#prime pjo days were great

[rynnaaurelius]

2 for the end of year asks!! :]

(Ask post HERE)

Hiiiii <3

2. favourite fic of the year 

I read too much fic. Hmm. Shit. We're turning this into Ryn's AO3 Wrapped: The Non-Embarrassing Version (Not An Exhaustive List At All). These were generally judged by how many times AO3 says I chose to re-visit them at 1AM and sob.

For screenreaders: Titles are hyperlinked, I'm @'ing the authors if I know they're on tumblr)

If they choose to see this: Hi. I think you're awesome. I'm just tagging you so people can find you #OnHere. I hope your Friday is rad. :)

Give him time by @obiwanobi personally came and murdered me when I went on another Star Wars kick back when Kenobi came out in June. Loosely canon-compliant, Obikin, and for big fans of characters who decide to re-work reality to bring the person they love back. Also, tragedy.

Accidental Baby Acquisition, which is basically What We Do In The Shadows + Baby. Carries the show tone off really well, is funny as hell, and features one of my favorite OCs ever in later installments in the form of Guillermo's sister Valentina.

The Uses of Adversity because I fell down The Sandman rabbithole like everyone else and "Crime Master!Hob", and this somehow became a comfort fic? He rescues Dream while imprisoned by Rodrick's son and it all spirals from there. Great characterization, great OCs, and there's a sequel happening!

Viable Alternatives, a House of the Dragon AU where Laenor exists to be more than a sad gay and artificial insemination exists! Big fan of how Rhaenyra doesn't get softened here and the Velaryons get more to do.

Time is a River was a real surprise to find, it's a time travel PJO AU that I thought was really fun--it makes Percy/Hermes work for me, which was a shock--and I kinda hope the author finds a sequel in them some day, (No pressure, of course; it was a gift to someone else, but also, it's rad and I want more).

I started reading Preserve or Raze by @foxyatlas before 2022, but the list doesn't feel right if I don't put it on here. It's a PJO AU where Percy winds up at Camp Jupiter, post-the original series, but I feel like it's cheating if I reveal the additional twist. Suffice to say, it is epic, has lots of shenanigans and worldbuilding, and I'd recommend it over Blood of Olympus anyday.

a girl who sees it all is super short, but it's a great Annabeth Chase bit, and I gotta include it.

Space Between is a Star Trek AOS one-shot in which Jim ruminates a lot in first person POV (I know! It's great! It works!) and looks pretty with his shirt off while Spock saves the day--as canon tends to go. Eventual love confessions ensue.

Went on a biiiig X-Men movies kick this year, which is the excuse for The Tower and the Hurricane being on the list. Set in a post-X-Men: First Class world where Magneto proves right and human-mutant war has ensued, and Xavier takes the school to his sanctuary. Lots of pining and tension set against a potential apocalypse, it's good times.

shoulder the sky (and the fic it inspired) is a fucking amazing Star Wars series featuring a lot of Obi-Wan whump, lot of pain, and a lot of the clones doing their best as the Jedi try to keep their shit together. 12/10, would watch everyone suffer again.

and we're gonna sing it again and again is the best Our Flag Means Death fic I have read, go argue with a wall.

kidnapping bruce wayne 'verse by @frownyalfred makes me laugh every time I read it, and is basically what it says on the tin: Bruce gets kidnapped a lot, he inevitably grows on the henchmen who are always contracted to kidnap him. There's a lot of unreliable POV in regards to A, the fact that Bruce is Batman, and B, Bruce is getting railed by Superman on a semi-regular basis, and it is prime comedy.

I regret nothing putting hand in unrebloggable hand (we go down together) on this list. Enjoy.

i won't be shamed by you is basically Buffy the Vampire Slayer is except Spike is really into reality TV and gradually infects the Scoobies with it. Background canon relationships, but the point is that Spike is invested in The Bachelor.

let not time deceive you (you cannot conquer time) is a modern The Old Guard AU where everyone is still immortal but Nicky is a millennial college student, with a lot of pining, lot of grad school and Catholic Church criticism, and a lot of angst. Also, Quynh shows up towards the end and she's a fucking delight.

I am not just recommending as wise as heaven and crueller than hell just because one of the stories was gifted to me by you. It's also fucking amazing PJO and possesses superior Nico and Luke characterization.

[happyk44]

Annabeth/Percy/Nico still holds up because Annabeth and Nico have the same level of feral intelligence to go head to head with each other on anything, as well as deep-seated interest in learning, whereas Percy will check out after a half hour, no matter how much he wants to listen.

But Percy also has the range to both be as stubborn and argumentative as Annabeth needs people to be sometimes and as comforting as Nico's consistently traumatized ass requires.

Also when I say Annabeth/Nico, I mean it platonic. Used to ship them in a cohesive threesome but then Nico came out as full-on gay so it's since shifted into a platonic V-shaped polyam 😝 Percy gives them both fish boy kisses

Now onto the other polyam I used ship in my prime PJO days: Jason/Nico/Percy holds up because Jason is more alert and aware of his surroundings so he can pick up on the things Nico hides from them better than Percy would be able to.

Percy is also too stubborn to let anyone else be the sacrificial lamb so Jason's self-sacrificing methods won't hold up against him.

Nico is more observant than either of them and sort of stock piles information. He's basically their go-to on whatever monster is attacking at the time. He's a lot more subtle with his affection but! He also has more of a worldly view on things because shadow-travel plus talking to dead people so he can open them up to experiences outside of demigod insanity.

They both bond over their mutual affection for death boy McGee and things happily spiral from there. Kisses abound. Not picky on levels of cohesion - altogether or connected through Nico, it still works for me.

[symeona]

Idk if this is something you're even interested in hearing about, but for the majority of my very american white bread life, I thought that all of the stories like PJO and LO were cool and fun ways to spread greek mythos, while not really knowing myself the inaccuracies and disrespect these series both carry, not only to the values they claim to espouse such as anti-racism, spreading mental health awareness, and feminism, but just how wrong they get the Greek side of things too. I just feel/see more and more how majorily Americans refuse to believe that taking Greek culture and misrepresenting it, bastardizing it, and hollywood-izing it is a bad thing, and how it deserves some respect for the ancient culture it is beyond "hardy har zeus scum cheater man" and "uwu rick/smythe are the final opinion on greek mythos". It's become such a mainstream thing here for people to use LO and PJO as literal scholarly interpretations of myths and the entire reason Greek mythology is as popular today while simultaneously ignoring the work Greeks have done to make their culture known, and I myself don't know the half of their efforts. The entitlement to tell someone, from my own personal experience, that they have the right to retell and change myths to their own will just because greek myths happened to be taught in their history class therefore making it fair game for Americans is just... how can so many people who claim to be on the left not realize their own imperialism right there? And then, god forbid you ask them about anything about greek history or culture that isn't Alexander the Great or the Illiad. They know nothing of Greece's roll in WW2, or what the Ottomons did to them, nothing at all.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt you would have an opinion I haven't heard on it before and I'm trying to see how different people view this issue.

Aaaa oof. Okay..

One issue with "Greek myths" is that the version most ppl know now, was published by archeologists who interpreted the stories through their own lenses almost 100 years ago. Zeus wasn't the 'King of gods', that's some christian bs right there. The largest Temple ever found is the one for Hera in Samos. But still, all gods were equal. And myths are so different from place to place that I don't think you'll ever find the "original" story.

