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tsarisfanfiction · 10 months ago

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Laurels and Labyrinths

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Rating: Teen Genre: Friendship Characters: Lee Fletcher, Clarisse La Rue, Annabeth Chase, Michael Yew Being paired with Clarisse for Quintus' war game? Not a problem. Annabeth and Percy going missing? A problem. Otherwise known as: the war games in chapter 3 of BOTL from Lee's pov. Once again, I attempt something short and it ends up being rather longer than planned. There is a whole pile of headcanons snuck in here, from Apollo kids getting tired at sundown, to the harpies not attacking Apollo kids because they're the healers and have potential reasons to be out after curfew, and various other things in between. Also the logic that Lee knows about the Labyrinth from being the healer brought in to try and help Chris. Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one! If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

“Your armour’s crooked, Will.”

“Tha- hey!”

Lee turned around to see Will tilted awkwardly as Michael tugged on the straps, straightening out his breastplate – or what would be straight, once Michael let go and Will could straighten up again. Will wasn’t much taller than Michael – yet – but it was already enough to be noticeable. Confident that despite appearances Michael would get Will’s armour sorted out, Lee just allowed himself a small grin at the sight before he turned back to securing his own straps tightly and checking over the rest of his siblings.

Quintus hadn’t said what, exactly, these war games he wanted all the campers armoured up for were, but if it didn’t involve the suspicious crates that had disappeared from the arena during the day, Lee would be very, very surprised. He knew he wasn’t the only one to think that; most of the confused mutterings he’d overhead since the breakfast announcement had mentioned them at one point or another, until every camper had at least heard about the crates, even the ones that hadn’t seen them.

Lee just hoped that there wasn’t another drakon involved. He was still tired from chasing off the Aethiopean drakon at three in the morning – it had not wanted to be chased off, either, and if it wasn’t for the protection of the camp borders, Lee was well aware it would’ve tried much harder to kill him and his siblings, rather than just being stubborn to chase off. He was also aware that Michael was also grumpy from the lack of sleep as well as not being able to kill the creature, and the knowledge that it was almost certainly sent by Luke to scout out their weaknesses.

Well, at least they’d proven that they could still defend their camp, although Lee had his own concerns he hadn’t dared share with any of his siblings.

Clarisse hadn’t wanted to bring him into the know, but she wasn’t a healer, and both she and Chris had needed one. Will’s aptitude for healing was constantly improving, but this wasn’t something to put on the shoulders of a then-eleven year old, so it had fallen to Lee, instead.

Knowing that the Labyrinth still existed, and seeing the damage it could cause to demigods, was one thing. Add in the creeping feeling that if it connected to everywhere important as well as several seemingly-random locations, there was almost certainly an entrance within camp borders, somewhere, and if the scouting monsters outside of camp were any indication, Lee bet Luke was looking for it? Well, Lee was not looking forwards to Quintus’ war game.

Glancing over towards where cabin five were pulling on their own armour and arming themselves to the teeth, he could see Clarisse tensely checking her straps. He clearly wasn’t the only one – and a brief look towards Annabeth straightening Malcolm’s helmet in a fidget she didn’t usually indulge in told him that all three of the in-the-know campers were in agreement.

Still, Lee couldn’t just pull his cabin out of the war game, even though Quintus wasn’t as terrifying as Tantalus had been and might even let him. Doing that would signal to the rest of the camp that there was something very wrong, and they couldn’t afford the panic. Instead, he had to give his siblings one more check – Will’s armour was now straight, as Lee had known it would be, and Sam, who had been in camp for all of a few weeks and still painfully new to anything combat-related, now had his helmet on as an extra precaution – before herding them to where the adult demigod was waiting for them.

The campers gathered in a loose crowd, more-or-less grouped by cabin, although there were a few strays mingling – notably Beckendorf and Silena, and Lee wasn’t an Aphrodite kid but even he was getting fed up of waiting for those two to stop dancing around the subject and get together already – and waited for Quintus to explain what he wanted them to do.

“Gather round,” the assistant activities director instructed. None of them got too close to where he was standing on the head table, because Mrs O’Leary was scavenging around and no-one was interested in getting bowled over by an enthusiastic hellhound, even if she wasn’t trying to eat them, but the crowd shuffled a little in response anyway. “You will be in teams of two-”

Immediately, everyone started talking. Michael grabbed onto Will and glared daggers at anyone else that even looked their brother’s way, and Lee sought out Miri with his eyes, ignoring the arguments breaking out as multiple people wanted the same partner and would fight for them-

“-Which have already been chosen!” Quintus shouted about the clamour. Everyone silenced for a moment before letting out a chorus of complaint which went ignored as he kept talking. “Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels.” No prizes for what was in the crates, then, although Lee would’ve liked to know what monsters Quintus had lined up for them. He hoped none of them were drakons. “You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course… you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive.”

Around him, campers started talking again, excitement tinging the air. Lee had to admit it did sound like fun, even if they couldn’t choose their own partners. Quintus had never shown any signs of wanting the demigods he was partly responsible for dead, so the monsters he’d brought in wouldn’t be beyond their abilities to deal with, Lee was pretty sure – especially if they were going to be working in pairs, and he doubted they’d all been matched with their perfect fighting partner. If it wasn’t for the ever-present background Labyrinth worry that had been plaguing him since Clarisse and Chris’ return to camp in the winter, he’d probably be just as excited as Michael, who had bared his teeth in a grin at the concept even though he was clearly still annoyed about not being able to choose his own partner.

This sort of game was right up Michael’s alley, after all.

“I will now announce your partners,” Quintus said, bringing the murmuring back into silence. “There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining.” From the way Michael was bristling from where he was stood so close to Will that their arms were pressed together, Lee suspected the last order was a lost cause. Hopefully, Quintus had a good enough idea of camper dynamics to know who not to put together.

If Michael ended up with Clarisse, the monsters were going to be the least of anyone’s worries.

Quintus cleared his throat and unrolled a scroll – a long scroll, because it was far enough into summer that all the expected returning campers had shown up again – and began to read.

“Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregarde.” Both of them looked delighted, and around Lee, campers started perking up again, because if Quintus was paying enough attention to put those two together, maybe the rest of them were also paired with friends or partners. “Travis Stoll and Connor Stoll,” made it seem even more likely, and the brothers high fived each other as campers started drifting towards their preferred partners again, in anticipation of the trend continuing.

“Clarisse La Rue and Lee Fletcher.”

It didn’t. Lee grimaced at Miri, ignoring Michael starting to grumble unsavoury things about the daughter of Ares. At least Quintus had known better than to pair them together. Clarisse stepped away from her siblings, and made eye contact with Lee, jerking her head in a clear get over here message. Michael’s grumbling got louder, only to be cut off by his own name.

“Michael Yew and Drew Tanaka.”

The daughter of Aphrodite screwed her face up in disgust, and Lee’s brother glowered at her in return. It wasn’t a bad match-up, Lee mused as he finally made his way over to join Clarisse. Drew’s charmspeak wouldn’t affect Michael, and she was a decent enough melee fighter to go with his ranged attacks. As long as they actually co-operated.

He saw Michael leave Will’s side to join her with bad grace. Their matching scowls almost made Lee chuckle.

“They’re going to get each other killed,” Clarisse huffed next to him. She didn’t sound particularly cut up about it.

“They’d better not,” he muttered back as Quintus continued calling out pairings, which were met with a variety of reactions. Will got partnered with Malcolm, which was not the worst possibility, even if Lee would really have preferred for Will to not be involved in the war game at all. At least Malcolm was smart enough to not throw the pair of them straight at the monsters – or really competitive enough to care. Maybe that pair would just linger at the forest edge like sensible pre-teens.

Lee could hope.

The pairing finally finished with the curious duo of Tyson and Grover – the only satyr to be included, presumably for his friendship with Percy – and Quintus reminded them all that they weren’t allowed to complain before letting them head towards the woods.

It wasn’t dusk yet, but the sun was far enough across the sky that Lee suspected it would be after dark by the time they were done, and wasn’t particularly pleased about it. They didn’t currently have any Apollo campers young enough that the setting sun was an automatic sleep signal, but none of them liked being active after sundown, let alone in combat – and definitely not two nights in a row.

“I’ll take point,” Clarisse said gruffly, as they arrived at the edge of the wood. Lee nodded.

“I’ve got your back,” he promised her. “Let’s get this over with.”

She made a noise of agreement, surveying the shadowed woods in front of them intently, and Lee remembered that he wasn’t the only one that feared a Labyrinth entrance somewhere within the camp’s borders. Clarisse had no more reason to feel comfortable with the war game than he did.

Working with Clarisse wasn’t difficult, in combat. Lee had done it several times over the years in Capture the Flag, both as head counsellors and also when they were younger, to say nothing of when they’d had to organise the camp defences the previous summer. If there was something Clarisse knew, it was combat, and she stalked through the woods on high alert, electric spear silent in her hand. Lee shadowed her on light feet, not letting himself focus on any one thing, but spreading his attention around them in case they were flanked or approached from behind.

In the gradually fading light of dusk, the woods began to take on an ominous feel. Branches rustled in faint breezes, in conversation between the dryads that tended not to leave their trees, with the movement of almost a hundred demigods trying to move quietly, and in some cases failing.

Knowing that the noises could mean allies – or in this case, campers and not monsters – Lee forced himself not to shoot at any movement until he knew what it was. Unlike Capture the Flag, and other games where their opponents were each other, none of the Apollo kids had blunted arrows tonight. He couldn’t afford stray shots.

Ahead came the sound of skittering on fallen twigs, and Clarisse threw her hand up silently in a clear command to halt. Lee stopped where he was immediately, nocking the arrow he’d held loosely in his hand onto the string but not drawing, not yet. That hadn’t been a demigod or a dryad noise, and probably wasn’t the wind either, which meant monster but until he could see it, he wasn’t risking full draw.

Clarisse made another sharp hand signal, exaggerated in the dusk. Cover me. Then she crept forwards, fingers flexing around the shaft of her spear, poised to ignite the crackling electricity the moment she needed it. Lee stayed a little way behind her, padding forwards silently with his bow ready to draw and fire in an instant in his hands.

The skitter came again, closer, louder, faster-

Clarisse let out a shout of victory, silence shattering as her spear surged to life and she abandoned stealth to leap into action, fluid experience ducking her underneath a flailing scorpion tail – pit scorpion venom flashed through Lee’s mind, the discolouration of Percy’s hand, the revelation that Luke betrayed them, but he pushed it aside to deal with later, when Clarisse wasn’t dodging the giant scorpion (not a pit scorpion) and its attacks.

Scorpions were armoured, which was a pain in the half-light when Lee couldn’t see its weak spots so clearly, but they were in pairs for a reason and he wasn’t leaving Clarisse to take the creature on alone. He waited until she was down low, out of his line of sight, before letting fly with the first arrow, catching it in a chink between head and body armour.

Just like the drakon the previous night, armoured and needing to be shot at in the dark, that wasn’t enough to bring it down, and with stealth abandoned, Lee didn’t hesitate to yank more arrows from his quiver, the shafts whispering against the leather before nocks clicked into place on the string and he fired again. In front of him, Clarisse threw herself inside the scorpion’s guard, thrusting the spear forwards with enough strength that it impaled the tail and rendered it useless, before drawing her knife and stabbing at one of the gaps in its carapace.

Lee let more arrows fly into more gaps, too, and with one last grunt from Clarisse as she drove the knife in deep, the scorpion burst into dust, covering Clarisse.

Its silk-wrapped parcel likewise disappeared with a small explosion, leaving nothing behind.

“Not that one, then,” Lee commented as Clarisse spat out monster dust from her mouth and drank a swig of water from her water bottle.

“One down, five to go,” she replied, bending down to retrieve her spear and looking it over with a critical eye. Seemingly satisfied that it hadn’t been damaged by the scorpion’s tough exterior, she slammed the butt down onto the ground. “Laurel leaves or not, we’re killing them all.”

Lee didn’t disagree. While he knew the two of them were unlikely to be the ones finding and killing all six of the monsters – Percy Jackson was somewhere in the woods, along with Annabeth, and Michael, and the rest of the Ares and Athena cabins, and really all the demigods were trained for killing monsters – they couldn’t leave until they knew their woods were safe again.

Well, for a certain degree of safe.

“These things aren’t quiet,” he said, kneeling down to retrieve his arrows and check if any of them were bent. Some were, but not to the point of being unusable, so he put them all back in his quiver. “Not when they’re fighting.”

Clarisse nodded, looking around. “This one was alone,” she said. “The noise hasn’t drawn any more to us.” She started walking, changing direction and striking out further away from the setting sun, into the darker, deeper parts of the wood. “So we’re going to them.”

Lee followed without complaint.

They’d started off at the edge of the forest, tracking around the camp’s forest boundary, but now Clarisse was leading them further into the heart of the demigod-claimed territory. Quintus had probably released them from somewhere in there, near the creek they always used as the territory divider in Capture the Flag. Lee hoped he had, because that was familiar territory for all but the newest campers, and familiar terrain in combat helped, especially for the younger and less confident fighters.

As they headed further into regular demigod territory, they began to pass other pairs. Most of the younger kids hadn’t gone far into the forest, unnerved by the dense trees in the creeping darkness, and Lee was glad for that. Having now faced one of Quintus’ monsters, while it hadn’t been much of a challenge for him and Clarisse, the less experienced demigods would struggle.

At one point, they passed Michael and Drew. The daughter of Aphrodite had the tell-tale dust in her hair and was furious about it, shouting at Michael about something or other. From the brief snatches he caught, Lee surmised she didn’t like that she was the front line fighter in their duo, and that Michael was not covered in monster-dust because he’d been shooting from up a tree.

Neither of them were wearing golden laurels, and bringing Clarisse close to Michael while Michael was tired and grumpy and already dealing with Drew’s temper was a recipe for a disaster that Lee wanted no part in, so he forged past them without acknowledging their existence. To his relief, Clarisse likewise ignored the pair, holding her head up and deliberately not even glancing their way as she continued on her path towards what was hopefully more monsters to kill.

They ended up at Zeus’ Fist, and found three more of the scorpions at once. They were skittering around the rock pile agitatedly, as though there was something there that they wanted, and all Lee could think of was cornered demigods, even though he couldn’t see any sign of any.

Clarisse growled. “Shoot them, Lee!” she ordered as her spear crackled into life and she threw herself at the trio of eight-legged, skittering monsters. Lee didn’t need to be told twice, nocking arrows and drawing his bow back. With more scorpion than Clarisse in his sights, it was easier to let fly and trust that he wouldn’t hit her, although the steadily-darkening sky made it harder to spot the cracks in the scorpions’ armour. Clarisse’s spear gave off a faint red glow as Ares’ power coursed through it, enough to throw deeper shadows into the gaps, and Lee used that as a guidance as he steadily emptied his quiver into the three monsters, targeting joints to try and restrict their movement as Clarisse stabbed and slashed with her spear in one hand and her knife in the other.

Not for the first time, Lee suspected that Clarisse was the best melee fighter in the camp, potentially barring Percy when he got wet. It was hardly a surprise, but that didn’t make it any less awe inspiring to watch as she slowly but surely wore down the three scorpions. It wasn’t an easy battle for her – even with Lee’s supporting fire and the arrows wedging themselves in limb joints, she was still taking hits, although her armour deflected the worst of them – but there was no doubt that she was going to win, eventually.

Lee’s quiver emptied, the downside of dealing with three scorpions at once when each of them could get turned into a pincushion and still stay standing, and he set his bow to the side, drawing his knife and stepping closer to the fray. He wasn’t a melee fighter, really, but if he could even play distraction for a few seconds, that would help Clarisse.

“I’ve got this!” she snapped as he ducked under a flailing tail, and promptly proved her words by stabbing the scorpion closest to him through the head with her spear. A surge of electricity and Lee found himself covered by dust, a small, silk-wrapped parcel dropping down neatly into his hands. Remembering the previous one, he went to drop it before it went boom, only for the silk to shift and expose gold. Instead of dropping it, he stuffed it into his quiver and dropped to his knees in the middle of the dust pile, scooping up his arrows and frowning when he realised most of them were damaged in some way or another. Only two were still useable, and he scrambled back to his bow, nocking both arrows at once as he ran back into the fray.

A few years ago, on one of his trips out of camp, he and some of the other campers had found themselves at the movies, on edge for monsters trying to kill them but likewise fascinated by the movie they’d ended up watching. Lee was pretty certain he’d technically been too young for the rating, but some of the older demigods had snuck him in anyway.

The elf – Lee did not remember the character’s name – jumping on top of an elephant’s head and firing two arrows point-blank into the top of its skull had stuck with him. Typically that was far closer to a monster than archers were supposed to get, and the laws of physics dictated that by dividing the force between two arrows, both would’ve been fired weaker than usual, but Lee was a son of Apollo, and while he wasn’t as much of an archer as Michael, his father was still the god of archery, and that came with a few perks – like occasionally ignoring the laws of archery physics.

Lee sprung onto the back of one of the scorpions, the one behind Clarisse as she attacked the other with a fresh degree of ferocity, and ran forwards, ducking the tail that lashed towards him as he made his way to its head and aimed down.

The explosion of dust in his face also made him lose his footing as nothing substantial was beneath him anymore. He stumbled to the ground as Clarisse vanquished the other one with a cry, breathing heavily but seemingly unbothered by the dust covering her skin.

“One left,” the daughter of Ares said, proving that she had noticed Michael and Drew earlier.

Lee, too, wanted to keep going, but, “I’m out of arrows,” he admitted, picking up the other arrows from where they’d been dropped after the scorpions had dissolved. All of them were bent or even broken; the two he’d killed one of the scorpions with had shattered entirely.

Clarisse scoffed. “That’s the problem with you archers,” she said. It was something Lee had heard her say many times to Michael, who had always taken it as a personal insult and reacted accordingly, usually with arrows. Lee was not quite so temperamental as his younger brother, and simply drew his knife again.

“I still have this,” he said. She didn’t look impressed, even though her own knife had already been liberally used to kill giant scorpions. “Oh, and this.”

He rummaged through his quiver and stepped up next to Clarisse, plucking out the silk-wrapped parcel and wrestling the golden laurels out.

The younger girl gave him a nonplussed look as he deposited it on her head.

“Your kill, your laurels,” he said, and she rolled her eyes, but reached up and positioned the laurels more firmly in her hair.

“Whatever,” she said. “We have one more scorpion to hunt-”

Rustling in the nearby trees had both of them slamming back-to-back, Lee’s bow abandoned on the ground and his knife clenched in his fist as Clarisse’s spear crackled to life behind him.

Another scorpion? It was already weird that three of them had been together like that – surely there shouldn’t be a fourth one in their vicinity.

It wasn’t another scorpion, and Lee felt the tension drain from Clarisse’s body as her spear stopped crackling. Other demigods, then. He moved around until he could see them; it was Sherman, with his Quintus-mandated partner Jake following on behind him.

