#obviously annabeth comes in at some point and saves the day

[soulless-bex]

pjo x mcu crossover where hydra picks up percy while he’s left wandering the country while amnesiac. obviously they didn’t just pick him up for no reason, after all i do vaguely remember percy not being all that discreet with his abilities in the son of neptune

it would be quite easy for hydra to turn percy into a killing machine considering that he already can’t remember shit. they only have to do a bit of brainwashing to make him into their obedient little killer.

it still takes them a few years to get him trained to their standards, during which he gets to somewhat know bucky, both of them bonding over the amnesia and shitty names they were given by hydra (the winter soldier and aegis for percy)

fast forward a few years, bucky is saved by the avengers and slowly regains his memories while percy quickly makes a name for himself as aegis, the anger of the sea

the avengers try to stop him, but really, what can you do against a guy who can bend water/blood/poison, is invulnerable (the achilles curse being a pain in the ass), has super-strength and super healing?

[sophies-junkyard]

Seeing the new PJO content has me thinking way too hard about growing up. Its crazy because it’s like…. I think that chapter of my life is over? Which is a BIZARRE feeling. It’s all pretty stupid to write out but I’m drinking coffee and staring out the window and don’t have class for another 6 hours so lemme scribble some thoughts.

I read the Percy Jackson books when I was the same age as the characters, and so whenever I look back on those stories I sort of… remember them as peers? I remember how much I related to them and looked up to them. It was the first story that ever told me my ADHD could be a gift, and that it made me just like my heroes. It was so, SO important to me. I JOINED TUMBLR for the PJO fandom! I made camp t-shirts and painted necklace beads! I learned to draw because the fanart inspired me. Those books were such an escape for a lonely kid. The characters grew up right alongside me, and eventually got older than me. So when I picture our trio I still picture people… more competent than me? People I would aspire to be. But seeing that trailer and remembering like… holy fuck they were kids. I was a kid. This is a faithful adaptation because they were TWELVE… where did the time go?

It’s just strange because if you scroll back through my tumblr you’ll find a kid who camped out for the release of HOH. Who saved her allowance for a year to get an autographed copy of the Blood of Olympus. Whose eyes would glaze over in euphoria at the idea of my favorite thing in the world coming to screen. At the idea of a new BOOK!! And from Percy’s perspective?? That girl would’ve exploded. This was HER blog! Push a few buttons and you’ll find her!

So how odd is it that… it’s simply not for me anymore. When I saw that the book was set in Percy’s senior year of high school, I had a tiny flash of disappointment. Obviously I can’t relate to an 18 year old, and I felt myself frowning. “Why isn’t Percy for ME anymore?” I wondered. And I immediately felt silly. The answer is because… I don’t need that world anymore.

They’re not making this show for me. They’re bringing it back for the next generation of kids who need those role models and those stories. When I watched the trailer I thought “oh that’s cool” instead of “oh my god I can’t wait!!” Because it just doesn’t make my brain light up like it used to. I’m never going to relate to it like I once did. Ever. And that’s okay because I’m not that kid anymore! Insane.

It’s not like the series doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. There’s a copy of The Lightning Thief on the bookshelf directly across from me. Its smooshed between The Secret History and a level 4000 Spanish textbook. It’s yellowed with age and shredded around the corners. The first sentence has been underlined repeatedly in smudgy mechanical pencil. There are about a thousand folded pages and the back cover is missing. I don’t remember the last time I opened it, but it’s moved with me for years now and I have no intention of letting it go.

Those stories and that fandom shaped me into the person I am today. I wanted to be brave like Percy and smart like Annabeth. I believed it was possible because I saw myself in them, and it turned out to be true. So while it’s sad to know those days are behind me, I’m so SO glad that other kids will get to have that experience. I hope these stories live on for decades to come.

I don’t really know what the point of writing this was. I think I just wanted to have these thoughts written out somewhere. A sort of acceptance that time goes on and things change, ya know? And to clarify: this is NOT meant to discourage ANYBODY from watching the new series or reading the new book. People should absolutely go back to the things that bring them joy, should discover new worlds to escape to, etc. live your life baby! Hell, I’ll probably end up liking everything PJO related that floats across my dash. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. If you read this entire post I hope you have a great day lmao.

[peachyfuck18]

Oh ok since you obviously wanna suck on R*ordans dick some more let’s look at all the shitty things he wrote about ND ppl and real disorders shall we? @full-timel-lurker

1. Wrote ADHD & Dyslexia as superpowers

ADHD in R*ordans fanfiction:

Actual ADHD:

His writing of Dyslexia:

Actual Dyslexia:

So not only you really wanna talk about “OmG tHe ReP iS sOoOoO gOoOoOoOd!!!!!!!” when this is the rep? You really wanna die on that hill?

2. Sigmatized medication

In the series the teachers (monsters in disguise) force the demigods into taking medication so their “battle reflexes”(this shit sounds like something straight out of fucking Scientology I swear to fucking god) don’t kick in.

How is that harmful you ask?

Many people I know who have ADHD have to have medication cause not only are the symptoms, the actual symptoms you can fucking Google for FREE, is literally hell for them and not only is taking medication already sigmatized by neurotypicals but this kind of beliefs are based in eugenics. Let me repeat that. EUGENICS.

But why should I care you ask?

Well let’s replace ADHD with worse disorders like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder. Now imagine if a series was written about how life saving medication is used by the villains to stop the heroes from using their so called superpowers?

So why is ADHD any different hmm?

Please tell me

3. Tyson and the normalization of the hostility and discrimination of people with Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy

Sometime in the series we find out Poseidon fathered a child with a cyclops named Tyson

Now Tyson obviously shows symptoms of disorders like Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. And you know how Annabeth (this bitch better count her fucking days I swear to god) treats him?

Like absolute shit

Not only does she insult him regularly but also puts him down multiple fucking times and what does Percy do about it? Fucking nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing.

And only when Tyson saves her and her friends (cause god knows I wouldn’t do jack shit for those assholes) not only is Annabeth instantly redeemed and gets nothing to be reprimanded. FUCKING NOTHING. And not only does this normalize the behavior of ableism towards people with disorders like Tysons but also imagine other ND kids reading this and thinking “Oh yeah I totes can treat disabled people who are far off worse than me just like hee hee 😝” when no Annabeth should’ve gotten her ass reprimanded in some way

Which is why when people say the Percy Jackson series is good rep for ND ppl I have to point to thsi Reddit post by an actual person with ADHD 👇

Also this isn’t related but not only is R*ordans ass working with Disney who you may not know is currently donating money to Itsnotreal to ethnically cleansed Palestine (aka a literal GENOCIDE) but is also a Zionist himself with his recent blog post:

So really think about where your so called “rEpReSeNtAtIoN” comes from

Any @full-timel-lurker

I would like to thank the Percy Jackson fandom for the reason that neurodivergent people are infantilized on a daily basis as well as R*ck R*ordans shitty rewrite on ADHD and Dyslexia and making it like superpowers not actual disorders people suffer from on a daily basis while most of the characters act like neurotypicals.

[algumaideia]

An analysis of Octavian

This post was actually going to be an explanation of why I think Octavian is an antagonist, but not a villain. But it ended up being an analysis of his character. 

SPOILERS

And as always feel free to disagree with me, just be respectful. 

Sorry, because it wasn’t well-written, I’m incapable of writing good texts. 

Backstory

I think it is important to say that since we don’t have any information about his backstory most of the thing said in this part of the review are what I think is his backstory. It is a mix of the facts stated in the books, the way Octavian acts and my interpretations. Besides the things I’ll make clear that were said in the books, the rest is not canon. And you don’t need to agree with me that this was his backstory.

His family is one of the richest of New Rome- In the books he also seems to act without fearing the consequences while taking the privilege/money of his family as garented. Octavian acts like someone that is seeking attention. It is so weird how he just do whatever he wants without fearing consequences when his family is right there in New Rome. For that to happen I think or his family neglects him or they are those kind of people who think the children can do no wrong and are all my baby didn’t do that. But I think that if they were the latter, they would be more present in Octavian’s life, but they are never there. 

He is an augere and feels very proud about it. I don’t think there is too much to add about it besides that I think he likes to be an augere because it makes him important and necessary.

No one likes him and this isn’t something new. In Son of Neptune, Hazel says half of the camp hates Octavian and most of his friends are bought. So, Octavian is a lonely child. And he is aware of this. He is a bad person, people dislike him for a reason. But it seems people have been disliking him for some years and he is a child. According to his wiki he was 10 years old when he came to Camp Jupiter for the first time, and he spent his tweens and teens years in a place where people did not like him. I don’t think this was a good place to grow up.

He is really smart and manipulative. I think that those traits are a little inconsistent. Because in the beginning of the SoN Percy says how Octavian is really good at manipulating people with words, but then in the ending of the book and in MoA everyone is shutting Octavian up. Isn’t he this kind of master of words, how he isn’t answering people back? 

We also know he’s been at camp jupiter for quite sometime. I’ll talk about it in another part of the post.

He is anemic and mentally ill. I’ll talk about those things in the Camp Jupiter, Treatment and Ableism parts. 

Other thing that I would like to say is that this post is not an attempt to ignore the bad things Octavian did and pretend he is not a bad person. It is just me trying to understand his better and show why in my opinion the fandom hasn’t treated him fairly.

Camp Jupiter

Camp Jupiter sucks and it does for a lot of reasons. Some of them being the fact they have a city full of adults and most of them were demigods trained in the camp, which means they have trained adults but instead tweens and teens are the ones who fights. Hazel said that if Percy dishonored the legion they both would be executed. Hazel also says that sometimes people die in the war games. There is also the fact that people are dying all the time in missions/wars. The Camp Jupiter also expects perfect behavior for its demigods, to them all know the rules and to do not commit mistakes and I don’t have adhd but this doesn’t seem to be a good place to people that has the disorder. There is too much preassure to do not do any wrong, apperently no emotional support and the punishments seems to be crazy. It’s not a healthy place to a chldren grow up.

Other point is how they value physical strenght, hand to hand combats and offensive approache more than a lot of things. Frank said how he wasn’t treated well because he was an archer, and this was seem as cowardice. Octavian is anemic, he doesn’t have physical strenght or energy to be able to fight. The only way to be respected in Jupiter's camp is to be a good fighter, and he cannot be that because of his illness. As I said Octavian is someone that is often seeking attention and validation by his peers, and I think that this is why being an augere is something so important to him. He cannot make himself important in the traditional way and by being an augere he is necessary to the camp. People cannot just dismiss him. He buys friends, he manipulates people, he becomes a centurion, he is always dominating the senate. He makes himself impossible to be neglected. 

Yes, Octavian is power-hungry. Yes, he is bad. But a lot of things he did during Heroes of Olympus was just Roman things (he was also mentally ill and his mental health was getting worse in each book). When Hazel says that Octavian will kill Percy if the greeks atack New Rome, but in the next sentence she says that Romans take oaths very seriously. However it is all written like it is Octavian being a horrible person. But it is not. The Romans are very harsh with their punishments, they seem to be violent, physical. When Octavian says the Romans should fight the greeks, he is just acting like a Roman, like someone who was raised in a enviroment that encouraged violence responses.

Treatment

Octavian wasn’t treated nicely by the narrative and other characters. I mean, this guy was the centurion of the first cohort and an augere. But no one seem to respect him. No one enters the legion without him saying yes (I know it is acording to what he sees) but he is treated like he isn’t important. He is the one that is responsable of saying what the gods wants, but no one seems to have problems mocking him. I mean fi he decides to give you a wrong information about what a god want you are dead. 

Hazel said how “obsessed” with the sibylline books Octavian and it was framed as him being irrational and dumb. But in the end he was right, if the legion listened to him Ella would have been save way sooner. But no, it is just Octavian being  “obsessed”.

Percy acts like Octavian doesn’t have any prophecy powers, but he saw the lighting in the Jupiter Temple. Then when Octavian is mad because there are three preators he acts like he is overreacting, and Jason and Reyna do nothing. And this is weird because it was made very clear that rules are very important to Camp Jupiter. 

When he decides to attack Camp Jupiter he is always villified and not seem as a mentally ill boy that has been getting worse doing the Roman thing. 

He is always dismissed, mocked, villified, ignored.

And the fact Luke was treated with sympathy, but Octavian not. Luke, who tried to kill Percy, a childre, a lot of times. Luke, who used Annabeth feelings and emotional attachment to manipulate her. Luke, who was 19-22 years old and groomed Silena, who was 14-18 years old. Luke, who poisoned Talia’s tree. Luke, who had no regards for Grover, the satyr that saved him. Luke was treated with sympathy. But not Octavian. Not the mentally ill child who was losing the touch with reality during the series. Not the guy who was just doing what he was raised to do. 

I mean, I don’t even like Octavian and I cannot stand it.

Gwen

Guys, Octavian did a lot of bad things but killing Gwen wasn’t one of those thing. It is so no sense for a lot of reasons. 

As we talked before he is anemic and he is also smart. This intelligent man, that is full aware of his physical limits, thought it would be a good idea to get in the midle of a chaotic fight? I don’t think so.

Some pages before that Percy hit Octavian and he fell like a straw man (according to the text, the first time I read it I thought he fainted). 

Octavian always makes things because of a purpose, he isn’t just being mean because. He does bad things because his actions will give him something. Killing Gwen wouldn’t help him with anything.

Frank for some reason decided to look to Octavian during that mess and that doesn’t make any sense. He is in the camp for a month at this time the guy should’ve already known that Octavian doesn’t battle, he only commands. He saw Percy fighting for a couple of seconds during the war game and was already able to say how he fought.

Octavian was without his knive, but just minutes before he fainted, he could have lost it when he fell.

Frank said that Octavian seemed interested and not worried. But this is not enough to blame the guy, this is not enough to assume anything execpt that maybe Octavian has low empath. 

Greeks

Octavian was a roman. To the romans the greeks didn’t exist anymore, and they were the enemy. 

So, a random greek shows up, spends some days at the camp, becomes preator, and two of your most important gods appear and give a lot of attention to this greek. This is really suspicious. This greek also says that the romans should work with the greeks so they can defeat Gaea. And why you should trust this dude? He doesn’t show respect for the Roman culture. Then this huge war ship appears and this suspect greek guy says that they all come peace and the romans should not attack. Obviously you don’t believe it, and what happens they attack! As the good roman you are, your answer is to attack the greeks back. 

The romans answers things with violence. This is why Reyna asked if Annabeth was a roman after the judo flip. This is why Hazel said she and Percy would be executed if he did a mistake during his period of probatio. Octavian was being roman. He was trying to protect and revenge his Camp against a long time enemy. 

Not saying everything he did about it was logical, but this is because of his upbringing and his mental health. 

Goals

I think it is really interisting the fact that Octavian main goal was to be a hero, not more powerful. Apollo didin’t say Octavian would become preator, he said Octavian would save New Rome. 

I mean, since Octavian wanted to be preator and then became the pontifex maximum, so the logical think it would be to him wants more power. But no he wants to be a hero. A hero is someone that is respected, admired, liked and even loved. All the thing Octavian isn't. Don't get me wrong, Octavian is a bad person, there is a reason people dislike him. But he is also a lonely child that is hated by most of the camp.

Ableism

Octavian is often described as crazy, mad, insane. In his first appearence Percy said Octavian had madness in the eyes, and this was the way of the narrative warning us he was one of the bad guys. He is obviusly mentally ill, his mental health is obviusly getting worse, but everyone ignores it. Everyone ignores it, execpt when they are describing how insane his laugh is, how crazy he looks, how intense his gaze is. Everyone ignores it, until they need to remind us he is one of the antagonists. 

Ending

The ending was terrible. 

Octavian was obiously having a psychotic break, he was stumbling, laughing “in an insane” way, and he didn’t realize his jewelry was in fire. And then what happens? Michael Kahale, the person he most trusted, his problaby only friends appeared, saw the situation and did nothing.

Octavian didn’t kill himself. He didn’t know his clothes were tied in the onager. It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was an aciddent. 

Nico stopped Will Solace who was trying to warn it because some “deaths are inevitable”. Nico, also a mentally ill character saw Octavian in the vulnerable state he was and did nothing to help him. And when Nico was seeing Octavian lunch himself to the sky he thought that this was a relief. No one was sad, no one thought this was a tragedy, no one cared. Octavian was dead and that was a relief. 

The guy was so desperate to be the hero and no one even cared about his death. It is horrible.

Another sorry for the weird tense of the text.

If you want to read this is my post about Octavian and Azula and how their mental illness were treated differently.

Best regards,

Me. 

Ps. We need to start talking how the way Bryce was written was ableist.

[amaryllisblackthorn]

a lot of people have this idea that Annabeth's been like, a Luke apologist and in denial since the very beginning but it's not really true?. Annabeth was angry at Luke for his betrayal in the end of Lightning Thief and during Sea of Monsters. It's only until the end of The Titan's Curse that she starts the 'Luke really isn't that bad' kind of thing.

the end of Lightning Thief:

"I can't believe that Luke..." Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned  angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him...He was never the same after his quest."

"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"

 She was really angry at him during Sea of Monsters. Her vision from the Sirens does indicate that deep down she may believe she's able to save him, or at least wants to, but it doesn't diminish the hurt and anger she does feel.

"How could you?" Annabeth sounded so angry I thought she'd explode. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her--"

"Liar!"

"I understand you want to destroy the camp!" she yelled. "You're a monster!"

"Because you have none of your own [intelligence]!"

"That's disgusting!" Annabeth said.

"You're insane," Annabeth said.

"Go to Tartarus," she said.

All those above are on the Princess Andromeda with Luke. Then later, to Percy:

She shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares."

Even in the beginning-ish of Titan's Curse, she doesn't trust him. When he's struggling under the sky and asking for her help, she's hesitant. It's only when the sky begins to fall  that she goes to help hold it.

Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She reached down like she wanted to touch Luke's face, but at the last second she hesitated. "What happened?" she asked.

"Why should I trust you?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was filled with hurt.

Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow--tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke with her own strength.

However!! There's a shift in her feelings by the time Percy and Thalia rescue her and I personally think it's because she's aware that Luke 'saved' her life for the time being after Atlas ordered him to kill her after Artemis took the sky -- even though he was super complicit in her being in that situation in the first place. Compare:

Luke hesitated. "She--she may yet be useful, sir. Further bait."

and

"We'll bring Luke back," Annabeth pleaded. "To Olympus. He...he'll be useful."

I don't think it's a conscious parallel on Annabeth's part per se, but Rick Riordan using the parallel to indicate the connection. I think that's when Annabeth discovers that Luke does still care deep down, and that deep down the person that she knows is there. which is fair, because before this point he hadn’t given her any indication seeing as he literally directed  Oreius to eat her. that’s a whole ‘nother write-up, though, i think. i digress.

Once she knows this, she starts to view him as someone being manipulated and taken advantage of by Kronos, someone who was able to manipulate Ares, a god, in the first book, -- she's not wrong! He is being manipulated. That doesn't absolve him from his horrible behavior especially towards her, but she understands that Luke is a troubled, traumatized young man being taken advantage of by the evil King Titan, and she's also aware that literally no one else cares enough to try to save him.

like, the language Annabeth uses to describe Luke in the end of Titan’s Curse is the same that Percy uses to describe the demigods on the  Titans’ side in Last Olympian. 

"You don't believe me about Luke," Annabeth said, "but we'll see him again. He's in trouble, Percy. He's under Kronos's spell."

vs

I tried to wound his men, not kill. That slowed me down, but these weren’t monsters. They were demigods who’d fallen under Kronos’s spell. I couldn’t see faces under their battle helmets, but some of them had probably been my friends.

there’s another callback with the language Percy uses to describe the opposing demigods in Last Olympian. this time, to what Percy says to Luke at the end of Lightning Thief.

“He’s brainwashing you, Luke.”

“You’re being used, Luke. You and Ares both. Don’t listen to Kronos.”

vs

This kid was getting brainwashed—trained to hate the gods and lash out because he’d been born half Olympian. Kronos was using him, and yet the kid thought I was his enemy.

Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder. “Percy, there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship, and they all chose to battle for Kronos. Perhaps some heeded your warning and escaped. If they did not . . . they chose their path.”

“They were brainwashed!” I said. “Now they’re dead and Kronos is still alive. That’s supposed to make me feel better?

Percy has sympathy for the demigods manipulated by Kronos to be on the Titan’s sides; he sees them as victims. the reason he doesn’t for Luke, I feel, is because Luke’s betrayal made it personal. I think this is where Percy’s fatal flaw comes into play, honestly, with the personal loyalty. both in regards to the personal betrayal to Percy, as well as Percy’s loyalty to Annabeth (and thus Luke’s betrayal of Annabeth, too). and i feel this also applies, to a lesser extent, to Ethan. but that’s a whole ‘nother write-up, too (one day!)

there is, admittedly, the factor of Luke’s age in comparison to Percy, Annabeth, and most of the other campers. there’s definitely a power imbalance -- especially with Annabeth, which isn’t okay, obviously.  so even though he’s a victim and young himself, that power imbalance in regards to his actions, manipulations, etc is messed up and not okay. 

even so, Luke is still pretty young himself -- not as young as the others, but still young. like, i got into this series when i was younger than Percy and Annabeth were, so Luke, like most early 20 year olds, seemed very old to me in that regard; it’s only as i got older and closer to his are that i started to really realize that heck he was really young. so while Luke is definitely an adult in regards to the relationship he has with Percy, Annabeth, and other younger demigods -- which he should have been mindful of and makes his manipulation etc very messed up and not okay -- he’s also young himself which is something to keep in mind. like, Luke is only around 19-22? in the series. That puts him at a power imbalance in regards to Annabeth and Percy, in which he's very much an adult in the relationship, but outside of that he's still pretty young! he’s a college kid, which when you’re younger seems pretty old but then you are one and realize differently -- his brain hasn't even fully developed yet. but i’m like, seriously digressing. 

my intended point was that i disagree with the interpretation that Annabeth was blinded by emotions and a toxic relationship which led her to make excuses for Luke and unable to see him for what he really was etc,--  because Annabeth was angry at him after his betrayal and had even thought he was different, that he didn’t care anymore. The ‘Luke apologist’ behavior only starts at the end of Titan’s Curse, the third book in the five book series. I just feel like her ... feelings? perspective? position? idk the right word.... is often misrepresented? 

she becomes very defensive over Luke’s ‘inner goodness’ and stuff because she’s literally the only one who wants to save him and knows it. she knows what he’s done isn’t okay, but she keeps driving it home that he’s being manipulated because he is! it doesn’t excuse his actions but it doesn’t have to. by the end of titan’s curse, annabeth sees luke as someone terribly lost and no one trying, willing, or caring enough to save him. and like, she’s right when she sees luke as someone who isn’t beyond saving, who’s extremely lost and being manipulated through his trauma and anger -- it doesn’t excuse what he’s doing but that doesn’t make him someone not worthy of saving. despite what he’s done, luke is still her family and she will fight for him. she sees luke the same way percy sees the other opposing demigods in the last olympian and she’s right. she’s not making excuses for him, she doesn’t think he’s done nothing wrong, she’s just not willing to give up on him and she was right. as the child in the relationship/dynamic, it wasn’t her responsibility to be the one to save him and shouldn’t have been, but she wasn’t wrong in how she saw Luke.

 like, their was definitely a power imbalance in their relationship and it’s definitely important to acknowledge that, but i feel like people tend to like, erase annabeth’s agency, for lack of a better word, and attribute her desire to save Luke as being tragically misplaced? like, Luke has totally wronged Annabeth and mistreated her terribly, but like...I find her not giving up on him mostly admirable and not pitiable, though like I said as the child in their dynamic it wasn’t her responsibility.  i’m rambling though.

mostly this post was made to remind people that Annabeth was angry towards Luke, and rightfully so, until near the end of Titan’s Curse, which is where her defending Luke and insisting he could be saved really started, likely with Luke indicating he actually still cared deep down for the first time being the catalyst.  especially since it seems a lot of people give like the impression they think she’s done it from the very beginning? idk ive definitely rambled a lot and lost my main point sometime ago or something. enjoy this anyway.

