#that son would change the fates and futures of all the demigods that came after him

[goldenn-moments]

I'm sorry but THE PARALLELS OF SALLY TELLING POSEIDON THAT PERCY IS BETTER THAN WHAT THE GODS WOULD MAKE HIM, AND ANNABETH TELLING HEPHAESTUS THAT PERCY IS BETTER THAN THE GODS AND THEIR HUNGER FOR POWER AND GLORY. JUST. I-

percy is the change the godly world needs because sally gave him the tools. then years later, a girl who's only steady part of her life has been the gods and their callous ways, knows percy for less than a week and starts to change for the better too. the power of one mother loving her son enough to affect what will eventually be a whole generation, and the future of demigods as we know it

sally jackson the goddess that you are

[munozpeter]

           .・゜-: ✸ :-　𝕡𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕞𝕦𝕟𝕠𝕫　-: ✸ :-゜・．

                                          it don’t have to be

                                                                                 lonely

                                                            being alone...

[ BRANDON LARRACUENTE, HE/HIM, CIS MAN ] — [ PETER MUÑOZ ] is a child of [ ATHENA ] with the power of [ STRATEGIST and PROWESS IN BATTLE ] . they were born in [ 1996 ] and have been in nemean lion since [ 2010 ] . with the change, they [ HAVE GRADUATED FROM ] the [ BUSINESS ] role which makes sense since they’re usually [ WORKING AS ASSISTANT MANAGER and HELPING RUN THE CAMPUS ] . if you’d like to meet them try the  [ SUN ]  building . — strud / she/her / cst / 18+

bio

Peter Muñoz has been in the world of Nemean Lion for over a decade now but before then, he thought he was just a normal kid. Peter grew up with only his father for about half of his childhood in New York City. His father met the goddess Athena when he was in his late twenties, the two stumbling into each other one summer when he was between jobs, trying to figure out his life. They felt like the same side of the same coin in a lot of ways, and quickly fell in love for the summer, and for a handful of years after that, she would come back into his life every summer to breathe love into his life.

His father eventually grew to want to raise a family, but knew he was incapable of ever having a child. The last summer Athena ever spent with him, the goddess told him the truth of who she was, and presented him with a child born of her mind and their shared love. As the son that Peter’s father thought he could never have, the boy grew up extremely loved, cherished, and protected. His father was always there for him, often maybe a little over-bearing, if only because he knew his son was a miracle to him.

Peter grew up a very sharp kid, always bringing home excellent grades. It wasn’t that intelligence necessarily came effortlessly to him, it was that he found himself loving the work, loving the process of learning and growing and couldn’t get enough of it, which always ended up in him being able to master whatever he put his mind to. He was a bit of a nervous kid, the type of nervous that made him want to always have a perfect attendance record and never get into trouble.

He was, by all accounts, a complete nerd in his childhood. He was shy and reserved, and always had his head in a book, and always made sure to have the highest marks. Easily viewed as a softie, he got picked on from time to time, and even once was enough to bother him, though he never fought back. It wasn’t until his first year in middle school, when some bully tried to actually pick a fight with him, that Peter instinctively reacted to defend himself, somehow knowing exactly how this kid was going to strike, and how best to dodge and defend himself, sending the bully tripping over himself and falling on his face. He didn’t think much of it, and it felt good to stand up for himself, but when he told his dad about it, he seemed more worried than proud. It didn’t bother him too much, Peter knew nothing could ever make his dad love him less.

By some form of fate, when Peter was about thirteen, he and his father met Lou Ellen, co-founder of Nemean Lion. She was doing business in New York, and through pure circumstance, quickly became close friends with Peter’s father. They were eventually best friends, and the more time that Lou spent around his young son, the more she realized that she knew exactly what he was. Lou Ellen, a demigod herself, recognized the godly blood in the young boy, and took it upon herself to look after the Munoz’. She revealed herself to Peter’s father, and brought her own daughter, Daphne, around as often as she could, before convincing him that he needed to be able to learn about himself and protect himself and she could help him do that.

Lou Ellen relocated Peter and his father to sunny California, and while Peter continued going to middle school, he began coming to Nemean Lion every weekday like an after-school program. He loved every bit of it, this whole new world that he could delve into, that could explain the questions he’s had in his life, that he could study and research and learn all about to make it all make sense. As much as he loved his old life, and loved the childhood he had with his father, learning about his mother’s heritage felt like the missing piece of his puzzle, and he was never resentful of what was hidden from him, only grateful that he had a chance to see it all now.

Maybe it was so easy to work through it all because he had the help of his friend Daphne, and eventually Dia Paik too, to show him the ropes. The whole place seemed like a new world of people like him in so many ways, and he had both friends and mentors that made his years there so important and formative to him, and Peter began to love the community there much in his youth, that he grew to know he wanted to give all of it back to them too.

After graduating high school, he made the decision to move into NL full time, and his father was honestly relieved, thinking he might move to college out of state. Peter still visited him at any chance he could get, but lived at NL and pursued a business degree while interning at the campus and working his way up through the administration. His best friends eventually moved on, but he knew this was where he wanted to be, that he wanted to help run the facility and look after the future demigods that would walk through their doors.

He’s now in his third year as Assistant Manager to Marina Ren, and as Nemean Lion revealed itself to the world, it was a no-brainer to quickly work his way through the business track and work even harder to make this change as easy on everyone as possible. The campus is his whole life, and Peter loves his job. He’d do anything for the other demigods, and he works himself tirelessly every week. He’s a bit of a stick in the mud and a worry-wart, not exactly the kind of fun, free-spirited mentor that some might hope for. He’s more the anxious busy-body type, almost always working on something, but if you catch him off the clock, he’s more of the soft, kind-hearted boy who just loves to learn and do his best by others.

tl;dr

peter muñoz

son of athena, with prowess in battle and strategist abilities

grew up in nyc in his childhood with a single father all his life who loved him endlessly; the goddess athena had presented his father with a baby after being unable to conceive

eventually met Lou Ellen, co-founder of NL, who recognized what he was and convinced his father to bring him to Nemean Lion, relocating the both of them to california

peter loved everything about his mother’s side, drinking up all this new knowledge of greek mythology, not even caring that it had been hidden from him

loves nemean lion for the second home it became, moved there full time after high school to pursue a business degree and eventually began working for the campus

understanding, earnest, hard-working

anxious, workaholic, stickler

lives in the sun residence

has currently been the assistant manager for three years, loves his job, would do anything for NL and the demigods in its care, needs to relax every once in a while

connections

Daphne Saengmai & Dia Paik— his best friends from childhood; the two girls have been in his life since before he started coming to Nemean Lion, and they watched over him and helped to show him the ropes; he was sad to see them go on their own journeys into adulthood, and now Peter is extremely happy to have them back at NL and work together with them again

Jae Eun (& Charlie Eun)— Jae is probably his least favorite person on Earth; his human sister, Charlie, began visiting NL a handful years ago, and before either knew it, she and Peter began to hit it off, much to Jae’s overprotective hatred; Peter and Charlie eventually ended up dating for a while, and he was fully in love with her, before they broke up about a year ago due to circumstance; Charlie is still a sore spot to him, and he and Jae will always be at odds because of it

Oliver Armstrong— very good friend and roommate; Oliver is the kind of softly energetic spirit that meshes well with Peter and he’s grateful to have a roommate and friend that can both make him feel at ease and bring out the lighter, more relaxed side of him

Marina Ren— his manager; he works directly under Marina and has looked up to her since he was a kid at NL; they both care very deeply about the campus and he’s honestly really honored to get to work alongside her

wanted

mentor/mentee— either form would work, Peter probably goes to great lengths to care for the other demigods, and if any of them needed any extra help or attention, he’d be there for them; anyone older or his age might look after him too

any type of friends— though more reserved and anxious, Peter is still very friendly and kind and would make friends with anyone who can get over how lame he is!

not friends— as stated just now, he’s also pretty lame so maybe someone is annoyed easily by him; also he takes his job seriously and will stop any tomfoolery so maybe you can also be annoyed at what a stick in the mud he is!

feelings? ex-fling?— listen this idiot was really hung up on Charlie Eun for a long time, so maybe he never noticed if anyone else every had a thing for him? also it’s been a while since the break-up so maybe he’s tried to venture into the dating scene again and tried something out with someone that maybe didn’t work? he also always throws himself into work so that might have gotten in the way too. he’s very soft he wouldn’t have tried to hurt anyone on purpose but Peter’s a mess ok

anything!— we should all know by now I suck at making connections in an intro so just hmu and we can figure something out! discord works best <3

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 2: Aatrox and the Darkin

I did another one. There’s one more character I have in mind to do, but then I’ll probably take a small break from these))

Aatrox is an interesting case; while I don’t necessarily believe his current lore is BAD per se, I think he’s more-so a case of missed opportunity and wasted potential. Aatrox, to me, reeks of a case where Riot gave zero forethought to the future of this character when they created him. To fully understand why I feel this way, we’re going to have to take a step back and analyze some of the history of League itself, as well as some characters connected to Aatrox. So, with that all said, let’s look back at the history of this angry red swords and see if we can make sense of the changes given to him over the years.

Aatrox was released into the game back in 2013, under the title “The Darkin Blade.” Now, what’s a Darkin, you ask? Well, at the time, we didn’t really know, and it kind of became obvious that Riot didn’t either. Let’s have a read of his original lore, shall we?

I was always a fan of Aatrox’s original lore: an ancient, mysterious figure who shows up to help you turn the tides of a war, but only after you’d effectively surrendered your own humanity for the sake of victory. The fact that there was an entire race just like him became the center of fan speculation of years, and countless theories cropped up as to who and what the Darkin even were. Some assumed that they were related to the Seven Deadly Sins, while others thought they might be akin to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Some thought they might just be a dying race, and that some might actually be benevolent, unlike Aatrox.

Unfortunately, Riot wouldn’t give us an answer for quite some time. All we knew was that Aatrox was a Darkin and that he looked a lot like typical modern depictions of demons. That does raise the question though: why didn’t they just make Aatrox a demon? He helps turn the tides of conflict with no apparent goal beyond just prolonging the chaos and suffering brought about by war. A lot of his voice lines even painted him as a psychotic “artist” of sorts, prior even to Jhin, that viewed conflict and bloodshed as elegant. Well, to better understand the full picture here, we need to take a step back and examine the broader picture here.

Now, admittedly, we’re delving in some speculation territory here, as it’s impossible to really say what Riot’s original plans for the Darkin were, if any. That being said, the inclusion of something like a demon would have had a lot of implications back in the day, as the Runeterra as we knew it then didn’t really have a “Heaven” or “Hell.” Sure, we had “angels” with Kayle and Morgana, but they were treated more like how Asgardians are treated in Marvel: more like a race of super powerful aliens than actual divine entities (keep that in mind for later.) If anything, what little we knew of an “afterlife” in League came from Yorick’s old lore, in which he acted like a psychopomp similar to Charon from Greek myth.

It wasn’t until Tahm Kench came out in 2015 that Riot properly introduced demons as a concept in the lore, retconning several other champions like Evelynn and Nocturne into being demons. For a bit of context: in Runeterra, demons are effectively malevolent spirits from the spirit realm that feed on negativity: fear, pain, hatred, and so-forth. When other characters started getting turned into demons, a lot of people, myself included, thought that Aatrox would meet the same fate. After-all, they hadn’t actually DONE anything with the ���Darkin” outside of Aatrox’s bio, and he functioned in a manner similar to them. Some even theorized that the Darkin would be made to represent a specific breed of demon, and this theory gained even more traction when Tahm Kench was given special voice lines for taunting near Aatrox.

Then, on July 12, 2017, we got Kayn, and with him: Rhaast. Rhaast is the second Darkin character added to the lore: a talking scythe with an eye that possess its host. Kayn is able to hold back Rhaast’s influence, keeping it to a single arm through the use of shadow magic, but depending on your actions in-game, you can see what happens if Rhaast manages to win their struggle and take over Kayn’s body completely. With Rhaast’s introduction, it pretty-much cemented that the Darkin were living weapons that took over the hosts of their wielders, which made sense given that Aatrox’s sword was always hinted to be alive and have a mind of its own. In fact, the idea of the Darkin being living weapons, or at least being bound to their weapons in some way, was one of many fan theories raised since Aatrox’s release all the way back in 2013.

Unfortunately, the new champion’s bio didn’t give us a lot to work with. Rhaast was the weapon, but Kayn himself is the Champion, so a lot of his bio tells us more about Kayn’s backstory: how he joined the Order of Shadows, how he acquired Rhaast in the first place, etc. While this isn’t exactly a problem, it gave us no further information on the Darkin; what they really were, where they came from, and why there are only five left in existence all remained mysteries for the fans to speculate about. It still wasn’t even clear if the Darkin were connected to demons, or if they were something else entirely.

Now, it’s around this time that another theory began to start blowing up in popularity; technically, this was another old fan theory, but now that we had a general idea of what the Darkin actually were, there was another Champion wielding a living weapon that fans started to speculate might be connected to them: Varus. Varus is an old character, and though we won’t be deep-diving into him too much into this video, allow me to give you a tldr of his original story.

Varus was an Ionian archer set to guard the Pit of Pallas, a giant hole where his people had long ago sealed some unexplained corrupting purple entity that seemed like it maybe should have related to the Void somehow but didn’t. Varus resisted the entity’s influence for years until Noxians one day showed up and started slaughtering his people, wanting to get their hands on Pallas so that they could use it as a weapon because of course they did. Varus was faced with a choice: stay and guard the temple built around the pit or go back to his village and help his people fight. Varus chose the former and was apparently SUCH a badass archer that he single-handed kept the invaders at pay with his arrows, though this choice came at a cost: when Varus returned to his village, everyone he knew and loved was dead, including his wife and son.

Enraged, Varus returned to the pit and struck a deal with Pallas: he would allow the entity to inhabit his body in return for vengeance against the Noxians. Varus proceeded to wander the world with a bow made from the entity’s own solidified essence in the hopes of finding and killing… Basically every Noxian he could. Yeah, Varus wanted nothing short of full-on genocide, starting with the surviving soldiers that attacked his village. There’s a lot to go into there, but you’ve probably figured out the relevance of this by now: Pallas turned itself into a bow for Varus to take his vengeance in exchange for possession over his body. Not too dissimilar a living sword and scythe who also possessed people and had an insatiable hunger for death and destruction, right?

Riot seemed to agree, and in 2017 they released a music video along with a comic and an entirely new bio for Varus. Together, these updates served to not only retcon Varus’s backstory (a topic for another episode) but finally give us an update as to who and what the Darkin were. In a word: they were aliens.

