buffing abilities/capacity to get people to do what he wants (presumably win) mean everyone has a lot to bring to the table. FCG is the only one with decent perception, iirc, though, and Travis as a player is fundamentally a button pusher and therefore his characters will inherit this energy even though Chetney and Fjord are going to be carrying the entire thing (although, actually, Grog will probably respond well to being asked to perform tasks or look for things).

Taliesin's characters have the combined skills but unfortunately with the except of Caduceus they all have the trait "does not work well with others" and Ashton and Percy in particular wouldn't listen to Caduceus and they're the ones with the most relevant skills here. Beau could do an escape room on her own and probably would (note: someone told me this is what Marisha said on 4SD and I agree wholeheartedly) but necessarily will be less effective than groups who work together. Vex would do pretty well and would be competitive enough, but none of Laura's characters are particularly expert in investigation and if Vex and Imogen clash it is 100% over in terms of getting out in time, though I think Jester would make a valiant go of it. None of Ashley's characters crack +1 in investigation and no one has 20 dex, and I doubt most would be interested or competitive about this, though I do think they'd get along the best by far.

Rounding things out, I suspect that Liam's characters are just behind Taliesin's in terms of conflict; it won't be quite as heated but I get the sense all three of them, all of whom are very much about working together with their respective parties, will not be very good at working together with each other, and Orym is the least likely to take the lead despite most suited for it. Caleb is extremely smart but I don't think he'd be the most invested in going super fast. I don't think they'll be last - Ashley or Taliesin are more likely - but they'd certainly not be first. The NPCs, meanwhile, have the advantage of two people who know each other well, a very agreeable and mature person in Eshteross, and Essek and Allura will probably vibe solely on the basis of being wizards who know and like Caleb if they don't know each other personally yet. Iirc Essek and Eshteross should have decent dex scores though not 20, and everyone has diplomatic skills. I believe Allura's wisdom is respectable as well. They'll certainly be the most well-behaved and adult about it.

In conclusion, you're right, probably not last (would almost certainly be last in the combat scenario I mistakenly imagined) but absolutely should not be first.

[cynicalclairvoyantcadaver]

Vivienne Duarte, Bianca di Angelo and being an older sister

So, in this post, I'm trying to examine how we as a society, even the ones who are progressive, automatically expect the older sibling, more importantly the older sister, to take on the burden of their siblings when their parents can't.

I'm going to use the example of Bianca di Angelo from Percy Jackson.

For context, I'll tell you-Bianca and her younger brother Nico were from pre WWII before the big 3 took the oath, and once her mother was killed by Zeus, her father put her and her brother in the Lotus Casino, which makes time pass slowly while the outside world time goes faster.

Bianca and her brother Nico were in there for about a month according to them but actually 70 years in real time. Keep in mind that during this time, there were no parental figures for them, even if they got everything they materially needed-food, clothes, etc.

Nico also mentions that Bianca was strict with what she let him watch, so this means that she watched over him in the Casino. Not fully, maybe, but she watched over him and felt parentified nonetheless.

Bianca felt that she had to take care of Nico.

And when they come out, they remember that their parents are dead and they go to a military school of all schools. Now Bianca feels like she has to take care of Nico because their parents are dead and because of the general expectations piled onto older sisters and they probably cling to each other a lot, seeing as how Nico didn't mention any friends from his boarding school time.

And when Bianca gets the chance to join the Hunters of Artemis, well, she takes it-and how do people react to this?

Well......they don't like it. They think she's abandoning Nico, they call her selfish, even though she's only 12-a literal child, not even a teenager. And she only wants to not be just a big sister, to have a life for herself. And she's groomed and mislead by two much older women who are also in the guise of being children (Artemis and Zoe) and she's told that she can meet Nico from time to time, but that she won't have to take care of him anymore and that he'll be taken care of. And so she takes the chance. She doesn't know that they're going to camp-she thinks that if she declines, she won't get this again. And she doesn't even think about the possible consequences of this, because again, she's just a scared twelve year old who barely had time to make a decision with a lot of pressure and 3 people there who tried to pressure her into the opposite directions.

No one really thinks about this, do they? They only think about how her joining the Hunters and her death affected Nico, and they judge their reactions to her based on him.

Because the way Bianca was written, she was always the Earth to Nico's Sun. And ultimately, she died and was only ever remembered as Nico's older sister, which is so sadly ironic because she always wanted to be more, but Bianca was doomed from the start.

And now we come to Vivienne Duarte, who can also be a slightly selfish sister, only people love her more because we actually see her helping Jude, and Jude doesn't seem to be that affected by Vivienne's distance from her and Taryn-in fact, Jude has said that Vivienne has come through for her plenty of times, and Vivienne does help Jude a lot over the course of TFOTA, so Vivienne would of course not be hated that much, right?

But, as always with case of older sisters not being there for their younger siblings, there's Vivienne hate for this.

And I mean, I can understand where you're coming from, because maybe it looks like Vivienne should have been there for Jude and Taryn-

But let me tell you, have we ever considered Vivienne as a person, and her desires and wants?

Let me tell you something very frankly-I wholeheartedly believe that if TFOTA was from Vivienne's POV, then a lot of people would be hating Jude and Taryn. We'd all be wondering why they choose to stay with the people who don't care for them and treat them like toys or pets. We'd be cheering Vivienne on, and maybe some of us would take some time to think about Jude or Taryn and maybe even defend them, but ultimately, we would say that they chose to stay in Faerie, so they weather the consequences.

And that's what I'm talking about. Have we ever considered the fact that Vivienne wanted to go back to the human realm, but Jude and Taryn wanted to stay in Faerie?

And then Jude and Taryn grew to love Madoc. Madoc, the man who killed Vivienne's parents, and kidnapped her and her sisters to a foreign land which they knew nothing of, and then her sisters started to love him.

It must have been awful for Vivienne. How many times did she turn away, her heart being pierced, when she saw Jude smile at or hug Madoc? How many times did she blink away tears when she saw Taryn with Madoc?

And she vowed to hate Madoc, but she was forced to live with him because of her sisters, even when she found a way out, because they wanted to go back to his stronghold, and VIVIENNE stayed for JUDE AND TARYN, even though she could have gone and lived in the Mortal Realm using her magic and she could have come and visited them when she wanted to.

Can you imagine a man murdering your parents, then he kidnaps you and your sister and is your biological father? And then your sisters, who aren't his real daughters, grow to love him even though you hate him, and you can't fathom how they can love him, because HE MURDERED YOUR PARENTS IN FRONT OF ALL THREE OF YOU.

I love the fact that she hates him. I love that she tried to kill him and betrayed him for her sisters. I love her for that.

And Vivienne did try to protect Jude and Taryn, but their relationshop fractured as Jude and Taryn grew to love Elfhame and Madoc, and that's realistic, because which person in Vivienne's place, with all her trauma and vows, would not hate her sisters a little for doing what they did?

And now we come to Vivienne's desires.

I mean, I already told you that she wanted to go and live in the mortal world away from Faerie, but she stayed for her sisters. Was she planning to stay forever if she had met Heather? Probably not, but she would have stayed longer.

But I think that when she met Heather and Heather wanted Vivienne to move in with her, Vivienne realised that it was either her or her sisters' desires-

And she chose herself over them.

And I think that that was wonderful, because she couldn't stay behind forever. She couldn't sacrifice forever.

And let me tell you, she offered so many times to Jude and Taryn, she said, hey, let's go back, stop being the the crazy psychos, and they kept saying no, we want to live here.

And Vivienne ultimately accepted that she couldn't always just try to help her younger sisters, that she and they would have to go their own separate ways, that ultimately she couldn't help them anymore. That Jude would have to fend for herself, that Taryn would have to find a husband.

And so she chose to leave for herself, and I think that that's so bittersweet, because she was leaving them behind for a new life, and she must have been hurt too, but she stopped sacrificing for her sisters. And she knew that she was immortal, so she could come back and visit them when they were settled.

And she tried, one last time, and she was even prepared to give up Heather for her sisters, but then they refused, and she gave it up entirely.

But I think that if Jude ever came to her, then Vivienne would help her, always.

Yes, Vivienne did play with Cardan, but that was most likely before he started bullying Jude and Taryn. Jude literally said that Vivienne stopped attending classes and also that she and Taryn hid their trauma in Faerie from Vivienne, so Vivienne didn't know that Jude and Taryn were bullied. And being the big sister that she is, she would never tolerate Cardan if she knew that he was bullying Jude and Taryn.

Bianca died, and Vivienne lived, and when people think of Vivienne Duarte, they're not always going to remember her as Jude's older sister, because she's so much more.

Vivienne stopped taking care of Jude and Taryn when she felt that she didn't need to and realized that they needed to fend for themselves and she couldn't always help them.

I feel like Bianca and Vivienne could have such a talk.........

@madockisser not sure if you've read Percy Jackson but what do you think about this? I'm trying to understand Vivienne's POV and I feel like I made some good points here, but I want your opinion too

[caramel-covered-apples]

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[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 20: I SIT ON THE HOT SEAT

Annabeth sighed softly as she leaned into Percy's side, ignoring Alex's jokes of Percy being thrown in a pot of soup or something. He threw his arm over her at once to have her closer with the same troubled frown only easing slightly. Her eyes stayed uncomprehending upon the new chapter title as the coming funerals lingered in her mind.

She tried to push the image away with Silena smiling up at Beckendorf. She'd grin at Annabeth finally getting her silent wish of this moment. The daughter of Aphrodite had been the best of her mother, she always smiled no matter what was going on when she'd seen someone being happy in love, and she tried to keep that thought close as she took a shaky breath to start.

"What were you thinking?" Clarisse cradled Silena's head in her lap.

Silena tried to swallow, but her lips were dry and cracked. "Wouldn't . . . listen. Cabin would . . . only follow you."

Alex had, mixed feelings about that. Loyalty wasn't something she was familiar with. Blind loyalty sounded absurd in every way.

And yet...it sounded kind of nice too. To have someone so wholeheartedly believe in you...only you...

"So you stole my armor," Clarisse said in disbelief. "You waited until Chris and I went out on patrol; you stole my armor and pretended to be me." She glared at her siblings. "And NONE of you noticed?"

"Yeah, kinda with Clarisse on that one," Thalia grumbled as she adjusted her hood. Had Silena given a rousing speech? Surely she'd pulled the cabin together somehow, long enough for her own siblings to notice something was amiss. They all weren't that dense! She wouldn't be surprised to learn if Clarisse had beaten them all to a pulp not long after.

...but, well, the thought did cross her mind it was more than likely the Ares kids had wanted to come all along. They might have followed a puppet if someone had put a nice boar helmet on it.

It bothered her a bit, that her first instinct would rather the ones who wanted to be there should have ignored their head and snuck out...but then when Silena arrived to pull this ruse Clarisse never would have followed and blasted the drakon. They might not have won at all. She could feel her father's powerful blue eyes spark with joy somewhere in the back of her mind as she understood what he must always feel as a god. Sacrifice from others that lead to his own victory. It made her feel miserable.

