springtimesdaughter

[springtimesdaughter]

Commissioned Artist: @hopefulrunaways

Three demigods: Virginia 'Virgo' Spring-Trapani (left), Theodorus 'Theo' Alexios (center), and Xenia Değirmenci (right)

[springtimesdaughter]

Twice Blessed Not Daughter of the Queen

Instead of explaining it I will instead share an except.

There is very little remembered about how Camp Half-Blood transformed into the safe space for all half-bloods it has become in the modern day. Of course, any demigod of the twenty-first century could explain the Titan war and the promise taken from the gods, or the larger, more connective, and supportive community that bloomed after it, but ask even the most historically minded Athena or Apollo kid and even they don't have concrete answers on the timeline of development with camp.

That history is long and interconnected with half gods that the God King does not wish to be remembered, had ordered to be forgotten, for if the history was known, then it would leave him vulnerable.

No, that history was wiped from existence, memories altered, and vague impressions left behind.

Any well researched demigod will tell you that the location of the American camp would be set up early into the nineteenth century. They will tell you that the first cabins were built in the next following years. They will explain the old blueprints for updated cabins that are logged with the Hephestsus cabin. They will sigh at the missing history. They will grumble at the lack of answers. They will wonder why Chiron himself doesn't seem to give concrete answers.

It's a mystery that every camper at one point or another has slightly wondered about. One that has mystified hundreds. There is no answer.

There never will be an answer.

For to find the answer the search must go further back.

Not to the times of the Spanish or Byzantines, not the Franks or the Goths, but to the last era of western Rome.

The answer to the question starts in the mid fifth century, on the island that will one day become known as Sicilly, on a small peice of farmland where a father and daughter live a peaceful life.

The father's name has long faded to time, and to almost all the immortals is one of no importance. It is, however, the daughter whose name is important, a name that should be remembered.

This is where the story starts.

One calm day interrupted by a band of rogue Roman demigods.

[springtimesdaughter]

Another PJO Timetravel AU - Nico Edition

Figured out a time travel AU for max character study between Percy and Nico. So I'll explain my thoughts below on the character study and then get to the time travel aspect.

So Percy and Nico, as I understand their characters (at least in the PJO series context, not later books), Percy sees a lot of his younger self in Nico or a similar aproximate. Younger Nico was introduced to Camp Half-Blood and the Greek world in a traumatizing way. Nico, in a similar fashion, lost his one family connection, not to perceive death like Percy, but Percy still felt like he failed to keep the two together, so to Percy, it is similar. To Nico, his sister has left him behind. So Percy, in a way, wants to preserve Nico's innocence in the tragedy of demigod life in any way he can. He wants to give this kid something he doesn't have anymore. Then the quest happens, and Percy is now (in his eyes and Nico's at least at this time) the reason the tragedy set in. Percy so despritely wants to help this kid but realizes that he must take on the highest burden and tragedy to do so and doesn't hesitate. Percy spends a whole year looking for him, and even when faced in person with the undeniable truth that Nico isn't the same and there isn't that childhood innocence left, Percy still wants to help, and it's almost a fools errand but Percy wants one kid, just one not to feel the tragedy. He wants to fix an error he believes is his fault.

But the thing is that Nico is also trying to save Percy all the time because when it comes down to it, even when angry and having extremely complicated feelings, Nico tries to help save Percy too. He goes out of his way to find a way to give Percy a better advantage in the war as well as a great number of other help.

Percy is trying to save Nico, and Nico is trying to save Percy. And they kept hurting each other and making mistakes.

I have a lot more thoughts, but I would want to make a separate post on it, so let's move to the timetravel.

-

Nico gets timetraveled back right after BoO. [Rick Nico can't be 14 in HoO because he was 12 in TLO. Rick, he's 13 at the end of HoO. Rick, he's 14 by the second ToA book. Rick, do you hear me. (Check this post for the age issue)] I digress. He's fourteen in this AU.

Nico wakes up in the hotel it's the spring before when TLT would take place, except it seems he has replaced his younger self. He's back in the Lotus casino, and he's aware he's in the Lotus Casino, so he sprints out of there as quick as he can. [Not even thinking about Bianca because for him she's been dead for a while]. He looks at a newspaper or something and realizes that he is in the past and comes to the realization that Bianca is alive. He leaves Bianca in the Lotus Casino because she is alive there, and safe there, and last time they talked, she told him to let her go. He's a bit resentful of that, but mainly, she will stay alive there. He soon after will come to the realization that the prophecy is still in effect at this time and that technically, he's the eldest of the Big three.

[I will operate this story on the idea that Nico knows broad strokes of what happened but doesn't have the full story and was not informed enough about parts of it.]

So Nico is in the past, he's fourteen, and Kronos has just tried to contact him through a demigod dream (he's on the west side of the States, Kronos could sense him or some general immortal BS)

Through a series of events of accidently running into a younger half-blood to a monster attack, he's now entering Camp Half-Blood. He doesn't want to be there, but the other halfblood won't be safe if Nico leaves the younger kid.

Also, Luke is alive. He will become a bigger problem in a bit.

Nico doesn't get claimed quite yet because 1. Hades never properly claimed him originally, and Nico doesn't want to be claimed yet.

Kickstart Nico had to bring Percy to camp, and before Percy leaves his mom said she would be fine. It's will not be fine. In the couple of days Percy is at camp, he gets shown around by Nico, who is trying to keep Luke away, Percy gets shown a newspaper clippings of his mom being reported missing, Nico gets claimed this time, and a quest gets issued.

Somehow, plot convenience brings Nico into Manhatten during spring break (he's doing a supply run or something), and unfortunately, he runs into Percy. Unfortunately, this attracts monsters.

Except now it's worse because Hades thinks Poseidon took the Helm, Poseidon knows Sally was taken as a bargaining chip, and Zeus sees two children that shouldn't exist being alive. It's more tense this time.

Nico is sent on the quest because he's older and more trained, plus the quest is going westward, and Nico might be able to pull some strings because camp still thinks it was his father who is causing the problem. Percy begs Nico to bring his mom back (because he thinks she might be dead).

Percy can't leave because 1. He's been there for only a few days. 2. He's being watched over by Chiron 3. Plot.

The quest gets completed, but Luke, who snuck out of Camp because he needs one of the big 3 children to switch sides, fails at getting Nico to switch sides, kills Sally to try and blame it on Nico or just make Percy distressed enough to side with Luke.

Nico now sees the mirror moments from both perspectives but not being able to track down Percy at all.

Nico, who doesn't tell Percy it but discovers Luke trying to tell Percy what happens overhears Percy saying Nico wouldn't fail and that Luke is wrong. Percy notices Nico and realizes that his mom is gone. [Perseptive Percy is canon, and he would read the guilty look.]. Luke tries to attack both of them, and while Nico is busy, Percy runs off.

