#//Kinda like Lester/Apollo in TOA

[dutybcrne]

v; faded memories; new beginnings (human!guizhong)

At her death in the Archon War, Guizhong used the last of her strength to allow her part of her soul to cleave from its whole and be granted the chance for reincarnation. As much as she'd tried to make it seem as though she had made peace with her demise, in truth, she was not yet ready to leave her precious people and friends behind. This was the best, most desperate way she could ensure herself a little more time with them even if she had been unsure if it would work.

Even if it did mean forfeiting her memories. But hey, if that's what it took to have this second chance, by all means. Perhaps she may be lucky enough to meet and love them all again one day.

Her life began in the outskirts of Qingce village.

At least, that's what she could remember most clearly, her first true vivid memory as a young child wandering the area.

Named Guiying, the elderly couple who ultimately found her raised her among the other children in the village. She possessed an exceptional talent in mechanics and invention, notable even early on in her life. Thus, it became what she took up doing when she was old enough to seek work and help the others in the village with whatever fixes they needed. She spent a lot of her time at home in the workshop built for her, tinkering away and making new creations to sell or gift her fellow villagers.

Other than that, she would also make trips to the Wangshu Inn to properly sell her creations and services there ( and sometimes along the way if she happened to be lucky enough ), though never straying further than that place. When asked why, she would simply smile and say she didn't want to go too far from home.

In truth, while she genuinely did feel uneasy at the thought of parting from her family, it was mostly because the few times she dared venture into the Guili Plains, she would be plagued by visions ( or were they memories? ) and horrid headaches brought on by the ensuing surge of them. Though, admittedly, the same would sometimes happen at the Wangshu Inn, particularly at night when she would stay longer to complete repairs or finish up selling her creations and network with the merchants that showed up there. She has no idea why this happens, but for the longest time could not bear to brave it all and seek to head out for Liyue Harbor, even when she could no doubt find better opportunities there. Even when she herself felt such longing to go there, after catching glimpses of the city through paintings brought by merchants.

Eventually, after confiding the truth to them, her family would encourage her to try, anyways. That perhaps this is a sort of test she must face, perhaps due to her past life, and in enduring it, would find all the more success after surpassing it all. The thought had her growing determined to do just that, determined to brave those visions and reach the place her heart so yearned for.

Still, as Guiying had thought, the journey to Liyue Harbor was arduous, and she was indeed plagued by vision after vision along the way through the Guili plains. Of people, perhaps friends, and longing, of battles and chaos, it varied greatly whenever they struck. The merchant she tagged along with to make things easier even wound up abandoning her along the way, right near what was once the Guili Assembly. He had thought her cursed by the gods, and after she'd had a particularly harrowing glimpse at what appeared to be her own demise, even Guiying found that notion hard to deny. But even with no travel companion and protection, Guiying would continue forwards, determination to see her journey through in spite of pain what every day would bring her, in body and mind alike.

In encountering hilichurls and Treasure Hoarders along the way, in sometimes being lead astray by the visions filling her head ( why did they keep leading her back to the ruins of the Guili Assembly? ), but she strove her best to keep moving. She wasn't too much of a fighter, save what experience she'd gotten in previous journeys, but with her strategies and swiftness, she would manage. She would manage, in stealing potions and a crossbow from Treasure Hoarders, and arrows off her defeated enemies for her own benefit. Sometimes things went off without a hitch, sometimes she wound up taking a bit of a beating before having to retreat, and sometimes what visions she saw would even begin ease to things she could merely stop and let go on before continuing, rather than chase after or run from. But in any case, she would continue to survive and press onward, growing more and more eager to reach her destination.

Eventually though, even determination and her clever plans would not be enough to see her through alone. Her body would end up giving out just before reaching a village along the way, passing out as a result of many a sleepless night and everything she'd been dealt along the way. Luckily for her, the Millelith who'd seen her there were kind enough to bring her there and let the people care for her, even leaving with her all the possessions she'd managed to keep along the way, too.

Once recovered and she'd given the last of her Mora to repay the kind man who'd looked after her, Guiying would set off once more for Liyue Harbor, now closer than ever and without any dangers to slow her travels. And without the odd flashes of those visions to hinder her, as well, to her relief.