The Ares campers developed a sudden interest in their combat boots.

"Making sure none of that monster dust got in their socks," Magnus nodded in understanding.

Alex called him an idiot in ASL, which was a nice change of pace. He had no regrets teaching her that.

"Don't blame them," Silena said. "They wanted to . . . to believe I was you."

Something that had been mentioned a lot these past days, Jason frowned. Wanting to hope, wanting to believe something even if you knew not to deep down it wasn't true. The idea was a cold, icy feeling he knew all to well, the kind that when it thawed out he wasn't sure what he was going to be left with. It was unpleasant, nauseating even, but almost exciting too to find out what was going to be beneath it all.

"You stupid Aphrodite girl," Clarisse sobbed. "You charged a drakon? Why?"

"All my fault," Silena said, a tear streaking the side of her face. "The drakon, Charlie's death . . . camp endangered—"

"Stop it!" Clarisse said. "That's not true."

Silena opened her hand. In her palm was a silver bracelet with a scythe charm, the mark of Kronos.

Percy stiffened painfully as his mind splintered with understanding. He'd known there was a spy for so long, had hated and loathed this unknown face ruining so much...it felt impossible to reconcile all of that with Silena Beauregard. The two wouldn't mash together. Like someone had told him Annabeth was the spy. It didn't compute with the person he'd known.

He waited for the betrayal, for the anger to catch up with him, but he just felt tired. As he thought about Micheal, and Beckendorf, and all the other campers over the years he and Silena had both known, that he and Silena had both had a hand in their deaths. Two sides of the same coin.

With a cold, heavy heart, it wasn't hard for his imagination to cook up the idea he and Silena even could have switched places this day. If Luke had never told him it was his plan, his shoes that had nearly dragged Grover away, Percy would have been none the wiser. Luke could have stuck around camp, kept whispering in Percys' ears thoughts that still floated about to this day of how wretched the gods were and all the horrible things they'd done. He was just a manipulative prick like that who snared up everyone.

The chips had fallen where they did though, and he brushed that aside to instead settle a scowl into place he didn't feel. He was left wondering where her loyalties had gone. He wanted to hate her, wanted to think she'd just been trying to lead more kids to their death with this scheme...but it just didn't match the fact that she'd charged a drakon! She could have sent them on ahead if that was the plan!

A cold fist closed around my heart. "You were the spy."

Silena tried to nod. "Before . . . before I liked Charlie, Luke was nice to me. He was so . . . charming. Handsome. Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised . . . he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt . . . Charlie. He lied to me."

Annabeth read that...gods she read that with understanding! With hurt and pain, and sympathy all at once!

Thalia wanted to shake her and ask if she was nuts! She knew she couldn't have gotten through that without gritted teeth and having to pinch her own side to stop from breaking down crying in frustration of what Luke had done to yet another person.

I met Annabeth's eyes. Her face was chalky. She looked like somebody had just yanked the world out from under her feet.

She never would have believed that Luke would threaten someone like that until she heard it from Silena's dying lips. Percy had never felt more blue that she finally did.

Behind us, the battle raged.

Clarisse scowled at her cabinmates. "Go, help the centaurs. Protect the doors. GO!"

They scrambled off to join the fight.

Silena took a heavy, painful breath. "Forgive me."

Will swallowed a painful lump in the back of his throat and was glad nobody was going around the room demanding to know if they all had. He'd have said yes, now. With time passing and the hurt easing as he stopped drowning every day after, learning to float in the misery of how empty his cabin was when he went home. He wasn't good at holding onto resentment. He just hadn't cried at Silena's funeral.

Annabeth instantly had, she thought Percy had too, but there was a troubled look on his face she didn't like to see now. He still had his fingers linked with hers, but his other hand was fiddling with his pen again like all he wanted to do was walk off and charge into battle. He liked to blame Luke for everything, and she'd finally been forced to see Percy had been right. Hopefully, that's all this anger was.

"You're not dying," Clarisse insisted.

"Charlie . . ." Silena's eyes were a million miles away. "See Charlie . . ."

She didn't speak again.

Jason shivered as he imagined her sightless eyes. The child of Venus hadn't been much of a notable figure in Percy's life before this moment. A pretty girl with a friendly boyfriend.

That day with the mermeks though had already shown she could have been more if Percy had ever spent time with her. Silena's determination to save Beckendorf had been the admirable stuff leaders were made of.

Sonder, the realization that a random passerby was living a life as vivid and complex as your own. They'd spent so long now focused on Percy's life that it felt like a slam in the face to fully realize what this girl had been going through entirely in the background of everything they'd been hearing.

Clarisse held her and wept. Chris put a hand on her shoulder.

Finally Annabeth closed Silena's eyes.

"We have to fight." Annabeth's voice was brittle. "She gave her life to help us. We have to honor her."

Clarisse sniffled and wiped her nose. "She was a hero, understand? A hero."

Magnus was used to living in a world of gray. Of knowing better than many a teenager just why people did what they did to be in a sleeping bag under the bridge, of watching it happen from the shadows. He wasn't going to sit around and try to engage the right and wrong of all that had gone on during this mess. People died every day for choices they'd made and decisions they'd been given no alternative out of. He just wished someone out there had a happy ending.

I nodded. "Come on, Clarisse."

Annabeth wasn't sure she wanted to move on for a moment. That she even wanted to hear Percy's thoughts reflecting on this during the rest of the battle. She'd made peace with what Silena had done, but Percy might have a tendency to lean into it as fuel for the slash of his sword.

But Percy sat next to her, maybe a little to calm and put together as his miserable face watched the book. She sighed as she pressed on when he showed no signs of stopping her. He always reminded her of a glass building. Structurally sound, of course, but with nothing to hide inside. He'd never made a single bereft of them hearing every stray thought that crossed his mind.

She picked up a sword from one of her fallen siblings. "Kronos is going to pay."

"Ooooh, yeah," Alex drawled out in an amorous tone for the violence about to take place. Gods she wished she could hug Clairsse right now for the visual stimuli about to take place!

The idea that this was all for a traitor mused quietly in the back of her mind. She knew exactly who her mother was in her world, how she'd be received by anyone of Norse descendants, though she'd never come across another like her before now. She suspected Magnus was only because of Hearth, and he was an innocent white lily to pure to grasp how that's what he should see her as even if she did decide to tell him.

Traitor, the word lingered in the back of her mind as she focused sharply on Clarisse and her crusade to rip every monster a new one for what they'd done for her friend. It was probably as close to redemption as she- Silena of course, would ever get.

I'd like to say I drove the enemy away from the Empire State Building. The truth was Clarisse did all the work. Even without her armor or spear, she was a demon. She rode her chariot straight into the Titan's army and crushed everything in her path.

She was so inspiring, even the panicked centaurs started to rally. The Hunters scrounged arrows from the fallen and launched volley after volley into the enemy. The Ares cabin slashed and hacked, which was their favorite thing. The monsters retreated toward 35th Street.

Clarisse drove to the drakon's carcass and looped a grappling line through its eye sockets. She lashed her horses and took off, dragging the drakon behind the chariot like a Chinese New Year dragon.

Will hated that thing so much. She'd taken it back to camp and put it up in the forest, her cabin often using it during capture the flag to terrify the opponents. Alex had no idea how close to true her jokes were about chasing kids around with a fake drakon for practice, because sometimes the Stolls really did do that. If he didn't have a heart attack every time he saw it, he would have buried it by now.

She charged after the enemy, yelling insults and daring them to cross her. As she rode, I realized she was literally glowing. An aura of red fire flickered around her.

"The blessing of Ares," Thalia said. "I've never seen it in person before."

Alex's laugh was chaotic and quickly drew the others in. It was an ability she proudly used whenever given the chance, and she even sort of hoped that if Oceanus heard it somewhere he at least chuckled a little too.

For the moment, Clarisse was as invincible as I was. The enemy threw spears and arrows, but nothing hit her.

"I AM CLARISSE, DRAKON-SLAYER!" she yelled. "I will kill you ALL! Where is Kronos? Bring him out! Is he a coward?"

"Clarisse!" I yelled. "Stop it. Withdraw!"

"What's the matter, Titan lord?" she yelled. "BRING IT ON!"

There was no answer from the enemy. Slowly, they began to fall back behind a dracaenae shield wall, while Clarisse drove in circles around Fifth Avenue, daring anyone to cross her path. The twohundred-foot-long drakon carcass made a hollow scraping noise against the pavement, like a thousand knives.

Meanwhile,

"There is nothing you could follow that up with!" Jason declared. "Unless the gods themselves show up out of the blue, there is no meanwhile, anyways, or also that could top that Percy!"

"I'm sorry my life dosen't revolve around her, I had other things going on," Percy said with a slightly wounded look Clarisse of all people had somehow overtaken his life. He couldn't even be that offended, it really was awesome.

we tended our wounded, bringing them inside the lobby.

"Important enough?" Will mock sniffled into an invisible handkerchief.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you're a hero too Will, don't rub it in," Jason sighed for his outburst. He'd known it was going to bite him in the ass when he did it.

Long after the enemy had retreated from sight, Clarisse kept riding up and down the avenue with her horrible trophy, demanding that Kronos meet her battle.

Chris said, "I'll watch her. She'll get tired eventually. I'll make sure she comes inside."

"That is easily one of the top five bravest guys around camp though," Will shook his head in exhaustion at the mere idea. Nico was a kitten in comparison to the beast of a task in trying to convince Clarisse La Rue to do such a thing as get tired and come inside.

"What about the camp?" I asked. "Is anybody left there?"

Chris shook his head. "Only Argus and the nature spirits. Peleus the dragon is still guarding the tree."

Magnus was rather proud of himself he didn't shiver in dread, after that drakon it really didn't sound as bad, but he was still pretty confident he was the only one thinking that was still bad enough.

"They won't last long," I said. "But I'm glad you came."

Chris nodded sadly. "I'm sorry it took so long. I tried to reason with Clarisse. I said there's no point in defending camp if you guys die. All our friends are here. I'm sorry it took Silena . . ."

"My Hunters will help you stand guard," Thalia said.

"Yeah, not much you can say to that," Jason nodded for his sister. Interrupting awkward silence was the best anybody could do.

"I'm back a few sentences trying to figure out what other friends Chris was talking about her having," Will really sounded odd when he purposefully tried to sound sarcastic. Like a kid at a play having just read his lines. His eyes got so big.

Nico chuckled and patted his hand for the stilted humor anyways.

"Annabeth and Percy, you should go to Olympus. I have a feeling they'll need you up there—to set up the final defense."

The doorman had disappeared from the lobby. His book was facedown on the desk and his chair was empty.

"Well now Percy has no choice but to win this war," Magnus said with a tragic expression. "Can you imagine anything more painful than not being able to finish a book you started?"

Alex chuckled but shook her head. "He might have just gone to the bathroom and he'll be back at his post any second, don't be so dramatic."