In short, the Darkin were a race from another planet/dimension drawn to Runeterra for its abundant use of magic. They tried to conquer the planet, causing the Great Darkin War, which ended only when the races of Runeterra figured out how to seal the Darkin in their own otherworldly weapons. Varus, Aatrox, Rhaast, and two others were trapped in their weapons, which an unnamed warrior queen (possibly an Aspect) used to drive back the other Darkin and seal the portal to their world. The five that were imprisoned in their weapons were then scattered and hidden across Runeterra.

This, at last, brings us back to Aatrox’s new bio:

“One of the ancient Darkin, Aatrox was once a peerless swordmaster who reveled in the bloody chaos of the battlefield. Trapped within his own blade by the magic of his foes, he waited out the millennia for a suitable host to wield him - this mortal warrior was corrupted and transformed by the living weapon, and Aatrox was reborn. Though tales of the darkin have now passed into legend, he remembers only too well the destruction of his race, and wreaks his vengeance one sword blow at a time.”

So Aatrox was made into a general for an alien race who sought to finish what his people started by having the Runeterrans fight and slaughter one another in a series of bloody conflicts… For a few months, at least. Literally the next year in 2018, Aatrox finally got his visual and gameplay update, turning him into the World Ender we know today. Along with this came entirely new lore for him, as well as the Darkin.

Insert lore here

So… The Darkin are no longer invading aliens, but Ascended who went nuts and were trapped inside their own weapons. In other words, the Darkin went from being a race to being more of a derogative term for fallen demigods. What’s more, Aatrox received a VERY substantial alteration his character and personality: he went from being a war-loving “artist” who causes conflict for the sake of it to being a tortured soul who wants to die so badly that he’ll end all of creation to do it.

Now, like I said before: I don’t think this backstory is bad. I don’t hate it. It does a lot to flesh out Shurima as a region, gives us more info on the Ascended, and it adds a bit more nuance to Aatrox as a character. Imagine being trapped inside a weapon, losing all access to your senses. Imagine that the only chance you get to move is when you take over someone else’s body, transforming it into a warped version of your own former glory, only to realize that you’re on a time limit and the only way you can continue to walk, talk, see, hear, or feel anything is by slaughter’s people and consuming their blood. Imagine spending CENTURIES trying to find a way out, only to repeatedly learn that any means to free or even kill yourself ends in failure. Imagine being SO desperate to rest that you’re willing to end all of existence just to find peace.

I like Aatrox’s new story. I do. Honestly, the only real complaint I have is that Aatrox doesn’t exactly have a PLAN for how he aims to end existence? Like, he calls himself a World Ender and a god-slayer, but we only know of one god he’s actually slain (Pantheon) and given that Runeterra is still around, it seems like his world-destroying count is still at zero. Honestly, if he wants to end all of existence, I feel like turning the Void, a reality-consuming threat that he has FOUGHT BEFORE would kind of be the obvious solution? Honestly, I imagine that just chucking the sword into the Void would be a good way for him to end his own existence, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, if I like Aatrox’s new lore, why am I rewriting it? Simple, really: even if I overall like his current lore state, I feel like the road we took to get here was… Kind of long and unnecessary. It seems kind of obvious looking back that Riot didn’t have a clear long-term plan for Aatrox or the Darkin, as years of unanswered questions followed by multiple retcons kind of entails. From being the last survivor of an ancient race, to MAYBE being a demon, to being an alien, to finally becoming a fallen demigod. Aatrox’s history is practically a whole story in-and-of-itself, and I’ve long wondered how things might have turned out if Riot had, you know, picked a direction and gone with it a bit sooner?

So, here’s the basis of my rewrite: I’m gonna try and incorporate elements from all of Aatrox’s various backstories into a single, coherent biography. Can I manage it? Well, I’ll leave that for you all to determine…

When the skies are blackened by the flames of war and the earth is dyed red with blood, Aatrox draws near. For as long as conflict has existed among the races of Runeterra, the Chaos Blade has manifested to those deemed worthy, turning the tides of battle in exchange for the flesh of whoever wields it.

The true origins of the Darkin have long been lost time. Some say that they are the first weapons ever forged, corrupted by the malice of those who have wielded them over ages. Others claim that the Darkin are a rare breed of demon, of whom only five remain. Only one thing is certain: the Darkin exist only to bring death and destruction, and none embrace this more than Aatrox himself.

Tales of a wicked blade manifesting amidst the heat of battle exists across all cultures, from the frigid north to the blistering south. The sword is said to appear before warriors on the cusp of defeat: those who would give anything, even their own lives, for the sake of victory. Those who wield the Chaos Blade are granted inhuman strength and endurance, often haled as heroes for turning the tides of battle. With every foe slain, however, the Chaos Blade grows stronger, consuming the mind of its wielder and warping their flesh. In time, the hero becomes a mindless vessel, slaughter all in its path until slain. When its host falls, the Chaos Blade returns from whence it came, waiting for the moment that another might heed the sword’s call.

For ages this cycle persisted, until the day the sword manifested before a warrior of Shurima’s Ascended Host. After the Fall of Icathia, the Sunborn were called to face the encroaching threat of the Void, wielding celestial might and magic great enough to crush a hundred mortal armies. Before the Void, however, even the mighty Ascended began to falter.

The horrors summoned by Icathia steadily pushed north, consuming everything in their path and twisting the earth into maddening shapes. As their numbers dwindled, many Sunborn called to retreat, hoping to regroup within the capital and think of a plan. As some fled, however, the Ascended general Aatrox stood his ground. Pushing his draconic form to its limits, Aatrox struck down one abomination after another. When his great blade, soaked in the Oasis of the Dawn itself, was wrenched from its grasp, Aatrox fought with tooth and claw. Even if he were to fall, Aatrox would do everything in his power to slay as many Voidspawn as possible, resigning himself to death so the other Sunborn might rally their forces.

It was then, amidst the sea of madness woven by the Void, that Aatrox saw a sword embedded into the twisted earth. The blade seemed to call out to him, and Aatrox took it without question. In an instant, the general was filled with unimaginable strength and fury, and his allies watched in amazement as Aatrox fought with strength of ten Ascended warriors. Inspired by his newfound fury, the Sunborn rallied, their fighting spirits renewed at last.

When the conflict against the Void drew to a close, Aatrox was haled as a hero among heroes, though many of his former allies became wary of him and the wicked sword he now carried. Some suggested that the blade should be destroyed, while others, such as Aatrox himself, argued that its power would be instrumental if the Void ever returned.

Resentment and suspicion began to grow amongst the Sunborn, and the cracks only grew larger as Aatrox aided the other Ascended in summoning weapons similar to his own. The warriors of the Ascended host began to distance themselves from one-another and the capital, taking up posts across Shurima’s vast empire. They remained united only in the shared goal of protecting their empire.

And then the Sun Disc fell.

Following Xerath’s Ascension and the death of Emperor Azir, years of growing tensions erupted across the desert. Some Ascended raced for the chance to fill the now-vacant seat of power for themselves, while others insisted on finding a means to restore the royal dynasty. Debate soon turned to bloodshed, and Shurima was engulfed in a war that lasted centuries. It wasn’t until the Aspects of Targon intervened that the war was finally brought to an end.

Those wielding Darkin weapons were bound to their armaments with powerful magic, in-turn trapping the wicked weapons in the physical realm. The Darkin were scattered across Runeterra, and yet the souls of the Ascended persisted, stripped of bodies and senses.

For ages, Aatrox stewed within the sword that had become his prison, his soul slowly being corrupted further and further by the Chaos Blade until the two had become a single being. Ages passed and the sword was slowly forgotten, until a band of thieves broke into the Darkin’s prison in search of ancient treasure. When the thieves’ leader touched the sword, his mind was overwhelmed in an instant, his body transformed into a twisted likeness of Aatrox’s Ascended form. The Darkin slew the other thieves in an instant, drawing strength from their blood before breaking free of his long confinement.

Aatrox emerged into a frozen landscape with but a single goal: to bring about a war so violent, so destructive, that it would be the end of all things. He would be the World Ender, herald of a conflict to end all others. With every foe he slays, with every swing of his sword, Aatrox sews the seeds for violence and carnage, drawing one step closer to his magnus opus.

So, what did you think? As stated before: my primary goal this time around was to try and combine Aatrox’s various origin stories into a single narrative. Admittedly, I could only manage to do this by adding an air of mystery to the actual origin of the Darkin; maybe they’re demons, maybe they’re aliens, maybe they’re something else entirely. I know that might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but a large part of what made the Darkin so interesting to the community in the first place was the air of mystery surrounding them, and the room it offered for speculation and theorizing.

Another main concern, though, was that I wanted to find a way to blend old Aatrox’s personality with his new one. The thing I miss most about the OG Aatrox was that, despite being obsessed with war and bloodshed, he wasn’t just another rage monster. He was calm and composed, and a lot of his lines hinted at a deeper philosophy toward the inevitability of conflict rather than just “I wanna kill everything because I’m angry!” League has way too many of those, in my honest opinion. I thought that, by combining his mind with a semi-sentient sword that brings about carnage because that’s simply its PURPOSE, a little but of that old Aatrox might shine through.

But, as always, this is all just my opinion; how I, personally, would have gone about reworking the character. If you prefer Aatrox as he currently is, or think my version of the story is inferior, that’s fine! Feel free to share your thoughts and comments, but please, let’s try to keep it civil. After-all…

The last thing we want is to start a war over this…

[fatedsong]

Heroes of Olympus Ending

I wanted to write my thoughts and impressions of the last part of the series before I start Apollo Trials. I don’t really have much complains, just things I would had liked to be included or things I think could had been developed better, a few things did bother me, but I do have a lot and more things I liked. In general I am pleased with the ending, but on some parts it felt unsatisfying. It did feel a bit felt a bit weak for the ending, it was alright, but it could had been so much more. It also felt odd that for the last book it was the shortest. I would had thought it would have more pages.

I think I have a lot to say about Percy and Annabeth and I might have an obvious bias, but they deserved so much more and it would had been so satisfying had they at least had the narrator's voice once. Also a few things on how everything tied up for everyone at the end.

- Percy & Annabeth POV post Tartarus. I mean in the first place I believe the last book would had felt more satisfying if Percy or Annabeth had gotten the narrator voice at least once. The two characters who started the journey don’t get at least one word makes the book feel incomplete. Percy and Annabeth went to literally hell for days with only each other. They were exhausted, terrified, injured, in pain, weak, but they still had to keep moving thought a place designed to kill them in every way possible. They kept getting close calls with death, when Percy got poisoned, Annabeth went blind, the river making them lose hope and almost drowning, wounds that didn’t heal, just out of pure starvation and having to drink pure fire to survive. Without Bob the Titan and Damasen they would had died. They just went through so many painful experiences every few minutes and we saw glimpses of the worst in them. They didn’t have just to fight the monsters, but the darkness within them. We literally saw glimpses of Percy’s darker personality and his capacity of how cruel and merciless Percy could be. Percy was so angry with Arachne on behalf on Annabeth, that in that moment Annabeth was glad Arachne had a quick death. When Annabeth realized how calculative and manipulative Percy could be if he wanted to and it left her unsettled. Then finally when Percy started choking Akhlys with her own poison even mentioning how he wanted to see how much the misery the goddess of misery could take, the only reason he regained his senses was because he noticed how scared Annabeth was of him. Finally meeting Tartaros and knowing they had no chances of ever defeating him, the hopelessness they felt for the first time in their lives. Percy even dropped his sword because of how terrified he was and later on Annabeth mentioned to Piper how much it still affected her. Then lastly having to sacrifice Bob and Damasen to escape Tartarus. After such intense passage we don’t see how much it affected them. We could had seen the effects it had on both of them. They just went through the most traumatizing experience in their lives. Do Annabeth and Percy still have nightmares about Tartarus? Do they wake up paralyzed in fear? They did mention how every time they closed their eyes they could still see Tartarus. How is Annabeth dealing with seeing a different and more terrifying side of Percy? Did Percy and Annabeth ever talked about it? How is Percy dealing with his experience? When Percy went with Jason to fight Kymopoleia, Percy got poisoned and the whole time he thought he deserved it for what he did to Akhlys. Percy felt guilty about how good he actually felt when he was torturing Akhlys and how he terrified Annabeth because of it. In Tartarus Percy realized how much he can lose control in pure rage and now the possibility of  losing control over himself scares him. Lastly how much Tartarus changed the relationship between Percy and Annabeth, it became so intense in comparison to the PJ series, that their biggest fear was being without each other. First Percy and Annabeth were separated for eight months and Annabeth was miserable and worried sick about him and as  for Percy he was walking on pure hope he would see Annabeth again because he was the only person he remembered. Their need to be with each other had gotten so intense and being thrown to Tartarus escalated the feeling because they were close to losing each other over and over again. When they finally come back from Tartarus how much anxiety they had over being apart from each other again the first few days. Percy didn’t even want to let Annabeth go with Jason and Piper to investigate and asked Jason to keep an eye on her. I know we didn’t see much of it, but it must have made him nervous because it was the first time separated from her since Tartarus. Then once again when Piper tells him about her vision that she and Annabeth had to go underground again, Percy protested and accidentally, out of his pure feelings, exploded all the plumbing. We could had seen their separation anxiety. There was so much we could had seen.

Also this is just personal, but Annabeth finally visited Athens she had dreamt of the whole time and it would had been nice getting her point of view on that. Lastly it was the first time Percy said “I love you” to Annabeth, after 10 books and they made out and it would had been so satisfying to my heart to had seen it from their own point of view.

-Percy & Annabeth and New Rome. I think it makes sense why Percy would think that far into the future, their lives as demigods places them in danger all the time, their future is never certain and from the moment he found out he was Poseidon’s son he had been in so much more danger even more than other demigods. Percy was constantly at the mercy of his destiny of having to fight over and over just to survive and protect the people he cared about. Percy was in constant stress about it, especially knowing he had the responsibility of the world upon him with the prophecy and not even knowing if he would live. Percy is just done with everything and all he would want is a peaceful future with his family, friends and Annabeth, but he had never gotten the luxury or even the option for it. The way his life has been would make him think more seriously about his future than possibly mortal 17 year olds. So when Percy sees New Rome he finds out there are older demigods, living a full life, going to college, having a family, being happy, he sees a future he could have with Annabeth and that gives him hope. My thing is that I wouldn’t be so sure if they would go study at New Rome. It feels uncharacteristic for both of them because Percy would want to stay close to his mother and Half-Blood has always been their home, so I’m not sure how I feel about them leaving to New Rome. Not to mention Percy loves New York. If they did I can only  imagine for college I can’t really see them completely settling there to live forever. 

