#Jason should’ve been stronger than Percy

[bookworm-2000]

The only reason Rick made Jason pass out so much was because he either didn’t know how to write him or because he was too scared to write him.

Change my mind.

And before people say, ‘why on earth would he be scared?’ Look at almost everyone’s reaction to someone who should’ve been canonically stronger than the main character.

The fandom lost their shit over Jason, about how he was just ‘competition’ for Percy and how he was so boring and bland, but did they not get the hints of this boys backstory??

He was literally raised by an army of teens after being abandoned by his mother and (he thought) his sister. When he finally reconnected with his sister, she was closer with Percy and Annabeth than she was with him!

I personally don’t think Jason did have any resentment for Percy either but if he did, I also think it would have been 100% justified.

Reasons?

Like I said, Thalia being closer with Percy than him. Plus everybody just loving Percy for being Percy, while as soon as Jason went missing, CJ replaced him like he was nothing.

I think some people hate Jason for how he treated Reyna as well, but Jason never got all his memories back! He barely remembered anything about his past! And Reyna literally replaced him as soon as she could! I’m not talking about Percy being made Praetor! I’m talking about how she literally made a move on Percy! This shows that Reyna never really cared about Jason, at least not romantically!

But Rick just didn’t expand enough on Jason’s backstory. He went into so much detail for everyone else (besides Piper but that’s a whole different thing because really besides her dad ‘ignoring’ her, what the fuck else did she go through?) but not Jason. And he set it up for such an impactful, trauma inducing background and did nothing with it??

What the fuck, Rick? What the fuck?

[seattlesea]

✨My (maybe) Unpopular Heroes of Olympus Opinions✨

(maybe part one??? idk)

-I don’t really ship any of the main canon ships in HoO. None of them had any chemistry and most of them are either pedophilic, forced and rushed, or toxic in some way

-Most of the characters that were shoved into relationships (Leo, Nico, and Hazel especially) really did not need a love interest to complete their character arcs and their relationships ended up boring and flat cause Riordan just wanted everyone to have a love interest and it never went deeper than the skin

-Piper took advantage over Jason’s amnesiac state and manipulated him. She really went ‘But what if he has a girlfriend he can’t remember 👉👈 it would be wrong to start a relationship with him while he still has amnesia 👉👈 and cause it was based off lies and fake memories 👉👈 lmao imma just jump all over him and make him fall for me while he’s still amnesiac 🤪’ as if that’s not taking advantage over someone’s mental state

-And then she blamed her relationship being forced on Aphrodite and Hera saying they ‘forced her into a relationship’ and ‘arranged their relationship’ even though Aphrodite never said anything about or did anything to them and Hera gave Piper fake memories of them being a couple but it was Piper’s conscious choice to act out on those memories she knew were fake and her relationship was in no way influenced by anyone (especially Hera and Aphrodite) other than herself

-Shelper and Solangelo were way too rushed and forced (inside and outside of the books) and were only added for publicity, plus it seems like most of the fandom only like them cause they’re LGBTQ+ ships

-I hate Pipeyna and Pipabeth. My girls (especially Reyna) deserve better than some manipulative little girl who went ‘we were friends? no weren’t ❤️’

-The fandom portrays the characters really inaccurately (tweaking them a bit for humor is fine, but changing their entire personality is a different thing)

-The movies actually aren’t that bad when not compared to the books (I mean, you gotta admit- it’s pretty good effects for 2010)

-And speaking of the movies, they did a better job at portraying Thalia and Annabeth’s relationship in one movie than Riordan did in 5+ books

-Speaking of which, Riordan wrote pretty much every platonic friendship that weren’t Thalia/Nico and Reyna horribly and most of them shouldn’t have been friends and wasted all the potential for the good friendships

-Calypso should’ve joined the Hunters, not Reyna

-Annabeth and Piper are horrible friends lmao (separately and together)

-Silena is a hero and deserves redemption, but Luke doesn’t despite most of the fandom agreeing he does (he was a pedophile y’all)

-The fandom over-exaggerated the Tartarus fall, it wasn’t really that bad tbh

-Reyna is stronger and a better leader than Annabeth

-Annabeth’s intelligence is more tell than show (and quite a few characters including Leo, Reyna, and Octavian have shown more intelligence than her)

-Riordan over-glorifies and overpowers Percy way too much. Just cause he’s the main character doesn’t mean he has to be the best of the best after barely 8 months of training (four years at CHB only in the summers is 8 months total)

-Speaking of which, Jason can beat Percy (8 months versus Jason’s twelve years) and so can Annabeth, Reyna, Thalia, Hylla, Luke, Hazel and maybe Frank and Nico. Percy’s skill is overrated and unrealistic

-And I feel like most of the fandom knows that Jason can beat Percy but just doesn’t want to admit it cause they like Percy more

-Same thing with the Greeks and Romans- the majority know the Romans are stronger and can easily beat the Greeks but they don’t want to believe it cause they favor the Greeks more

-Percy and Annabeth shouldn’t have been part of the Seven, they already had their chance to shine. Riordan should’ve brought minor characters into light instead

-And Piper shouldn’t have been part of the Seven either. Riordan really expects me to believe that she’s stronger, more powerful, and a greater/better hero and deserved to be part of the Seven more than Reyna, Nico, Clarisse, Thalia, etc.?

-Riordan’s women line-up of Reyna, Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper was really cheap and boring (Avengers: Endgame women line-up who?)

-Percy (in HoO) and Piper are easily some of the worst, most underdeveloped characters Riordan has ever written

-Annabeth got really bland and weak in HoO and couldn’t do shit for herself without others (especially newbies) having to help and/or save her. She pretty much became exclusively Percy fangirl

-As much as I like them, Frank and Hazel don’t have what it takes to be Praetors and Reyna and Jason should’ve stayed as them

-Jason’s whole ‘am I more Greek or Roman’ arc was dumb af

-Riordan’s bias towards the Romans is also dumb af (the Romans could beat the Greeks in an instant)

-Jeyna is and always will be 1000x better than Jiper

-Hazel is the most powerful demigod (way more than Percy and even Jason)

-My hot take on who should’ve been the Seven: Reyna, Nico, Thalia, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Clovis (son of the god of sleep puts Gaea back to sleep who?)

-Riordan confirming Piper bi was a cheap move to make her more likable. It didn’t even make any sense. A character is confirmed LGBT only after they become a minor character despite being a main character before and kisses some random unnamed girl only three months after her ex-boyfriend whom she still loved dies??? girl what??? Kinda obvious it was just for publicity. Like- Riordan, honey, the LGBTQ+ community is not a circus you can plop your characters into to make them more entertaining❤️

-The PJ series as a whole isn’t that creative. It’s legit just a copy of exactly what past mythological figures have already done and a bunch of character tropes and clichés shoved into one book

-And in general it’s not even that well-written (like HP, it’s over-exaggerated a lot)

-All of the romantic relationships and platonic friendships are extremely unrealistic. Like they never argue/fight, disagree, etc. (then grow stronger from those fights) at all??? Even if they’re complete opposites???

-Reyna is the best-written character in the whole series and a queen she deserved better and y’all sit on her too much

-Theyna is ✨amazing✨ their dynamic and chemistry was just *mwah Pansexual Muslim blessings to you* and people are allowed to ship them even though they’re Hunters and swore off love

-Rachel doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets. Y’all hate on her cause she crushed on Percy when half of you are doing the same thing and then y’all go and ship Percy with Nico, Jason, Artemis, Athena, etc. 

-If y’all want to hate on Jason for ‘not having a personality’ you’d also have to hate on most of the main HoO characters except Reyna, Nico, and Leo (and maybe Hazel) for the same reason cause they have the exact same problem tbh

-Zoë and Bianca’s deaths weren’t actually that sad. We didn’t get to see them enough nor did they have enough development for their deaths to have a real impact. The only sad thing about them was Zoë’s last words and Nico’s reaction

-Thalia needed more time in the books

-Reyna was the only main female character in HoO that wasn’t a boring, bland Mary Sue that all the other characters automatically loved. She was the only one with real flaws and distinct personality traits she’s my queen

-Piper, Annabeth, and Calypso did have flaws but the fact that they weren’t called out by other characters or even noticed are what makes them Mary Sues. It doesn’t matter how many flaws a character has, if they’re not called out by other characters (more specifically, other protagonists who actually like them) they don’t count as real character flaws

-Riordan can’t write female characters for shit

-Clarisse, Drew, and Octavian deserved better than being completely antagonized for no explained reason other than to make the protagonists seem better and to make the readers root for them. Those three had more potential than most of the Seven combined

-The whole ‘Aphrodite kids don’t train’ thing is bs. It’s specifically stated that all the demigods follow a strict schedule and have to follow it or they’ll be on stable duty or smth and the Aphrodite kids shouldn’t (and can’t) be excused from that

-Therefore, Drew should be way more powerful and skilled than Piper, at least enough to not back down automatically from a duel by a newbie who hasn’t even learned how to fight (Drew can control an entire cabin of people at once and Piper can barely control one person at a time, who’s more powerful again??)

-Also I have no idea why Riordan portrays all the Aphrodite kids as weak and girly in the first place. ‘Femininity’ and ‘weakness’ are not synonymous and ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ don’t equal ‘feminine’

-Speaking of which, love is actually really powerful but Piper doesn’t stand for love or ‘inner beauty’ and all her ‘thoughtful/insightful’ quotes in ToA/TBM about love were complete bs

-Riordan using the LGBTQ+ community for the sole purpose of making Piper seem more likable and ‘special’ was disgusting and proves he thinks that straight is the default- “...Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her” my ass. In other words, he’s saying ‘The expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are a heterosexual relationship, and anyone who 'finds their own way instead of the ones people expect’ are different’. ‘Different’ and ‘default’ are antonyms, so if you think LGBT people are different, then you think that straight is the default. Aphrodite is the goddess of love not heteronormative bullshit. Like Riordan, honey, you’re the one who thinks that the expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are heterosexual couples, not fictional gods from a fictional mythology. Remember kiddos- an author writes their own beliefs

If you don’t agree with some of these that’s fine sis it doesn’t matter if you have different opinions than me❤️

[miawin6]

Willow by Taylor Swift always reminds me of Nico and Will.

Like it fits them so perfectly!

I'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night

Rough on the surface but you cut through like a knife

Nico and Will first officially meet at Half Blood Hill when Will is scouting the Romans with his friends. Nico had no control over his meet-cute with Will. He was the last thing Nico had been expecting. They were in the middle of a war but Nico stopped to recall how Thalia had called Apollo hot when they first met him. Will was the one of the few people who stubbornly pushed himself into Nico's life which baffled Nico to no end.

And if it was an open-shut case

I never would've known from that look on your face

Lost in your current like a priceless wine

Nico had no idea why the hell Will was always seeking him out. He could not even imagine why this sunshine boy would actively want to hang out with him. Since he had spent so much time crushing on a boy who didn't reciprocate his feelings, he couldn't even fathom that a boy he currently liked would like him back. Being born in the 1930s, Nico didn't even consider the fact that he could have a boyfriend and be with him without any backlash from his loved ones.

As we all know, no one can control who we fall for. Nico couldn't either. Once he fell for Will, he immediately resorted to keeping his crush hidden and suffering in silence like he had did with Percy. Little did he know, Will liked him as well.

