#it's about thalia being in the hunters and nico hating her but he knows how to grieve with that kind of loss
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We only see each other at funerals
(On Jason, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, and their parallels/connections)
The Titan's Curse (Rick Riordan), @/anxiousmaya_, Right Now (Gracie Abrams), The Battle of the Labyrinth (Rick Riordan), Joan of Arc (Mary Gordon), The Lost Hero (Rick Riordan), Episodes Toward and Elegy for Halley's Comet (Lindsey Drager), Jason Grace (Riordan Wiki), The Gods Show Up (Michael Kinnucan), The House of Hades (Rick Riordan), What the Living Do (Marie Howe), The House of Hades (Rick Riordan), Planet of Love (Richard Siken), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), Tangerine (Nolune), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), I Bet On Losing Dogs (Mitski), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), @/abhorarchive (Twitter), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), Seventeen (MARINA), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), @/rollercoasterwords, The Tyrant's Tomb (Rick Riordan), @/the-overanalyst, Where Things Come Back (John Corey Whaley), Grit (Silas Denver Martin), Softcore (The Neighbourhood), The Tower of Nero (Rick Riordan), Frost (Mitski), @/moonbends, I'm Your Man (Mitski), Sun Bleached Flies (Ethel Cain), The Tower of Nero (Rick Riordan), Three (Sleeping At Last), My Art
#nono you don't understand it's about the siblings#it's about how thalia lost jason once only to get him back and lose him again#it's how jason and bianca both walked into their deaths with their eyes wide open#it's about zeus trying to kill nico and bianca and him doing nothing to stop jason from dying#it's about thalia being in the hunters and nico hating her but he knows how to grieve with that kind of loss#so he'll help her. for jason. for bianca. because no one deserves to mourn a sibling alone#like these four barely interact but they're soooo connected i could go on forever#i'm so sad thalia and nico never actually got a scene together after the burning maze#and ALSO#it's about the fact that reyna is one of the most (if not the most) important people left in their lives#LIKE#do you think thalia found out how close nico and reyna were and started watching her more closely#because every person the two of them have shared has ended up six feet under#so reyna gets annoyed with how protective thalia is but she doesn't stop her bc part of her can tell thalia needs it#and nico constantly checks to make sure reyna's life force is still strong#bc he never wants to be caught off guard by a death again#ok im done now i promise#the trials of apollo#trials of apollo#nico di angelo#reyna ramirez arellano#reyna avila ramirez arellano#web weaving#fanart#my art tag#thalia grace#jason grace#percy jackson#percy jackson fanart#bianca di angelo
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How I would make Nico and Percy an end game
(a very long text that I wrote at 3 am):
Before Percy threw himself into the River Styx, Nico would declare himself, as neither of them knew if this would work, so all that romantic tension that was between Percy/Rachel/Annabeth would turn into Percy/Rachel/annabeth/Nico, this would help Percy think more about his feelings about Nico, so he would be "rejected" by Rachel and still be thinking about Nico's declaration. thanks to that Annabeth and Percy would never have dated and Percy would still be thinking that during the holidays after the war in Manhattan.
Percy would be kidnapped by Hera, she would remind him of Annabeth to manipulate him, he would find Nico and remember him (even though that shouldn't happen) okay, everything goes normally, but Percy's decisive moment in his decision would be when Annabeth saw him and immediately spun him around in a judo strike. From that moment on, he understood which of the two really cared about him.
Everything would go on normally again until they find Nico in the jar, Percy rescues him and they have a talk about feelings (as much as they both hate it, Percy knew it was necessary) They kind of go into a state of "let's get to know each other before we date" and that doesn't last long because suddenly Percy is in Tartarus with Annabeth. In Tartar, Percy and Annabeth talk about this situation with Nico (he doesn't mention that Nico also likes him because Nico hasn't come out of the closet yet) and they understand each other, realizing that maybe they would be better as friends anyway, They find bob and Percy is like "did Nico say that?" And falling more and more in love. When he poisons that goddess to save Annabeth, he feels resentful when she simply acts like he's a monster and tells him not to use those powers.
On the other hand, Nico and Jason go to Cupid to get that scepter and Nico has to admit about his crush on Percy, but that's not so bad now that they're in a situationship, Cupid is kind of happy about it instead "muahahaha unrequited love! Pain! Suffering!" But he's still upset about being pulled out of the closet, but Jason accepts him and suddenly he became the #0 percico shipper.
when they meet again, after tartarus, Annabeth and Jason end up finding a way to get Percy and Nico alone to clarify things (and even kiss but that doesn't happen), Nico explains about cupid and Jason and Percy vents about Annabeth and misery.
This is a good start for them to get to know each other better and Jason was 100% trying to get them together, but it will take a while because they need to develop more to be ready to really to fall in love.
When they have to separate, when Nico stops to take the Athena Parthenon, Percy promises that as soon as this war is over, they would go on a date. and when Percy is leaving to prepare and face Gaia, he gets a lucky kiss.
(in this part I'm only going to talk about Nico because Percy's part doesn't have anything very relevant to the couple)
I don't remember exactly the order of things that happened in this book but:
Nico meets the Artemis hunters and something in him tells him to reveal himself to Thalia, after all, if her brother knows why not?
Before taking his nap, he ends up revealing he will go on a date with Percy to Reyna, he doesn't know her reaction as he went to sleep afterwards but she was like "oh, good for you man"
When he meets Hades, they have that father and son conversation and at the end he just says "...and I'm dating Percy" and hades "...the son of Poseidon? Wasn't there someone better?"
When Nico arrives at camp and Will Solace is babbling about births, and he just holds Nico's hand to place on his chest, in Nico's mind it's like "get out, I have a boyfriend" but he doesn't say that
This whole Nico arc is basically him finally feeling good enough about himself to come out to his friends and dad, but not good enough to disclose it to anyone. Still, it is a greater evolution than the original book.
The end of the war arrives and Nico is slowly turning into a ghost, Leo has died and so has Octavian, the air smells of death and victory and they need to rest.
The first thing Percy does as soon as he is free is to look for Nico, who was in the infirmary after using his powers a lot. Despite being tired, Nico never asks Percy to stop talking when he starts to tell every little thing about the battle when they were apart, and as soon as he finishes Nico lets out a "I love you, but right now I need to sleep for the next week." Percy thought he was joking when this literally happened. Reyna explained that this was normal and during Nico's nap, he planned their date.
The date: Percy was dressed up (like, with an improvised suit) and had a (stolen) rose in his hand, he took Nico to the entrance of the camp where Sally was prepared as his official driver (inside she was MY SON'S FIRST BOYFRIEND!!!) and there were snacks in the car because the trip would be long (They spent this time in the car talking about Nico's journey and how he came out to his father, Thalia and Reyna). Percy had asked for reservations at an Italian restaurant (a real one, with Italian chefs), because he remembered that Nico is Italian and he probably hasn't eaten real Italian food since he was a kid. They talk about everything, school, camp, friends, family. Until they both realize that neither of them know exactly what they want to do in the future. Nico wanted to continue life the way that is, doing missions for his father, traveling and meeting Percy (usually to save his life buuut who cares) While Percy wanted to have a normal life, going to camp in the summers to meet his friends and help the New demigods, but without going on missions all the time or risking your life, only if absolutely necessary, but still working in the mortal world (he doesn't want to go to college) and have his own house.
To conclude: they both followed their respective lifestyles, but they still met practically every day, and when they didn't, they called each other. Eventually they were falling in love. They only told a few people (Hazel, Reyna, Rachel, Annabeth, Jason, Grover, Thalia and Clarisse) and it was ok!
no one expected that this would end, But love is like that, it's very unpredictable
#percy jackon and the olympians#rick riordan#percy jackson#heroes of olympus#nico di angelo#percico#nicercy#pernico#fanfic#rewriting history#rewrite hoo#I really enjoyed doing this#rachel elizabeth dare#annabeth chase#jason grace#reyna avila ramirez arellano
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Fandom(s): Trials of Apollo
Summary: Nico faces the grim reality of losing another sister to the Hunters of Artemis. He has convinced his father to change his mind and fight for their dysfunctional family, surely he can make Reyna change her mind, too.
Rating: T (swearing, people being bitchy)
Words: 1800
AO3 link
“Why?”
Reyna had been waiting for him to arrive. She had barely flinched when she felt that cold, bizarre feeling that meant somebody shadow-travelled nearby.
Nico saw her shoulders rise and fall as she sighed.
“Don’t make a big deal out of this,” she asked.
Nico scoffed.
Only then did she turn around.
“It’s not the same.” Reyna stated.
The same. No need to clarify.
I’m not like your other sister who abandoned you at the first chance. I’m not like your other sister who died days later because death was better than dealing with an unwanted little brother.
“Isn’t it?” Nico asked, his voice hard. “You’re not joining those fucking Hunters, then? All miscommunication. The rumour mill in Camp Jupiter is insane.”
Reyna’s expression became a stony cold wall. Emotionless.
“Don’t be immature,” she chided him. “Yes, I’m joining the Hunters. No, it’s not the same, because I’m not a twelve-year-old girl who doesn’t know better. I made a founded decision.”
Nico crossed his arms. “Yeah, founded. Founded by all that marketing bullshit they use to convince people. First that condescending bitch Zoë, and now Thalia, the giant hypocrite. She hated them, and now she goes around replacing the ones who die.”
Reyna took a deep breath. With her face devoid of emotion, and Nico feeling too many emotions himself, it was hard for him to know if she was exasperated, tired, or about to stab him with a dagger.
But, to be frank, Nico didn’t give a shit. If he got stabbed, so be it. Reyna needed to understand this was a mistake. A huge, massive, regrettable mistake.
“I know how Thalia used to feel about them,” Reyna told him. She leaned back on what would become her former desk, half sitting on it, and mirrored his crossed arms. “She’s told me all about Zoë too. And her version of what happened to Bianca, Nico.”
“Her version?” Nico rolled his eyes. “There’s one version. Artemis convinced Bianca to join the Hunt, had no better idea than to be kidnapped a nanosecond later,” he ignored the rumbling of thunder in the background, “and then darling Zoë took her on a quest she wasn’t ready for where she was murdered because not a single one of those assholes in the quest had a second thought about a girl who didn’t know shit about demigod life joining them!”
Reyna opened her mouth to speak but Nico wasn’t finished.
He shook his head. “And all for what? Because Percy and Thalia wanted to get Annabeth back. All for infallible, perfect Annabeth Chase. My sister’s life wasn’t worth shit next to hers to any of the people in that quest. And neither does yours.” He sneered. “The moment somebody Thalia loves is in danger, you become disposable. She won’t hesitate to put you in the line of fire.”
Reyna put a hand on his forearm. “You’re being unfair.”
Nico pulled his arm out of her grasp. “I’m telling you the truth. You don’t believe me? Look at the facts. Any Hunter dies? Thalia has them replaced before she can even learn the former one’s names. There used to be a dozen when my sister joined. By the Battle of Manhattan Thalia had doubled that number.” He put his hands on his hips. “A bunch of them died then, and by the time you met them, Thalia had already got the numbers up again. She doesn’t care! They’re statistics to her!”
“That’s not true, Nico,” Reyna insisted. “Thalia cares a lot more than you think. Hell, she probably cares more than Zoë did. Most of the girls there have been rescued from tough situations; from abusive partners, sometimes their own families… Thalia’s only helping them have a better future.”
Nico snorted. “Oh, forgive me, I didn’t know she was doing a saint’s work. And here I was, thinking the best way out of a toxic relationship was therapy. Clearly, joining a group of eternal maidens who are taught to hate, mistrust, and shun out men is much better. With the addition of dangerous monster hunting. How fun!”
“If you’ll be a little shit about it, you can just leave,” Reyna snapped. Her façade broke and Nico saw she was both hurt and annoyed. “I do want to talk to you about my decision, but I won’t if you’ll just stand there and complain without listening to my side.”
“Fine,” Nico said. He grabbed a chair from next to the wall, and sat straddling it, leaning on its backrest, looking at Reyna. “Go ahead, explain your betrayal.”
Reyna rolled her eyes again. “You’re dramatic, patronising, and right now, publicity to Thalia’s cause against boys. Be a man, shut up, and listen.”
Nico frowned but stayed quiet. She wanted to talk, let her. There was nothing she could say that would make him change his mind.
“Do you remember how you said you didn’t feel part of Camp Half-Blood?” She began. “How you never fit in, and you struggled to try because you felt whatever you did was never enough, so why bother?”
“You fit in perf— you’re a praetor!”
“Ah, ah, ah,” Reyna raised a hand to stop him. “Ahora me toca a mí. Yes, I was a praetor, so was Jason, and look how quickly he decided to join Camp Half-Blood, where he felt more comfortable. Having power isn’t the same as being happy in a place, you know? You’re powerful in your father’s domain, would you stay there forever?”
Nico first thought it was rhetoric, but she seemed to be waiting for some sort of reply, so he shook his head.
“I love Camp Jupiter,” she stated, and her voice shook with emotion. “But I also think I’ve done more than my fair share to keep it running. I’ve led them through two wars! I’ve given them years of my life.”
Nico swallowed a comment about how they would likely be the last years of her life, because, let’s face it, lately the Hunters, ironically, had a reduced life expectancy.
“Thalia’s offer is one of being able to have a life,” Reyna said. “I won’t have to lead, I won’t have to think for everybody else, shoulder that responsibility.”
“Will you be happy, though?” Nico asked. He tried to keep the venom in his voice to a minimum. “Is it really a life to be your age forever, and run around the wild without a care for the world?”
Reyna shrugged. “It’s better than this. Besides, what do you want my life to be? To grow up, get married, sprout out a couple of kiddies?”
Nico made a face. “Yes, that’s what I want you to do, have children. You know, Reyna, believe it or not, I’m aware it isn’t the 1940s anymore. I simply don’t think having no responsibilities will make you happy. And the Hunters they— they’re just not a good option.”
“Is there really any other reason than what happened to your sister to make you hate them?”
“Do I need any other reason?” He demanded, he felt his heartbeat quicken again. “Other than them letting my sister die? I’ll give you another reason: they take advantage of girls when they’re vulnerable. They’re like mythological mormons! They convince you to join their cult but they fail to give you other options.”
“Mythological mormons?” Reyna sighed. “Your issues with protestants aside—”
“Gods, it’s not about the protestants!” Nico waved his hands as if trying to grab an idea from the air. “You’ve always thought Hylla’s decision to join the Amazons was rushed. You’ve said it yourself, you think they only managed to convince her because she was in despair.”
Reyna’s face shone with anger. “She wasn’t in despair. She was broken. She’d been hurt time and time again by those brutes in Blackbeard’s crew. If you knew what they did to her, you’d understand why she joined some weird group who kept men in line. But the Amazons did sweep in when they saw somebody vulnerable, Thalia and the Hunters don’t do that.”
“You’ve told me they went for girls in abusive relationships, forgive me for assuming that puts you in a vulnerable situation,” Nico argued. “They offered my sister a life free of any burden when she felt overwhelmed, and they —coincidentally— asked you to join the immortal sorority of man-haters when they knew you felt weird and left out.”
“That doesn’t make me vulnerable,” she insisted. “And for your information, Thalia’s been asking me to join for ages, ever since the quest to get the statue back to New York.”
“When, of course, you weren’t vulnerable, it was a perfectly unstressful situation,” Nico deadpanned. He leaned on the back of the chair again. “If your issue is that you don’t want to have sex with people, then maybe go to a pride-parade dressed in purple, don’t abandon your whole life on a whim.”
“You know,” Reyna said. “I’m not sure if you’re worried I’ll abandon my life, or that I’ll abandon you.”
Nico hesitated for a second. “Both. I’ve already been abandoned once by a sister because of the Hunters. I’d rather it didn’t happen again. But you wouldn’t just be abandoning me. You’d be abandoning everybody.”
Reyna walked towards him, she knelt in front of his chair.
“I won’t abandon you,” she promised. “I’ll come back, I’ll see you as much as I can. It’ll be like going to university, that’s all.”
“Let’s, for a second, pretend you can keep that promise,” Nico suggested. “Let’s pretend you’re one of the lucky few who live for centuries. What happens when all the people you know are dead?”
Reyna swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t see the future. I’ll have the girls.”
“The Hunters Thalia replaces every less than a decade?” He wondered. “Those girls?”
She shook her head. “It’s my decision. I’m making it, sound of mind, having considered the pros and cons —regardless of whether you believe me or not—, and not being led in a moment of vulnerability.”
Nico huffed, shook his head, and stood up.
“All right,” he said. “I give up. You want to leave your friends and family, your life and responsibilities, off you go.”
“Thank you for understand—”
“I don’t,” Nico cut her off. “I don’t understand it. I’m mad as hell.”
“For somebody who didn’t grow up as an only child, you seem to love the word ‘I’.”
Nico scoffed. “Right, sorry, I keep making things about me. Let me make this about you. Remember when you said, in front of both camps, that you used to have a home, but now you had two? Well done, Reyna, by choosing the Hunters, now you have none.”
He turned and left the room, shutting the door with all the strength he could muster.
