#Nico may get taken by the legion

[eggman91]

Ok listen more crossover Lackadaisy x fallout new Vegas

Aka Mordecai get housepilled

But seriously what do you think would happen if Lackadaisy was in the Mojave? Well probably nothing that too much let said they was transported here with the little daisy cafe and speakeasy in primm or freeside maybe

rocky could become the courtier i mean if any one going to survive a headshot it would be rocky and imagine him getting his memories back and getting rex and ed as companions

Mordecai would be be there maybe he and the savory (unless they go on there own path) join up with the one of the three families and by proxy house and when rocky get the chip Mordecai meet house and since he lot like atlas Mordecai will become housepilled maybe taking over the tops after Benny …”retirement”

Viktor i don’t really but he could get robotic new knees and become a beast give him a submarine and there we go maybe he could have Boone or raul companions

zib and his band well they can’t skip town now they in the wasteland maybe they would skip to new Vegas but how would they get there maybe it better to stay with the daisy but what if he get caught by the ncr taxman that right folks ranger zib

freckle and Ivy battle company freckle trigger happy ways will go in overdrive since there no Nina anymore let said he going to have a villain arc and Ivy well she still rum running in a way and there lot of new fashion im still thinking on this

Wick i don’t know what he doing maybe he get drafted with zib

Mitzi well she over shooting she going all in the speakeasy won’t survive unless we take drastic measures maybe she take over primm kick out the power gangers make Viktor sheriff or something but she placing all her card

But game is rigged form the start

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Why Jason Grace is The Most Tragic Character in the Riordanverse

*in no way is this trying to dial down Nico's own suffering, I'm just stating my case for Jason because godsdamn SOMEBODY needs to say it!*

@most-tragic-character-tournament here's propoganda i came out guns ablazing

List of why fans are saying Nico:

Lost his mother

lost years of his life

found out he was a demigod at age 10

lost sister at 10

rough relationship with his dad

closeted gay

crush is madly in love with somebody else

forced to come out

List of why Jason is more tragic:

Lost his mom to alcoholism/mental decline

Lost his ENTIRE FUCKING CHILDHOOD because Said Mom gave him up to Juno to be raised by a PACK OF WOLVES who would've EATEN HIM if he was WEAK FOR EVEN A SECOND - AS A FUCKING TWO YEAR OLD

Was a trained demigod FROM THE GET-GO (again, TWO YEARS OLD)

Because of previously stated separation, was TAKEN FROM HIS SISTER WHO LOVED HIM SO MUCH SHE RAN AWAY BECAUSE SHE COULDN'T TAKE THE GUILT AND FEAR AND RAGE THAT FILLED HER AT HIS ABSENCE

Was set up into a "perfect" relationship by Juno/Hera WHILE HAVING HIS MEMORIES TAKEN

Jason may not have had the awful forced outting Nico had to go through, but...that's not really his fault? Nobody has any control over their sexual identity, and Jason? Well. He never really got to explore it. Because that was taken from him too.

Thinks he LOST LEO VALDEZ, ONE OF HIS ACTUAL FIRST FRIENDS, WHO LIKED HIM FOR HIM AND NOT BECAUSE OF HIS STATUS

FORCED TO COMPLY TO A DEMANDING SOCIETY THAT EXALTED HIM FROM DAY 1 BECAUSE HIS DAD IS THE OH-SO-IMPORTANT JUPITER (*cough victim of nepotism cough*)

AND WHEN HE TRIES TO COMBAT THAT NEPOTISM HE KEEPS GETTING PUSHBACK UNTIL HE FALTERS

then. then his girlfriend breaks up with him - not because of any drama, or even a disagreement, but over a very valid point

their relationship didn't exactly start out very...honestly. Jason had been mind-wiped of all memories and Piper had fake ones implanted into her to make her think she liked Jason as more than a friend. sure. they had a pretty nice relationship, but when everything slowed down and they took a look at their lives?

Piper's the one who sees it first, and makes the decision. Jason is heartbroken, but understands - he even, dare I say, agrees that they should end the relationship. it was built on fake memories - you could say it was built on lies.

and now Jason has this opportunity to step back and analyze who he is and what he wants.

what he finds is depressing. everything he's had, everything's he's been up till now...

it's not him.

he never wanted to be raised by Lupa and her wolves.

he never wanted to be Jupiter's son

he never wanted to be the exalted leader Camp Jupiter praised him for

From day 1 his life was somebody else's. his first steps were under the tutelage of a wolf, not of the loving eyes of his sister

Camp Jupiter only ever saw him as the demigod to be praised and turn to above all others, even before he became praetor.

Jason's life...was never his own.

and now that he's away from all that pressure and expectation...he doesn't know who he is.

Son of Jupiter?

Champion of Juno?

Praetor of the Twelfth Legion?

Member of the Prophesized Seven?

Hero of Olympus?

no. he was never himself under these names.

he was never...Jason.

but maybe now he could start navigating his own life. without some god intervening for once. this would be good for him, and for Piper, to find their own way.

but then. then they talk to Herophile...and find out one of them will die. And Jason? Well, he's not going to let Piper be taken from the life she deserves. he may not be her boyfriend, her knight in shining armor, but he sure as HELL loves her - especially as a friend. And if there's one thing you should know about Jason? It's that he loves his friends.

so what does he do? He sacrifices himself. He duels Caligula himself, and urges Piper, Meg, and Apollo to Go, save yourselves! and -

he's stabbed. through the chest. the only thing he can do? Look to Apollo, to the blue gaze so much like his own drenched in horror, and ask; Remember. because he didn't get to live the life he wished, but maybe Apollo could - no, Apollo can, he can make the difference Jason wanted. Because he trusts Apollo.

Jason doesn't regret his sacrifice. he saved Piper from the prophecy, after all. He saved Apollo & Meg's lives too.

in fact, Jason didn't really mind dying. Because he didn't have much of a life either. And a life like that? shrug It's worth sacrificing for those who deserve theirs.

and as icing on the cake, remember who Jason's father is? The almighty, all-powerful Jupiter himself, King of the Gods?

he doesn't do a damn thing to help Jason. Not a single. Thing.

because Jupiter/Zeus doesn't care about his children. Especially his sons.

Zeus saved Thalia. But he didn't even try to save Jason.

Trying would have at least lessened the pain...

People like to claim Jason is a bland, boring character who's never suffered a minute in his life. That he's a golden retriever with no flaws.

Well.

Take a look up there and ask yourself - it that the life of a boy who knows no suffering?

Because it sure as hell don't look that way to me.

To me, it looks like Jason was a used, depressed young man who never got to choose his own path. Who's father abandoned him first to his wife's mercy, then to a cruel emperor's.

Jason Grace suffered.

and he never got to live that happy life he saw within the Fates.

Never got to get that family, those grandchildren he saw himself telling the story of the Argo II to.

Because The Fall of Jason Grace is a true, utter tragedy.

[elaborateruses]

WIP Wednesday!

i FINALLY get to publish something for wip wednesday! 

“it started with a whisper,” jasico, fake dating/college, T

[Nico] paces up and down the hallway, gesturing forcefully like he’s trying to win an argument with a ghost.

“...and on top of that, it just makes ME look lonely! Like I haven’t moved on yet, or something! And believe me, I am TOTALLY over him! I just haven’t gone and grabbed the first boy to enter my field of…” Nico trails off, turning to look at Jason with a thoughtful expression on his face. Jason is only half listening by now, even though Nico is staring at him in a way that borders on serial-killer-y.

You can almost hear the gears turning in Nico’s brain as a sly smirk spreads across his features. “You know what? I think I want Will to see me making out with a hot blond," he's saying, and Jason’s visibly puzzled, trying to figure out who this hot blond might be.

Nico watches as Jason tries to parse his statement, rolling his eyes and muttering, “It’s you, obviously.”

Jason’s taken aback. “You want me to kiss you?” Me? he thinks, sure he’s misheard or misinterpreted or something. There’s no way Nico would ask him for that, no matter how much he may or may not want it.

“Nevermind, forget I asked—” Nico turns on his heel and makes a beeline back into the party. Jason puts one large hand on Nico’s shoulder, turning him round and seizing his shoulders.

“Nico.” Jason doesn’t like to use his praetor voice, deep and imperative, but something about the situation makes it feel necessary, somehow.

“Fine! Will you kiss me?”

Nico whispers this, looking like he wants to melt into shadows that aren’t there. Jason can’t stand to see that wide open look on his face without comforting him, somehow.

And Jason’s already nodding, yes, yes, yes, because he could never say no to Nico, and Nico’s surging up on his toes and winding his arms around Jason’s neck so that all Jason has to do is carefully, gently, press their mouths together.

His lips are softer than you’d expect from looking at them (not that Jason’s spent much time looking at them), and his slender fingers are tangling in Jason’s hair (which he hasn’t cut since leaving the legion), and he’s warm and solid in Jason’s arms (which he is realizing now are roughly the same size as Nico’s torso). All of these things combined have Jason’s pulse racing and his hair standing on end.

Jason has felt electric shock before—has channeled it through his sword and skin and fingertips—and yet, it doesn’t compare to the way it feels to kiss Nico. A raw power courses through him, more potent than any lightning he’s summoned. Kissing Nico knocks something loose in Jason—because he hasn’t kissed anyone since Piper, except for Percy once on a dare, and we don’t have the time to talk about that kiss, but we do need to talk about this one happening right now—and he pours everything he has into kissing Nico back.

He smiles when Nico lets out a tiny noise of appreciation; Jason hopes it goes unnoticed. He coaxes Nico’s mouth open, letting the taste of him spread over his tongue. Nico bites softly at his lower lip, licks along his scar, and leaves a gentle kiss on his cheek.  

Nico pulls back, sinking onto his heels. He’s got that same wide-open expression, tinged with the glow of someone thoroughly kissed, taken apart, and put back together. Jason can only imagine he looks about the same.

Suddenly, Jason feels very seen in this moment, like Nico’s reading everything that’s been going through his head in the past twenty minutes. He’s confused, because he thought that the point of this was to make Will jealous, but Will is conspicuously absent from this hallway. Jason tears his gaze away, nervously pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and trying to remember how to exist in a physical form.

Until he realizes that Nico is very deliberately licking his lips, eyes roaming suggestively down Jason’s body and back up again. He shoots Jason a wicked grin and asks, “Wanna keep going?”

Jason’s sure Nico doesn’t mean it the way he wants him to mean it. Instead he deflects, suggesting, “Wanna do it where they can see?”

He is shocked at his own boldness. But Nico agrees.