-Percy & Annabeth Blood. It kinda bugged me in the whole series Gaea kept changing what blood she wanted to wake up with and then eventually deciding on Percy and Annabeth, but it wasn’t really specified why and I wanted to know. If it was because they were the ones who defeated Kronos and saved Olympus and then if she woke up they would had been responsible later for its downfall. If it was because it would had been ironic that in the place Poseidon and Athena’s rivalry started, their children who are lovers and made peace with each other, considering the whole world knows they are a thing, would die and sealed the world's fate. It’s already ironic that Poseidon and Athena’s child are dating in the first place.

-Percy’s Fatal Flaw. This is one of the things that kinda bothered me the most. The first time it was mentioned it was back in the Percy Jackson books from Athena she mention his fatal flaw was his personal loyalty and that it could be deadly. Kronos constantly used his inability to ever abandon his friends against him. Percy does struggle with it, but it wasn’t given that much attention in the PJ as they did on the Heroes of Olympus. It kept being mentioned by various people that Percy’s greatest flaw would cost him the world and put on the line their chances of defeating Gaea. It made it seem like a huge confrontation between Percy and his friends was coming. Rick Riordan made it seem like Percy, the original hero we all saw grow up, the one who saved everyone, this time was going to ruin everything. Even Jason mentioned he was worried that Percy would make it harder for them when the time came. Then Ares literally told Frank about Percy’s weakness and that he would had to make a decision Percy would not be able to make and depending on that was the success of defeating Gaea. So this was build up throughout the 5 books and then when the time came it was literally resolved in like two pages. Percy wanted to go with Jason and the rest to defeat Gaea and Jason just told him he had to stay and Frank just grabbed Percy’s arm and told him he couldn’t go because of the prophecy and that was it. It was resolved like in five sentences and it was kinda disappointing. 

-Percy’s Achilles Curse When Percy got the Achilles Curse in the Last Olympian, it was such a huge deal and sacrifice for Percy and then he just simply lost it by crossing the mini Tiber River. When Nico told him about it, Percy was afraid of the idea, he kept delaying the choice of going through it for a whole year. When Percy had to accept he couldn’t fight Kronos without the curse, he gained the courage to go through it because it was the only option. The curse made Percy invulnerable, but at the same time vulnerable. In an unlucky coincidence, a simple mistake with just getting hurt on his weak spot, he dies. We saw that when Annabeth got stabbed trying to protect him. Percy was this close of dying. Then he just kinda lost it in like this first few chapters of the Son of Neptune and it made a bit insignificant. I know it was because he would had been too overpowering in comparison to the rest of the seven and Rick Riordan wanted to put him on equal grounding with Jason, but it kinda bothered me such a big thing got sacrificed for it.

-Percy & Sally’s reunion. It was missing. I understand that Percy was busy with the whole quest, but Percy had been missing for eight months, imagine how Sally felt through it all. We know from the first book how much Sally loves Percy, to the point she would marry and stay with an abusive man for years just to protect Percy from monsters. It took and effort from Sally through the books to let go of Percy and accept he was a demigod and that he would always be in danger, but she had to let him walk his own path in life. Imagine Percy coming home every summer with more stories of his quests of how he almost died, seeing him go through more painful experiences every time and having no choice but to step back and let him make his choices. Not to mention knowing Percy had the duty to defeat the strongest Titan of all time. The anxiety she felt and then finally relief when it was finally over, thinking at least Percy would have a more peaceful time, only to have her son missing for eight months and no one knowing where he was. In the Battle of The Labyrinth Percy was missing for two weeks and despite what they told her, Sally believed Percy was alive, now he was missing for eight months how much she tried to keep faith he would come back home. Sally would meet every week with Annabeth just to cry and give each other hope Percy was safe and  that they would find him. As soon as Percy got his memories back he did left her a message, but such a loving relationship between them needed a reunion.

-Percy & Groover reunion. Groover has been searching for Percy for months now without no luck. No matter how many people Percy meets Groover has always been Percy’s best friend and they share such a strong bond. How difficult it was for Groover knowing he had an empathy link with Percy and had the best chances of finding him, only to being unable to for months. It would had been nice for Groover to have more appearances. Honestly we needed at least a few sentences between them.

-Percy & Poseidon reunion. What exactly did Poseidon do in the whole series? From all of the important gods he was just kinda there. At least from what I remember he didn’t even play a big part in the quest. Then when he finally saw Percy there wasn’t like even “Hey son! Glad you got your memories back. How you been? What’s up? Sorry for going MIA for more than eight months lmao” It would had been so great at least get something.

-Percy & Blackjack. Did Percy ever find out Blackjack was injured? The last time they met Blackjack had to knock him out unconscious. This friendship is so underrated. Percy literally mentioned Blackjack is his pegasis and even got annoyed when Rachel took him and said that was his pegasis and no one takes his pegasis. I would had liked to know his reaction and fate.

-Percy & Half-Blood. It would had been so great to see Percy finally going home, reuniting with his friends, with Chiron who has always been his mentor. Percy has been away from everything he knows for months, having no memories and meeting new people every time. The only person he originally knew the whole book was Annabeth. When Percy regained his memories he missed Half-Blood,so I would had loved Percy POV when he finally goes home, seeing the place he loves, finally familiar faces after so long. Also the campers reaction to Percy, we all know they love Percy, they have been growing up with him, although they are all independent fighters Percy has always been their guide and leader. It was with him that they went against the impossible war against Kronos, so imagine their relief of seeing Percy who has always been their backbone finally with them. It would had been great to see that.

-Percy & Calypso. Honestly it kinda bugged me it made it seem like Percy was at fault for Calypso still being stuck on the island. Like I mean Percy was probably the only hero in years who tried to free Calypso from the island and he requested to the gods to free her and made them swear it on the River of Styx which is their most sacred oath. How was Percy supposed to know the gods wouldn’t keep their promise? Percy could had go back and make sure the gods kept their promise, but it wasn’t his fault, although he did took the full responsibility for it like he does with everything. Literally four months had passed from the war against Kronos and Percy thought he could at least have a peaceful time with Annabeth and soon after he was switched with Jason and left without memories for eight months. Maybe he would had eventually remembered with time, but he was literally in cloud nine. I just find it unfair the narrative made it seem like Percy was completely at fault. Not to mention Calypso kinda cursed Annabeth which she must have made unknowingly it was going to actually hurt Annabeth.

-Percy & Jason. I didn’t have an issue with their rivalry and I think they both felt more assured they had found someone who was more equal to in terms of physical power and leadership. They understood each other in that sense and how hard it is to try to do everything by themselves and wanting to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. The only thing was that I would had loved a badass scene between them, Nico/Hazel and Thalia in the battlefield, like the kids of the big three would had been awesome.

-Annabeth & Athena. I mean they literally had such a bad fallout that you wouldn’t expect from them. Their relationship got very strained and there wasn’t any words or resolution between them at the end. Annabeth was still angry and resentful over her her mother sending her to a find the Mark of Athena. Not to mention Athena basically told her how disappointed she was of her and that if Percy sided with the Romans he deserved to die. Athena has never shied away over her disapproval  of her relationship with Percy. Annabeth asking for her help and hearing such words after Annabeth doing everything she can to find Percy definitely hurt her. Annabeth has always been so prideful of being Athena’s child, she adores her mother, respects her and would do anything to please her, but seeing her act so angry at her, confused on who she was, forced a quest on her, hearing how despite everything she has done was disappointed on her, wouldn’t help her with Percy, the one deeply disappointed and hurt was Annabeth. This literally broke her pure adoration for Athena. Not that she wouldn’t go against Athena if she needed to, but in general they did have a good relationship until this moment. Then when facing Arachne she even began to doubt Athena had won the contest and that there was a possibility Athena had unfairly cursed Arachne out of pride. So this problem wasn’t even addressed at the end and I think it needed to. 

-Nico’s crush on Percy. I have always thought Percy was a special person for Nico, but I was pretty surprised when it was revealed he was in love with Percy. Their relationship had always been complicated. For Nico, Percy was the first person he trusted after Bianca and he felt betrayed when Bianca died, then he made it seem like he hated Percy, but it was just that he was hurt and resentful towards Bianca, although eventually they did made peace after Bianca explained to him what had happened and that it wasn’t Percy’s fault and Nico gave up on trying to revive her. Then I believe Nico kept trying to help Percy in his way, but would go at  it the wrong way and it didn’t really help when he tricked him into meeting Hades in exchange for information about his mother, leading to Hades locking Percy in a jail and trying to kill him. Percy who values loyalty above all had trouble regaining his trust with Nico, but he did not hate him because he still believed Nico had good in him. When it got revealed Nico had always had a crush on Percy the value of each scene he had with Percy over every book was much more meaningful to me. It made sense and I got a bigger understanding of Nico’s character. It made sense to me why Nico would like Percy. To him Percy was the personification of what he considered a hero, he admired him, he wanted to be with him, gain his favor, he was the closest person he had for a long time, but at the same time he hated that part of him, he couldn’t accept it and the secret suffocated him. I could see how his love for Percy was rooted on his admiration and why he would move on eventually. Honestly the chapter were Cupid exposed Nico’s love for Percy was too cruel, it made me cry, because no person should have to go through that. Nico was literally shaking and almost brought to tears when he had to admit out loud he had always loved Percy. The feeling of shame and embarrassment was transmitted to the reader.  We see how much Nico had always loved Percy, it was literally years, it was his biggest secret. I did notice that once it was revealed, Jason supporting him and not judging him for it, his love for Hazel and the time he spent with Reyna it did seem that it wasn’t just her healing her own heart, but also Nico as well. It did feel like he was letting go of Percy little by little through the quest. The thing is with Will, was that it kinda felt last minute, I don’t mind him ending up with Will at all, if anything it makes me happy he has someone who would help him heal and be by his side, but I would had liked a bit of more foreshadowing from earlier books. Like maybe Nico associating with will in the last PJ book. It just felt like after seeing how deeply Nico felt about Percy it felt kinda sudden that a love of so many years would quickly go away. I think we could see Nico’s attraction to Will, but at the same time still having more gentle and tame feelings for Percy, still there, but slowly starting to fade. That being said it just how I wish it had been, but I’m okay if this is how it ended.

-Leo’s Conclusion and Calypso. I love Leo. He became my favorite after Percy and Annabeth. He was just so relatable and his characterization made him feel so real. Leo’s trauma and insecurities being hidden with his sense of humor was relatable. The way way he coped with his stress, his hurting, his loneliness with always smiling and joking around, even when he didn’t feel happy was heartbreaking. The one who looked the most easy going kept hiding everything with a smile.The struggle he felt associating with his friends.I felt so bad when he mentioned how hard he worked on Argo II wishing and expecting that this would make him closer with everyone and be appreciated, that it would make a place for him. Then only to have the damn ghost use him and causing a war between Romans and Greeks. All he wanted was to have a place of belonging, but everything kept going wrong and was constantly told he would never find a place with his friends and would always feel left out. That being said Leo knowing all that he kept being loyal to them and would reject anything from Gaea. It was so courageous of him putting himself as the one who died to save his friends, not really knowing if the cure would revive him. My issue, more like what I think would had been better was that Leo’s fate to his friends would had been known. I think it would had given closure had Leo not been separated from his friends. Leo wanted to feel appreciated by his friends and it would had gone full circle if he had seen everyone’s feeling towards him and gain recognition for his actions because this was specifically Leo’s main problem. I would had wanted Leo been with his friends at the end, gain recognition like Nico, who also struggled and felt loneliness, feel like he finally have a place between them and then tell them he had somewhere to go and go on his journey to meet up with Calypso telling him he is late. Leo and Calypso being a thing was surprising to me as well as the 180 in her personality, although maybe she was just completely done with everything and it wouldn’t had mattered who it was, she would had gotten pissed either way. Having hopes of being freed only to be disappointed, constantly filled with heartbreaks, then being sent someone who didn’t physically look like a typical hero ,was probably insulting to Calypso, because now it felt like they were just sending anyone to her and she had to fall in love with them or they can’t leave. I don’t have much of an issue with Calypso because I felt Leo’s attraction with Hazel was more on the fact that she was probably the second girl he had deeply associated with besides Piper and she treated him with more respect than the girls he had met, not to mention her past with Sammy made them closer, but he wasn’t in love with her. So meeting Calypso and falling in love with her, because he spent time with her, wasn’t that bad. Sudden and surprising but not bad. My issue with Leo was just his conclusion.

- Jason Characterization. I really do like Jason, but he wasn’t really my most favorite of all the characters. I feel like for being Percy’s Camp Jupiter counterpart he had a bland characterization and was quickly overshadowed by other characters and their arcs. I just wish he was given a more complex narrative, not that he isn’t a complex character, but for some reason it was difficult to get into his character arc. In general though I do like him and I do think his story did a full circle when he accepted himself as both Greek and Roman as well as meeting Thalia and Zeus. Jason always felt like he was restricted and felt the pressure from being perfect and a leader, so when he learned his background, met his mother, Thalia and Zeus he became more rounded, he didn’t hesitate anymore.He became more of what he wanted to be. 

-Frank. I thought he did develop well gaining confidence, learning about his heritage which he dismissed before, understanding his mother’s choice on why she died and making up with his grandmother. The only thing was that Ares and Hera kinda made it seem like he would be the key to stopping Gaea and in the ending he didn’t do much, like he became praetor, but I thought his role with Gaea would had been different considering Gaea wanted to specifically kill him. Not to mention it seem like he was gonna have a throwdown with Percy with how Ares made it seem. So that was my only problem.

-Hazel. She was a sweetheart and her character development was good. I thought she was gonna die a lot of times, but I’m glad she didn’t. I thought it was and alright closure for her. Overcoming her guilt for almost waking Gaea, accepting her powers, dominating the mist, riding Arion, the conclusion with Sammy, making peace with her mother, she just gained so much confidence in so little time. Her story was good and I don’t really have complains about it.

-Piper. I don’t really have an issue with her characterization. I love her and her putting Gaea to sleep was iconic considering she felt the most useless of them all. I just felt it was great Piper had always been true to herself and although it took time to come to terms with her Cherokee side and being Aphrodite’s daughter she didn’t lose herself. Despite everything Piper was a key and a mediator in the group and did save them many times. Piper is such a compassionate character. I think her putting to sleep Gaea and gaining confidence, especially in her charmspeak, as well as her relationship with Jason ending with a true kiss was good and was a good conclusion.

-Reyna was a queen the whole time. She was great so I don’t have any issues with her characterization conclusion at all. I felt sad she took everything upon herself, she was as lonely as Nico, but she continued to act on what was right despite objection and acted like a true leader. I love her. I felt sad she felt like she needed Jason or Percy to heal her heart, she was so lonely, so when she began to do so herself I was moved.