[Percy, who in canon contemplated running off and joining the military because he didn't want to live with Gabe]

Modified Labyrinth/Sea of Monsters storyline happening soon after. Because Luke poisoned Thalia's tree on his way out of camp as a distraction to trying to find the fleece through the tunnels because there is no boat yet that they could take, and the tunnels have more uses than the boat would at the moment.

It's still late spring for the record.

Now, because Nico is 14, and the prophecy says 16, not only has the timeline become unpredictable, but it's also been pushed up.

Percy, who finds out about the fleece, is gunning for it under the assumption that it could bring his mom back. [His loyalty flaw going on overdrive]. Nico once again is being recruited for the quest because he might have an advantage in the underground, and he's the one who figures out the secret to navigating it.

Percy is ultimately the one who finds the fleece and is trying to rush back to where his mom's body would be, while Nico is trying to tell him that it won't work.

They all end up in a situation where Kronos has had a little bit of time under the fleece (and thus will come back a bit earlier), and Percy ends up having to hand the fleece over and gets separated from everyone by doing it.

[Because Percy has to suffer some more.]

The fleece gets brought back, and Thalia is deemed alive.

Titan's Curse storyline, because the war is even closer to happening now than ever.

[Bianca who recognized Nico as her brother, but now, as her older brother is less burdened by responsibility and, as such, doesn't give in to any promises on joining the Titan army.]

Hades releases Bianca from the Lotus Hotel for whatever his motivations may be. She has several big monsters after her, and so when Nico and Thalia show up to get her to safety, Bianca ends up being taken as bait for Artemis.

Nico freaking out, and all but demanding that he has to go on this quest because that is his sister. (He would have gone off on his own anyway, but he recognizes that he doesn't know how the quest exactly went last time and that he has changed the timeline enough as is to jot be able to predict anything.

One of the hunters dies in the desert still because this is a war, and not everyone will survive.

Nico is taking the burden of the Sky because 1. He knows Artemis is needed to take down Atlas and 2. It's the best bet of keeping his sister alive who has picked up a weapon to fight with.

It's the winter solstice meeting, and Hades is there this time (unlike in canon). Thalia is asked to take over the Hunters like in canon, and Bianca gets asked if she would like to join.

[Something about Nico getting to keep his close family connection while Percy lost his.]

She does still join them, and Nico is a bit angry about that, but 1. Thalia will be there and 2. He wouldn't be able to stop his sister even if he wanted to. He knows that.

It's also in this moment that he realizes he has become the prophecy child.

[Also, that was Bianca's choice, and it won't be taken from her.]

Because Percy didn't save Bessie, Bessie wasn't part of the storyline in the same way it was originally.

Percy is still out on his own, and no one has been able to find him yet.

Bianca, Thalia, and Nico end up running into a mini quest where they encounter Percy, who has just found Bessie and has been trying to keep Bessie safe but some rogue demigods and a Titan are after it.

Nico is the only one in this timeline who knows Perxy having to act as the bridge between everyone.

The quest is a success, and they end up getting to save Bessie and keep her hidden when Percy, for the first time, reaches out properly to his father.

But Nico knows that they need every major god to make an appearance in this fight in order to win. He doesn't have to worry about his father this time because Nico is the prophecy child, so both Hades and Demeter are in the fight as well.

So it's a couple of months later. A mix of Kronos actually getting to experience the Fleece for a bit and other plot situations means that the war is coming now. It's two years earlier than it would have been, and while that means that there are more people there, it also means that people are younger. Nico, who is now the leader, is left in a weird position of trust with camp that he didn't have before and having halfway predictable unpredictable knowledge on the situation.

But he needs Percy to convince Poseidon. [And oh, is this not another painful parallel because Percy still just wants his mom back]

Anyway, the Battle of Manhatten still takes place, and the day is still won. It goes slightly better with slightly fewer deaths, but it's still a hard fight.

Round of applause. Nico, who luckily for everyone was aware of what promise was exacted from Olympus originally, is able to make them promise a better one, and Underworld children are now seen as the biggest heroes in this fight.

----

Basic Timeline if needed to track for this AU (using year stamps for simplicity)

Late Winter/Early Spring 2006 - Nico gets sent back in time at age 14.

Late Spring - The Lightning Theif Quest.

Summer 2006 - Battle of the Labyrinth/Sea of Monsters Quest. Nico 'turns' 15 somewhere during this time.

Winter 2006 - The Titan's Curse quest.

Spring 2007 - Bessie Sidequest.

Summer 2007 - The Battle of Manhantten.

[springtimesdaughter]

@rain-embrace-nymph

I tried to make you one in return

[springtimesdaughter]

Concept: Percy as a legacy of Roman Apollo.

My evidence!

1. Percy shows a more natural inclination towards Latin when surrounded by it compared to other Greek demigods. In TLT, he insults the furies in Latin.

1.a His ability in Latin is better than other Greek demigods that we know of. And we have seen that Roman demigods struggle with Greek, so we can assume Percy is a bit of an outliar.

2. He's shown to have a qierd amount of prophetic dreams or dreams related to things he needs to know compared to other demigods. I think it's commented on several times.

3. It's very much implied that Percy is retelling his adventures in some sort of form. [It's directly addressed in Chalice of the Gods that he was writing it. In Sea of Monsters, there is mention of the future as if this was written after the fact. So he has an inclination towards an art form. He is, at the very least, a good storyteller.

To add to this, Sally is a book writer and a good storyteller as well.

--

IDK, I just think it fits. Tell me your thoughts.

-V

It's true for me.

[springtimesdaughter]

For @springtimesdaughter every moment with you is like a small, beautiful eternity.

[springtimesdaughter]

100 posts!

[springtimesdaughter]

Nico Di Angelo's and consequently Hazel Levesque's Age

It's more complicated than you think.

I'm using the 'actual' timeline for the sake or using the years to track age better. Rick has said his birthday is either January 28th or May 16th. The one that makes the most sense is January for this tineline and the more fandom popular, so it is the one I will stick to.

We also have to address the fact that Nico spent time in the Lotus Casino and that there is no guarantee that he and Bianca left at the same time of the year they went in which means that theoretically his birthday would not be acurate. But let's assume that he did for this story.

Now let's address his age.

Grover says that Bianca and Nico are 12 and 10, and this is accepted as canon information. Let's assume this is correct and not a best guess.

That would mean

Titan's Curse is December of 2007, so Nico would be 10 until a month after this book finishes.

Battle of the Labyrinth takes place in the summer of 2008, which makes Nico 11.

Sword of Hades takes place in December of 2008, which means Nico is still 11.

The Last Olympian is in the summer of 2009, which means Nico is 12.

