#I'm kind of shocked nico and will are 15

[bobsayshallo]

The sun and the star is so special to me. I was obsessed with pjo since I was 13 yo and now I get to read a whole book about Nico and Will together. I'm 25 now, and seeing them discuss homophobia and their experience of being queer so openly feels like a victory lap.

[noxiatoxia]

hihihihihihiiiiiiiii i was wondering if u had any advice for people trying to get into thejapanese side of fandom. im so monolingual its making me embarassed. also are there any terms/slang tobe aware of. i saw CP/R and started panicking LOL

KJFNJREHGRJ that's understandable. The term CP means something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in JP fandom I assure you. Here are some slang tips!

CP: this stands for "coupling" and is the Japanese equiv to the word "slash" or "ship". For example, I will use uhh apollo/klavier from ace attorney as an example. You might see something like "CP オドキョ" (CP Odokyo - "klapollo" in Japanese. Apollo = odoroki, Klavier = kyouya). So if you see CP in a Japanese fandom context don't panic lol, culture shock whiplash

w: you may see multiple "w" like wwww or wwwwwww etc. This is the equiv to "lol" in Japanese with more "w" meaning something is funnier. The etymology behind this is it is short for the word 笑う(warau) which means to laugh. You may also see 草 (kusa) however, which by any standard definition is just the word for grass. However, thru a long game of word evolution, people started pointing out that when you type a lot of "w" it kind of looks like blades of grass! (wwwwww) so therefore the word for grass itself became slang to mean "lol".

88: like "w" you may see many 8's in a row like 888888 or 88888888 etc. This is supposed to mean "applause" or imitate a clapping sound, and is used to show you are applauding something. Usually used at the end of videos to signify a "this was awesome!" or "great art piece!" sort of thing. Etymology comes from the fact 8 in japanese is pronounced "hachi". So two 8s in a line would be pronounced "hachi hachi". This is very close to the onomatopoeic sound for clapping, which is "pachi pachi". Thus, 88(etc) = clapping.

いいね (ii ne): Including this just cuz you'll see it a LOT on Japanese content sharing sites. It is simply the equivalent to "like" as in a like button. So on Nico video for example (nico video is a Japanese video platform, sort of like Youtube), their like button is an いいね button. The phrase basically translates to "this is good!"

R-15: This isn't used AS MUCH nowadays from what I've seen, but it is still worth a mention. Sometimes content may be marked "R-15", which is basically synonymous with "R-18" (18 or older). I'm not too sure why the age discrepancy exists to be honest, and like I said this seems to be a much older thing as nowadays every adult-content piece of Japanese media I see is marked R-18 and not R-15, but just keep it in mind whenever you see R-15 that you should actually treat it like an R-18 warning.

グロ(guro)/ゲロ(gero): slang terms for specific types of content. I think it's important to recognize them either in case you want to look for this specific content or you want to look out for it and don't accidentally click on any page with it. "Guro" refers to gore content (or general disturbing/body horror stuff), 80% of the time drawn/animated gore, but it has been used to refer to real life gore content (snuff imagery, real or fake). "Gero" refers to content centered on vomit/vomiting (again, uuuusually drawn but this more so than guro i have seen refer to the real thing, be careful googling if that sort of thing makes u squeamish). These two tags are specifically used to tag content that these concepts (guro for gore, gero for vomit) are the main focus, and so typically are usually (not always, but a lot of the time) fetish tags. It is also important to note "guro" is a shortened word for "grotesque" so in the context outside of Japanese fandom works, the word can take on a less fetishy meaning of just something being "gross" or "scary" (again usually in reference to disturbing imagery).

エッチ(ecchi)/エロ(ero): Okay, some stuff related to R-18 content, cuz again, I think it's important to know for if you want to seek it out or if you want to be on the look out and stay away. Ecchi you may have heard before. If I'm not mistaken, here in the west, it's used to mean "softcore porn" or "sexually provocative material that isn't full-on sex." Like, you know, actin sexy but not showing nips or dick or whatever. But in Japanese it's a bit different. Ecchi, as used as a tag on artwork and such, just straight up refers to porn. Real or drawn, but obvs in fandom it's gonna be drawn. The word itself can be a "cutesy" word for sexy or refer to somebody who is lewd. You've heard of hentai of course, right? Well, in Japanese, this specific kind of hentai is spelled ヘンタイ or sometimes HENTAI. It is based off the word with the same pronunciation, 変態, which means "pervert" or "abnormal". Hentai, unlike ecchi, refers to strictly fictional porn of anime characters, sometimes people cosplaying as anime characters, but it's usually just drawn/animated even outside of a fandom context. There is very little distinction between hentai and ecchi when it comes to drawings specifically, as far as I can tell. I guess the big differences it that "hentai" is definitely the more popular term, and so is going to be used by west and east fandom equally, while "ecchi" is used mostly only in the east fandom. "Hentai" may also have "weirder" porn based on the fact "hentai" as a word can be "abnormal", but that's mostly me basing it off the word itself and I could be totally wrong. Altho the actual wiki page for hentai in Japanese uses a picture of lolicon so maybe I'm right lol. エロ(ero)/エロい(eroi) is short for "erotic" and is used kind of in the same way that we use the word "sexy", like "this is sexy" or "that's hot as fuck", with hot/sexy being replaced with "ero(i)" in Japanese sentences. Sometimes in slang it is spelled as "eloi" since r's and l's are interchangeable in Japanese.

On that note, other terms: ショタ(コン) (shota(con)) and ロリ(コン) (loli(con)) refer to sexual depictions of fictional underage characters ("loli" being female and "shota" being male). エロゲー (eroge) (sometimes just エロゲ) is short for "ero game" which is what it sounds like, basically a porn game. アダルトゲーム(adaruto gemu) is much of the same, it means "adult game". And ギャルゲー (gyaru ge) means "girl game/gal game", which is NOT "game meant for girls" but instead "game with sexy women".

Ok moving out of the Sex Zone

手描き(te kaki): This one is very important if you wanna find animations by people. The word itself means "hand-drawn", but the best way to describe what it means in terms of how it is used is...well, tbh, the best synonym I can think of is "animation meme". In the west, I'm sure you've seen, there are things called "animation memes" which are sort of animation trends multiple people do. It's kiiiiind of like that. Most "te kaki" are re-animating a popular trend (so just like an animation meme) or are re-animates of specific scenes or, much more popularly, music videos that were already animated in the first place (think music videos by Pinnochio-P or Nanawoakari) except the character is traced over and replaced with an OC or some anime guy. It can also refer to completely original animation that isn't based off a preexisting animation. Sometimes you may see 手書きトレス (te kaki toresu) which means "hand-drawn trace" which refers to specifically the second definition I listed, where the character in an animated music video is traced over with a new one. You may see also 手書きMAD (more on that later...) or 手書き and then the series name they're animating. For example, Danganronpa is ダンガンロンパ. So an animated Danganronpa video would be 手書きダンガンロンパ.

MAD: hooo boy. Ok. I am obsessed with MADs, specifically Death Note ones. A "MAD" is purely a spin or remix of an existing work, usually musical in nature. When you look up MADs it will usually be anime clips, or general other video clips, edited to a song. Think like a YouTube Poop Music Video (YTPMV). Look up "ronald mcdonald insanity" on Youtube. This is basically every westerner's first exposure to MADs. Unlike YTPMVs though, MADs can sometimes have other elements that are not purely musical, and that serve to tell a story/joke. Furthermore, while most MADs are humorous in intention, some aren't. And while 90% of MADs are musical-based, some of them are just shitposts. You may see the term 音MAD be used (oto MAD), which means basically the same thing, except 音 means "sound", so you'll up that 90% to 100% and get only music-based MADs. Some MAD communities have their own name, and that is something you need to find out yourself. For example, I know the Death Note MAD community calls their MAD videos "bakayaroid" (バカヤロイド) which is a play on the word "vocaloid" and one of Light's most meme'd lines where he yells "bakayarou!!" (which means "you idiot!" or "you bastard!")

歌ってみた(uttemita): idk if this counts as fandom but it's handy to know. In Japan, covers of songs are not called "covers". They are titled with 歌ってみた, which translates as "I tried to sing [song name]". So if you wanna find covers of a Japanese song you like, pop in the title and copy paste 歌ってみた after it.

In terms of shipping...

Unlike in the west where we don't really differentiate top/bottom dynamics, this is actually pretty important when it comes to tagging ships. Although, I am starting to see less of it. Regardless, it is handy to know. For example, Danganronpa's komahina (komaeda x hinata) would be 狛日 (koma hina). This, however, implies Komaeda is the dominant one in the relationship. If you wanted to find content where Hinata is the dominant one, you'd have to search 日狛 (hina koma). Again, I think it depends what fandom you're in for how important this distinction in. for example, I find it is very prominent in the danganronpa fandom, but not so much in Ace Attorney. Sometimes you will see something like 日狛日 (hina koma hina) or 狛日狛 (koma hina koma), for example, to imply there is no dom/sub dynamic.

A footnote: Japanese humor and expression is vastly different from English humor. This may seem obvious but I need to reiterate it because people sometimes say things they don't know are usually interpreted badly to Japanese artists. For example, acting "rabid" in somebody's replies, jokingly being mean, jokingly making threats, and stuff WE are used to as obvious jokes (stuff like "i think you should explode maybe" or "THIS IS MAKING ME INSANE") CAN EASILY BE SEEN AS HATE COMMENTS. Please please please if you want to compliment a Japanese artist, just say it like you mean it, like "this art is so good i love it!" or "this art was so emotional it made me cry, this is great!". Obviously not every JP artist is the same so some may know you're joking and some may be aware of western hyperbolic speech culture...or whatever you wanna call it. But the point is, I would err on the side of caution and just express you feelings genuinely and honestly.

Also, regardless of your stance on if xyz drawing is "morally good" (aka incest art lolisho art) and regardless of proship/anti stuff, just Don't bring it up with Japanese artists. The terms "proship" and "antiship" mean absolutely nothing over there. The terms "pedophilic art/problematic art/illegal ships" means nothing over there. I have personally seen Japanese artists get harassed off platforms because they had no clue what proship/antiship meant and refused to engage with bullshit shipping politics culture. You will likely just get blocked, or called an アメリカンお気持ちヤクザ (america okimochi yakuza), which means "American feelings yakuza". The definition of which is a person, typically an American (altho any kind of westerner) who weaponizes their feelings of dislike to attack others in a brutally yakuza-ish fashion. Which sums up my feelings on shipping discourse in general honestly. Don't be that dickhead foreigner forcing Japanese artists to answer to western politics. If somebody's art makes you upset/uncomfortable, block and move on.

I THINK THOSE ARE ALL THE BIG ONES....if you need more help just let me know!

EDIT: FORGOT TO ADD....another important word/term is "mob" モブ and no this does not refer to the little dude from mob psycho (usually). you may see detailless gray characters with the word モブ on their face or such like. This basically means "NPC" or "stranger", and is just used as a placeholder for a civilian, otherwise unnamed person/people.

[chishnfips87]

Ranking every DRDT character from worst to best

This is my opinion. Do not type death threats.

Also, there are spoilers everywhere.

Some space here because spoilers.

16. In last place, David Cheim. In ch1 and ch2 episodes 1 to 4, I thought he was okay, from 2-5 to 2-10, I thought he was good, but then 2-11 came and completely and utterly destroyed his character. His new persona just took a character with such good potential and made it a Nagito/Syobai ripoff without any of the good qualities they have, and I cannot stand the design. Again, he had good moments, but I doubt we'll get any more. I just hope he get axed off soon. I'm sorry of this comes off as mean, I try to mean no offense or disrespect, but I find liking this guy to be a red flag. He doesn't even count as an antagonist for me. I hate him. Shit, I think the creator hates him too. 1/10.

15. Min Jeung. There's a huge jump from David to Min, because I think David's the only bad character in DT. I'm very neutral on Min, because I think she'd a character that just came and went. I didn't feel as big an impact from her end as many others did, that might be because I haven't looked at ch1 ever since I first watched it. Maybe a rewatch will improve my opinion, but for now, I'm neutral. 5/10.

14. Xander Matthews. Okay, this is where the cancellation starts. I just don't see the hype. I feel like I missed something. Just like Min, he had his time in the limelight, and I don't feel like they're gonna use him again, or at least not until a later chapter as a cameo at the very least. I will say in terms of design, he absolutely wins. His design's great. Otherwise, again, I have no strong like or dislike for him. 5/10.

13. Levi Fontana. I feel like he hasn't been in the story enough yet, and I hope they use him more. Again, amazing design. It's probably within the top 3 best designs in the series, in my opinion. He's not too bad, but again, he just needs more. 6/10.