It was a spectacular kiss, after all.

beta read by my dear pythia @stillneedsmorekissing :) 

[thatonerandomfangirlwhoreads]

Tower Of Nero Spoilers/Rant!! (Part 6)

Okay, so... at the end of the book Apollo (NOT Lester), decides to visit all the demigods of the Great Prophecy + Camp Half Blood. So this is how those visits went (WARNING!! Percabeth, Solangelo and Frazel cuteness overload). Apollo visits all these people in the form of ...you guessed it, Lester Papadopoulos.

Camp Half Blood Reunion

Apollo goes to the big house and has a little chat with Chiron about a “cat” (Bast) and a “severed head” (Mimir) and common problems amongst different pantheons. This may be an opening for a stand-alone book *squeak*!!

Apollo meets Mr. D (whose character was fitfully redeemed, when he decided to give Nico therapy for his PTSD), plays pinochle with Mr. D and loses all the games.

He sits by the campfire with Nico, Will and Rachel. Will and Nico are sitting side-by-side, Will has one arm around Nico, who is twirling a marshmallow on a stick. Rachel informs Apollo that she is going to Paris to study art, while her parents house is being rebuilt. They discuss the voice that has been calling out to Nico and Nico says that it’s a Titan who’s stuck in Tartarus (aka Bob the Titan, aka Iapetus). Rachel has regained her prophetic powers after the defeat of Python and issues them a Prophecy, which only Nico and Will can hear, but not Apollo. That is definitely a set-up for a stand-alone Solangelo adventure in Tartarus. Yippee!!

Waystation Reunion 

The Hunters of Artemis were at the Waystation and their mission to catch the Teumessian Fox. This too may be a set-up for a stand-alone.

We see some great Thalia and Reyna chemistry, where they both playfully compliment each other on being great hunters.

Josephine is teaching little Georgina all about mechanics in her machine shop. Apollo still isn’t clear about whether Georgie is her daughter or not.

Lityerses is overseeing an “elephant visitation program,” where Livia(from Waystation) and Hannibal(from Camp Jupiter) are on some kind of date. Uncle Rick has been reading fanfics and headcanons. It’s official.

Leo, meanwhile, has been indulging in some community service where he teaches homeless kids about shop skills at a local shelter and the kids like him. It’s been hinted that some of the kids are demigods.

Leo calls Josephine “mom,” who just scoffs but looks pleased all the same. She probably thinks Leo is the son she never had and Leo had said in The Dark Prophecy, that Josephine reminds him of his mom.

Calypso is loving regular mortal stuff, and has adjusted to her new life very well. Apollo doesn’t actually get to meet Calypso, because she’s been away all summer to a band camp where she is a counselor. Leo appears to be lovesick for Calypso.

It was also really cute to see Reyna and Leo getting on with each other too (It was surprising because Leo did destroy half of the Senate House when she was Praetor). Reyna was giving him advice on flirting with Calypso and asked him not to call her mamacita, and that he has to have more respect. She explains this strange action to Apollo, saying that Leo grew up without a mom so he never learnt these things, but now he has two great foster moms and a big sister(referring to herself) who isn’t afraid to smack him.

Camp Jupiter Reunion

Apollo visits Camp Jupiter, where he meets Hazel and Frank, who are both praetors after The Tyrant’s Tomb. Apollo says they are the most efficient and respected pair of praetors to ever run the Twelfth Legion.

Hazel and Frank give Apollo a tour of the Camp where they’ve installed more barracks, expanded the thermal baths and are constructing a victory arch on the main road to New Rome to commemorate the defeat of the emperors, Caligula and Commodus.

The victory arch is going to be completely plated with gold, more specifically, Hazel’s gold. As far as they can tell, Hazel’s curse is finally broken and her gold and jewels are finally safe to use or sell, as they please. They did an augury in Pluto’s shrine and it came up favorable. 

Hazel hastened to add that they were not going to abuse this power, but were only going to use it to improve camp and honor the gods.

Hazel says that they won’t spend the money to buy yachts, private airplanes or big gold necklaces with ‘H+F 4Ever’ diamond pendants. Frank pouts in reply to this. This is definitely Frazel cuteness.

 Lavinia Asimov fulfilled her promise to teach the entire Fifth Cohort how to tap-dance. The unit is now feared and respected in the war games for their ability to form a testudo shield wall while doing the three-beat shuffle.

The Jason Grace temple-expansion plan was still moving forward, with new shrines being added every week.

Also...Percy and Annabeth had arrived and taken up residence in New Rome, giving them two months to adjust to their new environs before the fall semester of their freshman year in college.

Annabeth, of course, is going to study architecture and Percy is unsure of his major. Annabeth is taking UC Berkeley’s Environmental design course and dual-enroll in New Rome University.

They reached the touchy subject of Jason’s death. Percy is unable to speak about this topic and Annabeth admits that she cried herself sick.

At the end of this conversation, Apollo uses his godly magic to teleport a plate of Sally Jackson’s blue cookies right into his hands and gives it to Percy.

Piper’s Reunion

When Lester arrives at Piper’s Tahlequah home, he sees two silhouettes on the edge of the roof and one leans over to kiss the other. Apollo gets flustered and switches form to adult Apollo, complete with toga and all. Both of them turn around.

One of the silhouettes, (a girl with short, dark hair and a rhinestone stud on her nose) asks Piper who this dude is and whether her dad has a boyfriend. The girl’s name, we discover, is Shel (Probably short for Shelby, I’m just guessing) and so far is assumed to be fully mortal.

Piper tells Apollo that she’s doing fine and that her dad too, has found some peace. She learns of Jason’s funeral and assures Apollo that he did right by him and will continue to as long as he remembers what it’s like to be human. Then she points at Shel and leaves.

Aeithales Reunion

Apollo was greeted by the Meliai, Meg’s personal troupe of seven super dryads. They took him for an intruder and marched him up to Meg.

Apollo found Meg digging dirt and showing her 11 foster siblings from the Imperial Household, how to transplant cacti. 

Peaches was also in the scene, talking to another young female karpos, who is native to the area.

Meg hugs Apollo and they go for a little walk.

Herophile the Sybil lives in a trailer when she isn’t working in town as a Tarot card reader or crystal healer.

Lugeselwa was in the living room, putting together a rocking chair. She had been fitted with new mechanical arms, compliments of the Hephaestus Cabin.

Apollo offers Meg the reward he had promised to give her when he became a god again. Meg asks for a unicorn, which he conjures out of thin air. They promise to be friends forever and when Meg asks him whether he’ll come back, he replies, “The sun always comes back.”

A/N: Phew!! That was long. Very sorry about that. It took me 3 days to write. If you had the patience to read it, hope you enjoyed it.

[morsquiesa]

 THE SMELL OF ICHOR HEAVY IN THE AIR, THE SOUND OF IMPERIAL GOLD BLADES CLASHING, HIGH-PITCHED SCREAMS THAT NO ONE TURNS THEIR HEAD FOR. Shining hills of the camp littered with tents, catapults, legionnaires of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata merging with the residents of the camp. Ichor. Blades. Screams. Blood. It is all too familiar, all too much of a home. Home, it feels like, the only home demigods could have ever found for themselves, in a world that has been designed to swallow them whole then spit them out. Now the cabins are coming down, roofs sinking, the dark smoke of the flames that surrounds everywhere rising to the sky, blocking the sun, making the day darker than it already is. Chaos is there, violence. Death is there, knives drawn for the innocent lives from a misplaced hatred. Underwood is in the midst of it, shouting orders for the other satyrs, trying to push back the enemy out of their breached lines. Thalia's tree is there, witnessing the horror with all its silence and might, bright leaves and branches all fading slowly with the slim protection it had to offer now shattering. La Rue is there, on top of her father's chariot, a battle cry passing her lips as she and her siblings run into the battle with all their glory, children of Ares wielding their weapons against the Romans. Solace is there, some of his siblings carrying out the wounded and the others on top of the trees on their pegasi, bows and arrows in their hands all aiming the catapults, all defending their home with a fierceness that will not yield, will not bow.

“ Drop your weapons!” 

 Nico is there. His sword clutched in his hand, standing tall to greet what he knows is coming. He has the face of a soldier, dark eyes unable to reflect anything but a stoic silence, standing tall but he is tired. Tired than he ever was, all the journey he has taken to get here for this moment draining him of the strength that a glimpse of it would have been enough to make the false praetor repent on his knees, begging for mercy. Perhaps this is why the blond boy and the dark-haired girl remain calm near him- Lou Ellen Blackstone, daughter of Hecate is holding onto the colorful bombs in her hands despite Octavian's call to drop their weapons. She refuses to, eyes burning with a fire that cannot be faded easily. The boy next to her reaches instead, his hand finding hers and a silent gaze passes between them. Lou Ellen slowly lets them to the ground.

 Octavian stands only a few meters away from them, a feral look in his eyes that lets them all know that he is blood-hungry, way past the point of return, way past salvation. “ Graecus saboteurs,” He hisses, and his hand gestures to the soldiers of the first legion waiting by his side with their weapons drawn like restless lions waiting to be unleashed from their cage. “ Tear them apart.”

 The rage Bianca feels inside her veins is something she has never felt before, with each beat of her heart a different memory plays in the back of her head. A different memory of pain, grief, misery, a different memory of everything she's ever lost, everything that has ever been taken from her because she has let it. Because you were weak, the voices whisper to her, where she stands unseen in the shadow of Thalia's tree. Because her claws hadn't been strong enough to sink in, fingers too nimble to grasp and hands too gentle to hold onto it, scared of the blood and scared of the pain, scared of losing what she has lost. You have lost everything. Maria is gone, now. Piera is gone, home is gone. Phoebe is gone, Naomi, Themia, all gone. The only one that she is yet to lose stands right there, in front of her, leaning into Lou Ellen Blackstone to not collapse to the ground. The only one that has ever mattered to her, the only one that will ever matter. Yield, Bianca.

 Everything happens so fast. A sword is swung to Nico's way, and Bianca flexes her wrist. A wave of darkness slams into the soldier out of nowhere with an agonizing scream, flying back before he collapses to the ground only by hitting another soldier on his way, taking him down too.

 I am the daughter of Hades. She thinks, and it feels like hundreds of voices are talking in the same in her head, but not in disagreement this time. There is defeat, now, in them with the realization that dawns on her. I yield to no one.

 All gazes turn to Nico, Octavian's expression priceless with a mix of rage and disbelief. “ You...” He hisses, shaking with anger, teeth trembling. “ I will crush you, ambassador. Cohort, attack!”

 Nobody moves. They do not dare, after a glance taken to the fallen soldier that now lays lifeless on the ground, life drained out of him. Nobody moves, except for Bianca that steps out of the shadows, shadows gathering around her feet with each step like a dense fog. She still hears the whispers, but now they don't only belong to the undead. Now they belong to the legionnaires, wide-open eyes on her, weapons drawn with no courage to wield one against her, all waiting for an order that won't come. “ What are you waiting for?” Octavian screams, fingers pointing to Nico, who is too distracted to care about the false praetor's tantrum with looking at his sister, the same look of wide-eyed shock also present on his face. “ Take him down!” 