[timelesslords]

“Forget it, you’re a fucking asshole.” and/or “Is that blood?” “…..No?” for the prompts please

thank u💕

send me a sentence starter and I’ll fill it for Percabeth

Annabeth Chase was just about ready to murder her boyfriend. 

Capture the Flag night had started innocuous enough. Athena and Poseidon cabins had allied themselves, as was usual these days, and Ares was their biggest opponent. Annabeth had a stellar plan, a foolproof plan, some might say, a plan that all but guaranteed them to win. 

Except for the fact that her idiot boyfriend couldn’t resist abandoning his post the second the field looked clear. It was a trap, it was so obviously a trap that Annabeth had no idea how he hadn’t seen it. 

She had to give Clarisse some credit. Using one of their captured players as bait while also exposing the flag just a tad— it was exactly the type of thing that would draw Percy away from his post, to get him to abandon the plan. 

They’d still won. Trap or no, it would be hard not to. But as soon as Annabeth realized Percy had abandoned his post, a very distinct mixture of anger and fear starting building in her gut. 

And watching him run back to the blue team’s side, flag in hand, flushed with success, had only caused it all to boil over. There’d barely been time for his stupid, excited grin to slide off his face at seeing her expression before she stormed off. 

He followed her. She’d expected him to. 

“You left your post,” Annabeth said, before he could even ask.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. We still won,” Percy said, jogging to keep up with her. 

It’s not about winning. It wasn’t even his compulsive need to play hero either, though that would have been enough to make her mad too. 

“You didn’t follow the plan,” Annabeth snapped, refusing to look over at him even as he caught up to her, matching her pace easily. Curse him for being taller than her. 

“Look, I saw an opportunity—”

“You saw a trap that was tailor-made for you—”

“An opportunity,” Percy repeated, cutting her off, “An opportunity to save one of our players and get the flag, and I took it. And we won. So what’s the big deal?” 

What was the big deal? Just that his stupid savior complex wouldn’t stop playing out over and over again, even in the smallest ways. He didn’t even realize he was doing it sometimes, like just now. It wasn’t about Capture The Flag, not really. It was about the fact that he felt the need to throw himself in the most dangerous situations so someone else didn’t have to, even when it was just a game. 

And there were plenty of times in his life, plenty of opportunities past and future for him to do the exact same thing when it wasn’t a game, when the consequences were very real and very dire. 

She hated how mad it made her, because what was she supposed to say? I’d rather you let some other sap take the fall so you can live into your twenties? 

And how was she supposed to tell him any of that when he was looking at her all smug and expectant? 

“Forget it, you’re a fucking asshole,” Annabeth spat, doubling her pace. 

“‘Beth—” he started, but he should have known better than to call her that when she was pissed at him, because her glare alone was enough to shut him up. 

“Annabeth,” he tried again, “Come on.” 

Annabeth stopped, whirled around, just about ready to give him a piece of her mind when she noticed a small spot on his shoulder. Some of the anger building in her chest deflated. 

“I— is that blood?” 

Percy glanced down at his shoulder. The bit of his orange camp shirt that was peering out from the gap between his chest and shoulder armor was starting to get stained a sticky brown color. 

“...No?” he said, glancing back up at her with guilt in his eyes. All in all a thoroughly unconvincing lie. 

“Percy,” Annabeth sighed. 

“Clarisse nicked me with Maimer, it's not a big deal.” 

It wasn’t a big deal. It really wasn’t. He’d probably gotten Clarisse back easily and they’d both laugh about it tomorrow. 

Only, Clarisse wouldn’t have had the chance to use Maimer on him at all if he’d stuck to the fucking plan instead of throwing himself into the line of fire. And the next time he did this, what if it wasn’t just a cut? What if it was something much worse? 

“Don’t stop being mad at me just because I’m bleeding,” Percy said, noticing her shift in demeanor. 

“You don’t want me to stop being mad at you?” Annabeth asked, one eyebrow raised. 

“No—” Percy said, running an agitated hand through his hair, “I mean obviously I don’t want you to be mad at me, but I barely even know why you’re mad at me and unless you tell me now you’re just going to be more mad later once I’ve stopped bleeding.” 

“I’m still mad at you,” Annabeth said, but she’d already stepped forward, loosening the strap of his armor with quick practiced fingers. He let her do it, standing statue still. 

“I’m sorry your plan didn’t get the credit it deserves,” he said, finally, “It was a good plan.”

Maybe you should use it next time rolled through her head, but then he might think that that’s what she cared about when that wasn’t it at all. 

“I don’t care about getting credit,” Annabeth said, moving on to the other side of his chestplate, undoing the left strap the same as she’d done the right. “I don’t even care that we won.” 

She saw his eyebrows jump slightly in surprise, but he managed not to say anything stupid in the next few moments, which had probably taken a lot of self-control.

“What do you care about, then?” he asked, shrugging off his chestplate. Most of the bloodstain had been hiding itself beneath his armor, and now that it was off it looked much bigger.  

“You got hurt,” Annabeth said, eyes refusing to leave the patch of blood on his shirt. 

“You were mad before you realized I was hurt,” Percy pointed out, “More mad, actually.” 

“You wouldn’t be hurt at all if you’d ignored that stupid kid that got himself caught and stayed at your post,” Annabeth said, folding her arms over her chest. She still wasn’t looking at his face, but she could see his expression shift in his periphery, understanding starting to roll over his features. 

“Ah,” he said, and Annabeth knew he understood, or was starting to. She felt a lump forming in her throat, but she swallowed it down. 

“Would it kill you to let someone else take the fall? Just once?” she asked.

“Annabeth…” 

“It’s not just this, you do it all the damn time,” Annabeth said, well aware that she sounded like a whining brat and not caring at all, “I don’t want to get sucked into some other stupid prophecy or a stupid quest, and I don’t want you to think you have to just because you’ve got the best chance of making it out alive. I just want us to survive long enough to go to college, is that too much to ask?” 

She finally looked up at him, still trying very hard not to cry. Any trace of humor had vanished from his face, leaving it uncharacteristically resigned and serious. 

“No. It’s not,” he said.

“Really?” Annabeth asked, voice small, still not quite believing him. 

“No, you’re right, I—” he sighed heavily, eyes dropping to the ground, “I guess I’m just used to doing that, I don’t even really think about it.”

“Maybe you should,” Annabeth said, digging the heel of her sneaker into the dirt, arms still crossed over her chest. 

“I will,” he said, and it sounded like a promise, “We’ve both done enough, and I—I’m not saying I’ll be perfect at it, but I am saying I’ll try.”

Annabeth took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly. Trying was good. She could work with trying. 

“Nothing world-altering,” Annabeth said, glancing up at him again. He was already smiling softly.

“Nothing world-altering,” he agreed. 

She was still a little mad at him, and they were both gross and sweaty and he was still a little bloody, but she stepped forward and hugged him anyways. He hugged her back easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

“So really, Capture The Flag is still fair game,” he said, as soon as she was safely in his arms. 

“I’m going to kill you,” Annabeth said, but it came out with more laughter than she’d intended it to.  

“At least fix me up before you do?” Percy asked hopefully. 

“Fine,” she said, wiggling out of his embrace and tucking herself into his side instead. He wrapped an arm around her waist easily. 

“But I better not have to next time,” she warned. He just smiled, pressed a kiss to the top of her head. 

“You won’t. I promise.”  

[heavcnslyre]

never leave me again — leo valdez x reader

in which you return from years of being missing, only to find that your boyfriend, leo valdez, has been missing as well.

warnings swearing

notes it’s been a few months since i’ve read the books so i kind of just made this my own. also this took me DAYS to write so pls appreciate it w me

events in this are not all canon

masterlist

the scent of camp half blood was familiar— yet something felt different. it had been years since you had smelt it, and being there again brought upon a feeling you couldn’t quite explain. you listened for the familiar ruffle of the trees and the rippling of the lake, but heard nothing. it was silent; eerily silent. it was the middle of summer, yet the camp was still.

although, you had been away from everything for so long, you didn’t actually know if it was summer or not. truthfully, you didn’t even know exactly what year it was.

you inched towards the entrance of camp nervously. something inside of you was scared that you weren’t even going to be let into the camp— but as you read the ancient greek at the entrance fluently and your foot went through the barrier, you instantly calmed down. the familiar atmosphere of the camp was comforting, even if you could automatically feel how different it was.

making your way to the big house, you gathered that it was still early in the morning as you saw the sun peaking out in the east. it was chilly and the grass was wet and suddenly you realized how tired you were. you wanted nothing more than to collapse into your bunk in cabin 18. your cabin was often lively, as it was common for children of hebe to enjoy parties and be social; but you only had a few siblings and you were one of the oldest. they listened to you if you asked them to quiet down, and the environment of your cabin was soothing. you found yourself longing for it on rough nights, and now that you were back, you debated on just going straight there as if nothing happened.

but, you fought the temptation and knocked on the door to the big house. you found yourself anxious for a moment that no one would be awake, but you heard movement from the inside and the door opened seconds later. you looked down and saw chiron sitting in his wheelchair. he looked the same, as you assumed he would. somehow, he didn’t look surprised to see you.

“(y/n). i thought you’d be here today,” he said, moving himself out of the way. “come in, we can talk.”

you followed him to the main table in the house and took a seat across from him. he settled his hands into his lap and studied you. suddenly aware of how you may have changed, you shifted in your seat awkwardly.

“chiron, can i ask...” you said after a moment. “how long has it been? how long have i been gone?”

“a little over two years.”

you sank down in your seat. “oh.”

“do you want to fill me in on where you’ve been, or should i tell you what happened here first?”

“oh, uh— i guess a lot of its fuzzy,” you started. “i was with hera, and she sent me to do... different quests. time doesn’t really feel real, at this point. i never got a break, i don’t think. she sent me places and i forgot a lot about... my life. and everything.”

“do you remember everything now?”

“i remember all of my life before hera— yeah,” you paused, taking it in. “but i don’t remember a lot of what she had me do, or whatever she said to me when i wasn’t off on a quest. that’s why i didn’t know how much time passed, it feels like it’s been three years and three days at the same time.”

chiron sighed. “i get that. the gods have the powers to do whatever they want to time and your memory— but they rarely use the ability. but hera, after all she’s done...”

“why is she so against demigods? after she switched jason and percy for no reason we thought she was done, why did she need to take me?”

“i guess we’ll never truly know her intentions,” chiron said. “i did assume now is when you would return, though. leo valdez is missing.”

you felt your heart skip a beat. leo. he had been a constant in your mind in the past two years that you had been gone, just like how percy explained that annabeth was all he could remember. you had started dating a few months before you disappeared. suddenly you yearned for his warmth, remembering the feeling of his arms wrapped around you. your heart ached for him for years and now that you’re home— he’s gone.

“how... how long has he been missing?” you asked. chiron frowned.

“a few months. after the war ended, he disappeared, basically into the sky. (y/n)... there’s a good chance he didn’t survive.”

you could almost feel your heart breaking, but you knew that wasn’t the main issue at the moment. you took a deep breath to gather yourself. “how’s everyone else doing?”

“it’s been rough, obviously. the prophecy of the seven was fulfilled, which was hard enough on the campers. and with leo gone... no ones sure how to continue. but, we are at peace with rome and some campers are planning on college in great rome,” chiron said, obviously proud. you smiled gently.

“thats... amazing. is everyone here now? piper, annabeth, percy and jason?”

chiron nodded. “everyone is here. it is early, though. i suggest you head to your cabin for some rest, unless you have anymore questions?”

“honestly, i have hundreds. but... my brain is foggy. i can’t really focus on anything right now so, later. later i’ll bombard you with the questions,” you joked and chiron smiled.

“go, get some rest. breakfast starts in about an hour and a half, but you take all the time you need,” you stood up.

“thank you, chiron. it’s good to be back.”

as soon as you slipped into your cabin, you felt at home. you saw your younger siblings sleeping soundly and that warmed your heart to see. they were safe; they were okay.

your bunk was obviously saved for you. there were organized bags of your stuff laying on top, and the sheets were made neatly. you could tell that no one had slept there since you left. the thought of this was bittersweet; you were happy they waited for you but... you couldn’t imagine how worried they all were for you.

the more you thought about it, the more you realized how many people could have been worried for you.

when percy and jason were switched back, everyone seemed to be at ease. the romans and greeks seemed to be getting along, and things were good... for about an hour.

you were walking around rome with leo. the seven of the prophecy had been decided; leo was one of them, you were not. this wasn’t easy for either of you, as you had recently began dating, but you both knew that this didn’t mean forever. cherishing your time together, you walked hand in hand down the beautiful streets of new rome. after a while, leo decided he was going to go check up on the argo ii, make sure it was ready for the quest to come. you kissed him goodbye, and told him to iris message you whenever he got the chance.

before you knew it, camp jupiter was being attacked. and leo was the one behind it.

you ran through the crowd, trying to push towards the ship to see what the hell was happening to leo. but the romans were angry— and you were wearing an orange shirt.

you didn’t know exactly what happened next. one second you were pushing through the crowd, the next second you woke in a bright room, hera standing over you.

thus the years with hera began. she told you that she needed you— and she’d bring you home when you were ready. she brought you places and gave you quests to do, and the more time you spent with her, the more you weren’t sure how much time had passed, and the more you forgot your real life. you were stuck in an endless loop, until this morning, where hera plopped you down right outside of camp half-blood; with a fuzzy memory and a million questions.

you woke up later to an empty cabin. it was obvious people had been in and out of it, and you wondered how everyone reacted when they saw you in your bed. you were just internally grateful no one woke you up.

after getting ready (putting on a new camp t-shirt was so refreshing) you slipped out of your cabin and out into the sunlight. at first, it didn’t register how much time had passed, because everyone was in the dining hall as they would be during breakfast. but, after examining more, you gathered that you had awoken just as dinner was starting, and you had slept all day. you stood back, taking in the familiarity of the buzz of mealtime. as you stood there, unsure on how to present yourself to the campers, you heard your name.

“(y/n)?” you looked forward to be met with the gaze of your best friend, piper mclean, standing by her table, staring at you in disbelief. “i can’t believe it.”

the entire hall hushed as everyone looked in your direction. you were suddenly aware of every little thing about yourself, and you hated the attention. but when piper rushed forward to hug you, you ignored your surroundings and let yourself feel comfort in her hug. it had been so long since you had felt so... loved. after these past couple of years, then the news that leo was missing, taking in the scent and warmth of your best friend was the most comforting thing you could imagine.

piper pulled back from your hug and studied your face. you studied hers as well, noticing everything you could; any change you could find. but, she looked almost the same. she was the prettiest person you had ever seen, and although she seemed slightly older and wiser, it wasn’t in a negative way. “are you okay?”

“i’m fine,” you said. “obviously i’m... adjusting. but, i’m okay.”

“what happened to you? where have you been?” piper asked gently.

“when the romans were angry at us, after leo...” you hesitated and piper’s expression softened. you cleared your throat. “i was attacked, or something. next thing i knew i was with hera and basically did anything she needed. i was so tired, constantly doing work for her. everything i did with her is sort of fuzzy though, just like my personal life was when i was working for her, if that makes sense.”

“hera’s the worst,” piper said. “guess switching jason and percy just wasn’t enough for her.”

you raised your eyebrows in agreement before being approached by annabeth chase, one of your other closest friends, who hugged you tightly. “i’m so relieved you’re alright.”

“back at you,” you said. percy and jason followed close behind annabeth, and you hugged both of them as well. “i can’t imagine things have been easy for you guys.”

“it’s been rough,” jason agreed. “but we got through it.”

your mind went straight to leo, and the four of them obviously noticed. piper put her hand on your shoulder and jason frowned. “hey, i’m sure he’s...”

“no,” you stopped him. “it’s fine. i... i’m really proud of you guys. seriously, saving the world and shit. that’s pretty cool.”

they all laughed which brought a warm feeling to your chest. it was going to be rough without leo, but you adored your friends. you knew they’d be there for you no matter what.

“c’mon, you must be starving,” annabeth said. “plus, i think you have a few more people to chat with.”

annabeth motioned towards your cabins table, where your siblings sat anxiously, watching you with wide eyes. you grinned at the sight and made your way over to the table, only to be met with smiling faces and lots of questions.

weeks past since you had returned to camp. you were settled back in and at ease with everything, but things still felt off. you figured it was just because you were most excited to come back to camp to see leo, but he was gone. and you didn’t even know if he was still alive.

you spent your days training and reconnecting with your friends. they had been through so much, and you couldn’t imagine how painful it was for them. they asked you questions about what you had been up to, but you weren’t able to answer them. you couldn’t remember a thing— it was like the past years had never happened. as days went on you forgot more and more about what you had done.

one morning, you stayed behind to finish cleanup in your cabin. now that you returned to camp, you returned to your position as head counselor. you were protective over your siblings (since you were the oldest), so when everyone was running late for breakfast, you volunteered to finish cleanup.

after you finished making all the beds, you fixed your hair and slipped out of your cabin. when the mess hall came into your line of vision, you paused as you saw a group of campers gathered around something. the scene was similar to how everyone reacted when you returned, and you watched curiously. but when you studied the campers who were grouped together, you realized it was a majority of the hephaestus canon who was standing. your eyes widened and you hurried forward, into the mess hall.

nyssa barrera, one of the older hephaestus kids, looked over at you and her eyes widened. she pulled a few of her siblings back to make room, and you were met with the grinning face of leo valdez.

your leo, standing there, in the flesh.

it took him a moment to see you, but when he did, his expression softened. he visibly relaxed, and his eyes studied your face. you were frozen in your spot and your eyes never left his. he inched towards you, and before you knew it you charged forward to him and threw your arms around his neck. he buried his face in your neck as he held you tightly around your waist. you took in his natural warmth and his vague scent of campfires and motor oil. he rubbed your back as you held him as tightly as possible. you never wanted to let go.

when you finally did pull back, you missed his warmth immediately. in his arms you felt safe, and that was something you had missed with your whole heart.

“are you okay?” was the first thing he asked you, tucking your hair behind your ears. you smiled at the sound of his voice. you didn’t realize how many little things you had missed.

“i’m okay. are you?”

“i’m... amazing,” he studied your face again. “gods i’ve missed you.”

“i’ve missed you too, you have no idea,” you said. your eyes drifted to a girl you didn’t recognize standing awkwardly behind leo. “who is that?”

leo raised his eyebrows and turned around to look at who you were referring to. “oh, this is my friend. calypso.”

“oh!” you said, remembering the story of calypso. “thats... hi! it’s really cool to meet you.”

“you as well,” calypso responded, her voice smooth. “leo talked about you non-stop.”

maybe it was the longing look on her face, or the fact that you had just finally reconnected with your boyfriend, but you moved towards calypso and pulled her into a hug. she tensed, but after a moment she relaxed and hugged you back. when you pulled back, you gave her a warm smile and when she gave you one back, you knew that there was no bad blood between you. calypso wanted to be loved— but she wasn’t interested in leo.

you turned around to find your way back next to leo. he watched you with a fond look on his face, and when you were closer to him, he grabbed your hand tightly. at this moment you made a promise to yourself — you would never lose him again.

chiron ended up coming over to tell people to sit at their tables for breakfast, but leo leaned over to whisper to you, “want to go chat? just the two of us?”

“absolutely.”

the two of you snuck out of the mess hall (although, if anyone had seen you, you doubted they would stop you from leaving). you made your way down towards the lake, hand in hand. you sat down next to each other, leo’s arm around your waist and your head on his shoulder.

“so how did you get calypso off her island?” you asked him after a moment of silence.

“well, i landed on her island a little while ago but i had to leave, obviously. was in the middle of a quest,” he said. “but she was miserable there, so i promised i’d come back to get her. and a few months ago, i landed on her island again, but with a plan this time.”

you listened intently. “and it worked?”

“for the most part. i had to work really hard to figure out a way to make it work, but it did. i just hope she gets a real chance to be happy now that she’s off her island.”

“that’s amazing. you did it against all odds, right?”

he chuckled lightly. “guess so. what about you? what happened to you?” you sighed and sat up to face him.

“i guess i’m not completely sure,” you started. he knit his eyebrows. “i was working with... or i guess, for, hera. but i don’t remember most of what she made me do. i just know i went on quests for her, and time didn’t really feel real. i had no idea how much time had passed when i returned.”

“gods that sounds... terrible,” he said genuinely. you shrugged.

“i got through it,” you grabbed his hand and started tracing lines on it. “and so did you.”

leo hummed and moved his other hand to your cheek. “i always knew you’d come back.”

“i knew you would, too.”

“promise to never leave me again?” you leaned into his hand.

“only if you promise me the same thing.”