The more that you say, the less I know

Wherever you stray, I follow

I'm begging for you to take my hand

Wreck my plans, that's my man

Will definitely wrecked all of Nico's plans. Nico was going to leave Camp Half Blood after the war. Will was one of the reasons why Nico stayed. Will along with Reyna, Jason and Hazel helped Nico to accept himself and give him a proper home.

You know that my train could take you home

Anywhere else is hollow

I'm begging for you to take my hand

Wreck my plans, that's my man

Nico had no place to go outside of Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter. And initially he was accepted in neither. Will gave him a reason to stay and Camp Half Blood became his home.

Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

They count me out time and time again

Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

But I come back stronger than a 90's trend

Nico's life was really influenced by Will. He healed Nico and helped him gain acceptance in Camp Half Blood. For a long time Nico might have thought that he didn't deserve happiness; that being gay was wrong and he would never gain the affection of the person he liked but Will changed all that by being the stubborn person he is. There must be people who still might be sceptical about Nico as he is the death kid. But with the help of Will and his friends, Nico would finally get the acceptance he deserves.

Wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark

Show me the places where the others gave you scars

They are teenagers. They must have obviously snuck around in the dark to hang out. Their relationship is not just about Will healing Nico. Relationships are a two way street. Nico cares about Will and would want to be there for him when Will gets hurt or sad. This is incredibly obvious in TOA when Nico is there for Will when his siblings go missing.

Now this is an open-shut case

Guess I should've known from the look on your face

Every bait and switch was a work of art

Nico would definitely look back at their relationship and think how obvious it was that Will liked him back.

That's it, then! This was just a thought I had when I heard this song and rolled with it. I just love Solangelo so much!

[percabethfeelsfandom]

Writing Prompt: Nico Visiting Elysium

SPOILERS FOR THE BURNING MAZE AND THE TOWER OF NERO

The walk to Elysium was one that Nico was familiar with. Some days his feet would bring him there subconsciously, hoping to one day find his sister among the souls that resided there. 

That day hadn’t come yet. But the heroes that were there were familiar with his presence, they weren’t bothered by the shadows beneath his feet, the tendrils that clung to his wrists, and winded themselves around his sword handle, ready to shoot out at his command. They didn’t blink an eye at the bags under his eyes, no matter how much sleep he got. When you’re a spirit constantly surrounded by death, you forget what life looks like. The same went for Nico. 

It had been a while since he’d been to the Underworld to see his father and step mother, but the way the rubble crunched beneath his feet was almost comforting. He knew where the dips in the hill were, where to avoid the holes and minor chasms. 

The environment and atmosphere of the Underworld began to shift the closer he got to Elysium. 

Nico’s eyes adjusted to the brightness of Elysium, and the glittering blue lake where The Isles of the Blest resided. He shouldn’t have been able to enter through the gates, but being a child of the Underworld had its perks. The gates opened at Nico’s touch and Nico was greeted with the beautiful view of Elysium. For a home made for the dead, the place exuded a significant amount of life and light, yet it lacked the warmth real life did. It was beautiful in the way jewels were beautiful, sparkly and well-cared for, but not the way flowers were, in their life and their aliveness. 

The trek to the pavilion where he usually met with spirits was hard, it didn’t get easier to see the spirits of heroes Nico had watched or felt die in battles he had also fought in. Every time he saw the familiar gleam of Hunter-silver he had to hold back a flinch. The flowers of Elysium were of gold and silver and Nico had come to the realisation that they were the only plants that didn’t wilt in his presence, it left him feeling an odd sense of pride as he picked one from the ground and placed it in his pocket for later. There was no breeze down here, yet the grass rippled in colours of the rainbow as spirits passed through, wanting to see why the child of Hades was present. Small voices called out to him beyond the gates, wanting to feed on his light, and his life but he pulled up a barrier in his mind, imagining a fortress to protect himself. 

He stood in the middle of the pavilion and held out his hand. He wouldn’t need food to summon who he needed to speak to, he knew that they’d come. 

“Jason Grace.” 

His voice came out stronger than he thought it would. But he still wasn’t mentally prepared enough for the shape of Jason to appear so easily. He knew that Jason had died in his school uniform, but someone had taken the liberty to put him in a purple Camp Jupiter shirt, despite this, the colour was pale, as if all the colour had been bleached out.

Nico caught himself against a pillar as Jason’s form materialised by Nico’s feet. Jason was kneeling as if he was praying, head bowed and arms out trying to hold himself up. 

“Jason?” Nico repeated. 

The silvery outline of Jason seemed to grow brighter, before he rose to his full height. Nico tried not to stare, but it was difficult not to notice the gaping holes in his chest that glowed with silver through the purple shirt. 

“Nico?” 

When he was little, Nico had been taught by his mother and by Bianca that eye contact was important, it was rude if you didn’t meet people’s eyes when you were speaking to them. But over the years he had also learnt that in order to meet people’s eyes constantly, he needed to be prepared for other people to look into his eyes, allow them to see that vulnerability that he knew he showed. 

Nico forced himself not to avert his eyes as Jason looked at him astounded, his wire framed glasses still sat atop his nose but Nico could no longer see his reflection in them. Everything about him looked the same, his voice too. 

“Hi Jason,” Nico breathed, blinking hard. It was getting significantly harder to remain standing as Jason watched him. It had only been a couple of months since- but Nico hadn’t been able to bring himself to come down and search for him. It was a pain that reminded him all too much of the time when he'd just found out he was a demigod and his world had turned upside down. 

“You’re angry with me,” Jason said, a small smile growing on his mouth. Nico let out a choked laugh and shook his head. 

“I’m learning that grudges do me no good, especially against...especially against the dead,” Nico admitted. He waited for Jason’s form to blur into a corporeal version, but he remained in a hazy silvery state, like Nico was in the middle of an Iris message with him and Nico guessed perhaps they were; except instead of being miles apart and trying to communicate, it was the absence of Jason’s life and the existence of Nico’s that enabled them to talk despite Jason’s body being buried at Camp Jupiter. 

“I always thought I wasn’t scared of death…when you’re a demigod of a prophecy you learn to be, and then Leo died, and I knew. I knew that whatever happened I had nothing to be scared of because he’d be here for me…”

“And then he wasn’t,” Nico filled in. Jason nodded, looking beyond the pavilion at the Isles of the Blest. 

“I knew that he wouldn’t be here...yet, I don’t know, maybe it’s selfish to wish that I wasn’t alone-”

“It’s not,” Nico said firmly, standing up straighter to meet Jason’s gaze. With a sharp intake of breath he realised that he had slightly grown since he’d last seen Jason, and now he’d be immortalised at this height. 

Jason seemed to notice at the same time, losing his train of thought as he looked down at Nico. 

“You’ve grown taller,” he said fondly. Jason reached out almost as if he went to pet Nico’s head, but his hand passed through Nico, leaving him with a brain freeze. Jason noticeably winced and muttered an apology. The pain in Nico’s stomach was second to the odd feeling of familiarity. It had been many years since Nico had had an older sibling, and only recently had he become one again, yet Jason, in their small time period of knowing each other had grown closer than Nico would have thought. It was a nice thought, to think he had someone else watching over him, even if it was beyond the life he was currently living. Nico found himself thinking about Bianca again, the way he always did when he felt lost. 

“I saw your plans for the temples,” Nico managed. He gripped the hilt of his sword, using it to ground him as his emotions began to unfurl, curling around him like a dark cloud. 

“Apollo kept his promise?” 

“He was adamant in doing so.”

Jason smiled, and it made him look younger, bringing a light to his face that should’ve been hard to achieve in the Underworld but he made it look easy. 

“Will you try for the Isles?” Nico asked, and though he tried not to, fear laced his words as he watched Jason look at the island in question, a wistful look upon his features. 

“Maybe…” Fear, as hot as lightning struck Nico in the chest, and he thought he was about to say goodbye to another demigod he had looked up to. 

“But not yet. There are heroes here. Heroes that I fought with during the titan war, one’s I didn’t know the name of, same with the giant war. I think it’s time that I learned them.”

"Jason?" 

"Yeah?"

"Are you still scared?" Absentmindedly Nico placed his hand in his pocket where he kept a small token of luck, the familiar groove in the old mythomagic toy bringing him a bittersweet comfort. 

Jason tilted his head to the side for a moment, thinking before he shook his head.

"Not anymore, no."

As he spoke, his light began to flicker, becoming more of a mirage than anything. Nico poured his power into him, praying to his father for more time. He had so much more to say, messages to pass on, and- he just wanted more time. 

“Piper she-”

“Is she happy?” Jason asked, interrupting. Nico thought of Piper with her girlfriend, and the life she was building outside of Camp Half Blood and nodded slowly. 

“And Leo?” He continued. This time Nico thought about Leo’s easy laugh and his constant energy, bouncing off the walls, and his smiles around Calypso. 

“Yeah he’s happy but-”

“And Reyna? Percy and Annabeth? Frank? Hazel? Are they all happy? Right at this moment?” The question almost took Nico by surprise but he wasn’t lying when he said his answer. 

“Yes.” Images of the other demigods, speaking via Iris message, and on visits to each other's camps flashed in Nico’s head. Reyna and her pledge to the Hunters echoed in his head, an almost mirror to Bianca and Thalias. The pictures Annabeth and Percy had sent to Chiron when they had arrived at college, pinned on the board in The Big House. Then of his little sister with her purple cape, matching Franks. 

“They’re happy,” he repeated, more sure of himself when he said it. Jason seemed to relax. 

“And Thalia?” he asked softly. 

“She’ll be okay,” he replied honestly. 

“I never wanted to leave her.”

“She knows.”

“What about you, Nico? Are you happy?” 

The question jarred Nico and he hesitated to answer, thinking hard about it. He thought about the haze he had been in right after Jason’s death. The nightmares that had resurfaced, the voices that called to him from beneath the ground. 

“I want to be.” It was the closest to the truth he could get. Will’s face flashed behind Nico’s closed eyelids, and unconsciously Nico smiled and nodded with more certainty. 

Jason smiled again. 

“Then I’ll be okay.” 

[knuffled]

discipline & punish - chapter 3

no smut in this chapter, but i think there will be in the next chapter. if you enjoyed the chapter, i would appreciate it if you reblogged! i do read all the tags and they bring me great joy.

here’s the ao3 link

chapter three - the greater good

Annabeth woke to the sound of falling rain pattering against a window pane, punctuated intermittently by a shrill, mechanical beeping noise, and an aching pain in her side that was somehow both dull and sharp at the same time. When she opened her eyes, the fluorescent light above her bed nearly blinded her, but when she raised her hand to shield them from the glare, she noticed that her hand was a lot heavier than normal. Her entire body pulsed with pain, making the task of sitting up excruciating, but she managed it all the same and blearily took in her surroundings.

Once she regained some semblance of clarity, her lips curled downwards when she saw the IV drip running down the length of her right arm. Her eyes fell to the heart rate monitor by the window before moving to the bedside table to her right where someone had left a bouquet of flowers with a get-well card taped to the plastic. It was hard to make out the handwriting scrawled across the card even though she was sitting right beside it.

Whatever they had sedated her with made it near impossible to form a coherent thought. To make matters worse, her sensitivity had heightened to an uncomfortable degree. On top of the lights and the awful noise the monitor made every few seconds, someone had taken the liberty of removing her clothes and slipping her into a hospital gown, and the fabric felt starchy and uncomfortable against her bare skin. Even the sterile quality of the air made it painful to inhale.

