#my most trusted - calypso interaction

[fiery-sea]

"Hello, is this... is this reaching anyone?"

( @calypsocompass )

[*Trotter considers the words, letting out a low shaky breath. It couldn't be possible, could it? It could just be his mind playing tricks on him again.*]

"I- . . . Yea, yea. Yer reachin someone!"

[demigod-shenanigans]

The choiceless hope in grief

Summary: Leo Valdez has lived and died for the gods. Their war has shaped his life since he was a baby. With Gaia defeated, he sort of hopes he can finally rest. He has friends and some semblance of home to return to for the first time since he was eight years old. Just this once, he allows himself to hope the good things might stick.

But the gods aren’t done with them just yet, and by the time Leo finds his way back, Jason is gone.

This time, Leo decides he’s done just taking the Fates’ bullshit lying down. If getting his best friend back means striking a deal with the gods and venturing into the Underworld… well, it’s probably not even the most reckless thing he’s ever done.

The caveat of said deal? He has to trust Jason will follow him, or his self-doubt will doom them both.

And after the life he’s lived, Leo is so intricately familiar with self-doubt that he could probably trademark the word.

Or: The only possible way for Orpheus to succeed is if he learns to think of himself as a person worth loving.

Word Count for chapter 1: ~5k

Rating: Teen and Up

Next Chapter >

Fic updates weekly on Fridays!

A couple of important notes before we start:

-TW for suicidal ideation. It’s less Leo actually wanting to die and more his canon behavior of “I’m doing something extremely reckless that might succeed but if it doesn’t, my death is an acceptable consequence”, paired with general grief related self-loathing, but if you think you’re not in the right headspace to read about that, come back when you are or at least tread carefully. This fic pics up at the end of The Burning Maze, so especially the beginning is pretty heavy on the grief stuff.

-Since ToA is vaguely canon to this fic, Leo and Calypso are technically dating in the beginning, but they don’t really interact positively as a couple (honestly they don’t interact that much in general) and break up pretty early on. Just be aware in advance that they’re still together for a little bit.

-Fic title is from Talk by Hozier which is maybe a painfully obvious pick but it was too perfect for me not to use it.

Chapter 1: Leo and Piper have an extended sleepover

It wasn’t a discussion between Leo and Piper whether or not to go to Jason’s funeral. They came to the decision that they wouldn’t silently—or as silently as one could come to an agreement when all parties involved were sobbing.

Maybe it should have been a discussion. There was a part of Leo that worried he’d regret this later—his refusal to take this chance to say goodbye and let himself grieve.

But Leo remembered his mother’s funeral. Remembered the way his aunt Rosa had looked at him like she knew his mother’s death had been his fault. Leo couldn’t stand the thought of people looking at him like that again.

He also didn’t remember his mother’s funeral bringing him any sense of closure or comfort. He’d stood at her grave, afterwards, just as desperate and afraid and utterly inconsolable as he’d been before the funeral, except it had suddenly felt sickeningly final. The wound it had torn in his soul had kept bleeding for years, and the scars would stay forever. He didn’t need any of Apollo’s shitty oracles to know Jason’s death would be exactly the same.

At this point, Leo was pretty sure his sanity was being held together by a combination of jokes and a truly questionable amount of duct tape.

Beyond all that, though, Camp Jupiter was a battlefield right now. It would continue to be a battlefield for the foreseeable future.

Leo wasn’t a coward. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go back and help. But one of his best friends was already in a box, and there was no way in hell he’d risk the other.

With how tightly Piper was clinging to him, maybe she was thinking the same thing. 

For all his big talk about dragon escorts, Festus did most of the actual escorting on his own, occasionally torching what Leo hoped were monsters and not random public monuments. Leo, for his part, spent most of the journey crammed into the backseat of the car next to Piper, sandwiched between her and a bunch of moving boxes that seemed determined to flatten him into a Leo-shaped pancake whenever they took a sharp turn.

He’d spent so long thinking about seeing her and Jason again. 

He’d talked Calypso’s ear off about them the whole journey, to the point where it had clearly started to annoy her. He’d thought about various ridiculous entrances he could make, and the fact that he’d probably get yelled at, but he’d also thought about sitting together by the campfire, sharing nachos. He’d thought about Jason hugging him so fiercely that he couldn’t breathe, and Piper cussing him out while she held him, making him promise never to do anything that reckless again.

Now Piper was actually holding him, and Leo couldn’t feel anything. There was a numbness in his chest. He wasn’t sure he had it in him to ever feel happiness again. Hell, even if he did, what was the fucking point? Every time anything even remotely good happened in his life, it got ripped away from him again.

They didn’t talk a whole lot for most of the drive. They cried until it felt like they couldn’t anymore, clinging to each other like desperate children.

Even if they’d wanted to talk about what had happened, Piper’s dad was right there, and despite the Mist usually working overtime for them, having him overhear seemed like a gamble. Or, well, maybe that was what Leo told himself. Maybe he just wasn't sure he was ready to hear it all. He still felt like he couldn’t think. He was overwhelmed to hell and couldn’t stop fidgeting.

Several hours into the trip, his stomach started grumbling. Piper dug through the bag at her feet and offered him one of her PB&J sandwiches, but Leo couldn’t eat. He hadn’t skipped a meal in forever—he’d been homeless and unsure when he’d even get access to the next meal enough times that it had been all but tattooed into his skull that he couldn’t afford to—but he couldn’t even think about eating without feeling sick. He thought about Jason. He thought about the state he’d left Camp Jupiter in and the fact that they hadn’t even been able to give the dead their proper funeral rites.

Had Leo’s help made any difference at all? Had anything he’d done in his life changed things even slightly?

Leo knew the Fates had intended for it to be fire that fell—for him to burn in a bright, hot blaze and turn himself to charcoal. But he’d refused to stay dead like a good little pawn, and now Jason was gone, and it was all his fault.

He wasn’t sure how Piper could even look at him right now, but he was beyond grateful that she was holding onto him as tightly as she did. It was the only reason he didn’t fall to pieces completely. The cog at the heart of Leo’s machine had broken in a way that made it utterly beyond repair, and now it felt like a matter of time before the whole thing came apart. Piper holding him was the only reason his remaining pieces were still functioning. 

It should have been impossible for Leo to fall asleep under these circumstances, but he’d been traveling for hours and fighting before then and he’d cried out his remaining energy, so eventually, the world started to fade around him, reduced to just the sound of Piper’s breaths, until finally, those went, too.

~~~~

It would have been kinder, maybe, if Leo had dreamed up some shitty visions promising violent death and/or the end of the world. That would have been business as usual. 

Instead, he dreamed of his time on the Argo II—of one of those early nights when the different groups were still getting to know each other, having a brief moment to breathe between their ridiculous tasks and saving the world. 

It had seemed reasonable to catch each other up on what had happened on their end. Percy, Hazel and Frank had talked about rescuing Thanatos, and Piper, Jason and Leo had told them what had happened with Hera in turn. 

This would have been a boring intel conversation at best, seeing as Leo had been there for all of their part, but they’d grabbed snacks and sat on cushions on the floor and made it a whole bonding activity. Jason had been wedged between Piper and Leo, and they’d taken turns storytelling. 

And Jason had bragged. So much. But he hadn’t even had the decency to brag about himself like a normal human being. Instead, he’d talked about how capable Piper and Leo had been, somehow managing to make Leo sound like the coolest person he’d ever met. Which was ridiculous, considering he’d met everyone else on their team.

And sure, Leo made it sound like he thought he was amazing all the time, but he was exaggerating, which everyone, himself included, knew. 

Jason didn’t seem to have gotten the memo, though. He had one arm wrapped around Leo the whole evening, and he got all starry-eyed when he talked. 

“Leo took on three Cyclopes by himself. Three!”

“Dude, stop!” Leo had laughed, shaking his head. “I know I’m incredible and you’re blessed to be friends with me and stuff, but you weren’t even conscious for that part.”

“Still happened, though.” Jason had beamed at him. “You’re amazing, dude. I would have died about fifteen times on that mission if it hadn’t been for you. You guys should’ve seen him.”

It would have been easier if Leo had thought Jason was just trying to talk him up to the others to make them more willing to trust him after how badly he’d messed up in New Rome, but Jason wasn’t the type. He’d looked like he honestly believed every single word he was saying.

So, of course, Leo had refused to seriously deal with any of the things that made him feel.

“Sorry, Pipes, but I’m pretty sure your boyfriend is in love with me. It’s the fire powers, I’m afraid. I’m just too hot to resist,” Leo had joked instead, and Piper had untangled herself from Jason’s other side to throw Doritos at Leo, and everything had been right in the universe.

~~~~

Waking up from that, blearily blinking himself awake in the car full of moving boxes and remembering… that was a worse punch in the gut than waking up from most nightmares had been. And Leo should know. He’d had so many of those over the years that he was basically a certified nightmare expert at this point.

Leo wanted to go back in time and spend forever in that one evening, living it over and over and over again until the Fates or a temporal paradox or something eventually killed him. He wanted to hold on to what they’d been back then—the three of them together and happy and whole,back before they’d realized what the prophecy really meant. 

