#nero pjo

[everythingwasalreadypicked]

Terribly sorry for the inconsistent updates (will happen again though) but here's some Sun of Magic memes, some (most) of it has yet to happen

[daisy-mooon]

Isn't True

Whumptober 2023, Day 2: "They don't care about you."

-

"They don't care about you." Nero says, in a tone that's somewhere between honest and comforting, with something poisonous hidden underneath. Meg feels paralysed, the rage from her tantrum subdued and killed like her feelings are nothing more than a wild beast that needs to be slaughtered.

What he's saying isn't true. They do care about her. The people at Camp Half-Blood. Camp Jupiter. The Waystation. Her home cares about her. Apollo cares about her.

"I know this is hard, Meg." His hand drifts to her shoulder and holds it. It's not hard or forceful or hurtful, but comforting. "But the people around you can lie. You mustn't blame yourself for falling for manipulation. Especially Apollo's."

It's not true. Apollo does care for her. He's like… he's like her brother. She echoes this. It sounds empty and defeated.

"Meg." Nero sighs. It makes her skin crawl. "You may see Apollo as a brother. But it's unlikely that he sees you as a sister. He already has one - remember Artemis?" His voice hesitates as I'd he doesn't know what he's going to say. He does. She hates him. "I suspect...that Apollo is using you as a replacement for his twin, until he returns to godhood."

Meg wants to scream, wants to slap him, wants to run away and hide and never look at him again. The memory of Apollo curled up in Artemis'- Diana's arms haunts her. She's not- she knows she's more than a replacement-

"Yes, I would die to save Meg McCaffrey." She remembered him saying, through the spiral of deathly haze she'd been subjected too in the Dark Oracle. He had said that. Not too her, as a reassurance, but too the spirit, as an admission. Forget any sibling like relationship, he cared about her, he did-

"Oh Meg." Nero starts to stroke along her back. "You poor, poor child."

She sniffs, and tries to hold on to what should be on what is the truth. Apollo cares about her. He'll enact their plan, do it with Lu and a burst of godly rage, and then save her. He has too.

The sunlight doesn't fully come through the windows. She tries to focus on that watery, half hidden star, and not on the beast sitting beside her.

[mothmanavenue]

//The Dark Prophecy, The Trials of Apollo

Parallel loves

[citrusreadstoa]

Reading The Dark Prophecy: Chapter 20 (SPOILERS)

"Leg irons are fashionable / Cue the screaming god" What the fudge is the leg iron. What new torture device--

"playing my combat ukulele." Again, what makes it a combat ukulele? I have yet to see it do anything other than play regular ukulele music.

"That night I slept like the dead" Can Brieanna sleep? Can ghosts will themselves to sleep?

"I'll do my best to train your friend Calypso this morning" Complaint: we hardly get to see Leo and Calypso together. Where is my Caleo content?

"You don't have to fly. The idea was to make two ankle bracelets, but I didn't have time." Ten bucks Apollo is going to end up using the flying feature one way or another and he's just gonna get pulled by one foot swerving uncontrollably.

"Commodus blames me for his death" Because you killed him. "Why?" "Probably because I killed him." Yeah.

"Meg made a sound like a cat's sneeze." That's... an astoundingly accurate way to describe a short laugh.

"He's also vainglorious" This one's probably straightforward, but just in case... VAINGLORIOUS (adj.): excessively proud of oneself or one's achievements; overly vain Yep, just what I thought.

"So he's like your competition, then?" Lol Leo's not wrong tho

"Why Commodus? . . . Why not some eviler, more famous guy" That's what I've been wondering, too. I figured the guy who got stabbed 23 times but 60 people actually volunteered (I think the emperor's name was Julius Caesar but idk) would be one of the three. I simply assumed I was ignorant of Roman history (which I am). I looked it up. HE STARTED THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. HE WAS EVEN POSTHUMOUSLY DEIFIED. WHY IS THIS GUY NOT ONE OF THE VILLAINS? They're probably going to make a reference and give a good explanation later. Talking meta, it's probably because everyone already knows him and expects to see him. We already have Nero and Caligula, so having a third name that everyone's heard of would get excessive. Or, idk, maybe Rick Riordan just didn't feel like it.

"the third one, the emperor in the west" Oh, so now Meg watches her words. Doesn't care about Nero or Commodus, she just can't say Caligula's name. What's the point at the point? She's already drawn everyone else's attention. "Nero never used his name." Oh, that explains it.

"Nero took him." NERO BETTER NOT BE HURTING PEACHES

"A line of chevrons rippled on the green water" CHEVRON (n.): a line or stripe in the shape of a V or an inverted V

"I think that's another part of the same creature." Sea monster sea monster sea monster

Ooooookayyyyy we need to wait 'til next chapter to see the sea monster.

[wu-does-art]

[the-goddess-of-gays]

this sounds like a line from a solangelo crackfic but it's a canonical interaction from tower of nero and it's the best thing ever

(or, reason #4395 why I adore will solace)

[moodyseal]

"What happened between book 4 and 5?" lots of shenanigans that's what ‼️

[lavenderfairiez]

I just finished ToA last night and here are some things I don't see nearly enough people talking about, specifically about the end of ToA so if you haven't read it this is your spoiler warning!!!

• Apollo not feeling right in his godly form and uncomfortable around the other olympians (not including Artemis)

• LEO CALLING JO "MOM" 🥺 (and Emmie and Jo in general) BUT HE HAS TWO MOMS NOW I LITERALLY STARTED CRYING ABOUT THIS LAST NIGHT

• Apollo visiting Percy and Annabeth in New Rome!!!

