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queenjunothegreat · 10 days ago

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Aaaaaaaalllrighty everyone!!!!!! It's TIME!!!!!!! Let's fucking gooooooo!!!!!!! I am sososososososo excited to share @lost-trio-week with you all!!!! It's going to be SO much fun and I am thrilled beyond words! People's wonderful creations are already rolling in and I love each and every one of them SO much!!! YAYAYAYAYYAYAY!!!!

So, without any more delay, I'd like to present my day one fic: We Are Not Shining Stars (We Are Who We Are)

(CW: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse)

"Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.” Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy. Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “What’d you find?” “Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.” He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?” “Emilio.” *** Piper learns a secret she was never meant to know. Lost Trio Week 2024 - Day One: Wilderness/Nicknames

Part 2 of Carry On (Wilderness School Fics)

To say that Dylan was a pain was more than a little bit of an understatement. You’d think that being in a school as big as Wilderness would have meant that you wouldn’t really cross paths with any one particular person too often, but Dylan somehow managed to surpass all expectations. He wasn’t actually in too many of Piper and Leo’s classes, but he found a way to bump into them in the halls almost every period, and he certainly made an effort to be as awful as possible in the little time he had with them.

His worst offense, by far, was the history class he shared with the both of them. Piper and Leo sat next to one another, like they did in every class they shared, and Dylan had made himself right at home in the desk directly behind them. Considering his penchant for running his mouth, especially about Piper, and the teacher’s disinterest in stopping him, especially when it was about Piper, it was clear that Piper and Leo would have to take matters into their own hands. Leo had originally suggested tricking the teacher into abandoning him next time they went on a field trip, but Piper had given him one of those looks and he’d begrudgingly agreed to a solution that didn’t involve bodily harm. Again.

The solution had come one afternoon when they were hanging out in the library and Leo had poked around for a bit on one of the computers he definitely wasn’t allowed on, then asked Piper if she had any grades she wanted him to change for her.

She squinted at him, then at his computer screen. “Wait, are you hacked into the school’s computer system? How’d you do that? Don’t you need to use, like, a super computer or something?”

Leo decided that going over all of her incorrect ideas about what “hacking” meant was probably a waste of time, so he just shrugged. “Just the grade books. The actual interesting stuff like personal records and junk is only really accessible on an admin computer. I mean, I could get to it from here, but it would require a lot of work.”

She arched her eyebrows at him. “And how, exactly, do you know that?” Instead of answering, he just winked and tapped the side of his nose, so she rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Don’t tell me.”

“Wasn’t planning on it!” he chirped back at her.

After a moment, she gave him a curious look. “Can you change schedules from what you have there?”

Leo shook his head. “Nah, that’s all gonna be on that main system. This one is specifically easy to get into because the teachers need to be able to access it from home. There’s no need for them to access schedules and stuff, so that’s gonna be more secure.”

“Do you–” She cut herself off and thought for a moment while she sucked her teeth. “Do you think we could use that to get rid of Dylan?”

“What? You mean like mobster ‘Ay, let’s get ridda this guy’ or–”

“No, I just mean, like… changing his schedule? Just swap his math and history so we don’t have to deal with him any more.”

Leo hummed in thought. “What about P.E.? You wanna swap him out of that class, too?”

Piper weighed her options very carefully before shaking her head. “Nah. If it’s just the one class, that could be, like, a system error or something. If we go around changing a bunch of his classes, people might look into it. Besides, I think Coach Hedge hates Dylan, so we don’t really have to deal with him, so long as he’s around.”

Leo nodded in agreement. Hedge claimed that it was just because Dylan was on the track team and he needed to be in top form, but any time Dylan even tried to talk to Piper and Leo during PE, Hedge popped up out of thin air, blowing on his whistle until he was purple, and ordering Dylan to run another two laps. “Alright. Well, we’re gonna have to break into the headmaster’s office. I might be able to do it if we can only get access to the front desk, but it will be harder.”

“Wanna do it Thursday?” Piper suggested. “Mr. Thomas is supposed to be on hall monitor duty that night.”

Leo agreed, and together they started plotting. Leo was once again struck dumb by the breathtaking lack of security at this particular correctional facility. Sure, they had some of the harshest, meanest punishments they could get away with before someone (rightfully) accused them of child abuse, but they apparently had little to no interest in trying to stop anyone from breaking the rules. There weren’t even proper security guards, though most of the teachers were armed with school-supplied hand tasers. Instead, the night watch was taken on by a series of teachers all taking their turns to roam the halls until the sun rose up over the far distant horizon. Mr. Thomas was a wry, skittish sort of man that really had no business surviving in a place like this, but still managed to have the longest tenure of almost any of the staff. Still, he struggled to stay awake during his own lessons, dry-erase marker hanging limply in one hand and coffee cup clutched desperately in the other, so it was no surprise to anyone that he often “rested his eyes” when it was his turn to patrol the halls. Students weren’t supposed to know the rotation schedule, but, well. Piper certainly had her ways.

That Thursday night, Leo picked the lock on their dorm room door, and they silently crept through the many empty halls of Wilderness School, all the way down to the first floor where the headmaster’s office was. Breaking into those rooms had been even easier than breaking out of their dorm, so before too long Leo was sat in front of Dylan’s daily schedule, and with a few clicks Dylan’s 10:00 math class was swapped with his 2:00 history class, and emails were sent out to both teachers and student alerting them of the “sudden but necessary” change.

“You said this has everyone’s personal records on it, right?” Piper asked, peering over his shoulder once he was done. He nodded and she grinned at him. “Cool. I wanna check yours out. I’m gonna find out what you’re hiding, Valdez.”

Leo scoffed loudly and rolled away, giving her free reign. “Be my guest. You’re not gonna find anything interesting.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “You ran away six times, and you think there’s nothing interesting in your file?”

“I didn’t say that,” he corrected, grinning like a shark. “I just said you wouldn’t find it.”

She laughed at him, the sound bright and loud in the cramped office. “Whatever. Get out of my way; I wanna do some snooping.”

Leo got up and offered the chair to her, bowing obnoxiously. “Your throne, my lady.”

“Why thank you, my good sir,” she replied, equally obnoxious, as she took her seat. “Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.”

Leo shrugged. He hadn’t gotten rid of stuff like his birthday and social security number from his file, but he didn’t really think that mattered all that much. He got rid of the important things, like why he’d gone into the foster system to begin with, or why he’d been removed from some of those awful places before he even had the chance to run away. Anything that mattered. Anything that tied him back to that little house in Texas and the choking smoke of a burning warehouse. He was past all that now. Keep moving forward, a gnarled old lady’s voice said in the back of his mind. Be quick and be clever, but always keep moving. He figured the past couldn’t catch him if he never let it exist in the first place.

Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy he’d been working on.

Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “Pipes? What’d you find?”

“Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.”

He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?”

“Emilio.”

Immediately, the world stood still. He was four years old and that name was being sung to him while he clapped his hands in front of a fire truck birthday cake. He was five years old, laughing hysterically as he ran away from the mess he’d made and the sound of that name shouted after him on its own laugh. He was six years old and he was being told that all the teachers and kids at school were going to call him Leo, but he would always know what name was on his heart. He was seven years old and that name was sitting warm on his shoulders as stories about what an amazing life he would get to live were told to him in hushed whispers. He was eight years old and that name was being tapped out in Morse Code as his mamá told him how much she loved him for the very last time.

“Don’t say that name,” he snapped. “Don’t ever say that name in front of me again, do you understand?”

Piper reared back, clearly startled. Her gaze flicked over Leo’s face, but he just continued to scowl death at her. He’d had this fight before, and he’d won it every time. He wasn’t afraid to have it again, even if he didn’t want to. She narrowed her eyes at him and very obviously sucked her teeth, preparing her interrogation.

Then she shrugged, turned back to the computer, and continued casually clicking around. “Okay. Hey, did you know that Macy’s middle name is Lucille? It’s like her parents wanted her to cause problems.”

Leo felt a bit like he’d been kicked in the chest by a horse, and if he hadn't been sitting down, he probably would have fallen on his butt. “What?”

“Yeah,” she said casually. “I mean, Lucille is a fine enough name, I guess, but it’s a really shitty middle name. Especially combined with Macy. Macy Lucille Milton. Bleh.”

“You’re just saying that because you hate her,” Leo said automatically. He shook his head. “I don’t mean that. I went all Incredible Hulk on you because you said some random name and your response is ‘okay?’”

She furrowed her brow at him. “Do you… want me to get all bent out of shape about it?”

“Uh, no. I guess not,” Leo stammered. “I just… was expecting you to?”

Piper shrugged. “We all have our secrets.” She offered him one of those grins he knew so well and a handshake. “You don’t quiz me about my relationship with my mom, and I pretend that the school didn’t mess up your file. Deal?”

“I– Yeah, deal,” Leo agreed, shaking her hand. He still felt a bit like he’d been spun around one too many times, and he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins from where he’d been geared up for a fight.

She gave him a real smile then, all the playfulness gone and replaced with gentle, cautious affection. “Cool. Now show me how to send emails to the teachers from this account. I’ve got an idea.”

Leo’s eyebrows shot up and a grin curled over his mouth. “Oh? Do tell.”

“Not until you show me how to get to the email.”

They stayed in the office for probably longer than was advisable, only cutting the mission of mischief short when Mr. Thomas shuffled by, apparently having napped for long enough. They crept back to their dorm, and when they were back safely behind their locked door, they broke out into giggles, beyond pleased with themselves.

“Ugh, I’m so gonna sleep through English tomorrow,” Piper whined, flinging herself on the bed.

“You say that like you wouldn’t have slept through it after a full night’s sleep,” Leo accused, picking one of her socks up off the floor and throwing it at her. Piper let out some comically loud snores to avoid answering him, and he rolled his eyes, climbing into his own bed.

Unbidden, the name came to the front of his mind. Piper hadn’t said it right. She’d pronounced it fine, but it still sounded wrong in her mouth. Her accent rounded out weird parts, and her tone had that nasally Valley Girl kick to it. That name was supposed to be said with a warm, rich voice. It was supposed to sound like laughter and feel like being wrapped up in a hug. It wasn’t supposed to be a slap in the face.

He still felt a little bad about snapping at Piper, though. She didn’t know, couldn’t know. She’d been joking around one second, only for Leo to flip a switch on her out of nowhere. He could perfectly picture the way she’d stared at him in wide-eyed shock, and how her features had been tinged with the slightest bit of hurt. He wouldn’t have been able to really fault her if she’d been angry with him, demanding answers, but she hadn’t. She just shrugged and accepted it, more than happy to meet Leo where he was at. She always did that. It didn’t matter how much Leo snarled at her or how bristly and defensive he got, she always stepped back and opened her arms, ready to give Leo the space he needed to go running back to her when he was ready. He curled up in a little ball and pressed his forehead to his knees. “Piper?”

“Yeah, Leo?” she replied immediately, every ounce of the exhaustion she’d been complaining about moments before gone.

He pressed closer to his knees. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

There was a beat of silence, and then he felt Piper crawl into the bed next to him and press up against his side. “You don’t have to apologize. I get it.”

“No you don’t. There’s literally no way for you to get it.”

“Okay, I don’t get it,” she conceded. “Not really. But I get that it upset you, and I get that you don’t wanna talk about why. And that’s all I really need to get, I think.”

