#clarisse not believing her dad would do that but also he is the god of war. war is his desire. but what if someone tricked him into it.

[freshlybakedfandoms]

thinking abt an au where clarisse goes on the quest w/ percy bc of the whole "you will be betrayed by one who calls you friend" (he picks annabeth and clarisse bc he doesn't think he'd ever be friends with either of them) and has to confront her father when she finds out he stole the master bolt. hm.

[thekissofaphrodite]

Can you maybe do Clarisse x fem! Child of Hypnos?? I don’t think I’ve seen anything of that dynamic and I’d like to see how you would write it!

OKAY. IM ACTUALLY RLLY EXCITED ABT THIS SINCE JUST LIKE ANON SAID, I'VE NEVER SEEN A DYNAMIC LIKE IT BEFOREE.

Sweet Dreams

Clarisse La Rue X Daughter of Hypnos!Reader

Summary: A shared moment with clarrise with a flick of your finger.

Warnings: Hypnokinesis, people passing out and language

Author's note: Okay, I'm actually tired of some writers portraying a child of hypnos who likes to sleep... yeah, sure, their dad is the God of sleep, but that doesn't mean they just slump on their bed and snore away! They're also powerful! If you read the books !SPOILER ALERT! Hypnos literally knocked an entire city to sleep before the battle of Manhattan for Kronos. Why can't we portray his children like that? 🤨 No hate! Just speaking facts <33

CHILDREN OF HYPNOS DESERVES SOME RECOGNITION!! (coming from cabin 7)

——

You missed your girlfriend so much.

She was in archery and capture the flag today, but you two barely got enough time to run to each other before she was bombarded by tasks from Chiron.

You saw the way her eyes would soften from afar, giving you a discreet sympathetic look while she went on a rampage on her siblings ready to stab them into kebabs using her spear. But she knew you'd find a way to get to her, she always knew.

and you always do.

It wasn't long before every camper eventually dozed off after a fun sing-a-long around the campfire, singing their hearts out about their godly parent, minus a Demeter Girl complaining about getting a fern for her birthday instead of a car like all her friends.

So here you are, pulling your night robe closer as you impatiently wait for your father to caress Clarisse's siblings to sleep so you can have a moment with her.

But your father was taking way too long.

you have been hiding behind the cabin for hours, Listening to the unpleasant way the swords and spears of the Ares cabin got sharpened and big boisterous faces laughing at eachother. Clarisse was in her bunk, her arms crossed with a seemingly frowning expression. Every laughter made by her siblings made her more and more annoyed.

Every minute that passed made you more agitated until you finally snapped.

You stood behind the cabin and held your hands, focusing on the heartbeats and every breath that they exhaled, The sound around you became indistinct and fuzzy, the time seemed to slow down. A translucent light smoke seemed to snake inside the Cabin before it swirled around Clarisse' siblings, it took a few moments before their eyelids got heavy, their breathing ragged. And sure enough, there was a soft thud where their body fell.

It took you by surprise. It also snapped Clarisse out of her thoughts. Seeing her siblings who were talking lively minutes ago dozing off turned her off, She stood up alarmingly, ready to fend herself to any attacks of intruder.

When she saw you, her tense body softened, the beam on your face was a little unreadable, but she couldn't help but smile.

You ran and threw yourself into her arms, she caught you easily, carrying your weight like nothing.

"I did it, Clar!" You squealed, Clalrisse looked at you, confused.

"Did what, Baby?"

"My father finally blessed me! I get to use my powers, i can't believe this, did you see?!" You were babbling like a baby, words being thrown at her in hyperplaps, but she listened, never letting you go in her arms. She listened and remembered everything.

Like the time you were sobbing in her arms, after multiple failed attempts on praying to your father, it hurt her. She remembered when she used to devote herself to Ares, offering him big chunk of brisket and the freshest strawberries on her plate, just for him to answer her prayer, but it never worked, until finally he had enough of her, and gifted Clarisse a spear to shut her up.

But seeing you happy for finally being able to have powers, she felt something inside her change.

Clarisse tightened her arms around you, placing her nose to your hair, inhailing your scent.

"I'm proud of you" she pulled away and placed her hand against your cheek. She was slowly analyzing the color of your eyes, carefully studying each and every details your face had, then she slowly reached to your lips, the color was a mix of peach and pink, assuming it was from the lipgloss, but it looks so deliciously kissable right now.

Her hands reached the back of your head and before you know it, her lips were against yours, an arm wrapped around your waist while pulling you close.

"I love you, did you know that?" Clarisse whispered on your lips, "i doubt it" You laughed, falling over Clarisse' soft bunk bed as she kissed you once more.

An extra for you guys since i disappeared too long :>

——

There were soft groans and mumbles coming from Clarisse' siblings, it was already 3:46 am.

"What happened?" Asked Sherman while rubbing his temple.

Clarisse rolled her eyes at her brother, Sherman, glancing at their weapons leaned against their bunk.

"Nothing, i guess you two spent way too long gossiping that your eyes eventually took it themselves and took a rest" she said, Clarisse was trying not to grin at her siblings, knowing well that it was all her girlfriend's doing.

"Huh... what did you do when we're out then?" One of her brothers, Ellis asked.

"The usual, inspection and lights out"

"Really?" Both brothers said in unison.

"Yes, don't look at me like I'm lying, unless you want a spear up your ass" Clarisse snapped, rolling over and hugging her pillow to sleep.

Both brother looked at eachother and quietly snickered, i guess they'll keep hush about that peach and pink lipgloss smudge near clarisse' neck.

And they'll definitely tell the others tomorrow.

[hepaidattention]

it's the way...

it's the way Annabeth, the one who Percy at first didn't trust because he was afraid of betrayal, came and watched over Percy as he fought Luke (the one who Percy was really betrayed by) and SHE saved Percy's life.

it's the way you know Annabeth came back to camp and went to Luke first. she went to him and told him everything. told him every story, every little argument, every lesson they learned and he listened as she bragged about Percy and you know Luke could see the crush she had formed on him, he could see what he meant to her. Annabeth talked about how he saved her life, she talked about how she saved his. she talked about how she thought he was dead and how afraid that he'd be killed confronting Zeus.

its the way you know how he saw her relief when he walked through those gates, alive. when she hugged onto him, Percy's face reciprocating the same rosey cheeks and bashful smiles.

its the way Luke knew how she felt about him, and Annabeth also knew he did because she could hide a crush on a boy from a lot of people, but never Luke, he knew her too well.

and its the way Annabeth knew Luke was lying, when telling Percy why they hadn't told Chiron yet about Clarisse. she didn't want to believe it because this was Luke and clearly he had some kind of reason.

it's the way Annabeth watched the fireworks with her cabin, and then saw Percy and Luke walk off into the woods where they'd practice their swordmanship. she would go and watch them sometimes, her cap on always.

it's the way Annabeth gripped her hat in her hand and took a step back from her brothers and sisters, slipped on the hat, and followed their path. because she trusted Luke with her life, but she realized, she didn't trust Luke with Percy's.

and Percy's life had become much more important to her than she ever thought possible.

and she knew it was crazy to think, because Luke would never do something so traitorous, but Luke was Percy's friend, and the full prophecy still hadn't come to pass.

and she knew Luke was a child of Hermes, who were the children of the god of theives. and she knew she was with Luke when they were on Olympus, and she knew he was more capable, than many of their fellow campers, to steal the bolt.

and she knew how much Luke hated his dad, and just how much he hated Zeus.

it's the way her intuition told her it had been Luke all along, but her heart told her she was crazy to think it.

it's the way she still didn't trust Luke, the guy she saw as a brother, who saved her life as a child, alone with Percy.

it's the way that when she found them, she stayed hidden as she listened to Luke talk. she heard Percy put the same pieces Annabeth had already put together, yet wouldn't admit. she listened as Percy, sweet loyal Percy, feel almost as betrayed and hurt as she did.

it's the way she silently cried, not revealing herself as she brushed tears from her cheeks.

it's the way she knew Percy could beat him, if he could defeat the god of war and face Zeus unscathed, after all.

it's the way she didn't have it in her to fight him. not Luke. not her family.

and it was the moment that Percy apologized for hurting him, the moment that loyal Percy stopped what he was doing and wanted to make sure his FRIEND who had betrayed him, Annabeth, and Grover, if HE was alright, and Luke responded by hurting him back.

it's the way she waited for Luke to show an attribute that glimmered of something redeemable before she disarmed him, revealing herself to be there the whole time.

and it was the moment she disarmed him and lifted her cap, looking at him hurt, betrayed, broken.

and it was the moment that he hurt Percy when he was making sure he didn't hurt HIM, looking down at him like he was going to kill him, unarmed, only because Percy had been afraid to hurt his FRIEND, that Annabeth realized Luke wasn't the Luke she thought. sure, Percy could beat him, but he wouldn't. that wasn't who Percy was. and she never thought that's who Luke was, until he held his sword in his hand, hovering over injured Percy.

its the way Annabeth chose, while on their quest, to be less like the God's and more like Percy. she didn't want to live for glory and bloodshed and pride. she wanted to live for truth and juice and empathy.

and its the way she looked at Luke, his chest heaving, his eyes ashamed at what she saw him do, at what he was about to do, that she realized Luke had been mistreated by the god's too many times now - now all he knew was glory and vengeance and strife.

its the way Luke had become what Annabeth feared the most that she'd become. he was more god than human.

it's the way Luke looked at her, suddenly every choice he made being second guessed, because Annabeth heard everything, and she still chose Percy.

its the way he ran, because he couldn't fight Annabeth. not his family.

it's the way that Luke thought, if anyone understood why he did what he did, it would be Annabeth.

it's the way Annabeth, the one Percy thought to be the first one to risk his life, saved him from her own family's hands.

it's the way that Percy had been betrayed by a friend, but Annabeth was betrayed by family.

[supernaturallyliterate]

PJO SEASON FINALE AHHHH

THOUGHTS. YES THOSE.

Spoilers. Duh. Book and show

Annabeth being there to witness the moment Luke tried to kill Percy is a FUCKING GAME CHANGER. To me, it says that Annabeth suspected Luke & made a plan to make both Percy and Luke think that she would be with Clarisse. When she intended to follow them and protect Percy if need be.

I’m not mad about it. It’s a big change. But it makes sense for her character. It will make her and Luke’s dynamic later in the series a little different. Maybe instead of Annabeth blindly wanting to believe that Luke is good and couldn’t possibly do evil things, it will be more nuanced. She knows he’s done horrible things. She’s seen it. But she still can’t help but remember who he used to be. She hesitates in key moments. Let’s him get away. He takes advantage of those moments and escapes. Not intentional on Annabeth’s part. She tries to be calculated. But her emotions get the better of her. I can see this working out quite nicely.

And it still allows her to be the one at the end, in heroes of Olympus, to be there, advocating for Luke. Telling Percy to give him the knife. OH THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD.

Okay but Walker Scobell is such a good fucking Percy Jackson

Leah Jeffry Savies is such. Good fucking Annabeth Chase.

And aryan is such a good fucking Grover Underwood.

Okay but the searchers license being a literal flower?? How are you gonna convince me that Grover wouldn’t anxiously eat it like he does tin cans??

OKAY BUT ALSO I ACCIDENTALLY STARTED REWATCHING EPISODE ONE instead of episode eight and LUKE DOES THE VOICEOVER. THE ICONIC SO YOURE A HALFBLOOD SPEECH. BUT CHANGED. AND OHHH ITS SO FUCKING GOOD. THE PARALLELS ARE PARALLELING

I am so so fucking glad that we got the sword fight training scenes. We really needed them. The scene shifts of Percy fighting Ares and Percy training with Luke are spot on. And it sets up the friendship and mentorship with Luke & Percy even more. Making the betrayal so much worse. It build up perfectly.

Gods I wish we had a longer season.

Again with things being directly told to Percy. “You’re a leader among the halfbloods now,” Chiron tells him.

The bead at the end of the season when he’s leaving camp

THE PACT THE TRIO MAKES

And the fact that next year, all FOUR of them will return to that spot. Percy, Annabeth, Grover… and Thalia.

Annabeth’s hairstyle in the final scene was supers cute

The scene of Percy seeing his mom after she returns from the Underworld WAS SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS AND THEN KRONOS FUCKED IT UP. I love it. Chefs kiss.

Clarrise looked so fucking badass in her pan shot with her arms crossed. Like yeah she totally could’ve fucked some shit up with the gods

I love the beach scene with Percy v. Ares and how confused Annabeth is about the helm situation cuz she wasn’t there lmao

I kinda liked that Ares got cocky and kicked his opponent, the SoN of the FuCKinG SeA GOD into the OCEAN. Percy rolled through that little puddle and I screamed OH ITS OVER FOR YOU.

Walker’s micro expressions are fucking ICONIC AND I CANT WAIT FOR THE SCREEN RECORDS

Your honor I love them. Yes this post has devolved. No I won’t stop.

I gasped when Alecto was there at Montauk instead of Sally. But yeah. She showed up. I just forgot.

I love how Percy has just started calling people out on their shit. “You were always after the helm, weren’t you?” And telling Zeus he’s a shitty dad

OKAY BUT POSEIDON SHOWING UP TO PROTECT PERCY. I GASPED. I LOVE THIS CHANGE SO MUCH. it shows so much more compassion and gentleness of Poseidon. Yes in the books we get some glimpses. But the show isn’t holding back his favoritism.

THE PERCABETH HUG PT TWO

okay but we were robbed of more Seaweed Brain and Wise Girl quips.

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts later on. But overall. I AM SO HAPPY WITH THIS SERIES I JUST WISH IT HAD MORE EPISODES TO GIVE THE STORY THE TIME AND DEVELOPMENT IT DESERVES.

[jorjorlinks]

i haven't seen The Lightning Thief movie since 5th grade when it came out so I'm rewatching it before i listen to the Newest Olympian episodes about it and i'm only 2 minutes in and i don't remember any of this at all so i thought i'd make a post of my reactions throughout the movie.

why is the fisherman surprised by poseidon's giant form??? shouldn't the mist cover it??? also why is poseidon walking out of the ocean in giant form???