He wanted to stay wrapped in Jason’s arm and hear him laugh at whatever stupid joke Leo came up with while he and Piper threw snacks at each other like ten year olds. He wanted to believe he could actually be the person Jason was bragging about—this invincible hero that could do just about anything and saved people’s lives.

But Leo had never been that hero. Even his sacrifice had been the selfish decision of a coward who wasn’t ready to die just yet. Jason had been their Superman. The guy who could fly and threw lightning and saved people from falling to their deaths. Jason had been the hero. And ultimately, that had been what killed him.

Leo wasn’t exactly sure what he planned to do once they got to Oklahoma. He should have been heading back to the Waystation, to give Calypso the normal life he’d promised. But he wasn’t thinking about Calypso, or the Waystation, and the thought of a normal life had gone out of the window the second he’d seen the coffin. Besides, the Waystation would mean people asking questions, wanting to know about his mission and asking him to talk about his feelings, and he didn’t want that.

The only thing Leo really wanted to do right now was not think. 

By the time they got to the house, it was so late that cross-country dragon flight seemed inadvisable for visibility reasons alone, so Leo agreed to stay the night. Festus nuzzled him for a bit, got a fuel snack from the canister Leo had brought and then folded down into his million pound suitcase form for the night.

It took a little under two hours to carry all the boxes inside, which was an annoying amount of time to be carrying boxes but seemed like an absurdly short amount to move the contents of an entire life.

They spent some time in search of the necessities that needed to be unpacked, but the house was still furnished and also had running water and electricity as of a few days ago, so it wasn’t that bad.

While Piper went in search of some ancient camping gear so Leo wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor—this seemed silly to him, the floor was far from the worst place he’d ever slept—Leo asked Piper’s dad if he could help with dinner. 

Tristan looked relieved at his offer, actually. He’d been staring at the assorted vegetables with a slightly lost expression, trying to hack at one of the zucchinis with a butter knife. It seemed like he was trying to remember how cooking worked and had just discovered he had absolutely no idea. 

Considering how long he’d been an insanely rich guy with a personal cook, Leo guessed that actually might have been a pretty accurate read on the situation. 

“You might want to try a sharper knife,” Leo suggested, which made Piper’s dad look absolutely mortified. “Try not to chop off any of your fingers, though. I think Piper’s been traumatized enough for one week.”

The words were out of his mouth before Leo could think to stop them. Tristan didn’t laugh, but at least it didn’t seem like he’d be tossing Leo out of the house over this. Maybe he realized people sometimes said stupid shit when they were grieving. Maybe Piper had just warned him in advance that Leo was like this sometimes.

Tristan just went to find a different knife, which would have maybe been concerning if he hadn’t gone back to hacking at the vegetables a moment later.

“Well, at least this one is actually cutting through the zucchinis. That’s already an improvement.”

“Yeah, I’m basically a cooking expert,” Leo said with a grin, only half-joking. He went to peel and chop up the carrots, and was done with those and about half the mushrooms by the time the poor zucchini had been hacked to bits.

“You and Piper went to school together, right?” Tristan asked after a while of them quietly chopping vegetables for the casserole, trying to make sense of things with information he didn’t have and that, judging from past evidence, probably would have made his skull crack. “You and her and Jason.”

“Yeah. We went to Wilderness school together.” Leo winced, trying not to think too hard of Jason while also trying to remember the lies they’d already told Piper’s dad. At this rate, he was pretty worried his own skull would crack, too. “Then all three of us switched to a different school. Then I was gone for a while.”

Tristan nodded like this made perfect sense, though he mostly seemed lost in thought. That was a little rude, in Leo’s opinion. If he went through all that effort to remember their elaborate setup of lies, the least Piper’s dad could do was appreciate it!

“I’m glad you’re here now, with everything that’s happened. Piper was really upset when you left,” Tristan said, still with that faraway look in his eyes. “The last few months were hard for her. Between the move and the breakup, she really could have used a friend.”

Leo promptly lost all rights to make fun of Piper’s dad and his vegetable chopping skills because at the word ‘breakup’, the knife slipped and he nearly sliced off two of his fingers.

“Fuck! Ow!” he said eloquently, trying to avoid bleeding all over the cutting board in his attempt to get to the sink. “Jason and Piper broke up?”

The question sounded absurd even to his own ears. Why would Jason and Piper break up? They’d been happy together.

Surely, Piper’s dad had to be talking about something else.

To Leo’s shock, Tristan nodded.

“A while ago, yes,” he said, but he didn’t go into details—possibly because Leo was bleeding all over the sink. “We should bandage that. Do you think you need stitches?”

“No, the cuts aren’t that deep,” Leo decided, turning on the faucet and holding his bleeding hand under the stream of cold water. Maybe he should have been more concerned about the injury, but his mind was still whirring at the thought of his best friends breaking up. Unfortunately, the cold water stung like hell. He hissed with pain. “Sorry for making your kitchen look like a crime scene right after moving in. Usually, I at least have the decency to wait a day or two.”

Because the house was a small, cozy place and Leo had not had the decency to curse quietly, Piper appeared in the doorway a moment later, an alarmed expression on her face.

“What happened?”

“I’ve been bested by a stupid potato,” Leo cursed, holding up his bleeding hand and wiggling his fingers for emphasis. He figured out immediately that this was a mistake. “Ow.”

“Stop that, dumbass!” Piper cursed, moving to stand beside him. “Sink was the right call, but you need to use soap or the cuts could get infected. Dad, any chance we have gauze lying around somewhere?”

Tristan didn’t seem to question why his daughter had immediately jumped into emergency medical treatment mode. He just abandoned the cutting board and headed for the front door.

“Not exactly sure what box our regular medical supplies are in, but I’ll get the first aid kit from the car. I’ll be right back.”

“Do we have to do the soap?” Leo whined, because fuck, that stung, but Piper nodded with a scary expression on her face, so he complied. “How do you even know this stuff? Are we sure you’re not secretly an Apollo kid?”

“I know this stuff because I’m friends with a bunch of morons who have zero sense of self-preservation,” Piper cursed, gritting her teeth. “You shouldn’t be around knives when you’re this distracted.”

“I can usually cook just fine when I’m distracted. Your dad was the one who told me you and Jason broke up in the middle of this stupid potato,” Leo said defensively. “Is that the Mist messing with him?”

That was the only explanation his mind had supplied so far that made any sense to him.

Piper shook her head. “We really did break up. That was a few months ago.”

Leo felt his jaw hit the floor. 

“What the hell happened? You were together for ages. I thought- you always seemed so happy.”

“I know, but-” Piper broke off abruptly when her dad came back inside with the first aid kit. Demigod stuff, then?

Leo’s mind was racing. The breakup was a completely stupid thing to focus on, considering everything that had happened in the last few days. He knew that.

But it was easier to try and make sense of this than it was to try and make sense of the fact that Jason was gone and he’d never get to see him again.

“Is it alright if we do this somewhere else?” Piper asked her dad, taking the first aid kit from him.

“Of course. It might be easier to patch him up when you’re both sitting down, anyway.” He turned towards Leo. “Thank you for your help, but I think I can take it from here.”

Leo sent a silent prayer to whichever deity was responsible for protecting vegetables���Demeter, probably?—and gave what he hoped was an encouraging thumbs up with his uninjured hand before he followed Piper into the hallway to presumably be reprimanded some more.

~~~~ They ended up sitting on an old bed that looked like it had lived a long, miserable life and was excited for retirement, but the wooden frame thankfully didn’t break down under the weight of the new mattress or the additional weight of them sitting on said mattress. Piper explained that this had been her dad’s room when he’d lived here as a child, and that it would probably become her room now. Then she went very quiet and focused on bandaging his hand, clearly avoiding looking at him.

“It wasn’t because of me, was it?” Leo asked. The thought made him feel ill. “Please tell me it wasn’t something like, I don’t know, you two being unable to stand being around each other after what happened to me. I think I’d actually have to blow myself up again if it was.”

He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it didn’t feel like one at all. The thought that he'd managed to ruin his best friends’ relationship on top of everything else made it hard to breathe.

When Piper shook her head, it felt like a whole boulder was lifted off his shoulders.

“I actually think we would have broken up sooner if you hadn’t gone missing. We leaned on each other a lot after you disappeared. It wasn’t until we realized we wouldn’t find you and things started to settle down a little that I had time to think. And when I did…” Her voice went very quiet, and she still didn’t look up at him. “I realized I wasn’t happy in the relationship. I don’t think I ever was.”

“How did I not know that?” Leo wondered quietly. “I just… you two seemed happy to me. What kind of garbage best friend am I?”

Piper shook her head. “It isn’t your fault. I was telling myself I was happy for a long time. It’s almost- sometimes I wonder if I was charmspeaking myself. That maybe I kept saying I was in love with Jason until I convinced myself I actually was. And with Hera and my mom setting it up… I love-” her voice caught in her throat, and Leo felt like maybe he needed to throw up, “-loved Jason, but not like that.”

“Pipes, I’m really sorry.” Leo squeezed her shoulder. “That sounds like it was super hard for both of you.” Leo felt awful about the fact that he hadn’t even been around to comfort either of them, but it wasn’t like he could fix it now. It was just another item on Leo’s unending list of epic screwups he’d never be able to make up for.

“Jason was… well, he took it exactly like I expected him to. He was surprised, but he didn’t get angry or anything. He mostly seemed okay. Part of me wonders if maybe…” But whatever Piper had been thinking about, she seemed to decide it wasn’t important. “It was hard to get a proper read on him, and as nice as he was about it, things were still super awkward after. I'm terrified he died thinking I didn’t care about him.”

And then she was tearing up again, and Leo thought he would shatter if she cried. 

“He knew you cared,” he said as earnestly as he could manage, pulling Piper to his chest again. “You love way too annoyingly for him not to have known. Hell, even I know you love me, and we both know I’m a fucking nightmare when it comes to this stuff.”

“I missed you so much,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his back like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Oh, I’m about to make you regret saying that,” Leo said, forcing himself to smile. “I’ll bring it up each and every time you say you find something I do annoying.”

“You’re annoying as hell, but you’re still my best friend.” He could feel her tears dripping onto his shoulder, and he knew that would make him start up again too. “I don’t know how I’d do this without you.”

And well, passing away from dehydration after crying too much would be a really lame way to die the second time, but everything was just too much right now, so if that was how he went, Leo wasn’t sure anyone could blame him.