“ Try, and you're dead before you blink.” 

 Her voice cuts the air like a blade, as Octavian's head snaps towards her, a look she cannot name darkening his visage. Bianca only feels hatred, with a deep passion that comes from her heart. There is only hatred and wrath now, tangling within the darkness that bends to her will. There is only justice.

“ Hunter of Artemis,” Octavian calls like he is unsure if he should be in awe, or if he should be running away, the sword in his hand now tilted towards her, as the legionnaires that surround her. Bianca pays them no attention, her scorching gaze only glued to the liar that has the audacity to stand before her with such arrogance. “ Have you come here to join your brother in his fate?” He tries to mock, but Bianca hears the undercurrent of the hesitation in his voice. He's scared, as he should be. He doesn't know what is coming for him, but she knows he can feel it, too.

“ Octavian of Apollo's legacy,” Bianca calls in return, steps slowing down as she walks toward him with her head held up, jaw clenched with a faith that cannot be wavered, faith in her, faith in everything she ever was and everything she will ever be. “ I have come here to end your nonsense war,” Faith in the power that lies ready for her, if she has the guts to reach for it. “ I have come here to burn your reign to the ground.”

 And it all builds up to this moment, the ground starting trembling beneath them, catapults shaking and the battle stopping in the sake of finding a place to hold onto, running away from the earth that cracks right underneath their feet. It spreads like a disease, and Bianca thinks it should have exhausted her, it should have drained, but all she feels is the power that runs through her veins. She faces the so-called prophet and raises her hands to her sides, they both know what is about to happen. “ No!” He shrieks, grabbing his sword and lunging towards her, and perhaps he would have gotten to her if it wasn't for the daughter of Hecate that met him halfway, a purple wave of energy that rises with a battle cry of hers crashing into Octavian again to knock him down, and it is the only second Bianca needs. The ground erupts, and thousands of bones claws their way out of it, horrified screams around her soaring as chaos breaks free.

 Bianca looks around her, watching everyone trying to save their lives from this unknown threat, both the Romans and the Greeks, watching the terrified eyes eventually find her, but there is only a pair of them that she cares about. She walks towards Nico, her brother, pushing aside all the resentment between them, all the heartbreak, and all the misery. This is not about her, and this is not about him. They are the children of the underworld, and they will write history as they have done once before. She offers him a hand and waits in patience for him to take it, breaths held by the ones who are watching. Nico looks up at her, and there is an unspoken understanding between them, everything falling into harmony, in perfect sync. He catches her hand, and she pulls him up to his feet, no need for any words to be said. “ Cursed!” Octavian shrieks once again as he tries to rise to his feet, Lou Ellen finding her place with the siblings, as ready as she could be. “ You are cursed!”

The army of thousands that eventually gathers behind her must be intimidating enough because once Octavian grabs his sword again, there is unveiled horror on his face. Bianca's hand raises in her sides once again, palm facing upwards, but this time to dare. She doesn't have the fancy commands he has, perhaps, but she doesn't need it. She gestures to the legionnaires for a second, now backing away, turning to their praetor for his command and his help, who is unable to give either. But they are not the enemy just as this is not the war that needs to be fought. So her hand shifts to the side, now gesturing towards the hoards and hoards of monsters, all lined up and ready for battle. “ My father may not be here,” She says, but to everyone, not only to him, to know that his kingdom will shine with all its glory even if Hades is gone. “ But we stand tall, stronger than we have ever been.” 

“ House of Hades,” She calls for her army, calmly for a moment before she, too, screams. “ Tear them apart!”

 And with that, the hills of Camp Half-Blood sink into darkness and chaos for a war that will be won.

[hola-ninos]

you   ll   Part 2

Summary: Percy and you finally made it to safety when you find someone who shouldn’t be there. 

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: stabbing, more water controlling, and there is a little bit of bigbrother!Percy.

A/N: I’m sorry if you don’t like fish, And if you don’t have long hair, I was just trying to make up a good food choice and some hair style. Also, I got this far in the series, so, yay! Also, this series will be covering everything up until The Blood of Olympus and maybe after that, so the parts may get super long. Please enjoy though!

https://depressed-teen-needs-her-coffee.tumblr.com/post/625639882430251008/you

find part one here ^

The look on the boy's face was not easy to read. You could see several different emotions go through it. Love, hope, regret, fear, hurt, loss, and so much more. Even though it was almost physically impossible, the boy grew paler. That’s when you realized why he was going pale. Noticing the faint light, you turned around to see Percy behind you, gripping Riptide with a death grip. He started advancing on the boy, pinning him up on a wall before questioning him. “Who are you? Why did she scream when she saw you? What did you do to her?” Percy asked, a growing anger in his voice. You knew his big brother instinct was kicking in, and as much as you loved how much he cared about you, he was going to kill this boy if you didn’t stop him immediately. The pale boy spoke up. “Woah, dude, put me down first off-” Percy dropped him on the floor, “Second, I don’t know who you guys are. I have never even seen you people before,” he continued. “Liar.” You called out. He may think he was good, but you knew better. Suddenly, you remembered something else. “Ghost King,” you muttered, grasping on to the two words as they popped in your mind. “What did you say?” Percy asked you. “Nothing,” I lied to him. I had just lied to my big brother for a boy I didn’t even know. It was all so confusing. “Why did you scream when you saw him Y/N?” Percy looked at you. “Why?” “He just scared me. That’s all. It’s fine.” you replied, while also trying to sound believable. Hazel finally piped up after watching this entire scenario go down. “ Guys, this is my brother Nico. Clearly y’all got off on the wrong foot, so, um, be nice.” You shot her an apologetic look as you walked over to the boy and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Y/N Y/L/N.” you shook his hand. “Nico di Angelo,” he replied, not once taking his eyes off you. “Guys, I don’t mean to be rude, but you both seriously need baths. Why don’t you go down to the bath house and get nice and clean,” Hazel told Percy and you. You nodded and dragged Percy through the door as he shot daggers at the son of Pluto, Nico di Angelo. 

…

After one of the longest showers you had ever taken, you felt like Venus herself. You styled your hair into some intricate braids before heading to where you thought you would find the legion. When you got there, you matched almost everyone else in your purple t-shirt and jean shorts, hoping that they might welcome you if you looked a little like them. After being approved by Octavian, he asked if you and Percy had any letters of recommendation. He knew you didn’t, so you responded by quietly mumbling no. “Does anyone stand for these pathetic Greeks with nothing to fight for?” Octavian yelled to the legion. This stupid, pale, skinny little jerk think he can talk about Percy like that? Oh hell no you thought, blood boiling. You opened your mouth to rant on him when you heard Frank. “ I stand for them! They saved my life!” Frank shouted. “Frank, you’re still on probatio, you can’t stand for them yet,” Octavian replied, which only made you want to punch him more. “I’ll stand for them!” Hazel cried out, and you could not be more grateful to see the golden-haired girl as she glared at Octavian, daring her to challenge him.

Before Octavian could say anything to her, Reyna responded. “Hazel may stand for them, so they can join the Fifth Cohort if the centurion will accept them.” You saw a tall boy step forward and nod to Reyna. His lips were stained red, which gave you a bad feeling. It triggered something in your memory, but you didn’t know what. You put it into the back of your mind and focused as Reyna told everyone that Dakota has accepted Percy and you into the Fifth Cohort. “All hail legion ultima!” the legion yelled. Hazel made eye contact with you, giving you a wave and a “come here” signal. You grabbed Percy’s wrist and dragged him over to Hazel. “C’mon, I’m sure you guys are starving,” she said as soon as Percy and you joined her. “Follow me.”

…

Food. Glorious food, you thought as you sat down. You hadn’t eaten since yesterday and really wanted some sushi. You were about to ask Hazel where to find the food when a wind spirit came passing by. She threw several different sushi rolls on your plate, including 2 spring rolls. Another one came floating by and there was suddenly blue cream soda filling the cup. When you took a sip, you felt home. You looked over at Percy, who was shoving handfuls of fries into his mouth, having no manners whatsoever. You giggled and popped into tuna roll into your mouth. You felt a sudden chill next to you as the boy from earlier sat down next to you. Percy looked at him and then looked back at you. You gave him a look to tell him you would be fine, and turned to the boy. “Hi,” you smiled at him, even though he had a face like he hated everyone there. “Hi,” he mumbled. You offered him a piece of your sushi, and he shook his head. “I’m not a huge fan of fish,” he said, looking at you as if you should know that. You thought he was crazy. You may be a daughter of Neptune, but fish was still pretty good. “Look, after War Games, can we talk? I know we just met, but it’s, uh, really important.” He almost whispered. You didn’t know why, but he was really cute when he was nervous. You also didn’t know why you were think that. It was not something to be thinking about when you had amnesia and didn’t know if you even had a boyfriend. Well. You kinda assumed the boy from the memory was your boyfriend, but this boy was acting like he had never seen you in his life, definitely not acting like a caring boyfriend who hadn’t seen his girlfriend in 6 weeks. You wanted to know what he was really doing here and why you knew him, so you nodded your head in a quick yes. “Ok, I’ll, um, find you after the War Games ok?” he quickly responded. “Okay,” you replied, not looking forward to the fight ahead. You ate a couple more rolls before Frank dragged your to the armory to stock yourself up for the War Games.

…

The plan your team came up with was stupid. It was completely and utterly stupid. The Fifth Cohort being used as a “distraction”? You thought it was super dumb, but had to prove you were loyal to your team. That’s how you ended up blasting water canons from outside of the stronghold with Percy. The First and Second Cohorts would be out, but not for long. You got Frank and Hazels’ attention before telling them to go, so they could get the banner. You knocked a couple more guards out before following them up the wall. After almost being cut down several times, you made it to the top of the wall. With the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Cohort backing you up, you all barreled through the First and Second Cohorts defenses. You climbed up the wall to get better positioning when you saw Frank, Hazel, and Percy riding Hannibal our the front gate of the bunker. In Percy’s hand was a large banner, signifying the Cohorts winnings. You smiled, only to be interrupted. You didn’t have enough time to fight before you were stabbed straight through the chest with a spear.

taglist:

@mariesunflowerchild​ and @subjecta13-thefangirl that’s it. Please inbox me if you wanna be added to the taglist :D

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Parents may not recognize on sight a JUUL or similar pod-type electronic cigarette, but many of today’s tweens and teens will. These have quickly become the leading vapes of choice for the legions of U.S. e-cig users 18 and under. Vaping isn’t a healthy choice for anyone. And, new data show, these pod-type e-cigs might just be the worst choice of all for kids who have decided to experiment with tobacco products.

