#solangelo

[mediumgayitalian]

“You ever pray we’re wrong?”

Nico lets his next step sound against the smoothed pebbles, dismissed the shadows he hovered on. Will doesn’t turn to face him, but one of his shoulders slumps, stretched-out camp shirt neckline hanging around his collarbones, in acknowledgment. Nico crouches down, inspecting the pebbles until he finds one suitable — flat, almost disc-like, a little bigger than his thumbnail, smooth as shaved skin.

“‘Bout what?”

It skips when he launches it, on the tail of Will’s, one, two, three times before sinking. Will’s goes much longer, as does his next. And his next. Sink.

“About the —

Sink.

— afterlife.”

He doesn’t look as he scoops up another handful, eyes glued to the setting sun. His pebbles are all the wrong shape, but he launches them, one at a time, one at a time, one at a time; each of them skips.

“About the world —

Sink.

— down there.”

Sink.

“Underworld.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You ever hope we just —

Sink.

— dreamed it up?”

Sink.

One, two, four, sixteen. Sink.

Sink.

“The whole thing. Gods and Judgement and Punishment. Hellfire.”

Sink.

One. Twothreefourfivesix. Seven. Sink.

Sink.

“Like the Mist. An illusion to keep us compliant.”

Sink.

One. Two. Ten. Twenty. Sink.

Sink.

“It isn’t,” Nico says, as gently as he can. He runs his thumb over the edge of a pebble, tracing its ridge. A rough broken corner slices along the pad of his thumbprint, and he jumps, breathing a curse, sliding the irony salt into his mouth. “Do you wish it was?”

“I hope it is.”

The blood is long since gone. Nico hooks his nail over his bottom teeth, tongue twisting at the lingering saltiness, and watches him, eyes hooded; the set to his shoulders, his spine; his sand-covered feet and soaked pants rolled to his calves. Lee’s shirt, worn thin, hanging off his shoulders, still; four camp necklaces on his throat, heavy with beads, one wrapped three times around his wrist. Hair, wilder than usual, knotted, matted, whipping in the wind, thick with sand, curling around his eyes.

“Why?”

“I hope we’re wrong and it’s Mist and it’s softer. And it’s —

Sink.

— nothing. Quiet.”

Sink.

“Why?” Nico repeats.

Sink.

“Because I’ve —

Sink.

— because I’m going to Hell, Nico.”

Sink.

One.

Sink.

One.

Sink.

One.

Sink.

Sink.

Sink.

“I’m going to —

Sink.

— Hell, and I’m scared.”

Sink.

“You’re a hero,” Nico says, quiet, and the pebbles in his fist are loud, are grating, and the bitter in Will’s laugh is stronger even than the lingering taste on his tongue, and louder, and brighter, bright, brighter, like the Sun, like the stars, like the brand new moon, and it sears, and it aches, and Nico looks away. And Will laughs, and keeps laughing, and launches his pebbles into the lake, all of them at once, and they hit the water like spit, and spatter, and they sink, and Nico hears them hit the floor, hears them ricochet through, down, descend.

“I hear the injured screaming and choose which ones die,” Will says, sink,

sink,

sink,

sink,

sink, “and I hear them curse me, as they die, and I am going to rot in Hell.”

Sink.

Sink.

Sink.

“You are a hero,” Nico says. His hands shake and he folds his thumb into his fists. “You are a hero. You’ll go to Elysium.”

Will smiles at him. “Okay, Nico.”

Sink.

“I’ve — judged, you know. Before. Good things way heavy. Good things weigh heavy.”

Sink.

“Okay.”

“You’re not cursed, Will.”

He sits, or he drops, on the rocky shore, bones against stone, and he stares, at the lake, at the Sun, at the Sun, at the Sun, and he waits, and he glows, and he burns.

“The gods aren’t fair,” he says. Quiet.

Sink.

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[themythecho]

Nico di Angelo is so Edwin Paine core (Gay kid in the early 1900s that is back into present time and falls in love with a bisexual, definitely mentally ill but DOES NOT address it, boy)

[sunnysolace7]

hold the fuck up

I'm the fuck up

hold me

[stucksolangelo]

Lester Papadopoulos

[theprinceofdarknesssquad]

Will: You know, I really wish you’d just admit you made a mistake sometimes.

Nico, stirring their coffee: I prefer it with salt.