[crow-in-a-teapot]

tower of nero spoilers

i have just finished the tower of nero. and before i go searching for other people’s thoughts and art and more of the characters i love so much, i want to write down some of my own thoughts because i know as soon as i delve into that ‘ton spoilers’ hashtag there are going to be complaints and criticisms and so much that i don’t want to hear, or essays that’ll make me upset, or things that’ll change my perception on the book (because on this website people really love to hate the trials of apollo).

i want to start with: i loved it. it didn’t feel earth-shattering or huge and momentous like some of my favourite riordanverse books (house of hades, the blood of olympus, the last olympian and maybe some of the magnus chase books take those pedestals for me) but it was satisfying. and i think it was satisfying because it in no way felt like an ending. whether because eventually rick will write that will-and-nico-go-through-tartarus-and-save-bob novella, or because we (or at least i) will continue writing and imagining and creating for this world i don’t know. he didn’t wrap up the story in a perfect little bow like ‘nineteen years later’, he simply put it on pause. gave us a glimpse of where every character was at at the end.

the only thing that makes me so angry and upset is that i did manage to get some spoilers for moments that i know would have been so good to experience for the first time if i hadn’t been spoiled for them. the moment where rachel mentions penguins in a mansion near her house, nico getting mental health advice from mr d, the fact that will and nico were going to be in the book for so much of the story, but the big thing was literally spoiled for me two days ago, it was the reason i sat down to read it as fast as possible because i was terrified of getting more spoiled and not being able to experience the moments for myself, was that piper had a girlfriend. i know that reading that for the first time would have been so cool and surprising, and the fact that when it came up for a moment in the last couple pages all i felt was disappointment because it was spoiled for me and because it was now tinged with whatever that person was saying about her having a girlfriend.

but i still had some warm fuzzy moments, the two parts where apollo thinks he’s going to die but nico comes up behind him - so good. impeccable. 

Leader Guy spat. ‘Now, I kill you.’

He raised his sword... and froze. His face turned pale. His skin began to shrivel. His beard fell out whisker by whisker like dead pine needles. Finally, his skin crumbled away, along with his clothes and flesh, until Leader Guy was nothing but a bleached-white skeleton, holding a sword in his bony hands. 

Standing behind him, his hand on the skeleton’s shoulder, was Nico di Angelo.

and

Nero raised his hand, ready to give the kill command, when behind me a mighty BOOM! shook the chamber. Half our enemies were thrown off their feet. Cracks sprouted in the windowsand the marble columns. Ceiling tiles broke, raining dust like split bags of flour. 

I turned to see the impenetrable blast doors lying twisted and broken, a strangely emaciated red bull standing in the breach. Behind it stood Nico di Angelo.

gods. poetic brilliance. i can’t believe i’m still a nico di angelo stannie in the year 2021. in five years i have not changed (ever since the tv show announcement last summer i have managed to morph into myself from 2017)

from here i’m not sure where to go next i kind of want to go through everything, except it’ll be more difficult than my tyrant’s tomb reaction because i wasn’t reading on a kindle and thus can’t just do funny little reactions to screenshots of quotes, so i’ll just skim through the book page by page and see what i can comment on (i’m not planning on doing analysis today, no thank you, just enjoying the end of my childhood and trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible)

i have an emotional attachment to mr. snake from the very first chapter, and am very upset that he’ll never get off on his baltimore stop and get to see his wife, lu had no reason to shoot and kill him like that.

that brings me to lu, i liked her, it was interesting to see how rick kind of brought in not only the overarching theme of abuse, but also people who let the abuse happen, i have more i could say on this i’m too lazy to right now, and i promised no analysis - or the fact that Lu had conspired to make the show non-lethal to spare Meg’s feelings rather than - oh, I don’t know - refusing to do Nero’s dirty work in the first place and getting Meg out of that house of horrors. 

And are you any better? taunted a small voice in my brain. How many times have you stood up to Zeus?

Okay, small voice. Fair point. Tyrants are not easy to opppose or walk away from, especially when you depend on them for everything.

the parallels to meg and lester heading to percy’s apartment, and then to camp half blood to the hidden oracle was so cool to read, every callback to the hidden oracle just there to remind us readers exactly how far apollo has come and how he’s changed; the entire chapter with sally, paul and estelle just felt sickly sweet, it just didn’t seem real how wholesome and good that family is, like i get why apollo broke down and just sobbed in that shower.

also rick really saying acab again in toa, i thought he was done after that elf cop chapter in magnus chase (the magnus chase series is a masterpiece) but apparently not, with A ‘good cop’ is still a cop... still a part of the mind game.

the grey sisters, i forgot about them completely but this threw me back into was it the sea of monsters when annabeth summoned them? i’m not sure, it could have been the lightning thief either, they really remind me of the disney hercules movie. the whole ganymede paragraph was gold, i love gods being canonically confirmed lgbt in the riordanverse. i also love the whole eye-tossing part - 

‘He will crush our eye,’ Anger cried, ‘if we don’t recite our verses!’

‘I will not!’

‘We will all die!’ Wasp said. ‘He is crazy!’

‘I AM NOT!’

‘Fine, you win!’ Tempest howled.

also, the explanation for why dionysus chooses to look the way he does was perfect, because it was something i often wondered about and wasn’t expecting to get an explanation for, and i imagine the whole mythological dionysus to look like.. well like a more feminine apollo i guess, beautiful in a gender non-comforming way.

Other Olympians could never comprehend why Dionysus chose this form when he could look like anything he wanted. In ancient times, he’d been famous for his youthful beauty that defied gender.

... 

In retaliation, Dionysus had decided to look and act as ungodly as possible. He was like a child refusing to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair or brush his teeth, just to show his parents how little he cared.

every scene with nico at camp just BREAKS ME, i would throw in screenshots of every damn quote but unfortunately, as said above, cannot and would rather not type every one; we’ll start with, obviously apollo confirming to him that jason is dead. 

He didn’t look angry exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked. Then he flinched, jerking his hands away from Meg’s as if he’d just remembered his own touch was poison.

ugh then will talking about how nico’s doing, confirming that he’s suffering with ptsd, mr d giving him advice, helping him sort though what voices in his head are real and which ones aren’t, then the paragraph that just recounts every horrific thing poor nico has been through, how will has to reassure him that he’s okay and ‘with friends’ when he wakes up after shadow travel

will’s kindness to apollo, buying him clothes, and apollo finding seymour the leopard’s head in his bed, put there by mr d aaaa AAAA A A A A A THE ORDINARY, EVERYDAY CAMP HALF BLOOD THINGS..

i could go on for years and years about how much i appreciate rachel having a big role in this book, and the visit to her apartment, everything, her art, the fact that she got what she wanted, she’s going to PARIS to study ART, she isn’t forced to be someone she’s not by her dad, and gets to be a big part of a demigod mission and not stand on the sidelines for once.

i love that her landscapes are still visions, that she still paints the quests demigods go on - the burning maze, jason’s funeral pyre, caligula’s ships; and how nico ~appreciates art~

‘And, hey, di Angelo -’ she pushed him playfully away from the canvas he’d been ogling - ‘don’t brush against the art! I don’t care about the paintings, but if you get any colour on you, you’ll ruin that whole black-and-white aesthetic you’ve got going.’

i. love. rachel.

WILL GLOWS!! THE HEADCANONS FROM LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THAT YOU’D SEE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT HIM MANIPULATING LIGHT!! CONFIRMED!! CANON!! AMAZING

I AM  OBSESSED WITH THE TROGS, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE GREAT, not gonna lie, i was expecting something more dramatic and spooky with how worried will was and how dionysus was going.. visiting the cavern-runners isn’t ♫ good for your mental health  ♫ but the little hat frog gremlins were a good addition. i like them very much and their funky little soup shenanigans. quoting the ghost king himself: trogs good. nice hats. (IM SORRY I KEEP MENTIONING HIM BUT I JUST) also how apollo starts wishing for breadsticks a s ajoke and theY STRAIGHT UP HAVE BREADSTICKS? HUH? WHERE DID THEY GET THE BREADSTICKS FROM??

yeah, i’m also still very much upset by every mention of jason grace, it’s funny how ever since his death in the burning maze i have grown to love him more and more and that’s not fun for me, for that boy to become one of my main comfort character’s and have his death and sacrifice and nobility mentioned every few chapters. i’m pretty sure i cried when he appeared to talk in apollo’s dreams, and this time the tears weren’t from the effort of keeping my eyes open and working for hours straight reading this book (i remember staying up until 2am to finish the sequel to beautiful, broken things, it was very much worth it)

‘All right, Jason. We miss you, though.’

ALSO. THE FACT THAT THIS KID. THIS CHILD. HAD TO THINK ‘BUT IF A HERO ISN’T READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING FOR A GREATER CAUSE, IS THAT PERSON REALLY A HERO?’ A KID ISN’T SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THAT AND BE READY TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD,, i,, ugh,, he’s supposed to be finishing school and designing temples not being the perfect hero and soldier,, spain without the s,,

as @couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name said: ‘thinking about how ghost! Jason didn’t seem to understand why Apollo was so upset about his death because he’s been raised to believe a hero’s sacrifice is noble and his life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme and also if he doesn’t understand why the person who watched him get horrifically killed is so torn up over his death he probably doesn’t even realize his other friends are grieving him..’

IM SO UPSET THE ARROW OF DODONA IS DEAD D: IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ALL THE FUNNIEST MOMENTS WERE BECAUSE OF THAT ARROW AND IT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD WTH LIKE WE FIND OUT HOW USELESS THE ARROW FELT AND HOW THE GROVE OF DODONA ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CRAP AND WOULD FAIL APOLLO AND THEN ONCE WE FEEL BAD FOR IT, IT DIES??

the entire python battle was pretty grim, there is a part of me that's like because this is the last book series i would have loved say the magnus chase and kane chronicles gang in a giant battle with everyone like the battle of manhattan but even more dramatic, but even so, i did appreciate that python battle and the whole almost-falling-into-the-depths-of-tartarus thing.

him talking to artemis was cool, but JESUS: 'I turned and strode out of my room, trying to recall how the god Apollo walked.' like that HURTS. it was such a huge culture shock for apollo to go throught this huge character arc and be so human and understand the pain of others, to be around gods again who are so.. apathetic. also, zeus. 'Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let's be honest: some fathers don't deserve that. Some aren't capable of it.'

OKAY OKAY SO THE END?? CHIRON TALKING TO A CAT (BAST) AND A SEVERED HEAD (MIMIR) ABOUT SHARED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PANTHEONS!! WILL AND NICO RECEIVING A PROPHECY FROM RACHEL TO GO TO TARTARUS AND SAVE BOB!! THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS, INCLUDING THALIA AND REYNA BEING BEST FRIENDS (qpr.. qpr..) HUNTING THE TEUMESSIAN FOX!! PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER, THE ORIGINAL TRIO, GOING ON A CHAOTIC ROAD TRIP TOGETHER!! - SO MANY STAND-ALONE SET -UPS PFSJSJSJ

okay quick word on the reunions at the end: funny little elephant visitation program with livia and hannibal. love that for them. calypso and leo's relationship seems rocky and complicated, but that's to be expected, i think even if they do get properly back together again it might not last long, because it does pretty much feel like a teenage relationship where the two aren't very compatible, but we'll see. hazel and frank are so funny with their gold plated necklaces. lavinia - tap-dance icon. almost cried at the mention of jason's temple-extension plan again. percy not being sure about what he wants to do in college is accurate and i like that that's left to be up-for-interpretation (rick does THE MOST for the fanfic writers pfsjsj). i am OBSESSED with aeithales, like i hate deserts so the burning maze setting is not my favourite but GOD that HOUSE, the vibes are off-the-charts. i'd love a house made of living trees that's also a greenhouse filled with dryads. meg gets a unicorn. that is so great.

i kind of wish the book hadn't ended with 'Call on me. I will be there for you.' because every time I imagine the friends theme song and i don't think that's the vibe he was going for, BUT i do love him talking to meg, that was genuinely emotional - 'You'll come back?' she asked. 'Always,' I promised. 'The sun always comes back.' ; i really wish it had ended with that, but i guess apollo does tend to break fourth walls and talk to the readers, like a lot of the protagonists of riordanverse books.

[oop-im-obssessed-again]

Idea VII:

Dark Bianca Lives

I bet you can tell where I’m going with this. Bianca lives. I mean, tell me where it actually says she died. “LOST in the land” not dead. So anyway, Bia lives and is found by Luke. He is obviously ecstatic to have a child of the big 3. He kinda brain washes her into believing him. Then like the day before Percy turns 16, he is hit with a de-aging spell to stop him being the prophecy child by making him 3 years younger. Nico is still off being dark and angsty, but seeing as he is now the assumed child of the prophecy, everyone goes looking for him.

Meanwhile, Bianca is a day away from turning 16 and Luke has trained her… well? She has located Bessie and is almost ready to kill him and use the sacrifice to kill the gods. Her and Luke go to Central Park, planning on using it as a big stage thing, clearly in sight of the Gods. Camp Half Blood is coincidentally there for unspecified reasons I’ll let you make up. They are probably training.

So, Luke starts his little speech “Today is the day the Gods will die” and the Stolls are like “silly Luke, is ain’t no body’s birthday” and Luke grins all nasty and says “I’d like you to meet… (drum roll please)

Bianca di Angelo!!”

And that was when he realised, he fucked up. Cause Nico will come bursting out of a shadow to try escape Percy and co. and land onto of her. Grover who was charged with chasing Nico will promptly fall out of a tree.

Then cue a immensely cute sibling bonding scene that I am not capable of doing to justice with Luke trying to rain down on their parade because he sad and lonely. Percy and Annabeth will also turn up at some point.

And Bianca saves the world! The end. Happy di Angelo siblings!

[depressedacadamia]

The Anatomy of the Sun- Chapter I

Edit- This is the first chap in a Percy Jackson/ Greys anatomy AU as well as my first fic! It’s going to follow the Grey’s anatomy plot behind the patients and the romances will be loosely based off it. I hope you do enjoy it! It was inpsired by @buoyantsaturn and their fic ‘Into you like a train’. 

Summary: Dr Will Solace just transferred to the New York Presybetarian hospital to become their Head of Trauma. Dr Nico Di Angelo is a month fresh out of Med- school and is starting his internship at New York Presbytarian. Nico, excited to join his best friend and head of the neurology department- Percy Jackson, wants to prove that he is not just the legacy that his sister- Bianca Di Angelo, left. As the doctors battle to save lives, they also battle to save relationships- but some may say it's too late. 

Chapter I- Work Work

Nico could feel his chest pounding as he drove. It wasn’t a good kind of pounding, not that there ever really is, but a -my heart is beating so damn fast - kind of pounding. Today was his first day at New York Presbytarian Hospital as an actual doctor. A surgeon. An intern.

 He groaned as he remembered that he would basically be the servant of his bosses for the next year. He wished his sister was here- she’d tell him how awesome he’d be, all the cool parts of internship and how ‘the friends you make here are friends for life’. Nico wasn’t nervous about friends though- he had known the Head of Neuro, Percy Jackson, for almost his entire life. In fact, it had been Percy who inspired him to become a surgeon. Nico knew- As a surgeon, you either have what it takes to play or you don’t. Nico’s sister , Bianca, was one of the greats, Nico on the other hand was so screwed.

The first Nico noticed about the hospital was that it was very very bright. Maybe it wasn’t and Nico was panicking; it wouldn’t be so beyond him. He watched as several other cars pulled up with other newbies similar to himself. He noticed that some people had their own stethoscopes- would anybody notice that his was used? The stethoscope he wore had the initials B.D.A engraved into the side of the drum. Did it matter if someone noticed that his was old? He could easily afford a new one either way but he had wanted to wear his sister's one. He hoped it would bring him good luck because he had a good feeling that he was going to need it. 

He walked into the Hospital where he was directed to a cleared Operating Room for the new interns who were having their introduction. He passed a group of attendings, all of whom he vaguely recognised but he noticed one in particular with curly blond hair. Of all the years he had tagged along with Percy to hang out at the hospital, he had never seen that dude- Why haven’t I seen him before?

“Every one of you comes here today hopeful, wanting in the game. A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors- Today, you are the doctors. The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you- say hello to your competition. 8 of you will switch to an easier speciality. 5 of you will crack under the pressure, 2 of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line- This is your arena. How do you play? That's up to you,” A man with long brown hair and greying roots dramatically explained. Nico realised that this was the Chief of Surgery- Chiron! Nico was surprised to learn that he still worked here after all these years. He recalled Bianca talking about Chiron who had been her mentor. 

Nico looked around at what was his competition-  as he thought, he was so screwed.

As he made his way into the locker room, some faces became familiar. He recalled some of these faces- the people he had met at the mixer. Nico decided to focus on work and not making friends; if someone spoke to him, he’d reply but he was not initiating any conversations. He had diagnosed himself with the overall dislike of humanity. Just as he was contemplating wearing his white coat, ( he remembered Bianca telling him that everyone knows that the doctors with the cleanest coats are the newbies and he did not want people noticing) the girl to his left with cropped brown hair and a determined expression tapped him on the shoulder.

“You’re Nico right? Which resident have you got?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m Nico and I’ve got Chase. What about you?”

 “ Same. And it’s Meg.”

A guy from across the room turned around, excited to have something in common with others. His hair was short and blond but not the same colour as the new attending that Nico had noticed earlier. This guy's hair was almost a platinum kind of blond whereas the attending had golden hair- Like the colour of sunrise. 

“You’ve got her too? So did I- You’re Nico, Nico Di Angelo right? I’m Jason Grace- we met at the mixer. You made a bold impression; black, skinny ripped jeans,  Ramone T-shirt and skull rings despite the fact it was obviously a work event… Okay I’ll stop talking,” The man rushed out all at once.

“Grace, Mccaffrey, Di Angelo and June!” A voice called out into the locker room. Nico looked at what were supposed to be his future friends. If he was supposed to feel some sort of magical bond with them- he sure as hell was not. The girl in front (who Nico could only assume was Dr June) was almost hopping - okay, she’s a happy person,  Avoid her at all costs- he put in a mental reminder. Nico watched as she approached the Blonde woman at the desk. Nico almost face palmed- Her surname was Chase- this had to be Percy’s girlfriend that he had been telling him about over the phone a while ago. June started talking only to be cut off.

“I’m Juniper June but most people just call me-”  

“I have 5 rules, memorise them. Rule number 1- don’t bother sucking up, I already hate you, that's not gonna change. Trauma protocol, phone list and pagers-” Annabeth pointed to the desk behind her. There lay 4 pagers which all the interns, including Nico, scrambled forward to grab.

“-Nurses will page you, you answer every page at a run- you hear me? A run, Rule number 2- Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours. You’re interns, grunts, nobodies- bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop and don’t complain!” She called as she led them across the bridge and into the second section of the hospital. Nico, not being the tallest person, struggled slightly to keep up.  They walked into a dark room that seemed to have bunk beds with thin mattresses and flimsy unmade covers. 

“On call rooms- attendings hog them- sleep when you can, where you can, which brings me to Rule number 3. If I��m sleeping, don’t wake me unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number 4- the dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed a person, you would have woken me up for no good reason. We clear?” 

Nico was clear but he also wasn’t. He doesn’t remember Bianca telling him any of these rules and he also didn’t recall hearing the 5th rule. Did she already say it when he wasn’t listening? He didn’t think so but he also didn’t want to look like an idiot. He decided to ask, if he was going to fail at this hospital, he might as well fail knowing everything there was to know.

“That's only 4 rules. You said there were 5.” Nico slid in between Meg and Dr Grace, his head only up to the bases of their necks. Just Nico said those words, he heard a beeping which he could only assume came from someone's pager. Annabeth immediately looked down, grabbing the pager she had tagged into her waist.

“Rule number 5- When I move, you move.”

Hour 1

Nico slipped on his gloves as he stood in the elevator with the other interns. The second he heard its ‘ping’ he rushed forward, eager to learn. The wind blasted into his eyes and immediately, Nico raised his hands to cover his face. His hair flopped about as the helicopter descended in front him. He raised his head slightly and saw the same golden haired attending that he had noticed earlier- Nico took a guess that he was the trauma surgeon. He followed Dr. Chase who ran forward and helped lift the stretcher out of the helicopter. Nico perked his ears up as he heard the trauma surgeon recite her history.

“Katie Bryce, 15 years old, female, new onset seizures- intermittent for the past week. IV lost en route- Started grand mal seizing as we descended,” He shouted over the loud roar of the engine. Crap, Grand mal seizures, really? God really thought lets give me a hard case. They rushed to get her inside and Nico was trying to not panic as he heard Dr. Chase command the staff like it was her own mini army.

 “Put her on her side. 10 Milligrams of diazepam. No, the white lead is on the right. Righty whitey, smoke over fire. Give her a large bore IV, Don’t let the blood hemolyze.”

A different doctor walked in, his hair was black and cut short. His skin was a creamy white and Nico recognised the second language under ‘Doctor Zhang’ on his white coat to be chinese. 

“Dr. Chase, what do we have?” He asked, flipping through her chart. 

“Right now, nothing.”

“Okay, let's shotgun her.” He raised his hands and took a step backwards, allowing for the interns to continue their treatment. 

“Okay, you heard the man. Shotgun means every test in the book- CT, CBC, Chem 7, Tox screen. Mccaffery- you’re running labs, Grace- patient work ups and Di Angelo- take her for a CT,” Dr. Chase ordered

“Um, Dr. Chase, I think you forgot me,” Juniper piped up meekly. Annabeth turned around and gave her a firm look before telling her,

“Honey, you’re doing rectal exams.”

Nico couldn’t tell if he should laugh at the poor intern or console her. 

Each intern was busy. Extraordinarily busy. Nico did not expect the line for the CT machine to be so long. This was the best hospital in all of New York! You’d think they would be much faster but no, here Nico was with his patient who he had recently learnt, loved to talk… about herself.

“I’m missing my pageant,” Kaite whined.

“You’re missing your pageant?” Nico had to physically restrain himself from snorting. So that's what non- doctors  and people with normal lives did. Things like going to pageants.

“Yeah! And I was super excited because the judges were getting to the talents for the pageant- Mine is rhythmic gymnastics. I sprained my ankle and fell when I was training but now I was soo ready but then...” she threw her arms up slightly signifying everything around them and Nico understood- she had a seizure which stopped her from competing.

 “Katie Bryce’s labs came out clear, nothing in the results that would explain her seizures,” Meg informed Dr. Chase who was currently peeking her head out of a surgery. Dr. Chase nodded and was about to return to assisting on the procedure when Meg started talking again

“I heard that the attending picks the most promising intern on the first to perform a minor procedure.”