ZEUS IS SEAN BEAN???????

reading the credits like, there's so many famous actors in this???? i don't remember them at all. rosario dawson??? who does she even play?

why is ms. dodds an english teacher? what?

isn't yancy academy supposed to be a boarding school?

percy hearing his dad's voice is so wild

pierce brosnan as chiron us not bad tbh

some of the casting is so spot on, if only the writing was better

chiron is revealing too much too fast

god i love this grover so much

HAHAHAAH the minotaur being in a cow pasture is so perfect

where is the minotaur's tighty whiteys

the minotaur didn't dissolve?????

why are so many demigods hurt lmaooo

love how all the other campers are the same age as percy. where are the little ones

there's a middle aged man in the background???? who is he? is he a teacher?

logan lerman and alexandra daddario's blue eyes are SO blue

more than one centaur at camp????

whoa whoa whoa whoa what. what. he's already being put in the poseidon cabin??? he hasn't even been claimed yet

chiron is so upfront in this movie it's wild

so luke just takes percy in for capture the flag but isn't his counselor hmmm

"I'm coming buddy, I'm coming!" jake abel is so perfect

annabeth and percy being on opposite sides of the game is so weird

annabeth is acting like clarisse c'mon now

why can poseidon speak in percy's mind

percy is suddenly good at fighting because he touched water? huh?

luke is so perfect

i don't think chris columbus knows how capture the flag works

a balrog?!?!?!?!

hades??? no. no. no. why would hades look like that. why does he look like lucifer. what is happening?????

"you cannot negotiate with hades. he'll kill you and your mother" why is hades evil

are they just not gonna get a prophecy

why would luke know how to get to the underworld

absolutely LOVE that luke is a gamer

also love that luke just said he broke into olympus and stole things. he literally just told them that he's the lightning thief

map to persephone??? "keeps her prisoner" god, why is hades literally the worst in this

oh they are looking for the pearls, interesting

luke has aegis?!?!?

awesome, no prophecy

annabeth you can't just steal from a wishing fountain

glad they kept uncle ferdinand

medusa SLAYS. that leather jacket is so nice damn

cool ipod product placement. kids today would never get it

he can heal other people with water????

oh none of the gods can see their kids???? is there a great prophecy in this or uhhh not

love grover eating a soda can

okay so the mist doesn't cover anything cool

so far two major rules of the percy jackson world don't exist: the great prophecy and mist. can it even be percy jackson without them?

so their dyslexia just lets them read greek letters?

so video calls on laptops don't attract monsters but cell phones do? i can't believe camp has wifi

also why tf is percy wearing the shoes

i kinda like the idea of the hydra presenting has like 5 people

ah, percy is wearing the shoes so he can fight the hydra while flying, i see.

annabeth has so many random weapons and they just sort of appear. does she have like, a bag of holding or something?

so like so far percy has not controlled water at all but now he just sees a water fountain and thinks, yeah i can use that

they're just toting medusa's head along hmm

oh the lotus casino is a stop they have to purposefully walk into, cool

grover how can you gamble? how can any of you gamble? none of y'all are supposed to look 18 or older

okay this lotus casino is significantly better than the show, i gotta say

time for the most iconic seen

love that the lotus flower is just drugs

they're just letting these kids gamble???

ah poseidon is why percy is able to remember

THE PEARL IS BEING USED FOR ROULETTE LMAOO

i can't believe they decided to replace the st. louis arch with the nashville parthenon

no crusty's??? no DOA records????

ooh catacombs

i think chris columbus confused the underworld with hell

are those supposed to be dogs?

oh there's rosario dawson, it's summer, why is persephone in the underworld

why is grover so sexualized

why is persephone so sexualized

oh the bolt is in the shield

"i am going to be king of the gods" alright chill

also just realized that there is no history between annabeth and luke and she's not upset that he was the lightning thief

sally went with them???

WHAT IS LUKE DOING HERE

luke having his own shoes is very funny

huh?

kronos is just not a factor in this movie

luke, you have the bolt, why are you chasing percy

percy hit luke so hard his shoes fell off

how does sally know how to get into olympus

i love how in the books the gods are 10 feet tall and in this movie they're 50

love that they recast hermes for the second movie

he's so tiny, i cannot take this seriously

i think it is interesting that poseidon would have stayed to raise percy if he could. the movie really said good dad!poseidon

percy doing the politician wave to say bye to his mom

grover is not looking for pan at all, interesting

CHIRON SAYUNG PERCY IS HIS FAVORITE IS SO FUCKING WILD there's literally other campers around you

annabeth wears pink because she's a girl and percy wears blue because he's a boy

whelp

that's about as bad as i remember

[myopinionhi]

A Will Solace Character Analysis: the Underappreciated Soft Side

I've noticed many fanfictions have Will Solace OOC. So I’ve been thinking about aspects of Will’s personality fans seem to either gloss over or exaggerate. Here, this post is me doing an in-depth analysis explaining Will Solace’s canon personality in the books, and how it can sometimes differ from fanfictions. Sprinkled in this analysis are tips to fanfiction writers on how they write Will as more in-character.

There is one major aspect of Will that people seem to ignore or underemphasize. Nico best explains it when describing Will in this quote

Jason was a fighter. You could tell from the intensity of his stare, his constant alertness, the coiled-up energy in his frame. Will Solace was more like a lanky cat stretched out in sunshine. His movements were relaxed and nonthreatening, his gaze soft and far away. In his faded SURF BARBADOS T-shirt, his cutoff shorts and flip-flops, he looked about as aggressive as a demigod could get, but Nico knew he was brave under fire. During the Battle of Manhattan, Nico had seen him in action - the camp's best combat medic, risking his life to save wounded campers.

To sum it up, Will Solace is a very chill and calm character. A lot of writers make Will more irrational, impulsive, overbearing, and emotional than he actually is. Will is not the type of character to create drama unless he's, as Nico puts it, "under fire." In other words, the intense side of his personality doesn't come out unless the situation is urgent or dire.

Fans remember during the Second Giant War how he gets angry and argues with Nico over Nico's health and shadow-traveling, so many assume Will is going to be this fiery over a lot of other things regarding their relationship. For example, fanfic writers may make Will controlling or overly sensitive with Nico. However, keep in mind, Will gets heated with Nico during the Second Giant War because Nico's shadow-traveling is killing him. This is how Will describes Nico's dire state.

"Coach Hedge told me all about your shadow-travel. You can’t try that again."

"I just did try it again, Solace. I’m fine."

"No, you’re not. I’m a healer. I could feel the darkness in your hand as soon as I touched it. Even if you made it to that tent, you’d be in no shape to fight. But you wouldn’t make it. One more slip, and you won’t come back. You are not shadow-travelling. Doctor’s orders."

Will is a healer. When he touches Nico's hand, he can sense how little sleep and food Nico has been getting and how Nico's being taken over by darkness. Nico is on the verge of death and hasn't cared about his health for a long time. Nico is also stubborn about it, so Will has to be aggressive in order to save Nico's life. This aggressive behavior is not the norm for Will, but it can sometimes come out when he has to assert control in a life-or-death situation.

Will is a calming prescence. He's a diplomat. He stops violence on multiple occassions.

He's one of the few people who's able to calm Clarisse's violent rage, and he does so in a gentle manner.

Clarisse pointed her dagger at Rachel. "What about their allies, huh? Did you see that tribe of two-headed men that arrived yesterday? Or the glowing red dog-headed guys with the big poleaxes? They look pretty barbaric to me. It would’ve been nice if you’d foreseen any of that, if your Oracle power didn’t break down when we needed it most!"

Rachel’s face turned as red as her hair. "That’s hardly my fault. Something is wrong with Apollo’s gifts of prophecy. If I knew how to fix it –"

"She’s right." Will Solace, head counsellor for the Apollo cabin, put his hand gently on Clarisse’s wrist. Not many campers could’ve done that without getting stabbed, but Will had a way of defusing people’s anger. He got her to lower her dagger. "Everyone in our cabin has been affected. It’s not just Rachel."

One of the most underrated Will Solace moments is when he stops a bloody battle from happening between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.  

But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. After weeks of waiting, agonizing and steaming, the Greeks and Romans wanted blood. Trying to stop the battle now would be like trying to push back a flood after the dam broke.

Will Solace saved the day.

He put his fingers in his mouth and did a taxicab whistle even more horrible than the last. Several Greeks dropped their swords. A ripple went through the Roman line like the entire First Cohort was shuddering.

"DON’T BE STUPID!" Will yelled. "LOOK!"

People are so used to seeing demigods, especially male demigods, being aggressive fighters that they can't wrap their heads around a brave and strong demigod who actively tries to avoid unnecessary conflict and destruction as much as he can.

And that's Will Solace's strength: he has the ability to prevent as much harm as possible.

Will is a difficult character to write. There's a lot of dueling factors with his personality. He's calm and pacifying while also being brave and assertive. He's fun and lighthearted while also being intelligent, logical, and grounded. He's laidback while also being responsible and hardworking. He's insecure but not melodramatic. He's very caring and protective but not pushy.

Will's personality confuses Nico sometimes too.

He’d always thought of Will as easygoing and laid back. Apparently he could also be stubborn and aggravating.

The trick to writing Will is to keep in mind his default personality is a soft and lighthearted character. Writers tend to overemphasize the hard side of his personality when his default personality is actually the soft side.

Think of the relaxing, lanky cat metaphor Nico uses for him. He and Nico bicker often, and it works for Will because he rolls with everything and doesn't take things too seriously. He's able to alleviate Nico's moodiness with humor, wittiness, groundedness, and patience. Nico affectionately calls Will a "dork" because Will usually keeps things light. Interestingly enough, he's able to be lighthearted without coming across as insensitive or an airheaded goofball, the latter of which is something Nico dislikes about Percy's personality. On a related sidenote, another way writers make Will OOC is they make him too dumb or too immature. I know I mentioned to focus on Will's soft side, but be careful to avoid that too. He's a SENSIBLE, lanky cat.

The way Will keeps his composure during a stressful situation by using laughter while still being mature is expressed well in this exchange with Apollo. (Yes, Will has a lot to manage.)

It was difficult to think of this young man as my son. He was so poised, so unassuming, so free of acne. He also didn’t appear to be awestruck in my presence. In fact, the corner of his mouth had started twitching.

“Are—are you amused?” I demanded.

Will shrugged. “Well, it’s either find this funny or freak out. My dad, the god Apollo, is a fifteen-year-old—”

“Sixteen,” I corrected. “Let’s go with sixteen.”

“A sixteen-year-old mortal, lying in a cot in my cabin, and with all my healing arts—which I got from you—I still can’t figure out how to fix you.”

“There is no fixing this,” I said miserably. “I am cast out of Olympus. My fate is tied to a girl named Meg. It could not be worse!”

Will laughed, which I thought took a great deal of gall. “Meg seems cool. She’s already poked Connor Stoll in the eyes and kicked Sherman Yang in the crotch.”

The fiercer side of Will's personality comes out only when the situation calls for it; this happens sometimes when he has to be a caring family member, a responsible healer, or a warrior in a dire situation. Even when he gets more forceful, he doesn't get more forceful than he has to.

Since Will has such a balanced and lighthearted personality, what are his flaws? What are the dark sides of his personality? There are four main things that stick out.

1. He's insecure about his self-perceived lack of abilities.

"I agree," Will said. "I wish I was a better archer … I wouldn’t mind shooting my Roman relative off his high horse. Actually, I wish I could use any of my father’s gifts to stop this war." He looked down at his own hands with distaste. "Unfortunately, I’m just a healer."

2. He sometimes struggles to endure the heavy responsibilities he has as a healer and as a protector to his family.

“I got it reattached,” Will told me, his voice shaky with exhaustion. His scrubs were speckled with blood. “I need somebody to keep him stable.”

I pointed to the woods. “But—”

“I know!” Will snapped. “Don’t you think I want to be out there searching too? We’re shorthanded for healers. There’s some salve and nectar in that pack. Go!”

I was stunned by his tone. I realized he was just as concerned about Kayla and Austin as I was. The only difference: Will knew his duty. He had to heal the injured first. And he needed my help.

3. He forces himself to bottle his emotions to keep his composure.

Will laughed under his breath. “I’m terrified. But one thing you learn as head counselor: you have to keep it together for everyone else. Let’s get you on your feet."

Here's a second example.

I rested my hand on Will’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back by dawn.”

His mouth trembled ever so slightly. “How can you be sure?”

4. He constantly worries about his loved ones.

Nico rested his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Apollo, we were worried. Will was especially.”

In conclusion, Will Solace's personality is difficult to get correct. But don't worry, if you write Will as a laidback, witty cat in your fanfics, I guarantee he'll be more in-character than many other fanfics with Will Solace.

(Note: I am only human. If you believe I'm misinterpreting some aspects of Will's personality, feel free to express it. What I say isn't 100 percent the right interpretation.)

[lovingmyselfcore]

Skate Into My Heart

Chapter Three; Uh oh

BESTIES

I'M ALIVE AND I DID THE WRITING THING

@ciaraloves (or @perseusjackson-jasongrace ig) LOOK AT ME DOING THE THING

As soon as Nico left the locker room, Piper pounced on him. Literally.

He was forced to take a step back and caught her by the shoulders, “What’s up?”

She was practically vibrating with excitement, “Annabeth’s back!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Come on!” She grabbed his hand and yanked him through the hallways and into the main rink where a crowd of people had formed next to the bleachers.

It was the rest of the team and in the center was Annabeth, a duffle bag slung over one shoulder, looking exhausted as all hell but she was grinning as the team peppered her with questions and play-by-plays of the practices she’d missed.

Piper shouldered them into the center so Nico was directly in front of Annabeth, Piper on one side and Calypso on the other.

“Hey, Nico,” Annabeth said, still grinning. She stepped forward for a hug and he let her, burying his face into her neck and breathing, already feeling the responsibility leaking from his tight shoulders. Annabeth was like a big sister to him, not that he’d ever admit that, but still.

“You want to get out?” Nico whispered into her neck.