And don't talk to me about the Great Alexander, that monster. How ppl have hero worship for that prick is beyond me. Ironically his horse was called Bullhead.

So, you mentioned the Ottoman occupation.

⚠️ I'll mention violence.

We called it 600 years of enslavement by the Empire. And it was. The scars from that time are still with us today. When I say 'entire islands and cities were burned to the ground' I mean it. This year marks 200 years of liberty which is cool, but yeah I can't tell you what a kid feels when they look at their history and all they find is bloodshed.

Victims from Smyrna are still alive today. And if you read what happened there please be warned.

So Greece went from 600 years of occupation and slavery, to the Balkan Wars, to ww1, to civil war, to ww2, to more civil war, to martial law/ dictatorship in the 1970s, and now .. well, let's say, we've had democracy for 50 years. My dad was a kid during the Polytechnic Uprising where tanks ran over children in front of their parents.

I hesitate to say Greece is part of Europe or 'the Western world'. Because during each one of these tragedies the Allies watched my people burn and die. Should they have the authority to claim our history as their own? I don't know.

Anyway, I hate to leave you on a sad note so I'll just add that, during the wars Greece let women fight, look for Bubulina and Manto Mavrogenous. Those two were high ranking officers.

And for a funny (kind of) anecdote: Greeks celebrate the 28th of October as "Ochi day". And the story is that during ww2 an Italian ambassador told our prime minister "hand Greece over to us and there won't be war". Our prime minister simply told him "Ochi" which means "No." Though actually, he said "Alors, c’est la guerre." (So, it's war.) And then people ran out in the streets chanting "Oxi" cause you know... Fuck Mussolini. We actually won the battle with the Italians so sksksksk

I love this story cause it's so.. Greek. We said "Nope." And then celebrate it every year by singing very offensive songs about goofy fascists. It's great. If anyone wants to write a story in modern Greece, please know that every kid knows this song by heart.

Here are the lyrics translated, though I realize it's hard to comprehend. We have too many creative words. Macarona literally means Macaroni-man for example.

[callonpeevesie]

Things that bother me about Percabeth

Warning: this is going to be long and I'm not even sure if this will make sense. Also don't read this if you aren't open to criticizms of Percabeth.

Percabeth is a good ship, or at least has potential as one, but it has many legit flaws (this and this go into the flaws. By the way, go check out @takaraphoenix's Riordan crit) and I have some personal grievances. I'll write this out to understand my stance better because I need to get this off my chest.

I believe most people wouldn't agree with me on all this, but this post is entirely self-indulgent and I'm doing this for catharsis, so don't come at me. This isn't an objective analysis, just me trying to clear my thoughts. But feel free to share your opinions if you want.

Evolution in PJO

This is a pretty general point. I love the evolution of their dynamic in pjo. Their bickering, them opening up to each other and becoming so important to each other, the slow and steady buildup, it's great. Heck, I love slow burn. They have some good moments in pjo: Annabeth opening up to Percy on the zoo express, the scene with the sirens, Percy doing everything he did to save Annabeth in ttc, their conversation after Annabeth took the knife for Percy in tlo. (The underwater kiss is not one of my favourite moments, I'll come to that later.)

The romantic evolution, though, I'm not sure. I enjoyed it in ttc, there were small subtle hints like Aphrodite's scarf, or Aphrodite looking like Annabeth to Percy. But it became kind of tiring in botl onwards. Annabeth was extremely possessive and awful to Rachel. And in tlo things became a bit over-the-top.

I think Rick tried to establish them as the Most Important Person to each other. I don't like that. This is more apparent in HoO. I'll come to hoo later, but there is one instance of this in tlo: Percy seeing Annabeth in the Styx. Like one of the posts I've linked above says, it's shippy nonsense. It comes from the idea that one's romantic partner must be the most important. It doesn't make sense. I think Percy should have seen his mother in the Styx. It would make sense for Sally to be Percy's anchor, considering how much she means to him.

In short, their enemies-to-friends evolution was great, their friends-to-lovers evolution started out fine but became too much for me, and their friends-to-Most-Important-Person-to-each-other evolution was unnecessary and forced.

Luke

Luke and Annabeth's romantic subplot didn't need to exist. This isn't exactly Percabeth, but I'll say it here anyway. First of all, there's a seven year age gap, so Luke returning Annabeth's feelings is creepy. And it seems pretty unnecessary to me. It's also a bit of a mess. In tlt Annabeth blushes when Luke is around, and Luke says 'She's like my little sister.' In tlo Luke asks Annabeth if she loved him, and she says 'You were like a brother to me.' This part feels like Rick trying to add last-moment tension to Percabeth by making Luke a potential 'rival' to Percy. In the Staff of Hermes Percy says Annabeth had a crush on Luke, and as she got older, Luke had a crush on her too. Just ... Why?

They and Thalia were each other's first friends. Annabeth looked up to Luke and Luke was fond of Annabeth. That is enough reason for Annabeth to be hurt and for Luke to care about Annabeth. That is enough to set up their post-betrayal dynamic. The romance thing was completely unnecessary.

Rachel

I absolutely hate the way Annabeth treated Rachel. If there is one thing I despise about romantic subplots, it's justifying bitchiness with romantic jealousy. I guess it's okay to feel a little jealous or even possessive, and I can kind of see where Annabeth was coming from, but treating someone like shit because of that, especially in the middle of dangerous quests, is not okay. It's petty and immature. (It could be argued that Annabeth was mad because Rachel got to lead her quest, but let's be honest, she wouldn't have been that mad if it were anyone else. She specifically treated Rachel like that out of jealousy.) It was never called out and Annabeth never seemed to regret it. This bothers me so much. Fanfiction is a good coping mechanism, I suppose, but I'm here to complain about canon, not cope with it.

Speaking of Rachel, Perachel could have been a good ship. A demigod looking for a normal life and a mortal with clear sight. This elaborates on that pretty well. At the end of tlo it really felt like Rick had to get Rachel out of the way to make way for Percabeth.

Annabeth seems to be too demanding

Annabeth's attitude towards Percy bothers me sometimes. She's a good character and has a strong dynamic with Percy, but she's a bit tiring with regards to Percy (in a romantic sense; she's fine as his friend). I mean look at this quote from tlo:

I can't pretend I hadn't thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than ... Well, than some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said, or wrack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking.

Percy feeling that way about Annabeth - his best friend of four years - just doesn't sit well with me. Percy straight up admits he's more comfortable with Rachel than with Annabeth.

There's more: Annabeth punching Percy when he asked who he should dance with in ttc, the way she treated Rachel, the way she behaved towards Percy regarding Rachel in botl, judo flipping him in moa. It's pretty tiring in general. Now that I think of it, this wasn't a thing before the romance showed up. Their dynamic was better in the earlier books in general.

Also personally I'm not a fan of Annabeth constantly calling Percy Seaweed Brain. This and this nicely sum up how I feel about that. Annabeth making fun of Percy's intelligence even after getting to know him makes no sense, especially as he was insecure about his intelligence. (And yes, I know she thought he was intelligent, as she said in the Demigod Files, but that doesn't cancel out the million times she called him stupid to his face.)