I mean I loved the books I could make another post of what I loved about them. It had a good start, the characters are endearing, they had precious and iconic moments. I loved the relationship between characters. I just had a few problems with the ending, it’s alright I do like it, but I think it could had been more. 

[some-deaths-can-be-prevented]

Chapter One:

The Start Of Something Big

AO3

In a single instant, a life can be saved, or taken.

A single choice of a single person in a single moment can decide the fate of another.

In this universe, Octavian lives.

In this universe, instead of Will standing by and letting Octavian kill himself, Will tackled him.

This causes a multitude of changes.

Nico slashed through Octavian's robes, and knocked away Michael Kahale.

The oanger still fired towards Gaea.

The explosion still killed Leo.

Yet Octavian remained on the ground.

Yet Octavian remained alive.

On a sunny afternoon, instead of dying in a golden, fiery explosion in the sky, Octavian was taken into custody by the Greek Demigods.

On a sunny afternoon, Reyna resumed command of Camp Jupiter.

On a sunny afternoon, Octavian remained alive.

On a sunny afternoon, a single choice, by a single person, made in a single instant, changed the fate of a single teenager.

Octavian was put to an impromptu trial and was put into the custody of the Greeks to do as they wished with him.

He was a prisoner.

But yet, he was alive.

Years ago, 3, if I'm not mistaken, the basement of the Big House was where a son of Hermes named Chris Rodriguez was kept. A son of Hermes from the other side of a war. A misguided teenager driven against his family. A mere child driven insane from the twists and turns of the never-ending malevolent labyrinth, at the hands of the ghostly King Midas.

Now, the same basement of the Big House served as a prison to a different misguided teenager, from the other side of another war. A legacy of Apollo. A man who was thought to be deranged. A child who just wanted to defend his home.

Octavian, Legacy of Apollo.

Octavian hadn't been fine in a very, very long time.

He hadn't been good in even longer.

Octavian grew up in New Rome, orphaned at 10, he joined Camp Jupiter at 11.

Octavian lived for Camp Jupiter.

He breathed for Rome.

His blood flowed for his city.

And yet, there he was, a prisoner of the enemy.

A prisoner who would almost certainly never to arrive back home.

A prisoner, tried and convicted.

Octavian was born in New Rome to an unmarried couple.

He was born to serve the gods.

He was born to lay down his life if it meant the betterment of the legion.

At least, that's what he believed.

At least, that’s what he was taught to believe.

The Greeks had attacked his home.

The Greeks had declared war by sending fire at New Rome.

They had attacked first.

They offered no explanation.

They offered no condolences.

They fled.

And then the praetor ran after them.

Treason.

Collaboration with the enemy.

Treason is always death sentence.

Reyna, if she were to ever to return, should, under many generations old law, have been killed.

And yet?

She wasn't.

And yet?

Octavian was punished.

Thrown in the basement of a camp he didn't belong in.

Left to the mercy of the enemy.

Left to rot far, far, away from his city.

Left to rot far, far, away from his home.

He had acted with integrity, at least, he had acted with integrity at first.

He couldn't tell you when exactly his motives turned towards himself, nor would he ever want to.

Octavian looks back at those final few years at Camp Jupiter as the worst part of his life.

I, would say he is correct.

At first, Octavian wanted to avenge his city. Avenge his home.

Avenge his people.

At first, Octavian had only wanted to protect his home, his life.

But… then, at some point, he simply didn't.

Octavian had always wanted to be remembered with honor. For his legacy to be one he could be proud of.

If you really think about it, maybe you could say his desire to be remembered pushed him led him down the dastardly path he took through his late teens.

Octavian the Brave.

Octavian the Valiant.

Octavian, Savior of Rome.

Octavian, Pontifex Maximus.

Octavian, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata.

But, in the end, he was remembered quite differently than he would have imagined.

Octavian the Bloodthirsty.

Octavian the Power Hungry.

Octavian the Deranged.

Octavian the Disgraceful.

He never wanted to end up like this.

Not really.

When Octavian first joined Camp Jupiter, he had been exited, ecstatic, and eager to rise in the ranks.

He had looked at the legion as where he was supposed to go. His future. His destiny. His legacy. What he was supposed to do in life.

But, what they don't tell you is that Camp Jupiter is an Army.

Not a summer camp.

Octavian had always been on the frailer side, too pale, or too skinny, or even too weak, and he had never had the best constitution.

He had never been the most well liked, either.

He had few powers to mention, and had never been the best at making friends.

He was quick to trust others…

…and even easier to use.

And so we start our story in a dark, dank basement. Our protagonist with thick celestial bronze cuffs around his wrists, and chained to the wall.

He had been stripped of his jewelry and robes, stripped of his weapons, stripped of his titles, stripped of his pride, and stripped of his home.

They would not stop mocking how pathetic he is. How far he had fallen.

He decided to ignore them.

Octavian screamed himself hoarse when anyone dared to approach him. Roman or Greek, it didn't matter.

He screamed anyway.

To the few Romans who came, he called them traitors.

He screamed that they were collaborating with the enemy. That they were committing treason by leaving their superior chained to the wall in a dark, lonely, basement. He screamed that they should free him.

He screamed.

He begged.

He pleaded for them to free him.

They didn't.

They tried to calm him down.

They tried to get him to listen.

They tried to explain.

But eventually, Octavian chased them off with his demeaning words and sharp insults.

He had never felt more alone.

Even with them in his head, he had never felt more alone.

He treated the Greeks who came to see him far worse than the Romans.

They were his enemy. He came here to eliminate them and return the gods to their rightful glory.

They didn't like the Greeks.

They were screaming to kill them. To tear them apart.

Instead of doing what they wanted, he called the Greeks a wide range of foul insults and slurs.

They were the enemy.

The Greeks were.

They attacked New Rome.

No one bothered to explain things to him, at least, not in a way Octavian was willing to accept.

It didn't help that they wouldn’t stop mocking him.

He screamed until his voice was gone, and even then he made hoarse croaking sounds at those who dared go near him.

He didn't try to escape.

What was the point?

Where would he go? To the mortal world to be devoured by monsters?

They tried to tell him that he could escape.

But he knew they were lying.

He was alone in this. He was alone in his imprisonment. Any allies he might have had had forsaken him.

And They weren't really allies, were they?

Eventually, Connor and Travis Stoll come to take off the shackles.

When Octavian hears the door open, his first thought is that they have come to hurt him.

The second is that they have come to kill him.

And They certainly weren't debunking the idea.

They try talking to him, but Octavian was yelling. Screaming. He didn't want any Greek near him.

They destroyed his city.

They attacked him home.

They killed his people.

He shrunk away when they approached him, flattening himself against the wall.

He tried to tell them to leave.

He tried to get away from him.

They were screaming at him to attack the graecus.

The Stolls told him that they are not here to hurt him.

Octavian didn't believe them for a moment.

They shared a look, and walked towards him.

Octavian's heart was beating so loudly he would have sworn that they could have heard it from across the room.

Octavian’s heart was beating so loudly it almost blocked them out.

Octavian refused to let them come near him, not without a fight at least.

He is knocked down almost pitifully easily, reduced to almost pitiful screaming and thrashing.

The Greeks were touching him

Their warship has attacked his home.

They attacked his city

They were touching him.

Disgust and rage and fear was all he felt.

Connor held his arms steady while Travis took off the shackles.

Octavian was screaming. Screaming.

Half thought out sentences and half panicked insults spewed from his lips like water gushing from a crack in a dam.

He was scared.

He didn't know what they planned to do with him.

He ignored the tears congregating in his eyes. They meant nothing.

He ignores the terror coiled in his stomach like a snake. It meant nothing.

He ignores the pulsing fear he felt when they were near him. It meant nothing

They certainly didn't ignore it.

He is less than a prisoner of war.

He is their enemy. Who they can punish however they think fit for his crimes.

They have no reason to keep him alive and unharmed.

The shackles were off his wrists.

The sons of Mercury Hermes left his prison.

Octavian collapsed to the floor, scooting against the wall, before he backed into the corner. His arms were wrapped around himself, and his knees pulled to his chest.

He ignored the tears running down his cheeks. They meant nothing.

He was ignoring the consistent, uncontrollable tremor in his hands, he told himself that it was from wearing the shackles for so, so long.

He knew he was lying.

They knew he was lying.

But he wasn't ready to accept any other explanation.

Besides, they were already screaming at that he was weak. That he was a failure to Rome.

He will never admit to crying after they left.

He would never admit to any sort of weakness for a long, long time.

He didn't eat the food provided, it was probably poisoned.

They told him that.

He didn't want to believe them.

After what felt like eons, but was likely not ever a day, he decided to eat.

He needed nutrients.

Poisoned or not, he needed nutrients.

He managed to stomach a bread roll and a glass of water before anxiety all but consumed him.

The food was not poisoned, but our dear protagonist had no way of knowing that.

He didn't eat any after that.

He didn't touch the food again.

He couldn’t bring himself to eat anything else.

He didn't want to die.

He might have been in hell, but he didn't want to die

~0~

Octavian is described as insane in The Blood Of Olympus. His laughter is described as brittle. He wouldn't listen to reason and didn't notice his robes were snagged.

~0~

Octavian ends up losing even anything even resembling hope that anyone will save him. That someone will break him out.

He’s trapped.

He’s a prisoner.

He just screams at anyone who comes near him, but it's all a bluff. If you take even a step towards him he cowers against the wall, his screaming more frantic.

His body language terrified.

He cries uncontrollably if you get any closer.

He is scared.

They are screaming that he will be killed.

They won't leave him alone.

They won't be quiet.

They will not shut up.

Now, to clear up any misunderstandings, the Greeks did not wish for him to be killed.

Some may have. To be perfectly honest, it is likely a great number wished for Octavian's quick demise. But not the majority.

They decided to wait for punishment. Octavian was very obviously not in his right mind.

~0~

Those in camp Jupiter never particularly liked Octavian. He was a nice kid at first, but grew cynical with age.

He grew paranoid and manipulative.

He changed.

No one liked him enough to visit a screaming teenager who will accuse them of treason.

No one would bother to care.

Not even Michael Kahale.

Who, at one point would have said he loved Octavian.

But that point was long past.

No one came to see Octavian for days, other than the routine meals, no one entered his prison.

Unlike Chris Rodriguez, there was no Clarrise to stay with him. He was alone.

On the fifth day of residing in the basement, of being held in a makeshift prison, a Greek demigod named Pollux came to visit.

[jincherie]

warmth | namjoon

↠ written for the KreativeWritersNet au bingo! ↞

↽pairing: Namjoon x reader ↽genre: fluff, drabble, demigod!au, demigod!Namjoon, roommate!au ↽words: 3k ↽rating: sfw ↽notes: this ended up being so much cuter than I thought wtf

Even Cupid’s son needs a break every now and then, but Namjoon’s trip to the human world brings about more realisations than he intended.

↼posted; 07.01.2018

↼Masterlist | Bingo Masterlist

Namjoon, for the most part, got along well with his father.

He was the infamous God of Love— Cupid, and maybe even Eros, as some people knew him— and he had a way of drawing people in. There weren’t many people to exist that disliked his father, although Namjoon was sure his mother had certainly come close at some point. Apparently there were many times when she was fed up with his shenanigans— she was only human after all, and understandably unaccustomed to sudden take-offs in the middle of the city for a romantic evening flying through the sky. Namjoon did admit that his father’s courting methods were perhaps a bit odd, but at the end of the day his mother still loved him, as did most other people he met. He had that air around him, that friendliness and amicability. He was likable. And Namjoon liked him.

But sometimes, he couldn’t agree with him.

The way his father worked, he acted as a catalyst. He set things in motion, prompted events and inspired action. A shot of his arrow could leave a human pining for another, could push them off the precipice and into the depths of love and admiration. He’d assured him many times that he didn’t just go shooting people willy nilly— each shot happened for a reason, each love inspired by the touch of his arrow predestined and planned before the human ever came to be by the fates— but still, something didn’t sit right with Namjoon.

The humans had free will for a reason, and he believed it was wrong to ‘make’ them love. To him, loving someone was big— it was something someone should have the right to choose for themselves. He’d argued with his father many times about it— “We shouldn’t be deciding for them who they fall in love with!”— but his father would always remain steadfast in his actions and beliefs— “We don’t choose, Joonie. Everything that happens in this world aligns with the plans the fates have for us.” – and at the end of the day, they would always reach a stalemate. Namjoon was a reasonable man, but it was wearing on him.

It was such an argument that he’d just come from, and frankly, he needed a break. It had gotten to the point that it was too vexing to train and study beneath his father when his beliefs differed so vastly. It frustrated him; he didn’t like being upset with his father but he couldn’t change how he felt. Ultimately, he’d decided he needed a break, and when he’d told his father he was leaving for the human world for a while to take some time for himself, he hadn’t stopped him.

Which led to where he now found himself, outside the door of some human, with a rumpled, creased flyer in his grasp. Roommate wanted, it read in faded ink, the number and address printed beneath in smaller font. He needed a place to stay while in the human world after all.

As he listened to the footsteps of his possible future roommate approach the door, he could only hope that he wouldn’t need to look any further for a place to stay, and that they were someone he would get along with.

x     x     x     x     x     x

His roommate was… frustrating.

When you’d opened the door a week ago and shot him the brightest smile he’d ever seen—your clear, pleasant eyes creasing happily and warmth seeping into his chest as a result— he’d thought that maybe, just maybe, this was going to be fine after all. He took the tour of the house, becoming more and more charmed every minute yet maintaining a polite emotional distance, and had signed the form agreeing to be your roommate without a second thought.

It hadn’t taken long for him to realise the mistake he’d made, however. He’d come home not even a day after moving his meagre belongings in to find you perched on the couch, popcorn in your lap, as a movie he knew all too well played across the tv screen.

“I didn’t take you for the type to enjoy Love Actually,” he remarked with raised brows, hanging his coat up and slipping his shoes off.

You turned from the film, eyes bright, and shot him a grin. “Oh, I adore it!” you gushed, slipping a piece of caramel popcorn into your mouth. Your cheeks were a peculiar shade of rose, whether from your happiness or the fluffiness of the movie you were watching, Namjoon didn’t know. “The way everything is linked together, all the love, the idea that things are meant to be…. I’m a hopeless romantic.”

You’d let out a sheepish chuckle, turning back to the movie, and Namjoon felt a peculiar sense of disappointment make itself known in him, edges tainted with frustration. He’d come to the human world to get away from the nonsense his father spouted, yet here he was… roommates with a girl who believed the very same things. He sighed, so softly you didn’t notice, enraptured in the romance before you as you were, and made his way to his room, closing the door gently behind him.