#first of all i love that it's 1800 words it's beautiful#nico di angelo#reyna avila ramirez arellano#pjo#hoo#toa#pjo hoo toa#riordanverse#pjo fic#mis fics#tagthescullion
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I tried to rank the five on the quest in the Titan's Curse. Here's what I came up with:
Grover Underwood: Grover is #1 because we have some stuff on common. Like Grover is typically portrayed as very timid and (maybe I'm projecting when I use this word, but) cowardly. And I can relate to that. I can relate to that a lot. Honestly, that trait alone is probably why he's in the top spot here.
Percy Jackson: I sometimes have my issues with him (like how he treated Tyson initially in the Sea of Monsters) but I like him. It'd be hard to read the books if I despised the main character, after all. He's not a character I relate to very much or anything (there's some others I relate to more), but he's a good enough character that I don't really care too much about that.
Zoë Nightshade: I hate the hunters of artemis, but I don't hate Zoë Nightshade. Don't ask me how that works. It's really hard for me to explain why I like her, but I just do. I didn't love her initially (the first few chapters with Artemis made me dislike her), but Dionysus reminded me of her backstory and that made me like her more. Also, her archaic way of speaking is really fun.
Thalia Grace: I don't despise Thalia like I despise Bianca (not yet, at least), but I don't love her. Yet at the same time I can see at least a bit of myself in her. Her being described as almost constantly being in an aggravated mood makes it hard for me to love her, but also I'm like that irl sometimes. So I can't say I don't get it. Still, she gets knocked down a few pegs for the hunters of artemis twist which I know I'll be re-reading again soon, and also because she almost killed the ophiotaurus for Luke.
Bianca di Angelo: I've made my opinion clear on her. She reminds me of some personal fears of mine, and I relate to Nico very much. I can put myself in his shoes and imagine having my dad (my only friend who I'm pretty dependent upon) abandoning me. I don't know how I'd handle it. And Bianca is like a fictional representation of this fear of abandonment, so I've had nothing but bitter hatred for her.
#percy jackson#grover underwood#zoë nightshade#thalia grace#I guess I should tag#bianca di angelo#pjo#pjo hoo toa#percy jackson and the olympians#percy jackon and the olympians#the titan's curse#percy jackson series
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milk and feelings
thalia figuring out her feelings and then reyna confesses (in a way, thalia does as well) and then they kiss.
its cute i promise i just can’t summarize shit
thalia had grown to hate the campfires.
every single night, maybe she liked it the first few times, but the romans were here for jason’s funeral, and everyone was drinking themself to hades and back.
she couldn’t stay with the hunters. if she did, she’d watch everyone she loved die. she couldn’t do that, she would have killed herself.
not many campers were even of age, but she didn’t think mr. d gave a shit.
thalia hated alcohol.
for as long as she can recall, she’d see girls in magazines and movies with their wine and beer, and she’d see her mother...and everything felt like a curse.
so how the hell did she get roped into a drinking game with leo.
‘milk for thalia because she doesn’t like beer.’
even without the drink her stomach is doing flips, godsdam campfires.
reyna’s smiling face across the camp, soft and easy-relaxed, thalia would say, her face illuminated by the fire, she looked like an angel.
godly, if thalia was allowed to say.
like that time she saw aphrodite-oh shit.
“thals? how are you choking on milk?”
“i-nothing, nothing.”
she didn’t sound convincing, the glimpse from years ago at the goddess, she’s been convinced it was a boy with long hair, a boy with those clever, brave brown eyes, a boy, a boy.
it was never a boy.
it was never a boy.
percy grinned, leaning on piper slightly, who shoved him off, “chill percy, i’ve got a girlfriend.”
“THALIA STOP CHOKING ON THE FUCKING MILK!!!”
“sorry!!”
annabeth looked at her warily, and leo spoke before her, “what-your against gay people?!”
thalia froze, and saw percy’s gaze harden, and she felt herself blush, “no! what the hell leo?! no...i didn’t...i just didn’t know-i don’t.”
piper giggled, “you don’t know shit about gay stuff, do you?”
the daughter of zeus shook her head, feeling extremely out of her element.
“i know some. i know what gay and lesbian mean, and i know what being trans is. that’s kind of it....”
percy snickered, “well, i’m bisexual, and if you didn’t know-i did like luke. but he’s a bitch and you can’t really fuck a corpse.”
frank looked up at him, surprised, “i-”
annabeth rolled her eyes, “i’m also bi, you know.”
“i’m pan! pan-piper, like that guy with his flute.”
leo raised his hand, “i’m pan and trans!”
“i just don’t feel a sexual attraction, so..i’m asexual.” hazel said, shrugging, and thalia could imagine nico going ‘good.’.
she nodded, “thanks guys....”
her head was pounding at her, and she was convinced there was something in her milk.
“leo is there something in here?”
the boy shrugged, “prob not, why?”
“my head wants to blow up.”
reyna walked over, “we can go over to a smaller fire?”
hazel giggled, “you don’t like us?”
reyna gave her a small smile, “yes, i do, but thalia’s interesting.”
thalia’s stomach twisted again, but she nodded, “yeah, i’m interesting. suck it.”
piper flipped her off.
she always felt normal around the daughter of bellona, but now, thalia felt like a knife had hit her in the stomach.
it was like she was filled to the brim, and she was going to burst at any moment.
and, and oh gods reyna looks so beautify sitting closer and gods she was nice enough to invite thalia to sit alone, and she’s always helping others and-
“thals? are you alright?”
no, i’m not okay, your really fucking attractive and i-“yeah, i’m good, you good, rey?”
reyna rolled her eyes, “you are the only person alive who calls me that....”
“i’m that special?”
“do you always flirt with people like this?”
thalia almost choked for the third time, a) holy fuck has she been flirting with reyna?! and b) did reyna sound....hopeful?
“i-”
“what’s going on, thals? you seemed to shocked when i walked over and you-”
“i think i’m a lesbian and i don’t know what to do because your really fucking pretty and i honestly and so fucking scared right now and i don’t know what to do so yeah. i’m kind of panicking.”
thalia couldn’t stop talking.
“and-and hearing everyone else talk about that stuff, i just-it it really that easy? my mom would have killed me, and i just...i just...i hate this feeling but it’s also so comforting.”
she froze and slapped herself in the face, forgetting she was holding a glass of milk.
she quickly wiped her face, gods of olympus, why had she said that?!
why hadn’t she stopped?!
it probably wasn’t even true! thinking that a girl was pretty didn’t mean anything and....gods.
“i-I’m sorry-i didn’t-”
thalia’s regret veered off the line when she saw reyna’s face shining slightly.
holy hades.
before thalia knew what was going on, she was being hugged.
and it didn’t feel like a normal hug.
it felt warm and comforting and...and it felt like home.
she didn’t realize she’s pressed her face to reyna’s collarbone, and she’s crying-hephaestus she’s being so open right now-
reyna pulls away, her face still shining and thalia finds her self, oddly enough, wishing she’d be hugged again.
“sorry..i don’t know what i was thinking.”
thalia gave her a small smile, “it’s fine. i liked it-wait-fuck.”
reyna laughed softly, and thalia’s breathe quickened.
holy hera what was this girl doing to her?!
“so did i.....thank you-for saying that. i know you didn’t really...well...seem to be happy with yourself, but...” reyna shrugged. “i guess it felt good to hear someone else say it?”
“what do you mean?”
the other girl wrung her hands together, “i don’t get the pleasure feeling of sex, i never liked it as much as other girls..or boys said....but then my chest and stomach keep fighting when i see you. i don’t know if i’m broken or if it’s just-”
thalia stopped her, “okay-well, your not broken. that’s bullshit, your beautiful and amazing and-and what was hazel saying.....asexual!”
“what?”
“um-she said it means you don’t feel a sexual attraction and she’s still dating frank, so i’m assuming it means you can still date people! not that it matters, whatever you want to do is perfectly fine.”
now she was going on about something she didn’t really know.
thalia rubbed the back of her head nervously, glancing around, slightly surprised that no one had eavesdropped on their conversation.
“nervous?”
“just....people.”
“ah. very descriptive.”
“wow, reyna? sarcastic?”
“cute, thals, real cute.”
thalia froze.
okay, fuck it-she’s doing something about these feelings.
before she could talk herself out of it, the blue and black haired girl grabbed the other’s wrist, standing and pulling her to behind the zeus cabin.
then she panicked, what the hell was she doi-
shut up, internal monologue.
“can i kiss you?”
“um-”
thalia was shorter than reyna, by at least three inches.....three.
“yes.”
and the twisting stopped, and reyna’s hand was on her neck and for the first time in her life, kissing boys on the run because had nothing to loose, everything paled, for the first time in her life, everything made so much sense.
everything felt so...good.
she could feel wood on her back and was vaguely aware that she was standing up at tall as she could.
it didn’t matter.
nothing else mattered.
everything made sense.
they broke apart, and thalia found herself smiling like an idiot, “’no demigod shall heal your heart.’ well, reyna avila ramirez-areallno, how does an ex-immortal hunter sound?”
the roman laughed, her joyful, clear and pure laugh, “it sounds pretty fucking perfect.”
right before they kissed again.
#theyna#thalia x reyna#reyna x thalia#thalia grace#reyna ramirez arellano#percy jackson#annabeth chase#leo valdez#frank zhang#hazel levesque#piper mclean#jason grace#pjo#hoo#toa#gay in space writes#aven writes
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Chapter 5: ANNABETH BREAKS THE RULES
Thalia began reading with her usual air of confidence the new chapter title, ignoring the pit of scorpions that felt like they'd taken nest up in her stomach for how much she was not looking forward to hearing details of how many times Percy and Annabeth had almost died in that place.
"Didn't she already do that in the last chapter just by sitting next to you?" Jason grinned at what a rebel this girl probably thought she was. Befriending children of Neptune, switching tables, her mother probably had a heart attack on the regular when she didn't eat her vegetables. He wondered if Annabeth pretended to hate olives as the ultimate act of betrayal.
"And look what came of that, some freaking answers," Alex nodded. "I am all for this continuing."
"Of course you are," Magnus chuckled to no one's surprise.
Percy alone looked a might concerned. It wasn't the unspoken rule of never stealing Mr. D's diet coke was it? Or maybe some horrible metaphor and she was going to break her own mind in the Labyrinth already?
Thalia started reading before he could freak himself out to much.
Chiron had insisted we talk about it in the morning, which was kind of like, Hey, your life's in mortal danger. Sleep tight!
"I thought every day was like that for you guys," Magnus said honestly.
"The Stoll's were almost smothered in their sleep that night for trying to make a lullaby out of it all, those were actual lyrics," Will agreed.
It was hard to fall asleep, but when I finally did, I dreamed of a prison.
A collective shiver passed around the room, not least because that hammered just a little to close to reality right now. Thalia's lasted the longest before she could control herself. Running free in the Hunter's had given her almost a healthy fear of being trapped again.
I saw a guy in a Greek tunic and sandals crouching alone in a massive stone room. The ceiling was open to the night sky, but the walls were twenty feet high and polished marble, completely smooth.
"That's a particular kind of cruel," Magnus shook his head. He lived surrounded by things he could never have.
Will thought it sounded like the best kind of option to have in a bad situation though. He glanced at the cracked ceiling in here, he'd never gone so long without seeing the sun in his life.
Scattered around the room were wooden crates. Some were cracked and tipped over, as if they'd been flung in there. Bronze tools spilled out of one—a compass, a saw, and a bunch of other things I didn't recognize.
"I bet the Hephaestus guys mock your hands for being as smooth as a baby's butt," Alex snorted.
"They weren't regular tools," Percy insisted. "I know most of the basics from all the times a schools punished me to fix something I broke. These tools looked like something you'd find in a museum, really twisty, and not sure they'd work, and did you hear the bronze? Like rusty scraps. I only recognized the compass and saw because you can't mistake that."
Their morbid fear began simmering into odd interest. Percy tried to describe it as something ancient, like this wasn't happening to somebody now. What could that have to do with anything?
The boy huddled in the corner, shivering from cold, or maybe fear. He was spattered in mud. His legs, arms, and face, were scraped up as if he'd been dragged here along with the boxes.
Alex swallowed a dry mouth. He knew the feeling of just being somebody's cargo, overlooked and trapped all at once, all to well.
Then the double oak doors moaned open. Two guards in bronze armor marched in, holding an old man between them. They flung him to the floor in a battered heap.
"Father!" The boy ran to him.
Nico flinched, even as a part of him realized. Ah, leverage, the oldest trick in the book to force cooperation. He glanced wearily at Percy and Jason for a moment before scolding his attention on track.
The man's robes were in tatters. His hair was streaked with gray, and his beard was long and curly. His nose had been broken. His lips were bloody.
The boy took the old man's head in his arms. "What did they do to you?" Then he yelled at the guards. "I'll kill you!"
"The appropriate response," Percy chuckled, but there was an edge to it that defied his lighthearted, usually chill demeanor. It was a feeling he understood all to well, wanting to avenge his mother.
"There will be no killing today," a voice said.
"Oh, just today," Jason echoed with a sour look. "Who knows when this nutjob considers midnight."
"I don't believe him anyways, I assume all prison guards are liars on principle," Alex sniffed.
The guards moved aside. Behind them stood a tall man in white robes. He wore a thin circlet of gold on his head. His beard was pointed like a spear blade. His eyes glittered cruelly.
"And now I agree with Alex," Percy said with a distasteful look at the book as well.
"I was sold at the pointy beard, the cruel glitter eyes just sealed it," Thalia nodded.
Nico's mouth twitched with extreme bitterness he'd been so easily fooled by somebody everybody else obviously knew wasn't a good person from the start. What did that say about him?
"You helped the Athenian kill my Minotaur, Daedalus. You turned my own daughter against me."
"Doesn't sound like a hard task to do," Will frowned.
"I could set Nico on the job to do it," Percy agreed with that ADHD ability of not thinking that one through.
Then it caught up to him, and he glanced guiltily at him. "Um, it's a compliment, because, uh, you're secretly likable?" He assumed anyways.
Because Nico was creepy and weird but Minos gave off the vibe of being creepier and weirder so it was something even he could handle. The Word thing aside?
Nico raised an unimpressed brow and decided no response was best. He probably should have laughed it off like Percy would have, but he just, didn't want to.
"You did that yourself, Your Majesty," the old man croaked.
A guard planted a kick in the old man's ribs. He groaned in agony. The young boy cried, "Stop!"
Whatever tension was bubbling in the room dissipated at once, as every one of them flinched at that.
"You love your maze so much," the king said, "I have decided to let you stay here. This will be your workshop. Make me new wonders. Amuse me. Every maze needs a monster. You will be mine!"
"I don't fear you," the old man groaned.
The king smiled coldly. He locked his eyes on the boy. "But a man cares about his son, eh? Displease me, old man, and the next time my guards inflict a punishment, it will be on him!"
Percy had already lived through Annabeth being taken to manipulate him, his mom had once been taken by Hades as a bargaining chip. He knew intricately well the feeling of powerless, and it really pissed him off this was just a dream. That he couldn't help.
The king swept out of the room with his guards, and the doors slammed shut, leaving the boy and his father alone in the darkness.
"What shall we do?" the boy moaned. "Father, they will kill you!"
The old man swallowed with difficulty. He tried to smile, but it was a gruesome sight with his bloody mouth.
An old memory flashed to Thalia's mind, one of those fuzzy, vague ones that emitted a stronger feeling than actual details because she'd so actively repressed her past. Jason had been throwing a fit, and Beryl had picked him up and put him in his room ignoring his kicking feet and swinging fists. She'd held the door shut as he cried on the other side and told him he couldn't come out until he had a happy face on while Thalia tried with all her little might to push her out of the way.
Finally it had gone quiet, and Thalia had been so scared. She'd thought it was a monster, like the ones that always lurked around the house before the distant sound of thunder would make them slink off.
His tiny little voice had come through, his chocked promise, "happy face!"
Beryl had opened the door to his flushed red, tear-stained, snot covered face, his lips pulled all the way back to show his teeth in a mock, feral looking smile.
She'd patted him on the head and went about her way as Thalia sat down beside him and hugged him. He'd snuffled and fallen asleep in her arms like that, his face relaxing back to normal.
She shook it off as quickly as it had come up, but watching Jason's lip now curl up, distorting that scar and his gruesome smile that seemed to be planning a prison break before his troubled eyes returned to the here and now of this long being done didn't help her press it as far down as before.
"Take heart, my son." He gazed up at the stars. "I—I will find a way."
A bar lowered across the doors with a fatal BOOM, and I woke in a cold sweat.
"Have I mentioned how much I dislike your dreams?" Magnus asked. "They're either terrifying, traumatizing, or some mixture of the two. Now whether you know that person or not!"
Percy wished that he could say he'd give them back if he could, but they'd also given him glimpses into his friends who were in danger to many times to say so.
He'd still like to trade away a few where he'd run around camp without his pants on his head.
I was still feeling shaky the next morning when Chiron called a war council.