Leo chewed his bottom lip until he thought it would bleed. “Leo’s a nickname my mom gave me to tell the teachers and kids at school instead of using my real name.”

“Yeah?” Piper prompted gently. “Do you like it?”

Leo shrugged. “It’s not bad. It never felt quite right though.”

“Then how come you use it?” Leo squeezed his eyes shut and took in a deep, heaving breath, and Piper started gently stroking his back. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

He knew he didn’t have to. Piper wouldn’t push. She never pushed. Which is exactly why she was the one person on the planet he wanted to tell everything to.

“My mom was the last person who used my real name,” he said quietly. “Everyone else called me Leo, but she used my full name every time.”

Piper hummed softly, and he could hear the gentle smile in her voice when she said, “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. I’m–” He cut himself off with a little choking noise, and Piper pressed that much closer. “I’m scared I’m gonna forget what it sounded like coming from her if other people use it.”

“Leo,” Piper breathed before finally wrapping him up in a hug. He clung to her, fists clenched in the back of her dumb Hello Kitty shirt. He didn’t cry, not really, but he did tremble from head to toe as she held him. After a moment, her voice whispered in his ear, “You may not like the name Leo, but I do. It’s the name of my best friend.”

Leo chuckled softly in the crook of her neck. “Yeah? I guess it’s not all bad, then.”

Piper didn’t say that name right. There was no one on Earth who could anymore. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all. She said Leo right. When she said Leo, it sounded like a smirk curling over lips and peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches shared when no one would even look at him. It sounded like stupid pranks and stolen Pokemon games and staying up past curfew to watch the stars. It sounded like the sort of kindness and acceptance he thought he’d never deserve again.

It sounded like his name.

#liper mcdez #lost trio week #my writing #pjo fanfic

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owlghosts9 · 10 days ago

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@lost-trio-week

#lost trio #valgrace #jason grace #piper mclean #leo valdez #jason x leo #lost trio week #jiper #hoo #pjo #heroes of olympus #the heroes of olympus #percy Jackson and the Olympians

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manygeese · 6 days ago

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@lost-trio-week day 5: parents

Esperanza Valdez just made sense, Jason thought. Her ghostly figure was entirely silver in color, but Jason could see where Leo got his curls. She had pulled hers back with a bandana, but the way her eyebrows knitted together was very familiar. He could almost imagine her glaring at Festus because he ate all the hot sauce again, like a certain son of Hephaestus he knew.

But Jason had a mission- that certain son of Hephaestus’ birthday was coming up, and he was completely stumped on what to get him. Tools? He literally had a magic tool belt, and that came with all the wrenches, hammers, and breath mints a guy could want. Clothes? Piper had that covered, she was going to take him shopping at the mall that weekend. Books? Dyslexia was a bitch, plain and simple.

Yup, Jason had something of a problem. But! Nico had volunteered to help him, since he was in a similar situation with Leo’s birthday gift. So here they were, on an appropriately dark and spooky summer night, filling a pit with Coca Cola and french fries to summon some ghosts- or one particular ghost. It looked like it had worked.

“Good evening, my lady. I crave a boon,” Jason stated, kneeling before the spirit as one would to an Olympian.

Miss Valdez’s face scrunched up in both humor and confusion. “‘My lady?’ ‘Crave a boon?’ I’m flattered, kid, but I’m no goddess.”

“Sorry, my lady. I mean- ma’am.”

“You can get off of the ground, y’know? Your jeans’ll be ruined if you stay there any longer. Grass stains are tough.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Jason resisted the urge to salute once he was done dusting himself off.

Miss Valdez snickered. “Before you get into craving boons and the like, why don’t you tell me who you are?”

“Jason Grace, former praetor of the 12th Legion Fulminata, current Pontifex Maximus of Camp Jupiter, hero of Olympus, slayer of the titan Krios, ma’am. Um, and more importantly, a friend of Leo’s.”

The ghost’s eyes seemed to light up at the mention of her son. “Mi hijo,” she crooned, clasping her hands together. “You’re a friend of mi hijo Leo? How is he?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’s doing quite well, ma’am.” He intentionally left out the part about Leo blowing himself up for the good of the world. That was a story for another time.

“How old is he? The clock doesn’t work so well down in the Underworld, it’s still saying BCE. Hard to keep track of time and all. Oh, he must be getting so big.”

Jason chuckled. “He’s fifteen going on sixteen, but nobody’s calling him big.”

Miss Valdez got this wistful look in her eyes. “You have to bring him to see me sometime. I miss him more than anything.”

Nico’s eyes widened and he waved his hands like he was calling a timeout. “I have an idea,” he mouthed, but Jason needed to get his prescription updated, so it looked more like “I have an IKEA.” Or an icee? Yeah, it was probably icee. But Jason knew this to be untrue, since he had just poured his last one into the pit. His brows furrowed, but he smiled politely at the specter before excusing himself. “Um, may I have a moment, ma’am?”

“Of course,” she answered, taking the time to press her ear to the side of a tree like she was trying to open a safe. “God, I haven’t seen real trees in years,” she muttered.

“Do you need more icees?” Jason whispered conspiratorially. “I can run down to the corner store if you need.”

Nico made a face. “What? No, I just have an idea. I was just thinking about what Esperanza said: maybe we could set up a picnic out here and then surprise him with a ghost visit. I know that I like to be ambushed by ghosts when I eat my lunch.” He snorted at his own half-joke.

Jason nodded enthusiastically. “A-and we could ask Miss Valdez about his favorite foods! And make them for him!”

“Hmm? What was that, kid?” Miss Valdez’s head snapped up from where it was trained on a blade of grass swayed in the breeze.

“Um, uh, do you remember what Leo liked to eat as a kid, ma’am?”

“Goodness, you can stop with the ‘ma’am’ thing. But he always loved tres leches cake! I can give you the recipe. And when I had the time, I would make him a grilled cheese for his lunch at school. It would be cold, but he always hugged me extra tight when he got home on those days.” Miss Valdez reached up to tighten her bandana. “Though now that I think about it, he probably just heated it up on his own. Clever boy.”

Jason nearly jumped for joy. He could have hugged her. And he did indeed try, which caused the woman to laugh when he fell through her apparition. “Thank you,” he mumbled into the dirt sheepishly.

“No problem, niño. Really, I should be thanking you! Fresh air is nothing short of a miracle when you’ve been dead as long as I have,” Miss Valdez responded, clearly joking, but something in her eyes said she was sincere. She had big, round ones, that were probably a wonderful shade of brown when she was alive.

Yeah, Jason thought he had hit the jackpot gift wise.

~*~

If you were to look up the definition of “tryhard”, a picture of Tristan McLean would pop up, Leo thought. Then again, he’d also appear if you looked up any of the following terms: bombshell, hot, gorgeous, gay awakening, etc.

He was on a quest with Will and Clarisse (God, that lady scared him- like she was cool and all, but he would be relieved when she left for Arizona at the end of summer). It was a classic “we don’t have phones nor do we trust the post, so you have to go give Camp Jupiter X, Y and Z” quest, but long story short, hellhounds sucked a lot and Leo’s legs were tired.

Chiron and the praetors of Camp Jupiter had been working on a sort of housing system for demigods- a network of safe havens all across the country. Piper’s dad had signed up as soon as possible, now that he knew a little about the demigod world. That had been one hell of a conversation.

So that was how he ended up sitting on the floor of a millionaire’s gigantic living room, tinkering with the skeleton of a Stymphalian bird, with a scary lady snoring on the couch behind him and a lanky blonde dude curled up on an armchair in front. He had taken the opportunity to catch up on some of his favorite shows while he had access to a TV.

“Hey, kid.”

Nothing like a spooky voice to wake a guy up!

Leo startled, making the Stymphalian bird fly up in the air. For one second, he almost thought it was alive again, so he reached for his tool belt.

“Woah, there,” the voice laughed, “hold your horses. It’s just me. Piper’s dad? You didn’t pull a Jason and forget your entire life, right?”

Leo snorted. “You weren’t even there for that part!”

Mr. McLean stepped forward into the dim light of the lamp. Yup, just as Leo suspected: he had a chronic case of looking-good-in-whatever-lighting-he-was-in-itis. Then again, he had already diagnosed his friend’s father with that condition last Christmas, when he spent the holidays with Jason at Camp Jupiter.

Truth be told, Leo was getting a little tired of the man. All throughout dinner Mr. McLean had been all “is there enough salt on it? Do you need more? What do you want to drink? Can I get you anything else? Tell me if you need anything.” At first, he had preened under the attention, but right now, what he needed was some time to get the logistics of his pet project figured out.

“What are you working on?” Mr. McLean asked politely.

“Carrier pigeon,” he answered.

“Nice. What’s it do?”

“Carries things.”

Mr. McLean smiled. “Why do you need it?”

“So, like, you know how we were sent here to deliver some important documents or whatever? Next time, this little guy is gonna do it for us. If I can figure out how to animate said little guy’s skeleton again, that is.”

“How are you gonna animate it?”

As a mechanic, Leo admired the fact that Mr. McLean was so persistent, but as a teen, he wished he would give up already. “I dunno.”

Mr. McLean gave him a soft, slightly awkward smile, like he was still trying to get used to using his facial muscles. “Listen, Leo,” the man sighed, “it’s getting late. You should sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Oh, wait!” Leo snickered at his own joke.

“What?”

Oh, shit. He forgot that he and Piper had left that part out of the explanation of the demigod world they had given to Mr. McLean. Damn, that line would’ve killed with anyone else. Haha, see what he did there? “Uh, nothing. Ignore it.”

“No, what did you mean by that? ‘Oh, wait?’”

“Uh, I died,” Leo mumbled, hoping that he wouldn’t ask again.

Much to Leo’s chagrin, Mr. McLean asked again. Yay. “Huh?”

Leo decided to take a different route. “I died! I’m a ghost! Boo! All that jazz!”

The man snorted, though he still looked confused. “Alright. But you know what they say about ghosts- they sleep like the dead.”

Despite himself, Leo laughed. “That’s silly.”

“Not as silly as ghosts. They’re too boo-fy!”

Leo giggled. “God, that’s bad. Was-” he managed before succumbing to his laughter once again- “was that supposed to be goofy?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re the one who’s a ghost, after all.”

“I’m not goofy. No, siree,” Leo denied.

“Oh really?” Mr. McLean ruffled his hair and pulled him up so that he was standing. He patted him on the shoulder. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“I can fool anyone, really,” Leo quipped. “I fooled Jason and Piper into being my best friends.”

Mr. McLean guided him towards a hallway that opened at one side of the living room. Leo could see that he was furrowing his dark brows. “What makes you say you fooled them?”

Leo shrugged, scowling inwardly. He just had to ruin it, didn’t he? “I mean, technically it was Hera.”

Mr. McLean shook his head. “I’m serious, Leo.”

Leo laughed awkwardly. “Hi serious, I’m dead?”

Mr. McLean frowned as he opened one of the doors in the corridor. It revealed a blank bedroom, probably for a guest. Desperate to get out of the conversation, Leo moved to go inside, but Mr. McLean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a concerned look. “People like you for you. You know that, right? You’ve never had to trick anybody worth anything into liking you. Remember that.” He tapped his temple to emphasize his point.

Leo gave a small, confused, sort of self-conscious smile, but it was still a smile. “Thanks, Mr. McLean.” Leo waddled over to the bed and collapsed on it, suddenly feeling very tired. It was only when he saw the door close completely that he realized he’d been tricked by his best friend’s dad into going to bed at an appropriate time. “Good game, Mr. McLean. Good game indeed.”

