They’re fucking with us

However it’s also probably a good thing that Apollo kept his thoughts to himself because if any of the attention/affection-starved demigods knew the sheer depth of how much he adores them I think it would actually kill them. Never mind the people he only kind of knows but admires to an absolutely ridiculous degree, most of whom are “I’m doing what I can” types.

He would also slaughter every villain on the spot because his roasts are absolutely devastating and if he ever said the shit he thought about caguila out loud I don’t think anybody nearby would ever recover

Something that makes reading TOA so devastating is how fucking much Apollo feels about Everything. There’s so MUCH. Like I don’t even know how to describe it to you if you haven’t read the books yourself. He has so many complicated thoughts and emotions about just about everything and he cares about everything so much and there is just SO MUCH going on in his head. And yet none of it ever reaches his mouth!!

He almost never says what he’s feeling. What little comes out of his mouth about his thoughts barely even scratches the surface of what he actually means. Like he’ll be having a long ass monologue about how incredible someone is, showing a deep understanding of them as a person and empathizing with them so hard you’d almost think it’s projection but it’s not he’s legitimately just mind melding with this random person he met like a week ago and he’s thinking the softest, kindest thoughts about them like he knows they’re fucking incredible - and what comes out of his mouth is just like, “you’re a wonderful friend :)” AND ITS LIKE. THERES SO MUCH MORE UNDER THE SURFACE. the sheer admiration and adoration he has for everyone around him……… UGHHH!!! But he never VOICES ANY OF IT!!!!!! He never tells anyone about what Zeus did to him……. He never tells anyone except the reader about his realization that Zeus is abusive…. He never even tells commodus about how much he adored him, not then and not now… he refuses to tell anyone when he’s in pain or tries to justify the things he does when he actually had Decent Reasons for why he did something… I’m. I’M. AUGH. AHHHHH

HE DOESN’T EVEN TELL US ALL OF HIS THOUGHTS IS THE THING. THERES EVEN MORE THAT HE IS NOT TELLING US!!!!! THE FUCKING OCEAN OF FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS HE HAS ABOUT EVERYTHING IS THE CLIFF NOTES VERSION. I AM IN DISTRESS.

And YET…. Even what slips out of his mouth is so fucking devastating it is SO devastating. He’s so fucking kind and gentle with Harley and Meg and and other younger Demis and his kids… he’ll act like an obstinate idiot and then turn around say something that drags the core of the person he’s talking to into the light like nail on the fucking HEAD like he reached into their soul and gave them the words to express something that they were struggling to say aloud or that they didn’t even realize about themself. Around the 2nd book he starts putting voice to some of his feelings and thoughts about others and even that tiny fucking sliver is overwhelming to the people he’s talking to bc he’s SO. AUGHHHH

Something that makes reading TOA so devastating is how fucking much Apollo feels about Everything. There’s so MUCH. Like I don’t even know how to describe it to you if you haven’t read the books yourself. He has so many complicated thoughts and emotions about just about everything and he cares about everything so much and there is just SO MUCH going on in his head. And yet none of it ever reaches his mouth!!

He almost never says what he’s feeling. What little comes out of his mouth about his thoughts barely even scratches the surface of what he actually means. Like he’ll be having a long ass monologue about how incredible someone is, showing a deep understanding of them as a person and empathizing with them so hard you’d almost think it’s projection but it’s not he’s legitimately just mind melding with this random person he met like a week ago and he’s thinking the softest, kindest thoughts about them like he knows they’re fucking incredible - and what comes out of his mouth is just like, “you’re a wonderful friend :)” AND ITS LIKE. THERES SO MUCH MORE UNDER THE SURFACE. the sheer admiration and adoration he has for everyone around him……… UGHHH!!! But he never VOICES ANY OF IT!!!!!! He never tells anyone about what Zeus did to him……. He never tells anyone except the reader about his realization that Zeus is abusive…. He never even tells commodus about how much he adored him, not then and not now… he refuses to tell anyone when he’s in pain or tries to justify the things he does when he actually had Decent Reasons for why he did something… I’m. I’M. AUGH. AHHHHH

HE DOESN’T EVEN TELL US ALL OF HIS THOUGHTS IS THE THING. THERES EVEN MORE THAT HE IS NOT TELLING US!!!!! THE FUCKING OCEAN OF FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS HE HAS ABOUT EVERYTHING IS THE CLIFF NOTES VERSION. I AM IN DISTRESS.