Dr. Chase looked anything but impressed.

“Go away,” she deadpanned as she closed the door in Meg’s face and returned to her surgery.

“It’s just what I heard!” Meg mumbled exasperatedly as she left the scrub room.

Hour 7

The cafeteria was full. One would think the hospital cafeteria would be stocked with healthy foods but in reality it was quite the opposite. It was stacked with a bunch of doctors telling you to eat healthy food as they stuffed their faces with pizza. The seating arrangements weren’t much different from a high school. You sit with who you know and avoid the ones in charge. Meg, Jason, Juniper and a group of other interns were all grouped together not too far away from the group of attendings and 3 residents. 

 “You know Nico is inbred.” Meg popped the fact onto the other interns. 

“Like it’s uncommon to be related to a doctor, my sister is Dr Thalia Grace.”Jason pointed his thumb to the girl with jet back hair and array of ear piercings who was currently smiling wickedly. 

“No like royally inbred, his sister is Bianca Di Angelo,” Meg insisted. 

“Shut up! The Bianca Di Angelo?” Juniper joined in.

“Who is Bianca Di Angelo?” Jason, as clueless as ever, asked. The entire table exploded into whispers and gasps.

“Where do you live, under a rock? The angel method? Where do you think that came from?”

“She’s a living legend!”

“She’s won 2 harper Averies!”

“Talk about familial pressure.”

“Um, incoming Nico Di Angelo,” Jason tried to speak over the food in his mouth unsuccessfully. Luckily, the other interns looked in the direction of him and shut their mouths up in time. Nico, with his 3rd cup of coffee that day slumped into a chair and slammed his head onto the table.

“Katie Bryce is a pain in my ass. If I hadn’t taken the hippocratic oath, I’d kevorkian her with my bare hands,” Nico groaned. Juniper, eager to get his mind off an annoying patient chirped in,

“I heard Chase and Jackson were dating- A resident and an attending!”

“They are,” Nico confirmed as the interns stole glances at the attending and the resident together, surprised that Dr. Chase had the ability to laugh or smile.

“Who wants to go for an attending? Bet ya none of you can,” Meg poked fun at them.

“I bet ya I could do Solace, he’s new apparently,” Nico hummed as he peacefully sipped his coffee, closing his eyes to enjoy the smell that drifted into his nose.

“Meg, you wanna go for Valdez?” Juniper curiously poked.      

“Nah, he’s only a resident and besides- He’s totally making eyes at Calypso. Letting a resident try to get into an attending pants is way more fun. I wanna see him fall into a hole.”

All of the interns stopped and turned to Meg, a slightly horrified look growing on their faces.

“Okay, now that Satan has stopped talking, who wants to put down their bets?” Jason beamed as Meg sneaked a quick punch to arm which had him cowering for a bit longer than necessary. The interns were all mucking about until a new voice joined the conversation.

“Hey! I just transferred to Chase’s service, I don’t really know anyon-”

“-Hazel?”  Nico’s confused voice echoed and his eyes shot open at the recognition of the soft voice.  

 “Nico?”  Hazel raised an eyebrow. They had both agreed to go to work in separate hospitals to limit family drama.  Ever since they had found out they were related, the family tensions had been higher than ever. Nico had assumed Hazel would go to a different hospital and leave New York Presbyterian for him and it seems Hazel had assumed the same vice versa.        

“You two know each other?” A voice, recognised as Meg, called out. 

“I’m Doctor Hazel Levesque. Newest Surgical intern under Dr Chase.” She reached out and gave her hand to Meg who shook it firmly. She gave another hand shake to Jason and a nod to Nico- both of them had ignored Meg’s question.  

“Final call, who’s going in?” Jason reminded them. 

“Me- Solace is new, hot, probably clueless and he’s the new Head attending in trauma.” Nico slammed his hand onto the table, indicating he was all in. It was easy, right? Seduce him and then manipulate. It couldn’t be too hard. 

Around 2 tables away from the interns, the attendings and residents were chatting away. Will, who had only recently joined the hospital, was still getting used to the way people behaved here. Everyone was so much more nice than he had expected. He remembered how people warned him about New York folks but in all honesty, Will would say that he was having a pretty good time, especially if the Di Angelo intern stayed in his eyeline-

“-Solace is eyeing the interns!” Percy’s excited voice cut into Will’s thoughts. Horrified, Will managed to sputter out,

“I am not eyeing the interns!”

“I like the newbie, she seems nice- better than the rest at least,”Frank mumbled about Hazel as he sipped at his hot tea. Piper to his left admitted,

“Blond one’s hot.”     

“That blond one is my brother,” Thalia grunted.

“Why doesn’t anyone call me hot?” Leo pouted as he rolled up the other sleeve of his shirt calling the attention of Calypso’s eyes. 

I’d totally call you hot , She thought.

She only glanced once.. Maybe twice… okay she was staring at him. But ever since Leo had become a resident, she kept on thinking they had to potential to become what.. Well, what Annabeth and Percy had become. Sure, she had rejected all his previous advances but she didn’t want to. She just didn’t think the timing was right- She was very aware that simply telling him the timing wasn’t right was a much more mature thing to do than acting bratty every time he spoke to her.

“Valdez, go make sure none of the pre-surgery kids aren’t sneaking pudding. There’s always bound to be one.” Dr Reyna Ramirez batted her hand towards her resident who gave her a mock salute before walking off. Calypso, unaware that everyone was watching, had her eyes glued to Leo.

 “Calypso is totally checking out Valdez- Mother Hen Reyna watch out- Calypso is after your chicks,” Percy snickered making a joke to the fact that Leo was Reyna’s resident- before Piper smacked him on the back of the head indicating a Shut it, hypocrite.

“No I’m not!” Calypso insisted, whipping her head, that only moments ago was glued to Leo’s ass. She ducked her head and sided next to Piper and Will.

“Calypso eyeing Leo is old news, please make sure you keep yourself updated,” Annabeth proclaimed, her head resting against Percy while his arm was snaked around her waist.    

“I will tell you what’s new then, Solace watching Nico like he’s fresh meat. That’s my bro that you’re checking out man.”     

 “I am NOT checking out Di Angelo!”  

 “Zhang, who are you picking for the procedure?” Annabeth curiously asked and also slightly eager to move away from the current topic. In all honesty, Annabeth expected Frank to choose Di Angelo- He was clearly the most promising and most experienced if one could even call an intern that. Annabeth knew that Percy and Nico had practically grown up together and besides he was a Di Angelo- Surely if his sister could cut, so could he.

“I’m gonna go with Grace.”

“He is not ready for that. Not to be a terrible sibling but he gets flustered a tad easily,” Thalia butted in, trying to protect her brother. She loved him but Jason was a tad sensitive and rustling his feathers was almost too easy.

“Torture one and the rest will fall in line,” Frank admitted half heartedly. He didn’t want to Pick on Jason- he seemed like a great kid, But he also didn’t want to have to have a bunch of misbehaving interns who had egos too big for the hospital because nobody ever put them in line. 

“Are you sure about Grace though?” Annabeth pushed, her voice slightly uneasy. Percy, who noticed this, squeezed her waist gently as a gesture of comfort, affection even. Percy was watching Nico’s table. The interns seemed to be having fun, no one was picking on Nico which was the most important thing and he figured soon the interns would realise Nico’s infamy- of being a Di Angelo of course. What he totally didn’t expect however, was Nico to get out of his chair and casually stroll over towards the group of attendings and residents. 

Nico honestly did not know what he was thinking. Was he being bold? Absolutely. Was he acting on impulse? Most obviously. Was he regretting every step towards them? Definitely. 

He saw Percy’s eyes widen ever so slightly before his face rested into a comforting, genuine smile- something Nico truly appreciated. If Percy was acting nice, the rest of the group were bound to follow his lead, right? Nico shuffled past 2 of the attendings, reaching behind them to gain access to the coffee machine.

Will didn’t know how to react. Did interns normally come and hang out with attendings here? He had no idea. Percy looked as if he knew Nico all his life and he did tell him earlier; That's my bro you’re checking out man. Were they actually related? Or did they just know each other for a long time? By now, all the attendings were settled at their own tables and Piper had unfortunately been rushed off for emergency surgery on one of her patients, leaving Will to sit by himself at a table. That was until Nico was standing by one of the chairs.

Nico took a deep breath and stood by the chair at Will’s almost empty table. It had taken Will a couple of seconds to notice that there was someone even at his table before he almost jolted backwards, alarmed by the shadow that had appeared on his table. Immediately, out of politeness, he gestured towards a seat.

“Do you wanna take a seat?” He offered politely. He watched as the intern hesitated. He could see how nervous he seemed and for a minute he really pitied him- It was no doubt stressful to be the brother of a famous surgeon, especially a Di Angelo.

“Are you sure? I mean, aren't you an attending, ya know, my boss and-”

“-Calm down, it's just a seat,” Will cut off Nico’s rambling and offered the man a seat. Gingerly Nico took it and looked down at his coffee. 

Nico did not think making Dr Solace treat him so nicely was going to be so easy. All he had to do was give a shy look away and blabber a bit and the next thing he knew, Dr. Solace had his hand on top of Nico’s and was shuffling his chair closer to his. Nico realised it was now or never- he had to start sending the right message. 

 “I’ve always found trauma interesting- ya know? Never knowing what's going to come into those doors. Percy used to tell me how much he hated it,” Nico laughed gently, making sure he accidentally  brushed his leg against Dr Solace’s.

“Trauma? Really? Lucky for you, I just so happen to be the new attending on that.”

“I think I’m much more lucky than you think I am, if you catch my draft,” Nico mummuered, smirking slightly, his eyes dropping to Will's lips causing Will to finally get what he meant. Will, slightly flustered by Nico’s onset attitude, flushed pink slightly. He was flattered greatly that someone as good looking as Nico found him attractive but he didn’t want to cause commotion or draw so much attention to himself  so early either. He wasn’t gonna lie, he totally was into Nico but Will knew that he could be putting Nico’s job at risk, not to mention his own. But it wasn’t as if Nico was using him- Nico seemed too innocent for that and besides- he was a Di Angelo, people respected him and the holy ground he walked on.

“If all goes well in your first surgery, feel free to send that draft out again.” Will winked as he got up and threw away the remains of his terrible lunch before heading to the table with the remaining attendings.

“Impress him with your loving, then impress him with your healing,” Will heard Percy whisper, which earned Percy a punch in the arm from Piper, a dirty look from Annabeth and snort from Frank. Will, slightly sick of Percy’s teasing, stormed off to the department at the entrance of the hospital which all the staff here called ‘The Pit’ for some reason. Percy, as clueless as ever was trying to remain a straight face and Frank was struggling to keep on being the mature one.

Hour 10

Nico was adequately proud of himself- he didn't flirt with people often ( mainly because normally it was people flirting with him) but he couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t slightly nervous when he was walking towards the room of Katie Bryce and saw a man and woman at the desk- Nico presumed they were married due to the wedding rings they wore.

 “Katie Bryce, Room 3604?” Nico asked the couple. They nodded eagerly and the 3 adults had a quick conversation where Nico informed them that he wasn’t Katies actual doctor, but still was a doctor, and that he would go and find said doctor. Nico, who didn’t actually know who Katie’s doctor was now, had to verbally tell himself to not panic and he managed to figure out that he should ask Dr. Chase (he prayed she wasn’t sleeping). Luckily, Dr Chase was charting at the nurses station and when she heard his meek footsteps approaching, her head snapped up and she raised an eyebrow.

“Katie Bryce’s parents want to speak with the head on the case. Shall I page Dr. Zhang?” 

“Dr Zhang? No, this patient belongs to Neuro now- Dr Jackson, he’s right around the corner.” Annabeth flicked her pen towards her boyfriend who was speaking to two other attendings- who Nico recognised to be Dr Mclean and Dr Ramirez. He waved over to Percy who smiled and dismissed the two doctors before making his way over to Nico and throwing his arm around Nico’s shoulders while ruffling his hair. Nico did not allow the gesture from anyone but felt comforted by it from Percy.

“Percy!”  Nico almost squealed as Percy rubbed his knuckles into Nico’s head keeping him in a loose headlock.

“Death! I haven’t seen you in ages! How has it been?” Percy smiled as he began walking them towards the hallway. Nico cringed slightly from the nickname. Death was not something you want to be called at a hospital, especially if you were a doctor.

“Oh you know, Chase is tough but she knows what she’s doing.”

“She better, she learnt from the best,” Percy said proudly, pointing towards himself. Nico took this as an opportunity to lower Percy’s ego and asked

“Chiron?”

“You smug little-” Percy was cut off by Nico’s shrieks and protests to stop as Percy tickled him. Was it evil of Percy to tickle Nico? Perhaps, especially since he knew that Nico was one of the most ticklish people to ever exist.

Hour 15

Interns filtered into the viewing box above the operating room- they were all excited to watch one of them perform the first surgery. Jason, however, was terrified. He was muttering the basics of the procedure again and again as the crowd filtered in above him. If he made one mistake, everyone would see it, everyone would know and he would become the intern who couldn’t cut.

“Open, identify, ligate, remove, irrigate, close. Open, identify, ligate, remove, irrigate, close,” he muttered continuously, his eyes scrunched shut in fear.

Meanwhile, in the overhead viewing box, interns started placing bets. Sure, everyone was excited that an intern was assisting but they were also bitter. It would be a lie to tell you that no one in that room had thought that they should be down there operating room instead of Dr Grace. As Nico came in, he was slightly surprised to hear people making bets- sure, Jason had taken the surgery from them but betting? Was that really necessary? Especially since they were betting on his demise rather than him succeeding.

“30 dollars if he can’t open the peritoneum.”

“35 if he faints, he seems like a fainter.”

“40 says he kills the guy.”

“50 says he pulls off the whole thing,” Nico, who was sick of hearing the interns bet, cut in, “That's one of us in there- where’s your loyalty?”  Nico had grown up with a loyal best friend- Percy- so if he valued anything in a person it was loyalty. He watched as poor Jason moved his lips, mumbling the procedure. He really hoped Jason didn’t butcher this- he had kind of put his trust in him over here. Jason turned to the nurses as they performed the time- out- reciting the patient's name, sex and other vital information such as the actual surgery- an appendectomy . 

“Scalpel,” Jason ordered his hand reaching towards the nurse. As soon as it made contact with Jason’s hand, the interns went wild. The interns were cheering, clapping and whistling. It was official, Jason was the first intern to pick up a scalpel on a live patient. Even Nico joined in on the cheering, leaning back slightly in his seat and clapping- that was until Dr Zhang turned towards the interns and mimicked silence. The interns understood- Dr Grace does not need distractions. 

“That Zhang is trouble,” Hazel muttered, biting her lip gently. Nico, trying to resist a smirk, leaned over and whispered,

“Hazel’s got a crush.”  

Hazel, as chill as ever (sarcasm intended), pinched Nico’s arm making him flinch, pout and then rub gently at his slightly reddened flesh. Jason was trying to concentrate- he had never thought that one would have to apply so much pressure to cut into human flesh so of course, he hesitated a bit. However, once he was through, he started to find it a bit easier.

“Pickups…. Clamps,” he ordered.

“Dammit, he got through the peritoneum, I’m out,” the intern who betted on Jason admitted defeat as Jason continued.

“Scalpel….. And Appendix is out!”

Despite Dr Zhang's previous warnings, the interns went wild. Jason did it, he actually did it. Nico could see all the interns freaking out and while he was truly happy for Jason, he knew that he hadn’t finished. He had to close and celebrating too early may jinx him. Dr Zhang, who didn’t mind the interns celebrating, began to instruct Jason on his remaining steps.

“Now all you have to is insert the stump into the cecum and simultaneously pull the up on the purse strings, but be careful not to-” Frank was cut of by the distinct sound of sutures snapping- a sound which caused the silence of everyone and echoed 

“- Break them,” Frank finished his sentence, sighing. He wouldn’t lie and say that he didn’t expect this but he hoped that the intern would fix his mistake quickly. He watched as Jason struggled nervously. Jason himself didn’t even know what he had just done- all he could replay in his head was the snapping sound and the feeling of the suture breaking. The loss of tension in his hand as he accidently pulled too hard. Out of all the useful knowledge he had, it was that recent memory that just kept on replaying in Jason’s head.

“You’ve just ripped the cecum, you’ve got yourself a bleeder! What do you do now?” Dr Zhang tried to encourage him but it was no use. Nico watched as Jason froze.

Damn it Jason come on! Alas, Nico couldn’t help but think, Jason was like a deer in headlights- Bambi. Jason didn’t know how to react- what did he do now? He hadn’t considered the possibility if the sutures snapped. 

“Think- You stop the suctions and start searching for those purse strings before he bleeds to death,” Dr Zhang instructed, his voice the only clear thing in the room other than the drastic beeping coming from the monitor. Nico could feel everybody in the room holding their breath- this moment was either going to make or break Jason.

“Give him a clamp,” Dr Zhang ordered.

“BP’s dropping,” a nurse warned. The interns watched with anxiety for their fellow intern- Jason was frozen, his hands stuck mid-air. 

“BP is getting too low.”   

Finally Dr Zhang had to make a decision and he held his hand out to the nurses,  

“Move. Suction and Clamps.”  

The interns all groaned, throwing their heads back or burying their heads between their hands. Money was passed around and Nico could only feel pity for the blond boy who looked like bambi in the operating room. As interns began to leave, people began to whisper.

“He’s a 007.”   

“Yeah! Totally a 007.”

“What’s 007?” Juniper looked around, slightly confused. Nico, morbid as ever, kept his eyes trained on the surgeon operating as he told Juniper.

“License to kill.”

Hour 19

Jason sat in a wheelchair (that he most likely did not want to know where it had been) as he rolled the wheels back and forth complaining. He still couldn’t believe that he had frozen up like that. Not only that but he knew what the consequences of it was now. 

“Everyone is calling me 007,” He complained, still embarrassed from his poor performance. Nico and Meg- both of whom were sick of his whining- answered at the same time.

“No one is calling you 007.”

“Really? A dude in the elevator whispered 007 and everyone started laughing!”

“007 is a state of mind,” Hazel called out as she waited by the old vending machine. It waited a bit too long for Hazel’s patience and thus she gave it a light kick to keep it going.

“Says the girl who finished first in her class at Stanford,” Jason retorted, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. Nico was enjoying this mindless banter, it was the first break he had in a while and it was relaxing to be able to not have to think critically for once. Of course, because fate hated Nico in particular, Nico’s pager beeped causing him to groan and accidentally bang his head as he pulled out his pager, causing his eyes to widen.

“Ah, fuck. Someone is paging me 911 on Katie Bryce, gotta go!” 

Nico hopped off the spare stretcher he was on and practically ran towards the stairs desperate to get the patient's room. As Nico left, he let out a small snort of laughter for he heard Jason mumble,

“I should have gone into geriatrics- nobody minds when you kill an old person.”

Nico gasped for air as he walked into room 3604 and saw a perfectly healthy and fine Kate Bryce. What the hell? Did she lose the ability to talk? Because that wasn’t a 911, that was a thank the gods. He looked around for any crash cart or indicator that there was actually anything wrong with her.

“There’s nothing wrong with you?” He panted, feeling his anger bubble up. Katie simply shrugged, twirling her platinum blond hair that looked dyed. 

“I’m bored.” 

Nico gasped and face palmed- he just could not with this girl! Would giving her an early death count as breaking the hippocratic oath? Man, he really wanted to punch Hippocrates- making doctors swear a damn oath on Apollo! 

“This is a hospital, people are dying, people who actually require a doctor's help! Go to sleep,” Nico explained, his voice raising slightly due to the interruption of his very calming break- he considered hearing Jason complain better than any sort of time spent with this patient. Katie, however, did not want to comply with what was being asked of her.

“I can’t sleep, my heads all full!” Katie whined slightly, throwing her head back softly against the propped up pillows. 

“That's called thinking, go with it, maybe you’ll learn something new.”

Hour 21

 Annabeth was happy right now. In this moment as she and Percy lay snuggled up against each other cuddling in the on call rooms, Annabeth was happy. She had to catch up on her sleep and Percy was a neurosurgeon- his surgeries were tiring and required him to be well rested (something that never happened either way) for him to perform at his best ability. She could hear Percy’s heart thumping under her ear as she lay with her head on his chest and one of her legs thrown on top of his. The sound and vibrations were comforting, relaxing, easing her to sleep- she was happy.

Juniper did not feel so happy right now. She was standing at the nurses station staring at the on - call room that she knew Dr Chase to be in. As she stood by the nurses station, a nurse leaning on the desk asked her what she wanted. 

“Mr Anderson has chunky veins, he needs antibiotics and I should start a central line,” Juniper admitted, looking away. The nurse, not even glancing up from his chart simply told her,

“Then start one…” 

Juniper's silence told him what he needed to know.

“...And you don’t know how to. You know what that means.” The nurse nodded his head towards the on call room where Dr Chase resided. Juniper had to physically restrain herself to stop herself from shivering. She was about to break Rule 3. She peeked her head into the dark on call room where she initially thought she was about to accidentally become scarred for life. However, what she saw surprised her. Dr Chase was soundfully asleep next to Dr Jackson. Their arms were intertwined with each other and Dr Jackson had one arm wrapped around Dr Chase’s waist. They looked so peaceful, Juniper was so tempted to walk out and just let Mr Anderson get a nice trip to the morgue but she didn’t want to end up being called something like 007. She took a deep breath.   

“Dr chase, I don’t mean to bother you-”

“-Then don’t,” Annabeth snapped. She did not want to leave Percy, he was so warm and she wanted her damned sleep.

“It’s Mr Anderson,” Juniper started explaining.

“Is he dying?”

“No.” 

“Then stop talking to me.” Annabeth rolled over so that her back was towards Juniper. Juniper cleared her throat slightly which caused Percy to jerk his arm. Annabeth huffed, clearly agitated. 

“Next time you wake me, he better be so close to dead, there’s a tag on his toe.”

Hour 23

Nico was walking towards Katye Bryce’s room once again to check in on her. Hopefully, she had taken his advice and was soundly asleep by now. Yet, as Nico approached her room, he saw nurses running in and out of it- Nico picked up his pace until it was a run as he got into the room. Immediately, the nurses briefed him on what was going on.