~~~~

For the next couple of weeks, Leo stayed.

Helping Piper and her dad unpack was the perfect way to keep himself occupied and not have to think. Usually, a mundane task like this probably would have driven Leo nuts. But right now, it was a bit of a godsend—if not literally, at least figuratively. Being productive was always so much easier when it was done in order to avoid something you wanted to do even less. There was a reason his spaces in the foster homes had only ever been tidy when he had exams coming up.

He helped cook, too, and Piper’s dad became increasingly less garbage at it the longer this went on—like muscle memory was finally kicking in after years of disuse.

It was mostly good—listening to Piper reminisce about trips she’d taken with her dad and where she’d gotten the weird variety of items she kept in her room. When they weren’t unpacking, Leo and Piper played video games or watched movies or explored the area. Twice, during the night, they took Festus on a little flight to a nearby fast food place. Finding a parking spot was a bit of a nightmare, unfortunately. Leo would submit a complaint about their inability to accommodate celestial bronze dragons the first chance he got.

The first time they tried hiking—Leo didn’t even like hiking, he’d spent enough time outside for several lifetimes, why did he do this to himself—they got hopelessly lost in the woods, and of course, due to demigod bullshit, neither of them had brought a phone, so Google Maps wasn’t an option. It was probably for the better. The last thing that situation needed on top of them being lost was a monster attack. 

They were already jokingly planning out their new life in the woods when, thankfully, a girl their age came to their rescue.

“A human being! Thank the gods. The squirrels weren’t talking to us,” Leo greeted her, which had Piper shout “Please ignore Leo!” loudly from the branches of the tree she’d been climbing.

The girl lifted her head, spotted Piper and promptly burst out laughing.

“What in the world are you doing up there?” 

“Trying to get a better vantage point,” Piper sighed, making her way back down the tree. “We’re hopelessly lost.”

“Well, nice to meet you, hopelessly lost. I’m Shel,” the girl said, still grinning. Leo decided immediately that he liked her.

Piper had almost made it back down when she somehow missed a branch and fell the rest of the way. In comedic movie fashion, Shel moved before Leo had the chance to and caught her mid-tumble. “That was a bit of a dramatic way to get my attention, but you’re cute, so I’ll allow it.”

“Oh yeah, Piper’s got a bit of a thing with falling for people that way,” Leo commented, and Piper gave him her most murderous look while she got back on her feet.

“You guys need help getting back?”

“Please, yes,” Piper said immediately. “It turns out we’re both garbage with maps.”

“Maybe you just need a tour guide next time,” Shel suggested, winking at Piper, whose face turned scarlet. Leo wasn’t even mad about being the third wheel for once. He’d give her so much shit about this later.

And he did. And then Piper properly came out to him—no label or anything, mostly as extremely confused but sure she liked girls, which also made a few additional pieces click into place regarding her breakup with Jason. She ended her anxiety-riddled explanation by thanking Leo for being so normal and annoying about all this. 

Which was how Leo realized he’d apparently never told Piper he was bi.

Or maybe he had, and it had gotten lost along with their other memories of Wilderness. Stupid memory-stealing babysitters.