The Lost Hero is in December of 2009, which means that Nico is still 12, and because he brought Hazel out in September (page 99 of SoN ebook) and is actually younger than Hazel who is 13. [Let's ignore this I'll address this later]

The rest of the Hero's of Olympus series Nico is 13 because it takes place in the late spring to late summer of 2010.

The Trails of Apollo is said to start in mid-January, which means at the very latest the book would end with Nico being 14 at the beginning of 2011.

The rest of the Trails of Apollo series Nico would be 14.

The Sun and a Star takes place a couple weeks after ToA as Nico mentions the prophecy being a couple of weeks before. It's the end of the summer session, so it is still 2011 and Nico is 14.

Please don't get me started on Un Natale Mezzosangue [Percy, not liking shadow travel when in Last Olympian he does.] The mentions of Covid either mean this is December of 2020 or some other earlier December. Nico at the youngest is still 14.

The problem? Rick said Nico was 14 during HoO, which would make him 15. Do either leave the Lotus Hotel, causing Nico to age a bit faster for a while, Grover was wrong about Nico's age. This would also make Nico back to being older than Hazel.

-

Hazel turned thirteen on December 13th, 1941. It was also the last day that she lived in New Orleans.

She died in mid summer in 1942, so she spent about six months in Alaska.

She was brought to camp Jupiter in September of 2009 and is 13 1/2.

She meets Percy in mid-June 2010, which is 9 months afterward, which puts Hazel at 14 1/3.

Frank, whose birthday is June 5th, would have just turned 16.

[The age gap doesn't seem as bad anymore. with this knowledge. It's better than 16 and 13, though.]

The problem is that all sources regarding Hazel as being 13 during SoN.

-

So we have several problems here, and I am going to go the path of least resistance and change both the ages to reflect this. You don't have to like it, bit it works.

We assume Hazel is 14 1/3 in Son of Neptune and that Nico is 15 (making him even older than Rick stated he was so let's retrofit this timeline so that they can stay older sibling younger sibling.

December 2007: Nico is 12

Summer 2008: Nico is 13

December 2008: Nico is 13

August 2009: Nico is 14

September 2009: Nico is 14 ; Hazel is 13 1/2

December 2009 Nico is 14 ; Hazel is 13

March 2010 Nico is 15 ; Hazel turns 14

June 2010 Nico is 15; Hazel is 14

At the end of January 2011, Nico is 16 ; Hazel is 14

At the end of the summer of 2011, Nico is 16 ; Hazel is 15

The problem now? Bianca is said to be 12. This is an easy fix. Grover got the ages wrong. Bianca is 13. Fixed. She's still the older sibling.

Again, though, this relies on the idea the idea that when Bianca and Nico get removed from the Lotus Eaters that it is close in time to when they went in and that it is a small disparity.

Also, let's not get started on when the di Angelo's were put into the casino and the contradictory information Rick has written on that, and when they were born.

[springtimesdaughter]

My random thoughts about Percethan for this half of the day.

— "Boys have the right to kiss".

— "Percy would definitely reveal one of his creepy abilities to Ethan... Damn it".

— "Nemesis was confident in her son's loyalty, Poseidon knew from his own experience what love does to the ocean".

— "Annabeth would definitely like to have a private conversation with Aphrodite if she ever found out about it...".

— Husky x Silken Windhound dynamics.

— "The best love tragedy of my life".

— "Matching middle names. I just want to give them matching middle names".

This is a war, and we stand on opossing sides. This is a war, and we hold hands. This is a war, and we meet up every week. This is a war, and I want to kiss you. This is a war and and it feels so right even though it's a betrayal. This is a war, and I wish there wasn't one, and we were just two stupid kids sneaking out at night for the fun of it. This is war, but my loyalty feels like it belongs to you.

Ethan helped him discover a creepy ability in canon. If it wasn't for Ethan trying to steal the sword of Hades, Percy wouldn't have first tried to control an Underworld river.

The difference between loyalty from morals and loyalty from individuals

She would have a lot of words.

IDK what this one means apologies

But what is greif if love persisting. But what is love if not remaining. But what is tragedy if not life altering.

Ehhh. . .middle names. Haven't really thought of it. You do you. =)

[springtimesdaughter]

Hi! I love your 10 years after AU 😭 Could you also write one for Reyna, Thalia, Nico, Clarisse, and Luke (you did Jason's beautifully 😭) ? [but ofc no pressure >.<]

I can do Thalia!

Thalia Grace was to be forever hours away from sixteen. It is what she wanted, what she needed to do, and she had not changed her stance. She has found home and belonging with the Hunters. She has become an amazing leader that Zoe would be proud of.

But there are moments over the last ten years that she realizes that unless she dies in the next sixty years, she will outlive every person she has ever known. She knew this already, but there were moments when she has to sit down and think about what that means.

It's not often. She's not melancholic or yearning for something not there, but more of preemptively mourning.

The Hunters ran into Annabeth eight years after Jason died. Almost four years since Thalia last saw her, and Thalia is not standing in front of someone with a slowly aging face.

There's nothing wrong with it, but there is none of the youthfulness left. Her hair is styled completely different, and she is an adult. Thalia realizes that the seven year old that she and Luke took in on their adventures was gone and had been for a long time.

Annabeth doesn't go in for a hug and remains distant enough from her, and Thalia realizes that a day hasn't changed her appearance at all. Her hair is most likely out of style, her brother never got to be that age, and Thalia wouldn't change it.

Being a Hunter is what she needed and wanted. It was what she knew to be right.

But in the moments where she's not being a leader and wonders around the perimeter of their overnight camp, she can't help but realize she will miss more funerals, she has completely left her old life behind, and that she wouldn't change a thing.

Thalia was forever almost sixteen now until she died, and she felt every bit as young as she was and far too old when she had moments alone to think.

[springtimesdaughter]

Percethan Selkie AU

Ethan is the Selkie. That's the only way I will accept it.

[springtimesdaughter]

Thank you! This means a lot to me. And yeah, they all need to heal a bit, and sometimes that healing means keeping distance.

10 years later, AU

Bittersweet

That's what it is.

To realize that despite fate throwing all of them together that they never stuck together. That they were never meant to stick together. That after everything, it would all fall away. The last time they had been together was those few days after the Earth went back to sleep. That one of them would be dead in just under a any that they would never again reunite.

Piper McLean was the first of them to leave the life of a demigod behind. She moved back home, the home that her heart needed and found a life that she wanted. She found the person she needed, and for the first time, she was free from all the expectations of the people around her. There were no Greek gods or flashing photography lights in her face.

She would spend a couple of years redefining herself outside of the life that Hera tried to make for her. She would rip out the foundations and find what she really wanted to stand upon. It would be full of grief for what she was forced to have, what she bolenterily lost, and what can never be again. It would be full of grief and separation and the internally bloody mess that comes with discovering who you are.