They became too couple coded

I've seen people say that Percabeth is better as friends than as lovers, and honestly I agree, and I've done some thinking to figure out why. I think it's because of the way they were written after they became a couple. They could have been fine as a couple, if they were written differently.

They started out not being able to stand each other, then gradually, they went through a lot together, got to know each other, learned to work together, and became a team. That was a great evolution, like I said before.

And like I also said before, everything I dislike about Percabeth showed up with the romance. Annabeth became catty and possessive. They became a couple. And it was as if the friendship wasn't there anymore, just the romance. They became like a cliche unreasonable girlfriend and clueless boyfriend. This is especially obvious in the beginning of Percy Jackson and the Staff of Hermes. Where's the friendship? Where's the comfortable bantering? Where's the known-each-other-for-years soundness? Hoo Percabeth just doesn't live up to pjo Percabeth at all.

(Also this is a personal bias of mine, but I'm partially romance repulsed. I can't stand cheesy romantic coded stuff. I only like lovers if they're also friends. So I guess I'm kind of pissed about Percabeth becoming so couple coded after becoming a couple.)

Their HoO dynamic

This is a related point. Like I said, hoo Percabeth doesn't live up to pjo Percabeth. All they care about is each other. They literally don't think about anyone else at all. Percy loses his memory and he remembers Annabeth. Why? Does Hera ship Percabeth? If he remembered anyone, it should have been his mom, like in the Styx. The only reason Percy remembered Annabeth, i.e Annabeth was made out to be more important to Percy than everyone else (including Grover and Tyson and Sally 'best person in the world' Jackson) is that she was his romantic partner. Again, it's shippy nonsense.

And there's this reveal that Annabeth had a crush on Percy all along. Are you kidding me? It completely retcons the enemies-to-friends development. Are you telling me that the Percabeth evolution in pjo where they learned not to hate each other was a lie? That Annabeth gradually opening up to Percy and coming to appreciate him was her acting out of a crush? I'm not believing that, no way.

I'm probably not making any sense, but my point is that Percabeth in hoo in cheesy and can't go one day without each other and people love it but I don't. It kind of messes up their previous dynamic, which is a shame because I liked pre-hoo Percabeth.

Rick seems to go overboard sometimes

I'm about to get a little controversial here. Many of the Percabeth posts in those tumblr screenshots going around social media are about the campers shipping Percabeth, or Arachne making Percabeth fanart, things like that. My theory is that part of the reason Percabeth is so popular is that the characters ship it. And Rick kind of goes overboard with that - not just with the in-universe shipping, with the ship itself.

Prime examples of going overboard are Percy seeing Annabeth in the Styx and remembering Annabeth when Hera took his memory, which imply that Annabeth was objectively the Most Important Person to Percy. I've already ranted about these above so moving on to the part about the in-universe shipping. Like I said, I'm not a fan of the underwater kiss. It's because of the situation involved. The campers just won a war and lost their friends and siblings, Clarisse just lost Silena, you'd think they'd have other things to care about than Percy and Annabeth kissing, at least for one day. And why did Arachne make fanart of that? How did she even know? There was also the matter of moving to New Rome - them wanting to move halfway across country to live together, away from New York, doesn't really make sense to me. This post elaborates on that and suggests better alternatives.

Of course, the author has complete control over the narrative, and the author wants you to believe they are making sense. And when the characters believe that too, it becomes harder for readers not to. When all the campers ship Percabeth, it's enough to convince half the readers to ship it too. (And of course, the pjo fandom has an unhealthy thing with canon ships.)

It's pretty much kept up by the fans

While we're at it, let's talk about the out-of-universe shipping. The fandom has always shipped Percabeth, partly just because they are the male lead and female lead of a series. Percabeth was set up to happen, so when Rick introduced Rachel, who actually made Percy feel good about himself and let him be himself around her, and whom Percy was interested in, he had to get her out of the way. I'm not sure I can explain it, but the Percabeth ending in the first series feels very fan service-y to me.

Platonic Percabeth vs romantic Percabeth

I think everything I've said above just explains why Percabeth worked better as friends. The had a great friendship arc and became two friends who know each other inside out, butt heads a lot but love and respect each other deeply. And then when the romance happened, Annabeth began to show these romanticized but actually toxic girlfriend stereotypes - being jealous and possessive, expecting Percy to read her mind and getting pissed when he can't, etc.

The fandom thinks those traits are okay, because they are normalised in society. People think that's how couples should work (it's not). And so the reasons I don't like Percabeth are the same reasons many people do. The date in the beginning of Staff of Hermes makes me cringe, because they were friends first and friends don't work like that. But no doubt there are many people who find it cute because society loves to romanticise the unreasonable girlfriend and clueless boyfriend trope. There are plenty of people who romanticise Annabeth judo flipping Percy or treating Rachel like shit, because things like that are normalised but I personally can't stomach them at all.

Anyway, those toxic traits come with the Percabeth romance as a package deal and there's no getting rid of them. That's why Percy and Annabeth worked better as friends, and why I feel things would be better if they just stayed friends. There was none of that tiring crap pre-romance. I can't stress this enough, I really loved their friendship in tlt or som. But when their dynamic evolved to romance, it messed up their friendship. There was a specific moment in botl when Percabeth began to feel off for me.

'She will calm down,' Chiron promised. 'She's jealous, my boy.'

'That's stupid. She's not... it's not like...'

Chiron chuckled. 'It hardly matters. Annabeth is very territorial about her friends, in case you haven't noticed. ...'

I don't know why this moment specifically, but this kind of marked a change for me. This is where Percabeth became seriously romantic, and I didn't like the related developments. This was the beginning of Annabeth's jealousy.

So what would I prefer?

I'll be honest, I shipped Percabeth for a while, probably because I love some friends-to-lovers. So I was going to make a list of things I'd change about Percabeth. I wanted to make some self-indulgent UAs (universe alterations) to fix the things I don't like. But then I started writing this thing and read up on other posts and stuff and I realised the list of things that bother me is huge and I could never make Percabeth work for me without messing everything up. So I just gave up shipping it entirely.

What I would prefer is an AU where Percabeth stays platonic forever (@elf-loving-dragon has been encouraging that idea as well). They were great as friends and I want that back. It would be so refreshing to have the male lead and female lead not end up together. Annabeth could end up alone, and still get her something permanent with her friends and camp. It would be so beautiful if something completely romance-free was specifically stated as permanent, because friendships in media deserve as much love as romance.

As for Percy, he could end up either alone or with Rachel. I don't ship him with anyone else rn. While I have made it obvious that I like Perachel, I still don't know if I actually ship it, and the idea of Percy ending up alone is not too bad either. (Update: I stan platonic Percabeth and qpp Perachel now.)

I promise I'm done now. Whew. If you've made it to the end of this long repetitive introspection, congratulations. If you agree, feel free to tell me, and if you want to argue, go ahead, I wouldn't mind listening to others' opinions. If you read this and hate me because of this just keep that to yourself. I have no patience for people who attack those who don't agree with their ship. K thanks, bye.

[theartofimaginaryfriends]

Chapter 9 - Rules

Fic series: The Final Straw (HP/PJO Crossover)

Premise: Nova has a a nightmare and the teams are chosen.