Well, at least they got to hug about it now. 

~~~~

It was strange how normal some days felt when nothing would ever truly be normal again. When in every moment Leo and Piper spent together, the gaping hole that had been ripped into their trio was so blatantly obvious.

The benefit and problem of this friendship was that Leo and Piper were both experts at not talking about things they were struggling with. 

This wasn’t exactly news. From what little Leo did remember of Wilderness School, they’d spent months not talking about his mom, or about the fact that Piper’s dad kept canceling their weekend plans. They’d both known there were things left unsaid, but as long as they’d been able to cheer each other up, that hadn’t really mattered. It made sense, honestly. Put two people who hadn’t had a shoulder to cry on for ages in a room together and see what happens!

Right now, this meant they were expertly ignoring the box of belongings Piper had picked up from Jason’s school. It had been pushed so far under the bed during that first night that it was no longer visible, and neither of them made any effort to move it out of its new home since. They ignored the topic of Jason, period, until it inevitably hit them in the face again. 

It was mostly dumb shit that set them off. Piper automatically reaching for vanilla ice cream at the grocery store because it was Jason’s favorite—seriously, who in their right mind even liked vanilla ice cream?

Sometimes, Leo would make a joke and burst into tears instead of laughing because he knew it would have cracked Jason up. They found old photos unpacking. One time, Piper’s dad suggested they make tacos and they started simultaneously bawling their eyes out.

Leo had spent a long time exactly like this—pretending everything was normal and okay when it wasn’t either of those things until he inevitably broke down. Then he’d started to actually feel sort of okay whenever he was with Jason and Piper. Now, he was sure he would spend the rest of his life pretending.

His appetite was too used to being stuck in survival mode for him to bow to nausea for long, so he went back to eating properly after a few days. He still cried himself to sleep most nights. He kept dreaming about Jason. The memories wrapped themselves around him like a safety blanket that he knew would get ripped away again in the morning. He always woke up feeling empty. Sometimes, he wished he could just go to sleep and never wake up again.

But other than that, it was mostly good.

Then demigod communications went back up, and everything went to hell.

———

Chapter notes:

Fun fact! I originally planned for this chapter (as well as the next few chapters) to just be backstory in my head and for me to maybe do a flashback or two. Unfortunately for me, Piper McLean waltzed into the room and refused to leave.

I do actually think the fic works better this way, but it will take a second to get to the plot! Hopefully you’ll enjoy the whole journey :)

I may not be able to have Leo and Piper go to Jason’s funeral without seriously messing with the plot of Tyrant’s Tomb, but I could at least pick the most evil reason possible for them not to go!

Side note: I sort of forgot that Hedge and Mellie were supposed to be here according to TBM, but by the time I remembered I already had this chapter written out and, as someone who cannot be bothered to figure out how to write them, I decided to just leave it. ToA is vaguely canon to this universe, but only for the most part. Some details are inaccurate, and I think that’s okay.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading! Comments and reblogs super, super appreciated as always!!

List of people that at some point asked to be tagged when I post this: @poppitron360 @ginnyluna @keefessketchbook (feel free to comment if you want to get taken off or be put on the tag list for future chapters!)

[imagionationstation]

Hey so sorry to bother you but… just saw you listen to Epic??? I know you’re a turtle nerd, as am I but… I NEED to know your favorite Epic song/favorite character right NOW PLEASE! You’re like one of the coolest people so to find out you also listen to Epic is…. Mmmmmmmm anyways I hope this isn’t weird or anything but PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW😭🙏🏻❤️

NOT WEIRD! LOVE THIS ASK! THANK YOU!

SERIOUSLY! I WOULD BE RANTING ABOUT EPIC 24/7 IF THIS WASN’T A TURTLES BLOG BELIEVE YOU ME

Alike to turtles, I have problematic views!! I look at things that 3/4 of the fandom shares a view in and go: That’s not what’s happening.

The people in my life have heard me ramble I cannot shut up:

I went to this event months ago and it did Trivia and a round was Greek Mythology and everyone in my group was like, “Neko, this is all on you. Don’t let us down” and I got 9/10 right. Go me ✨

Gonna see my bested friend soon! We never get to see each other so we’re making a day out of hanging out. We’re gonna watch the full saga. All of the two hours of it. I am collecting animatics. Silly goose thinks it’s an optional suggestion (it’s not <3)

(Don’t worry, I’m exploring outside interests too. It’s mutual 😜)

Asking me to pick a favorite song is like asking me to pick a favorite fanfiction child. All my children have gifts of their own to share and I love them all with everything that I have!!!

But if you’re asking what song I most commonly have played on repeat and/or belted on the top of my lungs when I’m alone…

I’m Not Sorry For Loving You tops everything else.

Based off this, I wanna say that Calypso is my favorite character. 🤔

I mean, I created a blog where our only purpose in life is to be safe in our horror and empathy for her situation and to acknowledge that she has so much nuance that the fandom doesn’t touch.

But I think if I’m being honest, it’s not her.

At the end of the day, my angsty heart is drawn to Athena.

DISCLAIMER: Controversal opinions ahead. Do not come yell at me if you do not agree. Tell me why I’m wrong, absolutely! But do it kindly and thoughtfully, and maybe we can have a conversation :D

I am passionate about this character. No aggression to the musical. Every song in the musical rocks. It’s merely my passion speaking.

Everything about her breaks my heart. She’s a goddess in a disfunctional family who doesn’t understand mortal ways.

Also, her dad is the most toxic dude alive.

I mean, there’s this one line that people portray in so many ways, but you watch how Zeus interacts with her and recall the fact that he literally didn’t want her to live when she was conceived- he is SUCH a bully and her respect only stems from him being ‘king of the gods’.

None of the gods step in during God Games. At no point does anyone go “dad you can’t threaten your daughter because she did exactly what you asked her to do”. Not even ARES.

He’s the one who says, mortified, “is she dead?” So he didn’t WANT that turn of events. He cares about her and her state of being.

She’s the only one willing to challenge Zeus and he literally says, “you won, I don’t care, I’m going to heavily punish you because I’m unhappy that you said a true statement I didn’t like”

I've no respect for bullies, those who impose their will I've seen plenty enough to truly understand this kind of filth

DO YOU SEE MY VISION?

Literally her entire life- no one’s been on her side! NO WONDER she doesn’t want to take Ody’s offer of friendship. Clearly no one has ever really given her trust or empathy that she can lean on.

She expects people to lack empathy. She doesn’t understand that he’s not that kind of person and her lessons won’t click.

Have you forgotten to turn off your heart? This is not you I see you changing from how I've designed you

Why would she trust a moral when she can’t trust the gods?

And she has such a temper which is so relatable.

They were in two different spectrums and that’s why they clashed.

She was running off of a mentor mindset. He was running off a friendship mindset. Neither was doing what the other needed for the relationship because they were not on the same page.

And then they hit the ditch in the road and everything cracked.

I mistook you for a general What a waste of effort spent

I'll remind you I saw you as a friend But now we're done

And Athena’s proclamation literally is a prediction for herself:

One day, you'll hear what I'm saying One day, you might understand One day, but not today

Time skip: the way that Athena talks to Telemachus says that she’s been stewing in regret because she KNOWS they were good friends and she didn’t want to admit it to herself. She understands why they clashed and now she doesn’t know what to do about it.

So this kid is like “I think you should help him even if he hates you. If he won’t accept your friendship then I’ll be here waiting.”

(*insert waiting, waiting, waiting mantra*)

AND THAT’S LITERALLY EXACTLY WHAT SHE NEEDED TO HEAR?

SHE LITERALLY JUST NEEDED TO KNOW SHE HAD ONE PERSON ON HER SIDE? ONE FRIEND WHO CARED ABOUT HER?

I’m a sucker for ‘doing everything for the people you care about but platonically’ and Athena is the PICTURE of ‘oh wait I would platonically die for my friend’ and like?? That’s beautiful??? 😭

My only qualm with EPIC is the way that the Ithaca Saga handled Athena because you cannot convince me that it did not do her dirty. I have read and scrolled and chewed on all the arguments.

That. Beautiful. Goddess. Went. Above. And. Beyond. To. Mend. Her. Mistake and he outright denied her friendship.

That was not a “oh yeah we can be friends later” very well.

That’s a voice cracking, heartbroken: “I took a thunderbolt for you and you don’t want me in your life” very well. LIKE.

Yes. Oddy went through a lot. No denying that.

But he called out for HER. After everything, he called out for HER HELP. Showed a belief in her. Counted on her to save him

AND SHE DID WHAT HE NEEDED. TOOK A THUNDERBOLT. BEGGED ON HER KNEES WHILE SUFFERING AND IN AGONY.

I can't help but wonder What this world could be If we all held each other with a bit more empathy I can't help but feel like I led you astray What if there's a world where we don't have to live this way?

{I messed up. I want to do better. Is that still possible?}

If that world exists It's far away from here It's one I'll have to miss For it's far beyond my years You might live forever So you can make it be But I've got one endeavor There's a girl I have to see

{No. You have thousands of years to make other friends. There’s no world where we can mend who we used to be. You do what you need to do. My only want is to be with my wife.}

LIKE if they were going to try, the song would SAY that they plan to try. Jorge is not afraid to strongly imply things or outright say them. Ody doesn’t WANT to try and be friends. All he wants is wife. Which would be valid if SHE DIDN’T TAKE A THUNDERBOLT FOR HIM

ONE THAT SCARRED HER EYE AND KNOCKED HER OUT FOR SEVERAL SONGS SO SHE COULDN’T BE THERE TO HELP

There was no reason, no obligation, nothing but her love and affection for him that drew her to take that punishment from Zeus.

There is no way, after everything, she’s asking him to be her warrior.

She’s literally saying she messed up. She wants to mend their relationship. She wants to do better for him.

He could have said, “I’m not a man who does empathy anymore but we can try” instead of “I have other plans, gonna have to miss this friendship train” because that is an awful diss. Straight painful.

This amazing song did her so dirty and I will never get over it.

Thank goodness for Telemachus. She’ll needs his optimism and joy and willing friendship after the sting from that bite.

[t00nyah]

so...here's my part for scugshroom colony because i think it's a very fun designing challenge