~*~

The Underworld kind of sucked, Piper found, especially when you were on a quest with an immortal huntress who was your best friend’s sister and the demigod equivalent of a Spirit Halloween, AKA Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo. She had no problems with the people by themselves, but she had gotten sick of their arguing long before the murderous mania of a former blonde bombshell descended upon them.

She wasn’t even supposed to be there. She had made plans with Leo and Jason to meet up at a trampoline park, but then a fury showed up out of nowhere and whisked her away to what was effectively Hell, and it was like, this whole thing. Apparently, the lady had gotten her confused with Percy. One hell of a typo.

They had been headed to the fields of punishment because someone had escaped and Hades decided to make it their problem. Classic Gods. Their charge walked straight into them in the form of Beryl Grace.

“Nico, why isn’t she dying?” Thalia barked, shooting another round of arrows at the ghost, which just succeeded in embedding their silver tips in the tree behind it. She released a roar like that of thunder, although it could’ve just been the actual thunder from the lightning she was summoning. A bolt of it came down on Beryl’s head, but it just made her look slightly more insane.

The woman’s red lipstick was a stain on her otherwise pale face, twisting up in a mad smile. It was smudged. Maybe she had been kissing someone, or more likely drinking their blood. Her blue eyes were crazed, darting around like a prey animal.

She had seen that look before.

When Jason had woken up, after the fight with Ma Gasket, he’d shot upwards and whipped his head around. She had looked into his sky blue eyes and seen a deer and a hunter at the same time, ready to fight, not quite ready to die.

And his smile was a sign the apple had indeed fallen far from the tree, but the twitching of Jason’s lips when he hadn’t yet learned to laugh (or hadn’t accepted that he could) was reminiscent of the grin’s neverending movement.

“She’s a ghost, dumbass, she can’t die again,” Nico snapped. He had dropped his sword into the river Lethe, so he just stood there like a fuming GTA NPC.

Piper was the only one to notice that Beryl was backing up towards the forest, aiming to disappear into the fields of Asphodel most likely. “Guys?” She asked, looking around to the other two members of the quest. They were still squabbling. “Guys!”

“I’ve killed a ghost before! At least, I’m pretty sure I could,” Thalia yelled.

“What part of non-corporeal do you not understand?” Nico screamed.

Piper reluctantly began following the spirit just as it bolted into the woods. She swiped a rock up from the dusty forest floor, just to have something on her in case she had to attack. Look, she usually carried Katoptris on her, but she was worried they were going to confiscate it at the trampoline park, okay?

The only sound was the thump of her footfalls, puffs of her breath, and the whooshing sound Beryl made as she passed through trees. The branches were hanging low and, fortunately in most cases except this one, Piper was not a ghost, so she had to bat them out of the way. She was getting pretty damn tired of it. Apparently, ghosts could run fast. “Uh, Beryl- I mean, Miss Grace, can I get your autograph?” She tried.

The ghost’s head snapped back to face her. The gash in her midriff was bleeding somehow, leaking steam and a smell like rain. A piece of car door and shards of glass were lodged in the gap, signs of her death. Her fists clenched and unclenched anxiously at her sides. She stayed rooted in her place. “An autograph?”

“Yup,” Piper confirmed, rocking back and forth from her heels to her toes. “I’m a huge fan of your work.”

Beryl’s pointer and middle fingers twitched and she brought them to her mouth. She looked disappointed by the fact that they were merely flesh (or the ghost equivalent), no cigarette in sight. Her bloodshot eyes met Piper’s as she fumbled with the fabric of her dress. She grunted. “Oh, yeah? What’s your favorite?”

“Me and my dad watch your TV shows together,” Piper lied.

“Mhm,” Beryl hummed placatingly, turning around with her shaking fingers pressed to her mouth. Her glazed eyes disappeared under her dull blonde hair. “Just go get the groceries, Thalia.”

“Thalia? Um, Miss Grace, I’m not Thalia.” Piper followed, stifling a cough when she breathed in some of the fog.

“Nonsense, Thalia. I know you’re just trying to get out of it, you lazy brat,” Beryl spat. “Go get the goddamn groceries.”

“I… I don’t have any money.”

The ghost heaved a deep sigh. “Just get out of the house, Thalia. Mommy needs some alone time.”

Piper tried not to visibly recoil when the woman pushed her away, cold hand going right through her ribcage. “B-but, Miss Grace-”

“Thalia,” the spirit growled, frigid hands landing on both of her wrists, momentarily becoming solid, “I will not say it again, you little bitch.” Her tone was uneven and hostile. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

Piper’s forearms were completely numb where Beryl’s hands had covered them. The woman began to retreat mumbling something to herself that barely reached Piper’s ears:

“The day I get rid of those ungrateful little rats will be the happiest day of my life.”

Oh, yeah. This was the lady who left Piper’s best friend to the wolves at the tender age of two. Of course she was an asshole. Regretting not doing it earlier, Piper gripped the rock in her hand and made a last ditch effort to hurt the woman who had deprived Jason of what family felt like for so long. And if it let her, Nico, and Thalia finish their quest, that was a happy accident.

The stone split open on Beryl’s head, revealing an inky black ore on the inside. Stygian Iron. Huh. Piper guessed Tyche was on her side that day.

Thalia and Nico’s footsteps crunched in the dirt behind her, their yelps of belayed victory echoing around Piper, falling on deaf ears. Her gaze was still focused on Beryl’s unconscious head, hair spilling around her face. Her blue eyes weren’t open, but somehow, they were staring straight into Piper’s soul.

For a split second, Piper’s eyes flitted over to Thalia’s. She was glad she couldn’t completely understand the rage she found there. Now that she thought about it, she had seen that look in Jason’s eyes an unsettling amount of times.

#leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #beryl grace #tristan mclean #esperanza valdez #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #lost trio week #the lost trio #lost trio #heroes of olympus fanfic

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lavenderfairiez · 8 days ago

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I was planning on writing a fic for lost trio week but it came faster than I expected and I ran out of time so instead here's my lost trio playlist that I finally got around to making

@lost-trio-week

#lost trio #the lost trio #the lost trio my beloved #leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #the lost hero #lost trio week #pjo playlist #playlists #playlist #spotify playlist #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #riordanverse #jasipereo #valgrace #platonic jasipereo #Spotify

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the-goddess-of-gays · 9 days ago

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somebody encourage me to write please

I have many ideas and zero motivation :)

#percy jackson and the olympians #pjo hoo toa #heroes of olympus #leo valdez #piper mclean #jason grace #lost trio week #the lost trio

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purple-racoon-80 · 11 days ago

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without further ado, here is my first entry for the Lost Trio Week! I chose wilderness, so I put together a bunch of songs that reminded me of Leo and Piper or that I think they would rock out to in their dorm at the Wilderness School. Enjoy <33

@lost-trio-week

#lost trio week #piper mclean #leo valdez #pjo hoo toa #jason grace #the lost trio #Spotify

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dayz72 · 16 days ago

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I doing a spa day drawing, and idk weather to post it for cozy or free space any opinion would be helpful

#lost trio #lost trio week #the lost trio #percy jackson #riordanverse #pjo hoo toa #jason grace #leo valdez #piper mclean

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lost-trio-week · 2 months ago

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Lost trio week is now accepting prompt suggestions! Please leave any suggestions you have in the comments/reblogs of this post or send in an ask if you prefer that!

Prompt suggestions will be open from now until October 28th and will be voted on afterwards (depending on the number of suggestions we get).

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poppitron360 · 11 days ago

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Lost Trio Week- Day 1: “Wilderness”

@lost-trio-week

GLEESON HEDGE, STATUS REPORT 09/07:

As reluctant as I am to be posted at this backwater dumping ground of a school, I am pleased to inform you that I have been keeping a close eye on the new students here.

No clear suspected Half-Bloods yet, but I’m still getting adjusted to the smell of this place. I’ll sniff ‘em out sooner or later, don’t you worry.

GLEESON HEDGE, STATUS REPORT 09/21:

A particular girl has caught my eye as a potential demigod. Name’s Piper Mclean, daughter of famous movie star Tristan Mclean. Daddy paid a lot of money to shove her here. Known kleptomaniac, has a scary-good way with words. Last week, she suggested a specific place to shove my baseball bat, and she sounded so persuasive I was almost convinced to do it… I didn’t, though. But I almost did. Powerful stuff.

No mother that we know of, which is a good sign. Probably dyslexic, too, if her worksheets are anything to go by. I’ve put her through the wringer in gym class, and she’s lasted well. Indications of enhanced speed and strength.

I’ll keep an eye out for any others, and will report back soon.

GLEESON HEDGE, STATUS REPORT 09/30:

I’ve been watching closely to see who Mclean keeps company with. Demigods tend to gravitate towards each other.

She’s made friends with this delinquent boy, Leo Valdez. Mother died when he was small, has spent the last seven years between foster homes, correctional schools, and the missing persons’ registry. No father on record. Diagnosed ADHD. Definite Half-Blood smell.

He’s a smart one- got a good knack with gadgets. He reprogrammed my megaphone last week. He’s also a troublemaker. Him and McLean are always up to mischief, doing my goatly head in. I fear Cabin 11 should get a bunk ready.

In other news, I’ve started to sniff the scent of a monster, perhaps masquerading as one of the students. But it could just be the axe body spray some of the kids wear. When can you get me outta here?

— — — — — — — — —

GLEESON HEDGE, MISSION LOG 12/19:

Today, I woke up in a canary cage.

Jason, Leo, and Piper have apparently been on this valiant mission to rescue me from the clutches of the storm spirits. With their top priority out of the way, the four of us are now on a quest to rescue Hera.

After me and Jason bravely fought off King Midas (back from the dead, by the way), narrowly escaping danger within an inch of our lives, we made it safely to the riverside, where we are now attempting to douse Mclean and Valdez who have been unfortunately gold-ified. More to report soon.

— — — — — — — — —

GLEESON HEDGE, MISSION LOG 07/18:

One month into our voyage on the Argo II. Iris messages are becoming few and far between as we get further and further away from home.

I spent my day helping Valdez with one of his damned “projects”. He’s been all over this ever since he found those Archimedes stuff under Rome. I don’t understand it.

Kid’s been anxious. I can tell. I can’t blame him, considering how much he’s got on his shoulders. I know he feels guilty about what happened to Percy and Annabeth. I’ve been trying my best to console him, but I think he thinks it’s pity. The best I can do is help him out with his stuff, keep him smiling, and make sure he remembers to eat.

Jason and Piper saved me a job today, as they came in at around midday with some food for him. The three of them really seem to care for each other. In my 107 years of living, a sight like that is always nice to see.

I patrolled the deck in the evening, with the help of the Di Angelo boy. He puts on a mean exterior, but he’s a sweet kid, and was eager to help me out when he saw me patrolling on my own. I’m not as skilled an empath as some of the other Satyrs at Camp, but it doesn’t take much to feel the waves of pain coming from the boy. After going through Tartarus on his own, and then being trapped in that jar… I can understand why he acts closed off. I would, too.

It won’t be long until we reach the House of Hades. Soon, this will all be over.

— — — — — — — — —

Dear Chuck,

You are one week old today. I look into your eyes, and I see so much joy, so much wonderment, so much love for the world. I hope you never come to know how cruel life can be.