Masterlist

taglist: @ilvermornymascot, @lukecastellandeservedbetter, @eva-blog-p

word count: 2,100

A/N: This break from the fic was longer than intended but I've been fixated on Hunters (Amazon Prime) and started a blog for it because there's barely any fanfiction for Hunters and that's a travesty. To make up for it being nearly a month since I last updated (I think?) I made the chapter way longer than normal, but I think I'm going to stick to chapters being around this length. Definitely reduces the amount of chapters I originally planned while keeping the timeline in check XD Hope you enjoy this very late installment!

Nightmares were a common occurrence for demigods, being nearly unavoidable. Some were stronger than others, leaving the demigod remembering every vivid detail when they woke up. Others were weaker, causing the demigod to wake up with a few details forgotten. Nova was unlucky, her latest nightmare leaving her confused in the morning.

The demigoddess stood in the corner of a dimly lit room, watching as a house-elf brought a letter over to their master, who was lounging on a plush leather couch. "Great. A letter from that wretched school. Now scram, I want dinner in an hour."

"Yes, mistress." The house-elf squeaked and scampered off.

Unable to help her curiosity, Nova moved closer to the girl and peered over her shoulder. The name addressed in the letter was blurry, but the contents spoke of the transfer program. The witch tossed it aside in annoyance and got up from her spot on the couch. Nova followed her as she stormed out of the home and into the adjacent forest.

Nova had to jog to follow her pace but stopped when the air chilled. It was dusk, but the sky darkened quicker than usual. The atmosphere changed to one that was all too familiar, and yet brand new at the same time. The demigoddess's breath shook as she couldn't contain her fear. "You've come back sooner than expected."

"That transfer program that has been rumoured is official," the girl said, clearly annoyed. "I can't just play nice and be chummy with all of them! This is complete rubbish."

"Listen, child," the voice said. It sounded like it was coming from all around them, and the voice belonged to no one in particular. Gaea was what immediately came to Nova's mind, but the voice was male. It was Ouranos, it had to be. "You said you wanted to fulfill your former Master's plans and kill that boy you keep talking about, didn’t you?"

"Yes."

"Seeing as you follow me now, you will abide by my rules," Ouranos commanded. "Go to this transfer program. Make friends with them or don't, it makes no difference to me. Follow the program, and update me monthly on what is going on. We cannot be hasty, patience is a must. When the time comes, you will help me regain my physical form, so I can destroy those wretched demigods and you can kill your enemy."

Nova watched the girl, knowing very well what Ouranos was doing. He made it seem like they were allies and working together when in reality, the Titan was in complete control. He was just going to kill her when he was done with her, and she didn’t stand a chance. "Thank you, Master Ouranos."

The sky lightened back to dusk, and the atmosphere changed back to normal. Nova found herself following the traitor back to the manor, but as she walked the scene began to melt away.

She couldn’t make sense of what she had just seen. The Sky Titan's voice was clear in her mind, but everything else was fuzzy when she woke up. Nova sat up, and placed her head in her hands, trying to process what had just happened. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Nova answered Payton, who had pulled back the curtains to sit on the edge of Nova's bed. Her arm was outstretched, holding Nova's water bottle out to her. "Thanks."

"Wanna talk about it?" Payton asked, a worried look in her eyes. Nova shook her head after taking a giant swig of water and took a deep breath.

"Not really, no," she sighed. "I'd rather process everything first."

"Maybe breakfast will help," she said.

"Ah, yes," Nova had a small amused smile on her face. "Eating. What a concept."

"Just get dressed so we can go," Payton laughed. After taking another minute trying to rack her brain for a clearer image of the nightmare, Nova got up and changed before grabbing a book and heading out.

The girls were silent as they made their way to The Great Hall, but the silence wasn't filled with as much tension as it had on the first night. While it was still heavy, Nova found herself feeling less apprehensive around her old enemy. Payton really did seem to want to be her friend, and even if last night's comment was a little odd, Nova knew in her heart that it was well-intended.

When they got to The Great Hall, the girls separated and Nova made a beeline for her usual group. She sat in between Cree and Percy, the table already in deep discussion about the teams being chosen tonight. She didn’t add much to the conversation, feeling drained. "Nova, is everything okay?"

"Nightmare," she shook her head, looking at Cree. "I'll be fine."

"What about?" Percy interjected, the group's attention shifting to The Head Girl.

"It was unclear, but I believe that one of the people in the dream was the traitor," she said. "I never saw their face, but they were talking to Ouranos. It felt more like I was in a Pensieve."

"Pensieve?"

"It stores memories," Harry explained. "Depending on the memory, it can feel like you're in a nightmare."

"And it felt like I was intruding on someone else's memory," Nova sighed. "But we shouldn't worry about that right now, there's still another eight hours for people to enter."

Nova took to people watching on the stairs again, paying more attention to the book in her hands than she was yesterday. "Didn’t realize this year would reopen old wounds."

"Neither did I," Nova said, turning to Harry. "How are you feeling?"

"Angry," he admitted. "But who isn’t?"

"You and Percy have the worst luck," she stated. "Once everything's calm, something else pops up."

"My scar hasn’t hurt, which is a bright side," Harry reached up and touched his forehead instinctively. "But it feels like it will any minute. As if I hadn’t actually killed him."

"Voldemort is dead, Harry," the witch reassured her friend. "We don’t have to worry about him."

"Just need to worry about something completely out of my range."

"Isn't that the point of this competition?" Nova chuckled darkly. "To ensure it won’t be?"

"Sound about right." Harry shrugged, a small smile playing on his lips. The two of them ended up chatting for most of the day. Cree joined in later, stating that Nova's Head Girl duties have deprived him of time spent with her.

After dinner, the school settled into the balconies as if they were going through a sorting ceremony, waiting for the names to appear. Instead of Professor Tahamente making the speech, he left the floor to McGonagall. The woman managed to quiet the entire student body with one stern look, before beginning her speech. "In a moment, the fountain will reveal the teams. If your name is called, please make your way back into The Great Hall, and sit with your chosen partner. I will announce the names as they appear, and while this happens I expect there to be silence until the end."

The headmistress stepped back, and everyone watched as the fountain began to glow. The teams came up in four groups each time, and there were mixed reactions. "Harry Potter and Percy Jackson."

The two boys high fived, and happily descended down the stairs. No one was surprised at that pairing, many students finding it unfair. "Clarisse La Rue and Draco Malfoy."

Clarisse shoved past the Slytherin, making him stumble as he followed her. Draco didn't seem pleased either, his signature scowl on his face. "Jason Grace and Luna Lovegood."

A few classmates snickered, and Jason seemed a little worried. Luna was often in her own world, and to Jason, she didn’t seem like much of a fighter. "Leo Valdez and Hermione Granger."

Leo immediately tried to charm his new partner, and Hermione rolled her eyes at his attempt.  "Annabeth Chase and Seamus Finnigan."

The two walked in silence, Nova noticing the gears in Annabeth's head-turning. She never stops thinking about a strategy, even when she doesn't know the challenge at hand. "Hazel Levesque and Blaise Zabini."

Hazel glanced at her partner as they walked together, and Blaise was completely stone-faced. It was always hard to tell what he was thinking, but he had fought in the war against Voldemort with most of the Slytherins. "Nico di Angelo and Ginny Weasley."