“Yes,” She whispered back emphatically. Nico could barely stop himself from laughing but as they pulled apart he saw the genuine relief in her eyes and felt himself worrying. He needed to talk to her, about the team and skating, about Will and of course, if she needed to talk about why she’d been gone for so long, he’d do that too.

Apparently, Calypso recognized that too and, bless her heart, muttered something to Leo, and together they captured the team’s attention, allowing Nico to tug Annabeth away from the crowd and out of the rink. She sighed as soon as they were ejected onto the city streets. Nico stuck an arm out and she smiled and linked their arms.

“Where are you headed?” Nico asked as they walked the short distance to the car garage.

“Oh, probably just my apartment.”

Nico nodded, “I wasn’t sure if you’d be staying with your dad or not.”

She shook her head, “He doesn’t even know I landed yet. I’ll head over in the morning.”

Her voice was stiff and Nico took that as his cue to change the subject. “So I have something to confide in you.”

She perked up almost immediately and he swallowed hard. But she just looked at him with those gray eyes and he reminded himself that this was Annabeth. That she wasn’t going to get angry with him.

At least, he hoped not.

“I’m talking to one of the hockey players,” He said casually.

Her grip on his arm stiffened and he braced himself but she was still just looking at him.

Finally, she grinned, “So when you say ‘talking to’...”

He groaned and felt himself flush, “Oh, shut up! Just friends.”

She hummed and released his arm to dig for her keys in her jacket pocket. “Is he nice?”

“No, he’s a dick,” Nico said sarcastically.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. “I don’t know why I even bother.”

“He’s blonde,” Nico offered.

“Oooh,” Annabeth drawled.

He rolled his eyes and she burst out laughing, her voice echoing off the stone walls of the parking garage.

“Is he gay?” Annabeth asked.

Nico nearly flinched and passed it off with another eye roll, “I don’t know, Annie, that’s not something that’s come up in casual conversation.”

She glared at him and Nico, being the mature adult he is, stuck his tongue out at her. She did it back then shook her head. “Too much time with Percy,” She muttered and Nico snorted. She grinned at him.

“So he’s okay?”

That sobered her immediately. “Yeah. Well, as okay as he can be. I’m only here for like two weeks because he insisted I come back, but I’m leaving as soon as possible,” She glanced sideways at him, “Not to leave you alone again, though.”

He shrugged off the flash of selfish hurt he’d felt, “I’m good, Beth.” But he wasn’t good. He’d just told her about Will, and not even the start of the way his stomach would twist when he saw a new text from the hockey player and not the same twist when he panicked. And that also meant his chances of performing solo again were climbing. He didn’t know how to feel about that part.

“Stop that!” She exclaimed, halting once they’d reached her car.

“Get some sleep, Annabeth,” He said genuinely then smirked a little, “It looks like you need it.”

She threw a balled-up receipt she’d found in her bag at him, “Dick!”

~~~~

“Hey, Nico.”

Nico nearly leaped out of his skin, spinning to see Persephone in the living room.

She snorted, “Didn’t mean to scare you, sorry. Did practice go well?”

His phone buzzed in his pocket, “Yeah. Annabeth’s back.”

Persephone hummed, reaching up to untwist her hair, sending it cascading down her shoulders, “That’s good. I know you’ve missed her,” She said with a knowing look in her eyes that made him shift uncomfortably.

“Yeah, definitely, um, I’m tired we learned some new moves for Regionals today, so,”

“Yeah of course.” She was still smiling.

“‘Night Persephone,”

~~~

Nico flopped face-down onto his bed with a groan. He knew Persephone though he had a crush on Annabeth; he didn’t blame her, he’d never really made it a point that he didn’t. He wished he could come out to her and his dad, he didn’t really have a reason why he hadn’t besides the weight of anxiety on his lungs.

His phone buzzed again, and he wriggled upright to yank it out of his pocket.

Will: Distract me

Will: My mom is driving me insane

Nico grinned to himself, both of them were dealing with mommy issues at the moment.

Nico: idk how you expect me to distract you

Will: Just tell me about snakes or smth

Nico: you think i just have fun facts about snakes on hand?

Will: Yeah?

Nico: good

Nico: cause i do

Will: :)

Nico: snakes can slither 12.5 mph

Will: Good lord

Nico: snakes have internal ears but not external ones

Will: ??

Nico: they can’t create their own body heat which is why theyre in the sun all the time

Will: Hmmmm

Nico: they smell w/their tongues

Will: I thought they had nostrils??

Nico: they do

Will: what

Nico: it’s their Jacobson’s organ my dude it works in mysterious ways

Nico: not really but yk

Nico: sCieNcE

Will: ok….

Nico: if you get bored of snakes i’ve also got a bunch of random cheetah facts

Nico: i love cheetahs

Nico: very cool

Nico: fast cats

Will: Lmao go ahead

Nico: but first

Nico: why’s your mom driving you insane

Nico: if you want to tell me ofc

Nico: not trying to be weird

Will: Nah you’re fine

Will: She wants me to focus entirely on med school and not hockey

Will: She’s trying to get me out of it, actually

Will: Do something ‘respectable’

Will: Not turn out like my dad

Will: Even though dad has literally NOTHING to do with hockey

Will: And in my opinion he’s not bad. Not great. Not awful yk

Will: But hockey’s what’s putting me through med school so

Will: Gods, I really just burdened you with that I’m so sorry

Nico: med school huh

Nico: now i can say i know a doctor

Will: In training

Nico: close enough

Nico: you’re a great hockey player and you're going to be a great doctor

Nico: and you can always talk to me, will

Nico: you’re not burdening me with shit

Will: thanks <3

Nico didn’t understand why he blushed. It was a goddamn emoji. Calm down, Di Angelo.

Will: So we’ve been talking for a few weeks now. Can I call you my friend yet?

Nico snorted, feeling like he was fifteen again, sprawled on his bed, in the dark (because for some reason he didn’t turn his lights on) late at night, texting his- well, anyway.

Nico: yea dumbass

Nico: we’re friends

Will: Nice

Will: Now give me cheetah facts you adorable nerd

~~~

WILL

“Will? You good?”

Will blinked, Jason coming in to focus in front of him. “Uh, yeah.”

“That was believable,” Clarisse said sarcastically from behind Jason.

Will attempted to shake the fog from his head, “Yes,” He repeated.

Jason just blinked at him and Will was formulating an excuse for why he was so tired besides the fact that he’d spent all night talking to a cute figure skater with a ridiculous amount of animal facts stored in his small body when Coach Hedge’s voice boomed from his seat on the bleachers, “Solace! You alive?”

“Yes, coach!” Will shot back.

“Then why are you just standing there? Get back to the game! You too, La Rue and Grace!”

“Yes, sir!” They all barked back.

Clarisse gave him a once over before skating back to her goal and Jason went over to Will’s spot with him, “You sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, just tired.”

Jason opened his mouth, probably to question why the mom friend of their group was tired enough he nearly tripped over his stick but Will just said, “It’s fine, Jase. It’s not a big deal.”

“Grace!” Coach Hedge screeched.

Jason gave up on trying to interrogate Will and skated back over to his spot.

~~~~

“Mama, please,” Will tried, but his mother cut him off.

“Willaim. Hush. How’s that girl you said you were dating?”

What?

He was silent for a beat too long.

“Oh, baby,” His mother’s thick southern accent drenched her words. “You broke up? I’m so sorry.”

Oh gods, Lou Ellen Blackstone.

Will and Lou Ellen had dated for two months a long time ago, and when they were still dating he’d told his mother about her to get her to back off of his personal life a little. Their break up hadn’t had a huge fallout, Lou Ellen had told him through tears in his living room that she was aromantic. They were still friends, had been even before they dated, actually, and talked to each other pretty regularly.

But the problem was, that had been three months ago, and he hadn’t told his mother about their breakup. He knew she’d ask why, and he didn’t want to out Lou Ellen or make her a devil in his mother’s eyes. So he’d procrastinated coming up with a reason until he’d forgotten about it entirely.

And now it had come back to bite him in the ass.

“Yeah we broke up a little while ago,” He forced himself to sound choked up, which wasn’t hard, giving the way his panicked brain was now sprinting in circles on his lungs. “I just didn’t disappoint you.” Probably the most honest thing he’d said in weeks, but that’ll be unpacked later.

“Honey,” She sighed sadly and Will didn’t know whether or not that was on his behalf or hers.

“Well, it’s okay, because I’m dating someone new.”

“Oh?” He could hear her spine straighten. “Is it someone I know?”

No, mom, it’s not one of the country girls I grew up with.

“No,” He winced at how southern he sounded. He’d been talking to his mother for five minutes. “You don’t know him.”

HIM. Good Gods, Will. Yeah, you came out as bi to your mom, but still, you haven’t actually mentioned a guy to her yet.

She was silent for so long his heart joined his brain in the track meet happening on top of his lungs. “What’s his name?”

He was so she’d spoken that he blurted, “Nico.”

What. The. Fuck. Willaim.

Apparently, his heart had won that damn track race.

“Well, what I was leading up to before you told me about what happened,”

Will hummed non-committally, trying not to sound like he was taking relieved breaths as she spoke.

“The family’s come for a reunion and you should bring that boy!” Will choked on his spit.

“Mom, I don’t know about-”

“No, William. There isn’t a set date yet so we can work around your schedule,” Fuck. “I insist, Will. I need to meet this boy you clearly like very much, even though all you’ve said is his name, a mother knows.”

Umm, what.

“Sure,” Will said, sounding a little strangled. “But we have a game this weekend.”

“Alright, William.” She sounded the way she always did when he brought up hockey. “But as I said, we can work around your schedule and his. Talk to him about it, and let me know.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Will repeated. “I’ll do that.”

She hung up and he was left staring at the wilting daisies at his kitchen table.

What had he just done?

[crushing-on-nico-di-angelo]

Seven Nights in Cabin Thirteen

I’m inspired by another post I saw here that I didn’t wish to hijack lol, and OP deactivated or else I’d link their account here. credits to @the-ghost-king for the idea of a demigod therapy/Will being a past drug addict on this post. Yes this is a bad fic. It’s also my first fic ever. Please criticize if you see anything

Will never thought that he would ever appreciate his first monster attack. He was seven years old, and in hindsight his teacher probably only worked there to prey on young demigods (at least, that’s why he suspects the attack happened so early in his life compared to other demigods). But when Lee Fletcher sat him down 4 years later and told him that he was trans and would now be known as Lee instead of his birth name, Will knew that everything happened for a reason.

After many conversations with Lee about how he knew (gods bless that man’s patience) and with an older Athena camper who’s special interest dealt in psychology, Will realized the reason that he always felt disconnected from his mom and sisters in Austin was because he was like Lee. He was a boy.

Telling people wasn’t easy. Of course his older brother had to know; he was the one who introduced Will to this concept. Telling the rest of camp was as easy as telling Chiron, who told Dionysus, who always threatened to turn anyone into a dolphin if they talked shit about any trans kid. Telling his mom... that had to be the hardest part. How was he supposed to tell them? The only similarities they all had were that they were all musically inclined and that they were all girls.

Apparently, Will forgot that Naomi Solace was a musician. The music industry has more queers than an all girl’s school GSA. Her only questions were “Alright, what’s your name then, kiddo?” and “When do you want to set up an appointment with a therapist?” As for his siblings, well, let’s just say the oldest, Frankie, always knew. And it didn’t take long for seven-year-old Mickey to cut her doll-that-somehow-looked-exactly-like-Will’s hair and change his notes from high to low when she accompanied his singing on violin, as part of voice training.

Four years has passed since then and Will can hardly believe it. He’s stealth back at Austin because it’s just easier that way, but since a quarter of the camp knew him since he was seven, he figured there was no point; it isn’t like anyone treated him as though he wasn’t a man-- er, boy-- at camp anyways. So, life went on. He got his period for the first time during the Battle of Manhattan, that was no fun, but luckily Thalia was cool about it and made sure not to tell anyone. He started binding shortly afterwards, got a couple bruises hear and there. Kayla yelled at him for a week for that one, he remembers fondly. Discovered why it’s better to take off your contacts in the shower... that day isn’t such a fond memory. That was the first and last time he ever made himself bleed. Although, he will say that’s what sparked his interest in medicine and what made him the best doctor Camp Half Blood had seen in decades at the mere age of 15 years old. Life at camp was good, if a bit dull. He got used to the routine and the constant influx of damaged campers, the siblings and friends, and the always-perfect Texas Barbecue and Coke.

That is, until the War Between the Camps happened. Lou Ellen woke Will up before sundown that day and told him their plan. They were to hide in the tall grasses and wait for Camp Jupiter to show their ugly faces. Cecil had the genius idea to paint their faces and arms black so they’d blend into the night better, and Will supposes in the hubub of everything they forgot that his hair nearly (”nearly”) glows, even at night. Until Mr. Nico “I’m so smart, I nearly killed myself shadow travelling” di Angelo pointed it out. Whatever, it made sense at the time. They won the war against Gaea, not without sacrifice, and they finally, finally got past all the wars and destruction and health issues that they were able to just hang out and get to know each other as friends.

And boy, was their friendship amazing. Nico had the best taste in music from Will’s eyes, and that’s saying something because Will is a music snob. Nico could be a little stubborn at times, but that’s alright because so was Will (”Gods damn it, Nico, if you don’t take your medication right this second I will-” “You’ll what? Hm? You’ll force it down my throat? Last I checked that was abuse.”). They fit together so perfectly and became fast friends.

It wasn’t always sunshine and lollipops, though. What is, for a demigod? Will relapsed once and passed out right in front of Nico’s cabin. He was crashing from an exciting high that he hadn’t experienced in so long, and he felt so tired and ashamed of himself. Methamphetamine was a goddamned bitch, so while he was coming out of withdrawals, he made Nico promise not to let him leave the cabin for a week were simmering down. He had to make sure something like this never happened again. They Iris Messaged  Chiron and explained the situation, and he understood. He made sure to contact the older son of Dionysus who had been Will’s therapist in the past and said what had happened and they agreed on a session for soon after Will got mostly over his cravings.