Today, I went to a kid’s funeral.

The aftermath of the battle hit both camps hard. Many demigods lost their lives. A few of them I knew, a few I didn’t. One of them struck me more than most.

As I watched the shroud of the Half-Blood I’d sworn to protect go up in flames, I thought about that joy, that love for the world in your eyes. Leo Valdez was a brave boy, but I could tell he’d had a hard life. I never want you to experience the pain he went through.

There’s talk he might still be out there. I’ve heard rumour that the Seven managed to acquire a physician’s cure, but I’m sceptical. I don’t think anyone could have survived that explosion, not even a son of Hephaestus. But Leo’s a fighter. He’s strong, and I just hope he’s strong enough to make it through.

He gave up his life only a few hours after you were born. He was only sixteen, and even though that’s a lot compared to our lifespan, it’s still so young. Too young.

You will grow up in a safer world because of his sacrifice. I want you to remember that.

I was his protector. And I failed him. I promise I will not fail you.

Love,

Papa xxx

— — — — — — — — —

Dear Clarisse,

I’m not sure if you’ll get this with coms down, but the primitive mortal postage system seems to be a bit more reliable than the usual forms of contact. I did manage to receive your letter last week.

Yes, Mellie is recovering nicely- now four months post-partum! Little Chuck has begun teething (so if this letter is a little chewed up, that’s why). He’s hitting all his milestones and is well on his way to being a healthy little boy. You should see his little face when he tried tin cans for the first time!

On a sadder note, the search for Valdez still turns up nothing. Piper’s close to giving up, but Jason, bless his bleating heart is still adamant that the boy’s out there. If you ask me, it’s putting a strain on their relationship. They’ve been fighting more and more. I’d be surprised if they make it ‘til Christmas.

I wish I could be a glass-half-full kinda goat, but as it’s been four months since Leo disappeared, and with no sign aside from that initial message, I hate to admit it but I’m losing hope. And I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible. I was his protector. I could’ve done more to stop it.

There’s something suspicious going on over here in Southern California. Jason and Piper are looking into it, but until we know more, there’s nothing I can really report.

Work as Mr Mclean’s life coach is same as usual.

How is University of Arizona? Are you blending in with mortals enough? If anyone gives you crap, I can beat them up for you.

Lots of Love,

Hedge.

— — — — — — — — —

GLEESON HEDGE, STATUS REPORT 04/02:

Jason Grace is dead.

If Grover managed to get home before this letter did, you probably already know.

Leo Valdez finally made it to us, with news of the siege at Camp Jupiter. It’s not looking good. Apollo is heading over there to fight.

Leo seems relatively unharmed considering his brief death.

That’s now two demigods that have died under my protection, despite Valdez’s resurrection.

I will be escorting the Mcleans to their new residence in Oklahoma, and will continue to serve under the guise of Mr Mclean’s life coach, keeping a close eye on Piper and Leo while they’re away from camp. After the war and the fight with the Triumvirate, I don’t think they can take any more onslaught from monsters. I’ll keep them safe, don’t worry.

— — — — — — — — —

GLEESON HEDGE, STATUS REPORT 09/01:

I saw Leo and Piper off on their first day at New Rome University today.

I’m glad we got that minor issue of having blown up the city out of the way in time for Valdez to start his freshman year. That kid’s got a bright future ahead of him.

Sometimes I hate being an empath. There was a bittersweet aura around us all, remembering the friends who never got to make it this far.

Nobody said Jason’s name. But I could feel it.

I’m glad these two get a second chance. A chance to keep living. They’re lucky that way.

I hope they do okay there. I really do. I’m gonna miss those two.

Now that they are securely out of harm’s way in the city, I think it’s safe to say that they are no longer under my protection.

And I think it’s time I retire.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

Happy Lost Trio Week!!!

Day One and off to a great start! I am so excited for this week and can’t wait to read all y’all’s fics and see your fanart when I get back from Hiatus.

Some bits with the timeline are probably wrong. I went of Fandom Wikipedia as there’s not much Coach Hedge stuff across the books, but they don’t deal in exact dates (I had to write the dates the wonky American way for the sake of realism but just know that it pained me to do so).

Thanks to @demigod-shenanigans for helping me out with this. The hcs really helped.

I love Hedge. I really do. And I think his relationship with the Lost Trio is super sweet. He does care for them, despite how much of a liability he seems. The fact that Leo died the same day his kid was born is never brought up.

Something a little different to what other people might be doing, I hope. I know it’s not “technically” lost trio but Coach Hedge is the unofficial 4th member and he doesn’t get enough recognition. And showing the Lost Trio through his eyes was quite fun.

@euryvices-deactivated20241019 @deciduowl @lavenderfairiez @ottpopfic @ginnyluna @groverapologist @echo-stimmingrose @keefessketchbook @sleepyycapybara @123letsgobestie @kaleidoskuls @fairytalesociology @four-leafed-queer-gal @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @frayna-of-the-hollow @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh @hadeslegacyhephgirl @siimplyapril @pjowasmy1stfandom @thetourturedwritersclub @m-for-now

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kekaki-cupcakes · 8 days ago

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@lost-trio-week day one but very late sketch with inverted colours I’ve never tried for The Wilderness prompt. they think they’re being sneaking. they’re not.

#pjo fandom #pjo #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #percy jackon and the olympians #drawing #digital drawing #leovaldez #leo valdez #piper mclean #piper mclean pjo #jason grace #jason grace pjo #lost trio week #the lost trio #my art

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demigod-shenanigans · 7 days ago

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Summary: Under different circumstances, Leo would have been ecstatic about the prospect of getting to travel Reino del Sol with Piper for a week and a half.

The fact that it was due to the Sunbearer Trials, which would end with a fellow semidiós getting sacrificed, put a slight damper on his mood, though.

With both him and Piper being Jades, the chances of either of them being picked as a competitor was basically nonexistent, which would have helped… if it hadn’t been for the fact that Jason being chosen was basically a given.

Written for @lost-trio-week day 4: Godly Parent or Power Swap

Word Count: ~6K

Rating: Teen and Up

…is this me cheating on the prompt because while it’s technically a godly parent/power swap, it’s a power swap that takes place in a completely different universe? Maybe. Will that stop me? Probably not

Just to be safe: TW for mentions of human sacrifice If you’ve read tsbt, you’ll know what I mean. If you have not, think of it sort of in a similar vein as the HoO prophecy, where Leo and Jason know one of them has to die so the world won’t end.

You don’t need to have read the Sunbearer Duology to understand this fic! If you have, you’ll have some extra context for some of the things that are happening, but if you haven’t, you should still be alright!

This fic has a whole bunch of Leo and Piper friendship, a decent amount of valgrace, and Nyssa and Harley also make a bit of an appearance at the beginning, which I didn’t technically plan for but am not upset about!

———

Leo had been anxious about the upcoming Sunbearer Trials for a while now.

The trials were a decennial thing, and at fifteen years old, this was only the second trial Leo was around to witness.

Ten years ago, he’d been too small to really understand what was going on. He’d known the very basics: that there were three kinds of gods, and one kind—the Obsidians—was dangerous and wanted to enslave all of humanity. That the deity Sol, or what remained of them, was the only thing keeping the Obsidians at bay during the day, and that the sun stones kept them away at night.

But the power of the sun stones was fragile, and so once every decade, they had to be recharged. That was what the trials were for.

Leo hadn’t really understood the horror of the trials, then.

In his defense, he’d been five. Human sacrifice wasn’t really at the forefront of your mind at that age.

It was the only thing on his mind now, squished into a trajinera with the priests and his siblings as they made their way to Sol Temple.

His colorful wings twitched anxiously, repeatedly hitting his older sister Nyssa in the face.

“Sorry,” he muttered for what was probably the fifth time in the last hour.

She waved him off, just like she had that morning when his little shaving cream on Jell-O prank had worked a little too well.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Usually, Nyssa wouldn’t have reacted this well. Leo knew his sister loved him to death, but that included her wanting to strangle him half the time. She’d never been a particular fan of his pranks or his general sense of humor. And, daughter of Quetzal or not, no one was a fan of getting a bunch of feathers in their mouth.

But Nyssa knew why Leo was anxious, and she was giving him a lot of grace because of it.

“He’s going to be okay. You know that, right?” she asked, gently squeezing his arm. Her huge brown wings, which had remained neatly folded at her side until now, protectively wrapped around one of his shoulders.

“Oh, please, I’m not worried,” Leo scoffed, self-consciously wiggling out of his sister’s winged embrace. “Why would I be worried? Jason’s, like, an obnoxiously perfect hero. He’s a literal poster child of a Gold semidiós. There’s no way he’ll lose.”

Despite the fact that it was normal and even expected for Gold semidioses due to their hero status, Leo still couldn’t believe there were posters and trading cards of Jason these days. Him and Piper had given their friend endless shit for it. Leo had Jason’s least favorite poster up in his room purely for the joy of seeing him cringe whenever he came to visit.

Not that Jason got the chance to visit a lot, busy as he was at the stupid hero academy. Maybe once he was done with school. If he-

Leo banished the thought. Jason would be fine. He’d be fine. He was ranked third in his class for a reason. There wouldn’t be bets about him participating and winning if it wasn’t obvious to everyone Jason had a very real shot at coming in first. He wouldn’t lose. He couldn’t.

“You could still tell him how you feel, you know,” Nyssa said, nudging him gently. “Give him a kiss for good luck.”

“I will push you off this boat,” Leo hissed, blushing furiously.

“Right, that’ll inconvenience me greatly, considering I can fly.” Nyssa suddenly looked past him, craning her neck. “We’re coming up on the lake! Let’s see if we can spot the trajinera from Ciudad Afortuna. Surely the fact that you get to spend a whole week and a half exploring Reino del Sol with Piper will cheer you up.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “You just wanna look for Drew.”

“Well, it’s the same boat, so.” Nyssa shrugged. “You coming?”

He would never understand Nyssa’s obsession with Piper’s mean older sister, but she wasn’t wrong about the Piper thing. If it hadn’t been for the likelihood of Jason competing in the trials, getting to hang out and travel with his best friend in the entire world would have been a dream come true for Leo. He hadn’t seen Piper in months, which was absolutely criminal. He couldn’t wait to finally hug her again.

Leo turned to follow his sister to the front of the boat—there was a technical term for it, but Leo wasn’t the semidiós of boating, so he didn’t know it—but before he could, a little hand grabbed his sleeve, yanking on it so hard that it almost ripped.

He looked down to see the offending hand belonged to his little brother Harley. His anxious expression made Leo’s stomach churn.

“Be there in a sec!” he called after Nyssa before turning to their brother, who didn’t look like he planned to let go of him ever again. “Alright, Nestling, I get it. These outfits are kind of uncomfortable. I’d still appreciate it if you didn’t rip off my sleeve, though. You know mamá spent way too much money on those.”

“Yeah.” Harley dropped his hand from his brother’s sleeve. “I miss mamá.”

Leo relaxed marginally. Was that all his brother had wanted to talk about? The fact that he was feeling a little homesick? Leo could handle that.

He was sure their diosa mom would shield Harley from the end of the trials, the way she’d done for Nyssa and Leo during the last ones, but he still hadn’t looked forward to having the whole “the person who loses the trials gets sacrificed to recharge the sun stones”-conversation with an eight year old.