Nova thought their dynamic would be interesting. Both were smart, but polar opposites as far as she was concerned. "Travis Stoll and Ronald Weasley."

It was almost like Ron was partnering up with one of his brothers, which screamed utter chaos. The next four teams came up quicker than the first two times, the air growing tenser as everyone anticipated who would be next. "Meg McCaffery and Neville Longbottom."

Everyone tried to hold back a snicker while watching Neville glance at the short and temperamental thirteen-year-old. Meg had given Neville a once over, before nodding once in approval and bounding down the stairs. "Piper McLean and Dean Thomas."

Dean smiled at Piper, and they started chatting in low voices. The demigoddess could tell they'd make a great team and smiled to herself. "Frank Zhang and Pansy Parkinson."

Murmurs started, and Frank was clearly nervous. He stopped at Nova and whispered to her. "Should I be worried?"

"A little bit, yeah," Nova told him. "I'm sure if you sit with Hazel it'll be fine. Blaise can keep Pansy in her lane."

"Thanks," Frank audibly gulped and made his way down to an annoyed Slytherin, who glared at the Praetor. McGonagall cleared her throat to tell the school to be quiet and continued.

"Kayla Knowles and Cree Fletcher."

Cree looked at Nova for guidance, and she assured him that Kayla would be a fantastic partner. Relieved, he left her side and met the archer a the bottom of the stairs. From where Nova stood, she could see that those two were already getting along, and it made her relax significantly. Cree was her best friend and if anyone would make sure he made it through this alive, she was glad Kayla was that person.

The rest of the teams were called out, and by the end of it, everyone was either bored or fidgety. "Would our Head Boy and Girl please join us in The Great Hall, as well as Will Solace. As for the rest of you, you may go to the lodges, and get ready for the campfire."

"Why are they asking for me?" Will asked as the three students made their way in.

"I'm guessing it's because they want the healers to be in the loop," Nova told him. "Chiron likely mentioned that you'd be an important asset."

Nova often aided the Apollo kids, and especially Will, when they needed an extra medic. The two of them had taught each other different healing techniques, and Nova supplied the camp with healing potions. It benefited them in the wars they fought within a year of each other.

"Congratulations to all of you that were chosen for the championship," Professor Tahamente smiled at the group. "There will be many trials and tribulations ahead of us, but please remember that this is about building teamwork and developing a bond that may assist us all in the future. Our first task at hand will take place on Saturday, November 21. In the Quad next week, we will set up stations for each of your teams to build a chariot together. Lucas and Nova will oversee it in shifts to ensure there is fair play. We will have Pukwudgie guarding the area during the night so that we can make sure there won’t be any sabotage.

"Will Solace will act as one of the healers on sight during the competition. The others will be Nurse Hawkins, Madame Pomphrey, and Nova Sterling. There will be no additions to the chariots that can potentially ruin another team's chariot during the race, and we will be checking for any extra charms on the chariots that could allow anyone to cheat. As for specific rules of the games, that will be revealed on game day. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir," Everyone chorused.

"If you have any questions in between now and the day of the competition, please don’t hesitate to ask," Tahamente smiled. He dismissed the group and stepped away from the podium. As soon as they all made it to the campfire, the teams were greeted by applause.

Some students basked in the attention, others seemed nervous. The only thing certain at the moment was that the dynamics were about to change.

[jasondropsofjupiter]

Okay, so we know that we've got the PJO tv show to the 5 original books on Disney+. That's beautiful, it's what we love to see. 100/10, love it very it very much.

But hear me out, because that's not all this bitch wants to see, okay? I want a second series after the 1st. I want Heroes of Olympus, baby.

I want Piper without those stupid feathers, because they did nothing for the plot and they were offensive, whether Rick meant it that way or not. Sprinkle in some mild distress when she thinks about her family because the girl is living a double life that she can't explain to her dad. She's disconnected from her culture and barely remembers her grandfather. Maybe she doesn't tell "Cherokee legends" to the other characters, because she’s disconnected and doesn't actually know them. If this continues into a 3rd series for Trials of Apollo, show her trying to reconnect. Show her learning about her culture. Also, can we get rid of the--uh--the way she’s claimed? Like can we get an age appropriate version of that? Otherwise, Piper is a queen and I love her. Her character is awesome and she's badass.

Now let's talk Jason, because he's my boy. We know his mental health has to be shit. We need to see him dealing with that, dealing with it poorly. He's the definition of "i'll keep all my emotions right here, and then one day, I'll die." Let him get mad at the wrong time over something that isn't as important as the traumatic things they're dealing with. Maybe he loses it on himself, because I can't see him snapping on his friends. Show him struggle with not being the leader. The situation is bad, he keeps trying to take the lead, but the rest of cast is just as much in charge, so he has no real say. Show him actively struggling with the way he was raised and the way he wants to be--Roman vs Greek conflict. Show him bonding with Percy. Show him trying to build a friendship with Leo, because it was never real before, but he wants it to be. Show him with Annabeth, stressing over things he can't control while she's just like "we'll figure this out, take a breath." Show him with Hazel, being like a protective big brother to her, because of an old habit from the legion where he mentally adopted younger members of the cohort. Have him feel guilty after that scene where he suggests leaving Nico, because it's obviously a trap--of course he cares, he just knows it's what the giants want them to do. Show him with Frank. Do I need to go in depth about this? I don't think so. These two would have made great friends, but they didn't bond and I'm bitter. Like they need bonding moments, pronto. Also, like... Jason is a prime candidate to show PTSD during the series? Like, he's probably got abandonment issues. He went through a million traumatic things before he was 5. He's going to react differently to things than the others. The only other people that experienced demigod level trauma at a really young age was Annabeth and Leo, but I don't think even they started as early as Jason. Tbh, they might be the only ones that understand him really well. Percy has a good chance because of non-demigo trauma. Nico and Jason are a vibe, though. That needs to be acknowledged.

Also, if we're breaking Piper and Jason up in ToA, show them having some minor trouble in HoO. Maybe a small spat or a disagreement, nothing that would cause them to break up, but lile normal couple things.

Can we see more interactions between all the cast? Please?? Also Percy and Annabeth after Tartarus?

We just. We need Heroes of Olympus to follow the first series. It's necessary and I hope Disney sees that.

[wondergirl-lovebot]

For your pjo Newsies au could you wrote when Jack and Crutchie get together. I'd be forever grateful (ps I've been waiting for a good pjo Newsies au for like ever so thanks for writing it)

Thanks so much for requesting!!! I really appreciate it! And, It’s my pleasure to write this au! I was sorta surprise there wasn’t any on here for it (or at least to my knowledge.) Anyways, I’ve been wanting to write fics for this AU, but I had 0 motivation to write. So, when you requested it I was super happy because it gave me a reason and motivation to actually write them! So, I should be thanking you!

Also, quick thanks to everyone who’s either sent things to my inbox, my DMs, or just simply reblogged or liked the headcannon posts about the au!

Sorry in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes sometimes I can’t see for looking haha

They’re Breaking Your Heart? Then Try to Hear it Pound

(part one of two maybe)

Chapter 1: A One-Way Trip, A Very Hard Fall

Original Headcannon posts for this au: Part 1/ Part  2

This should be up on AO3 sometime, at the moment of me posting this I am having difficulties with posting it.