So now they had a week of downtime together. Awesome.

“Solace, do you need anything? Are you okay?” Nico asked towards the end of the first full day that withdrawals were over.

“I’m-- fuck. I’m fine. I swear.” He responded unconvincingly.

“That’s not what you said last night... no offense, but I’m not fully inclined to believe you when you look like shit.”

“It- It... it’s not something I’d like to talk about, if that’s alright. And... don’t tell Clarisse, please.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone, don’t worry. But I would like to know if this is going to be a common occ--” Before he could even finish asking, Will was already shaking his head and responding.

“One-time thing only, I promise. Gods, I’m sorry I showed up here at all.”

“Woah, buddy. That’s not what I was saying at all. You’re my best friend, I’m glad you came here.” Will almost couldn’t believe what Nico was saying. Then again, did Nico have very many friends? Nico himself certainly didn’t seem to think so. “In any case, you don’t have to explain what happened, or what led up to this, or anything like that. I don't need to know. What I do need you to do, however, is take a shower. I’m sorry to say so, but you smell like ass.”

“Yeah well, I’m…” He couldn’t finish his sentence. How do you explain to someone that he still wanted his drugs, and he didn’t want to leave the cabin because he knew he would leave to go find some before he would even think about going to his own cabin at this point.

“You don’t have to leave,” Nico said, perhaps sensing his agitation. “I have a shower in the cabin.”

“What the fuck do you mean you have a shower in the cabin?” The shock of this knowledge get him out of his stuck mind. “How did you get plumbing in here? How did Chiron allow this?”

“I helped design my cabin, and while I may not have all the experience in architecture that Annabeth does, I do know a thing or two. I did meet with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, you know.”

“I did not know. You- Who is Isambard Kingdom Brunel?” Will asked

“Oh, some civil engineer who is like a million years old.” Will scoffed at that.

“You’re one to talk,” he teased. He was never going to let go of the fact that Nico was technically like 80 years old.

“Oh hush, William.” William… never Will, like most people. William… like he was something special, something that deserved three syllables. “Anyways, like I was saying: take a shower. You look like you were up mowing all of camp with a flashlight.”

Knowing Will’s reaction to drugs, that wasn’t unlikely. He stood up. “Lead the way? I’ve never been around your cabin before.”

Nico’s cabin was unlike any others. Using some sort of Doctor Who-like technology, there was a living room, a kitchen, and one room. Surprisingly, the walls were all light or pastel, a stark contrast from Nico’s general (and unintentional) punk-rock appearance. However, the furniture was all a deep black. Nico led him to his room, a minimalistic one with a bed, a desk, and a lamp. Will wondered where all the personalization was, but made no comment.

“Here’s the shower,” Nico pointed to yet another room in this somehow huge cabin. “If you see something amiss or odd… ignore it.” Will didn’t want to think of the implications of that sentence.

He stepped in the shower and oh my gods, watching the dirt and grime wash off him after his 8 hour high-- which he did not want to think about (and not just because the author doesn’t want to taint his search history), it was too embarrassing-- was a wonderful feeling. He was still tired. He didn’t know why, it didn’t used to be this hard. However, he was pretty sure that he tried to clean the entire outside of the hypnos cabin before going over to the Hades cabin to do the same. This was the first and last time Will would ever thank the gods for Nico’s poor sleeping patterns, he had heard him outside and came to get him before he tired himself out more.

He nearly passed out in the shower again but managed to make it out. He looked around the well-stocked bathroom and realized something that he probably should have bothered to notice before: he didn’t have any clothes with him. Fuck. He wrapped a (black) towel around his chest because he didn’t think his body could take anymore binding and prayed to Dionysus that Nico didn’t notice that his chest wasn’t exactly male.

Luckily, the first thing Nico did say was “Is that a tattoo?”

Will looked down at his sun. “Yeah, it is,” he smiled. He remembered the night he did it, it was kind of hard. He ordered a tattoo gun off amazon and had Frankie do it for him shortly after the Battle of Manhattan. Some people might think it’s in honor of his dad, which is fine. It was really for Lee Fletcher, though. His mom totally freaked, for a really long time, but after his C-PTSD diagnoses she realized that whatever works for him works as long as it isn’t drugs or self harm. He knows she wants a future for him that doesn’t involve music, and that’s why she freaked. She thought it would ruin his chances. But it’s right on his shoulder, only visible in tank tops or no shirt.

"It… its to honor the man who taught me I could be myself." Will said after a small pause.

"That's a very lovely sentiment. If he made that much of an impact on you, he must be a very cool person."

"He was." Will knew that Nico heard the was by the way that Nico nodded solemnly. "I uh… I don't wish to be more of a bother, but do you mind if I go to bed now? That shower really helped."

"Yeah, of course. I can take the couch, you know where my bed is-"

"No, absolutely not." Nico sighed softly, as though he expected this. "I can sleep on the couch, in Austin I actually prefer it to my bed."

"That's-- no offense William, but that's weird."

"It feels less lonely to me," Will protested, then let out a huge yawn.

"Alright cowboy-" Will smiled at Nico's nickname for him "-get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Nighty night, Neeks. Love you." he didn't miss the small smile on Nico's face before he walked away. Will has always been very loose with his 'I love you's like that. He figured it's better to say it too much than not enough.

He had found his old stash the night before, the one that Clovis had helped him forget about. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about last nights events. At the time,he told himself that he shouldn't do anything with it, and put it out of his mind for about a week, but eventually his urge to smoke overcame his self-control. He went on a rampage of cleaning and was absolutely certain he looked like a madman. The worst part is, he didn't even know why he did it. It was as though his rehabilitation hadn't even happened, as though this was something that was as natural as getting a cup of coffee in the morning. He was so mad at himself, so embarrassed.

These thoughts occupied his mind until he fell asleep about an hour after his last words to Nico. He slept with no dreams, for the first time in about a month.  

word count: 2,245

[kookie-doughs]

Y/N L/N AND THE HALFBLOODS

Percy Jackson X Reader -Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.

CHAPTER 7: FIRST DAY OF CAMP

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever we went, campers pointed at us and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet. She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins. "I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall." "Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets." "Whatever." "It wasn't my fault." She looked at us skeptically, and I realized it might've been my fault. I may have made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures and made the ground shake. I didn't understand how. "You need to talk to the Oracle, both of you." Annabeth said. "Who?" "Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron." Percy stared into the lake, I rested my head on his shoulder wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once. I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend. I didn't know what else to do. I waved back. "Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts." "Naiads," Percy repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now." Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us." "You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" "I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human." "Half-human and half-what?" "I think you know." "God," I said. "Half-god." Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. And one of your parent isn't your parent, Y/N. You are both a child of one of the Olympians. " "That's... crazy." "Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?" "But those are just— But if all the kids here are half-gods—" "Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods." "Then who's your dad?" Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling we'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject. "My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history." "He's human." "What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?" "Who's your mom, then?" "Cabin six." "Meaning?" Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle." Okay, I thought. Why not? "And who's mine?" "You grew up with both a mother and a father. So only your Olympian parent knows." "And my dad?" "Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows." "Except my mother. She knew." "Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities." "My dad would have. He loved her." Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens." "You mean sometimes it doesn't?" Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us." I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. But gods should behave better. Whoever my Olympian parent better suck up and claim me or I will show him. "So I'm stuck here," Percy said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?" "It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that." "So monsters can't get in here?" Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside." "Why would anybody want to summon a monster?" "Practice fights. Practical jokes." "Practical jokes?" "The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm." "So... you're a year-rounder?" Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring. "I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college." "Why did you come so young?" She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business." "Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?" "It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission." "I've never had anything weird going on. I had a perfectly normal life." "It's because you don't give much of a half-blood scent. Even Grover didn't knew you were one of us until you came here. Even now they still don't smell you." "I just... want to go somewhere... else." I could see that Percy was guilty. "They wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless..." "Unless?" "You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time..."

Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well. "Back in the sick room," Percy said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—" "Ambrosia." "Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice." Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?" "Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?" She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal." "You've been to Olympus?" "Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council." "But... how did you get there?" "The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at us like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?" "Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out. "Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something." I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions. "I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem..." I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan. Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to us as we walked in. Percy left me to settle at his spot while I sat at mine. Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact. "I hope you settle in just fine," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store." He had a very friendly and welcoming aura around him, I couldn't help but giggle, "Thanks." "No prob." Luke sat next to me. "Tough first day?" "I don't belong here," I said. "From what I've heard about other campers. I had a perfectly normal life. Nothing weird... I-I don't even believe in Gods..." "Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier." The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything. "So your dad is Hermes?" I asked. He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes." "The wing-footed messenger guy." "That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors." I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind. "You ever meet your dad?" I asked. "Once." I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar. Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Y/N. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other." He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day keeping Percy's works. I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me and Percy being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?" Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies." "What do you mean?" His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp." "Somebody special?" "Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for." I didn't know why... but I grabbed his hand, he turned to me surprised. "I-I... Uhm, I want to get to know you better... I... I'm here if you want to talk. A-As a thank you for helping me since I got here! I-I..." He gave a warm smile and ruffled my hair. "Thank you. Now, come on, it's dinnertime." The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!" The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last with Percy. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down. "Percy," "Hmm?" "Are you okay?" I was about to grip his sleeve when he moved away. "I'm sorry... I'll tell you after dinner." I looked at him sadly while he thought to himself. We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill. In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads. At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off. I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur. Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair. Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends. Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!" Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!" Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! Percy sat beside other kids of the Hermes cabin. My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course." I said, "(Favorite Drink; F/D)." The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. Then I had an idea. "F/C F/D." The drink turned a violent shade of F/C. I took a cautious sip. Perfect.. . . . . I drank a toast to my loved ones. They're not gone, I told myself. I felt like I was forgetting something. Like I know I will get too them all soon. "Here you go," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket. I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something. "Come on," Luke told me. As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll. Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell." "You're kidding." His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food. Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes." I was next. I wished I knew what god's name to say. Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you better claim me, or I will come for you and you won't like what I'll do. I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames. When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag. It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke. When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention. Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels." A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table. "Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new campers today. Peter Johnson and (Wrong Name)." Chiron murmured something. "Er, Percy Jackson and Y/N L/N," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on." Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I went up to Percy. "What's wrong?" He sighed. "I... I feel like everything... All of this," He signaled at everything, "happened because you met me. When you told Annabeth about your life and how nothing had been going wrong, while I had trouble following me every step... I couldn't help but feel guilty." I knew it... He felt at fault. Taking his hand I looked at him, "I chose to be with you at the beach. I wanted to follow you. I wanted to stay with you. Yeah, troubles came and I lost everything... I would rather have you with me through that. Please?" He rested his head on my shoulder, "Yeah..." Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. It was late at night some were asleep, while some were screaming around. I stayed up looking out the window since Luke had warned me about going out. "Long day, how was it?" Luke greeted taking the spot beside me. "Almost had my face flushed down on smelly toilets, so real fun I guess." Luke rested his back against the window and looked at the two boys wrestling each other few feet away. "You know how you told me you wanted to get to know me more?" "Yeah... I mean it. You're the first person I met here. From what I heard you helped me after getting here." "So you feel obligated to get closer to me?" He raised a brow at me with a smirk. "No, I think you're interesting. I want us to be friends. I want to be a person you can trust." "Why?" "I... don't know. I guess I just want to. I mean yeah I also low-key kinda have a crush on you but oh well." I joked. Hearing his laugh I was relieved he was a cool guy. "I'll keep you in mind." "Really now? Okay dream of me I guess." "For a 12 year old you're a flirt." He shook his head with a smile. "It's my mom, she told me the best way to make friends is by flirting. If they're cool with you flirting they're perfect candidate for a friend, if they aren't, you'll have an awkward friendship." "I don't know about that." "I know right? Imagine teaching a 5 year old how to flirt." We laughed. We continued to chat about little things until it got quiet in the cabin. Most of them were now asleep. Percy slept as soon as he lied down, after all. "Good night." Luke smiled. "Yeah, good night." I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on the bed. When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly. That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood. I already felt like I belong. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all...

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I am in love with Luke I'm sorry Here's another chapter Another horirble caphetr UwU -kookie-doughs

Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @the-natureofme @booknerd-3000

[ursie]

PJO OC take 92!

Jasmine “Jasper” Park

15/16 by hoo

Multiple pronouns uses all of them

Bi/nb

Child of Eriene (peace)

Filipino/Korean on fathers side

Autistic, disabled missing a leg

Believes in peace and will do anything to bring it to fruition. Fought in both wars actively, commander under Clarisse.

Is a fighter-more than capable at hand to hand and close combat but specializes at long range and more subtle maneuvers.

Thinks the Athena cabin is annoying “high wisdom” y’all are barely high int

Hick grandparents moved to Texas and their fam never left

Very good at strategy and love’s to read but lacks in school (the books r late and math is stupid).

Dad’s a artist, grandparents own a music shop so it’s not a big deal.

Greatly respects Piper who weilded her moms cornucopia (of which I have mixed feelings on but that’s neither here nor there)

Actively hates cowards, if you want peace but aren’t willing to do anything for it?? Die time for direct action baby

Was on Luke’s side as they thought getting rid of the gods would bring more peace than working under them and you know? Points were made. Still agrees with Luke tho they helped chb in the end.

Their grandparents own a couple horses and xe does a lot of competitions and stuff professionally and practices at camp, dreams about owning a ranch w his wife (also wants a wife)

Loves rodeos and western culture, lives westerns too

Only listen to country and similar stuff will tell you the difference between western and country music

Unironically played a lot of FarmVille with his grandparents very proud of her farm

Super high score on bejeweled and other old people games

Volunteers at the nursing home on the weekends

Has/had a huge crush on Clarisse and Percy and Nico and Ethan and literally anyone who was large in the war effort either side if you’re not a coward 👀💕

BFFs w Clovis they vibe together peace and sleep work best together after all

Also bffs w Clarisse because you have to work for peace regrettably

Incredibly black and white thinker to a flaw

Hates passive aggression too if you have a problem say it or move on

Despite being extreme in her anger he’s extremely forgiving and extremely compassionate. Known for being equally maternal/soft to their aggression. Would sooner die than raise a voice to a child

Helps look after the lil ones literally so soft around kids

In summary just wants to help in the most direct way possible, grandparents were activists and it was present in their art as was the ideal of peace present in her fathers art as well. Strives to bring it to fruition in a way xe understand

[sapphicambitions]

like when I say I think Luke Castellan is gay I don’t mean it as a cutesy “don’t u wish ur fave was gay” kind of way I mean textually and seriously I believe he was gay. 