“Well, you were gonna have to leave home one of these days, unless you want me to call you Nestling forever.” Leo ruffled his brother’s hair. “We’ll see her again after the trials are over. You know the only mortals who can come to Sol Temple are priests. Besides, even if she could, mamá’s got a big project at work. She can’t just ditch her team to come with us. They’d be lost without her.”

That was the downside of having a genius inventor for a mortal mom—whether she liked it or not, work kept her pretty busy.

It had plenty of upsides, too: people said the name Esperanza Valdez with almost as much reverence as they did diosa Quetzal’s, which meant Leo could get away with damn near everything. Besides, her efforts to provide sustainable tech that protected Quetzlan wildlife was the reason his moms had met, so he supposed he couldn’t complain too much.

“I guess.” Harley huffed, blowing his curls out of his face. “That’s stupid, though.”

“Adult responsibilities are almost always stupid. That’s why you need me to set a terrible example.” Leo grinned. “So, were you pulling my sleeve out of boredom or did you actually want something?”

Harley mumbled something under his breath, so quietly that Leo didn’t catch a word he was saying.

“Sorry, hermanito, I think the light breeze drowned you out,” Leo teased, looking down at his little brother. “Let’s try that again, yeah?”

Harley didn’t meet his eyes, and he still spoke quietly, but it was loud enough for Leo to hear this time.

“Sol won’t pick you and Nyssa for the trials, right?”

The idea was so absurd that Leo burst out laughing.

“We’re Jades, Harls. Jade semidioses don’t get picked for the trials. That’s not a thing.”

“Are you sure?” Harley wrung his hands, looking unconvinced. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“‘Course I’m sure, Nestling. The trials are for heroes that get put on posters. Not us.”

“But you saved someone yesterday. Doesn’t that make you a hero?”

Leo snorted.

“I barely helped, and it very nearly made me Leo flambé.” He cringed just thinking about it. “The only thing I really managed was to add myself to the list of people Jason and Percy had to save. Brotherly word of advice: take my bad example when it comes to funny pranks and skipping school. Do not try to match my shitty impulse control. It’s not worth it.”

Leo had made Jason vow not to tell Piper he’d had to carry him out of a burning building. She’d never let him live that down.

“Fine,” Harley agreed, finally cracking a smile. “We’re almost at the waterfall! I wanna see if I can stick my hand in!”

He didn’t give Leo a chance to reply. He just started pulling on his sleeve again, dragging him towards the front of the boat.

Leo laughed.

~~~~

To head priest Hedge’s credit, he tried his best to keep Leo in the moving line of people, yanking on his arm and yelling in an entirely unpriestly manner whenever Leo stopped to look around for Jason and Piper. Leo had seen the boat from San Fuego—it was hard to overlook, giant ridiculous eyesore that it was due to both of Jason’s moms being awful show-offs—but Jason had arrived before he had and was already gone by the time Leo and his siblings had disembarked.

Unfortunately for Hedge, Leo spotted Piper in the crowd, at which point all of Quetzlan’s priests combined wouldn’t have been enough to keep him in line.

They were rushing towards each other the moment their eyes met, crowds and rules and yelling head priests be damned.

“Leo!”

“Piper!”

He slammed into his best friend’s chest with so much force that they nearly both toppled over, arms and wings wrapping around her simultaneously with no regards for the crowd surrounding them.

Several people cursed at him.

“Watch it, Bird Boy,” Drew scoffed, which Leo decided immediately would earn her more feathers to the face if he ever decided he was ready to let go of Piper again.

Piper hugged him back just as fiercely. She was trembling a little, and she’d looked strangely subdued when he’d spotted her—it had immediately been obvious that Leo wasn’t the only one anxious about their little Jason situation—but now her face split into a huge grin.

“I missed you so much,” Piper said, pressing her chin to the top of Leo’s head.

Menace that she was, she loved reminding him that she was slightly taller than him, even when they were being affectionate.

Leo didn’t mind too much. One of these days, he would have another growth spurt, and he’d take his revenge then.

“Right back at you. Keeping us apart so long should be illegal,” Leo announced, holding her even tighter.

“Can you two quit flirting and get a move on? You’re blocking the road,” Drew complained, earning disgusted expressions from both of them.

“We’re not flirting!” they protested simultaneously.

It wasn’t the first time someone had made that assumption, but it had never been like that between Leo and Piper. Piper was pretty sure she didn’t even like guys, and besides, assuming that two people were dating just because they were affectionate with each other was stupid, anyway.

“Just admit you get absolutely zero hugs and leave us alone!” Leo yelled back at her. He would have been kind of sad for Drew if she hadn��t been such an ass.

“I honestly don’t really care what’s going on between you two weirdos, but please just get a move on. You’re holding up the line,” Drew complained, gesturing to the people around them that had to go out of their way to skirt around Leo and Piper’s little reunion party. “You can get back to whatever this is when we get inside.”

“Killjoy,” Piper grumbled, but she pulled her arm back, careful of her azabache bracelet the way she always was when they hugged.

The choice of jewelry had confused Leo at first—children of Mala Suerte didn’t generally need azabache bracelets to ward off bad luck, since their dad’s powers didn’t affect them the way it did other people.

But he’d quickly learned that her dad wasn’t the reason Piper wore it.

“Aw, Pipes, really? Don’t you think it’s time for me to get another haircut? Personally, I feel like my hair is getting kinda long.”

“Hardy har har.”

Leo stuck his tongue out at her.

When they’d first become friends, the jewelry had ended up so utterly tangled in Leo’s curls that Hedge had had to cut it out with scissors, taking a bunch of Leo’s then chest-long hair with it.

Leo hadn’t been mad about it—it had been around the time that it had really started to click that the whole “being a girl”-thing wasn’t going to work out for him, but despite the fact that he’d hated his long hair, he’d not quite managed to work up the courage to ask his mamá to cut it.

Piper had been kind enough to solve this problem for him not even an hour into their friendship—albeit not entirely on purpose—and they’d been inseparable ever since.

…well, slightly less physically inseparable than they’d been with Piper’s hand stuck in his hair, but still.

Leo looked back on that moment fondly for a variety of reasons, but as Piper’s best friend of five years, it was still his sacred duty to tease her about the incident every now and again.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Leo decided with a sigh, waiting for Piper’s nod before he started moving again.

They walked side by side, letting the large crowd of semidioses and priests push them towards the temple. It was a relief to not be doing this on his own—to have Piper there to distract him from the dread he’d been feeling all week.

They caught each other up on everything they’d missed during their time apart.

Sure, they talked every chance they got, but it wasn’t the same when they couldn’t actually see each other.

Hedge directed suspicious glances their way every few seconds.

“Is he still mad about what happened the last time I visited?” Piper asked, eyes glinting with mischief.

“Yeah. Not sure why, though!” Leo grinned. “It’s not like he was using the boat when we borrowed it. And besides, it looked so much prettier when we returned it!“

“No appreciation for the arts.” Piper shook her head, making her expression overly grave. “It’s sad, really.”

“Truly.”

“Have you seen Jason yet?” she asked once they’d made it inside the temple.

They were surrounded by chatter and lively music, which seemed at odds with the fact that the trials were essentially someone’s very fancy funeral, but what did Leo know?

“Nope! I saw his awful boat after we docked—which is in desperate need of a Leo and Piper makeover, by the way—but so far Goldie remains MIA.”

“Gods, yeah, you can tell Beryl really wanted to show off.” Piper rolled her eyes. “I hate that woman.”

“Tell me about it.” Leo gritted his teeth. “It’s like her and Lumbre are in constant competition for the position of world’s worst mom. Jason’s barely gotten a day off from the academy all year, and even when he has, half the time Beryl was hogging him for bragging purposes.”

“I still can’t believe she made him miss your birthday.” Piper scowled. “Have you gotten to see him at all lately?”

Leo hesitated. He really didn’t want to tell her about the fact that he’d had to be saved from his own dumbassery after he’d heroically locked himself and the person he was trying to help in a walk-in freezer, but he knew she’d pick up on it if he lied to her, and that was just bound to result in him getting grilled.

“…sort of,” he admitted. “There was a fire in Quetzlan yesterday. Jason and Percy dropped by to help. I did briefly see him, then.”

“I heard about that. Were you in the area when it happened? Did anyone get hurt?”

“A few people got treated for smoke inhalation. Nothing too bad.” If he’d been one of those people… well, Piper didn’t need to know that. “If you’re wondering if I know how he’s dealing with this whole situation… not really, unfortunately. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t talk about this shit.”

“Maybe he won’t get picked,” Piper said, which Leo found awfully optimistic considering it came from the daughter of the god of bad luck. “I mean, he’s not ranked first, right? Maybe Sol will decide someone else is better suited.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Leo agreed, briefly letting himself imagine a scenario where he and Piper got to spend the next two weeks getting Jason in trouble. Realistically, he knew it wouldn’t happen, but it was a very nice thought regardless.

Leo craned his neck, making another attempt to try and spot Jason in the crowd.

It would have been easier if he’d used his wings to get a better vantage point, but he didn’t want to draw that much attention to himself, especially not with all the reporters around. He didn’t really care to answer stupid questions about his mamá or the fire or what he thought Jason’s chances of getting stabbed to death were. Besides, considering the odds of him and Piper pissing someone off during the course of the event were astronomical—though whether it would be on purpose or by accident was anyone’s guess—he didn’t want to risk photographic evidence.

Leo didn’t manage to find Jason this time, either. He spotted a few other Gold semidioses, though.

Between Jason’s stories from school and the fact that Leo had seen several of them on the news, he at least vaguely knew who most of them were, despite the fact that he hadn’t met many of them in person.

Percy and Annabeth clearly did not care to beat the power couple allegations, the way their arms were linked. From what Leo had seen of them on the news, he wasn’t surprised they both had Jason beat in the rankings.

Water and lightning were a terrifying combination, and Leo was glad he’d never have to face them in combat the way Jason did.

For personal reasons, Leo still thought Jason’s powers were much cooler, though.

A little way off, he spotted two of Guerrero’s youngest kids. Frank was chatting with a girl Leo only very vaguely recognized. As per usual, Clarisse was busy scowling at anyone in the general vicinity.

Suddenly, Piper nudged him. “No wonder we couldn’t find Jason. Look.”

He directed his attention towards where she was pointing, cringing at the sight.

Two semidiose reporters whose names Leo refused to remember out of pure spite had cornered Jason and were shoving cameras in his face. He was clearly trying his best to keep it together, but from the furrow in his brow and the way his lip was twitching, Leo figured he was a breath away from losing it.

Jason’s older sister Thalia, who was almost as famous for her short fuse as she was for her hero work, looked like desperately longed to set someone on fire.

“You wanna run a distract and extract mission before Thals kills someone?” he asked, already knowing Piper’s answer from the way she was scowling.

“Obviously. As much as I’d love to see her punch a reporter, I don’t think it’d help Jason much.”

“So, what’s the plan? You wanna try and test your powers again?” he suggested carefully. “Make them trip on their shoelaces or something?”

Piper shook her head, glaring intently at the floor tiles. “You know that’s not how it works,” she said very quietly.

He didn’t, actually. Neither did Piper. That was sort of the crux of the issue.

Unlike Drew, whose whole thing was warding off bad luck, Piper’s powers caused it. This could have been pretty cool, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d never been able to control said powers. Bad things just tended to happen around her, whether she wanted them to or not.

The bracelet helped, but it wasn’t a perfect fix. Leo’s hair hadn’t been the first or only victim of Piper’s bad luck.

He knew it was a touchy subject. Maybe he should have stopped asking about it altogether. But a part of Leo was still hopeful that one day, Piper’s powers would come around and actually be a good thing.

Maybe the fact that his feathers had changed last year, finally catching up with his gender and taking on the blue and green colors of a proper male quetzal, had made him a stupid optimist.

It was easier to be a stupid optimist, he supposed, when the worst thing you had to deal with on a daily basis was everyone knowing your moms and people being a little weird about your wings, instead of a dead mortal dad and people around you blaming you for every little thing that went wrong in their lives.

“Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He squeezed her hand, then let go of her so he could take off his backpack. “Let’s do it the old-fashioned way instead. How do you feel about a feathers and paint operation?”

Piper looked up at him. When she saw what he pulled from his bag—a little surprise he’d technically prepared to get back at Octavian for snitching on them after their last prank, but that would work just fine here—her lips slowly curled into a smile.