@mushroominaforest i hope you won't bite me for this

THOSE are my small notes i made to simplify information i saw as important. fungi i chose are lion's mane(Hericium erinaceus) and blood tooth(Hydnellum peckii), they looked cool and i went okay. okay.

this is the Empath, or Pompom. (she/he/they/it) she's VERY big and VERY fluffy. she has a very sweet and caring personality, while holding strange fascination with cycle of death and rebirth and, weirdly enough, interest in the Rot, despite being as terrified of it as others. as his name suggests he's very empathetic and is usually first to help, he's that one responsible adult who helps kids who are afraid of doctors face their fears (haha not that im that kid...). (and yes i am implying that he frequently helps slugcats figure out when they need help and how to get it. trust me that sentence makes sense. actually, read this as 'he's basically like calypso from bluey', that's the vibe.)

she's also secretly a gourmenot child but no-one's supposed to know that /hj

this...is...strawberry and cream duo...(get it...bc strawberries and cream...)

slugcat is the Colorist, or Cream. (she/they/it) they are not yet past their puphood, so they're small (but they won't grow much because ummm i decided so). their natural appearance tends to scare some off, especially their small blood-looking spot on their lower jaw, which gives them a vampire look. she's very bitter and can come off as snappy, but it's mostly because she's been rather lonely most of her life! she found a companion in Strawberry, or the Courageous One. (he/it) Colorist is the one who patched up his wound from another lizard, and the one who made his cape as a sign of friendship. they formed a rather symbiotic relationship in which they, both seen as weaklings or outcasts in their homeland, help each other be stronger.

they're basically double trouble lol

the Colorist has incredible interest in fabric and likes making useful and fashionable items like bags or simple scarfs. they usually tend to isolate themself from others but it doesn't mean they don't see themself as a part of a collective, they're just used to not being well-liked. i can see Strawberry trying to make her interact with others more while she's just being all grumpy but still goes along with it haha.

this was a lot of fun i love thinking about how to convert facts into character traits soooooo yeah that was very fun :)

[sherl-grey]

dangerous words I fear but I’m craving some OFMD critical but civil discourse… s2 finale spoilers included below the cut. this is incredibly long FYI bc I’m truly desperate to get all my thoughts out

I want to preface by saying I loved S2. I think I loved it more than s1, I think there were some absolute GENIUS moments this season (the entire Calypso episode was *chef’s kiss* my favorite), and I think the cast, crew, and DJ deserve a lot of love and, of course, a renewal for another season.

I know there’s been a lot of anti-finale-critiquing posts out there (and yeah, I also don’t want to see baseless hate or, god forbid, people trying to interact with the cast/crew with anything less than love and respect) but personally, I think the biggest sign that I love a show is me wanting to pick it apart. I think digging into the writing and decision-making and characters of a show means you really appreciate the choices that were made even if you don’t agree with them, because you’re working to understand the story on a level most people only dive to if they’re forced to in an English class. No story is going to be perfect. No story is going to be written specifically for me unless it’s literally by me. But sometimes I still want to study it like a bug under a microscope, you know?

So here we go: I didn’t like the finale, and I didn’t think it fit very well with the rest of the season/show. Weirdly enough I didn’t feel a need to discuss online until I started reading the interviews DJ has been giving about the finale (specifically the choice to kill Izzy and Ed/Stede’s ending) and I’m so curious as to whether others interpreted things the same way. (Yes, they’re DJ’s characters. No, I don’t think all viewers are obligated to interpret things the same way as writers did—that’s half the beauty of storytelling and media consumption.)

Izzy’s Death

Let’s unpack the big one first. I think a lot of what DJ/finale defenders (if I may respectfully call fans who enjoyed s2e8 that) have mentioned is that Izzy’s arc was over and he’d served his narrative purpose. I’ve got a few different issues with this:

1. Part of what I love(d?) about this show is that I did not think this was a show that kills characters once they’ve served their narrative purpose, or a show that kills characters as punishment/retribution for mistakes/earlier actions. To me, OFMD symbolizes the idea that everyone is deserving of love, forgiveness, and second chances. I truly trusted that no one on the Revenge crew would die in this show, and to be proven wrong was a bit disheartening, to say the least. Will talk more on the suicide notion in the next bit because I think it was symbolic, but Izzy also now represents a suicidal character who finds the will to live again. I’d argue that a “full arc” for a character like that should be ending in happiness, not death (and especially not with a line like “I want to go” or whatever the specific words were).

2. DJ seems to describe Izzy’s role as being a mentor to Blackbeard, which I personally struggle to see at all. Despite the Captain/First Mate status difference, I think most signs have pointed towards them being roughly equals—the unrequited love Izzy feels for Ed, the way the two of them stand right up to each other when everyone else would be afraid to, the clear shared history and longevity of their friendship/companionship. (If anything, I’d argue Izzy takes on the mentor mantle for Stede in s2, though it’s a bit glossed over because of how crunched for time everything was.) I certainly have trouble seeing the “father figure” relationship that DJ mentions in interviews, because I think Izzy is the one crew member that puts himself on even ground with his captains.

But even humoring that, Ed’s story has been about shedding Blackbeard. And DJ has a great quote in the Entertainment Weekly interview where he says that Izzy and Ed are both Blackbeard, that the two of them together are what makes Blackbeard “happen.” So in theory, if we’re killing Izzy off to further Ed’s storyline, it’s to ultimately kill Blackbeard, right? Especially since his line at the end is to “just be Ed.”

Except we already have metaphorically killed Blackbeard, several times. I think S2E3 is a really interesting episode because in season 1, it can be argued (and is, by Chauncey Badminton) that Stede kills Blackbeard in his own pirate-y way—with kindness. The crew is also somewhat a part of this, as they all accept and love Ed for who he is and not only because he’s Blackbeard; the crew follows the example of their captain and it changes who Ed is as a person. S2E3 is a crew under Blackbeard, and they also kill Blackbeard following the method of their current captain—violence. And this “death” is, in my mind, the death of Blackbeard while Stede symbolically saves the part of him that is just Ed. (Bonus: we also get Ed trying to sink his leathers, and while it might just be because he’s on a damn boat, it’s interesting that Blackbeard’s clothes are drowned/sunk while Ed’s metaphorical comeback was being saved from drowning by Mer!Stede.)

So Ed’s half of Blackbeard is dead. If we stand by DJ’s idea that Blackbeard is half Izzy, we’ve still got half of Blackbeard left, right? Well, that would’ve been right immediately post-S1, but then they gave Izzy a beautiful arc that seems to be a shadow of Ed’s S1 track. Ed and Izzy are very similar characters, but in S1 Ed is on the receiving end of love, acceptance, and admiration—namely from Stede, but also from the crew. Meanwhile, Izzy is subject to contempt and hostility… once again, namely from Stede, and also from the crew. Ed blossoms under the love during S1 until that’s taken away; Izzy simply moves in the reverse direction. He continues to be an antagonist while being treated like one, but once others start treating him with kindness (Fang hugging him, Jim and Archie amputating his leg while Frenchie lies for him, the whole crew making him the unicorn leg), he too becomes a part of the family. And wouldn’t you know it—Izzy has a near death scene as well, a suicide no less. Izzy is the one who is responsible in S1 for “bringing back Blackbeard,” so the symbolism of him pulling the trigger on himself is huge. This is Izzy killing his half of Blackbeard! Because Izzy Hands continues to live, even if it takes him some time to remember how to live without Blackbeard at first, and his relationship with Ed effectively dies here.

(As a side note, this growth arc and the way Izzy fully transforms into a member of the Revenge crew afterwards—whittling Lucius a shark and talking to him about forgiveness, dressing up in drag and singing to the crew, cracking silly jokes about Ed and Stede’s relationship—are also why I find the “Izzy Hands is the symbol of traditional piracy and his death is symbolic of traditional piracy dying” argument to be weak. In season 1, he was that definition, but we’ve literally watched him grow out of it. He’s no longer symbolic of something stagnant that will remain the same or be destroyed—he’s symbolic of something that grows and adapts to the new situations, that survives when all of the rules change on him.)

And then we have the return of Blackbeard: Pop-Pop pushing Ed to go back to doing “what he’s good at,” Ed fishing his leathers out of the ocean, Ed killing a ton of people because he thinks Stede is likely dead or at minimum in captivity/grave danger. This bit seems to go against everything the season was building towards; Blackbeard was almost entirely gone, but Ed is now the one who brings him back because he thinks Blackbeard is the one who can save Stede. And that’s fair, but what does that have to do with Izzy at this point? Why does he need to die for Ed to put that part of him away again? While we’re not owed a main character having a death that serves a narrative purpose, I’d hope for that to be the case, and I struggle to interpret what happens to Izzy as beneficial to either plot or character.

3. I think the actual core arcs of the show are character arcs and not plots. I get that they might’ve been trying to wrap plots with Zheng and the British in case they aren’t renewed, but I don’t think it was necessary—the pirating has always been secondary to the rom com and the found family, IMO. In S1, we had two main characters, but I’d argue Izzy got enough focus and attention to be a third this season. Which left us with a great character-driven story: we’re watching all 3 of them come into their own and discover who they are individually, while also discovering that the changes in themselves are causing friction between them now that they’re growing into new people. Which is an amazing story to tell, if you ask me, but the fulfillment of that story requires all three characters to be there. The conflict to be resolved is how these characters can become the people they want to be and still coexist together, because on some level they’re family now. Notably each pair combination of these characters grows together or apart (or in Stede/Ed’s case, both) during this season. Ed and Izzy are growing apart because they hold each other back from becoming the person they want/need to be; to complete this narratively, I would’ve expected the next challenge to be finding a way to become friends again as their new selves while letting go of the fact that they used to have a toxic relationship when they used to be different people.