U.S. minors cannot legally buy vapes. And that’s one reason the majority of them find these pod-like devices so appealing, says Bonnie Halpern-Felsher. She’s a developmental psychologist at Stanford University in California. These pod vapes have a deceptively large amount of nicotine, she notes.

That nicotine can harm the developing brain, adds Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin. Whether kids know it or not, their brains will undergo a lot of developmental changes between the ages of 10 and 25. Krishnan-Sarin works at the Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn. There, she studies how nicotine affects smokers and vapers.

Most nicotine research has taken place in rodents. “In adolescent animals,” she notes, “nicotine is a neurotoxin.” It keeps the brain from maturing normally during adolescence. This can harm the ability to learn, to make memories and to maintain attention, she explains. It can even lead to hyperactivity.

Krishnan-Sarin spoke at a news briefing for reporters earlier this year. Adolescent animals, she noted, “are very sensitive to even low levels of nicotine.” And that, she explained, “means they get addicted very easily.” The same, she added, is likely true for human teens.

Yet some kids aren’t aware that pod-like e-cigs contain any nicotine. That was one finding of a new survey. At an October workshop at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Halpern-Felsher and her Stanford colleague Karma McKelvey shared data from their survey of 445 teens and young adults. Each had been asked whether they knew about — or used — pod-like e-cigarettes. The researchers focused on such devices, they said, because JUUL now accounts for between 70 and 85 percent of e-cigarettes vaped in the United States.

Nearly one-quarter of the students said they had vaped. Of those, more than half said they had used JUUL or other pod-like e-cigs. These devices all are really small. And they don’t look like earlier types of e-cigs. Those had resembled mechanical cigarettes or were clunky. JUUL’s sleek pods look a bit like thumb drives. What’s more, they release a relatively small cloud of the vapors from which vaping takes its name.

But these devices hold more nicotine than most earlier e-cigarettes, says Halpern-Felsher. Each JUUL pod, for instance, contains 41.3 milligrams. That’s as much nicotine, she notes, as someone can get smoking 26 to 40 conventional cigarettes (depending on how they are puffed).

Moreover, the salt-based form of nicotine in the pods feels less harsh than the nicotine in true cigarettes and earlier e-cigs. So the pods’ nicotine is less likely to turn off a new user, Halpern-Felsher says. And that may encourage kids to overdo it as they experiment.

Bonnie Halpern-Felsher’s team at Stanford developed this visual illustration of the high quantity of nicotine in several types of pod-based e-cigs — shown in terms of their cigarette equivalence.

CREDIT: TOBACCO PREVENTION TOOLKIT, STANFORD UNIV.

Some kids are already paying a high price for their covert vaping. Data released Dec. 18 by a federally funded study — Monitoring the Future — finds that 8.1 percent of U.S. 12th graders say they are hooked on vaping. That’s more than twice the 2018 number. What’s more, Halpern-Felsher has found, most teens “don’t recognize how addicted they are.” Some nicotine addicts she surveyed didn’t realize they were hooked at all.

Yet newly emerging data suggest the nicotine delivery by pod-like e-cigs likely makes them at least as addictive as cigarettes.

[tsaitsaii]

Are you still accepting Jasico prompts? What about them being on opposing teams during capture the flag and playing with each others weaknesses to win.

Jason catches his breath up in a tree, ignoring the mosquitos flitting about the leaves as he balances carefully on one of the branches. The bark is rough against his palm, and the air is muggy with the heat of the incoming summer. Already his face feels sticky and damp, but he’s duking it out with the son of Hades, so he shouldn’t be surprised.

All below is quiet. Jason had told Annabeth he could handle Nico, but now he thinks he should have taken her dubious look more seriously. At least Percy hadn’t arrived for vacation yet. If he were on Nico’s team they’d be at a severe disadvantage, despite holding the Ares cabin.

There’s the crunching of leaves, the snapping of a twig, and Jason uses the winds to flit up further into the foliage, not making a noise even though the slim branches scratching at his face annoy the Tartarus out of him. He finds Nico there on the forest floor, turning, looking up in the trees. His sword is in his hands and he’s red faced, loose locks of thick, dark hair sticking to his cheeks and forehead despite a majority of it being tied in a ponytail high at the back of his head. Thick eyebrows pull together atop dark eyes, and his arms are free of his normal aviator’s jacket, showing developing muscles under a greyish black t-shirt.

Jason had been tasked with guarding the forest area facing the back of their flag. Nico could easily slip through them and the game would be over before it began. Chiron had said he couldn’t use shadowtraveling to take the flag back over the river, but before that it was fair game.

Nico begins to sprint towards the flag, and in an admittedly reckless move, Jason crashes into him from above, causing him to lose his balance with a tight grunt. He’s recollected himself and is up in a matter of seconds, sword swinging before it collides with Jason’s in a loud clang. From there it’s a flurry of quick attacks– Nico is fast, but Jason is faster. When he stumbles back after Jason’s forceful parry, Jason attempts to knock him down and imprison him on their side’s jail, but Nico sinks into the shadows. Jason knows his sneaky fighting techniques well enough that he turns around just in time to ward off the attack from behind, but he’s a second too late. Nico disarms him and Jason lets out a soft gasp as the hilt of his heavy iron sword knocks into his wrist, the blade falling to the dirt with a thud.

The asshole has the audacity to look smug. Jason wants to be angry but can’t at the sight of his shit eating grin, mirroring it with his own. His blood roars in his ears, adrenaline coursing through his veins, heart sending doses of delight throughout his body with every beat. Before Nico can take him, Jason swings his leg out to knock Nico off his feet, and Nico lets out a startled noise as his sword comes free of his hand, back crashing to the ground with an ugh torn from his throat. Jason’s on top of him immediately, and the two grapple, sweaty bodies picking up dirt, shirts sticking to their skin. Nico fades into the shadows yet again, but Jason grabs onto his arms tight and falls in with him. The screaming winds and endless darkness are there for only a moment before they’re upright, stumbling together a few yards away.

Nico may have more mastery with his powers, but Jason’s got more experience in melee and hand to hand combat. He’d been in the legion since he was a toddler, after all. Nico started late, had only just recently begun to get formal training at Camp. Still, he’s a scrappy fighter, taking blows and pain with ease and doing whatever he can to get the advantage. That added with his size makes him quick but reckless, whereas Jason is all discipline. They find holes in each other’s style fast enough, afternoons spent sparring and training making them familiar with one another.

They push against one another before Jason’s got Nico up against a tree, arms pinned to the sides of his head. Nico stares him down, panting, and deeper into the woods, there’s the sound of Jason’s teammates cheering as they capture the flag. It echoes among them, and Jason grins down at him. Nico’s eyes dart around quickly before he frowns up at the son of Jupiter.

He kisses him.

It’s fast but sweet, lips pressing together as Nico feels the bump of Jason’s scar move against his mouth, and Jason is startled, taking one, two steps back, hands falling from Nico’s arms to cup underneath his nose instead. Nico’s never kissed him out in the open before. He knows they’d come far from Jason asking Nico’s permission to even touch him, but…

Nico shoves him out of the way and lightly picks up his sword, using the distraction to scamper out from the protection of the forest into the clearing where Jason’s flag is. His face is flushed. Jason doesn’t know if it’s from the kiss or from the battle.

As if on cue, Connor Stoll sprints out of the trees on the other side, the three Ares children that had been helping Jason guard the flag readying their weapons with growls. Nico and Connor disarm them easily, and Connor nimbly grabs the flag before they’re running as fast as they can to the river.

“Rat!” Jason shouts, and he can only hear the sound of Nico’s laugh, carried to him by the wind.

---

God I loved writing this. Thank you!

[jasiper]

Hi I love your writing and blog ♥️!! Could you do either 15 or 18 for Jasiper? I love them so much and you write them so perfectly xx

!!! you are so sweet, thank you for supporting/loving all my work I appreciate you so hard. I also decided against being sad and wrote something cute because my babies deserve it.

15. things you said with too many miles between us (x)

“I miss you.”

Piper’s voice echoed around the nearly empty cabin, which was slightly intimidating, but she knew that no one else could hear. She looked around regardless, feeling smaller than usual in the midst of hippie statue Zeus. She also had a suspicion that the king of the gods was somehow listening, even though this conversation was probably boring to the immortal. Still, Cabin One was not her ideal place to talk to her boyfriend.

Jason looked tired. He was still wearing his Pontifex robes, and he had taken off his glasses to rub his eyes. His laptop camera was angled just right so Piper could see the blueprints spread out in front of him.

He had to be at Camp Jupiter for a few weeks for both the Feast of Fortuna and working with the praetors regarding his temples. He left nearly two weeks ago, and the solstice was still two days away, so he would be gone for at least half a week more. It sucked, especially with Piper across the country at Camp Half-Blood. She wished she could lounge in the strawberry fields with him, or maybe hang out at the Sound, but no, he had to be all important and Pontifex-y in California.

“I miss you, too,” he said, resting his chin in his palm and leaning down, smiling sadly at her. “I’d much rather be there. Senate meetings were boring enough as praetor, but they’re even worse as Pontifex.”

“I mean, the Pontifex robes don’t look quite as good as the praetor robes. No wonder Frank’s been looking so handsome lately,” Piper teased.

“Oh, hush.” Jason laughed, shaking his head. The sound filled her stomach with warmth, and suddenly Cabin One felt too big for her liking. Usually he was here with her, holding her in the very bed she was huddled in. The cabin was too cold without him, and she drew the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

“It’s true. The purple and the badges just have add a little edge to it. It’s dreamy, really,” she said, trying to hide her smile from him as she leaned closer to her laptop screen.

He shook his head again, rolling up the blueprints and resting his arms on the desk instead. “You are going to be the death of me,” he informed her, but his voice was warm. “How’s life over there?”

“The usual. I’ve eaten way too many strawberries, hung out with Nico and Will. Annabeth and Percy have forced me to third wheel with them. Leo scared another new camper by lighting himself on fire.” He laughed, and she laughed along because of how ridiculous yet normal it was. She adjusted herself, turning over so her head rested on the pillow, her hand wedged beneath her cheek. Whenever Jason had a free night, she would sneak away to his cabin and FaceTime him, spending the night in his bunk, sneaking back to her cabin before her siblings woke up.

“I miss the strawberries.” He looked wistful, and he sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, I love New Rome, but Camp Half-Blood is different.”

She nodded. “I know.”

There was a beat of silence. Jason set aside his blueprints, and turned off the light on his desk. He picked up his laptop, setting it down on the bed, and the camera faced the wall for a few minutes. She could hear rustling, and when he appeared again, he was shirtless, so she knew he was getting into bed. She tried hard not to stare, but hey, he was her boyfriend and he was too attractive to not look.

“It’s weird to think that less than two years ago, this was my home,” he said after laying down. He put the laptop beside him, and he rested his cheek on his arm on his pillow. “I tried to change the Legion and modify it to make it better on the kids, but it was home. My only home.”