The pain in her sides didn’t help either. She tentatively probed the affected area with her free hand and inhaled sharply when a horrible piercing pain shot through her. The pain was so vivid, in contrast to how languid everything else was, that it jolted her memory. It felt like Percy’s sword was stabbing her at that very moment. The mere thought of him made her muscles tense immediately.

If she was in the hospital, who was handling him? What sort of chaos was he causing without her there to stop him? It was hard to tell with the heavy downpour outside, but it seemed that New Athens wasn’t burning to the ground, at the very least.

She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. It was useless to worry about the camp when she was in such critical condition. Mentally, she replayed the fight with Percy and tried to fathom how she could have possibly thought intentionally getting stabbed was a good idea, but no answer made itself clear to her.

The clock hanging above the door frame to her left showed that it was early in the evening. With great effort, she pulled the bouquet towards her and examined the card on the front. It was Piper’s messy handwriting informing her that she had dropped by the visit when Annabeth had been asleep before wishing her a speedy recovery and promising to visit her again soon.

Seeing her friend’s familiar handwriting brought a small smile to her face, but her eyelids persistently continued to droop. It was hard to say if it was because of the injuries or all the painkillers flooding through her veins that made her feel so tired even though she had only been awake for a few minutes at best, but already sleep beckoned to her.

She was about to sink back into the bed when there was a commotion outside her door. It sounded like two people were arguing, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. However, only seconds later, the door burst open and a blonde man strode into the room, a dark look on his face, even as an orderly feebly tried to stop him.

Annabeth blinked owlishly and said, “You don’t look very happy to see me, Jason.”

“Gods, look at you. I heard what happened, but I didn’t believe it until now,” Jason said, clenching his jaw. “What were you thinking, Annabeth?”

“Nice to see you too.”

For an instant, Jason’s lips quirked upwards before setting into a hard line again. “This is no time for jokes. You almost died, Annabeth. Will told me that if you had been brought to the hospital even five minutes later, you would’ve been beyond saving.”

Annabeth sighed and said, “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I don’t want you to say anything. I just need you to understand that what you did was very stupid, and I would like it if you didn’t do something like that again,” Jason said.

Despite her heavy injuries, Annabeth found herself glaring at him. “I did what I thought was best. There was a threat, and I dealt with it. That’s all there is to it. Doing nothing would’ve been even more dangerous,” she snapped.

“You can’t mean to tell me there was no better way,” Jason said, frowning.

“Like I said,” Annabeth repeated. “I did what I thought was best.”

Jason stared at her for a while before deflating in front of her. Annabeth felt her heart squeeze in her chest at the look of unabashed concern on his face and instantly felt bad for being so glib with him when he was only worried about her.

Annabeth looked to the orderly who was still hanging awkwardly in between the door-frame and said, “We’re fine. You can leave us.”

The orderly looked between her and Jason before nodding tentatively and leaving. Once he was gone, Jason shot her a look of gratitude before sinking into one of the chairs by the window, cupping his face with his hands. There was a dull roar of thunder and the wind howled against the windows, making the entire building creak in protest.

After a while, Jason exhaled heavily and whispered, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She stared at her hands, resting on her lap, and mumbled, “Thanks. Sorry for being so bitchy. I’m still really out of it.”

Jason snorted and ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s probably because you’re shot full of enough painkillers to tranquilize a fucking horse.”

Annabeth barked a laugh and said, “Pretty sure that would kill me.”

He studied her face for a moment before giving her a significant look. “You look like shit, by the way,” he said.

“Okay, that was uncalled for.”

“He got you real good, didn’t he?” Jason said, a hint of admiration in his voice. “Never seen you so bruised up before. Must’ve been a hell of a fight.”

A part of her wanted to protest that it was because she had been so out of practice, but, although she would never admit it out loud, Annabeth wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to win if she had been at her best anyways.

“It was,” she admitted quietly.

“I know you’re probably worried about him, but you can rest easy. At least for now. He’s being treated here at the hospital too, although I’ve been told his injuries aren’t nearly as bad as yours. Apparently, he’s been fairly well behaved so far, but I’m not sure how long that’ll last. I can’t stay for long – they need me in New Rome in a week – but I will keep an eye on him until you recover,” Jason explained.

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief and sank back farther into her bed. “That’s good news,” she said. “Thanks for doing that.”

“So what happened exactly? I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from anyone. Although, I suspect that that’s because they don’t have a clue about what happened either,” Jason said, the hint of an accusation creeping into his voice.

“I know, I know, I should’ve told someone about what was going on, but there was a lot on my mind, so it didn’t really occur to me at the time,” Annabeth said, trying her best to sound apologetic.

Jason nodded, seemingly satisfied with her display of penitence, and leaned back in his seat while he listened to Annabeth relate what had happened since Percy’s arrival at camp. There were parts where he raised his eyebrows and parts where he clenched his jaw, but he didn’t otherwise interrupt her, something she was grateful for. More than anyone else she knew, Jason had the rare capacity to listen to people. It was what made him so good at his job as New Athens’s ambassador to New Rome.

When she finished, he shook his head and said, “I came to New Rome a few days after Percy was driven out of the city, and let me tell you: it was not pretty, Annabeth. It was utter carnage there. Took them nearly two months to fix all the property damage, not mention all the people that he seriously hurt or killed.”

When she was silent, he leaned forward, his hands clasped in his lap, and said gently, “Look, I know you beat him and everything, but from what I’m hearing, it sounded like you were lucky not to get killed. I’m not sure that losing makes him any less of a threat. You haven’t seen the bodies he left behind in his wake in New Rome. He cannot stay here.”

Annabeth shifted in her seat and said, “I– I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think that he’s going to try anything.”

“What makes you so sure?” Jason demanded. “You said it yourself – he’s like a wild animal. How long do you think it’ll take before he decides to hurt someone?”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think he was trying to figure out where he fit into all this,” she said slowly.

When Jason raised an eyebrow, Annabeth said, “Like, I think he wanted to know where he fit into the pecking order. Since I beat him, he knows that there’s someone stronger than him, someone he has to listen to.”

“I get that you feel that way, but I still think it’s too risky to let him stay,” Jason said, his brow furrowed.

Annabeth made a sound of frustration and grit her teeth when her body screamed out in pain as she sat up straighter.

“He came from the Wolf House, right? Well, I’m not an expert or anything, but wolves live in packs, and packs have their own hierarchies. At the top, there’s an alpha that is in charge and then there are betas that obey the alpha,” Annabeth explained.

Jason frowned and said, “So the fact that he challenged you for the right to be the alpha and lost makes him a beta? You think that’ll be enough for him to listen to you?”

Annabeth shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but if he’s been living with wolves for the last eighteen years, then he’s gotta have picked up some of their behavior.”

Jason didn’t look convinced. “It’s a good guess, but it’s still a guess.”

When Annabeth was silent, Jason sat back in his seat and shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t get why you’re so hesitant about this. As Camp Director, your responsibility is towards all the citizens in New Athens. If there is even the slightest risk to their safety, you are obligated to eliminate it, despite your personal feelings. That’s the burden of leadership.”

Annabeth squirmed in her seat and played with her fingers, unable to think of a way to argue with what he had said.

“I also hope you realize that there are other consequences to letting him stay here too. Like, I can guarantee that Reyna and the Romans won’t sit quietly knowing he’s being sheltered here. They’ll take it as an insult, and it could risk undermining the peace and trust we’ve worked so hard to establish over the last five years,” he argued.

He was right - every point Jason had made was perfectly valid. Even two weeks ago, she would’ve also been vehemently opposed to the idea of letting someone like Percy into camp, but there was still something, some part of her that she couldn’t explain, that silently opposed the idea. As absurd as it was, making Percy leave camp felt wrong.

He had been kicked out of New Rome already. If she chose to exile him as well, then he wouldn’t have anywhere safe to turn to. Leaving him out on his own was basically a death sentence. Annabeth knew without a fraction of a doubt that Percy would draw monsters to him like flies to honey. Even as strong as he was, it would be impossible to survive an endless onslaught forever. At some point, tiredness would get to him and he would let his guard down and that would be more than enough to get him killed.

Keeping him at camp risked the lives of everyone else that lived there, and she couldn’t, given her responsibilities, prioritize the safety of one person over the collective, especially not when it could incur the wrath of New Rome, but at the same time, the image of her first encounter with Percy flashed in her mind. She recalled how haunted and tense and, frankly, how scared he had looked. Percy knew as well as she did that he couldn’t last out there on his own forever. There was a reason he’d traveled the length of the entire country to get here after all.

Furthermore, there was something significant about him, although she couldn’t say what it was. The timing and nature of arrival in conjunction with his raw power and mysterious past all screamed to her that he was important somehow, and if she was the only person he might be willing to listen to, then she had an obligation to keep watch over him.

Annabeth sighed and said, “I understand where you’re coming from, and you are totally right, but I can’t throw him out to the wolves, no pun intended. If we force him out of camp, it’s as good as executing him. I’m not willing to hand out a death sentence so easily.”

Jason scoffed and said, “Annabeth, he’s a criminal! He has hurt and killed people, innocent people. It’s not like you are being asked to turn your back on a normal demigod; he’s already proven beyond the benefit of a doubt that he is too dangerous to stay here. I can’t believe you, of all people, need to be convinced of that considering he nearly killed you!”

“You’re not wrong, but I can’t turn my back on someone who needs my help,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. “You know as well as I do what horrible things have been done in the name of the greater good. If I choose to forsake my sense of morality just because it’s convenient or the situation demands it, then having any morals at all becomes meaningless.”

Jason opened his mouth to say something more before he closed it and stared at her. “You really aren’t going to change your mind about this, are you?” he said quietly.

“I am not,” Annabeth affirmed.

“Even though this could blow up in your face spectacularly?”

“I’ll assume responsibility for whatever happens,” Annabeth said. “Besides, if I’m wrong, you can always tell me ‘I told you so’.”

“Well, let’s hope that day never comes,” Jason muttered.

“I’m a Daughter of Athena. We’re not usually known for being wrong,” Annabeth said, a half-smile on her face.

Jason shook his head in fond exasperation. “I’ve missed you, Annabeth,” he said.

“Me too,” she said, softening. “I take it Reyna is keeping you very busy.”

He breathed a laugh and said, “That’s a gross understatement. It feels like there’s always someone pissed off about something or another. I don’t know how she does it honestly.”

“She’s strong, stronger than either of us,” Annabeth admitted.

Jason nodded, but there was a look of concern on his face. “I worry about her,” he said, sighing. “She tries to do too much on her own. Has trouble depending on people. Like you, I guess.”

“I depend on you,” Annabeth noted.

His lips quirked into a smile. “Not nearly enough though.”

Annabeth cleared her throat and said, “How’s Piper?”

For the first time since he came into her hospital room, a genuine smile crossed Jason’s lips. “She’s good. We’re good. Busy, but we make time for each other,” he said.

“That’s good,” Annabeth said softly.

“Yeah,” Jason said, sounding distant.

“She dropped off some flowers earlier when I was asleep apparently,” Annabeth said, nodding to the bouquet on her bedside table.

“I’m surprised you could read her handwriting,” Jason said, grinning.

“I’ll be sure to let her know you said that,” Annabeth teased.