He’d already signed the form, and he didn’t intend on leaving, but he certainly wasn’t pleased with the situation he found himself in. He’d just have to bear with it, he supposed. You weren’t that bad after all, even if you were a romantic fool.

x     x     x     x     x   x     x

Bearing with it became a lot easier when Namjoon discovered your other tastes in reading and films.

It had been a cool summer evening when he’d knocked on your door. He was about to go get some groceries and felt inclined to ask if you needed anything. Even if your views didn’t exactly align with his, you were still polite to him, kind even, and he always prided himself on his manners and the way he carried himself.

“Come in,” your voice carried through the door, music reaching his ears softly but not clear enough for him to discern. He opened the door, handle cool against the heated skin of his palm— being a demigod, the offspring of an immortal and a mortal, meant his body ran hotter than most, always thrumming with the power running through his veins— and was surprised to see you reclined against the headboard with crossed legs, a very familiar book in your hands. You looked up as he entered and shot him a bright smile.

Namjoon forgot everything he’d initially come to say. “You’re reading Demian?” he queried, eyebrows raising slightly. You laughed, and his cheeks flushed as he realised how shocked he’d sounded.

“It would appear so,” your tone was teasing, eyes warm as you placed the book on the bed face down, turning your attention completely to him. He could feel his cheeks reddening further as you teased him, an heat unnatural even for him setting over his face. “You’ve read it?”

For a moment, he completely forgot why he’d even knocked on your door in the first place. He found himself leaning forward eagerly, a smile slipping onto his face.  He voiced his confirmation, a list of what piqued his favour most about the book tumbling easily from his tongue. You sat eagerly, listening and providing your own insight and analysis, and Namjoon found himself becoming more and more drawn into you with each word that passed your lips.

When he queried what other fiction had caught your eye, you referred him to the bookshelf behind him, and he was pleasantly surprised to see more titles he knew and enjoyed himself. Original intention in visiting pushed far from his mind, he lost himself in the depths of conversation with you, his mind being stimulated by conversation in a way it hadn’t ever before. You talked yourselves deep into the night, and when he finally retired to his own room, a pile of recommendations in his arms,

The longer he lived here with you, the more facets of your personality he discovered. With each day that passed he learnt a little more, and fell a little deeper into the anomaly that was you. The presence of heat over his cheekbones became a regularity, the smile that slipped on his face at the sight of you a constant. Your views no longer mattered so much to him— he was far too entangled in discovering every piece of you to be bothered by your idealistic notion of romance.

And it was this very ideal you held, your view of love that you placed on a pedestal so, that had gotten you into so many instances of hurt.

When he answered his phone that evening, he hadn’t expected it to be you, and he absolutely hadn’t expected you to invite him to the cinemas. Namjoon hadn’t met your friends, but he had a feeling that if he ever did he wouldn’t like them. It seemed like they did nothing but set you up on date after date, such a lack of thought and care present in choosing the candidates that each time you left the house prettied up and beaming as radiant as the sun for a date it was almost certain you would return heartbroken and alone. Whether they stood you up or just hadn’t clicked, in his time with you Namjoon was sure he had witnessed them all. Despite his initial resistance, the two of you had quickly but surely become friends, and Namjoon could safely say he wasn’t a fan of seeing his friends hurt by the actions of others.

So when he heard your voice over the phone, a slight waver present behind your cheery tone that hinted at much drearier emotions welling within you, he agreed without a second thought and before he knew it he was walking up to the entrance of the cinema several blocks away. He’d mulled on your situation a thousand times over, how you could still be so hopeful and optimistic, hold such faith in fate that it would bless you with love you were meant to feel some day, when all you’d been faced with was heartbreak and disappointment. He didn’t understand it; didn’t understand how you could simply let it go, shrug it off and keep on hoping. He didn’t understand how even with all of the evidence contrary to your view, nothing ever seemed to shake it.

When he found himself standing beside you, and you spun to face him with a blinding grin despite your watering eyes, he couldn’t understand how anyone could have ever stood you up. Dressed in a colour that made your eyes pop, your hair styled nicely and makeup enhancing all your best features, he was sure you were the ideal date, and although he’d never admit it the very sight of you had a peculiar warmth blooming in his chest, his heart skipping a beat. Oblivious to his inner monologue as you handed him the ticket that should have been for your date of the night, you’d looped your arm through his and grinned up at him, tugging him into the theatre. Even if he’d wanted to, he wouldn’t have been able to resist you.

What was normally an occurrence that would result in you wallowing in your heartbreak, you’d turned into a lovely night out. Namjoon spent the night with you, happy to help lift your mood however he could, and along the way found he was enjoying himself more than he ever had with anyone before. Hushed whispers throughout the movie, soft chuckles as you made a joke that tickled his humour too much for him to stay quiet in the almost bare cinema, and greasy, indulgent dinner afterwards where you both talked to your hearts content about the things that interested you most. Namjoon didn’t think he would ever stop being fascinated by you.

He regarded you fondly, with the type of affection that snuck up on him and left him unawares until one night, as you enter the apartment after your later shift at the restaurant, his favourite dish in an airtight container under your arm, and shot him that beautiful smile he’d come to regard as a staple in his routine, it smacked him in the face. All of a sudden the thudding of his heart caught his ears, thoughts drawn to the heat in his cheeks and the sudden clammy nature of his palms, and he was drowning in the realisation that you were meaning something to him, something much more than he’d ever intended or even thought to conceive.  

He didn’t have time to ponder it— you were there, and you were serving up the meal you’d put aside just for him— because you knew, you knew it was his favourite— and you were grinning up at him with such unadulterated content and fondness for him, he couldn’t do anything but take the plate and the fork and offer you a blinding grin of his own in return. He brushed the thoughts swarming his mind aside, tried to calm his racing heart and maybe pretend that what he thought— didn’t want to think—was happening, wasn’t happening.

Because acknowledging it would throw everything he believed in to the ground.

He managed to last a month.

Each day he denied himself, denied the burning urge within him and the realisation that had prompted it, was a day that he spent growing weaker and weaker against you. Without fail, you drew him in, even when he tried his best to resist, to pull away, to pretend you hadn’t come to mean so much to him. Something about you called to him, reached deep into his soul and attached itself firmly to the centre of his being. He knew he couldn’t keep it up for much longer, knew he was playing a losing game and one day he would truly lose himself in you, but until then he did everything he could to resist.

And in the process, he didn’t notice he was drawing you in too.

The day you left for your first blind date in weeks, was the day he experienced a certain flavour of heartbreak on his own. Watching you leave through the front door, looking the very picture of perfect and eliciting such a strong yearning within him that he had to physically step back, he could hardly manage to bid you farewell. The smile you had offered him before leaving out the door had a different tone, a saddened tone, and he didn’t have time to wonder why before you were out of sight and the door closed before him, handle already growing cold in the absence of your touch.

So even the handle could miss your warmth, he pondered. He needed to face the emotions stirring within him, but to do so he needed to admit to himself what he’d realised one long month ago. And he couldn’t. He was scared.

For so long he’d felt the way he did about love, about how his father operated and the notion of fate. It was so firmly entrenched in who he was that at the prospect of acknowledging that might have been wrong and losing that part of him, he was terrified. Who would he be if he didn’t feel the way he did before? He’d changed, become a different person before he’d even had a chance to notice the transition, and he was clinging desperately to the last traces of who he used to be.

He was scared, because losing that part of him, letting it go… he’d be alone. What was he supposed to do with this new version of himself once he admitted his need, his love for you?

He didn’t get to ponder anymore, because there was a sudden noise at the door. A jingling of keys, a symphony of metal against metal so familiar to his ears, and suddenly the door was swinging open and the catalyst of his transformation stood before him once more. He opened his mouth, a query on the tip of his tongue, but you beat him to any response.

One step forward, two, three— he couldn’t take his eyes off you as you approached until you were right before him and lurching up, eyes fluttering closed at the feel of your soft petal lips against his and the passion behind them. His hands came to your waist, clutching you close, so close, and your own came to cup his face with such tenderness he felt his heart physically ache.

On the breath that filled his lungs as you parted was he intoxicating scent of you, and his eyes met yours as you pulled away, shooting him the smile that had won his heart so long ago. “Y-your date—” he managed to stutter, mind an incoherent mess but his heart thrumming and so alive within him he could hardly speak.

“I had a realisation,” you said, fingers tapping against his cheeks. “Why am I going out to find love, when I’ve already found it, and its waiting for me in my very own home?”

The smile that split his cheeks took you but surprise, but the kiss he planted upon your lips after surprised you even more so. He was warm, so, so warm, and you could feel the heat enveloping your own heart as he kissed you with all the fondness and love you’d ever yearned for.

Wrapped in the touch and feel of you, he realised that perhaps maybe it was ok to have been wrong all along. The way he was drawn to you, the way he had fallen so naturally in love with you, had happened before he’d even realised he’d slipped so far— and it couldn’t have been anything but fate.

But even so, as he entwined his fingers in yours and tugged you close, Namjoon was sure that even if fate hadn’t orchestrated your paths, he would choose to love you over, and over again.

[thorne93]

Inexplicable Fate (Part 22)

Prompt: When a blinding pain overtakes you at work, what will be in store for your life when you run into the Winchesters and learn Lucifer’s son is about to be born?

Warning: Language, pain, angst, violence, fighting (verbal and physical)…fear of insanity??

Word Count: 2527

Notes: This is for @roxyspearing gif challenge. It’s a Jack x Reader fic (so Season 12 and 13 spoilers) Long, slow burn, (a little slow paced at first).

Beta’d by the ever fabulous @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

Forever Tags: @capsmuscles @cocosierra94 @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @hardcollectionworldtrash @igiveupicantthinkofausername@kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaeling @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo

IF Tags: @iamafishandigosplish @myfamilysincarolina @ilovemyangelforever @kazuha159 @bisexualdolphinthings @mysteriouslydeliciouswerewolf @justiceiswater @millard-our-savior @polkadottedpillowcase  @hunter-demigod-timelord @octo-cow52 @damnedangel98 @bad-moose @weirdoblogger69

Dean Winchester: @akshi8278 @mogaruke

Sam Winchester: @mogaruke @lenawiinchester

Castiel: @lenawiinchester

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11  Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your chest felt as if a building was sitting on it while you stumbled back. Michael? Procreate? Angels? Nephilim?

“Y/N?” Sam said cautiously as he slowly stood but you continued to slowly back away.

“Holy Hell,” Dean mused. “So...God wants you two to--” he wagged his finger between the two of you, pointing at you and Jack “--to reproduce angels? That’s what all of this was for? Finding us on that road in Colorado, your powers, the weird attraction?” His brows were knitted in thought, everyone’s was, now that he’d spoken it aloud.

“My love?” Jack cooed as he eyed your shock stricken form. Your eyes snapped to him and that feeling you felt when you always saw him, it soared through you. But now...now it felt damnable.

“I---I--I can't do this,” you said before running to your room and closing the door, shaking from overwhelming feelings you couldn’t even sort out right now.

Michael was your distant grandfather? As in the archangel Michael? As in the flaming sword Michael? As in the angel who put your boyfriend’s father into Hell? And...How does that sentence even sound right to you?

Now you’re being told you have to...What? Repopulate the angels by...by...by being a brood mare for Jack?

In the midst of your panic, a knock came at your door, and it surprised you to see the eldest Winchester.

“Hey, kid,” he greeted. “Can I come in?”

Your hands were between your knees as you rung your hands nervously. You nodded in response, not knowing what else to do. He came sauntering in and sat on the bed beside you.

“So…Crazy stuff, right?” he asked, a little bit of a laugh coming out and you shot him a look. He raised his hands and tilted his head to the side. “Sorry. I just...yeah...How you holdin’ up?”

“How do you think? I just found out I’m Michael’s great granddaughter...I..I’m supposed to be with Jack to create angels,” you said, narrowing your eyes and throwing your arm back to gesture vaguely at his location in the bunker. “And I’m supposed to be okay with that? I’m supposed to be okay with the fact that nothing I’ve felt up until now is real?” you demanded, getting angry. “I’m supposed to be okay with the fact that I’m not human? I’m half arch angel and I don’t even get a say in it?”

“Who says you don’t get a say?” he retorted. “Me and Sam? Hell, Lucifer and Michael were fighting over us like pieces of meat. Who was going to wear who like a meat suit. Both of us said no. It was told to us by everyone that it was fate. It would be. But we said no, and we won.”

“Michael still inhabited your other brother Adam...And Lucifer did inhabit Sam. So they won…” you quietly reminded.

“They said we’d tear each other apart, and we haven't done that,” he noted.

“But Dean this isn’t telling the angels to fuck off,” you stressed. “This is….this is my future with Jack,” you said, choking on your own words. “So any kids we have, they’ll be an angel. So--So--So what? They can just come down and take them? Do they even get a choice to be born down here? If Jack and I want kids of our own…” The idea trailed off, breaking your heart. You’d always wanted kids, a family, the cookie cutter life. You thought you’d get that with Jack. But now you learn whatever children you have are Heaven’s property? That had to be worse than not having kids at all.

“So do that,” he said.

“Do what?” you asked, exhausted.

“Tell the angels to fuck off. We’ve done it-- a lot. It’s not hard,” he informed.

“Maybe for you and Sam. You’re the Winchesters--”

“Who are just human. You and Jack? You’re stronger than both of your fathers. You can beat the two biggest bads there are, on your own. Together? You two can wipe them out and anyone else who tries to come for you.”

“But...to be told my fate is this. To know that...that everything lined up perfectly for this. It’s...it makes me feel powerless. To know that no matter what I did, my parents did, my ancestors did, we would end up here. I would still meet you on that road to my house, I would still follow Cas...To know none of it was free will...I mean...The feelings I feel for Jack aren’t even real,” you said, raising your head, the tears flowing freely now. “And it’s not like I can change that. I can’t pack up and forget about him and marry someone else. I’d always know he was out there, and that I loved him…”

Dean nodded slowly. After a moment he said, “I get it. The angels told me and Sam the same thing. That free will didn’t exist. That it was all an elaborate chess game from thousands of years ago, becoming truth. But I told them to go to hell and the plan be damned. You think they won, but they didn’t. You still have free will, and if you don’t want to have angel kids - don’t.”

“Dean...I know...I know that for you it’s easy. I know you’re gonna do whatever you want, which is fine. It’s always worked for you two, but...If God wants me to replenish the angels….I know they’re sort of psychotic. I know they’ve put you through hell. But maybe...If they were our kids they wouldn’t do that. We could raise them like a family, remind them about love and compassion and do away with the diligent soldier bit…”

Dean sat there a long time, mulling over your words. He didn’t know what to say, not at first. Your situation was very different from one he’d ever been in. His were always relatively black and white: kill the bad guy, save himself and everyone else. But this was...something else entirely.