“I get that.” She watched as he sighed, and she wished she could reach through the screen to touch his face. “You were there since you were a toddler. That was the only place you ever knew.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his eyes again. He was an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy, so he was tired as it was nearly eleven in California. (Piper was tired, but she was accustomed to staying up late. She was unfazed that it was almost two in the morning.) “It’s just weird being back. I didn’t expect to come back as praetor, and I definitely didn’t expect to become Pontifex. It feels familiar, but this isn’t my real home.”

Jason had struggled being a leader, he had once confessed to Piper. The stress of being a son of Jupiter was nearly suffocating. Being praetor had been tough, and Pontifex duties were a whole new ballgame. She didn’t doubt his abilities for one minute, but it was a lot of work. It also sucked when his duties required him to be away from her for weeks.

“Hey.” She lifted her hand up, as if reaching for him, but settled them on his face on the screen. “I understand completely. But the Legion looks up to you, Jason. You’re who they trust. You were the one who vowed to recognize the minor gods. If anyone could do it, it’s you.” He still didn’t look optimistic, so she added on, “And you’ll be back with me in a few days. Hang in there.”

Even though he was in dim light, she saw his cheeks darken in color. He yawned, stretching just enough so she could see the dusting of freckles along his shoulders. “Gods, being able to see you in a few days is what’s making me sane. I can’t wait for the Fourth of July to watch the fireworks with you,” he murmured, smiling at her.

Her heart fluttered. “You’ll be home in no time.”

“Yeah, I’ll be home.” He adjusted slightly, sitting up just enough so he could stare at her straight on. “Camp Half-Blood isn’t the only home I have.” He lifted his hand up, and she tried to imagine holding his hand. “Home is wherever you are.”

There may have been several thousand miles between them, but in that moment, they seemed insignificant, because little did he know that he was her home too.

[berrychowder]

Ready As I’ll Ever Be

“I’ve come too far to see the end now, even if my way is wrong.”

This is based on this song and video. A certain scene REALLY reminded me of Annabeth leading an army into battle. I worked around it. This is a permanent wip. It’s basically comprised of the lyrics of the song, who is saying what, and notes for what would happen in the scene. If anyone wants to build on it or do something with it, cool! Keep me updated. 

The basic plot idea I had was that Reyna sent Will out to do something (sent him on a quest) and he ended up getting killed. This really hurts the progress Nico made with his mental health. While Nico is upset and mourning, spirits/ghosts take the opportunity to manipulate and play with Nico’s head. Much like Luke, Nico decides to take out his anger on everyone who wronged him. This leads to a bunch of stuff that I never fleshed out, and now we end up here. With Nico kidnapping Reyna, and preparing to take over the world with the help of Tartarus (?). Annabeth and Jason are leading the Greek and Roman camps into battle to fight Nico, while Frank and Hazel attempt to bring the real Nico back. Idk. Not a very good plot design. That’s why I scrapped everything. This is long, so prepare for a lot of scrolling if you’re on mobile. 

NICO: Any moment now, your highness. -Nico finished fully tying Reyna up with the rope, assuring that she wouldn’t get out. Reyna grunted a bit at the tight ropes covering her.

Believe me, I know -his head is down.

I’ve sunk pretty low -he’s a completely different person now.  A step down from the happiness he used to feel in his life. Again, he’s bitter and angry. A villain.  

But whatever I’ve done you deserved -his eyes pupils downsize to slits as he looks at his own reflection on an empty glass bottle. He flings it aside. Shatter.  

REYNA: Nico! -she could get through to him. Nico is still in there.

NICO: Quiet! -he puts a hand to his head as if another voice besides Reyna’s is speaking to him. He slams his other hand on the table he’s working on.

I’m the bad guy, that’s fine -he puts his hands down slowly and takes a deep breath; calming down.

It’s no fault of mine -he spreads out a map and looks over it, tracing points with his finger.

And some justice, at last, will be served -Nico’s eyes drift to a framed picture sitting on the far edge of the desk. A picture of a slightly younger version of him smiling brightly. A blonde boy’s arms wrapped around his waist holding him close. A rainbow flag covering both of them, flowing in the unseen wind. Will.

REYNA: Please listen! -Nico’s far gone, but not far enough where he can’t come back.

NICO: Now it’s time to step up -he jabs a push pin into a spot on the map, seemingly in the middle of a deserted wooded area nearby.

Or it’s time to back down -his hands clench into fists, he spins around to face Reyna.

And there’s only one answer for me -his hands land on the hilt of his sword.

And I’ll stand up and fight -he pulls the black sword free from its sheath and presses the point to Reyna’s neck.

Cause I know that I’m right -he pulls it away leaving a thin cut on Reyna’s neck, already starting to bead with blood.

And I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready -he makes his way to the small block of a balcony, shadows black as Night herself streaming behind him. Reyna shivers from the cold that suddenly developed in the room.

Ready as I’ll ever be -he leaned forward, if he went any further he’d fall right off the railing. Shadows and bright blue fire swirled together around him. The temperature continued to drop. The trap was set. All he had to do was wait.

ANNABETH: Now it’s time to rise up -she handed the binoculars back to Leo and turned to face the large crowd behind her. The Greek and Roman camps have come together once more to fight. Not with each other this time, but to get one of their own back and to stop Nico di Angelo from destroying everything and everyone.

Or it’s time to stand down -oh Nico. She didn’t want to fight him. Nico’s been through so much, even by half-blood standards. Will’s death broke him. Nico was being manipulated once again, Annabeth isn’t so sure that they can bring him back this time. It’s Luke all over again.

And the answer is easy to see -she had to stay strong. The lives of billions are more important than her personal feelings. She picked up her drakon bone sword from where it rested against a tree.

And I swear by the sword -she almost let a tear slip out. Nico’s blood might soon be on it.

If you’re in, get on board -they needed to get moving. Nico is waiting. Waiting for Annabeth to lead everyone into a trap. Into a possible massacre.

Are you ready? -she looked around her. Jason, Percy, Leo, Piper. None of them had seen Hazel and Frank. The latter was desperately needed to lead the legion. Jason was serving as a replacement. Annabeth could only hope that Hazel didn’t side with her brother.

JASON: I’m ready -Jason shouted out commands to the legion.

PERCY & LEO: We’re ready -Percy looked downright miserable. It really is the Titan War all over again.

CAMPS: We’re ready

ANNABETH: Ready as I’ll ever be -this is it. She took the lead. Jason still shouting out orders beside her. Percy took her hand in his.

==

FRANK: Are you quite sure we can do this? -life isn’t fair. Sometimes things can’t change.

HAZEL: Together we will guarantee -Hazel nodded confidently, she kept her eyes on the abandoned tower her brother has taken refuge in. Meanwhile, rank’s eyes were locked on the horde of monsters and ghouls guarding it, ready for a fight.

==

NICO: I’ll make them hear me! -he wouldn’t be overlooked anymore. Everyone will pay. Feel the pain that he felt. Feel the pain that Will felt.

CAMPS: Now it’s time to redeem

Or it’s time to resolve

ANNABETH: Prove they can trust me -an alliance may have been formed with the Romans, but they are far from putting their full trust into the Greeks. After all, they didn’t make a very good first impression.

CAMPS: And the outcome will hardly come free

HAZEL: I’ll save my home and family -she’ll never give up on Nico, just like he never gave up on her. She’ll save her brother and her home.

CAMPS: Now the line’s in the sand

And our moment’s at hand

JASON: And I’m ready

ANNABETH: I’m ready

HAZEL & FRANK: I’m ready

NICO: Ready as I’ll ever be -Nico grinned. They’re here.

[sithhoplite]

Lak is on leave

In the AU Lakverse the Empire has launched an assault on the mid-rim to build a buffer zone around Leritor. Lak of course volunteered for this and is now home on leave. The problems of the battlefield follow her home despite the safety of her parents house. The dialogue is from a few rp chats @lordviridis and I have had. 

********************************************** Night had fallen on Kaas City as the city slumbered awaiting the new day to begin. The war in the Mid-Rim had been ongoing for over 9 months, three planets had fallen to the the might of the Empire, Nexus Ortal, Manda, and Lahsbane. The final prize that would provide a secure buffer zone for Leritor was the planet Ord Pardron. To prepare for that invasion the planet had been cut off with a blockade but they still had yet to yield. The realization that a ground invasion of this heavily fortified yet small planet would have to take place to subdue it.

The three legions that had seen most of the hardest fighting, the 75th, 33rd and 11th were sent to Leritor to rearm and get replacements. This lull allowed many of those a chance to go on leave to rest and see loved ones. Lord Lakadimos, commander of the 11th Imperial Legion was one such person.

The adopted daughter of Alastar (Darth Mortis) and Indran( Darth Kalma) Marwill, apprentice to the late Darth Gravus and current apprentice to Darth Scyph. She and her legion had distinguished themselves in multiple battles on the three planets. Tonight however she just wanted to be Lak. Looking down at her chrono she knew that her parents would either be watching the holo or reading in the living room. If anything they were creatures of habit.

The taxi she had taken from the spaceport dropped her off a little ways from the house so she could mask her force signature to surprise them. Walking up the path to the house she stopped and took a deep breath before opening the door. Greeting her was a human slave, Nico. Putting her finger to her lips she saw he understood what she was telling him, he backed away slowly and out of sight.

As she made her way to the living room she could hear the holo, that was good it would help mask her footsteps. Her stomach twisted into knots as the sight of seeing them though, that was unexpected. They had kept in contact exchanging letters throughout the campaign but Lak had kept hers very sanitized as to not alarm them. The letters she sent to her two younger step-brothers were even tamer. It was only after she was wounded that they had more of an inkling of how dangerous it was, three months after the fact. The scar from that encounter remained over her right eye.

Turning into the room she broke out into a large grin at seeing her parents. She was only 24 when Darth Gravus had been killed and they had offered to adopt her, 25 when it became official and she was now only 27. These two had taken her into their family, given her their name and treated her as one of their own. It had been a bit turbulent that first year but she had settled into the family and was better for it.

She knew it wouldn’t take long before one of them looked up and saw her but she etched this scene into her memory to hold onto when she left in two weeks time. Slowly her mother’s head rose and her eyes locked onto Lak. The smile that crossed her face was wonderful. Before she had time to register much else she was in the arms of Indran.

She held onto her mother savoring the feeling of her mother’s force wrapping around her. Smiling up at the warm red eyes as she pulled away for a moment, “Hi mom, surprise.”

Mortis who wasn’t one to be very affectionate physically took her into his arms. He wrapped his Force around her and she loved it. A kiss on the top of her head he let go.

“How long are you home for?” he asked knowing the campaign wasn’t finished

“Two weeks, all the legions are getting rearmed and put back into full fighting strength for the final push. Most of us who could choose to go home on leave..”