I could cite the petty stuff like “he only had female friends growing up” and “he clearly never showed interest in women even though many women were interested in him” or “he is one of the few people in the series who didn’t actually have a serious love interest / partner” or whatever but i feel like it’s actually much deeper than that. Luke was a young person who had a difficult and strained relationship with his parents. He saw how flawed the system was and how it was treating people like him, and sought to change the system, give power to people like him, and start it all over. (Yeah, he fell victim to people who influenced him to the dark side but that had nothing to do with his gayness, imo.) He just reminds me a lot of characters like Nico and Catra from She-Ra: repressed gay with a strained relationship with parental figures, angry and willing to take down the world. In this essay I will-

.......like no but seriously

Luke had a very troubled childhood because of his mother’s damaged mind, and the fact that she was constantly having fits and telling him how terrible things were going to be for him. When Luke is (angrily) describing his childhood to Hermes he says: “You could’ve helped me when she was having one of her fits, shaking me and saying crazy things about my fate. When I used to hide in the closet so she wouldn’t find me with those glowing eyes,” like!!! he even mentions hiding in a closet (let me find the subtext where i want it)  but seriously, you know what’s one of the first things my mother said to me when I came out to her? “You know how much harder your life is going to be, don’t you?” So then Luke ran away from his home and found a new family, one that looked out for each other and loved each other more than their blood family ever did. This is a queer narrative!!

And with Hermes, it was all sorts of fucked up. His father kept him at a distance. Made Luke feel like there was something wrong with him, like he didn’t love him. His dad made it very clear to him what his expectations were of him, tried to encourage him to be a great hero, like all the heroes before him (when he was talking to him about sending him on a quest and Hermes said “You will get a change to be a great hero before…”) but Luke didn’t want to be the person his father expected him to be. He wanted to be something new, something true to himself. Luke was always burdened down with the weight of his parent’s expectations, both the expectation that he should strive to be a perfect hero and the knowledge that his future was doomed. 

So one time i was at a bar with friends and me and the only other queer person there were talking and he was like “gay men and their dads, you know what i mean?” and I was like “yeah also gay women and their moms” and we had a whole discussion about growing up with a certain set of expectations of who you’ll be from your parents and the gendered expectations they have for you and having to crush all of that when you come out to them and navigating the difficulties that come with that when you want to be your own person so like there’s your real world comparison / evidence for that argument

ALSO Luke ran away from home but then kind of immediately went to Camp Half-Blood where he was shoved into the Hermes cabin with all of his siblings and undetermined kids and then still expected to scrape part of his food in the fire and be thankful to his deadbeat dad. That would suck! He was already harboring all of this rage inside of him, and then he went on his quest. Saw the world. Was exposed to other schools of thought. He understood that he was just being used as a pawn. He came back a different person, he didn’t quite fit in at camp anymore now that he’d seen the world. Kind of like when I went off to be gay at college and then came back to my childhood home and had to be straight around all my high school friends. just saying.

Luke saw the flaws in the system, the way the gods ruled the world. The way the gods treated their children and how much it hurt them. He felt so betrayed and hurt and abandoned by his dad and all the gods, so instead of sitting with it, he thought “I can do better.” Luke sought to rebuild the world, scrap it all and start new. Start with new leaders who took better care of everyone, who did things completely differently than the way it was done before, and raze anything before it. We’re going to ignore the fact that he was influenced to the dark side for a moment because it’s not related to this essay, but I also feel like this is a very queer narrative. (how many times can i say that phrase in this essay) Seeing the flaws in the way the world is treating people like you and wanting to do better. Luke said (this not an actual book quote more of a dramatic sentiment): “I won’t be used and I won’t be who you want me to be. I will become my own person and there’s nothing you can fucking do to stop me. I will make a new world, better than before, without you, for people like me, and I will tear down the walls of the previous world if I fucking have to” and i just think that’s very gay rights of him.

A thing that I’m a big fan of is seeing specific character types and relating them to each other. For example: our fave Nico di Angelo and Catra from She-Ra. (If you haven’t seen She-Ra, she’s the DEFINITION of an angry repressing gay) We can see from Nico’s narrative and from Catra’s narrative and also just straight up my own personal narrative that sometimes when you’re gay and repressing and afraid of becoming the person you are warned against, while also knowing that you were meant for more but maybe not quite understanding what that more is yet, and overall just want to feel accepted and loved as who you truly are but not receiving that, it can tend to make one lash out in angry and irresponsible ways. It can make one isolate themselves from those they previously were close to. It can lead to irrational and impulsive choices for all the wrong reasons because you don’t feel right and you don’t know why. Not at all saying this is the same across the board for queer people, it’s just something that honestly happens to some people and I can relate to when i see it in characters. 

I see that in Luke. He is weighed down by everything his parents want him to be, both good and bad, and is trying to scrap the world and make a new one for people like him. He wants to take his turn, pushing aside anyone who’s hurt him. Luke was someone who was constantly being torn apart by the world and just wanted to feel safe and secure in who he was and the world he was in. He was acting in anger and fear and hurt and revenge for his childhood and because he still felt like there wasn’t a place in the world for him. He lashed out against his father and his family and his friends and pushed them all away. Sure, he had some friends at Camp Half-Blood, but Annabeth’s devotion to him was not enough to make up for like, all of his childhood trauma. First everything with his mom and then being on the run for so long and then meeting his dad and then losing Thalia (which also fueled his anger and hatred of the gods but like we knew that) and his quest and just everything. He was dealt a cruel hand and he didn’t handle it well. Not that that has anything to do with him being gay but I’m just lamenting over the tragedy of his life. Anyway.

Also not to quote the Lighting Thief because it’s not technically in Rick’s canon but i still think they perfectly understood the characters so I’m including it, but the idea that Luke has tried to be a good kid, he’s tried to do what was expected of him, he’s done everything they ever asked of him, but it didn’t pay off. It didn’t matter. It still wasn’t a world he belonged in. “you know this world will never be ours as long as our parents rule over the stars” and “it’s time to make the world our own” strikes me very much to the tune of LGBT activism. once again ringing in that idea of “if you won’t make the world better than i will do it with my bare hands” he also sings “the gods were never on our side, so i think it’s time we watched them fall” which gets to me every time because like he was just a kid! he was just a kid who had so much hurt and anger inside of him and he went about everything the wrong way but he was just a fucking kid! 

also YES to be petty and shallow but while Annabeth and Thalia refer to luke romantically, he never mentioned the same for him. Kelli the sexy monster hits on him during Battle of the Labyrinth and was clearly interested in him and he pushes her away without any hesitation. IN FACT the only demigods referenced on Luke’s ship are Chris and Ethan (why we didn’t see any of that trio, I’ll never understand), with Ethan working much closer with Luke and being a major player in the Titan War. (also I think Ethan is queer too but that’s a battle for another day.) And Rick LOVES romances. pretty much every character gets paired up with someone in the original series (percy and annabeth, grover and juniper, even Clarisse and Chris) which is fab thank u rick for my percabeth rights but Luke is the only character who does not get a girlfriend!! because he’s a homosexual!!!! you know what other character didn’t get paired off in the original series??? NICO, a known homo!!!  i do think that luke is a case of “accidentally written homo” because this was before rick saved the world and gave us nico’s coming out and really started pushing for queer rep in the books (thank u again rick!!!!), so I’m allowed to find my gay subtext in the original series, thank u very much!

listen all im saying is that my favorite character narrative is “angry gay coded villain who is repressing and lashing out at the world because of it” and i truly believe luke fits into that narrative and I stand by my argument.

Thank u for attending my TED Talk

[sebastianshaw]

Shaw and Monet St Croix

OH EW OH MY GOD WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!  I feel SO BAD for this but here!! Name: Aliya Faiza Jawaria Kinza Kiran St. Croix-Shaw. Look, Monet’s full name is  Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix she is going to ensure her daughter has an equally fancy, worthy name; each of them has a meaning specifically for her chosen by Monet. I was originally going to go with French names, since the names of Monet, her father, and all her siblings are French, but since more recent stuff has seen Monet looking more fondly to her mother’s faith, I chose names popular in Islam instead. Gender: Female. Cis or trans, idk, but female. If she is trans, Monet is still the one who chose her new name. General Appearance: Absolutely beautiful, because she’s Monet’s daughter, but her features are probably less “conventionally gorgeous” because she’s also Shaw’s daughter. But honestly? That works. I’ve talked before about how a lot of the top supermodels out there often aren’t conventionally beautiful because that’s bland and blends in with all the others, they typically have “striking” features that stand out in some way. Aside from that, she’s tall and moderately toned, though not as much as either parent (great shoulders though) and a skin tone darker than Shaw but lighter than Monet. Unlike Monet and the St. Croix twins, who have straight hair, Aliya has wavy to loosely curly hair, as well as a light sprinkling of brown freckles across her nose and arms that neither parent sports. Her outfits are incredibly expensive casual-wear that she doesn’t realize is too upscale for everyday-wear because they’re what she’s used to. She also doesn’t give a second thought to overdressing, not as in wearing too much but as in wearing an outfit that’s a 10 when everyone else is just chilling in their 5. Again, she doesn’t do this deliberately. This is just her version of normal. And like her mother, looks GREAT in red. Personality: Vivacious, bright, very confident and open and sunny, at least that’s how she SEEMS and the mask goes very, very deep because she’s been perfecting it her whole life. Under her carefree and friendly and flawless facade, Aliya is. . . kind of a mess, actually. See, Shaw didn’t get a chance to be as bad to Aliya as he was to Shinobi, since Monet would send him into orbit if he EVER so much as IMPLIED that what came out of HER womb wasn’t PERFECT, but Monet has her issues as well. It’s not that Monet pressures Aliya to be perfect like Shaw would, she simply ASSUMES that she already is by default. How could she not be? Because of this, Aliya feels her mother doesn’t love HER, she loves the IDEAL of her that she has in her head, but not the reality, not the real Aliya. I can relate to this deeply; I was a gifted child and my parents thought I was a genius and some great future writer and artist and all this stuff and while I know having parents who believe in you and brag about you is like. . . the least sort of parents you can have. . . .it left me with a bad sense of imposter syndrome and I think Aliya has the same issue. As mean as her dad is, at least she feels he sees the real HER, flaws and failures and all. Though she certainly doesn’t like being criticized by him either! Aliya will insult people casually because that was what both her parents did, she thinks that’s normal acceptable behavior, and it takes people aback because she seems so nice where did that COME from? And given how neither of her parents were humble people, she mistakenly assumes that if someone ISN’T stating their accomplishments, means they don’t have any. So basically if someone ISN’T bragging about themselves, Aliya thinks they just must be useless, the idea of modesty as a virtue, or that modesty exists to all, isn’t a concept to her and she’s kind of confused by it. So, like Monet, she can be kind of an abrasive ass, but it’s in an innocent way. Likewise, she’s always going to talk up her own accomplishments because that’s how she was taught to behave, and can come off as egocentric for it, despite her actual insecurity. Back to that insecurity, having two such EXCEPTIONAL parents has really skewed Aliya’s view of what normal/acceptable is. So because she’s not a genius like Monet or business savant like Shaw, she thinks she’s stupid, if she’s not automatically perfect at something she thinks she’s a dud, things like that, and she tries to conceal these “failings” from others, which means never admitting she’s wrong or doesn’t know something or can’t do something. .  .which, rather than making her look good/normal to others like she thinks, actually makes them think she’s a stuck-up pretentious asshole liar. Which she kind of is, but for far more sympathetic reasons than most people think. Also, unlike her parents, she does care what people think of her, but she grievously misunderstands what they think about her and why that is. Similarly, her parents never modeled how to apologize or forgive, and so she doesn’t know how to do either right.  Nor did they ever prepare her for failure because Shaw doesn’t think that should be encouraged and Monet just never thought it would happen. I don’t want to sound too down on Monet though because she definitely loves and supports her daughter, but having a mother as perfect as Monet, and who KNOWS she’s as perfect as Monet, is going to have effects. But she definitely adores Aliya, to be clear. Unlike Shaw, who is. . . Shaw. The biggest area her parents differ is their morality, especially their morality around helping others. Shaw not only doesn’t see it as necessary, he even sees it as wrong, that the weak should NOT be supported. Monet, by contrast, as a sense of noblisse oblige, that people who are “better” like herself should help those who are not. Condescending but kind, is how I think Emma phrased it yet. Shaw and Monet would impart their views to Aliya, and Monet’s route, to Aliya’s credit, is the one she chose. Especially since Aliya feels she secretly ISN’T better, she’s one of these lesser people, so she feels compassion for others out of kinship in that sense. Special Talents: She has all of Monet’s major physical abilities---flight, super strength, durability---but none of her psychic abilities. She probably has some kind energy rechanneling abilities from Shaw though. Who they like better: She definitely looks up to Monet more, and thinks Monet is the far better person (which, she is) Who they take after more: Monet, even if she doesn’t realize it Personal Head canon:  She likes power metal and Barn Courtney, and magnolia blossoms and these little yellow flowers that grow on the side of the road. Prefers to eat her tacos using the foil they’re wrapped in to hold them rather than touching the actual tortilla itself. Face Claim: N/A but I’m sure there are some BEAUTIFUL ones out there who would fit. It’s impossible to find Monet’s actual precise ethnicity (black/Algerian) in my experience, but I’m sure there are lots of gorgeous Black/White/MENA actresses and models out there for Aliya even if the MENA part isn’t specifically Algerian.