Clarisse’s younger brother immediately noticed the golden laurels gleaming in the rapidly-fading light and his shoulders slumped.

“Of course you got it,” he said. “Pairing you two up was just unfair.”

“How many have you killed?” Jake asked them, looking at Lee’s strewn and broken arrows.

“Four,” Clarisse said shortly, and the younger boys both whistled through their teeth. “Drew and the short bastard-”

“Clarisse,” Lee sighed, and her jaw tightened.

“-Michael got another one, which makes five.”

“We got one, too,” Sherman said, and now Lee was looking he could see the silvery dusting in his dark hair, “so that’s all of them.”

Lee’s shoulders slumped in relief; he hadn’t been looking forwards to hunting a giant scorpion with a knife as his only weapon. “That means this game is over,” he said. “We should get back so Quintus can recall everyone else.” He glanced up at the sky, where the sun chariot had all but disappeared and the first of the stars were starting to make their presence known. “It’ll be curfew soon, anyway.”

All four of them were old enough to understand that even with the camp’s defences still active, they didn’t really want any campers left in the woods after curfew, when night had fully set in and there were no more traces of Apollo’s light.

Lee set about gathering up the remains of his arrows; just because the shafts were broken didn’t mean the heads weren’t reusable, and maybe some of the less severely bent shafts could be straightened again. Jake and Sherman joined him; a glance towards Clarisse showed her scanning the deepening shadows of the trees, standing as still as a sentinel and no doubt keeping watch in case there was something that shouldn’t be in their area of the woods.

With three of them on the case, it didn’t take long to retrieve all the visible arrows. Lee’s quiver looked a sorry sight as he slid in the last handful of damaged arrows and straightened up again.

“Let’s-” he started, only to be cut off by a familiar horn. It wasn’t the dinner conch, but it was the summoning sound Chiron used to call all the stragglers in after Capture the Flag was over. Either they’d hit a time limit, or Quintus had somehow determined that the laurel had been claimed.

Lee wasn’t sure which option he preferred, but it didn’t really matter when it got all four of them jogging back towards camp, away from Zeus’ fist and the dust of slaughtered scorpion-like monsters.

There were several unsurprised eyerolls as the other campers caught sight of the laurels in Clarisse’s choppy and messy hair – the new, shorter hair suited her a lot better, Lee thought, although after so many years it was still strange to see Clarisse with short hair. The general consensus seemed to match Sherman’s initial assessment – of course Clarisse was the one to win.

Michael was eyeing the laurel with a scowl as he ditched Drew and slunk up next to Lee. “Why’s she wearing it?” he huffed, thankfully quiet enough that Clarisse, who had gone to round up her cabin as they reappeared, didn’t hear.

Lee shrugged at his younger brother. “She killed that one.”

“That one?” Michael demanded, eyebrows shooting up. “How many did you fight?”

“Four.”

“Fucking Hades,” Michael swore, shaking his head. “Could’ve left some for the rest of us.”

“One was plenty, you bastard,” Drew muttered, passing them on the way to reconvening with her siblings. “Do you even care how long it takes to get monster dust out of your hair?”

“No.”

Lee couldn’t help a fond chuckle as the daughter of Aphrodite rolled her eyes and stalked off, muttering “of course he doesn’t. If he’d just let us at his hair…”

Michael’s step to the side, subtly putting Lee between him and the gathering of Aphrodite kids, almost made him smile again. They’d both heard, several times, that Michael had nice hair if only he’d treat it right, according to the Aphrodite cabin. Neither of them were quite sure what they meant by that, and Michael was in no hurry to find out, either, even if Lee was secretly curious.

One by one, the rest of Lee’s siblings started reappearing from the woods. Sam looked pale, and Tris’ eyes were half-lidded with exhaustion, and the rest of the cabin were in varying stages of tiredness. Two late nights in a row was not fun, and while Lee hadn’t seen any nasty injuries from the returning campers, he was sure there would be a few people with scratches that they’d be expected to deal with before bed. Will yawned as he separated from Malcolm, the older boy gripping his shoulder briefly, and more or less walked into Michael, resting his forehead on his shoulder.

“Can we go to bed now?” he mumbled as Michael patted his head.

“Once Quintus and Chiron say so,” Lee promised him, scanning all of his siblings for signs of injury. “Everyone okay?” he asked, raising his voice enough to be heard over the mutters and grumbles of his tired siblings. Aside from him and Michael, he knew none of them had actually fought the scorpions, so they’d spent the past hour or so of fading dusk wandering around the forest on edge with nothing exciting to show for it. No wonder they were all crashing now the game was over.

Camp was now fully lit with torches, and the ever-present glow of the hearth. Their dad’s chariot had long since returned to its temple, and Artemis’ was only giving a sliver of light tonight. Apollo kids were not night owls and it was getting late by their standards, especially the younger ones.

Even Michael was looking a rather tired, the drakon messing up his sleep last night combined with another late night tugging at him, too. Lee wasn’t quite fighting yawns, but he couldn’t deny he was also thinking fondly of his waiting bed.

Tyson and Grover were the last pair to stumble out of the forest, both immediately separating and circling around opposite sides of the gathering of demigods. Grover headed for where the Athena kids had clumped together, while Tyson looked around before saying, “where’s Percy?”

Everyone silenced, and the entire focus of the camp landed on the Athena cabin, because if anyone would know the answer to that, it would be Annabeth, but Annabeth wasn’t there, either. Grover stopped still, and frowned.

“I can’t feel Percy,” he admitted, four words that sent the whole of camp reeling. Not everyone knew about the empathy bond he had with the son of Poseidon, but everyone except the very newest campers knew he and Percy were close.

Even the newest campers knew the disappearance of their resident Big Three Kid didn’t bode well. Lee couldn’t help but remember the first time it happened, Percy and Luke nowhere to be found until suddenly Percy was in his infirmary with pit scorpion venom and Luke was gone.

Why did he keep remembering that, tonight? He shook his head and stepped forwards, the same time Clarisse did.

“We’d better find those idiots before they go off on another stupid quest without leave,” she grumbled, and Lee remembered the second time Percy disappeared – this time with Annabeth. No-one had ever got the full story out of that incident out of them, but it was a common theory that they’d overlapped with Clarisse’s quest to get the golden fleece, even if none of them had ever said as much.

Clarisse’s voice was just a little too annoyed for Lee to think there wasn’t something personal in the accusation, though.

“Not all of us,” he cut in, to say his own piece. “It’s way past curfew and the younger campers need to go to bed.”

“Annabeth’s missing!” one of the Athena kids yelled. Lee couldn’t see which one, but the voice was young.

“Now, now,” Chiron said, trotting forwards into the centre of attention, Quintus walking beside him. “They may have just gone deeper than everyone else and are taking longer to return.” After Grover’s declaration, Lee didn’t think anyone believed that. “And if there is a problem, it is not your jobs to sort it out.”

“You can’t expect us to stay back and not look for them,” Travis called from the throng of cabin eleven, echoed by Connor.

Chiron raised a hand as more demigods began to clamour, but it was Quintus who spoke.

“A compromise,” he suggested. “Chiron, how about enlisting the help of our head counsellors?” His gaze landed on Lee and Clarisse, their weight old and heavy, before he looked up at the centaur. “Some experienced help.”

More protests exploded from the younger campers, and the Athena cabin, whose head counsellor was the one missing, and Chiron sighed.

“Very well,” he said. “Head counsellors, select one of your siblings to help you, and another one to take charge of getting the rest of your cabins to bed and staying there. Quickly, now.”

Lee glanced at Clarisse, and caught her glancing back at him, his suspicions reflected in her eyes. Disappearing mirrored appearing, after all.

It was barely a moment, before they turned back to their respective cabins. The choice of who was coming with him was obvious, and Michael stepped up before he could even say anything. Really, Lee should make him the one in charge of the cabin – they all knew he would be the one to succeed Lee once he went to college in a year’s time, after all, and needed the practice – but he was their best archer and spent more time in the woods than most. He’d be best suited to the search party, even if it meant having to work with Clarisse.

“Lawrence, I’m leaving the cabin to you. Make sure everyone goes to bed,” Lee said. Lawrence was one of the oldest campers, older than him, and due to go to college in the fall. He’d also arrived at camp the same year as Michael and lived there ever since, making him one of the more experienced demigods, too – and everyone loved him. “I’m also out of arrows, so if anyone’s got any..?”

“I got it,” his brother agreed, scooping Sam and Tris under his arms. “Right then, sleepyheads. Bed time for you guys. Will, Alice, that includes you two. Grab them, Morton, and give Lee your spare arrows. Anyone else with arrows, do that, too.”

Lee accepted the various arrows from his siblings, passing the ones that were a bit shorter than he could comfortably use to Michael, whose quiver could always do with more, it seemed. Once both of them were once again armed to the teeth – and relieved of their broken and bent arrows – they left Lawrence to wrangling the tired cabin and went to join Chiron.

Most of the other head counsellors were already there. Clarisse had Sherman by her side, both of them looking impatient at the wait, while Drew sneered at Michael from beside Silena. Lee glanced over at the rest of the Aphrodite kids to see Miri corralling them back towards their cabin. She sent him a short wave when she caught sight of him looking, and he grinned back.

Michael, like any self-respecting little sibling, made disgusted noises under his breath, which Lee ignored with years of practice.

Unsurprisingly, Malcolm had elected himself as the head counsellor for the Athena cabin in Annabeth’s absence. He wasn’t the oldest, or even the most experienced, but he was the one that everyone already knew would inherit the position when Annabeth inevitably went to college one day. He had, at least, had the good sense to pick one of his older and more experienced siblings as his partner, though. Beckendorf was accompanied by Jake, Katie had picked Miranda, and Travis and Connor and Pollux and Castor had obviously picked each other. Lee hadn’t expected anything different from cabins eleven and twelve.

Grover and Tyson finished off the official search party, still keeping their distance from each other but adamant that they were going to be involved, anyway. No-one was going to tell them no.

“We’ll split into two groups to cover more ground but keep safety in numbers,” Chiron told them. “Clarisse and Sherman, Lee and Michael, Silena and Drew, Pollux and Castor, and Tyson – you’ll be with me.”

“And the rest of you are with me,” Quintus said. “And Mrs O’Leary, of course.” The hellhound let out a massive whoof that made them all jump.

Quintus’ search party looked a little discomforted at the reminder they were going into the woods accompanied by a hellhound, even if she was a friendly one. Lee was privately glad that he wasn’t in that group.

Chiron gave all of them torches and whistles, “in case anyone gets separated, or to let the other group know if we find them.” Lee looped his whistle around his neck, while Michael tangled the string around his quiver strap.

Going back into the woods late at night, when there was only the light of their torches and the faint strains of moon- and starlight to show the way, was disconcerting. Lee didn’t like it, and from the tenseness of everyone else’s shoulders, nor did anyone else. Stealth was no longer a priority, so Clarisse’s spear was constantly crackling, lighting up with red sparks that made her still-worn laurels glisten as though they were on fire.

“Percy!” Tyson bellowed suddenly, almost deafening them. Lee had to grip Michael’s arm to stop him firing an arrow at the cyclops, trying to pretend his other hand wasn’t halfway to raising his bow on instinct, either. “Annabeth!”

“Oi, Jackson! Wise girl!” Clarisse echoed after a moment, and one by one they all took up the call as they wove their way through the trees, hooves and feet alike making noise on the undergrowth. Regular animals scattered, and in the distance they heard answering echoes of the same names from the other search party, who had entered the woods at the other edge of the barrier.

It was a similar pattern to the one Lee and Clarisse had taken whilst hunting the scorpions, although they hadn’t had anyone the other side to complete the pincer movement.

Despite being a single search party, as they moved they started to spread out, never losing sight of each other’s torches, but covering a greater area as they combed the undergrowth, in case the missing demigods weren’t-

Weren’t capable of calling back.

Lee refused to think of why, didn’t let himself think of pit scorpions and half dead sons of Poseidon limp in the infirmary, but made sure to check every darker pocket of shadows with his torch, just to be sure. Above him, he could hear Michael slipping along tree branches, his torch providing far more light from the skies than the distant moon and stars and his voice joining the calls. He was the only one of their party that could really navigate the trees so easily – not just for his size, but because Lee had known for years that despite his brusqueness with the other demigods, Michael had long since got on the good side of the dryads and was allowed to clamber through them like a monkey, so long as he didn’t damage their trees – and Chiron had swiftly agreed that the additional viewing angle would only help.

For once, Clarisse hadn’t made any snide or antagonising remarks about Michael’s tendency to hide in trees and sneak around, which had only proven how concerned she actually was about Annabeth and Percy’s disappearance. Lee couldn’t quite kid himself into thinking it was just because Clarisse was worried it meant there was a Labyrinth entrance, and that they’d found it – ever since the fleece quest last summer, she’d been a little less outrightly hostile to Percy, and she and Annabeth had always been more of a butting heads rather than hating each other’s guts relationship. Lee had known the younger girls long enough to know that they respected each other, when it came down to it.

Lee’s torch picked up a scattering of dust, recent enough to have not been blown away by what wind made it through the trees, and the beam from Clarisse’s torch, next to him in their line, crossed it. They both paused, and looked at each other.

“The scorpions,” Clarisse said, her voice a little hoarse from the shouting. It was almost drowned out by the yells of their companions, but she was looking at Lee.

“They wouldn’t be killed by those,” he protested, and she grunted, slashing her spear through the air.

“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. “Think, Lee.”

Lee blinked at her, glancing back at the scattered dust. Around and above them, the rest of the search party kept marching forwards.

“I’m not following,” he admitted. “What about them?”

She rolled her eyes before stomping forwards again, breaking their search pattern. Lee hurried to follow, because none of them were going alone. Behind him, he heard Drew curse as she spotted their torches headed in a different direction. “Oi, wrong way!”

Clarisse ignored her. “The first one was by itself,” she said. “So was the one Drew and Michael killed, and Sherman and Jake.”

Lee suddenly realised where she was going, and where they were headed. “But the other three were together.”

“Took you long enough,” she huffed.

“They weren’t facing us,” Lee continued to recall, hearing their names also being called, and the frustrated grunts of Michael in the trees above them as he caught up with them. “They’d been following something else. But there was nothing there, was there?”

“Enough of the damn universe revolves around Jackson,” Clarisse snorted. “Why wouldn’t half the damn monsters?”

“What are you two going on about?” Michael shouted down at them.

“Fuck off,” Clarisse snapped at him.

“Clarisse,” Lee scolded immediately, before glancing up at the torch dimly illuminating his younger brother in the trees. “We’re going to check Zeus’ Fist,” he told him. “Tell Chiron.” He didn’t leave it a question, because if he did, Michael would say no, and then he’d be stuck mediating between Clarisse and Michael whilst trying to find missing demigods, and at what had to be well past ten at night by now, Lee was far too tired to be dealing with their arguments.

“Tell him yourself,” Michael groused, because Lee wasn’t the only overtired Apollo kid on the search, and Michael got irritable even with him sometimes, and Lee was not dealing with this.

“Michael!” he snapped. “Go tell Chiron, now.”

Above him, the torchlight stuttered, and Lee felt a flash of guilt because he never snapped at Michael, but then it turned around and the dark silhouette of his younger brother headed back towards the bulk of the search party.

Clarisse whistled. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Lee.”

Lee groaned. “Clarisse. It is stupid o’clock at night. We spent a good hour earlier chasing and killing giant scorpions. Now there are missing demigods. Michael and I were up last night chasing off drakons at stupid o’clock in the morning. I am past tired, and we’re both worrying that the Labyrinth is involved even though neither of us can say it in front of the other campers.” She stiffened. “Do not push me right now.”

That was the wrong thing to say to an Ares kid – the default response to do not push me with them was always what are you going to do about it, and Clarisse had never been the exception to that rule. Lee braced himself for the inevitable jibe.

It didn’t come.

“You too?” she asked instead, her voice quiet in a way that Clarisse wasn’t, except when the Labyrinth came up. Lee didn’t know what, exactly, she’d been through when she’d explored it, but he remembered the injuries she’d come back to camp with. The scar on her chin was the only one visible in polite company, but there had been several, worse, wounds that were now knotted and ugly scars under her clothes. The thing with being the camp’s head healer was that Lee saw these things.

“I hope it isn’t,” he admitted, keeping a careful eye on the torches now following them from behind, because even if it was only senior campers, he didn’t want them overhearing this. Clarisse wouldn’t, either. “But…”

“Grover could reach Percy from the fucking Sea of Monsters,” Clarisse said, roughly, and adding more weight to the theory that their paths had crossed on the fleece quest. “If he can’t reach him now, it’s something worse than that.”

And it’s in our camp, she didn’t say, but Lee heard it loud and clear, anyway, and there wasn’t anything he could say to that, because he didn’t think she was wrong, but admitting out loud that she was right…

Well, there was a reason she didn’t say it.

Hooves pounded the ground behind them, and Lee turned around as Chiron caught them up. “You shouldn’t be wandering off without telling us,” the centaur said, disapprovingly.

“Lee sent Michael to tell you,” Clarisse muttered. The tree leaves above them rustled, but Michael didn’t say anything else. The guilt at snapping at his younger brother gnawed a little bit deeper.

“I know,” Chiron said, but he still didn’t sound happy. Then again, Lee had sent Michael with a message and no company, although he trusted the trees to keep Michael safe better than anyone would’ve been on the ground. “Why Zeus’ Fist?”

“There were three scorpions clustered together there,” Lee said, before Clarisse could. “They looked like they’d been chasing something, but there wasn’t anything there. We didn’t pay attention to that at the time, but…”

“But you now think that might have been Annabeth and Percy,” Chiron sighed. “I see. I can’t say I would be surprised; Percy does attract more monsters than the rest of you.”

Not for the first time, Lee was glad to not be a Big Three kid. He’d seen Thalia’s death when he’d been ten – and subsequent resurrection last summer – and all the chaos Percy had been falling into since his arrival two years ago, and was quite content with not being at the heart of all of that. It was bad enough getting involved on the periphery.

Percy and his pit scorpion-stung hand in the infirmary while nothing Lee could do helped continued to haunt him.

The rest of the search party kept calling the missing demigods’ names, but Lee and Clarisse kept forging forwards, waiting until they were in earshot of Zeus’ Fist before readding their voices to the now-hoarse calls of the others.

They almost ran straight into Grover, who was also shouting for Percy and Annabeth, completely separated from the rest of his search party. Chiron didn’t say anything about it, but Lee could feel his disapproval at the satyr striking off alone, especially as with his empathy bond he probably had a better chance at guessing where Percy had last been.

His presence did at least support his and Clarisse’s theory, though.