[nicoshadowsun]

They are so cute together

[alextextbook]

[your-stranger-halfblood-things]

Nico: Happy Father's Day

Nico *hands Hades a crayon drawing of two ghost shadows holding hands*

Hades *cries*

[snoelledarts]

-

Workin on a little something >:) Sorry, Nico…

*+*+* chapter 7 of Grace of Gods out now! *+*+*

[chesnochekk]

solangelo fanart

my tiktok: cheeesnokkk

[pjoseasonszine]

Up next on the spot artists previews, we have @guardianspirits13 's wonderful piece of our favorite ghost king! Get the zine today to view this beautiful piece!

Preorders are open till the 28th of June!

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pjoseasons.shop

[myprophecy]

𓏲 ๋࣭  ࣪ ˖ DO IT AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN. DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!

pairing: will solace x child of aphrodite

warning: pining, cursing.

synopsis: a messy healer is in love with the perfect child of aphrodite. of course, he doesn't stand a chance. . .or does he?

a/n: i don't know how to write kissing scenes ahhh!!

you were way out of wills league. of course, the boy wasn't delusional. he knew he was nothing compared to you, an aphrodite kid.

his blonde curls were always in a messy bun, for he had no time to take care of himself working in the infirmary, while your hair was always looked after. styled perfectly, not a single hair out of place.

you had an amazing style, your statements leaving him red cheeked and shy. on the other hand, he threw on whatever he saw first and then covered his atrocity of an outfit with his huge doctor coat.

and the list can go on.

in conclusion, will was a mess. you were perfection.

yet, he couldn't help but love you, even though he knew it would get him nowhere in the end.

surprisingly, it was a slow sunday morning in the infirmary. will and few of his siblings were chatting softly, chuckling here and there.

they paused their conversation when they heard the creaking of the door opening, before will was able to turn around and look at who had came in, he saw kayla smiling wickedly.

"i need you guys to help me restock the back, come on." she said, gesturing for the other apollo kids to follow her.

wills eye twitched. 'of course those fuckers make me do all the work-' his thoughts were cut short by your shy smile and small wave.

"good morning. i am so, so sorry for the ungodly hour." you apologised, fidgeting with one of your many rings.

will blinked, cheeks red and lips slightly parted.

"you see, i was sword fighting and an ares kid accidentally cut my arm," you gestured to a rather deep cut on you bicep. "is there. . .um," you cleared your throat awkwardly as will continued looking like a deer in headlights. "is there anyway i can get it healed? i understand if its too early to use your healing powers-"

"o-of course!" the tired blonde cut you off, "its never too early to heal a fellow camper, duty calls!" he offered a nervous smile, guiding you to an infirmary bed.

'i am going to kill kayla after this.' he thought.

it was awkward. extremely awkward. will tried to make small talk two or three times, yet the words wouldn't leave his mouth.

as the tired healer bandaged you up, you suddenly asked a question.

"have i done something wrong?"

will raised his head from your injury, tilting his head slightly, silently asking you to elaborate.

". . .you are normally so friendly and talkative, but whenever im near you just. . .stop." you started, voice soft as you ran a hand through your hair. "have i done something wrong?"

"y/n. . ."

"i really want to be your friend, will." you cut him off, "you are so amazing and beautiful and kind. . .i just want to be close to you." you rambled, oblivious to the effect your words had on the son of apollo. "so, tell me. have i done something wrong?" you repeated once more, your eyes meeting his.

will looked speechless, hesitantly placing his warm palm on your cheek. "y/n, you've done nothing wrong." he gave you that small, charming smile you could die for. ". . .i'm just. . ." the blue eyed boy sighed, placing his other palm on your free cheek, now completely cupping your face.

"you're just what?"

will took a deep breath,

"im just shy. you are so. . .perfect, y/n. every time i see you, my brain becomes mush and my mouth dries up." he confessed quietly, cheeks red as he looked away.

"you are so beautiful both inside and out i can't help but-" the blonde was cut off by you placing a finger on his lips, biting your bottom lip in an attempt not to laugh.

"william andrew solace, you are a fucking moron."

"oh, please!-"

he was once more silenced as you leaned in and pressed your soft lips on his.

maybe, he would let you win. just this once.

[sunnysolace7]

Just had three consecutive mental breakdowns but now my cheeks are soft from tears so we’re good

[stucksolangelo]

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

[theprinceofdarknesssquad]

Will: I’m not being weird. Am I being weird?

Nico: Yes, and that’s coming from me.