"Or maybe it wasn't even a good book, they can't all be best sellers," Annabeth grinned.

Magnus scoffed at the pair making light of this.

The rest of the lobby, however, was jam-packed with wounded campers, Hunters, and satyrs.

Connor and Travis Stoll met us by the elevators.

"Is it true?" Connor asked. "About Silena?"

I nodded. "She died a hero."

Travis shifted uncomfortably. "Um, I also heard—"

"That's it," I insisted. "End of story."

Jason was a bit surprised at Percy. He'd have thought, given his track with people holding information over his head, Percy would go around telling the whole story of the traitor and what happened, not just the final result.

But then, Percy's loyalty had always been with his camp since the day he woke up there. He might not have admitted it or even instantly realized it, between the shunning and shoving from cabin to cabin and his mom's absence hovering over him every day, but Silena Beauregard had made a sacrifice that had bought his camp family enough time to live through another battle.

"Right," Travis mumbled. "Listen, we figure the Titan's army will have trouble getting up the elevator. They'll have to go up a few at a time. And the giants won't be able to fit at all."

"Can you even imagine the determination it must take if they had to use the stairs?" Will asked in horror. His thighs were screaming in pain at just the thought.

"Kronos might have won that day if so. Only the bravest would make it to the top," Percy said with a begrudging look at the book for only a Titan with that level of determination making it up there.

He might not have been one of them.

"That's our biggest advantage," I said. "Any way to disable the elevator?"

"It's magic," Travis said. "Usually you need a key card, but the doorman vanished. That means the defenses are crumbling. Anyone can walk into the elevator now and head straight up."

"Was the doorman secretly the keycard all along?" Alex asked with interest as she narrowed her eyes at the book in thought. "Was he handing out bits of his essence?"

"Ew," Percy frowned at her as he rubbed his palm against his jeans.

"More symbolic of him abandoning his post causing weaker defense," Will offered instead. He had been just a mortal after all. A mortal granted an immortal gift.

"Then we have to keep them away from the doors," I said. "We'll bottle them up in the lobby."

"What are we calling this strategy?" Jason asked Annabeth. "Genie in a bottle? Message in a bottle?"

"Bottleneck," Annabeth grinned in delight at someone asking her. Percy grumbled to himself for a moment he would have asked too if he hadn't been so busy, but she just grinned and kissed the back of his hand before continuing so he quickly let the thought go.

"We need reinforcements," Travis said. "They'll just keep coming. Eventually they'll overwhelm us."

"There are no reinforcements," Connor complained.

It was so rare to hear the Stolls being so, serious. Will had shivered as he heard them whispering while visiting some of their siblings in beds about injuries and man power, rather than the usual of whose soda can to shake up and put back. His crush on Connor had been at an all time high as he glanced over at him, but the son of Hermes hadn't even seemed to notice he was in the same room as he went over to check on Katie's fading concussion.

Ah well, he'd always hoped the two would stay happy together, he smiled to himself now without the touch of bitterness it had once held.

I looked outside at Mrs. O'Leary, who was breathing against the glass doors and smearing them with hellhound drool.

There was a nice moment of gentle laughter all through the circular room for that descriptor. Magnus was shocked at himself for it, but it felt nice too, to think next time he saw a dog on the street he might not flinch at the sight of it if he kept her in his mind.

"Maybe that's not true," I said.

I went outside and put a hand on Mrs. O'Leary's muzzle. Chiron had bandaged her paw, but she was still limping. Her fur was matted with mud, leaves, pizza slices, and dried monster blood.

"Bath time," Percy chuckled. It's a good thing he was water proof, because he might never be dry again afterwords. "You game Alex?"

"Any day," she savored with a laugh of her own. The county might be out of pink scrub brushes when she was done, but it would be worth it.

"Hey, girl." I tried to sound upbeat. "I know you're tired, but I've got one more big favor to ask you."

I leaned next to her and whispered in her ear.

After Mrs. O'Leary shadow-traveled away,

"You would just gloss over that," Jason muttered in betrayal. "We could call this Percy Jackson and- Anyways!"

"Couldn't even be mad at the title," Percy nodded. "Very on brand for how my mind works."

"Should I even bother wasting breath asking what you asked her to do?" Magnus sighed.

"You can waste hand motions, it would do the same amount of good," Percy said with an impish grin. They both knew he'd play the 'my head hurts' card if they kept pushing this.

"You're a jerk, there, no breath wasted," Magnus smirked.

I rejoined Annabeth in the lobby. On the way to the elevator, we spotted Grover kneeling over a fat wounded satyr.

Thalia had been a tad embarrassed to admit she'd been surprised to hear he'd even fought. Some of the Hunters had gotten a bit excited when they heard a lord of the wild had shown up to help, but she'd quickly snapped away that hope by just waving off it was some useless satyr who would probably just stand around yelling insults that weren't even going to make someone pause.

She'd been wrong, and she'd admitted that during the goodbye ceremonies. She hoped her father heard it too.

"Leneus!" I said.

The old satyr looked terrible. His lips were blue. There was a broken spear in his belly, and his furry goat legs were twisted at a painful angle.

Will had made notes on each person's file what had happened to them. Morbid curiosity, details he could share with family, some way to counter act the ailement in the future, or a mix of it all had made this a habit since his first day.

He had been, empty, at how many folders were left blank that day. Nobody had seen what had happened to Leneus to sustain such injuries same as a lot of bodies that day. To many monsters, not enough people to watch each other's backs.

He tried to focus on us, but I don't think he saw us.

"Grover?" he murmured.

Alex opened her mouth, the crude comment on the tip of her tongue the old lump wanted to insult Grover one last time, but it felt crass. She'd at least hear his dying words before she tore him one last insult.

"I'm here, Leneus." Grover was blinking back tears, despite all the horrible things Leneus had said about him.

He had such a big heart, Annabeth smiled, wishing she could put her hand on his shoulder again like she had. She'd seen it every day while he was guiding them through the streets, a smile appearing at every weed that appeared through the cracks in the sidewalk. Every day at camp when he answered every question she had with only some mild anxiety and tugging at the fur on his legs. He'd grown so much.

They all had after this really.

"Did . . . did we win?"

"Um . . . yes," Grover lied. "Thanks to you, Leneus. We drove the enemy away."

"He's always been such a terrible liar," Percy's chuckle sounded a tad watery. Whatever. Son of Posideon. He'd seen a lot of crap those past few days. Nobody was dumb enough to mention it.

"Told you," the old satyr mumbled. "True leader. True . . ."

There was a blurry, nice, delusional moment where Magnus could pretend that Leneaus was talking about Grover. That it was his way of apologizing for all the miserable days he'd put that kid through.

He wasn't naive enough to belive it. He just wanted to.

He closed his eyes for the last time.

Grover gulped. He put his hand on Leneus's forehead and spoke an ancient blessing. The old satyr's body melted, until all that was left was a tiny sapling in a pile of fresh soil.

"A laurel," Grover said in awe. "Oh, that lucky old goat."

He gathered up the sapling in his hands. "I . . . I should plant him. In Olympus, in the gardens."

"Can he just, do that?" Jason tried not to look at the book distastefully.

Thalia still gave her little brother a pitiful look he still might respect any authority figure after all they'd heard in here. If anybody said a word to Grover about where he wanted to plant someone even mildly important to him, Percy would shut it down faster than the shovel went through the dirt.

"We're going that way," I said. "Come on."

Easy-listening music played as the elevator rose.

"Which just went so well with the mood I'm sure," Nico muttered at all of their haggard forms slumped against the rails in exhaustion. Like a Greek freeze frame in modern times. Casual Tragic.

I thought about the first time I'd visited Mount Olympus, back when I was twelve. Annabeth and Grover hadn't been with me then. I was glad they were with me now. I had a feeling it might be our last adventure together.

"Not one of your gut feelings though," Jason noted with interest, though Grover wasn't in here now so the exclusion might prove Percy right all the same.

"I'm not trusting the thing to win me the lottery, let alone this," Percy said with a tired smile. A part of him, a very large part, hoped it was true. That somewhere Grover was out there kicking it with Juniper frolicking in the forest while he and Annabeth sorted this out to get back and have a nice, peaceful life.

But considering where they were...and how they were nearing the end and he still wasn't even sure what the outcome of all this was...yeah. Jason was probably right he should trust his gut's lack of reaction on this case.

"Percy," Annabeth said quietly. "You were right about Luke." It was the first time she'd spoken since Silena Beauregard's death. She kept her eyes fixed on the elevator floors as they blinked into the magical numbers: 400, 450, 500.

It wasn't a very wild guess to think she wasn't actually seeing those numbers. Or maybe they were marking all the other times she'd been wrong in her head about him. Thalia sighed and wished Annabeth was still young enough she could hug her until the problems melted from her shoulders.

Annabeth just cleared her throat and brushed her hair out of her face before continuing with the same stoic expression she'd started this with. They all knew she hated saying those words, let alone twice.

Grover and I exchanged glances.

"Annabeth," I said. "I'm sorry—"

"You tried to tell me." Her voice was shaky. "Luke is no good. I didn't believe you until . . . until I heard how he'd used Silena. Now I know. I hope you're happy."

"Why would that make me happy?" Percy asked quietly.

She gave a listless shrug. "Being right about something makes me happy." She was still getting a handle on how that worked for Percy. So far she'd narrowed it down to blue food, (something sacred between him and his mom she didn't partake in much after their anniversary) and her.

At least they were still figuring it out together.

"That doesn't make me happy."

She put her head against the elevator wall and wouldn't look at me.

Thalia swallowed at the distance she still felt between them. She should have had her head on his shoulder now like at the start, but instead she had suddenly needed both hands on the book as Percy watched her sadly without protest. This still felt like an unresolved conversation she was standing in the middle of that neither knew how to approach. She'd always thought Annabeth talked to Percy about everything, but suddenly she wasn't so sure. Gabe? His constant doubts about her feelings? There was plenty she'd been witness to down here.

Grover cradled his laurel sapling in his hands. "Well . . . sure good to be together again. Arguing. Almost dying. Abject terror. Oh, look. It's our floor."

"Someone get Grover a plasma knife already the way he cuts through you two's tension," Alex chuckled.*

"I hate every implication in that sentence," Percy sighed.

"A plasma knife would just cauterize a wound instantly, so it wouldn't make a very good weapon," Will shrugged.

"It is if you want to torture someone," Nico corrected.

"Why would you stab someone with a knife that can make toast?" Magnus protested.

"I'd use a toaster as a weapon any day," Alex scoffed at his naivety.

"Off. Track." Thalia oh so patiently reminded.

The doors dinged and we stepped onto the aerial walkway.

Depressing is not a word that usually describes Mount Olympus, but it looked that way now. No fires lit the braziers. The windows were dark. The streets were deserted and the doors were barred. The only movement was in the parks, which had been set up as field hospitals. Will Solace and the other Apollo campers scrambled around, caring for the wounded. Naiads and dryads tried to help, using nature magic songs to heal burns and poison.

As Grover planted the laurel sapling, Annabeth and I went around trying to cheer up the wounded. I passed a satyr with a broken leg, a demigod who was bandaged from head to toe, and a body covered in the golden burial shroud of Apollo's cabin. I didn't know who was underneath. I didn't want to find out.

Will was so, so grateful that nobody stopped to turn to him and ask for a name. He'd had more than enough of it. His exhaustion was slowly seeping into something deeper the longer this dragged on.

My heart felt like lead, but we tried to find positive things to say.

"You'll be up and fighting Titans in no time!" I told one camper.

"Might have worked on a Hunter," Thalia sniffed at his giving away all the good motivation.

"You guys had plenty of motivation to kill all the Y chromosome monsters as is," Percy shrugged.

"You look great," Annabeth told another camper.

"Bet you a donut that kid was on fire at some point," Magnus muttered, thinking how that would only cheer up some Aprhotodite child. Alex sure wasn't taking that bet.

"Leneus turned into a shrub!" Grover told a groaning satyr.

"He has such a way with words," Will gave a dramatic sigh he wished he'd thought of something half as pleasant to say during all that.

"Really showing off why he's the best searcher over and over again," Jason nodded.

I found Dionysus's son Pollux propped up against a tree. He had a broken arm, but otherwise he was okay.

"I can still fight with the other hand," he said, gritting his teeth.

Percy vividly remembered wanting to get a chain and tie him to that tree. He was pretty sure the spirit within might even help if he told who the request was from.

"No," I said. "You've done enough. I want you to stay here and help with the wounded."

"But—"

"Promise me to stay safe," I said. "Okay? Personal favor."

He frowned uncertainly. It wasn't like we were good friends or anything, but I wasn't going to tell him it was a request from his dad. That would just embarrass him. Finally he promised, and when he sat back down, I could tell he was kind of relieved.

"I bet he had to suspect the reason though," Will muttered. The amount of kids he'd passed all praying to their parents, in some cases just the god they hoped was their parent, had been a lot. Everybody knew Pollux was the only son of Dionysus, and the torrent of feelings it must have caused him to realie his dad had reached out to Percy for this 'personal favor' wasn't something to be fixed with ambrosia. Maybe that's why he'd refused any as he'd diligently assisted.

Annabeth, Grover, and I kept walking toward the palace. That's where Kronos would head. As soon as he made it up the elevator—and I had no doubt he would, one way or another—he would destroy the throne room, the center of the gods' power.

The place had never sat right in Jason's mind merely for Percy being in its existence in the first place. Every little letter he used to describe the place had made an itching sensation all along him.

He considered the hunger to hear it all anyways unhealthy. Like craving something he knew he was allergic to. A part of himself knew he'd hate himself when he got the connecting cord back, making it all make sense. Until then he'd stuff himself on forbidden fruit and deal with the underworld of it all later.

The bronze doors creaked open. Our footsteps echoed on the marble floor. The constellations twinkled coldly on the ceiling of the great hall. The hearth was down to a dull red glow. Hestia, in the form of a little girl in brown robes, hunched at its edge, shivering. The Ophiotaurus swam sadly in his sphere of water. He let out a half-hearted moo when he saw me.

Will wished he could spare a hug for the goddess and the half-cow-half-serpent. He'd had other priorities going on, but the idea of walking into this room and seeing such a sad scene just automatically made him want to open his arms in offering.

In the firelight, the thrones cast evil-looking shadows, like grasping hands.

Standing at the foot of Zeus's throne, looking up at the stars, was Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She was holding a Greek ceramic vase.

"Rachel?" I said. "Um, what are you doing with that?"

She focused on me as if she were coming out of a dream. "I found it. It's Pandora's jar, isn't it?"

"Rachel's uncanny ability to just be where I need her most, now with bottomless items, feels like a cheat from the universe," Percy said with the dull confidence of his limited gaming experience. He had one of those gut feelings he wasn't going to enjoy this coming conversation with her.

Her eyes were brighter than usual, and I had a bad flashback of moldy sandwiches and burned cookies.

"Please put down the jar," I said.

"Did it turn into a grenade?" Magnus asked in concern. He could never even be sure something was what Percy saw it as considering the mist. The spy had been revealed, obviously Rachel wasn't there to blow up Olympus on anyone's orders, but that didn't mean she might not do it of her own accord considering everything else going on.

"The jar itself was dangerous enough," Percy shook his head.

"I can see Hope inside it." Rachel ran her fingers over the ceramic designs. "So fragile."

"Rachel."

My voice seemed to bring her back to reality. She held out the jar, and I took it. The clay felt as cold as ice.

Something about that felt, mystic. Alex toyed with words in her mind, trying to place why something felt so deeply powerful about that exchange. Rachel felt, possessed. The way she'd been described was unnerving. Rachel was at the precipice of her story, and Percy watching from the outside couldn't begin to grasp all the intricate details within.**

"Grover," Annabeth mumbled. "Let's scout around the palace. Maybe we can find some extra Greek fire or Hephaestus traps."

"But—"

Annabeth elbowed him.

"Right!" he yelped. "I love traps!"

"Who says you can't learn something new about friends you've had for years," Thalia chuckled.

"Now we need to know what kind of traps," Percy nodded solemnly. "I bet he'd love a good snare to help catch those pesky rabbits."

"Grover still won't consider eating his bullies Percy," Annabeth sighed.

"I've never tried rabbit to vouch if it's worth it anyways," he grinned.

She dragged him out of the throne room.

Over by the fire, Hestia was huddled in her robes, rocking back and forth.

"Come on," I told Rachel. "I want you to meet someone."

We sat next to the goddess.

"How long were those two just chilling in the same room without acknowledging each other?" Magnus asked. Yeah, it was a room for gods to be, so the place shouldn't have been able to get any stranger, but it still managed it.

"Given how perceptible Rachel is and how a goddess can be invisible if she wishes, nobody can ever properly guess," Nico shrugged.

"Lady Hestia," I said.

"Hello, Percy Jackson," the goddess murmured. "Getting colder. Harder to keep the fire going."

"I know," I said. "The Titans are near."

Hestia focused on Rachel. "Hello, my dear. You've come to our hearth at last."

Rachel blinked. "You've been expecting me?"

Magnus could barely wrap his head around that. Being a mortal in a sea of demigods and having a goddess's undivided attention. Having the feeling, even for a second, that this god could look at her and see her as someone important with no attachment to her dad. It probably made her feel less like a freak given her sight.

He knew from personal experience it could be a very conflicting feeling, when your perspective on life kept being shaken around so you never knew which way to look at something normal anymore.

Hestia held out her hands, and the coals glowed. I saw images in the fire: My mother, Paul, and I eating Thanksgiving dinner at the kitchen table; my friends and me around the campfire at Camp HalfBlood, singing songs and roasting marshmallows; Rachel and me driving along the beach in Paul's Prius.

I didn't know if Rachel saw the same images, but the tension went out of her shoulders. The warmth of the fire seemed to spread across her.

She saw Percy, Annabeth thought with absolute confidence. Rachel saw the summer of them together, the times she spent with someone who made her feel normal and seen and alive. Annabeth did not think for a second she was just projecting she would have seen the exact same, it just made sense to her Rachel would too.

"To claim your place at the hearth," Hestia told her, "you must let go of your distractions. It is the only way you will survive."

Rachel nodded. "I . . . I understand."

"Wait," I said. "What is she talking about?"

"Percy does not understand," Jason oh so helpfully pointed out.

"Congrats on finally making note of something nobody else picked up on," Percy rolled his eyes.

Rachel took a shaky breath. "Percy, when I came here . . . I thought I was coming for you. But I wasn't. You and me . . ." She shook her head.

"Wait. Now I'm a distraction? Is this because I'm 'not the hero' or whatever?"

Annabeth wanted to yank on his ear and call him a seaweed brain so badly, and only restrained herself because Rachel didn't need her help explaining this to Percy. Still, she couldn't stop herself telling him, "you don't have to be the hero all the time Percy!"

She knew it wasn't his fault, he'd walked into Camp and had that placed on his shoulders mere days later, never to escape it until this coming birthday. She knew why he felt like it defined him in theory.

She still wanted to smack the idea out of his head eventually.

"I'm not sure I can put it into words," she said. "I was drawn to you because . . . because you opened the door to all of this." She gestured at the throne room. "I needed to understand my true sight. But you and me, that wasn't part of it. Our fates aren't intertwined. I think you've always known that, deep down."

I stared at her. Maybe I wasn't the brightest guy in the world when it came to girls, but I was pretty sure Rachel had just dumped me, which was lame considering we'd never even been together.

"Give the boy a cookie," Thalia chuckled.

"Glad someone around here admits when I can keep up," Percy sighed.

"Dumped is a strong word Percy," Will said bracingly. "More like she's moving on to other things without you."

"Not better Will," Percy shook his head. He wanted to be happy for her, of course, she always should have had the choice of deciding where her life was headed. He just wished he could be a part of it.

But as he took Annabeth's hand with confidence, he at least felt comfortable knowing which part he wanted. Maybe it was better this way. Rachel doing this now might have made him keep hesitating like a bafoon in that memory where Annabeth kissed him.

"So . . . what," I said. '"Thanks for bringing me to Olympus. See ya.' Is that what you're saying?"

Rachel stared at the fire.

"That means yes," Jason was still oh so helpfully narrating to Percy to make sure he got all this.

"Thanks man, where were you when I needed an interpretation to all this?" Percy huffed.

Jason had a funny feeling it was in a vaguely similar situation. Lots of confusing feelings about girls, enemies on his doorstep, the entire world about to collapse if he didn't manage it all. Typical half-blood stuff.

"Percy Jackson," Hestia said. "Rachel has told you all she can. Her moment is coming, but your decision approaches even more rapidly. Are you prepared?"

I wanted to complain that no, I wasn't even close to prepared.

Percy glanced over at the first book again. Instead of his life coming full circle, it felt like he'd never left that closet in Yancy where he'd once hid from Chiron and Grover. No clue what was going on, half terrified out of his mind, and still unprepared for the crazy test to come.

I looked at Pandora's jar, and for the first time I had an urge to open it. Hope seemed pretty useless to me right now. So many of my friends were dead. Rachel was cutting me off. Annabeth was angry with me. My parents were asleep down in the streets somewhere while a monster army surrounded the building. Olympus was on the verge of failing, and I'd seen so many cruel things the gods had done: Zeus destroying Maria di Angelo, Hades cursing the last Oracle, Hermes turning his back on Luke even when he knew his son would become evil.

Surrender, Prometheus's voice whispered in my ear. Otherwise your home will be destroyed. Your precious camp will burn.

"Yeah, anyone would lose in the face of all that Perce," Magnus promised. He wouldn't be surprised if the next sentence said he pressed his face into his knees and stayed there the rest of the battle.