"That's new," Jason said in surprise. "Last time you sat around a pingpong table," he still vividly remembered for how particularly strange that was in this odd camp. This arena like setting felt far more natural to him as he traced his tattoo.
We met in the sword arena, which I thought was pretty strange—
"Gods forbid there not be cheez whiz present," Thalia snorted.
trying to discuss the fate of the camp while Mrs. O'Leary chewed on a lifesize squeaky pink rubber yak.
"Aww," Alex cooed. "I don't know what you're talking about Percy, that's the perfect setting. You have in full view what you're fighting for."
"If the dog getting her chew toy is what motivates someone to save our camp, then so be it," Percy didn't look too impressed though.
Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks. Clarisse and Annabeth sat next to each other and led the briefing. Tyson and Grover sat as far away from each other as possible. Also present around the table:
Juniper the tree nymph, Silena Beauregard, Travis and Connor Stoll, Beckendorf, Lee Fletcher, even Argus, our hundred-eyed security chief.
"Last time he was mentioned he was feeding a dragon," Magnus reminded with only a hint of dread. "I guess I'm just glad Peleus doesn't follow him around and is there too."
"Then we'd all feel too safe to discuss a war council," Percy said as if he'd made an excellent point and ignored Magnus's grimace.
That's how I knew it was serious. Argus hardly ever shows up unless something really major is going on. The whole time Annabeth spoke, he kept his hundred blue eyes trained on her so hard his whole body turned bloodshot.
Alex examined his own arm intently for a few moments like he was trying to make that happen. When he turned back to Thalia reading with disappointment, the others were left with more questions about him than Argus.
"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Annabeth said. "He knew everything about camp."
Thalia read that a bit strangely, like her tongue got stuck to the roof of her mouth. Percy had the exact same puckered look on his face. Will sighed and kept to himself he was a bit glad Annabeth wasn't here, every bit of this would have hurt her in some way.
I thought I heard a little pride in her voice, like she still respected the guy, evil as he was.
"I think respect is the wrong word," Alex crinkled up his nose in disgust. "At least I'd hope she doesn't respect the guy trying to destroy her home."
Percy and Thalia exchanged a discouraged look.
Will defended, "she's not here to defend the use of Percy's choice of word, and we all have a little grudging respect for the gods with no telling how many people they've killed because of how we know them."
Alex raised an unimpressed brow at him, but didn't stop Thalia rushing to keep going.
Juniper cleared her throat. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it."
"He's already been exploring that place for years?" Jason asked with full unease, the strategist in him balking at how the uneven odds could still be getting worse. "What was he doing sending Chris Rodriguez in there if he has an idea of how this thing works?"
"Nobody in here has jumped inside his mind to ask how the insane plans of Kronos were going," Nico scowled.
Jason looked surprised at the cold snap, he hadn't been demanding that of anyone in particular in here, but he nodded in acceptance they weren't going to get an insider's look into this.
Silena Beauregard frowned. "You knew about the Labyrinth entrance, and you didn't say anything?"
Will frowned with unease, wondering if Silena knew about it. Had Luke been keeping secrets from her? Moments like this made him wonder why she had gone along with it so long . . .
Juniper's face turned green. "I didn't know it was important. Just a cave. I don't like yucky old caves."
Magnus had to give her that, he had seen stranger things than someone dipping in and out of caves, and he didn't much like them either, always having preferred to be sleeping outdoors even in the worst of weather.
"She has good taste," Grover said.
"So what's her excuse about him?" Thalia smirked.
Percy gave her a light punch and an eye roll for mocking his best friend who wasn't here.
"I wouldn't have paid any attention except...well, it was Luke." She blushed a little greener.
Percy put his fist back against Thalia's arm, made a weirdly good rewind sound, and then pulled his fist back away and even rolled his eyes the other way while the others got a mild chuckle out of him.
Grover huffed. "Forget what I said about good taste."
Percy brushed some imaginary sweat aside. "Good thing, I was worried about his taste for a second there!" His joke didn't entirely hide his clear agitation that every girl in camp seemed to have had a crush on this guy, even Silena, the prettiest girl there, had gotten a strange look on her face at the mention of him!
"Interesting," Quintus polished his sword as he spoke. "And you believe this young man, Luke, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?"
"Definitely," Clarisse said. "If he could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without having to worry about our magical boundaries, we wouldn't stand a chance. He could wipe us out easy. He must've been planning this for months."
"He's been sending scouts into the maze," Annabeth said. "We know because...because we found one."
"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron said. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.
"Ah," Quintus said. "The one in the...Yes, I understand."
"The one in the what?" I asked.
Clarisse glared at me.
"I guess she's gotten a bit attached to him after spending time nursing him back to health," Magnus winced.
You have no idea, Will kept to him self, but couldn't entirely erase the smile.
"The point is, Luke has been looking for a way to navigate the maze. He's searching for Daedalus's workshop."
I remembered my dream the night before—the bloody old man in tattered robes. "The guy who created the maze."
"Yes," Annabeth said. "The greatest architect, the greatest inventor of all time.
Will tried his hardest to stifle his laugh at that though, as he wondered how hard Daedalus had to fight not to blush while Annabeth had been praising his guts.
If the legends are true, his workshop is in the center of the Labyrinth. He's the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Luke managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help him, Luke wouldn't have to fumble around searching for paths, or risk losing his army in the maze's traps. He could navigate anywhere he wanted—quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then...to Olympus."
"Now for the good news!" Alex reminded at that ominous silence. "Everybody's always complaining nobody shares enough of that!"
There was the same silence here as was in the arena.
"No? None?" Alex looked around in mock disappointment.
"Well I guess that's why nobody ever starts with it," Magnus muttered.
The arena was silent except for Mrs. O'Leary's toy yak getting disemboweled: SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
"The perfect noise to get used to hearing, we'd all be their squeaky toys when this is done," Percy sighed.
Finally Beckendorf put his huge hands on the table. "Back up a sec, Annabeth, you said 'convince Daedalus'? Isn't Daedalus dead?"
"I don't assume anybody's dead in this," Jason raised his hand.
"And that's why we're always telling you you're the smart one around here," Percy shivered with unease for whatever his mind was holding over him. At this rate, his best hope was an explicit nightmare about said death.
Quintus grunted. "I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago? And even if he were alive, don't the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?"
"What stories?" Magnus asked as blankly as usual, it was a wonder they didn't have a stop watch on him. "Who is telling stories about this guy still and his wear abouts?"
"The same crazy rumors about where my dad likes to vacation and which celebrity Aphrodite is dating," Percy shrugged. Even if they were rumors he didn't regularly hear, he was sure they were there at camp.
Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves. "That's the problem, my dear Quintus. No one knows. There are rumors...well, there are many disturbing rumors about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there."
I thought about the old man I'd seen in my dreams. He'd looked so frail, it was hard to believe he'd lasted another week, much less three thousand years.
Alex liked that Magnus never grew tired of his questions, she had a tendency to take this all in stride a little to much to pick up on some of this like he tried to verbalize when he asked, "are the people in those stories like the monsters and gods? Are they immortal because they're tied up in all these myths? Is the Greek who invented the chariot still alive?"
"In general no," Nico shook his head, it really was his own fault he worried the others only associated him with death when he was always so willing to answer these particular questions. Because he was comfortable with knowing these answers. "As a rule, no mortal soul is immune from death unless granted eternal life by the gods, like the legend Hercules, he's actually running around somewhere I think. I don't have a roster of who has escaped death, but my dad does, and Daedalus, I'm pretty sure, is on that list from doing, whatever he did with that labyrinth."
"Okay," Magnus felt just a might better for once, that something of normal logic still applied and people were supposed to stay dead no matter how many stories were told about them.
"We need to go in," Annabeth announced.
"I like her use of the word we," Percy grinned a sort of knowing smile that wasn't funny. "Because the whole stadium is going to be a part of this."
"At least she's not trying to leave anybody out," Thalia snorted.
"We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne's string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke's hands."
"Wait a second," I said. "If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"
"Great idea!" Grover said. "I'll get the dynamite!"
"I am worried where he would get dynamite from," Jason said at once.
"I'm worried how easily he gets addicted to things," Percy muttered.
"It's not so easy, stupid," Clarisse growled. "We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."
"Freaking, stupid, magic," Magnus's audible grumbling about how nothing was ever easy really was felt by them all.
Annabeth nodded. "The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances.
"Like, godly power?" Jason asked. "Could you not get one of them down there to do that?"
"Have the gods yet done something like that for us?" Percy reminded with a fowl scowl.
It was uncomfortably true, no god had yet lifted a finger to protect the camp when they were on the verge of collapse back when Thalia's tree was poisoned. Apollo and Athena had assisted on the last quest to rescue Artemis, but it had clearly been done in secret.
"Zeus is acting in the war effort now though," Jason tried to insist even if there was no hope in his voice. "This is actually more helpful than whatever he's got Bacchus off doing." It felt so strange in his very core, to still be questioning what the gods were and weren't doing, but he wasn't going to stop. In a strange way, it felt good to vocalize all this too.
"I don't even think it would be possible with Hecate supporting Kronos anyways," Nico offered. The idea of magical architecture made him pretty confident she was doing her part to help Luke.
"The gods don't interfere," Will reminded. It sounded like a very old, very recited line. There was no other answer.
In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet.
Alex made a sound like a buzzer while Magnus spluttered over the array of words in that sentence.
"Clarisse stole a wrecking ball?" Thalia repeated for good measure, clearly enjoying the taste of those words a little to much.
"Either that or her mom works construction," Jason blinked owlishly at the book.
"My question is, was the building inhabited?" Percy laughed nervously like he was imagining Clarisse chasing him with a wrecking ball now. "So much what just goes into that one."
The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."
"Oh, so you're doomed," Alex frowned.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence man," Percy frowned right back.
"I mean, sorry I'm not sorry?" Alex half-heartedly offered. "According to all of this though, he's been twelve steps ahead of you this entire time though. I have, zero clue, how you survived this one."
Percy shivered as the worst outcome came to mind. Maybe he hadn't. Maybe he'd died at that camp and this was some twisted way of his dad trying to keep his soul alive or some crazy godly idea of fatherly affection.
"Well lucky for you we had Annabeth on the case," Thalia promptly reminded, only resisting hitting Percy upside the head with the book for that dower look on his face because she wouldn't kick him while he was down.
"We could fight," Lee Fletcher said. "We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they'll find us waiting with our bows."
"The fact that that didn't come from Clarisse is weirder than anything," Jason grinned.
"Lee, is, always up for a challenge," Will caught himself at the last moment from using past tense. It came out shoddy like he was trying to speak with the hiccups. "There's a reason he and Clarisse won," he finished only a tad better.
"We will certainly set up defenses," Chiron agreed. "But I fear Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries...we may not have the strength to defeat them."
"Someone needs to put on Dean Martin for this guy so he can take a chill pill," Magnus frowned at that dower point of view from the trainer of all heroes.
"Just being realistic," Alex shook his head in agreement with Chiron though. Better to be honest about their chances than give them all false hope.
Nobody looked real happy about that news. Chiron usually tried to be upbeat and optimistic. If he was predicting we couldn't hold off an attack, that wasn't good.
"I wouldn't really say his level of chill makes it better," Nico snorted. "Hey, the world's ending again, good luck with that while I go teach archery."
"Chiron gives really good advice before the quests though," Percy looked a little miffed at himself he couldn't come up with a better argument than that.
"We have to get to Daedalus's workshop first," Annabeth insisted. "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Luke from using it."
"What's Ariadne's string made out of?" Alex asked. "Her hair? Her clothes? Did she weave it from a magic item?"
"If you're thinking about somehow trying to replicate it, I wouldn't hope for that outcome being any more helpful," Thalia shook her head without spoiling it was in fact an actual useless myth.
"And as usual, it depends on the myth you read," Percy shrugged. "I think I've heard versions where it's gold, and one where Theseus just tied it to the start of the maze? None of it makes much sense outside of a story."
"But if nobody can navigate in there," I said, "what chance do we have?"
"Please don't threaten me with Dean Martin too," Percy frowned at Magnus.
"Then lighten up!" He rolled his eyes, "or I'll have Thalia shock you again."
"I can and will do it on command," she agreed, letting blue electricity arc between the tips of her fingers to prove her point.
"We can totally do this guys, I'll make non-centaur-blood t-shirts," he nodded quickly.
"I've been studying architecture for years," she said. "I know Daedalus's Labyrinth better than anybody."
"From reading about it."
"Well, yes."
"That's not enough."
"It has to be!"
"It isn't!"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
Percy looked stunned she'd even had to ask. Then he felt the silence in here and looked around and saw Thalia had stopped reading to watch him in amusement along with everybody else.
I realized everyone was watching Annabeth and me like a tennis match.
"You guys are better than a tennis match," Alex assured him in amusement. "I couldn't pay for commentary like this."
"Just what I always wanted," he rolled his eyes.
Mrs. O'Leary's squeaky yak went EEK! As she ripped off its pink rubber head.
"That dog alone will keep pet companies in business for all her lively needs," Will snorted.
Chiron cleared his throat. "First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Luke from using the maze to invade this camp."
"We all know who should lead this," Clarisse said. "Annabeth."
"It's great to hear of Clarisse sharing," Will shook his head in exhaustion, "of course she'd finally get the concept with the deadly quest."
"I want to know what's changed from the last time she was proud to do this," Alex looked a little pouty. "Was it the wrecking ball? I think she needs to come down here and share her personal growth over that winter."
"Pretty sure the answer's a little more simple than that," Percy muttered. She'd spent the whole time in there without a single posture or gloat or threat. She'd been sitting in the front of the bleachers by Annabeth, but had seemed withdrawn as she handled this. Whatever she'd gone through in that Labyrinth had changed her.
There was a murmur of agreement. I knew Annabeth had been waiting for her own quest since she was a little kid, but she looked uncomfortable.
Magnus frowned and leaned forward anxiously in his seat. It bothered him that even if he'd had an inkling of what his cousin had been going through right then, he wouldn't have been any help at all. Now here she was, finally getting a full, sanctioned quest of the utmost importance, and she seemed no more confident she'd survive it than he was.
"You've done as much as I have, Clarisse," she said. "You should go, too."
"Too," Alex noticed with interest. "I imagine this quest will go quite smoothly if the three of you manage to work together."
"But Grover has to go," Jason looked actually torn whom he was rooting for. "His Pan quest can't lead him anywhere else."
"Screw the council, Percy will help Grover find Pan down there after they save the camp," Alex insisted.
"What does the Camp do when more than three people are supposed to go?" Magnus asked a little wearily. Hopefully, the solution wouldn't be Percy's answer, and they'd just get a sanctioned tag along.
"Tournament to the death," Nico said with a completely straight face.
Will rolled his eyes affectionately and answered, "a vote. The leader of the quest gets the final say, but if they're impartial, then the vote."
"I think you're all missing an important detail," Percy interrupted. They hadn't seen the look on Clarisse's face when that had been suggested.
Clarisse shook her head. "I'm not going back in there."
"Oh," Jason muttered, "yeah, didn't quite see that coming."
"I never thought of Clarisse in retirement mode," Alex admitted.
Travis Stoll laughed. "Don't tell me you're scared. Clarisse, chicken?"
"Daring her is not going to get good results," Magnus said at once. "Connor might be down a brother rather than up a quest member."
"I think he just considers it his daily duty," Will shrugged.
"To die?" Magnus demanded.
"Clarisse has never killed any fellow camper," Will said that with about as much confidence as he had of the Stolls though.
Clarisse got to her feet, I thought she was going to pulverize Travis, but she said in a shaky voice: "You don't understand anything, punk. I'm never going in there again. Never!"
She stormed out of the arena.
It would have made more sense if Percy had told them she'd been wearing frog footsie pajamas during this meeting than that. "And I'm volunteering for this?" He reminded them in a very dread-like voice. He might rather eat a frog.
"Anything to be the hero," Nico muttered, and he wasn't even being sarcastic.
Travis looked around sheepishly. "I didn't mean to—"
Chiron raised his hand. "The poor girl has had a difficult year. Now, do we have agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?"
We all nodded except Quintus. He folded his arms and stared at the table, but I wasn't sure anyone else noticed.
"Annabeth has got to stop drawing every eye in the room to her," Alex said with a snap of his fingers.
Magnus gave him a concerned look because he agreed, but probably not in the way Alex meant it.
"Very well," Chiron turned to Annabeth. "My dear, it's your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return to us in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next."
"I really do wonder more every day how you guys survive any length of time," Nico said none to quietly. Chiron was a nice enough centaur, but really gave him no faith in any kind of authority figure.
"A plucky attitude," Will answered in a completely serious tone of voice, which caused Nico to chuckle anyways.
Waiting for Annabeth was harder than visiting the Oracle myself.
"And that's saying something," Percy wagged his finger for emphasis.
"You didn't have to tell us that, I promise we know," Thalia assured as she shoved his finger out of her face.
I'd heard it speak prophecies twice before. The first time had been in the dusty attic of the Big House, where the spirit of Delphi slept inside the body of a mummified hippie lady. The second time, the Oracle had come out for a little stroll in the woods. I still had nightmares about that.
"So would I," Magnus easily promised. A therapist could have a field day with his greatest fear of wolves somehow being tied into his very real fear of being eaten alive coupled into how society made it impossible for him to ever think he could make it out of his beanbag in the park.
I'd never felt threatened by the Oracle's presence, but I'd heard stories: campers who'd gone insane, or who'd seen visions so real they died of fear.
"I like to think some of those are exaggerated," but Will had no confidence in his voice. Nobody he knew had gone on a quest before Percy showed up, so it wasn't that common a thing...and honestly, he believed those stories too.
I paced the arena, waiting. Mrs. O'Leary ate her lunch, which consisted of a hundred pounds of ground beef and several dog biscuits the size of trashcan lids. I wondered where Quintus got dog biscuits that size. I didn't figure you could just walk into Pet Zone and put those in your shopping cart.
"Homemade meals," Alex nodded without surprise. "Probably baked with love."
"I bet he posts the recipe online with his entire backstory too," Magnus rolled his eyes.
Chiron was deep in conversation with Quintus and Argus. It looked to me like they were disagreeing about something. Quintus kept shaking his head.
"Please let it be the next war game having something to do with a bake-off," Magnus crossed his fingers.
"Magnus, what practicality would that have?" Jason asked in exasperation. "At least make it some kind of survival guide where they have to forage and eat."
"Fine," he muttered at the compromise, and both knew it was a lost joke anyways.
On the other side of the arena, Tyson and the Stoll brothers were racing miniature bronze chariots that Tyson had made out of armor scraps.
"He's going to put toy companies out of business as a sidequest," Alex said with confidence.
"-and they were so cool, they shot real arrows at the driver if they tried to turn the chariot to hard and one was giving off this awful smell-"
Magnus looked from Alex to Percy explaining this in vivid detail several times before deciding against commenting.
I gave up on pacing and left the arena. I stared across the fields at the Big House's attic window, dark and still. What was taking Annabeth so long? I was pretty sure it hadn't taken me this long to get my quest.
"You spent half the time dreading every step up there and looking for the bathroom," Thalia smirked.
"I'm just hoping she doesn't pitch herself out the window to get away when it's done," Jason muttered.
"Who do you think she sees giving her the prophecy?" Alex asked with a deep hunger to know every aspect of this Oracle.
"My money would be on Athena," but Percy wasn't so sure of that either. It really was just a guess, Percy had no idea what kind of crazy symbolicness went into what you saw in those things.
"Percy," a girl whispered.
Juniper was standing in the bushes. It was weird how she almost turned invisible when she was surrounded by plants.
"Camouflage man, best color there is," Alex snorted as he swooshed his green hair.
"I think that makes you the natural enemy of it," Percy told him.
She gestured me over urgently. "You need to know: Luke wasn't the only one I saw around that cave."
"She doesn't mean me and Annabeth does she?" Percy asked. Nico winced and hoped the same thing.
"The spy?" Jason yelped.
"What do you mean?"
She glanced back at the arena. "I was trying to say something, but he was right there."
"Who?"
"The sword master," she said. "He was poking around the rocks."
"Should have known there was something fishy about that guy when he didn't ask for a paycheck for being there." Alex was disappointed if he was a traitor though, he seemed like a cool guy.
"He hasn't been there long enough to be Luke's established spy," Jason shook his head, "and why would Luke send another there?"
"For a higher level position to be on Chiron's good side," Magnus offered with a queasy stomach.
Percy really didn't like it when they sat around trying to figure out this traitor business, he just couldn't imagine anyone in camp that way. Will didn't much either because Silena had been a friend to many, so he cleared his throat obviously and Thalia gratefully kept going.
My stomach clenched. "Quintus? When?"
"I don't know: I don't pay attention to time. Maybe a week ago, when he first showed up."
"So, you know, not suspicious at all," Alex managed in a fascinating mocking tone. He was mocking himself. "He was just out exploring and oh so happened upon that iconic landmark."
"Right, yeah, totally a coincidence," Magnus wanted to believe it was true anyways.
"What was he doing? Did he go in?"
"I—I'm not sure. He's creepy, Percy. I didn't even see him come into the glade. Suddenly he was just there. You have to tell Grover it's too dangerous—"
"Juniper?" Grover called from inside the arena. "Where'd you go?"
Juniper sighed. "I'd better go in. Just remember what I said. Don't trust that man!"
"Are we sure she's not just insecure Grover's going to get a crush on him next?" Jason's smile was flickering like he really was trying to laugh it off too. "I bet Quinteus would make a delightful blueberry bush." His tone ended a little to harsh to be funny by the end, he wasn't going to let his suspicions be swayed.
"We'll pin that in the maybe category," Thalia patted his shoulder.
She ran into the arena.
I stared at the Big House, feeling more uneasy than ever. If Quintus was up to something...I needed Annabeth's advice.
"Do you cross camp without talking to that girl?" Will burst out laughing. At least laughing about Percy's crush on Annabeth was always a safe bet.
Percy mock considered for a moment before saying, "one time I did, and then I ended up being chased by an owl. Lesson learned."
She might know what to make of Juniper's news. But where the heck was she? Whatever was happening with the Oracle, it shouldn't be taking this long.
Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.
It was against the rules, but then again, nobody was watching. I ran down the hill and headed across the fields.
"Are you sure you got that chapter title right," Nico snorted. "Percy's the one over here breaking the rules, as usual."
"Ah, but you said it," Thalia reminded with an impish smirk. "Percy breaking the rules is not noteworthy enough for any of us to do more than laugh at. Annabeth on the other hand," she finished with an ominous shake of her head that made Percy's stomach do an unpleasant swoop. What rule had she broken exactly? Why did the consequences feel like a really bad idea all of a sudden?
The front parlor of the Big House was strangely quiet. I was used to seeing Dionysus by the fireplace, playing cards and eating grapes and griping at satyrs, but Mr. D was still away.
Percy was restless now, squirming in agitation in his seat and unable to sit still. Of course a wish he'd never even thought was possible had been granted and that cranky, miserable old god was gone, and it made the whole place feel empty like a tomb.
I walked down the hallway, floorboards creaking under my feat. When I got to the base of the stairs, I hesitated. Four floors above would be a little trapdoor leading to the attic. Annabeth would be up there somewhere.
"I'm imagining you interrupting her prophecy and her stabbing you," Magnus admitted.
"A fair reaction, but I still had to know," Percy put an arm across his chest for the most vital of organs he'd shield and figured ambrosia and nectar would heal anything else so he could go on the quest in a timely manner.
I stood quietly and listened. But what I heard wasn't what I had expected.
Sobbing.
The jolt around the room came from Thalia's sharp surprise saying that rather than her powers. Percy's feet twitched, he wanted to run to her without a second thought, but he more than anyone knew that hadn't been Annabeth. It hadn't been coming from above him.
And it was coming from below me.
"Why is there always a creepy basement," Magnus whispered. Uncle Randolph probably had one in that creepy mansion of his too.
"Because crying on the porch is a cliché?" But Alex looked just as concerned what the heck was going on in that house. Dionysus hadn't left a satyr down there to be tortured had he?
I crept around the back of the stairs. The basement door was open. I didn't even know the Big House had a basement.
"I bet Luke does," Percy muttered with an upturned nose, like Annabeth was here to mock for that earlier comment.
"Everybody knows where that basement is Percy," Thalia snorted, "it's where we hide the supplies for all of your parties."
"Thanks for clearing that up," he rolled his eyes.
I peered inside and saw two figures in the far corner, sitting amid a bunch of stockpiled cases of ambrosia and strawberry preserves.
Will wrung his hands, still feeling useless these years later nobody had been of any help to Chris. He and Chiron hadn't even been able to get through a whole conversation of what else they could try before they had to stop. They'd tried everything. If Mr. D hadn't come back, Clarisse might have followed him right to the mortal world and whatever facility they might have tried.
One was Clarisse.
Obviously she couldn't escape to the arena, that's where they'd been. Jason had thought she'd go off to her cabin or somewhere in Camp she considered private.
Nobody had expected, this.
The other was a teenage Hispanic guy in tattered camouflage pants and a dirty black T-shirt.
His hair was greasy and matted. He was hugging his shoulders and sobbing.
It was Chris Rodriguez, the half-blood who'd gone to work for Luke.
"If she's there to smother him, are we supposed to stop her?" Alex stage whispered.
"If she was going to kill him, she'd have done it when she found him," Magnus looked very troubled what was going on though. He didn't see how anybody could get any more information out of Chris.
"It's okay," Clarisse was telling him. "Try a little more nectar."
"You're an illusion, Mary!" Chris backed farther into the corner. "G-get away."
"My name's not Mary." Clarisse's voice was gentle but really sad. I never knew Clarisse could sound that way.
"Oh," Percy whispered, then he slapped his hand to his mouth like he'd been caught and leaned far back into his seat.
No, like Clarisse had been caught. He felt so bad for her, sharing even a hint of this with people who didn't even know her except what little he'd said. He'd never been embarrassed, much, about sharing his own past, but moments like this made him wish someone had let him edit out these parts first!
"My name is Clarisse. Remember. Please."
"It's dark!" Chris yelled. "So dark!"
"Come outside," Clarisse coaxed. "The sunlight will help you."
"A...a thousand skulls. The earth keeps healing him."
Percy shivered as a feeling he tried hard not to let run rampant in here began to bubble up. Anger, adrenaline, a memory he did not yet have a connection to, but he knew he wouldn't enjoy getting back. Poseidon, his dad's name whispered in his mind, but it was of no comfort.
"Chris," Clarisse pleaded. It sounded like she was close to tears. "You have to get better. Please. Mr. D will be back soon. He's an expert in madness. Just hang on."
Magnus shook his head like he had flies coming out of his ears. Oh how he'd heard that before, a promise for a cure down every pair of handcuffs while he was just as guilty melting into the crowd. He didn't have any faith Dionysus would do any more good. If he could have been out there helping, why wasn't he?
Chris's eyes were like a cornered rat's—wild and desperate. "There's no way out, Mary. No way out."
Nico couldn't help but wonder who Mary really was. A form Minos had taken to trick Chris's every step? A spirit begging for his help? Perhaps someone from his past his mind conjured up in comfort? He'd seen all three down there, anything was possible.
Then he caught a glimpse of me and made a strangled, terrified sound. "The son of Poseidon! He's horrible!"
Not one of them cracked a smile at the easy mockery. Percy was starting to look a little gray that the guy off his rocker was making more sense than the tree spirit while his headache bounced around in his skill like a rubber ball.
I backed away, hoping Clarisse hadn't seen me. I listened for her to come charging out and yell at me, but instead she just kept talking to Chris in a sad pleading voice, trying to get him to drink the nectar. Maybe she thought it was part of Chris's hallucination, but...son of Poseidon? Chris had been looking at me, and yet why did I get the feeling he hadn't been talking about me at all?
Thalia resisted the urge to wrap Percy in a blanket as hard as he shivered. Annabeth had a hard time describing Antaeus's chamber to her, that gladius style arena fighting for sport where Percy was forced to show off his creative problem solving without her and fight a half-blood, all Annabeth's worst fears bundled up into one.
And Clarisse's tenderness—it had never even occurred to me that she might like someone; but the way she said Chris's name...
"Well I guess those jokes about Annabeth and Clarisse are never going to happen," Alex muttered with all the sympathy in the world for her it worked out. He had a wee bit of an addictive personality and now desperately wanted a backstory book on everything Clarisse had been through up to this point too, so that he could find some hint of knowing it would all work out.
She'd known him before he changed sides. She'd known him a lot better than I realized. And now he was shivering in a dark basement, afraid to come out, and mumbling about someone named Mary. No wonder Clarisse didn't want anything to do with the Labyrinth. What had happened to Chris in there?
"Some stories are better left unanswered," Jason sighed. He didn't even know about his past, and yet the glimpses he'd gotten left him questioning everything about himself. If somebody told him the alternative of knowing everything was being left in a vegetative state, the answer wouldn't make him any happier.
I heard a creak from above—like the attic door opening—and I ran for the front door. I needed to get out of that house.
"You run fleeing from that house more than you ever have a monster," Nico noted in amazement.
"Blah blah metaphor from running away from his real fear of Annabeth returning his love?" Jason chuckled.
Percy waved his hand along exaggeratedly at the laughter that rolled along so they could all get their good mood in now that the trauma was temporarily over.
"My dear," Chiron said. "You made it."
Annabeth looked at me first.
"Those who are surprised, please raise your hand," Thalia snorted.
Percy raised his hand, and Thalia smacked him.
I couldn't tell if she was trying to warn me, or if the look in her eyes was just plain fear. Then she focused on Quintus. "I got the prophecy. I will lead the quest to find Daedalus's workshop."
"And she's telling him specifically this, because?" Will asked, clearly a little wrong-footed why she seemed to be ignoring Chiron.
"Gods, there couldn't have been a line in there about him, right?" Percy asked anxiously.
"Even if there was, it still might not mean whatever she's worried it means," Thalia said with complete confidence. It was a classic at this point for everybody to worry what a prophecy meant until it happened.
She and Nico winced at her own comment though, because Zoe and Bianca certainly hadn't been saved by some double meaning.
Nobody cheered. I mean, we all liked Annabeth, and we wanted her to have a quest, but this one seemed insanely dangerous.
"As opposed to the other quests where the fate of the world and your camp weren't on the line," Magnus actually seemed the most confident and upbeat. "You guys got approval to do this and everything and you have a starting point of where you're going and what you're looking for!"
"Now we just have to figure out those pesky details," Percy tried to agree in the same way, but just because he'd survived didn't make him confident everybody else had come out of this unscathed.
After what I'd seen of Chris Rodriguez, I didn't even want to think about Annabeth descending into that weird maze again.
It was no surprise to anybody Percy wanted to protect her, and down underground, seemingly the opposite of where he'd find any body of water...watching Percy get nervous and twitchy was nothing new.
They were a strong trio, Percy told himself, and they'd already done the impossible once! Bad Percy, bad! A strong inner voice hissed. Stop jinxing yourself!
Chiron scraped a hoof on the dirt floor. "What did the prophecy say exactly, my dear? The wording is important."
"Important doesn't mean clear," Thalia huffed.
Annabeth took a deep breath. "I, ah...well, it said, you shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze..."
"I always love it when the Prophecy confirms you're going to do exactly what you're asking it advice to do," Alex rolled his eyes.
"I'll take an unnecessary, solid line over another confusing one," Magnus shook his head.
We waited.
"The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise."
"Raze like destroy or raise like nurture?" Alex asked. "Because now I'm picturing Nico bottle-feeding baby ghosts."
"More like raise, lifted up out of something," was all Thalia could promise with twitching lips while Nico looked a little sad at the idea of asking his dad what happened to dead baby souls.
"The traitor?" Jason latched on with laser focus. "Are we finally going to get confirmation of who Luke has at camp?"
"Who gets lost?" Percy picked nervously at his lip. He hoped it was Pan and Grover's wish, but he had a bad feeling that might relate to himself somehow. He was currently 'lost' after all.
Grover perked up. "The lost one! That must mean Pan! That's great!"
"With the dead and the traitor," I added. "Not so great."
"My concern is it's all the same person, and man does that sound like a story," Magnus said with a raised brow.
Nico twitched unpleasantly how all three of those did relate to him in some way.
"And?" Chiron asked. "What is the rest?"
"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," Annabeth said,
"So Annabeth needs to learn how to make friends fast?" Will said with twitching lips. "Oh, we were doomed."
"Hey," but Percy was chuckling along all the same.
"I would pay to be friends with a ghost king!" Alex raised his hand. "Please tell me she can introduce us whether it worked out or not!"
Nico looked at him like he was nuts...but Alex really had been as good a friend to him as Will, especially after yesterday. He opened his mouth right now to tell him no payment was necessary, before he remembered why Percy was shaking his head not in answer and quickly shut his mouth. Hopefully Alex wouldn't change his mind when he realized the ghost summoning thing wasn't just a cool random trick but something he actively still had to keep control over.
"the child of Athena's final stand."
Magnus and Percy winced in unison at how not stellar of a line that was!
Even if the automatic fallback was to convince themselves that could be some other random child of Athena just sporadically showing up on this quest...that still sounded like a pretty bad death of somebody Annabeth might know and care about?!
Thalia easily swooped in with the comment, "are we finally going to get to hear the smart goddess's ideas go down? We all know her real favorite children are her personal theories."
"Isn't one of those her dislike of me?" Percy played along with a smile. "I can get behind that."
Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and a final stand didn't sound good.
"But the final showdown is always an awesome climactic part of the story," Alex pouted.
"Not when my cousin could nearly die," Magnus huffed.
"Percy didn't even get salty over that line really, I'm positive she's safe," Alex assured he wasn't dismissing anything.
"Hey...we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Silena said.
"The only real demonstration of how often people do jump," Percy grinned.
"Something you should be careful about," Thalia agreed in mock concern. "We still don't know how much air you have to get before you tick Zeus off."
"Note to self, don't join the cheerleading squad and be the flier," Percy rolled his eyes.
"Annabeth isn't the only child of Athena, right?"
Jason still didn't think she'd be thrilled if it was one of her siblings who might take her place, that line really was something to not look forward to.
"But who's this ghost king?" Beckendorf asked.
No one answered. I thought about the Iris-message I'd seen of Nico summoning spirits. I had a bad feeling the prophecy was connected to that.
"Muah?" Nico always looked so surprised Percy even remembered he existed. Of course he would when the creepy bad stuff was all he had to go on.
"Well I didn't think it had anything to do with Mrs. O'Leary," Percy shrugged.
"Are there more lines?" Chiron asked. "The prophecy does not sound complete."
Annabeth hesitated. "I don't remember exactly."
"Liar, liar!" Alex mock started up a cigarette lighter in his hand as if to set Annabeth's pants on fire. He probably really would have if he'd thought it would work underwater.
"I think she's pulling a me," Percy reminded of his first quest, he hadn't exactly been forthcoming with that line about failing to save his mom.
Chiron raised an eyebrow. Annabeth was known for her memory. She never forgot something she heard.
"That sounds exhausting," Thalia looked disturbed she'd even said that even if she knew it to be true.
"I'm over here hoping it's just Percy hyping up his girlfriend more than usual," Magnus said even if he knew it wasn't much of an exaggeration.
"She's not my-" but Percy stopped with a face of brightest red because he still had no idea what Annabeth was to him.
Annabeth shifted on her bench. "Something about...Destroy with a hero's final breath."
"And?" Chiron asked.
She stood. "Look, the point is, I have to go in.
"That sounded cool though!" Alex groaned. "Caterwauling turned into a power! Will, can you do that!"
"Um, no," he looked a little terrified if Alex was going to come over and start prodding him to find out.
"Uff," Alex huffed anyways like he wanted to try.
I'll find the workshop and stop Luke. And...I need help." She turned to me. "Will you come?"
I didn't even hesitate. "I'm in."
"I can't believe she even asked," Jason admitted, "I'm a little concerned about her leadership quality if she's already second guessing the obvious."
"You never know, I might have wanted a nap first and she left me," but Percy couldn't even get through that with a straight face.
She smiled for the first time in days, and that made it all worthwhile.
"Naww," Will cooed like Percy had just told his mother he was meeting Annabeth at the movies and he fought off the very tempting solution of drowning him down here.
"Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting."
Grover seemed to forget how much he hated the underground.
"It's so wholesome how often I can use this book for motivational quotes," Will grinned.
"Right in between the threats to Percy's life, him smarting off to gods, and the monster attacks," Magnus glibly reminded. Will waved off those minor details.
The line about the "lost one" had completely energized him. "I'll pack extra recyclables for snacks!"
"He reminds me of a honeybee, it's like there's no downside to having him around," Jason chuckled.
"I bet the satyrs would love a union from Mr. D.," Percy grinned.
"And Tyson," Annabeth said. "I'll need you too."
"Wait," Magnus frowned, even counting the members again silently on his hand to make sure.
"Hey, I wasn't last pick!" Percy grinned.
"Let alone no pick," Thalia rolled her eyes. "Annabeth isn't crazy enough to think you wouldn't come along anyways, might as well get you over with first."
Her sarcasm didn't dampen his grin by one bit.
"Yay! Blow-things-up time!" Tyson clapped so hard he woke up Mrs. O'Leary, who was dozing in the corner.
"Wait, Annabeth," Chiron said. "This goes against the ancient laws.
"I really want a lawyer to explain these stinking laws to me eventually," Magnus frowned.
"Not a great idea, where Zeus is the judge and I imagine the mix of Latin and Greek would take to long, everybody would just be dead by the end," Nico shook his head.
"I'd be willing to take a crack if anyone would show me a book first," Jason huffed.
"Shush you, nobody needs a showoff," Percy snorted.
A hero is allowed only two companions."
"I bet that one was just invented because of ration supplies or something," Alex scoffed. "Chiron just doesn't want her to cheat and take the whole camp along."
"Ooh, Annabeth is breaking the rules, I get it now," Percy grinned. She was even doing it over him again, making sure he, his brother, and his best friend went!
"Hopefully the consequences of breaking ancient laws isn't cops and jail in this world too," Magnus muttered. Nothing had freaked him out more when he first started learning the ways of the streets than just how trigger-happy people would be with those 911 buttons when they figured out him for what he now was.
"I need them all," she insisted. "Chiron, it's important."
I didn't know why she was so certain,
"I learned already not to question Annabeth about that when she could build actual cities with Legos as toddlers," Magnus snorted at Percy.
"Oh trust me, wasn't questioning it," Percy said.
Nico wondered if he was the only one around here who found the constant praising of Annabeth Chase increasingly annoying.
but I was happy she'd included Tyson. I couldn't imagine leaving him behind. He was huge and strong and great at figuring out mechanical things. Unlike satyrs, Cyclopes had no problem underground.
"Annabeth." Chiron flicked his tail nervously.
"I can't explain why I really love it when he does that," Alex propped his arm on his knee to put his head in his hand as dramatically as possible.
"You would be intrigued with someone twice as deadly as a horse or a human," Magnus frowned.
"Consider well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences. Last winter, five went on a quest to save Artemis. Only three came back.
None of them had needed that reminder as their hearts sank as fast as Percy's temper did. Annabeth hadn't gotten to know Zoe or Bianca, it was possible that wouldn't have exactly crossed her mind.
Think on that. Three is a sacred number. There are three fates, three furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers.
Jason hadn't made that joke in a while, but he looked particularly troubled at Annabeth defying ancient laws no matter how many jokes were passed around.
Four...this is risky."
Annabeth took a deep breath. "I know. But we have to. Please."
I could tell Chiron didn't like it. Quintus was studying us, like he was trying to decide which of us would come back alive.
"I swear there's not a single optimist in there except Tyson," Magnus frowned.
"I wouldn't say there's one down here at all, are you volunteering to lose an eyeball for the title?" Alex grinned.
"Um, pass," he promised.
"Will count's as an optimist," Nico offered, causing him to blush.
The two obviously considered for a moment before nodding in agreement, making Will blush all the more and cover his face for a moment.
Chiron sighed. "Very well. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest must prepare themselves. Tomorrow at dawn, we send you into the Labyrinth."
"I do not like the wording of that," Magnus frowned. "Like they're going to shove you in headfirst with spears at your butts."
"We haven't done live sacrifices in weeks," Will insisted. "If anything, it just attracts the monsters."
Nobody else seemed to think that was funny except Nico's chuckle, but Will didn't seem to mind.
"Nobody was going to ask you to not be the optimist Will, chill with the dire jokes," Percy sighed.
Quintus pulled me aside as the council was breaking up.
"I have a bad feeling about this," he told me.
"Oh that's just great, I love hearing the seasoned guy feels just as uneasy about this as I do!" Percy groaned.
Thalia frowned, listening intently to what kind of warning ol' Daedalus would have passed on to Percy.
Mrs. O'Leary came over, wagging her tail happily. She dropped her shield at my feet, and I threw it for her.
"Seriously, I find it hard to believe he's a bad guy," Alex sighed, really wanting to mean it. "He's a dog person! Dog's are great judges of character, and this is like, the dog of all time!"
"Yeah, the one most likely attracted to an evil person," Magnus couldn't help but mutter. He was not a dog person in the slightest. It didn't stop him teaching Alex the sign for dog when he looked at him to try and change the subject.
Quintus watched her romp after it. I remembered what Juniper had said about him scouting out the maze. I didn't trust him, but when he looked at me, I saw real concern in his eyes.
"Concern for what though?" Jason asked shrewdly. Concern Percy would find out Quintus's real plan. Concern whatever Quintus might be up to would be revealed? Concern about Percy and these kids he'd met days ago? It was an endless list of possibilities, and they weren't getting little pop up bubbles of what everyone else was thinking along with Percy to answer.
"I don't like the idea of you going down there," he said. "Any of you. but if you must, I want you to remember something. The Labyrinth exists to fool you. It will distract you. That's dangerous for half-bloods. We are easily distracted."
"That was solid advice," Will grinned. He tried not to put to much cheerfulness in his voice Quintus was trying to be of actual help here in case it tipped Percy off to much, but it was nice he'd even given it a shot rather than writing them off. He'd been trying to help from the start, even in those short times practicing with Percy.
"You've been in there?"
"Long ago." His voice was ragged. "I barely escaped with my life.
"Haven't you guys been going on about history repeating itself a bunch?" Magnus looked to Nico who was most guilty of spouting stats of heroes from Percy's journey. "How short is that cycle exactly? Has Quintus gone and saved a lightning bolt and been in the sea of monsters too?"
"I mean, wouldn't surprise me?" Nico chuckled. "Maybe not that specifically, but you been in the world long enough and you're bound to follow somebody else's footsteps."
Thalia's mouth ticked without humor though. Luke would never find something like that funny, and the fact that this was still her first thought to many years later made her want to pour bleach in her ears.
Most who enter aren't that lucky."
He gripped my shoulder. "Percy, keep your mind on what matters most. If you can do that, you might find the way.
"Well that won't be hard for you," Jason smirked, "do you ever not have Annabeth on your mind."
"I, um," Percy meant to deny it, honestly, but he started blushing and stammering to hard to manage.
And here, I wanted to give you something."
He handed me a little silver tube. It was so cold I almost dropped it.
"Do you use ice as portable water?" Alex smirked.
"They invented cups for that," Percy rolled his eyes.
"A whistle?" I asked.
"A dog whistle," Quintus said. "For Mrs. O'Leary."
"Oooh," Magnus said in understanding. "Throw that thing as far away from you as possible."
"Oh come on, that's seriously cool," Alex insisted.
"You are the last person I need to explain a trap to," Magnus frowned.
"Just because the owner might be evil doesn't mean the dog is!" Alex insisted.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and the whistle will just melt," Jason shivered while waving Thalia to keep going as Percy started looking queasy at once for what the outcome of any of this was.
"Um, thanks, but—"
"How will it work in the maze? I'm not a hundred percent certain it will.
"Is it better or worse he's advertising he's not sure if this will work?" Magnus asked.
"Um, both?" Alex shrugged. "Either he's trying to lull Percy into thinking it won't work or he's being genuine." He looked very annoyed they still didn't have a clear motive for that going in when the journey was going to happen any page now.
But Mrs. O'Leary is a hellhound. She can appear when called, no matter how far away she is. I'd feel better knowing you had this. If you really need help, use it;
"No offense to the cute giant doggy," Percy shifted around uneasily, "but I'm sort of concerned what trouble he think's we're going to get into she'll be able to help." There was an annoying twang going on in his brain trying to give him an answer he didn't like, which was probably why he got no answer, theories or otherwise.
but be careful, the whistle is made of Stygian ice."
"That's a made up word," Jason scoffed.
"All words are made up," Alex grinned.
"It never occurred to me you make things out of ice other than water," Magnus frowned.
"You've clearly never frozen coffee and put it in your coffee," Will shrugged.
"What ice?"
"From the River Styx. Very hard to craft. Very delicate. It cannot melt, but it will shatter when you blow it, so you can only use it once."
"So if you freeze the River Styx it turns into, what did you call it?" Magnus double-checked.
"Stygian ice," Thalia repeated slowly, "and not necessarily. Stygian is a material found in the underworld, and using the River Styx is part of the process to forge it."
She stopped there, that was really all she knew of it. Magnus watched Nico curiously for more, and Alex and Jason both had hungry looks on their faces for the same, but he didn't volunteer it, instead gripping his sword. He wasn't really so convinced anymore they'd all think him a freak the second he started talking in detail about Underworld stuff, but the story of how he'd gotten his sword was still a bit private.
I thought about Luke, my old enemy. Right before I'd gone on my first quest, Luke had given me a gift, too—magic shoes that had been designed to drag me to my death.
"Trust me, we remember," Jason still had half a mind to go around barefoot after that nightmare if he found out his shoes were a gift from someone.
"I hope that doesn't mean you refuse to accept help again though," Will sighed, "Luke was a bad example."
Percy thumped his pen against his forehead rather than answer. He liked to think of himself as a trusting kind of guy until he had a reason not to, but there was something about Quintus he couldn't quite zero in on.
Quintus seemed nice. So concerned. And Mrs. O'Leary liked him, which had to count for something. She dropped the slimy shield at my feet and barked excitedly.
"Dog's aren't the best judge of character when you can bribe them," Magnus huffed.
"And cats judge everybody as assholes or food dispensers, so let's just agree not to use animals for this," Alex chuckled.
"The alternative is obviously pigs, Percy's had great experience with those," Thalia smirked while Percy non-so quietly threatened to summon that boar back on her.
I felt ashamed that I could even think about mistrusting Quintus. But then again, I'd trusted Luke once.
Those kinds of reminders always wiped the smiles right off of everybody's face. Percy had been through far to much already for someone going through puberty while he was at it.
"Thanks," I told Quintus. I slipped the freezing whistle into my pocket, promising myself that I would never use it, and I dashed off to find Annabeth.
"How good are you at keeping promises though?" Percy couldn't tell how much Jason was kidding as he asked.
"I think of myself as a man of my word," but Percy sounded just as unsure of himself. There was already a bad feeling like that whistle had frozen his butt cheeks together he clenched up so tight in pain over what had entailed there.
"He once promised Grover he could walk him home and then ditched him," Alex helpfully reminded.
"He made quite a few promises to Tyson though about being accepted and those worked out," Will grinned.
"We are not having a debate over my impulsive mouth if you guys won't stop laughing at the rest of the results," Percy swiftly cut in before that could escalate.
As long as I'd been at camp, I'd never been inside the Athena cabin.
Alex immediately gave him a wolf whistle while Magnus mock groaned and covered his ears for what that was implying.
Percy chucked a bit of his seaweed beanbag at Alex through his blush quite well.
It was a silvery building, nothing fancy, with plain white curtains and a carved stone owl over the doorway. The owl's onyx eyes seemed to follow me as I walked closer.
"Please don't have Athena place some kind of curse on you over this," Jason wrapped his fingers together in hope.
"Please don't let one of Annabeth's siblings make that final stand against me right now," Percy twitched over the idea of losing somebody's bookmark somehow ending in decapitation.
"Hello?" I called inside.
Nobody answered. I stepped in and caught my breath. The place was a workshop for brainiac kids. The bunks were all pushed against one wall as if sleeping didn't matter very much. Most of the room was filled with workbenches and tables and sets of tools and weapons. The back of the room was a huge library crammed with old scrolls and leather-bound books and paperbacks. There was and architect's drafting table with a bunch of rulers and protractors, and some 3-D models of buildings. Huge old war maps were plastered to the ceiling. Sets of armor hung under the windows, their bronze plates glinting in the sun.
"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Magnus grinned in surprise how well it seemed he might fit into that cabin.
"And you were making faces at me while you're over here making dick jokes," Alex smirked, causing them both to laugh none-to-quietly to everybody else's complete confusion.
Annabeth stood in the back of the room, rifling through old scrolls.
"Knock, knock?" I said.
She turned with a start. "Oh...hi. Didn't hear you."
"We should almost be grateful she isn't here sometimes," Will chuckled. "The amount of times she's gotten engrossed in her reading and been snuck up on has landed to many kids to count in the infirmary."
"So she'd be the best at ignoring all of the constant interruptions?" Percy grinned. "I always knew she would have been the best one to be reading these."
"Shush you," Thalia sighed, "nobody needs to hear more of your constant praises on how perfect she is."
"I'm not, I mean I didn't-" Percy tried to stammer some defense while turning a whole new shade of red while Thalia laughed remorselessly and kept going.
"You okay?"
She frowned at the scroll in her hands. "Just trying to do some research. Daedalus's Labyrinth is so huge. None of the stories agree about anything. The maps just lead from nowhere to nowhere."
"Then why would they keep those maps," Jason looked offended at this uselessness.
"Decoration. Some kid in there might be a cartographer and using it as a bad example?" Nico shrugged.
I thought about what Quintus had said, how the maze tries to distract you.
I wondered if Annabeth knew that already.
"My money's on yes," Magnus said with pride.
"You never know, self-proclaimed geniuses are the worst about that whole missing the forest for the trees thing," Alex said. "Best to say it just in case."
"She's not a self-proclaimed anything," Percy rolled his eyes. He'd known that look of doubt on her face the moment he'd walked in. She was no more confident of this quest than he was, and he had proof he lived through it. There was something about that prophecy that had her worried even before they set out on this deadly trek.
"We'll figure it out," I promised.
Her hair had come loose and was hanging in a tangled blond curtain all around her face. Her gray eyes looked almost black.
"I've wanted to lead a quest since I was seven," she said.
"And all I wanted at that age was world peace," Magnus muttered. His cousin had led such a drastically different life from him he worried every other hour if she'd be half as excited to see him.
"You're going to do awesome."
She looked at me gratefully,
Percy wanted nothing more than to etch that moment into stone and never forget it again. His crush and their teasing and his own fear of never getting back to her aside all tied together still couldn't make him regret for a second he'd given her just a moment of peace.
but then stared down at all the books and scrolls she'd pulled from the shelves. "I'm worried, Percy. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to do this. Or Tyson or Grover."
"Hey, we're your friends. We wouldn't miss it."
"Literally," Thalia snorted. "I'm kind of terrified of the anxiety inducing consequences if she'd dared to tell you not to come."
Alex put on a weirdly good impression of Percy's voice. "I can't let her do this alone, I have to help! But this is Annabeth, she told me not to, but she's perfectly capable and she knows what she's doing!" By the end he had each hand up arguing with each other finger to finger.
"There's a sock puppet competition out there missing their best competitor," Percy said, unimpressed.
"But..." She stopped herself.
"What is it?" I asked. "The prophecy?"
"I'm sure it's fine," she said in a small voice.
It felt like a hole was in Percy's side. A missing piece where Annabeth should be, resting against him, that no cold draft of the ocean could ever compare against now as he took an unsteady breath and tucked his arm around nothing.
"What was the last line?"
Then she did something that really surprised me. She blinked back tears and put out her arms.
I stepped forward and hugged her. Butterflies started turning my stomach into a mosh pit.
"What song were you playing?" Thalia asked with interest.
"Help!" Percy said in the tiniest voice. There had been no hesitation in him though as he'd pulled her in close, his fingers tangled up in her hair on the back of her neck, his arm drawing tight around her back. The only person he'd ever hugged, or been hugged by before was his mom. He'd returned the gesture on Annabeth without a second thought no matter their height difference or what her hair smelled like or how much it tickled as her breath had puffed across his neck where he found his fingers lingering now.
When he closed his eyes, he could feel it all so vividly. When they snapped open upon Thalia reading, he felt a cold rush as if she'd been snatched away all over again.
"Hey, it's...it's okay." I patted her back.
I was aware of everything in the room. I felt like I could read the tiniest print on any book on the shelves. Annabeth's hair smelled like lemon soap.
She was shivering.
Thalia made her own humming noise of concern in the back of her throat. Moments like this, of not being there for her anymore made her jealousy of Percy a little more potent than usual. She'd once been that shoulder for her sister, now she was off in corners of the world while she was scared and clinging to someone Annabeth could have possibly lost again. The girl had gone through to much of that already in her life to deserve this lingering fear.
"Chiron might be right," she muttered. "I'm breaking the rules.
"And I still wholeheartedly approve of this," Alex said with the defiance of facing down a god. "No ancient rules, customs, or traditions should ever stop her from making the best decision in saving this entire camp's life!"
Will pursed up his lips to hold back how much he might agree otherwise if it wasn't for the state Annabeth had come back to camp in, alone. She'd truly believed this decision had gotten Percy killed, distraught and regret didn't begin to cover it all on her feelings of tempting fate.
But I don't know what else to do. I need you three. It just feels right."
"Then don't worry about it," I managed. "We've had plenty of problems before, and we solved them."
"With a high degree of success," but Jason had an uneasy brow raised. He'd never been a fan of these Greek kids being all willy-nilly about their interactions with the gods, and didn't have any more of a good feeling about how they were now flaunting primordial rules.
"This is different. I don't want anything happening to...any of you."
Behind me, somebody cleared his throat.
It was one of Annabeth's half-brothers, Malcolm. His face was bright red.
"And they were just hugging," Alex snorted. "You've scared that poor teenager from life against so much as getting caught holding hands lest his siblings walk in on that."
The others gave a mild chuckle, but Nico swallowed a dry, dusty throat. Even the idea of imagining hugging Percy sent off warning bells in his head like someone was going to condemn him for the thought. He glanced guiltily at Will and away, it certainly hadn't felt like an evil, bad thing to almost fall asleep next to him, practically on top of him...but gods did his stomach feel likely to explode at the idea of anyone seeing that.
"Um, sorry," he said. "Archery practice is starting, Annabeth. Chiron said to come find you."
"I have a really bad feeling he has a sixth sense about letting any of the campers sneak off," Magnus muttered, though in his cousin's particular case he might be a little grateful for this if Percy ever digested those butterflies.
I stepped away from Annabeth. "We were just looking at maps," I said stupidly.
"It was a special magic map that one could only see after enacting an ancient ritual of-" Jason couldn't finish and broke off laughing. Percy waved his hand indulgently for them all to get in on the laughter now, he'd take it all to feel that warmth linger a bit longer where Annabeth couldn't be.
Malcolm stared at me. "Okay."
"Tell Chiron I'll be right there," Annabeth said, and Malcom left in a hurry.
Annabeth rubbed her eyes. "You go ahead, Percy. I'd better get ready for archery."
I nodded, feeling more confused than I ever had in my life. I wanted to run from the cabin...but then again I didn't.
"Run in circles," Will offered oh so helpfully.
"I keep telling you I'm not a guinea pig anymore!" Percy groaned in exasperation.
"Annabeth?" I said. "About your prophecy. The line about a hero's last breath—"
"You're wondering which hero? I don't know."
"No. Something else. I was thinking the last line usually rhymes with the one before it. Was it something about—did it end in the word death?"
"Look at you, knowing how to rhyme things," Alex applauding him was definitely mocking.
"It could have been any number of things." Magnus nodded in mock agreement. "Meth, maybe somebody has a drug problem, or maybe Macbeth, we already know you might have some problems with ghosts, or maybe it was Annabeth, and the line was, oh but you'll be fine Annabeth!"
"I'll ask my dad if he'll take notes on any of those suggestions for the future," Will snickered while Percy resisted the urge to roll his eyes, they probably would have gone blood shot from trying if he weren't in the ocean.
Annabeth stared down at her scrolls. "You'd better go, Percy. Get ready for the quest. I'll—I'll see you in the morning."
I left her there, staring at maps that led from nowhere to nowhere; but I couldn't shake the feeling that one of us wasn't going to come back from this quest alive.
"I don't like your feelings anymore!" Magnus yelped with such a crack to his voice it sounded painful.
"Thalia? Thalia that one wasn't true, right!" Percy looked seconds away from shaking her to get an answer. His gut reactions had nearly always been right in the past.
Thalia twisted the links on her bracelet up, nearly pinching one of her fingers off as she tried to figure out how to answer him. "Percy, you got to trust me when I say it all works out." She hated giving that answer as much as Percy was tired of hearing it though, and thrust the book towards Nico to keep going so nobody had to linger on that longer than they had to.
#pjo#Percy Jackson#Thalia Grace#Jason Grace#nico di angelo#will solace#Magnus Chase#alex fierro#battle of the labyrinth#HDYSG#reading the books#fanfiction
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Daughters of war swapped- instead of Jason and Percy. (warning this is long)
For one, the camp hasn't been without Annabeth other than her quests and a few months with her dad. She's a constant presence. Losing Percy and his power was hard, losing Annabeth and her wisdom, advice, and planning would leave camp in a much more vulnerable position.
She is much more of a leader than Percy. Percy leads camp in the battle of manhattan but Annabeth leads them in a much more everyday way. you can see it in the way she stands parallel to Chiron and greets Piper she's as much an authority there as anyone. her not being there would leave a gap, and people wouldn't know where to look. The war council is already so different post-TLO but without Annabeth at the head? imagine
She wouldn't trust Hera at all and would probably have a harder time trusting Camp Jupiter. They'd also have a hard time trusting her, showing up disrespecting one of their most important gods (Juno would not appreciate the banter like Mars did), calling gods by their greek name. Octavian would have a much easier time building suspicion that she was a spy. She could handle it though, similar to how Percy does at the end of SON but she’d be able to spot how he acts and react much quicker.
Percy seeing how Neptune wasn't respected was hard for him but Annabeth downright hates how Minerva was treated by the Romans. I can see her refusing to respect that change, she embodies Athena's war strategy not having that acknowledged would hit her, she'd feel disrespected and would find it hard to fight for a camp that doesn't respect her or her mother. Her journey in the mark of Athena and bringing the statue home would be a lot more about winning herself the respect she knows she deserves.
I also think war games would just show her absolutely in her element. She uses Percy as bait within hours of meeting him she’d have a plan using each member of the fifth cohort's quirks drawn up and done within minutes. She’d instantly have people wondering why the Romans demoted Minerva from war goddess status.
As for bonding with Frank and Hazel- Frank's gift from Mars is strategy, she’d definitely have some comments regarding how different he is from Clarisse but she’d love meeting another strategist. She’d take a big sister role to Hazel, mirroring what Thalia was to her. I can also see her being less eager to ask Nico why she recognises him, she trusts him less than Percy does. He also has some underlying jealousy towards her.
Also- Thalia looking for her. Thalia relives losing Jason as she loses the girl she took in as a sister. She lost Luke the moment he went for her spear in TTC but losing Annabeth would put her on a war path. She feels just as useless as she did searching that park but she’s not. She’s the daughter of Zeus and Leitennant to Artemis. (and since Jason isn't there for her to run into in TLH let's say) She finds Annabeth. Annabeth would have some of her memory back after that run-in with Phineas but Thalia’s face floods her brain. Tears, words sputtering out and hugs. Tight hugs. So tight it hurts.
Thalia tells her about Jason and she sends Thalia to help with the impending invasion of camp Jupiter. Tells her Jason is there and safe. What about Camp Half-blood? What about her quest? Athena always has a plan- Athena. not Minerva. Frank and Hazel notice that.
Since the hunters help with Camp Jupiter will the Amazons? Since Reyna isn’t there to send them to Hylla I think they’d have to play a different role.
Reyna seems to be more authoritative than Jason, camp Jupiter would feel the gap. Would Jason be able to hold Octavian off as well? Does he have the quiet calm authority of Reyna? Her gap isn't one Octavian can fill so he'd have to act completely differently to undermine Jason's authority. Maybe Jason would find himself being accused of being involved, of covering a conspiracy up. Jason is incredibly well-liked at camp that's sure enough but with all of the camp looking to him for what to do?
Reynas had one home stripped from her before, and being taken away from her new one would leave her with old wounds open not what exactly she's remembering or why it hurts so much. That being said, she made it to the top of Camp Jupiter, and she'd build a reputation at Camp Half-Blood quickly. Having another girl show up, be given and quest and immediately throw a plan together with ultimate authority. People would see Annabeth in her the way people saw Percy in Jason.
Nobody at Camp Half-Blood has heard of Enyo. They haven’t gotten to building her a cabin yet. Reyna feels disrespected by this, boarding with the Hermes cabin she can’t help but feel there's a better way to do this.
She also doesn't trust Percy the moment she sees him. She doesn’t know why but something tells her he’s got something to do with the horrible hurt she’s got chasing her. Something to do with a very painful memory thats not in her head anymore.
Would there still be a romance plot with Piper? Who am I to say? but speaking of Piper and Leo. Leo would annoy the shit out of her. Maybe she’d end up finding him endearing, but she’d have a harder time getting along with them than Jason did. You can see her keeping people at arm's length, she doesn’t want to get hurt but on a quest, you have to trust people. Leo and Piper already trust her and care about her, their minds filled with false memories but Reyna's logical brain can’t process it. It's fake. A lot more time would be spent on them bonding, by the final battle they’re a well-oiled trust machine. They learn about Leo’s fire, Piper's dad and maybe a little about Reyna's past.
Something like… Meeting her sister? It’s just much more satisfying if she meets her c'mon. Hyllas glad to see her but somethings up. She says something about a camp and Reynas like. Yeah, a camp, one that's not camp half-blood. This whole thing would be like Jason and Thalia meeting but with more tension. They agree to help each other and Hylla rides into Wolf house with her amazons. Maybe this is the place they split up before, Lupa offered to train them and Reyna took up the offer. Hylla didn’t. They reunite in battle in the same place they split up all those years ago. At Camp Jupiter, a very similar scene happens between the Graces as the sky lights up with lightning.
ANYYYWAYYYY. This would have been interesting. Annabeth would have gotten more spotlight and Reyna would probably replace Jason in the seven. Could have been cool.
#heroes of olympus#annabeth chase#reyna arellano#percy jackson#pjo#hoo#reyna ramirez avila arellano#jason grace#legally had to
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Reading The Dark Prophecy: Chapter 41 (SPOILERS)
"If anyone sees a bronze spleen about yea big, please let me know!" I don't know what a bronze spleen looks like. I don't even know what a regular spleen looks like. Just looked it up. Looks like a blob. Could not tell it apart from any other blob-shaped organ if you held a crossbow to my head.
"I haven't seen Agamethus since before the battle." NOOOO Brieanna's gone! One can only hope he returned to the Underworld.
"But the next new moon is in only five nights" FUCK. THIS. SHIT. They can hardly make it across the country in five days, let alone stop another mini-pocalypse. Is a plane an option? Will it even make enough of a difference with a time frame this short?
"The changeling lord... that's gotta be my homeboy Frank Zhang." So I made a good choice not systematically going through every search result for "Greek mythology shapeshifter." Nothing would have made me guess Frank Zhang. Man, he and Nico are getting the coolest epithets in prophecies. Nico gets "the ghost king" and "the angel who holds the key to endless death" and now Frank gets "the changeling lord." The freaking CHANGELING LORD. What? I'm not jealous.
"Ella the harpy" OH. Oh, the Sybilline books. Well, now the progress they've made is definitely going to be burned. Our only hope is that they can hastily make a decoy that gets burned instead. Either way, as long as Ella is still alive, it'll be fine.
"We have to find the Teumessian Fox." What is this fox and why is it so important. "I was tempted to ask Meg to order me to slap myself, just to make sure I wasn't stuck in a nightmare." What is this fox and what makes it so nightmarish. And why can't Apollo just slap himself without being ordered to?
"how many cities the Teumessian Fox had leveled in ancient times" So I should imagine a fox the size of Meilin Lee's mom's red panda in Turning Red?
"That's copacetic . . . You've done enough for us, T." COPACETIC (adj.): in excellent order Thank you, Leo, for respecting Thalia and the Hunters' time and aid.
"Yeah, but with three passengers" Yeah, but even with two passengers less or no passengers at all, even with no monster attacks, that's not gonna cut six weeks into five days, especially with three times the distance to cover.
"I'll just enroll late for the spring semester!" Um, Leo, you're gonna throw your girlfriend into mortal high school without anyone to help her adjust? I don't see this playing out well.
"I believe that refers to the Erythraean Sybil, another ancient Oracle." Different from the Sybil who wrote the Sybilline books? Oh no, we have another Rhea and Rhea Silvia. I hate when this happens. So we're gonna get a crossword prophecy. Now, that I'm looking forward to.
"I'll find us one." Does Meg have connections with some nature spirits?
"Who wants carrot cake with blowtorched meringue for dessert?" Me! I do!
"We'll ride them for a while, recondition them, then find a safe place to release them where they can live in peace." I'm glad we got the ostrich closure.
"ah... the competition." Lmao the competition
"Exactly. Different manifestations of the same truth." Right. So the truth being that the sun rises in the east, travels across the sky creating daytime, and sets in the west to make way for night. Each culture arrives at that truth in a different way, but the end result is the same: Sun rises, makes daytime, Sun sets.
"When you're out west, if you get to L.A., my brother Jason is there." . . . "I will check on them . . . And send your love." Oh, Thalia. Sweet Thalia. Oh, no.
"Oh, how I missed my sister. 'Give her my best.'" Please let this man see his sister. This is just cruel now.
"Happy foxhunting." Yeah, is this fox going to show up in the coming books? I want to see it bulldoze a town.
"heading west as if chasing the crescent moon." That's an epic exit. I bet Apollo wishes he could chase the crescent moon with them to go see his sister. Please let this man see his sister. Petition, anyone?
#reading trials of apollo#reading the dark prophecy#reading toa#reading tdp#toa spoilers#trials of apollo spoilers#trials of apollo#the dark prophecy#percy jackson and the olympians#apollo pjo#apollo#lester papadopoulos#leo valdez#brieanna the cheese ghost#agamethus pjo#agamethus#frank zhang#nico di angelo#ella the harpy#ella pjo#teumessian fox#thalia pjo#thalia#meg mccaffrey#artemis pjo#artemis#hunters of artemis#dead jason grace#pjo#toa
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Nico quotes - Titans Curse
"Orientation film?" Nico asked. "Is it G or PG? 'Cause Bianca is kinda strict—"
"It's PG-13," Grover said.
"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.
...
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!"
...
Nico di Angelo ran up to me with a big grin on his face.
"Percy, this is awesome!" His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. I wondered if there was any way I'd looked that ridiculous when I'd first arrived. Unfortunately, I probably had.
Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"
"Well... no."
"But the Hunters are immortal, right?"
"That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides—"
"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"
"Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt."
He stared at me, a little disappointed, and I realized that I'd just sounded like my mother. Whoa. Not a good sign.
I patted Nico on the shoulder. "Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoe's way. We'll have a blast."
...
"I... that's a big thing to promise, Nico, on a trip like this. Besides, she's got Zoe,
Grover, and Thalia—"
"Promise," he insisted.
"I'll do my best. I promise that."
"Get going, then!" he said. "Good luck"
...
"I'll make something up." Nico smiled crookedly. "I'm good at that. Go on!"
...