“She’s having multiple Grand Mal seizures, now, how do you want to proceed? Dr Di Angelo, are you listening? We’ve given her diazepam, 2 milligrams of  Lorazepam- we just gave a second dose- Dr Di Angelo, you need to tell us what you want us to do!”

Nico was frozen. What in the name of Hades had happened while he was gone? He began to filter his thoughts-find out what's in her system and proceed from there. 

“You gave her lorazepam?” he asked.

“Yep, 4 milligrams.”      

“You’ve paged Chase and Jackson?”  He pushed.    

“Lorazepam isn’t working!”

“Phenobarbital, 2 milligrams,” He blurted, remembering the drug from a chemistry quiz he had gotten completely correct due to Bianca’s old notes.       

“Heart’s stopped!” a nurse called out. Nico’s brain called out Code Blue, Code Blue! But his mouth could not move. What was he doing? He normally acted on immediately in emergency situations- they were practically his reflexes. He had to focus. He closed his eyes for a second.

Focus Nico, focus- this girl is literally dead. 

His eyes snapped open- he was still panicking but now that he had a second to think, he had a vague idea of what to do.

“Okay, start compressions- grab the crash cart. Charge the pads to 200.” Nico turned his head towards the nurse operating the charge value on the defibrillator.  

“Clear!”

Katie Bryce’s jolted upwards, but her heart did not return to normal. The nurse opposite to Nico continued compressions on her body while the other nurse held an ambu bag to her face, squeezing it every 5 seconds to provide air for her lungs. 

“Still V-Fib, no change,” the nurse commented. 

“Charge to 300.”

“27 seconds since the heart stopped,” another Nurse informed.

 “Charge to 360, C’mon Katie. Clear!” Nico waited to see if her heart would react.

“ Okay, restarting compressions,” He ordered as he tried to think of the next step in running a code.

“49 seconds since the heart stopped.”

“Charge again, Clear!”

Everyone in the room waited anxiously as the monitor returned to beeping normally. 

“Sinus Rhythm.”

A collective sigh of relief was let out as people started filtering out.

 at the hell happened?” Percy asked as he speed walked into the room. He couldn’t help feeling a bit useless as he found his patient that was dying only seconds ago, alive and well- only it wasn’t him who had saved her, it was Dr Di Angelo.

“She had a seizure and her heart stopped,” Nico explained, sighing gently now that Percy was here. 

“You were supposed to be monitoring her.” Percy turned around to face Nico. Nico was not expecting the accusatory tone- sure he wasn’t expecting clap on the back either but a Oh hey for keeping her alive while I took ages to show up would have been nice. Nico had known Percy all his life but despite that, he had never seen such a cold, turned off side of him. Was this how doctors or surgeons did their jobs? Become cold to everyone around them? Nico tried to explain himself- the key word there being tried.

“I-”

“-Just go, I’ve got her now.” Dr Jackson batted his hand and Nico was dismissed. Nico felt dismissed. Was this the life of an intern? Being blamed for every small inconvenience so the attendings can feel less guilt on their backs? Nico didn’t do anything wrong- he followed protocol, just as he had been told. He ran the code and continually paged Dr Chase and Dr Jackson. Them not showing up was the issue here, not him. He had saved her life. Not them.

Nico’s mind felt dead. He was 23 hours into a 48 hour shift and already, he was feeling the pressure. Too much pressure- was there a point to this? Was there a point to any of this? Nico dragged his feet across the floor, trying to find the exit.

“When you get a 911, you page me immediately. If someone dies, it’s on my ass. You hear me? Di Angelo?” Dr Chase raised an eyebrow at the intern who practically ignored them as they walked to the exit door, ignoring everything around them. The interns, Jason and Hazel both noticed his abnormally pale face and dazed expression. Hazel, being the concerned sister she was, followed Nico as he started to gain speed towards the exit.

“Nico, are you okay?”She reached her arm out but Nico made no notice of her. He could feel his stomach become more and more uneasy. He leant against a pole with one hand and quickly threw up his lunch. He placed both of his hands on his thighs, remaining hunched over and trying to catch his breath. As he walked back towards the hospital, intending to go and wash his mouth out, he caught Hazel walking towards him with concern drawn all over her face.

“If you ever tell anyone…” Nico trailed off as he walked past her, entering the hospital again.

Hour 26

“You said it was a seizure disorder, now you’re saying it isn’t?” Mr Bryce, Katie’s father, asked with slight confusion. He stood by his wife's side, both his hands on his hips in a confrontive manner. 

“I’m saying that I don’t know. For now, I don’t have an answer for you. Now that Katie is stable-” Dr Jackson started explaining only to be cut off by the father.

“-We came here because this hospital is supposed to be the best in New York. That's my kid in there and you have the audacity to stand here and say I don’t know. I want someone else , a doctor that knows what they’re doing. A doctor better than you!”

“Mr Bryce, I can assure you that I’m working hard on Katie’s case-” Dr Jackson tried to keep himself calm. He was working hard but sometimes the body did things that science couldn’t explain. He was a doctor, a surgeon, not god. 

“- No, you’re not. If you were, you’d be able to give me some answers.”

Percy decided to leave the couple before he said something to them that he’d regret.

Dr Zhang was a calm, collected and highly skillful surgeon. He knew what he was doing as he explained the surgery to Mr Savitch.

“I put you on the bypass machine, which pumps blood for your heart, fix your ticker, take you off the machine- I’m done. Simple procedure.”

His wife -who was clutching her husband's hand so tightly her knuckles were turning white- asked Dr Zhang with a slightly relieved voice,

“So I have no reason to worry?”

“I’m very good at what I do but it’s still surgery- there are still some risks. I’ll see you in the Operating Room this afternoon Mr Savitch.” Frank waved his hand goodbye to the couple and left while Dr Grace stayed behind to reassure the patient.

“Dr Zhang is very good, you’ll be fine,” Jason confirmed.

“He’ll be fine right?” Mrs Savitch urged again, wanting a guarantee. Her eyes screamed Tell me my husband will live. Jason could not understand how she was feeling but he sympathised for her. He wanted to help her, he reminded him of his mother, a woman who worried often. 

“Tony’s gonna sail through it- You have nothing to worry about Gloria - I promise.”

Hour 30

Nico had no idea why he was here- in fact, he had no idea why any of the interns were here. They had all been called to the briefing room for a conference yet at no point had he been informed what exactly it was about. He glanced to his right to see Hazel holding sutures with a banana laying on her lap.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m suturing a banana with the vain hope that it wakes up my brain,” Hazel drawled her hand raising up to tighten the perfectly spaced sutures together- something Nico too had the talent for. Their heads both shot up as Dr Jackson, with Dr Chase beside him, walked in. Dr Solace also walked in, catching Nico’s eye as he leaned with his back on the door frame. 

“I’m gonna do something pretty rare for a surgeon. I’m gonna ask interns for help. Katie Bryce right now is a mystery- she isn't responding to medication. All the tests are clean but she’s having seizures, Grand mal seizures and we don’t know why. I need you to help me out,” all the interns sighed as Percy explained this. 

“I know you’re tired, I know you’re busy which is why I’m gonna give you an incentive. Whoever finds the answer rides with me. Katie needs surgery- you get to do what no intern does. You get to scrub in to assist on an advanced procedure. Annabeth- I mean- Dr Chase will hand out the chart- The clock is ticking people. Let’s save a life,” Percy weakly smiled as he saw the eager interns scrambling for the files and gave Nico a wink as he left the room. Nico had to look down at his shoes to not blush- his crush on Percy had subsided years ago but what are you meant to do when people wink at you? 

Will decided to tag along to the intern conference being held by Dr Jackson- he’d get a chance to see the interns working under incredible amounts of pressure and have a look at potential residents to take under his wing as trauma residents. At least, that's what he told himself. In reality, he had wanted to see the Italian doctor who had the guts to flirt with him and then invite him to bed. Was Will offended? Of course! Did this intern think he was that easy? While Will told himself that wasn’t easy, a small part of his subconscious told him that him showing up to the intern conference for one gorgeous man proved otherwise.

As Nico left the conference room, Hazel jogged to catch up with him- though Nico didn’t know why she was jogging, she had much longer legs than him.

“Hey, I want in on Jackson’s surgery- you've been the intern on her case since the start- you want to work together? If we find the answer, we have a 50/50 chance of scrubbing in ,” She offered. 

“Sure, but I want in on the surgery.” Nico shrugged.

“So do I.”

“May the best surgeon scrub in,” Nico held out his hand for Hazel to shake. The game was on. 

The locker room was full of several other interns- all of whom were re-reading Katie’s chart as if their lives depended on it. Hazel and Nico were hunched together by their lockers- which were co-incidentally placed next to each other. There were 6 empty cups of coffee- 4 were Hazels and 2 were Nico’s. Rainbow sweet strips, Nico’s pick of course, were also present- Hazel had to beg Nico for a pack as he had 3 to himself. Nico was so used to staying up for unnecessarily long hours that he didn’t need as much caffeine to keep himself acting like a live human being, unlike his sister.

“So she doesn't have anoxia, chronic renal failure or acidosis. It’s not a tumor because the CT was clean,” Hazel confirmed.

“What about infection?” Nico suggested as he savagely bit into a rainbow gummy strip, ripping it away from his face causing sugar sprinkles to fly everywhere. Hazel shot him a look as she brushed them off her scrubs.

“No , there’s no white count, she has no C.T lesions, no fevers, nothing in her spinal tap.”

“What about an aneurysm?” 

“No blood on the C.T, no headaches, no drug use, no pregnancy, no trauma. Nico, what if this girl dies?”

“This is gonna sound really bad but I really wanted that surgery,” Nico confessed before continuing, “Her pageant talent is rhythmic gymnastics. What even is rhythmic gymnastics? I can’t even say it properly, I don’t know what it is!” 

“Oh come on, they have pageant talents?” Hazel started snorting with laughter with Nico joining only a mere matter of seconds later.  Rhythmic gymnastics- a totally odd and dangerous pageant talent. Why not go with knitting, there’s a less chance of falling. 

A less chance of falling. 

Nico’s brain raced- something about that was relevant- vital even. Why did that sound so important?

 Nico shot up, grabbing his sister by the arm. He thought he knew what was wrong with Katie.   

“Get up, come on. Come on!” Nico whisper- shouted as he grabbed Hazel who asked him what the hell he was on about. He told her about Katie’s fall during practise for rhythmic gymnastics when she had sprained her ankle- the chance of a small aneurysm to form.

“The only thing that she would possibly need is an angiogram,” Hazel realised as they both rushed out to find Dr Jackson. They found him in the elevator ,alone, and just as the door started closing, Hazel stuck her hand in the way of the door. Immediately she started talking.

“She has no headaches, no neck pain, her C.T is clean- there’s no medical proof of an aneurysm but what if she has one anyway?”

“How?” Percy questioned, slightly confused.

 “You see she twisted her ankle and fell. Just a bump on her head. It was so minor that her primary care doctor didn’t think to mention it in her history but there's a chance, right, Perce?” Nico almost begged, using the childhood nickname he used to call Percy, that he used to call his best friend. That is what he was doing at that moment- asking for his best friend to listen, not Dr Jackson.

“You know there’s a one in a million chance of that, literally,” Percy sighed, shaking his head. The siblings hung their heads as the situations settled- their diagnosis was getting shut down or so they thought it was. The lift opened and there stood Percy smiling. He waved his hands, signalling them to follow him. 

“Let's go find out if Katie is one in a million.”

Hazel and Nico were both silent as they waited in the cath lab- this was it for them. Either they become a pair of fools and Nico would tarnish the Di Angelo name or they get to be the first interns out of their year to assist on an advanced procedure. Percy stood with his arms folded, his black hair tousled and his jaw muscle ticking like crazy- Nico could also see that he was stressed although who for, Nico could not tell. 

“I’ll be damned. It's minor but it’s there- a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She’s bleeding into her brain,” Percy gasped slightly as he pointed his pen to the small black blobs on the screen. As they left the Cath Lab, Hazel and Nico were ready. They wanted to know who was getting the surgery- sure, they had agreed that the best surgeon would win but secretly, they had both hoped that they’d both be able to scrub it. 

“Uh, Dr Jackson, you said that the intern who brought the diagnosis would be able to scrub in,” Hazel gently reminded, her eyes hopeful and full of yearning.

“Unfortunately, I can’t have you both so Nico, you’re scrubbing in.”

Nico was over the moon- His first surgery was going to be with Percy and he was going to assist! However Hazel both looked and felt distraught. She knew she should feel more happy for her brother but she couldn’t help but feel a slight sliver of jealousy that he had only been chosen because Nico and Percy were childhood friends. As Nico turned around to apologise for her, he saw that she had already left without him.

Hour 34

Jason was in the scrub room waiting for Dr Zhang to finish up the surgery on Mr Savitch. Was he nervous? Of course, but he was also confident in Dr Zhang's skills as a surgeon. He was sipping a soda while charting, leaning with his back to the operating room- he didn’t want to get distracted by the surgery happening behind him. The door swung open with a Whack and Dr Zhang walked in, looking dejected. 

“That was quick, wow!” Jason said admirably- he knew Dr Zhang was good, but he didn’t think he could complete a surgery like that so fast!

“He didn’t make it. His heart had too much damage to get him off bypass- I had to let him go. It’s rare but it happens. It’s the worst part of the game,” Frank confessed as he washed his hands and splashed water onto his face, making him feel slightly more alive. Unlike Jason who swore his extremities went numb. 

This couldn’t be, right? Surely this was a prank- everyone would play a prank on him, he was the 007! He would walk into the operating room and see the nurses preparing to move him back to the ICU for post surgery care. Yes, yes that’s what this was- a whole prank. Dr Zhang was probably punishing him for almost killing a person in surgery and this was his equivalent of karma. Despite the idea, when Jason turned around, he regretted everything he saw. There was blood on the floor,the patient was still wide open, the heart monitor which was still attached to the patient showed no sign of cardiac activity. Jason could feel a lump in his throat, a lump that he just couldn’t swallow. Hos throat was dry and there were tears pricking at the corner of his eyes as he attempted to speak.

“B..but I told his wife Gloria that he would be fine- I promised her tha-”

“You what? The only person who can give a promise like that is God and I haven’t seen him holding a scalpel lately. You never promise a patient's family a good outcome!”Frank, in a rare moment of no self control, lashed out. Jason, who realised his mistake, decided to leave Dr Zhang to mourn what he considered his failure and inform the family of their greatest loss.

Frank slumped over the sink in the scrub room, rubbing at his head. He had never failed something so simple, how did he not foresee this? His fists clenched and relaxed as his mind went over the events of the surgery- he had never felt so much like a failure in his life as he did in this moment right now. 

As Jason approached the family, he could see their cheerful, happy faces, completely unaware of the soul- crashing news that he was about to bring them. Gloria ,who noticed him on instinct, immediately smiled wider- she thought she was going to go see her husband now. His kids had no idea what was about to happen to their lives. Jason still had the lump in his throat that was only getting bigger. He had to swallow several times which was a struggle because of his dry throat. 

“How is he?” Gloria rushed her words out and it seemed she seemed more excited than nervous. Jason swallowed heavily before starting.

 “Gloria, there were complications regarding your husband's surgery. Tony’s heart had a lot of damage. We tried to take him off bypass but- there wasn’t anything we could have done.”

Jason’s hands wrung back and forth as he struggled to keep his eyes from watering. He could feel them stinging as he fought back the tears of his betrayal

Gloria’s face scrunched up before slowly falling. Jason could see how her face slowly morphed from one of pure happiness to one of panic and distraught but Jason could also see the hope in her eyes.

“What are you talking about?” Gloria’s voice broke slightly, her lip curling.

“Tony died. He’s dead… Gloria, I am so sorry.” Jason reached out to comfort her, his hand reaching to stroke her back only for Gloria to completely flinch away from his touch. Betrayal illustrated her face and Jason couldn’t bear to continue looking her in the eye.

“Please, go away.” 

Jason had undergone a lot of tough, painful situations to become a doctor and yet, this is what broke him.

Hour 40

Percy was shaving Katie’s head, watching the blond tufts of hair fall off her face. Nico walked in, smirking as he leant against the door. On noticing Nico’s presence, he began to whisper, 

“I promised to give her a cool haircut. Apparently it’s a scandal to be a bald beauty queen.”

“Ah, well, I would totally pull it off..” Nico reached towards his hair and pushed it back slightly. Percy laughed slightly and nodded in agreement before they fell into a comfortable silence- the only sound being the buzzing from the electric razor. Nico watched Percy with admiration in eyes and Percy would look up at him every once in a while with a genuine smile that made his eyes crease.

Will was watching Percy and Nico hanging out in room 3604, an odd feeling of spite towards Percy starting to form. He didn’t know why- Percy had always been a good friend to him, helping him earn the respect of his peers. He watched as Nico watched Percy and suddenly felt the urge to accept Nico’s offer. 

“I do hope that you aren’t staring at Di Angelo,” Leo walking up behind him commented dryly. 

“Lover boy, you can’t really talk. Last time I checked, you seemed to be physically unable to keep your eyes off Calypso,” Will muttered in response. Leo gasped in mock offense before laughing. 

“Awww, are you two sharing ‘we are going to single forever’ moment?” Piper cooed. Will grunted slightly - while Piper defended Will in public she totally teased him when there weren’t as many people and as for her and Leo- well they had known each other since they were teenagers. 

“I’d like to escape the single lot, thank you for the offer though, pipes,” Frank sighed as he joined the group of them. His mood was still down due to losing his patient- he couldn’t help feel overwhelming guilt for not saving a patient with such an easy procedure. 

Percy came out of the room, chatting away with Nico before he spotted the group of attendings who were all staring at them. He raised an eyebrow at all of them, especially since they weren’t trying to be subtle in any way.

“Yall, get back to work.”

The operating room was a tad warm. Or maybe that was Nico sweating due to his nervous nature. He couldn’t afford to screw up here, he had made it so far in only a few hours and had worked hard. Dr Jackson walked in with his trident and sea print scrub cap on his head before he looked around the room.

“All right everybody. Are we ready? Okay, Scalpel,” He held his hand out as he ordered a scalpel into his hand. Nico who was on his tip- toes to see what was going on for he was not sure if he could come any closer- neurosurgeons were scary people sometimes. Percy, who was ecstatic and in a great mood, gestured for Nico to come closer. 

“Nico, come take a look. Your sister would absolutely love this,” Percy gushed and for once, Nico completely agreed as he looked at a live human brain.

Hour 48

It was finally time to head out. Nico was relieved- his eyeliner ,which was perfectly done the morning he came in, needed re-applying and he wanted to put his heeled boots back on. He was sick of everyone being taller than him. He was in the locker room after finishing the surgery and quickly he changed. He felt much better once he was back in his own clothes. Black ripped jeans, fingerless gloves, Ramone t-shirt and his beloved heeled boots.  He stood in the mirror finishing off his eyeliner as Hazel walked in.

“We don’t have to do the thing where I say something and then you do and then somebody cries and then there’s a moment-” she started

“Yuck,” Nico cut in. Hazel smiled ever so slightly but Nico noticed it, causing him to attempt to repress a smile. The key word there being attempt. 

 “Good.”

Nico was looking for Percy- he wanted to thank him for the amazing surgery and for picking him to scrub in. He was about to enter the on call room that he assumed Percy to be in when he accidentally walked into someone. That someone just so happened to be Dr Solace. Except he was shirtless.

Why the fuck was he shirtless? Is there someone in there with him? Oh my god, was I hitting on a straight dude?

“Ah, sorry about that. I was changing when I realised my clean clothes were in my locker,” Will confessed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. But Nico wasn’t really paying attention to anything that came out his mouth but rather his lips. Wait, why was he shirtless again? Nico had an internal panic for about 2 seconds before he pulled himself together and remembered his objective around Dr Solace.

“If  I’m correct Solace, that surgery went very well,” Nico smirked. 

If your first surgery goes well, then feel free to send that draft out again.

Nice one Nico, you got this.

Will opened his mouth, slightly in shock that Nico had still remembered that by now- sure it was 41 hours ago but most interns just wanted to sleep  by now. But This was a Di Angelo he was talking about- surgery ran in their blood.

“Well congratulations. I caught the draft. What are you going to do about it, Di Aneglo?” Will challenged quite confidently, Nico’s surname rolling off his tongue.  Nico started walking towards him, backing him into the oncall room. The second they were both in there, Nico’s hand reached behind him and locked the door with a flick of his wrist. 

“Copy me,” Nico told Will. He raised one of his arms and then the other, watching as Will copied, slightly confused by the random motion. He then put both his hands together above his head and the second Will copied, Nico pinned Will’s hands above his head with a single hand and smiled wickedly. Will, adequately impressed, leaned his head forward to kiss Nico who obliged.

Explosions. 

That's what Nico felt. He wasn’t expecting Will to be such a good kisser. The kiss was soft at first, their breath dancing across each other's lips but became more heated as Will tried to shift his hands out of Nico’s reach. Nico, being stubborn as he was, refused.  Will bit Nico’s lip gingerly, teasing him as he pulled his lip back slightly between his teeth- the second Nico groaned gently, Will used all the momentum he had to flip them and press Nico against the door, holding one of his wrists in his hand. He reached to grab the other and hold it above Nico’s head as their lips smashed. When Will finally pulled back for air, he started making light butterfly kisses onto Nico’s jawline, making his way down to Nico’s neck. He gently sank his teeth and lightly sucked on the flesh there, making Nico throw his head back and let out a light moan. 

Nico decided that he could thank Percy for the surgery later.

Hazel was waiting for Nico. She was outside the hospital and was watching as all the other interns were leaving and finally he arrived. His clothes were a mess- crumpled, his t- shirt was completely inside out and there was a bruise on his neck.  Hazel had no idea what had happened and honestly, she didn’t want to. Nico waved to her, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it.

“Finally! Gosh, we need to go if you want to get there on time!” Hazel fussed.

 Annabeth and Percy were holding hands as they chatted away with Piper and Reyna- their faces all in an animated conversation despite being awake for 48 hours. 

“And then I totally clipped that aneurysm,” Percy boasted, swinging Annabeth's hand up in the air with his. 

Frank was meant to be paying attention to the conversation he was supposed to be having with Leo- who was excitedly talking about the life saving surgery that he did with Calypso as the Peds and OB department had to team up for that case. However, Frank was actually looking at Hazel as he started telling off Nico for the smoking near a hospital. 

