#tbh its probably either nico or grover and sally stops the car until they un-banish whoever it is.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Can I hear more about your roadtrip au? I dont have a specific question I'm just absolutely *Delighted* by this idea and would adore more!

YES YOU MAY ANON

the au is essentially: In the beginning of TTC, instead of the gang getting picked up by Apollo to go back to CHB, they wait for Sally to turn her car around and come back to pick them up like she said she would if they needed and Thalia, Percy, Grover, Bianca, Nico, and Zoë all end up piled in the car for the eight hour road trip from Maine back to Long Island.

It’s basically the quest character arcs speedrun but also Nico and Sally are there. Why are Bianca and Zoë in the car instead of traveling with the Hunters back to CHB? Idk, reasons. Probably Bianca and Nico insisted on traveling together and Zoë volunteered to chaperone. Whatever the reason, it ends up basically eight hours of these kids absolutely at each other’s throats. Bianca and Nico are fighting. Zoë and Thalia are fighting. Thalia and Percy are fighting. Percy is two seconds away from throwing Nico out of the car. Zoë is pretty close to doing the same to Grover. Thalia, Percy, and Grover are also all extremely upset about Annabeth being kidnapped by the Titan Army and are worrying themselves sick the entire time. Nobody’s slept, least of all Sally. It’s a mess. But in this chaos, they can all agree on one singular thing: Do Not Piss Off Sally. Despite them trying their hardest to kill each other in the back seats, they are also trying so hard to not disturb Sally, because she is wonderful and is being nice enough to drive them back home.

(More under the cut cause the extended explanation got long):

There are of course dangers besides the teenagers trying to kill each other - other things want to kill them too. They’re a car absolutely packed full of demigods that’s stuck on the road for eight hours, with as far as they know two children of the Big Three on top of that (and later, they will learn, actually four children of the Big Three). So they have to book it back to CHB, which means stopping as little as possible. But conversely, that means this car full of upset ADHD teenagers are not allowed to stretch their legs for several hours, which only makes things worse. There is seat kicking. Nico has spent literally every hour since the school dance trying to get anyone to play Mythomagic with him. The CDs in Sally’s car are voted not to be played and Thalia is denied the aux cord. There is ipod kidnapping. Nico is introduced to the entire MCR discography in an attempt to get him to shut up. The batteries of both Thalia and Percy’s ipods die. Thalia claims she cannot charge batteries with her powers. Twenty minutes later her lie is caught. Thalia refuses to charge Percy’s ipod. They end up agreeing to listen to a random CD of swing music Bianca finds at a rest stop for an hour. This is one of many arguments they get into.

They get like four hours into the drive before Sally goes “It is like, 10am, I have not slept, I need to sleep or I will crash this car.” and pulls over and tells the kids to not kill each other. The kids try to kill each other quietly but out of concern of being too loud and disturbing Sally they all finally decide to get out and stretch their legs. Then they find out Nico and Bianca are children of Hades and Nico intimidates everyone into finally playing Mythomagic with him. This is one of the first ceasefires of the entire drive, entirely out of fear that the ten year old is gonna sic the undead on them if they don’t play his silly card game. So they just sit there outside the car playing the Tensest Mythomagic Game Ever. Nico is ecstatic about this development. Grover has moved on to eating his second deck of cards out of fear.

By the time they actually get back to CHB they’ve stopped trying to kill each other and share a mutual respect in a way you can only achieve from being trapped in a hellish roadtrip with someone for eight hours. Minus Nico, who everyone is just Slightly More Afraid Of, because they’re still not sure he’s not above using his powers to make people play Mythomagic with him. Nico does not care and is still delighted that people actually played Mythomagic with him.

As a bonus, here is a doodle i made while initially discussing this au, featuring The Great Mythomagic Truce Of Hour 4: