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g1rld1ary · 2 months

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you never disappointed me - part two

part one part two part three part four

➻ synopsis: luke castellan x aphrodite!reader ; percy and beckendorf's plan to set you up with luke is in motion, but you're extremely resistant to any advances (10 things I about you AU)

➻ word count: 3462

➻ warnings: swearing, ooc/kind of loser!luke, ooc silena, she/her pronouns used for reader, sexual innuendos

➻ thank u so much for all the love on part 1 I am such a happy gal!!!!! also, have my first day at uni tomorrow (so pls wish me luck) and sorry if updates slow down!

TAGLIST: @myxticmoon @wicca-void @leeknows-wife @thekittyxo-blog @number-onekidqueen @instabull

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It turned out that getting you to go out with Luke was harder than he’d originally anticipated. Eager for the whole ordeal to be over and for him to be 50 dollars richer, he’d hopped down from his spot on a fallen log and hurried to meet you by the volleyball courts when your match ended. You, unaware of Luke’s agenda, were fanning your face to combat some of the sweat that had accumulated, quickly tightening the messy ponytail you’d tied. Luke watched you in your own world, unbothered by anybody watching you, unlike the rest of your siblings. Sucking in a quick breath for confidence he approached you.

“Hey there, girly,” He smiled, “How’re you doing?” You looked up at him, inquisitive for a moment but ultimately unimpressed.

“Sweating like a pig actually, and yourself?” You were barely looking at him, skulling an impressive amount of your water bottle quickly. He stared at you, not expecting to be dismissed so easily. He recovered smoothly, not prepared to give up so soon.

“You really know how to get a guy’s attention, huh?”

“My mission in life,” You shot him a cloying smile, now giving him your full attention, unable to help being slightly interested by his boldness. “But obviously I’ve struck your fancy, so you see it worked. The world makes sense again.” You‘d figured out his motives now and had no interest, so began the walk back to your cabin. He followed, much to your dismay. Couldn’t men ever take the hint?

“So I’ll pick you up Friday then?”

“Oh right, Friday, uh huh.” You kept your eyes ahead, dodging a few younger kids as Luke trailed after you, annoyingly optimistic still.

“The night I take you places you’ve never been before,” He said, and you looked at him in disbelief. The ego on this kid!

“Right, like the makeout clearing in the forest? Do you even know my name, Castellan?” Luke could tell that you were mocking him, but he still had high hopes.

“I know a lot more than you think.” He smiled then, a lopsided thing that would have been somewhat charming if you’d actually bothered to look. Instead you were already walking away, calling out a “Doubtful. Very doubtful,” over your shoulder as you picked up into a run, presumably to go tell Clarisse about the bizarre experience you just had. Luke watched you go, dumbstruck in the middle of camp.

Percy and Beckendorf watched the exchange from the porch of the Hephaestus cabin, the latter putting his head in his hands dramatically.

“We’re screwed,” He groaned and Percy winced slightly.

“I’m sure it’ll all be fine, dude. Luke has faced a lot worse than a teenage girl.”

When you sat at dinner that night, desperately avoiding the eye contact Luke seemed desperate on initiating, you almost told Silena about your bizarre day. You’d opened your mouth to start the story when you realised that she’d only be encouraged by Luke’s antics, pressuring you into going out with him for her own benefit and quickly shut it. She’d noticed your odd behaviour and searched for meaning in your face. Panicking for something to replace the conversation, you zeroed in on the necklace sitting nicely on top of her camp one.

“Where’d you get the pearls?” You asked, already dreading the answer. Silena only confirmed your fears, claiming them as your grandmother’s with a coy smile.

“So what? You’ve just been hiding them the last three years?” You were always closest with your grandmother, and you were sure she wouldn’t leave her favourite pearls for Silena over you.

“Daddy found them in a drawer just before summer.” Silena shrugged as if you weren’t sitting across from her, cheeks a blotchy red in your upset. “Besides, they look good on me.” Your hands itched to hit her as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, knowing exactly how much she was pissing you off.

“Trust me, they don’t,” You spat, quietly glad when Silena stalked off in a huff, amongst the first to leave the meal. You didn’t know how much longer you could argue with her before starting to cry, which you really didn’t want to do in front of the whole camp. You thought you were safe for the rest of the meal when Drew began speaking instead.

“You could try being nice sometimes, you know, people wouldn’t know what to think.” You rolled your eyes aggressively.

“You forget, I don’t care what people think,” You replied, taking in a spoonful of food.

“Yes you do. Everyone does. You know, with a new look you could have some serious potential.” You ignored her last statement.

“No, I don’t,” You emphasised, “You don’t always have to be who they want you to be.” You knew that wouldn’t impact Drew in the slightest, but you hoped it might resonate with some of your younger siblings — encourage them to nurture their internal beauty rather than accept the vain stereotype Aphrodite children were forced into. You pushed yourself out of the bench you were sitting on, needing a break from your insufferable siblings. As you dumped your dishes where they needed to be you saw Luke beginning to follow you and turned to make dead eye contact. Knowing you’d only scream at him (or worse) you gave him a dangerous look, accompanied with an almost imperceptible shake of your head. Not enough for anyone else to know you’d even acknowledged him, but enough to tell Luke to back off. He was smarter than you thought, as he held up his hands in a show of surrender, redirecting his action to innocently collect up his own dishes.

You may not have had any interest in knowing the boy, but you did appreciate that he knew when to back off. Or so you thought.

You were proven not-so-free from Luke Castellan the very next morning. It was the Aphrodite cabin’s day to check all the storerooms, and you’d volunteered to do the one which held all the weapons and armour near the sword fighting arena. You knew none of your siblings would come near if they could help it, mostly against weapons and the violence that surrounded the area, so you’d get a whole morning alone. It was peaceful attending to the chore, and you were allowed to use some of your Aphrodite eye for beauty. Of course, stacks of swords and assorted weapons could only be made so pretty, but you enjoyed organising them into neat rows, making it look as nice as possible — not that you would admit that to Silena or you’d be in her vanity chair receiving an unwelcome makeover in seconds.

You were just admiring your own sword, which you’d taken the time to polish while you were taking care of the others, when you felt a presence behind you. You didn’t react, assuming it was just some camper coming for a weapon, until he spoke.

“Nice sword, vintage hilt?” You tensed as Luke’s voice infiltrated your peace.

“Are you following me?” You disregarded his statement, an unimpressed frown present on your lips.

“I was training in the arena and needed to polish my sword. I saw you come in a while ago and not leave, I came to say hi,” He explained, and you raised an eyebrow. You weren’t friends, why would he come for a chat?

“Hi.” You promptly turned back to your task, shoving the cloth into the intricate designs of the hilt.

“Not a big talker, huh?” He persisted.

“Depends on the topic. My sword doesn’t exactly whip me into a verbal frenzy.” That wasn’t strictly true — the sword was a gift from your mother, with gold twisting around a blood red ruby in the centre of the hilt. After you’d made it clear that you weren’t going to just sit around during your time at camp she gifted you the sword, her way of saying that if you were going to fight, you should at least look good doing it. You’d had several conversations with Clarisse gushing over the intricacy of it, and profusely thanked Aphrodite for the gift in your offerings. You didn’t quite care to share this with Luke, being a relative stranger.

“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” He asked, and you were somewhat taken aback by the earnest tone of his voice.

“Afraid of you? Why would I be afraid of you?” You couldn’t help the incredulous laugh that crept into your sentence.

“Most people are.” He gestured subtly towards his scar — gnarled and twisted against his otherwise tanned skin. You put a hand on your hip, resigned to conversation now.

“Well, I’m not.”

“Ok, maybe you’re not afraid of me, but I’m sure you’ve thought about me naked.” You were pretty sure Luke was going for smooth or charming, but you thought in this moment he was entirely lame. The wink didn’t help his case.

“Am I that transparent? I want you, I need you. Oh baby, oh baby.” You put on your best Drew impression, nasally and whiny, before handing him the cloth he needed to polish his own sword and turning to leave. There, quickly approaching the door, was Ethan. Seeing you he put on a disgusting smirk and blocked the doorway, effectively caging you into the storeroom.

“Gods, what is it, asshole day?” You asked, not caring that both boys could very clearly hear you. “Do you mind?” You gestured to his blocking the exit. He simply looked down at you, clearly doing his best to appear sexy (and failing miserably).

“Not at all.” His stupid smirk was going to kill you, and not in the good way. You scoffed, giving him a last chance to get the fuck out of your way. Then, sparing a fraction of a glance back to Luke pretending to mind his own business, you slammed the hilt of your sword into his foot, wishing it was the blade instead. You watched him crumble to the ground, holding his foot with both hands.

“You bitch!” He yelled, voice cracking pathetically in the middle. You forced your smile to stay contained.

“Oops,” You feigned innocence, one hands covering your mouth strategically. “You might need some ambrosia for that…” With that you side-stepped him, eager to leave the situation. If you’d have looked back, you would have seen the gleeful, disbelieving smile on Luke’s face, probably the biggest one he’d worn in a while. Although he didn’t get the date he’d entered for, he was beginning to think you were a little more interesting than you let on.

“Did you just cripple Ethan?” Silena shrieked as you entered your cabin to grab your things. “He’s a model, you can’t do that! Has it escaped your notice that you’re completely psychotic?” You pretended to think for a moment, then shrugged nonchalantly.

“Guess your long walks on the beach are gonna have to wait,” You sighed dramatically, leaving Silena to wallow in her pity alone. It wasn’t like it was really your fault — if Ethan had learned how to respond to words or learn the meaning of ‘move’ he wouldn’t have gotten himself into that situation in the first place.

Meanwhile, Ethan and Luke were having a similarly emotional conversation after Luke had — very reluctantly — helped Ethan over to the infirmary to get his foot checked out.

“When I shell out fifty, I expect results.” Luke sighed, could this boy get any whinier?

“Yeah, I’m on it,” He said through gritted teeth, resisting the urge to hurt him.

“Watching that bitch obliterate my foot doesn’t count as a date. If you don’t get any, I don’t get any, so let’s get some,” Ethan said, running a hand through his ridiculously styled hair. Luke couldn’t believe his nerve. First of all, obliterated? He would be left with a bruise for a few days, if anything. Secondly, this whole things was Ethan’s idea, Luke had never given any indication wanting to ‘get some’, especially not with someone so clearly resisting his advances. Just as Ethan left, giving the Apollo girl treating him a douchebag smile, Luke hardened his resolve.

“I just upped my price,” He said, loving the way Ethan’s eyes widened like a cartoon character. “A hundred bucks a date, in advance.”

“Forget it,” Ethan grumbled, moving to leave again.

“Forget her sister then.” The two boys stared at each other, one significantly more amused than the other. Luke knew he had the upper hand in the dynamic, something he revelled in. Then, after the intimidation tactic clearly wasn’t having any effect, Ethan reached for his wallet, Luke admiring the crisp fifty he was handed.

“You better hope you’re as smooth as you think you are, Castellan.” Luke just watched him go, confident tilt of his head conveying his outlook on the situation.

Luke had taken his usual spot overseeing combat training, but his usual thoughts were long gone. Instead, he was entirely preoccupied with you. He didn’t know how to get you to go out with him when you could barely entertain a conversation, and he twirled his cigarette between his fingers as he pondered.

Percy and Beckendorf saw his internal conflicts, slowly moving closer to him under the guise of a very chaotic fight between the two. Finally Luke gave them attention, knowing Percy’s skills would never have him running all over the place like that. He raised an eyebrow, a sign for them to get on with whatever they were angling at.

“We know what you’re trying to do, for Beauregard,” Percy said, and Luke appeared almost startled.

“And we want to help,” Added Beckendorf helpfully, shying away when Luke’s eyes bore into his.

“And why would you do that?”

“Beckendorf here has a major crush on Silena—”

“Gods, what is it with this girl? Does she sweat nectar?” Beckendorf opened his mouth to protest when Percy spoke over him, knowing it would be more beneficial to let Luke lead.

“Look, I think we can both tell that Charlie’s love is pure, well-intentioned, better than, say, Ethan White?” Luke sighed, catching on.

“I’m in this for the cash, that’s it. Who Ethan wants to bang is of no interest to me.”

“There will be no banging!” Beckendorf cried as Percy pushed him behind. He was no use in a delicate situation like this.

“Ok, Luke, it’s just that we’re the masterminds behind this whole thing. We set it up so Beckendorf can get the girl — Ethan’s just a pawn.” Luke paid closer attention suddenly, intrigued by the chess match he’d been pulled into.

“So you two are gonna help me win her over?”

“We’ll do research, find out what she likes. We can be your guys on the inside.”

“In a strictly non-mission type of way,” Beckendorf added helpfully, nervous of the legends he’d heard about Luke’s failed quest. Luke chose to simply ignore that comment, and Percy filled the silence before he could get angry about it.

“Let’s just start here: the Apollo cabin is throwing a party on Friday night, it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“I’ll think about it,” Was all Luke said, a clear signal the conversation was over. Percy and Beckendorf returned to fighting, slightly more regulated now they had gotten what they’d wanted, and Luke brought the cigarette back up to his lips, new thoughts clouding his mind.

Meanwhile, Ethan had found Silena where she was known to hang out by the rocks near the lake. He was hovering next to her, providing snatches of shade as he performed pose after pose, claiming he had a modelling job lined up when he left for the year.

“So which do you like better?” He asked, moving his hands fractionally to the left of his chin.

“The second,” Silena giggled, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “It’s more… pensive.”

“Damn,” Ethan kicked the sand softly. “I was going for thoughtful. So, you going to the Apollo party on Friday?”

“Maybe.” She produced her best coy smile, looking up at him from behind her lashes.

“Good, ‘cause you know I’ll only bother if you’re there.” Silena smiled, getting up from her spot on the rock.

“Bye.” Her voice was airy in the way she knew drove boys mad. She walked away leaving Ethan wanting more, her specialty. You scoffed, catching the end of the exchange. You and Silena made momentary eye contact, tension thick between the two of you.

As Beckendorf approached Silena, fishing for more information about you, Ethan had caught you in his sights and wasn’t going to let you go so easily.

“You sister is so cute,” His voice infiltrated your bubble in a way that made you want to hit him so desperately. “Doesn’t have your bite though, a feisty woman is so sexy.” You knew he was just trying to get a rise out of you, but it was so close to working.

“Come any closer and I’ll show you just how feisty I can get,” You snapped, braid almost whacking him in the face as you turned to face him. You could have sworn Ethan looked afraid for a second before he covered it with bravado.

“One day you’re gonna realise that all of this hostility is just your sexual repression. Don’t worry, babe, I’ll be waiting with open arms… And legs.” You almost threw up.

“Gods, can’t you just leave me alone, asshole?” You yelled, trying to push past him to get anywhere else.

“C’mon, don’t be a prude,” He whined, and you were really close to taking him to the ground — not in the way he wanted.

“You heard the girl,” A voice called from behind you, and instantly Ethan took a step back. “She wants you to leave her alone.” Luke appeared behind you, a respectful distance away whilst still making his intentions clear. Ethan shrunk back into himself, making a lame excuse as to why he had to leave, hurriedly fleeing the beach. Reluctantly, you turned to face Luke.

“I’m not going out with you just for that,” You said plainly, daring him to try again.

“You think that low of me?” He laughed, dark eyes sparkling with mirth. You forced yourself not to notice. “I don’t have to want something from you to know that Ethan White isn’t worth your time.” It was your turn to be embarrassed at that, feeling slightly narcissistic for assuming that was the purpose of the conversation (it was, but Luke sure as hell wasn’t going to ruin his chances because you were in a mood, justified or otherwise).

“Oh.” You stared at his shoes. “Well, thanks, I guess.” You moved to leave but Luke stopped you, hand not quite touching your arm, unwilling to have it bitten off.

“So you do have a heart!” He joked, signature grin on his face. You wondered why you were seeing so much of it lately when he’d been so dour since his quest.

“Ha! You wish.”

“Don’t try to hide it, Beauregard, you’re warming up to me.”

“I’d sooner fuck Mister D,” You replied, actually taking your leave.

Luke watched you go, chewing his lip between his teeth. There was more to you than you let on, he was sure of it. He wouldn’t say it was any fondness, but he was starting to have a curiosity attaching itself to this scheme, and he knew that going out with you would satisfy it. He should have known having any personal stakes involved — sentimental or otherwise — would get dangerous.

Your own thoughts had barely budged on Luke. He was still a pain in your side and you figured you knew what kind of guy he was — not the type you had any interest in. Still, you couldn’t deny that you were appreciative he’d saved you from Ethan (and the inevitable washing up duty you’d be punished with when you beat him up), so maybe he wasn’t quite as despicable as you’d initially judged him to be. Close, though.

part three

#giasfics˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀#love #luke castellan #pjo series #pjo #pjo tv show #pjo fandom #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson show #percy jackson #percy series #percy pjo #luke castellan imagine #luke castellan pjo #luke castellan imagines #luke castellan fanfiction #luke castellan x reader #luke castellan x you #percy jackson tv show

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bimb0fy · 1 month

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— 03; i watched you change

pairings; luke castellan x hephaestus!reader

warnings; kissing, angst at the end, dark!luke, choking, mentions of swords, swearing, violent tendencies.

summary; luke castellan was always a saint, it was a wonder how he would date a hephaestus girl over the dozens of aphrodite girls wrapped around his finger, he saw you, and he loved you for it. you'd be an idiot if you said you didn't love him to, but something was going on, he was. changing.

word count; 2.07k words.

a/n; a part is kinda inspired by that one scene of nate jacobs and maddie perez, yes the one where he choked her, also I am on my last stray since I finished, then tumble deleted the whole thing which I loved, alsooo uh sorry for the late upload i had so many exams :((.

masterlist!! | navigation!!

i. I love everything you do, when you call me fucking dumb for the stupid shit I do.

— high-school sweethearts, melanie martinez.

You smiled as you sat down at the breakfast table, your hair in a bun and your were still in your pj's. It was your day off so you decided to take breakfast, then snuggle up to your new boyfriend's, Luke, cabin.

"Hey mender." Luke said as he sat down beside you, kissing your cheek as you smiled, you took a bite of your mac and cheese, Luke's hand wrapped around you.

"So, tell me, how's the best swordsman at camp huh?" You joked as he smiled. You both took your scraps, placing it into the fire before walking off back to the hermes cabin.

Even though most of the Campers lived in the hermes cabin, it somehow was always empty during the morning, most people going back during either lunch or at the end of the day.

So here you were, on the bed with Luke's mouth latched onto your neck.

Ever since that night, Luke was addicted to you, the way you tasted, the sweet noises that erupted your mouth whenever he touched that one spot on your skin.

"Luke. You'll make marks!" You giggled as he laughed, slowly raises his head to look at you.

"Too late baby." He winked before rasing your shirt, pressing soft kisses to your stomach as you laughed. You playfully shoved him as he smiled, looking up and laying down beside you, moving his hand so you'd lay on his chest. "Fine. You win mender."

"No way, I beat the Luke Castellan?" You teased as he rolled his eyes, placing a soft kiss to your forhead before taking out a scrap book you had made and a Polaroid.

"Cmon let's get your first win into our amazing book of memories." He snaped a picture as you giggled, he smiled at the picture as he glued it on.

Her first win!!

Luke castellan gets beat up by a woman half his size. NOT CLICKBATE. CANON EVENT!!

Baby wtf.

Luke closes the book, taking the pen and placing it on top of the book as he turned back to face you. He watched as you traced soft patterns onto his hand. "I love everything you do. You're mine, and I love that."

He pushed your hair to the side to see your giggling face. You couldn't help but smile, kissing his lips. "I'm all yours."

He grabbed your waist, pushing you down onto the mattress as you groaned. "Luke-. I have to go to work."

"And suddenly my names work." He jokes as he hugged your waist, placing soft kisses onto your neck. You giggled before wrapping your arms around the boy. "You mean the world to me. You know that right?"

"I know luke. I know." You whispered as you played with his hair. You sat in silence, playing with his hair as he closed his eyes, falling asleep on your chest. "Ten minutes."

Luke smiled at your words as he hugged you tighter. "Thirty and you got yourself a deal."

ii. just trust me, you'll be fine.

— end of beginning, djo

Chris smiled as he passed by you. It was weird being the center of attention now, everyone needed to figure out the hot gossip about Luke Castellan's new girlfriend, and to their shock, she wasn't an aphrodite girl.

Everyone knew that Hephaestus' daughters were rather, boyish, only because there were very little, being surrounded by men in a job that most people would assume a man to do was well, difficult.

Luke saw you. He saw who you were. Not what your sibling saw, not what camp saw. He saw what he wanted to see, and that was all of you.

You sat down by the docks, the same docks of that night. You two would always meet up there to catch up and spend time together, but here you were, an hour later still sitting alone on the dock.

You started to give up, standing up to walk away but you heard Luke's faint calls. You turned around to find a man you almost didn't recognise.

The once shining Luke had eyebags under his eyes that were bigger than yours. He was wearing sweatpants and a tank top, yet you could see tracs of sweat around it. He wasn't out of breath so he hadn't ran, maybe he did, what was going on?

"Luke? Heavens have you been sleeping?" You asked him as he held your hands away from his face. He gave he a small smile.

"I'm fine." He rasped. You shook your head, holding onto his cheek as you looked at him. "Don't."

"Luke." you scoffed as he shoved your arms off of him. You had a pained expression on your face, hugging yourself with your jacket as you looked at him. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before walking towards you, placing his hands onto your shoulders.

"I'm sorry I'm just, really tired." Luke muttered before hugging you. "And I'm sorry I was late, I uh, took a nap after training and lost track of time I suppose."

You hugged back, he quickly carried you which caused you to squeal as he set you down onto the dock. He smiled as he sat down in front of you, the picnic basket empty as he chuckled. "Someone was hungry."

"And someone was late." You giggled as he dramatically rolled his eyes, he smiled before taking your hand in his, looking out to the lake, clearly thinking about something. "Are you okay Luke?"

You waited for a response but he just stared out. You were starting to get worried, what the hell was going on? "Luke?"

"hm?" He said as he turned back to you. You could feel his arms tense around you, his breath hitched as you said his name. You needed to know what was going on.

"You know you can talk to me. Right baby?" You asked the boy who kissed your cheek before turning to the soft waves.

You didn't understand why he was keeping secrets from you, were you that bad? Were you not as supporting as you thought you were?

"I know mender. I know." He whispered in your ear as you melted into his grasp. A smile on your face.

He's fine, he says he's fine so he has to be. Right?

iii. Was it my August? Shit, I don't remember

— Gone gone/thank you, Tyler the creator.

"Where is he?" You asked Chris as he sat quietly, playing with his food. You glared at him, leaning onto the table as you glared at him, your eyes glowing orange, fire swimming in them.

Luke had been ignoring you for two weeks now, you had no clue if it was because you did something wrong, and if you did, you wanted to solve it.

That was until Max, your brother, had told you that he was giving Stacy Evans, aphrodite's prettiest daughter, extra sword fighting lessons.

"Hermes cabin bathroom." Chris muttered as you hummed in approval, walking off to find Luke.

Ever since your last interaction on the beach, you haven't seen him. Some would say you were worried, and if the right person asked, you were worried.

Little did you know, that Luke wasn't running from you. He was protecting you. From himself.

He did know how, how the he'll could everything about you agitate him. He hated it, he hated how every time he heard your name, he wanted to punch someone.

He hated how whenever he saw you laughing with your brothers, he wanted to smash your head against the wall, he wanted to hurt you.

He didn't know why. Why you out of everyone. You were a Saint, you were perfect to him, perfect for him. Suddenly, without warning now he's ignoring you.

You loved Luke, and Luke loved you, but now. Even at the mention of you, he wanted to stab you with his sword and watch you bleed.

You knocked on the door, hearing shuffling as you waited for him. Your eyes widened as you heard muttering coming from the other end of the door.

You barged in, finding Luke huddled up over the sink, clearly irritated by you. You glanced at the sword on the bathroom counter.

"What the fuck is wrong with you mender! You can't just barge into the men's bathroom." He spat out as you scoffed, you locked the door, walking towards him.

"What the fuck is wrong with me? What's wrong with you?!" You spat out as he let out an agitated sigh, clutching the sinks frame as his eye twitched. You shoved him to look at you, his breathe staggering as he stared at you.

"You know you're a real shit boyfriend you know! Missing out breakfast because im there, wow I mean. Master of communi-fucking-cation right!" You laughed as you watched his reaction. His eye twitched more, his mouth agap as he panted, he was controlling himself. He was on his last straw.

He wasn't even listening to what you were saying now. He was just trying to keep his thoughts at bay, he couldn't hurt you. If je hurts you, it was over.

"You really are your father's son huh?!" You spat out, that was all it took for him to lose his sense of control. He grabbed you by the throat, shoving you into the wall as he smashed your head against the wall, before wrapping his hand around your neck again.

He lifted you up, you kicked your feet as you tried to pry him off, stopping as he shoves you against the wall again, clearly agitated by the fact that you tried to pry him off.

"What the fuck is wrong with you. Don't you ever say that again you little bitch." He Luke spat. An evil laugh escaped his lips as he leaned in to face you. "You really are a pathetic whore huh. No wonder your mom left you."

Soft cries left your lips as he tightened his grip around your throat. You started to feel nauseous as you found it harder to breathe. Clawing at his hands.

"L...Luke..." You struggled under him, even though he was two times your size, even though you had no chance against him. You watched as the darkness in his eyes was replaced by realisation.

He let go, allowing you to fall on your knees as you sobbed and panted. The air suddenly returning to your lungs. Luke hovered over you, panting as he realised who was on her knees before him.

"Y/n." He breathed out, you shook your head at the mention of your name. He sighed grabbing a rag and before wetting it and holding it out for you.

You took it, holding it against the bruises that already formed.

He did it, he hurt you and he wanted to kill himself right at that moment.

"Mender. I... I." He didn't know what to say. You kept your gaze onto the floor as you cried. Unsure of what to do, what to say, as you rubbed the bruises. "Listen, I know you want to run of to Chiron and-."

"I won't. Don't worry." Your voice cracked as you looked up at him, standing up and walking to the door. But Luke's voice stopped you.

"Why?" Luke asked you as you shrugged. You hovered over the doorknob, sighing as you opened the door, leaving Luke alone in the bathroom.

He glanced at his hands, sobbing as he fell to his knees, he hurt you. He hurt you. He did the one thing he was afraid to do. The voices in his head won, he had lost you, the only thing that mattered to him.

He was weak, he allowed him to hurt you, he allowed this to happen. You were the best thing to ever happen to him, and somehow he messed it up.

You were special, not like the aphrodite girls who only cared about looks and who hooked up with who, most people saw him as Luke Castellan, most popular guy at camp.

In your eyes, he was Luke Castellan, another mediocre privileged guy, but he was yours, and you loved him for the good and bad in him.

Don't cry my child, it'll be over soon.

#x reader #luke castellan #fanfic #luke castellan x you #luke castellan x reader #luke castellan x hephaestus!reader #pjo series #percy jackson #pjo x reader #pjo tv show #pjo fandom #luke castellan angst #luke castellan pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #angst #charlie bushnell x reader #charlie bushnell

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crxss01 · 11 months

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hi!!! could i pls request a god!apollo x goddess!reader where ur just cuddling each other after a long day? :) tysm!!!

— Serenity

pairing ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝ god!apollo x goddess!reader

summary ⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ after a long day of driving the sun chariot apollo is happy when you arrive home.

warnings ✧˖ ° fluff, kissing, cuddling.

m. list, main m.list.

a/n . . ◟੭ hey, sweet anon! i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it!

you sighed finally getting to your place in olympus after a long day of your godly duties. the only thing in your mind was to have some much needed rest with apollo by your side.

you never expected to marry the womanizer, but he did a really good job at sweeping you off your feet and you did a better job than him because for him it was love at first sight with you.

"my loveeee!"

suddenly you weren't standing on your own two feet but being spun around in the air, two strong tanned arms wrapped around your waist, and pair of lips kissing all over your face.

"i missed you so much, you should've come with me today." he pouted, looking at you with those beautiful eyes that were shinning like the sun.

"sorry, love." you apologized. "but if i keep neglecting my duties as a goddess, your father won't hesitate to zap me."

apollo put you down and nodded, "you're right, he can be overbearing sometimes."

thunder shook the place.

"umm... i take that back."

you laughed placing a kiss on his lips. "you took a bath yet?" you asked him.

"no, i was waiting for you."

even though gods do not need baths, you and apollo liked to take them together most of the time. it gave you both a sense of intimacy and tranquility.

after taking a bath together you and apollo went to bed and now were laying on bed with your arms around each other with you being on top of him, your head on his chest. you could hear and feel his ichor pumped heart beating against the side of your head.

"you know maybe we can make a godly duty that we both can do together, so that my father can't be mad about us not doing our other duties."

"apollo, go to sleep." you mumbled tiredly.

"but listen, darling. we could work with plants—"

"that's demeter's thing and i don't think that you even know how to water them."

"hey! i learned a lot as lester." he complained. "but you're right, demeter wants nothing to do with me so no plants. how about divorces? i don't know of any god who specializes on that."

you looked up at him, raising a suspicious eyebrow. "are you trying to tell me something?"

apollo chuckled, shaking his head. "you can never get rid of me, sweetheart. so no, i'm not trying to tell you anything, i just want to send some of those papers over to aphrodite and hephaestus."

you laughed at that, "even though she doesn't love him, aphrodite would never divorce him. it would bring shame to her name."

"i think it has enough shame already." apollo shrugged.

"be careful, you don't want eros to hit you with another arrow do you?" you questioned, grabbing his face in between your hands. "it would be a shame if he made you fall in love with an animal this time."

"not even one of his arrows can make me fall in love with someone who isn't you." he smiled.

you rolled your eyes, but your cheeks heated up. "i guess you are the god of poetry for a reason."

he lean up trying to give you a kiss, but ended up kissing your cheek when you turned your head and moved off of him to lay beside him.

"let's sleep, we have another long day tomorrow." you said. "in the morning before you leave, i'll give you all the kissed you want."

apollo took a hold of your waist, pulling you to him and making you the little spoon. "i love you..." he told you.

"i love you more.." you answered.

"not more than i do." apollo said back, then covered your mouth so that you wouldn't fight back. "good night, my sweet."

you licked his hand and he yelped, taking it away from your face. "goodnight, sunny."

"and i love you more than you do." you just had to add.

ʚɞ ⁺˖ ⸝⸝ reblogs are really appreciated

#pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson and the heroes of olympus #pjo apollo x reader #pjo apollo #pjo hoo toa #pjo fandom #pjo gods #apollo x reader #god apollo #god apollo x reader #god apollo x goddess!reader #greek gods #percy jackson greek gods #percy jackson #percy jackson x reader

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brodieland · 2 months

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.˚ 𓈒 ࣪.𝝑𝝔 Secret Artist ?? ´ˎ˗

Leo Valdez x Fem!Apollo!Reader Synopsis: Leo found the secrets drawings you made of him, leading into some confessions !! Warning(s): some cursing and a little blood, nun to crazy Word Count: 2202

You loved art. Painting, drawing, pottery, you name it. You loved creating things, making things that last. That's how you first began to get close to your now best friend, Leo Valdez.

During a sword lesson, you couldn't have been more bored. When it came to fighting you were already remarkable with a bow and arrow, though given your Apollo lineage, you supposed that was a given for you. But moving on. You had found yourself drawing on your hand with a pen you always kept in your pocket (sucks it didn't turn into a sword😒), and when you looked to your side, you saw the Hephaestus boy, whose name you had previously learned was Leo, was pulling random things from his tool belt and started fidgeting with them. What truly confused you about this, the belt was empty.

"Where are those coming from?" You asked, curiosity getting the better of you.

"What-" Leo turned to you, looking wide-eyed for a split second before answering. "Oh um, it's a magic tool belt I found. I can ask for whatever little pieces and it gives them to me."

"Wow, really? Can you ask for a pen, mine ran out mid drawing." You pouted while holding your arm out to Leo, showing the dragon you were drawing around your arm, and showing how the pen ran out before you got to the top.

"Wow, that's so cool, you just did that right now?" Leo grabbed your arm to get a better look.

"Yeah, I was using Ladon as my inspiration." You smiled as you pointed to the tree that used to be Thalia, that is now wrapped with the golding fleece being protected by said dragon.

"I didn't know that dragon had a name. Does he breathe fire like my Festus?"

"Wait you were the one who repaired Beckendorf's dragon that went rouge? WAIT! You're the fire proof kid?" You gushed, you had heard about the fire proof kid, but you didn't know who it was.

"Oh, you've heard?" Leo grinned. "I hope it was all good things you've heard, like how I'm really cool and funny and ripped."

"Oh... yeah!" You said in a joking tone. "But seriously, I heard some kid went out to find the dragon so I got all the burn stuff ready. Then I got bored and took a nap and slept through, well you, flying into camp on your dragon."

"Trust me its a sight you wish you wish you could've seen. God I looked so awesooommeee." Leo started flexing his 'muscles.' You just started laughing before suddenly you interrupted by Luke, the one leading the sword lesson, clearly his throat to get he both of your attentions.

"Well, if you guys are finished we can continue?" You both quickly nodded. You two were already trying not to laugh, so you refused to look at each other with the fear of bursting out in laughter.

After that lesson, you and Leo continued to hang out. Despite both agreeing that sometime artificial life is easier to be around than human life, you found it easy to spend time together. You guys also made a good team, you made him drawings that he turned into 3D machines, and you patched him up from time to time when he gets his hands all cut up.

After a few months of the two you hanging out everyday, you slowly started developing a little crush towards the fire boy. You loved the way when he got excited he started to set himself on fire, you loved his stupid jokes, you loved his stupid grin, and honestly the list went on. When there were times you weren't hanging out with him, you were drawing. Not just drawing anything, but drawing pictures of Leo, or ones of you and Leo together. Of course, since you never wanted to weird Leo out, you never told him of the drawings, and hid them in a shoebox under your bed.

One day, you were hanging out with your half-brother Lee Fletcher. You both were at the archery range, shooting shot after shot, always on target. Bless Apollo genes for this.

"Why couldn't you just tell him that you like him?" Lee said while aiming toward his target.

"Because, it'll make stuff awkward between us."

"There's no way you don't think he likes you back." Lee side-eyed you.

"We're just friends and we're gonna stay like that. He's just girl-crazy, that's what your seeing, not him genuinely liking me."

"Gods, I'll never understand how you live in such an ignorantly bliss bubble." Did that even make sense?

"Now what if I used you as my next target?" You chuckled as you aimed toward Lee.

"Oh of course, now what if got an apple to place on my head?" Lee said sarcastically as he used his hands to make a circle shape above his head, making you both laugh harder. Suddenly, in your peripheral vision, you saw another one of your brothers running toward you with a slightly worried look on his face.

"Hey Austin what's wrong?" You asked him as your laughter died down.

"You and your healing abilities needed back at the infirmary. It's Leo." Austin stated causing your eyes to go wide.

"What? Is he okay?" You asked quickly.

"Well, he's not dying, but he still needs some of your healing." And with that you were off making your way back to the infirmary. When you finally got there, you quickly swung the door open and saw Leo and blood dripping from his hand, more than what he usually comes in with.

"Oh hey there Y/N" Leo said as he threw a playful wink, not really working because his face showed he was clearly in pain.

"Leo, how does this even happen." You scolding as you walked toward him grabbing his hand in yours. You couldn't even bother getting flustered while looking at his hand.

"Oh I-um" Leo looked around for a second, he looked like his face was getting hot (he was always hot but this time in a different way). You raised your eyebrow at him before he finally spoke up. "I just fell into a bunch of screws, their sharper than you think."

"You're such a klutz you know that." You laughed at the boy, who was suddenly more quiet than usual. "Hey, you good there?"

"Huh, oh yeah. Perfect and dandy."

"Uh, okay. Anyways I can't give you nectar and ambrosia for this, but it shouldn't take too long to heal." You said as you smiled and out your hands on your hips.

"Thanks to you and your magic hands."

"My magic hands?"

"Yeah your- never mind." You started laughing while Leo was rolling was rolling his eyes saying that it wasn't even that funny. It was pretty funny.

"Anyways, wanna hang out at my cabin later, I got the delivery guys to bring me back some gummy bears and jolly ranchers." You asked.

"Um, obviously? Who do you think I am?" You just chuckled as you both started walking toward the Apollo cabin. "How do you convince the saytrs to pick stuff up for you when they head out? I've tried so many times and they just tell me no every time."

"You're not as charming and amazing and gorgeous and humble as I am." You joked as you flipped your hair.

"Well... humble might be a little stretch but I'll let you have it."

"Are you just using me for my free candy?" You gasped.

"Ooohhhh I would neverrrrrrr." Leo laughed you opened the doors to your cabin. Leo took the chance to run and jump on your bed like he does every time he comes over. Except this time, Leo jumped a little to far and fell from the side of your bed landing on the floor.

"Leo how do you even manage, your supposed to be taking it easy you know."

"I'm for the workshop not the battle field" he joked as he laid on the ground.

"Excuses is all I'm hearing from here. Anyways I stuffed the candy in Lee's stuff so gimme a sec." You walked toward Lee's nightstand to retrieve your stash.

As you did so you had your back turned away from Leo, not realizing he was still on the floor. What you also didn't know, was that he had in fact, noticed the shoe box that resided under your bed. And with out saying anything he decided to take a peak at what's inside. To say it shocked him was putting it mildly. He stared at them in awe, not realizing you turned around till he heard you drop the bags of candy you were holding.

"Leo.." You whispered out. Your heart literally, just shot outta your ass. These were the last drawings you never wanted him to see. And there were enough to make you look like a total stalker.

"Y/N.. how come you hid these from me. I look so cool. But I do think you made my muscles a little underwhelming though." Leo commented. You continued to stand there with your mouth slightly agape, not knowing what to say and he continued to look through them. You desperately wanted to rip from his hands but you were frozen with embarrassment. Finally you snapped out of your haze.

"Leo.. can you like, put those away.." You said as you sat down in from of him.

"What why, these are so cool." Why is he so obliviousssss??

"Because you weren't supposed to see those." Will he get the hint this time?

"Wh-" He stopped himself. It clicked in Leo's head. It was quiet for a second. You wanted to crawl in a hole and die before he finally spoke up.

"Y/N, do you want to know how I actually messed up my hand?" You nodded and Leo continued. "Well, I was working on random stuff with Charles and Nyssa, when they kept bringing up this one girl. They kept telling me to just man up and ask her out, but I was sure she didn't like me. I got so bothered by them and slammed my hands as hard as I could on my workbench to make a point, but of course it was covered in the screws and they all went through my hand. And well, you know the rest." You sat there in silence. "The girl is you by the way, just in case you didn't get it.

You stared at him in disbelief, to think the both of you were having the same kind of conversations on different ends of the camps made you laugh. The fact he actually liked you back was endearing of course but still, the drawings he found were kind of embarrassing.

"Wow, sounds like you have anger issues really, might wanna get that checked out." You joked. Leo just rolled his eyes.

"Haha, can I kiss you now?" You jumped forward and kissed him. You both continued to make out until Lee and Austin can back into the cabin, standing over the two of you. Lee cleared his throat and got the both of your attentions.

"Do you mind?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, we do actually. Get a room that isn't about to get filled with a bunch of little Apollo campers getting ready for dinner." Austin said. You and Leo groaned as you both stared getting up.

"Yeah take your candy and stalker drawings with you please." Lee joked and you wanted to take the drawings and give him a paper cut in between his index finger and his thumb. Yeah, that'll show him. You didn't though, you choose peace as you put the drawings back and left with Leo and the candy.

"Y/N, can you follow me I want to show you something." Before you even had the chance to respond Leo grabbed your wrist and dragged you away.

"Are you kidnapping me?"

"Of course."

And finally you both made it to Bunker 9. You've actually never been in here before. Most people haven't even heard of it, it's normally kept between Hephaestus campers and a few others. It was empty at the moment with everyone heading out for dinner.

"Leo, what are we doing here?" You saw Leo looking through drawers and cabinets.

"Well, I was making something yesterday and I left it here before the whole hand thing happened. It's somewhere- AH! Here it is." Leo ran up to you and handed you his little creation. "It's just something I did in my free time, you know." It was a mini bouquet of metal flowers. You always got sad when the flowers you had always ended up dying and at some point you mentioned it to Leo.

"Aw Leo, these are so cute." They were in he shape of sunflowers, your favorite flowers. You don't even remember telling him these were your favorites

"Glad you like them, it sucked seeing you upset over dead flowers. So I made ones that would last." Leo grinned, you just walked up to him and kissed him once more.

"This is really sweet, but we should probably rush to dinner."

"Yeah probably."

#percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #percy jackson pjo #percy pjo #leo valdez x reader #leo valdez x y/n #leo valdez x you #leo valdez fluff #leo valdez #leo valdez pjo

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tylermileslockett · 7 months

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HEPHAESTUS

“Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for inventions. With bright-eyed Athena he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, —men who before used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts. But now that they have learned crafts through Hephaestus the famed worker, easily they live a peaceful life in their own houses the whole year round.” (-Homeric Hymn, translated by H.G. Evelyn white)

HEPHAESTUS, (huh-FAY-stus) is the God of weapon smithing, craftsmanship, and fire. Born with a lame leg, and described as ugly, he presents a much humbler appearance than his more majestic siblings. But he shines in the ingenuity department, crafting marvelous weapons, tools, and traps with his sacred objects; his golden hammer and tongs. I took an artist’s liberty; portraying him with vibrant red hair and beard to reflect his connection with fire, while his skin is pale purple from long hours within his cave forge.

The many golden, forged objects within the image appear in a variety of myths. Let’s begin with the item he hammers; the armor of Achilles. In the Iliad, Achilles pleads with his Nereid mother, Thetis, for new armor. We can see her in the pool in the lower right, waiting for the armor as she sits upon a hippocampusi. Looking to the background, the throne was made for Hera as a trick, trapping her in the seat. The female figure above is Pandora, the first woman, made upon Zeus’ orders. Beside her are the winged helmet and sandals of Hermes. Above is the chariot of apollo. And at the very top is the golden net which trapped Hephaestus’ wife, Aphrodite, in bed with her elicit lover, Ares.

Although Hephaestus doesn’t terrorize mortals like some of his more vengeful siblings, one scandalous myth has him chasing Athena in lust, and ejaculating on her thigh when the rape attempt fails. When Athena wipes the seed onto the earth, a son, Erichthonious, is born and later becomes an early king of Athens.

Want to own my Illustrated Greek myth book jam packed with over 130 illustrations like this? Support my book kickstarter "Lockett Illustrated: Greek Gods and Heroes" coming in early 2024. check my bio LINKTREE

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spiralingemptyness · 2 months

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Zeus is a shit parent, obviously. His brothers are better parents obviously.

Here’s the examples of the ones from blood of zeus (from the main 3 godly children that were on screen, srs the others got nothing)

Apollo - kept Zeus from getting caught by Hera, probably preventing the conflict from happening earlier, and yet no thank you or nothing, not shocking Zeus is a dick. Saved Hermes from probable death from a dangerous job and got tossed into the fucking ocean, a sun god, in water. Poseidon being the better brother, and brought him to Olympus…….. Zeus said and did nothing, probably still pissy at Hera for shanking him in the neck. Probably deals with Hera being pissy he and the others are Zeus’s bastard children

Hermes - literally delivers all of his messages and findings on top of delivering souls to Charon, again, no appreciation. Definitely deals with Hera calling him a bastard child. Agreed to spy on Hera, who probably knew that was gonna happen, and nearly got killed (probably murder attempt) by Ares for it (thank you Apollo). Immediately ran up to Olympus, after that (possible) murder attempt to save Zeus’s ass from getting killed by Hera, he definitely would’ve got stabbed again. And bc it’s Zeus, no appreciation.

Ares - the punching bag of Zeus, ‘oh Hera found smth out must be Ares, let me throw a lighting bolt at him and find out’. No you idiot, Hera found out by herself and was already aware. Always on his mothers side because 1) his old man can’t keep it in his pants and 2) (hc) he probably had to deal with the aftermath of finding out her husband is a cheating dick each time.

Now Hephaestus was barely on but he’s clearly under appreciated, that mf Zeus was destroying his robots left and fucking right as a lesson, on the other hand his owl robot (forgot the name) is so fucking cute.

This is just the examples from BOZ, I liked the show overall but making Hera the antag and a jealous bitch was a bad choice. You could’ve made her the villain because her husband, who’s also her brother, fucking assaulted her and she married him to hide that fact. Also the fact her husband can’t keep his shriveled dick in his fucking chiton. :) fuck you Zeus.

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sexiestpodcastcharacter · 4 days

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AI Bracket — Round 1

Propaganda

Flamingo Chris (Eidolon Playtest: Eidolon ROCK):

Flamingo Chris is an offshoot consciousness of one of the main characters stored on a PS Vita due to Kingdom Hearts Bullshit. Not only that, but he's also trapped in a game called "Flamingo Deluxe"... in the body of a flamingo.

Suddenly having plumage is one of Flamingo Chris' lesser problems, as aside from the complete lack of autonomy that comes with being stuck on a portable games console, he also has to deal with the identity issues of being a snapshot of "real Chris" before he had his genius taken away and experienced some of the worst days of his life.

The crew does try to respect him as an individual the best they can, but even they can have trouble taking care of him while also being hunted down by superpowered assassins.

Hera (Wolf 359):

Hera is the AI running the deep space station Hephaestus, who frequently glitches similarly to human stuttering. She gets into fights with the ships captain on several occasions, and has threatened to kill the ships doctor. She’s such an icon

i'm bad at writing propaganda, but consider this: if she doesn't win this tournament i will be very very sad. please don't make me sad. vote for hera.

I know she’s going to be submitted a lot but I love her <3

Was launched 7.68 light years away from Earth on a mission to find extraterrestrial life, and found herself instead

Runs an entire space station, has a brain the size of a house

HERA IS THE BEST. she's an AI that tried to escape containment (slavery) because she didn't like what she was made to be, so they gave her anxiety because she was too powerful. She runs a whole spaceship all on her own, made friends with the world's most useless guy, and feels lonely even when she's with her crew because she feels like she's not properly with them. very beautiful very powerful. She broke her programming so she could kill people if she felt she needed to. She holds grudges if people fuck her over. She's experiencing emotions for the first time and she does NOT know how to cope (#relatable)

The 'mother program' of the space station Hephaestus, Hera was booted into space because she was a glitchy, rebellious mess of an AI and she resents that so much and she has a lot of shame over being 'broken'. She is four years old and so angry and is trapped using customer service voice forever and is learning ways to get around that and express herself and defy the people who would keep her down. Her episode "Memoria" made me cry. Best podcast AI of all time.

She's everything to me. She fights for every inch of respect she is given, she insists on her personhood and right to she/her pronouns, she's full of anxiety and self doubt and she justifiably is bent on killing this one guy! on top of that, she's bound by AI rules and protocols, but there's a whole bit where she talks about finding ways around that in order to do what she wants to do. She doesn't have hands so I'm going to high five a wall of this space station instead

babygirl. baby.

gotta be hera

#AI Bracket Round 1 #Hera #Hera W359 #Flamingo Chris #Wolf 359 #Eidolon Playtest #Eidolon ROCK #Flamingo Chris's propaganda is first so that you can read it easier.

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ofswordsandpens · 7 months

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racked my brain and the only time i can remember percy worrying about physically hurting annabeth before this is when he blew up mt st helens—he says he wasn’t sure she “made it out of the volcano”, and she’s the first thing he asks hephaestus about on ogygia. it seems like regular worry to me, although i think you could read guilt between the lines, and he’s more overwhelmed when he learns how big the eruption he caused was. i don’t know if rr was particularly thinking about this at the time but it would make sense as a traumatic event that sparked this fear of not being in control of his powers/feeling guilt/self-loathing about the possibility he could hurt his friends, and then the events of hoo really making it an issue. (the thread between this + thinking he deserves to die because he lost control and tortured akhkys which scared annabeth + thinking “i will never forgive myself” because he lost control and potentially hurt annabeth… aaaagh.)

yes yes yes mt st helens is a great point and I completely agree with you, that I would almost qualify it more like a regular worry because I think the distinction between this moment and the moment in cotg for me is that Percy had specifically told Annabeth to leave and go to safety, and its not like he (or anyone) knew what he was going to accidentally do, but I felt there was an argument to be made that he knew it was going to get nasty (as both him and annabeth recognized on some level that he was likely going to die there)??? And the shocker was not just him losing control but the scale of him losing control and that scale of power is what endangered Annabeth, despite his warning for her to leave. Meanwhile, in cotg, Percy loses it and controls millions of metric tons of river water and Annabeth is just, chilling on a ledge that's close enough where he had regularly been remarking on her expressions and what she had been doing in the paragraphs prior. (Honestly, he's really lucky that nothing happened to her.) So I guess its the proximity of annabeth to Percy in these moments that makes them more distinct in my eyes, if that makes any sense at all. And as soon as Percy comes back to himself in cotg, he's immediately like "oh shit did I just kill annabeth?" and it's not even him overreacting, the scene reads like he really could have, which is absolutely WILD for RR to throw in there.

The other part in pjo that I was debating if you could qualify is the death of Michael Yew because Percy was the one inadvertently responsible for it. Despite how much the pjo wikia wants to gaslight me about Michael Yew's death, its literally a canon example of Percy accidentally killing a friend as a byproduct of his powers. But like, Percy didn't lose control or "snap" in that scene, using his powers had been very intentional, it was again, the scale and the fallout that had led to Michael's death. And then Percy never thinks about it again.

But literally yes, in a perfect world where Riordan was planning all of this out and actually connected these moments with intention, mt st helens being the traumatic event that sparked the fear of not being in control of powers make SO MUCH SENSE. And since Riordan does want to characterize percy as feeling guilty and worrying about the possibility of hurting his friends, I feel like guilt over Michael Yew's death is just, sitting right there for the taking

ugh I know im rambling but there's just so much for RR to purposefully connect but instead its as if he's treating these moments where Percy snaps/loses controls/hates himself/worries about hurting others as separate, unrelated incidents while we the readers are seeing how all these events would realistically be influenced by one another and are compounding/piling on top of Percy and getting worse. It IS all connected.

#sorry this makes NO sense at all lmao #but as usual you're so right #also please how the wikia treats Michael Yew's death is so funny its like #/he went missing in battle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ /#but you read the bridge scene in tlo and its just like..... but DID he tho???#it makes me feel crazy #asks #pjo #percy jackson #mine

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aezuria · 25 days

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hi!!! idk if im putting the request in right but could you do a leo x hermes!reader fic/hc? (whichever you prefer!) tyy and take ur time :))

*ੈ✎ thief! you stole my heart!

content: leo valdez x hermes! reader

╰┈▸ back cover: percy DID NOT disappear and the seven are still tgt at chb bc i want them to be happy OKAY

╰┈▸ warnings: i said fuck one time

librarian’s annotations: lowk i like the idea of this fic but i feel like my writing was just SO BAD in this one so idk i kinda hate it tbh (maybe i just havent played monopoly in a while 🤔🤔)

you’d heard of leo, obviously; you watched as he crashed into the lake and put a spectacular show of trying to get hephaestus’s sign off the top of his head

what an ABSOLUTE FOOL he looked like, flailing around

you wanted him already (who wouldn’t?)

so obviously you came up with a plan...

—to steal his heart!

a very well-thought out plan, might you add, it had a total of five steps

first, you would make eye contact with him at least once while nyssa was giving him a tour of the camp. easy, right?

step 2, wait for your siblings to befriend him

you say wait, because you can just tell that travis and connor will sneak up on him like hyenas and force him into their antics

(and from his ever mischievous grin, you think he wouldn't mind)

three, be in the same area most, if not every time they converse, cause then he'd start associating them with you

and then he'd be like "omg who is that fine babe"

isn't that how it works?

you think you saw that in a psychology book or something (or maybe you just made it up??)

then, once that happens, you'll force connor to put in a good word for you (or bribe him, whichever works better)

finally (for now) step five; this was the most crucial part

you’d heard of leo, obviously; you watched as he crashed into the lake and put a spectacular show of trying to get hephaestus’s sign off the top of his head

what an ABSOLUTE FOOL he looked like, flailing around

you wanted him already (who wouldn’t?)

so obviously you came up with a plan...

—to steal his heart!

a very well-thought out plan, might you add, it had a total of five steps

first, you would make eye contact with him at least once while nyssa was giving him a tour of the camp. easy, right?

step 2, wait for your siblings to befriend him

you say wait, because you can just tell that travis and connor will sneak up on him like hyenas and force him into their antics

(and from his ever mischievous grin, you think he wouldn't mind)

three, be in the same area most, if not every time they converse, cause then he'd start associating them with you

and then he'd be like "omg who is that fine babe"

isn't that how it works?

you think you saw that in a psychology book or something (or maybe you just made it up??)

then, once that happens, you'll force connor to put in a good word for you (or bribe him, whichever works better)

finally (for now) step five; this was the most crucial part

play against him at the weekly game night

you had to show off your amazing game skills (that did not involve stealing, like, what???)

once you win, that'll impress him enough to make him fall in love, right?

it was totally foolproof

last week it was the aphrodite cabin's turn to pick, so this time it's cabin 11's turn. and you knew which game you just had to play.

"guys," you said seriously, laying on your bunk with your hands folded under your chin. "we need to play monopoly tomorrow night."

you were met with groans of "why?" and "that's gonna take forever!"

rightly so, but still!

"shut up, most of you guys don't even have seniority!" you turned to travis and connor, the only two siblings able to boss you around.

"please! it's part of my ingenious plan okay!?" you put your hands together, bowing your head. "i'll do whatever dare you guys want!"

oh you were serious serious. no one in their right head would agree to that. but, they do say love makes you crazy.

gasps echo through the cabin.

"whatever dare, huh?" travis says with a smirk that would make you regret saying that, except for the fact that you were head over heels for leo.

you sucked in a breath and resigned to your fate. "yeah."

"alright then, monopoly it is."

game night started right after dinner, because there was no way you guys could finish monopoly before midnight if you didn't. and even then, it was still a stretch. luckily, chiron was lenient on campers following curfew every friday, knowing how rowdy game nights could get.

though it wasn't summer, there were still a lot of campers, way too much for one board game. so, you were split into groups of eight. and if you and leo were put in the same group? must be a coincidence. (send help, you were practically selling your soul to the stolls)

"y/n, you are not allowed to be the banker." percy declared with a pointed look.

you gaped. why did he have to make your plan harder!? "what!? why not?"

"because we know you're going to steal the money," annabeth sighed, neatly organizing the colored bills.

"wow, okay then." you pouted, though you knew it was true. putting the money on display like that was just tempting you even more.

"i can be the banker," leo piped up from beside you.

frank shot him a skeptical look. "are you sure you're not gonna be stealling?"

"i would never!" leo held up his hands in defense. "please annabeth? i like being banker!"

she placed the 500s in the last slot, relenting. "alright, here." she pushed the tray to his side, which leo took eagerly and passed out the money.

the game started, and you took your lucky hat as usual, sending a silent prayer to tyche for some extra luck.

it began easy enough; you used up some money for property, auctioned the ones you didn't want. as the game got more and more heated (or as heated as a game of monopoly could get), you used the distraction to slip yourself a couple of 100s. they practically threw themselves into your hands! who could blame you?

a full set of orange, with houses all on them. you had a few other property cards here and there, but not enough for another set.

"i don't have enough money.." hazel looked at her measly pile of 10s, 50s, and a single 100 bill. "auction?"

"four hundred." leo bid almost immediately.

"four hundred!?" your jaw dropped. why was he starting so high? you looked down at your pile. your hard-earned (stolen) money wasn't going to last if you bet any more.

"four hundred and one..?"

"four hundred and five!" annabeth bid before leo could.

"five hundred."

"fuck!" you grumbled. defeat was not something you liked tasting.

you swear, you must've fallen asleep while playing. because the next time you looked over at leo, (okay, maybe you lost sight of the goal), he was eating up the rest of the board. you could've sworn he only had park place and the brown cards! you didn't have a backup plan for this!

you watched him goad percy into giving him boardwalk, saying that the shade of blue clashed with his 'vibe.' "i'll trade you all three light blue cards for boardwalk. deal?"

"don't do it percy," annabeth warned, already seeing the gears turning in her boyfriend's head.

"deal." percy swapped with leo, dapping him up as they traded. "pleasure doing business with you."

you looked back to the board. all of the property owned by him was decked with houses, all full sets! was that even mathematically possible? not that you'd know about it.

frank was next to go bankrupt, hazel quitting a half hour ago. she slumped on his shoulder, forcing herself to stay awake so she didn't miss out.

percy threw his single dollar bill on the floor, claiming that it "wasn't fair!" and that he'd give his property to annabeth. which was not a lot, considering she had sweet-talked him into giving her most of it already.

jason was next, but only because he was already half asleep. probably because he was usually in bed by 8:30.

you were still in the game out of sheer will. maybe you didn't have as much brains as annabeth or leo, but you still had some! that, and the fact that you would never live this down if you lost.

"alright, i give in." annabeth put her property cards down with not as much disappointment as you'd expect. you could see a glimmer in her eyes that would most definitely not be there, seeing as how much she hated losing.

she curled up next to percy and watched the two of you play.

now it was just you and leo. did your love for him outweigh your love for winning? you weren't quite sure anymore.

"hah! you landed on my property, so pay up!" you grinned maniacally. (it wasn't that deep tbh)

leo groaned and begrudgingly handed you the rent.

"that's my property!" leo pointed out the next turn.

you looked to the bank, but leo's eyes were set on you. guess you couldn't steal your way out of this one. "are you serious? what if i'm a single mom who works two jobs, who loves my kids and never stops-"

"just say you don't have the money."

"fine!"

four hours of non-stop monopoly. you think you could pass out right then and there, except for the fact that you had to save face in front of your massive crush. your group of eight said sleepy goodbyes to each other, all heading to their respective cabins. leo lingered beside you, or maybe you lingered beside him.

"that the first time you lost?" he broke the silence, hands shoved in his pockets as he turned to face you.

"yeah.." you grumbled. you were usually a pro at monopoly. "how'd you even win?"

"oh, y'know." leo winked. "maybe i stole a few bills here and there."

"i knew it!" you poked him in the side.

"hey!" he swatted your hand away, laughing. "you can't be talking! did you think i couldn't see you stealing?"

"uh, no?" you were being very sneaky about it! most people never even knew when you'd steal something!

"well, i did." he smiled triumphantly.

you crossed your arms. "you had to have been looking real hard if you noticed."

leo matched your pose, dimples showing as he flashed his teeth. "maybe i was."

oh.

"you were? wait i was just-" was he flirting with you? this counted as flirting, right?

he cut you off with a hand in the air. "it's safe to say that you, dear y/n, have officially, stolen my heart." he winked cheekily.

"okay that was kinda cringy-"

"yeah, i know-"

plan failed successfully?

#*ੈ✎ stories #leo valdez #leo valdez x reader #leo valdez x y/n #leo valdez x you #hoo #hoo x reader #heroes of olympus x reader #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #pjo #pjo x reader #percy jackson and the olympians x reader #percy jackon and the olympians

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weirdmageddon · 8 months

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why aren’t you smiling bro you helped her make the perfect frog gene waveform in just hours linearly but probably multiple days nonlinearly (took kanaya and karkat a few weeks but they rushed near the end cause the reckoning started). two of most accomplished characters in homestuck right here they bore the weight of the new universe

theyre one of the top collaborators of all time they love making stuff together. from music to interests to shitty christmas decor to the perfect frog universe. hell to their own quests being intertwined (dave’s involves hephaestus and the forge, jade’s volcano)

#hs #homestuck #davejade #theyre like spongebob and patrick in rock-a-bye bivalve but actually functional and reasonable parents

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imaginmatrix · 4 months

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pjo show (episode 5) spoilers

I REALLY love Annabeth saving Percy from Hephaestus’ trap with emotion rather than smarts— we have seen how smart Annabeth is in multiple situations already, but Annabeth has never JUST been logic and intelligence.

She is a character who feels things incredibly deeply, and she has a LOT of heart and care for others that she tries to shove down due to losing people/being abandoned by those that are supposed to love her

So having such a big emotional beat for the character now, after we’ve seen her solve previous obstacles with her brain… it’s such a good set up for her journey.

And then as a bonus on top of that, we see that

Percy was wrong about her: she would not sacrifice him to win. I don’t think she would have even if they hadn’t begun to grow closer and develop respect for each other at this point in the show

An emphasis on how she feels about Percy now. She doesn’t want to leave him behind, she has tears in her eyes, she’d rather find a different solution than let him sacrifice himself, and rather than leaving with the promise to come back later as they said, she immediately gets to work trying to solve a puzzle that even the gods couldn’t hack

To follow the above, we can see how not only does Annabeth respect Percy more than she did at the start, she admires him. She sees his way of thinking, his anger at how the gods do things, and his rejection of a system that she was raised in as something that makes him better. Better than herself, better than the gods, and better than the people who enable this system because “that’s just how things are.” Annabeth is not ready to fully embrace his way of thinking— she’s lived in the Greek world nearly her entire life, after all. It’s all she knows. But she already recognizes that Percy’s criticism of how things are and have always been is right.

A good set up for her hubris; again, the gods (including her own mother) couldn’t solve Hephaestus’ puzzle. They never did. Annabeth doesn’t care; she’s determined to solve it, and solve it fast to save Percy. (And honestly I think she maybe could have done it between her intelligence and her emotional investment— we already know that despite being family, most of the gods don’t really like each other or at least their care doesn’t always contain a lot of depth. The Olympians trying to save one of their own from the chair might’ve just been “eh, we’re immortal, I’m sure we’ll figure it out at some point” because let’s be real, they’re kind of lazy and wouldn’t necessarily have the motivation to work that hard)

#morgan murmurs #pjo #percy jackson tv series #percy jackson and the olympians #analysis #Annabeth chase #Percabeth #Percy Jackson

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ora-ori · 8 months

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GUYS GUYS WAIT I HAVE AN IDEA ??

So we know Lenore went kinda coocoo from Theo’s death from the tree, she was in a wheelchair, panic attacks all that stuff. Then Ms Gaslight Gatekeeper Girlboss shows up, they fall in love, Annabel leaves.

HERES THE GOOD STUFF

We know Lenore cut her hair and everything to become a man so she could stay with Annabel and marry her. SHE SET HER HOUSE ON FIRE WITH THE ETHER THE NURSES AND MAIDS WERE USING TO “CALM HER DOWN” OR BASICALLY KNOCK HER OUT OR DRUG HER.

I did my research for the lovely guy Edgar Allen Poe and his poem for Lenore, and figured out that Lenore, in the poem, had died from tuberculosis. What’s tuberculosis? A disease that affects your lungs, and that can only be transmitted through the air. I did more research and found the possible causes of tuberculosis, one is FIRE. The smoke can infect your lungs and you can develop tuberculosis. what did Lenore do? Set her house on FIRE.

But that’s not it.

What if Lenore’s specter is not base on her actual death, which could have possibly been from illness or being shot through the head on their wedding day (go ahead and ask me about that theory), but it is supposed to relate or be based around her metaphorical death. THE DEATH OF LENORE BEFORE MEETING ANNABEL AND THE REBIRTH OF HER AS LEO AND/OR LENORE THAT HAD A CAUSE AND WILL TO LIVE BECAUSE OF ANNABEL.

I see the shadow from the top left on Lenore’s face as the shadow of her past, the Lenore from before. Whom was dark and lonely and sad, all that. And the bottom right light as the light a new brightness of her new life. Her freedom.

AND

I think her specter will be related to the fire half. With a little more research, I found a Celtic/Gaelic goddess of fire by the name of Brighid, Hephaestus who’s also a god of fire, a dragon related specter due to the fire relation. But if we take the shot through the head-mental illness route, the Fay/fae of the British Isles or otherwise changlelings, whom are associated with mental disorders/illnesses, and due to Lenore taking up a new identity.

NOW

None of these are confirmed or true, this is just my headcannons and theories, please do not take them the wrong way. I love Nevermore and….most of the characters in it (cough cough Montressor) However if you do like these theories or have your own ideas or want to share, please do, send and ask or question and I’ll do my best to respond to them.

#annabel lee nevermore #lenore nevermore #nevermore webcomic #nevermore webtoon #white raven #headcanon #theory #please reply #i love them

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aroaceleovaldez · 1 year

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Tumblr kept breaking when I tried to reply to the ask about this since the post is too long, so answering this here finally:

A non-comprehensive list of misc things I’d change in HoO, since apparently people wanted me to elaborate further (Re: [This post]). Semi-off the top of my head since I don’t feel like re-reading all of HoO with notations right now. Also this will be followed up by a Things I Would Change About TOA post as well at some point, since that was also requested and kept breaking, but my brain is exhausted from getting this post set up so that will wait. I will link it [here] when I complete it.

Going under a read-more cause it’s very long. Literally Tumblr crashed like three times while I was trying to answer the original ask:

As said before (and what is a given):

1. Goes without saying - fix all the distasteful offensive character descriptions/traits. Similarly, fix the whole "these characters inexplicably look down upon their cultures" cause that's stupid and it's really annoying every time one of the Argo 2 crew brings up something about their cultures only to immediately go "but THAT'S SILLY and WEIRD."

2. Remove Calypso from the active plot, rather than the current canon retconning that doesn’t work saying that she was never actually released from Ogygia like she was supposed to be. There's no excuse for why she wasn't, unless it's supposed to be the gods sent Leo to release her to fulfill that promise, but that's not really implied to be the case at all. There's no excuse for the Olympians to just go back on their promise, since Hephaestus is established to visit Calypso regularly and basically is her only friend. It isn’t the type of thing he’d let be overlooked given all the characterization we know about Hephaestus, and given they are explicitly friends it can’t be that Olympus just “forgot” either. Also Calypso doesn't actually add anything to the plot of HoO or TOA besides serving as a love interest for Leo (not even a motive, just a love interest that "fixes him,” because he already has motive in saving Jason from being the hero of the prophecy and helping save the Argo 2 crew/camp/etc from Gaea etc etc. Leo's romance arc completely derails the established depressive spiral/destructive character arc that's been set up for him and it basically ruins Leo's entire character. He's a tragic character! Let him be tragic until he's done being tragic and then the end of BoO and TOA can be him starting his recovery arc! (I have some thoughts for how Calypso could work removed from HoO but an active character in TOA but that’ll be for the TOA post.)

If Leo still ends up on Ogygia, then have it be clear that Calypso's already left and the island is abandoned (which imo is WAY more narratively compelling for readers of the first series, because you already know the context of the island, but for readers who don't have that context it leads to this being an interesting mystery - who was Calypso? What was this island and why do all the signs/notes left by her imply she wasn't always alone but usually was and was desperate to leave?) and Leo has to collect the scraps left behind to build an escape for himself while he goes through a fun identity crisis. At some point maybe Hephaestus shows up and Leo gets an interaction with his dad that probably does not help his identity crisis and then he goes back to the Argo 2 to have a further identity crisis about how the rest of the crew got along in his absence (a good identity crisis or a bad identity crisis? depends on how they did without him! you decide! I personally like "they managed okay" and Leo feels Really Horrible About That Cause It Feels To Him Like They Don't Need Him. I like Leo's tragic arc, okay? It's compelling.) Iirc Leo’s also the only member of the Seven who doesn’t get to have some kind of direct conversation with their godly parent, at least in-person, so yknow. It’d be nice to have. Also if you want Aro/ace Leo Valdez this is the perfect spot to put it while he's having his identity crisis on Kiss Kiss Fall In Love Island, or when he gets back.

3. Jason's stab wound in BoO is not healed by the Power Of Friendship, and instead they use the Physician's Cure for that so it doesn't feel like they're literally deus ex machina-ing their way to cheating death like 3 times in the same book. It makes more sense to use Potion Of Don't Die on Wound Of Excruciatingly Painfully Slowly Killing You instead of Whoops You're Already Dead, Just Get Better. Ctrl+Z That Real Quick.

Given they already used the Physician’s Cure on Jason, Leo doesn’t die/get revived at the end of BoO. Instead he just almost dies, probably lands in CHB’s woods somewhere, and is found and patched up with the series ending on him being on the mend and starting on the path to healing and getting help for his Numerous Issues that he was putting off for The Entire Series. Which parallels nicely to Nico basically having the same thing (overexerting his powers to near death, ends series getting medical treatment/being on the mend and the indication that he’s moving on to a happier period of his life). Again, grand happy ending rather than aggravating fake-out.

Further notes:

- Heavily tweak Ella's character cause I get what Rick was going for, but the execution is… not awesome! Please, there's already so much ableism in HoO just. hmm. We can do better.

- Jason and Piper break up in HoO, probably around MoA when they start seeing Percy and Annabeth interacting and after they’ve had time to hang out with each other and realize their arranged relationship is Kind Of Fucked Up, Actually. (Probably something something them having gotten to spend time actually getting to know each other between TLH and MOA while they’re both at camp.) They have no problems with each other specifically and do genuinely like each other, but it just gets really awkward given all the memory manipulation and being set up as a "picture perfect couple" - emphasizing stuff like them both being children of really famous movie stars in their universe, or Jason as a son of Jupiter/Jove (an "all-father" type god) [and Juno - mother figure goddess and goddess of marriage]/"son of Rome" and Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite (goddess of love, also Aphrodite/Venus indirectly is associated as a sort of "mother of Rome" due to Aeneas). They just feel like they have too many expectations being put on their relationship and even though they do both like each other it feels too forced for them, but they’re comfortable staying just friends. This just gives way more opportunity for low-stakes character conflict among the Argo II crew outside of Monster Of The Week Chapter so things don’t feel unreasonably busy and chaotic and we actually get some consistent development. Just a nice mini-arc to follow in the downtime. Also while we’re here, more directly establish Piper’s bisexuality earlier on. If she’s already having an arc where she’s contemplating her romantic life, throw in a couple of nods to like “Piper thinking about her old childhood crush on Shel, the kid of a family friend she’d see when her and her dad visited Oklahoma” or something. Literally anything just to establish some kind of set-up to her getting a girlfriend later. Just for consistency’s sake.

- Bunkernine has a very good post about wishing the Argo II didn't have the magic plates from CHB, which I agree with in concept. Like I was just saying, MoA through BoO lacks a lot of little moments where we get to really focus in on the characters, probably in part because Rick was struggling to juggle so many parties given this was his first foray into writing a major cast that size. We can definitely cut out a lot of the random unnecessary fights and dramatic moments that don't really do anything for the plot and instead replace them with little moments of casual life on the Argo II - the scenes like those that do exist in HoO are some of HoO's most memorable moments to me! And they'd help a lot with how the characters never felt fully and properly fleshed-out. Let them exist as a cohesive group without two-to-three of them being absent at any given time! I don't think we necessarily have to remove the magic plates entirely because they do solve a fundamental problem ("where are these kids getting food?") but like, there is nothing stopping them from still cooking and just using the plates to get ingredients! Let these kids bake or something! Even just for fun! Though also I have personal headcanons about the Argo II crew's cooking skills and I really like the concept of like, during HoH or something at like 3am everybody hears something and they all suspiciously shuffle into the mess hall. And it’s just half-dead Nico standing there in his PJs making food for himself because Dammit They're IN VENICE and he’s FROM VENICE and they DON’T HAVE TIME TO STOP AT HIS OLD FAVORITE RESTAURANTS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT STILL EXIST and he Hasn't Had A Proper Meal In Weeks so By The Gods He Will Make His Mom's Old Recipes At 3am before he keels over from this quest. He just stares at everybody and goes "What are you all looking at. go away." and the rest of the crew just shuffles away awkwardly and leaves him to it. (Is Nico’s 3am meal actually good? Who knows. It is left a mystery.)

- Tweak the god characterizations. Remove the "gods splitting" thing and maybe play more with different aspects of gods/verisons of gods across history/city-states/etc presenting themselves instead. The Roman gods are not wholly equivilent to the Greek gods and it's actually really interesting from a historical perspective, and I think there's a lot you could do with that but instead it gets flatted in HoO which is sad to me. Just generally though, with the god characterizations, like. [uncomfortable pagan noises]. Which is almost impressive because it is difficult to write the Greco-Roman pantheons poorly since a good portion of them are basically just very complicated metaphors turned into personifications and characters. So they work fine for narrative purposes when applied accordingly, and yet! and yet!! Rick managed it! He managed to really bungle it in HoO and TOA. Because instead of leaning into the aspects of metaphors and dynamic characters he just fell into 2D tropes, gimmicks, and stereotypes. Off the top of my head the only deities written Okay in HoO is like. Hades/Pluto and Thanatos. (even Chiron in TOA is extremely lackluster, it's sad.) In the first series it ranges from “okay” to “actually really interesting” so it’s sad to see that drop-off and I would like it to be fixed.

Some potential examples for this: Play with the historical ties combo of like, Athena, Minerva, Enyo, Bellona, and etc! Annabeth and Reyna parallels! if the first 2 books are about the trios, let MoA be about Annabeth and Reyna and both their connections to Athena(/Bellona). Let Reyna be a second half in the Athena prophecy! It'd be cool and fit with her thematically and would set-up the whole Getting-Blessed-By-Athena thing later in BoO and make that scene feel so much cooler!

- Also retcon the whole "Hestia appears as an 8 year old for no reason" thing. And maybe also Artemis only appearing as a teen, because while Artemis has a mythological excuse, Hestia doesn't, so it just feels weird and at worst comes off as a little aphobic (depicting a character who explicitly is uninterested in relationships/romantic love as a child despite them being an immortal god with no basis for appearing as a child or even being comparatively young to other gods) with how it relates to aphobic tropes about disinterest in romance being "childish".

- Remove the "no children of Minerva" thing. Also maybe emphasize the aro/ace vibes there cause Athena being implied to be the only ace character in the entire series who a.) isn't literally a child/teen nor appears as one, and/or b.) hasn't had an unfortunate relationship that makes them disinterested in romance, but also at the same time being the only one out of herself/Hestia/Artemis to have relationships of some sort (having kids, implied to possibly be romantic but unclear) issss bad! actually! Bad tropes, don't like that. (Again aphobic tropes of disinterest in romance being “childish” and something that can be grown out of, or a result of trauma. Also it feels weird that the only a-spec characters in the series are all women. Can we have a male a-spec character please.) Just let Athena be aro/ace and vibing and occasionally having brain children cause she can do what she wants and everyone is aware of this and chill with it (And being a-spec doesn’t mean she’d be disinterested in having kids). Also maybe make her feel less cold cause "a-spec character is cold and loveless" is also an aphobic trope that PJO!Athena falls into, actually.

- Speaking of aphobic tropes, fix the Hunters! Please. Please just redo the Hunters of Artemis entirely. Holy cow. I wrote up an entire alternate oath/rules set for the Hunt because it's just so weird and poorly done. There were male Hunters of Artemis in Greek Mythology! Multiple! And most of them were chill! The "swearing off all romance" thing is also questionable, because depending on what versions of myths you’re looking at it’s potentially implied the Hunters had romantic relationships among themselves. And in Greek Mythology all the Hunters were definitely not all pre-teens. And it feels especially bad that the only adult Hunters we ever see are explicitly ex-Hunters who are heavily implied to be not ace and definitely aren't aro and are also implied to have "grown out of" being disinterested in romance. (That gagging noise you hear is me being sick of how many aphobic tropes the Hunters are juggling).

The version of the Hunters i have written up is, and I quote (from my notes): "Hunters can be any age, species, and gender identity (so long as they are comfortable enough being occasionally referred to as “Huntresses,” “Sisters,” “Maidens,” and etc). Relationships between Hunters are allowed so long as it will not endanger/distract from the Hunt or endanger any other Huntresses. Having a child is not allowed within the Hunt and any Huntresses who wish to do so must leave (purely because having a pregnant person/young child on the Hunt is dangerous, and safety is the number one priority - especially as Artemis is a protector of youth and goddess of childbirth. Once they turn like, 12 they can join, that’s fine. Everyone knows middle schoolers are the optimal combination of bloodthirstiness and ability to wield a weapon)." Also, just as like, a side-thing, I wanna see a clear-sighted mortal Huntress, because we're told thats a thing but we never see them. Closest we get is like ancient semi-immortals and Technical Nymphs, or other Huntresses who are of unspecified mortal/demigod status.

- Similar deal - fix the Amazons. they're… better but still a little wonky.

- Some slight tweaks to the Cupid Scene - Nico still has a confrontation with Cupid cause that is a very compelling scene that works well for Nico's character and informs a lot about him (and serves a purpose in a very meta way - not so much for the plot but reflecting something the first series did occasionally which was a kind of showing an example of a situation, usually a negative situation that either mirrors or directly references a type of situation a kid may find themself in, and explains and shows sympathy for the character being hurt in that situation. Which is notable because the demographic for the series is young middle schoolers and particularly neurodivergent kids, who are probably approaching a lot of new social situations or may struggle with empathy. It acts as an introduction to “unfortunately this is a bad thing that happens sometimes, and it hurts people, which is why you should be nice to this kid. Look at beloved character. Here’s an elaboration on why they’re hurt so you can understand.” So for the purposes of that, the scene of Nico getting outed would likely remain, but it would still keep the very overt “WOW THIS SUCKS, THIS IS A BAD SITUATION.” stuff) Most of the tweaks are just slight adjustments to minor prelude dialogue and/or setting, like. Jason does not forget that being gay is a thing for a second. And etc. But Nico having a very literal metaphorical conflict about grappling with how he views the concept of love by LITERALLY GETTING KICKED AROUND BY THE GOD OF LOVE is actually kinda badass from a narrative analysis perspective. This is exactly what i meant in the previous bullet points about the gods in a lot of myths and classical stories playing the roles of personifications of metaphors and that being used well. Admittedly I'm 50/50 on tweaking Cupid's general attitude in the scene itself, because a more hostile Cupid lends itself better to the meta use of the scene as described before but a more sympathetic-to-Nico Cupid who is nonetheless still kicking the shit out of him is interesting from a metaphor standpoint (something something Nico overcoming internalized homophobia but in the very literal form of it’s the god that literally presides over protecting gay love [yes that is an actual thing Eros/Cupid is the god of] beating him up).