Of course, the first time Jack would ever meet/talk to his deadbeat mother would be when he was Seventeen.

But, then again he has the worse luck ever. A prime example of this would be just exactly who his mother is. Now, his mother couldn’t be that bad, right?

Well, she really isn’t personality wise, that is to say, but it’s more what she is than who she is.

Jack’s mother was the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, herself. You’d think having a god or goddess as a parent would be cool and amazing, but it’s not. It’s far from amazing. Just ask any of the currently alive demigods, or read a Wikipedia page on any Ancient Greek “mythological” child of a god.

Their stories all end the same. Which is that it’s never a happy ending.

Now, the Goddess of Love’s children had get happy endings right? It’s basically ensured to them just based off who their mother was. That’s wrong, very wrong. It doesn’t matter who your godly parent is monsters still find away to hunt you down and kill you, and you still get to carry out all of the gods dirty work for them. You have no choice in the matter.

Aphrodite is known amongst the demigods and gods themselves as being one of the more, how do you say it, caring parents to have as a god. She generally appears in her children’s dreams to give them advice, or just to talk about their love lives. She may not do it often, but almost all of her children run into the Goddess one way or another at least once in their life times. She also watches over her children (and their love lives) more intently than most other gods. She tries her best to give them blessings and signs that she cares for them, but ultimately she’s a goddess and she isn’t allowed to directly interfere.

Jack Kelly, her eldest son at Camp Half-Blood, has never once seen her despite being seventeen and her cabin’s counselor. He’s always wanted to meet his mother, hell any half-blood who’s never met their godly parent will tell you this. Ever since he was little, even before he knew he of his divine heritage, he’s dreamed what it would be like to meet her. Those dreams were amplified at the age of ten when he arrived at camp, and was claimed by the Goddess.

Never did he ever in his seventeen miserable years of life, did he imagine any situation that even came remotely close to what ended up being their first meeting.

Well, that was probably a good thing that he didn’t imagine this situation.

It started as just a regular old day at Camp Half-Blood.

Jack was scaling the climbing wall, and was about to reach the top of it. Of course, that’s when everything went wrong. He had grabbed onto a ledge that seemed to be placed to a little too conveniently, but at the time Jack wasn’t really thinking about how the ledge seemed a little suspicious. He was mainly trying not to be incinerated by lava, at that point. So of course, when he grabbed onto the ledge it it burst into a dangerous and sickly flame.

Great Greek Fire! That’s just what I needed, he thought. Now, he had no choice, but to let go the ledge. Seeing as there were no other ledges or anything to grab onto, and the wall was just about to pour lava out the top of it, he was forced to take a free fall.

But, as soon as he hit bare earth below, he had let the pain and exhaustion consume him. And, with that Jack’s whole world went dark, engulfed by the darkness that slumber brought, as he hit the ground with a loud and painful thud.

-

It wasn’t uncommon for a demigod, especially of his strength, to have weird dreams about other events happening around the world at that same time. Or, to have somewhat prophetic dreams. Even, dreams that was some sign of help of guidance was normal. But, Gods showing up in them to have a quick chat about one’s love life was definitely not normal.

Even, for their messed up standards of what ‘normal’ is.

Jack stood in the middle of what seemed to be the Aphrodite Cabin, the one his siblings and him shared. But, something was off the cabin was empty. The cabin was usually filled with the children of Aphrodite gossiping, making bets on the love lives of other campers, etc. He hastily looked around confused as to why he would be having a dream about the cabin, let alone when it was empty.

That’s when he spotted her.

He didn’t really know how to describe the women sitting on his bunk with her legs neatly crossed and her hands at her sides. She was looking through a few photos that Jack had displayed by the side of his bed, before she looked up noticing his presence.

He didn’t really know how to describe the women, but he had a gut feeling that he knew this woman, and she knew him. Her appearance kept shifting, but that didn’t change the fact that he knew she was absolutely stunning.The women’s height, shape, hair color, eyes, race, and everything about her appearance other than the kind, loving smile she had on her face and her clothes, were shifting dramatically and rapidly. That was until, she finally took form as a short, sunkissed, girl with soft features and sandy blonde hair that hung to her shoulders.

That’s when he finally realized just exactly who he was in the presence of, and who trying to contact him through an unconscious dream. “M-Mother?” He managed to stutter out, fearing the reasons why his mother had come to bless his dreams with her presence.

Aphrodite only visited the dreams of those who she either, one, favored or found interesting and wanted to help make their love lives “interesting,” or something or other like that. Or, two, those of whom were her children, and were in need of some advice or help. Whether that need come from a quest, to what to wear to an important event, or to even having trouble with their love lives, and needing help to fix them.

Aphrodite really did have a soft spot for her children’s love lives.

He was really hoping it would be the latter of the two, and that this would be some sort of warning of a dangerous quest he’d have to go on soon. That would have been way better than being “blessed” with an interesting love life from his mother. That always meant trouble and pain for those involved. Oh, how Aphrodite just loved a great tragedy.

But, of course he wasn’t a child of Tyche, so naturally his luck was pretty horrible. And, of course the first time he’d ever meet his mother would be under the circumstances of his love life.

Aphrodite smiled gently at his recognition of her. Even, though Jack had never even met, let alone seen, his mother before this he could she cared somehow, just by that smile alone.

“I’m sorry that we had to meet for the first time in such, um, interesting circumstances.” She let out a small, gentle laugh before getting up from where she was seated on his bunk. “But, I must say Jack you’ve grown into quite the handsome young man.” The goddess complimented.

Jack’s face became as red as the strawberries they grew in the fields at camp at this, “Uh, thanks?” He scratched the back of his neck while smiling warily. “But, um- uh, why are you here? N-Not that I don’t want you here! I’m happy to see you after all this time! But, why now?”

The Goddess of love let out a small laugh at her son. “Well, I came to tell you that I’ve been watching you lately.” Jack could feel his face flush even more. Did she really watch over him? Does that mean she saw him fall off the climbing wall? And- Oh Gods! That means she’s seen him googly eyeing that son of Apollo during meals!

“Yes, Jack, to answer your questions I have seen you googly eyeing him, he is quite the cutie isn’t he? I’m sure Apollo would agree with you on that.” Jack was probably the color of a stop sign now. Wait, did she just read his mind? “As for the climbing wall incident, I am quite sorry about that. I really did need to talk to you, and it’s not like I can just randomly show up at that camp of yours and do it, now can I?”

“Wait, hold on a second here,” He started moving his hands in a sporadic slow-down movement, “You caused me to fall off the climbing wall? Why in the name of Zeus would you do that for?! What’s so important that it couldn’t wait till, Ya’ know I actually fell asleep?” Jack didn’t mean to snap at her, but that’s what it came out as. Aphrodite just let out a small breath, before beginning to smirk that I-have-very-interesting-plans-for-you smirk.

“Well, yes I did and I’m very sorry about that sweetie,” it felt so unreal that he was being called ‘sweetie’ after all these years of never even seeing her, “As for why I did it and why it’s so important. Well, I was just getting to that part of course!” She smiled happily, rocking on her toes.