Jason laughed and looked like he was going to say something more when he stopped and fished his phone out of his pocket. He shot her an apologetic look and had a quick, hushed conversation. Once he was done, he stood up and pocketed his phone, looking suddenly weary.

“I have to get going,” Jason said with a wan smile.

“Duty calls?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Duty calls,” he said, sighing. “Get better soon, Annabeth. I meant what I said earlier, you know? I’m here for you, so feel free to rely on me more.”

Annabeth nodded, her lips curled in a small smile, and watched as Jason made his way out the room, but he stopped between the doorway for a few seconds before turning to her.

“I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

He left before she could have a chance to respond, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

:::

A cold breeze blew against her face, rousing her in the middle of the night. Annabeth sat up groggily and looked to the window, which was now open even though she could’ve sworn it had been shut when she’d fallen asleep. It wasn’t raining anymore, but the wind was still strong, diffusing the earthy scent of petrichor into the sterile air of the hospital room. The curtains billowed, briefly obscuring the figure sitting on the window sill, staring at the moon. Annabeth froze when she realized that it was Percy and immediately scanned the room for anything she could use as a weapon.

“Relax,” Percy said, still not looking at her. “I’m not here to hurt you. Besides, if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have waited for you to wake up.”

“I wouldn’t put it past you to wait till I’m awake. Your moonlit silhouette suggests that you seem to have a penchant for theatrics,” Annabeth said, trying to keep her tone light.

“Theatrics, huh?” Percy snorted. “That’s amusing coming from someone who intentionally let herself get stabbed to win a fight.”

“I did what I had to,” Annabeth said carefully.

“You’re right. If you hadn’t taken such a risk, I would’ve killed you that night,” Percy said.

“I didn’t peg you for a sore loser.”

Finally, Percy turned to look at her and, as always, meeting his eyes froze her. “I know you’re not stupid enough to think you deserved to win that night. You’re lucky to still be alive, and you know it.”

There wasn’t any venom or heat in his voice. He spoke matter-of-factly, like he was simply relaying the truth of the matter, leaving no room for argument. Not that she could really disagree with him anyways. In her heart, she knew he was right.

“Is that why you’re here? To gloat?” Annabeth asked wearily.

He shook his head with a strangely nervous look on his face. When he spoke, he was unable to hide the quiver in his voice.

“Now that you’ve won, will you force me to leave?” Percy asked.

“That depends on you. Will you behave yourself if I let you stay?”

“I have no choice since I lost,” he said bitterly.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting, but I’m not going to like enslave you or something. I won’t ask anything of you that I don’t ask of anyone else,” Annabeth said. “You’re free to do as you wish as long as you don’t hurt anyone else.” Percy furrowed his brow, seemingly taken aback by her answer, and processed her statement in silence. “But I still have to obey you,” he said slowly.

“If that’s the way you see it.”

A stony look crossed his face as he pursed his lips, making her grit her teeth. Why couldn’t he see how far she was going for him?

“Look, everyone else around me wants you gone. They think you’re too dangerous to keep around. I am the only one in favor of letting you stay, so I need you to understand that I am not your enemy,” Annabeth said, trying not to sound as irritated as she felt.

Percy cocked his head to one side, looking thoroughly unconvinced, and tapped his chin with his index finger. “What if I just kill you right now?” he mused.

Annabeth gave him a cold smile, black rage rising in the pit of her stomach. “You can certainly try, you little shit,” she said, feeling strangely confident despite her injuries.

They stared at each other in silence for a while before Percy looked away and nodded tersely. “Very well,” he said. “I will do as you say.”

Immediately, the anger brewing inside her dissipated and left her feeling oddly pleased. “Good,” she said lightly. “Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

There was a pause before Annabeth coughed surreptitiously and said, “Will that be all?”

Percy shook his head reluctantly, and when he spoke, there was noticeable frustration in his voice. “No, I also– I wanted to see you.”

Annabeth suppressed the urge to laugh once she saw the conflicted look on Percy’s face, and, despite the situation, found herself studying him instead.

Now that they weren’t trying to kill each other, she was finally able to properly look at him. Again, the word “beautiful” came to mind. His wavy, dark hair, long enough to tickle his eyebrows even after his haircut, was silky and smooth. The wind tousled his hospital gown, teasing her with a glimpse of his bare chest, taut muscle glistening like freshly fallen snow under the glow of the moon. The shocking, feral sea green of his eyes. Everything about him seemed to tempt her.

If only he wasn’t so young, she mused.

Annabeth caught herself and shook her head, trying to dispel that dangerous train of thought, afraid of where it might lead, and tried to focus. Even though he had said he didn’t come to hurt her, it would still be foolish to let her guard down.

She cleared her throat and asked, “And why is that?”

He looked down thoughtfully for a few moments before he said, “Because– Because we are the same. We both have monsters inside us. We would both rather die than submit to someone.”

His words struck a chord in her, confirming the vague sense of kinship she had felt since she’d first seen him. At the same time, she didn’t miss that there was also a tense contradiction in what he had said.

“Yet you yielded,” Annabeth said.

“Yet I yielded,” Percy agreed begrudgingly.

Annabeth frowned and tried to think of where he was going with this before a theory came to mind. “And you don’t know why?” she said.

He nodded, his eyes lighting up, and said, “I was prepared to die if I lost, but when the time came, I hesitated and I don’t know why.”

“It’s not strange to want to live,” Annabeth noted.

Percy withered in front of her and Annabeth couldn’t help feeling like she had just broken his trust. “I thought you of all people would understand,” he said quietly. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Wait! I do,” Annabeth said quickly, strangely desperate not to break whatever this newfound connection was between them. “I do understand.”

When he looked at her suspiciously, Annabeth licked her lips and continued, “The reason I won, the reason I took that crazy risk when we fought was because I couldn’t stand the idea of losing. I couldn’t tolerate the idea of submitting to another person. That was why I took your blade, knowing full well it might kill me, as long as it meant that I wouldn’t lose.”

Percy breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Yes, exactly. That’s why I can’t understand why I chose to surrender.”

There was a lull in the conversation as Annabeth reflected on what he had shared with her. Outside her window, a tree creaked in the wind. Eventually, Annabeth sighed and said, “I don’t really have answers for you.”

Percy shook his head and said, “I didn’t expect you to. I think I came here to confirm something.”

“Confirm what?” Annabeth asked, frowning.

The shadow of a smile crossed his lips, and Annabeth couldn’t help thinking it suited him better than the brooding look he usually wore.

“Confirm what I wonder?” Percy said lightly.

The breeze blowing into the room carried with it that familiar, haunting scent of cedar and elderberry. She probably had the opiates to thank for the fact that she had been unaware of the smell for so long despite Percy sitting so close to her. Still, Annabeth was surprised that it wasn’t overpowering her like she would have expected it to given his proximity. Instead, the sillage was present only ever so slightly, not so subtle that she wouldn’t have been able to detect it, but still weak enough to leave her wanting more.

Annabeth gripped her bedsheets hard as a sudden irresistible impulse to touch him washed over her. More than that, she wanted to possess him, to dominate him. Every time she encountered that scent of his, it unhinged her just a little bit more. Annabeth prided herself in her self-control, but she knew that she was dangerously close to losing it at the rate that things were going.

Images flashed to mind of him handcuffed to her bed frame, blindfolded and gagged and gorgeous, as she fucked him into the mattress hard, her hands wrapped around his porcelain throat. She subtly rubbed her thighs against each other as a flood of want washed over her. Annabeth bit her lip and tried frantically to think of a distraction, anything to dispel the image from her head, but the more she tried, the more it took root there.

This was dangerous.

Christ, he was only eighteen. He was six years younger than her, almost the same age as her step-brothers, but her body already burned with arousal. Annabeth couldn’t remember the last time she felt so turned on by someone who hadn’t even touched her. She forced her gaze away from him and cleared her throat.

“If that’s all you need from me, you should leave. I want to get some rest,” Annabeth said, much sharper than she intended, desperate for any excuse to get him away from her before she did something stupid.

“Of course,” Percy said, but the tone in his voice suggested he knew she was hiding something from him.

The intensity of the scent swelled for a moment and then, just like that, he was gone, and the scent with him. She stiffened for a moment before taking in deep lungfuls of air, part of her desperate to see if she could still smell him while the other part was relieved she couldn’t.

Annabeth couldn’t fall asleep for the rest of the night. The self-loathing bubbling in her stomach made it far too difficult to relax.

[tessathaitea]

My Boyfriend is a Demigod? Chapter 16:

I haven’t actually posted this on Tumblr, but it is cross-posted on Wattpad under my user PJOperson18, so if you actually want to read the entire story I suggest you read it there first.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TBM SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This had to be it. At least, it probably was for Percy. Jason technically was already dead, so it wouldn't change things that much for him. Well, except for the fact that Percy would be dead and in Elysium while Jason was stuck between life and death, but he didn't want to think about that.

But, he would never see his daughter again. Keagan would be safe with her aunts and grandmother, but she would be an orphan, and Jason knew that he didn't want that life for his child.

He had been abandoned by his parents, and he wasn't about to let his daughter share the same fate.

Jason felt Percy changing positions, from holding Jason's hand for dear life to having him in a fierce hug. He sensed the all too familiar feeling of fear and uncertainty radiating off of Percy in waves. Jason knew that the life of a demigod (or a Greek one at least), was normally short and tragic, but Percy had suffered so much that Jason just wanted to wrap him up in a cocoon and keep Percy there so that he wouldn't have to suffer any more than he already had.

"Jase, I know we're literally falling into Greek Hell, but could you maybe stop squeezing me so tightly? I'm not going anywhere you know," Percy said, lifting his head up from Jason's chest.

Whoops. He must have squeezed Percy tighter than he already had subconsciously.

"Sorry. Just thinking. This entire place just feels a bit off, you know?" Jason said, loosening his hold on Percy.

He had a strange, tugging feeling in his gut. It was odd, as if something was trying to tug away his entire being. Like someone was trying to steal his, or perhaps trying to combine it with something.   

Was this how it felt to be in Tartarus? Having something slowly eating away your life force for it to join something larger? Eating away your sense of individuality, until you were left with a fraction, or even an empty shell of who you once were. No, there was something else.

While Tartarus was slowly draining all of the hope and positive emotions from Jason, there was part of it that didn't make sense.

Why did he feel rejuvenated? Why was it that the closer he got to the bottom of Tartarus, the more energy he felt circulating in and around him?

Suddenly, Jason felt an excruciating pain radiate throughout his entire body. It was as if all of the molecules in his body were slowly tearing themselves apart, and trying to join something else.

He felt himself almost crumbling away and caught himself thinking how nice it would be to just let the pain go away and cross into oblivion, and he might have if it weren't for Percy.

"Jason," Percy said, locking his beautiful sea-green eyes with Jason's blue ones. He was fading fast, and Percy's face was barely visible, dots of black swimming through Jason's vision.

"I could rest. No more pain, no more suffering. Just nothing. It would feel so nice, just to get away from it all-" he began to murmur.

"Jason."

"I can feel it coming. I can rest, finally I can-"

"Jason."

"It'll be so nice. I'll never have to worry again, and-"

"Jason!"  Percy shouted, eyes feeling with tears. Why was he crying? He should've been happy for Jason. He could rest after so many years of suffering and pain.