He took the news in silence, which somehow made it worse. I kept talking, trying to explain how it had happened, how Bianca had sacrificed herself to save the quest. But I felt like I was only making things worse.
"She wanted you to have this." I brought out the little god figurine Bianca had found in the junkyard. Nico held it in his palm and stared at it.
We were standing at the dining pavilion, just where we'd last spoken before I went on the quest. The wind was bitter cold, even with the camp's magical weather protection. Snow fell lightly against the marble steps. I figured outside the camp borders, there must be a
blizzard happening.
"You promised you would protect her," Nico said.
He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger. It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise.
"Nico," I said. "I tried. But Bianca gave herself up to save the rest of us. I told her not to. But she—"
"You promised!"
He glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the godstatue.
"I shouldn't have trusted you." His voice broke. "You lied to me. My nightmares wereright!"
"Wait. What nightmares?"
He flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. "I hate you!"
"She might be alive," I said desperately. "I don't know for sure—"
"She's dead." He closed his eyes. His whole body trembled with rage. "I should've known it earlier. She's in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before the judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it."
"What do you mean, you can feel it?"
Before he could answer, I heard a new sound behind me. A hissing, clattering noise I recognized all too well.
I drew my sword and Nico gasped. I whirled and found myself facing four skeleton warriors. They grinned fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. I wasn't sure how they'd made it inside the camp, but it didn't matter. I'd never get help in time.
"You're trying to kill me!" Nico screamed. "You brought these... these things?"
"No! I mean, yes, they followed me, but no! Nico, run. They can't be destroyed."
"I don't trust you!"
The first skeleton charged. I knocked aside its blade, but the other three kept coming. I sliced one in half, but immediately it began to knit back together. I knocked another's head off but it just kept fighting.
"Run, Nico!" I yelled. "Get help!"
"No!" He pressed his hands to his ears.
I couldn't fight four at once, not if they wouldn't die. I slashed, whirled, blocked, jabbed, but they just kept advancing. It was only a matter of seconds before the zombies overpowered me.
"No!" Nico shouted louder. "Go away!"
The ground rumbled beneath me. The skeletons froze. I rolled out of the way just as a crack opened at the feet of the four warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth.
Flames erupted from the fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH!
Silence.
In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors. Awestruck, I looked to Nico.
"How did you—"
"Go away!" he yelled. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"
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Sooooo I'm re-reading Heroes of Olympus and just finished House of Hades. If you've been around here you've probably guessed that Nico Di Angelo is my favourite character.
This book annoyed me to Tartarus and back.
I want to rant a little so let's take a look at these together.
Every time someone is around Nico they think about how disturbed or freaked out they are in his presence. And we know this because we are literary IN THEIR HEADS.
The only person who thinks about him with compassion or understanding is Hazel. (Because she's the best).
She relates to his experience through hers. Which makes sense because they are similar in so many ways yet different. And I guess you could argue that it's easier for her because she is his sister and he is her only living relative, but every one of the seven has some kind of trauma in their past, they are on this epic quest together knowing that their failure would mean the end of the world. They have to trust each other if they want to survive but at no point are they like "what if we got to know this dude in case he was my only way of getting out of a sticky situation?" or you know "what if I tried to understand his powers better so if needed we could devise strategies combining our strengths to make an effective team?". This is baffling to me.
I guess the series is more focused on the action and monster fighting than team bonding and friendship. Which is a loss. Especially since they still find time somehow to all end up in romantic pairs. (I can't believe we were told that Hazel and Piper bonded over their power and swordfight training but never got to see any of it)
And what the fuck with Percy going around telling people that Nico is a traitor and whatnot? #NotMyPercy
So to get back on track, can someone explain this to me?
First of all, this is pure hypocrisy on Jason's part since it took him a very long time to decide which side he was on. He knows how hard it is to struggle between who you are and the ways others see you, what they expect of you. So why would he say this as if not only is Nico being a coward (makes me mad just writing this) but also a stubborn child? Especially after he had a small yet very powerful front seat view to Nico's pain?
And Will... Not only was he the equivalent of Thalia joining the hunters, Calypso staying on Ogygia and Rachel becoming Oracle (as if percabeth is so fragile a ship anyone being single could break it. Shows how unfit for each other they really are but whatever) he also dropped out of nowhere to completely invalidate Nico's very canonical experience. Hate this guy.
Nico can see people's reactions to his presence, he is not blind nor is he stupid. So why do we have this? If just being in the room while it is absolutely required makes people on edge why would Nico think that it's okay to sit by their side and make small talk and laugh about stupid stuff. Did logic jump off the Argo II when the seven boarded?
Why would Nico be unjustified to think this?
Yes, sometimes reality is warped by our own self loathing, and I'm not saying that it is not partly the case here, but this is all just ridiculous. It's like Riordan forgets stuff as soon as it's written down.
Oh, and this:
I love how they both find it weird that someone has Nico's back for once. As if it's not something a friend or even a teammate would be expected to do.
#rant#pjo#hoo#percy jackson#percy jackson and the olympians#heroes of olympus#hoh#house of hades#nico di angelo#hazel levesque#jason grace#leo valdez#frank zhang#annabeth chase#will solace#anti will solace#treating Nico like a paria then telling him he did this to himself#nico deserves better
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Jason and Juno
I just want to talk about them. I have so many feelings and I can’t find anyone else that cares about them. But, like, why not?
Because Rick ignored Jason in HoO and I still haven’t got my Roman prequels, that’s why.
I freaking love Jason anyway and I always have. And I admit, reading original PJO, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Hera, but we weren’t really supposed to be I don’t think. But Juno? Nah man, Juno is cool.
Everybody seems to write her off because she’s Hera and we all know Hera sucks, and obviously Percy and Annabeth don’t like Hera so makes sense that we kinda subconsciously take their lead. But Juno is cool - and I will absolutely fight that corner forever. It’s like, Ares was kinda a dick in many regards, but Mars was a good dad to Frank, Mars was cool too.
Juno was one of the only gods interested in actively helping demigods, particularly her favoured ones, sure, but she still tried to help. And she obviously cared about them too. Not just Jason, it was very evident she liked Leo a lot too (and I love that too). And we know - at least from ToA - that she had a soft spot for Frank too (and honestly who can blame her).
But yeah, so I actually dig Juno in HoO. She helped out, she was awesome, she was actively nice at least to Jason.
So that’s the first thing to get over. Hate Hera if you want to - but let me convince you that Juno is better. Re-read the books and look for her being nice and cool. Because it’s there.
On top of that though, the relationship between Juno and Jason just makes me so happy and warm. I love it so much, even though I haven’t seen anyone else that seems to care.
Jupiter was at least as much of a dick as Zeus was - that’s something everyone agrees on I think. And I think a lot of us if not everyone can agree that he was a worse dad to Jason than he was to Thalia. And maybe that’s because he washed his hands of responsibility for him after he gifted Jason to Juno. (Dick move btw.) but either way, he basically ignored Jason his entire life and throughout HoO. He was hands down one of the most distant godly parents of the seven and of a lot of main heroes we’ve followed in the series’. So Jason couldn’t really depend on him for help or guidance an awful lot and basically felt like he didn’t have a father. But at least he had Juno.
Juno was a good patron to him. She helped him where she could. She actively and genuinely cared about him. She tried to make herself available for chats when he needed them as much as she could. Gave him presents (his gladius) and praise when he did well, pep talks for what was ahead. As pseudo foster mothers go, she really wasn’t bad. Closest thing Jason had to a parent, and yeah, he could’ve had worse. He did have worse with his alcoholic slightly off the rails actual mother who gave him away, and had worse in a dad who never spoke to him or saw him or lifted a finger to help him until the very last second and who also gave him away. I kinda gotta figure after that kind of treatment from both your actual parents, getting what he got from his patron was probably very appreciated.
And Juno/Hera is the goddess of marriage and family among other things. Throughout the series it’s pretty much her biggest hang up. And obviously she wasn’t always the best mother (poor Hephaestus) to her actual kids, but she kinda held Olympus together. Stopped them all tearing each other apart. Family was important to her and something she valued. Obviously she hated when her husband cheated on her and had someone else’s kids. Honestly? That’s pretty reasonable to be unhappy about. But she watched the rest of her family, literally forever, having kids willy nilly when they wanted to. Obviously Artemis didn’t, but she didn’t want kids and she had the hunters so that’s fine. For someone that loves family so much, it’s very possible she could’ve been a little envious of everyone else having huge families. She still had her Olympian family, but maybe she would’ve liked to have some demigods of her own, if it didn’t involve cheating which she just won’t do. She favoured original Jason and was his patron too, so she was happy enough to adopt them, but it still wasn’t something she did often. So she didn’t get a lot of mortal kids and might’ve felt like she was missing out. But at least she had Jason.
So, being given another little adopted demigod, hell yeah she probably loved mothering him. He was totally her kid. He didn’t have any parent or family to be there for him, she didn’t have any demigod kids of her own and knew she never will. That’s hella cute that they can adopt each other.
Everyone loves found families lately - well this is basically that. Kinda forced at first but doesn’t mean they wouldn’t grow to love each other. They helped each other, could depend on each other. Juno is literally the patron of Rome as well. So even if Jason hadn’t known from the off that he’d been given to Juno, he’d have still had the sense that she had his back along with the rest of Rome, so he might’ve asked for a little help or guidance before HoO, maybe while he was Praetor too. And Juno being New Rome’s patron would’ve probably kept an eye over Camp Jupiter and especially when Jason rose to Praetor she could’ve been paying more attention to him from then. Watched out for him during the Titan War.
I want to know more about them. Especially if Jason was fully aware that she was his patron the whole time before HoO. I want them to have had some sort of relationship. I want them to like each other at least a little. Nico and Hades got closer eventually. Percy and Poseidon (and honestly a bunch of the gods) got on well. Mars adored Frank. Aphrodite seems pretty cuddly with her kids in general. I don’t think it’d be a terrible stretch for Juno and Jason to have each other’s backs.
I want to know if Jason ever made offerings for her along with Jupiter. Burnt food at CHB for her as well as his dad.
I want to know if Juno ever helped him out on earlier quests at all, whether he knew it or not. If she ever gave him and maybe Reyna too, sort of a Praetor deal, counsel.
I want to see Juno fully lean into having Jason as her favourite, as her chosen hero. I want to see her lend some power to him when he needs it. I want to see Jason with the Blessing of Juno. How many demigods would’ve ever gotten that? That’s unheard of. I want it for him. I want to see him marching on Mount Othrys to take down Krios and topple the throne, not with the blessing of Jupiter (although I would also love to see him with that, that would be so cool!) but with the blessing of Juno, patron of Rome. I wanna see him monologuing Krios into intimidation like he did to the giants: I'm the son of Jupiter, I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion. I slew the Trojan sea monster, I have the blessing of Juno: Patron of Rome. And she also happens to be my stepmom, dick.
I talked about it in another post before, him getting her blessing. Supposedly with her Roman counterpart she’s supposed to be militaristic, strategic, etc. A blessing from his dad would be like an explosion of power, don’t get me wrong. It’d be like Thor in Infinity War. Magnificent. He could totally burst into the palace and fry Krios and destroy the throne. But I think it’d also be pretty damn awesome if he got zapped with her blessing and became like the ultimate military leader (kind of like Frank with Mars’ blessing I suppose, but more strategic instead of hitting the protein shakes), leading the troops in the invasion and being a total Praetor before he even became Praetor.
Side note: It’s probably not possible but can you imagine if he got blessings from both of them?? I doubt you can have two at a time, but that would be spectacular if he did. Especially from Jupiter and Juno. He would be incredibly powerful, no wonder the Legion made a big deal out of him in the early part of the series. Always was a little disappointed we never got to see cool Roman Jason. I love Jason, I do, but he wasn’t exactly what we heard about in The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune. It never felt like we saw his full potential. So I’m just gonna sit in my corner and dream it up instead lol.
Anyway, this was purely for me because I have a lot of feelings about these two and I couldn’t find anything about them at all or not anything positive. But if anyone else likes them or has ideas or there is stuff you can point me to, please do, I want to get involved in it and find people that are into this so bad!
#that was a LONG ramble#so many feelings#pjo verse#pjo fandom#pjo hoo#jason grace#pjo juno#pjo hera#Jason and Juno#heroes of olympus#percy jackson#percy jackson and the olympians#heroes of olympus headcanons#heroes of olympus imagines#jason grace imagine#jason grace headcanon#pjo headcanon#pjo imagine#roman prequel headcanon#pjo roman prequel#we urgently need roman prequels#roman prequels please#praetor jason#baby jason#pjo gods#godly parent#camp jupiter#hoo headcanon#hoo imagine#I love Jason Grace
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Bianca Lives AU HCs
Hermes hates her. He calls her devil child. She constantly makes jokes about fucking his mom. She has stolen his wallet at least twice.
She's the best older sister
She can't cook. She tried to make canned soup once and burned it then buried it in the garden so no one would know of her crime
Nico goes travelling and she calls him every day and then has a meltdown if he doesn't respond
Hazel comes back to life and goes to camp Jupiter and she calls her every day and then has a meltdown if she doesn't respond
She is the best at fighting. Her hand to hand combat skills are amazing and Menoetes has tasked her with beating up Hercules in his honor. She has mastered a dozen different weapon types and favours her long sword and scythe
She gets along best with Melinoe
She is very gay and has hit on Persephone, Nyx, Pasithea, all three of the Furies and countless ghosts
She is unfortunately extremely bad at being flirted with and immediately shuts down when they flirt back
She is daddy's little girl
She is also the reason Hermes didn't get paid for the entire month of June
Thanatos goes to visit his mom and she goes with him and steps outside and says, "Wow this place sucks" and then months later Nico ends up trapped in Tartarus and she's freaking out because that place sucked
She has the most memories of their childhood and tells Nico everything every time he asks no matter how many times he asks about the same thing
She has nightmares about her "death" and doesn't like Hephaestus or Leo
She's also not a fan of the Hunters anymore because she took a step back and realized how fucked up it was for them to let her join on a quest when she wasn't at all trained, didn't even know who her parent was and couldn't use her powers or fight effectively
She has a massive crush on Thalia and shuts down every time she sees her. Nico and Hazel tease her about this constantly
"Seriously, Beebee? You can hit on our step-mom who you don't actually wanna bang but you can't hit on the girl you do wanna bang? That's so sad. Gay card revoked."
(Nico also can't hit on the boy he wants to bang but that's irrelevant when it comes to sister-teasing)
She alternates between feminine and masculine clothing but she always has on her newsboy cap because it's one of the few things she actually has from her past
She owns a version of her dad's helm of darkness but it's not a helmet, and instead a cool pair of sunglasses. Using them for too long has the opportunity to kill her though
Like Nico, she has a lot of raw power, but she's better at controlling her emotions so it doesn't get the best of her. Unfortunately, she's bad at seeing the souls of people who haven't died, so Nico and Hazel will be in a mood and she'll be squinting furiously at their chests to no avail
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I have a theory about the big three's kids. It's actually a continuation of the "all the kids are scared of their own elements" but with more realistic ideas/explanations:
Thalia - We already new she hated highs. I think this is just curel irony on ricks part but in universe, Thalia had a neglectful mother. Maybe she got stuck climbing when she was little or when she was on the run with Luke she had an accident?
Percy- Water. I think he always had a fear of water from when Gabe stayed with them but it only resurfaced in SON after the almost drowning. Personal headcannon time. Percy had no or very little control over his abilitys when he was younger and Gabe (when drunk or high) tried to drown him and young Percy either didn't have the adrenaline to fight back (or tigger his powers) or was too beaten to fight back and almost drowned. At that point Sally came back from work and Gabe threatened Percy not to tell his mother.
Jason- Now hear me out. Jason was terrified of leadership and or pressure but was given his Preditorship and responsibilities so young that he just turned his constant fear into motivation to keep moving, becoming more traumatised as the wars started and thats how he became close to Reyna. After a bust of emotions and someone over stimulating him after training he snapped and had a breakdown in Reyna's arms. Juno/Hera took Jason and he restarted with 6 months to Percy's week which would also explain why Reyna was so hurt when Jason was with Piper.
Hazel- Her fear of her cursed gems is explained in the series but I don't think people think about her connection to Hecate and the mist being a fear for her. I headcannon it that her mother could see through the mist(is this cannon?) and was practising a form of magic. Maybe she was a legacy of Hecate? Her mother then was cast out for practising witchcraft/magic and that lead her to downfall with Gaia. Hazel, with the pressure of learning the mist and it's ways whilst also being scared that it could lead to her following her mothers footsteps would make sense unfortunately.
Nico- The dark. I think Nico always had a distaste for the dark as a child, needing a candle lit at all times. To the point where his mother kept a helper in his room al night long to stop any fires catching (I also headcannon that Hades was that watcher sometimes). I think Bianca would have been skilled with shadows more than Nico and through some cruel twist from the fates, when she died, her power left an unbalance in the power structure each parent gives to their child(ren) and he became scared of the dark the night she died in TTC.