• AND they talk about Jason!!!!!! Annabeth cried herself to sleep

• honestly Apollo's whole battle with Python that shit was so cool

• obligatory fuck Calypso

• REYNA CALLING LEO "HERMANO" 🥹

• Meg standing up to Nero in his throne room!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH

• Rick's infallible ability to put EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. CHARACTER. in a relationship 💀 PEACHES HAS A LOVE INTEREST NOW???????? LET CHARACTERS BE SINGLEEEEE

• HAZEL'S CURSE IS GONE AND SHE CAN JUST LIKE USE HER JEWELS NOW!!! and Frank wants an engraved diamond necklace that says "H+F Forever" I love him so much...

• while we're on the topic of Frank!! WHY DOES NO ONE EVER TALK ABOUT HIS SACRIFICE AT THE END OF THE TYRANTS TOMB??? Like I knew that he would be fine but I still started like tearing up

• THE ARROW OF DODONA!!!

• how completely unaffected Zeus is by Jason's death??? Fuck you Zeus.

• Apollo's new kids at camp!!!

[mooni]

in canon, apollo invented the honey, he gay meme. not only is this one of the most meta things across the entire franchise, the way he phrases it makes it sound like in the pjo verse, the meme actually went viral. apollo is canonically a fucking memelord and i could not be happier

[arihuntress]

Would there be a Trials of Apollo animated series. I think this would be the poster for anouncing the "COMING SOON" of Tower of Nero.

Fake News: Tower of Nero!

Coming soon into theatre….

[everythingwasalreadypicked]

More Sun of Magic shenanigans (aka I am putting random scenarios here because I do not have a written outline and I don't want to forget it)

Apollo: Why do you have a phone I thought demigods couldn't use one?

Al: It’s enchanted! Uhh, totally just trust me.

Apollo: ...sounds fake but I do not know enough about magic so okay :/

Meanwhile, Nero sitting in his office holding his phone and a certain dead author's mistform card:

[the-eclipse-is-in-me]

Apollo being REAL

Apollo is forever the REALEST of these lines

[overheard-at-camp-half-blood]

I never noticed this on the back of Tower of Nero. I always thought they were just reviews

[siingomuse]

some of the book names in pjo/hoo/toa are actually FIRE mate like. "the lightning thief" that's actually so fire???? "the titans curse"??? that's so epic bro like. that's so cool "the battle of the labyrinth"?? that would be the COOLEST band name mate "mark of athena" like. greek mythology song named that WHEN?? and ALL of the book names in Trials of Apollo? FIRE "the hidden oracle" thats so awesome like WHAT??? "the dark prophecy" fire song name "the burning maze" aidoneus song drop named that when?? "the tyrant's tomb" call your band that drop the songs and I would be your NUMBER 1 listener like thats so cool "tower of nero" fire shit mate rick you were COOKING with these names

[citrusreadstoa]

Reading The Dark Prophecy: Chapter 5 (SPOILERS)

"Tell you a story? / Or I could just, like, pass out / And twitch on the couch" This whole haiku is one of my favorites so far. It's funny and the assonance (I think that's what it's called) between "out" and "couch" is pretty good. I know haikus aren't supposed to rhyme, but this one was satisfying.

"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna check out the forges." Leo! You aren't even a little bit curious?

"these waking visions had been happening with alarming frequency." He is pulling a Hazel! He is pulling a Hazel! These visions do happen during the daytime!

"the baleen ridge of a whale's mouth." Looked it up. It's the brush-like part that are their "teeth," which art as a filter. The definition on Google by the Oxford Language dictionary just says "whalebone." That's the whole definition. Unhelpful.

"his daughters breaking his finest amphora of wine, and so, naturally, they had to die." WOW. Overreaction. This guy sees his daughters as less valuable than his wine. I'm surprised they made it to their teenage years with a dad like that. "I mean... if the girls had broken a Stradivarius violin or gold-plated harmonica, I might have understood his rage." Apollo! See, this is how they indicate to us that Apollo still has more character development to get through.

"Parthenos and Hemithea" Parthenos? Like Athena Parthenos? Or is this another Rhea-Rhea Silvia situation? "Rhoeo--the king's eldest daughter" There's a D missing in that name. "It is no small thing to make someone a god." Yeah, so why'd ya do it, Apollo? It would have been so much simpler to just teleport them somewhere safe, as I'm sure they were expecting. "I prayed, 'Help us, Artemis!'" Eh, Apollo was far away. Easy mistake. /s

"[Nero] balanced a plate of strawberries" D'you think he ordered those from Delphi Strawberry Farm? It would be wonderfully ironic. "her knees bent in yellow leggings" Lol, she switched back to the traffic light outfit even after Sally gave her black leggings. You think she has a whole closet of the same clothes?

"the sort of boy who enjoyed appearing from shadows." Maybe Nico knows this guy.

"our friend the New Hercules." I don't know what to make of this. Multiple people have been compared to Hercules over the books but I doubt it's any one of them. This is a new character. What does he have in common with Hercules? Is it just strength or is it his backstory or the role he plays, etc.? "his obsession with destroying the House of Nets." The NBA? Does he have something against basketball? Or does he play basketball and wants to take down the rival basketball team?

"Emmie is a healer to rival Apollo." She is poking the bear. Stabbing it with a spear, more like.

"We were kinda busy talking shop." So busy you wouldn't notice someone having a seizure in the middle of the room?

Cheese ghost Brieanna is back!

[guardianspirits13]

This is what happened, right?