"Don't do this to me. Don't leave me again, I won't let you. I know you've lost so much, but please. Remember Keagan. You don't want to leave her alone without parents, remember? Remember me. You don't want me to die here, do you? Think of  everyone else Jase. They need you, I need you. Don't leave us again. Please," Percy pleaded, tears running down his face again. 

Jason realized that what Percy had been saying and kept him together, and that it would be extremely selfish of him to leave Percy behind, and his vision cleared. What had he been thinking? Sure, he didn't want to suffer anymore, but it would be tolerable with his family, and he couldn't leave them alone like that. The second thing he realized was that he was sitting on solid ground, and not a pancake on the bottom of Tartarus.

"I'm sorry," Jason muttered, and pulled Percy closer, nuzzling his head into Percy's black hair. Jason had questions as to how how they were alive and on the ground without being a puddle on the surface of Tartarus, but they could wait until he apologized to the person in front of him.

Percy sniffled, and then spoke. "Just don't do it again. I-If I lost you again, I don't know if I would be able to take it. Probably would have gone insane and destroyed some stuff like last time to be honest," he muttered into Jason's shirt.

"So am I forgiven?" Jason asked teasingly, standing up and then pulling Percy up to his feet. Percy leaned in to kiss him on the lips, but then changed directions, and kissed him on Jason's jawline.

"Nope," Percy grinned, popping the 'p'. "Now c'mon. I see something over there," Percy said, pointing about fifteen feet ahead of them. Jason rolled his eyes, and let Percy lead him over to the designated spot, where his heart dropped. As he peeked around the rock with Percy, he saw three Cyclopes and two Dracaena guarding  some sort of coffin that had a clear top.

"-yessssss well this master is better than that titan Kronosssssss," one of the Dracaena said. "He has truly thought of everything. Instead of using a puny mortal as a host, he will use a god!" she hissed, cackling wildly.   

Percy and Jason turned to one and other, eyes wide. "So, we've got another evil rising, and they'll be more powerful hosting a god, great. I'm guessing the god is the one in the coffin, but the real question is what god is it?" Jason said. He hadn't heard of any gods going missing recently, and the tugging in his gut that he'd momentarily forgotten was getting stronger.

"It'll probably be one of the more powerful ones, but which one?" Percy asked, eyes still on the group of monsters.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Jason said, and Percy grinned at him.

"I like the way you think Grace," he said, pulling out Riptide. Even during the fall, Jason still had his gladius on him and he drew it, the imperial gold glinting wickedly in the red light of Tartarus.                                                  ----------------------------------------------- Once the monsters had been turned into piles of gold dust, Percy and Jason turned to the coffin.

At the same time, Riptide and Jason's gladius clattered to the ground.

"What?!" Percy said in disbelief, and then proceeded let out another string of curses.

The face in the coffin was Jason's.

[anacaoris]

question. I've seen people post about rick not making it clear how some demigods are stronger than others and I want to know your take on it

Ooh! This a fun question, and I know the posts you've talked about. First things first, the usual reminder: Rick is an idiot.

I honestly have no idea how Rick's demigod power scale (and by extension of it monster attraction too since a demigods power is equal to their scent in attracting monsters) works. Clearly it's influence by the kids' godly parenthood, but that raises the question: what makes one god stronger than the other? At first you could say it's age, but that would mean Aphrodite and Demeter's children would be "stronger" and much more prone to attract monsters.

Pressumably it's based on worship and how they live on in mortals, if not directly but rather as ideals and influences. Still, it doesn't explain how, again, Aphrodite's children don't have a stronger scent and can spend the rest of their year with their mortal parents. Aphrodite, as well as her Roman counterpart Venus, is among the most commerciable and recognizable Greco-Roman gods.

Honestly Rick's approach of demigod power is very rooted in physical aggression and flashy powers, but only when it's convenient. So despite Jason and Thalia being the children of the god of lightning, storms, and have been canonically confirmed to be able to control the winds and fly, they're not as strong as Percy (who for some reason has perfect control of his powers since book one but who's complaining? Not me). That's also why Annabeth has a strong enough scent to attract monsters when she's barely six.

The only time he breaks this is when it involves speshul uniké powers like Piper's Titan-strong charmspeak (which should've been a Hermes trait but cool cool cool), Leo's fire powers (who's middle school oc is this?) and Frank being able to turn into different animals (god is dead).

And speaking of Frank. His father is Mars, second only to Jupiter in the Roman pantheon. His scent should've been prime for monsters. The whole "Canada is out of the reach of the gods" is bad writing and also a perfect excuse for not writing more demigods being attacked and followed by monsters.

[queenvic]

No. 8 with jason/ percy

Send me a number and a pairing for a drabble

“Wanna bet?”

Percy’s lips were curled into a smirk, his sea green eyes challenging Jason to decline. They’d been arguing over who was the stronger of the two of them for weeks now, and Jason knew that if he said no, Percy would never let him live it down.

“Sure,” he said, pulling out his sword from his scabbard. “One final duel. No powers, to even things out. No water, no lightning. Whoever wins will be declared the strongest.”

The deal seemed to please Percy, who pulled out Riptide from his pocket. “You’re on.”

They started circling each other, waiting for a moment to strike. Jason was glad that the Camp Half-Blood sword fighting arena was empty, so they had more room to fight. Finally, his patience ran thin and he charged, his sword clashing with Percy’s as their fight began.

Their swords kept clashing as they spread out their fight across the arena, some dummies got in the way and got their heads sliced off. Neither of them got any good hits in; whenever Percy tried to go for the win, Jason managed to parry and vice versa. Percy must’ve practiced a lot since the war ended, Jason thought, because his movements felt a lot stronger and confident than they had when they’d trained together previously.

Finally, Jason started to get tired. He wasn’t getting the adrenaline rush he usually got when he fought, mostly because whenever he fought it was life and death, and he knew Percy would never kill him. Percy seemed to be getting tired too, his movements were getting a little sloppy and Jason could spot more openings.

He noticed that Percy had his feet a little too close together, so he charged, ducking when Riptide came slashing through the air and used the flat end of his sword to knock Percy off his feet. Percy fell backwards and landed on his back, he managed to get Riptide up just in time when Jason came charging down, about to stab his sword into the ground next to his head.

Jason used most of his strength to try and push Riptide down towards Percy, but the son of Poseidon was strong even without his water powers, so it wasn’t as easy as Jason would’ve preferred. Jason glanced upward and his eyes met Percy’s, temporarily forgetting what he was doing.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grab the front of his shirt and he was pulled down, dropping his sword as Percy kissed him. The world around them blurred, all that mattered was what was happening at that moment.

Then, the moment ended. Jason felt Percy smirk, and too late he realized what was happening. He was pushed backward and onto his back, before he could make a move for his sword Percy had his knees on his arms, pinning him to the ground and Riptide under Jason’s chin.

“Seems like I’m the winner,” Percy chuckled, looking really proud of himself.

Jason snorted. “Foul play!”

Percy shrugged. “It wasn’t against the rules. If you didn’t want me to kiss you, you should’ve made your terms more clear, Grace.”

He removed Riptide from Jason’s throat and helped him up. They stared at each other for a moment before they both started to laugh. “You play dirty, Jackson,” Jason said, shaking his head.

Percy laughed. “Stop acting as if you didn’t like it, Grace. You’re just mad I beat you.”

Jason rolled his eyes, taking a step closer so his nose was almost touching Percy’s. “You’re damn right I am. Rematch?”

Percy smirked, his eyes gleaming. “Anytime.”

[jasonsscar]

I know you like the idea of Jason reincarnating, but for a one shot idea maybe a reunion with Jason and some of the other 7 in Elysium. Only if you want to if course

I’m all for any idea in all honesty. So here is an Elysium story that is short but hopefully enjoyable??? 

(Also, thanks guys for 100 followers!)

Death is inevitable.

Those were words all demigods found themselves having to live with. Heroes died in battles constantly, it wasn’t a secret. Sometimes they win battles and do so for years to come and other times that doesn’t happen for heroes. Plain and simple logic.

Jason Grace knew death was coming. He’d heard it himself, that five letter word that had been haunting him for months on end until, finally, he had to fall. It didn’t matter to him if he died now or later, Romans were raised to believe that dying in battle was an honor. It was an honor for Jason because his death meant that he saved someone else from never seeing their family or friends again.

The blonde sixteen year old hoped he wouldn’t be forgotten by his friends. He hoped wherever Apollo and Meg were on their journey to save all five Oracle’s, that they were safe. He hoped Apollo would remember to keep his promise and to remember what it felt like to be human. He hoped Piper would find her true self back in Oklahoma. He hoped Percy and Annabeth would be safe and happy back in New York. He hoped Frank lived to see a stronger version of himself. He hoped Hazel continued to live the best life she should’ve received in the first place. He hoped wherever Leo was, he was happy and stayed alive. He hoped Reyna would someday find love. He hoped Nico never had to hide his true self from others ever again. He hoped that the two camps never had to go to war ever again.

Most of all, he hoped Thalia would forgive him for not saying one final goodbye.

That, he knew, was too much to hope for.

As Judgement stood before him it, they allowed his life to flash before his eyes. Jason watched himself as a child, memories that he could never recall now, playing with his older sister Thalia as she tossed him around in the backyard of the mansion they lived in. The two of them laughing as the young girl just tried to enjoy the little moments she had left with her baby brother.

Jason watched while his mother bargained with Hero and he was taken away from the home he should’ve belonged in. He saw the memory of himself being dropped down with Lupa and being raised to become strong and show no signs of weakness. He saw himself arriving on the grounds of Camp Jupiter and being claimed by the Lord of the Sky and being feared by those around him. The moments that he had with Reyna on their quests were ones that he was able to vividly remember, with the friend he had grown to love like a sister. His fight with Krios was something that he could never forget; he remembered thinking how if he died then and there he hoped Reyna could defeat him and hold the glory high on her shoulders. He didn’t though, and instead four months later he found himself dropped in the middle of Nevada, holding hands with a girl he didn’t know and talking nonsense with a boy who claimed was his best friend. He watched his arrival to Camp Half-Blood and meeting a different cultural group he would have never anticipated to work with. He watched as he received a prophecy to free Hera and he travelled on a quest with his two new best friends Piper and Leo; the Prophecy of Seven unfolding before them and the battle with Gaea, something he had been anticipating for months, lasting only a few minutes. It was a good laugh in Jason’s opinion.

Then came his final moments, as he fought desperately against the Roman emperor Caligula as arrows were impaling him in his arms and legs until finally one went through his heart, the last thing he remembered doing was screaming to Apollo to remember his promise and giving Tempest one last order to take his friends to safety before he fell to the floor, dead.

Jason blinked a couple times, unsure whether he should cry or be relieved that the vision was over. He slowly brought his gaze upward where he saw the three judges of Judgement sitting and conversing quietly. He was able to recognize all three judges, thanks to Nico who seemed to know how the Underworld worked on the daily. The judges for this particular session he had Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus. The most famous judges to ever sit on the Judgement Panel were now judging Jason and his incoming fate.

Jason had no idea how long he’d been standing there, waiting to see what they would tell him. He had nowhere to sit, so the boy just shifted into a different standing position every few minutes until finally the verdict was said.

“Elysium.”