“I can’t tell you what to do. I can’t tell you to not do it, or do it. I can’t tell you what the right thing or the wrong thing is. Hell I can’t tell you that no matter what you do, you won’t still end up there anyway...But I can tell you, you don’t have to do it,” he said with finality, turning to you and giving you a look of confidence, of wisdom. He got up from the bed, leaving you to your thoughts and erratic emotions.

For what seemed like eternity, you sat in your room, your emotions still reeling, your mind still racing, your breathing hadn’t slowed. Until a familiar low voice sounded in your room.

“Y/N,” your best friend greeted, the unbelievable angel.

“Cas,” you whispered back, your back to him as you sat on the other side of your bed. He walked in and stood in front of you. “Did you know?” you wondered quietly. “All those months ago, when you felt inside my chest...Did you know?”

“No. I didn’t. I had no idea what was inside you.”

You chewed your lip, unable to comprehend all of this. “And Michael? Did you know about that divine plan?”

He shook his head and gave you an apologetic expression. “No. I never knew Michael’s plan. I think that was a confidential mission for him.”

“Yeah, seems so,” you scoffed slightly. “Cas...What do I do?” you asked, looking up at him, a million questions burning in your eyes, in your face, behind your tongue.

He sighed and shrugged. “I...I think you should know...while you and Jack were in Florida...We didn’t hear from you two for a few days...So I went to the sandbox. I talked with an informant...They had told me that they were going to put you and Jack to work, to replenish the population. At the time, I thought they meant with power...energy. I had no idea they meant procreation,” he confessed.

You peered at him. “You knew this, and you didn’t tell us?”

“No. I only found out why they wanted you. Why they tried to kidnap you in January. Why they tried to go after Jack whenever he was vulnerable. They want you two for that purpose.”

“Yeah, I gathered that,” you commented quietly. The two of you were silent for a long time. “If it were you...what would you do?”

“That’s...a good question,” he said as he walked over and sat beside you on the bed. “Not too long ago, I would’ve said do what God says. Whatever he commands, should take place.”

“Thy will shall be done?” you mocked lightly, bumping his shoulder.

A small smile played at his lips. “Yes, I suppose that’s the case. I don’t know. I felt lost for a very long time. I was a warrior, a soldier. Everything was black and white. The missions were clear. But as I’ve been on Earth, as I’ve been with Sam and Dean...They’ve shown me another way. They’ve shown me we are our own person, that we do have free will.”

You laughed without humor. “Yeah, Dean just said that to me.”

“He has a point,” he remarked with a bit of a nudge.

“Cas...This isn’t...This isn’t just choosing between personal preservation and the world or whatever. This is my life. My children. My future with Jack,” you stressed, feeling completely helpless.

“I know, and I can’t imagine how this must feel.”

“It’s not Kelly. I’m not...I’m not having a child that could maybe save the world. I’m guaranteeing that all of Jack’s children and mine will be angels. That’s if we have them! What if I get pregnant with someone else? What happens then? Do I even get to keep my children? Would they know me? Or would they be like Zachariah and Uriel?” you asked. “My...life...has been planned out for me and I had no idea. It didn’t matter any decision I made, any hard work I ever did, any failures or successes, I would still be here. I have no control over my life.”

“Yes you do. I didn’t think I did. But I promise you, you do,” he vowed confidently. “I didn’t have to stay and follow my brothers, or God. I had a choice. I always did.”

“Right, but your choices are easier than mine. Mine are have angel kids or have no kids,” you retorted. “For you and Sam and Dean...Your choices only affected you, not...not your future children. If I had to make test tube angels, it would be completely different. But it’s not...It’s...This is the old fashioned way of making children, making love, conceiving a child, and me carrying it to term...I don’t know if I can just give a kid up.”

Just as Dean had done, he sat there, spinning your words over in his head. Finally, he spoke though.

“I think...that you need to do whatever your heart says. At the end of the day, do whatever makes the most sense to you,” he said, a bit of introspection painted on his face.

“That’s the hard part,” you breathed with a quiet laugh.

“Just...think about it and don’t do anything you regret,” he advised as he stood and you thanked him for his help. He gave you a small smile and left the room.

Another patch of time seemed to fly by when you heard someone walk in, and your emotions took over. “Sam, please. I just...I want to be left alone,” you firmly said, exhaustion in your voice.

“It’s not Sam,” your boyfriend corrected lightly, making you snap your head in his direction.

“Oh, Jack,” you breathed. “I’m sorry,” you apologized, shaking your head as Jack made no hesitation to get to you, sitting next to you, his arm around your shoulders as he held you close.

“Don’t be. I’m sure this is stressful,” he replied.

After a moment, you didn’t know what to say. What could you say now that you hadn’t already said?

Except one thing. “I don’t know what to do,” you whispered.

“What do you mean?” he questioned.

“Well...What do we do?” you stressed, turning to face him.

“I...don’t know,” he confessed, frowning. “What’s going through your mind?” he asked as he peered at you.

“That...this--us--isn’t real,” you said, your hand gently laying over his, the light flooding it as always. “That that isn’t real. The feelings I have for you aren’t real.”

“How are they not real? Do you not love me?” he countered.

“Jack...It doesn’t matter how I feel. It matters that God put this in motion a long time ago. This isn’t normal. You and me feeling something for each other, our emotions, our feelings, our responses, my dreams, none of it means anything, because it was just put in our head.”

He shook his head slightly and argued, “So what if it was? Prophecies can be broken, it doesn’t mean that what we’ve felt for each other over these past couple of months means nothing. I still care for you, whether it was foretold or not, and I will continue to care for you because that’s how I feel, not how God is making me feel.”

“It doesn’t bother you that your feelings were put there? That they aren’t true?” you questioned.

“Does it not feel real to you?”

“It does, but that’s what bothers me,” you retorted.

“Then isn’t that all that matters? It feels real, and we’re happy?”

You shook your head. “Okay, let’s say it is,” you offered, “what about our kids?”

“We don’t need to make any rash decisions,” he started, and when you began to object, his eyes turned hard with warning for you to not interject. He grabbed your hands, the warm, soothing feelings and gold light shimmering casting over you. “This feeling. Us. Our...relationship. All of it feels very real to me. I know this is scary. I’m scared too. I’m worried. I’m curious. But I...I don’t want us to make decisions on something as big as having children right now when I don’t think either one of us is ready.”

Slowly, you nodded.

“I’m only two months old,” he reminded with a playful smile that you couldn’t help but return. “And you’re only twenty. We have a long time to decide on children and our future together and figure all of this out.”

You nodded again. He was right. There was no good in figuring all of this out now, seeing as you weren’t planning on children any time soon.

“Okay,” you acquiesced with a slight bob of your head.

“Okay?” he confirmed softly.

“Yeah. We’ll...We’ll put this on the back burner for now,” you agreed.

“Good,” he quietly said before leaning to kiss you, his hand automatically going to your hair. The taste and sensation of his lips the same as always: perfect.

Which is what scared you.

[drittegeist]

          LEVIATHAN BERND SULZBACH + BIOGRAPHY    /     ′ DER LEIDEN DES JUNGER SULZBACH ′

         arc 01    /     ′ THE HANDS OF GOLD ARE ALWAYS COLD, BUT A WOMAN’S HANDS ARE WARM ′

1918 was the year where a tragedy started finally taking place, after being, for long, antecipated by the fates. they talked about two children, two wolves who would wander around a forest just as black as the night --- they could, one day, find the light of fame and legend, or could both be thrown in the eternal darkness of oblivion. children of different elements, representing different meanings but, in the end, they'd complete each other, as one. just like cain and abel. it was february when poseidon met hida sulzbach, a witty, small and fragile (health wise) woman that found herself alone after her aunt's death. her father, a strict soldier who valued his motherland and the germanic values, was sent to the oriental front to face the russians --- strangely enough, bernd was yet to come back, even though the armistice between germany and russia had already been signed. it was hard to get her to talk more, she was always so shy and avoiding of everyone. her eyes were of a golden color, just as yellow as the engines she used to manipulate --- as the god got closer to her, he knew more about her life. a drop-out of school, she managed to work on her father's bakery to not be considered a failure. she told him her father wanted to marry her to someone when he reached home after the war was over, but she didn't want to. they became closer and closer. hida had never had anyone around her, that really wanted to hear her talk, all she needed was a chance to give up her shy facade and kiss the other for the first time. they, for months, were lovers and friends, and sulzbach could say she finally felt happy for once. as the end of the war was approaching, she felt fear --- fear of her father's return, of her fate. she didn't know what would happen. except poseidon had an idea: bring her closer to him. he'd take her to parnassus, the godly training centre for demigods && mortals who were adepts to their cause. the place had been built after the fall of the holy roman empire, when the prophecy of the two brothers was announced. they needed to prepare for the wars to come. and so she left, seduced with her godly lover's words and promisses. for years, they lived a good life --- everything seemed perfect. until came the fifth year, and they were still together, contradicting all of the existing laws for it. that was when poseidon found out that hida was a wolf scryer by nature because of a connection her family had had to artemis --- unfortunately, she could never develop it. it was way more than average, to be honest. wanting to piss off his brother and frustrate his romance that was pretty much, at that point, forbidden, zeus laid with the german woman, disguised as her lover. that was before she found out she was pregnant --- later, finding out that she was expecting twins. little did she know that the boys were from different fathers.

        arc 02    /     ′ SAME CLOTHES, HOMEGROWN, A STONE’S THROW FROM A CREEK WE USED TO ROAM ′

unfortunately, the poor 24 year-old could never see her children for more than some minutes, before passing away, tragically. the blue-eyed one and son of zeus, named wolfgang, was as strong as a bull --- didn't have any problem, was just fine. on the other hand, leviathan, the amber-eyed son of poseidon, wasn't that good. he seemed like a fragile baby, and caught a pneumonia that almost killed him in his first few days of life. that was when his father, in order to keep his lovechild alive, decided to connect him to his personal pegasus, the first one he had ever created. his name was, at that point, fantásma, and he was albino, just like a ghost, his eyes were of a bright red color. it was scary. after it, leviathan's right eye took the animal's coloration, bringing him a weirder look. the twin half-brothers were left in freiburg with bernd sulzbach, now a veteran of war who had lost his hand to the soviets, fighting under the insignia of wilhelm ii. the man had given up his life for the reich, hungry for glory and to fullfil his duty with his country, forgetting to be the father his lovely daughter deserved. gods knew how much he felt destroyed for hida's death --- it was on his back as much as it was on poseidon's and zeus's. the woman was prone to illness since she was a toddler, and it was a common opinion in the family that she could never mother any children --- basically because she'd die in the process. one would probably be alright, but twins... and, then, their life started. leviathan was the most fragile, the most small and shy. he used to try to work at his grandfather's bakery, mostly without any success. they lived in a small apartment in freiburg, with only one kitchen and one room, where the three remaining members of the sulzbach family used to sleep. the boy has so many memories of the past --- of the days when, because of the growing inflation, they didn't have enough money to even eat, and bernd couldn't make his business run. he remembers of crying before sleeping because he hadn't eaten anything. oh, lord, how he does. sulzbach was considered childish and stupidby his peers at the luteran institute for boys, also known as the place where bernd spent most of his money at. he wanted to educate the children so they'd have a good future and not end up being a mere baker as him. leviathan used to carry his teddy wolf to school everyday, and everytime people bullied him, he hugged the little stuffed animal and cried, alone. the social confusion, the constant shutdowns. that was the boy's life. fairly enough, he was exceptional in mathematics, just as much as his mother. on the other hand, he was no good in languages and struggled with letters that, by his on words, got messed up in his head, which made him panic whenever the tests were coming. unfortunately, not even the teachers were, at that point, caring about him. his desperate tears were just one more reason for the kids to bully him, to punch him after school, to call him abomination. and, as the nazist ideology raised in germany through the passionate words of adolf hitler, DER FÜHRER, the more the people were intolerant towards him. why do you, a pure german boy, walk around with this abomination? he is a waste of space and money of our state, once, a man asked wolfgang. herr, he is my brother, he answered. do you two come from different fathers?, and the younger twin punched him in the face. he was always like that, a fierce protector of those who needed --- and, in that moment, leviathan needed him. soon enough, the entirety of german would. the nazis had risen, and the war was about to start. 

       arc 03    /     ′ HEROES WHO CAME FROM THE SAME UTERUS ′

leviathan didn't talk much --- he used to spend some time away from home, in the same spot as always, building up new devices. gods, he loved it. the reason sulzbach loves doing it so much is because he knows what to expect from a machine: nothing but patterns, proccesses that repeat themselves one after the other. it didn't tire him like socialization did, it didn't drain his energies. all leviathan ever wanted was to fix broken things, put them all back together. he'd one day do the same with his family, he hoped... but he couldn't. the war had broken through, and bernd knew what the nazis would do to his grandchildren. but, still, he couldn't bare to let them go after their destiny --- he though he could interfere and, somehow, change it. but, when it comes to the fates, there is no choice. two years had gone by, and he held his boys away from the separation that'd occurr between them. it was may of 1940 when the lives of the twins changed completely. bernd, knowing the boys would be arrested because of the threat they were against nazi germany, told them to go away. and they almost did --- except the pair didn't want to leave the old man alone to face the officials. watching everything from a refuge, leviathan and wolfgang saw their grandfather being brutally killed because he refused to share any information on the place they had gone. they were devastated, but couldn't stay there and face them, they couldn't seek revenge at that moment. for some days, they wandered. leviathan and his twin lived the greatest adventure of their lives, along with their friends, meino and daniel. before dying, bernd had given them a map --- and, even if it seemed weird, it was magical. it'd bring them to the village of pähl, in bavaria. except it had been destroyed after the fall of the holy roman empire and, now, there was a city named parnassus. the limit between the divine and the mortals, the only place that could bring peace to germany and the world. amidst the road, anyways, when they were close to reach the city, leviathan found a small creature hidden in the woods --- anyways, it seemed like he had carefully been placed there for him to find. for some reason, everyone perceived him as a husky, and not as an actual pegasus, but the brothers and his companions could see the truth behind the illusion. he was named geist due to his ghostly features, such as his bloody eyes and white fur. there, they found out that they were, in fact, children of different parents. leviathan, a son of poseidon, and wolfgang, of zeus. during six months, he trained with the other divine children, preparing himself to face the nazis along the allied army. sulzbach learned how to shoot, how to defend himself (in the most clumsy way), but it was enough. he knew he had to be a hero for once, to honor his dead mother and dead grandfather. they were the ones that mattered the most. he fought and won battles by the side of the allies, and legends used to say that him and his ghost used to fight as only one, making the soldiers afraid of the other's said power. it was in a battle that leviathan was caught by the nazis --- afraid that they'd try to harm geist, he made the pegasus flee, giving up to fight against his enemies. all that sulzbach wanted was for both the animal and his brother escape without no further harm. it was leviathan they wanted.

       arc 04    /     ′ PAIN MADE ME A BELIEVER ′

for the next 4 years, he dived into pure pain and darkness. leviathan sulzbach was being destroyed, piece by piece. the trauma was so intense it made him forget his own name, replacing it with the mark that was placed on his arm. 00003, drei. drei. the happy german boy, shy and family-oriented, was pretty much dead at that point. the suffering, the pain, the spanking. he saw death get so close, through starvation and illnesses. the only reason why he didn't die was because, somehow, geist kept him strong. they were one soul, forever. in 1944, one year before he was freed by the americans, dr. heinz started experimenting black magic on the demigod --- he knew he had the blood of a king, and that could work well. for this reason, he was submitted to sessions of pure torture, and the mark on his arm took a different meaning. other than the mark of drei, it was the mark of cain. gods, it led to levi's worst memory: when he was illusioned to have killed his brother. then, the americans came.

      arc 05    /     ′ EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES ′

back to parnassus, leviathan could feel nothing other than sadness. all his friends had died, and where was him? gods, he should have died with them. he should have died with his valiant half-brother, diederich, and his crush, edda. sad, he reclused to his own room and didn't talk for weeks --- on the second, he almost killed himself, and was rescued by poseidon. that was when they found out that leviathan had been cursed --- he couldn't die, but wasn't a god. he was just... eternal, somehow. dr. heinz's fault, he guessed. for this reason, he became a wanderer --- such as cain. more than 70 years had gone by, and all he waits is for someone to give him a strike of mercy, so everything could be over.