"Minor god of the Lake of Dispair has a pretty cool ring to it?" Alex offered in some kind of trade at the end of all this. Percy didn't seem to want to go for it for some reason.

Annabeth just shook her head at the pair. It was nice to realize that, though they knew Percy so well, she didn't have a moment of hesitation in knowing what came next. That Percy even considered giving up hope alone surprised her, even though she knew he'd never have gone through with it.

Then I looked at Hestia. Her red eyes glowed warmly. I remembered the images I'd seen in her hearth—friends and family, everyone I cared about.

I remembered something Chris Rodriguez had said: There's no point in defending camp if you guys die. All our friends are here. And Nico, standing up to his father, Hades: If Olympus falls, he said, your own palace's safety doesn't matter.

Nico made a spluttering noise like he was drowning over there. Percy looked around in mild concern if he was supposed to do something about that.

As usual, Nico just seemed to be freaking out he'd been mentioned at all, so he was apt to let it go.

He'd never realize how much it still meant to Nico he was mentioned, in any kind of positive way, being included in Percy's reasons to keep fighting.

I heard footsteps. Annabeth and Grover came back into the throne room and stopped when they saw us. I probably had a pretty strange look on my face.

Annabeth wasn't entirely sure how she'd describe it if pressed, as Percy looked curiously at her now if she was going to. She wanted to call it, not hope, but the desire to hope. It made perfect sense now, hearing how he'd been thinking of his family, those he cared about most, and how he'd had a moment of weakness in giving in.

"Percy?" Annabeth didn't sound angry anymore—just concerned. "Should we, um, leave again?"

Suddenly I felt like someone had injected me with steel. I understood what to do.

I looked at Rachel. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you? I mean . . . you talked to Chiron, right?"

"Those two sentences mean nothing together," Alex scoffed, and it wasn't just her lack of faith in authority figures fueling those words.

"Chiron sent you on your first stupid quest," Magnus agreed at the lack of correlation.

"Eh," Jason said, waving his hand about like he was fifty-fifty on the matter.

Nico watched in amusement as the Campers seemed mildly offended his advice wasn't taken as law in them, but Thalia was suppressing a smile too, clearly still swallowing a laugh from Alex's comment.

She managed a faint smile. "You're worried about me doing something stupid?"

"Pot, kettle," Annabeth honestly agreed.

"Soup, hot tea," Percy grinned like they were playing a game.

"Seaweed brain," she chuckled.

"Wise girl," he was still grinning back.

"But I mean . . . will you be okay?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "That kind of depends on whether you save the world, hero."

I picked up Pandora's jar. The spirit of Hope fluttered inside, trying to warm the cold container.

"Hestia," I said, "I give this to you as an offering."

"Well you did promise her more offerings," Jason grinned. "Glad to see you holding up to that."

"Does that count as giving up hope?" Magnus asked in concern.

"An offering doesn't necessarily mean giving up, just acceptance of something more happening," Thalia smiled.

The goddess tilted her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"

"Because she said that," Percy chuckled, as if he hadn't been confident enough in his decision before. A god who went around saying they weren't important? Oh yeah, good call Percy. He even gave himself a real pat on the back.

It was pretty hysterical to watch for the others and they couldn't even laugh at the sweet moment.

"You're the last Olympian," I said.

"What a dramatic way to phrase that, would have made a great title," Alex grinned. "So ominous, so captivating when you get to this explanation."

Percy was not the only one grateful these books had not come with titles all of a sudden. As if Alex needed more to blabber on about in the great mess that was his life.

"And the most important."

"And why is that, Percy Jackson?"

"Because Hope survives best at the hearth," I said. "Guard it for me, and I won't be tempted to give up again."

Percy had been out shopping with his mom once when he'd seen one of those silly plaques. Home is Where the Heart Is. Right next to one of those live, laugh, love things. He'd rolled his eyes and kept walking and carried all the groceries in one hand and the water on his shoulder up the stairs for her while she protested and made grabs for the bags the whole time as they laughed.

It wasn't hard to guess why his brain had offered up that specific memory as his heart brimmed with love and hope now that his confidence had been renewed with Annabeth and Grover coming back into the room. If Home is Where the Heart is, then he was homesick every time she wasn't there.

The goddess smiled. She took the jar in her hands and it began to glow. The hearth fire burned a little brighter.

"Well done, Percy Jackson," she said. "May the gods bless you."

"We're about to find out." I looked at Annabeth and Grover. "Come on, guys."

I marched toward my father's throne.

"Neptune's?" Jason's voice came out a squeak of protest like he'd been turned into a gerbile. Percy would know.

"No man, Posideon, keep up," Percy grinned.

"But- you- hot seat..." Jason was struggling to look at him without swallowing.

"You can have my seat if you really want it," Percy shrugged.

"No!" Jason yelped. He didn't know why he was even surprised anymore. It was so, Percy. Was there any line this guy wouldn't cross?

"Well okay then, we're moving on," he chuckled.

The seat of Poseidon stood just to the right of Zeus's, but it wasn't nearly as grand. The molded black leather seat was attached to a swivel pedestal, with a couple of iron rings on the side for fastening a fishing pole (or a trident). Basically it looked like a chair on a deep-sea boat, that you would sit in if you wanted to hunt shark or marlin or sea monsters.

Magnus made a disturbed face at the idea of sitting anywhere near that thing. Fish was a disgusting smell that lingered as far as he was concerned, and he'd never been fishing, nor was he sure he ever could again knowing Percy might hear their tiny screams.

Gods in their natural state are about twenty feet tall, so I could just reach the edge of the seat if I stretched my arms.

"Annabeth didn't give you a boost up?" Thalia gasped.

"I'm about to cut off your head and spike it on Ares's throne," Percy scowled.

"He'd consider that a reward," Thalia scoffed.

"Help me up," I told Annabeth and Grover.

"Ah, there it is," Thalia continued grinning as if nothing had happened. "I was so concerned you were going to start ripping up the leather or something hauling your ass in. Even your dad might not forgive that. This is better."

"No! It's not!" Jason was still fighting off spasms in his hand like he wanted to put Percy in a headlock for even speaking of this.

He was being ignored. "Ah, Thals, I always knew you had my best interest at heart," Percy chuckled. "Okay, fine, lop off your head and sacrifice it to Hestia?"

"Getting warmer," she rolled her eyes.

"'Are you crazy?" Annabeth asked.

"Probably," I admitted.

"Percy," Grover said, "the gods really don't appreciate people sitting in their thrones. I mean like turn-you-into-a-pile-of-ashes don't appreciate it."

"What a shock to Percy this is I'm sure," Alex gasped as theatrically as possible. "Poor innocent Percy couldn't even fathom offending someone before all this!"

"I don't think anyone's ever called me innocent," Percy said in surprise. "Poor, sure, but even my mom's never called me that." He couldn't seem to decide if he was insulted or not.

Alex grinned with delight and nodded as if he'd thanked her anyways.

"I need to get his attention," I said. "It's the only way."

"We need to get you a cellphone," Will sighed. "Surely the gods owe us one that doesn't attract monsters! Your dad has to owe you a favor after all this so there are easier ways to get in contact with him in the future!" He didn't much like the idea of this blasphemous act either, even if he wasn't having a heart attack like Jason clearly was over Percy's newest stunt. Between him and Magnus, Will probably should have had an emergency pouch of ambrosia on hand this whole time.

"I could finally order my own pizza on quests," Percy grinned at this proposition. His mind flickered to Beckendorf with grief the guy couldn't even whip up a prototype. Maybe Tyson would like the challenge.

They exchanged uneasy looks.

"Well," Annabeth said, "this'll get his attention."

"So you're just done trying to talk him out of his crazy plans huh?" Jason's voice still squeaked just a bit as his vocal cords kept trying to cross in surprise while hearing of this.

"Never bothered to try," Annabeth shrugged, "he never gave me the chance. After all these years, I just sort of roll with it." A very large part of her mind had been wondering and calculating if his curse would prevent him from being blasted into kelp, but it hadn't been helping much.

They linked their arms to make a step, then boosted me onto the throne.

There was a quippy comment somewhere on Nico about booster seats and thrones never being a good match, but he didn't really have the heart. It was to admirable. Percy had no fear of his father in the slightest to openly address him.

I felt like a baby with my feet so high off the ground.

They could all easily imagine it too. Percy sitting in a highchair, swinging his feet around with blue food smeared all over his face. Probably something to do with that warm memory of Posideon visiting him as a feisty tot.

I looked around at the other gloomy, empty thrones, and I could imagine what it would be like sitting on the Olympian Council—so much power but so much arguing, always eleven other gods trying to get their way. It would be easy to get paranoid, to look out only for my own interest, especially if I were Poseidon. Sitting in his throne, I felt like I had the entire sea at my command—vast cubic miles of ocean churning with power and mystery. Why should Poseidon listen to anyone? Why shouldn't he be the greatest of the twelve?

Then I shook my head. Concentrate.

"I'd actually like to continue this train of thought," Alex grinned a diabolical look. How the God of the Ocean could be playing the long game to overthrow Zeus with his son at the spearpoint of it all.

"Please keep your theories to your head for now," Thalia sighed. She did not like to imagine the tipping point where she might see that as a good thing one day. She'd had a few close calls in her youth she already feared he knew about.

The throne rumbled. A wave of gale-force anger slammed into my mind:

WHO DARES—

The voice stopped abruptly.

"Percy dares," Magnus nodded without surprise, on the same level as a god. That was a new one.

The anger retreated, which was a good thing, because just those two words had almost blasted my mind to shreds.

Percy rubbed the side of his head while repressing a shiver. He'd wondered a lot down here if his dad had done this to him. That wasn't really making him feel better.

Percy. My father's voice was still angry but more controlled. What—exactly—are you doing on my throne?

"I'm sorry, Father," I said. "I needed to get your attention."

"And it worked," Annabeth said with a begrudging laugh how he always managed to do that.

This was a very dangerous thing to do. Even for you. If I hadn't looked before I blasted, you would now be a puddle of seawater.

"Ah, the mystery is finally answered what he'd curse you into," Thalia nodded for a long answered query.

"Yeah, I was happier pretending my dad didn't do that so willy nilly," Percy sighed even though he knew better.

"I'm sorry," I said again. "Listen, things are rough up here."

I told him what was happening. Then I told him my plan.

His voice was silent for a long time.

Percy, what you ask is impossible. My palace—

"Dad, Kronos sent an army against you on purpose. He wants to divide you from the other gods because he knows you could tip the scales."

Be that as it may, he attacks my home.

"I'm at your home," I said. "Olympus."

The floor shook. A wave of anger washed over my mind. I thought I'd gone too far, but then the trembling eased. In the background of my mental link, I heard underwater explosions and the sound of battle cries: Cyclopes bellowing, mermen shouting.

"Is Tyson okay?" I asked.

The question seemed to take my dad by surprise.

"This entire conversation is one surprise after another for him," Will assured as if Percy could be thinking anything else.

"Yeah, I seem to have that effect on the gods," Percy agreed in his own surprise after all these years.