Doors that sat behind the judges held the different locations. Jason could hear the screaming from the Fields of Punishment and the silence from the Field of Asphodel. The door for Elysium opened and Jason took a step forward seeing something more beautiful than he would have ever dreamed to see. The fields of grass and small children and adults alike, running around and having fun. The son of Jupiter stepped through the door and it closed behind him and Jason for the first time in a long time smiled, because now he was at peace and nothing would bother him again.

Jason wasn’t sure how many years had passed when the first person he recognized from his friends arrived in Elysium.

It was Percy first.

Jason had been talking to a couple who used to go to Camp Half-Blood; they were eighteen when they died in the Battle of Manhattan. Charles Beckendorf was apparently a good friend of Percy and Annabeth’s. Jason seemed to have a distant memories of Leo talking about him. He was a popular figure at Camp Half-Blood before his untimely death. He was a son of Hephaestus and was dating a daughter of Aphrodite, Silena Beauregard, another popular figure at Camp Half-Blood.

The son of Jupiter saw the door open at the entrance and the blonde boy inclined his head over and he smiled, a common facial feature that Jason was able to show more often after he had been assigned to Elysium.

The blonde slid down the roof of the house he was sitting on, landing on his own two feet to see who the new arrival was. It wasn’t everyday someone new got accepted into Elysium; when he saw the person walk through the door his smile got wider as Perseus Jackson walked through looking confused and unsure of where exactly he was.

Jason shouted his name once and Percy whipped his head over to see Jason Grace in the flesh looking alive and exactly the way he remembered he looked when he’d left him back almost a good twenty years ago. The son of Jupiter jogged over to his friend.

“J-Jason?” Percy stuttered out, his sea green eyes wide as he looked at his blonde friend in surprise.

Jason stood before Percy, the son of Poseidon had reached the same height as Jason by then, and smiled. “Hey, Jackson,” the eternal sixteen year old greeted. “How’s life been treating you?”

Percy looked down at himself in confusion, he was wearing an old Camp-Half Blood t-shirt, the lettering slowly fading from the amount of times it had been washed. Percy said, “I’m dead.”

The two started catching up, Percy telling Jason about the past twenty years that he had missed. Naturally, he and Annabeth had gotten married and had a little boy and girl. They lived at New Rome but a new prophecy had been declared and the camp had been infiltrated. Percy had defended the camp to his last breath, taking a gorgon to save Annabeth and their children. Percy was ridden with guilt though, for leaving his children without a father though. For leaving Annabeth alone.

Jason tried to comfort him as best as he could, but Jason knew what he felt. It was similar to the same guilt he felt when he had died as well.

It wasn’t long after Percy that Frank had entered Elysium. Another war was happening back in the world of the living. The camps weren’t getting along again, Jason wasn’t sure what that meant. People started dying and being sent to the Fields of Asphodel. Frank had wrapped Jason in a bear hug then hit him, for leaving him to run the camp blindly with no help. Jason had laughed and apologized but it was a good hearted conversation.

Not long after that, Annabeth entered Elysium, searching vigorously for Percy and even shoving Jason aside. The daughter of Athena wrapped her arms around the love her life and pressed kisses on his face, saying how much she missed him and loved him and if he ever died again she would never forgive him. It didn’t take long for Annabeth to see Jason finally and punch him, for being a hero and dying as one. She hugged him though, because that was their friendship. She may not have known him long or all that well, but they were friends and that was what mattered.

Years must’ve passed before Leo Valdez entered Elysium, greeting everyone with a wink. He froze seeing Jason and turning pale on the spot in surprise of not seeing his best friend after nearly forty years of not seeing him. Jason grinned at him and held out his arms and Leo ran up to him and hugged him, wrapping his legs around the blonde boy’s waist.

“Jason, you piece of shi-!”

Jason laughed. “There’s kids here!”

“You were dead!” Leo yelled, still hugging him tight.

“Well now you’re dead!”

Hazel entered Elysium a couple years later along with Reyna. The war with the camps had came to an end and now both of them were separated but Hazel and Reyna didn’t seem to mind, having finally arrived at a place where peace would overtake them. Hazel had greeted all of her friends with a kiss on the cheek, speaking of how she missed each of them. Jason just hoped she lived the best life she could.

Jason didn’t get to see Piper until almost another ten years later.

The doors had opened again and Piper McLean entered through, her head high and looking as beautiful as he remembered her. The memories of his last moments on Earth and declaring to himself and that he would save her. It was worth it, she had lived the longest out of all of them.

Annabeth had hugged her first, crying and saying how much she missed Piper. Then Hazel, Leo, Percy, Frank and last Jason and that hug lasted the longest. It held no romantic intentions it was a hug that meant so much more.

“Thank you for saving us,” Piper had mumbled as she let her friend go with a bright smile. Jason smiled and nodded his head.

Maybe dying a hero wasn’t so bad after all.

[annabethj]

chapter 3 - bio 20

pj___

Biology 20 was kind of infamous. New kids transferred in all throughout the semester, because of how many credits it had. If you weren’t doing well in whatever class you were already in, wa bam, your teacher’s probably gonna suggest taking Bio 20.

Sadly, I didn’t exactly have the best grades. Math was hard, history put me to sleep, and English just hurt my brain- dyslexia wasn’t my friend. Needless to say, multiple of my teachers had suggested to take the class. Little did they know, I’d had to join within the first few months. Getting me to join Bio 20 was pretty pointless.

One thing I didn’t expect from the class was to see Annabeth in it. She walked in, fingers white, tightly clutched on her bag strap. Gnawing on her lip, she glanced nervously around the room. Being the new kid sucked, especially in a class of- I hated to say it- dumb kids. And since this was Annabeth freaking Chase in the flesh, standing in the Bio 20 doorway, I knew what everybody was thinking: What’s she here for?

I did my best to catch her eye, since my previous lab partner had just transferred out, but she always flitted right past me. I tried coughing to gain her attention, but still she stood. Crumpling paper loudly, whistling, I did everything. It seemed as if she was frozen in place. I knew the feeling.

“Annabeth,” I whispered. Connor Stoll glanced at me, and discretely began pointing in my direction. Of course, Annabeth made no point to prove she saw either. I whispered again, and this time a few people looked my way. I did his best to ignore it.

“Annabeth, come sit with me!” I said, louder than I had wanted to. Wincing slightly, I watched the scene in front of me unfold. Everybody started to whisper, and Annabeth turned red as she walked towards me. Great, I thought. Let the gossip begin.

“Shove over,” she told me. I did what she asked, and made room for her stuff on the table. I leaned forward on his elbow as she put her backpack again the table’s leg. When she finally turned her head, I had an eyebrow raised in silent question.

“I got kicked out of Latin because they figured out I already knew the language,” she muttered. I almost wanted to laugh (that sounded like her,) but could tell she was embarrassed. Her leg was fidgeting and she was twirling a pen between her fingers. A window had been left open this particular day. A light breeze ruffled Annabeth’s hair, unlight dusted her cheeks. When she turned her head, a lock of gold fell in front of her face. It took far too much of my willpower to not brush it behind her ear.

Realizing I was staring, I looked away. Up close, her blush had been even more intense. It went all the way down her neck, contrasting the blonde curls. I wondered just how low the blush had spread.

Shut up, Percy. No.

“Alright, so to catch you up…”

pj___

Lunch that day should’ve been normal. Same table, same sandwich, same adorkable note from my mother ending with ‘xo!!’ and a few hearts. Something about that day was so indescribably different, though. It was as if the air had changed, there was something in the water. My heart was beating faster than normal. It was as if I was on a high, head so far in the clouds I didn’t care about all the things that normally mattered.

I thought I was being subtle. I really, really did. What had taken weeks for me to figure out was apparently immediately obvious to all of my friends.

“I know that dopey grin anywhere,” Jason said as he pushed his tray onto the table. I hadn’t even realized it. Now that I thought about it though, my cheeks were a little sore. “You’ve got a crush!” Jason sang. He wiggled his eyebrows and bit into his sandwich. The back of my neck burned as I blushed and rolled my eyes. Leo and  Grover trickled to the table over the next few minutes.

“Ooh, Percy! Who’s the lucky lady?” Leo asked within seconds of seeing me. How? How was this possible? Jason let out a loud laugh and slammed his palm on the cheap plastic table. Grover raised his eyebrows as he approached the table, and Nico and Frank glanced our way from the lunch line.  

“Nobody! I don’t have a crush! Shut up!” I snapped. Jason held his hands up in surrender. Grover slid onto the bench next to him. He stared at me for a minute or too, and then declared, “Oh, he definitely has a crush. Big one.”

Groaning, I threaded my fingers into my hair. Was it that obvious? It couldn’t be that obvious. But I couldn’t control myself. So what, her hair reminded me of sunshine and her eyes looked like storm clouds? And yeah, maybe at the camp grounds I had begged her to play for more reasons than just my team doing badly. Also, I totally was just being nice when I gave her my sweater and I definitely did not volunteer to wake her up on the bus. I also didn’t stare at her legs on the volleyball court that day, and I was just being a friendly guy by getting her to sit with me in bio.

Oh, who was I kidding? I was totally obvious. Miserably obvious. I rested my chin on the flat of my palm, and all my friends grinned at me.

“I do not have a crush,” I stated weakley, knowing full well that nobody would believe it.

“Sure. Can I be your wingman?” Jason asked delightedly. The guys all laughed. Finally giving in, I allowed the stupid grin to return to my face. Strong hands pushed on my shoulders. It was so impossible. How on earth would I have a chance with a girl like that? In the past few weeks, ever since that detention, I’d began noticing her more and more. Suddenly the whole room smelled of her shampoo when she walked in, and her laughter was the most important sound in the world. It took all of my willpower to not glance her way, because that would give it away for sure.

“If you can figure out who it is, you can be my wingman,” I said as I pushed away from the table. I made for the trashcan near Annabeth and her friends, throwing the crumpled up  paper bag in and cheering when it made it. My friends clapped and whistled. I turned right back around, not letting my gaze fall on Annabeth for even a second.

pj___

Bio the next day was fun. I’d expected to lose all ability to talk around Annabeth, but I didn’t. Things with her were so easy, and it made my heart swell. Every time I got a little too creepy, I tried my best to tone it down for her sake. She smiled at me a lot whenever I said stupid things.

“What’s the difference between Mr. Harlow and the garbage?” I asked her at one point when the teacher had his back turned.

“What?” she whispered back, trying not to alert the teacher of our conversation.

“The garbage gets taken out once in awhile,” I finished with a smirk on my face. I didn’t hear her laugh, and it almost gave me a heart attack. Crap. Was it that bad of a joke? I thought she liked bad jokes! But when I looked her direction he was shaking her head and trying to cover up a smile. She jotted down what was on the board in her notebook and shoved my shoulder. I pretended to fall off the chair because it knew it would freak her out. She looked at me with wide eyes while I quietly laughed. This time, she hit my shoulder for real.

I rubbed my arm to make it seem like I was pretending it hurt. Except it did hurt. Quite a bit. Annabeth was stronger than I’d thought. And when she stuck her tongue out at me it made me smile.

I was so freaking screwed.

[fireandseaweed]

Coffee Is A Healthy Breakfast || Jason and Percy

Percy and Jason reconnect after the fire.