Bianca- I think her fear was death. She watched alot of people die as we know she wasn't too young to not know the war full weight. A personal headcannon of mine is that she gained her memories back after joining the hunters and her fear became solid which is why she was so quick to prove herself to a promise that she would be brave that I personally think her mother told her before she went back upstairs in the hotel. She just wanted to be brave for Nico and her Mother.
I'd like to hear your opinions on this and if you want I'll post ones for the rest of the seven(or anyone else you suggest)
#percy jackson#jason grace#Thalia grace#nico di angelo#hazel levesque#bianca di angelo#the lightning theif musical#pjo series#percy jackon and the olympians#luke castellan
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📁 x (however many you have) for an AU where Bianca survives and is recruited into the Titan army (#dark!Bianca)
Okay I spent literal weeks on this bc I have a WIP of Bianca being alive and I have yet to decide whether I want her to be on the good side or the bad side.. you see, having more Big Three Kids on the bad side is such an interesting concept to me bc they're the ones with the strongest powers and the fight would've been much more equal.. anyway here we go:
(This became a bit long, I'll just add the cut)
(And in the end I decided this is how I'll be continuing my WIP after all)
Also this was for the: send me 📁 and I'll send you a headcanon!
Bianca doesn't die, she accidentally falls into the Labyrinth where she runs into Chris Rodríguez
They get out of the Labyrinth in Arizona where Clarisse finds them and recognises Chris and Bianca's name and accidentally tells Bianca "oh whoops, your brother ran away and nobody did shit about it :)" bc I love Clarisse but she's on the brutally honest side
Bianca is, understandably, very upset, you're a kid, you hand your brother to authorities who are there to help and send him to a safe haven and they just... let him go... bitches
Anyway, Bianca's bitter. Nico's gone, Zoë, her big fat crush, is dead and Artemis "did nothing to help" (bear in mind Bianca wasn't present there), and the only people to help her are a well-meaning but unequipped daughter of Ares and her petite and strong-willed mother (who loves Bianca bc she can stumble through French and play Bach on the piano)
So Bianca's picked up by the Hunters, lieutenanted by none other than not-a-fan-of-the-gods Thalia Grace
Thalia doesn't mean to put Bianca against the gods, hell she herself had an almost fall-to-the-Dark-Side moment, but she doesn't like the gods all that much, with perhaps a few exceptions
The only difference was that Annabeth was there to make Thalia see sense, whereas after months of looking Bianca doesn't have a fucking clue where Nico is
Thalia takes the Hunters to NYC, first they visit darling Percy who Bianca used to see like such a heroic figure but now? Damn now in her eyes this older boy has let her little, helpless brother alone in a foreign country plagued by pagan gods who seem to give no fucks about their children
Percy's explanation doesn't satisfy her at all, and then he goes and says "btw I think we know who your godly father is" and Bianca's like "??? I killed skeletons when none of you could, I know bc the Force told me so that my beloved Zoë is in Elysium, shadows stick to me like sand on the beach??? And I remember my mamma calling dad Ade??? who's my papà then?"
Sarcasm aside tho, Bianca is upset bc she had vague memories of a caring father but this god isn't the same, he didn't help Nico? he didn't find her? he almost let her die? what a father, eh?
Thalia realises Bianca's about to escalate into a full blown fist fight with Percy and she's like my money's on the girl "let's go to CHB, see if they know anything, why don't we?"
Mr D is mildly concerned under a façade of disinterest and Chiron's full of "we're so sorrys" that remind Bianca of when her neighbours got letter from the government saying "KIA we're so sorry he died bravely" which ofc pisses her tf off
She wonders out loud how can gods be so careless specially when they're losing campers to Kronos' side all the time
And guess who's there to hear her? Ah, yes, our darling spy. Silena wastes no time sending word to Luke that there's this Hunter who's two seconds away from storming up to Olympus to murder them all
Luke's still recovering from the fight in Mt Othrys, but he still knows Thalia's not happy with the gods, he knows she'll unknowingly help poison Bianca bc he knows about CJ now, and knows that a certain Jason Grace is there bc he was taken by Juno when he was a toddler, and that it's a big part of why Thalia was so hateful towards the gods
Luke knows Thalia well, and Thalia sees the parallels between her lost little brother and Bianca's little brother... at the time, Thalia has no clue Jason's alive nor does she know whether Nico's alive
"He is" Bianca insists, but "what does she know?" Thalia thinks but out loud she only says "the gods don't care about us, they're just slightly better than Kronos"
Not particularly convincing ofc, and Luke tells Silena to take advantage of a potential recruit in the Hunters, who they haven't been able to get hold of so far
And how tf does a daughter of Aphrodite contact the Hunters without calling attention on it? through no other than Clarisse
Because Bianca has a soft spot for Clarisse, after all, Bianca's a kid, she's hurt and confused, and Clarisse offered her shelter when she was at her lowest, so ofc Bianca keeps in contact with her
Clarisse and Silena are best mates ;) and eventually Silena discovers such a pretty music box that plays that same song Bianca played for the La Rues
Clarisse is a bit surprised Silena remembered that particular detail but eh, Virgos are like that, so she tells Silena she can hand it over to Bianca whenever they saw each other again
Clarisse ofc thinks it's such a Silena move to gift pretty thing to little girls who feel sad, she's a good Samaritan and what not, isn't she? such a lovely friend
Bianca likes going over to the La Rues every so often, Clarisse shares every bit of information she has, and Bianca grew fond of the mother-daughter pair, and then Clarisse gives her that music box... it's so pretty
Pretty and useful, she finds out
The music box has a little ballet dancer, if you press it, it sounds like... what was it that Nico and his little friend in Westover liked to play with? walkie-talkies!
And she messes around for a while saying dumb random things and getting no reply until one day she hears Silena's voice come back to her
At first it's chit chat, "did you like the music box?" "isn't it cool that it does that?" "it's okay to be upset about your brother" "how come Artemis hasn't helped yet?" and that's the thing about pre-teens, they're so easy to convince
Besides, Kronos is no fool, the moment Silena gets a hit with the "gods are so insensitive" he throws dreams Bianca's way... the true destruction of the war she can't remember properly, runaway demigods unsheltered and alone, and finally: Nico.
He is alive, she knew it! But he's by himself, he looks so thin and dirty and... devastated. He looks devastated.
It's all the gods' fault. Their civilisation's rotten!
Kronos tells her it's easy to get him back... but not with the gods' help. what has your father done for the both of you? what has your Artemis done to get him back? niente, Bianca, niente
Bianca's not an idiot, she knows this creepy, powerful voice is up to something, and her grandfather has always told her no big favour comes for free. "what do you want from me?"
"Information." "That's all?" "That's all."
Bianca wants proof, no deal is made without insurance. Kronos shows her Nico again, he shows her Minos, the danger Nico's in, and bc Kronos is a stronzo and we know it, he lets her think it's her fault. you abandoned him, you owe him this.
Bianca falls for it. Kronos is right, isn't he? she left him with camp, camp didn't do shit. she should've known that!
"How do I help him?" "Keep us informed about the Hunters' whereabouts and plans" "How?" "The music box"
And so Bianca's now a spy
Voilà
This was so long, I'm soooo writing this now
#bianca di angelo#clarisse la rue#silena beauregard#nico di angelo#thalia grace#kronos pjo#pjo#mis fics#tagthescullion#cevenini responde#ask game
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ok so this is my list of unpopular riordanverse opinions :)
rachel is a good person, idk why everyone hates her. she didn’t know that annabeth liked percy, neither did percy. she didn’t really do anything wrong.
luke is a pedo. he probably groomed silena and annabeth, no denying it.
i feel like reyna and jason would make more sense than jason and piper. jason parallels annabeth and reyna parallels percy sort of, so they would make more sense.
hazel is one of the most powerful demigods, if not the most powerful of the 7. percy would definitely be a close second, but if it came down to it, i really think that hazel would be the most powerful. she stopped the first rise of gaia by herself, and she can control the mist. . . so. . .
leo and calypso weren’t the best couple. rick really played up the fact that leo was lonely, but it felt like he shoved leo into a relationship with calypso. i also don’t like the fact that calypso has had to deal with so much heartbreak and then immediately fell for leo, i personally think that she would join the hunters.
it makes sense for her to join the hunters, she gets to travel all over (after previously being stuck on an island) and she gets to get an eternal break from boys and heartbreak. i personally like the idea a lot.
the only reason silena and clarisse didn’t date was becasue rick is a coward.
i mean seriously do either of them seem straight to you
i don’t think drew is that bad of a person, i think she was more misunderstood by the people around her.
WHEN JASON CALLED PIPER A KNOCKOUT THAT WAS WEIRD. idc how piper felt about him, he was kind of sexualizing her, considering the fact that she was really uncomfortable with the change.
annabeth is probably the least powerful of the 7. trust me, i lover her as much as anyone else, but rick screwed up with athena’s kids powers. she is no doubt one of the better strategists, but physically, she isn’t as powerful. but she’s still a badass :)
PERCY AND LEO ARE SMART. there are so many text posts with the punchline that the two are dumb, when in reality, percy fought most of his battles by outsmarting his opponents. and leo could do insane math at 8 years old!!!!
annabeth and leo are different types of smart. i will only say this once, leo does better in school than annabeth does.
i don’t think jason is boring, but i think rick could have done a lot more with his character.
i personally think that rick should have made percy and jason’s rivalry a bigger thing in hoo. their beliefs clash so badly, it would make sense for them to fight more often, esp cause of their parents.
thalia is annabeth’s og bsf and grover is percy’s og bsf.
also: leo and piper were best friends before they even fake-met jason
percy. is. not. upset. about. him. not. being. nico’s. type.
this got a little long, but yeah. please respect my opinion!
#pjo#hoo#toa#percy jackson and the olympians#heroes of olympus#trials of apollo#percy jackson#annabeth chase#jason grace#piper mclean#leo valdez#frank zhang#hazel levesque#nico di angelo#rara#reyna avila ramirez arellano#incorrect pjo#incorrect pjo quotes#pjo incorrect quotes#hc#pjo hc#pjo headcanon#pjo unpopular opinions#solangelo#pipabeth#jercy#percabeth#jasper#jiper#frazel
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milk and feelings
thalia figuring out her feelings and then reyna confesses (in a way, thalia does as well) and then they kiss. its cute i promise.
thalia had grown to hate the campfires.
every single night, maybe she liked it the first few times, but the romans were here for jason’s funeral, and everyone was drinking themself to hades and back.
she couldn’t stay with the hunters. if she did, she’d watch everyone she loved die. she couldn’t do that, she would have killed herself.
not many campers were even of age, but she didn’t think mr. d gave a shit.
thalia hated alcohol.
for as long as she can recall, she’d see girls in magazines and movies with their wine and beer, and she’d see her mother...and everything felt like a curse.
so how the hell did she get roped into a drinking game with leo.
‘milk for thalia because she doesn’t like beer.’
even without the drink her stomach is doing flips, godsdam campfires.
reyna’s smiling face across the camp, soft and easy-relaxed, thalia would say, her face illuminated by the fire, she looked like an angel.
godly, if thalia was allowed to say.
like that time she saw aphrodite-oh shit.
“thals? how are you choking on milk?”
“i-nothing, nothing.”
she didn’t sound convincing, the glimpse from years ago at the goddess, she’s been convinced it was a boy with long hair, a boy with those clever, brave brown eyes, a boy, a boy.
it was never a boy.
it was never a boy.
percy grinned, leaning on piper slightly, who shoved him off, “chill percy, i’ve got a girlfriend.”
“THALIA STOP CHOKING ON THE FUCKING MILK!!!”
“sorry!!”
annabeth looked at her warily, and leo spoke before her, “what-your against gay people?!”
thalia froze, and saw percy’s gaze harden, and she felt herself blush, “no! what the hell leo?! no...i didn’t...i just didn’t know-i don’t.”
piper giggled, “you don’t know shit about gay stuff, do you?”
the daughter of zeus shook her head, feeling extremely out of her element.
“i know some. i know what gay and lesbian mean, and i know what being trans is. that’s kind of it....”
percy snickered, “well, i’m bisexual, and if you didn’t know-i did like luke. but he’s a bitch and you can’t really fuck a corpse.”
frank looked up at him, surprised, “i-”
annabeth rolled her eyes, “i’m also bi, you know.”
“i’m pan! pan-piper, like that guy with his flute.”
leo raised his hand, “i’m pan and trans!”
“i just don’t feel a sexual attraction, so..i’m asexual.” hazel said, shrugging, and thalia could imagine nico going ‘good.’.
she nodded, “thanks guys....”
her head was pounding at her, and she was convinced there was something in her milk.
“leo is there something in here?”
the boy shrugged, “prob not, why?”
“my head wants to blow up.”
reyna walked over, “we can go over to a smaller fire?”
hazel giggled, “you don’t like us?”
reyna gave her a small smile, “yes, i do, but thalia’s interesting.”
thalia’s stomach twisted again, but she nodded, “yeah, i’m interesting. suck it.”
piper flipped her off.
she always felt normal around the daughter of bellona, but now, thalia felt like a knife had hit her in the stomach.
it was like she was filled to the brim, and she was going to burst at any moment.
and, and oh gods reyna looks so beautify sitting closer and gods she was nice enough to invite thalia to sit alone, and she’s always helping others and-
“thals? are you alright?”
no, i’m not okay, your really fucking attractive and i-“yeah, i’m good, you good, rey?”
reyna rolled her eyes, “you are the only person alive who calls me that....”
“i’m that special?”
“do you always flirt with people like this?”
thalia almost choked for the third time, a) holy fuck has she been flirting with reyna?! and b) did reyna sound....hopeful?
“i-”
“what’s going on, thals? you seemed to shocked when i walked over and you-”
“i think i’m a lesbian and i don’t know what to do because your really fucking pretty and i honestly and so fucking scared right now and i don’t know what to do so yeah. i’m kind of panicking.”
thalia couldn’t stop talking.
“and-and hearing everyone else talk about that stuff, i just-it it really that easy? my mom would have killed me, and i just...i just...i hate this feeling but it’s also so comforting.”
she froze and slapped herself in the face, forgetting she was holding a glass of milk.
she quickly wiped her face, gods of olympus, why had she said that?!
why hadn’t she stopped?!
it probably wasn’t even true! thinking that a girl was pretty didn’t mean anything and....gods.
“i-I’m sorry-i didn’t-”
thalia’s regret veered off the line when she saw reyna’s face shining slightly.
holy hades.
before thalia knew what was going on, she was being hugged.
and it didn’t feel like a normal hug.
it felt warm and comforting and...and it felt like home.
she didn’t realize she’s pressed her face to reyna’s collarbone, and she’s crying-hephaestus she’s being so open right now-
reyna pulls away, her face still shining and thalia finds her self, oddly enough, wishing she’d be hugged again.
“sorry..i don’t know what i was thinking.”
thalia gave her a small smile, “it’s fine. i liked it-wait-fuck.”
reyna laughed softly, and thalia’s breathe quickened.
holy hera what was this girl doing to her?!
“so did i.....thank you-for saying that. i know you didn’t really...well...seem to be happy with yourself, but...” reyna shrugged. “i guess it felt good to hear someone else say it?”
“what do you mean?”
the other girl wrung her hands together, “i don’t get the pleasure feeling of sex, i never liked it as much as other girls..or boys said....but then my chest and stomach keep fighting when i see you. i don’t know if i’m broken or if it’s just-”
thalia stopped her, “okay-well, your not broken. that’s bullshit, your beautiful and amazing and-and what was hazel saying.....asexual!”
“what?”
“um-she said it means you don’t feel a sexual attraction and she’s still dating frank, so i’m assuming it means you can still date people! not that it matters, whatever you want to do is perfectly fine.”
now she was going on about something she didn’t really know.
thalia rubbed the back of her head nervously, glancing around, slightly surprised that no one had eavesdropped on their conversation.
“nervous?”
“just....people.”
“ah. very descriptive.”
“wow, reyna? sarcastic?”
“cute, thals, real cute.”
thalia froze.
okay, fuck it-she’s doing something about these feelings.
before she could talk herself out of it, the blue and black haired girl grabbed the other’s wrist, standing and pulling her to behind the zeus cabin.
then she panicked, what the hell was she doi-
shut up, internal monologue.
“can i kiss you?”
“um-”
thalia was shorter than reyna, by at least three inches.....three.
“yes.”
and the twisting stopped, and reyna’s hand was on her neck and for the first time in her life, kissing boys on the run because had nothing to loose, everything paled, for the first time in her life, everything made so much sense.
everything felt so...good.
she could feel wood on her back and was vaguely aware that she was standing up at tall as she could.
it didn’t matter.
nothing else mattered.
everything made sense.
they broke apart, and thalia found herself smiling like an idiot, “’no demigod shall heal your heart.’ well, reyna avila ramirez-areallno, how does an ex-immortal hunter sound?”
the roman laughed, her joyful, clear and pure laugh, “it sounds pretty fucking perfect.”
right before they kissed again.
#thalia grace#reyna ramirez arellano#pjo#hoo#toa#riordanverse#theyna#thalia x reyna#reyna x thalia#oliver writes
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