Ed and Stede’s S2 Ending

So Izzy’s death is the big talking point, but I also think DJ’s take on Ed and Stede was interesting. He said that they deserved a happy ending for the work they put in this season. I agree with him in theory, but I’m curious as to whether others agree that they put in a lot of work. I think Stede followed through with his goal to come back and tell Ed how he feels, and to stay instead of running away from his problems. I think Ed followed through with trying to understand who he is and what his needs are while also trying to find the courage to open himself up to love again. But critically, they never talk. E7 makes a point to highlight the miscommunication/lack of communication between them, and then in E8 they still aren’t shown talking.

(I realize part of the issue is the limited amount of time and the amount of plot shoved into episode 8. I get it; personally, I think the plot should’ve been sacrificed for the characters. At this point, we were 7 episodes into a very character/relationship-heavy season. Plot could’ve waited for a potential S3.)

What’s more—there’s a huge, glaring gap between where they left off and where they end up. Ed left in S2E7 after he begins panicking and realizing Stede is becoming deeper entrenched in pirate life just as he’s finally finding his way out of it. Not once do they talk about this, but suddenly they’re retiring together? And right after Ed says Izzy was his only family and Izzy calls the crew his family (which… is also an unearned line, as Ed and the crew have almost no bonding or forgiveness this season, since we focused mainly on Izzy with the crew and Ed with Stede), they leave the crew to do their own thing? They’re all relatively minor things that could be fairly easily addressed by dialogue, but they fact that they’re not only serves to underscore the way that Ed and Stede really aren’t on the same page.

I want them to get their happy ending. They deserve it. I’m just not sure that I agree that they earned it to the degree that it was received, with retirement alone together without their crew, if that makes sense.

Positivity Tax: Calypso Love 😊

I’ve probably got more to say but those were the big ones on my mind after reading the Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly interviews. Just to counterbalance some of the more critical things I’ve said, I wanted to share some loving analysis of the Calypso episode:

1. It’s a minor thing, but the way this episode shows that Ed’s actions as Blackbeard had consequences is amazing. Despite him arguably committing the more grievous wrongs in S1, he’s the one we get the least redemption for in this season (his apology to the crew wasn’t great, and most of his screen time is spent repairing his relationship with Stede), so for him to have to face something that happened because of his past actions is cool, especially because it was done in a way that doesn’t further damage his standing with the crew.

2. The way Stede saves the day is incredible. Competent Stede this season has been an absolute joy to watch, and his success in this episode is twofold: first he wins his way, with signature Gentleman Pirate flair. He listens to Ned’s crew, helps facilitate communication between them, and encourages them to stand up for themselves and demand better treatment. That’s a very classic Stede win. But then he wins in the traditional pirate way, and it’s absolutely glorious; he’s been working towards becoming a better pirate, both in terms of stomaching violence and building up the necessary skills. Ned’s crew can be taken down with kindness, but Ned himself is a pirate and will only be matched by another. I genuinely cannot think of a more perfect way to show that Stede is still himself while also showcasing the newer side of him that he’s been working towards this whole time.

3. Speaking of that newer side of him, the way this episode starts to open up Ed’s insecurities? The combination of seeing his least favorite parts of himself reflected in Stede as well as watching Stede grow into the career that he’s trying to leave? Amazing conflict development.

4. I’ve already talked so much about Izzy but the way this truly caps off the crew’s acceptance of him as part of the family is gorgeous. He’s an entirely new man at this point and there’s no jokes made, no friendly ribbing… just love and acceptance. It highlights both his newfound comfort and familiarity with the others as well as the extent to which they care about him.

5. Less analytical, but it’s also just a really pretty episode.

Considering the fact that I have zero OFMD mutuals and this was a whole essay (I’m on mobile and can’t see how long this is but I’m honestly scared), I would be shocked if someone made it down this far, but if somehow people are here and open to civil discussion… I’d love to know how you felt about this, if you thought DJ was right, if you were a little more on my wavelength and thinking things weren’t adding up, etc. Realistically I’m not sure if anything could change my mind as I’ve done a lot of stewing, particularly about Izzy arc, but new perspectives are always refreshing. Much love to the fandom and of course the creators, who hopefully never see this and get their s3 renewal 🤞🏼

[freddie-77-ao3]

random facts about random riordanverse characters from my characters doc:

percy jackson: thalia once dyed his hair neon green (which, he has black hair, so no clue how) and it lasted for two weeks before washing out entirely

thalia grace: actually very close to will solace. he treated her when she first woke up, and reminded her of jason. she's basically a big sister now. she threatened nico about him.

nico di angelo: got so nervous about asking will out he accidentally asked in chinese, before reverting to welsh, and then latin. finally, he stutters it out in a mix of greek, italian, and english (luckily will understands all three). unfortunately, will responds in sign language for some reason??? nico doesn't know sign language.

meg mccaffrey: meg has a horrendous obsession with gatorade. like. she won't drink water, it's gatorade or nothing. apollo is SO concerned because he doesn't know what gatorade is and also it looks VERY unnatural.

leo valdez: not only can he cook tacos, he knows how to make tamales. actually, while on the argo ii, he and percy made most of the food. this man can COOK.

will solace: has a habit of always carrying pens around with him (both as a way of keeping close to michael, who collected pens before his death, and just bc he's in the infirmary so much) and he clicks them ALL THE TIME as a fidget. people forcibly take them from him sometimes.

Annabeth Chase: she's autistic and so is her dad. part of why they have so much trouble having a good relationship with each other. they both have really black and white thinking styles.

Calypso: she's like 7 feet tall.

Magnus Chase: he really likes the chronicles of narnia series. when he was a kid, he dressed up like the lion for three halloweens in a row. his favorite is the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

Alex Fierro: felines are easier than canines in regards to shapeshifting.

Sadie Kane: she likes strawberry ribena the best

Carter Kane: he wants to grow his hair out. when he's in his twenties, he does. sadie helps him braid it.

Clarisse La Rue: after her mission in ttc, she's extremely claustrophobic.

Piper McLean: the reason she was so against feminine stuff in TLH is because she was so sexualized by the media when she was girly. so she openly rejected it.

Travis Stoll: makes oddly specific t-shirts about what happens at camp. like, “I defeated the greek personification of time this summer and all i got was this lousy tee shirt.”

Connor Stoll: isn't dyslexic. loves reading.

Katie Gardner: she drops out of college after her first semester. it just wasn't for her. she owns a flower shop called petal to the metal, where she says "have a punk rock day" to all her customers.

clovis: he doesn't actually need to sleep 24/7, he just doesn't want to interact with people.

Cecil Markowitz: a threesome baby. no, really. he's 25% his mum, 25% his dad, and 50% hermes. he-- he has a lot of questions and no answers, and that's probably for the better.

Lou Ellen Blackstone: she's black, and usually keeps her hair in braids. before alabaster torrington defected he did it (he's white, learned just for her), and after, beckendorf did her hair.

Zoe Nightshade: she's regenerating. she was a titaness, she'll be back.

Lee Fletcher: he dropped out of high school. it wasn't for him. got his GED and took college classes on the side til he died, but personally modern schooling wasn't really for him.

Rachel Dare: when she turns 21 and gains access to her trust fund, she immediately donates the entire thing.

Hazel Levesque: definitely the person who always has a cardigan/sweater for you to use if you get cold.

Frank Zhang: goes back and finds his grandmother after HoO

Jason Grace: jiper was comphet. he's gay.

Reyna: didn't actually join the hunt. i don't think that really is a natural character ending? she is ace though.

Grover: turns out pan passing his spirit on to grover actually made grover a god?? yeah grover didn't realise for //years//

juniper: fought in the battle of manhattan. she just brought a couple of her berries with her.

Chris Rodriguez: following going insane and becoming sane again, he develops anorexia to regain his sense of control over his life.

Drew Tanaka: she's actually aro-ace.

Malcolm Pace: in an effort to always be prepared he sleeps in jeans and street clothes, and always has a bag of supplies on him.

Ellis Wakefield: is from somalia. his first language is somali. he speaks somali, english, arabic, and greek.

Mitchell: went to military school for a bit. has a habit of calling people sir/ma'am after every sentence now.

michael yew: has the gift of prophecy, knew going into manhattan that he was going to die.

miranda gardiner: summer only camper, takes over counselor during the summer (katie doesn't want it. also she's vietnamese. i know thats two facts i just think it's important.

sherman yang: he has two dads. his mortal dad's name is jeff. sherman sees him like, one week every two months? jeff lives in seattle.

jake mason: he's got a fish named bubbles. he says it's because harley wanted to name it. he lies.

silena beauregard: summer only camper, she volunteers at a domestic abuse shelter during the year, and hopes to go into social work.

charles beckendorf: he was 16 when he died, but had finished HS work 2 years early. had been accepted to MIT. he wouldn't have gone, anyway, because of the expense, too far from camp, but-- it had been a nice dream

Nyssa Barrera: she's a year round camper, and always been mad that taking care of harley fell to her.

Lacy: physically disabled. she's got JRA, and is in a wheelchair part time.

Harley: really likes unsweetened cheerios.

[caity-marvel]

Kraven: the Hunter Movie Review

Uh here's my review and might be some spoilers up ahead. Idk yet. (also take this all with a grain of salt. I was high both times I watched this movie, and while I was writing this)

First off this movie is the one Marvel movie I have liked since Endgame came out. That was the end of I would say Marvel's best movies, before they had that stale Marvel feel. I think there is a couple reasons for that but we won't go into that here.