Percy wiped the soot off of his hands as he finally allowed the last of the water to flow back into the trench. Honestly, exhaustion wasn’t something that he was unfamiliar with, but this was different. His bones suddenly felt weighed down, as if they were lined with lead. Soot coated his hands and as he dusted them off as best he could, he found himself stumbling away from the fire. His apartment was nowhere near here, and Annabeth would be busy helping people, so he headed towards Jason’s apartment. He hadn’t seen his friend, but all he could hope was that he would be there. Someone handed him a water bottle on the way, it helped a little bit. He swallowed half of it and drenched himself in the rest, numbly making his way up the stairs to Jason’s apartment. He could’ve taken the lift, but he didn’t. He arrived at his friend’s door and knocked gently. “Jace?”

The night had been long, the fire terrible, and the exhaustion Jason felt seeped into every fiber of his being. He’d spent the majority of the night suffocating key portions of the blaze to keep it from spreading out again and after such prolonged use of his powers the throbbing headache that lurked behind his eyes threatened to knock him out cold on his kitchen floor. A warm shower had done nothing to help, and even a carefully portioned corner of ambrosia hadn’t made the pain abate. All he wanted to do was turn his phone on silent and sleep for a week straight when a gentle knock fluttered through his door. He was on the verge of not answering when he heard Percy’s voice drift through the wood, and while he could do many things; ignoring his best friend when he was so clearly in pain was not one of them. He threw on a shirt and trudged over to open his apartment, taking in a soot-covered and exhausted Percy, “There’re spare towels under the bathroom sink. Your dark circles have dark circles. Go take a shower and I’ll make coffee… maybe breakfast… but it might just be coffee.”

Breathing quietly, Percy felt his body shake gently from the exhaustion of it all. Shifting from foot to foot, he waited for the door to open before stepping into his friend’s house. “Thanks,” he replied with a deep sigh, he stumbled into the bathroom and allowed warm water to trickle down his back and soak into his hair. He wasn’t even consciously allowing it, he simply didn’t have the energy to keep dry. The shower did him good, he found himself staring at the black water that poured off his body, he watched as the dirt ran down, turning from black, to brown, to clear. The water circled the drain and he finally managed to get out. Walking back into the living room, he turned to Jason and pulled him into a tight hug. “Thanks,” he whispered, “I’m glad you’re alright, I was getting worried that you’d have been hurt. I guess I should’ve known better than to worry about you.”

Listening to the gentle waterfall coming from the shower, Jason pulled out their favorite mugs and started brewing a pot of very strong coffee. Faced with the prospect of actively cooking he found there was a tremor in his hands he couldn’t shake, and instead settled on very shakily slicing up some fruit for them. Before Percy came back Jason managed to get some clean clothes from the bedroom for him, and sat watching the coffee trickle down into the pot with zombie-like attention. He was startled from his reverie by Percy pulling him into a tight hug and Jason returned it, smoothing the hair off Percy’s forehead and squeezing him tightly. “You know me.” he murmured back, “Titans and giants couldn’t finish me off… a little fire couldn’t do too much damage.” He poured them both cups of coffee and gestured to the plate of fruit, “Well… too much damage to me. The damage to the Forum is… considerable.”

Smirking gently, Percy looked at the fruit and coffee in front of them and gingerly sipped his coffee. It was black and bitter, not his usual taste but right now that was good enough for him. He picked up a blueberry and chewed it thoughtfully, blueberries were his favourite normally and yet after seeing something so violently damaging he wasn’t sure that he would ever enjoy their sweet taste again. He knew he was just being dramatic, but irrespective, he had never seen a tragedy of this proportion. “Well, we beat this too, now we need to discover what happened.” Though there was something that told him that this wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t help but want to help. “They’ll be able to rebuild it, it’ll be better and stronger than it was before.” He tried to smile weakly, despite his exhaustion. “We’re okay, Annabeth’s okay, Mrs O’Leary’s okay, things could be worse.”

Already Jason could feel the monumental to-do list building in his head. While the bulk of rebuilding the Forum in its physical form would be left to the sons and daughters of Athena and Hephaestus… there was an undeniable emotional component to rebuilding that he would inevitably be involved in. Lurking behind the to-do list was the nagging thought that buildings don’t just randomly catch on fire… particularly ones built by demigods… but upon further reflection he decided that he was too tired to actually think about that. “Undoubtedly Annabeth and her siblings will leap into an investigative capacity once the full extent of the damage has been assessed.” He pushed his long hair out of his eyes and tied it back, hands still shaking slightly from exertion and exhaustion, “We’re demigods… we should be used to tragedy at this point… but the prospect of rebuilding frankly makes me want to curl up under my bed and hide.” he nodded as Percy talked, chewing on a slice of apple, “Which is the important thing. I don’t think there were any casualties. So that’s the silver lining. Everyone was at the Festival.” A wry chuckle escaped him, “I really thought we could have uneventful adult lives.”

Running his hand through his own hair, Percy shifted gently in his chair and took another long gulp of coffee. He kept forcing himself to eat and drink, small bites, small sips. It was something he’d learned to do. He needed the energy and even if he felt sick forcing himself to keep eating, he couldn’t help but keep going. Chew, swallow, repeat. “I don’t know, Annabeth’s been out of the game for a while and this is a Roman matter, I think that they’ll probably just have the legion handle it for now.” He knew that not everyone held anti-Greek sentiment, but it was the same in here as it was there. Ignorance breeds hatred, and demigods were no different than humans. “Just because our parents are usually the authors behind a Greek or in some cases, Roman tragedy, doesn’t mean that we can’t have normal lives, at least that was what I was telling myself.” He rubbed his eyes and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes once more. “I guess we’ll find out the extent of the damage soon enough, it’s a shame it ruined the festival.”

Jason reached behind him and grabbed the carafe of coffee, pouring them both another mug before setting it back on the counter. “You know… if you guys just…. Poofed and left to go stay with your mom for awhile just to avoid all the shit that’s about to go down for this I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest. You might actually find me in one of your suitcases.” It had been several years since Octavian had kept his poisonous rhetoric against Greeks alive and well but still the sentiment permeated portions of the Legion; no matter how hard Jason fought against it. “It’s all I wanted for us. Five years of normalcy. That’s all. Settle into our adult lives and let the next generation of heroes take the lead but we’re still here.” A long sigh filled the silence, “Yeah. The festival was going so well, too.”

“I thought about it, last night, I thought about grabbing Annabeth and leaving. Letting the new generation of heroes take over and lead.” Percy shrugged gently. “But the truth is, and I’m probably going to sound like Spiderman here, but we’ve got the ability to change things, and we’ve got the ability to help save lives. Then we should do it.” He bit his lip gently, before filling his mouth with fresh, sweet fruit. “Well, we had some normalcy, maybe that is all we get, a brief burst of normalcy and nothing more, but things will settle back into being the way that they were before, there isn’t a prophecy of impending doom, there isn’t a threat as old as time that we’re going to have to travel to Africa to beat this time. It was just an accident, and everything is going to be absolutely fine.” He was sure of it.

“Nobody would have blamed you. Least of all me. I know your Spiderman logic… great power… great responsibility; and you and I are powerful. But we saved the world. We saved the world twice. At what point is our Hero Punchcard full and we can redeem it for a year of peace? At what point can I focus on my studies and writing and you can focus on you and Annabeth starting a real life together.” Jason sighed and held up his hand, “I know I know I’m whining but you’re the only one I can whine to.” He ate more fruit, very slowly feeling life return to his limbs. But as slow as it was going; he couldn’t see himself doing much today. His eyebrow rose slightly, “An accident? That engulfed one of the most important buildings in New Rome in flame when there was nobody around to stop it before it got out of control? I pray you’re right about that. I really do.” But he wasn’t so sure about it.

Shrugging, Percy held up his hands in defeat. “I don’t know Jace,” he replied with a sad sigh, the truth was that he didn’t know when it was going to pan out for them, “but this isn’t about you or me or Annabeth. There are thousands of demigods alive today, probably even millions of them. They’re depending on New Rome to be the safe haven where they can come to get to as close to a normal life as possible. I know I want that more than anything, and that’s why we keep going.” He reaches out and placed a reassuring hand on Jason’s shoulder. “You can whine to me anytime amigo,” he gave him a warm smile before shrugging. “Well what else would it be if not an accident? We don’t have any more enemies left Jace, we beat them all. Gaia, Kronos, Luke, Octavian, they’re all done, somehow we won.” He chewed on another piece of fruit. “And if I’m wrong, then I challenge them to try and interrupt my normal life.”

“I know. And I know underwater with Kymopoleia I took on responsibility for all the millions of their well-being, at least when it comes to their relationships with their parents but Gods Percy, I’m so fucking tired.” Jason looked down at his fists balled on the tabletop, “We were kids. I was left in a park and you ran from a Minotaur and we we fucking kids. We were supposed to play with friends and cheat on tests and kiss girls and instead we fought to save the world.” He was very disappointed in himself to feel the beginnings of angry tears well up in the corner of his eyes, “We didn’t get a childhood, and now we don’t get an adulthood, and I’m just tired. I’m so tired of fixing the gods’ mistakes and the gods’ problems.” He let out a long quivering exhale through pursed lips and looked up at Percy, “We’re demigods, P. There’s always another enemy.”

Percy didn’t move his hand off of his friend’s shoulder. “There is a reason you are the pontifex maximus Jason. It isn’t because you’re a son of Jupiter, it isn’t even because you’re a hero of a prophecy, it’s because you saw injustice and made it your job to fix it. You’re better than any other hero before you, you’re stronger than almost anyone else I have ever met.” He sighed sadly, it was awful that they had to go through this, but if anyone could do it, Jason could. “You’re tired but you’re not done, you’re exhausted but you’re not out, you’ve got this buddy.” He smiled at him, it was easier to hide your own exhaustion when someone else was in need. “We’re not mortals, we’re cut from a godly cloth and that signs us up for everything we didn’t want, but we’re the only ones who can do this.”

They sat in silence for a long moment while Jason focused his breathing, calming himself incrementally until the thin veneer of calm and professionalism he tried to wear as often as possible was back in place. “You’re right, of course. We’re sons of the big three, responsibility for the wellbeing of our extended family falls to us. I just spend so long walking around not being able to say any of that that it threatens to explode if I don’t bitch at someone.” He brought his hand up and squeezed Percy’s hand, sighing. “We have so much work to do, dude. In the city, and in the Legion. Everyone’s going to be on edge after this and you know as the poster children for Greek and Roman cooperation we’re going to have to fucking put out some fires.”

Nodding gently, Percy sighed. This wasn’t a complete disaster but it was hardly what they needed right now. “You’re allowed to bitch about this shit all you want, maybe we should make a group chat with Nico,” he suggested with a laugh. The day that Nico could effectively use a phone was the day that Percy started eating fish again. “You’re gonna be okay, we all will be okay, though there is a very good possibility that we’ll go grey by the time we’re thirty, I swear, I have already found my first grey hair and I am not okay with this.” He sighed gently as he realised that Jason was right, they were going to have to do this together, in an attempt to keep everything on track. “We don’t have to worry,” he said with a smile, “we’re best friends, if we can make it work then the Greeks and the Romans can damn well make it work too.”