~~~~

The bad news about this strategy was that Leo’s bird friends were maybe getting a little too savvy at stealing things. The good news, well… it would be hard for the stupid reporters to harass anyone with a camera they no longer had. Also, Piper was great with distractions, and there was nothing that cheered her up quite like throwing paint bombs did.

Suddenly, the stupid reporters had a lot of things to worry about that weren’t the Lumbre siblings.

Before Jason knew what hit him, Leo had grabbed his hand and pulled him into the nearest corridor, running like hell.

“What the-” he asked, letting himself be pulled along despite his obvious confusion. Then his entire face lit up. “Leo?”

“At your service,” Leo joked, stopping once they’d rounded the next corner and bowing dramatically. “Piper’s gonna catch up with us in a second,” he told him. Before he got the chance to say anything else—“hello”, maybe, or “are you okay?”—Jason had scooped him up in the world’s tightest hug.

As was expected from a semidiós with fire powers, he radiated warmth. A hug from Jason always felt like being wrapped in a heated blanket. He smelt a little like an evening campfire. His curls brushed Leo’s forehead. It would have been so easy to reach out and run his hands through Jason’s hair…

Before Leo could do anything stupid, Piper rounded the corner, her delighted laughter echoing down the hall. The front of her shirt was absolutely splattered with paint.

“That was amazing. You should have seen their faces,” she giggled. The somber expression she’d worn earlier had been thoroughly wiped off her face.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Jason admitted, and he and Leo simultaneously untangled one arm to pull Piper into their group hug, collateral damage via paint be damned. Leo’s mamá would probably forgive him. “Another second of being grilled by them and they’d have gotten great pictures of me having a panic attack in the middle of the hall.”

“You’d die without us, probably,” Leo joked, squeezing Jason’s shoulder. “But I’m pretty sure Thalia would have punched the reporters’ lights out before letting that happen.”

“I’m not sure which one of our moms would have killed us faster if that had happened,” Jason replied, chewing on the scar on his lip. He said it in a joking tone, but he still looked a little shaken.

This didn’t exactly surprise Leo. Jason liked helping people—always had. But he’d never dealt with the public attention he got from hero work especially well.

Half the reason Leo and Piper had first befriended Jason was that it had always been blatantly obvious he didn’t deal with people well. At every ceremony the dioses and semidioses attended together, Jason had stood around either alone or clinging to his older sister’s skirts. Large groups of people tended to seriously overwhelm him.

He’d been okay while he still had Thalia, but things had gone from bad to worse when she’d graduated and started missing ceremonies because of her assignments.

Some four years ago, Piper and Leo had seen Jason standing beside a sour-faced priestess that was clearly less than thrilled to be demoted to babysitter for the day and had promptly decided that they were adopting him into their friend group, whether he liked it or not.

And, well, the rest was history.

“Have your parents been giving you a hard time about the trials?” Piper asked, expression fierce. “I’m not opposed to paint bombing a goddess if the situation warrants it.”

Jason laughed.

“Thanks, but I don’t think you getting incinerated would help,” he told her. Piper gently kicked him in the leg. “Hey!”

“I’m with Pipes here. Do not underestimate her skill to sneakily paint bomb people,” Leo tutted. Jason raised an eyebrow, gesturing at Piper’s paint-covered suit. “…current situation notwithstanding.”

“Traitor,” Piper complained, sticking her tongue out at Leo.

“It’s just… Thalia ranked second in her trials, despite being the youngest participant,” Jason said quietly. “I don’t know what would happen if Sol didn’t pick me for the trials at all.”

“Oh yeah, having to put up with Piper and me for two weeks would just be horrible. Way worse than having to fight for your life,” Leo teased, though he knew what Jason was getting at. Jason already put a lot of pressure on himself, and coming from a long line of Sunbearers and having his strict as hell diosa mother as his principal definitely didn’t help.

Jason opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, someone cleared their throat behind them.

Leo turned.

His mother’s head priest was standing there, his arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

“So that’s where you three ran off to.”

“Hedge! Hey! Fancy meeting you here,” Piper said cheerfully, giving him her widest grin. “How’s your wife?”

Hedge’s expression softened marginally. He loved to claim he didn’t like Piper all that much—he said it was because she got Leo into too much trouble, though objectively said trouble originated from Leo at least sixty percent of the time—but in truth, it was obvious he’d always had a soft spot for her.