“It was a really cool case- the mother was teen in the third trimester which meant Peds had to work with OB. The baby had a tight nuchal cord so the delivery had to be performed by C- section so we could safely clamp and cut off the umbilical cord,” Leo ranted.

Thalia was rustling the blond hair of her younger brother as they got into a car, talking about their days. 

“Who cares, 007 was totally badass!” Thalia told her brother as she started the car. Piper waved goodbye to Percy, Annabeth and Reyna, and leaned against one of stumps while she waited for Will. When Will finally arrived, his hair was an absolute mess and he had a few buttons of his shirt undone which gave view for a bruise blooming on his collarbone. Piper decided not to make much comment of it as they both started walking away. Will turned his head to see Nico one more time, only to see him laughing and kissing the head of a girl with dark skin and beautiful curly hair. Terror and unease immediately set within him. 

Did I just help him cheat on his girlfriend? 

Will decided to push the thought to the back of his mind as he left the hospital.

Nico was stalling. He knew it and so did Hazel. She had pulled up at the nursing home but he was still drumming his fingers on his lap as he sat in the car. After 10 minutes of pure silence, Nico got out of the car, the only sound made being the soft closing of the car door. He walked up the steps before entering the home. It was well lit, elegant and classy- he knew if Bianca was lucid that she’d love it here. He walked towards the window seat, knowing that she always loved to sit there. He took a gentle seat next to her, waiting for her to  notice him  nearby. When she finally acknowledged him, she looked at him and up and down, slightly confused.

“Are you the doctor?”Bianca asked, her eyes wide.

“No, I’m not your doctor but I am a doctor,” Nico attempted a smile but it failed with corners of his lips falling slightly. Biance wrung her hands back and forth, fidgeting with them subconsciously. The nails that used to be flawless were now chipped and bitten at.

 “What's your name?”she turned her head towards him, tilting it slightly as she looked her brother in the eye.

“It’s me, sis. It’s Nico,” He said half heartedly, his voice cracking as his eyes followed hers, trying to somehow get to her lucid mind. He saw her eyes. He saw her how they looked at him, how she didn’t recognise him. Her eyes, they weren’t the same golden brown that gleamed, they were glossy- as if there were clouds covering the clear sky.

“I think I used to be a doctor,” Bianca mused as she continued to rub her hands aggressively. Nico reached out to stop her, hoping she wouldn't flinch or become aggressive. He held her hand in his, enveloping his hand over hers and she accepted the gesture. Just for a second, Nico could see his sister again. 

“You were a doctor. You were a surgeon.”

[kookie-doughs]

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader

-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 12: Hello Poodle

We were pretty miserable that night.

We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.

We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Percy took the spot beside me and was laying on my lap. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.

"Go ahead and sleep," I told them. "I'll wake you guys if there's trouble."

He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad."

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?" Percy hissed.

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

He glared at him. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.

"Tell me about the search," I said.

Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.

"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."

"And you want to be a searcher."

"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"

"Oh, right, sorry."

Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."

"Hang on—the first?"

Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."

"Not once in two thousand years?"

"No."

"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"

"None."

"But you still want to go," Percy said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"

"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."

I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"

"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me...." His voice faltered.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"

Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"

"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunderbolt that Hades took."

"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."

I shook my head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"

"Asking about me," he said.

"Maybe if you haven't steered, we could've found out."

"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt...." He looked at us like he was hoping for answers, but neither of us had have any.

"Maybe... Had--- the big guy isn't actually that bad."

"I haven't been straight with you," Percy told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back Y/N's parents and my mother."

Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"

"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."

Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth and Y/N. I'm not as brave as you and Y/N. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."

"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."

Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."

"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."

Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. He turned to me, "How about I take first watch, huh? You two get some sleep."

I nodded and turned to Percy who wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and he turned away. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep. He was sleeping.

"You're still awake?"

"Barely. I call the next shift okay?"

Grover nodded so I slept.

Believe in them.

Where is this coming from?

Water is our enemy, air is our demise, the darkness shall be our ally and the land should be haven. You should befriend Hades. We need someone on our side. We've already angered Poseidon and Zeus.

Why'd have to be him? He seem like the reason we're in this quest.

Trust your allies.

I was woken up. It was still dark and I could see Grover was droopy. Percy held my hand tight as he was trembling in his sleep.

When Grover saw me awake he just passed out on where he was sitting.

"Percy," I called him trying to keep quiet not to wake up the others. "Wake up." I slowly shook him.

His eyes shot open and looked at me in fear.

"Y/N..."

"Are you okay?"

"Nightmare..." He whimpered snuggling closer.

"Want to tell me about it?"

"Well... I was in a pit and someone was talking to me I think. I saw your parents' last moments... And my mom's then... I saw you drowning... desperately trying to save yourself. The voice told me to help them rise. I couldn't do anything..."

It is not us. I dare not hurt our hero.

"It's okay. Percy, don't worry. You should continue sleeping. Come on, I'm on watch."

He looked at me in hesitation and slept while I ran my hand on his hair.

~

"Well, good morning to you Peabody." I greeted Annabeth.

"Weren't you the first watch?"

"Grover went first watch. I went to sleep with Percy."

She turned to look at Percy who was asleep holding my hand. "Isn't it weird that he's so attached?" She grimaced.

"Well, to be fair. I feel like I have to stay with him no matter what. Like my subconscious telling me, don't leave him and stay. I'm not sure about his case though."

"Where's Grover?"

"I don't know he said he's going to look around. I'll look for him. Stay with Percy without killing him will you?"

"Eh, I'll try." She smiled.

"Good enough for me." As gentle as I could I remove his hand from mine and stood up to look for Grover.

It didn't take me long to find Grover who was sitting in the middle of no where in front of a pink poodle.

"Uh, whatcha got there?"

"He's our ride west." He looked at me. "His name is Gladiola."

"Uhm... hello." The dog looked at me then barked. "Well, let's bring him to Annabeth then."

Annabeth was as confused as I was when I found Grover. She greeted it hello reluctantly.

I shrugged at her as a response.

Grover sat cross-legged on a blanket with the dog on his lap.

I walked up to Annabeth and laughed, "I have no idea."

Percy stirred awake and sat up.

"Good morning." I smiled.

"The zombie lives." Annabeth tossed him a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.

Percy eyed Grover confusedly and back at me and Annabeth.

The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."

Percy blinked. "Are you... talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

He stared at Annabeth and I, as if we were kidding.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," He said. "Forget it."

"Percy," I said. "I said hello to the poodle. Annabeth said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

He said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," I said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I saw last night. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."

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[buoyantsaturn]

I Feel a Little Lost in This World (3/5)

chapter title: Will Takes a Permanent Vacation

word count: 4,410

read on ao3

Will felt like...well, death was the only way he could think to describe it, but wherever he was, it was far too bright to be the Underworld - and he would know, having visited once a few years ago. He was pretty sure he’d been drifting in and out of consciousness for a little while, because he distinctly remembered being spoon-fed something that tasted a lot like his grandmama’s peach cobbler, except that the texture was off. It didn’t have the same crunch to it as it usually did.

Will forced himself awake the next time he had a brush with consciousness, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a pretty girl sitting near a small fire, and it looked like she was cooking something in the pot suspended above the flames. She looked like she could’ve been Will’s age, but something told him that that guess was wrong.

Rather than saying something sensible like, hello, or where am I?, Will sat up with a groan and said, “You’re not my grandmama.”

The girl looked over with a confused frown, and quickly made her way to Will’s side. “You should not be awake so soon. Your injuries--”

“I heal fast,” Will explained simply. “Um. Where am I?”

“You are in my home,” the girl replied, “on the island of Ogygia.”

Will repeated the name a few times in his head, knowing that it sounded familiar, though he couldn’t quite place it, until-- “Oh. You’re Calypso.”

She blushed. “You...have heard of me?”

“Yeah,” Will said, though he didn’t tack on, your Mythomagic card is basically useless. “Um. I’m a demigod. I’ve heard...stories.”

Calypso nodded. “Then you know that you are stranded here, at least until you’ve fully healed. Though I would assume that won’t be long, seeing as you are already awake. I’ve never met a demigod who could heal so quickly.”

Will shrugged awkwardly. “A good healer, that’s me.” He rubbed his suddenly sweaty palms over the thighs of his pants, just for something to do with his hands, but frowned when he realized he wasn’t wearing the jeans he thought he was wearing. “Um. Where are my clothes?”

Calypso gestured to the corner of the cave-like room they were in, where Will saw his jeans and camp shirt with tears and burns all across them, and he winced. “I thought I would have more time to repair them for you, but they are nearly destroyed. I thought you might be more comfortable in clean, more in-tact clothing.”

“Oh. Thanks,” Will said, nodding along in understanding, but when realization hit, he felt his face catch fire. “Wait-- You changed me?”  

Calypso blushed right back. “You were practically naked when you washed up on shore - would you have preferred I left you in those clothes?”

“Well, I--” Will’s arms flailed around, as if that would get his answer across. “Maybe? I don’t know!”

After the initial awkwardness, Will found that he got along with Calypso quite well. She knew a lot about traditional medicine - which plants to use to heal certain things - and Will traded her ancient knowledge for some of his own more modern techniques that he’d learned at camp. She tried to teach him how to cook, and they attempted to mend his damaged clothes before realizing they were beyond repair.

One night, Will found Calypso tending to her garden, which he thought was odd, considering he’d always known gardening as more of a daytime chore - though, he’d learned, the things that he’d considered chores all seemed to be things that Calypso enjoyed doing. Calypso requested some assistance in transplanting the moonlace flowers - which only bloomed in the dark and practically glowed under the light of the moon - and offered her opinions on his quest in return.

(The reminder of the quest had Will’s heart aching, though he knew he couldn’t leave yet. They both knew he wasn’t fully healed, even if he did have even more rapid healing abilities than other demigods. He just hoped that Nico would be able to sense that he was still alive.)

“Is something troubling you?” Calypso asked as she passed Will a clump of dirt containing the roots of another flower.

Will shook his head, and then seemed to disagree with himself. “It’s just...why help me with my quest when I probably won’t even get back in time to finish it? And...it almost seems like you’re trying to push me out, sometimes. Wouldn’t you rather I stay here, to keep you company?”

Calypso smiled sadly. “I know you won’t be staying. Your heart doesn’t belong here. But just like you, Will Solace, I’ve heard stories. I was alive when the Labyrinth was first built, you know. And I sometimes receive visitors who tell me about great quests. Why, just before you awoke, I had a visit from Lord Hephaestus, who told me that you’d been injured when those friends of yours destroyed one of his forges and caused a volcano to erupt.”

Will’s eyes widened. “Nico caused a volcanic eruption?”

“So Lord Hephaestus claims,” Calypso replied with a shrug. “He also told me once, very long ago, that a great inventor created an endless maze that would be impossible for even the gods to navigate.”

“Really?” Will asked. “Not even the gods?”

Calypso smiled knowingly. “Not all of them, at least. Many gods think too much, and end up confusing themselves. They simply need to clear their minds.”

Will frowned. “So, if we just don’t think about it, we’ll get where we need to go?”

“Not you, no,” she told him. “Even demigods, with eyes that can see more than most, are still somewhat clouded by the mist. You’ll need to find someone clever enough to see things as they truly are, and then you’ll have your guide to the maze.”

“A guide…” Will repeated softly, and then grinned. “Man, Annabeth is going to be so mad when she hears that we need a guide.”

“Annabeth,” Calypso whispered, “she is your…?”

“Friend,” Will answered quickly, truthfully. “It’s her quest, technically.”

Calypso nodded, seeming almost relieved. She scooped up another moonlace flower and rose to her feet. “Alright, let’s move these to the other garden.”

She found Will out on the beach the next day, squinting up at the bright sky with a deep frown on his face.

“Is something troubling you?” Calypso asked as she sat down beside Will in the sand.

“I can’t--” Will huffed, frustrated. “I can’t see the sun. Like, I know it’s there, obviously, but… I’ve never looked up at the sky during the day and not known where the sun is, you know? I mean, that’s my dad - and I’ve always sort of felt like he was watching over me, even if there’s no way he can really see me, but now… I can’t see him, so what if he can’t see me?”

Calypso laid a hand over Will’s where it was sitting in the sand. “You’re safe here, have I not helped you to see that?”

Calypso’s hand was warm - Will wished she would let go of his hand. “No, you have, it’s just…” He sighed and slipped his hand out of Calypso’s, crossing his arms over his knees and dropping his gaze to stare out at the endless ocean. “We both know how this is going to end, you know? Your curse…”

He knew the words were probably like a knife to Calypso’s heart, and as much as he didn’t want to hurt her, he knew the reminder was necessary. He kept his eyes on the water.

“I know you could never love me,” Calypso whispered, barely heard over the sound of the gentle tide, “but sometimes I think that an unrequited love would be better, just to have the company. Rather than spending the rest of eternity alone.”

“You can’t really think that,” Will scoffed.

“And why not?” she shot back. “I’ve hosted multiple heroes on this island, and even though it sometimes hurt to have them here - when they longed for their home or a lost love - it always hurt so much more to watch them leave. I’ve been abandoned here time and time again, so I don’t believe you have any right to blame me for wanting you to stay!”

Will flinched when she raised her voice, but he wasn’t going to back down so easily. “I just don’t think you understand--”

“I understand perfectly--”  

“You don’t know how it feels--”

“I know that I don’t want to feel like this--”  

“I know what it’s like when he doesn’t love you back!”

Will had only ever come out to two people - his mama and Lou Ellen. (He would’ve told Cecil, too, except he knew that Cecil couldn’t keep his mouth shut.) Not even Nico knew, despite being Will’s best friend, because Will knew he wouldn’t survive it if Nico wasn’t accepting - and considering his upbringing, Will didn’t have any idea how Nico would react.

Still, even though they knew Will was gay, he never had the courage to tell them anything more. He knew they had their suspicions, but Will had never come so close to admitting that he actually liked someone.

He buried his face in his arms, sure that he’d turned bright red, and afraid to see how Calypso would react. They were both trapped on that island - if things went south, neither of them had anywhere to run.

There were a few beats of silence where Will matched his breaths to the tide to ensure that he wasn’t on the verge of panic. Then, Calypso spoke. “I know you’ve read my story in your history books...but would you like to tell me yours?”

Will hugged his knees to his chest. “He’s my best friend. He’s saved my life more times than I can count, and I like to think that I’ve repaid the favor. We...we’ve been on so many quests together, and we spend so much time together - so much to the point that...I think it hurts more to be away from him than it does to know that he’ll never love me the way I love him.”

“Have you ever told him how you feel?” Calypso asked gently.

Will shook his head. “I don’t think he’d want to hear it.”

“How will you know unless you try?”

Will’s hands balled into fists. “Because it’s not normal! And… And then he’d hate me!”

“Not... normal?” Calypso repeated. “When is love ever normal? And remind me, you did say your father is Apollo, correct?”

He frowned. What did his dad have to do with any of this? “Yeah?”

“Meaning that the love your father shared with Hyacinthus wasn’t normal?”  

“That’s different,” Will argued. “He’s a god - there is no normal for gods.”

“But Hyacinthus wasn’t a god,” Calypso pointed out. “Neither was Commodus, as much as he liked to think he was.”

Will huffed in frustration. “Do you have a point to this?”

“I’m trying to show you how absurd your logic is! Men have loved other men - just as women have loved other women, I might add - for my entire existence! Which, might I remind you, is a very long time. I would argue that the concept of people loving people has always been normal.”

Will didn’t respond. He couldn’t think of another argument without knowing exactly how Calypso would shoot it down, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to accept her words, either. Each time he had come out, he’d hoped that saying the words would make him feel better about himself, but it only seemed to make everything worse - how could he tell Nico how he felt if he couldn’t even be happy about it himself?

“I’m sorry, that was harsh,” Calypso said. “May I try again?”

After a pause, Will nodded.

“Have you heard the story of the creation of humans?” she asked. “How they were originally such powerful beings that even Zeus himself feared their strength? He broke each being apart with his bolt, thus creating two halves of a whole - soulmates, I believe they’ve been called. So, if this boy is--”

“Nico,” Will whispered. “His name is Nico.”

“Nico,” Calypso repeated quietly. “If Nico is your other half, then does it really matter his gender?”

Slowly, Will nodded. “Thank you,” he said, “for talking through that with me. And I’m sorry for being such a brat. I… I wasn’t thinking about your curse, I was more focused on myself, and I’m sorry.” He turned toward her, finally reaching out for one of her hands to give it a comforting squeeze.

“Thank you, Will,” she replied, and drew him in for a hug. Just as he reached out to hug her back, Calypso gasped and pulled away, placing her hands on his shoulders with a look of disappointment. “I...I think that, maybe, what you needed wasn’t any sort of physical healing, but perhaps emotional.”

Will frowned. “Huh?” He followed Calypso’s gaze over his shoulder and watched as a wooden raft drifted to shore, lodging itself on the sand. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to leave,” Calypso reminded him, though he could tell by the tone of her voice that even she knew it wouldn’t change his mind. “You can stay here, hide away from quests and prophecies. You can be yourself here, and I promise you I won’t ever judge you for who you are.”

Will barely managed to tear his eyes away from the raft, as though it would vanish as soon as he looked away. “I’m sorry,” he said again, “I can’t put you through the pain that I’ve been feeling. And now...it’s like the Fates have given me another chance. Maybe… Maybe you’re right. Maybe I can tell Nico how I feel, and it’ll go better than I thought.”

She nodded. “I knew you couldn’t stay. It’s alright - in my heart, I knew I didn’t expect you to.” Calypso leaned in and gave Will a kiss on the cheek. “I wish you the best of luck, Will.”

“Thank you,” he said, “and I--” He stopped himself. What could he wish her luck on - that he curse would be broken? That some hero would finally decide to stay?

He pulled her in for another hug. “I’ll find some way to help you. I don’t know how, but… I’ll think of something. I’ll come back to visit, or--”

“No man ever finds Ogygia twice,” Calypso said, sounding rehearsed, like Will wasn’t the first to offer to return. She pulled back and got to her feet, offering her hand to pull Will up with her. “Come with me; I have one last thing for you.”

She started leading Will in the opposite direction of the raft, and his heart spiked. He tugged on her hand, but before he could speak, she assured him, “The raft won’t leave unless you tell it to. Now come, I’ll be quick.”

Calypso took Will toward the flowerbed where they’d transplanted moonlace flowers the night before. She dropped to her knees and carefully dug out one of the flowers, then held it up for Will. When he didn’t take it, she got back to her feet and tucked the flower into the chest pocket on his shirt, the dirt and roots feeling cool even through the fabric.

“Something to remember me by,” she told him.

Will frowned. “I don’t have anything for you.”

Calypso smiled sadly, shaking her head. “I won’t need anything to remember you by. Perhaps it’s part of my curse, or maybe these visits are always so memorable. Either way, I will be thinking of you, and praying to all of the gods for you to have a long and happy life.”

Will didn’t know what to say, so he hugged her again. Then he jumped back, afraid that he would crush the moonlace, and smiled at Calypso sheepishly.

She walked him back to the beach, to the raft, and waved to him from the shore as he set sail.

Will thought to go home, but he wasn’t sure whether “home” would mean camp or Texas, so instead, he asked to be sent to Nico.

He could only hope that nothing bad had happened to Nico, that he hadn’t gone to the Underworld for any reason. Or, at the very least, he hoped that the magical raft from the magical island would be able to take him to Hades.

He was surprised when the raft washed up at the Long Island Sound, and Will found himself walking onto the beach where he’d watched the Fourth of July fireworks with Nico the summer before. He continued further into camp, though he was confused when the place seemed almost abandoned. It was practically the middle of the day, so where was everybody?

Will wandered toward the cabins, hoping that he could catch Lee on a break from the infirmary. He swung by the Demeter cabin on his way, picking up one of the little, unused terracotta pots they kept outside, and he carefully removed the moonlace from his pocket to plant inside the pot. When he finished, he took the pot with him, about to head across the green to the Apollo cabin when he saw a little girl tending to the central hearth between the cabins.

“Excuse me,” Will said as he knelt down nearby, and the girl looked up with a smile. The fire reflected in her eyes in a way that it usually only did late at night - or maybe the fire was actually burning in her eyes. “Um, where is everybody?”

“Will Solace,” she said, which immediately set off Will’s nerves, “they’re waiting for you in the amphitheatre.”

“Uh.” Will blinked in confusion. “Thanks?”

He got back to his feet and started toward the amphitheatre, and as he walked, Will glanced back over his shoulder to see that the fire had gone out, and the little girl tending to it had disappeared.

Maybe she was a ghost, he thought, or maybe I’m dead.

Then, as he got closer to the amphitheatre, he heard voices. He heard Chiron, definitely, and then maybe Lee - though it was hard to tell when it sounded like he was on the verge of tears - and then, finally, Nico.

Will crested the hill and looked down into the amphitheatre just in time to watch Lee touch a torch to a golden shroud. There was silence as the fabric started to burn, and Will was starting to get a bad feeling in his gut about whatever was going on here - he’d never seen the camp look so... somber - so he walked up to the first person he could see and whispered, “Hey, uh, what’s going on?”

Katie Gardner’s head whipped toward him, and her eyes widened as she let out a scream. Will stumbled back on reflex, clutching at his potted moonlace protectively, until he saw his siblings rushing toward him. Will wouldn’t have been surprised if Michael ended up with a black eye from the force with which his head connected with Will’s shoulder when he hugged him. In seconds, Will was drowning in hugs - he even saw a flash of red hair from his newest little sister, Kayla, who he had only briefly gotten to meet before entering the Labyrinth - and he found himself knocked off his feet when Lee barrelled into him. (The moonlace was safe from harm, but Will’s ribs may have been lightly bruised.)

He couldn’t really hear any individual voices in the cacophony surrounding him, but he thought he heard, “We thought you were dead,” and “Where have you been?” more than a few times each. The only thing that seemed to break up the crowd and the noise was a single person pushing between people and suddenly shoving at Will’s chest.

“What the hell, asshole?” Nico shouted, giving another shove at Will’s chest, hard enough to make him stumble backwards. “Where the hell have you been? Why didn’t you call, or, or--” Another shove. “Why didn’t you leave? You were supposed to leave first, and instead--” One more push, weaker than the others before it, and Nico’s hands lingered at Will’s shoulders. “I couldn’t even tell if you were dead!”