Jason couldn’t help but burst out laughing, “I think the only way we’re going to get Nico in a group chat is if we start sending messages by telegram or carrier pigeon.” Nico’s inability to use and unwillingness to learn technology was legendary; and love him dearly though Jason did, it made the Ghost King a hassle to get in contact with. “RIGHT?! They’re starting to show up in my stubble. Luckily I”m a blonde so they blend in pretty well but it’s coming for me and I’m really not on board with it at all. I don’t wanna go gray, I’m too young for that!” Jason looked at Percy over the top of his glasses, “Yeah… we are best friends… but the rest of the Greeks and Romans aren’t nearly as level-headed as we are. But I have faith in you. If you say we’re going to make it work then we are going to make it work!”

Sighing gently, Percy ran his hands over the table in front of him, running a finger nail through the natural grain of the wood he shook his head sadly. “It is a shame that Iris doesn’t support group messaging, because then maybe he’d start listening to me when I tell him that he needs to get a phone.” He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. “You’re getting old my friend,” he said smirking as he thought about the pair of them in wheelchairs, getting old and dying one day, peacefully in their sleep. For demigods, that was a dream that would never come true, or at least for the majority of them. “We have to make it through Jason, I can’t see another disaster like the two that made us famous, the last two just about broke me, I don’t know if I would manage a third one of similar proportions.”

“He has one!” Jason’s voice rose and then broke with a giggle, “Leo and I took him shopping for one forever ago and he’s got one! Whether or not it’s charged or turned on is something entirely outside of my control but he’s got one. Maybe I can talk to Iris about that. She’s a pretty nice lady. She might be all about it.” He heaved a deep sigh, which seemed to be his only method of self-expression these days, “I am getting old. We’re both getting old. We’ll make it through, Perce… whatever it is. We fought giants and titans and gods and we survived… whatever this problem is we can solve it. You me and Annabeth. Just like the good old days.”

“Well, Nico owning a phone is certainly something I hadn’t been expecting. However it is a step in the right direction.” Percy remembered meeting Iris on his way up to Alaska, with the hippy theme in mind he had been a big fan of her. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes and nodded. Suddenly feeling better he knew that he should get back out there and keep helping. It was his way. “We’ve both been old for a while now,” he replied laughing, “it has been far too many years since we were sixteen.” Smirking gently he finished off a slice of apple and rose from the table. “We’ll work things out, but to get to that point we’ve got to clean up the mess. So with that, I’ve got to get going. I need to find Annabeth and make sure she hasn’t killed anyone for not letting her do things her way.”

“I can’t guarantee he didn’t leave it down at his dad’s house to get devoured by harpies or something… but once upon a time Valdez and I made sure that fucker had a phone.” This was the easy part, sitting in his kitchen in his sweatpants and beat up tank top with Percy. If life was only this and writing and reading Jason could be entirely content; but they both knew that was never going to be the case. “We’ve been old for ten years now. Ancient. Broken and creaky old men… but we just keep on chugging.” He followed suit as Percy rose from the table, following him to the door and pulling him into a tight hug, “We always work things out, and we always clean up messes… it’s what we do. Tell Annabeth I love her and go hide the bodies. Call me later, so I know you haven’t died from exhaustion.”

[aka-queen-bitch-blog]

Alexandra Fray and the Olympians

Okay so here it goes, a PJO fanfic and any comments and suggestions are welcome. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. Thanks!

CHAPTER 1

Leo Valdez was unable to set himself on fire. Most people would’ve experienced this as a good thing. Leo, however, was cursing in Spanish while he doged a swing from a very angry Cyclops. “Remind me, why did I insist on taking you to the bunker?” “Because you are insane,” explained his girlfriend Calypso, who directed another attack of windspirits at the Cyclops. “I’m a demigod. Insane is part of the job description.” Calypso didn’t have time for a smart reply since the Cyclops charged at them again.

How the Cyclops had managed to cross the barrier of Camp Halfblood, Leo did not know. Why it had started raining at Camp was also a mystery to him. But what Leo truly bothered most, was that he was unable to summon his fire. “Where is border patrol when you need them?” He grunted. Leo didn’t know who were on duty tonight, but they sure as hell could expect him to report this to Chiron, in case the centaur didn’t know it already. Calypso summoned more windspirits to distract the Cyclops, who seemed very interested in killing Leo. “Don’t just stand there, do something!” She yelled at him. But that was exactly his problem. Leo was no expert with swords, knives, or a bow and arrow. He was a child of Hepheastus, he only had his tools and fire, but even his fire let him down. As for his tools, he had ordered one of his spheres to get reinforcements. But since his fire wasn’t working, Leo was afraid he’d also lost the ability to command his tools. The Cyclops roared in frustration as the windspirits pushed him backwards. Leo looked at his girlfriend in awe, but he could tell the magic was draining her. The two of them would not be able to hold off the Cyclops much longer. The rain was pouring down on him, making him shiver from fear and cold. Even for demigod standards this wasn’t normal. Lightning cut through the night sky, briefly illuminating the entire forrest. “Leo, RUN!” Jason soared through the sky, aiming his sword directly at the Cyclops. He didn’t have to tell Leo twice. Leo sprinted towards Calypso, grabbing her arm and dragging her away from the danger because she looked like she was about to faint. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase ran towards them. “How did he cross the barrier?!” Annabeth demanded to know. “Doesn’t matter right now, we have to stop him!” Without a further word, Percy uncapped Riptide to join Jason in the fight. More rain was coming down, soaking everyone including Percy, which Leo struck as odd. Watching Jason and Percy fight together against the cyclops was truly something to behold. They worked perfectly together, like an oiled machine, which was something Leo could appreciate. The Cyclops didn’t share Leo’s appreciation. Angrily, the creature aimed his shining lance at the demigods. Percy made a sliding in the mud, and the lance didn’t even come close to him. Jason, however, was less lucky. The tip of the lance grazed his upper arm and Jason let out a shriek of pain. “Do NOT touch that lance!” Understatement, Leo thought, while helping Calypso to her feet. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she muttered. Annabeth shook her head. “You are in no condition to fight. Leo, you stay here. Help Percy and Jason. I am taking Calypso back to Camp and will get you guys more help.” Leo frowned, not liking his odds against the Cyclops without his powers. Another flash of lightning, summoned by Jason, lit up the night. Percy slashed at the Cyclops’ legs, barly escaping the lance. This only angered the creature more. His one eye focused at Percy, who quickly ran outside of reach. Jason tried to distract the Cyclops by aiming his sword at the monster’s back, but the lack of a second eye was compensated by fast reflexes. Leo watched in horror as he foresaw what would happen. He cried out a warning but Jason didn’t hear him. The Cyclops quickly turned around, smashing Jason out of the rainy sky with his lance. Jason cried in pain as he plummeted to the ground and smacked down with a nauseating sound. He stayed quiet. Leo screamed and ran towards his friend, forgetting he didn’t have his powers.

Seeing Jason laying down on the ground triggered something in Percy. He tried to summon the river, he tried to make the rain into his weapon. But when he charged at the Cyclops, who looked nothing like his brother Tyson, Percy realized something was very wrong. The water didn’t obey him as usual. Percy stood below the Cyclops with nothing more than his sword. He was dangerously outnumbered. Leo had managed to reach Jason, who appeared to be breathing, but most likely would stay unconcious for a while. Fortunately, the Cyclops didn’t seem too interested in them. With his one eye locked on Percy, he aimed his lance. Leo prayed to the Gods, Leo prayed to whoever was listening, because there was no way Percy could escape and save himself. In a hopeless defense Percy raised Riptide, knowing excruciating pain was inevitable. Leo didn’t want to watch. The Cyclops was so much bigger and stronger than Percy, it was hard to believe the young demigod had once defeated Kronos himself. For a second Leo had hope. Percy looked so determined, so fearless, but as the lance came down at him, Leo knew his friend was done for it. At the moment the lance would’ve impaled Percy, the strangest thing happened. Leo had to blink a couple times before realizing it wasn’t Percy laying on the ground with a shining lance sticking out his body. Instead, a girl with dark blonde hair was coughing up blood, groaning as she tried to pull the lance out of her. Leo looked quickly at Jason, afraid he might have turned into a girl too. “What the…” Percy looked dumbfounded at the scene infront of him. The Cyclops roared in laughter, walking towards the demigod he’d just impaled to collect his lance. Percy was wondering if he had some sort of out of body experience, because he was pretty sure he should’ve been laying on the muddy ground by now. When he looked closer, he realized it was a girl in front of the Cyclops instead of him. How the hell had that happened? Percy didn’t have much time to think about it. Jason was in a bad shape, the girl appeared to be dying, and the Cyclops was still walking towards Camp. Deciding not to question why he was still alive, Percy recharged at the monster who didn’t expect him. Confused, because the monster was quite sure he had just killed Percy, the Cyclops looked up. With new energy, Percy yelled as he jumped at the Cyclops from higher grounds. Too confused to react, the monster gave Percy the chance to slam Riptide in its neck. Blood sprouted from the wound and the Cyclops looked baffled at Percy before he disintegrated and was send down to Tartarus. Percy breathed heavily, looking as the rain washed the blood away while he gave himself time to process what just had happened. The soft moans of the girl got his attention. He didn’t understand how, but he believed she’d saved his life. “Hey, easy there, it’s going to be fine, you’re going to be fine…” he crouched down next to her and knew, without being a healer from the Apollo cabin, that she was in a really bad shape. Blood poured from the place where the lance stuck out of her body, which was just below her shoulder. She was concious, but just barely. “Lance, help..” she grunted in pain. She had trouble breathing, probably because the lance had punctured her lung. Uncertain, Percy grabbed the lance but he immediatly released it as if he was elektrocuted. “I’m sorry,” he stammered, since she’d flinched as well. He could see she was losing blood very fast as she turned pale. He didn’t know her, but something about her looked familiar and he felt obligated to help her. Afterall, she had saved his life. “PERCY!” Percy looked up and saw that reinforcements had finally arrived. Annabeth ran towards him and looked worried at the girl. “Who is she?” “I don’t know, but she saved my life, somehow…” Percy was still trying to wrap his mind about what had happened. “That lance…” Annabeth looked at it in shock. “It is Cursed Aurum, gold that will inflict pain to whoever touches it… we have to get that lance out of her.” The girl’s breath was shallow and fast. She looked like she was about to pass out. “Please…” she begged. Annabeth tore a piece from her orange Camp shirt, and carefully wrapped it around the shaft of the lance. As she pulled out the lance, the eyes of the girl rolled backwards as she finally gave into the blissfull abyss of darkness. As soon as Annabeth had managed to pull out the weapon, more blood started flowing from the wound, filling a giant hole in the girl’s chest. “Oh Gods,” Annabeth murmured. "Let me help,” Will Solace shoved Percy aside as he got to the girl. “Nectar, Ambrosia, some liquid Moonlight, I need everything I can get my hands on,” he said to himself. Annabeth looked devastated. “Will…I don’t think she is…” she didn’t dare to finish her sentence. The girl’s faith was obvious. It was a miracle she had survived the touch of the lance this long, let alone a giant hole in her body. But Will didn’t listen as he got to work. Nico di Angelo stood next to him, with a surpised look on his face. “She is not going to die,” he told Annabeth, who seemed reluctant to help stabilize the girl because she didn’t believe there was much hope left. “Ofcourse she isn’t going to die,” snapped Will, who would never give up on any patient. “Now, please make yourselves useful and get me a stretcher!”

I hope you guys like it. I know this was a very confusing first chapter, but you will get a full introduction on the characters next time. For now, thanks for reading!