Piper would travel the world. Not as a celebrity kid or as a child forced to save the world with other children, but someone wholly belongs to herself and what she chooses to be part of her. She would see the beauty in environments she only seen on television or imagined in school books. She would meet new people and make small connections, but whose impact lasted a lifetime.

She sends letters and post cards at least once a year, and sometimes, she will pass through where one of the others is. She will stay for a bit but never long. Her home is still with her family, and she spends time there, learning her history and the burdens of that history, but she still soars for herself.

So ten years later, with a bag just about that old. There is a stack of postcards she keeps in her room and stickers she has collected for herself. She has found peace away from a world she joined too late and too chained to.

Leo Valdez does not make it a second summer in dating the lovely Lady Calypso. They were already falling apart the summer following the downfall of Nero. She had gone off to a mortal summer camp and fell in love with music and art. He had remained hurt and mourning for someone he never got to see again.

Jason Grace would, in Leo's memories, be the guy on the battlefield admist a war he didn't sign up for. Jason Grace, in Leo's memory, would never see a day of peace like others might have of him.

Leo would remain in the Waystation until he turned eighteen. He would help build and repair. He would assist those who need it, and he would find I life outside of being the seventh wheel or the guy looking for a girl.

He would leave. Not because he was told to, but because he wanted to.

He would go on to set up more demigod safe places and create a foundation of a network that would help demigods get from place to place as safely as they could. He would help establish mechanical defenses and make sure that other demigods didn't end up like him.

Eventually, he would settle down into his own mechanical workshops up north away from where he figured Calypso might be and away from one of the places that holds memory.

He will go on to pointing demigods in the right direction and taking in one or two who didn't want to go to one of the established camps.

He is never a part of another prophecy and never sees another god again, but in the next ten years he has found a sort of peace in his life he didn't know he needed until he was welding together metal at two am in the middle of December almost seven years after Jason died.

Hazel Levesque has a bucket list. I liet of many things she knew she couldn't have done back in her first life, and she wants to complete all of them in this life.

She goes to school and gets a degree in something that didn't exist in her first life. She travels back to New Orleans one spring break because she knows no one will recognize her. She couldn't have done that in her first life. She attends plays and performances front and center because she can, and she goes to restaurants knowing she can.

She writes a book and publishes it under her own name just because she can. She speaks up just because she can, and she defines herself outside of the men she is connected to.

No one sees her as Hazel, daughter of Pluto, or Hazel, girlfriend of Frank. She is Hazel, the art lover and experience maker. She is Hazel.

She stays together with Frank for a couple more years, but she reaches an age where she looks back and wonders what the two of them were doing. Wonders what they are doing now.

They love each other and care about each other. But they do not stay together. They see eachother every other week for a brunch at a new place Hazel hasn't tried yet, and spend important holidays together, but they aren't Frank and Hazel, the newest couple that is all the talk, but Frank and Hazel, two friends with shared experiences that binds them together in a deep friendship.

She visits the others occasionally. Buying first-class tickets on trains and staying in fancy hotels simply because in her first life she could never have been. She never goes back to Alaska, but she never has too so that's perfectly okay.

Frank Zhang would stay in New Rome. He is the only one who remained in the demigod world, but by the time ten years have passed, he is packing up and getting ready to move.

He's not leaving to run away from the past or escape what can't be changed. He isn't leaving to find himself or because there's a whole world he wants to see.

He's leaving because New Rome has done all that it can for him, and he had given it all that he can, and it is time to move on to the next thing.

He goes back to his family's old place a couple of times. If only to breathe in the air and to make sure he leaves some respect to his mother who died all those many years ago.

He is respected among the Romans and brings bows and arrows into fashion, teaching several classes on them.

He falls out of contact with a lot of good people but remains in contact with others for as long as he can. He ensures that Jason Grace's dream is fulfilled and all the places of respect are built.

He guides new Preator's and offers good advice to anyone who asks, and he isn't too terribly hurt when he and Hazel stop dating because they make good friends.

When Hazel finally leaves, part of him does as well, but they still talk every week and regularly send mail to one another.

By the time ten years have almost gone and past, he put in a job application outside of New Rome and gets accepted. Maybe he will find some demigods along the way and write them letters, giving them a chance he didn't have. Maybe he won't see another demigod again. But either way he stands in his packed apartment and smiles for what his future will bring.

Annabeth Chase does a lot within ten years. She gets a degree and works at the most prestigious places she could have dreamed of. Her name will be remembered for centuries. Not just as the one who redesigned and rebuilt Olympus, but for the designs she brings to New Rome and the rebuilding and restructure of Camp Half-Blood.

Her name can not be forgotten, and she will leave behind something permanent.

However, she leaves behind her heart. She never meant to let it go, but to continue reaching forward, she forgot to look back. She forgets to keep up with friends, and suddenly, one day, she realizes she hasn't spoken to any of those she knew from camp, only to learn she missed a funeral months ago.

She sticks with Percy until five years in when the trauma of her life and their shared experiences catch up to them. She tries to get help, but there are some things that she can't repair, so she cuts them out and moves on.

Annabeth stays in New Rome for two more years before she leaves to build everywhere else. Never staying in one spot too long, her name is stamped in every big city she can reach her hands to grab. Her list of achievements is growing.

Her name is never attributed to being Percy Jackson's girlfriend, or one of seven. Her name stands on its own tall and proud and lonely.

She tries to connect with the others, but she forgets to send a letter back and missed a call until she has but distant fond memories and the occasional coffee when one or another crosses paths with her.

Her life is good ten years down the line, and she has mostly disconnected herself from the world of mythology, but she's been known to be mentioned once in a while by a demigod she helped take down a monster with.

Percy Jackson does his best to live separately from the world of the gods in the next ten years.

It wasn't his original goal, but halfway through college, he realized that he and Annabeth wanted completely different things, but he sticks it out for a couple more years because he didn't want to leave Annabeth behind and it felt like betraying her to break up with her.

So, five years after the second war, they break up, and Percy isn't shocked. He takes a breath and picks his things up and leaves. He cares so much for Annabeth, but they are making each other miserable.

He moves back to New York for a couple months, sees his sister off to her first day of school, and gets dragged into a prophecy because he ran into the demigods doing the prophecy and they needed help. He realizes he can't stay in New York, so je picks his stuff up and leaves.

He runs into Piper while in Miami and he joins her for an ocean trip to the Cribbean. He enjoys himself, playing mortal when he isn't. He feels free, but he doesn't stay and Piper doesn't invite him to continue the trip.

He thanks her, and he ends up going back to Alaska. He didn't think he would ever end up back there, and he hasn't talked to his father for seven years, but he's away from the gods, and he's just a transplant who cares about the environment.