And YET…. Even what slips out of his mouth is so fucking devastating it is SO devastating. He’s so fucking kind and gentle with Harley and Meg and and other younger Demis and his kids… he’ll act like an obstinate idiot and then turn around say something that drags the core of the person he’s talking to into the light like nail on the fucking HEAD like he reached into their soul and gave them the words to express something that they were struggling to say aloud or that they didn’t even realize about themself. Around the 2nd book he starts putting voice to some of his feelings and thoughts about others and even that tiny fucking sliver is overwhelming to the people he’s talking to bc he’s SO. AUGHHHH

Heartbreaking: a fanfic of your favorite character has characterized them in such a way that is more or less true to the letter but not the spirit of the character; your beloved blorbo bleebus has been taken at face value!

The more my brain thinks about Annabeth Chase, the more implications of some of what they say comes to my head.

So Athena has her kids pop out of her head, right? Like she did? To get around the whole virgin goddess thing.

And she has them with humans that she forms a connection to - generally, anyway- with some sort of academic relationship, be that writing a paper, having an academic debate, what have you.

Imagine being the mortal parent.

You’ve just finished some big academic thing - be that an experiment or a paper or a class or whatever - and in the process you’ve met this woman who is incredibly intelligent and that you’ve developed a relationship- a purely platonic, completely not physical relationship- and you meet up with her to celebrate, maybe bring up some other ideas of things you could work on together, and she hands you a baby.

She tells you that she’s Athena, she’s enjoyed hanging out with you, here have a child made purely out of our combined brain power, you’ll probably never see me again.

Oh and when the kid grows up some they’ll start getting attacked by monsters that you probably won’t be able to see.

Like.

How do you respond to that?

It’s a really small pet peeve of mine but nevertheless I am here to complain: writers, my good friends whom I love dearly. SILENCE IS THE ABSENCE OF NOISE. You cannot use it to describe a sound.

Something like, “she whispered silently,” is a contradiction. She’s either whispering quietly or mouthing the words. Either she’s making noise or she isn’t.

“He listened to her silent footsteps,” has the same problem. If the steps are silent, they are not making noise. There is nothing to listen to. You can be aware of someone coming up behind you without hearing them.

It’s so tiny and doesn’t matter at all but I’m feeling whiny this fine morning (it is 1 am)

the curse having character thoughts but none of them are coherent

Something I really appreciate about TOA that I don’t see get talked about much is that I never get the sense that Apollo finds Lester ugly.

For all that he complains about the body he’s stuck in, I never got the feeling that it came from a distaste for Lester himself. When he sees Lester’s traits reflected in others, like Meg being chunky, he is completely unaffected by it. Finds it charming, even. (In fact, the only times I can remember him having Opinions about how someone looks is when they’ve chosen something about their appearance that he either approves or disapproves of, like a tacky jacket/hair cut or when he finds someone attractive. The only time I can remember him calling anybody ugly was when he pointed out that Dionysus was choosing to look as ugly as possible to piss of Zeus, which is a statement of fact and doesn’t necessarily mean he thinks that Dionysus’ form is actually ugly. He makes no mention of finding it so before or after that line. It’s a statement of fact that Dionysus is choosing a form that either he or Zeus finds ugly to piss of their dad.)

The thing about Lester is that he is so devastatingly mortal. He has flab and acne and no upper body strength and his voice squeaks when he’s nervous and he sweats a lot and he has a silly name and messy, curly hair that’s impossible to tame. He is the Most Teenager To Ever. There is no godly blood running through his veins, no powers he can call upon. If Apollo were to run into him in the street, I don’t think he’d pay him much mind. He’d probably just think, “sweet kid”, and move on. If he got to know him, I think Apollo would adore him because that’s just who rrverse!Apollo is. He loves mortals despite himself, flaws and all. He’d argue against anything bad Lester had to say about his own appearance and mean every word.

The problem is that it’s Apollo in this body. Apollo, The Golden Child, the perfect son, a God. His distaste for this body is because Lester is so devastatingly mortal and imperfect. Apollo has to be perfect, he has to be shiny and pretty and strong because he has nothing else to offer otherwise.

And.. I dunno, there’s something about Apollo hating the things that draw him to others when it’s him. The flaws that he tears apart in himself he finds endlessly charming on others, or he thinks that they have better reasons for why they have them, or he thinks they have enough positive traits to counteract them. The positive things that he hides deep enough that even the reader can’t see right away, like his kindness and genuine desire to understand and connect with everyone around him, that he’s shocked to find directed at him in turn.