She could tell they were scrutinizing her and it made her slightly uncomfortable. Indran ran her fingers over her scar that ran across her right eye. Lak closed her eyes at the touch.

“Mother I’m fine, it’s over five months old now.”

Mortis called a slave over and she knew it was to get her room prepared for the night.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were coming,we would have met you at the spaceport.?”

“I wanted to surprise you father, and I succeeded.” she grinned rather proud of herself.

After catching up and eating Lak headed upstairs to go to bed. She had hoped that being in her own bed, in the safety of her parents home would deter if not at minimum lessen the nightmares. Sadly she was wrong.

Two Days Later

Lak could feel the gaze of both of her parents on her as she pushed the breakfast around her plate. Their worry over her clear in the Force. Looking up at her mother, "Nightmares, some nights bad, other nights bearable. Last night was a bad one. I've gotten used it it. I'll be fine mother, just tired. I found a way to fall into a dreamless sleep.” Glancing in her fathers direction, “ I will replace the scotch I drank."

"Lak, you don't have to get used to it. You know you can talk to any of us and if you need it, we can find professional help. I know several people who know to be discreet."

She sighs, "But if it's just a good night of sleep that you want for starters, there are some teas that can assure you a dreamless sleep for a night or two."

Lak scoffs at her mother's suggestion, "Who the hell am I going to talk to in the middle of a war zone exactly? I can’t tell them, oh wait an hour to attack so I can talk to someone about the night I had. I don’t even know if I will get leave again before this is all over, and that’s if  I survive. The amount of close calls I have had has gone up with each battle. My eye, a Jedi who got a little too close for comfort. Just an inch either way and I would be dead. You don’t understand mom."

"You can always call us. And if you want, I'm sure my father would be happy to share ways to deal with all those feelings. He's had more personal experience than I've had and knows how to deal with those feelings."

"War is never easy, and we all do our part. What you are doing is hard, but it is important. But know that if you want to do something else, we'd be happy to find you a place where you can do what you want."

"I am a soldier, that is what I have trained for since I was 7. There is no greater honor than giving one’s life for the Empire and I will if I have too.You realize I may not make it through this, our final target is the most heavily fortified planet we have tried to take. My men depend on me." she gets up and starts to pace to ward off the anger that is growing  "It just tears me apart seeing them die in front of me and not being able to save them. I'm tired mom, just tired." she sits back down defeated for the moment

Indran gets up, wrapping her arms around Lak as her fingers gently comb through Lak's hair. "I know dear. I know you feel responsible for each and every one of them, but you are more than just a soldier. Never forget that."

Lak groans as a recent injury to her shoulder shoots a sharp pain but doesn't move from the comfort and safety of her mother’s arms. "I am and will always be a soldier mom, it’s who I am and who Gravus trained me to be. I have to prove myself more than the others since I was wasn't born Sith and according to some my blood is “tainted”...when I'm in the thick of battle I don’t feel I just act, it’s a feeling I can't get anywhere else and watching the flag be raised over a new capital is, I can’t even describe it."

Indran notices Lak's reaction, sending a small amount of healing energy to sooth out the worst pain. She was hardly a healer, but this little she could do."As long as you feel it is what you want. But never think you need to prove yourself to us. That you have done time and time again already.”

“Wait, did you mention you would need to replace the Scotch?” Mortis asks as what she said finally sank in

She snorts, "You aren't supposed to take up our bad habits you know."

"It wasn't your bad habit I picked up Father, you can thank Gravus for that one. He always did have some top shelf alcohol."

Indran does her best to hide her laughter as Mortis shakes his head. "Of course you would."

"Well she isn't wrong, Julian always did have the good stuff," Indran snickers.

“It works when we have a couple days of downtown in the field and allows me to sleep. Why fix what isn’t broken?” she asks realizing where this conversation might lead too. She was in no mood to be lectured for drinking to deal with things they could not possibly understand. “I have a feeling where this is going to lead and I am not in the mood for it right now. I need to report in at the Citadel and see if I am needed for anything.”

It was just after one in the morning and Lak bolted up from another nightmare. Groaning she swung her feet to the floor running her hands through her hair. Walking down the stairs she went into the study where she knew her father kept the alcohol. Unknown to her she was being watched. Bending down she picked up the other bottle of scotch and a glass, before she had a chance to pour a glass a voice stopped her.

“Lakadimos.”

Hearing her full name come from her father’s lips she froze. Turning around quickly she saw his red eyes staring at her in the dark. “Put it away, now.” His tone left no room for argument and Lak obeyed without hesitation.

“Father...what….wha...what are you doing up?” Lak stammered

“I was working but I sensed you were on your way down and wanted to see if you were going to do what I thought you would. Congratulations for not surprising me.” seeing she was going to try and say something he cut her off. “Do not act as if you were not going to drink tonight to ward off any further nightmares, I am not stupid.”

“I can’t sleep so I thought I would have a drink or two then try to go back to bed.”

“Here I thought your mother and I covered this during breakfast, it seems I was mistaken.”

“I-”

“I don’t want to hear excuses Lakadimos, this is not healthy and you know it. You are ignoring the issues that are causing this and simply drowning yourself in very expensive bottles. As your father I can not let it continue.” noticing she was getting up he turned to her, “Sit down, we are not finished. I can not understand what you have seen or done, that is true but that is because you will not talk to either of us. You are here for a short time and we would like to enjoy it, not have to lecture you and lock away the alcohol.”

Lak’s head dropped as the words sank in. She knew he was right, jumping into a bottle was not helping, it hadn’t so far and there was no reason think it would now. Looking up at her father, her eyes showed sorrow, pain, and regret. Putting her face in her hands she tried to control the tears that threaten to spill over. Wiping her eyes, “I’m sorry father. I don't know how else to deal with this. ”

Walking over he pulled her into his arms and kissed her head. “It’s ok, you are having to do things neither your mother and I can understand. We are here for you and want to help.” a slave brought in freshly made tea and set it on the small table. “Drink this, you will have a dreamless sleep tonight I promise.”

It was quiet while she drank the tea that was surprisingly good. “Walk me to my room, I have something I want you to read.”

They walked up the stairs, Mortis watching her in case she started falling asleep so she didn't tumble down. Waiting at her door Lak returned quickly with what looked to be a journal.

“I..I can’t talk about it, not tonight. I kept this journal from the day we left here until I landed two days ago. You and mom can read it. Maybe it will give you an idea of what I have been through and we can go from there.” walking over she wrapped her arms around his waist putting her head on his chest. His Force wrapped around her as did his arms, giving his hurting child what comfort he could.

“Get some sleep Lak.”

“I’ll try dad, love you.”

Kissing her head, “I love you too, now go.”

He waited until she was in bed before he walked back to the master bedroom. The light was still on as he approached which alerted him that Indran was still awake.

“Everything alright dear?”

“No, I caught Lak trying to use what was left of the scotch to sleep. I stopped her and gave her tea instead.” he told her as he pulled her close.  “She gave us this to read.”

Indran spied what was in his hand,”Is it a journal?”

“Yes,  hers. She said she couldn't talk about it but if we read this we would have an idea of what she has been through. As much as I hate invading her privacy she's right.”

As they read random entries the horror of what their daughter had seen and done began to sink in. They both knew war was horrible but not like this.  It now made more sense why Lak would want to escape reliving this by almost anyway she could.

Indran could feel and see the worry in her husband's eyes,”We need to get her help before she leaves.  I'll make a few calls tomorrow.”

The following morning Lak walked into the dining room sitting down for breakfast ignoring the concerned looks from her parents. She could tell they had read at least portions of her journal by the way the Force weaves around her.

Looking at her parents, "I need help to deal with this mom. Dad was right, I can't keep running from this. I'm sure you have more of an understanding now."

"I'm glad that you realise that. And thank you, for telling us what you've gone through. We know it can't have been easy." Indran tells her,  concern clear in her eyes

"I'm sorry I drank the scotch. It was good though, really good and smooth.” she ignored the glare she received from Mortis, “I hope my journal wasn't too worrying for you.” the words spilling out before she can stop them

"It's fine Lak. We'll find you a therapist who knows how to help." Indran tell her knowing how nervous Lak is at the moment

"We are glad you felt able to share that. It helps us to understand what you've been through and what you need."

"Thank you mother. It's hard to talk about but I need too. Are there are any other questions you want to ask? I’ll answer if I can.”

"Only if you don't mind us asking. And if you don't want to answer, we understand that. But is there any way for you to relax during any of this. They can't keep you at the frontlines all the time, exhausted soldiers aren't at their best."

"Yes they could keep us there and have for quite a while during some of the long stretches.We get maybe a couple of days in the rear but it's not nearly enough. Writing helps, that is why I have my journal."

"Is there anything you need there that we could get you?"

"Food packages are always welcome, as are books and of course letters. Getting letters always helps, it reminds us of why we fight."

"Of course."

"Caitlin will use this as an excuse to bake, won't she?"

"Dear, she has a hobby. Just because you think it's not suitable for a young Sith won't make her stop."

“Caitlin’s baking is great, I’m not about to say no to anything she makes.”

Quickly Lak’s somber mood returns, "I guess I should stop drinking too.  I just rarely have time to really deal with what I've seen and it’s not that hard to get ahold of alcohol being Sith.”

"Yes, that would help. It might feel like an easy solution now, but in the end it will become a crutch."

"I'm sorry if I've disappointed you by all this." Lak drops her head not looking at either of them

"Lak, you haven't disappointed us."Indran sighs, "We just wish you'd have been open about all of this earlier."

"I didn't want to worry you. That's why I hesitated tell you when I got wounded the first time." she makes a vague gesture towards the scar on her eye

"Lak, we are your parents. It's literally our job to worry and to help you through all this."

“You have three real kids to look after, I should be the lowest on your list.” Lak snarks back

“Excuse me, what did you say?” anger coming from both Indran and Alastar , “You are our child, biological or not. When your mother and I adopted you we promised you and ourselves we would treat you no different than your siblings and we have. You may not share our blood but we love you just the same. I don’t ever want to hear that coming from you again. Is that understood?”

Thoroughly cowed by her fathers lecture Lak nods.  A moment later speaking but not looking up out of shame, "I'm afraid I won't make it through this."

Indran and Alastar share a worried glance before turning back to Lak. "Lak, you are strong and we know you have the power to triumph in this battle. It might currently feel overwhelming, but you have all the power and ability to get through this."

"I know that but I've had way too many close calls the last time we fought mom. This has changed me...but I'll do my duty no matter what." without knowing it Lak has reached out to her parents through the Force

They both easily feel Lak's attempt at seeking them through the Force, both answering on almost instinct to it. "I know. Please dear, just try to rest while you are here and not think about it more than necessary. I promise we'll find you someone who understands this better than we do and you feel comfortable talking with."