[my-random-ocs]

Rise Up Prologue

Pairing: Stiles Stlinski x OC (eventual)

Warnings: Swirlies, water, mentions of death

Author’s Note: Hi, everyone! I am really excited about this. Honestly, I woke up one day and was like, what if I made a Teen Wolf PJO crossover? So, of course I had to make one. Zia already existed in the Teen Wolf universe, but I also made her exist in the PJO stories. This will cover Battle of the Labyrinth through the Heroes of Olympus, as well as seasons 3-6 of Teen Wolf. Her love interest is Stiles, which will happen eventually. Hope you enjoy!

|| Masterlist || Next >>>

“Hey,” I greeted, walking over to Annabeth, who was sitting by the door of the Hermes cabin, reading a book.

“Hey,” Annabeth repeated, looking up from her book.

“So, the drooling boy is on his way?” I asked, sitting next to her.

She sent me a look. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Nope,” I said cheerfully.

She groaned. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Chiron leading Percy Jackson over to us, and nudge Annabeth, causing her to follow my gaze. We stood up to greet them.

“Annabeth, Zia,” Chiron said. “I have masters’ archery class at noon. Would you two take Percy from here?”

Annabeth and I nodded. “Yes, sir,” Annabeth said.

“You got it,” I added.

“Cabin eleven,” Chiron told Percy, nodding toward the building. “Make yourself at home.”

With that, he left, and Percy turned to Annabeth and I, looking nervous.

“Hi,” I smiled, sticking my hand out. “Zia Banerjee.”

“Percy Jackson,” he said, shaking my hand.

“Come on, you two,” Annabeth said, waving us inside.

I stepped right inside. Percy tripped on the way in, causing some kids to snicker.

“Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven,” Annabeth announced.

“Regular or undetermined?” A voice asked. I recognized it as Connor Stoll.

“Undetermined,” Annabeth answered, and everyone groaned.

“Now, now, campers. That’s what we’re here for.” Luke Castellan, cabin counselor and my sister’s boyfriend, stepped through the crowd. Nisha herself was right behind him. I gave my sister a little wave, and grinned, winking at me. Luke smiled at Percy. “Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there.”

“This is Luke,” Annabeth introduced. She had a slight blush. “He’s your counselor for now.”

“For now?” Percy asked.

“You’re undetermined,” Luke elaborated patiently. “They don’t know which cabin to put you in, so you’re here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers.”

“And this is my sister, Nisha,” I said, gesturing to her.

“And our mom!” Another voice called out. Travis Stoll’s this time. Everyone giggled.

Percy looked confused at that, but asked instead, “How long will I be here?”

“Until you’re determined,” Nisha said.

“How long will that take?”

Most of the cabin laughed.

“We don’t know yet,” I said, and nodded toward the door. “Come on, Annabeth and I will keep giving you a tour.”

I heard Nisha quieting the kids’ laughter as the door shut behind us.

As we moved away from the cabin, Percy turned to look at me. “So you and that girl are…”

“Nisha,” I answered. “We’re full siblings. Pretty much raised me. She’s dating Luke.”

“Did you have a mom or a dad?” Percy asked.

Annabeth was quick to glare at him, but I didn’t mind the question.

“Our mom is Aphrodite,” I said cheerfully. “The gods aren’t really around enough to raise their kids. Our dad… he died two years ago. Monster attack. It’s how we got to camp.”

“I’m sorry,” Percy said softly, and I knew he was thinking about his mom. “Someone called her ‘Mom’. Is she his mom?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “That was one of the Stoll brothers. Nisha is not his mother. Nisha is nineteen, and older than most campers. She’s sort of a mix between mom and older sister for a lot of the younger campers. Since she’s the oldest Aphrodite kid at camp, she’s our senior counselor. Cabin ten, over there.” I pointed to a pink cabin a few feet away.

Percy nodded in understanding. “Are you from Long Island?”

I shook my head again. “Beacon Hills, California, but I live here full time. Most campers go back to their mortal families for the school year, but there are some, like Nisha and I, that stay year-round. We’re… homeschooled here, I guess you can say.”

“Do you miss it?” Percy asked.

I nodded, feeling sad then. “Yeah. I do. I loved it there- it was home. I had friends, did well in school, despite the learning stuff. I even skipped second grade. I think about going back all the time.” I started to finger my camp necklace, with the locket charm that held pictures that were special to me.

Percy opened his mouth to respond, but Annabeth noticed the look on my face, and said suddenly, “Let’s go see the volleyball courts.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him along with her, leaving me to follow.

“But I’ve already seen them,” Percy protested.

“Jackson, you have to do better than that,” Annabeth said.

“What?”

“I can’t believe I thought you were the one,” Annabeth muttered, and I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” I said.

“What’s your problem?” Percy demanded. “All I know is, I kill some bull guy-”

“Don’t talk like that!” Annabeth interrupted. “You know how many kids at this camp wish they’d had your chance?”

“To get killed?”

“To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?”

Percy shook his head. “Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories…”

“That’s the one,” I confirmed.

“Then there’s only one.”

“Yep.”

“And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…”

“Monsters don’t die, Percy,” Annabeth said, exasperated. “They can be killed. But they don’t die.”

“Oh, thanks. That clears it up.” He rolled his eyes, and I snorted.

“They don’t have mortal souls like we do,” I elaborated. “You can eliminate them for a while, maybe a whole lifetime if you’re really lucky. But they’re primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, inevitably, they will reform.”

Percy thought about that for a moment. “You mean, if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-”

“The Fur-” Annabeth cut herself off. “I mean, your math teacher. That’s right. She’s still out there. You just made her very, very mad.”

“How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?”

“You talk in your sleep,” Annabeth stated.

“You almost called her something,” Percy noticed. “A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?”

Annabeth glanced at the ground nervously as I told Percy, “You shouldn’t call them by name, even at camp. If we absolutely have to call them anything, we call them the Kindly Ones.”

“Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?” Percy asked. I understood what he was feeling. I felt the same way on my first official day here. “Why do I even have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there.”

He pointed to the first couple of cabins, and I immediately shook my head. “You can’t just stay in any random cabin. The cabin you stay in depends on who your parent is. Nisha and I, we stay in the Aphrodite cabin because that’s who our mother is. We can’t stay in, say, the Apollo cabin because we aren’t Apollo’s children.”

“My mom is Sally Jackson,” Percy said, not quite getting it. “She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.”

I sighed. “I’m really sorry about your mom, Percy. I remember what it was like when my father died- how it still is sometimes. But that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about your other parent.”

“My dad is dead. I never knew him.”

Annabeth sighed. We’ve both had this conversation with other demigods before. “Your father’s not dead, Percy,” she said.

“How can you say that? You know him?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then how can you say-”

“Because we know you,” Annabeth countered. “You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Percy said.

Annabeth raised a challenging eyebrow. “No? I bet you moved from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them.”

“How-”

I took over. “Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too. Maybe even on the autism spectrum, too. You’d be surprised how much ADHD and autism overlap. I’m all three.”

“I’m ADHD and dyslexic,” Percy confirmed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Grouped together, it’s almost a sure sign,” Annabeth said. “The letters float off the page when you read, right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD- you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they’d keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.”

Percy looked like he was trying hard to process everything. “You sound like… you went through the same thing?”

“Most of us did,” I said. “If you weren’t like us, you couldn’t have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar.”

“Ambrosia and nectar,” Percy deadpanned.

“The food and drink we gave you to make you get better,” I explained. “That stuff would kill a normal kid. It would have turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and then you would be dead. Face it. You’re a demigod.”

Percy looked like he had a million questions, but didn’t know where to start.

Before he could figure it out, a voice called out, “Well! A newbie.”

Clarisse La Rue, head counselor of the Ares cabin, sauntered toward us. She had three of her sisters behind her, wearing matching camo jackets.

“Clarisse,” Annabeth sighed. “Why don’t you go polish your spear or something?”

“Sure, Miss Princess,” Clarisse said. “So I can run you through with it Friday night.”

“Erre es karakes!” Annabeth cursed. Go to the crows! It’s a worse curse than it sounded. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“We’ll pulverize you,” Clarisse promised, but we all knew she wouldn’t be able to go through with it. She turned to Percy. “Who’s this little runt?”

“Percy Jackson,” I said, “meet Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares.”

“Like… the war god?” Percy asked.

“You got a problem with that?” Clarisse demanded.

“No. It explains the bad smell.”

I covered my snort with a cough, but I knew this may not end well.

“We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy,” Clarisse growled.

“Percy,” he corrected.

“Whatever. Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Clarisse-” Annabeth tried.

“Stay out of it, wise girl,” Clarisse snapped.

It took everything I had not to get involved, knowing that Percy would have to be the one to prove himself. He handed Annabeth his Minotaur horn and squared up, but Clarisse grabbed him before he could do anything, dragging him by the neck toward the girls’ bathrooms.

“Like he’s ‘Big Three’ material,” Clarisse mocked. “Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking.”

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth and I hovered in a corner. She was watching through her fingers as I clutched my camp necklace anxiously.

Clarisse forced Percy to his knees and started pushing his head toward the toilet bowl, but he tried hard to keep his head up.

Suddenly, the pipes started to groan, and a stream of water shot out of the toilet, straight over Percy’s head and into Clarisse’s face so hard she fell right onto her butt. I would have laughed if the other toilets hadn’t exploded, as well, and even the showers, spraying everyone in the vicinity with water. Gross.

By the end, the entire bathroom was flooded, and Clarisse and her friends had been pushed out the door. Only Annabeth and I, though soaking wet, were standing in the same place. She stared at Percy in shock while I grinned. That’s when I realized that Percy was still dry. There wasn’t a drop of water on his clothes, or in his hair, or anywhere. There was a circle of dry floor around him.

He stood, shaking slightly.

“How did you…” Annabeth started, then trailed off.

Percy looked just as mystified. “I don’t know.”

The three of us stepped outside and found Clarisse and her friends sprawled on the ground, and a bunch of other campers staring at the scene. She gave Percy a look of seething hatred. “You are dead, new boy,” she said. “You are totally dead.”

“You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse?” Percy said. “Close your mouth.”

Her friends held her back, dragging her with them back to cabin five.

Annabeth stared at Percy. I knew her pretty well, and even I didn’t know whether or not she was about to pummel Percy for dousing her with gross toilet water.

“What?” Percy demanded. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” she said, “that I want you on my team for capture the flag.”

Later, after dinner, everyone headed down to the amphitheater, where the Apollo kids would lead a sing-along. The Hermes and Aphrodite cabins sat in the same area so that Nisha and Luke could sit next to each other. I sat on Nisha’s other side. My sister and her boyfriend held hands, smiling at each other as they sang songs about someone’s grandmother getting dressed for war. Percy, who was next to me, did his best to follow along. We ate too many s’mores, and laughed, and joked around.

And as much as I missed my hometown, I looked around at the campers- my family- and knew that I was home.

If I had known what would happen next, I would have enjoyed it more.

[demigodsanswer]

Out of curiosity, any headcanons on Clarisse's backstory?

I do! I’ve written about some of these before, so some might be repeats. 

Her mom (Madeline) was a dancer with the Paris Opera ballet when she met Ares. She was 29. They only spent the night together. He had told her that he was a god, but she thought it was some bad pick up line. 

When they were done, he made some comment about her having his baby, and she realized that he had lied about using protection. She was so angry (she’s a very angry person) that she stabbed him with one of her kitchen knives, which, of course, did nothing. 

Ares just smiled and took the knife from her, before handing her a celestial bronze knife. He said “This is the only thing that will protect your son. Hold onto it,” 

So she stabbed him with that knife. This time, it did something. Still, he just smiled and handed the knife back to her, and said “This bodes well for me. Your son’ll be fierce,” 

“How do you even know I’ll get pregnant? How do you even know it’ll be a boy?” 

“Just do,” 

Five months later, she smiled when she found out it was a girl. 

Madeline wasn’t from France. Her family was distantly French, but they had lived in America for 400 years. Her parents were from Phoenix. She moved to Paris for dance training when she was 15. 

Madeline never wanted to be a mother. She wasn’t a bad mother, but she wasn’t a great mother either. She spent a lot of Clarisse’s childhood focusing on her career instead of Clarisse. 

She also made Clarisse take dance as early as three. Which wasn’t really surprising to anyone, considering Clarisse was basically raised in ballet studios. 

When Clarisse was six month old, Madeline started dating another man in the company (Jean). They were together for seven years, and Clarisse grew up believing he was her real father. He treated her like she was his daughter and loved her fiercely. He was planning on adopting her when he and Madeline got married. 

Madeline swears she didn’t know that Clarisse thought Jean was her birth father, but Clarisse think’s that’s just impossible. 

But when Clarisse was seven, Madeline got a call that her mother had stage-four lung cancer. Her father asked her to come home (”You’re 37. Your dance career is almost over anyway,”) to help take care of her. 

Madeline agreed to go home until her mother passed. No one expected her to live for more than a year. So she and Jean put their engagement on pause and she moved back to Arizona with Clarisse. 

Her mother lived for another two and a half years. 

After the first year, Madeline decided to call off the engagement when Jean offered to move to Arizona to be with them. He was only 32 and still had years of dancing left and he was from France. Madeline didn’t want him leaving France to be with her when she didn’t know how long they would be there or if she would ever come back. 

When she told Clarisse, Clarisse got angry and yelled and asked to move back to France to live with her dad. Madeline ended up shouting back at Clarisse until ran off to her room. Madeline went to her room and cried too, and wished her mom would just die so that her life could get back to normal. She knew it wasn’t the right thing to think, but she couldn’t help it. Everything had been going so well, and now she was stuck back in a city she hated, taking care of her aging parents, and a child she never wanted and didn’t understand. 

Her relationship with Clarisse was never very good after that. 

When her mother lived another year, Clarisse finally called Jean and said that she didn’t expect to ever move back to Paris - Clarisse had settled into Arizona life, and she couldn’t uproot her daughter’s life again, even if her mother passed away soon. 

Her mom passed away six months later, and at the funeral, Clarisse asked if they would move back to Paris. 

“Do you want to?” 

“Yes, I hate it here,” 

“What about your soccer team?” 

“They play soccer in France,” 

“What about poppop?” 