That Apollo accepting himself and reclaiming his personhood leads to him being comfortable with being Lester, imperfect and mortal as he is. That he takes that imperfection back with him to Olympus… I dunno man I’m Emotional. Also it’s just plain nice that Lester is never treated as ugly for looking like a normal ass teenager, even by the guy stuck in this body. That’s neat.

Or maybe I’m just rambling and this means nothing at all and I’m reading too far into Blorbo from my books.

I do not like Frederick Chase in the slightest, don’t get me wrong, but I do sympathize with him and other Athena mortal parents. I mean, with the other gods, there’s usually some kind of relationship beforehand - even if it’s just a one-night stand, there’s still some kind of situation that could, feasibly, result in a kid. Dropping single parenthood on someone is an absolute dick move, obviously, with little to no support and a child who will likely die before they hit 25 making the whole deal extra rotten, but there is, if nothing else, the knowledge that what you are doing could result in a kid. Like if you had a one night stand with some lady and a kid shows up on your doorstep then you’re at least aware that this was a possible consequence, even if you don’t know about the god thing.

Athena doesn’t do that. Athena doesn’t date or have sex with anyone. She meets a mortal who she likes the brain of and just… makes them a kid?? With supposedly no prior knowledge or consent from the other party. They have no way of knowing that their 3-hour debate with Some Smart Lady will make them a single parent. What’s crazier is that Annabeth says Athena kids are claimed from BIRTH. Which means they’re attacked by monsters from birth.

So like, imagine you’re a college-aged kid and you meet some lady that you enjoy being around and debating with. You have a nice, solid relationship that sort of resembles a couple but is solidly platonic. She helps you get into University and pass your classes. You have never done anything romantic, and she was very clear on her status as ace/aro (not in those exact words). Then she reveals her status as a God, drops a kid on your front door, tells you that she is yours to deal with and she will NOT be taking her back because she has to be raised by her mortal parent, who is you, by the way, congratulations, (don’t ask how she has half of your genetic material despite never having sex with this woman) oh and also monsters will be attacking her (and by extension, you) literally from the moment she opens her eyes. (They are already open, by the way.) Then she dips, never to be seen again, no child support in sight, and now everyone thinks you knocked up some poor woman who couldn’t handle the pressure. You Did Not. Also the kid is smarter than you and you’re like 23. Like Frederick is an absolute DICK, don’t get me wrong, but I do sympathize with him.

Of course, it’s possible that she informs her chosen mortals about her status as a god, as well as the children they will be receiving. But considering Frederick is said to have begged her to take Annabeth back, this implies that she either didn’t tell him about Annabeth, OR she DID tell him about her, he said no, and then she made Annabeth anyway and forced him to take her even though he didn’t want her. She definitely told him about being a god eventually, but we have no way of knowing if she was upfront about it or waited for who knows how long. (Considering her rrverse personality, I’d assume she’d tell him - and by extent, the other mortals - early on, but there really isn’t any way to know)

….yes I know about Darren and Apollo. Who knows how that went down, honestly. I like to think Apollo at least told this guy about the kid beforehand. I’m curious why he did that in the first place, honestly?? What is it about this Specific Guy that made him be like “yeah I need to have a kid with this dude.” Does he do this to all his male lovers?? Was Darren Informed?? Mr Riordan I have Questions

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I LOOOOVE NAVIA AND HER 2 DADS

Personally I think percabeth is at its best when Grover is in it. I don’t necessarily mean in a polycule way I just think it’s great when he’s around

My demons are actually very polite, you know. They’re here to cause a bit of an inconvenience, not a ruckus. When they get out the reaction is less WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU and more How did that even Occur to you

Interacting with fandom is really fun and I enjoy it a lot but also it’s been years since I’ve agreed with general fanon characterization of even minor background characters I don’t think about much. I don’t tend to like most popular ships and when I DO like them I don’t agree with how their relationship is portrayed. I tend to prefer platonic relationships and we all know how that goes. Pretty much every relationship I have ever preferred (both platonically and romantically) is a rare pair. My favorite characters tend to have like 10 minutes of screentime and a lot of Implications. Am I a contrarian or simply Enlightened? The world will never know

Kind of late to say this but I personally find the “Annabeth can’t be bLACK, what about her BlOnDe GiRl MoMeNtS??” controversy to be kind of funny because it isn’t even TRUE.