He doesn't think he will stay in Alaska forever, but people don't ask questions. He doesn't have to worry about the gods, and for more than a couple of weeks, he is able to breathe.

Jason Grace dies a child and will remain a child. Even ten years later, he is still a child even though everyone he knows has left and found something to do with their lives.

He died young, unlike the Roman demigods. He dies young like Greek demigods. He doesn't get a happy ending just one that assured his goal will be done.

In the ten years after his death, all the temples are built, upkept, and given the respect that they need. His name is spoken in heroic tragedy.

He is not forgotten.

But they speculate about what could have been. About what he could be doing now. About what he could have accomplished. About what he would have done.

They have his name in history books, and children will ask the elders if they ever knew him. Got to talk to him.

For a dead hero, it is more fun to talk about than the ones who left and didn't stay.

His sacrifice is celebrated and mourned, and his death starts to stop being about him. Because those who die young stop having their death be about them, and what it means to others.

[springtimesdaughter]

10 years later, AU

Bittersweet

That's what it is.

To realize that despite fate throwing all of them together that they never stuck together. That they were never meant to stick together. That after everything, it would all fall away. The last time they had been together was those few days after the Earth went back to sleep. That one of them would be dead in just under a any that they would never again reunite.

Piper McLean was the first of them to leave the life of a demigod behind. She moved back home, the home that her heart needed and found a life that she wanted. She found the person she needed, and for the first time, she was free from all the expectations of the people around her. There were no Greek gods or flashing photography lights in her face.

She would spend a couple of years redefining herself outside of the life that Hera tried to make for her. She would rip out the foundations and find what she really wanted to stand upon. It would be full of grief for what she was forced to have, what she bolenterily lost, and what can never be again. It would be full of grief and separation and the internally bloody mess that comes with discovering who you are.

Piper would travel the world. Not as a celebrity kid or as a child forced to save the world with other children, but someone wholly belongs to herself and what she chooses to be part of her. She would see the beauty in environments she only seen on television or imagined in school books. She would meet new people and make small connections, but whose impact lasted a lifetime.

She sends letters and post cards at least once a year, and sometimes, she will pass through where one of the others is. She will stay for a bit but never long. Her home is still with her family, and she spends time there, learning her history and the burdens of that history, but she still soars for herself.

So ten years later, with a bag just about that old. There is a stack of postcards she keeps in her room and stickers she has collected for herself. She has found peace away from a world she joined too late and too chained to.

Leo Valdez does not make it a second summer in dating the lovely Lady Calypso. They were already falling apart the summer following the downfall of Nero. She had gone off to a mortal summer camp and fell in love with music and art. He had remained hurt and mourning for someone he never got to see again.

Jason Grace would, in Leo's memories, be the guy on the battlefield admist a war he didn't sign up for. Jason Grace, in Leo's memory, would never see a day of peace like others might have of him.

Leo would remain in the Waystation until he turned eighteen. He would help build and repair. He would assist those who need it, and he would find I life outside of being the seventh wheel or the guy looking for a girl.

He would leave. Not because he was told to, but because he wanted to.

He would go on to set up more demigod safe places and create a foundation of a network that would help demigods get from place to place as safely as they could. He would help establish mechanical defenses and make sure that other demigods didn't end up like him.

Eventually, he would settle down into his own mechanical workshops up north away from where he figured Calypso might be and away from one of the places that holds memory.

He will go on to pointing demigods in the right direction and taking in one or two who didn't want to go to one of the established camps.

He is never a part of another prophecy and never sees another god again, but in the next ten years he has found a sort of peace in his life he didn't know he needed until he was welding together metal at two am in the middle of December almost seven years after Jason died.

Hazel Levesque has a bucket list. I liet of many things she knew she couldn't have done back in her first life, and she wants to complete all of them in this life.

She goes to school and gets a degree in something that didn't exist in her first life. She travels back to New Orleans one spring break because she knows no one will recognize her. She couldn't have done that in her first life. She attends plays and performances front and center because she can, and she goes to restaurants knowing she can.

She writes a book and publishes it under her own name just because she can. She speaks up just because she can, and she defines herself outside of the men she is connected to.

No one sees her as Hazel, daughter of Pluto, or Hazel, girlfriend of Frank. She is Hazel, the art lover and experience maker. She is Hazel.

She stays together with Frank for a couple more years, but she reaches an age where she looks back and wonders what the two of them were doing. Wonders what they are doing now.

They love each other and care about each other. But they do not stay together. They see eachother every other week for a brunch at a new place Hazel hasn't tried yet, and spend important holidays together, but they aren't Frank and Hazel, the newest couple that is all the talk, but Frank and Hazel, two friends with shared experiences that binds them together in a deep friendship.

She visits the others occasionally. Buying first-class tickets on trains and staying in fancy hotels simply because in her first life she could never have been. She never goes back to Alaska, but she never has too so that's perfectly okay.

Frank Zhang would stay in New Rome. He is the only one who remained in the demigod world, but by the time ten years have passed, he is packing up and getting ready to move.

He's not leaving to run away from the past or escape what can't be changed. He isn't leaving to find himself or because there's a whole world he wants to see.

He's leaving because New Rome has done all that it can for him, and he had given it all that he can, and it is time to move on to the next thing.

He goes back to his family's old place a couple of times. If only to breathe in the air and to make sure he leaves some respect to his mother who died all those many years ago.

He is respected among the Romans and brings bows and arrows into fashion, teaching several classes on them.

He falls out of contact with a lot of good people but remains in contact with others for as long as he can. He ensures that Jason Grace's dream is fulfilled and all the places of respect are built.

He guides new Preator's and offers good advice to anyone who asks, and he isn't too terribly hurt when he and Hazel stop dating because they make good friends.

When Hazel finally leaves, part of him does as well, but they still talk every week and regularly send mail to one another.

By the time ten years have almost gone and past, he put in a job application outside of New Rome and gets accepted. Maybe he will find some demigods along the way and write them letters, giving them a chance he didn't have. Maybe he won't see another demigod again. But either way he stands in his packed apartment and smiles for what his future will bring.

Annabeth Chase does a lot within ten years. She gets a degree and works at the most prestigious places she could have dreamed of. Her name will be remembered for centuries. Not just as the one who redesigned and rebuilt Olympus, but for the designs she brings to New Rome and the rebuilding and restructure of Camp Half-Blood.

Her name can not be forgotten, and she will leave behind something permanent.

However, she leaves behind her heart. She never meant to let it go, but to continue reaching forward, she forgot to look back. She forgets to keep up with friends, and suddenly, one day, she realizes she hasn't spoken to any of those she knew from camp, only to learn she missed a funeral months ago.

She sticks with Percy until five years in when the trauma of her life and their shared experiences catch up to them. She tries to get help, but there are some things that she can't repair, so she cuts them out and moves on.