12. Arei Nageishi. Now, if it was just ch1, she'd be #16, but in recent times, she's kinda climbed the ranks. Ch2 gave her some kind of characterization and humanity. I never thought I'd see it either. Once we realize why she has a mean spirit, we tend to somewhat empathize with her and understand her faults. Only reason she's not higher is because her arc was cut short. 6/10.

11. Hu Jing. She ever so slightly misses the top 10 because of the moments where she kinda babies Nico. Like yeah, it's wholesome she wants to protect them, but it just gets to a point where it feels like she's manipulating them into becoming a murderous pawn. Now, we want a wholesome relation with the two, at least I do, but I feel like we haven't truly seen that. Also, I wanna know, who gave Nico the wire? Yeah \*Hu\* gave them it? She may be moved up in the future, but for now, she's here at #11. 7/10. Oh, and speaking of Nico...

10. Kicking off the top 10, Nico Hakobyan. Chapter 2 really elevated this character here. Nico went from a nobody in chapter 1, to arguably one of the central focuses of the current chapter. Seeing them attempt to kill Ace is such a shock, and when it happens, a chill runs down the spine. Now, Nico is only tenth because much like Hu, there are a lot of questions that need answering, and I hope we don't end up with dead ends. 7/10.

9. Ace Markey. Ace is both a funny and tragic character, and he has a lot going for him currently. Again, just like Nico, I feel like he's at the beginning of some kind of arc, and I hope there's a powerful moment with him, like him and Nico having the biggest fight of their lives, or maybe he sacrifices himself for someone, or anything else. Any scenario can work for him so far. I think he needs direction. 8/10.

8. Eden Tobisa. Just like Ace, anything can go with her. With how friendly she is, she could be deceiving everyone. She could have some skeletons in her closet, we just need to know how far she's willing to go. That, and I hope we get a wholesome moment with her. Like she's comforted or Teruko helps her with something. She has a lot of pent up emotion and masks it with positivity, and that's great. 8/10. I hope there's a moment where she can't do it anymore. If not her, then it should be...

7. Whit Young. If Eden isn't the false positivity, Whit clearly takes that title. A lot of common predictions I see is Whit dying. However, I'm more intrigued by what would happen if someone close to Whit died. Whit's boisterous and ecstatic outlook is shattered, and his emotions collapse. The ingredients are all there, and it feels like we're building up a good moment with him where he hits the climax of his arc. 8/10.

6. Charles Cuevas. A surprisingly established character, Charles actually has a lot of screen time for someone still around. He's also surprisingly supportive of Teruko, in a way. I feel like an inverse effect has happened with them. Teruko would approach Charles, and he'd get a bit annoyed and hesitant to be around her. Come chapter 2, and Charles is trying to get through to Teruko, and she's not having it at all. I like the direction Charles is in, despite it looking like he'll die soon. Even still, he's very intriguing.

5. Teruko Tawaki. I have a good feeling that she'll get some kind of full hero's journey, like Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy. She overcomes being almost stabbed and left to die by someone she thought could've been a close friend, then almost getting voted in the trial and having to scramble to save herself and everyone else, and now, she's gone rogue. She's dropped the nonsense, and will not let anyone stop her. I think her trajectory is great so far, even with the edgy and sarcastic moments, and I hope it gets better as the series progresses. 9/10.

4. Rose Lacroix. Okay, this may just be bias speaking, but Rose is funny. She has serious moments and is sympathetic, yes, but I also find her more low-down, sleepy side to be oddly fitting in a serious Fangan like this. She's a character that satisfies by just doing her thing, and I'm there for it. 9/10.

3. Arturo Giles. Another very controversial placement. I'm probably the only person ever who will back my Arturo enjoyment. I actually like how scary and villainous he is, and I like that he's not just a Byakuya ripoff. He's actually threatening, he's entertaining, and he could very well have some kind of arc, even though he looks like someone who ideally wouldn't. Maybe he realizes how much of a stalker he's been, and steps off of J's back for a while, then maybe tries to bind with Veronika or something like that. Again, it's bias, I just think Arturo's got a lot going for him, and the hate he gets is undeserved. 10/10.

2. Our runner up, J Rosales. Another top tier design. It's colorful, but not in a gaudy, distracting way. It's perfectly balanced, if anything. Also, like with Arturo, their dynamic could go any way. Arturo could actually protect her from something catastrophic, and she could have a newfound respect for him. A moment like that where someone is saved by someone they initially hate would be a good way of kinda patching things up between the two, and I think they're a good vessel for that. J's also a lot like Teruko, albeit not as edgy, so she's more tolerable, and she also has moments of vulnerability, and she could also overcome those as well. J's honestly very underrated, the more I think about it. 10/10.

1. Taking the top spot is Veronika Grebenshchikova. This is how the main villain is done. She's the perfect foil to Teruko. She's bright, vibrant, unhinged, and not afraid to be completely untrustworthy and dangerous. Her popping red and white design is also a good contrast to the dim green and black design of Teruko. If I could change anything in DRDT, I'd make her the antagonist, and not David with his stupid face, and his stupid stance, and his stupid manipulation. David can get bent, Veronika is the true antagonist of DRDT, and that's a hill I'll meet my maker on. 11/10.

[marimayscarlett]

i've read that you read fanfiction about a German rapper 👀 Would you mind sharing who said fave rapper is? Trying to get into German rap and hip-hop a bit more and I'm searching for some suggestions

OH BOY, MY DEAR ANON. You might just have opened such a huge can of worms, I am so sorry for my Rammstein mutuals, but...but I just need a moment to absolutely go nuts about this group and this guy, so here we go:

My favourite rap group since I was 14 years old (more than half of my life I just realised) is K.I.Z, a Berlin based group which have the absolute best, most eloquent and smart lyrics/rhymes/lines in the german rap scene in my opinion. A lot of their songs deal with political/violent/sexual/disturbing/critical social themes in an ironic, sometimes very dark and denunciatory manner, to provoke and rouse the public. And of course they have some typical rapper songs, but always with heavily sarcastic undertones.

They often have a rather shocking and daunting effect on conservatives and right winged people (a right wing politician here in Germany even complained about them in the Bundestag) which is just chef's kiss.

My favourite rapper is part of this group, Nico Seyfrid (the other two are Maxim Drüner and Tarek Ebene). His voice is like so incredibly smooth (like melted chocolate) and yet so powerful and he's just... I love this man and his talent now for 15 years. Absolute teen crush and still kind of is. He's pretty straight forward, funny, has a wonderful Berlin accent and also looks rather beautiful in woman's clothing (K.I.Z sometimes host concerts only for women and dress up as really beautiful ladies on stage, it's just iconic). And now please look at my beautiful cuties, making legendary tracks since the year 2000:

And my rap baby in particular:

Plus they ALSO sometimes kiss on stage:

Maybe they're not something for everyone's taste, but next to Rammstein (of course always my number 1), Led Zeppelin and MJ, these wonderful idiots are in my favourite top 4 music acts ❤

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 15: MY BROTHER DUELS ME TO THE DEATH

Jason's breath caught in his throat, his hand automatically wanted to reach for his coin, and he also kind of wanted to run out of the room knowing the kind of turmoil Percy was going to go through when he had to fight Tyson to the death?!

"Jason?" Thalia called in concern, quickly breaking up any other little conversations that had sparked up in the momentary lull.

He wanted to hide the book behind his back and pretend he hadn't read that to himself. He still kind of wanted to run out of the room too. "Percy, take a deep breath for me," Jason tried to caution.

Percy scowled and called him an asshole, following this up by saying, "I'm not that bad!"

Jason read each word carefully, bracing himself for impact with each new one.

Percy went white as Chiron's hindquarters as an icy force of water blasted through the room. "We what!?"

There wasn't much choice in the matter after that. Jason kept reading after Thalia snapped at him to get a move on while Percy sat frozen in place like he'd never move again for these horrible implications. He could very well be an iceberg in Antarctica for the sheer coldness radiating off of him.

The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. I didn't see anything strange about it, but Rachel showed me where to look, and I recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.

"So how did Rachel find it?" Alex asked with interest, flicking his half frozen hair over his shoulder so that it smacked Magnus in the face. "Does she regularly go around behind dirty laundry bins to see what's behind them?" A hobby he surly had himself.

"Hopefully an answer that does not involve the words, the Labyrinth called to her," Magnus begged.

"It hasn't been used in a long time," Annabeth said.

"I tried to open it once," Rachel said, "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."

Percy still wasn't maintaining his calm very well as images of Minos driving him mad caused him to chase Tyson around with his sword kept flying through his mind as wild as Icarus; but the initial shock of those words had dulled into a fanciful fear hopefully fueled by his ridiculous brain. Surely, surely, if he'd ever hurt Tyson he would have known that, felt that, long before now. With any luck Tyson had just beaten him to a pulp in the first five seconds of whatever this was and he'd been healed by ambrosia...

Whatever dull feelings of adrenaline that were trying to rush through him gave his brain enough of a cool down to give a shaky laugh and say, "I knew she'd fit right in, curiosity is our number one brand."

"And look where it leads you," Thalia sighed in exasperation.

"No." Annabeth stepped forward. "It just needs the touch of a half-blood."

Sure enough, as soon as Annabeth put her hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.

"Anybody else feel like the stairs are a bit of an extra insult?" Will sighed. "Why couldn't it be a slide? At least have fun on the way down."

"Will, no," Nico frowned in concern.

"How would you get back up?" Jason asked.

"I don't think the maze's goal is for you to do that," Will shrugged, at least fully aware of his insanity it seemed. "I just think it would be nice if it gave you some fun in its hellscape."

"Will, no," Nico sighed again.

He had the most experience with this place, so Will decided not to push further.

"Wow." Rachel looked calm, but I couldn't tell if she was pretending or not.

"She's in acting clubs," Thalia nodded, "it is hard to tell how much she's faking it, but also she doesn't go out of her way to hide her emotions that I could tell." She had never spent any significant amount of time around Rachel, but Annabeth had in recent months and mentioned a few off hand times about the blow out fights the red head had with her dad that resembled Annabeth's own with hers.

She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her regular marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, but she still had flecks of gold in it, and traces of the gold glitter on her face. "So...after you?"

"So polite," Magnus waved his hand about in a very posh way.

"She's certainly in the right kind of adventuring outfit," Alex chuckled, "easy to spot in the dark."

"That finally explains the camp shirts," Nico smirked.

"You're the guide," Annabeth said with mock politeness. "Lead on."

"So she can die first," Jason mock whispered in case anybody had missed that.

Percy was not in a laugh it off kind of mood though. He felt like someone was trying to force that hairbrush of hers down his throat spine first. Annabeth and Rachel were going to make him go bald with stress before he even found Tyson.

The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark I couldn't see two feet in front of us, but Annabeth and I had restocked on flashlights. As soon as we switched them on, Rachel yelped.

A skeleton was grinning at us.

"Sadly nothing new at this rate," Thalia shook her head.

It wasn't human.

"That is," Magnus's brows leaped up to his hairline in surprise what else could it be. Didn't anything other than a human turn to dust?

It was huge, for one thing—at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant X over the tunnel. But what really sent shivers down my spine was the single black eye socket in the center of its skull.

Percy shivered so hard dust rained down from the ceiling once more, with cracks to large to ignore much longer. If the roof caved in, would their protection go with it?

"How, is that even possible?" Alex asked with a very dry mouth.

Nico didn't particularly want to answer, because he knew what a freak it made him to have studied this. The right combination that went from torturing to killing to preserve the trophy you wanted from that monster.

Jason wasn't waiting around for an answer regardless, and it wasn't all concern for his own safety. It wasn't Tyson, it was not Tyson, he wasn't that big!

But it would be nice if the book confirmed it.

"A Cyclops," Annabeth said. "It's very old. It's not...anybody we know."

Percy's brain scattered off into about twenty questions over that, starting and stopping so fast in his mind he couldn't manage any of them. Why would she phrase it like that? Did she know how old it was? What kind of archeologist half-blood book was she sleeping with nowadays? Was she just as afraid as he was saying Tyson's name right now in fear he would show up next...on and on it went...

It wasn't Tyson, she meant. But that didn't make me feel much better. I still felt like it had been put here as a warning. Whatever could kill a grown Cyclops, I didn't want to meet.

"One of these days, Tyson is going to be a full grown cyclops, and I certainly want to meet him," Alex reminded in case anybody forgot.

"I bet he'll have no choice but to give Percy nice, non-rib breaking hugs then," Magnus said in a pouty kind of voice as if this were a truly heart wrenching affair.