Granted, I haven’t read the books in a while but I cannot recall a single instance where Annabeth was treated like she was stupid. None of the main or supporting cast ever did her the disservice of thinking she was airheaded; if anything, from the moment anyone meets her, they’re like “oh this girl is smarter than everyone else and SO annoying about it.” A good portion of CHB is blonde, and none of them are ever outright dismissed for being blonde. None. Nada! Most (if not all) of her siblings are blonde!

The ONLY instance I remember this coming up is in one of the original books, when Annabeth was like “people don’t take me seriously because I’m BLONDE”. Despite NO EVIDENCE of this being the case. Her version of “being taken seriously” is “being allowed to go on a quest.” And the reason no one is letting her go on a quest is because she’s literally TWELVE. You are a BABY, MA’AM. More than that, she’s the Camp Baby on account of being there since she was eight. No one “takes you seriously” because you’re the youngest sibling, babe. And also they DO take her seriously, btw. They listen to her. she’s allowed to direct the Athena cabin in capture the flag and the chariot race, and just generally has a ton of authority over the Athena cabin that a 12 year old probably shouldn’t have. She might have been the head counselor, I don’t remember. Babygirl you are absolutely being taken seriously what are you TALKING ABOUT.

Maybe at Some Point she might have run into someone who automatically assumed she was dumb because she was blonde but I don’t think we’ve ever seen it happen. Everyone takes her more seriously than Percy Jackson and Jason Grace. Girl.

Again, I haven’t read the books in a while. So I could be wrong. But honestly if I can’t remember it then I can’t imagine it was that important to her overall character.

Someone said that Kaveh’s va acts like if Kaveh got isekai’d into Genshin like 9 years ago and still thinks he’s going to go back to his world. This is an absolutely hysterical concept and while I won’t be making it hc I WILL give Kaveh one too many modern traits and never explaining them. Like he says “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” and everyone looks at him like he’s crazy. He doesn’t actually know what Christianity is by name but he is so.. incredibly Raised Catholic. The way he talks about sin makes Kaeya do a double take so hard he ends up getting whiplash. He knows what a computer is and how to use one, he just doesn’t know the name of it. Same with smartphones. He uses modern slang and references vine despite it never existing in his universe. Stuff like that.

To be clear he was absolutely 100% born in Tyvat and wasn’t actually isakai’d. He’s just Like That. Although the idea of Kaveh being one of the outworlders is very funny

IENZOOOO MY FUCKED UP LITTLE GUY. Thinking abt him. Rotating him in my mind. SPECIFICALLY. Thinking. About whatever he and Axel have going on.

I JUST THINK. That if a guy I had grown up with in a shitty emotionless cult decided to murder my dad and then me seemingly on a whim in incredibly traumatic ways and then have the AUDACITY to be a rude little bitch to me when we came back from the dead while I was trying to extend an olive branch and answer his questions even though my last memory was of me getting strangled to death while he stared me dead in the eyes and I don’t yet have any answers as to what’s going on, I would simply slaughter him on the spot. but he DIDNT. He was calm & deferential & polite. Weirdly bubbly. And it’s WEIRD they’re WEIRD

I think that Ienzo is trying to play Nice and not step on any light warrior’s toes bc he doesn’t want to die a third time. And Lea is a light warrior now, which automatically means that he is Always Correct and deserves the utmost respect. Clearly he knew something that they didn’t and clearly his murder was justified bc all of them are standing here and alive and whole again and Lea is a light warrior with a key blade. And they need to be careful around him because he can do anything to them and he’d be Right and clearly everything Ienzo thought he knew about Axel-VIII-Lea is Wrong. Obviously. Because zexion thought Axel would never attack him and he was wrong about that. And. Sora mowed them down incredibly quickly, as did Riku. So. Play nice, keep your life. Right.

I think he thinks he and his family are at the mercy of the light warriors because why wouldn’t he. He grew up in a cult where the most powerful members were the ones in charge. Where the leader was the most powerful of all because he had a key blade that he used ON IENZO. When he was a KID. You stick around until you’re not useful anymore and then youre eliminated and no one cares because they can’t. He thinks that every relationship is built on exchanges.

He’s trying very very hard to be Good but he has NO IDEA what good even constitutes and he’s starting from the premise that there is something fundamentally Wrong and monstrous with him. And there are Reasons for that and they mostly have to do with the apprentices and specifically aeleus but if we were to talk about all the issues I think this kid has we would be here all year. SO.

Do not get me started on my Thoughts abt his relationships with Isa & Xemnas & braig & the other apprentices

Present Mic: bitch

Endeavor: Excuse me?

Mic: oh, sorry

Mic, quirk activated: BITCH