He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though "peanut butter" is a strange battle cry.

"It's very unique," Alex grinned.

"Very Tyson," Nico agreed.

"You let him fight?"

Stop changing the subject!

"It's like you have some kind of attention disorder or something," Thalia chuckled.

"That I get from him, he can't be to mad," Percy sniffed. Annabeth had a pained look on her face for them mocking this. He was a god. He could be as mad as he wanted to.

You realize what you are asking me to do? My palace will be destroyed.

"And Olympus might be saved."

'Might be,' Will still shook his head at that. Percy had been running most of this on faith, luck, and friendship. No guarantees of survival. He really should be the hero everyone thought of first. He hoped the guy at least accepted a constellation before his death.

Do you have any idea how long I've worked on remodeling this palace? The game room alone took six hundred years.

Annabeth actually had a look of sympathy on her face for a moment for his dad. It was nice, and something Percy was sure she'd deny if he pointed it out.

"Dad—"

Very well! It shall be as you say.

"Only Percy," Jason said with a kind of deep, respectful awe in his voice Percy wasn't used to hearing when the guy was talking about anyone but the gods. It made him want to blush. His voice went gruff with more gratitude than attitude as he scoffed and brushed it off.

"And don't you forget it."

But my son, pray this works.

"I am praying. I'm talking to you, right?"

Oh . . . yes. Good point. Amphitrite—incoming!

The sound of a large explosion shattered our connection.

"I bet Amphitritie still thinks you're a useless stepchild," Thalia easily redirected his ire onto her. "Still holding her husband's attention even in the middle of battle Percy."

"Well at least it's nothing new," Percy shrugged.

I slipped down from the throne.

Grover studied me nervously. "Are you okay? You turned pale and . . . you started smoking."

"I did not!" Then I looked at my arms. Steam was curling off my shirtsleeves. The hair on my arms was singed.

"Now just imagine if you sat on Hepheastus's throne," Nico frowned. "Even one of his kids might not have lived through that unless they were made of pure fire."

"Sounds hot," Alex busted out laughing at her own pun.

"If you'd sat there any longer," Annabeth said, "you would've spontaneously combusted.

"Wasn't very spontaneous considering how long the conversation was," Percy frowned. "I had a whole mini question about Tyson."

"Yes, that was the important part about a sentence involving the word combustion," Annabeth sighed.

"Average day in my life," he reminded as he kissed the back of her hand. "I know you can do better."

I hope the conversation was worth it?"

Moo, said the Ophiotaurus in his sphere of water.

"We'll find out soon," I said.

Just then the doors of the throne room swung open. Thalia marched in. Her bow was snapped in half and her quiver was empty.

"Which I'm guessing she was totally fine with and not about to kill the next person who annoyed her," Alex said oh so innocently, before coughing, "Percy."

"I had bigger monsters to fry, otherwise you'd be right on the money," she chuckled.

"You've got to get down there," she told us. "The enemy is advancing. And Kronos is leading them."

"At some point, this has to stop ending on that like it's dramatically new we're all about to die, right?" Annabeth sighed as she passed the book to Thalia.

"I'll let you know," she promised.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*I take no credit for the following conversations dialogue. It was one of the very first tumblr posts I ever read and it made me laugh every time I saw it in my youth. I've been dying for a way to slip it into a fic for ages now.

**I personally believe this is symbolic of Rachel giving up hope of fighting against being the next Oracle in this exchange, but it's just a slice of headcannon I couldn't work into the characters. None of them know her that well or have a clue when/ what her motivations really are except Percy

[quemirabobo]

My thoughts that literally no one asked for in Percy Jackson's serie

I started this in like January and completely forgot about it and then I was lazy but @atomicdarknight I finished it for you😘

Gonna start with the positive

The cast:

The cast, guys the fucking cast, every demigod is absolutely perfect, not only they have the correct fucking age (although that bar is low) I could completely see them as the characters, they are the perfect representation of each character. With the movies I always complained, out of the three of them and ignoring the age, I could only see Logan Lerman as an older Percy, I think mostly because he looks like the physical description from the books (it was important really important to me that the characters and the actors had the same appearance lol), not sure I've never rewatch them. I remember I would parrot "Annabeth is blonde" as one of my strongest critics and when we were watching them my mom asked me "what do you think so far? I mean they don't look like the book, do you care?" Although I was already onboard, also had shot down my obsession with "actors have to look exactly as the books describe them" and I was very excited to see how an accurate cast would finally be like, and gods it was perfect. I wholeheartedly believe that no one would have made a better Annabeth, Percy nor Grover. They are perfect, they truly understood their roles in a level that it didn't happened in those pathetic movies. Aryan will forever be my Grover, Leah is and forever will be the perfect and my Wise Girl, she definitely is a daughter of Athena, and Walker is no doubt the one and only Percy. I also loved Clarisse, Luke, Dionysus, Sally, almost everyone honestly, because they were so accurate and understood their characters. Every decision they made about how to perform them was on spot and made me so fucking happy💚

Medusa

I was very curious to see what they would do with her since there has been a new perspective of her story (it has always been there, I mean that it's wildly known now) and I was not displeased at all! I liked the actress, how she portrayed her and I loved her monologue.

I love that they took the time to see what to do with her, not just ignore everything and make it like the book, and I was so intrigued by how they would do it because in here, Poseidon is one of the good guys, you can't openly say he raped her. All things considered I think they did it pretty well, although maybe erasing her hate for Annabeth wasn't the best plotwise, since in the first part of the book Percy starts to realize that having a god as a parent also means you inherit all the hatred anyone has for them.

The fight with Ares

One word, perfect. I loved everything about it, the choreography, how tiny Percy looked but how he kicked his ass nonetheless, the effects, the way they edit it to show his training with Luke, EVERYTHING! That being said, Ares was amazing too, spot on actor and portraying, this big ass dude giving his all to fight an 11yo who just learned to grab a sword but getting his ass whooped in exchange, just amazing 💚

Sally

I got mixed feelings with her, I loved that we got to see more of her, how lost she felt and how difficult was raising a demigod but at the same time she had way too much screen time considering how many things were ignored when the final cut was made. Also, even if teaching him mythology and greek was a nice touch at the same time it was a mistake adding it since it was tempting fate, in canon the less they knew about their godly side the safer they were. So giving too much knowledge about mythology was putting him at risk, and Sally was very careful with the way she raised Percy, so it was weird for me.

Now, the negative:

Gabe, just... why??

I will forever be mad about this and I'll never understand it, why would you make him a pathetic, passive aggressive and pretty much harmless looser? Because his character was important and significant, it has a very important impact in how Percy was raised, why he likes blue food, why he feels so guilty every time he gets kicked out, how his house is such a bittersweet place, the conflicts he has with Sally and also it has an impact in the plot too.

If you erase how abusive he was, towards both Percy and Sally, and decide to make him just plain pathetic, it's honestly disrespectful to the characters. Percy loves his mother to death yes, but he also feels like he has to protect her, save her, from the gods and monsters once he realizes he's a demigod but that's not when it started. For years he put up with Gabe's abuse, physical and verbal alike, because he felt he had to do it for his mother, to protect her, he shoulders all that so Sally doesn't has to, because for some reason she's with him so that's his burden as a "troubled kid".

And Sally? Her fucking sacrifice of staying with that disgusting man, who abuse her physically, monetary and verbally, for years because it's the only way she has to protect Percy? Because he fucking reeks to mortal and that will keep the monsters at bay, so the few days her son is at home he can be as safe as she can make it. Even if he got kicked out a lot, Percy was at boarding schools so she had to have that piece of shit all year round just for those brief weeks? How dare they make her huge sacrifice and the awful abuse just go as "he's annoying and stupid"?

To be honest I think that Gabe's abuse was never truly approached at the books either, it was never talked about again after the first book and it left no trauma or lasting consequence on Percy, not the point right now tho

I'm getting mad again so, to the plot part, first I would have loved for Percy to appear on the news and breaking havock for Gabe, wasted moment I swear. But most importantly, the Medusa's head part?? Are we really tacking that too from Sally? To get revenge of the man that abused her and Percy for years? All she's left with is kicking him out and changing the lock, seriously? Not to mention that Percy realizing that Sally also was getting beat by him and wanting to kill him there and then? Where's my boy realizing that all that he putted up to so his mother wouldn't get hurt wasn't enough? That he couldn't protect her? WHY DO YOU TURNED AN ABUSIVE TO A LOOSER?? I'm never forgiving this.

Why make it so short?

This new tendency of making show short is super annoying but specially when those are based on books. I know you can't make every chapter of a book a chapter of the series because sometimes you can condense half of the chapter with just the scene, the dialogue and stuff like that, and I agree actually. The problem comes when the chapters can be condensed to at least 14 episodes but you make 8, cutting everything you deem unnecessary but are important or significant things.

I think everyone can relate when I say that the most appealing thing you think when your fave book it's being adapted to a serie it's that "hey they don't have to condense everything in 2hs, they can take their time and include things that we all love like x and z" So why make it an 8 episode serie? I know everything is money but Percy Jackson has a pretty big fanbase so, unless they fucked up big time like the movies, it surely was going to be a hit

The way they cut all the monsters' traps

If your only focus it's the main plot and cutting down every moment that leads to the key points of it then a lot it's left out. The monsters and theirs traps were spotted even before they could talk, so they ended up on the underworld like it was no big deal. That shady lady? Medusa, off with the head. That mattress store? Not gonna fall Procrustes! They might as well just took a plane to Los Angeles. It felt like they were just crossing items from a list rather than actually integrating parts of the original story in the serie. Besides the way they overcome each of the monsters and adversities is fundamental for character development and growth of the trio, erasing that has a significant impact on them

Percy knowing everything right away downplaying Annabeth

Sounds stupid, I know, but we know how smart our wise girl is and I feel that the moment they decided that Percy was going to be the one to identify the monster and the traps before her, it was unfair for both characters and erased big part of their characters. Percy, even after more than 6 years and 13 books can barely remember and recognize the basic of greek mythology and the monster he fought before. Even if it's funny and some times exasperating, it's part of his character, that kind of knowledge isn't his thing, but you know what is? Coming up with a weird plan out of thin air and making it somehow work. He brings a perspective to the trio that Annabeth, basically raised to be a fighter and strategist, and Grover, with years of experience out there, don't have. He's impulsive and unpredictable, he's a good fighter and is quick-witted, he is smart, even if fandom likes to ignore it, just not the kind of smart that will make him memorize a bestiary. Now, Annabeth? Smart from hair to toe, she's also a quick thinker, sees the danger and comes up with a plan accordingly. She's not just book smart, she's also a problem solver, she is running her fucking cabin like a clock and her siblings put her in that position for a reason, she's the smartest. She's also a strategist, different kind from Percy whose biggest help is his instinct, she has other kind of knowledge at her disposal and you can bet your ass that she'll use it.