Annabeth stays in New Rome for two more years before she leaves to build everywhere else. Never staying in one spot too long, her name is stamped in every big city she can reach her hands to grab. Her list of achievements is growing.

Her name is never attributed to being Percy Jackson's girlfriend, or one of seven. Her name stands on its own tall and proud and lonely.

She tries to connect with the others, but she forgets to send a letter back and missed a call until she has but distant fond memories and the occasional coffee when one or another crosses paths with her.

Her life is good ten years down the line, and she has mostly disconnected herself from the world of mythology, but she's been known to be mentioned once in a while by a demigod she helped take down a monster with.

Percy Jackson does his best to live separately from the world of the gods in the next ten years.

It wasn't his original goal, but halfway through college, he realized that he and Annabeth wanted completely different things, but he sticks it out for a couple more years because he didn't want to leave Annabeth behind and it felt like betraying her to break up with her.

So, five years after the second war, they break up, and Percy isn't shocked. He takes a breath and picks his things up and leaves. He cares so much for Annabeth, but they are making each other miserable.

He moves back to New York for a couple months, sees his sister off to her first day of school, and gets dragged into a prophecy because he ran into the demigods doing the prophecy and they needed help. He realizes he can't stay in New York, so je picks his stuff up and leaves.

He runs into Piper while in Miami and he joins her for an ocean trip to the Cribbean. He enjoys himself, playing mortal when he isn't. He feels free, but he doesn't stay and Piper doesn't invite him to continue the trip.

He thanks her, and he ends up going back to Alaska. He didn't think he would ever end up back there, and he hasn't talked to his father for seven years, but he's away from the gods, and he's just a transplant who cares about the environment.

He doesn't think he will stay in Alaska forever, but people don't ask questions. He doesn't have to worry about the gods, and for more than a couple of weeks, he is able to breathe.

Jason Grace dies a child and will remain a child. Even ten years later, he is still a child even though everyone he knows has left and found something to do with their lives.

He died young, unlike the Roman demigods. He dies young like Greek demigods. He doesn't get a happy ending just one that assured his goal will be done.

In the ten years after his death, all the temples are built, upkept, and given the respect that they need. His name is spoken in heroic tragedy.

He is not forgotten.

But they speculate about what could have been. About what he could be doing now. About what he could have accomplished. About what he would have done.

They have his name in history books, and children will ask the elders if they ever knew him. Got to talk to him.

For a dead hero, it is more fun to talk about than the ones who left and didn't stay.

His sacrifice is celebrated and mourned, and his death starts to stop being about him. Because those who die young stop having their death be about them, and what it means to others.

[springtimesdaughter]

Aww, thank you! That means a lot to me. I wanted to explore them being happy in a very bittersweet way. I'm glad that I accomplished that. The heart yearns for what it can't have, and the mind knows that it is for the best.

10 years later, AU

Bittersweet

That's what it is.

To realize that despite fate throwing all of them together that they never stuck together. That they were never meant to stick together. That after everything, it would all fall away. The last time they had been together was those few days after the Earth went back to sleep. That one of them would be dead in just under a any that they would never again reunite.

Piper McLean was the first of them to leave the life of a demigod behind. She moved back home, the home that her heart needed and found a life that she wanted. She found the person she needed, and for the first time, she was free from all the expectations of the people around her. There were no Greek gods or flashing photography lights in her face.

She would spend a couple of years redefining herself outside of the life that Hera tried to make for her. She would rip out the foundations and find what she really wanted to stand upon. It would be full of grief for what she was forced to have, what she bolenterily lost, and what can never be again. It would be full of grief and separation and the internally bloody mess that comes with discovering who you are.

Piper would travel the world. Not as a celebrity kid or as a child forced to save the world with other children, but someone wholly belongs to herself and what she chooses to be part of her. She would see the beauty in environments she only seen on television or imagined in school books. She would meet new people and make small connections, but whose impact lasted a lifetime.

She sends letters and post cards at least once a year, and sometimes, she will pass through where one of the others is. She will stay for a bit but never long. Her home is still with her family, and she spends time there, learning her history and the burdens of that history, but she still soars for herself.

So ten years later, with a bag just about that old. There is a stack of postcards she keeps in her room and stickers she has collected for herself. She has found peace away from a world she joined too late and too chained to.

Leo Valdez does not make it a second summer in dating the lovely Lady Calypso. They were already falling apart the summer following the downfall of Nero. She had gone off to a mortal summer camp and fell in love with music and art. He had remained hurt and mourning for someone he never got to see again.

Jason Grace would, in Leo's memories, be the guy on the battlefield admist a war he didn't sign up for. Jason Grace, in Leo's memory, would never see a day of peace like others might have of him.

Leo would remain in the Waystation until he turned eighteen. He would help build and repair. He would assist those who need it, and he would find I life outside of being the seventh wheel or the guy looking for a girl.

He would leave. Not because he was told to, but because he wanted to.

He would go on to set up more demigod safe places and create a foundation of a network that would help demigods get from place to place as safely as they could. He would help establish mechanical defenses and make sure that other demigods didn't end up like him.

Eventually, he would settle down into his own mechanical workshops up north away from where he figured Calypso might be and away from one of the places that holds memory.

He will go on to pointing demigods in the right direction and taking in one or two who didn't want to go to one of the established camps.

He is never a part of another prophecy and never sees another god again, but in the next ten years he has found a sort of peace in his life he didn't know he needed until he was welding together metal at two am in the middle of December almost seven years after Jason died.

Hazel Levesque has a bucket list. I liet of many things she knew she couldn't have done back in her first life, and she wants to complete all of them in this life.

She goes to school and gets a degree in something that didn't exist in her first life. She travels back to New Orleans one spring break because she knows no one will recognize her. She couldn't have done that in her first life. She attends plays and performances front and center because she can, and she goes to restaurants knowing she can.

She writes a book and publishes it under her own name just because she can. She speaks up just because she can, and she defines herself outside of the men she is connected to.

No one sees her as Hazel, daughter of Pluto, or Hazel, girlfriend of Frank. She is Hazel, the art lover and experience maker. She is Hazel.

She stays together with Frank for a couple more years, but she reaches an age where she looks back and wonders what the two of them were doing. Wonders what they are doing now.

They love each other and care about each other. But they do not stay together. They see eachother every other week for a brunch at a new place Hazel hasn't tried yet, and spend important holidays together, but they aren't Frank and Hazel, the newest couple that is all the talk, but Frank and Hazel, two friends with shared experiences that binds them together in a deep friendship.

She visits the others occasionally. Buying first-class tickets on trains and staying in fancy hotels simply because in her first life she could never have been. She never goes back to Alaska, but she never has too so that's perfectly okay.