“He can come,” 

Madeline smiled, thinking that maybe they could move back to France. 

Before any serious moves could be made in that direction, though, they discovered that her father had dementia. He’d had symptoms for the last two years, but they went unnoticed because of his wife’s cancer. Madeline couldn’t leave him alone or uproot him to move to Paris. 

This sparked another fight between her and Clarisse. 

“You said we were moving back to Paris!” 

“That was before we knew that poppop was sick! We can’t just leave him!” 

“But you promised!” 

“You think I don’t hate it here too? You think I don’t miss Paris every day? But your grandfather needs our help right now! And we can’t just abandon our family!” 

“What about papa? We abandoned him! We haven’t seen him in three years!” 

“Jean isn’t family!” Madeline yelled. 

Clarisse looked so angry, like if she were any taller or stronger she would start hitting her mom. “How can you say that! He’s my father!” 

Madeline realized then that Clarisse thought Jean was her birth father. She sat Clarisse down and explained that she had already been six months old when they’d started dating. Madeline expected Clarisse to ask questions about her birth father, but she didn’t. When Madeline finally looked at her daughter, she expected her to be angry, to start yelling, but she was just staring at the floor and crying. 

Madeline tried to reach over to comfort her, but Clarisse just looked at her and said, “I hate you. I wish papa had adopted me so that I didn’t have to live with you anymore,” and then she took herself to her room. 

After an hour, Madeline went to check on her and found her sitting in her bed looking at old photos from Paris. 

“Can I come in?” she asked. Clarisse nodded without looking at her. She made her way into the room and sat next to her on the bed, pulling her daughter in for a hug, who accepted it without resistance. “Are you okay?” 

Clarisse shook her head no. “I just still feel like he’s my dad,” she started crying again, and Madeline held her tighter, “and now I won’t ever get to see him again,” 

“I miss him too,” she said. “And I’m sorry. I would have told you sooner if I had realized,” 

They spend a decent amount of time talking, and Madeline orders them a pizza. She decided that she and Clarisse would play hookie the next day and get ice cream and hang out around town. 

The next morning, they’re enjoying a late breakfast, when someone knocked on the door. Madeline recognizes the man immediately. He had introduced himself to her a few weeks ago as Coach Hedge, when he’d explained who he was and why he was there, and that he was watching Clarisse. “She’ll have to leave soon,” he’d told her. 

“You want my ten-year-old to leave with a goat-man to go across the country to be trained by a magic horse?”

“It sounds insane when you put it that way, but yes. She needs to be trained,” 

“She is a child!” She yelled at him. “She needs her mom,” 

“If she stays here she could be killed. Now, I don’t know how long it’ll be before they start coming for her, but I can tell that she’s strong. If I know she’s here, it won’t be long before they know it too,” 

And now he was there, in her doorway with a backpack and a baseball bat. 

“Please, no, not today,” she said before saying anything else. 

“We need to leave today. They aren’t far. We need as much of a head start as we can get,” 

(Cut to the story I wrote yesterday for how the rest of that went) 

When she got to camp, Luke showed her around. She got a spot on the Hermes cabin floor next to Chris, who was excited to have another kid at camp around his age. 

“Do you like Star Wars?” 

“No,”

“Do you like soccer?”

“Yeah!” 

They become very fast friends, but Luke does have to move them to different parts of the floor because they kept staying up late talking. 

It takes about a month for her to be claimed, but no one is surprised when it happens. She was claimed after a spar with Annabeth. She was using a sword, and Annabeth was using her knife, but Clarisse had her dad’s knife hidden in her pocket. When Annabeth thought she had won, Clarisse pulled out her own knife and ended up winning. 

This starts their constant rivalry at camp. 

She doesn’t meet her dad until the Winter Solstice when Luke steals the lighting bolt. 

She introduces herself to her father, and he claimed he didn’t remember her mother, so she reminded him. “She stabbed you,” she said, “and that didn’t work, so you gave her this knife,” she pulled out the knife, “and then she stabbed you again,” 

She didn’t mean to be insolent or insubordinate, but that’s how her father took it. He slapped her across the face. Hard. 

She looked at him, shocked at what had happened. He looked back like he was waiting for her to say or do something. 

She looked him in the eye and said, “My mother hits harder.” That time, she had meant to be insubordinate and insolent. She was also a liar. Her mother had never hit her. 

Ares just smirked. “You need a better weapon that some stupid knife. They’re good when you need them, but you can’t do much damage with just that,” 

“I use a sword too,” she said. 

“You should use a spear, like your older brothers. I’ll send one to camp for you,”

She smiled, “Thank you, sir,” 

“One last thing, kid,” he towered over her. He seemed like he was seven feet tall. He might be, Clarisse realized, he’s a god. “I don’t have many daughters. I prefer it that way. They tend to be disappointing. I hope you don’t disappoint me,” 

Clarisse nodded. “I won’t, sir,” she promised.

[peachhsocks]

Bloodlines

After a year of avoiding Camp Half-Blood (and his friends, and everyone, and everything) in the aftermath the Giant War, Percy returns. He quickly realizes that the gods never change, running from the past never works, and family is the one thing that might make all of the nonsense worth it.

read on ao3

Chapter 3: Annabeth Makes a Good Pillow.

After Thalia gave Chiron a brief rundown, his face growing paler with each word, he waved their group into the Big House. Percy shook Grover’s shoulder and helped him up.

“Will,” Chiron said, “why don’t you wake the other cabin counselors.”

He muttered under his breath about how much the other campers would love him for waking them up before seven in the morning, but still jogged back out the door.

Chiron led them into the rec room. Percy spotted a cluster of three chairs and made his way toward it, feet dragging. Grover sat in the one on his left, so he kept his ankle looped around one of the legs of the chair on his right, to save it for Annabeth.

She was the first one to arrive. Her hair was thrown up into a messy bun that hadn’t quite captured all the strands. A large section of unruly curls hung down her back.

“Hey,” she said, sliding into the chair he’d saved.

She pulled his hood down from over his head and ran one hand over his cheek and into his hair. It was shaking slightly—from anger, not fear. Percy hoped it wasn’t directed at him.

“I can’t believe this. Your dad—”

Her voice cut off and she shook her head. Percy knew the look. Anything she had been about to say wouldn’t have been very deferential. He didn’t think his dad would incinerate his girlfriend over a few angry words, but with gods you could never be too sure.

He didn’t need to hear exactly what she wanted to say anyway. It was enough to know that she understood that everything about this situation sucked. Big time.

“I should have come to your cabin last night,” she said.

“How could you have known?”

That was the wrong thing to say. Her eyes clouded over like she was running calculations, trying to figure out the answer to that very same question.

“Hey,” he said, leaning his head into the crook between her shoulder and neck. “Better that you didn’t. The fountain...” He made a little explosion sound.

She rubbed a hand along his back, right over the spot where he used to have the Curse of Achilles. It wasn’t sensitive anymore, but it was still comforting to have her hand over it, especially after his dream.

Percy dozed off just like that. It wasn’t comfortable exactly, and couldn’t have been for Annabeth either because he was essentially in a half nose-dive from his chair into hers. But something about her presence put him right to sleep. He could never say that aloud because it didn’t sound like a good thing, but it was. She was safe. He could rest.

She shook him awake and he blinked a few times, raising his head slightly.

“Everyone’s here,” she whispered close to his ear.

Percy sat up despite the heaviness of his head and his limbs. He hadn’t slept well the night before either, or the night before that—too worked up about returning to camp. All he wanted was to continue using Annabeth as a pillow.

Piper had taken the seat on Annabeth’s other side. Leo, then Jason, were next to her. More familiar faces filled the table—Clarisse looked older, back from college for the summer—but there were also people he didn’t recognize.

“I’m sorry to call you all here so early,” Chiron started. The gathered campers grumbled back at him. “But, there has been an interesting development—perhaps one of you would care to explain?”

He gestured toward Percy. Percy looked around the table for help, but Nico’s face was unreadable, and Thalia just shot him a tired smirk and raised eyebrows that seemed to say all you.

Percy sighed. “Nico, Thalia, and I all had dreams last night. There were these kids—and our dads were in them...”

Clovis was snoring. He looked super comfortable curled up in his chair. They should use a picture of the kid, just like this, as the dictionary definition of ‘sleeping’. He could practically envision the little ‘z’s floating above his head. Percy envied him.

Chiron cleared his throat. Everyone else was still staring at Percy. He’d gotten distracted.

“Um,” he said, trying to get back on track. “We think the kids are our siblings. They’re all together. That’s, like, suicide. They won’t make it without help.”

“I can have a group of satyrs ready in an hour,” Grover piped up.

Percy turned to him. “Grover—”

“Okay,” Clarisse interrupted, “how is this any of the rest of our problems?”

A few other heads at the table nodded in agreement. Leo started to, but Piper elbowed him.

“Well, it seems to me that this is the closest thing to a quest that we have received since the oracle went silent,” Chiron said. “I thought the whole camp could work together to inform our strategy moving forward.”

Clarisse crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair with a huff.

“I agree with her, actually,” Thalia said. “I think it’s pretty clear what our dreams meant. Our fathers want us to get the kids safely back to camp.”

Grover sat forward. “That’s a protector’s duty!”

“Do we know where they are?” Leo asked. “Because no offense but if they’re a block away, why isn’t someone just—going?”

All of their eyes turned to Percy again. He shrugged. The forest he saw could have been anywhere.

“Colorado,” Nico supplied. “I found a sign.”

Hades kids could control their dreams, not as well as Hypnos kids were able to, but better than most. Percy sometimes forgot that. Even if he had the ability, he didn’t think he would have been able to stay in the dream any longer than he had. Nico had way more willpower than him.

“You’re sure?” Thalia asked. “Colorado?”

Nico nodded. A dismayed murmur passed through the circle around the ping-pong table, as dread resettled in Percy’s stomach. They’d never make it in time.

Jason stood up. “Someone has to leave now.”

Percy hadn’t even spared the guy a thought. They probably should have woken him up when Thalia arrived, but she hadn’t asked to, and Percy had been thinking about other things. It must have been hard to be the only other Big Three kid present who hadn’t gotten a mission from his father. Percy wanted to assure him that it was probably a Greek thing. He was also tempted to tell the guy that he’d willingly switch spots, but his conscience wouldn’t let him. That was his family out there.

“Even if you left now, there’s a very low chance of success,” a Nike girl that Percy sort of recognized chirped.

He’d missed the ceaseless optimism of these meetings.

“Once I get a hold of Hazel, she can try to get to them from Camp Jupiter,” Nico said, but he sounded apprehensive. “We could meet them somewhere and bring them back to camp?”

“Even New Rome to Colorado is pretty far,” Annabeth muttered. “And they’re running. Colorado is just a starting point for the search.”

Thalia hummed in agreement.

They would know. Their trio had bounced around the east coast for months before reaching Camp Half-Blood. And there hadn’t been a happy end to their journey. Percy reached over and squeezed Annabeth’s hand in case this whole thing was stirring up bad memories, but she just looked at him like she didn’t understand why he’d done that before turning back to the ping pong table.

“We need to think of an alternative way to reach them,” she continued. “Something faster than traveling on foot—or even driving.”

Percy shot her an inquisitive look. It sounded like she had an idea, but she wasn’t saying it. She was dropping hints, hoping that someone else would catch her drift and suggest whatever she had worked out. That was not an Annabeth move at all. The pool of dread in his stomach just kept growing.

“If all three of them are working together, couldn’t anyone take a plane? Even Percy and Nico?” Piper asked. “I mean, if Zeus knows that their end goal is to help his kid get to camp—”

Percy laughed and then tried to cover it with a cough. Based on the looks he received, it wasn’t very convincing.

“Sorry,” he said to Piper. “They just—don’t make it that easy. I’m not convinced they’re even working together. For all we know this is a game to them. Whose kid can collect their little sibling first?”

“No planes,” Nico agreed. “But since we aren’t playing into our parents’ possible motives—pitting us against each other, whatever—I can shadow travel.”

Will tensed beside him. “That’s far, Nico.”

“If you did, you’d have to bring me and Percy,” Thalia said.

Grover raised a hand. “Or a few—”

Thalia looked at him. The harsh set of her jaw didn’t leave much room for argument. She turned back to Nico. “You’d need help to fight your way back on foot. Unless you think you can shadow-travel the whole way in one jump with three or four kids.”

Or four . Percy frowned across the table at her. If she thought the fourth was the girl who had found the three others in the dream, he had some bad news for her.  

“It’s too dangerous,” Will declared before Nico could respond.

Nico glared at him. They looked like they were about to start going at it, with a little more ferocity than their bickering on the porch earlier, but Annabeth spoke up again.

“I think Nico shadow-traveling is an option we can keep in mind,” she said. “But we should assess all our options.”

Percy turned toward her, trying to beam his questions into her mind. What option are you thinking of? Why aren’t you saying it?

She refused to meet his eyes.

“First, an easier question,” Chiron said. “Who is going on this quest?”

He didn’t have to keep calling it a quest. There was no prophecy, no oracle. Percy understood that’s what it essentially was, but Chiron seemed so excited about it—like he’d been itching to send a demigod to their doom for the past year that the oracle had been MIA.

“We already know that, right?” Thalia said. “It’s me, Percy, and Nico. We had the dreams. We’ve quested before and we’re a good team.”

“This isn’t a quest!” Grover insisted.

Percy wanted to hug him. He knew he couldn’t actually let Grover go in his place, but he loved him for trying.

“Maybe we should wait to decide until we know how we’re getting there,” Annabeth said. “It might impact that decision.”

“Gods, Annabeth.” Clarisse propped her legs on the table, crossing one over the other. “If you have an idea, spit it out.”

Percy knew he should probably side with Annabeth, but he had to agree with Clarisse. The way Annabeth was talking—like she was a completely different person—was starting to freak him out. His mind conjured images of Eidolons that he couldn’t shake. The same feeling he’d had in the car a month ago, when he’d first tried to come back to Camp Half-Blood was creeping back up on him.

“I just think that we’ve only really considered a plane or shadow-traveling.” She was choosing her words carefully. “Those aren’t our only options.”