[fireandgloryrpg]

Congratulations Kcat and welcome! We’re so happy to accept your application to play Adriana Caninii with the faceclaim of Phoebe Tonkin in Fire & Glory RPG! We can’t wait to begin roleplaying with you so please remember to look over our checklist! 

OOC INFO:

Name: Kcat Age: 21 – April 04 Timezone: EST

Activity: I am both a senior year undergraduate student and an officer for my university’s ambassadors, so as I’m sure you’ll understand, I’m very busy. However, roleplay is my go-to stress reliever. I can typically manage to get on two to four nights a week and drill through replies. If things get extra crazy in real life, I’ll be sure to let you lovely admins know and request a hiatus if need be. Anything Else?: I HAVE MISSED ALL YOU LOVELY FUCKERS WHAT’S UP GUYS!!! MAN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK ;D

OC APPLICATION:

Name: Adriana Caninii Age and Birthday: 24 years, 31 March 1993 Faceclaim: Phoebe Tonkin, Tay Jardine Heritage: Daughter of Mars, Legacy of Invidia Affiliation: Centurion of the Fourth Cohort, Cult of Romulus

Abilities: (omg pls erase my ramblings if/when you post because I just wanted to be super clear with each of these so that nothing came of as godmoddy because I would NEVER make that the intention :3 just throw your questions and stuff at me. y'all know i’m a real chill pill)

From Mars

telumkinesis: natural mastery of all weapons; ability to curse the weapons of opponents

odikinesis: can enhance or induce rage, hate, fear, and intimidation; can dispel “battle jitters” from others

From Invidia

Invidia is said to be the Roman name for Nemesis. In the PJO canon, Nemesis claims that she is known by the same name by both the Greeks and the Romans because revenge and justice is universal – which isn’t wrong. However, in much of Roman mythology, while Invidia is still associated with Nemesis, she is also seen as an independent goddess, one who differs than the Greek version of Nemesis in that she is primarily the goddess of envy and vengeance, along with the standard Nemesis’ qualities of revenge and justice. Invidia itself was a power that the Romans feared. Literally their term for envy, after winning a great battle, Roman soldiers would use talismans to protect themselves from Invidia, and for good reason. Envy was a sickness that could lead soldiers to craving more battles, more victories, and in their desirable wake, cause great harm in their pursuit of excessive glory. It could also turn the best of men into animals, friends turned enemies in conflict over a lover, a treasure, recognition. Invidia is also a goddess associated with the evil eye – like Nemesis’ ability to speak of one’s fate, only Invidia typically embodies the darker side of fate, bringing about her justice through curses, indirect manipulation, and supposedly even a little bit of “black magic.” (but far less on the magic bit, obviously)

Adriana’s mother is a daughter of Invidia, and as such, some of her powers have transferred down to Adriana, albeit at a lesser strength, variety, and level than in the case of her parent.

fascinare: ability to bewitch a person into an envious state with the express purpose of inducing conflict between that individual and others (this ability would take a bit of a toll on Adriana. Historically, it’s an actual power that the Romans feared, like invidia. It’s the sort of curse that plants a little seed of envy in someone’s heart. The caster, again, has no say over what results from this. They’re just drawing out what envious emotions a person might have deep down in the hopes that coaxing those emotions out will allow them to fester into a full-blown conflict by the affected’s hands. It’s not a quick process, but a slow one, and the results vary widely depending on the person. If they’re truly good at heart and generous, for example, this ability really wouldn’t affect them. It’s just stirring up what’s already there and what happens depends entirely on the individual and their pre-existing personal issues)  

poison tongue: venom can cast fascinare or cause mild nausea and dizziness (rarely unconsciousness) via a kiss (okay literally this amused me so much and I was dying to test it out as an ability. In a lot of lore, Invidia is said to have a tongue that’s actually poisonous – likely due to the fact that her symbolic animal is a snake – but obviously, that’s a little extreme for demigods and especially for legacies so I’ve watered it down to this – for one, Adriana would obviously have to engage in mouth to mouth contact to make this work (how awkward and uncomfortable for her lmao), and thus she realllly isn’t too fond of it. She’d have to use this in order cast any sort of fascinare power, but additionally, it could be used to disorient someone – as if a sudden unexpected kiss from a daughter of Mars isn’t disorienting enough – it’s not likely to cause someone to pass out unless Adri has to commit for some reason because it’s absolutely necessary. We’re basically talking a delirious effect, not so different from the dizziness and disorientation of being significantly drunk, and it doesn’t last very long. Maybe five minutes, ten if she’s lucky. If she can get along without having to use this ability, she will. It’s more of a dire need for escape sort of trick)

The Influence of Luna

Both Adriana and her cousin, Fergus Fitzgerald, share the same traces of blood from the goddess Luna via their great-grandfather, Aulus Caninii, a son of Luna. Of the two of them, it’s Fergus that is most affected if only due to his heritage as a son of Oceanus, as the sea and moon have always been closely aligned in the ebb and flow of the tides. For Adriana, this heritage brings little more than a slight influence of mood and preference for time of day. She is, by nature, more of a night person than a day person. Early mornings are especially miserable, but years in the Legion and the formation of a daily 5AM running habit have helped her to combat this fact. She feels her best and strongest at the apex of the full moon and her crummiest and most fatigued at the apex of the new moon. Unless someone was meticulously attentive to Adriana’s day-to-day patterns or had been told of this heritage by Adriana herself, it is highly unlikely they would recognize this behavior as anything of note. As such, Adriana does not claim outright to be a legacy of Luna because her effect on the daughter of Mars’ blood is so minimal.

Headcanons:

Ancient lineage and political powers aside, the Caninii are well-known for their talent of dog training. In the age of the Roman Empire, dogs were common companions beside men in battle. Adriana’s family has continued this tradition with pride. The Legion’s ‘war dogs’ are held at a training kennel near the stables in Camp Jupiter. Renzo, Adriana’s half-brother, is currently responsible for their training and upkeep, but Adriana often steps in to assist. She has only fully trained one dog thus far, and that is Septimus, her German Shepherd and inseparable partner.

Adriana’s most prized possession is her longsword, an heirloom that has been in her family for generations. At its original forging, the sword was named Servatrix, but Adriana has developed her own conventions and opinions that oppose a number of the Caninii’s long-held beliefs, and has subsequently changed its name to Grayclaw. The blade is forged of an imperial gold and silver alloy. The fusion of metals takes away from their overall effects, but provides the advantage of having both lethal elements on hand.

Biography:

Born to Livia of the family Caninii, Adriana has wealth, respect, and an ancient bloodline that has inevitably determined her future. She was raised in New Rome by her grandfather, who filled her head with tales of the great achievements of her forefathers as soon as she was old enough to understand them. He is a charismatic and brilliant man, but this family patriarch holds his kin to strict expectations.

Gaius made it clear to Adriana that she would be responsible for upholding their family’s glory and reputation. From an early age, the young Roman knew who she was and what she could do. She trained for hours each day in combat, weaponry, war strategy, Roman history – whatever was necessary to educate her as a proper soldier. But while these lessons came naturally to her, Adriana was wary of how her grandfather was crafting her to his ideals. Gaius is a Roman Senator, not a family man. He has political desires and an indomitable ambition. While he holds his advantages close, he is not inclined to treasure them. Adriana, like her family namesake, is a dog. Albeit a well-bred one. Gaius showed her off and trained her to be obedient, to come when called and to strike at his order. But Adriana was, and remains, resilient. Years of observing her grandfather’s tactics led her to develop some skills on her own. His little warrior learned how to play false appearances. Whenever Gaius was confident that his guidance was building toward his desired end, Adriana fed his belief, keeping her conflicting feelings and opinions to herself.

By the time she arrived at Camp Jupiter, Adriana was a hardened fighter. With high commendations from Gaius and several other elite members of New Rome’s society, she was assigned to the First Cohort. The rigorous training of the First not only developed the skills that she already possessed, but also nourished her true personality – something her grandfather had sought to suppress in order to maintain his control. Adriana is loyal yet independent, studious yet audacious, valiant, and though ruthless, fair. She’s not the type of person to judge at first glance and believes strongly in second chances.

But, when the Argo II attacked New Rome, the resulting damage shook the daughter of Mars into believing that her grandfather had been right all along – you can’t trust a graecus. The Battle at Half-Blood Hill had robbed Adriana of friends and allies, leaving her with a deepening malice toward their East Coast counterparts. She viewed the unification as a betrayal to those that she had lost and refused to stand for it.

Adriana’s change in attitude did not go unnoticed. Gaius picked up on the shift in his granddaughter and sought to seize the opportunity it presented. One night, he drew her away from camp and introduced her to the secret society lurking beneath the streets of New Rome. When she emerged early the next morning, Adriana was not only the dedicated soldier she had always been, but also the Cult of Romulus’ newest inductee.

Shortly after her induction, Adriana was appointed Centurion of the Fourth Cohort. The office suited her well. It gave her a chance to improve the skills of some of the Legion’s less popular legionnaires and, with the cohort’s sizable inclusion of Greeks, to keep an eye on the activities of the foreigners. However, as months of leadership turned to years, Adriana came to realize that despite the few upsets between the camps, the transfers from Camp Half-Blood weren’t actually all that different from the demigods of the Legion. They showed no signs of plotting against New Rome and Adriana had even begun to grow fond of them – Imagine that! A member of the Cult getting friendly with the enemy? She was lucky that her Cult companions passed it off as keeping their enemies close. Even so, the Cult tightened their grip on the daughter of Mars. She could hardly take a breath without them taking note. That leash has loosened since then, but Adriana is still walking a perilously thin line.

Adriana was seduced into the Cult of Romulus by their power and promises of reformation at a time when it seemed impossible to hold anything but malice toward the Greeks – a malice that she no longer possesses, a power that she doesn’t need, and a reformation that isn’t necessary. The true battle is not against one another but against the monsters and deific powers that threaten their livelihood. How could the city’s darker powers not see that the Roman demigods and their Greek counterparts are a far more formidable force together than divided? To the war strategist ingrained in in Adriana’s bones, this is common sense.

Adriana’s knowledge of the Cult’s existence coupled with her opposing opinions is a loaded gun. If she could drop out of the Cult she would do so in a heartbeat, but you can’t just leave a cult. Especially not one so prominent and powerful as the Cult of Romulus. They have ways of keeping their wayward members in line, as she already knows, and speaking against them publicly – or worse, revealing them – would be suicide. Adriana is doing her best to remain a neutral party in quiet defiance, but not all the Cult’s demands are so easy to ignore…

Yet while she keeps to the shadows in her disagreement with the Cult, the daughter of Mars has not been as subtle in regards to her kin. The Caninii clan’s esoteric convictions and unjust manipulation for personal gain have built them an empire within New Rome, but the power they wield is abusive and Adriana won’t have it. Wielding her status as the single direct descendant in her family line and the next head as she would a weapon, Adriana is determined to reshape the conventions of her house. If put toward good rather than gain, the wealth and influence of her family could be an avenue for positive change, but Adriana is a warrior, not a politician; and without allies and support, she can’t expect to enforce any alterations to her kin’s ancient dynasty anytime soon.          

For now, Adriana is treading lightly. Balance isn’t easily maintained – anyone with Invidia or Nemesis’ blood in their veins knows that all too well. However, with the right pressures, sharpest moves, and great patience, fate can sometimes be swayed in one’s favor. Adriana does her best to be an honorable leader and a fierce soldier, appearing ever the pure, loyal Roman until she has her chance to tear away from the destiny that has been fashioned for her all her life. And when she finally gets it, she’ll do what she does best. Fight.

Para Sample (idek what this is lmao I tried):  

Adriana’s senses went to the wayside as she stood in the midst of the crowd. The heavy beat of the music that projected from the stage pulsed across the field, stoking the spectators’ energy in the late night hour. At the high volume of the rock band’s set and the surrounding exclamations of enjoyment, hearing anything else beyond the event was nigh impossible. Adriana had gotten swept up in the tide of it all. With a beer in her hand and a friend at her side, she couldn’t imagine a better evening; and she didn’t want to, because as soon as she wished it, her fun was likely to end. The Fates were relentless pranksters in that way.

The concert had been Dani’s idea. The Second Cohort legionnaire had snatched the centurion to the side between training sessions and to lay out their plan for a brief escape. Adriana, always willing to step outside the boundaries of her lifelong home, had eagerly accepted. She could always rely on the legacy of Hades to come up with the most entertaining – and sneakiest – schemes. It didn’t even matter to Adriana that she wasn’t familiar with the band. Between the political stuffiness of New Rome and the responsibilities of Legion leadership, the supposed demigod sanctuary could become a suffocating environment. Adriana would take any opportunity to step aside, let loose, be herself, and just breathe.

So there she was, jumping up and down among a mob of strangers and releasing her pent up stress through a non-violent outlet. As the music tapered down for the band’s transition into the next song, the daughter of Mars took a moment to rest, chuckling through panting breaths at the dark-haired person beside her. “You’re right,” she grinned. “They’re not bad.”