"You're right. I'm glad to be home, I missed you." Lak gets up and walks to Mortis leaning against him. "I'm going to go for a walk. "

Mortis runs his fingers through her hair. "Would you like some company?"

"Yea, wanna join me dad?"

“Of course.”

Indran watches as they get up and head towards the garden. The worry she has continues to grow thanks in part to the conversation they just had. She hopes that spending some time with Alastar will make her daughter more relaxed. Picking up her holo she begins to make a few discrete calls for a therapist.

[liliannorman]

Today’s nico-teen addicts: What role does ‘juuling’ play?

Parents may not recognize on sight a JUUL or similar pod-type electronic cigarette, but many of today’s tweens and teens will. These have quickly become the leading vapes of choice for the legions of U.S. e-cig users 18 and under. Vaping isn’t a healthy choice for anyone. And, new data show, these pod-type e-cigs might just be the worst choice of all for kids who have decided to experiment with tobacco products.

U.S. minors cannot legally buy vapes. And that’s one reason the majority of them find these pod-like devices so appealing, says Bonnie Halpern-Felsher. She’s a developmental psychologist at Stanford University in California. These pod vapes have a deceptively large amount of nicotine, she notes.

That nicotine can harm the developing brain, adds Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin. Whether kids know it or not, their brains will undergo a lot of developmental changes between the ages of 10 and 25. Krishnan-Sarin works at the Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn. There, she studies how nicotine affects smokers and vapers. 

Explainer: The nico-teen brain

Most nicotine research has taken place in rodents. “In adolescent animals,” she notes, “nicotine is a neurotoxin.” It keeps the brain from maturing normally during adolescence. This can harm the ability to learn, to make memories and to maintain attention, she explains. It can even lead to hyperactivity.

Krishnan-Sarin spoke at a news briefing for reporters earlier this year. Adolescent animals, she noted, “are very sensitive to even low levels of nicotine.” And that, she explained, “means they get addicted very easily.” The same, she added, is likely true for human teens.

Yet some kids aren’t aware that pod-like e-cigs contain any nicotine. That was one finding of a new survey. At an October workshop at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Halpern-Felsher and her Stanford colleague Karma McKelvey shared data from their survey of 445 teens and young adults. Each had been asked whether they knew about — or used — pod-like e-cigarettes. The researchers focused on such devices, they said, because JUUL now accounts for between 70 and 85 percent of e-cigarettes vaped in the United States. 

Nearly one-quarter of the students said they had vaped. Of those, more than half said they had used JUUL or other pod-like e-cigs. These devices all are really small. And they don’t look like earlier types of e-cigs. Those had resembled mechanical cigarettes or were clunky. JUUL’s sleek pods look a bit like thumb drives. What’s more, they release a relatively small cloud of the vapors from which vaping takes its name.

But these devices hold more nicotine than most earlier e-cigarettes, says Halpern-Felsher. Each JUUL pod, for instance, contains 41.3 milligrams. That’s as much nicotine, she notes, as someone can get smoking 26 to 40 conventional cigarettes (depending on how they are puffed).

Moreover, the salt-based form of nicotine in the pods feels less harsh than the nicotine in true cigarettes and earlier e-cigs. So the pods’ nicotine is less likely to turn off a new user, Halpern-Felsher says. And that may encourage kids to overdo it as they experiment.

Bonnie Halpern-Felsher’s team at Stanford developed this visual illustration of the high quantity of nicotine in several types of pod-based e-cigs — shown in terms of their cigarette equivalence.Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, Stanford Univ.

Some kids are already paying a high price for their covert vaping. Data released Dec. 18 by a federally funded study — Monitoring the Future — finds that 8.1 percent of U.S. 12th graders say they are hooked on vaping. That’s more than twice the 2018 number. What’s more, Halpern-Felsher has found, most teens “don’t recognize how addicted they are.” Some nicotine addicts she surveyed didn’t realize they were hooked at all.

Yet newly emerging data suggest the nicotine delivery by pod-like e-cigs likely makes them at least as addictive as cigarettes.

‘Juuling’ has become a teen thing

Those pods have become so big that they now define much of teen vaping, note Halpern-Felsher and others. Ask kids if they vape and some may say no. To them, she explains, they’re doing something cooler: “juuling.”

Liam Dell, 17, agrees. He’s seen it throughout his Buffalo, N.Y., community. When scientists at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center asked this City Honors School student what his classmates were using, “I said JUUL,” Liam recalls. “You can’t get around it as a high-schooler. You see kids using it as they walk down the street. You see it at friends’ houses. You even see it at school. It’s absolutely everywhere.” Kids describe their use of these devices as juuling, he says.

Even some adults may not view JUUL use as conventional vaping, notes Taylor Reed. She’s a research associate who conducts vaping studies in and around New York City. One of her roles, at New York University Medical School, is setting up in-home visits. “Typically,” she says, “on the phone, I’ll ask an adult if anyone [in their home] uses tobacco or nicotine products. And some will say, ‘No, I juul.” They don’t see a pod as a tobacco product.

First-generation vapes (shown left to middle) tend to loosely resemble the cigarettes they had been designed to replace. Later mod-type e-cigs had a bigger well into which people could put custom-selected e-liquids. These vapes also allowed users to boost their temperature for a bigger nicotine hit. Later came the pod-type devices. Though smaller, their innovative use of nicotine salts delivers nicotine more efficiently into the bloodstream, new data show.Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, Stanford Univ.

But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does. It describes e-cigs as ENDS — short for electronic nicotine delivery systems. Because tobacco is the source of that nicotine, FDA has ruled vapes as tobacco products. Indeed, e-cigs were developed as a way for smokers to wean themselves off cigarettes. Because smokers are addicted to nicotine, e-cigs would help smokers only if they could supply that nicotine.

Yet many teens who never smoked don’t know that, Halpern-Felsher has found.

But Liam does. In fact, he did a study of JUUL’s nicotine as part of his sophomore science fair project. We caught up with him in Pittsburgh, Penn., where his work was being judged as part of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. (That fair is a program of Society for Science & the Public, which publishes this magazine.)

Small device, big hits

For his chemistry analyses, Liam used instruments at that nearby Roswell Park cancer center. He confirmed that JUUL vapors carry more nicotine than standard e-cig vapors. His data also show they dispense what he describes as “a more addictive form” of nicotine. Known as non-ionized (Non-EYE-oh-nyzed) salts, it “is able to bond more easily to your lungs and to your brain,” he says. “So you could say it sticks more.”

These boxes of colorful Juul-like pod e-cig systems appeal to teens and young adults. But if users don’t see the packaging, they might not realize that these devices dispense high concentrations of tobacco’s nicotine, an addictive drug.E. Karey

The manufacturer “doesn’t seem to hide the fact that JUUL dispenses high levels of nicotine,” Liam says. It’s on the label. However, the label does not mention what chemical form this nicotine takes. Liam found that “99.4 percent of the nicotine salts were in the non-ionized form. That’s just ridiculously high.” For comparison, he says, “nicotine in e-cigarettes is typically around 80 percent un-ionized.” 

He didn’t measure how much of that nicotine ends up in the body. That’s what Jessica Yingst and Jonathan Foulds have just done. These public health scientists work at Penn State Cancer Institute in Hershey. They headed a team that measured blood levels of nicotine before, during and after someone had smoked a cigarette or had taken 30 puffs from an e-cig over a 10-minute period. All the vapers were former smokers.

The vapers used their own devices. In the first of these studies, those recruits used early models of e-cigs. A few of the vapers used so-called cig-alikes (which look somewhat like cigarettes). The rest used advanced “mods.” These allowed users to choose the flavor of liquid they vaped. 

Blood levels of nicotine rose as someone vaped. But that average rise (8.2 nanograms per milliliter, or ng/ml) was far lower than in the 10 smokers who each puffed normally on a single cigarette (about 21 ng/ml).

That was “a bit of a surprise,” says Foulds. After all, some of these pre-JUUL devices had vaporized liquids that contained a lot of nicotine. The only explanation, he says, was that these e-cigs “just didn’t deliver nicotine efficiently.” 

His team published its findings July 25 in PLOS One.

These data, Foulds realized, might explain why many smokers who had tried vaping went back to cigarettes. Perhaps they just didn’t get a big enough hit of nicotine to sate their cravings.

To test this, his team ran the same trial in six JUUL users. And as soon as the blood data came back, Foulds says, “We went, whoa! That’s a lot of nicotine.” The rise averaged some 28.6 ng/ml.

The Penn State team reported these findings November 15 in JAMA Network Open.

Addiction becomes a real threat

That was a small survey, Yingst admits. Still, she notes, “the nicotine delivery in all six people was pretty similar.” That suggests, she says, they were getting far more nicotine than do users of earlier types of e-cigs. In fact, these new data show, “JUUL delivers nicotine very similarly to a cigarette.”

The company that makes these pods knows that, Foulds adds. His team’s new data are “comparable to what [JUUL Inc.] found in its unpublished data,” he says. The company referred to those data in its patent, he found. He notes that, “[The company] also presented it in a poster at a conference we were at.”

So if these devices deliver as much nicotine as a cigarette, Yingst says, they “would have a similar potential to cause addiction.” In fact, Yingst and Foulds also have just measured the extent to which the JUUL users experience symptoms of addiction. Penn State has a special survey to measure that in users of tobacco products. 

Its researchers surveyed cigarette smokers on this 20-point scale. Higher numbers indicate higher levels of addiction. On average, smokers scored a 14, Foulds says. Among users of the pre-JUUL types of e-cigs, the average addiction rating was 8. But among people who vaped JUULs, he notes, the average was 14. These preliminary data now seem to “confirm what many people had suspected,” he says — “that this product is as addictive as a cigarette.”

That should prove as true for teens as for the adults in these studies, Halpern-Felsher says. Yet kids don’t know that, her team finds. 

Her group used a different survey to measure addiction. On its 10-point scale, “even scoring a 1 signifies addiction,” she says. And most teen vapers that her team surveyed averaged a 2.5 to 3 on this scale. People who are addicted have a very hard time quitting. Yet these kids don’t realize how dependent they have become on the nicotine they vape. 

“They don’t know they’re addicted,” Halpern-Felsher says. “But we do.” She’s published data on this. The young vapers were asked such questions as how quickly did they feel a need to vape after waking? Or did they need to vape even after being told not to use e-cigarettes? “The point is,” she says, “most of today’s youth don’t truly know what addiction means.”

In one October 2018 study, her team assessed how teens and young adults view pod-type e-cigarettes. Ironically, those young people rated the pods “as posing less harm or addictive potential [than other vapes].” At the same time, these so-called juulers showed more nicotine dependence than users of other types of e-cigs.