“Mellie is great. But do not think you can distract me from doing my job right now. It’s almost time for the ceremony. I don’t know what you Fledgelings were thinking, but-” Hedge paused, taking in their outfits. “Why in Sol’s name are you three covered in paint?”

~~~~

An emergency cleaning session later, the three of them headed up the stairs towards the altar together.

Leo’s stomach rolled. He’d been the happiest person alive upon seeing his two best friends again, but his cheerful mood had begun to abate as they ascended, and seeing the altar thoroughly killed it. The trials began and ended here. Even if it wouldn’t be Jason—Leo quietly prayed to his mother and Sol and any other deity that might listen that it wouldn’t be Jason—someone would die here soon. He felt sick just thinking about it.

“If you’d all gather around, we’ll start with the ceremony,” Diosa Luna announced.

She was the goddess of the moon, as well as Sol’s high priestess. Because they couldn’t be around to do it, she’d been in charge of the trials since they’d taken place for the first time, communicating with Sol all throughout and making sure their will was heard as best as it could be.

Leo squeezed Jason’s hand one last time before they separated.

Then Jason went to stand with his mother and sister.

Reyna—the one proper friend Jason had managed to make at hero school—looked from the remnants of paint on Jason’s uniform to Leo and Piper. She raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing.

Leo never quite knew what to make of her, though he supposed the fact that Jason was friends with her meant she couldn’t be all that bad.

The same could not be said for his classmate Octavian, who was openly scowling at Leo and Piper, and not just because they were late. There were still Golds who heavily frowned upon Jason “lowering himself” to be friends with two Jades, and Octavian had always made it blatantly obvious that he was one of them.

“Jackass,” Leo muttered under his breath, and Piper snorted, pulling him along until they reached their respective families.

“You guys look like you had fun,” Nyssa commented, giving them an amused look.

“We did,” Leo confirmed, but he felt nothing as he said it. He didn’t even look at his sister. Instead, his eyes found Jason’s across the room.

The dioses were standing behind their children, most giving them encouraging looks and nods. Quetzal ruffled Leo’s feathers.

“You’ll be alright,” she reassured him gently.

“Yeah, I know,” Leo replied, sounding braver than he felt.

He was a Jade. Like he’d told Harley, Sol didn’t pick Jades for the trials. They were only here as a formality.

But there was still something nerve-wracking about standing around the altar, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Most people wouldn’t have been thrilled to be standing so close to the god of bad luck right now, but Leo was thankful. It meant he got to have Piper by his side for this, which made things a million times less miserable.

If he’d wanted to, he could have reached out and given her hand a squeeze, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit how afraid he felt.

Jason was still looking at him, smiling encouragingly.

Luna gave a whole speech about fortune and sacrifice and the role of the future Sunbearer, but Leo wasn’t really listening. He was looking at Jason across the altar—at his anxious stance and his smile—and trying desperately not to think about him ending up on said altar, his eyes empty and his warm skin growing horribly cold as golden blood dripped from the sacrificial dagger.

Leo’s mother squeezed his shoulder with warm fingers.

“You don’t need to worry about Jason,” she told him gently. “He will do just fine.”

Leo still felt nauseous. When Luna asked the Dioses to present their eligible children, he mechanically stepped forward—Nyssa to his left, Piper to his right. He briefly glanced back to see his mother gathering an obviously anxious Harley up in her arms, soothing him to the best of her abilities.

They all gathered around the Sol Stone. It was unnervingly quiet. Then, the stone began to hum and glow, which Leo immediately decided was worse.

A moment passed. Then, there was a flash of light. Sol had chosen the first competitor.

Leo turned to look. A sunburst crown had appeared on Annabeth’s head. The golden metal glinted dully.

No one was exactly shocked that Annabeth had been picked. Her father, Tormentoso, rumbled in approval. Annabeth herself tried to seem all calm and collected as she adjusted the crown on her head, but it was obvious she was thrilled that she’d not only been chosen but had been chosen before anyone else.

She grinned over at Percy like she’d just won some sort of competition between them.

Percy was the next person Sol chose, which also wasn’t surprising.

The next two choices were the two children of Guerrero Leo had seen earlier. Clarisse, their oldest eligible daughter, and her younger brother Frank. That was unusual enough that Luna had trouble getting the crowd to quiet down. Leo had never heard of a pair of siblings competing in the trials the same year.

Clarisse looked thrilled. Leo didn’t think Frank looked quite as excited, but he squared his shoulders and did his best to mimic his sister’s proud pose.

Octavian was next, then a daughter of Tierra named Hazel. She was the youngest competitor that had been chosen so far, but she didn’t look afraid. She brushed back her curls and raised her head, expression fierce.

Reyna was next. That meant there were only three spots left.

With every crown that appeared on a head that wasn’t Jason’s, Jason looked more like he wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. Leo’s feelings were warring with each other. He hated the anxious look on Jason’s face—hated the way Lumbre’s fingers were digging into her son’s shoulders even more—but he still didn’t want Jason to be chosen. He wanted him to be safe more than anything.

Just three more spots. Leo almost allowed himself to hope. Not Jason. Not Jason. Not Jason.

Of course, because the universe hated him, the next crown was Jason’s. Jason’s shoulders slumped in relief. Reyna squeezed his hand, smiling softly at him.

Leo found some comfort in the fact that at least Jason would have someone in his corner, but he was still having a hard time not freaking out. Not staring at the altar and thinking about Jason bleeding out on top of it, expression brave and determined and then completely still.

The next flash—competitor number nine—was so close to Leo that he was disoriented for a second. The crowd broke into surprised chatter again, much louder than it had been when Sol had picked the second one of the Guerrero siblings. Heads swiveled.

Leo was still staring at Jason, who looked right back at him, all signs of relief gone from his expression. His face was ashen, eyes wide with alarm.

“They can’t do that!” a familiar voice protested. Leo realized with a jolt that it was Drew.

He turned to his right, confused as to which Gold had been chosen that could possibly elicit that kind of reaction when everyone had been just fine with Hazel being chosen a moment ago.

Piper was anxiously fiddling with the pendant of her azabache bracelet. Her face had lost all color.

Leo’s eyes met hers.

Then they trailed upwards to the sunburst crown on top of her head, and the ground fell out from underneath his feet.

Leo couldn’t breathe. He felt like he had been dropped off a cliff, the ground hurtling towards him and his wings refusing to work.

He hadn’t even considered the possibility that Piper might be chosen for the trials. He hadn’t even considered he might lose her. Why would he have? Jades were basically never chosen for the trials!

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t- this wasn’t real. He was stuck in some kind of bizarre nightmare. There was no way this was actually happening.

In what world would Sol choose Piper? She barely even had any powers, for crying out loud! How could she stand a chance against nine people who had been training for this for almost their entire lives? That wasn’t fair! She couldn’t- Leo couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t.

He looked back towards his mom, whose expression of shock mirrored his own.

Leo did reach out to take Piper’s hand, then. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, but he clutched her trembling fingers tightly, tapping Morse code on the back of her hand. Love you. Love you. Love you. Over and over again. After the third time, Piper started tapping the same message back at him.

Leo looked at Jason across the room. There wasn’t a word said between them, but they didn’t need words to express what they were both thinking.

Jason would do whatever he could to help Piper in the trials. They didn’t have to talk about it for Leo to know that he would.

There was another flash. Sol had chosen the final competitor.

Leo didn’t want to care who it was—he didn’t think it could get any worse than both Jason and Piper being chosen—but, once again, the flash had been horribly, disorientingly close. Leo had to take a moment to blink the spots out of his eyes.

If possible, Jason’s face had gone even grayer. There was a sobbing noise behind Leo that he was pretty sure was from Harley.

Leo’s heart hammered in his chest as he remembered that his sister was also eligible for the trials and that she was standing right next to him. Please not her, too.

Leo braced himself as he turned around to look at Nyssa. It was harder than he’d expected. His head felt strangely heavy all of a sudden.

His sister’s head was thankfully crownless. This would have been a huge relief, except she was staring at him, an expression of utter terror written across her features.

Leo reached up with trembling hands, praying he’d imagined the new weight on his head. But despite him being surrounded by deities, it was clear none of them were listening.

As he tried to brush back his hair, his fingers touched the cold metal of the final sunburst crown.

———

Fic notes:

-This is hands down one of the most self-indulgent fics I have ever written, I had absolutely ridiculous amounts of fun writing this fic!

-Sunbearer Trials and Celestial Monsters are probably my favorite reads of the year (which is saying a lot considering how many books I’ve read this year) and I cannot stress enough that I think you guys would really enjoy them. This goes especially for the valgrace shippers. Aurelio is sooo Jason Grace coded you guys would love him.

-Just absolutely lovely books about a whole bunch of queer demigods with a super cool surrounding mythology that I promise is explained way better in the books than my very basic summary for the purposes of this fic suggests lmao. I cannot recommend them enough.

-If you’d like to understand the world building better, I’d recommend just checking out the prologue of the book! I did my best with trying to explain it but I’m not sure I succeeded, ngl

-Leo as Teo and Jason as a sort of Niya-Aurelio-mix were really obvious choices, but I struggled to figured out what exactly I wanted Piper’s role to be. When it clicked tho… made the whole fic come together. I’m so thrilled for the target audience of me and like maybe two other people in the universe who will get it to read this fic!

-Since this fic is intended to make people read the books, I thought this was a pretty good point to end it on! There’s some other scenes that could theoretically be fun to explore in this universe (I have one especially that I really want to do, but, well, spoilers). We’ll see how it goes.

Also specifically tagging @froglyberrys and @on-starrii-nights since you guys were interested in this concept when I first posted about it (hope that’s okay, let me know if you want me to remove the tag)

#Lost trio week #jason grace #leo valdez #piper McLean #heroes of olympus #hoo #valgrace #leo x jason #jason x leo #nyssa barrera #Harley pjo #the sunbearer trials #the sunbearer duology #lost trio #leo pjo #jason pjo #piper pjo #Pjo fanfic #my writing

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queenjunothegreat · 9 days ago

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OHOHOHO!!!!!! Last fandom event involved a self-indulgent crossover AU that literally only I cared about, so you KNOW I had to go for round two with Lost Trio Week! ( ✿ Ò ω Ó)φ__ This time we're doing a CORALINE AU, which I think is VERY exciting! If you've never seen/read Coraline, fear not! This fic requires absolutely ZERO knowledge of that universe because Piper doesn't know anything about it either.

So, I am VERY proud to present the first chapter of my @lost-trio-week day two fic: Mechanical Lulluby

Piper walked through the front door and as soon as she did, her senses were flooded by the warm rich aroma of chili. Without even thinking to take off her boots Piper scrambled to the kitchen, and her face lit up when she saw her dad humming to himself as he stirred the cast iron pot on the stove. As if sensing her he chuckled softly. "Piper, you're getting mud everywhere." She didn't care. "Dad is it really you?" He paused then and chuckled again. "Not quite." He turned around, and Piper couldn't stifle a gasp. The man before her had her dad's swooping hair and his charming smile, but instead of eyes he had two big shiny black buttons. "I'm your Other Father." *** Piper is an 11-year-old girl, forced to move to the awful town of Lakesville, Oregon. Between the dreary weather, the unsettling neighbors, the ugly house, and her dad's busy schedule, she's forced to make the best of nothing. Then she meets two boys and together they go tumbling into a world just like their own but better in every way. But Piper gets an ominous warning: Never trust everything you see. Now she has to find the wit and courage needed to keep herself and her friends safe. Lost Trio Week 2024 - Day Two: Crossover

To say that Piper was unhappy with her dad’s decision to take her out of school right in the middle of spring break and move her a thousand miles away from everything she was finally starting to get used to was a gross understatement. Everything about the move was awful and seemingly perfectly designed as an attempt to ruin her young life. She hated everything about everything, up to and including the house her dad had moved her into. It was a rather unpleasant shade of pink, like someone had tried to liven the place up by painting it the same color as the medicine her dad made her drink when she had a stomach ache. Only, they had made that decision a billion and a half years ago, so all the paint was faded and gross and dirty. It was old and shabby and run down and ugly and everything Piper had thought it would be and she hated it.

“It’s not old, it’s historic,” her dad had corrected when she’d voiced her complaints.

Only, it wasn’t historic. Much like everything else in town, it wasn’t old enough to be historic, it was just old enough to be bad. Laketown, Oregon didn’t show up on any maps other than local ones. It wasn’t big enough to draw anyone in, and it wasn’t small enough to be cute and quaint. It was just perfectly middle of the road enough to not offer anything of value to anyone. In fact, the only remotely interesting thing about Laketown was that it was founded on an underground lake, so there were old wells spotted around everywhere. In another life, that might have been cool, but by now the lake and all the wells had dried up, so Laketown didn’t even have the dumb lake it was named after.

Piper didn’t want to live there. She hadn’t exactly loved living in LA, either, but it was better than this place. She wanted to go home, back to Oklahoma and the crisp, clear air and the wide open sky that stretched out for miles and miles and miles. Oregon was nothing like home. Here, she was surrounded by trees, and Laketown had exactly the right amount of lights to blot out the stars when she stared up at the sky, longing for one little piece of the life she’d been forced to leave behind. Unfortunately, no one asks eleven-year-old girls where they want to live, especially not their dads, who were offered a long-term gig as the main character of a TV show, with only the stipulation that they had to film on site. Piper wanted to be glad that her dad’s acting career was going so well, but she couldn’t help but think that making her move to this awful, rotten place was a little unfair.

“Why don’t you go play outside?” Piper’s dad suggested, not looking up from the script in front of him. He was sitting in his office, surrounded by untouched boxes of all his stuff, just like he had since the moment they’d arrived. He’d shooed Piper off before by telling her she needed to go unpack her room, but it seemed that those orders didn’t apply to him. “You could introduce yourself to the neighbors. Make a good first impression.”

Piper wrinkled her nose. That was the other rotten thing about this house: she and her dad didn’t own the whole thing. That would have been too expensive. Instead, they rented the bottom floor while the basement and upstairs was rented to other people. She had met them, but only in passing, and she wasn’t exactly thrilled to spend any more time with them, but she’d learned that her dad’s “suggestions” when he was studying scripts weren’t really all that suggestive at all.