“Not bad?” The legacy of Hades scoffed in mock hurt. “For all the trouble it took to bring you out here, you would claim that these beautiful, Muse-embodied humans are not bad?” Dani clicked their tongue disapprovingly. “Remind me never to invite you to join me on my ventures again.”

Adriana shook her head at the short legionnaire. Despite being the sage, Dani was a good six inches smaller than her, at the least. Not that their height made them any less ferocious. Dani was a wild soul and Adriana admired her temperament greatly. “Hey, don’t look at me,” she shrugged with an indifferent look down at the other. “You’re the one who took me out to see a band I’ve never heard of in my life. It’s not my fault I don’t have a reference to judge their music.”

Dani groaned through an exasperated sigh. “Fiiiiine. You’re excused.” Around them, the fresh beat of a new song began to shake the ground. “You’re lucky I like you, Romaíos.”

Adriana had taken that line as the close to their conversation, ready to sink back into the sounds and the madness, but just as she was teetering on the height of that edge, a pulse beneath her feet caught her off guard. No one else appeared to have felt it even though it was off beat to the rest of the tune, and there was a telltale prickling sensation that ran down the centurion’s spine. She stopped moving, eyes attentive, feeling focused, and again felt the thump resonate across the ground. In an instant, entertainment had turned to vigilance.

“Dani, stop.” Adriana reached out and placed a firm hand on the Greek’s shoulder.

Dani hesitated a brief moment before they complied. They pouted up at the Roman and opened their mouth to object, but then they felt it too, right down to their bones. The lightheartedness faded from their expression and a hand ventured toward the holster strapped to their thigh in preparation. “Where is it? Do you see anything?” they asked as their honey-colored eyes swept around them – which achieved nothing considering their height.

Adriana fiddled with the ring brace that lived on her right middle finger, sharp eyes piercing through and over the people around them. “I don’t know… it’s pretty hard to see around– wait.” Out of the corner of her eye, Adriana caught a flash of movement. Nothing concrete, but when spotting shadows, it was usually best to assume it was something rather than leave it be and get stabbed in the back for it. “Come on,” she stepped in front of Dani, starting to lead them out of the crowd.

Not seconds prior to the two of them stepping onto open ground, a guttural screech cut through the air. Both demigods snapped their heads to the left and were greeted by the misfortunate sight of a scorpion with a van-sized body. “Every fucking time…” Adriana growled under her breath and swept her thumb over the side of her ring, cueing the accessory to spin around her finger and break off. It extended into a hilt and a blade which she twirled in her hand with practiced ease. In a similar fashion, Dani equipped themself with a pair of curved knives. Adriana looked over to them and the pair shared a silent transfer of information. They knew each other well enough by now to coordinate their attacks without the distraction of words.

I take front, you take back?

Yeah, let’s go.

At Dani’s finalizing nod, Adriana turned to the monster and grabbed its attention with a high-pitched whistle. “Hey ugly!” The beast hissed, shuffling around on its spindly legs to lock eyes with the young warrior. “This what you’re looking for?” She stepped forward once with arms spread to taunt it, and sure enough, it lurched forward with another screech.

Adriana reinforced her stance, standing her ground until the scorpion only had a few seconds of distance left to close. At her side, the legacy of Hades slipped into the nearest shadow and a grin split across the centurion’s lips.

Time to go to work.

[theroyalwords]

Teen Olympians, Chapter 28

-Artemis-

It took a long time for Artemis to realize how fate worked.

It came with the territory of being an immortal. As much as she detested the whole notion, she'd learned the hard way that there are just some things even the gods could not change. Some things couldn't be explained. Granted, there wasn't much. One of the things she never understood was the oracles. It was part of the chaos, the magic, of the world. They were closely tied to the design, seeing all the possibilities that could be, along with the ones that would never change.

Artemis was still trying to understand the girl, especially now that she knew more about her.

Cassia stood at the bar in the kitchen, looking uncomfortable under Artemis's gaze. Orion stood between them, concern marking his brow. It might have been perfectly normal for people to wake up at this ungodly hour on a Sunday, but the harried voices, the tension and concern in which she could hear them speak, did nothing to calm her. She promptly got out of bed to see what the hell was so important to wake her up when she walked in on the three of them discussing this girl's hair brained scheme over breakfast, of all things. Her family wasn't due to arrive until this afternoon, so she fully intended on spending the morning being lazy. Not that she didn't enjoy a good hunting discussion, but this was madness. Orion would want to help her, which would only get him killed faster. She didn't forgive the idiot just for him to die before he had too! It didn't matter what the girl had seen. There was no way in Hades she was letting Orion go on a quest that would end in his premature death.

"It's suicidal," she snapped. "Stealing from a goddess is never a good idea." Cas shrank at the iciness in her tone, towards Apollo. He playfully bumped into her, trying to ease the tension.

"She's not going to kill you, Cas," he explained. Cas quickly glanced at Artemis while biting her lip.

"He's right, you know. I'm still deciding if you are useful enough to keep around."

"Or until you temper gets the best of you," Cas countered. She opened her mouth to add something else before quickly shutting it.

"Her temper?" Apollo questioned. Cas reluctantly nodded her head.

"I mean no disrespect, my lady," she offered as she turned back towards Artemis. "It's just that, um, in some futures, you do kill me."

"Really?" Artemis mused. "Well, since you are a being of forethought, I would assume you would have the intelligence to avoid the situations that end in your death."

"I try," she offered before stealing a quick glance at Orion.

"It's not that simple, Artemis, and you know it," her brother huffed. Artemis simply rolled her eyes.

"Fate, grand design, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. It doesn't take a genius or an oracle to see that this plan is doomed from the start." Yes, some things were meant to be. She had an eerie feeling that this girl appeared in their lives at the right time for the right moment. She didn't feel any particular ill will towards the girl. In fact, she intended on helping her brother free her from the curse. Artemis just wanted to make sure that Orion didn't die before he had to.

"It was just an outline," Orion countered. "It's not like we are going to walk into the Egyptian fortress with a t-shirt that says, 'We are here to steal your book.' We were just talking, Artemis."

"Really, because that's exactly what it sounded like to me! And a damned book, for Hades' sake, will not fix your problem."

"I believe this book will. It contains some of the oldest and most powerful spells known to the universe. I can clarify some of the specifics if you like?" Cas supplied. "It may be the solution I need, but I'm still figuring out the best way to obtain it. We'd really just started discussing it, and I'd love to have your strategic input as a goddess. After all, you are the ultimate hunter, and it is extremely rare that you are denied your prey."

"Hasn't happened yet." Artemis smiled, a chilling one that promised death and pain should anyone cross her. She had to admit, the girl knew her way with immortals. She offered the right amount of flattery. Cas's gaze was steady, unrelenting. She'd stand her ground, no matter what Artemis threatened her with. That was something she respected about her. "So your solution is to steal something of the Egyptians? What book, exactly, do you want to steal?"

"The book of Tope," Orion answered.

"Thoth," Cas corrected.

"That's what I said!"

"The god of intelligence?" Artemis clarified. It'd been a while since she'd interacted at all with the Egyptian pantheon. They usually made a point to stay out of each other's business. They were too obsessed with their spells for her taste.

"Yes. Although, I think he may lack some common sense."

"I wouldn't let him here you say that," Apollo mused with a grin. Cas smiled back at him.

"He would probably agree with me now." Cas frowned. "That is, if he doesn't kill me first. I die at his hands just as much as your sister's."

"What did you do?" Orion spurted.

"I did what I was told to do," she countered. "I didn't purposely pick a fight with him! He's nice enough, I suppose. Not my fault that he had this insane idea to write down all of the mysteries and knowledge of the world so that it could be used for future teaching. All he wanted was proof that he does, in fact, know everything."

"Mysteries of the world? Like what specifically?" Apollo asked warily.

"Everything. And I mean, everything. There is the usual stuff, like burial rights, rules of humanity and conscience, how empires should be run, laws of nature, etc. He didn't stop there. There were entries about magic and power that created the world, ways to exploit the weaknesses of immortals. Basically, some pretty nasty stuff that would be disastrous in the hands of the wrong person, which is why Isis hired me to steal it."

"What makes it any better in her hands?"

"It doesn't, really, except that she would make sure no one could use it but her. Thoth tends to be a little, um, scatterbrained?" She laughed a little at that. "He gets easily distracted because there's so much going on up there." Cas tapped her temple. "Set was sneaking in, getting little peeks of things he definitely doesn't need to know about and was using it to his advantage. From what I gathered, he exploited some info that almost caused the end of the world a few years ago. She and her son, Horus, demanded that Thoth give it up, but he refused, because it was his book, his baby, I believe was the endearment he used. While I think Thoth would be more honest in its use, she was the lesser of the evils at the time. I think she eventually plans on giving it back, at least from what I've seen. Probably to teach him a lesson to keep his more dangerous toys out of the wrong hands and actually apply that intelligence he boasts about so much."

"I highly doubt that. How can you possibly know a goddess's motives? It's not like you are an oracle or something," Orion chided her. "Artemis is right."

Cas's face immediately fell before she looked down at her mug, sorrow overtaking her features. Artemis had to admit, whatever tiny portion of compassion she retained in her immortal soul felt for the girl. It was a wonder she wasn't more damaged than she already was, constantly being put down and disregarded. This curse was her and Apollo's responsibility to fix. Artemis sent a tiny zap of power into Orion, making him jump and yelp.

"Ouch! What was that for!?"

"A reminder. Orion, she is an Oracle. Remember, the whole cursed thing? She sees the future."

"Oh…right. You're cursed?" he asked Cas in clarification. She smiled grimly before exposing the top of her shoulder.

"Fifteen years and counting."

"Back to the topic at hand. This is all well and good, but I still don't understand how this will help," Artemis mused. "How will this book fix things? Are you going to use it for leverage? Trade your freedom for the book?"

"Well, not exactly. Now that my name is out, all the nasties that I stole from and tricked know who I am. Isis may not swing the sword, but she effectively gave everyone free rein to kill me. Without her protection, the threat of her retribution, there's no way that I'll be alive for long. It's only a matter of time before my luck runs out."

"She can't be reasoned with?"

"Um, trying to reason her will not go over well. I mean, she might can be, eventually, when she calms down, but how would you react if you thought someone close to you, a supposedly loyal servant, betrayed you to your rivals?"

"I'd wonder who else you were talking to," Apollo admitted.

"And eliminate the threat before it became one," Artemis added.

Cas nodded her head. "I need leverage. And there's a spell in that book that will give me one. Having that in my arsenal will keep Set and any other Egyptian immortal that values their existence far away from me."

"And that is-?" Artemis began.

"A spell to scatter the essence of an Egyptian immortal. I think you all used something similar with Kronos, but I'm not an expert."

"That's a pretty bold move," Artemis noted. "And why don't they have it already?"

"I have to give Thoth some credit here. See, from what I understand, unlike the other pantheons, they don't really have demigod children. I don't know the specifics nor care to do so, but they use descendants of their Pharaohs or whatever to unleash their will upon the world. Anyways, that spell, created by Chaos itself, can only be read with mortal eyes. Thoth put it in there to keep it safe. The book hasn't been in mortal hands in thousands of years. So yeah, that's why I want to steal that book, and it's the only possibility I see where I don't die."

"It would be a definitive solution, I'll give you that. Still an insane attempt to try it. Do you have a plan or any idea on how to do that?" Artemis questioned.

"Nope. Haven't really had time to research or experiment with my parents disowning me and avoiding death at every turn. Good news? I helped put it where it is. Isis doesn't know that I know of the spell, so I have a slight advantage there."

"That's something to handle tomorrow. Today, we need to deal with the family," Apollo responded. Cas grimaced and laid her hand down on the table. "Not excited to explain things to your grandfather?"

"Ugh, don't say that. All of this is weird enough."

"Please tell me you are not her grandfather!" Orion stuttered. Both Cas and Apollo looked absolutely appalled.

"Gods, no!" Cas snorted.

"Absolutely not!" Apollo yelped.

"Hermes, right?" Artemis pondered. "Well, Mercury, I guess, since your parents were Roman demigods."

"Yeah, he was my Mother's father. My dad is a child of Bellona."

"Interesting combination," Artemis noted. War with the talent of thieves? No wonder she was recruited at such a young age. She'd make a good hunter, for sure, but something told Artemis that her brother would be displeased with that.

Cas's gaze seemed to fog for a second before she rubbed her head. "Athena will be here earlier than expected. She wants answers."

"Of course she does," Apollo grumbled. "Probably already has about fifty different plans laid out."

"More like six, but, yeah she does," Cas said, her tone patient and understanding. However, there was a frown on her face, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "I'm going to get a shower." She downed the last of her coffee before disappearing.

Orion turned to Artemis, probably to ask about using her shower, and she waved her hand half-heartedly. Orion offered her a wink before striding down the hall. She waited until she heard the door to her room open and close before she turned to Apollo. He was sipping on his coffee, gazing out the window with a contemplative look on his face.

"It'll get stuck like that," Artemis teased him. He gave no response other than taking another sip. "Are you mad at me now or something?"

"No," he ventured. "Just thinking."

"About?"

"Everything." His whispered words were soft, full of regret. He turned to her, his normally sky blue eyes a few shades darker than normal. "I need your help with this, Artemis. I want to set things right, to help her. I know we can't interfere much, but I have to find a way to fix this."

"Have you thought of going to Isis yourself?" Artemis wondered.

"It'll only bring it to father's knowledge, from what Cas has seen," Apollo explained with a deep sigh. "Wasn't worth the risk, as she put it. The poor girl is trying to keep us out of trouble, too."

"Her burdens are heavy," Artemis said.

"Heavier than they ever should have been."

"Do you trust her, brother?" Not that Artemis didn't believe the girl, but they'd been down this road before. It'd been millennia since mortals were so close in their affairs. The last time ended in the Trojan War. Was history repeating itself, their follies coming back to bite them in the ass, just like last time?

"Unequivocally."

Artemis nodded her head. "She knew I would meet Orion again. She knew how much it would mean to us. " It felt like a betrayal, whispering those words, admitting the depth of her feeling for the mortal hunter. If there was anyone in the world she could admit it to, it was her brother.

"I know you worry for him, but trust that the last thing Cas wants is for him to get hurt. You don't have to be so goddessy with her."

"She could get him killed," Artemis countered. Obviously, they were close enough that Orion wouldn't let her do this alone.

"Cas wouldn't let anyone harm a single hair on his head. She's done a lot more for him than you can possibly imagine," Apollo added. Before Artemis could ask, her brother vanished, leaving her alone in the kitchen.

Hope you enjoyed! :) Sorry it has been so long! 

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