“Annabeth!” he shouted, as his torchlight picked up more scattered monster dust, the edge of Zeus’ Fist casting a sharp shadow through it. “Percy!”

Somewhere ahead of him, Tyson roared the names again.

Lee called again, walking closer to the pile of rocks and ending up next to Clarisse once more.

Annabeth and Percy almost collided with them, looking completely unharmed – to Lee’s relief – and confused.

“Where have you two been?” Clarisse immediately pounced, her agitation and frustration finally reaching boiling point.

“We’ve been looking forever,” Lee added, mostly to stall Clarisse’s momentum before she really let loose. They did not need Clarisse exploding in the middle of the night. Lee did not need Clarisse exploding in the middle of the night.

“But we were only gone a few minutes,” Percy protested, which was categorically wrong, because Lee was pretty certain they’d been gone for at least two hours at that point. Thankfully, Chiron appeared behind him, and Lee gladly stepped back to let someone else deal with the younger demigods now they were found and not hurt.

They’d better not be hurt.

Tyson seemed happy to jump in and confirm it; Percy liked Tyson too much to lie to him, or so Lee hoped.

“We’re fine,” the son of Poseidon promised. “We fell in a hole.”

Lee had been playing Capture the Flag around Zeus’ Fist since he was ten and finally deemed old enough. There was no hole there big enough to hide two demigods so completely for so long. The rest of Percy’s explanation made sense – Lee could attest to the three scorpions together, given the laurel one of them had been carrying was now perched on Clarisse’s head, all but forgotten by everyone in the chaos of Annabeth and Percy’s disappearance – but his idea of the timeline was so far out it was…

Concerning, if Lee was honest. Missing time usually suggested some form of amnesia, but neither demigod were showing any signs of injury at all, let alone amnesia-inducing injury, and, well. Luke worked for Kronos, now, and Kronos wasn’t just the titan of eating his children.

“You’ve been missing for almost an hour,” Chiron said, which Lee couldn’t believe. It had felt like so much longer, but maybe the centaur was only counting how long they’d been actively searching for? Lee was still certain it was at least twice that. “The game is over.”

Grover muttered something about Tyson sitting on him, which stopped them winning. Lee hadn’t even noticed them nearby, so he wasn’t quite sure what the satyr was talking about.

Clarisse, unsurprisingly for Lee, given he already knew her concerns, but more surprisingly to his fellow demigods judging by the confused noises he could hear from the others behind them, focused in on the other concerning bit, the one that wasn’t time-related.

Or maybe it was.

“A hole?” she asked, sounding to Lee like she didn’t really want to know the answer, but also needed to.

Annabeth’s deep inhale told Lee all he needed to know. Her glance around at the gathered audience of demigods all staring at her cemented it.

“Chiron… maybe we should talk about this at the Big House.”

Clarisse’s gasp cut through the silence, the daughter of Ares not able to not react to the confirmation she (and Lee) had been dreading. “You found it, didn’t you?”

Annabeth’s verbal confirmation was enough to get the other campers demanding to know what was going on, and Lee was both glad that it was only half the head counsellors, and some other experienced campers, and frustrated that they were either going to need to explain it to everyone, or find a way to diffuse the curiosity – which was not going to be easy.

Lee got the distinct feeling that Michael was burning a hole in the back of his head for not joining in the confused questions, and was not looking forwards to dealing with that, especially as he also had to apologise for snapping at him, and both of them were too tired for serious, sensible, conversations this side of sleep.

Chiron raised his hand and slowly, the rest of the present campers faded into disgruntled silence. “Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place,” he said. Lee fully agreed with that, suddenly very disconcerted by the fact that he had spent the past seven years playing Capture the Flag right by a Labyrinth entrance. Having seen Chris, and Clarisse, he had no desire at all to fall into it, even if it was apparently possible to escape quickly enough you didn’t even realise you were there.

Except, no, Annabeth had realised where she’d been, and she’d been researching it thoroughly, so of course she’d known how to escape. Most demigods, especially those caught unaware, probably wouldn’t have done.

Lee had the sudden urge to get away from the pile of rocks and never, ever come back. Chiron, thankfully, seemed to be in agreement, as he told them all to go back to their cabins and go to sleep.

Sleep sounded amazing, but as one of the very few demigods already in the know, Lee couldn’t just leave, especially if Annabeth and Clarisse were going to start discussing it once everyone else had gone.

“Lee?” Michael asked him, clearly suspicious, but Lee could not deal with talking to Michael about it right then.

“Listen to Chiron,” he told him, keeping half an eye on Clarisse and Annabeth, who had drawn closer together and were muttering between themselves. He needed to be involved in that. “We’ll talk in the morning, Michael.”

“But-”

“Please, Michael,” he all but begged. “We’re both exhausted and it’s going to be a long talk, which I can’t have right now.”

Michael’s eyes burned into him, but eventually he caved, to Lee’s immense relief. “You’re telling me in the morning,” he said, and it wasn’t a question. Lee smiled gratefully.

“Everything I can,” he promised, knowing that Michael probably still wasn’t exhausted enough to miss the massive loophole he was leaving himself, but hoping he would trust him just a little more. “Go on ahead and get some sleep.”

Michael scowled at him, but after a moment obeyed, turning away and joining the exodus of the other demigods back towards the cabins and their welcoming beds. Lee watched him go, hearing Chiron blow the whistle to dismiss the other search party, before joining the muttering, concerned huddle that was Annabeth, Clarisse, Percy, Grover and Tyson in time to hear Annabeth filling Percy in on the Labyrinth.

He shouldn’t have been surprised that Grover and Tyson had already been drawn into the loop.

Chiron came up behind him. “We will discuss this in the morning,” he said, firmly but not unkindly. “Off you go.”

Lee was more than happy to leave the clearing, and the woods, but when they reached the open area of camp, he hung back as Percy and Tyson retreated into cabin three and Grover disappeared off as well.

Chiron escorted the rest of them to their cabins, one at a time, but Lee knew that the girls were going to reappear as soon as the centaur was gone. He obediently ducked inside the door of cabin seven, pleased to see that all of the younger kids were asleep, although the older campers were having a quiet conference – centred around Michael, who was presumably telling them that Annabeth and Percy had been found, and hopefully not telling them anything else. They caught sight of him and waved him over, but he shook his head.

“They’re safe,” he said quietly, glancing back out the window near the door to see Chiron’s shadow slowly traipsing away from the cabins and back up the hill, “but I’ve got to go out again before I can go to bed. Don’t wait up for me.”

“Lee, you’re exhausted,” Lawrence protested. “You barely got any sleep last night, and you’re not getting much tonight, either.”

“I’ll survive,” Lee promised. “And I won’t be long.” He and the girls could only dodge the harpies for so long.

Chiron’s shadow disappeared, and immediately he saw the door to cabin six crack open again. He couldn’t see the door to cabin five from the window, but Annabeth headed straight for the Ares cabin, so he knew Clarisse was making her own reappearance.

He slipped back out the door himself, darting across the short distance between the two cabins, and rejoined the girls.

“Go to bed, Lee,” Clarisse ordered, but she couldn’t raise her voice, and Lee was not letting the younger demigods cut him out of the loop now.

“What happened?” he asked Annabeth. Her face scrunched up.

“Percy summed it up,” she said. “When the scorpions cornered us, we fell into the rocks. It was pitch black, no light at all, and I had to grab him to stop him wandering off. Then I found the Daedalus symbol and pressed it, and the entrance re-opened so we could climb out. It really didn’t take any time at all.”

“Time moves differently in there,” Clarisse confirmed. Lee hadn’t known that, but if anyone was going to know that, it was the one that had spent time exploring it. “That… shit. That was definitely it. And if Luke doesn’t already know about it, it’s only a matter of time before he does.”

Lee remembered, again, the day Percy came to him with pit scorpion venom and Luke vanished into the woods, and his stomach curled unpleasantly.

“He already knows where it is, from this side,” he said. “That’s how he left.”

In the faint moonlight, Annabeth looked completely washed out, but it was Clarisse that finished the thought.

“He’s trying to find the entrance from the inside,” she growled. “Chris-”

Her voice broke off, and neither Lee nor Annabeth finished her sentence out loud. None of them needed to.

That was what Chris had been sent in to look for – if not the string, at least the route back to camp from wherever Luke and Kronos’ army were waiting.

“That drakon was a distraction,” Lee sighed, but Annabeth shook her head.

“Two-pronged attack,” she said. “If they can find a weakness in the barrier now Thalia’s not- Or a backup plan, if they can’t navigate the Labyrinth.”

Lee still couldn’t reconcile the Luke he remembered with the Luke that was actively trying to attack their camp. It just didn’t make sense. But Chris had proven that something was coming, and Luke and Chris had been good friends, for all that Chris was unclaimed. For him to throw Chris away like that…

The Luke Lee knew clearly didn’t exist anymore.

“We have to tell Chiron, in the morning,” he said. “This is…”

“Tomorrow will be a full war council,” Annabeth said, confidently. She looked at Clarisse, and Lee did the same. The daughter of Ares’ lips were thin where they pressed together tightly. “After this, Chiron can’t keep it from the other head counsellors.”

And that meant that everyone was going to find out about Chris.

Clarisse growled. “I know,” she said.

“Patient confidentiality still holds,” Lee promised her. “They don’t need to know any details.” He hoped he didn’t imagine her relaxing slightly, but it could easily have been a trick of the moonlight.

“Just the threat of the Labyrinth,” Annabeth agreed. The words, said out loud, made Lee shiver.

They were out of their depth, now. This was more than three demigods could handle.

“We can’t do anything about it right now,” he said. “And the harpies will be along soon. Try and get some sleep, girls. We’ll need both of you sharp in the morning, for this.” He looked over at Clarisse. “I’ll drop by Chris before breakfast,” he told her.

“Have you worked out how to cure insanity?” she snapped back, and he sighed.

“No,” he admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him.” Even if all he could do was make sure Chris wasn’t in physical pain, wasn’t hurting himself in his insanity, he’d keep doing it.

Clarisse looked at him, for once looking like the fifteen year old she was, young and scared. It was a vulnerability Lee only knew he was seeing because she was tired, too. Not just physically, but emotionally, too. Ever since Chris had appeared in Arizona, she’d been struggling, and this seemed like the final straw for her.

Lee was impressed she’d held it together for so long. He was older, and only tangentially involved – brought in because they needed a healer, and now the only one of their trio that had never been in the Labyrinth – and he already felt like he was about to break under the stress, knew he’d started cracking if he was snapping at Michael and constantly cycling back around to Luke’s betrayal again. How Clarisse had held herself together for so long, he had no idea.

“Get some sleep,” he said, not gently because even now, Clarisse would not take well to gentle. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He glanced up at the moon, now high in the sky, and realised with a sinking feeling that tomorrow had arrived. “Later in the morning,” he corrected.

“Whatever,” Clarisse mumbled. Her hand travelled up to her head, gripping the laurels that still sat there, forgotten and ignored. Their victory hadn’t even been mentioned, with everything else, and Lee suspected it never would be. She pulled them off, and caught Lee out when she reached up and dropped them on his head, instead. “I’ll be there.”

She disappeared back inside her cabin before Lee or Annabeth could say anything else. The boar’s head above the door glowered down at them, and without an Ares kid, it suddenly felt wrong to be standing there.

“Bed, Annabeth,” Lee prodded. She was looking up at the laurels now in his hair, no doubt wonky – they felt like they were about to fall – but Lee was too tired to bother fixing them. “Your brain needs to be in working order at the meeting.” When she didn’t immediately move, her thoughts seemingly taking her elsewhere, he gripped her elbow lightly and began to steer her across the green, towards her own cabin. She moved without resistance, but didn’t jerk away until they were almost there, coming back from wherever her mind had gone.

“Thanks, Lee,” she said. “We don’t say that enough.” Lee gave her a quick, one-armed hug.

“You’re not in this alone,” he reminded her. “Now, go get some sleep.”

She scrutinised him with eyes that were somehow still sharp, despite the late hour. “You need to sleep,” she retorted. “Weren’t you up at three o’clock last night?”

Lee sighed. “Yes, yes I was,” he said. “So if you could get inside your cabin so I can be reassured that you, too, are in bed and safe so I can do the same, that would be great, thanks.”

“You’re not my big brother,” she pointed out.

“No,” Lee agreed. “But I’m the head of the infirmary and do not want to be dealing with a sleep deprived Annabeth in the morning. So, shoo.”

He wasn’t sure what part of that finally got through to her, but she did, finally, slip back in through her cabin door, leaving him alone outside – and not a moment too soon, as the tell-tale sound of wings filled the air.

“I’m going, Calaeno,” he promised as one of the harpies landed in front of him. She glared at him, eyes piercing even in the dark.

“Bed,” she ordered, one of her wings coming to loop around him. “Past curfew. No infirmary.”

“I know, I know.” Lee let her walk him back across the green and towards his cabin door. Being an Apollo kid had advantages, like blanket permission to be out after curfew, for reasonable reasons. The harpies wouldn’t attack him, although they’d force him back to his cabin more peacefully – like now.

“Stay until dawn,” Calaeno told him firmly. “Camp safe.”

She and her sisters had not taken kindly to the drakon the previous night, either. If it had come inside the barriers, Lee had no doubt that they’d have attacked it with the same ferociousness the campers were always threatened with.

He stumbled across the threshold, pushed over by the harpy’s wing, and the door was shut firmly behind her. Blindly, he groped his way to his own bunk, not even bothering to change and barely remembering to kick off his shoes before he face-planted his bunk.

The mattress gave way weirdly, as though there was already something on it, and more grasping found a small figure curled up asleep on his bed already. Lee couldn’t see in the dark, and wasn’t going to turn on a light, but he was pretty certain it was Michael. No doubt, his younger brother had tried to wait up for him, but he hadn’t so much as stirred at Lee’s ungainly arrival.

Good. He needed the sleep.

So did Lee, and it was hardly the first time he’d ended up sharing his bunk with a sibling – not even the first time said sibling had been Michael – so he didn’t bother to try and get his younger brother back to his own bunk. Instead, he just nudged him over slightly, so that he could get his own head on the pillow – ow, golden laurel leaves were not comfortable – and closed his eyes.

Tomorrow – today, after the sun rose – was going to be full of awkward conversations and more emotional stress, Lee knew.

Right now, he needed sleep. Thankfully, it came quickly.

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once-upon-an-animation · 2 years ago

Text

If I could redo PJO and give each counselor and some minor characters an arc…

So one of the things a lot of PJO fans want to see done differently in the show is adding more depth to the side characters at Camp Half blood, particularly characters like the Stoll brothers, Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf, etc. I’m not sure how much screen time these guys are really gonna get, but I keep fantasizing about each of them sort of having their own story, even if it would lead to a convoluted plot.

Therefore, in this post, I’m going to outline what kind of arc I would have given to each character/counselor in PJO if I had been the one writing the story. Some of these will be pretty close to what is already canon, some of these are a complete overhaul of the canon characterization, some will be inspired by canon but not obey it completely. I also can’t promise that they’re entirely original. Brace yourself, this is a VERY long post:

- Percy Jackson: Wouldn’t change much about his original arc. I would add the following things:

1) Make him more active in the resolution of the love triangle between him, Rachel, and Annabeth. Have him reflect more on what he likes about Annabeth over Rachel.

2) Have him hesitate more in his decision to give Luke that dagger. The hesitation can be caused by Percy remembering all the ways in which Luke has hurt people, including himself. Have him be angry and not want to give Luke the dagger; it would add more suspension to the choice and make it a more emotional one.

3) Have him train more.

4) The first thing that Percy told us in the book was that he didn’t want to be a half-blood. I think an awesome full-circle moment for him would be to have a moment where he fully accepts and embraces being a half-blood as a part of his identity, even if he doesn’t like it much. He doesn’t necessarily have to be proud of it, but I think it would be s cool character moment for him to make peace with it.

It could work best during his dip in the River Styx when he forgets who he is. When he initially grabs Annabeth’s hand, he not only remembers who he is just as a person, but he also remembers being a half-blood as a part of who he is. He accepts his fate and his life as a demigod for what it is, and makes a final decision to be brave and to take on the prophecy no matter how scared he is. In a way, he would also be accepting that Annabeth is also a demigod and can’t offer him an escape the way Rachel can, but that’s okay because he cares for Annabeth deeply, and they can work together to overcome their obstacles.

- Annabeth Chase: I’m going to be honest, I don’t think Annabeth had much of an arc l’in the original series. Her relationships with others definitely changed over time, but I personally feel that she didn’t change that much in terms of her core character traits or beliefs. She started the story as a prideful, aggressive, sentimental character and mostly ended the story that way (as evidenced by HoO). She ended up being right about Luke redeeming himself, so it’s not like she was forced to change her view on when to stop defending bad people. She’s also rarely called out on her flaws; Percy getting mad at her in BoTL is the closest we ever get.

So for Annabeth, I would enhance her arc by having her try to counter her hubris by actively working on her sense of humility. This can manifest in many ways:

1) Humility in the idea that she might be wrong about Luke and his ability to be redeemed. Humility in the idea that he is not a perfectly good person and that he’s hurt a lot of people.

2) Humility in the idea that she is not always right in general and she is capable of getting things wrong. More moments where someone other than Percy calls her out on her shortcomings could be a part of this.

3) Humility in the idea that she doesn’t own Percy and isn’t entitled to a relationship with him. If they’re going to end up together, she has to give him the room to choose that for himself just like she chose it for herself. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Percy waffled around a bit and needed to be pushed/challenged a little. But like, he still has his own autonomy, you know? His relationships are still his choice. I just want to see Annabeth respect Percy’s autonomy more than she does in canon. It seems like when he doesn’t agree with her or do things her way, her usual move is to get mad at him or worse, hit him. I don’t like this and it doesn’t demonstrate a healthy relationship.

4) Humility in the idea that her plans don’t always work, and sometimes other people are better at things that she is weaker at. ie. Rachel knowing how to navigate the Labyrinth better than her.

- Grover Underwood: Wouldn’t really change anything, I would just reveal more of his quest to find Pan and what he sees/learns along the way, maybe by adding more interactions between Grover and nature deities that we haven’t seen yet. Grover’s arc and involvement with nature would also be a cool opportunity to involve Demeter in the story more and make her more than just a nagging mom character.

Perhaps she and Pan have a friendship of sorts, and Pan has asked her to help Grover subtly along his quest. Or maybe Demeter and Grover can connect over their sadness at the destruction of nature, and how Demeter sometimes worries if her own domain will fade someday as more and more human societies turn away from traditional farming and agriculture.

- Luke Castellan: Wouldn’t change anything about his core story. I would, however, change the way that Annabeth thinks of and responds to him in later parts of the story, and I would change the way that he and his sacrifice is viewed at the end of TLO. I would give the story a more balanced or nuanced view about Luke’s actions.