Frank Zhang would stay in New Rome. He is the only one who remained in the demigod world, but by the time ten years have passed, he is packing up and getting ready to move.

He's not leaving to run away from the past or escape what can't be changed. He isn't leaving to find himself or because there's a whole world he wants to see.

He's leaving because New Rome has done all that it can for him, and he had given it all that he can, and it is time to move on to the next thing.

He goes back to his family's old place a couple of times. If only to breathe in the air and to make sure he leaves some respect to his mother who died all those many years ago.

He is respected among the Romans and brings bows and arrows into fashion, teaching several classes on them.

He falls out of contact with a lot of good people but remains in contact with others for as long as he can. He ensures that Jason Grace's dream is fulfilled and all the places of respect are built.

He guides new Preator's and offers good advice to anyone who asks, and he isn't too terribly hurt when he and Hazel stop dating because they make good friends.

When Hazel finally leaves, part of him does as well, but they still talk every week and regularly send mail to one another.

By the time ten years have almost gone and past, he put in a job application outside of New Rome and gets accepted. Maybe he will find some demigods along the way and write them letters, giving them a chance he didn't have. Maybe he won't see another demigod again. But either way he stands in his packed apartment and smiles for what his future will bring.

Annabeth Chase does a lot within ten years. She gets a degree and works at the most prestigious places she could have dreamed of. Her name will be remembered for centuries. Not just as the one who redesigned and rebuilt Olympus, but for the designs she brings to New Rome and the rebuilding and restructure of Camp Half-Blood.

Her name can not be forgotten, and she will leave behind something permanent.

However, she leaves behind her heart. She never meant to let it go, but to continue reaching forward, she forgot to look back. She forgets to keep up with friends, and suddenly, one day, she realizes she hasn't spoken to any of those she knew from camp, only to learn she missed a funeral months ago.

She sticks with Percy until five years in when the trauma of her life and their shared experiences catch up to them. She tries to get help, but there are some things that she can't repair, so she cuts them out and moves on.

Annabeth stays in New Rome for two more years before she leaves to build everywhere else. Never staying in one spot too long, her name is stamped in every big city she can reach her hands to grab. Her list of achievements is growing.

Her name is never attributed to being Percy Jackson's girlfriend, or one of seven. Her name stands on its own tall and proud and lonely.

She tries to connect with the others, but she forgets to send a letter back and missed a call until she has but distant fond memories and the occasional coffee when one or another crosses paths with her.

Her life is good ten years down the line, and she has mostly disconnected herself from the world of mythology, but she's been known to be mentioned once in a while by a demigod she helped take down a monster with.

Percy Jackson does his best to live separately from the world of the gods in the next ten years.

It wasn't his original goal, but halfway through college, he realized that he and Annabeth wanted completely different things, but he sticks it out for a couple more years because he didn't want to leave Annabeth behind and it felt like betraying her to break up with her.

So, five years after the second war, they break up, and Percy isn't shocked. He takes a breath and picks his things up and leaves. He cares so much for Annabeth, but they are making each other miserable.

He moves back to New York for a couple months, sees his sister off to her first day of school, and gets dragged into a prophecy because he ran into the demigods doing the prophecy and they needed help. He realizes he can't stay in New York, so je picks his stuff up and leaves.

He runs into Piper while in Miami and he joins her for an ocean trip to the Cribbean. He enjoys himself, playing mortal when he isn't. He feels free, but he doesn't stay and Piper doesn't invite him to continue the trip.

He thanks her, and he ends up going back to Alaska. He didn't think he would ever end up back there, and he hasn't talked to his father for seven years, but he's away from the gods, and he's just a transplant who cares about the environment.

He doesn't think he will stay in Alaska forever, but people don't ask questions. He doesn't have to worry about the gods, and for more than a couple of weeks, he is able to breathe.

Jason Grace dies a child and will remain a child. Even ten years later, he is still a child even though everyone he knows has left and found something to do with their lives.

He died young, unlike the Roman demigods. He dies young like Greek demigods. He doesn't get a happy ending just one that assured his goal will be done.

In the ten years after his death, all the temples are built, upkept, and given the respect that they need. His name is spoken in heroic tragedy.

He is not forgotten.

But they speculate about what could have been. About what he could be doing now. About what he could have accomplished. About what he would have done.

They have his name in history books, and children will ask the elders if they ever knew him. Got to talk to him.

For a dead hero, it is more fun to talk about than the ones who left and didn't stay.

His sacrifice is celebrated and mourned, and his death starts to stop being about him. Because those who die young stop having their death be about them, and what it means to others.

[springtimesdaughter]

10 years later, AU

Bittersweet

That's what it is.

To realize that despite fate throwing all of them together that they never stuck together. That they were never meant to stick together. That after everything, it would all fall away. The last time they had been together was those few days after the Earth went back to sleep. That one of them would be dead in just under a year; that they would never again reunite.

Piper McLean was the first of them to leave the life of a demigod behind. She moved back home, the home that her heart needed and found a life that she wanted. She found the person she needed, and for the first time, she was free from all the expectations of the people around her. There were no Greek gods or flashing photography lights in her face.

She would spend a couple of years redefining herself outside of the life that Hera tried to make for her. She would rip out the foundations and find what she really wanted to stand upon. It would be full of grief for what she was forced to have, what she voluntarily lost, and what could never be again. It would be full of grief and separation and the internal bloody mess that comes with discovering who you are.

Piper would travel the world. Not as a celebrity kid or as a child forced to save the world with other children, but someone who wholly belongs to herself and what she chooses to be part of her. She would see the beauty in environments she only seen on television or imagined in school books. She would meet new people and make small connections, but whose impact lasted a lifetime.

She sends letters and post cards at least once a year, and sometimes, she will pass through where one of the others is. She will stay for a bit but never long. Her home is still with her family, and she spends time there, learning her history and the burdens of that history, but she still soars for herself.

So ten years later, with a bag just about that old. There is a stack of postcards she keeps in her room and stickers she has collected for herself. She has found peace away from a world she joined too late and too chained to.

Leo Valdez does not make it a second summer in dating the lovely Lady Calypso. They were already falling apart the summer following the downfall of Nero. She had gone off to a mortal summer camp and fell in love with music and art. He had remained hurt and mourning for someone he never got to see again.

Jason Grace would, in Leo's memories, would be the guy on the battlefield admist a war he didn't sign up for. Jason Grace, in Leo's memory, would never see a day of peace like others might have.

Leo would remain in the Waystation until he turned eighteen. He would help build and repair. He would assist those who need it, and he would find a life outside of being the seventh wheel or the guy looking for a girl.

He would leave. Not because he was told to, but because he wanted to.

He would go on to set up more demigod safe places and create a foundation of a network that would help demigods get from place to place as safely as they could. He would help establish mechanical defenses and make sure that other demigods didn't end up like him.