Percy gave a begrudging laugh he didn't feel just for their attempts to liven the mood.

Rachel swallowed. "You have a friend who's a Cyclops?"

"Tyson," I said. "My half brother."

"Your half brother."

"Hopefully we'll find him down here," I said. "And Grover. He's a satyr."

"Oh." Her voice was small. "Well then, we'd better keep moving."

"Information that really should have been shared before hand Percy," Jason sighed. "She thinks she's just in there to help you find Daedalus, now you're adding extra."

"Hopefully she doesn't charge by the side quest or I'll never pay her off," Percy said lightheartedly enough like he wasn't still internally screaming.

She stepped under the skeleton's left arm and kept walking. Annabeth and I exchanged looks. Annabeth shrugged. We followed Rachel deeper into the maze.

"At least we're avoiding the really not fun phrase of the blind leading the blind," Nico offered.

"Nah, that was the first time with Percy and Annabeth," Thalia chuckled.

"Hey," Percy sighed.

"Don't make me pull Jason out and tell you how many wrong turns you took," she insisted with a smirk.

"There's no such thing as a right turn in that place," he tried to insist even knowing he'd lose.

"Every other turn was a right turn that led to more death," Percy was instantly proven right as Jason rolled his eyes. How was it even when he was right he still never won an argument, Percy sighed as he let the reading continue.

After fifty feet we came to a crossroads. Ahead, the brick tunnel continued. To the right, the walls were made of ancient marble slabs. To the left, the tunnel was dirt and tree roots.

I pointed left. "That looks like the tunnel Tyson and Grover took."

Annabeth frowned. "Yeah, but the architecture to the right—those old stones—that's more likely to lead to an ancient part of the maze, toward Daedalus's workshop."

"We need to go straight," Rachel said.

Annabeth and I both looked at her.

"That's the least likely choice," Annabeth said.

"You don't see it?" Rachel asked. "Look at the floor."

I saw nothing except well-worn bricks and mud.

"What a shame, I'm sure the maze is trying its hardest to make them seem like awesome, original bricks and mud," Alex chuckled.

"It can try a lot less harder any time it wants to, I always encourage laziness," Percy promised. "Like just making one path!"

"There's a brightness there," Rachel insisted. "Very faint. But forward is the correct way. To the left, farther down the tunnel, those tree roots are moving like feelers. I don't like that. To the right, there's a trap about twenty feet down. Holes in the walls, maybe for spikes. I don't think we should risk it."

By the time Jason was done describing that he was pretty thoroughly convinced he could be in a room full of zombies and be none the wiser if Rachel wasn't around to tell him he was being an idiot. It was a skin crawly, terrifying feeling to be so blind, so powerless and have no way to get out of that. There was no training, nothing more he could do for himself to circumvent the fact he had no idea what was down a tunnel.

"The maze is learning?" Magnus's voice shook with terror and he was making no move to hide it. "It knows those are the paths you'd want to pick from last time and it's adapting?!"

Percy swallowed a lump in his throat. They were all quickly going to lose the thread of being in this together and start freaking out as bad as he was, and he didn't want that.

"Yeah, but, that's why we brought Rachel," he reminded with a nervous laugh. "It's good to have friends." His voice was shaky, he was toying with a frayed bit of his jeans and only hesitantly meeting all of their eyes as he looked around the room, but it was clear he meant every word.

Percy was no more happy about this than any of them, but he'd lived through it and wasn't actively complaining about every step, so Magnus tried to keep himself in check while Jason nodded his agreement.

I didn't see anything like she was describing, but I nodded. "Okay. Forward."

"You believe her?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Don't you?"

Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue, but she waved at Rachel to lead on.

Thalia released a sigh of relief echoed all around. It was worrisome for a moment, that Annabeth was going to actively argue the point with the girl they'd brought down there for just this reason and insist she knew better.

Annabeth proved she was smarter than that in this very moment though. She didn't have to like it, she didn't even have to trust Rachel, but it was clear she trusted Percy enough that this time, maybe it would work out.

Together we kept walking down the brick corridor. It twisted and turned, but there were no more side tunnels. We seemed to be angling down, heading deeper underground.

"No traps?" I asked anxiously.

"I like to think she'd mention that before you have to ask," Nico offered.

"You never know with those artsy types," Percy tried to say with a straight face. "She needed to be invited onto the quest, maybe she needs voice activation."

"Just because you need explicit instructions and a map to find anything in your own room doesn't mean the rest of us do Perce," Thalia smirked.

"Nothing." Rachel knit her eyebrows. "Should it be this easy?"

"I don't know," I said. "It never was before."

"You got decently far in before and nobody almost died," Jason offered.

"I was trying this new thing where I wasn't planning on jinxing myself," Percy rolled his eyes.

"So, Rachel," Annabeth said, "where are you from, exactly?"

She said it like, What planet are you from? But Rachel didn't look offended.

"Rachel has clearly studied up on her mythology and knows that the planets were named for the Roman deities and thinks it a compliment Annabeth is now trying to include her, even going about it in a silly way," Will said in a very peaceful kind of tone that was so full of it the others had no choice but to laugh.

"Brooklyn," she said.

"Aren't your parents going to be worried if you're out late?"

Jason stumbled over that in surprise as he realized he'd never questioned the same. Not once while she'd been in here or somehow appeared in two random states.

Rachel exhaled. "Not likely. I could be gone a week and they'd never notice."

"Why not?" This time Annabeth didn't sound as sarcastic. Having trouble with parents was something she understood.

Magnus raised his hands in mock celebration. "Who knew all it took was a little shared trauma to make friends?"

"Chiron apparently figured it out and that's why he set up Camp," Nico snorted.

"And we commend him for that," Will grinned.

Before Rachel could answer, there was a creaking noise in front of us, like huge doors opening.

"What was that?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know," Rachel said. "Metal hinges."

"Oh, that's very helpful. I mean, what is it?"

"Why would she know that?" Jason groaned. "She didn't grow a third eye down there!"

"I wouldn't mind if she did right now," Percy tried hard not to squeak.

Then I heard heavy footsteps shaking the corridor—coming toward us.

"Run?" I asked.

"Run," Rachel agreed.

We turned and fled the way we'd come,

"It's nice to hear Annabeth sure didn't question that one," Alex muttered.

but we didn't make it twenty feet before we ran straight into some old friends. Two dracaenae—snake women in Greek armor—leveled their javelins at our chests. Standing between them was Kelli, the empousa cheerleader.

"Just once!" Percy snapped in outrage as he glared at the book and his hands shook, "just once can't this maze work in our favor! Can't a trap door open under those monsters sending them to Tartarus! Or hell, sending us to where Grover and Tyson are chilling with Pan! How did they circle around us?! How-"

"I know Percy," Thalia placed a calming hand on his shoulder. Her worry for Annabeth and him obvious in every creased line of her face she hadn't been there to know how bad it got.

It took a lot of concentration for Percy to focus on her, her voice, her touch, but when he did he saw that this room was hanging on by a thread and they hadn't even gotten to the worst of it yet. They were captured, no way around that.

Where was Tyson?! What had happened to Grover!? Those were things he needed to know, that he nodded gratefully at Thalia for to assure her to keep going.

"Well, well," Kelli said.

I uncapped Riptide, and Annabeth pulled her knife; but before my sword was even out of pen form, Kelli pounced on Rachel. Her hand turned into a claw and she spun Rachel around, holding her tight with her talons at Rachel's neck.

Percy might as well have painted himself gold and struck a pose. He used up every bit of his concentration not to move, to so much as breathe wrong. Rachel was fine. She'd been in here but a few days ago. He would not break this Titan's bathhouse and possibly get his friends killed because she was fine. His shaky exhale caused a few more around him as the others had sat tense waiting for him to react, but Thalia just smirked with a know it all expression that he was going to be fine.

"Taking your little mortal pet for a walk?" Kelli asked me. "They're such fragile things. So easy to break!"

"How ridiculous, Rachel doesn't even have a leash," Magnus sniffed.

"I knew we should all still be wearing armor though, I don't see enough downsides to have stopped," Alex huffed.

Magnus's mind suddenly fritzed like bad reception as he imagined Alex in traditional viking armor, metal bra and all. He quickly turned away.

Behind us, the footsteps came closer. A huge form appeared out of the gloom—an eight-foot-tall Laistrygonian giant with red eyes and fangs.

The giant licked his lips when he saw us. "Can I eat them?"

"I bet that any monster that did try to eat you would just spit you right back out," Jason offered.

"Thanks," Percy sighed.

"No really," he insisted with an odd smile. "You'd either slash your way out before you even hit their stomach, or you'd taste so bad he'd spit you out anyways."

"So I can be covered in monster saliva, thanks Jason, really wanted to visualize that," Percy mock promised.

"No," Kelli said. "Your master will want these. They will provide a great deal of entertainment." She smiled at me. "Now march, half-bloods. Or you all die here, starting with the mortal girl."

"Who sets the beat?" Magnus asked blankly. Alex smacked his shoulder and called him an idiot.

It was pretty much my worst nightmare. And believe me, I've had plenty of nightmares.

"I've been keeping track," Jason promised. "This is probably number two after Annabeth was nearly crushed by the sky you thought was a cave."

"Thanks," Percy said with his shaking hand pressed against his stomach.

Thalia would have snatched the book away to smack Jason with it if it wouldn't have taken extra time to get past this moment.

We were marched down the tunnel, flanked by dracaenae, with Kelli and the giant in back, just in case we tried to run for it. Nobody seemed to worry about us running forward. That was the direction they wanted us to go.

Up ahead I could see bronze doors. They were about ten feet tall, emblazoned with a pair of crossed swords. From behind them came a muffled roar, like from a crowd.

"Oh, yessssss," said the snake woman on my left. "You'll be very popular with our hossssst."

I'd never gotten to look at a dracaena up close before, and I wasn't real thrilled to have the opportunity.

Will had, and his breath passed out in a shallow wisp as he swallowed a scream, memories flashing behind his eyes to fast. Nico felt the shiver that passed over him, not a physical one, but the manifestation of death that oozed right off of Will just from mentioning those things. It saddened him greatly Will had such vivid experience with the feeling Nico so easily associated with many in camp at his mere presence, but Will never moved an inch away from him as the moment came and went.

Jason, of coursed, sounded thrilled like somebody was waving jerky under his nose. Percy found an easy distraction of watching this guy go nuts over a new description of a monster about to eat him mildly better than thinking about said monster ripping off Rachel's throat and hitting him in the face with it.

She would've had a beautiful face, except her tongue was forked and her eyes were yellow with black slits for pupils.

She wore bronze armor that stopped at her waist. Below that, where her legs should've been, were two massive snake trunks, mottled bronze and green.

She moved by a combination of slithering and walking, as if she were on living skis.

"That is so cool!" Jason grinned. "Why do you think they developed a second snake trunk? Do you think the area where they join is the weak spot, I can't imagine they can fit armor around there. Oh, how potent do you think their venom is-"

"Jason," Thalia sighed patiently, "can we do this after everybody isn't about to die?"

"That's never," he huffed, but obligingly read on all the same. He was worried about Tyson too.

"Who's your host?" I asked.

She hissed, which might have been a laugh. "Oh, you'll sssssee. You'll get along furiousssly. He'ssss your brother, after all."

Percy's innards went on an entire rollercoaster without him, he lurched in his seat and even dug his fingers into the beanbag like he was hanging on for life. Oh gods, he already thought he'd lost Tyson once, he didn't know how he was going to do this again! An arena, Luke had mentioned something about that, he'd know Tyson and would save him for a battle to the death against him while Annabeth was forced to watch-

Percy heard the book keep going with a kind of fuzzy, background noise like Tyson's snoring he'd learned to fall asleep to. It helped though, the buzz of voices the smallest reminder he wasn't alone in this, that he had others he had to focus on too like making sure Annabeth and Rachel got out of this.

"My what?" Immediately I thought of Tyson, but that was impossible. What was she talking about?

"Would it be possible for Percy to have a long lost half sibling down there?" Magnus asked in surprise. "If some poor Greek kid went in there way back when and time was that messed up and they managed to survive on their own up until this point?"

"Even the maze wouldn't make them immortal," Nico shook his head. "That person would still have died of old age, granted far, far later than they should have if they had managed all that, which is like a 1% chance of happening."

"I'm now over here wondering if they found Polyphemus and dragged him off that island," Jason admitted. Cyclops kind seemed the only direct links associated with Percy at any rate and if it wasn't Tyson at least this was a deserved rematch, but could lead to the same problem of Percy being unwilling to kill his opponent.