When Will noticed the tears in Nico’s eyes, he stopped feeling the pain of being hugged and squeezed and pushed around, and instead, he pulled Nico into his arms, awkwardly pressing the pot into Nico’s back. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into the top of Nico’s head, “I’m so sorry. I missed you, too.”

Will half expected Chiron to call a counsellor’s meeting upon his return, but instead, he only gathered the questing party into the Big House’s living room so that they could discuss what had happened.

Will shared most of the details about his stay on Calypso’s island - though he didn’t share any of his or Calypso’s private conversations, especially not in present company - and kept drumming his fingers on the sides of the pot in his lap as he spoke. Nico had mostly calmed down after hearing Will’s explanation for why he couldn’t call (and now that Will thought about it, he was going to need a new cell phone, since his was either underneath Mount St. Helens, or in the pocket of his burnt jeans on Ogygia) but he still seemed upset. Will figured they just needed a little bit of alone time to talk, and Nico would feel better after that.

Percy described - in great detail - what had happened to the forge when they destroyed it, and how they had supposedly released some horrifying monster along with it, which didn’t make Will feel great. And Annabeth explained that, while they had made it back to camp by some miracle, they still weren’t able to navigate the maze.

“Oh, yeah!” Will said suddenly. “Calypso and I talked about that a little bit. She said something about how even demigods can’t fully see through the Mist, or something like that. The way she was talking about it reminded me of the way people tell you to look at those Magic Eye posters.”

Nico frowned. “Posters with...magic eyes?”

Will reached over and took his hand - it was cold, and callused from sword fighting, and it brought a smile to Will’s face - and said, “I’ll tell you later.”

“So, we need a clear-sighted mortal?” Percy asked. “Like my mom? She says that she can see through the Mist.”

“I didn’t know there were mortals that could see through the Mist,” Will commented.

Nico turned to Percy and asked, “Do you think that would explain Rachel?”

“Rachel?” Will and Annabeth asked at the same time, and Will hoped that the sound of Annabeth’s voice drowned out the tinge of jealousy in his own. Who was Rachel, and why hadn’t Nico ever told him about her?

Percy’s eyes widened. “Maybe! That would make so much sense. Do you still have her number?”

“I think so,” Nico said, the tips of his ears growing red, which only made Will frown.

“Well,” Chiron said suddenly, almost making Will jump, “it sounds like you all have a good idea of what your next steps are. Why don’t you all stay here again tonight, and you can set off again in the morning?”

“Thank you, Chiron,” Annabeth said, which seemed to be the ending of their little meeting. They all started back out of the house, though at the last second, Nico grabbed Will’s hand and pulled him up the stairs, checking over the railing once or twice to make sure Chiron didn’t catch them.

Nico shoved Will into one of the second-floor bedrooms and he shut the door behind them. Will felt his face heating up, and wondered if he could blame that on the fact that there was no air conditioning in the Big House.

Nico crossed his arms and stared up at Will. He felt his fingers start to tap against the pot again, unconsciously.

“I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me,” Nico said, and Will’s heart began to pound.

“Well, I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me,” Will shot back, a little bit nervously. How could he make it clear to Nico that he and Calypso had only talked about deeply personal things, without having to share what those personal things were?

Nico sighed and crossed the room, slumping onto his bed and sitting on the edge of the mattress. “I’m sorry. I promise, I had totally forgotten about Rachel, and--”

“Nico,” Will said, setting the pot on Nico’s nightstand and sitting down beside him, “it’s okay. I… I don’t care that you didn’t tell me about her, whoever she is. I just...got defensive. I thought… I thought you were going to get mad at me for getting close with Calypso.”

Nico frowned. “What? Why? She saved your life, didn’t she? I should be thanking her.”

Will blinked. Did Nico not know about Calypso’s curse? “I-- You’re not mad?”

“Oh, I’m mad,” Nico said, “but not about Calypso. I’m pissed that you didn’t leave that forge when I told you to. I thought I might die, and then when I couldn’t find you, and… And I couldn’t even feel whether you were dead or alive-- It was like you were just gone, and I--”

Nico choked on his next breath, and Will pulled him into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into Nico’s hair. “It’ll never happen again, I promise.”

Nico dug a knuckle in between Will’s ribs. “Damn right, it won’t.”

“Ow, hey! Haven’t I been through enough today?” Will asked, tugging at a bit of hair on the back of Nico’s neck, admittedly more forcefully than he should have.

“Ow! Haven’t I?” Nico shot back. He pulled away and got to his feet, tugging Will up by the hand to follow. “C’mon, I haven’t eaten in days because I was so worried about you, and now I’m starving. Let’s go see if the Stolls have any good rose from the dead discounts.”

“I wasn’t dead,” Will argued, but he let Nico lead him back out the door with a smile on his face.

He left the moonlace behind on Nico’s nightstand, right next to the window where it started to bloom right as the sun set.

thanks for reading!

buy me a coffee | more solangelo week stuff

[jacks4eva]

reaction to the lost hero by rick riordan

imma be honest this is a long time coming, okay so here’s the timeline we’re looking at so you understand me. i read lightning thief in middle school, dropped it and read it again in ninth grade. then i read sea of monsters, but never started titan’s curse. then for some reason in 11th grade i bought the second book in heroes of olympus and started to read it and got confused so i started to read titan’s curse and got to when percy took artemis’s place and then dropped it...again. very sad that time considering it was LEGIT THE END SO CLOSE. anyway yesterday i read the whole thing again and the battle of the labrinyth in like 6-8 hours. idk i can’t remember if i started at 10pm or midnight but i finished at 6am. anyways today i read the last olympian, and now i’m starting the lost hero. i thought it’d be funny to do my reactions.

this timeline is just funny because i have read so many books, and yet the most popular ones like percy jackson and harry potter, didn’t wanna finish lol. i still haven’t finished goblet of fire yet i read 100 pages an hour and could probably finish it in a day. anyways.

let the reactions begin

okay i’ve heard of jason but i was not expecting a pov already

woah electrocution

he’s already got a love interest what

he said the coach is 5’0 i now imagine the coach as danny devito i have no choice

piper and leo yes i recognize these names

(i’ve seen a lot of posts about percy jackson okay)

i like leo i don’t like dylan

i love the starwars reference

oh look guys we got popular girls that are racist, can they get their asses beat in this pls

dylan is also racist for smiling-asswipe

we love the cherokee representation

i hate them so much can they please leave

“i had to say something” i like coach hedge is this bad

i hope percy is the storm but i just know i wouldn’t be that lucky

ofc dylan is a racist monster

danny devito never returned :(

PLS TELL ME THESE REINFORCEMENTS ARE PERCY AND ANNABETH

who is the bulky dude

i’m sorry i’m laughing he’s a big scary dude with his head shaved and A RAINBOW TATTOO and his name is butch

oh so that’s why percy isn’t here

okay usually when reading i can form some kind of theory or connection but at this point i literally have no clue what is happening

i just knew as soon as he asked that he had abilities with fire but i was not expecting fire fingers

wow what a first impression “you should be dead”

wait so all i remember from the son of neptune was the beginning had percy alone i think and i’m not sure if he had his memory or maybe not and he was running away from monsters, so is what’s happening to jason similar to that? and WILL PERCY NOT BE FOUND IN THIS BOOK?

“That also was necessary. Long ago, your father gave me your life as a gift to placate my anger. He named you Jason, after my favorite mortal. You belong to me.

“Whoa,” Jason said. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

Now is the time to pay your debt, she said. Find my prison. Free me, or their king will rise from the earth, and I will be destroyed. You will never retrieve your memory.”

... okay theories, um a goat skin cloak was mentioned to have been owned by Zeus’s foster mother and that he owned it so the woman could either be the foster mother or Hera. If it was Hera, it would make sense that Zeus gave his son to placate her anger at his cheating or whatever. They are also trapped in Olympus, so prison would make sense. Hera was brought up a lot too, and according to wiki Hera persuaded Aphrodite to make her son make Medea fall in love with a mortal named Jason, so more than likely the lady is Hera. Their king will rise from earth could be the king from the battle of the labrynth, maybe. Or another king ya know there are so many.

Wait a minute

Something else I know about their names is Jason’s last name...JASON GRACE I thought it sounded familiar, because of Thalia Grace. Hah look at me being correct. That explains the flying and not being burnt by a lightning bolt—oh I’m stupid for not seeing it sooner.

Now just gotta figure out who Piper’s parent is.

Aha so I was right it was Hera.

Chiron not being able to give the information they need is kind of annoying.

Enceladus? So a giant offspring of Gaia, um...no bueno. Not a king tho.

“Child of lightning, beware the earth, The giants’ revenge the seven shall birth, The forge and dove shall break the cage, And death unleash through Hera’s rage.”

Okay theory time, child of lightning is obviously Jason. Beware the Earth...yeah no clue. The giants’ revenge the seven shall birth, the giants are probably the children of Gaia since that one giant was her child and it’s the seven are probably the seven half bloods from the great prophecy. The forge and dove shall break the cage, um maybe Leo is the forge since he’s hephaestus’s child (probably butchered the spelling). Doves are typically associated with aphrodite/venus, so idk about that. Maybe Piper is Venus’s child, I mean her God parent is her mom and it’d be funny since she was judging the other aphrodite kids. Also I assume Hera will kill whoever trapped her or someone involved since she’s so mad. Idk.

Could kill Drew btw.

CALLED IT CALLED IT CALLED IT IM A GENIUSSS

Wait. This woman looks like Hera, her clothes are made of Earth and she said Leo would fight her children trying to wake her. They’re gonna try to wake Gaia, which would make sense that it said stay away from Earth if she’s the Earth Goddess

I like the wolves thing because Romulus and Remus, ya know the twin boys who were raised by wolf and started Rome.

“You are our saving grace, as always. The she-wolf curled her lip, as if she had just made a clever joke”

I mean yeah his last name is grace

“She must really like this Percy guy to search for him so hard, and that made Jason a little envious. Was anyone searching for him right now? What if somebody cared for him that much and was going out of her mind with worry, and he couldn’t even remember his old life?”

so what if Percy’s just chilling at the Roman version of camp halfblood without a clue to who he is? bro.

Imagine reading this and seeing all of things I get right and wrong and wanting to slam your head into a wall.

Okay like idk why Annabeth was freaking out we kind of knew they were siblings, I mean they have the same dad. Unless this is saying they have the same mom or are twins or something. That’d be cool. That’s probably what he’s saying tbh but still, could’ve emphasized it more than “that’s my sister” like dude.

Anyway, they look very different so that’s funny.

King Boreas? uh.

Oo French

Let’s see what I can translate from the very little duolingo I did. Bienvenu, maybe a greeting. Idk which tho. Je suis Piper, I am Piper. Et c’est Jason, fils de Zeus, and this is Jason, son of Zeus. Vous parlez francais? tres bien, you speak french? good. Hey not bad, not shockingly good but considering I did the duolingo lessons 4 years ago, not bad. Vrai? Truth? Yeah I just looked it up.

Danny devito is alive!

“Leo scratched his head. “Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—”

“Enceladus,” Piper corrected.”

Leo is me omfg

DANNY DEVITO IS BACK

Arrows...HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS PLS?

“Leo stepped out next. “You’re catching me, too, Superman. But I ain’t holding your hand.”

this made me laugh ok moving on

Uh fight a sea monster? bro is Jason just Percy 2.0

“Aphrodite’s message was clear: This one needs no improvement.

And Piper agreed.”

I wonder if you can hear me squealing from hundreds or thousands of miles away

Did you miss the fact that he’s thirty feet tall— I DIED

Who slew titan k-what now? So basically yes. Percy 2.0

Okay I recognize the name Hazel, and all I ask is that she is not involved with Jason because Jason and Piper are really freaking cute.

an exchange of leaders, SO THEY DID SWITCH THEM

The way I called it

I WAS RIGHT AHA

anyways. time to read son of neptune

[mochideleche]

you can’t keep away from fate | CH1

Pairing : Percy jackson x demigod!reader 

summary : The daughter of destiny- literally, along with inevitability, compulsion and necessity. Being the child of a primordial goddess doesn’t really assure you a quiet calm life but when you return to new york after five years of being shipped off to boarding school, your once mundane life says goodbye.

contents page

A/N I’ve been wanting to write this for quite some time so here it is! this is going to be quite a long fanfic so i’ll have the parts linked in each post when they’re ready. (p.s the pov’s might change from yours to percy’s just because some parts of the story will seem better that way) enjoy!

 It took about 2 weeks to convince your father to let you tag along with him to his business trip to new york. You were certain he would never comply but after you pulled your ‘puppy eyes’ and ‘it’s been 5 years’ cards, he grudgingly agreed. 

So for one week only you said goodbye to your sophisticated private boarding school and you were off to america, the current central of western civilisation- in other words, the land of the gods. 

Once in New york, your father had let you roam around on your own which surprised you a lot. You’d had expected him to get one of his assistants to babysit you but you both knew deep down that you were rather capable of taking care of yourself- wether that was being kidnapped or attacked by a monster, or both. 

Before you left he made sure that you were wearing your mother’s bracelets, two pearl and diamond encrusted items which could extend into long elegant swords by the flick of your wrists. You didn’t use them on the regular so it felt foreign to you, the last time you had used them was when you lived with you mum. 

Your mum wasn’t exactly a sore subject, yeah sure, she had sent you off to live with your father at the age of eleven and then disappeared off the face of the earth without any trace or any goodbye to anyone- which you guessed wasn’t exactly difficult for a goddess, but you knew it was for the better. She’d wanted you to live an as normal life as you could, keep you out of harms way- but that was wishful thinking. Being her daughter, you would never get a normal life. 

Even though northern europe didn’t exactly host a load of monsters, unless you were near the mediterranean,  and you had lived like any other mortal- you knew that was sure to end, someone or something would find you one way or another. 

and by coming to new york, standing in front of the empire state building, was exactly how you’d ended it. 

Your father hadn’t exactly said you were forbidden to go there, but it was an unspoken rule that didn’t exactly needed saying. It was just like your father not choosing to state you weren't allowed to commit mass murder but you knew not to do it anyway. 

You stared at the building, you had an itch to go inside; maybe just to see who was manning the lobby- but you knew you wouldn’t be allowed up, would you? it would be a very bad idea to go up. You wondered if olympus still looked the same.

 It sometimes made you angry that you were tossed out of there five years ago, even though there were valid reasons as to why, but you couldn’t be blamed, after all- it was where you were born.  

......

It was one of those days where percy wished nothing would interrupt a lovely day with his friends. But when those friends are a satyr and a demigod you can’t really expect nothing to go wrong.

Annabeth and grover had come down from camp half blood to spend the some time with percy which was the very thing he had been looking forward to this entire week, him and his two best friends enjoying pizza at the best place in the whole city.  But in the mid way of their lunch, grover paused, a look of shock painted on his face.  “What is is?” Percy asked, looking around for any threats, his hand clasping on riptide in his pocket.

“It’s a demigod- i think” Grover muttered the last part, then his shocked face turned to fear.

“What, grover what is it? What do you mean you think it’s a demigod?” Annabeth questioned, but grover continued to nervously shake his head. 

“And a monster” Grover started to panic, “There’s a monster, there’s obviously a monster-i could sense them from a mile away” he rambled and annabeth and percy shared a look of confusion. 

Percy didn’t know why grover was in such a state of shock, he’d sensed demigods being followed by monsters all the time and never had he panicked like this- something was wrong and for about the millionth time this week, percy just wished he was normal. 

“Do you know where they are?” Percy questioned, already standing up, annabeth following in suit. 

Grover looked up with them with scared eyes, “uh yeah, but we aren’t following them are we?” he asked, picking up percy’s empty coke can and nervously chewing it.

“Yes we are” Annabeth and percy said in unison, and grover slumped. 

“Alright then, let’s go fight a monster”

It wasn’t long till Grover had lead them down a few blocks and stopped in in the middle of the street, facing the other side with his legs shaking so hard, he could barely keep his crutches straight. 

“There” he said, not pointing or giving any gesture to show who he was looking at but percy knew immediately who he meant. 

There, walking hurriedly was a petite girl, with long caramel hair dressed in a thin black army jacket, jeans and a grey tube top. gods you were pretty. You practically made percy breathless and almost forget that you had a monster following you somewhere. 

You glanced back quickly then turned your attention back to the road but not before your eyes landed on the three of them. You put them all in a state of shock, it was like you could tell they were watching you, it was like you knew what they were. 

Percy watched you take an intake of breath like you were going to say something, but you turned your head and disappeared into the new york crowd. But before percy could think about what had happened, Grover shrieked and hid behind annabeth and percy could see exactly why.

Lumbering slowly through the crowd was a giant, with pudgy skin seeping in places and wearing nothing but a loincloth. He walked through the mortals and nobody acted like they could see him, whatever they saw the giant as through the mist, it must’ve been normal. 

“What’s that thing doing here?” Annabeth hissed, and she immediately made her way to cross the street, percy followed after her and after a short pause, so did grover. 

They followed the giant, which wasn’t exactly hard, through the busy flow of people. They knew they had to kill the giant but they couldn’t do so in the middle of the street filled with mortals. And just after a couple of blocks the street began to empty, leaving the three of them with a clear view of you and the giant in front of them.

But you suddenly ducked into a side road which made percy curse. 

The giant would have no problem trying to kill you now.

The giant seemed to take this in too, he looked around the street just to check there weren’t any others planning to duck into the alleyway and followed you in.

The three of them ran. 

Percy had already uncapped riptide, taking the lead of the chase, he couldn’t imagine what the giant would do, he had to save you- quickly. 

But as he turned the corner, it seemed like you didn’t need saving. 

Somehow you had thrown yourself onto the giants head, your legs chocking the giant as he aimlessly tried to swat you away like some bug that annoyed him. He dangerously swayed side to side, threatening to smash you into the narrow set walls either side of you.

“Tell me who you're working for!” you shouted, a slight accent perking your voice. 

it made you all the more cuter, percy thought.

“Who sent you!” you screamed, hands pulling up on the giants ears causing it to yell out in pain. 

“You shall die!” the giant bellowed but it didn’t phase you.

You rolled your eyes, you seemed bored and tired of this monsters bull crap and  with one hand you made a gesture as if you were pulling a string away from the giants nose and the monster began to cough. 

Then it stood still, eyes wide and then- it exploded into ashes. 

And that left you sitting on nothing, so you fell towards the floor. 

Percy acted before he could think and ran under you, arms spread out and in a split second, you landed in his arms. 

“Oh-” you said, shocked, staring at the dark haired boy whose arms you were laying in, “hello” 

His sea green eyes shifted awkwardly to the side for a second before returning back to you again, “ uhm, hi” 

smooth percy, smooth. 

The two of you looked at each other, faces inches apart. None of you spoke and just looking at your coffee coloured eyes made percy’s heart beat erratically, but the fact that you were there in his arms made his heart burst it’s way out of his chest. 

Percy gulped, you smiled at him. 

“ahem” annabeth coughed, and percy turned to see the two of his best friends with smug grins of their faces, “ sorry to bother but she was just attacked by a giant” 

“More like the giant was attacked by her” grover said a sheepish smile on his face, amazed by the mystery girl’s unexpected ability.

“You can put me down now,” you said quietly, patting percy’s chest to which his awkwardly mumbled out a ‘right, sorry’ and set you down gingerly beside him. 

Percy could hear the sniggers from behind him and it made him even more flustered. gods he was going to kill the both of them. 

“How did you do that? I mean, you barely did anything and the giant died” Annabeth questioned, adoration and confusion lacing her voice as she approached you.

“Oh, i uhm,” you stuttered, tucking your hair behind your ear, “i made him stop breathing” 

“by strangling him?” percy asked and you shook your head with a small smile. 

“No, i stopped the air from entering his lungs” you replied innocently as if you were saying “i asked him if how his day was” 

Percy’s mouth fell open, “you what?!”

“So you can manipulate air?” Annabeth asked and you nodded. 

“Wait you’re definitely a demigod right? not some sort of sorceress or minor goddess” Grover questioned, still shocked at the fact that you had defeated that giant so easily.

You laughed, “i’m no goddess, just a demigod” 

well you sure looked like a goddess, percy thought, had a laugh like one too and had the power of one, he wasn’t even sure he could defeat a 7ft giant with no weapon. 

“I’m annabeth, this is grover and this is percy” Annabeth introduced, hand stretched out in greeting, you shook it and gave them a large smile.

“I’m Y/N” 

The more he stared at you, the more details he seemed to take in, how your hair was actually dyed- your black roots appearing at the crown of your head, how your jacket was two sizes too big and how it draped slightly on one shoulder, how perfectly manicured your nails were. 

could you be anymore attractive? 

“So do you know who your godly parent is?” Annabeth asked and you nodded but you didn’t expand on the question and it was obvious to the three of them that you weren’t too keen on sharing information to 3 strangers. 

“If you want, we could take you back to a safe place, it’s for demigods, it’s called camp half blood” Annabeth coaxed, and percy knew she was trying to recruit the you. 

These were desperate times and camp half blood needed all the help it could get. 

“Camp half blood? oh! i know that place!” you said excitedly- throwing the three of them into shock.

“You do?” percy asked, and you nodded your head.

“My father went there, he was a son of Hephaestus” 

If it was possible, this put the three in even more shock.

“You’re father was a halfblood?” percy asked amazed. It was known that once demigods got older they would leave camp and try to make a life for themselves, but at that moment it seemed so impossible to even survive after 16 that percy found the idea so foreign. 

“How come you didn’t go to camp half blood then?” grover asked.

“I don’t live in america” you explained, which was rather evident from your accent but now that it was stated, percy didn’t have to assume.

 “Well i think chiron would really want to meet you, he might have known your dad” Annabeth said, leading you out of the alleyway as you two talked.

Percy was left staring at our back, grover stood next to him.

“you know, you could try talking to her rather than just ogling at her” Grover snickered and without a word percy punched him. 

[greekgeek21]

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - team-up time!!

Ok, so I'm a little off schedule, but who cares? Honestly, I've been getting a lot of good reviews/comments and I'm so grateful!!

My amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, is so patient and I would not be able to do this without you. So, give them some love!

Anyway, I hope you like this! Stay safe and happy reading!

- your author

Ω ♆ Ω

"Wise Girl? Are you here?" Percy asked as he walked into his cabin.

He had just gotten back, and the first thing he did was ask where Annabeth was. Apparently, she had got into the Poseidon Cabin after their IM and hadn't come out since. It was sweet, really, but if she ever caught him saying that, he would be beheaded in an instant, so he kept it to himself.