“It’s just the perfect bad storm,” concludes Halpern-Felsher of juuling. 

New trends prompting action

Just eight years ago, teen vaping was virtually unheard-of, note analysts at the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota. They work for that long-running Monitoring the Future program, which has been tracking teen substance abuse for 45 years. Last January 10, they wrote a letter that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. In it, they noted that the current growth in vaping seen in high school teens is the greatest jump in nicotine exposures that their program has witnessed in 44 years. Today, more than one in four U.S. high school seniors has at least tried vaping in the past month. The survey’s just-released 2019 data show that more than one in 1 in 10 of these kids now vape daily. Nearly the same share of 8th graders now report they’ve vaped in the past month.

Some states, New York included, have raised to 21 the age at which people can buy vape products. But that hasn’t slowed the rise in teen vaping. Doctors and others are aggressively looking to reverse this trend.

Patrice A. Harris is one of them. This physician is president of the American Medical Association. On November 19, she issued a statement saying, “It’s simple — we must keep nicotine products out of the hands of young people.” That, she explained, is “why we [the AMA] are calling for an immediate ban on all e-cigarette and vaping products.”

On the same day, Letitia James filed a lawsuit against JUUL Labs, Inc. As the attorney general of New York, she has a lot of clout. Her state’s lawsuit charges that “JUUL’s aggressive advertising of its multi-flavored products has contributed to a public health crisis.” Indeed, it argues, this crisis “has left countless New Yorkers — many of them teenagers — addicted to its products and fighting for their health.”

“How Juul made nicotine go viral” is a historical review of the way the sleek, discrete design of this e-cig brand helped it overtake the e-cig market, especially among teens and young adults.

California’s attorney general also sued JUUL. His office and the city of Los Angeles also argued that this company and other pod-makers have targeted kids. “JUUL and other nicotine product makers must be held accountable” for not preventing sales to underage users, says Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

“There can be no doubt that JUUL’s aggressive advertising has significantly contributed to the public health crisis that has left youth . . . across the country addicted to its products,” noted James. The company’s advertising has been “glamorizing vaping, while at the same time downplaying the nicotine found in vaping products,” she added. “I am prepared to use every legal tool in our arsenal to protect the health and safety of our youth.”

Halpern-Felsher’s team has its own Tobacco Prevention Toolkit aimed at doing this. Its materials can be downloaded free from the Stanford School of Medicine’s website. They describe a wide range of non-cigarette products that can hook kids on nicotine. They also explain how the toolkit can be used to better inform today’s tweens and teens on those risks — hopefully, before they get hooked.  

Today’s nico-teen addicts: What role does ‘juuling’ play? published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

[goonlalagoon]

Above all things || PJO/HoO

An Octavian-centric AU where things when the Argo II arrived in New Rome went a little differently.

Or: What if New Rome never burned?

On first meeting him, Annabeth Chase hated Percy Jackson purely on principle, because his godly father and her godly mother were at odds due to an argument that had taken place thousands of years before. By the end of their first quest, she had decided that she didn't care. Percy was not "the son of Posiedon". He was just "Seaweed Brain" - a little daft, but kind, sarcastic, headstrong and loyal. He was her friend, and she no longer cared whether they were supposed to hate one another.

Let us give Octavian the same chance.

He was raised in New Rome, augur before he was old enough to hold a sword, even by the standards of these teenage soldiers. He learnt of Roman history before he could write, stories of glory and honour. He learnt that the Greeks were not to be trusted: Romans should beware the Graecus. Octavian grew from child to teen with New Rome in his heart. Anything that threatened this legacy to which he was born was not to be tolerated. He heard rumours of the Greeks, saw demigods leave the Legion in search of something else, and woke from nightmares of an army swarming over the valley, razing everything to the ground.

When the army came, it was not the Greeks but the titans and their minions, tearing at the seams of his world. When Percy told them of the other camp, a bitter thought piped up in Octavian's mind: why didn't they help us? He had lost friends, bore scars both on his skin and in his mind and heart.

He was not the bravest, this distant child of Apollo, but he held Rome above all things, even his own safety. (In the world of the story we know, had Nico warned him of his robe, tangled in the ballista, yet told him it would save Rome, he would not have untangled it.)

The entrails did not declare Percy unsafe, unsuited, but the portents echoed in Octavian's mind as for the Graecus and son of Poseidon. He was tempted to lie, but placed his faith in the gods, as he always had done. Octavian still murdered Gwen, uncaring. The entrails had whispered of the weakening hold of death. Such a thing could not be ignored, and much of Octavian's ability to be reasonable, to be compassionate, had been burned away in the Titan war. He had been the vehicle of too many quests, spoken the words at too many funerals, been the directions that sent too many to death or injury, to be able to bear empathy, so he shut it away.

He was  a Roman, and true Romans did not show pain, or sorrow. True Romans did not want to cry and beg for everything to end, to say they had had enough of war and monsters and the glory that came from wielding a sword, so Octavian never admitted that he did, even to himself. He steeled himself for death and dust, and kept his eyes on the golden glory of Rome as his guiding light, his destiny and his salvation.

This Octavian still hated Percy, still glared bitterly as the newcomer stole the praetorship he had always coveted. He had started to despise Percy because he seemed to be Graecus; he continued to do so because he was praetor and Octavian was not. This bitterness would never be lost, or changed, no matter the events that followed.

The eildon still possessed Leo, but in this world, Reyna went onto the Argo II as well as Octavian. Perhaps Piper did too, claiming she wanted to fetch something from her cabin to mask her unease, and Annabeth, perceptive as always and so catching Piper’s slight worry, tagged along. Between them, they realised when something went wrong. Octavian still shrilly screamed "treachery!" and bayed for blood, but Piper talked the eildon down and Reyna had spent years with Circe; she understands an enchantment when she sees it.

Leo spends the rest of their stay terrified of himself, in fear of the destruction he almost wrought. It still isn't a long stay, because they all agree they cannot risk it. Reyna and Annabeth still bond warily, children of goddesses with tactics and strategy as lifeblood, and Jason gets to show Piper around his other home. Frank and Leo's first interaction is still a little tense, still a little at odds, but Frank is not dealing with someone who just destroyed his home before his eyes, and they are less at each other's throats. It still takes time for them to warm to one another, because Hazel still looks at Leo and sees Sammy, and Leo looks at Hazel and sees someone strong and fierce and totally out of his league.

(Leo never believed he was good enough, so always fell for those he knew would never look at him. It was less painful, he thought. Frank didn’t understand that he was good enough, and worried.)

Octavian still screams for Graecus blood, but there is no support, with Reyna to explain. And he is shaken, but he had also seen Piper and Annabeth leap to stop Leo before even Reyna could move a muscle, heard the eildon speak and curse through the son of Hephaestus, watched Jason both restrain and comfort his friend when the spirit fled.

It is hard for even the most biased observer to believe the attack was intentional when they had heard Leo's panic when he regained control, listened to the mechanic’s frantic plans to make all weaponry need to be operated by two people at once. The augur was still unconvinced by the trustworthiness of the Greeks, but he didn't have the smoking ruins of New Rome and Camp Jupiter to condense his fears.

Reyna only had to deal with Octavian and a small handful of concerned Legionnaires, not an entire Legion out for blood. Percy was still shining in their minds as new praetor, untainted by betrayal; it had been decided they would sort out who remained praetor and who stepped down when - if - they returned. But they had explained to Reyna and the senate how to send Iris messages, and between them Percy and Jason had selected a deputy to aid the lone praetor in their absence. Octavian was bitter, but there were no half exiled praetors for him to usurp, and he was forced to content himself with the power of augur. He had no howling masses to force Reyna to listen, had no motivation beyond a background dislike and distrust.

He sat through mist conferences with cabin leaders, curious teenagers who had never dreamt there were others like them. They traded stories of the Titan war, cautiously. The Greeks hadn't the depth of existing bias against the Romans, but they were not fools. Octavian would have despised them if they were. Arguments were not uncommon, the rage of Athena driving a wedge between the two camps, the same refrain of why didn’t you know, why didn’t you help us, why didn’t you save our friends? echoing in everyone’s minds, but Reyna called for calm, along with Rachel and Grover, echoed by Malcolm, Will and most of the other cabin leaders. Clarisse just grunted, but then Clarisse liked to fight. But Clarisse - she would also laugh with you after pummeling you to the ground, over food and gulps of water, crowing at victory and daring you to challenge her again. Once, Reyna got into a friendly discussion with Malcolm and Clarisse about strategy and war game ideas, and if he closed his eyes Octavian could have been in the weekly centurion lunch meeting.

The Greeks sounded no different to the Romans, at times. They were all children, teenagers, too young for the trials they had faced, for the dangers they were preparing for. They were all children, teenagers, trading fashion tips and gossip, playing pranks and planning midnight feasts, too used to war and battles, used to taking their peace whenever it came by, no matter how brief. Perhaps their smiles were all the brighter for the darkness they were surrounded by.

When Annabeth sent a message to Reyna from the dark depths of Tartarus, the praetor still saddled her pegasus and flew to the aid of her friends and allies. Reyna was a commander; she understood the bigger picture. The safety of New Rome, of the world, was more important than being certain of her position as praetor when she returned, and it always would be. Reyna judged people by what they did, not by what was said about them. She applied the same to herself; she did not care if she was declared exile for crossing the mare nostrum, only that in doing so she saved her home, her family.

Octavian shouted and raged, perplexed, about helping those who had destroyed her first home, and she shook her head at him: “And he saved this one.” Percy had earned her forgiveness, or, at least, her acceptance of the past. She understood the choices a demigod must make on a quest all too well, and would not hold them against him, or by extension Annabeth - though it admittedly didn’t hurt that he had given her a very un-Roman apology.

(In another world, where Leo fired upon New Rome, Reyna would forgive him too, once the war was over and she had listened to the tale, greyhounds sniffing in search of deception. She may never like him, but she understood enchantment, possession, the things that a person could be driven to do by magical reins. These were not your actions. They were the actions of someone else. She also understood how you could stand in a group and yet be alone, though she never spoke of it.)

Octavian still took command once Reyna was gone, but could not get support to march on Camp Half blood. He readied the cohorts, planned for treachery, waiting for the Greeks to turn on the Legion. When they did, he swore they would be annihilated. Rome would never fall while he lived. When the messages came, there was no declaration of war, no false gifts, no spies or attacks. Instead he received a plea for help - from the seven, from Reyna, from the counselors at Camp Half-blood, and Lupa looked at him, the fires of Rome burning in her gaze, until he left for Temple hill. He sacrificed near a hundred toys that night, searching for any hint of danger, but returned with the dawn to order the Legion to prepare for battle.

If allying with Greeks was necessary for the safety of Rome, then Octavian would willingly be allied with his nightmares. (Senatus Populusque Romanus; Rome above all things.)