The giant pushed past us and opened the doors. He picked up Annabeth by her shirt and said, "You stay here."

"Hey!" she protested, but the guy was twice her size and he'd already confiscated her knife and my sword.

Alex knew he shouldn't but he started chuckling anyways as he imagined a feisty kitten who thought she was tough. Annabeth of course was, and most likely considering seven other ways to kill that giant, but it was still amusing.

Kelli laughed. She still had her claws at Rachel's neck.

Will kept the nasty idea to himself Kellie probably got some perverse pleasure out of feeling Rachel's pulse going a mile a minute, feeling the fear leaping right through her skin. He felt like his skin was going to erupt in hives in moments at the idea of that snaky, scaly flesh all over him, that was probably his personal nightmare.

"Go on, Percy. Entertain us. We'll wait here with your friends to make sure you behave."

I looked at Rachel. "I'm sorry. I'll get you out of this."

She nodded as much as she could with a demon at her throat. "That would be nice."

"This girl is being way to chill about this," Magnus frowned in concern if she was in shock.

"She lied to a bunch of zombie guard's upon first meeting me," Percy reminded with a shrug. "This is not her first encounter with monsters, gods knows how many others she's just had to walk past in the street without reacting."

The dracaenae prodded me toward the doorway at javelin-point, and I walked out onto the floor of an arena.

Jason checked his tone of voice, making sure he didn't sound as nervous as he felt, but calm. Not casual, not while Percy was fighting for his life, that would feel heartless. It was an easy feeling to pull up inside himself, it always felt natural to fall into the roll of calmly studying the worst outcome.

I guess it wasn't the largest arena I'd ever been in,

"What is?" Magnus asked.

"Fields of Asphodel," Percy said without hesitation.

Magnus shivered for that answer, but maybe just a tad less than the last few times.

but it seemed pretty spacious considering the whole place was underground. The dirt floor was circular, just big enough that you could drive a car around the rim if you pulled it really tight. In the center of the arena, a fight was going on between a giant and a centaur. The centaur looked panicked. He was galloping around his enemy, using sword and shield, while the giant swung a javelin the size of a telephone pole and the crowd cheered.

Why did it have to be a centaur? Thalia fought the urge to rub her shoulders and huddle up tight in her seat. She would have had the same reaction had it been anyone familiar in that arena. A satyr, a half-blood...

The first tier of seats was twelve feet above the arena floor. Plain stone benches wrapped all the way around, and every seat was full. There were giants, dracaenae, demigods, telekhines, and stranger things: bat-winged demons and creatures that seemed half human and half you name it—bird, reptile, insect, mammal.

But the creepiest things were the skulls. The arena was full of them. They ringed the edge of the railing. Three-foot-high piles of them decorated the steps between the benches. They grinned from pikes at the back of the stands and hung on chains from the ceiling like horrible chandeliers. Some of them looked very old—nothing but bleached-white bone. Others looked a lot fresher. I'm not going to describe them. Believe me, you don't want me to.

Alex swallowed a nasty feeling in the back of his throat. Oh, he agreed. He normally would have laughed and said bring it on and dared himself he could have made something more grotesque than any of those fleshy skulls...but it just would not make anybody laugh right now.

In the middle of all this, proudly displayed on the side of the spectator's wall, was something that made no sense to me—a green banner with the trident of Poseidon in the center. What was that doing in a horrible place like this?

"Really, really misunderstood capture the flag?" Magnus asked in a squeaky voice.

"I'm still on Percy's team," Will raised his hand.

Above the banner, sitting in a seat of honor, was an old enemy.

"Luke," I said.

"You keep saying that like you have other enemies to identify as new," Nico snorted.

"Do you count?" Percy asked with a raised brow.

Nico flushed and looked away, and Percy instantly felt bad for embarrassing the kid on a snap comment he didn't really mean.

"What about the Labyrinth?" Percy continued in a much more obvious joking tone. "What about-" he stumbled to a quick stop. He'd been about to say Calypso, because she had been an impediment to his quest, but that just made him feel bad because she hadn't done it on purpose.

I'm not sure he could hear me over the roar of the crowd, but he smiled coldly. He was wearing camouflage pants, a white T-shirt, and bronze breastplate, just like I'd seen in my dream. But he still wasn't wearing his sword, which I thought was strange.

"Way more than strange," Jason agreed. "I'm wondering if he gave it to Quintus as some kind of trade maybe? The excellent swordsman he was might have considered it a trophy?"

Percy didn't think that was right, but the answer settled somewhere in him. A trade, a gift...it nagged just on the edge of his mind close enough to be chewing on his ear but too loose for him to bat it properly away until he was more thoroughly distracted.

Next to him sat the largest giant I'd ever seen,

"Why do they get bigger every time you meet a new one?" Magnus sighed. "Can't you fight a tiny monster for once? The kind that you'd feel bad for stepping on?"

"If I could let you pick the monsters I face, I would," Percy promised. "And only Magnus! The rest of you assholes would take a tiny squishy shape and drop it in water and then it's a demon hippo about to murder me."

"Guilty," Thalia nodded without remorse.

"You got us," Alex snickered while Jason tried to hide his smile behind the book.

"I wouldn't make you fight any monsters," Will said in a pouty kind of voice he wasn't an exception too.

"But then he'd never get any training again," Nico reminded.

Will looked like he was reconsidering his comment now, and Percy crossed his arms triumphantly he'd been right from the start.

much larger than the one on the floor fighting the centaur. The giant next to Luke must've been fifteen feet tall, easy, and so wide he took up three seats. He wore only a loincloth, like a sumo wrestler.

"Does he follow the ancient traditional ways too?" Nico asked with honest amusement.

"What monster have I yet faced that had a shred of honor?" Percy scoffed.

His skin was dark red and tattooed with blue wave designs. I figured he must be Luke's new bodyguard or something.

"That was, cool," Jason tried to say like he meant it.

"I'm guessing that's the guy related to you," Alex used the whole deductive reasoning of him having waves etched into his body to make that brilliant leap. "If so, props for irony."

"No, no I will not be giving props to any giant who is red and has blue waves and is hoarding a flag of my dad," Percy huffed.

"Is it just those specific requirements?" Alex asked.

"For now," Percy frowned.

There was a cry from the arena floor, and I jumped back as the centaur crashed to the dirt beside me.

He met my eyes pleadingly. "Help!"

They had been hazel. His coat had been a speckled grey color.

He was nothing like the Party Ponies, nor did he resemble Chiron in any way. Percy didn't know if Centaurs were like nature spirits and would be reincarnated as a plant in some happy other life.

Percy knew he never learned his name.

I reached for my sword, but it had been taken from me and hadn't reappeared in my pocket yet.

Nico still vividly imagined Percy lunging forward barehanded, strangling that giant without a second thought, the dust of his life force dripping through his hands as he brushed himself off and looked around with that smirk and a 'who's next?' Because Percy was supposed to be the hero who would never let anything bad happen to anyone.

Bianca might as well have been rolling her eyes at him, trying to snatch his cards away so he would pay attention to what was really going on. The panic, the guilt on Percy's face as his hands actually spasmed in frustration and concentration, the care he had to put into not actively murdering them all over a memory that pained him.

He still wished his stupid active imagination would end soon and he could burn Percy's made up card and stats already he'd latched onto and be done with it. On the other hand, the idea of hero's had also gotten him through a lot of lonely times and was quite entertaining letting his mind wander for a moment knowing those monsters and hero's could still come to life in his mind on those cards even if it wasn't real.

So long as he kept that in mind, that normal balance, he just let himself smile with sorrow for a moment as the book continued.

The centaur struggled to get up as the giant approached, his javelin ready.

A taloned hand gripped my shoulder. "If you value your friendsss' livesss," my dracaena guard said, "you won't interfere. This isssn't your fight. Wait your turn."

"What an awful merry go round, I want off this ride," Magnus shivered with a horrible churning in his gut. How on earth had everybody made it out of this alive? If they even had... but he'd gotten pretty good at following Percy's impulses over the last few days. He kept reaching for something in his pocket, though he was fidgeting with his pen in his non-dominant hand to keep himself from fully pulling it out. Percy was agitated, prepared for a fight, but he'd been much, much worse when he felt the sense of somebody being in real danger that wasn't him.

The centaur couldn't get up. One of his legs was broken. The giant put his huge foot on the horseman's chest and raised the javelin. He looked up at Luke. The crowd cheered, "DEATH! DEATH!"

Luke didn't do anything, but the tattooed sumo dude sitting next to him arose. He smiled down at the centaur, who was whimpering, "Please! No!"

Then the sumo dude held out his hand and gave the thumbs down sign.

"Why does that somehow feel more disappointing than if he'd just started chanting death too?" Alex frowned.

"Note to self," Percy said none to quietly.

I closed my eyes as the gladiator giant thrust his javelin. When I looked again, the centaur was gone, disintegrated to ashes. All that was left was a single hoof, which the giant took up as a trophy and showed the crowd. They roared their approval.

He would not picture Chiron right now, he would not picture Chiron right now...and yet his mind was as unhelpful as ever as it offered up his mentor, the great white stallion himself crumpling, his camp in ruins. The first slayed in the coming war so no more hero's could be trained if they failed this mission.

A gate opened at the opposite end of the stadium and the giant marched out in triumph.

"I hope he dies first when you burn this place down," Thalia said in a calm, deadly voice.

That giant sadly did not even crack the top three of monsters that needed to die first in that place, number one of whom was Luke. He didn't think Thalia would appreciate him correcting that though.

In the stands, the sumo dude raised his hands for silence.

"Good entertainment!" he bellowed. "But nothing I haven't seen before. What else do you have, Luke, Son of Hermes?"

Luke's jaw tightened. I could tell he didn't like being called son of Hermes.

"Then maybe he should do what the rest of us do and just disown his parentage instead of causing mass casualties in a war," Alex threw his hands up and looked very much like he was trying to explain this to the densest of people.

"He had to be extra about it, I bet Hermes is the god of theatrics too," Magnus grumbled.

He hated his father. But he rose calmly to his feet. His eyes glittered. In fact, he seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

"Never a great thing for my day," Percy frowned.

"Pessimism like that is why we can't have world peace Percy," Jason chuckled.

"Yes, I'm the problem here," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Lord Antaeus," Luke said, loud enough for the crowd to hear. "You have been an excellent host! We would be happy to amuse you, to repay the favor of passing through your territory."

"A favor I have not yet granted," Antaeus growled. "I want entertainment!"

"And Grover said those tap dancing lessons would be of no use," Alex scoffed, "look at you already needing him."

"I have several good book and movie selections I'd be willing to offer him?" Will said half-heartedly.

"I'm wondering how other people could possibly get through this without a horde of disposable monsters behind them," Jason frowned. "If they just offer themselves up as a tribute, who are they fighting? The sumo guy?"

"I'm sure sumo guy keeps prisoners alive in cells for just that reason," Nico unhappily answered. Whether monster, mortal, or anywhere in between, everyone wound up traversing the labyrinth.

Luke bowed. "I believe I have something better than centaurs to fight in your arena now. I have a brother of yours." He pointed at me. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

Percy felt a tidal wave of emotions hit him for that, most of all relief. Tyson was still down in this crazy dangerous place somewhere with Grover, not about to fight him to the death! The relief caused the others to even let out their own sigh of the pressure of the room lifting.

Second was disgust. Geez, he wished he would stop seeing other products of his dad getting around!

The crowd began jeering at me and throwing stones, most of which I dodged, but one caught me on the cheek and made a good-sized cut.

Percy flinched, his fingers grazing the spot now. It shouldn't be any reflection on the forthcoming fight he was coming into it with a silly cut...but still his worry only grew. This was going to be a nasty fight.

Antaeus's eyes lit up. "A son of Poseidon? Then he should fight well! Or die well!"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Thalia asked with a raised brow.

"That this guy who's name I don't want to pronounce is clearly biased and an idiot, unlike other sons of Poseidon," Percy grinned.

"Oh, okay," she grinned.

"If his death pleases you," Luke said, "will you let our armies cross your territory?"

"Perhaps!" Antaeus said.

Luke didn't look too pleased about the "perhaps." He glared down at me, as if warning me that I'd better die in a really spectacular way or I'd be in big trouble.

"Minos wishes he had the kind of vengeance Percy's ghost would cause," Will scoffed.

"Luke really deserves whatever he gets coming, he can't even broker a deal with a cheapskate. Hermes should really disown him himself," Alex nodded.

"Luke!" Annabeth yelled. "Stop this. Let us go!"

Luke seemed to notice her for the first time. He looked stunned for a moment. "Annabeth?"

Percy felt an immediate sense of regretful guilt. Luke probably never would have taken Annabeth onto this quest, it was to dangerous.

And she would have smacked Luke with her knife for trying to leave her behind, Percy found himself smiling instead.

"Enough time for the females to fight afterward," Antaeus interrupted. "First, Percy Jackson, what weapons will you choose?"

The dracaenae pushed me into the middle of the arena.

I stared up at Antaeus. "How can you be a son of Poseidon?"

Not one joke of a family resemblance passed the room, and Percy's smile grew.

"Don't look so smug Percy, we'd never insult Tyson's looks by comparing any of you," Thalia smirked, while Percy sighed.

"I am his favorite son!" Antaeus boomed.

"Psssh, I'm sure he loves all of his kids equally," Will mock tried to correct.

"Oh yeah," Percy grinned, "I don't see Antaeus being kidnapped into the ocean against his will."

"Percy," Thalia frowned at him, "please stop phrasing that like it's a good thing."

 "Behold, my temple to the Earthshaker, built from the skulls of all those I've killed in his name! Your skull shall join them!"

I stared in horror at all the skulls—hundreds of them—and the banner of Poseidon. How could this be a temple for my dad? My dad was a nice guy. He'd never ask me for a Father's Day card, much less somebody's skull.

"Everybody has their own hobbies?" Will tried to say through an awkward smile.

"I wish Poseidon's was caving this place in ages ago," Thalia scowled.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled at me. "His mother is Gaea! Gae—"

Nico's breath caught. He was grateful to be trapped under the ocean for the first time, because even down here he picked his feet off the floor and looked wearily down to see if a new abyss was opening up. Annabeth had invoked her name, in her own domain...Gaea stirs the ghosts kept whispering in his dreams...

Will felt the distress shivering right off of Nico and watched him for several moments with deep concern. It made total sense if Nico had a thing against the Earth goddess herself after being trapped underground for so long. He wanted to offer him something, comfort, some sense of a promise he didn't have to deal with it alone. Nico had actually reciprocated the last few times he'd tried...but he had hesitated a moment to long, and Jason kept reading. Nico glanced over at him and gave him a weary smile which Will instantly returned, and the look in his eyes seemed grateful enough as he smacked Will's side and muttered about him hogging all of the couch again.

Her Laistrygonian captor clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Rude," Alex sniffed with a perfect roll of the r's.

"Like Luke doesn't use every life-line and cheat code at his disposal," Percy agreed with a scowl.

His mother is Gaea. The earth goddess. Annabeth was trying to tell me that was important, but I didn't know why. Maybe just because the guy had two godly parents.

"Don't most monsters?" Magnus asked.

"They're not even two opposing gods, ocean and earth," Jason nodded there seemed no specific connection.

Percy was just to grateful nobody was asking where Gaea and Poseidon connected on the family tree for this to even be possible.

That would make him even harder to kill.

"You're crazy, Antaeus," I said. "If you think this is a good tribute, you know nothing about Poseidon."

The crowd screamed insults at me, but Antaeus raised his hand for silence.

"Weapons," he insisted. "And then we will see how you die. Will you have axes? Shields? Nets? Flamethrowers?"

"A flamethrower's been an option this whole time?" Magnus spluttered.

"Sounds like an OP kind of weapon, no good entertainment," Alex said in what he obviously thought was an impression of Antaeus.

"Just my sword," I said.

Laughter erupted from the monsters, but immediately Riptide appeared in my hands, and some of the voices in the crowd turned nervous. The bronze blade glowed with a faint light.

"Imagine if Riptide had killed any of the monsters in there before and you didn't know," Nico grinned. 

Percy gazed down at his pen with a fond smile. Riptide had been Hercules's first, and as much as he loathed the guy now, he had been one hell of a monster slayer.

"Round one!" Antaeus announced. The gates opened, and a dracaena slithered out. She had a trident in one hand and a weighted net in the other— classic gladiator style.

"Someone's trying to earn extra credit," Jason sniffed, his full confidence in every word Percy wouldn't bat an eye at this fight.

"I'll show her some extra practice Chiron taught me," Percy grinned. It was a casual enough expression for him, but there was a hint of something else behind it already. This wasn't just any fight to Percy. He could not lose.

I'd trained against those weapons at camp for years.

She jabbed at me experimentally. I stepped away. She threw her net, hoping to tangle my sword hand, but I sidestepped easily, sliced her spear in half, and stabbed Riptide through a chink in her armor. With a painful wail, she vaporized into nothing, and the cheering of the crowd died.

Percy threw his arms wide with a mocking smile.

"I don't think they're very entertained Percy," Thalia said with mock sympathy.

"You should try fireworks, or at least some sparklers," Will offered.

"I could try shoving a grenade in somebody's mouth too," he shrugged as his arms fell. "Oh well, I've never cared what my peers think of me anyways."

"No!" Antaeus bellowed. "Too fast! You must wait for the kill. Only I give that order!"

I glanced over at Annabeth and Rachel. I had to find a way to get them free, maybe distract their guards.

"Nice job, Percy." Luke smiled. "You've gotten better with the sword. I'll grant you that."

Percy's skin crawled and he fought the urge to gag. Luke praising him once would have been the coolest thing after that very first quest.

"Round two!" Antaeus yelled. "And slower this time! More entertainment! Wait for my call before killing anybody. OR ELSE!"

"Or else you get two thumbs down," Alex said with confidence.

"Remind me not to ever disappoint you," Percy theatrically shivered.

The gates opened again, and this time a young warrior came out. He was a little older than me, about sixteen. He had glossy black hair, and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. He was thin and wiry so his Greek armor hung on him loosely. He stabbed his sword into the dirt, adjusted his shield straps, and pulled on his horsehair helmet.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Ethan Nakamura," he said. "I have to kill you."

They knew there were other, actual people in Luke's army, Chris's vegetative state still sat heavily on their minds as a constant reminder. Another boy walking through those doors was still the last thing they wanted to hear. Give Percy a rematch with that Chimera, let him go toe to toe with any monster. It would not have been Pleasant, but it still would always feel better than two barely teenagers trying to kill each other.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Hey!" a monster jeered from the stands. "Stop talking and fight already!"

The others took up the call.

"I have to prove myself," Ethan told me. "Only way to join up."

And with that he charged.

Will swallowed several foul things he'd like to say about that. Gods, he'd never wanted to know any step of the 'process' of Luke inducting kids to his side. Did Janey the seven year old chased to camp by a sphynx and vanished a month later have to prove herself? Did Christopher Sanders, only nine?

He'd been much happier with his own delusional idea every new half-blood that joined Luke's side was in a safe space, a new camp he was building away from this army of monsters being treated like fodder.

Our swords met in midair and the crowd roared.

It didn't seem right. I didn't want to fight to entertain a bunch of monsters, but Ethan Nakamura wasn't giving me much choice.

Neither were the monsters behind him holding Annabeth and Rachel prisoner. Most people got carrots and sticks, noooo, he got sticks and sticks!

Percy was keeping his anger at the situation mostly in check still. Sometimes there were campers around to watch the goings on in the arena, he'd fought in front of people before and he tried to spend a moment convincing himself Ethan was just a new camper and somebody would blow a whistle before anybody got hurt.

He pressed forward. He was good. He'd never been at Camp Half-Blood, as far as I knew, but he'd been trained. He parried my strike and almost slammed me with his shield, but I jumped back. He slashed. I rolled to one side. We exchanged thrusts and parries, getting a fell for each other's fighting style. I tried to keep on Ethan's blind side, but it didn't help much. He'd apparently been fighting with only one eye for a long time, because he was excellent at guarding his left.

Jason read that with such interest Percy felt like he was under a microscope. He and Thalia exchanged bemused looks what this guys deal was, he read like he was dying to take notes and probably share them with the class as soon as possible. Percy was now half convinced he must have been tortured by a teacher in his past life and had needed this rescue.

"Blood!" the monsters cried.

My opponent glanced up at the stands. That was his weakness, I realized.

He needed to impress them. I didn't.

"I don't suppose the case of, you are your own worst critic will come in handy?" Alex offered.

"He clearly judges himself good enough," Percy said with begrudging respect. He'd held his own, though Percy hadn't exactly been fighting all out. He didn't want to kill this guy.

He yelled an angry battle cry and charged me, but I parried his blade and backed away, letting him come after me.

"Boo!" Antaeus said. "Stand and fight!"

Ethan pressed me, but I had no trouble defending, even without a shield.

He was dressed for defense—heavy armor and shield—which made it very tiring to play offense. I was a softer target, but I also was lighter and faster.

The crowd went nuts, yelling complaints and throwing rocks. We'd been fighting for almost five minutes and there was no blood.

Finally Ethan made his mistake. He tried to jab at my stomach, and I locked his sword hilt in mine and twisted. His sword dropped into the dirt.

There was no triumphant shout of joy in here. Instead the heavy weight of memory left them all flinching like Percy had gotten another scratch.

Thalia wondered if Luke had seen that, been proud and hopeful Percy would still join his side someday.

Or if he'd just been watching Annabeth, making sure that Giant didn't squeeze the life out of her. She was never sure of his priorities anymore.

Before he could recover, I slammed the butt of my sword into his helmet and pushed him down. His heavy armor helped me more than him. He fell on his back, dazed and tired. I put the tip of my sword on his chest.

"You should post videos online," Alex sporadically decided. "You'd go viral, kids would never shut up about the cool thing they learned watching Percy Jackson fight every kind of opponent."

"Um, pass," Percy frowned at the idea of random people walking up to him on the street and congratulating him for kicking a monster sized rat to the curb.

"We can always post the footage of the play we do," Will offered oh so helpfully. "We get some really cool stunts and moves depicting most of it as being fake anyways."

"Will!" Percy spluttered while Alex smiled in delight. "Man you have got to stop with that joke, tell me there's no play!"

Will opened his mouth with a troubling smile on his face that didn't feel like it was going to be a helpful answer before Jason continued anyways.

"Get it over with," Ethan groaned.

I looked up at Antaeus. His red face was stony with displeasure, but he held up his hand and put it thumbs down.

"Forget it." I sheathed my sword.

There had been no moment of suspense between those last two sentences. Nobody had thought for a second Percy was going to kill this kid.

There was a sad, lingering silence as Jason took a breath though to realize Ethan had been about to accept it.

"Don't be a fool," Ethan groaned. "They'll just kill us both."

I offered him my hand. Reluctantly, he took it. I helped him up.

"No one dishonors the games!" Antaeus bellowed.

"Well that's what they get for inviting two Nobody's," Nico rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure Rachel would happily make three if we had time to explain," Percy agreed.

"Your heads shall both be tributes to Poseidon!"

I looked at Ethan. "When you see your chance, run." Then I turned back to Antaeus.

Jason felt a troubled knot already forming in his gut, and they hadn't even gotten to the escape part yet. Now Annabeth's group was going up to six members? It would be an act of the gods if they all made it out of this alive...

"Why don't you fight me yourself? If you've got Dad's favor, come down here and prove it!"

"Mmm," Alex smacked his lips in appreciation as if just sampling his favorite flavor. "Calling out the big boss to post up or shut up. Gets um every time."

"Yeah," Percy said with a weary sigh of agreement. His bones were already trembling against each other like they were about to break out into song as he scrambled in his mind trying to figure out how he won this one.

The monsters grumbled in the stands. Antaeus looked around, and apparently realized he had no choice. He couldn't say no without looking like a coward.

Thalia did offer Alex a high five which he happily air slapped.

"I am the greatest wrestler in the world, boy," he warned. "I have been wrestling since the first pankration!"

"Pankration?" I asked.

"I'm assuming that has nothing to do with the rations of the color pink?" Will frowned.

"I said pank like pain with a k," Jason frowned.

"Potato potato," Will shrugged. "Don't get me started on how hard it is to understand some of yawls accents if I'm not paying attention."

"I swear if we weren't all reading a magic book for dyslexic's we would have murdered each other by now over a fight of spelling Percy's name," Thalia sighed as she rubbed her forehead.

Nico was personally amused at Thalia's point being proven by not one of them actually seeming to stop and think to ask what the heck a pankration was in all their sporadic chatter.

"He means fighting to the death," Ethan said. "No rules. No holds barred. It used to be an Olympic sport."

"And they stopped that one?" Magnus scratched absently at his neck where his hair was tickling him to long. "Man, no wonder the turn out for those is lacking."

"You know how we all say a normal person should be thrown into one of those to see what an average person is like against these trained athletes," Alex smirked. "Yeah, I don't think anybody would be volunteering for this one."

"Except you," Magnus frowned accusingly.

"Yeah, but after I won ten years in a row I bet people would stop volunteering," Alex shrugged.

"Thanks for the tip," I said.

"Don't mention it."

Rachel was watching me with wide eyes. Annabeth shook her head emphatically, the Laistrygonian's hand still clamped over her mouth.

"You just know she's thinking up some new swears for you she's pissed she can't shout." Thalia said in sympathy. "I've wanted to call you a shrimp faced twit for the last hour."

"And she's much more creative," Percy chuckled.

I pointed my sword at Antaeus. "Winner takes all! I win, we all go free. You win, we die. Swear upon the River Styx."

"Look at you learning your lesson about that," Jason nodded with a slow clap.

"Like it'll do any good," Percy scoffed with a raised eyebrow, well aware even when he won he'd still have to escape Luke next.

Antaeus laughed. "This shouldn't take long. I swear to your terms!"

He leaped off the railing, into the arena.

"Good luck," Ethan told me. "You'll need it." Then he backed up quickly.

"Antaeus would probably accuse you of cheating," Will sighed, "but I wished Ethan had volunteered to help you. You just saved his life!"

"He's already helped enough by telling me there's no rules," Percy shrugged with that kind of grin on his face, the light in his green eyes that made all of them brace themselves and wish for a strap on their seats.

Antaeus cracked his knuckles. He grinned, and I saw that even his teeth were etched in wave patterns, which must've made brushing after meals a real pain.

Thalia burst out laughing hard. "Like he brushes his teeth."

"Note to self, his breath is probably worse than a dragons," Percy gagged.

"Weapons?" he asked.

"I'll stick with my sword. You?"

He held up his huge hands and wiggled his fingers. "I don't need anything else! Master Luke, you will referee this one."

Luke smiled down at me. "With pleasure."

"Percy takes a step and a whistle blows for a foul," Nico rolls his eyes.

"What's a referee even for if there are no rules?" Magnus frowned.

"To judge if the death was worthy," Percy shrugged, "which personally I don't think an immortal should get to be the judge of anyways!" It had never done anyone any good that he could tell.

Nico gave a slight cough and Percy frowned at him for a minute before he just said, "oh," without taking it back and Jason awkwardly moved on. Yeah, Hades had still kidnapped his mom.

Antaeus lunged. I rolled under his legs and stabbed him in the back of the thigh.

"Argggh!" he yelled. But where blood should've come out, there was a spout of sand, like I'd busted the side of an hourglass. It spilled into the dirt floor, and the dirt collected around his leg, almost like a cast. When the dirt fell away, the wound was gone.

"Well that's, not great," Magnus offered. It really was no guessing he was Annabeth's cousin.

"So I'm imagining a catapult right?" Alex began. "Percy lures him one way while we strip the stadium for parts and once he's strapped in for liftoff we add-"

Now thoroughly convinced Alex was on somebody's watchlist, Jason casually reminded they should focus on what Percy's actual plan was going to be.

He charged again. Fortunately I'd had some experience fighting giants. I dodged sideways this time and stabbed him under the arm. Riptide's blade was buried to the hilt in his ribs. That was the good news. The bad news was that it was wrenched out of my hand when the giant turned, and I was thrown across the arena, weaponless.

Percy had no reaction at all to his mind remembering that pain. The bruises he'd have had all along his back, the tense muscles it would take pure ocean water to fix after the stress of this place. His eyes were only on the prize.

Antaeus bellowed in pain. I waited for him to disintegrate. No monster had ever withstood a direct hit from my sword like that.

"Geryon did," Jason uneasily corrected. "Your blade doesn't always mean you're going to win the fight Percy."

He sounded friendly enough, like he was coaching him, but Percy was to pent up to do more with the advice than nod his thanks.

The celestial bronze blade had to be destroying his essence. But Antaeus groped for the hilt, pulled out the sword, and tossed it behind him.

"At least he didn't use it like a toothpick?" Thalia offered.

"I'd have to find a way to burn my sword," Percy shivered.

More sand poured from the wound, but again the earth rose up to cover him.

"How sensitive do you think that ability is?" Nico grinned a very unwelcoming smile. "If he gets a paper cut? If he stubs his toe does mommy make it better?"

"You and Percy are never allowed on the same quest," Will frowned at the idea these two would be playing tennis with each other and the monster was the ball.

Dirt coated his body all the way to his shoulders. As soon as the dirt spilled away, Antaeus was fine.

"Now you see why I never lose, demigod!" Antaeus gloated. "Come here and let me crush you. I'll make it quick!"

Antaeus stood between me and my sword. Desperately, I glanced to either side, and I caught Annabeth's eye.

The earth, I thought. What had Annabeth been trying to tell me?

Antaeus's mother was Gaea the earth mother, the most ancient goddess of all.

Antaeus's father might have been Poseidon, but Gaea was keeping him alive.

I couldn't hurt him as long as he was touching the ground.

I tried to skirt around him, but Antaeus anticipated my move. He blocked my path, chuckling. He was just toying with me now. He had me cornered.

"Now the only question left is, are you a wind up toy or do you need batteries or rechargeable, or what?" Thalia tapped her chin.

"I'm the kind that'll bite your hand if you reach for my fries," Percy reminded.

"You could never prove I did that," she sniffed.

I looked up at the chains hanging from the ceiling, dangling the skulls of his enemies on hooks. Suddenly I had an idea.

"Oooh, here we go again," Magnus sighed.

Nico tried hard not to flinch at that, but it was hard now knowing Bianca had once been a part of Percy's crazy plans.

I feinted to the other side. Antaeus blocked me. The crowd jeered and screamed at Antaeus to finish me off, but he was having too much fun.

"Not so easy now is it," Percy waved at the book like Antaeus was here to show his own hypocrisy to.

"I genuinely worry none of you guys are remotely worried about any of this anymore," Magnus sighed.

"We all deal with stress in our own ways," Alex shrugged.

"Puny boy," he said. "Not a worthy son of the sea god!"

Percy's jaw clenched tight. The entirety of the ocean sparked in his eyes. The easy going smile they all knew to be on him finally slipped away to that look of intense concentration that was born to control more of the surface of the planet than Gaea could.

I felt my pen return to my pocket, but Antaeus wouldn't know about that. He would think riptide was still in the dirt behind him. He would think my goal was to get my sword. It wasn't much of an advantage, but it was all I had.

"You've won worse with less," Thalia said with a dark undertone to her voice that was still waiting for the worst to be revealed.

I charged straight ahead, crouching low so he would think I was going to roll between his legs again. While he was stooping, ready to catch me like a grounder, I jumped for all I was worth—kicking off his forearm, scrambling up his shoulder like it was a ladder, placing my shoe on his head. He did the natural thing. He straightened up indignantly and yelled "HEY!"

"You are the definition of a pest," Alex laughed approvingly.

"I will be the unkillable fly!" Percy joyously agreed.

I pushed off, using his force to catapult me toward the ceiling. I caught the top of a chain, and the skulls and hooks jangled beneath me. I wrapped my legs around the chain, just like I used to do at the ropes course in gym class. I drew Riptide and sawed off the chain next to me.

"Come down here, coward!" Antaeus bellowed. He tried to grab me, but I was just out of reach. Hanging on for dear life, I yelled, "Come up and get me! Or are you too slow and fat?"

He howled and made another grab for me. He caught a chain and tried to pull himself up. While he was struggling, I lowered my sawed-off chain, hook first. It took me two tries, but finally I snagged Antaeus's loincloth.

Will gasped and covered his eyes like a dork, Nico snickered for himself, while the others all continued to listen with their mouths hanging open which was just as amusing to Percy. His hands ached from the callouses he'd ruptured and he wouldn't be surprised to be picking unpleasant things out of his palms for weeks after this...but that friendly smile was already right back in place as his confidence grew.

"WAAA!" he yelled. Quickly I slipped the free chain through the fastening link on my own chain, pulled it taut, and secured it the best I could.

Antaeus tried to slip back to the ground, but his butt stayed suspended by his loincloth. He had to hold on to the other chains with both hands to avoid getting flipped upside down. I prayed the loincloth and the chain would hold up for a few more seconds. While Antaeus cursed and flailed, I scrambled around the chains, swinging and cutting like I was some sort of crazed monkey. I made loops with hooks and metal links. I don't know how I did it. My mom always said I have a gift for getting stuff tangled up. Plus I was desperate to save my friends.

Anyway,

"Yeah, like that's ever something somebody should just talk right past," Magnus frowned.

"Do you want to stop and discuss all of those bullet points?" Percy asked in shock. "Because I can personally promise if we start with just the one about all my tangled up shoe laces we'll be here a good twenty minutes."

Magnus sighed in defeat. "Anyways..."

"Correct answer," Jason nodded.

within a couple of minutes the giant was suspended above the ground, hopelessly snarled in chains and hooks. I dropped to the floor, panting and sweaty. My hands were raw from climbing.

"Get me down!" Antaeus demanded.

"Free him!" Luke ordered. "He is our host!"

"Does anyone else feel like he just said that out of obligation," Jason rolled his eyes.

Six hands went up and Jason looked way to pleased about getting a unanimous vote that at least three of them promised not to do it again on principle.

I uncapped Riptide. "I'll free him."

And I stabbed the giant in the stomach. He bellowed, and sand poured out, but he was too far up to touch the earth, and the dirt did not rise to help him.

"I guess some birds shouldn't be kicked out of their nest," Nico snorted.

"That is somehow the opposite of what just happened," Thalia looked at him mildly.

"And yet it still works," Nico shrugged.

Antaeus just dissolved, pouring out bit by bit, until there was nothing left but empty swinging chains, a really big loincloth on a hook, and a bunch of grinning skulls dancing above me like they had finally had something to smile about.

"So which one did you claim as your trophy Percy?" Alex asked with a clear winner in his mind.

"None," Percy frowned.

"I would have taken the sand, put him in an hour glass so he never misses game night," Alex sighed at his clear lack of creativity. Percy was mildly offended after the way he'd just thought up killing that monster, but really, would it do him any good to argue the point?

"Jackson!" Luke yelled. "I should have killed you long ago!"

"You tried," I reminded him.

"And thankfully, practice doesn't seem to make perfect in this case," Thalia grumbled.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes progress," Will said with chipper. Of course, he knew everybody came out of it alive, but to everyone else he sounded a wee bit like a maniac.

"Let us go, Luke. We had a sworn agreement with Antaeus. I'm the winner."

He did just what I expected. He said, "Antaeus is dead. His oath dies with him. But since I'm feeling merciful today, I'll have you killed quickly."

Percy had seen it coming, he was in no way surprised, and yet he still hadn't come up with a second part to his brilliant plan to actually get them out of this!

Jason fiddled with the pages for a few seconds as he wondered at Luke casually ordering Percy's execution. Had he lost all hope of recruiting him and claiming the Prophecy for his side? Did he somehow think he could talk Thalia out of her oath and use that to his advantage?

They were questions without an answer.

He pointed at Annabeth. "Spare the girl." His voice quavered just a little. "I would speak to her before—before our great triumph."

Thalia wished that would stop hurting her so much every time. To hear her friend wounded, looking desperately for help in his family, and knowing Annabeth would not give it to him. He was hurting them both, and no matter how she longed to just cut ties with him completely, Luke was to far gone to see any other way.

Every monster in the audience drew a weapon or extended its claws. We were trapped. Hopelessly outnumbered.

"Yeah, yeah, how many times have I heard that before," Thalia yawned, mock checking a watch she did not wear.

"Until you let me borrow your fart arrows, you're not allowed to be that confident about my mortality," Percy frowned.

"Hard pass," Thalia said while patting his forehead.

Then I felt something in my pocket—a freezing sensation, growing colder and colder. The dog whistle. My fingers closed around it. For days I'd avoided using Quintus's gift. It had to be a trap. But now...I had no choice. I took it out of my pocket and blew. It made no audible sound as it shattered into shards of ice, melting in my hand.

Now Jason couldn't help an accidental dramatic pause as his mind whirled with possibilities of all the ends and outs, paths and plans that could lead to Mrs. O'Leary showing up at this time, friend or foe...until Thalia smacked him and said, "stop leaving everyone in suspense if this chain saw massacre lives another hour."

"That is the coolest thing you've ever called me Thals," Percy grinned.

"Don't make me regret it," she grinned right back.

Luke laughed. "What was that supposed to do?"

"Actually summon a taxi, guess nobody's invented an app for that yet," Nico snipped.

From behind me came a surprised yelp. The Laistrygonian giant who'd been guarding Annabeth flew past me and smashed into the wall.

"AROOOOF"

Kelli the empousa screamed as a five-hundred-pound black mastiff picked her up like a chew toy and tossed her through the air, straight into Luke's lap.