“Let me guess, it’s about my love life isn’t it?” Jack deadpanned.

He wasn’t necessarily the most, how do you say, romantically active child of Aphrodite. He had only ever had a handful significant others, and for a child of Aphrodite that was surprising. But, he wasn’t really like his siblings. Most of them weren’t in it for the long run and some even got into relationships just to break the person’s heart on purpose. He always tried to be in it for the long run, fully committed and supportive. But, nothing ever seemed to work out in the end. Whenever, the relationship ended it was always them breaking it off, or on the rare occasion it was a mutual break up and he’d stayed very close friends with them. So, ironic right that he was the Counselor of the Aphrodite Cabin. And also, that his mom would finally appear to him when he was finally starting to accept the fact that no one liked him that way, and that he was basically single forever.

So, it was odd to say the least, that now when Jack was single and pretty content with that fact, that his mother would finally appear to him to give him love advice. “I mean not that there’s anything wrong with that! But, you know it’s just unexpected to say the least.” He said casting his eyes to the ground.

Aphrodite lifted his chin lovingly, with her lips ever so slightly curled into a smile. “Ah, looks like you guessed correctly.” Jack let out a nervous, shaky breath. He really didn’t want to know what the Goddess of Love had planned for him.

“As you know, I take quite amount of pride in my children, and just so long as they please me and stay on the write path in their hearts,”  no doubt was she referring to her daughter who had become a spy in the Titan War, the old counselor, who wanted to stop but was threatened into continuing with it. In the end, she sacrificed herself for her comrades and was hailed a hero by most, but of course there were always a select few who didn’t. “I bless them with an interesting, but good love life. Now, not all of my children, especially nowadays, get as interesting ones anymore. It’s such a shame honestly, so much wasted potential just because they choose to be rude and hateful to others who don’t share the same outward beauty and standards as themselves.”

The Goddess shook her head in disappointment before continuing, “It’s not like I make their romantic stories bad, well occasionally but I digress. They just aren’t as interesting as others are, they’re quite mundane and boring for my tastes.” Maybe that’s a good thing seeing as how you tend to meddle quite a bit with others, Jack silently thought to himself.

“But, then how does that explain why you’re here?” Jack furrowed his brow looking down questioningly at his mother.

“Ah, well you see,” she smiled with slight satisfaction, “I was here to tell you that, as you know already, I have been watching you. And, since I do favor you over most of my current children, please don’t tell that to any of your siblings that! Of course, not to say that I think you would.” Her expression was playfully teasing him, yet it radiated how much she cared for him and the rest of her children at the same time. “I just wanted to tell you that even though your love life has been quiet, hm, eventful so far. And, that was without my intervention, I must say you are one of my favorites to watch.” That made him laugh nervously because he knew what was coming next.

“Anyways, I am promising you that I’ll make this even more of an interesting love life than before! You will find the ‘one,’ as you might say, soon!” She cheerfully added, “I must admit, I’m very excited to see how this one will shape up!” His eyes must of widened at that because she quickly added, “Not that it won’t be a great relationship for the ages! But, I only intervene so much. Many think I cause all of it, but I generally only give nudges in the right directions. You all are usually the deciding factor if a relationship succeeds or not though.”

Jack knew she could feel his uneasiness and scepticism, and that she was trying to comfort him, but it wasn’t really working. Jack had never had much luck in love, despite being a child of it.

“Wait, what exactly does ‘you will soon find the one’ mean?!” He must of looked crazy and frantic, but his mother just put her hand to her mouth and laughed graciously at her son.

“Oh, you will find out soon enough! Now, I must leave Ares is taking me out tonight! Au Revoir!”

“Wait, huh!?” Jack reached out questioningly, but by the he could say anything the Goddess had disappeared into air. Leaving Jack by himself in bright pink cabin, before that too disappeared.

-

Jack woke up with jolt.

He frantically scanned his surroundings trying to figure out where he was, and also comprehending what had just happened. Though, it was proving a challenge, since his head was pounding like a woodpecker was hacking at the side of his head. Oh, and not to mention the throbbing coming from his left leg. He also felt nauseous and lightheaded.

Great, he thought, this is just what I needed a severe burn, a concussion and multiple broken bones! Oh! And don’t forget the ‘blessing’ from Mom! Jack thought looking down at his right hand, the hand that should have been severely burnt. Yet, it showed no sign of it?

“Wow, wow, wow, relax! I’m trying to help you!”

Jack, then had realized he was in the infirmary, and had nearly head-butted the boy trying to heal him. Gods was Jack just having a great day!

That’s exactly when he realized just who was healing him. Of course, it had to be the adorable son of Apollo who ran the infirmary, and who Jack had been pining over basically since he saw the guy after his first capture the flag game. Said son of Apollo was a literal ray of sunshine despite the fact that he was crippled and forced to use a crutch everywhere he went. But, that never seemed to stop him, he was the camp’s head doctor (medic? Healer? Jack didn’t know what the proper title was) in the infirmary and really the whole camp. He was always smiling that adorable lopsided grin of his, was always positive even in the worst of situations, and so Jack couldn’t help but be drawn to him.

Not to mention was he beautifully adorable with his sandy blond hair, light but not pale complexion, assortment of splattered freckles on his nose, and don’t even get him started on those sky blue eyes.

But, of course Jack was too much of a chicken to actually talk to him, let alone remember his name! Wow, he was so pitiful.

Gods, he was more of a stereotypical son of Aphrodite than he thought he was.

Apparently, Jack was too busy staring at his face and thinking of how amazing he was that he didn’t realize that the boy was speaking to him.

“Hey, are you listening!! I’m trying to tell you what exactly happened to you, and what I’ve had and have to do to help you!” The healer pouted, trying to get Jack to lay back down.

“Oh, umm, sorry?” He flashed an apologetic smile.

“Okay, so will you listen now?”

“Of course, Sunny Boy!”

“Umm w-what?” The son of Apollo asked, flustered and- wait was he blushing?

“Yeah! Sunny Boy! Ya’ know because your a Son of Apollo and he’s the sun god,” and you’re like actual sunshine and I also have no idea what your name is, “Get it?” Jack tried to flash a playful smile, but he must of looked like a crazed perv because he felt extremely woozy and heavily medicated.

“Oh, whatever!” The boy huffed, “Everyone calls me Crutchie, so just call me that please!”

“Whatever you say Sunny Boy!”

“Anyways,” the boy- no Crutchie- continued, “You have a concussion and-”

“You don’t think I know that?”

“AND, you have several broken ribs and you fractured your left leg,” Crutchie said as he got up to go fetch something from the infirmary’s cabinet. Jack just winced realizing just how much pain he had been in. “I was able to get some Nectar in you and use my healing to mend the bones a bit so they weren’t as severely fractured as they were. Oh, and I was able to fix the burn on your hand right up! But,” he dragged the ‘but’ with a slow exhale of breath, “seeing as there’s a capture the flag game later I have to preserve some of my stock.”

“Really,” Jack raised an eyebrow, “or do you just like watching me suffer in pain?” The blond boy spun around with some ambrosia in his hands.