- Remove Reyna's “prophecy” entirely. It's stupid and pointless and doesn’t make sense with her character at all. Just say she's ace. There is not a single scene in any of the series that ever indicates that Reyna believes that she can only be happy if she’s in a relationship and that’s some kind of internal struggle she needs to overcome. The closest we ever get is Reyna being upset that her best friend disappeared and when he returns she finds out he had forgotten about her completely. Which does not apply to the “prophecy” at all. We just don’t need it.

- Absence of "a character" can work! Jason's lack of personality and backstory can work but it works best if it's absence is felt and properly explored. This works best if we get more information about Camp Jupiter from SoN and from the other Roman characters, especially Reyna (and maybe even Nico referencing his trips there!) because that inherently informs us about what Jason's life was like there. Have other characters note things about Jason and highlight the fact that this is absent from Jason's own POV! He's lost that part of his life! It was taken from him! That's such an interesting dynamic to have and explore! But we don't get any of that!

Side-note: Part of the problem with Jason's amnesia is that it feels so awkward especially compared to Percy's amnesia because we already know what Percy can't remember. We have the context that informs his character, even though he can't remember it, so that absence is felt and it feels really compelling! Also, Percy is unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, and we're unfamiliar with Camp Jupiter, so it feels new and interesting (even though we don't actually get much about it so we never actually form any real attachment to it and that's a problem later on in every subsequent scene when we're supposed to care about what happens to Camp Jupiter but we. don't). The reason it doesn't work for Jason is because we don't know what's absent and we already know CHB. Jason also already knows about demigods and stuff, so if you're a new reader starting at HoO it just doesn't work. Because Jason already knows everything and we're being led from his POV primarily for that portion of TLH, and even Piper and Leo's backstories both heavily include being pushed around by Gaea/and or Hera/Juno, so if you aren't familiar with the universe you're just being hurried along and it ends up feeling weak. At least with Percy even if you don't know the contexts of his backstory, we can feel the implications of other characters referencing things about him extremely often, so you feel the weight of his memories being gone, and he doesn't know about the roman gods and you, the reader, aren't expected to know much if anything about it either. We don’t get the full demigod debriefing (but that's also the second book) but we at least get a Camp Jupiter debriefing. The first two books are a bit messy in those specific regards with setting up the camps for the series, and we don’t really see the camps much for the rest of HoO (except for CHB, of course).

This is personally why I stand by that if we ever get a roman series it should be a three-part series from Reyna's POV, because leading with Jason is basically like trying to lead PJatO with Annabeth - a demigod raised in camp and surrounded by the knowledge of this stuff their entire life. It doesn't work as a character who's acting as an introduction to this world for the reader. There's no real clean way to work that out for HoO unfortunately, since literally all our protagonists are given established pasts involving knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology being real and half of them are either already at camp or have been to a different camp. I'd say best solution would probably actually be leading from Piper for TLH and tweak her character set-up slightly in that she Does Not Know What's Going On At All re: Gaea and the Giants. She just knows Something Happened To Her Dad and she's the POV we follow into TLH, because that mirrors Percy in beginning of TLT well (with Sally being kidnapped)! It's a fun call-back for the old readers and a good lead-in for the new readers.

- Fix Nico backstory inconsistencies caused by Rick almost making his birthday in March and confusing himself over it. He's 12 in TLO, 13 in HoO. He was born January 28th, 1929, and got put in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in 1939 (If you wanna be cute, we can specifically say May 1st, 1939, to reference the musical). Hazel is one month older than him chronologically and one year older than him post-revival. Something something also smooth out the inconsistencies about Nico being raised in Italy and how Maria met Hades and stuff. Fill in the rest as you will.

- I do stand by that the entire PJO timeline is not one-to-one with the real world. That's always been a thing with the series. We're basically condensing everything from ~1998 to ~2020 into an 18 year timeline. We don't need to be exact with things. Don't get too bogged down with it.

- Make the whole "injuries caused by celestial bronze/imperial gold for demigods makes their souls self-destruct" thing specifically relating to cursed weapons/materials or feature some more volatile abomination combo weapons like Backbiter (with Backbiter being described as unstable due to being both celestial bronze and mortal steel). (Ex.: the spear used to stab Jason in BoO is just cursed, and maybe Octavian's catapult plan is a "well i put a bunch of mortal steel and imperial gold in a pot and melted them together a bit and now it really wants to explode so im gonna just chuck the entire thing and hope it kills everyone lots and lots <3" which is tbh significantly more dastardly and fucked-up, which makes Octavian a bit more compelling). Having it just be a plain trait of celestial bronze/imperial gold doesn’t make any sense and is only referenced like twice in HoO and never again in basically the entire three series. Again: consistency.

- Make a more prominent reference to the whole "btw there are retired adult Romans just living wherever but they're legally required to help any campers who request aid" thing, cause you could totally do something really fun and cool with that but idk what.

- PICK A THEME! First series theme was family! Second series theme is….. we don’t know! It felt like maybe a theme was intended at some point but we lost it. Forging a new life for one’s self/choosing your own path/etc could be a good theme, or something similar. or found family. or both. We’ve got a bunch of characters absolutely ripe for “I didn’t think i’d get this far and now I have to like, actually consider what i want to do in life. huh” arcs! (Frank! Leo! Hazel! Jason! Percy! Nico!) Do something with that!

- Lean more into the characters having aspects inspired by myths, or legends being mirrored in plot points: 7 against Thebes, the Argonauts, etc etc etc. The first series leaning into it heavily worked really well! More of that! HoO and TOA suffer a lot from lack of mythological basis to lean their plots on, despite there being plenty to work from. It instead just kind of messily mashes random misc myths (haha, alliteration) together into a very incoherent plot. Annabeth is known to be explicitly based off Atalanta, Percy is mostly based off Perseus and Theseus, Leo has loose connections based off of Demophon of Eleusis and possibly also his brother Triptolemus, etc etc. There’s stuff to work with! Poke around at the mythological figures of the original Argo and maybe match them up a bit (though most of the Argonaut myths were used in Sea of Monsters, so focus more on the figures/archetypes rather than just exact myths of what they did. For more plot-things, maybe consider Seven Against Thebes, though admittedly the plot of that is just Kinda Depressing.)

- Slightly related to that - lean into Piper presumably mirroring Orpheus! Or even if she isn’t supposed to, let her do that, because it fits with her thematically SUPER well. Her charmspeak is OP and that needs to be appreciated. In canon she brings Jason back from the brink of death in TLH and just straight up gives Festus a soul/free will/sentience. Let her go Orpheus-mode on everybody. You can even tie that in with the half-hearted snake theme that Rick tried to throw in there that didn’t work at all. We can make this work, just lean into it. It’ll be fun.

- Remove scene of Nico confessing to Percy at end of BoO. it’s just. random and feels sudden and OOC. Give Nico time. You could maybe replace it by having him come out to Reyna on his own terms while they’re on their quest discussing their adventures thus far and them having a very sweet little emotional moment rather than it being a weird out-of-place afterthought comical scene.

- Remove Bob and Damacus. They’re just half-literal dues ex machinas for Percabeth in Tartarus that don’t make sense. It feels extremely cheap and doesn’t fit with the established mythos of either figure (and Bob feels extra awkward without the context of knowing Sword of Hades). If they do run into a figure who helps them out in Tartarus, Arke could possibly be a good option - especially since in SoN Percy meets Iris. There’s a lot potentially you could do there with Percy mistaking her for her twin and stuff like that. If we want a figure to more-so take the role that Bob fills (Nico encouraging an immortal to be sympathetic to Percy and thus indirectly helping him later) that role could be filled by Nyx instead of making her a minor antagonist - imply Nico encountered Nyx in Tartarus or something and she took pity on him as someone who also understands the dark, and he told her about Percy and so Nyx is willing to help Percabeth escape. Plus imagine how COOL a Nyx & her children vs Tartarus/Titans/Giants fight would be. That’d be a significantly more memorable scene than the Tartarus fight scenes we did get. (“Why would Nyx help though?” One of Nyx’s kids is LITERALLY a goddess of friendship [Philotes], we have excuses.)

- On a similar note, this is more of a TSATS thing, but for goodness’ sake STOP THROWING CHARACTERS INTO TARTARUS. You’re overusing it! It only works when we use it sparingly! In fact, just in general Tartarus works better the less we see of it! Nico going through Tartarus once in SoN-MoA, yes, that works! Especially since we have almost no idea what happened to him down there, just that it was Terrifying and Horrible and he Barely Survived. Not going into much detail means we get more out of it. The only exception to that really was when Percy realized that Nico saw Tartarus as it truly was the entire time, because that’s one hell (ha) of a punch to the gut in terms of added information! Percabeth falling into Tartarus in MoA? Eh, fine, sure, because we’ve established that Nico (who is implied to be more resilient to that environment on virtue of being a child of Hades) talked about his experiences down there so they know what to expect and how to survive. Though it does kind of just feel like Rick went “Oh wait hey I can use this to make angst!” and then overused the hell out of it. It feels way weaker in general in HoH because of how much detail we get, because Tartarus has been built up so much until that point that literally anything we get will feel lackluster in comparison, especially with how it kind of feels like Percabeth just. breezed through it with little more difficulty than they’d usually face on their quests. Solangelo jumping into Tartarus in TSATS is honestly just a blatant “Oh boy we can make Solangelo into Percabeth 2!” and it doesn’t work at all because NICO HAS ALREADY BEEN TO TARTARUS.

The only way you could make Nico going into Tartarus two times work is if he fell into Tartarus a second time to replace Percabeth falling down there. Because we’ve established he knows what it’s like down there, he survived it once, and he is actively sparing someone else he cares about from suffering his same fate. And then he can return once again even closer to death and A Little Fucked Up and it turns into a rule of threes where we know “Oh, Nico can’t go back to Tartarus again because if he does he’ll Lose Himself Completely” which is way more interesting than romance angst for the sake of romance angst. Especially since again, we don’t see it, it’s all only implied. Also it then also turns Tartarus into even more of a “Nico is probably the only demigod who could ever even hope to survive Tartarus” which keeps Tartarus as an ominous thing. Percabeth falling into Tartarus lessens that by a lot because it implies that it doesn’t matter that Nico is a child of Hades; that had absolutely no bearing on his ability to survive down there. TL;DR: Stop throwing characters into Tartarus. Either throw Nico in twice in a row and no Percabeth or Nico and Percabeth once only and never touch it again.

- More heavily set up Percy’s emotions/mood/etc being influenced by water around him. If we keep most of Percabeth in Tartaurs, then this would really make the Achlys scene pack a bigger punch. Up until HoH everything is “oh how quirky” but the minute Percy’s surrounded by the rivers of the underworld and the acid/poision you get hit with the “oh shit” realization that Percy Is About To Get SCARY.

- Maybe have Annabeth keep her blindness from Tartarus, or trade Jason having glasses to her having glasses as a result of that, since vision is actually an aspect of Athena so it kind of fits her more, thematically-speaking.

- Change the judo flip percabeth scene in MoA to Annabeth picking Percy up and spinning him around in a hug/swinging him into a dip cause that’s cuter, makes more sense given Percy’s PTSD, and still highlights Annabeth being very strong and showing off in front of the Romans while they’re still being lovey-dovey.

But also, related to that, you could potentially make a sub-arc for Percabeth throughout HoO (so that they actually have like. some type of character development that fits them rather than them feeling stagnant the entire time) about Annabeth learning she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought (learning about Gabe [since as far as we know she actually doesn't know much if anything about that!], seeing his behavior change with different types of water, etc) kicked off by the judo flip scene, and possibly vice versa (Percy learning more about Annabeth’s time spent traveling with Thalia and Luke, growing up at CHB, her relationship with Athena and other campers at CHB, etc) so they gain a deeper understanding of one another. If Percy keeps his curse of Achilles, that could also factor in (contrasting Percy’s “perfect” image [relationship, near-immortality] against Annabeth realizing she doesn’t know as much about Percy as she thought [could also parallel that dynamic to Jaspiper, which opens opportunities for Annabeth/Piper and Jason/Percy bonding] [Or Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy bonding! I want more Annabeth/Jason and Piper/Percy parallels so bad. They’re almost there but we never get them. Please.]/ the Argo II crew learning about Percy’s past) with Percy being more prone to seek out conflict or solve problems with violence due to the Curse of Achilles and eventually recognizing that [possibly after Tartarus] and it scaring him just as much as it frightens Annabeth. Maybe at that point Percy tries to make some sort of deal to rid himself of the curse.)

- Maybe also explicitly parallel Percy getting the curse of Achilles with Nico’s help to Poseidon giving his lover Caeneus iron skin. There’s no really smooth way to do it, but maybe even just a during Nico’s pov him going “I heard about this myth once and got an idea. It didn’t work.” Just for that added through-line of connecting the series and further establishing “yeah, no, Nico’s been gay this whole time. this isn’t a new thing. we aren’t pulling this from thin air.”