I would also make Luke’s motivations more cohesive and have his desire to help other demigods be the main motivation from the start. Lastly, I would remove that stuff about him developing a crush on Annabeth at the end of TLO *or* if we want to keep this, I would just age him down. I don’t think much would change if Luke was like, 2 years older than Annabeth as opposed to 6 or 7.

- Thalia Grace: The only thing I would add to Thalia’s arc is more emphasis on the transition between the end of SoM and the beginning of TTC. Thalia has been out of commission for 5 years and I’m sure a lot has changed in the world since. I would add moments where she feels behind with the way things have changed, aka her not being up to date with the latest tech, pop culture moments, slang, etc. that the other kids at her new school are using. On top of finding out that Luke is now a villain, this becomes a source of emotional stress for Thalia and Annabeth has to comfort her.

In addition, I feel like this gives Thalia an even stronger reason to join the Hunters. Not only does she want to write off love, but joining the Hunters allows her to withdraw from the modern world that she no longer feels a part of and stick with the type of life that she knows and feels comfortable with.

- Bianca Di Angelo: Wouldn’t change much; maybe add more nuance and hesitation to her decision to ditch Nico and join the Hunters.

- Nico Di Angelo: Wouldn’t change much within PJO, but I have a lot of thoughts on what happened with him in HoO. Let’s save that for another day.

- Clarisse LaRue: The inspiration for Clarisse’s arc comes from her deep fear of making Ares angry at her and not having the same respect he gives his sons, and her need for respect in TLO. In my mind, Clarisse’s arc would be about learning the right way to earn respect.

Picture this: she starts the series off as a daughter of Ares who feels disrespected by her father and is craving respect from elsewhere. She thinks about how Ares and the gods in general command respect by being intimidating and making people fear them, so she engages in bullying in an effort to make people respect her. However, throughout the course of the series, we learn that none of the campers really respect her or the other bullies in the Ares cabin, and Clarisse continues to struggle to feel respected.

Over the course of the series, Clarisse begins to realize that bullying does not inspire true respect, but she has a hard time unlearning this because it goes against what she’s always thought. She starts mellowing out a little, having some of her softer moments in SoM and BoTL, but she’s still struggling. In addition, every time she experiences disrespect, she reverts back to her old behavior.

This comes to a climax in TLO when the whole Ares/Apollo cabin beef happens and she initially sits the war out. The campers call her out for not being a good friend all these years and for not being able to put her grudge aside to help her fellow campers during their biggest challenge. They specifically tell her that the reason she and her cabin don’t get any respect is because they aren’t very nice. Clarisse tries to argue about Michael Yew and the chariot, but the Apollo campers inform her that Michael is dead. He died fighting beside his friends, making him someone worthy of respect…unlike Clarisse.

Clarisse is forced to think about what makes someone w worth respecting and what doesn’t, and realizes her most respectable moments was when she was being a good friend. She apologizes to the camp for all the bullying and for ditching them during the war, and fights fiercely by them for the remainder of it. Clarisse doesn’t necessarily become a sweetheart after this, but she certainly becomes a better friend and cools down on the bullying. She also encourages her siblings to do the same.

- The Stoll Brothers: The Stoll brothers are pranksters and thieves, always turning every moment into an opportunity to steal and loot…even during war. This implies to me that they’re not very good at taking important things seriously, so here is my arc for them.

We know that things in the Hermes cabin aren’t exactly the happiest. The cabin is overcrowded with unclaimed kids and minor god kids who are probably salty about not having a cabin. You also have the other Hermes kids who are witnessing all of this. I like to imagine that since CHB doesn’t have a therapist and Chiron is spread pretty thin, the campers usually turn to their counselors or older siblings for emotional support.

After Luke betrays everyone and leaves, a lot of the unclaimed kids and minor god kids start to think about joining Luke in overthrowing the gods as they feel he might be right. They turn to Connor and Travis for emotional support but since the Stoll brothers don’t take things seriously, they brush off their campers and prioritize their pranking and looting. This pisses of their campers, and after the battle of the Labyrinth occurs and they see a bunch of their friends die without much help from the gods, a bunch of them make the decision to leave CHB and fight for Kronos.

As they’re leaving, Connor and Travis question them and try to make them stay, but their campers aren’t convinced. They complain about the way things have been, and they call Connor and Travis out for being crappy counselors before they leave. Connor and Travis feel awful about this and vow to win back their campers.

During TLO, the Stoll brothers encounter their old campers on the battlefield and hesitate to fight them. They try over and over to apologize to them and convince them that fighting with Kronos is not the way. The old Hermes campers are not convinced that the Stoll brothers truly care about them. This changes when the monsters from Kronos’ army pull a trick that ends up endangering the demigods who are on Kronos’ side, and the demigods feel deceived. Connor and Travis risk their lives to save their old campers, which finally convinces them. The old campers defect from Kronos’ army and rejoin CHB.

After the war, Connor and Travis vow to be better counselors. They commit to cleaning up their cabin now that it’s less crowded, and doing a better job of listening to their campers concerns. They still prank and loot, but they make sure they take care of their campers first.

- Charles Beckendorf: Beckendorf’s arc is inspired by his sentiments in feeling that machines are easier to understand than people and him being the anchor for the entire camp.

Beckendorf starts the series out as a guy who is pretty introverted. He likes to stay in the forge with his inventions and stay away from all the drama and hullabaloo that goes on with other campers. As a result, no one really knows Beckendorf or how great of a guy he is. This changes in SoM. At some point prior or during the beginning of SoM, Silena and Beckendorf start interacting. I like to think it’s because Silena got her weapon damaged and Beckendorf is helping her fix it. Silena’s kind and charming personality leads to Beckendorf opening up to her a little, which helps her realize that Beckendorf is a really cool dude.

As the camp continues to struggle with monster attacks while Mr. D and Tantalus don’t help much, Silena asks Beckendorf to help her and the other counselors talk to Mr. D/Tantalus and help lead the camp defenses. Beckendorf hesitates because again, he doesn’t like dealing with other people and being at the front lines isn’t really his style. But he does care about his friends and knows he can make a difference. Silena convinces him to break out of his shell, and he sort of takes over while they wait on the Fleece to be brought back.

Through his leadership, the campers get to see what a great guy Beckendorf is and he becomes more popular around camp. This encourages Beckendorf to come out of the forge more often, and he begins making more friends and bonding with Silena a little bit more. Over time, he becomes the “anchor” for the camp: giving people advice, being a shoulder for people to lean on, making people laugh and smile, and just being a great guy all around. I like to imagine that he, Percy, the Stoll brothers, and a few other boys form a friend group where they regularly hang out together at camp.

- Silena Beaureguard: Silena’s arc would remain mostly same as her book arc. The only thing I would change are her motivations and the depth of Luke’s manipulations.

Silena’s arc would focus on courage to do the right thing. When Luke initially convinces Silena to help him, it’s less so because Silena thinks he’s cute and moreso because she genuinely thinks that Kronos cares about demigods more than the gods do. She lies to her friends and dances around them to keep up with her spying. However, over time, especially after the death of her friends and siblings in BoTL, Silena starts to realize that Kronos doesn’t care about demigods at all. She tries to quit spyings few times. Initially, Luke tries to convince her that she’s on the right side by telling her that the deaths can’t be helped; it’s the campers’ fault for fighting for the wrong side. Silena is not completely convinced, but after Luke threatens to tell, she becomes consumed by fear of how her friends would react, and moreso, what Charlie would think of her.

She becomes more and more anxious about getting caught, to the point where Charlie starts to suspect that something is going on. Silena also becomes more anxious about her friends dying, knowing that she might be contributing to it. When she tells Kronos about the stealth mission, she tries to beg for Percy and Charlie’s lives, but Kronos agrees to let only Charlie live. Silena feels bad about what might happen to Percy, and has a hard time facing Annabeth, Percy, and Charlie prior to the mission. Right before Charlie takes off for the mission, she expresses her fear of losing him and begs him to be safe. Charlie assumes that this is what has been bothering Silena and gives her some comforting affection before he leaves.

After Charlie’s death, Silena is angry as she was in the books. She’s also mad at herself. However, she continues to help Kronos not just because she’s mad, but because she is still terrified of being revealed as the spy. Many campers are still angry about Beckendorf’s death, and she knows they would never forgive her. However, the amount of injury and death she sees during the battle of Manhattan is too much for her (especially Annabeth). This inspires her to try and redeem herself secretly by getting the Ares cabin, and then she ends up dying after revealing her secret as she did in the books.

In the original books, everyone agreed to view Silena as a hero. But in my head, I find this unrealistic. Maybe not every camper was willing to say what they thought because they don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but in my mind, there are a lot of mixed feelings surrounding Silena after the war. Some campers think she was a hero and don’t blame her at all, some view her actions as heroic but believe that she messed up big time, and some actively refuse to see her as a hero. Notably, Beckendorf’s siblings and closest friends (think Jake Mason, Nyssa Barrera, etc.) have a particularly hard time viewing Silena as a hero, knowing that her actions cost Charlie his life. Drew also has a hard time with Silena’s betrayal, but I’ll discuss that later.

- Pollux/Castor: Pollux’s arc is inspired by his brother’s death in the books. His arc is about overcoming grief and desires for revenge.

Pollux and Castor don’t have much of a personality in the books, so here’s what I’m thinking. As sons of Dionysus, they are larger-than-life party boys. To them, life is one huge party and nothing can bring them down. They celebrate everything and find any excuse to throw a party. In addition, they have mixed feelings about their godly parent being present at camp. On one hand, it’s like being the children of the school principal; people don’t really like their dad and don’t want to get in trouble with him and Pollux snd Castor have to deal with all that weirdness. On the other hand, it’s cool having a godly parent who’s close by and not as absent as other godly parents.

As twins, Pollux and Castor are joined at the hip; they do EVERYTHING together (including quests!) and Pollux can’t imagine a world without his brother in it. However, Mr.D starts to wonder if they’re too dependent on each other. Mr. D makes this comment to Pollux but he brushes it off. It’s okay if they depend on each other because they’re brothers and Castor will always be there, right?

During BoTL, Pollux and Castor fight side by side. However, they get separated in the heat of battle and they have a hard time fighting enemy demigods because they’re not used to fighting without each other. Just as an enemy demigod is about to kill Pollux, Castor manages to find an push his brother out of the way, and takes the hit instead.

After Castor’s death, Pollux becomes consumed with grief and depression. He stops participating in camp activities and stays in his cabin most of the time; he also doesn’t throw parties anymore. Dionysus tries to talk to him, but Pollux doesn’t want to talk to him; his dad is a god who wouldn’t understand. Mr. D reminds Pollux that he was once a demigod who lost his mother, but while Pollux appreciates the comfort, he is still grieving. He also develops a deep hatred for enemy demigods, and doesn’t sympathize with them or act merciful towards them the way Percy does.

The year between BoTL and TLO, Pollux becomes more and more bitter, getting snappier with his friends.. He also becomes consumed with training, because he has struggled with fighting monsters without Castor at his side. His friends try to talk to him about his behavior and mental health, but he doesn’t want to hear it. All Pollux can think about is his anger and desire for revenge.

During TLO, Pollux is absolutely brutal towards the enemy demigods, despite the campers he is with reminding him that the enemy demigods deserve sympathy. Pollux brushes this off, as the enemy demigods had no sympathy for him or his brother. Pollux eventually runs into the enemy demigod that killed Castor. Pollux becomes consumed by revenge and actively tries to kill this demigod, even if it means not following the battle plan. As a result, he endangers both himself and his fellow campers. One of the campers, who is Pollux’s friends sacrifices themselves to save Pollux and the others, allowing Pollux to get away with just an injury.

As he’s escorted to Olympus to heal, Pollux feels so bad about the dead camper and how much he has let grief and revenge consume him. As he rests in Olympus, he thinks about how the camper and Castor sacrificed themselves for him because they wanted him to live. Grief and desire for revenge has stopped him from living, which he feels is not a great way to honor their memories. Pollux decides that it’s time for him to accept his brother’s death and move on.

Before the campers head back to CHB after the battle, Pollux finds out that the enemy demigod who killed his brother was killed in battle somehow. Pollux remembers the kid’s name and godly parent from when they fought, and ensures that he receives a shroud at the final funeral. Pollux also decides that he wants to move on from Camp Half Blood and enjoy the life that Castor and his camper friend sacrificed themselves for. This is why he disappears after TLO. But before he leaves, he decides to host one last CHB cabin party with the help of other campers to celebrate the camp’s victory over the titans.

- Katie Gardener: Katie’s arc is inspired by her maternal personality and Demeter’s distant nature from her children. In addition, it’s also inspired by the fact that Demeter kids are not seen as super combative or strong in the first series.

Like Pollux and Castor, Katie barely shows up in the book and has no known personality traits except for the fact that she is stern/maternal. So along with her maternal personality, I like to think that she is stern but kind and caring towards her friends, especially her siblings. She looks out for them the way a mom would, making sure everyone’s on track and well taken care of.

I also think Katie is protective, the way Demeter is protective of Persephone. She sees it as her duty to nurture and protect her fellow campers, especially her siblings. When she fails to live up to what she perceives to be her responsibility, she beats herself up. Katie is very passionate about family. She prioritizes being there for her friends and family as much as she can. She loves culinary arts, and regularly bakes, cooks, and adds to her recipe book in her spare time. I like to think that she and all the Demeter kids get along really well with the nymphs and satyrs moreso than any other cabin.

Lastly, Katie is very mature. She hardly ever pulls pranks or breaks rules. She’s also very wholesome and “vanilla”. Her sense of humor is very kid-friendly, and you won’t catch her doing things like making out in public or spending a night in the stables with a romantic partner, unlike another couple we know! 😉

As for an arc, here’s what I’m thinking. Demeter kids are less likely to encounter their godly parent than other cabins, because of how distant Demeter is. The kids all feel a little sad about this in various ways, especially Katie, whose father never remarried. Katie occasionally tries to reach out to her mom via prayer but Demeter never responds. Because she loves her siblings and prioritizes family, Katie takes it upon herself to be the “cabin mama”, and looks after her siblings in a similar way that a mother would. This leads to Katie also becoming very protective of them, especially on quests and in battle.

Now, Demeter kids don’t deal with monsters too much, so it doesn’t bother them to not be as skilled or strong in combat. But when battle/war with the Titan army becomes inevitable, they begin to worry that they might not be strong enough. Katie is especially worried prior to the BoTL, because she wants to protect her siblings and get them through the battle alive. She and her siblings do their best, but the Demeter cabin ends up losing the most campers during the invasion, for which Katie feels responsible.

After the battle, Katie becomes preoccupied on how to become stronger in battle so she can protect her siblings; she begins training more and more. In addition, she wants to increase her magical powers beyond growing fruits and cooking food. Unfortunately, Katie still struggles with insecurities about feeling weak, especially when she trains with stronger campers and loses in duels to them.

She becomes desperate and frustrated enough to pray Demeter for help. Katie admits to Demeter in her prayer that she has insecurities about being a child of Demeter. Not only is Demeter distant, but she feels like she’s not as strong as other campers. She begs Demeter for help, some kind of magic item or assistance that will make her stronger. Katie doesn’t think that the prayer will work as Demeter rarely responds, but she tries anyway, reminding Demeter that her kids are family and mothers should look out for their kids.

Demeter is initially silent, which angers Katie. Upon returning to her cabin one day, she finds bags of various seeds from her mother. which angers her even more. These seeds are not special; they are the same plants that Katie has always grown. Katie feels like her mother didn’t help at all, and declares Demeter to be an uncaring mother.

During the battle in TLO, Katie is very nervous about fighting and losing more siblings in battle, and she worries if her training will pay off. Unfortunately, when the battle first starts, the Demeter kids take a few losses. Katie finally snaps, and uses one of her seeds/plants in a way she’s never used it before to take down some monsters.

Surprised by this undiscovered power, Katie continues experimenting with her gifted seeds, and ends up discovering a bunch of new ways to use the plants in battle and protect her siblings. The Demeter kids take her cue and begin doing the same with their seeds, turning their assigned tunnel into a jungle and defeating the monsters.

Katie eventually realizes that Demeter gave her those seeds as a reminder that Demeter kids have always been strong and that they have to grow their own strength. Katie’s insecurities about being weak begin to fade away, and she and her siblings kick butt in the remainder of the battle.

Now, I don’t ship Tratie (Travis and Katie), but a cute Tratie moment would be if during one of the final skirmishes, Travis gets into trouble and is about to get killed, but Katie pulls off some awesome plant magic and protects him. Travis thanks Katie and is surprised that she’s looking out for him, and Katie tells him that even though he’s kind of immature and annoying, she still cares about all her friends and would never let him die on her watch.

- Lee Fletcher: Lee’s narrative is kind of hard because he has even less of a personality and lines of dialogue in the original books than Katie does. However, I am going to base his arc off the fact that he’s an Apollo kid and some of the things Apollo mentioned in ToA about not remembering his children.

Now, as far as counselors go, we already have an archery kid (Michael Yew) and a healer kid (Will Solace). We don’t really have a music, poetry, or prophecy kid who’s lead the cabin. However, I want to stick with archery for what I’m imagining with Will’s arc. However, since the kids can have multiple interests or powers, I think it’s okay for Lee to be a good archer AND a good something else. I’m leaning towards poetry because we’ve already seen a lot of music-related powers in ToA. So poetry-related skills would be a little different. Here we go!

So in my mind, Lee’s arc is all about trying to get his father’s attention. I imagine Lee’s backstory like this: he came to camp when he was pretty young, like maybe 8 or 9. However, it took a really long time for Apollo to claim him (think a year or two). Most of the campers suspected that he was an Apollo kid due to his good archery skills and interest in poetry, and saw his claiming as just a formality, but unfortunately, the claiming took a while to come. In fact, unclaimed Apollo kids who arrived at camp after Lee were claimed before him.

After he was claimed, Lee was excited to finally know where he belonged. However, he couldn’t help but feel like Apollo didn’t care about him or live him as much as his other kids. While other Apollo kids received quests, had their prayers answered by Apollo, or even got to meet him once or twice, Lee has never met Apollo or received any quests from him directly.

Lee missed the pre-TLT trip to Mount Olympus because he was helping another camper out with one of their quests. Lee decides to try and gain his father’s attention/respect by becoming the best he can be at his skills. He trains hard to become one of CHB’s best archers and his poetry is incredible; he has a special poetry book full of his best work. Lee’s siblings (and other friends at camp) love him and really look up to him, especially Michael Yew. I like to think that the two could be close, and regularly train at the archery range together. But while Lee appreciates his siblings’ love and attention, it doesn’t make up for Apollo’s absence.