So starting out I feel like one-off Marvel movies don't have that classic lead-up to where they are now, which is lame because as I was watching this both times, I couldn't help but feel I wanted a whole movie just dedicated to Sergie's back story off living in the wilderness. I know we got clips of it, but I think it would be extremely cool to see him test out, and start to become Kraven. Sounds cool and interesting. I love origin stories, and I think that's why a lot of earlier Marvel films did well. Sometimes it's fun to see how a character gets to where they are now. Loved that portion of the movie. It was very twilight reminisce though. For example, when he was running, I was just thinking about the following: "You better hold tight, Spider-Monkey."

Like, look at him. Little baby Edward

but to sum up this point, I'd love to see him learn to hunt, and catch a fish in the water, and fix up the yurt. I would like to see little him get his ass kicked, so he learns not to get his ass kicked. I want to see him struggle, so we know he deserves where he's at now.

Kraven the manly but sweet man

This is another reason why this movie is so well done. We see that Kraven cares, but not in the typical man way. This movie almost had that Female-gaze feel to it. I'd say the reason why is how much that Kraven gets to show he cares. He isn't afraid of showing his soft side, obviously, it's not just because of how he treats Calypso but of how he also treats his brother. Kraven gives that kindness he knows he can trust. He knows he can trust Calypso after their first interaction, and that's why he is so much more playful in their second interaction. He opens up to her and gives her info we know he doesn't give easily. I don't think he's telling her to just gain her trust (but could be) but that he's telling her to yes trust him, but also because he knows he can trust her, and feels comfortable around her. He gets to let his primal side soften. This is true around his brother too. I think too often we get lost in this men have to be manly, and they can only show their "soft side" to their women. they can't even show their soft side to their family. However, in Kraven, we get to see him share his brother's pain, and care for his brother. This is clearly a damsel in distress situation, but Dimitri is the damsel.

For some reason I am very into the whole "I'll burn the world down for my sibling"/"I'd sacrifice anything I love for my sibling" trope (this is probably due to the book I'm writing) but I think the most emotional, beautiful part of this movie is that the brothers were able to have such familial love. Like this movie is about Kraven saving his brother. That is the main plot, and I love it. Kinda reminds me of the friendship of the old Spiderman movies with Tobey Maguire movies between Peter and Harry.

(also b4 I move on, the perfume scene is a great way to show how he cares. Because he lets the woman know her man is cheating on her. Go king)

This leads me to another good point, that Kraven has real motivation. He wants to kill Rinho because that guy kidnapped his brother. Very John Wick esc. In a lot of other Marvel movies, I feel like the motivation isn't reasonable, or believable. This has a lot of factors, like the relationships with the characters. (Again this would do so well if we had an origin story, but with the origin we got it does still make the point) Kraven and his brother had a build-up of emotions, and bonds before the main story was made. Therefore their relationships as adults were more believable.

I really enjoyed this movie. It said a lot about he anti-hero archetype, (which I have lots of things to say to that, mostly about comparing them to vampires (not because of twilight)) I loved that they didn't force a romance between him and Callypso (I am so glad they didn't do that. They were great friends), and because the relationships and the arcs of the characters were believable and real.

But also on a real note, I liked this movie because Aaron Taylor-Johnson is hot, and I read fanfic about him when he was Quicksilver. Like fuck bro

[alchemy-and-royalty]

Because I miss them here’s how I remember people from my source (HoO)

Percy: 100% a friend. Like,  my most trusted, I-go-to-you-first-when-I-need-help? no. But 100% an awesome friend, 10/10 would recommend buying a Percy

Annabeth: Smart. Also like. Very scary. You correct her and suddenly your falling off the Argo ll/silly

Piper: Bestie. I don’t really remember her as a sister but. A very close friend. 

Jason: Other bestie. The ultimate trio, I fear.

Frank: Useless rivalry…good guy, though.

Hazel: Awkward, but she was a good friend.

Nico: Vague memories of looking up and just seeing him DEATH STARING me. what did I do

Will: cheerful? fun? didn’t interact often because *cocky laugh* I dont get hurt but yk

Rachel: Probably 3rd or 4th on the “friend list” if you wanna call it that. Useless pranks were fun though. 

The gods: Ok. This universe’s gods are great man, so I’m ONLY talking about PJO gods. Also not fictives and kins of them. Those people are great. Anyways, continuing: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO throws tomatoes

Lester: I haven’t read ToA but I feel like he was just always annoyed with me

Meg: Fashion sense of…I don’t even know. Traffic light? Light show? Las Vegas light shows? Casinos? Idk. Bright stuff with colors that don’t go together. (I say as I try to remember the three chapters of ToA I read)

Calypso: Probably the most canon-divergent thing about me (apart from my orientation). She did NOT warm up to me. Glares, scoffs–I think the only kind words I ever got from her were “thanks.” when I got her off that island. Ogygia I think?? Nicknames? nope. Friends? nope. I wasn’t romantically attracted to her or anything (cupioromantic qz3wesxrdcvgbhnkj) but why did she hate me so much, I fixed your table Jesus Christ

Reyna: Also strict but different from Coach Hedge? Like. She had a reason. And it kinda worked. It’s just not my cup of tea, but others could work GREAT with that type of lifestyle. I’m just more Camp Half-Blood.

Coach Hedge: Strict for no reason. “You’re a demigod” ok?? I also have fire in my hands are we just listing off facts about me or

Octavian: um. ok.

Gaia: She’s not a god leave me alone. Wait. no she is. never mind. just go see “the gods"

I think that’s it. There’s too many characters. There’s too many people. Leave me alone./j

[maia-mother-of-the-messenger]

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them" — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A voice spoke to you, coming from nowhere.

Hello

You weirdly don't feel scared, you shouldn't be. This voice sounds kind. You s͟h͟o͟u͟l͟d͟ listen.

I'm Maia, mother of the messenger god (Hermes), nymph of the Pleiade constellation at your service.

The voice sounds pleasant, soft, like a mother.

You may be wondering how I can speak considering i'm a bit star-stuck *You hear her chuckle* in my stories. A tragedy really but the Fates are cruel and you can't fight fate as much as you want to....

She sounds sad for a minute before her voice suddenly perks up, as if remembering she's speaking to you

But-But! The shortened version is that the stars that were mortal, demigod, god, nymph, animal whatever previously are still alive— or whatever you constitute as alive. It's hard to describe but we're always watching, never acting from up here.

Very few truly 'see' us, or know of our continued existence and mostly it's because of their connection to the stars.

My father Atlas for example can because he's holding the sky, plus most of the living stars are his children*. My sister, Calypso can somewhat hear us, though the poor girl isn't one for conversation though. And the titaness of falling stars, @asterias-island can hear us....

Her voice fades out for a second, and you hear another voice, distantly, a more colder voice. You cant hear what she's saying to Maia.

Maia's voice came back a second later.

Oh! It appears i'm running out of time, Astraea is telling me to pack it up, anyways, if you can hear this then that means you're one of the few that can truly see the stars. Lucky you! I hope to speak to you more!

*Zoe, Hyas, the Hyades and the Pleiades are all stars/constellations in the sky that are also children of Atlas, both in pjo and myth

OOC:

This entire blog is based off a headcanon of mine that the stars that used to be living, (eg. Zoe for a pjo example) are still alive in the sky. Their constellations act as their own mini realm catered to them. They can watch what's happening on earth through the sky. they cannot interact with the living however (trust me, Maia tried with a certain grandson of hers. That didn't turn out well)

Those that can hear and talk to the stars are refered to as 'seeing the stars'

Anyone, regardless of parentage or association can 'see' the stars when holding the sky. (hint hint)

Main blog: @bugwolfsstuff

Other rp blogs of mine: @call-me-hermie-please @winged-messenger-girl @dead-but-not-anymore

Maia talks like this

Bug (mun) talks like this

🪽Maia relaying a message from the other stars looks like this🪽

Actions look like this

In character tag is this: ✨The stars are listening and you are hearing✨

Out of character tag is this: Bug speaking

Relaying messages from other stars tag is this: 🪽Messenger Maia🪽

Divider came from here

[fiery-sea]

*hugs him suddenly*

Calypso cried for you.

She didn't mean what she did.

She was just trying to get the sword away from you.

[*He stops short of breath, hesitating before bringing his arms around her. He couldn't feel his heart beating in his chest. Without any words to speak, he lightly patted her back. Squeezing her a bit tightly.*]

[depressedacadamia]

How do you passive aggresively say fuck you in flower? Part II

Summary: It seems that Nico and Will just cant stop running into each other

A/N: FIRST WEEK OF EXAMS OVER, ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO!! Unfortunately, I am not able to write a lot due to tedious revision but I wrote this part 2 a while ago and thought that today would be the perfect time to release it! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy and comment! <3 from me!

Read on AO3           Read Part I on tumblr

They were not expecting to see each other the next day at Uni. In fact, Will was so shocked, he had to pause and squint at the raven haired boy to check that he was the same as the customer 2 days ago. What was this dude doing here? This was the medical college!

Oh shit, what if he’s a new med student or a transfer student?

However, while it seemed that Will had noticed Nico, it seemed that Nico had not noticed Will; he couldn’t have been more appalled as he was ignored and he simply watched in despair as the italian jogged past him without a moment's pause. Not even a Hey, you’re the guy I made out with yesterday, right?

Will was used to having all his past hookups follow him like a sheep and sure, he hadn’t really hooked up with Nico but he was for some reason expecting some sort of reaction from him. Was he that forgettable?

He felt someone dig their elbow into his ribs and was about to shout What the fuck before he realised that Calypso was elbowing him.

“Calypso what!” He winced as he rubbed at his side, still in pain from Calypso’s pointy elbows.

“Do you think I should invite Leo to the dorm party?”

Will’s head perked up. “ Leo? Leo valdez?”

“Yes Leo Valdez, who else?” Calypso sighed.

“I thought you saw him making out with some guy at another party and then proceeded to pretend you never liked him in the first place-”

“- Which is true! I never liked Leo in the first place, he was just a friend!” Calypso desperately defended.