“Hardly, but since your cabin is sorta pissed at Hermes for pulling that prank,” he sighed slightly rolling his eyes, “and also, Spot and Race sorta freaked out about it too ‘cause I know you guys are pretty good friend right? Well, they’re sorta gonna try and kill the Hermes kids and thus their team along with it tonight. So, I have to make sure I have enough supplies to heal everyone since I’m sort of running low at the moment.”

“Wow, I’m sincerely touched by their anger and concern.” Jack mockingly cried before rolling his eyes, “Seriously, I’m good friends with the Hermes counselors guess that’s not enough.” Jack shrugged causing himself quite a bit of pain.

“Yeah, well Spot’s the type of guy who when sees the chance to start a huge fight in Capture the Flag that he knows won’t cause a huge horrible rivalry, takes it.” Crutchie sat down, unfolding the ambrosia squares. “And, Race follows him and vise versa on those sort of things….” He trailed off, “And not to mention he’s pretty good and riling people up too.”

“You act as if I don’t know this, Sunny Boy!” He chuckled, giving a faint smile as yet again he caused himself pain with a simple action.

Crutchie laughed a little while handing him the Ambrosia squares. “Oh and I forgot to mention concussions are sort of hard to heal with nectar or ambrosia and my healing powers can only do so much at a time, so we’re keeping you over night and maybe tomorrow too.” Jack took the squares gobbled them down trying his best to stay calm and collected around this guy. “Since, my main concern was your ribs and leg I wasn’t able to heal much of it, but I was able to heal it a little.”

“Ah, thanks,” Jack mumbled finishing his last bite of ambrosia. “I mean hey, you shouldn’t have to over exert yourself to heal me just because I was stupid and fell off the climbing wall.” He gave a weak smile looking up at the other boy through his lashes.

“Oh um, n-no problem!” Crutchie stuttered slightly blushing, “I mean usually I would be able to do more, but with Capture the Flag being so close and all I have to persevere a little bit. I hope spending a night at the infirmary isn’t to bad.”

“Of course not! I mean, hey I get to see more of you!” Jack grinned like a Cheshire Cat.

“Oh well, um okay,” Crutchie was blushing furiously now, “Y-You better rest! Just, uh, call me if you need me I’m gonna be here late tonight.” Crutchie stumbled toward the exit of the room, “Oh and I’ll make sure someone brings you your dinner…. Which will probably be me, see you later lover boy.” And, before Jack could say anything else Crutchie had dashed out of the room. Jack was now left alone in the room with his thoughts running wild.

Jack’s mind was more scattered than normal. Not only did he have a concussion and broken bones, he also met his mom who told him she was going to make his love life ‘interesting,’ oh and don’t forget he had woozily flirted with the guy he had been pining over! Oh what a great day!

Jack tried to comprehend what his mother had told him and what exactly ‘you will soon find the one,’ meant. Could it be- no, he shouldn’t get his hopes up, he had no chance!

Before, he knew it he had slipped into the darkness of sleep once again.

-

Jack would be lying if he said that he wasn’t at least a little bit sad that his time in the infirmary was over. Okay, that was a lie he was very sad about it.

He had gotten to know Crutchie much better over just that short day and two nights he was there! Now, Jack wasn’t just interested in the son of Apollo because of what he had heard, saw, and from the few short interactions they had before this. Now, Jack was officially head over heels for him.

One problem though. He still had no idea how to approach and actually spend time with Crutchie. The boy spent most of his time in the infirmary and shared no lessons with Jack at all. He felt like he was going to explode.

A few night after he was freed from the infirmary he found himself on the losing end of a poker game against Race, Spot, and his half-brother Romeo. While, Davey shook his head off to the side criticizing them for the way they were choosing to spend their free time.

“Oh come one Dave! Gambling is a very valid use of free time!” Race retorted. Davey just shook his head and laughed a bit.

“Oh well I’m not saying it’s not, and I sort of expect you to do it Race. But, I’m more or less criticizing the three who are willing to play against you.” Davey shook his head, scolding them.

“What’s so wrong playin’ against Race?” Romeo, oh Romeo he was still so oblivious. Jack had to admit Davey was right it was stupid of them to gamble against a son of Tyche, the Goddess of Luck, but hey Spot and Jack had some tricks up their sleeves. But, Romeo well he stood no chance.

Children of Tyche were extremely lucky and almost always came out victorious in the end, especially when it came to gambling. Literally, their cabin looked and pretty much was a Casino. But, keywords there, almost always. Now children of Tyche were tricky and were anything but below cheating. They love gambling and games of luck and probability. This is due to them having the power to manipulate luck, and this power Jack didn’t really understand. But anyways, basically when they gambled all was fair game really.

So, Spot was free to intimidate the hell out of Race or physically beat him. And well, Jack he was a powerful charmspeaker so that definitely wasn’t out of the question. Now, Jack would never admit aloud to charmspeaking people into certain actions, but he did it more often times than not.

Well, no one ever stated to rules about cheating other than the obvious. So, technically it wasn’t cheating. Sort of.

Race began the game, obviously. Which basically gave him free reign over the whole games possibility, and luck of players against him in which cards they were dealt. Why they still let him do this he didn’t know?

They were half way through the game when Spot brought up Jack’s time at the infirmary. “So, Bird Brain how was your stay at infirmary?” He said teasingly with a wink.

“Ooh yeah! How was you and Crutchie’s time together?” Another mock coming from Race this time.

“It was fine, I guess,” Jack tried to avoid this subject seeing how his friends could get. “I mean it’s not like anything really happened, he brought me food, made sure I was healing correctly, and did actually heal me. But, nothing happened.” He explained a little more harshly than he intended to, yet even with the harsh tone in his voice he was blushing at the thought of the son of Apollo.

“Oh, my, my looks like Jacky Boy’s got a crush!” Race announced elbowing Jack in his freshly healed ribs. Jack couldn’t help, but yelp seeing as they were still pretty sore.

“Whoops! Sorry, Jack!” Race apologized.

“‘S fine,” he mumbled rubbing his sore ribs where Race had just elbowed him in. Jack could feel his face flushing a bright red.

“Wow, it’s totally not like we didn’t see that one coming,” Davey rolled his eyes before continuing, “Seriously, Jack has been all heart-eyes at the guy for months.”

“No I wasn’t!”

“Sorry to break to ya,’ but you totally were.” Spot scoffed,leaning back on the back legs of his chair. “You two both check each other out when the other’s not paying attention. And, don’t get me started on how many times I’ve seen him watching you train or spar! You two are so in love with each other!” Spot teased him. Despite all the teasing him and Race both did, they cared about Jack and it was never with malicious intent.

“Gods! No I do not how many times do I have to tell you guys this?!” Jack’s face felt like it was on fire, and it was probably the same shade as a fire truck.

Romeo hadn’t said anything, yet. He just looked around the table confused until his face contorted into a the a-lightbulb-just-went-off look.

“Wow this makes so much sense now!” Romeo exclaimed, “Now, I understand why you’re always staring at the Apollo Table during meals.”

Jack let out a large groan before burying his face into his hands. What had got himself into? It didn’t matter all he knew is that no matter what did happen things were not going to be easy.

And he had only one person to thank for that:

Aphrodite.

Thanks for reading!! Again, sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes if there are any. Please, tell me how you liked the fic!

Also, if you have any other requests for this AU hit up my inbox!

I’ll probably write a part 2, but like I may not you guys tell me!