If I remember correctly, Apollo drops Percy, Thalia, and the Hunters off at CHB before leaving in Titan’s Curse. Lee hears about this after the fact, and is so angry about him missing such a close chance to finally interact with his father in a meaningful way. As Apollo continues to ignore Lee, Lee grows more bitter over the years, despite his siblings and friends continuously trying to cheer him up. He even writes some sad poetry to express his feelings. When some of the campers start to talk about joining Kronos prior to BoTL, Lee genuinely considers going with them, as he wonders what makes the gods worth fighting for.

Just as he is deciding to leave, he has a heartfelt talk with some of the siblings in his cabin, including Michael Yew and Will Solace. Lee realizes how much he loves his siblings and friends at CHB and how much they’ve supported him. He decides that while the gods might not be worth fighting for, his friends and siblings certainly are. Lee enters BoTL, ready to defend the camp with his life, and that’s exactly what happens. He takes on more monsters than he can handle to protect his siblings, and ends up being taken down.

His siblings grieve him deeply and promise to never forget the hero he was. As an epilogue to Lee’s story, I know this didn’t explicitly happen in ToA, but I like to think that one of his siblings brought up Lee to Lester/Apollo while Lester was at CHB during The Hidden Oracle. Perhaps they even show Apollo Lee’s poetry book. As Apollo reads through the book, he’s very impressed, but notices that the poems get sadder and sadder, and are referring to Apollo not caring about Lee. Apollo notices the last page of the book is empty and asks what happened. The kids reveal to Apollo that Lee died in the BoTL before he could finish the book. It devastates Apollo to discover that Lee died believing that Apollo didn’t care about it; Apollo spends a long time feeling like an awful father.

At the end of ToA, Apollo honors some of his kids who have died recently, including Lee and Michael, by writing a heartfelt memorial poem on the last empty page of Lee’s poetry book. The end of the poem also honors the Apollo kids who are still alive, and Apollo ends the poem with a few lines where he promises to contact his children more. While Apollo’s affection came far too late, Apollo wants Lee to know that he was an awesome kid, and that Apollo is proud of him and all of his children.

- Michael Yew: Michael Yew is another hard one. While he definitely has more of a personality than Lee or Katie, it’s hard to think of an arc for him that matches his personality and the theme of his death. But here’s what I’m thinking (sorry if it’s not great!): Michael is known for being on the shorter side, but offering lots of attitude to compensate for his height. He also holds on to that chariot dearly, only letting it go when he realized that the battle was more important.

So here’s an arc: Michael dreams of being a great hero, the kind that people praise for their strength and wit during battle and talk about for years to come. However, when most people think of heroes, they think of big strong macho guys, not little guys like Michael. Michael is insecure about his stature and physique, so he tries to compensate through his personality and his battle skills. In addition to his attitude, Michael is slightly cocky and arrogant. He puts himself on a pedestal, tries to act like more than what he is. He can also be a little reckless in battle; he occasionally ignores the danger of a situation if it means getting to have his heroic moment.

Michael trains hard with Lee and becomes a great archer. He’s not quite as good as Lee, but he’s still pretty good. Now, Michael got claimed much faster than Lee did and he was on the pre-TLT trip to Olympus where he got to meet his dad, so Michael knows Apollo cares about him. However, while Michael has helped others on their quest, he’s never had a chance to lead his own. He dreams of this, as it would be a chance to show off his skills and his leadership.

After Lee’s death, Michael becomes the new leader of the Apollo cabin, a role he takes seriously as he continues to try and prove himself. However, Michael’s attitude and arrogance come into play again a little bit, always looking for a chance to shine. His siblings tell him that he’s doing a little too much, but Michael doesn’t listen.

When the summer of TLO comes and quests are thrown out the window in favour of the raids, Michael is actually excited, because the chance that he will get to lead raids like he’s always wanted is more likely. However, the leadership thing doesn’t really work out because other counselors who already have experience leading (Annabeth, Percy, Clarisse, etc.) usually take charge. However, in the quest with the Ares cabin, Michael finds his moment to shine and ends up being a major hero in the battle. As he finally gets his moment of glory, Michael feels that as the “hero” of the raid, the chariot is his to keep, but as we know, Clarisse disagrees. The argument plays out the same way it did in canon, while emphasizing Michael’s arrogance.

As the campers are getting ready to leave for Manhattan as per Percy’s request, some kids in the Apollo cabin suggest to Michael that he should give Clarisse the chariot. When Michael demands to know why, his siblings tell him that it’s critical for the Ares cabin to be there if they go into battle, and that the chariot and his personal glory as a hero is not worth their absence.

At first, Michael disagrees, but then he does some self-reflecting not only on the chariot, but also on the qualities of a true hero. He really doesn’t want to let it go because the chariot is like a symbol of personal glory to him. However, he realizes that trying to shine as a hero isn’t the most important thing in the world; what matters is all the campers coming together. He tries to make peace with Clarisse by the chariot, but as it happens in canon, Clarisse holds on to her grudge, and Michael gets mad at her.

The battle begins and Michael’s on the bridge with his siblings. Michael is trying his best to lead and takes on the bulk of the monsters, but they’re struggling a lot and a lot of his siblings are getting hurt, even killed. In that moment, Michael doesn’t feel like much of hero; he feels like he’s losing and that the battle is impossible. Thankfully, Percy and Annabeth show up and things play out as they did in the books, right up until the beginning of the bridge scene. Michael’s siblings are trying to get to safety on the Manhattan side of the bridge, and Michael knows that he should probably get down and join them. However, he notices that the bridge is weak and comes up with a brilliant plan. Michael realizes that if the plan works, they’ll earn a win over Kronos by stopping him and his army from crossing over. Not only will this save them, but it’ll be a plan that Michael came up with. It’s a heroic moment that Michael has trouble resisting, even after his self-reflection from earlier.

Percy tells Michael to go but Michael ignores the request and informs Percy about the bridge. While Percy considers the plan and then goes to execute it, Michael has a split second chance to get off the bridge. But he’s so caught up in seeing his plan work out and watching the bridge collapse, that he doesn’t notice the cables giving way underneath him. He falls and smacks his head on one of the metal rods on the bridge, which renders him unconscious so that he doesn’t scream when he falls silently into the water. He ends up drowning In the river.

When Michael Yew’s death is confirmed, his siblings honor him as a hero. However, when they give their euology, they emphasize that what made Michael a great hero wasn’t necessarily how cool he was in battle. It was his better moments, like comforting Lee, and giving up the chariot if it meant getting Clarisse to come. This is what he is remembered for.

Sorry, I know this arc is kind of lame. I also know that it implies Michael is to blame for his death. However, I just couldn’t think of a reason as to why Michael would stay on the bridge long enough for it to collapse and take his life. Even as he fell, he could have jumped or even resurfaced in the water and yelled for help. The logistics of his death are really sketchy, so I did what I could.

- Will Solace: So out of all the tertiary characters in PJO, Will is the most fleshed out due to his newfound importance within the Solangelo ship. However, I’m going to be honest: I do not like Will’s canon personality. Therefore, I’m going to deviate from canon big-time and cook up a different Will in this post.

When I envision a boy who’s into healing/medicine, I imagine a much softer and sweeter person who pushes people when they need to be pushed, but in a gentle loving way (so more therapeutic). I also envision Will as a slightly flirty guy who enjoys romance a lot, and fantasizes about his ideal relationship all the time. Lastly, given his role as a son of Apollo and his light-related powers, my imagined arc for Will is all about toxic positivity, and his challenges dealing with the darker sides of being a half-blood.

Additionally, this version of Will Solace is a fairly sheltered kid. He lives in a part of the country where there isn’t much monster activity and crime/tragedy etc. He grew up in a relatively happy family…no significant trauma, abuse, neglect, relationship issues, etc. As a result, Will is a pretty optimistic, happy-go-lucky person who’s almost never in a bad mood. He always looks for the bright side in everything.

However, while Will’s optimism is generally a good thing, he sometimes falls into the trap of toxic positivity, where he pushes away darker topics and serious conversations in favour of keeping things light. This initially makes him a hard person to have nuanced conversations with, as he tends to dodge the issue at hand. Will also does this with himself. Whenever he feels sad or dark feelings, he refuses to do emotional reflection. He just bottles up whatever he’s feeling and forces himself to be “happy”.

Will is forced to confront the darker aspects of demigod life and life in general when he arrives at CHB the first time. As he talks to new friends and siblings about their backgrounds and learns more about the gods and the Greek world, he realizes there’s a lot of dark conflicts going on around him. In addition, as a healer, demigods don’t just come for healing with physical injuries. They also tend to talk about their emotional scars as well.

As much as Will cares for his siblings and friends. he finds all of the trauma overwhelming, and pushes it away as much as possible with toxic positivity. To him, anything can be fixed by just choosing to be happy and focusing on positive things. His siblings try to point out this toxic positivity and ignorant bliss, but Will doesn’t understand at first. To him, there’s nothing wrong with choosing to focus on happy things instead of dwelling on difficult feelings.

However, as the conflict with Kronos progresses, more battles happen, and more and more demigods get injured and killed. Campers open up about their grief of losing friends to death or to Kronos’ army, and Will finds it harder and harder to keep acting like these issues aren’t happening. All the feelings he’s bottled up come spilling out in BoTL (a recurring theme in this post, as you’ve noticed). Following the battle, there are a lot of dead demigods to assess, and a lot of injured demigods to try and heal. The healers from the Apollo cabin are working overtime and are struggling to attend to everyone. Will tries his absolute best to save as many demigods as possible, but some of the injuries are just too grave to fix.

The worst is Lee Fletcher. Will is tasked with trying to save his older half-brother and Will overextends himself trying to fix Lee’s injury. Unfortunately, it was never going to work as Lee was already almost dead anyway. After watching his brother die, Will’s first reaction is to do what he’s always done: bottle up the bad feelings. His siblings notice this and tell Will that it’s okay to not be positive all the time, and sometimes the best healing comes from facing sad and dark feelings instead of running from them. Will finally breaks down and sobs, letting out all the fears and worries about the dark side of being a demigod that he has kept inside over the years. His siblings give him advice on how to handle and overcome these dark moments.

Between BoTL and TLO, Will starts to change. He doesn’t lose his optimistic outlook, but he stops running away from difficult topics and conversations. He slowly becomes one of the best healers at camp not just for physical injuries, but because he’s now able to talk to people about emotional stuff as well.

This comes in handy during TLO after Michael Yew dies and the Apollo cabin is an emotional mess after losing another counselor within a year. Will is very nervous about being the new counselor; he’s not a renowned archer like Lee Fletcher or Michael Yew and doesn’t think that he will be as useful in battle. However, Will finds his groove as the battle progresses. His archer siblings take care of the battle stuff while he focuses on healing, and using his newfound coping skills, he’s able to console his siblings and keep the cabin (and camp!) together emotionally until the war is won.

These coping skills that Will has learned within this arc complement his future relationship with Nico. Nico’s status as a child of Hades causes people to fear him because of the creepiness of Hades’ domain and Nico’s powers. However, Will is one of the few campers that has no issues with Nico because Will has gotten better and better with confronting uncomfortable things. In addition, his therapeutic skills come in handy when talking to Nico about his trauma and emotional hardships. Rather than the snappy/angry Will that we get in BoO, we have a softer Will who validates Nico’s feelings and experiences, but gently pushes him to see that he is cared for and that there are people who want to be his friend, especially Will.

- Jake Mason: Jake Mason’s arc is all about living in the shadow of Charles Beckendorf.

As the anchor of the camp, Charlie is not only loved by all the other campers, he’s loved by his siblings. People admire his personality, his engineering skills, his looks, everything. As a result, the Hephaestus kids start using Charlie as the standard to live up to, especially when they’re building inventions. “What would Beckendorf do?” quickly becomes the motto of the cabin.

Jake Mason has mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Charlie is a great guy and totally deserves this kind of praise. And Jake really admires him too. On the other hand, as the next oldest sibling, Jake feels a lot of pressure to be just like Charlie and to do everything the way Charlie would do it. Jake has a hard time with this because he’s not as talented as Charlie and he has a different way of doing things.

This becomes a major issue in TLO after Beckendorf dies and Jake becomes the new cabin counselor. Not only is Jake grieving, but now he has to lead his cabin mates in war while they’re all grieving as well. Since everyone misses Charlie, Jake feels a TON of pressure to be Beckendorf 2.0, and he’s not very good at it. His siblings don’t mean to add to the pressure; they just really miss Charlie and are accidentally projecting that onto Jake. Things come to boil during the battle of Manhattan when Jake tries to build and use an invention that Charlie designed. Unfortunately, Jake did not build it correctly and the invention ends up failing, leading to the Hephaestus kids nearly losing the skirmish and needing to be rescued by other campers.

After this, Jake goes to sulk. Nyssa Barrera and Will come after him, and he talks to them about all the pressure he’s been feeling to be just like Charlie. Will tells Jake that he knows how he feels - Will has also worried about not being enough like Lee or Michael. Will also tells Jake that he can’t be anything other than himself, and that he should focus on what he is good at instead of what Charlie was good at, just like how Will focused on his healing. Nyssa apologizes to Jake on behalf of the cabin for putting so much pressure on him to be just like Charlie, and she tells Jake that they appreciate him exactly as he is. She also supports Will’s message of focusing on what he can do.

Jake takes this advice and builds his own invention his way, instead of the way Charlie would have done it. When it’s time for battle, the invention seems like it’s going to fail at first, but it ends up pulling through, and the Hephaestus kids win the skirmish. Jake grows a lot in confidence and leads the cabin through the rest of the battle using his own style of leadership instead of trying to copy Beckendorf.

- Drew Tanaka: So like many fans, Drew’s canon character disappoints me because I’m tired of all the girly girls in this franchise being depicted as mean or shallow with no additional depth. I’m okay with Drew starting out as mean/rude girl but I want there to be more to her character.

My arc for Drew is her struggle with Silena’s betrayal. Prior to Drew’s first arrival at camp, she struggled with making true friends. Most of her friendships were based on shallow things, like wanting to be pretty and popular. This changes when she comes to CHB and meets some of the nicer girls in the Aphrodite cabin, including Silena. Silena is incredibly sweet: she looks out for all the girls in the cabin, is always willing to give a helping hand, is always offering a shoulder to cry on, is always willing to give her siblings advice about beauty, fashion, romance, and is just a good friend in general.

Despite Drew’s more blunt personality, she enjoys spending time with Silena because Silena shares her interests but also offers her a friendship with kindness and love. Silena’s motto of “spreading love and beauty” makes Drew admire her a lot. Drew and Silena grow really close as they get older; they’re practically besties and hang out together when Silena isn’t with Beckendorf. They shop together, do each other’s makeup and hair, help each other pick out clothes, bedazzle their weapons together, etc. They talk about everything under the sun; light-hearted stuff like makeup and clothes, and deep stuff like their family backgrounds and the gods maybe not being so great. Lastly, there are these matching charm bracelets that the girls share. One of the charms on the bracelet is of two girls holding hands. Silena and Drew both have this matching charm as a symbol of their friendship.

Aside from Charlie, Drew is the only other camper to suspect weird behavior with Silena as the story progresses. During one of their more serious conversations, Silena says some things that make it sound like she’s siding with Luke and the Titan army. This is because Silena is feeling insecure about her spying and is secretly trying to seek validation for her actions. Drew finds this odd and shuts Silena down; as far as Drew is concerned, Kronos is evil and there’s no siding with him. Drew is surprised that Silena would even bring this up. After all, Kronos/Luke has harmed a lot of demigods and as a sweetheart, Silena should show more empathy about that. Silena feels bad about getting shut down and doesn’t bring up the topic again.

During Silena’s death in the canon story, Drew was not present. However, in this version of her arc, she is present when Silena dies. Drew is shell-shocked and heartbroken when Silena reveals that she is the spy; she can’t believe that her sister would betray everyone at camp like this, including her own siblings. When Clarisse insists that Silena is a hero, Drew is the is the first to openly push back against this narrative. She argues back and forth with Clarisse about the extent and the awfulness of what Silena has done, including the fact that the spying led to Charlie’s death and the harm of other campers. She vows that she will never view Silena as a hero, and runs away from the scene in tears.

When Silena’s shroud is being burned at the end of the battle, Drew hangs back and doesn’t follow her cabin to burn the shroud, a symbol of her refusal to forgive Silena. Clarisse tries to talk to her about it, but Drew shuts her down. When Drew becomes the new cabin counselor, she does everything in her power to get rid of Silena’s influence; she changes a bunch of cabin rules and traditions that Silena had implemented. This makes Drew’s siblings upset, but Drew doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to be reminded of Silena whatsoever and she doesn’t believe in honoring traitors.

At the end of the summer before she goes home, Drew is standing alone in the cabin. She looks at the friendship charm on her bracelet, and thinks about everything that happened with Silena that summer. She thinks about how much she valued Silena for her kindness and true friendship, only to find out that Silena was betraying her and the camp all along. Drew starts to cry and rips the charm off her bracelet in anger. She tosses it in the garbage and leaves camp for the summer.

Drew’s arc concludes in HoO when Piper comes along. In order to have Drew’s arc play out how I want it, some of Piper’s story has to change. However, I’m not interested in the HoO characters for this post, so I won’t go in depth on how Piper’s arc changes, but just know that this version of Piper is also a deviation from canon. In this version of the story, things are still messy in the Aphrodite cabin, with Drew having changed a lot of cabin rules. and with her personality souring a lot since last summer. Prior to Piper’s quest, things play out similarly to how they did in the books but this time, with more emphasis on how Drew’s heartbreak regarding Silena is influencing her behavior.

When Piper returns from the quest, rather than having that classic “new girl stands up to mean girl moment”, Piper insists on figuring out why Drew acts the way she does. A heated argument occurs between the two girls until Piper says the phrase “spreading love and beauty”. This reminds Drew of Silena and Drew breaks down in tears. She reveals to Piper that Silena used to say something similar, and finally opens up about her heartbreak regarding Silena. Drew specifically mentions that she brought back the heartbreaking tradition because Silena’s betrayal made her very pessimistic about things like true love. Piper, Drew and the Aphrodite siblings have a heartfelt conversation about love, heartbreak, and why Silena might have done what she did. After the convo, Drew is not quite ready to call Silena a hero, but she has a lot more empathy towards Silena than she did before.

Drew’s arc ends with some of the Aphrodite kids revealing that they saw the charm that she tossed out last summer and decided to hang on to it. Drew accepts the charm back, symbolizing her finally making peace with Silena’s actions and death, and forgiving Silena to some extent. She peacefully offers the counselor position to Piper, stating that she (Drew) could use a break, and that Piper would make a great counselor. In addition, Drew helps Piper reinstate some of Silena’s cabin traditions.

- Malcolm Pace: Malcolm’s arc is inspired by the idea that he is a good battle strategist and the fact that kids who academically excel often struggle with perfectionism.