Eventually, he would settle down into his own mechanical workshop up north away from where he figured Calypso might be and away from one of the places that holds memory.

He will go on to pointing demigods in the right direction and taking in one or two who didn't want to go to one of the established camps.

He is never a part of another prophecy and never sees another god again, but in the next ten years he has found a sort of peace in his life he didn't know he needed until he was welding together metal at two am in the middle of December almost seven years after Jason died.

Hazel Levesque has a bucket list. A list of many things she knew she couldn't have done back in her first life, and she wanted to complete all of them in this life.

She goes to school and gets a degree in something that didn't exist in her first life. She travels back to New Orleans one spring break because she knows no one will recognize her. She couldn't have done that in her first life. She attends plays and performances front and center because she can, and she goes to restaurants knowing she can.

She writes a book and publishes it under her own name just because she can. She speaks up just because she can, and she defines herself outside of the men she is connected to.

No one sees her as Hazel, daughter of Pluto, or Hazel, girlfriend of Frank. She is Hazel, the art lover and experience maker. She is Hazel.

She stays together with Frank for a couple more years, but she reaches an age where she looks back and wonders what the two of them were doing. Wonders what they are doing now.

They love each other and care about each other. But they do not stay together. They see eachother every other week for a brunch at a new place Hazel hasn't tried yet, and spend important holidays together, but they aren't Frank and Hazel, the newest couple that is all the talk, but Frank and Hazel, two friends with shared experiences that binds them together in a deep friendship.

She visits the others occasionally. Buying first-class tickets on trains and staying in fancy hotels simply because in her first life she could never have been. She never goes back to Alaska, but she never has too so that's perfectly okay.

Frank Zhang would stay in New Rome. He is the only one who remained in the demigod world, but by the time ten years have passed, he is packing up and getting ready to move.

He's not leaving to run away from the past or escape what can't be changed. He isn't leaving to find himself or because there's a whole world he wants to see.

He's leaving because New Rome has done all that it can for him, and he had given it all that he can, and it is time to move on to the next thing.

He goes back to his family's old place a couple of times. If only to breathe in the air and to make sure he leaves some respect to his mother who died all those many years ago.

He is respected among the Romans and brings bows and arrows into fashion, teaching several classes on them.

He falls out of contact with a lot of good people but remains in contact with others for as long as he can. He ensures that Jason Grace's dream is fulfilled and all the places of respect are built.

He guides new Preators and offers good advice to anyone who asks, and he isn't too terribly hurt when he and Hazel stop dating because they make good friends.

When Hazel finally leaves, part of him does as well, but they still talk every week and regularly send mail to one another.

By the time ten years have almost gone and past, he put in a job application outside of New Rome and gets accepted. Maybe he will find some demigods along the way and write them letters, giving them a chance he didn't have. Maybe he won't see another demigod again. But either way he stands in his packed apartment and smiles for what his future will bring.

Annabeth Chase does a lot within ten years. She gets a degree and works at the most prestigious places she could have dreamed of. Her name will be remembered for centuries. Not just as the one who redesigned and rebuilt Olympus, but for the designs she brings to New Rome and the rebuilding and restructure of Camp Half-Blood.

Her name can not be forgotten, and she will leave behind something permanent.

However, she leaves behind her heart. She never meant to let it go, but to continue reaching forward, she forgot to look back. She forgets to keep up with friends, and suddenly, one day, she realizes she hasn't spoken to any of those she knew from camp, only to learn she missed a funeral months ago.

She sticks with Percy until five years in when the trauma of her life and their shared experiences catch up to them. She tries to get help, but there are some things that she can't repair, so she cuts them out and moves on.

Annabeth stays in New Rome for two more years before she leaves to build everywhere else. Never staying in one spot too long, her name is stamped in every big city she can reach her hands to grab. Her list of achievements is growing.

Her name is never attributed to being Percy Jackson's girlfriend, or one of seven. Her name stands on its own tall and proud and lonely.

She tries to connect with the others, but she forgets to send a letter back and missed a call until she has but distant fond memories and the occasional coffee when one or another crosses paths with her.

Her life is good ten years down the line, and she has mostly disconnected herself from the world of mythology, but she's been known to be mentioned once in a while by a demigod she helped take down a monster with.

Percy Jackson does his best to live separately from the world of the gods in the next ten years.

It wasn't his original goal, but halfway through college, he realized that he and Annabeth wanted completely different things, but he sticks it out for a couple more years because he didn't want to leave Annabeth behind and it felt like betraying her to break up with her.

So, five years after the second war, they break up, and Percy isn't shocked. He takes a breath and picks his things up and leaves. He cares so much for Annabeth, but they are making each other miserable.

He moves back to New York for a couple months, sees his sister off to her first day of school, and gets dragged into a prophecy because he ran into the demigods doing the prophecy and they needed help. He realizes he can't stay in New York, so he picks his stuff up and leaves.

He runs into Piper while in Miami, and he joins her for an ocean trip to the Caribbean. He enjoys himself, playing mortal when he isn't. He feels free, but he doesn't stay, and Piper doesn't invite him to continue the trip.

He thanks her, and he ends up going back to Alaska. He didn't think he would ever end up back there, and he hasn't talked to his father for seven years, but he's away from the gods, and he's just a transplant who cares about the environment.

He doesn't think he will stay in Alaska forever, but people don't ask questions. He doesn't have to worry about the gods, and for more than a couple of weeks, he is able to breathe.

Jason Grace dies a child and will remain a child. Even ten years later, he is still a child even though everyone he knows has left and found something to do with their lives.

He died young, unlike the Roman demigods. He dies young like Greek demigods. He doesn't get a happy ending just one that assured his goal will be done.

In the ten years after his death, all the temples are built, upkept, and given the respect that they need. His name is spoken in heroic tragedy.

He is not forgotten.

But they speculate about what could have been. About what he could be doing now. About what he could have accomplished. About what he would have done.

They have his name in history books, and children will ask the elders if they ever knew him. Got to talk to him.

For a dead hero is more fun to talk about than the ones who left and didn't stay.

His sacrifice is celebrated and mourned, and his death starts to stop being about him. Because those who die young stop having their death be about them, and what it means to others.

[springtimesdaughter]

Thank you to everyone who got me to 500 likes!

[springtimesdaughter]

Me: I want o mark up and highlight my books

Also me: you freak out when a page gets bent

Also also me: I could use it as a way to track my thoughts and ideas

Also also also me: would get bored in three paragraphs because you couldn't stay focused for more than an hour, and then you would feel horrible for starting something but not finishing it.

Me: wow you didn't have to bring that into this

Also also also also me: you want to get your brother to read them and he can't read them if they are marked up

Me: Good reason I won't.