"Dang I love this dog," Thalia yelled like she'd just won them a game against Air Bud at the playoffs.

"She gets extra treats and belly rubs for life," Alex cooed for the good girl. Magnus swallowed automatic revulsion and decided he'd better start getting used to this dog.

Mrs. O'Leary snarled, and the two dracaenae guards backed away. For a moment the monsters in the audience were caught completely by surprise.

"Always nice when you surprise the monsters that have seen everything," Percy grinned, his talent for startling Chiron getting a nice flip side on the bad guys.

"The only thing that would make this moment better was if she was a pink poodle instead of a massive tank dog," Alex chuckled.

"Let's go!" I yelled at my friends. "Heel, Mrs. O'Leary!"

"The far exit!" Rachel cried. "That's the right way!"

Ethan Nakamura took his cue. Together we raced across the arena and out the far exit, Mrs. O'Leary right behind us. As we ran, I could hear the disorganized sounds of an entire army trying to jump out of the stands and follow us.

"I hope those monsters all trampled each other like you were a Black Friday sale," Alex grinned.

"Who knew it was so easy to relate these monsters to real life problems," Magnus frowned.

Jason sighed his turn was up while he was still mapping out strategies of how to funnel the monsters in one by one while tossing Mrs. O'Leary some bacon bits as he got up to hand the book off.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Gods do I wish Hunger Games had come out just a few years earlier! I wanted to make so many references...

[thedyingmoon]

🖤 I See My Future Before Me 🖤

***

XX

***

"Lo, a shadow of horror is risen,

In eternity! Unknown, unprolific!

Self - closed, all - repelling:

What Demon hath form'd this abominable void,

This soul - shudd'ring vacuum?

Some said 'It is Urizen', but unknown, abstracted,

Brooding secret, the dark power hid."

"Vergil, are you sure you want me to read this?" The girl asked the little boy one fine morning in the beautiful garden. "We've read this lots of times."

The little boy looked up with pure, innocent eyes. "It is Urizen! Urizen!"

"I know, I know,..." Galatea answered, helpless in front of the sweet child. "Okay, I'll read it for you. But, you have to listen while I read about the Little Lamb! Or the Tyger, or,..."

"URIZEN!"

The girl sighed and opened the book once more.

"Times and times he divided, and measur'd,

Space by space in his ninefold darkness

Unseen, unknown! Changes appear'd

In his desolate mountains rifted furious

By the black winds of perturbation."

"Gala - te - a!" The child cried as he ran to her.

"What happened? Why are you crying?"

"Dante kicked me in the face!"

Galatea wrapped her arms around the boy and rubbed his back. "Sshh, it's okay. I'm here now. I'm here. I will protect you,..."

"For he strove in battles dire

In unseen conflictions with shapes

Bred from his forsaken wilderness,

Of beast, bird, fish, serpent, and element

Combustion, blast, vapour, and cloud."

"Vergil! Where are you? Vergil!" Galatea called as she desperately looked for the boy.

But, instead, she found her mother lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Her own blood.

"Mama! Mama,..." The girl uttered in shock, unable to believe that such a thing would happen to her.

The woman smiled at her, her eyes glistening with tears. "Please, find him and save him before it's too late! Protect him at all cost. Save him from his death!" She begged you once more. "I' am so sorry, my dear. Fulfill my wish, I beg you,... Galatea,... "

The girl reached out a hand but, she was too late,...

"MAMA!"

"SAVE HIM! FULFILL,... MY LAST REQUEST!"

"Your wish,... is our command,..."

***

You walked aimlessly around, wanting your enemies to find you. You waited for something to happen, anything at all, as you traversed that lonely and dangerous road.

Your heart filled with heavy and conflicting emotions, your eyes red with tears that silently fell non - stop, your head burdened with all the visions of the near future, you moved on, waiting for something else to happen.

Deep inside your heavy heart, you still longed for a sliver of hope, no matter how small,...

... you want to find him and tell him everything,...

But, it seemed that the man, himself, did not want to be found.

Or, did he?

V was observing you with keen, wary eyes as you aimlessly walked around. Like you, he was waiting for something to happen, anything at all, no matter how small.

But, unlike you, he was not longing for any kind of hope.

He was looking for one last proof to end all your lies.

There was nothing in his mind but your complete and utter destruction. So much so that he spied on you for four days without you knowing it. He had seen how you fight, how you moved, how you finished your enemies but, he knew that you have not revealed your true colors just yet.

And for that, something huge must happen - a larger, much stronger enemy. The type for you to use your true potential with.

And, it seemed that he didn't have to wait for too long,...

You looked up, your eyes wide with anticipation. You felt and heard some movement, and surely enough, a group of scythe - wielding Demons appeared before you.

Three, six, twelve, eighteen, twenty - four of the same demonic species appeared, overwhelming you with their numbers.

V concealed himself quickly, not wanting to waste his energy by helping you. He watched you as you drew your rapier and shield in the form of a bow and a violin. You made your first move but, he saw it was too reckless. You managed to evade the first attack but, the second one landed a strong, direct hit right on your mid - section. The scythe - like arm of the Demon then extended, carrying you with it, and pinned you to a wall.

The poet resisted to help you still, watching as the Hell Judeca plunged its weapon deeper within you. He knew deep within his being that you would unleash your true power any moment now.

However, something truly weird, and yet, expected, happened. The moment the wind blew and your blood dripped on the ground beneath you, a strong scent of fresh flowers wafted through the air, confusing the enemies and making them freeze.

As soon as the strong scent reached V, he covered his nose in an effort to protect himself. Your alluring scent has never attacked him this effectively before, and it took all his strength and effort to prevent himself from going directly to you.

But, not the same could be said about the Demons around you.

To V's utter surprise, he saw how the Demons kneeled in front of you, like you have just become their master.

His eyes widened in shock and his hand dropped from his nose and mouth.

It was all true. Fleminger was right, all along. You're the Dreadnought!

On the other hand, you were so confused as to what just occurred before your very own eyes. The fearful Demons, which considered ending your life a bit earlier, all started worshipping you like you were their queen.

You looked down from your wound and realized it must have been your blood that drew them to you.

All of a sudden, an idea struck your head.

Despite your wounded state, you drew your weapon and started attacking the Hell Judeca that wounded you. It didn't even flinch as you pushed the bow deep within its heart. The other Demons didn't even react as it fell lifeless on the ground before you. They remained rooted to the earth, mesmerized by the mere sight and scent of you.

V watched intently as you finished the Demons one by one, none of which were doing anything to protect themselves. And as you were about to kill the last Hell Judeca, something roared not far from where you were, and a few moments later, a larger, much fiercer enemy came running towards you like a raging bull.

You tried to jump away but, your rapid bloodloss was hindering your movements. Just as you were about to get mauled to your death, a dark being in the form of a volley of spikes rose in front of you, fully stopping the Demon and making it stagger.

With your blurry sight, you saw V as he landed gracefully in front of you, commanding both Shadow and Griffon to attack the enemy. And when it could no longer move from the series of hits it received from his demonic familiars, he plunged his metal cane deep within its flesh, finally putting an end to it.

Bloody and tired, V turned and looked at your pitiful form, looking cold and uncaring. Despite that look of his, he went directly towards you and caught you as you were about to collapse.

"V - v,..." you stuttered as you felt numbness taking over your whole body.

The man didn't say anything. Instead, he lifted you effortlessly and carried you to who knows where,...

*

The next time you opened your eyes, you found yourself staring at the ceiling of Nico's trailer. You slowly and carefully sat up straight, feeling the thick bandage wrapped around your stomach, and looked around.

Despite your glum mood, the sunny and cheerful weather outside greeted you as you made your way to the dashboard. You saw the time and date and sighed.

June 15, 6:45

It was the expected date of the Dreadnought's arrival.

And then, one thought came to mind - V.

Well, you still kind of promised to Nico that you would confess.

You had to do it. You had no idea how long you would last, so, it's all, or nothing. After all, you're about to face the Dreadnought in a few hours. You had to really do it, before anything bad befall you.

And you must say it now, before,...

You saw him there, standing outside of the van, calmly reading his beloved William Blake anthology. He was alone, and it was a perfect timing.

You inhaled deeply, actually expecting for the worse. Even despite your friend Nico's reassurance that everything would turn out fine, you just could not shake off the foreboding feeling that this insane idea would end up with disastrous results.

But, then, you're here with him now. There's no use turning back.

V saw you in his peripheral vision as you made your way towards him.

Hiding his sigh, he asked in a polite and well - mannered way, "How can I help you?"

"I, uhh,..." You stuttered. "I wanted to tell you something."

"Go on." V answered, intentionally making himself uninterested in this conversation.

"I just wanted to say,... uhh,... thank you. For saving me earlier."

"I always come when I can to help those in need." He lied, for he didn't want to save others, at all. Especially you.

He just wanted to be the one who would finish you.

Your chest felt heavier, your breathing more labored. Your lips trembled as you tried to say the words,...

"You are such a good person, and I,... I really like you,... for that,..."

And why was he not surprised? Of course! You're a deceiver! And now, it looked as though you're doing everything you can to win him for one last time.

But, it's never going to work. V was dead set on his goal.

You took what courage and little confidence you had left and decided to pour everything out of your bursting chest.

"What I mean to say is, I really, really like you, V. I just thought I should let you know before,..." There! You finally said the words. But, before you could even begin to say the word 'Dreadnought', he looked up from his book with a smile on his lips.

He left his spot and went slowly towards you, swinging his cane playfully.

At last! That smile! You missed his smile so much. You just ached to see it once more,...

"Those words you just uttered, were you certain about them?" He asked you, that strange smile still on his lips.

Your heart suddenly became heavier as nerves took over your whole system. Something was really wrong about V and how he smiled at you.

It didn't look,... genuinely happy.

"Sorry?"

He just chuckled, like he was making fun of a child.

"Those feelings you have for me, I'm afraid we do not share them mutually." He simply said without any difficulty.

He is,... breaking my heart?!

"I see. Well, I just wanted you to know - "

"But, that was not enough for you, yes?" Using his cane, he made you look up to him, propping your chin up to properly meet his piercing gaze. "You said I'm a good person, if I got it correctly."

"Y - yes."

"Then, I do feel obliged to tell you that I' am not the person you seem to know. I' am neither a good person, nor a hero you consider. In fact, I' am the villain of your story."

I' am the villain of your story,...

You heard that same line again from one of your unwanted visions,...

But, this time, it's for real,...

"V?" You said helplessly, confusion and sadness taking over.

"And I, may I add, only helped you because you seem so,... useless. Why would you even take up this massive commission in the first place? You are not as half as strong as the weakest Devil Hunter here to begin with. You are just a weak human who relies on others for survival."

"I,... " You felt the tears wanting to pour out once more, feeling this endless torture wanting to break you until you could no longer retaliate.

It hurts,...

V, I'm doing this for you! What I've been doing for ten years, I'm doing it all for you!

And he surely didn't know your own reason for doing all of those, even though the pain you felt hiding all those things kept on piling up, higher and higher, until you could no longer contain the sadness.

Until you could no longer contain the tears of frustration and heartbreak.

And he didn't stop there despite seeing the tears in your eyes.

It seemed like breaking your heart was not enough.

Oh, my, V thought sarcastically. How genuine that is. What a great actress! This girl deserves an award! What would it be? Shadow's scratches? Too easy. Griffon's thunder? He would refuse to do it.

This cane? Hmm, a slow and painful death. I like it.

"You would only become a burden. I suggest you leave this place even before the first signs of the enemy." He said, letting your chin go as he gave his final warning to you. He was about to walk away when he heard you call his name.

"I will not be a burden, V!" You helplessly said to him, tears streaming down your face. "I have to face this battle, please!"

"Apparently," V said in a threatening voice as he turned back to look at you. He strode towards you like a predator, and you had to step back in fear of what he might do to you. "You are not only useless, but an imbecile, as well. If I were you, I would gladly take this chance to leave in order to spare my own life. Take it from me, it is better to run away."

You could not say any more words to him. He completely broke you, and now, you just stood there, shocked, and a complete whimpering mess. He brought the tip of his cane down as forcefully as he could, summoning Shadow in the process as some of his tattoos vanished from his pale skin.

You looked as the great, dark Demon growled at you, something that made you even more heartbroken, for the huge cat, for some reason, used to purr quite loudly and shamelessly whenever you scratch her chin and ears as she laid down beside you.

"Now, we do not want bloodshed here so early on in the game. Leave. Now." He warned for the very last time.

You had no choice but to turn away. From the Dreadnought. From your purpose.