Like most Athena kids, Malcolm is pretty good with all academic subjects, but his favorites are modern history, especially warfare and military conflicts. In particular, he likes to study the battle strategies used during those conflicts. Malcolm’s goal is to become one of the best battle strategists at Camp Half Blood. While his siblings are good at coming up with plans for smaller monster encounters, Malcolm focuses more on large-scale battles. He studies formations, battlefield weapons, military strategies, and other things.

Malcolm’s personality is the following; he’s generally a kind person, but he can be a little snooty at times, like most Athena kids. He doesn’t make fun of anyone for being uneducated, but he does get annoyed when he hears dumb ideas. He’s also very passionate about academia, and his idea of fun is always book or learning-related, like study dates, exploring libraries, watching history movies, etc. Malcolm is also incredibly studious; while other campers are pulling pranks or riding canoes, he’s analyzing battle elements.

Malcolm’s desire to be a top strategist stems from two things:

1) He really wants to impress his mother. Malcolm has never met her, and he wants her to be proud and impressed by him the first time she meets him. Malcolm knows how much Athena admires wisdom and good planning, and him leading the camp to victory in an epic battle using good strategy would be the perfect way to stand out to Athena. He would be a hero not just in terms of strength and prowess, but also in terms of being smart and clever.

2) With the arising conflict with Kronos, battle is becoming more and more likely. Malcolm knows the camp will need help with preparing for battle, and he wants to be the one to do it. Yes, a big part of it is pride and impressing his mom, but he does genuinely care about the camp and wants to protect them.

As the story progresses, Malcolm gets a couple of chances to show off his knowledge starting in SoM against the monsters invading camp; he does pretty well and his plans help the campers take down the monsters. Malcolm is proud of himself, but in his eyes, these are just small conflicts. He wants to prove himself in a real major battle.

He gets his chance when BoTL rolls around and the campers learn of a possible invasion. While Malcolm is of course afraid for the camp, he knows that this is his major chance to prove himself as a strategist by outwitting the Titan army. While Percy and co. are on the quest, Malcolm is planning like crazy. He’s scouting the area around Zeus’ fist, he’s analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each cabin, he’s looking at the placement for canons and other battlefield weapons, he’s mapping out offensive and defensive strategies.

The day of the invasion arrives, and Malcolm believes that he’s ready and that his plans will lead to victory. Unfortunately, Malcolm misses a few details in his planning due to stress and overworking himself. In addition, he has not planned for certain things with the Titan army, such as Kampe. As a result, Malcolm’s plan starts to fall apart partway through the battle. He tries his best to salvage it, but it doesn’t work out, and this leads to the deaths of a few campers.

After the battle, Malcolm is devastated and feels that he failed big time. However, because of pride, he is too ashamed to acknowledge what went wrong and refuses to talk to anyone about his plan falling apart. He decides to just ignore the whole thing and pretend that it never happened.

Unfortunately, Malcolm is forced to confront his failure when Athena chooses to visit him for the first time at the end of the summer when everyone has gone home. Athena is visiting Malcolm out of concern for his mistakes made during the invasion. Athena feels that these mistakes were very avoidable and were a big oversight on Malcolm’s part. She is even moreso disappointed that Malcolm has chosen to ignore the whole thing. She tells Malcolm that she has high expectations for him and wants to him to wisen up, as more battles will come and Malcolm will need to get it together. After Athena vanishes, Malcolm cries; he imagined his first meeting with Athena being a much happier one, but all she did was express disappointment, which makes Malcolm feel like a huge failure.

Over the next year, Malcolm’s perfectionism kicks in and he goes overboard with the studying and analyzing; he refuses to do almost anything else, not even sleep. In addition, he becomes hypercritical of himself, beating himself up for every mistake, even the little ones. His siblings, especially Annabeth, become concerned, but he doesn’t listen. He refuses to fail again, and will do anything to show Athena that he can do this. Unfortunately, this lack of balance isn’t good long term, and Malcolm starts to slip. During the raids in the summer of TLO, he has a hard time focusing in battle and starts making more and more mistakes, which he beats himself up for.

This vicious cycle comes to a boil during the battle of Manhattan. When the campers realize that they’re going to engage in another big battle to defend Manhattan all by themselves, Malcolm realizes how important strategy is going to be and how this will be a second chance for him. In addition, Annabeth will be staying with Percy for the battle, so it’s up to Malcolm to lead the cabin. However, Malcolm isn’t feeling very confident. His strategist skills have felt weak for some time, and he isn’t sure if he can lead the cabin to victory.

When the fighting initially starts, he does okay but is feeling very stressed. During one of the skirmishes midway through the battle, another one of Malcolm’s plans fail, causing him to finally snap and cry out of frustration. When his siblings try to comfort him, he reveals to them that Athena visited him last summer to express disappointment about his failures and he hasn’t had faith in his plans since. His siblings reassure him by sharing some of their own failures with him and reminding him that failure/mistakes are a normal part of gaining wisdom. They tell him that no matter how many mistakes he makes, he is still a smart guy and an awesome strategist.

Malcolm feels very comforted by his siblings, and regains a bit of confidence again. Instead of running away from his failures this time, he sits down and thinks about what is causing his plans to fail, analyzing what went wrong and what went right. He comes up with a new series of plans for the rest of the battle that end up working really well, and Malcolm becomes happy again as he feels he has gained back his mojo.

At the end of the battle, Annabeth congratulates Malcolm and says that he did a fantastic job. At the end of the summer, he gets another visit from Athena, who expresses pride in him for his work during the battle. She reiterates how important it is to not run from one’s mistakes and to keep learning from them, she reiterates that this is wisdom. Malcolm is happy to finally hear his mom say that she’s proud, and goes on to become an excellent strategist.

- Butch Walker/Lou Ellen Blackstone/Clovis: (different minor god kid perspectives)

These mini-arcs are based on different perspectives and experiences the minor god kids could have. We already had Ethan, who joined Kronos army immediately after learning who his godly parent was.

Butch: Butch can be an example of a minor god kid who came to Camp Half Blood and decided to support the gods in the war. This was not an easy decision because the demigods use Iris’ domain for communication all the time, but don’t see fit to give her cabin, something Butch finds disappointing. However, he’s made a lot of good friends at camp and couldn’t imagine siding against them. In addition, rainbows are often a sign of peace, so the idea of carrying out a war doesn’t sit well with him.

Lou Ellen: Lou can be an example of a minor god kid who is initially at CHB, but decides to switch sides. Lou feels that despite being a powerful goddess, Hecate doesn’t get enough respect. When Hecate switches sides, she calls out to Lou to join her and Lou does. However, Lou is one of the campers that Connor and Travis talk to about how Kronos doesn’t really care for them. When Lou realizes this, she questions fighting for Kronos and decides to switch back to CHB, much to Hecate’s frustration. After the war, Lou and Hecate speak about what happened and reconcile.

Clovis: Clovis can be an example of a minor god kid who has known his demigod parent for some time and has always sided with Kronos from the start. When he’s not sleeping, he’s very busy with doing favours for Kronos/Morpheus including helping them recruit demigods by sending messages in people’s dreams or putting enemies to sleep in battle (similar/identical to what happens in one of my favourite PJO fanfics, Daughter of Wisdom. I can’t remember the author’s name at this time but it should come up if you Google it).

In line with the idea that Kronos doesn’t truly care about demigods, Clovis starts being overworked at some point, which exhausts him more and more. He asks for breaks and rest time, but the army doesn’t care; he has work to do. Clovis grows more annoyed with the army over time, even debating quitting. When the titans lose the war but minor kids are welcomed to camp, Clovis feels a sense of relief, as he can now rest and feel safe/welcome.

Aaaaaaaand that’s it! If you read all the way to the end, thank you! I know this was a very long post 😂 Anyhow, I really enjoyed this creative exercise and coming up with story arcs for these characters. If you liked any of the ideas, please let me know. I like writing and want to write my own story someday, so feedback on which arcs were good would be helpful. Thanks!

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moss-the-irishman · 7 months ago

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Riordanverse race/nationality headcanons (Main characters and background characters alike)

This may be a very long post, and I’m throwing in little tidbits about appearances, so with no regard to any particular order, strap in:

(Seriously, this is a huge post)

Edit: Changed Luke from just Korean American to mixed Argentinian/Korean American, inspired by @tagthescullion

The Seven (Including Nico and Reyna):

Percy Jackson: Biracial White/Latino, Cuban American (Sally was born in Havana, she had Percy shortly after moving to the US)

Annabeth Chase: Biracial Black/White, Irish/African American (with Swedish, Ghanaian and Polish descent)

Jason (And Thalia, by extension) Grace: White German American (Beryl moved from Germany to the US)

Piper McLean: Native American, Cherokee

Leo Valdez: Latino, Mexican, Born in Texas

Hazel Levesque: Black, African American, New Orleans (1940's French Creole)

Frank Zhang: Chinese Canadian, Vancouver

Nico Di Angelo: White, Italian with Russian descent, 1920’s Venice

Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano: Latina, Puerto Rican

Camp Half Blood:

Will Solace: Biracial White/Bangladeshi American, Texas

Luke Castellan: Mixed Argentinian/Korean American (Born in the US, May (or Mi-Hee) grew up in a Argentine Korean community in Buenos Aires before she moved to the US and met Hermes)

Malcolm Pace: White with albinism, Scottish, Glasgow

Travis and Connor Stoll: Mixed Scottish and Laotian, Edinburgh (Source: @freddie-77-ao3)(I think in the TV show, they cast two Asian boys as the Stolls, so I've made them Asian)

Alice Miyazawa: Japanese American, Los Angeles

Julia Feingold: White Luxembourger, Luxembourg City

Cecil Markowitz: White Austrian/Northern Irish (Born in Graz, grew up in Belfast since he was two, has dual citizenship)

Katie Gardener: White Scottish, Aberfoyle

Castor and Pollux Vintner: Black, Irish (Pollux is Albino, Castor wasn’t), Donegal

Michael Yew: Mixed Irish and Chinese, Limerick (Granny moved from China)

Lee Fletcher: White Irish, Donegal

Clarisse La Rue: Mixed French/Pakistani American, Arizona (Mother moved from France)

Chris Rodriguez: Afro-Latino, Nicaraguan (Moved to the states when he was seven, lived in the same neighbourhood as Clarisse)

Silena Beauregard: Blasian, African American and Filipino, Mississippi (French descent)

Charles Beckendorf: Black, African American

Jake Mason: White American, Wyoming

Harley Smythe-Davidson: Biracial White/Aboriginal Australian (Source: @freddie-77-ao3)

Nyssa Barrera: Latina, Panamanian, Panama City

Shane O’Doherty: White Irish, Laois

Christopher Chalkevas: White Greek/English (Born in Larissa, moved with his mother to Hackney, London at age five, has dual citizenship)

Clovis Karlsen: Wasian, Welsh (Welsh/Norwegian grandad, Indonesian granny, Source: @ashthenerdtheythem)

Chiara Benvenuti: White Italian, Florence

Alabaster C. Torrington: British Indian, English, Westminster

Lou Ellen Blackstone: Black with vitiligo, British Ghanaian, Birmingham

Drew Tanaka: Japanese American, New York City

Valentina Diaz: Latina, Colombia

Mitchell Singh-Donovan: Mixed Indian and Irish, Cork

Lacy Alfsen: White Danish, Copenhagen

Ethan Nakamura: Japanese, Tokyo

Damien White: White Irish, Northside Dublin

Miranda Gardiner: Vietnamese American, Massachusetts (Distant Irish ancestry)

Billie Ng: Wasian, Irish/Thai Canadian, Toronto (She grew up in Longford till she was seven, then she and her mortal dad moved to Canada)

Sherman Yang: Chinese American, Alaska

Marcus (Mark) Dooley-Wallace: White Irish American, Georgia

Ellis Wakefield: Black, Algerian

Holly and Laurel Victor: Sri Lankan American, Seattle

Meg McCaffery: Wasian, Irish/Vietnamese American

Camp Jupiter:

Dakota Cheshire: Black, Bermudian

Gwendolyn Nunez: Hispanic, Spanish American

Bobby Herrera: Latin American, New Mexico

Lavinia Asimov: White Russian, born in San Francisco

Larry Schumacher: White American, North Carolina

Leila Grunfeld: White American, Colorado

This has been a very exhausting post to make lmao. I gave some of the characters who don’t have canonical surnames my own Hcs for their surnames. Also, I am yet to read through trials of Apollo, so maybe I’ll come later back to add more Roman names to the list.

Tagging my moots that I like to see their opinions for this (as well as the ones I tagged within the list as well):

@aki-bara @ravingcoffeeaddict @ebony-reine-vibes @squiggle3worm @sleep-needer

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bright-eyes-strawberry-lies · 7 months ago

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Top 100 PJO Characters List

I'm totally not procrastinating anything but here's a list of the top 100 most tagged PJO characters on AO3. As usual this doesn't include Magnus Chase or Kane Chronicles. I'm sorry. Today is 5/27/24.

1. Percy Jackson - 30,957

2. Nico di Angelo - 23,414

3. Annabeth Chase - 21,924

4. Will Solace - 14,767

5. Jason Grace - 14,228

6. Piper McLean - 10,759

7. Leo Valdez - 10,122

8. Hazel Levesque - 8,306

9. Frank Zhang - 6,577

10. Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano - 5,728

11. Thalia Grace - 5,676

12. Apollo - 4,840

13. Sally Jackson - 4,783

14. Luke Castellan - 4,484

15. Grover Underwood - 4,330

16. Chiron - 4,102

17. Poseidon - 3,800

18. Hades - 3,341

19. Clarisse la Rue - 2,845

20. Rachel Elizabeth Dare - 2,790

21. Zeus - 2,367

22. Bianca di Angelo - 2,324

23. Dionysus - 2,078

24. Artemis - 2,050

25. Connor Stoll - 2,022

26. Calypso - 1,796

27. Travis Stoll - 1,775

28. Paul Blofis - 1,751

29. Kayla Knowles - 1,729

30. Silena Beauregard - 1,578

31. Hermes - 1,530

32. Aphrodite - 1,502

33. Athena - 1,483

34. Lou Ellen Blackstone - 1,352

35. Hera - 1,195

36. Austin Lake - 1,154

37. Drew Tanaka - 1,152

38. Ares - 1,150

39. Charles Beckendorf - 1,026

40. Octavian - 996

41. Persephone - 987

42. Hestia - 920

43. Katie Gardner - 864

44. Estelle Blofis - 860

45. Tyson - 856

46. Cecil Markowitz - 837

74. Zoe Nightshade - 837

48. Chris Rodriguez - 762

49. Ethan Nakamura - 761

50. Kronos - 755

51. Triton - 750

52. Meg McCaffrey - 685

53. Michael Yew - 627

54. Hephaestus - 625

55. Demeter - 597

56. Malcolm Pace - 586

57. Lee Fletcher - 575

58. Amphitrite - 536

59. Gabe Ugliano - 480

60. Gleeson Hedge - 454

61. Naomi Solace - 418

62. Maria di Angelo - 410

63. Frederick Chase - 409

64. Hecate - 401

65. Mitchell - 363

66. Juniper - 342

67. Pollux - 317

68. Jake Mason - 300

69. Thanatos - 293

70. Nyssa Barrera - 287

71. Lacy - 255

72. Hylla Ramirez-Arellano - 247

73. Dakota - 245

74. Gaea - 239

75. Mrs. O’Leary - 230

76. Blackjack - 212

77. Miranda Gardiner - 212

78. Sherman Yang - 203

79. Bob/Iapetus - 202

80. Tartarus - 199

81. The Fates - 196

82. Castor - 191

83. Eros - 187

84. Nyx - 177

85. Chaos - 176

86. Shel - 174

87. Harley - 171

88. Clovis - 165

89. Tristan McLean - 164

90. Kymopoleia - 160

91. Festus - 159

92. Annabeth Chase’s Stepmother - 153

93. Gwendolyn - 153

94. Beryl Grace - 152

95. Lupa - 152

96. May Castellan - 149

97. Ella - 129

98. Medusa - 129

99. Lityerses - 123

100. Esperanza Valdez - 120

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freddie-77-ao3 · 10 months ago

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Riordanverse in Shades of Rainbow

queer sexualities and genders of various campers, gods, and other characters in the CHB universe.

Percy Jackson- trans guy, he/him. bisexual/biromantic

Annabeth Chase- cis girl, she/her. bisexual/biromantic.

Thalia Grace- non-binary, they/she. lesbian.

Grover Underwood- non-binary, they/he. panromantic/asexual.

Luke Castellan- cis guy, he/him. bisexual/biromantic.

Jason Grace- cis guy, he/him. gay. comp-het hit hard.

Miranda Gardiner- cis girl, she/her. straight.

Katie Gardner- cis girl, she/her. pansexual/panromantic.

Sherman Yang- cis guy, he/him, straight.

Ellis Wakefield- trans guy, he/him/ gay.

Clarisse La Rue- trans girl, she/her. poly and pan.

Malcolm Pace- trans guy, he/him. asexual, queer-- he likes girls and connor. Maybe boys? undecided, he's choosing not to think about it.

Lee Fletcher- trans guy, he/him. gay.

Michael Yew- trans guy, he/him. gay.

Will Solace- trans guy, he/him. bisexual/biromantic.

Austin Lake- cis guy, he/him, undecided.

Kayla Knowles- cis girl, she/her. lesbian.

Reyna Ramirez Arellano- cis girl, she/her. asexual, homoromantic.

Charles Beckendorf- cis guy, he/him, poly, bi.

Jake Mason- cis guy, he/him, bi.

Leo Valdez- cis guy, he/him, pan.

Nyssa Barerra- cis girl, she/her. lesbian.

Silena Beauregard- cis girl, she/her. poly, bi.

Drew Tanaka- trans girl, she/her. asexual, aromantic.

Piper McLean- cis girl, she/her. lesbian with a lot of comp-het.

Connor Stoll- non-binary, they/them. doesn't know, doesn't care. if you ask them, they'll start thinking, and then get distracted by something completely different. they're asexual though.

Travis Stoll- cis guy, he/him, bi.

Chris Rodriguez- cis guy, he/him, poly, bi (leaning toward guys)

Cecil Markowitz- trans guy, he/they. gay.

Nico di Angelo- cis guy, he/him, gay.

Lou Ellen Blackstone- trans girl, she/her. aromantic lesbian.

Hazel Levesque- cis girl, she/her. bicurious.

Clovis- trans guy, he/him. queer but doesn't care any more about it.

Frank Zhang- cis guy, he/him, straight.

Mitchell- trans guy, he/him. gay.