He was not expecting what he saw when he walked into his home-away-from-home. Annabeth was asleep on top of his covers, a book laying beside her. The lights were still on, too. It looked like she had tried to stay awake for him, but it was reasonable for her to fall asleep. He HAD gotten back at 2 AM.

To anyone else, she would have looked peaceful, but he knew his girlfriend, and he saw that she was having a nightmare. Unlike him, who thrashed around and screamed, Annabeth was dead silent during her dreams. It had scared him more times than one. The only indication was her frown, the slight sheen of sweat, and the rare barely-there whimper.

He raced to her side, lying down next to her and pulling her into his side, "Shhh...you're okay. We're okay. We got out. We're safe now."

The Tartarus nightmares had gotten better, but they still had them every so often. They had learned to deal with them properly in a way that worked. They had even tried therapy once, but that was a disaster waiting to happen anyways. Annabeth and him don't talk about their feelings very well. Still, it was worrying to watch your loved ones suffer with nothing to offer for comfort other than your support.

Percy continued to whisper sweet nothings and reassurances in Annabeth's ear before her breathing eventually evened out and she slowly started to blink her eyes open. She seemed confused about his appearance for a second before she realized that he had come in while she was sleeping.

"Seaweed Brain? When did you get here?" She tried to sit up, but Percy held her tight, so she relaxed into him.

"Not long ago. But don't avoid the question. You know we need to talk about it. What happened this time?" he asked.

Annabeth sighed and answered, "It was the same one. You were controlling the poison 'down there' and I saw your eyes. They were a sickly green, Percy. Not anything like your usual sea green. They were almost grey, and they were glowing. I was terrified. This time, I couldn't stop you. I had to watch as y-you killed her."

By then, tears had started to escape her tight control over them. If it were anyone else, Annabeth would never have let them hear her sound so weak, let alone see her crying. She was the strong leader of Camp Half-blood, and that came with the responsibility to keep a confident front.

However, every leader needs time to release the stress. Her alone time with Percy was that time. He had been through almost everything with her, and she trusted him to the end of the universe. HE was HER rock just as much as SHE was HIS.

"I would never do that. You have to know that. It wasn't real. We're home, and we're together. We made it, Wise Girl," Percy reassured, kissing her on the head.

"Yeah, I know. They just get so real sometimes," Annabeth curled into his side.

"I know. It's late, though. Do you want to stay up talking or do you want to try to sleep again?" he asked, tucking them under the sheets.

Annabeth closed her eyes, wrapping Percy's arm around her tighter as she said, "Let's go to bed. I'm sure I'll be fine now that you're here."

Percy smiled his goofy smile, "Okay, Wise Girl. I love you."

"I love you, too, dork."

He chuckled, and Annabeth fell asleep in contentment to the sound of his heart beating. As long as that was happening, she would be fine.

Ω ♆ Ω

The next few weeks went by as smoothly as a demigod's life could. Percy never received any communication attempts from SHIELD, so he let himself fall back into his schedule. Him and Annabeth went to stay with Sally while also staying at camp on and off. There were no major problems for him to deal with, and he was soaking up every bit of it.

Of course, he should have never said anything. That was an invitation to the Fates.

He was driving with Annabeth when he learned about it. A news broadcaster came over the radio and was retelling an active event happening in Los Angeles.

"There has been another suicide bombing in downtown LA. There appears to be GREEN FIRE coming from the explosion. Officials are attempting to get the flames under control, but their tactics seem to be failing thus far. This is another in a string of connected bombings around the US. So far, there are no suspects, but we are told there has been progress made in the investigation. What is the purpose of these attacks and who..."

Annabeth turned the volume down. She turned to Percy with a grave expression. Green fire could only mean one thing: the divine were involved. The mortals had somehow gotten into contact with Greek fire, and they were using it for terrible acts of violence. And of course nobody could put the fire out, it was impossible unless dealt with by someone who knew what they were dealing with. Like Leo, for example.

"Percy, at the Brooklyn Bridge, was the fire green?" Annabeth asked cautiously, already dreading the answer.

"I can't remember. I was too focused on making sure the bridge didn't collapse that I didn't bother to check what the explosion looked like. Oh gods, what if I could've done something if I had seen it earlier? What if I could have stopped this bombing in LA? This is all my fault!" he exclaimed.

Annabeth laced her fingers with his, "Perce, you did more than anyone could've asked. You saved so many people that day. This is not your fault, okay?"

He still looked disbelieving, but he reluctantly nodded. He didn't have time to debate his guilt with Annabeth, he had somewhere to be. Percy wasn't exactly sure where that location was, but he was needed somewhere, and so was Annabeth.

"SHIELD's on this case already. I need to get in contact with them, and then we need to meet with them. I'm not letting anyone else get hurt," he told Annabeth, driving towards Camp Half-Blood.

The gears were turning in Annabeth;s head, and he knew the exact moment she figured out what his plan was. Surprisingly, she didn't argue. She just nodded and grabbed her phone from her backpack, flipping it open and turning it on. She only used it in emergencies, and this felt like an emergency.

She called one of the few numbers she had on there: Camp Half-blood's. Camp had only one phone in the Big House, and it was scarcely used. It was an old landline, too, in hopes that it attracted less monsters. Nowadays, it was impossible to not attract them, with technology all around them.

It rang for a long time, almost to the point that she was just going to give up, but right as she was going to press the 'end call' button, Jason's voice came over the phone, "Hello? Who is this?"

Annabeth let out a sigh of relief, "It's Annabeth. I'm with Percy. We need you to gather the Seven quickly. We'll be there soon."

"What? Annabeth, what's going on? Why do you sound so worried?" Jason asked.

Annabeth's patience was waning, "Jason! This is important! Secret of the gods important! Prepare for a fight and wait for us to get to camp. We'll explain there."

Jason sighed, clearly wanting more information than that, "Alright. See you soon."

"Bye," Annabeth hung up the phone as soon as possible.

They had probably already been on for too long, but it was worth a shot. And besides, none of the monsters would dare come near them once they realized who was on the call. That's what she was counting on, anyway.

She looked up at Percy and instantly noticed the tension all throughout his body. He still believed it was his fault, obviously. There wasn't much she could do about that. It was his fatal flaw!

"We're going to figure this out," she consoled.

"Yeah," Percy whispered as he pulled over at the bottom of the hill leading up to Camp.

They were both out of the car and running already, so it didn't take them long to reach Peleus and Thalia's tree. He didn't even pay them a thought as they ran through the border and towards the Big House, where they could see a group of armored demigods congregated on the porch.

As they ran closer, they saw it was the Seven on the porch, talking with Chiron. They were all in their basic armor: a chestplate, greaves, vambraces, and helmets resting under their arms. Piper had her dagger hanging on a belt, Jason had his gladius, Frank had his bow and arrows slung over back, and Hazel was carrying her imperial gold spatha. Leo was, of course, wearing his toolbelt. They all were in various states of confusion and agitation from being left in the dark about whatever they were dealing with, and they all seemed relieved when Annabeth and Percy came running up.

Before either of them could get a word out, Piper spoke, "Let me guess: this has something to do with Percy and the bombings, and now we need to go clean up his mess."

"Words hurt, Pipes," Percy sarcastically held a hand over his heart.

She rolled her eyes, "You'll survive."

Annabeth smiled in the direction of her friend. She had really started to become comfortable as a demigod in the past year. Plus, she had picked up on some of Annabeth's habits. Like picking on Percy, for example.

"What's this about Annabeth?" Jason asked, stopping the playful mood in its tracks.

Annabeth exchanged a look with her boyfriend before responding, "Piper was right. This is about the bombings. They're using Greek fire. But it's still mortals doing it. That means somebody from out world is supplying the mortals with our weapons, and that is a recipe for disaster. We need to stop it before it gets too out of hand."

"Why us, though?" Hazel asked.

"We're the Heroes of Olympus, and we're the best to represent our kind in the fight. Plus, I trust you guys the most. In case it is a mole in the camps, we need to keep this between us," Annabeth answered.

The mood got even more serious at the realization of where her thoughts were headed. Somebody still inside the camp could be taking the fire to the mortals, and they didn't know who it was yet.

But then Piper noticed something in Annabeth's wording, "What do you mean 'represent our kind?' Who are we meeting?"

Percy answered her this time, "SHIELD. They're already working on this, and I have a deal with their director to help with stuff from our world. We only need to figure out how to contact them."

"I've got that covered!" Annabeth interrupted, "I have a plan."

"Of course you do," Jason said, "What is it?"

"We're going to Stark Towers, and we're going to meet with Tony Stark. He's Iron Man, and he no doubt works with SHIELD, so we'll use him to get to them. It's not my best plan, but it's the best we got," she answered.

"It's better than what I was going to do," Percy remarked.

Annabeth didn't even want to ask what his plan was going to be. That was a road she did not want to go down.

"When do you leave?" Chiron asked, finally speaking for the first time.

"Percy and I will get ready and then we'll head out right after. We need to get a handle on this ASAP," Annabeth answered, already heading towards the armor shed.

Percy ran down to meet her there, and they got dressed in the same gear as the others before heading towards their separate cabins. As a precaution, all campers had been required to make an emergency quest backpack in case they had to leave quickly. They had the demigod essentials like toothbrushes and paste, deodorant, a couple spare changes of clothes, nectar and ambrosia, and a prism with some drachmas for IMing.

Percy and Annabeth both grabbed their kits, along with a few other personal items that they suspected would be needed for this specific quest, if you could even call it that. They still had to meet with Rachel, but she was staying with her dad in New York. That would have to wait for later.

They were geared-up and ready in less than twenty minutes, and then they were standing on the edge of Half-blood hill with the others, saying goodbye to Chiron.

"Be careful. I have a feeling the path you are about to take will lead you through hard times," Chiron warned.

"We'll be fine, Chiron. It's nothing we can't handle," Annabeth assured.

He gave a tight smile in return. His reaction to their quest was disconcerting, but the demigods didn't have time to ponder on it. They had to get to Stark Towers as soon as possible.

So, they gave one last wave and started towards the Delphi Strawberries van Argus had pulled up. He would be driving them to the tower, but they would be on their own from there. There wasn't any reason to be worried, though. They had traveled across the world on a floating boat; this would be a piece of cake.

The drive there was tense and silence-filled. Or it was until Leo ruined it.

"So I get to meet Tony Stark?" he asked, an excited grin forming on his face.

Piper groaned, realizing what was bound to happen. She had met Mr. Stark at a gala her father had dragged her to before. He was a self-centered jerk who had too much money to know what to do with it. Plus, his ego was the size of a planet. Leo and Tony Stark together in one room was going to be crazy.

"Don't do anything nuts, Leo. We need him to trust us, and it's hard enough doing that without telling him what we are," Percy said.

Leo gasped, "I am hurt that you would ever think I would do such a thing! Uncle Leo just wanted to chat about some design flaws in his suit! And maybe some possible ideas that all that money could help put into action..."

Annabeth gave him her death glare, and he sank away, "You are forbidden from speaking until I say so."

He hurriedly nodded his head. She was scary!

Percy smirked at his girlfriend, knowing that she was fully aware of the effect she had on the poor demigod. Of course, Percy was whipped, too, but it was still amusing to see Annabeth go all 'powerful daughter of Athena' on people that weren't him.

"We're almost there, guys," Piper said, pointing up ahead, where they could see the tall outline of Stark Towers.

Annabeth had to admit, the architecture was impressive, even if she would've gone less futuristic. But the sustainable energy system was remarkable.

She snapped herself out of her daze. She was not there to admire the architecture, she was there to do her job: saving the mortals. And with the amount of stupid stuff they did, they would never get a vacation.

"So what's so important about this Stark guy?" Hazel asked, finally giving in to her curiosity.

"Oh! I always forget you aren't all caught up on modern pop culture," Piper exclaimed, "Tony Stark is a rich, playboy, engineer who doubles as an Avenger. The Avengers saved the world from aliens when we were saving it from itself. He's Iron Man, which is basically just a suit he invented."

"Sounds like someone Leo would like," Hazel remarked.

Percy laughed as Argus pulled over, "Exactly."

The demigods all climbed out, standing in a line before the entrance. It seemed they were all waiting for one of them to make the first move, but nobody wanted to be that person. Of course, Annabeth wasn't one to back down from anything, so she stepped forward and pushed the glass doors open, striding through with confidence only a daughter of Athena could command.

The rest of the group trailed behind, tensed for anything. They were literally surrounded on all sides by technology, and it was unnerving for them all. Well, for almost all of them. Leo was practically vibrating with energy and excitement. He was about to meet his idol AND get the chance to explore all of the toys there.

"Remember: professional," Annabeth warned one last time before turning to address the front desk lady.

"Yes, mom," Piper whispered to Leo, who muffled a snicker in response.

Percy just prayed that this all went well. He wanted this whole ordeal to be over quickly. He didn't want to be brought into another situation where he had to use his powers. They were still too unreliable, even after a year. The bridge incident was hopefully a one-time thing.

"Hello. We're here to meet Tony Stark," Annabeth said.

They knew the Mist was covering their weapons and armor, especially with Hazel there. People wanted to see some regular teenagers, so that's what they were seeing. Not seven, well-trained demigods in full armor, prepared for battle.

The receptionist looked her up and down, "Do you have an appointment?"

Annabeth tried for a smile, but it turned into more of a grimace, "No, but it's important. I'm sure Mr. Stark would understand once we talk to him."

Sometimes being young can come in handy, but a lot of the time, it sucks.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark only accepts scheduled meetings. If you want to make one of those, you can contact his secretary. But for now, I would ask that you please leave," the woman responded.

Annabeth glared, and was about to start yelling, but Percy stepped up and placed a calming hand on her shoulder before he spoke, "Actually, this is urgent. And I'm sure that if you called Mr. Stark, he would send us up, considering that we're friends from work, and I'm not talking about his day job."

He said everything so calmly, that you would have thought he was having a civil conversation if not for his icy words.

"Fine," the woman ripped the phone up and dialled a number, "Yes, there are seven teenagers here to see Mr. Stark. They say it's urgent. And that it's about his OTHER work."

She nodded a few times before hanging up, "Mr. Stark will see you now."

Ω ♆ Ω

45 minutes earlier...

Fury was not having a good day. First, an idiot dressed-up as a spider ruins his morning, and then another bombing happens in LA, and finally, he has to deal with the Avengers now. He had been hoping to deal with this case without them, but he was pushed into the decision when he got a message from the terrorists responsible for the bombs. They threatened to bomb things much more important than the Brooklyn Bridge, and that they had the means to do worse.

None of his regular agents could figure it out, so he had to bring in the big guns. Besides, the heroes had had much too long of a break already.

That's how he found himself in another blacked-out SUV, on his way to Stark Towers after calling a meeting of the Avengers there. He had no way of contacting Thor, so it was just Stark, Rogers, Widow, Banner, and Barton. He had another person in mind, but Fury didn't want to call him in just yet. It was still a new alliance after all.

When he got there, he went straight up the elevator to the penthouse. From there, he went to the meeting room and found everyone but Stark already there, which was no surprise. Without a word, he strode up to the head of the table and slipped the flash drive into the slot, automatically turning on the holo-projector in the center of the table. The flash drive had all of the details of the case, along with whatever notes his agents had made.

He opened up the photo gallery, flicking to each bombing site, "The Brooklyn Bridge, Portland, LA, Long Island, San Francisco. What do all of these have in common?"

Just as Steve was about to answer, Tony burst in the door, taking a seat without an apology, as per usual.

Steve cleared his throat before continuing, "They all had a bombing happen recently."

"That's right. And it's gotten out of hand. Your job is to stop them," Fury cut right to the point, "Everything you'll need is in this folder. I want this done discreetly. That means no flashy spectacles, Stark."

Tony mock-gasped, "I would never!"

Banner shifted nervously, "Will the 'other guy' be needed for this?"

"Possibly, but as a last resort. You'll be needed for tracking more than anything," Fury answered.

Bruce nodded his head, seemingly finding comfort in that.

One look at Clint and Natasha, and you could see that they had gone into SHIELD agent mode. They were both studying the file information with rapt attention. They, at least, Fury could count on.

"This needs to be done as quickly as possible, got it?" he ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Tony sarcastically saluted.

Fury held back a growl. If anyone could make him lose his composure, it would be Tony Stark.

"I expect results the next time I see you," he said, turning to walk out of the room, but he was interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Sir, there is a group of teenagers asking to see you. They say it is urgent," the AI said.

Tony sighed, "J.A.R.V.I.S., I thought I programmed you better than this. I don't want to see them."

"But sir, I am told it has something to do with your Avengers work. They are very adamant," J.A.R.V.I.S. pressed.

"Pull up the camera feeds," Tony ordered.

For some reason, Fury felt compelled to see who had wanted to see Stark, and he understood why as soon as he saw the footage. There, with six other teens, was Percy Jackson.

Before Tony could turn them down again, Fury said, "Let them up. Now."

"Right away, Director," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, listening to his SHIELD reprogramming.

Tony threw his hands up in defeat and grumbled "Whatever. It's not like I own the building."

"Direct them here, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Fury ordered, going back to his previous position at the head of the table.

Steve sat up in confusion, "What are you doing, Fury?"

The man in question ignored him.

Before any more objections could be made, the Seven were standing before the Avengers, everyone confused.

Percy was the one who broke the silence, "Well, this makes our job a whole lot easier."

Ω ♆ Ω

Don't forget to like, comment, follow me, and reblog! Stay safe and happy reading!

- your author

other chapters :)

[greatneedtotakeanap]

i binge read

episode 9 - the house of hades

i don’t care what anybody says, hazel levesque was the main character in this book.

of course, all of the seven are the main characters, and all of them underwent a life changing journey in this book - Percy and Annabeth in Tartarus of course, Frank in Venice with all of the katoblepones and again in the House of Hades summoning the dead, Jason with his whole Cupid-Nico escapade, Leo meeting Calypso, and Piper fighting Khione. But Hazel’s journey was the most central to the plot. She actively chose the crossroads that would lead to the events of the whole book - Leo falling, Percy and Annabeth unconscious in front of the Doors, Frank wounded. Those were all events that she chose and events that came to pass. She, personally, led to pretty much everything that happened. She’s the most powerful of the seven imo, with all of the Mist manipulation and gem summoning - she easily possesses the most raw power.

Anyways. I’d have to talk about all of the Seven individually for this post to work. We’ve already covered Hazel so let’s start with Jason, because nobody ever does. I really wish this guy had more character, even just in his own chapters. I understand that he’s hella blunt and how helpful that is, and most of the time I appreciate it. But his main conflict in this book was belonging, in the Greek versus the Roman camps (which is something that Nico was also struggling with in a different way). I wish he’d explored that, the blending of Greek and Roman, within himself more. I think it’s a very important plot point that I as a biracial kid can relate to specifically - the feeling of coming from two different places, loving two different cultures, wondering to which you truly belong.

Next, Piper. We really didn’t see as much as I’d like to see of her in this book. She kind of just popped up whenever anybody needed a charmspeaking side character. Her big climax moment was fighting Khione, which was a pretty cool scene I must admit. I admired not only her quick thinking but her ability to accept that she was unable to think like Annabeth and her willingness to embrace her own way of thinking. That’s something that I don’t see as much as I’d like. Also I loved the little detail of her swordfighting lessons with Hazel. The girl power and camaraderie was strong and I appreciated that. It almost seems to me like she’s learning that she is like other girls--the narrative in her chapters was very different from in TLT.

Leo. If nobody ever shut me up, I could talk for days about Leo Valdez. Admittedly he pissed me off a bit sometimes - sometimes his jokes took things too far, especially when he picked on Frank. But this fifteen year old child built a HELICOPTER in MIDAIR. He just makes it so hard not to love him. The high point for him this book was, obviously, when he crashlanded on Calypso’s island. It was one of my favorite parts of the book, too, partially because it was one of those scenes I could just see in my head, every second. It made a pretty beautiful picture too. You could see both of them slowly falling in love - Jason says later that he was only in exile for five days, but Leo, on Ogygia, clearly experienced at least two weeks - one of them building a looking glass, the other building a boat with Calypso. It was interesting to see, through the other people’s eyes, how it changed him. And how he refused to talk about it. I love how his instinct, whenever he sees Gaea, is to just chuck the nearest object at her. In TLT, he sees her in face in the porta-potty sludge, and he chucks a toilet seat at her. In Calypso’s island, when she reappears, he just throws a pair of pliers at her. It’s just so hilarious to imagine--see Gaea, throw object. I have never felt prouder of him than I did when he chucked that screwdriver from across the room to press the button to let Percy and Annabeth out of that elevator. It was just a cinematic move.

Frank!! If Hazel wasn’t the main character, it definitely would have been him. His journey in this book was also quite cinematic. It was amazing to see how he’d changed, growing into his identity as a child of Mars. There were so many times I loved him so much--destroying every katobleps in venice, leading the team through the House of Hades. All while the two different sides of his dad were yapping away in his head. Takes some serious steel. I just feel like everyone always underestimates Frank Zhang. This dude, despite being the biggest pacifist of the Seven (besides possibly Piper), is just so freaking metal. I’m so incredibly proud of him and of his journey.

I intentionally left Percy and Annabeth for last because it’s gonna be hard to explain. Because I’d have to group them together mostly. I loved the way they were always working for each other, always looking out for each other. They saved each other’s lives dozens of times over. I know I’ve said it a thousand times but that’s my favorite thing about Percabeth. They’re best friends above all. From the very beginning, with the river, to Arachne, to the aria curses and so much more - they always, always had each other’s backs. I loved Bob the titan immediately. I can’t say I remember him, like, at all--despite the binge reading I did, I literally cannot remember Iapetus. Which book was he in? I’m assuming The Last Olympian. I knew Small Bob would be important in the end, and I knew the giant would come back - though it was quite sad, the ending. Especially Percy at the end telling Zoe that bob says hello. A lot of the scenes in Tartarus were difficult to imagine, though some were easier - for example, the defeat of Misery. I cheered when Percy took her down, I immediately hated her. Other Tartarus escapades were sad and painful, but I’m glad they got out.

Fourteen days until Gaea awakens and two demigods’ blood will water her soil. Tower of Nero is released today. I was hoping to finish all three series, short of the final book, by Friday. Can our heroes battle Gaea, fix things with the Romans, and save the world? Can I read the Blood of Olympus and the entirety of the Trials of Apollo within three and a half days? Probably not. Stay tuned for more.