From the man you have grown to love despite everything.

And as V made his way towards the north where the largest Demon awaited, he felt a strange kind of pain crawling underneath his skin. He looked at his hand,...

... and noticed that it was crumbling,...

V's eyes widened in fear. He closed them, wanting to chase the hallucination away. He opened them once more and glanced at his hand,...

... it looked normal.

Griffon materialized and faced him.

"You,..." the demonic bird began. "YOU HAVE GONE DOWN TOO DEEP FOR ME TO SAVE YA!"

The poet only chuckled. "For what purpose must you save me, pray tell?"

"I'm sorry, V." Griffon answered mournfully. "I'M BREAKING OUR CONTRACT! YOU'RE NO LONGER THE STICK SHAKESPEARE NOODLE I USED TO KNOW! YOU'VE BECOME DIFFERENT! YOU - "

"By all means, go." V chuckled, not caring in the least for his very first companion. "But, I do hope you are aware what will happen to you if you break the contract,..."

"I DON'T CARE! YOU'VE GONE FAR ENOUGH!" Griffon yelled, his golden eyes glistening with unspeakable pain. "YOU JUST HURT THE WOMAN WHO - "

"Wanted to use me like a whore. Is that it?" V finished for him, his eyes and facial expression alike getting darker and more evil.

"FFFUUUCCCKKK YYYOOOUUU!" Griffon shrieked angrily as he flew up high, summoning all his powers to attack his former master.

But, he couldn't,...

Despite everything, Griffon respected V. He knew he was only brainwashed by that Fleminger guy. And he needed someone to wake him up.

Griffon needed you to wake him up.

He withdrew his attack and calmed down. This made V cover his face and show a sick kind of psychotic mirth.

"Hahaha. Hahaha! HAHAHA! You make me laugh,..."

"You're not worth it,..." The demonic bird quietly said, letting V laugh it off, and finally left him, breaking their contract once and for all.

And he sure wasn't joking about it. V noticed how some of his tattoos vanished,...

Meanwhile, back in the trailer,...

"Hey, hey, sshh, it's okay,..." Nico gently whispered to you as you let it all out on her.

You have been crying non - stop since V rejected you, and you didn't care in the least how you looked.

If it was written that he must murder you in order for him to survive, it won't hurt as much if he only had the same level of emotions for you!

But, no!

Again, you were wrong!

How stupid of you!

He already stabbed your heart, and fuck! It hurts!

It hurts so fucking much!

"I'll go." You told Nico. "I still,... h - have to g - go,..."

"Ya sure about this? You would surely not make it outta there alive. Not for gettin' smacked by Demons." Nico, who only recently found out about your fate, told you.

You looked up from the towel that Nico offered you to wipe your tears with.

"I know. I have accepted that ever since I decided to join. Nico, I know my fate, and I embrace it."

"You know your fate but, not the dying bit, huh? That's a bitchy move by your entities right there!"

"I don't know. They must have a reason for keeping it from me until now."

Your friend sighed.

"Still can't tell him?"

"No. He doesn't have to know."

You glanced out of the window to see the massive thing floating in the sky towards the deserted city. You were sure that the others were already dealing with it as of the moment.

That must be the Dreadnought, then.

You sighed, inhaled deeply and exhaled almost angrily. You wiped your tears with the drenched towel one last time and madly slammed it on the table near you. You stood up, rubbed your nose with your arm in a very unlady - like fashion, took your weapons, and angrily faced the radio.

"Why does my heart go on beating?

Why do these eyes of mine cry?

Don't they know it's the end of the world?

It ended when you said goodbye."

"TURN THAT FUCKING THING OFF!"

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!" Nico obliged as she did so hastily.

"Could you play something more upbeat for a change?!" You asked bravely, ready to face your own death. "Like, with no heartbreaks, or rejections, or douchebags, or what the fucking ever?!"

Nico gasped in fright. "Wow! Sailor - mouth Nero sure made an impact to you, huh, hon?"

"Just fucking do it!"

"Alright! Alright!" The freckled woman said and slammed the jukebox button on. "How about this?!"

You listened to the upbeat music and nodded in agreement.

"Good. Now, at least I won't have to die having LSS of The End Of The World."

Nico nodded. You have become angsty and mad, and at least that's better than you moping around, tending to your broken heart.

"I'll go, just like the usual."

"Alone?" Nico asked.

"And after the boys." You said with utter resolution. V may have rejected your feelings, but he would not dare reject your permanent, once in a lifetime offer of an insurance policy, and you damn well know it.

"Hey, come here." Nico wrapped you in a tight hug all of a sudden. You really were dead set on dying now that she couldn't help but be sad.

Then, the prophetic entity's words came back to Nico's head,...

"Would you weep, human?"

"Uh, it depends,..."

"You are strong and vigilant. Remain as such until the promised hour."

"I'm gonna miss you so much, hon." Nico quietly said to you, still not letting you go. "You can always go back here when the going gets tough."

You controlled the tears as it threatened to spill again.

Damn, you're going to miss your only best friend in the world,...

"I'm gonna miss you, too." You answered as you hugged her back with the same intensity. "Oh, God. I wish I had breakfast,..."

At the mere mention of a meal, something suddenly banged on the windshield of the trailer. The two of you looked to find it was only Griffon who somehow landed on the glass, wings spread and beak up.

"Chickee?" You mumbled as you opened the door and waited for the demonic bird to enter.

And when he finally did, boy, had he got something truly surprising for you.

"SWEET PEA! I'M DYING!" The bird whined.

"What do you want me to do?! I'm gonna die too, you know?!"

Griffon's eyes widened. Of course, you would find that out,...

"CONTRACT! WE NEED A CONTRACT!"

"Chickee, I thought you're V's - ?" Nico asked when she was abruptly cut off by the bird.

"SHAKESPEARE AND I ARE OFFICIALLY THROUGH!" Griffon announced. "SWEET PEA, ARE YA GONNA ACCEPT OR WHAT?! V'S OUT TO KILL YA!"

"I KNOW!"

"THEN, MIGHT AS WELL WE DIE TOGETHER THAN ALONE!"

After a few agonizing moments later, you found yourself marked with the same tattoos as V's, only a bit smaller and more subtle than his loud ones.

A proof that you and Griffon,...

"... we're partners now!" The bird gleefully announced in your head, thinking about what the entity told him before.

"Remain true to your instincts. Even in the face of true danger."

"I don't know what weird shit just happened but, I do sure feel better with you partnering for good." Nico admitted as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah." You answered. "I feel ten times better."

Griffon materialized as the markings on your right arm vanished.

"FUCK YEAH!" The bird triumphantly screamed. "Hey, you know what, it felt somehow cleaner inside you than V's,..."

"Whatever you say." You answered as you walked out of the trailer for the last time. You looked at both Nico and Griffon, smiled, and screamed,...

"LET'S DO THIS!"

***

Just before going with his sisters, Cassandra roamed around for a while inside the burning house. She knew exactly where Vergil was. But, she knew she was too late to go to him now.

It was,... inevitable,...

She just have to do one last thing before going away to find a new vessel,...

... a disposable vessel that would carry them until the day they would reunite with Sparda's blood.

She looked up and spread her arms, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Forgive me for what I have to do." Cassandra said as she closed her eyes. "But, I have to do this in order to protect us. I pray you do not feel sorrow, for these memories shall return the moment we reunite."

A strange kind of light emanated from her body as she said those words, and when she finally dropped her arms, she sighed.

"Until we meet again,..."

***

~ A V X Reader set in an Alternate Universe wherein we finally caught up with the prologue! Wow! How long has that been? 🤔

~ Now tagging ( again ) these wonderful people: @heaven-on-a-landslide , @gxthghoulfriend , @boundbysoul , @krazy06 , @ehrzeth , @lessy86 , @ceruleanworld , @simmy-ships , and @diabeticsugarush . 🖤

***

The present

*

Dante stopped dead in his tracks. He was about to face the horde of Demons before the much larger and fiercer - looking Dreadnought when some words suddenly came up on his lips.

"Andro,... meda,..." The Devil Hunter mumbled under his breath. "Cassandra,... Galatea,...

... who,... are they again?"

***

Note: In movies, the little scene we see after the credits rolled in ( just like in the MCU ), are called "tags", or commonly and infamously known as "end - credit scenes". Congratulations, you just saw one in this chapter. Yeah, the more you know. 👌👍👍

***

🖤🖤🖤

***

[societysonlooker]

I'm getting into the discourse-y side 0f pjo tumblr, so imma leave it before I upset myself, but the one thing if have to say is this.

Pjo and it's sequel series are great stories, with well-written books, and compelling narratives.

But.

As kind and forward thinking as Rick Riordan has tried to be with his books, he has fallen into the pitfalls of hitting harmful stereotypes on the head, and sometimes forgetting underlying themes of his own work.

And thats not an insult.

Not a compliment, but not an insult.

Gods above and below know that I sometimes forget side plots and underlying themes I'm trying to talk about and be consistent with in my own work.

But.

I'm IN the communities I'm writing about.

Riordan is not.

Even while trying his best, he doesn't know what to look for and avoid.

I love his work, and even then, I'm willing to say that a number of the problems people are seeing and discussing are the inevitable product of someone trying and failing to hit the mark.

There's a LOT of historical context, primarily GAY context, that has been lost in Greek mythos, and unless you're looking for it, you're never really gonna find it. How many people can say that they KNOW Virgin/maiden meant unmarried, NOT "chaste" way back when. Artemis's hunters realistically could have been women of ANY sexuality but heterosexual+heteroromantic.

Getting outed when you're REALLY not ready to come out, or are scared you could be hurt if you come out, ntm being 15/16 and having your heart bared to the world, that's fucking traumatic. It hurts worse than just about anything else at that age CAN hurt you, it's not just something you glower over for a few days while saying "hm, that sucks". It's terrifying and painful.

Also. ace's and aros's aren't broken in any way. Our hearts aren't wrong, they don't need to be "mended" or "healed" jfc.

And Rick forgetting themes of minor gods being important... it sucks. It really fucking does. He had a LOT going for him with the "hey don't cast people to the wayside because they don't hold as much [political and literal] power at birth as others do and all you're doing by disenfranchising them is hurting them and yourselves, we're all people together so act like it and be kind, because people responding to hate and disdain with violence isn't really that fucking shocking you assholes" thing. And he dropped the ball. And it sucks but... Rick is still a white dude. And don't get me wrong, I do honestly believe he's trying, and that he's trying to be inclusive and diverse and kind, and tbf, he's doin a lot better than a lot of his contemporaries and peers.

But at the same time, it's not out of the question that he might have had that theme more internalized with the "be kind to people" than the whole "hey let's be kind to these very specific groups of people we were helping?" we all took it as.

What I'm saying is, he dropped the ball because he didn't realize it was something that could be dropped. He's not (outwardly amd that I know of, at least) part of any ostracized or oppressed group, so his focus was on the story as a whole, not the underlying tones and implications of his forgotten plot points.

And AGAIN. Its sucks. But as a writer... I get it. It happens. It just sucks that it happened with such an important theme.

I do honestly believe Riordan tried his best, and ngl, as someone who didn't really watch non-animated TV as a kid (aka I didn't watch glee or anything like it), nico di-angelo was my first bit of gay rep in modern media (apollos actual myths don't count I knew it was gay it just never like... Clicked). As an ace, I think it's rad he made the hunters aroace, as someone who vaguely defines as a lebian, I think it sucks that there's can't be wlw in relationships in the hunters.

(or nonbinary folk and even men for that matter, there ARE myths where Artemis lets men into the hunters because they've proven they're both humble, and not there to flirt with the women its just sus is all I'm saying. She doesn't hate men, she hates their Pride and ego, and I think it's a VERY interesting distinction when looking at classical Greeks absolute disdain for women. Because Artemis basically had the gall to say "im not just your better because I'm a goddess I and all my sisters are your equal and betters as women and men got fucking mad abt that. She really had nothing against the ones that accepted her and the hunters competence)

Anyway.

Rick Riordan is a writer, not a gay classics nerd with a firm grasp of the complexities of all the different sexualities. He's a writer, not a civics professor. He's GREAT at what he does. Am I upset at the pitfalls he landed square into? Yes. Am I overtly surprised? No. And do I think this was intentionally malicious, meant to hurt marginalized readers? No, absolutely not. I think he's a writer who's made mistakes, like all of us.

Should we still point out these pitfalls, why they're damaging, and how they could have been avoided? Yes. Absolutely, 100% yes, we should. But don't hate the series or cancel Rick or something because of them. We're all susceptible to our inherent biases, and I think so long as we're actively working to fix them, we'll be ok.