Now we all know this because we've seen it when they fight adversities, when they crawl nails and teeth out of a monster's trap, which in the serie we could barely see. One of the ways we get to see Annabeth deep knowledge in mythology is when she spots the covert monsters, that looks like a little granny or just some weird guy. But when you make Percy, who just discovered this world, see through all this that Annabeth couldn't see? Well, you're doing her injustice, she just looks like an amateur, not the smartest person of her generation. I'm not going to talk that it affects Percy character too.

One of the moments I hoped we could see, in which Percy (and I when I read it for the first time lol) truly realizes how out of this world Annabeth intelligence goes is when they have to jump from the boat of the love ride. My wise girl, as they were going to a certain death, did the math to determine the exact moment to jump so they wouldn't die (because if they had jump earlier they would die too, I can't remember why tho, sorry) and she was right. I remember that Percy was baffled by how she did all that in just second, for me that was the most important part of the incident. That and that Percy realize how gods behave and treats them like puppets. Buuuut what did we get? Percy shouting to jump and just that.. It was an important moment to demonstrate how intelligent Annabeth is but it was completely lost for no reason at all

Also, Percy discovering that Chronos is behind everything just like that?????? What the fuck???? It makes no fucking sense, it literally brings nothing to the plot just whatthefuuuuck

Hades... Why?

Hades being pathetic and super chill?? Like honestly wtf? Are you Mr D or Hades dude? This is the guy that's gonna say Nico that he rather he died instead of Bianca? Seriously?? It was by far the most out of character (maybe second to Gabe), besides it just takes the fun away of Percy saying "oh Lord Hades" once and then all "hey uncle". I think I rather the gloomy emo version that hollywood loves so much

I probably had more things to say but completely forgot about it, sorry ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[darkfictionjude]

I was so focused on the romance that I never gave my thoughts on the family relationships based on the time jump. I feel like I failed as an overthinker (I'm the etymology nonnie by the way, I'm seriously considering beginning to use an special greeting like selfie does on her asks). Not that my opinions have any major weight, yet I like to give my two cents. Probably in part because I think about this story and characters a lot (especially MC and Imre, but followed closely by Lorcan, Percy and Sally).

Of course, I cannot have any sort of categorization when it comes to the family matter. Unlike the romance and the relationship MC has with their body, family is something that is significantly less predictable, or, at least, less viable to put in easy to understand boxes. Not only because there are more individuals involved, but also because the relationships are more complex. Plus, and this cannot be understated, we still don't know how much MC will be able to fix/improve/worsen/cut their bonds with their family in season one. Because of this, we don't have a more or less defined start as we do with the RO's. For all I know, at the end of episode 13 MC leaves their family behind, for example. And if that happened, any speculation I do that begins from another possible perspective would be, if not pointless, most likely fruitless.

Yet, I must admit, is an interesting topic to think about. It's clear to me that family is something you want to explore with this IF. The latest update made it definitive if there was ever any doubt.

At the same time, as much as this relationships are given importance, I also think is very early to say where they're going. MC is barely capable of noticing the cracks with their relationship with Sally, and can easily deny them. MC is still too far from establishing their own personhood to actually build a closer relationship with Percy. MC has not even talked with Victor, and is doubtful trying to talk with Prudence would give anything at this point.

From this, then, we can conclude that the place MC is in their route towards personhood, or in their character arc, is of great importance to define if the relationships with their family can go anywhere. But it's also important to note that the family also seems to not be ready to get closer to MC.

Victor, even if he feels some fondness for MC (although only compared to Prudence, and only in the flashbacks so far), is distant. So much so he has not interacted with MC yet. For what MC knows, he could be secretly dead. His avoidance of everything probably would not be very helpful at building a relationship with MC, or anyone for that matter.

Prudence most likely hates MC wholeheartedly. I'm not sure if any affection that was once felt survives. And from her POV, MC is the root of (most of) all the problems and tragedies in her life. She needs too heal a lot, and even if she does, I'm not sure she'll ever want to get closer to MC. Especially with Orla's shadow being so ever present.

Sally. Dear Sally. He is probably the one who some would believe is the easiest to get closer to. Yet, I disagree with such notion. His own trauma, involving being parentified, and the way he sees MC, simply make it a lot more difficult than it would be otherwise. After all, MC is not only infantalized by Sally, but Sally does not seen MC as an individual. I'm not saying he doesn't see MC as human, but in a way MC is closer to pet than to a sibling. So, even if MC actually improves, they would have to work a lot for Sally to recognize it, and to be able to actually listen MC.

Finally, Percy is, in my opinion, the easiest one to get closer too. Not easy, however. Percy is closed off, and a part of him resents MC. And his has a lot of his own traumas to work through. But, unlike Sally, he does treat MC as an individual, and as an adult. Sure, Percy is insensitive and rude when it comes to mental illnesses, but he listen to what MC says and doesn't immediately refute it as the ramblings of a kid.

Overall, I think this was mostly a pointless ask. Simply because I just reproduced what I have said in previous ones, and because I cannot speculate about season 2. Which is the only worthwhile conclusion of this rambling. There are too many unknowns about how the relationships evolve (or not) in season 1 to determine how they are going to be able to be experienced in season 2. Or how we could conceive how they change during the time jump.

That said, I do invite another nonnies and non nonnies, as well as you dear Jude, to debate me if they disagree with me. Or if they think there is something more to add that I have not considered.

I must admit I'm probably making this worst on myself. Since now I'm very excited for season 2. And we are not even at half of season 1 💀. So, don't despair (of despair, if you dislike my long ramblings), because I'll come back in the future when we the story advances! Till then, other thoughts may bring me here.

You know what’s funny? When I conceived of this IF I didn’t think family would be such a major theme. I thought “MC’s family is fucked oh well they’ll make a new one with the ROs” they weren’t going to have such a big role in MC’s life from episode 1 on. But then I kept thinking about it, I thought if MC is like this then how are the other siblings? They couldn’t have gotten unscathed from their childhoods and then I got into how much our family shapes our lives and what we become for good or for bad. It become such a rich avenue to explore

Victor is very old school father in that he believes mental illness is something you can just stop and when MC couldn’t he just threw money at the problem praying it would go away.

Prudence does view MC as the nucleus of the ruin of her and Orla’s life.

The stand outs to me on what you said is how Sally is the hardest to get a revolution in his relationship with MC while also seemingly be the closest family member to them. Very true, it’s hard to respect someone you love when you don’t them as a person but more an extension of yourself. An interesting someone said was that MC and Sally are actually not close at all, truly they’re distant as Sally doesn’t really MC and vice versa

And yeah it’s not an assured thing that Percy and MC will ever be super close a la Sally and MC but they could get to a better place. It’s especially fun if you choose options for MC when talking to Percy that makes them seem so similar to him in terms of humour

Yeah I’m so excited about season 2 and it’s so far away 😭😭😭 if only I could just snap my fingers and have episodes written magically

[arsenic-catnep]

I love seeing people talk about their One Piece OCs because I recently got into Live-Action. Naturally, I've joined in on this fun wholeheartedly. They're a family of three that are Dysfunction Junction, Hot Mess Perfection. Mostly, I use the little bit of live-action stuff with whatever I magpie from canon, the games, etc.

Mama Shelley D. Thalassa is purple fish-men, mostly based on a betta, that's a pirate captain on The Grand Line. She's a 45+ MILF with a muscles and a mermaid sleeve who loves subby people, especially guys, that she can (consensually) bully. She wants those Baby Girls. She spent virtually all of her daughter's life being the badass pirate. When she sees Koby, and to an extent Helmeppo, it's like, "I wanna break him."

Papa Graves Bysshe is a human from Louguetown with a total Gothic Horror look and he's mid-30s. His job/family business is doing body and cargo recovery for sunken ships of any sort. The man is very sharp cheekbones, dark colors, top hat, etc. He loves a fantastic theatrical look and frankly wants to have Dracule Mihawk's babies. But, he's also into Thalassa to a degree. There's a game-exclusive devil fruit that turns someone into a vampire and he ends up with it. Percy, his daughter, decided to off him at sea (they aren't close lmafo) and in a way I haven't sorted out he survives enough to eat the fruit. As a test he was supposed to raise Percy into an excellent business person while the tutors Thalassa sent from TGL trained her to become a worthy lieutenant. The unofficial goal was for her to takedown Arlong as "proof" she was ready for the big leagues.

The Star is Graves D. Persephone "Percy", age 18 and allergic to considering her gender (she/her is just easier to use), who joins The Straw Hats against her family's wishes; perhaps she doesn't want to lead pirates mother. She's half fish-men and can pass for fully human with enough makeup and the right clothing to hide the purple freckles, fangs, and pointy ears. Her special interest is Den Den Mushi, she loves to eavesdrop and spy, and she rocks the Hot Goth Aesthetic. Basically, she's the communications officer for the crew. Another task is she's the the official "Fuck the Captain can't swim" Buddy who saves him if he goes overboard. Because she grew up lonely and isolated she's so excited at how friendly and touchy Luffy is so she often holds his hand in a mostly friends nature; also Zoro's when they're on land because he's directionally stupid to impressive degrees. But, also she's into like the entire crew because They're Nice and Also Hot and Her Friends. One of her goals is to make the Den Den Mushi form of an air tag or google tile to keep track of the dumbasses on shore. Mihawk and Koby are also her types but the Mihawk is specifically to spite her father. She's like that Special Addition Teammate (she joins before the Louguetown Arc starts) that's super strong but not invested in using her skills to their fullest potential...like at all. She wants to spy on conversations and protect (to feral levels) her crew/best friends.

Basically they're all hot messes who kind of reunite on The Grand Line and aren't outright antagonists but aren't aren't outright antagonists for each other i.e. Thalassa pisses off Percy but she's not gonna actually move to take her out unless she fucks with the Straw Hats. Bysshe isn't bothered by Thalassa but (understandably) doesn't like that Percy tried to kill him. Thalassa maintains Bysshe needs punished because he fucked up their child but is tolerant of Percy having her little "rebellion".

This is 100% Made for Me Cake because I love Mess, Gothic Aesthetics, and this show.

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS OMFG

I lovvvve Gothic aesthetics and Percy sounds cool af and so does her family

[imreadingdonotdisturb]

My thoughts on: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan [SPOILERS AHEAD]

★★★★☆

This book took me a while to read, however, that is not a problem to the book or to Rick, I had my own problems in my life. I liked this book, the big finale of the series. The tension leading up to Gaia rising at the end, hoping that both groups finish their quests. However, I just couldn't help that this book completely missed the mark on the big battle, I feel like it just wasn't enough. THE big bad, Gaia, rises from her sleep that our teams have been trying to avoid and she's taken down with a bit of charmspeak and an explosion ? There should've been more of the Greek and Roman camps fighting together, it should've been harder, the team getting beat to the ground and then by 'the power of friendship' (I'm half joking) they defeat the mighty Gaia. Just felt like the 502 page book maybe just fell a little flat.