The Gray Sisters lived downstairs in the basement, which meant that they didn’t have any windows other than a couple of sad little window wells dug out around the living room. It also meant that the whole place was oddly damp. The underground lake and wells may have dried up, but the ground was almost always a little squishy with the amount of rain the town got. Again, just enough rain to make everyone and everything gray and miserable, but not enough to win any sort of records. Just in that area of painful mundanity.

The Gray Sisters themselves were old. Old enough that Piper would agree to calling them historic. Prehistoric, even. Each one of the three old ladies looked one step away from being a poorly-preserved mummy, with their sunken cheeks and wrinkled skin. Each one of them had one working eye and one hollowed out socket (though only one of them actually kept her eye open at once) and one singular yellow snaggletooth each. All this together meant that when they spoke, their words were soft and gummy and Piper couldn’t be entirely sure when they were talking to her because most of the time they had their eyes closed and weren’t even facing in her direction.

Piper probably wouldn’t have minded all this quite so much if any of the Gray Sisters were like the old ladies back in Oklahoma who liked to sit together on their rocking chairs and sew while they laughed uproariously at one another’s jokes and clapped in delight when Piper sang for them. No, the Gray Sisters were mean, if not to Piper, then definitely to one another. They were constantly shouting at one another and they had awful little nicknames they used instead of real names.

“Anger!” the one in the kitchen shrieked in her shrill, awful voice. “You’ve gone and lost the sugar bowl again! How are we meant to serve the girl tea now?”

“You don’t have to serve me any tea,” Piper assured them. She didn’t even like tea. They didn’t listen to her.

“Not I, Wasp!” the shortest sister spat back. “T’was Tempest who used it last!”

“Oh, ‘tis lost, ‘tis lost!” the third one wailed, tears steadily pouring down one of her cheeks. “Lost forever to the abyss!”

“What abyss, ma’am?” Piper asked politely. In response, Tempest sobbed louder.

“The abyss, the abyss,” Wasp muttered. She clutched at her chest in terror, and Piper wondered what she was meant to do if any of these ladies had a heart attack while she was with them. “Surely, you do not mean there?” Again, Tempest sobbed louder.

“What abyss?” Piper asked again, just in case she wasn’t heard before.

“The abyss, girl! Pay attention!” Anger snapped. “The abyss in which things are sealed away, drowned, and returned to the world, changed and made anew!”

Piper frowned and cocked her head to the side. “You mean the dishwasher?” The three women howled in terror, sorrow, and fury.

Piper left without getting any tea.

Her neighbor who lived on the second story was a man named Mr. V. He was a big, scary-looking man, with broad shoulders he kept hunched up around his ears, a scowl so deep Piper was pretty sure his face was stuck like that, and a thick black beard that reminded Piper of the scratchy wire brushes people used to clean up rust. He was so big that Piper wasn’t sure how he managed to fit through his own narrow front door, much less up the rickety fire escape that led to it, and she was convinced that one day he was going to step too hard and fall right through the floor onto her and her dad’s dining table.

His floor was almost as dark and cramped as the Gray Sisters’, but unlike them, he only had himself to blame. He kept all the lights on his floor dimmed, and every square inch of floor space was taken up by big, oil-smudged machines. Some of them made loud, ominous clicking and thumping sounds, some whirred and spun in place while giant exposed gears ker-thunked into place, and still more belched out thick black smoke and bright tongues of orange flame, some of which made their homes as embers in the thick of Mr. V’s wiry beard. All of the machines seemed designed to do something different, but if Piper was being honest, she wasn’t entirely sure they did anything useful, other than take up space and require Piper to twist and bend and tiptoe her way through to the heart of the home.

“Don’t you touch that, Pippy!” Mr. V shouted at her, causing her to almost lose her balance and stumble over a pile of chains in her shock.

“My name’s Piper, not Pippy,” she reminded him again.

That was the other unfortunate thing about Mr. V. He didn’t like Piper at all. She wasn’t sure if it was a matter of him not liking people, not liking children, or just specifically not liking her. She wouldn’t really be surprised if any one of the three answers (or maybe even all of them) turned out to be true, but she knew for a fact that one of them was. She tried not to take it to heart, but it was a little hard to not get your feelings hurt when someone scowled at you like you’d committed the ultimate crime by existing.

“What are you doing in here?” Mr. V demanded. “I told you I need to be left well enough alone when I’m working.”

“My dad wanted me to come say hi,” she told him. There was an empty barstool near his work desk, so she climbed up on it, happy to be both off her feet and out of danger of accidentally touching something. “Whatcha working on?”

Mr. V scowled at her, but again, Piper was pretty sure that’s just what his face looked like after a lifetime of grumpiness. She wondered how he’d look if he actually tried to smile. The thought was almost scarier than the man himself. He stared at her for a few seconds, like he was trying to find something to yell at her about, but came up short, seeing as Piper was sitting perfectly still up on her perch. Eventually he settled for a gruff, “I’m an engineer, not a babysitter.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Piper informed him. “My dad lets me stay by myself.”

That made Mr. V pause and he squinted at her. “Yeah?”

“Yup,” she said, puffing up in pride. “I’ve been allowed to babysit myself since my last birthday.”

“If that’s the case, then you can go outside and babysit yourself, Pippy. Away from me.”

Piper blew a loud raspberry at him, which her dad would have been very embarrassed about if he’d been with her, but she didn’t care. Mr. V was mean and he deserved it. “My name is Piper!” she told him one last time before retreating out the front door.

Once she was back on the ground, she looked around and once again felt the enormity of her dissatisfaction weigh heavily on her shoulders. Just as it had for the past four days since they’d moved in, there was a thick misty fog that hung over the ground, reaching up to her waist. It wasn’t thick enough to keep her from actually seeing the ground or anything like that, but it did make the ground squelch unpleasantly when she stepped on an extra-squishy patch of grass. She kind of wished she’d gotten a chance to find her rain boots, but her dad had fussed at her for dawdling and making a ruckus, so she’d been sent out in the new sneakers she didn’t even like.

With that thought, she stomped as hard as she could, watching the mud ooze up and stain the white fabric with a sense of gratification.

She gleefully wandered around the soggy yard, taking care to jump on any spots that made that squelching noise, but that could only last so long. Ruining her shoes was fun, but soon her shoes were caked in mud and she was left with cold, damp feet and no goal.

That was when she spied a stick on the ground in a perfect capital ‘Y’ shape. The visitors’ center in town had a display about all the bunches of wells scattered around town and even how the people who founded the town used dowsing rods made of wood and bits of metal to locate the water hidden underground. She didn’t know how it worked, but she knew they used sticks that looked just like that, and she was very good at playing pretend.

“Okay, stick!” she ordered, holding it out in front of her. “Take me to the nearest well!”

She shut her eyes for dramatic effect, then stumbled forward as if yanked along by her magical stick. She wandered all over, weaving in and out of the treeline, only peeking open one eye occasionally to make sure she wasn’t going to run into anything. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t really think it mattered all that much, seeing as everyone in town knew about the house she was living in. If she got lost she could just go to the nearest grown-up and ask for the Pink Palace, and they’d wince in sympathy and take her right back. She’d be fine.

She’d wandered into a clearing when something caught her attention. In between her announcing to herself what she was doing and communing with her stick, she heard a quiet rustling sound. She froze, waiting to see if it happened again, but there was nothing. Still, she could feel a gaze prickling at the back of her neck. Someone – or something – was watching her.

She cleared her throat, and tried not to sound scared. “Okay, stick! I think we’re almost there! Lead on so that our town might find water!” She made a show of shutting her eyes and walking forward, but she kept one cracked open just enough to see around her.

Then, out of the corner of her vision, she saw movement. In a split second, her eyes flew open and she whirled around on her heel. “What are you doing?” she demanded at the top of her voice, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

It definitely worked, but considering her opponent was just a kid instead of a scary murderer, the feat wasn’t quite so impressive.

“Ahh!!” the boy screamed, cowering behind his outstretched hands.

“Ahh!!” Piper screamed right back, startled by the sound.

“Ahh!!” the boy screamed one last time before he composed himself. He scowled at Piper. “What’s wrong with you? You shouldn’t scare people!”

“Well, you shouldn’t be a stalker!” Piper scowled right back.

“I wasn’t stalking you; I was following you!”

“Same difference!”

The boy puffed out his cheeks and kicked at the ground. “I just wanted to see what you were doing,” he huffed. “Theresa said a kid moved into the house and I wanted to say hi.”

“Well, then why were you following me instead of talking to me?” Piper said, her tone still a little accusatory.

The boy shrugged, and gestured at the stick she’d abandoned. “I wanted to see what you were doing. You looked weird.”

Piper felt her cheeks go a little warm at the thought of being caught in her game, but she just stuck her nose in the air and went to retrieve her stick. “It’s called water witching,” she said in her best know-it-all voice. “I use this magic stick to lead me to wells and underground water.”

The boy looked impressed. “Well, you must be really good at it.”

“What do you mean?” Piper asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Well, you’re about six inches from falling into an abandoned well right now.” Piper yelped and leapt back towards the boy, who doubled over in laughter. “You should have seen your face!”

Piper rolled her eyes and shoved him. “Whatever. I bet you were lying about the well.”

“I was not!” the boy said, outraged. “Look!” He gingerly stepped over and kicked some of the dirt and leaves around until the lip of a well and its wooden cap became visible. “See? Told ya.”

“I wouldn’t have fallen in, though,” Piper pointed out. “It’s got a lid.”

“Wood’s all rotted out,” the boy informed her. “You can try to stand on it, but I wouldn’t suggest it. You’ll fall right through, just like Dylan did last year.”

Piper shivered and took another step back just to be safe. “Well, thanks for telling me, I guess.” She smiled then, and stuck out her hand. “My name’s Piper McLean.”

“I know,” the boy told her, shaking her hand. “My name’s Leo Valdez.”

“What do you mean you know?”

“Theresa, the lady I live with, owns the house you’re renting,” Leo explained. “Your dad’s an actor, right? I heard her complaining about it to her boyfriend, Michael.”

“Oh. How come you don’t live with your parents?”

Immediately, Leo clammed up and he scowled at her. “None of your business.”

Piper narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before she shrugged. “Okay. You wanna go exploring with me? My dad’s busy with his script, so he wants peace and quiet at the house.”

“Yeah, okay,” Leo agreed easily. “Theresa doesn’t let me in until sundown anyway.”

Piper very much wanted to ask him again what he meant by that, but she figured it wasn’t any of her business, either. So, the two of them wandered through the trees together. Every once in a while, they’d interrupt their walk with a quick game of tag, until Leo tripped and fell, scraping up his chin.

“Ow!” Leo whined, sitting back on his heels and cupping his muddy hands to his chin. “That hurt!”

“Are you okay?” Piper asked, crouching down in front of him.

“Yeah,” Leo muttered sourly. “I dunno what I tripped on, though.”

Piper looked around for the culprit until her eyes fell on a nearby tree root. It was bumped up out of the ground at just the right height to send an eleven-year-old boy tumbling. She followed it up to the tree it was attached to, and her eyes grew wide and round in wonder. “Leo! Look!”

“Look at what?” Leo huffed but he looked over to where she was pointing and he grinned. “That’s so cool!”

The tree Piper was pointing at was perfectly hollow, from one side all the way to the other. It wasn’t a big opening, but it was plenty big enough for Piper to crawl through on her hands and knees. What was most remarkable about it, though, was that the tree was still covered in shiny new growth leaves. She knew that sometimes trees could live after being hollowed out, but the rest of the trees around her bore the soft green leaves of spring, while this tree was blanketed in a warm, bright ocher.

“You’ve never seen this tree before?” Piper asked.

Leo shook his head. “Nuh-uh. I’d remember something like this. It’s kinda funny, with the time I spend outside, I figured I’d seen every tree by now.”

“Huh.” Piper studied it for a bit more before she grinned at Leo. “It looks like a portal. We should go through.”

Leo’s face puckered in confusion for a second before he shrugged and followed her lead as she crawled through the little arch left by the tree. When they were both through, she loudly gasped and proclaimed, “Leo, we’re in a magic world now.”

Leo furrowed his brow for a moment and looked around like he was trying to figure out what she was talking about before he looked back at her. “Uh, okay.”

“In order to fit into this world, we have to become magic, too,” she informed him. “I’m an elf wizard assassin who was sent here to kill the evil king.”

Leo just stared at her until she gave him a meaningful look and tapped her toes expectantly. “Oh, I’m, uh, a mechanic?”

“A mechanic?” Piper said, very unimpressed.

“Yeah! A magic mechanic!” Leo insisted. “I can fix anything and I can make magic tools and stuff.”

Piper considered that for a moment before she nodded in agreement and Leo grinned at her. “Alright then. Come on, we’ve got to work together to overthrow the king.”

Piper soon lost track of time as they played their game. They never got around to defeating their evil king antagonist, but Piper had been introduced to Leo’s pet robot dragon (she tried to argue that robots did not belong in her fantasy world, but Leo insisted that it was an enchanted robot dragon, so she let it slide) and they’d found a way to infiltrate the castle. Piper was about to suggest they begin their final assault before she felt a big, fat raindrop hit her cheek. She stared up at the suddenly darkened sky and felt another one hit her between the eyes.

“It’s gonna start raining,” she informed Leo.

He squinted up at the sky, too and frowned. “Yeah. We’d better head back before it starts really coming down. I can show you the way home.” Piper nodded and followed him out of the trees and he pointed across the little field towards an ugly pink house. “That’s where your house is.”

She nodded at him then cocked her head to the side. “Do you wanna hang out again tomorrow?”

Leo looked startled that she’d ask him such a thing before he grinned. “Yeah! You wanna meet in your yard?”

“Okay,” she agreed. Then she waved and started running for her house. “See you tomorrow, Leo!”

“Bye, Piper!”

She didn’t wind up beating the rain home, and when she trudged through the house soaking wet, her dad only sighed and told her to shower and get cleaned up before dinner. Dinner was leftovers from the takeout they’d had the night before, but Piper’s dad promised he’d make a real dinner for them the next night, so Piper tried not to make too many faces at her microwaved noodles. She tried to tell him about the afternoon she’d had, about meeting the neighbors and all the fun she’d had with Leo, but he was still reviewing his script, so she never got anything more than a distracted, “That’s great, Pipes,” in response, and the rest of dinner passed in silence.

That night, as Piper curled up in bed under her big, fluffy blanket, she told herself that things were going to be better tomorrow.

#my writing #the lost trio #lost trio week #pjo fanfic

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