At long last, she was finally here, and she couldn't be happier. While saddened some of the things she'd brought had been taken by the merchant when he'd cast her away or had gotten lost along the way, Guiying was still determined to do her best to find success here. To live up to her family's hope and wish for her. She'd already faced her toughest trial in getting here, right? No doubt, everything would be smooth sailing for her, from here on out.

Especially with the gleaming Geo Vision she now possessed.

As for where her path may go from there...perhaps for now, she may pester the blacksmith for some work while she got her bearings in the city. A man of brawn like that could use some good, fresh ideas and she could use a guy who had the strength to help out with certain projects in mind her own couldn't handle alone. Yeah, that sounded pretty good.

Somehow, the idea seems almost wonderfully familiar to her.

[starii-void]

going to chb must be crazy like imagine sharing a camp with

-one of the strongest demigods ever who's saved the world like at least 3 times, fought multiple gods & titans and WON (and is a tartarus survivor)

-the literal main architect of OLYMPUS who's also saved the world multiple times (also tartarus survivor)

-THE lord of the wild who's also close friends with the first two (and has helped save the world multiple times)

-an emo kid from the 1930s who again helped save the world and is also a tartarus survivor (TWICE)

-a son of apollo who survived tartarus with nothing but cargo shorts and sheer will (pun intended)

-the main designer and builder for the argo II, also the first hephaestus kid to have fire powers since hundreds of years ago (did i mention killed gaea? no? yeah he did that too)

-a girl who somehow charmspeak-ed gaea into falling back asleep (also side note daughter of super famous actor because why not)

-pretty much everybody is a two-time war veteran

-THE GOD APOLLO who just sometimes comes down to visit in the form of a teenage boy

-did i mention dionysus, god of wine madness and theatre

-also chiron, trainer of pretty much every greek hero ever

[literallyjusttoa]

Getting used to a new screen/pen. Plus I remembered an old post I made where I drew ToN Apollo with blond strands in his hair, and I've decided to upgrade him to glowy blond strands bc he deserves it.

[spokelseskladden]

Plz. Just a Litpollo crumb for the poor

eat my child, you'll need the sustenance for the trials to come (my finals. i'll be very annoying about them)

[bajaja-blast]

finally finished this fucking book

it took me almost a year because it’s so hard to get through oh my GODS

[choconoru]

Spreading the pupilless Apollo agenda

Anyways weird concept but what if after the trials Apollo doesn't show his true eyes so that nobody would know he's still distraught by everything

[yonemurishiroku]

Ok bonding time’s over. How about Nico, in a fit of grief, lashing out at Lester and practically blaming him for Jason’s death? I know it’s not but grief blinds people sometimes.

Something like “Hasn’t he done enough for you mighty haughty gods?!” or “Why? Why does he have to die?” something along that line idk go figure

Talking Nico as a plot device here because his grief is such a beautiful and powerful thing it feels like it can hit a god. Wonder how that would hit Apollo, who at that time is having his own realization/epiphany about gods and mortals and demigods tho - to have someone actively stab a knife at his struggling insecure self. 👀👀👀

[heys22]

[poisonmushroomfan]

This art is kinda old but I wanted to share it here, one of my friends told me the concept of Lester hearing the thoughts and conversations of arrows so I decided to draw it (:

[hana-loves-bumblebees]

This guy just existing:

Me:

Is this Lester Papadopoulos?

[mawx]

I have two passions on my life. Watching Demon slayer and rereading TOA.

As I was rewatching Demon slayer once again I realized something. Damn, Apollo would hate the Mt. Natagumo Arc. The spider family literally had ALL the family abuse possible. Pretty sure Apollo and Meg would really feel bad watching it... Especially the horrible scene with the spider mother (no spoil for those who don't watch the show but would like to)

But I also think Apollo would like Tanjiro because of how protective he is of his little sister.