“Let’s see what’s left then,” Will said. Percy was pretty sure he was just trying to bump shadow-traveling off the list of options. “Flying would be a Thalia thing. Shadow-traveling’s Nico’s. So that leaves—” He studied Percy.

“Too bad Percy’s kinda useless for getting to a landlocked state,” Clarisse grumbled.

Just when he was starting to think they were on the same side, she decided to take a shot at him. Some things never changed.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Annabeth exclaimed.

That was different. Percy did his best not to appear too offended.

“Not like that. I just mean, we’re focusing on the Big Three and ignoring other solutions.”

“We’re all listening,” someone Percy didn’t know shouted. “Just say it!”

Annabeth shifted in her seat, eyes flicking to Percy for a moment, before falling down to her lap. “Air’s not an option. On the ground by car or train would be too slow. That leaves—”

“Underground.” Leo rubbed his hands together. “The Labyrinth.”

Everyone started talking at once. Or maybe a few people started talking and the rest of the sound was the roar in Percy’s ears. He must have heard wrong, but nobody was correcting Leo. Instead, they were taking the idea and running with it, starting to plan. He turned to Annabeth, desperate for some sort of explanation, but she still wouldn’t look at him. Because this was the solution that she believed in. She just hadn’t wanted to be the one to propose it.

He felt like he was in every classroom he’d ever been in. Everything was moving too fast, and he didn’t understand anything that the teacher was writing on the board. He’d missed the first part of the lesson because his brain had skipped over it, and now he was playing an impossible game of catch-up. Even Grover avoided his eyes when Percy tried to look to him for help.

“What are you talking about?” he blurted out.

He always hated having to ask that question. It was usually met with disappointed frowns, eyes filled with pity, and ‘why don’t you stay after class, Percy?’s.

This time wasn’t much different. The chatter died and everyone either stared at him or wouldn’t look at him at all, like they’d said something they weren’t supposed to. He clenched his fists in his lap and waited.

“The Labyrinth’s back,” Clarisse said dryly. “They think it’s a fun toy.”

There was no love lost between her and the Labyrinth. Her boyfriend had nearly lost his mind down there. Once again, Percy found himself on Clarisse’s side. It was happening more than usual today. He wondered what that said about both of them.

“Clarisse, that’s not true,” Annabeth said. “Nobody thinks it’s a toy.”

“Could have fooled me.” She turned to Percy again. “They had a fucking relay race down there.”

“Three-legged death race,” someone corrected.

“What,” Percy said, but his voice sounded far away.

“That shouldn’t have happened.” Annabeth gave Chiron a pointed look and he pretended that he didn’t see her, picking at his cuticles. “It’s not a toy. But it is a tool.”

“I don’t understand,” Percy said.

Leo leaned around Piper and Annabeth so he was in Percy’s view. “Remember last summer? Pasiphae recreated the Labyrinth. Hazel led me through part of it.”

Everything from last summer was a hazy mirage that Percy couldn’t quite reach anymore. Except Tartarus. That was crystal clear. Although he couldn’t always be sure which of those memories were actually dreams.

“That was in Rome,” he said. “This is New York.”

He sounded like an idiot—and not even the persona he put on sometimes to seem unassuming so people would underestimate him or give him information quickly. He just couldn’t think. It wasn’t only his brain. His whole body felt fuzzy, too.

“Well, it’s everywhere now,” Leo said. “You can use it to get pretty much anywhere in the world.”

“Well, not yet.” Annabeth finally looked at Percy, but now he found he didn’t really want her to. She was too close. He needed some space. “Percy, it’s different now. Not as bad.”

He chewed on the inside of his lip. His hands fidgeted frantically in the pockets of his hoodie. “I—don’t know what that means.”

“Neither do we, really. Not yet.” She leaned toward him and he leaned back. Hurt flashed across her face, but she kept speaking. “We’ve been mapping it.”

Percy blinked. ‘We’ was inclusive. ‘We’ meant Annabeth. She had been mapping the Labyrinth. It wasn’t just an idea that she thought was the only solution. She’d been down there and she hadn’t even thought to mention it to him before now.

“A couple of weeks ago we found a path to Nebraska,” she said. “It felt like a day inside, but when we got out, only an hour had passed.

The static in his brain got louder. Annabeth hadn’t just popped into the Labyrinth a few times—she had willingly spent a day in there, completely unsure where in the world she would end up. She could have gotten stranded across the ocean, or died down there, and Percy would have had no idea.

“Is Nebraska near Colorado?” someone asked.

Annabeth looked like she was disappointed in the United States education system. It was a very particular look she got at least a few times a week. Usually it made Percy laugh, but right now he couldn’t enjoy it.

“You think that’s our best option,” Thalia clarified. “Going underground?”

Underground had never been one of Percy’s favorite places to go. The constant weight hanging overhead down there was suffocating, restraining. It made him antsy. But in the past year or so he’d actively rejected anything under sea level. He hadn’t so much as ridden the subway since they got off the Argo II because underground meant monsters and walls closing in around him and drowning and choking on the air and pits that fell down, down, down.

“I think so,” Annabeth said.

Thalia grimaced. “Fine. I’m in.”

“I still don’t understand why we’re insisting that this isn’t a mission for satyrs.” Grover’s voice shook over every word. “They’re young, unclaimed half-bloods. That’s always been our duty as protectors.”

Another swell of gratitude for his best friend swept through Percy. Satyrs hated being underground, away from nature. Grover had been none too happy about their first trip through the Labyrinth all those years ago.

“Grover,” Thalia said impatiently, “if there really are three Big Three kids out there, Percy, Nico, and I can protect them way better than a couple of satyrs can. No offense. Nico? You in?”

Nico was watching Percy from across the table.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “But for our third—we need someone who’s been mapping the Labyrinth, right?”

He was trying to give Percy an out. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take it. The thought of Annabeth going down there without him—even if she already had without him knowing—was almost worse than going down there himself. Both were at the very top of the list of things he absolutely did not want to happen.

But if Grover could be brave for him, Percy could be brave for those little kids out there.

“Is it too late to reconsider the plane option?” he tried to joke. It came out flat and watery like he was about to cry. Nobody laughed.

“No, I’m going.” He stood, discreetly holding the table with one hand when the room tilted a little. He had to get out of here. He was going to pass out. “We’re good here, right?”

A few people called his name as he walked toward the door of the Big House, but he didn’t look back. One of them was Annabeth. Then she must have turned back to the table, because he heard her say, “I’m going, too. We need someone who knows the route, like Nico said.”

“Wait a minute.” Will’s voice. “If Annabeth’s going—”

Percy let the door slam behind him and staggered toward the Sound.

[lifeofroos]

A/N: Clarisse’s first day to school after finding out she’s a demigod starts... now. I think she’s about ten here. 

AO3 - KoFi

The Childhood Friend

‘Why do I still have to go to school?’ Clarisse whined. 

Louise gritted her teeth. ‘Your dad being a god doesn’t excuse you from having to learn.’ She put Clarisse’s lunchbox into her backpack. ‘You chose to come back and have a normal life yourself. School is a part of that.’

Clarisse rolled her eyes, but took her backpack anyway. ‘I don’t think gods take the bus.’ 

Her mother opened the door and pushed her outside. ‘Then you walk. Bye, chérie.’

‘Bye,’ Clarisse sighed, before taking off towards the busstop. 

-

She could already see her friend Emily sitting by the window when the bus arrived. She hopped inside, eager to tell her everything that had happened over the summer. 

‘Emily!’ Her smile faded when she saw the strange girl that was sitting next to her friend. ‘...Eh...’

Her friend looked surprised. ‘Clarisse?’ She glanced at the girl sitting next to her. ‘This, eh... this is Juliette.’

The girl scoffed. ‘I played with Emily this summer because you weren’t there.’

Emily winced. ‘Juliette...’

‘Real best friends don’t just leave, you know.’

Clarisse blinked. She was too surprised too lash out at the girl. ‘...There was no time.’

‘Real friends make time.’ Clarisse’s blood started to boil. ‘Not doing that makes you mean.’

Clarisse wanted to show Juliette mean. She clenched her fist, but was held back from launching the punch when a sudden movement of the bus brought her out of balance. She could barely save herself from falling over. Quickly, she scrambeld into an empty seat, wondering if Chiron would be angry if Juliette got into a not-so-accidental accident. 

-

Clarisse had already been in the classroom for five minutes before Emily came in, without Juliette. She hesitated, before sitting down at the table next to Clarisse. The daughter of Ares turned away. 

While their teacher began to explain all about fifth grade, Emily leaned closer to Clarisse. ‘Eh... I might have told Juliette a few mean things about you.’ Clarisse didn’t reply. Emily twirled a lock of hair around her fingers. ‘But I didn’t really mean it.’

‘Then why did you do it?’

Emily shrugged. ‘I was angry. One day, you were just gone without telling me. The summer holiday hadn’t even started yet!’

Clarisse swallowed. She couldn’t really blame her friend. She would have been angry in her place too. ‘There were no phones where I went,’ she mumbled. ‘I’ll explain during recess. I swear I had no choice but to go.’

Emily stared at the desk in front of her. ‘I hang out with Juliette during recess now.’

Clarisse bit her lip, trying not to make a snippy comment. ‘Come to my house then. After school. Without Juliette.’

Emily nodded, before turning her attention to the teacher. 

-

Clarisse could hardly focus on her teacher the rest of the day. The thoughts kept spinning in her mind. 

Emily was from a proper family. Who knew, perhaps her parents were happy she didn’t hang out with Clarisse anymore, who was mostly known for being brash. Perhaps no one here had really missed her. 

During recess, she sat on a bench by herself.  She didn’t feel like talking to anyone. 

A teacher she hadn’t met before sat down next to her. ‘Hello. Why are you sitting here so alone?’

Clarisse wanted to glare at the teacher. When she saw the womans’ tusks, she screamed instead.  

The teacher smiled. ‘There is no need to be afraid.’

‘... you’re a monster.’

She reached out her hand. ‘I want to help…’

Clarisse shoved her away and jumped up. ‘You’re an empousa.’

‘Clarisse…’

‘My brother was eaten by a empousa this year.’ Clarisse turned around and sprinted away. She ran until she found a busstop that already had a bus waiting by it. She didn’t wonder why nobody held her, a ten year old on her own on a school day, back from riding all the way home through Phoenix. It didn’t matter, as long as she got back home. 

-

‘Mom?’

‘Clarisse?’ Her mother stepped into the hallway. ‘You’re back early. What’s wrong?’

‘Everything.’ Clarisse threw her backpack to the floor. 

Louise gave her a concerned look. ‘What do you want, chérie?’

Clarisse knew what her mother meant. She fought against the tears. ‘Perhaps... perhaps I should go back to camp Half-blood,’ she admitted meakly. ‘Chiron said I could call.’

Louise felt tired. She knew this could happen, that the chance was more than slim. That didn’t mean she liked it. ‘It’s your choice, chérie.’ She pulled her daughter into a hug. The girl was the last one to let go. 

-

Clarisse was just looking at her camp necklace when the doorbell rang. She let Emily in. They both got a glass of sweet tea from the fridge, before they sat down on the curb outside, like they always did. 

Clarisse took a sip. ‘How was school after recess?’

Emily fumbeld with her glass. ‘Fine.’ 

An awkward silence fell, until Clarisse sighed. ‘I’ve got something to explain.’

‘Eh... yes.’

‘I get it if you don’t believe me,’ Clarisse mumbeld. She tugged on her necklace. ‘Basically, I… went to this place called camp half-blood. It’s a cap where they train kids who are half-human, half-god to fight against monsters.’

‘...Half-god?’

‘Yes.’ Clarisse showed Emily the single bead. ‘They gave me this. Next year, when I return to train more, I’ll get another one.’ She hung the necklace straight. 

Emily was stunned. ‘Gods... like...’

‘Like, the greek gods. You know, Apollo and Zeus.’

Emily turned to the house. ‘So, your mom...’

‘No, it’s my dad,’ Clarisse whispered. ‘That’s why he’s never here.’

For a few long, long minutes, Emily stared down at the curb. ‘This... this is crazy.’

Clarisse took another sip. ‘I had to leave so quickly because of the monsters.’

‘Monsters don’t exist.’ Emily didn’t sound so sure of her case. Maybe because she also rememberd the strange attacks that neither of the girls had been able to explain. If the attackers had been monsters...

 ‘For you they don’t. But for people like me, they do.’

Emily blinked, trying to comprehend it. She took a deep, deep breath. ‘I believe you.’ She watched as a fly fell into her ice tea. ‘I also understand why you didn’t call,’ she muttered. ‘But... what are you going to do now? I mean, it wasn’t much fun for you today, at school.’

‘I…’ Clarisse took a sharp breath. ‘I think I might be going back. It’s not the same anymore.’

‘...no.’

‘There.... is this new teacher.’

‘You mean miss Johnson?’

‘Could be. She’s... she’s a monster.’

‘Is that why you ran away today?’

Clarisse nodded. ‘Sorry, Emily.’

‘It’s okay.’ Emily  tried to take the fly out of her iced tea. 

‘I should say sorry too. Because I let Juliette be so mean to you.’

Clarisse shrugged. ‘At least you didn’t have to miss me.’

‘Of course I missed you!’ Emily cried out. She pulled Clarisse into a hug. ‘I missed you more than I’ve missed anything, ever.’

‘But I missed you more,’ Clarisse told her. 

‘No, I missed you more.’

‘I missed you more!’ Clarisse snickered.

‘No way!’ Emily laughed out loud, and quickly enough they were both laughing like they used to. 

Emily looked at her friend as they pulled apart. ‘Send me a card when you get to camp. And then next summer, you send another one.’

Clarisse nodded. ‘But then you always have to spare me a seat on the bus for when I come back.’

‘I promise,’ they said at the same time. And they meant it. 

A/N: I am getting tired and you can see it in my writing. Welp, I’ll be forced into a small break when my intro week comes. Don’t hesitate to send more requests, I’ll be refreshed once I get back!

The reason Clarisse could just ride the bus is probably mist manipulation.