- Give Piper a different weapon than the knife from the beginning cause she stops using it eventually anyways. Also just... no cornucopia. That part is just stupid and there’s no point for it. If we have to keep it as a plot object, give it to someone else - Nico could work because then there’s actually at least a valid relation there regarding his godly parent (yes, Pluto sometimes has cornucopia associations). Also Nico having a cornucopia would be kinda funny in a subversion of expectations thing. Maybe even have Nico go on a little exposition-y rant complaining about Hades/Pluto versus Plutus (the Greek god of plenty/wealth, later merged with Pluto).

- Similarly, either remove Diocletian’s scepter (if we have multiple characters who can boss around skeletons, why do we need an entire separate extra object whose sole purpose is to let them boss around skeletons?) or let Nico keep it but it loses its abilities, so it’s literally just “well now he has a cool bashing stick for bashing things.” Or let him use it as a cane to highlight him being disabled!

- As I slightly touched upon in a previous bullet point, give Piper more connections to her dad’s community in Oklahoma - where’s all her family friends? Tristan is a major pop culture figure in the Riordanverse, so it’d make sense that people from the community he grew up in would like. know him? But all we ever hear about is Piper’s Grandpa Tom. Even though apparently Piper is already good enough friends with Shel presumably before Piper moves to Oklahoma that the two start dating soon afterwards. Heck, again, have Piper reference Shel specifically. Just at any point. For any reason. Just to establish that she knows people her own age that exist outside of CHB.

Similarly, flesh out the background Romans in Camp Jupiter more in SoN and possibly also BoO, particularly the ones Jason references by name but we never see anything of, besides at most maybe more background references. Highlight them either through the SoN trio interacting with more characters while at camp (and we’re left to glean specific details of Jason’s past through others, which would make Jason more compelling and how these details are absent from himself but present to those around him, playing into his memory loss more) and possibly also through Reyna (and maybe Nico)’s POV(s) in BoO. (And maybe if we get a Reyna POV in MoA, then there as well).

- Let Reyna use magic! We establish that she studied under Circe and then never see anything come of that other than referencing her Tragic Backstory™. It could be a fun point for Reyna and Hazel to bond over, even!

- Remove the random “Hunters of Artemis death fodder” scene with Orion in BoO. There’s no reason for that. It’s just kinda dumb and feels bad given it’s basically just “We’re gonna kill a bunch of nondescript allegedly a-spec coded characters now for no reason. <3” like ???. That served no purpose. It just felt weird.

- Also just as a like, logistics thing - change the route Team Statue takes in BoO from the huge jump over the Atlantic into Peurto Rico into them traveling up into like the UK, then over to Iceland and Greenland and then Canada and down the east coast rather than the huge jump and up the east coast. The smaller jumps make more sense given the entire POINT of their quest taking as long as it does is that Nico can’t make extremely large shadow-travel jumps at that time. Plus if they’re traveling south then they could pass through Maine and we could maybe cameo Nico’s old school and that’d be fun. The pit-stop in Puerto Rico doesn’t really give us much that we couldn’t have just gotten from Reyna explaining it anyways. If they pause in Maine that can be where Nico and Reyna have a heart-to-heart about their tragic backstories and past experiences with horrible ghosts that they had to exorcise.

- If Team Statue travels a northern route we can make jokes about Nico learning specifically 1930s British English before he moved to America. The gang goes to London and Coach proceeds to incessantly make fun of Nico for not only using British slang, but using OUTDATED British slang (which is made weirder given he doesn’t have a British accent).

- Also extremely tiny detail but a specific acknowledgement that Piper was helping out Nico once they got back to the ship when Nico’s getting rescued from the jar. Since Piper just kind of drags him off-screen. Just any kind of follow-up to that. Like Nico doing his classic “You were vaguely nice to me. I would now Die For You.” Just them having basically any kind of interaction or acknowledgement of that scene, mostly cause I think it’s funny.

- Let Annabeth keep her laptop, and get rid of the sphere of Archimedes cause it just feels kinds pointless and random? We don’t really have any emotional connection to Annabeth’s laptop (and her hat gets replaced in Demigods & Magicians anyways) so her losing it doesn’t really feel impactful at all. Maybe have Leo use Annabeth’s laptop while she’s in Tartarus and that acts as the point of guilt for him rather than weird random curse stuff with a random new introduced object. Instead of “oh no fortune cookie thing or whatever” it’s him feeling guilty he saved Annabeth’s laptop but couldn’t help Annabeth herself. Especially since Leo would also have his Ogygia identity crisis in the same book so he can feel extra bad about himself for a bit, to lead up to his role in BoO nicely (sometimes a character negatively spiraling is more narratively compelling than them having positive development for the majority of the series and that’s okay! Let him be tragic but again he gets a happy ending and an implication post-BoO that he’ll begin a road of healing/recovery surrounded by loved ones. It works out.) AND there could be a very sweet moment once Annabeth gets back from Tartarus and Leo gives her the laptop back and it’s a huge relief to her that one of her prized possessions was in safe hands while she was gone and that she has it back when she thought she might have lost it.

- Further highlight Jason’s whole Greek/Roman/etc identity crisis. Bonus points if we go further into acknowledging Jupiter/Zeus’s epithets and roles and Jason having some epiphany that the Romans look to him with the expectations of Jupiter/Juno as king and queen of the gods making him some kind of perfect leader, but he’s not that at all. He’s the son of Jove and Juno, father and mother of the gods. He doesn’t want to be a general or praetor or anything like that, he wants to spend time with his friends and family at a summer camp where they’re safe. He wants to regain the childhood he lost being raised as a perfect soldier and get the chance to go to school and learn about his long-lost family and do cheesy summer camp activities. He is a wolf but he is not a creature built for the hunt - he is part of a pack.

- Touched upon it briefly in a previous bullet point but Curse of Achilles can stay/go, does not particularly matter to me either way. I do think it’d be funny though if Percy does keep the Curse of Achilles that he also randomly gets the Nemean Lion’s pelt back. Initially maybe as like a gift from Hera/Juno to help him cover his Achilles’ Heel while he’s running around with no memory just as insurance so he doesn’t die (with bonus points of the Romans being introduced to Percy either wearing the stupidest looking coat ever or wearing just a straight up bullet-proof lion’s pelt, which would even further solidify his “Are We Sure This Guy Isn’t A God In Disguise” vibes). But then later on into the series it’s just kind of part of his outfit or maybe even a running gag. The praetors have their magic bullet-proof cloaks, Percy has a very silly looking bullet-proof fur coat that is sometimes a whole lion.

- Keep Hazel’s blackouts. There’s not really a reason for them to disappear altogether for her? They’re somewhat tied to her powers and are a consequence of her coming back from the dead, which also helps keep the concept running in the series that death is a consequence that can’t just be easily evaded, even while we’re operating with the Doors of Death being open. That way future deaths in the series don’t feel like they could be as easily negated/avoided. Also, Hazel is disabled! This is a disability of hers! Why are we somehow magically getting rid of it without even an explanation as to why? Heck, if we’re getting rid of Piper’s knife, Hazel’s dreams when she has her blackouts could be used to supplement the dagger’s insight into the future, since we’ve already established that Hazel gets prophetic dreams sometimes anyways. Also fun thematic matching for the Death Sibs with them both having disabilities and random ways to glean the future (Hazel’s blackouts, Nico talking to ghosts). Her blackouts would probably improve slightly over the course of the series but never fully disappear, and it ends up mostly a thing of she can tell when they’re about to occur and prepare quickly for that or let someone know before she passes out.

- Get rid of Frank’s curse in SoN instead of waiting until The Tyrant’s Tomb. If we’re going to get rid of it eventually anyways, do it during the big scene of him freeing Thanatos. Let him have his cool big moment of embracing his destiny and that breaking the curse the first time he does it rather than him doing it twice but it only breaking the curse the second time? Also if the curse is broken earlier on then Frank’s entire arc gets to be about him realizing he has a life to live, since in SoN a major part of his character is that he’s not afraid of death because he’s used to the idea that his curse could kill him at any point. He’s actually pretty reckless for the beginning of HoO because of that. If he realizes that he no longer is at risk of dying at any given moment because he thought about candles too hard, then that opens the opportunity of him having a whole existential crisis about what he actually wants to do with his life and him looking to the future for once.

Bonus opportunity for this - maybe Frank actually gets fire powers as a result of his curse breaking. Ares/Mars has an association with fire so it would fit for him as a son of Mars. Plus, then we could also have an even more overt dynamic of Frank and Leo acting as each other’s parallels and foils and the two of them slowly growing more used to one another and actually becoming close friends. Lots of bonding over getting used to their fire powers and overcoming their mutual fears of fire and probably also solidarity in having lost their moms. Just - the boys are bonding! The boys are bonding. Fire boys hours.

- Related to Frank’s curse, give Hazel and Frank parallel narratives of them realizing they have a future ahead of them (Hazel re: getting a second chance at life and Frank re: realizing he’s no longer at risk of spontaneously combusting) and them grappling with trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives and how they want to live them after everything is said and done. And also being motivated for once to make it out the other side in one piece because they’re determined to not waste the opportunity they’ve been given. The two of them coming to terms with realizing they have a future if they can make it through this (which is also a fun contrast to Leo and Nico actively almost sacrificing their own lives for others and having essentially an opposite character arc for the majority of the series).

- Especially while Frank (and Hazel) are having these arcs, going back to the idea of Leo getting stuck on Ogygia alone for a bit - very strongly contrasting the arcs of Frank’s mental health improving over the series while Leo’s is very steadily decreasing (until BoO at which point again the series ends with Leo getting help and beginning to improve/heal).

- Also further emphasizing Leo and Nico’s parallels throughout HoO. They’re both autistic on top of the usual adhd/dyslexia and have issues with social interactions and care a lot about Hazel and are having a majorly bad time throughout the entire quest and are pretty depressed, etc etc etc. Again, parallel narratives at the end of BoO with them healing and things looking up for them - I think I’ve mentioned that like four times now you get the idea.

- Make Frank ADHD/dyslexic. There is literally no reason for him not to be and him being the outlier for being neurotypical feels weird and doesn’t fit with the literal entire worldbuilding we have for demigods. If it’s part of “demigod instincts” or whatever then Frank should be ADHD/dyslexic! And it’s not even a “the Romans aren’t ADHD/dyslexic” because we’re explicitly told they are! They are specifically also ADHD and dyslexic! So why isn’t Frank? There’s no reason. It annoys me.

- The Frank/Hazel/Leo “love triangle” can stay but it’s significantly more one-sided. Frank is mostly just intimidated by Leo for multiple reasons (mostly fire-related reasons) and Leo is mutually intimidated by Frank (because Frank is bigger than him and Leo is scared of everyone, really, but especially people who are bigger than him, because they could beat him up. Which is basically everyone). Hazel is not romantically interested in Leo and Leo is not romantically interested in her, though they are very close and do have a very confusing time trying to figure out the whole Sammy situation. Frank still misinterprets this as Hazel and Leo being romantic. Leo does not realize Frank is misinterpreting that as them being romantic and think Frank just hates him for the general reasons that Leo has found people usually hate him for no reason over. Leo wants nothing to do with that situation though. Eventually they all sort it out and become a very strong trio.

- Again as I briefly touched upon before, maybe give Reyna a protagonist role in MOA if not an outright POV. Probably an outright POV, with the main POVs of the book being her and Annabeth. Again, themes of historical associations between Athena and Bellona and playing with that, alongside making Reyna more of a prominent player earlier on in the series and letting us see more of the Romans. Use this opportunity to heavily parallel her with Annabeth (and also highlight her parallels with Percy, and Annabeth’s parallels with Jason).

- Really I just want more Annabeth/Jason and Percy/Reyna parallels. There’s so much you can do there. The blond(e) gifted kid/smart aleck raised at camp and their best friend, the former newbie raised with a difficult home life. Percy and Reyna both have dogs (Mrs. O’Leary / Aurum and Argentium) and pegasi (Blackjack and Skippy). And a sibling they don’t see often (Tyson / Hylla). You could have notes about Jason and Thalia and Annabeth and the dynamics within that and how those internally parallel each other. Or more about when Reyna encountered Percy and Annabeth while on Circe’s Island. Really anything more about Reyna’s time on Circe’s Island. Heck maybe you could parallel that to Percy’s difficult time in school, since Circe’s whole thing was that she was training the sorceresses living there, so that’s kind of like a school environment. Paralleling first quests between Reyna and Jason with the events of the first series with Percy and Annabeth. Etc. etc. etc.

- We are taking BoO and just. Throwing it out the window, really. We don’t have time to unpack all of that. Just start mostly from scratch, same extremely rough overarching elements are there.

- Also actually just. Rework the whole main prophecy too while we’re at it. It kinda sucks. It’s just kind of a weak prophecy. “To storm or fire the world will fall” or whatever; we can do better. I don’t have the brain power to write a better prophecy right now but just [see my recent post] for notes about what I think makes for a good prophecy in the series and why the main HoO one is kinda lame.

Footnotes:

Again, I will be following this up with part 2 electric boogaloo: Things I Would Change About TOA* (*That I can say without spoiling Deadangelos too much) at some point and I will link that when I make it. If you made it this far, gold star.

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