[newobsessioneveryweek]

A little redraw for @apollosgiftofprophecy she's been deprived for too long

🫴🏻✨

Here's the Original

Which do you prefer? I think Commodus looks wayyy more sinister in this version and Lester looks more... Scared :(

The song I imagine playing in the background of this scene is "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift 😄 it just fits

[iwannascreameurekaa]

Percy Jackson fans who refuse to read trials of Apollo kinda piss me off

I've only heard a few reasons on my people don't want to read TOA but most of the reasons are honestly stupid... and bullshit so

! Might have TOA spoilers !

reason one: Lester is annoying

no shit he's Apollo that's his whole character development thing usually when a character starts off bad that means they're going to evolve into a better person that's basic writing

reason two: caleo

valid tbh but really you just gotta Manipulate yourself into believing that Rick was 100% writing them as friends idk

but also they're only in a last part of the first book, the second, and basically no where else

reason three: the one and only Jason Grace scene

did I say spoilers? Cause there's gonna be spoilers here!! So you don't want to read a five book series because one of those books contain the death of a character who you didn't even particularly like until their death? Most of the fanbase disliked or even hated Jason before the burning maze and I see loads of hate towards him today but we're not getting into that rn we're talking about TOA so here's my solution if you don't want to read a characters death scene: don't read any Percy jackson book. There are plenty of people who die during any Riordan book so stop whining about one. If you don't want to read the book that's fine but saying your reason for not reading is because someone dies is stupid. Do I need to name all the people that have died throughought the series?

reason four: Percy's not in the book

It is completely valid if your favorite character is Percy and you want him to show up more but that mf has 5+ books from his pov and is also in multiple other books. He's in four out of five of the hero's of Olympus series he's in the first TOA book he's in Magnus chase too so grow up he's not going to be in every book

I think the only other reason I've seen is that they can't afford to buy the books which is completely valid you're fine

but I think that sums up my little rant

Edit: spelling, added something to the caleo part 👍

[surrealisticcereal]

i think apollo will stay changed after becoming human

first time making something like this. so uh, yeah, kinda sorta analysis after the cut and a lot of this is based off of this analysis and also the toa discord. yeah. let's get this started

i think that apollo will stay "human" even after regaining godhood because that's the point. it's a story about growth, healing, change, hope, and identity. apollo lost his, not just by being put into lester, but his identity, as apollo the god.

and it isn't just apollo. meg is a big one as well, her arc sort of mirroring apollo, with nero being compared to zeus quite often in the narration. i think another arc that sort of mirrors apollo's is reyna. her arc is centered around identity. she needs to find it outside of the senate. apollo needed to find it outside of olympus. and quite ironically, the roman camp is called camp jupiter. and it was reyna that told apollo something he needed to hear. sure, he could never take back all of the shitty things he has done in the past, but he can still do good.

apollo thought he was the worst of the gods, all because he felt. all because he felt devasted when his loved ones died. all because even after all of that pain, he still loved. that is who he is at his core. someone who loves.

the reason he couldn't change at the start was because that man was in denial. but if you ignore his, i will admit this as someone who loves toa, kinda annoying narration and read just his actions, he is actively putting himself at risk to save percy, meg, his kids. he even knows the names of connor and travis, even knowing their personalities enough to know that they are pranksters. because that's who he is behind all of the glitter and blinding smiles. someone who cares, but can't show it.

how can i talk about apollo's change without mentioning jason. jason, i think, is the push that caused him to decide to change. "remember what it's like to be human." apollo and jason both sacrificed themselves for the team, only difference is that jason's stuck. this was his push. that apollo, as the god, could've helped. and that's was what he was going to do.

and in ton, we meet the troglodytes. they called him lester-apollo. lester was used as an epihet for apollo. this is mentioned in the toa server if this rings a bell. lester is now a part of his identity. it's so deeply engrained.

he may forget the people's faces, but their impact will never leave them.

apollo will stay changed because he wants to change. he wants to take those steps. that's what sets him apart from the olympians, the ones who live by one saying. "gods can't change." they can, they just don't want to. because that would mean, admitting what they did wrong and feeling guilt. apollo already was doing this, clear from the song that he sang in tho. he just needed a push.

but there is still hope. the nod from athena showing comradery. the idk what to call it with hera. apollo's trials didn't just impact him, it impacted all of olympus. for better or worse.

sure, maybe he will relapse, turn back into the selfish god he was. but why would you want to believe that? it's a story about hope. so have some.