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sunshinelivesforever · 8 months ago

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PJO + HOO + TOA Characters Mood Boards:

Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood

Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan

Clarisse La Rue, Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf

Nico di Angelo, Bianca di Angelo and Zoë Nightshade

Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Calypso

Travis Stoll, Connor Stoll, Katie Gardner and Miranda Gardiner

Castor and Pollux

Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew

Will Solace and Malcolm Pace

Ethan Nakamura and Chris Rodriguez

Heroes of Olympus

Jason Grace, Piper McLean and Leo Valdez

Gleeson Hedge, Butch Walker and Clovis

Drew Tanaka, Lacy and Mitchell

Nyssa Barrera, Jake Mason and Harley

Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang and Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano

Dakota, Michael Kahale and Leila

Lou Ellen Blackstone and Cecil Markowitz

Trials of Apollo

Lester Papadopoulos and Meg McCaffrey

Kayla Knowles and Austin Lake

Paolo Montes, Chiara Benvenuti and Damien White

Billie Ng and Valentina Diaz

Alice Miyazawa and Julia Feingold

Ellis Wakefield and Sherman Yang

Holly Victor and Laurel Victor

Hemithea, Josephine, Georgina and Lavinia Asimov

Currently Undergoing Editing...

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collagedotorg · 7 months ago

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Collage Masterpost Part 1

This list will be organized by genre/fandom, and within those sections each collage will be individually linked. This Part Covers Riordanverse and Part 2 will have everything else. I can't pin them both but the link to Part 2 is here: Masterpost P2

Riordanverse

PJO/HoO/ToA

Percy Jackson

Annabeth Chase

Grover Underwood

Nico di Angelo

Jason Grace

Leo Valdez

Piper McLean

Hazel Levesque

Frank Zhang

Apollo/Lester Papadopolous

Thalia Grace

Luke Castellan

Will Solace

Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

Zöe Nightshade

Bianca di Angelo

Clarisse La Rue

Silena Beauregard

Charles Beckendorf

Lee Fletcher

Michael Yew

Katie Gardner

Chris Rodriguez

Meg McCaffrey

Octavian

Castor & Pollux

Ethan Nakamura

Calypso

Lou Ellen Blackstone

Travis and Connor Stoll

Malcolm Pace

Alabaster C. Torrington

Juniper

Cecil Markowitz

Sally Jackson

Clovis

Camp Half Blood

The Broken Trio (Luke, Annabeth, Thalia)

Camp Jupiter

Hylla Ramirez Arellano

Sherman Yang

Drew Tanaka

Chiara Benvenuti

Damien White

Blanche

Miranda Gardiner

Lityerses

Dakota

Paolo Montes

Julia Feingold & Alice Miyazawa

Harley

Jake Mason

Mitchell

Holly & Laurel Victor

Kayla Knowles

Nyssa Barrera

Ellis Wakefield

Lavinia Asimov

Valentina Diaz

Solangelo

The Seven (Plus Nico and Reyna)

Cabin 13

Cabin 14

Cabin 16

Cabin 19

Percy Jackson x Taylor Swift

Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+

The Kane Chronicles

Sadie Kane

Carter Kane

Bast

Anubis

Walt Stone

Zia Rashid

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

Alex Fierro

Magnus Chase

#collage #pinterest #masterlist #masterpost

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imaginechb · 2 years ago

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Character Playlist Masterlist

Aka Rae made a promise to make a playlist for every character (no matter how minor) at CHB, CJ, etc. and now they have to stick to this promise.

Percy Jackson

Annabeth Chase

Grover Underwood

Thalia Grace

Clarisse La Rue

Chris Rodriguez

Bianca di Angelo

Nico di Angelo

Will Solace

Michael Yew

Lee Fletcher

Malcolm Pace

Travis Stoll

Connor Stoll

Julia Feingold

Valentina Diaz

Katie Gardner

Charles Beckendorf

Silena Beauregard

Luke Castellan

Ethan Nakamura

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

Zoë Nightshade

Castor

Pollux

Clovis

Tyson

Sally Jackson

Chiron

Calypso

Drew Tanaka

Jason Grace

Piper McLean

Leo Valdez

Hazel Levesque

Frank Zhang

Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

Dakota

Gwendolyn

Octavian

Coach Hedge

Juniper

Ella

Lacy

Mitchell

Lou Ellen Blackstone

Jake Mason

Nyssa Barerra

Butch Walker

Sammy Valdez

Lester Papadopoulos

Meg McCaffrey

Austin Lake

Kayla Knowles

Cecil Markowitz

Paolo Montes

Sherman Yang

Holly Victor

Laurel Victor

Harley

Emmie

Josephine

Georgina

Lityerses

Crest

Herophile

Lavinia

#pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #hoo #heroes of olympus #toa #trials of apollo #percy jackson #pjo hoo toa #chb #camp jupiter

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pain-is-too-tired · 5 months ago

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You know what, should've done this last month,but heck I'm combining stuff for this month as well so-

Queer and Disabilitiy hcs for PJO characters

(I'll be mostly mentioning physical disabilities, but pretty much all characters are adhd and dyslexic(and ptsd) and will probably add lot as autistic so gdgd.)

Percy

I havnt really thought much on his Sexuality and such, maybe Bi?

Think he at least suffers from some form of asthma/ breathing related disability due to Tarturus. Drinking fire can not be good for your throat,definitely sleep apnea. Maybe back/ muscle problems from strain of holding up the sky? Not sure what that might do to someone tbh hdgd

Annabeth

Same as Percy pretty much, don't think much on her Sexuality and identity before and the same experience in Tarturus and the Sky holding stuff.

Think she also has some what of a permanent injury with her ankle/leg. At least enough to effect how she walks and such.

Also. Autistic, maybe ocd?

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

Aroace. I stand by that.

Also, her visions I feel like could be enough to be considered a disability. Maybe similar to Epilepsy? Since it can happen randomly and she collapses from it and all that. Like yeah it's part of her job description, but still hard to find a human job with that I feel.

Piper

Queer/Unlabeled, pretty much canon.

Leo

Demiromantic Graysexual

Probably some muscle issues and such post death? Or something like Fibromyalgia or Neuropathy

Autistic

Jason

Apagender(Gender Apathetic, just think he really don't care too much on how he's perceived gender wise-) Nebularomanic and Pansexual. Constant confused feeling of "do I like them or are we just really close friends-" feels fitting to him. Gdgdf

Also, canonically needs glasses. I feel probably partly due to getting hit in the head so often fgdf

(Also I could see him with visual snow/ static)

Maybe heart problems related to the use of electricity effecting his body? Like POTS or something hdgd

Also. Autism.

Nico

Gay(canon)

Similar lung problems as Percy and Annabeth cause Tarturus. Probably more issues related to being in a death coma in a jar. When he shadow travels/uses his powers too much he passes out cause of low electrolytes and blood sugar(cue Gatorade and Kitkats)

(most demigod abilities uses your electrolytes and sugar/carbs but powerful ones like shadow traveling where your form literally shifts uses more. In this essay I will-)

Also. ✨️Tism✨️

Will

Bi(canon)

I do love the hard at hearing hcs ngl hdgdf

After tsats,probably has same lung issues.

When using his healing also feel he uses a lot of his own needed electrolytes/vitamins and such which can give him a deficiency depending on how often he's doing it

Also Tism

Kayla

Aroace(I can not explain why if feel this fits but I do)

Type 1 Diabetes. Uses Insulin pump, Will has to stay on her case about keeping up with it fsgdg

Lee

He/They

Panromantic Graysexual

For the short time after, had complications from an injury from the Drakon fight.

Michael

Demi

Tism(especially sensory issues with sounds)

Jake

Queer(canon? We know he came out but nothing else. So you know what? I give him Queer label cause I can and feel like it'd fit him.)

Honestly probably so many problems from injuries. My man was in a full body cast guys.

Tbh, feel like all the Hephaestus cabin is Autistic. Feel in my bones.

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dinobec · 3 years ago

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Part 4 of the PJO TV Ideas

We are again at my favourite book and current (re)read.

THE LAST OLYMPIAN

Spoilers as always

We are at the end of Chapter 10

Percy appears out of the water and starts walking over to Annabeth who was talking on her phone, looking shaken.

Percy thinks out load what’s going on.

The camera suddenly shows different locations around the city showing different characters fighting with this ticking sound in the background

Something like:

Tick - tick - tick - Boom

A four count beat (to start)

Example of this scene:

It cuts to Travis:

Block block block slice

Transition

Now to Katie and Pollux (Dionysus cabin {cabin as in singular person} would totally go with the Demeter)

*Vine appears*- *grape Vine appears* - *Vine appears* monster being compressed by the two explosions on the boom

And so forth but it gets faster and faster until it is just boom boom boom boom

The final two are the most dramatic with the boom that just gets more constant and louder and you just see these black boots walking aloud a round that goes for 8 counts. Then it cuts

the final group that it will show is the Apollo cabin it is only showing there side of the bridge and their faces

Arrow- Arrow - Arrow- Roar.

You here Michael run to get a phone and start to call Annabeth.

When a voice over starts of Percy and Annabeth’s conversation starts. The camera slowly pans around while this is said

(Straight from the book)

‘It worked,’ I told her ‘the rivers are safe.’

‘Good,’ she said. ‘Because we’ve got other problems. Michael Yew just called. Another army is marching over the Williamsburg Bridge. The Apollo cabin needs help. And, Percy the monster leading the enemy . . . it’s the Minotaur.’

That’s when the camera lands on the Minotaur and it lets out a load roar.

End of episode

Another one done for this after reading the boom and writing down random ideas that pop into my head series I have started here

Please tell me about any ideas you have for the show or even if you want me to look at a scene from any of the books. I quite enjoy looking at these scenes and letting my brain go wild with ideas.

New part of this my random meme of the day (sorry about the last one {Ha ha not}, Hopefully these two make up for it @shiniest-rusting-wheels )

Two of my favourite shows,

Till next time 😁

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dotshiiki · 5 years ago

Link

Excerpt:

Percy picked the southernmost point on Manhattan to tackle the rivers. It made sense, since this was where the East and Hudson met in one murky, polluted brown churn. I expected him to do something like his exploding toilets trick. It wasn't until he told me, 'Wait here,' that I realised he actually meant to go into the Bay.

'Percy, you shouldn't go alone.'

He raised his eyebrows. 'Well, unless you can breathe underwater ...'

I hated when he was right. 'You are so annoying sometimes.'

He gave me a cheeky grin. 'Like when I'm right? Trust me, I'll be fine. I've got the curse of Achilles. I'm all invincible and stuff.'

Invincible. Achilles must have thought he was, too ... until he wasn't. It occurred to me that maybe Percy had a weak spot, too. I wondered morbidly what it was. Though if he did have one, it probably wasn't a good idea to try and guess.

'Just be careful,' I said. 'I don't want anything to happen to you.'

The words just slipped from my mouth. Percy's grin was saucier than ever. I pushed my hair behind my ear. 'I mean, because we need you for the battle,' I clarified quickly.

'Back in a flash,' he promised.

All this newfound confidence ... it was like an extra-concentrated dose of his occasional cockiness—sharpened to the point of overconfidence. It made my gut twist uneasily as I watched him dive off the sea wall.

#the final sacrifice #daughter of wisdom #percy jackson fanfic #annabeth chase #percy jackson #battle of manhattan #michael yew #silena beauregard #jake mason #connor stoll #malcolm pace #drew tanaka

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tsarisfanfiction · 2 years ago

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The Attack of the Demon Pigeons

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Rating: Teen Genre: Family/Hurt/Comfort Characters: Will Solace, Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew, Apollo Cabin After encountering Stymphalian birds on his way to camp, Will had hoped to never see them again. He certainly hadn't expected to ever encounter them in Camp Half-Blood itself. Okay, so I've thrown TSATS out the window for a lot of reasons, but I did like the potential trauma of what happens when the Stymphalian birds attacked the camp in SOM if Will's already had a bad time with them, so I've snuck an encounter with them into my Will timeline and figured I'd write a fic about the SOM attack from his pov. I have a discord server for all my fics, including this one! If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

Lee hadn’t stopped complaining about the chariot race since it was announced. It wasn’t like Will’s older brother to be so stressed out about a camp activity, and he’d been a little surprised at just how upset he was about the race’s return – at least, until Lee mentioned that it was the reason Marisa only had one arm. Will remembered the previous head counsellor for Ares well, even though she’d left two summers ago. The stump of her right bicep had always looked painful.

Now, Will was worried about it, too. He wasn’t sure why they were even entering – the Vinther twins from cabin twelve had point blank refused, and neither the Aphrodite nor Demeter kids had even considered it – but despite Lee’s vocal dismay they were.

“Be careful,” Lee insisted as Morton and Daisy hitched their two horses up, Michael standing alongside the chariot and counting out arrows.

It was Lee’s insistence that had convinced Michael not to use sharp arrows, too. “We don’t need a repeat of your first summer,” Will had heard him say. “There’s going to be enough work for us to do after the race without you adding to it.” Will hadn’t been around for Michael’s first summer, but he’d heard the stories. Michael, for his part, had rolled his eyes and made a show out of only adding blunted arrows to his quiver.

Blunted arrows were still going to hurt, but Michael had point blank refused to not shoot anyone at all, arguing that they were certainly going to be attacked themselves so why shouldn’t he return the favour, and bruising was much easier to fix than whatever else Lee thought they were going to have to deal with at the end. Will very much hoped there wouldn’t be any limbs torn off this time.

He certainly hoped no-one was going to die.

“You’re good to go,” Daisy said to Morton and Michael, completely ignoring Lee as she held the head of the horse closest to her. She and Morton were the animal-lovers of the cabin – it had been obvious that one of them would be their driver, and Daisy had passed the honour straight over in a sign that she, too, wasn’t happy about the race.

She hadn’t been in camp for the last one, the one that had gone so badly wrong it was immortalised as a golden chariot on a crimson bead on Lee’s camp necklace – Lee and Silena from the Aphrodite cabin were the only ones in camp that had that bead now, the only campers that remembered it happening, rather than simply hearing the stories – but she was one of the rare demigods who had a full-blooded sibling, and her elder sister Emily had been in camp at the time.

Will also didn’t think it was a coincidence that Michael was making up the other half of their chariot team. Not only was he the best archer in the cabin, but he also healed fast. Morton was a faster healer than Daisy, too.

“Then let’s get this over with,” Morton sighed, jumping into the chariot and taking the reins. “Ready, Michael?”

Michael snorted, dropping one last blunt arrow into his quiver and shouldering his bow before lightly springing into the chariot behind him. Seeing his siblings in the chariot showed Will just how not-safe it looked – there was nothing for either of them to hold onto. All Morton had were the reins, which he couldn’t pull on hard otherwise the horses would rear up. Michael had nothing except the side, which he couldn’t hold onto whilst shooting, and his own sense of balance.

“I’ll walk you to the track,” Daisy said. “Lee, if you say be careful one more time I’m gagging you. We get it, stop scaring Will.”

Usually, Lee would make some sort of light-hearted protest about how he was the head counsellor when one of their older siblings – Daisy was eighteen and would be leaving camp to start vet college in the fall – told him what to do, so when his shoulders slumped slightly with a sigh, Will found himself even more worried.

“Sorry, Will,” his brother said, putting an arm around his shoulders before raising his head to look at the rest of their siblings, who were all watching Daisy lead the chariot with their brothers in towards the track. “Let’s get to the stands, guys. We want good seats.”

Good seats apparently did not equate front row seats. Lee firmly shepherded them all near the back of the stands, grabbing Nathan and Robyn by their collars when they tried to head to the front. “Not the front,” he said.

“Aren’t you being a little too paranoid about this?” Nathan grumbled. Will had heard the arguments about why couldn’t he be their fighter earlier – Michael had won by challenging him to a shoot-out. Nathan wasn’t a bad archer (he was certainly better than Will, despite only arriving at camp few months ago), but even in their cabin, no-one came close to Michael.

“If nothing goes wrong and no-one gets badly hurt, then you can complain at me for being too paranoid,” Lee told him. “And I’ll apologise for ruining the race for you. Until then, we’re listening to my ‘paranoia’, as you call it.”

No-one else complained after that.

It wasn’t just Lee who was notably on edge. The other head counsellor that had forced her entire cabin as far back in the stands as possible was Silena, and Will saw her and Lee share a worried look as the Aphrodite kids settled onto the stone steps, most of them apparently completely uninterested in the race.

“Your cabin’s competing?” Will heard Silena ask Lee quietly. “I didn’t think you would.”

Lee’s answer was even quieter and his tone was as dark as Will had ever heard it. “We weren’t given a choice.” His tone lowered even more, until Will could hardly hear what he was saying. “He made sure all the lead cabins in the camp’s defences took part.”

The rest of the campers jostled around on the other steps, all clearly trying to sit as far away from Tantalus as possible, leaving the poor nymphs and satyrs forced to watch as a barrier between them. Will was glad Lee had made sure they were nowhere near their new activities director.

Daisy made her way up to join them as Morton drove the chariot the last few yards onto the track, into a gap between the Ares and Hermes chariots. Will couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could see Michael nocking an arrow as he snapped at the Stoll brothers in the Hermes chariot next to him. Connor was gesturing at the arrow in what looked a lot like protest, but if Lee hadn’t been able to talk Michael down any more than blunted arrows, then someone from another cabin didn’t stand a chance in Tartarus.

Morton seemed determined to ignore everything except their horses, even when Murder (Will had never understood that nickname, but that was Ares kids for you) leaned over the side of his chariot to say something before Clarisse pulled him back with a short command.

Next to Will, Lee was almost vibrating, clearly impatient for the race to be finished already. Will grabbed his hand, and got a squeeze in return.

Below them, the Poseidon chariot’s horses needed calming by Percy – Will guessed they weren’t happy about Tyson, which he thought was entirely fair, the cyclops was big and rather scary – and then finally all the chariots were ready to go.

Movement caught Will’s eye, and he glanced up at the trees. The chariot race seemed to have even drawn in spectating birds, which seemed a little unusual but nothing completely out of the ordinary for camp. Crows and doves in particular were common sights, but there was something about these that put Will on edge.

It was probably Lee’s paranoia rubbing off on him, he told himself, especially when he thought he saw a glint of something shiny – too shiny to be a crow or a dove. He tore his eyes away and forced himself to look at the chariots again as they jostled into their positions on the starting line. Michael had stopped arguing with the Stolls, but his bowstring now had two arrows on it instead of one. Morton’s mouth was moving but Will couldn’t tell if he was talking to Michael or the horses. He certainly wasn’t talking to Clarisse or Murder, who looked like they were having their own last-minute strategy discussion.

More birds flew throught his periphery and he pressed against Lee’s side. They were just normal birds, he told himself. Birds that weren’t normal couldn’t get into camp. They couldn’t. It didn’t matter that he and his siblings all carried bows and full quivers at all times now because sometimes monsters were breaking through the barrier. It didn’t.

Lee let go of his hand and wrapped his arm back around his shoulders again, pulling him in tightly. “Sorry, did I scare you that much?” his brother asked quietly. Will shook his head, then jumped as the birds started to caw.

It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t-

But he knew that sound.