Leo's end felt a smidge out of character ? I understand that he wanted to save the day with Gaia, he wanted to go and sacrifice himself. However, when all of his friends AND both camps are mourning his death and wholeheartedly missing him. And what does he do ? He goes to find Calypso and goes to free her off the island. I have no problems with him and Calypso, BUT I feel like he could've gone and said bye to both camps, and then explain that he needs to go find his girlfriend to go and free her.

Percy and Annabeth's end is SO sweet you have no idea, I love the fact that they are excited to go finish their senior year of high school AND go to college together in New Rome and then possibly live there after finishing their schooling. I do wish that Percy had said something about going to see his mom, or just saying he's gonna send a letter to her soon. Just a small thing to add to a previous statement about wanting to see his mom again.

Nico's confession to Percy was my FAVORITE part. Annabeth's chill demeanor and Percy being like ??? You're?? and Nico is just like yeah. right. mhm. Of course I can't talk about the confession without talking about Nico's small, budding feelings about Will, he's confused about his feelings and of course, it will build later on.

I loved this book, don't get me wrong, it was great, a good conclusion to the second series. I loved it, and with all books I have my gripes.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Some Riordanverse characters and the video games I think they’d play

Percy - Subnautica. He speaks to all the fish in the same way he speaks to real fish and sometimes Annabeth hears him apologising to the ones he has to eat, he always tames the stalkers then gets sad when they leave, and he has no idea how to complete the game but he’s having a great time (he and I are one and the same there)

Annabeth - Cities: Skylines. I just know that she loves this game so wholeheartedly and it has very much the same vibes as the one she was on at the Lotus Casino, she takes it super seriously and has a god-tier city built which is an absolute utopia, she tried to introduce Percy to the game but he didn’t really get the serious side of it and he probably flooded his entire town on purpose or something whilst she levelled up and became a millionaire and he went into severe debt

Piper - Tomb Raider. I can’t explain this one, I just think she’d play it

Grover - Mario. But like every version of Mario that has ever existed and he’s absolutely amazing at all of them and no-one can beat him and they don’t understand how he finds the time. He and Percy play Mario Kart 8 a lot, and sometimes Annabeth joins them and gets super competitive

Jason - Minecraft. Because of the bricks.

Lester - Sims 4. He has complete control over their lives and it makes him feel like a god again, y’all just know he’s bought all the mods he can

[jankwritten]

thinking so very hard about all your pjo hockey posts

and also jason and kent are the same character, discuss?

HEHEHEHEHHEHEHE hockey PJO is my life’s passion at this point.

SEE THAT’S INTERESTING TO THINK ABOUT!!! Because to me, Jason and Jack make more sense for contenders as the same character - their anxieties about being the best leader they can be, not having an identity outside of who their father is and fearing that all they’ll ever be is their father’s son, that they’ll never live up to what everybody wants from them. Also, Hazel’s perception of Jason as a hardass serious soldier aligns with what we see of Jack in year one of the comic, except Jack is FAR more extreme about it than Jason is. Jack and Jason also share their complete devotion to the things they care about, and their enthusiasm for pursuing those things (thinking hockey and bitty for Jack and recognition of minor gods and Nico/his friends for Jason).

HOWEVER!!! I feel like Jason and Kent definitely share a bunch of qualities, like how they feel like they're always going to come second to whoever their counterpart is (Percy and Jack), how they hide or tamp down parts of themselves for the sake of the people around them (like Kent obviously not being out to his team judging by the homophobia we see from them after Bitty and Jack kiss under the cup). Kent is Jason's mentor in my hockey AU, so I LOVE them having stuff in common that they either try to train out of one another or accidentally make worse in one another HEHEHEHEHEH

I honestly can't say which PJO character I wholeheartedly see as the "same" as Kent. I want to say Percy, because the way that Kent lashes out reminds me a lot of Percy's anger issues. Plus, they have their own brand of devotion, and I feel that they share the way they express it - which is to say, they just assume that the object of their affection understands and is on the same page as them, unspoken, and then is maybe a little confused when the other person gets upset at them for never talking about it (thinking Annabeth calling Percy a coward, Kent losing Jack during rehab). There's also the fact that Kent is hailed as the best skater of modern hockey, that the Aces record book is just his name, same as Percy is hailed as the best swordfighter, the strongest demigod, etc. etc. Also (and this one is kind of a reach but WHATEVER) The prophecies being about Percy vs the media speculating if Kent or Jack will go first in the draft makes sense to me as a comparison of Kent to Percy, because in a way when Kent went first, it was like he was choosing to take the pressure for himself even though technically it's because Jack took himself out. Like Kent could've stepped down, but he didn't, like how Percy took up the mantle of being the hero of the prophecy.

ANYWAY!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK I love love love getting to think about stuff like this heheheheheh

[wysteriaisapenguin]

RR AU Lore - Percy and Harold

When Harold arrived to Sodor with his trusty helicopter that he had been flying for years, he felt quite superior knowing that he stood out amongst everyone else who worked on the railway. Many train drivers looked down on him and his cocky attitude, calling him a “whirlybird” and what not. But he didn’t care what they thought. After all, the railway was “out of date” and his high speed is just what the island needed in case the steam engines were too slow. It wasn’t until a young man with a green saddletank engine came along and changed his mind. 

Like his peers, Percy didn’t like Harold at first. Sure, he was different, but he didn’t have to brag about how great he was because of it. Percy was already mocked frequently and he certainly didn’t want this cocky pilot to do just that. He was determined to prove Harold that he and his steam engine were just as fast and useful as his helicopter. The pilot barely knew anything about this young man, but there was something amusing about him. Out of a group of middle-aged men who did nothing but complain all the time, Percy was not only the youngest and most enthusiastic, but also the wittiest. He acted clueless most of the time but he was actually astute enough to outsmart others and perform well with his work. With an attitude like that, it was no wonder that he was able to win other people’s hearts so easily. Harold found it adorable. He thought it would be fun to play along.  

A rivalry soon sparked between the two. Percy and Harold would try to outwit each other with both their work ethic and their charms. For work, Percy would usually be the victorious one, proving that his steam engine was efficient enough to handle the mail so that Harold didn’t have to. The pilot began to realize that he was wrong about the railway being outdated, but he wasn’t humiliated in the slightest. As he accepted each defeat, his respect towards Percy grew. But that didn’t mean he would back down. Harold was more successful in making Percy flustered with compliments and flirty remarks. One of his favorite pet names was “little coin purse”. Percy would always end up as a blushing mess, annoyed that he couldn’t come up with a better flirt. Still, it felt good that someone acknowledged him for his efforts and not for his many blunders. Percy’s respect towards Harold grew as well. It eventually takes him a while to warm up to the pilot and realize that he truly meant well. Along with Duck and Thomas, Harold became one of the few people that Percy was able to trust wholeheartedly.

All was well until Percy was assigned to work on more difficult tasks, leaving him stressed and overwhelmed. To add insult to injury, Oliver had taken over his usual mail run as “punishment” for damaging the turntable in Knapford Yards. As a result, Harold began to see less of Percy and worked with Oliver for the time being. He didn’t mind this change of pace until Oliver mentioned something alarming. Apparently, Percy had become quite spiteful, yelling and snapping at everyone who got in his way. This surprised Harold because this wasn’t the cheerful young driver that he knew too well. He was worried that something bad might have happened, so he decided to meet with Percy and find out what was going on.

At the time, Percy didn’t want to talk to anyone. He felt like the whole world was against him and after bottling up his frustrations for so long, he didn’t want to care anymore. When he finally met with Harold, he desperately wanted to scream at him. He wanted to say that there was no way a “self-important egghead” would ever understand what he was going through. But for some reason, he couldn’t do it. He wasn’t sure why. And when he asked Harold why he didn’t look down on him like everyone else, the pilot simply told him.

“I have no reason to. I already know you’re worth so much more.”

It was at that moment that Percy’s heart began to feel heavy. Despite all his many faults and the inability to please everyone, there was someone who saw him for him. That was all he wanted. Even if Harold had teased him every so often, his respect and affection weren’t a lie. But Percy had been so focused on seeing everyone as an enemy that he was pushing away the people who genuinely cared for him. And that didn’t feel good in the slightest. He knew he had to put an end to this horrible behavior, but he had to figure out how. Harold wasn’t sure if he was able to help, but he meant what he said. He was wrong about the railway and Percy was the one who proved that to him. He wanted the driver to understand that.

Later on, Percy eventually returned to his cheerful self, but he was more attentive and assertive than before. Now that he was fully in charge of the mail train, he was able to express himself with both his expertise and his thoughts. Harold loved seeing that side of Percy. As much as he enjoyed the naïve and childish self, they both knew that was just a façade. It was good to see Percy be so genuine and it was enough for Harold to fall for him. Percy never expected to have the same feelings for the pilot as well. But as long as he knew that he was loved for who he was, he felt like he could achieve anything.

[takaraphoenix]

I'm glad I came across your Riodan Critical tags, like I knew PJO was bad not like horrible, but I didn't know it was to this extent, I'm so glad I do and have a better understanding, of, now I can save up for smth useful and not ricks books.

I'm glad I could help!

Though honestly, the majority of problems really lay in HoO. I would still wholeheartedly recommend PJO itself, it's a fun, cute read and due to the limited POV of only Percy, it's much more consistent and doesn't run into some of the major problems HoO does, i.e. a straight white man failing miserably in writing the POV of minorities he clearly can't relate to. Plus the whole story problems of the sequel.

Like, there's a reason I've been in this fandom for a decade+ and written over 600 fics for it. There is good here. PJO really was great. HoO was... not. But it added characters with great (unused) potential. I feel like that needed some clarification; I don't hate everything he's ever done.

I just think there's a decline after PJO and failure to relate to experiences he hasn't lived himself (-> PJO being great, but also being exclusively the POV of a straight white boy, an experience he can relate to, whereas HoO didn't just diversify but also give this diverse cast POVs that he just could not deliver on).

I'd still wholeheartedly recommend the PJO series, proper. I would, however, never under any circumstances recommend the sequels. The beauty of sequels however is that you can just not read or watch them because the original perfectly stands on its own. And it's also not really a new phenomenon that the original is great but sequels or prequels fall flat.

[aaric-s-haven]

It's so funny to me that PJO fandom wholeheartedly believes that Percy was horrible to Nico even though he was Nico's first protector, hiding his identity, stepping up to the prophecy. Yes he choked Nico but after a betrayal when he was half asleep and locked up. Was it wrong? Yes. They were both children and Percy is an unreliable narrator after all. That whole shit about Percy spreading rumors bout Nico is not fkn true because that little piece of information came through Jason who highly distrusted Nico, he colored Percy's history with his own thoughts. and Percy telling anyone about his past with the kid is understandable cuz Nico lied a second time when Percy had amnesia. Yet Percy was the only one apart from Hazel who didn't give up on Nico "He is just in a deeper trance maybe" And the whole panicking about giants noticing Nico bit. Fucking fandoms destroying everything I swearrrr