“Will?” Lee sounded worried, and Will looked up to see his brother looking down at him, dark blue eyes filled with concern. “Will, are you okay?”

His quiet question drew the attention of some of the rest of the cabin, and Will swallowed. “I don’t like the birds,” he admitted.

“The birds?” Lee blinked, as though he hadn’t expected that. It wasn’t like Lee didn’t know about the birds that had attacked Will and Thistleberry on their way to camp, but his brother had obviously thought it was something to do with the race. “It’s okay, Will,” he said, a soft smile slipping onto his face as he glanced over towards the birds himself. “They’re just- oh.”

“Oh?” Nathan asked, leaning in and almost crushing Will. “They’re just birds, right? Noisy fuckers.”

“You’ve been spending too much time around Michael,” Daisy muttered. She was ignored.

“Are you going to tell us the birds are making you paranoid, too?” Robyn added. “Should we be ready to shoot them if they startle the horses or something?”

Lee sighed. “Guys,” he said. “I get it, you’re annoyed at me.”

“I don’t like those birds, either,” Daisy backed him up. She knew about Will’s history, too, unlike the other two. “They’re not the normal ones we get around camp.”

The birds were getting louder, and Will burrowed further into Lee’s side. Around him, the rest of the campers were starting to murmur, so it wasn’t just him that was bothered. Lee’s reaction made him think that maybe he wasn’t being paranoid – or maybe Lee was being extra paranoid. Will definitely wished for the second option.

Below them, Tantalus didn’t seem to care about the noisy birds at all as he announced the start of the race, and Will forced himself to watch as the chariots all surged forwards, hoping that the race would go smoothly, that everything was fine-

He shrieked as Travis lurched the Hermes chariot sideways and it smashed straight into the wheel of their golden chariot.

“No!” Lee shouted almost in his ear, but it wasn’t just Lee as they all watched Morton and Michael get thrown out, the wooden chariot splintering. Caught by the reins, Morton’s fall wasn’t clean and Will saw his wrist jerk, clearly breaking as he crashed into the ground.

Michael, unrestrained, ended up in a roll that looked almost controlled as he landed heavily, flipping over until he was on the balls of his feet, bow fully drawn. The nocked arrows flew towards the Hermes chariot, but the Stolls didn’t even notice the shafts tangling in their wheels as the panicking horses cut them off, obliterating their chariot in turn.

Both of them were thrown clear, not too dissimilarly to Morton and Michael, and wisely scrabbled away from both the mess of chariots and panicking horses, and Michael as he stood up, nocking more arrows. Morton was slower to get to his feet, and was obviously cradling his broken wrist as he did so, but next to him, Will felt Lee relax slightly.

They were okay. Michael didn’t seem to be injured at all, although there were probably some bumps and scrapes they couldn’t see, and Morton only seemed to be worried about his wrist. Given Lee’s stories, and Marisa’s arm, it could have been a lot worse.

It was Morton that pulled Michael back from shooting the Stolls again, gesturing with his head to the horses. Daisy was quivering in her seat, and some of the Aphrodite kids – Silena included – were no better, as the four horses kept struggling. The chariots had to get off the track, and the horses needed calming down, but the moment some of them tried to move to go help, Tantalus’ head swivelled around.

"No interference," he reminded them all, voice raised just enough to be heard above the shrieking birds. It sounded a bit like a threat.

Will watched as Morton and Michael approached the wreckage, the Stolls joining them – after putting their hands up in surrender when Michael glared at them and snapped something Will couldn’t hear over the birds – and started trying to free the horses. Morton had the golden touch with the animals, while Michael and the Stolls carefully dodged hooves to cut them loose. Next to Will, Lee had tensed again, and Will could understand why. Horses were dangerous – if any of them took a hoof to the head, they could be killed.

The other chariots were still thundering around the track. Beckendorf and Jake were trying to regain control of their chariot after failing to pull something on Percy and Tyson, while Annabeth and Conrad were barrelling into the lead, pursued by both the Poseidon and Ares chariots.

Will barely noticed any of that, though, because that was the moment the birds attacked.

Someone screamed.

Several someones screamed.

Will was one of them.

He knew these birds, knew those beaks that were tearing at him, getting caught in his hair and digging at his arms as he tried to batter them away before Lee pushed him down, crouching over him as Will curled up into a defensive ball. He was vaguely aware of his siblings moving around him, nocking arrows to strings as further away the cries of shields! came from where the Athena kids had been sitting.

“Stay down, Will,” Lee said, his voice tight. He sounded hurt, and blood dripped onto the stone by Will’s face. Next to him, he heard Nathan swearing.

“I can’t get a clear shot!” one of his other siblings cried – Will thought it might have been Lear but with so much screaming it was hard to tell.

“They’re too close!” someone else shouted.

One of the Aphrodite kids screeched almost as loudly as the birds.

“Group together!” Lee ordered, and Will found himself pulled into a mass of bodies. “Daisy- Michael?”

“I can’t get a fucking shot from the ground!” Will heard Michael yell back. He sounded close, and out of breath. “And I need arrows with fucking points!”

Will’s own quiver dug into his side. He didn’t know where his bow was.

“Michael!” he shouted, fumbling with the strap.

“Will, stay down!” Lee shouted.

“Fuck, Will! Where-” Will unfurled himself enough to spot familiar boots and grabbed at Michael’s ankle. Immediately, beaks tore into his exposed arm, and he half-screamed, half-sobbed. “Fuckers!” his brother swore, lashing out with his other foot and kicking away the birds.

They went for Michael instead, but aside from a constant stream of curses, his brother ignored them as he fought his way past Nathan – who hadn’t stopped swearing, either – to duck down underneath where Lee was still looming over Will. Michael didn’t bother asking if he was okay – he knew, too, about Will’s history with the birds. He staggered, as though something had hit him from behind, and over his shoulder Will saw massive dark wings.

“Stay down,” he snapped when Will tried to move, realising that between Lee and Michael and someone else – Daisy, maybe – he was completely hemmed in by his siblings. Protected by his siblings. The realisation made tears well in his eyes.

“Arrows,” he said, fumbling with his quiver again. He didn’t know where his bow was, couldn’t shoot well enough to take down the birds even if he could – he thought he could, when he’d trained and trained and trained, but now the birds were here and all he could do was cower and tremble and hate himself for being so scared – and Michael needed arrows.

His brother understood.

Michael’s small, deft fingers – they were smaller than Will’s, now, and it had always been obvious that he was going to out-grow Michael one day but he still hadn’t been ready for the day it happened – pushed his out the way and with a quick twist had the buckle loose. “Stay down,” he said again, somehow fastening the quiver around his own waist and dropping his own in the process, before grabbing his bow again. “I’ve got some birds to fucking kill.”

He stood up, amid shouts of no clear shot from their siblings, and snarled.

“Be careful!” Will heard Lee caution.

“Everyone’s got plenty of fucking holes in them already,” Michael snapped. “A few more won’t make any fucking difference.”

“Michael!”

Anything else Lee had to say was drowned out by the sudden explosion of ear-splitting violins at maximum volume. Will recognised one of Chiron’s CDs when he heard it, although he didn’t know which album it was.

The identity of the music was much less important than the cry of “archers!” from somewhere below – Annabeth, of course it was Annabeth that had thought of it – and the ripple that ran through his siblings as they shifted from crouching and cowering to standing up straight. Will poked his head up as well to see the birds fleeing in a dazed cacophony, colliding with each other.

Michael was the first to shoot, what looked like half a quiver nocked to his string. Every single one turned one of the birds into an explosion of dust. Lee was half a second behind him, multiple arrows on his own string, and Will fumbled for his own bow – spotting it lying abandoned where he’d been sat – and arrows from Michael’s discarded quiver as the rest of his siblings followed suit.

Will could only shoot one arrow at a time, and all he had were Michael’s blunted ones, but he still forced himself to join his siblings in sending a hail of shafts into the sky. It turned out that even blunt arrows could hit with enough force to dust some, although they couldn’t do what Michael’s sharp shots were doing and occasionally piercing several with one arrow.

It felt like an eternity before they were all gone, a layer of dust covering the ground and remains of the Apollo and Hermes chariots all that remained of those that hadn’t managed to get out of range fast enough.

The campers were a mess.

Will looked down at his exposed skin, where blood was trickling down from where he’d been pecked, and then at everyone else. No-one was unscathed. Lee had several deep gouges in the back of his neck, and Daisy’s hands were riddled with holes, while Michael’s face dripped red. No-one else was any better off, and Will sank down to sit on the stone steps again shakily.

A warm arm wrapped around him and he looked up to see Lee sitting next to him.

“They’re gone now, Will,” his brother told him. “It’s over.”

“I am going to shoot all fucking birds on sight now,” Michael grumbled on Lee’s other side – Daisy immediately protested, but went ignored, much like the entire Apollo cabin was ignoring Tantalus declaring Clarisse the winner. Will tried to listen to see if he was saying anything about organising triage, but he only seemed to care about talking nonsense instead.

Lee nudged him softly, picking up his arm where it was bleeding and scrutinising it carefully. “Let’s get you healed up,” he said. “We’ll need your help patching everyone else up.” He chanted a prayer to their father, and Will watched as his cuts stopped stinging so badly and started to heal up.

“I’ll start rounding people up for triage once he’s finished loving the sound of his own voice,” Daisy said, jerking her head towards Tantalus, and Lee nodded.

“Thanks,” he said. “Michael, how badly were you and Morton hurt in the crash?”

Michael huffed. “I’m fine,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. Morton’s wrist is fucked and he got a few scrapes but he’ll be fine, too.”

“I take it you didn’t look at Travis and Connor?” Lee asked, sounding a little bemused.

“Of course I fucking didn’t,” Michael grumbled. “Fucking assholes.”

Lee laughed a little. “I’ll catch up with them later,” he said, as Tantalus finally stopped proclaiming how the whole thing was Annabeth, Percy and Tyson’s fault – yet somehow not Conrad’s, despite it supposedly being the Athena and Poseidon chariots to blame – and dismissed them to clear up the mess. “They look fine from up here.”

Will glanced down to see the Stolls taking charge of the Hermes cabin. They had the same red specks as everyone else, but otherwise Lee didn’t seem to be wrong. “They can wait,” he agreed, and Michael smirked. Lee shook his head, but he was smiling, too.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “Michael, you’re on arrow collection duty with Nathan. Don’t shoot anyone, including each other, and if anyone comes to you guys for healing send them to the triage nicely. Even the Stolls, although I think they’ve got better self-preservation than to go near you right now, Michael. Will, you and Robyn are with me in the infirmary. Everyone else, triage – if it’s not bad enough to need healing, clean punctures, put band-aids on and send them towards the other head counsellors to help in clearing this mess. Anyone worse, to the infirmary. No-one’s cleared to give out ambrosia or nectar – if they need it, infirmary. Start with each other. Lear, take over organising the campers from Daisy – I know she’d rather deal with the horses. And make sure Morton comes to the infirmary rather than the stables!”

Will pulled himself to his feet as his siblings dispersed in groups of two or three, checking each other over as they headed for the bulk of the campers.

“You’re hurt,” he said, looking at Lee’s gouges, and his brother smiled reassuringly at him.

“It’s fine,” he promised. “Let’s get to the infirmary first, then you can patch me up, okay? I want to be there before patients start showing up.”

Will eyed the blood dubiously, but Lee pulled him along before he could say anything else. Robyn had already run on ahead, nursing her own wounds as she did so, and Lee forged a path straight to the Big House, dodging around Mr D. when the god made a brief appearance, took in the state of the camp, and disappeared inside again.

All around them there was activity. Silena was pacifying some of her distraught siblings and nudging them towards where Lear had taken over from Daisy in corralling the camp. Will could see why Lee had picked him to do that – he and Daisy were both eighteen, but where Daisy was average height and more interested in making sure the horses were okay, Lear was tall and muscular and willing to wrangle campers. Much like his older brother, Brandon, who had left camp two years ago – like Daisy, he was the younger of a pair of rare full siblings – he was going to be headed straight for the basketball leagues in the fall. Lear was impossible to miss, and difficult to disagree with when he put his foot down.

Clarisse was organising the Ares cabin. None of them had even considered approaching healers, and Will wondered how long it was going to take Lee to hunt them down, but despite their wounds, they were all grimly reorganising what sounded like camp defences. Beckendorf had taken the lead on organising the clear-up of the racetrack, complete with the debris from the destroyed chariots, and from the sound of it was welcoming volunteers from all cabins.

It was almost a relief when they made it to the infirmary, away from the chaos of the camp. Robyn had got there first and was already pulling out bandages and antiseptic wipes in preparation for the long line of patients they were no doubt going to get, and Will made Lee sit down as he inspected his older brother’s wounds.

“You didn’t have to shield me,” he said as he cleaned them, trying to ignore Lee’s wincing. “You or Michael or Daisy or-”

“The older ones shielded all of us,” Robyn interrupted him, depositing vials of nectar on the desk. “It wasn’t just you, Will.” She gestured at the wounds on her own arms. Like him, now that Will looked closely, she didn’t actually have many.

“Older sibling prerogative,” Lee shrugged, wincing again as Will dabbed a bit more at a particularly deep gouge. “Daisy was trying to shelter me, too.” He reached for Robyn’s arm. “Let me look at those while Will deals with me. Don’t think I missed you running on ahead without getting checked out. We’ve talked about this, Robyn.”

“I wanted to get the infirmary ready,” she protested, but obeyed anyway, letting Lee wipe her wounds and chant another little prayer to Apollo. Satisfied that Lee’s wounds were clean, Will hummed his own healing hymn, watching the gouges seal up beneath his hands.

He was done just in time for the first patients to limp through the door.

Despite Lee’s earlier orders that only the seriously injured come to the infirmary, most of the camp passed through their doors at some point. The Ares kids had to be hunted down – Murder’s fingers had been pecked to the bone when he’d apparently tried to hold a camouflage net over himself and Clarisse as a defence, but he hadn’t walked in until Lear had all but picked him up and thrown him through the door – but most came willingly. No-one, it seemed, wanted to run the risk of being scarred by birds. Even most of the Ares kids didn’t seem to think that being pecked was a particularly badass scar story to tell and caved to medical attention eventually.

By the time they were done, Will was exhausted, and Lee and Robyn didn’t seem much better. Their siblings had come to join them once initial triage was over – even Michael had ended up hanging out in the corner after he and Nathan had retrieved all the arrows they could, although most of what he did was to snap at anyone who tried to push ahead in the queue and threaten them with more holes if they disobeyed – but treating the entire camp in the space of a couple of hours was still a tall order.

Tantalus and his side comments about demigods being wimps nowadays didn’t help, either.

Will missed Chiron.

As the last patients – the Stolls, who had been left until last because they weren’t that badly hurt and had made the fundamental mistake of upsetting the healers by knocking two of their own out of a chariot – finally left, Will flopped down onto one of the beds. Robyn flaked out on the floor, while Lee slumped into a chair next to them. Michael shoved a small vial of nectar at each of them, and Will gratefully drank his as he watched Morton, wrist freshly casted, slink out of the door to no doubt join Daisy in the stables with the horses.

“Fucking chariot races,” Michael muttered into the blissful quiet of the emptied infirmary. “I won’t be doing that again.”

Nathan, who had flopped on the floor next to Robyn for no reason other than to keep her company, perked up. “Does that mean I get to be fighter next time?”

“There will be no next time,” Lee grumbled.

“Be my fucking guest,” Michael said at the same time. “See how you like getting thrown out of a fucking chariot.”

He’d refused medical treatment until everyone else – except the Stolls – had been treated, and wasn’t impressed to find out that he’d actually got a light sprain to his ankle which he’d somehow completely missed during all of the excitement. Will and Lee had both chewed him out for not letting them check him over earlier.

“There will be no next time,” Lee repeated firmly.

After that morning, Will was firmly on Lee’s side.

“How are you doing, Will?” Lee asked him after a few moments. He wasn’t asking about Will’s post-healing exhaustion and they both knew it.

Will’s hand curled into a fist. “I was scared,” he admitted. “I couldn’t-” He’d trained to fight them but he’d just hidden.

“Nothing wrong with being scared,” Michael told him bluntly when he broke off, before Lee could say anything. He perched on the side of the bed Will was flopped on. “You still shot them down. I saw you. With fucking blunt arrows, too.”

He hadn’t realised Michael had even been paying attention to his shooting.

“Not as-”

“If you’re about to say not as many as me, I’m going to stuff these bandages in your mouth,” Michael threatened, gesturing at the ones wrapped around his ankle. Will’s mouth shut with a clack. “It wasn’t a fucking competition, Will. You stood up and you shot those fuckers even though Lee and I both told you to stay the fuck down.”

Was Michael telling him off for disobeying them? Indignation flooded through him – sure, he’d been scared, but if Michael thought he was really just going to hide under them like a coward-!

Will pushed himself into a sitting position, only to see that his older brothers were both smiling at him.

“You were scared but you didn’t let that stop you,” Lee told him. “That was really brave, Will.”

Will felt his cheeks heat up. “But I-”

“But nothing,” Lee said. “None of us are Herakles – we can’t take down a flock of those things single-handedly. Not even Michael.”

“I could,” Michael grumbled quietly, and Lee shushed him.

“You’d get torn to shreds by a flock that large before you killed half of them,” he pointed out. Michael threw an unused roll of bandages at Nathan when the younger boy laughed at him from the floor.

“You’d get torn apart first,” he snarled at him.

“Wanna bet?” Will couldn’t see Nathan, but he could hear the cocky smirk in his voice.

“No,” Lee intervened before Michael could reply – and probably accept it, if Will knew his brother at all. “Both of you, stop it. Neither of you are having a competition to see how many Stymphalian birds you can shoot down before they kill you. Or any other substitute for them, either. Anyway,” he stressed, turning to look at Will again, “my point is that we’ll always have to work together to take down some things – a lot of things, actually. So it’s not a bad thing that you can’t do it alone. You’re not alone, Will.”

“Damn straight you’re not,” Michael agreed, nudging him in the side with an elbow.

Will knew he wasn’t alone. He hadn’t been alone since he’d arrived at camp and discovered he had twenty or so half-siblings. Even in the winter months, when most of them went home, there were still several – Lee, Michael, Daisy and Robyn among them – that stayed. It was harder to find somewhere alone than to be with someone.

He still found himself bursting into tears, reaching out blindly for one of his siblings.

It was Lee that wrapped him up in his arms, almost pulling him off of the bed and into his lap, but there was a hand in his hair that was too small to be anyone’s except Michael’s and more hands on his shoulders. Will sobbed into his brother’s shoulder, clinging to Lee tightly in turn.

The birds had been terrifying and he was exhausted from several hours of healing, but his siblings were proud of him and he hadn’t run away, had been brave, according to Lee.

Will still didn’t feel very brave. But right then, he felt safe.

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