“Everytime someone says they’re just a friend and not they’re just my friend, you know that they’ve crushed on them.”

“Shut up.” Calypso whacked her bag over Will’s head, ignoring his shouts of protests.

Will’s hands instinctively went over his head, tucking his chin in to prevent himself from gaining any brain damage from Calypso. “ Hey, Hey! I work for you, little shit!”

“Exactly, I can fire you any second I want to!” Calypso boasted before remembering something. “ Wasn’t there a request that came in on Saturday? Something like fuck you?”

Will could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “ Uh, yeah, maybe. I don’t really remember.”

Calypso recognised that tone. That tone was the same tone used during the walk of shame, that tone meant things that she did not want in her shop. Turning her head only halfway, she gave Will a grimace, praying that it hadn’t happened again.

“William Andrew Solace, Please please tell me that you didn’t have sex with another client in my shop!”

“For once,” Will smirked. “ For once, I can actually say that I didn’t.”

Calypso sighed in relief, all the tension in her body simply oozing out all at once. Her shoulders dropped and the tense expression on her face was replaced by her regular small smile that she constantly wore, causing her to seem quite shy, which technically she was.

“You know, you seriously have some nerve Callie, hitting your employees like that. That could be harassment. What happened to the shy girl who could tell me the latin name for any plant out there?”

“Just because I don’t hook up with every good looking breathing thing, does not mean I’m shy.” She put her hands on her hips and took several confident steps while swaying her hips before hitting a hard chest with a thud and feeling the hard floor on her butt. Frustrated, she huffed and without even looking at the perpetrator, began to shout,

“Are you blind or stupid? Look where you’re going for fuck sake.” She ignored the offered hand and got up herself, brushing her scraped hands on her pants.

It was only when Will nudged her, not very discreetly may I add, that she noticed that it was Leo Valdez who was offering the outstretched hand and another very scary looking dude standing by Leo. However, something about him seemed familiar- from the shape of his body to his hair and in particular his jawline. She remembered seeing it somewhere.

Fuck, that was the guy Leo was making out with at that party. She realised.

Simultaneously, Will was thinking- Fuck, that was Nico di Angelo.

“Sorry Leo, Calypso,” Will turned to her, completely avoiding Nico. “ Do you have anything you’d like to say to Leo?”

Claypso gave a bitter look to Will before remebering that Leo fucking Valdez was standing infront of her and she had essentialy told him to fuck off. She had to fight the blush rising to the tip of her ears and could only manage to muster a small pipsqueak of ‘sorry’ while looking down at the floor and having her face curtained by her chestnut hair.

Unexpectedly, she felt a hand move the hair out of her face and slip and finger underneath her chin and tilt it up slightly.

“The least you could do while apologising is look at him,” Nico snarled, standing off to the side, watching as Leo brushed her hair out of the way. Leo turned his head to raise an eyebrow that meant Not cool dude before looking back at Calypso, his eyes warm and his smile generous.

“Sorry about him, he’s running low on social interaction juice. Are you okay there?”

Calypso thought she could feel herself gaping- the worst part was that her little shit of a friend Will pointed it out.

“Close your mouth Callie, you’ll get flies. It’s impolite to stare as well,” Will drawled, his eyes still glued away from Nico. Leo glanced at Calypso’s injured hands, the small scrapes and the little cuts across her palms. His frown was cute, with his eyebrows scrunching up and his eyes pooled with concern as he took her hands in his.

“Oh, Dios mio. I’m so sorry- will you forgive me if I clean these up for you?” Leo held her hands gently, as to not hurt her.

Will butted in before Calypso could respond. “Uh, no, that’s not necessary. I can help her from here!”

Nico snorted. “ Yeah, the med- student definitely knows how to clean up his cuts.”

Will growled in response, unappreciative of Nico’s sarcasm. Leo’s frown in concern only grew, the small displays of guilt visible across his face. “ Are you sure? It’s the least I could do after causing you to fall.”

“No it's fine-”

“-Will, calm down. Yes, I’ll go, but you also owe me,” Calypso confirmed. You know your worth, you know your worth, She chanted in her head.

“Well well, a person who knows what they want, of course, I am in your debt. After you.” Leo pointed to the pavement ahead as he left Will and Nico alone. Nico looked Will up and down before letting out a little snort and walking off, not before giving him a little shove with his shoulder as he walked past.

Will was officially outraged. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? First of all, he was barging into the medical college when he didn’t even attend it, then he was barging him to the floor without even apologising and then laughing about it!

Will turned around while still on the floor and yelled. “Who the fuck do you think you’re pushing dipshit?”

Will really thought he had the upper hand. He was taller, felt he was relatively stronger and his reflexes were okay. But when he saw Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Piper Mclean, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang and Annabeth Chase all crowd round Nico, he felt he was the most screwed person in the world. Luckily for him, no one except a girl with brown skin and confused expression turned around.

Will recognised her as Piper Mclean- she had been voted most beautiful girl in the entire Uni. It was rumoured for a while that she and Jason were dating but ever since Will spotted Piper blushing near a new girl, he highly doubted it. Piper raised an eyebrow and Will gave a sheepish smile as he tried to get up.

Piper scurried over, giving her friends a quick wave before running over to help Will. He accepted her hand, mainly because he was terrified that she may kill him if he didn’t.

“Did Nico knock you down here?” Piper asked as Will heaved himself up. Her voice was sweet, soft and had some element that convinced Will that he could trust her; however, at the same time, he didn’t want to snitch on Nico. He gave a blatant shrug and hoped for the best.

“Don’t worry, Nico always teases people he likes. Little idiot isn’t good at showing any emotion other than being horny or being an arsehole.”

“Are you sure those are emotions?”

“I take psychology so I sure as hell hope they are,” Piper confessed, laughing a bit. Will finally realised why everybody considered Piper so beautiful- she wasn’t just a pretty person, she was a nice person. She went out of her way to help others.

“I take medicine so I’m going to hope for the best that Nico doesn’t kill me. He avoids like I’m the plague then acts like he’s planning on murdering me in my sleep.”

“Wait.” Piper paused before turning to Will with a manic grin on her face. “Are you the guy from the flower shop who made the fuck you bouquet and slept with Nico?”

“We didn’t sleep together!”

But Piper wasn’t listening, she was calling Hazel over. Will watched as a girl with gorgeous dark skin that glowed in the sunlight and a tattoo over her left hand turned her head ever so slightly. Will realised why they called her Death’s sister.

She was undoubtedly beautiful but her silent aura was terrifying, like it was driving you to death itself. Large brown eyes that invited you into the darkness and hands that looked sculpted for leading one to their doom.

“Hey Hazelnut! This is the guy who stole Nico from Leo! And he made the Fuck you bouquet that Annabeth gave Percy!”

Will could feel his heart pounding as Hazel left the group and walked slowly to Piper and Will, her expression never changing. Suddenly, when she was close enough to throw a punch, she broke out into a childish grin and started squealing.

“So you’re the one who made Percy that bouquet!” Hazel grabbed Will’s hands and started shaking them excitedly. She giggled before giving them back to him.

“What does making Percy this bouquet have to do with any of this? I only knew Nico because we made out like once and then the fucker blanked me.”

“That’s my little brother you're talking about,” Hazel warned. Will instantly felt his eyes widened in horror before apologizing profusely; he remembered what Nico had told him about his sister and how the two of them had grown up. Hazel laughed before telling him that she was only joking and that he should let loose a bit.

“Was Nico with Leo when he ignored you? Leo Valdez? About yee tall, messy brown hair and ink on his overalls?”

“Yes…” Will nodded.

“Ahhh, that explains it. Those two have a complicated history. He was probably ignoring you because he and Leo might have gotten back together. Or maybe he just didn’t want Leo to know that he made out with you. Or…” Piper let out a grin that Will had no desire to learn the true meaning of.

“Maybe he was just using Leo to make you jealous,” Piper explained, very much used to the drama herself between Nico and Leo. If it wasn’t Percy and Annabeth, Nico and Leo were almost always in an argument.

“So…” Will was deadly silent for a second while his rage began to simmer. “ Are you telling me he cheated on that Leo kid with me?”

“ I really hope not,” Hazel grimaced, looking back at her brother.

“The little fucker,” Will muttered under his breath as he pushed past the two ladies and made his way towards the remaining group. He didn’t care that he was going to run into Percy Jackson, whom he’d had an underlying grudge with for as long as he’d been going to school, he was furious.

How dare he cheat with him. What was Will, some slut who ruined relationships? Hell no. Sure, he slept around but he didn’t go around getting into relationships and creating drama. One night stands were his protocol.

“You!” Will pointed at Nico viciously, his finger almost touching Nico’s nose. The rest of the group simply watched with amusement as Piper held back Jason, whispering who exactly Will was.

“You little cheating seething whore! What the fuck dude! You just make out with whoever you buy shit from?”

“I don't remember you having much of a problem with it.” Nico shrugged, only infuriating Will that much more. He was so tempted to just punch him then and there, in front of everybody including 6 of the most intimidating people he’d ever seen.

“I don't remember you mentioning you had a boyfriend before you jumped me,” Will spat. Nico seemed a little shocked at that comment, his lips shaping into a small ‘o’ before he let a sultry smirk spread across his face in a manner that showed he was relatively proud of himself, only pissing Will off so much more.

Why was the damned bastard smirking?

“Huh, what boyfriend?” Nico turned to Annabeth. “ Hey, Annie, do I have a boyfriend?”

Annabeth looked down at her watch for dramatic effect. “As of 4 months, you have been boyfriend free,” She started and only continued when she saw the smug look on Nico’s face. “That said, that does not mean you have been booty call free for said months.”

“What do you mean!” Nico cried.

“Oh shut it Nico, everyone knows that you and Leo have been playing each other’s booty call for ages now. Just end it and go out with the florist dude,” Frank scoffed.

“Or don’t! The florist dude sounds like a real ass!” Percy cut in, desperate to not let Nico go out with his lifelong nemesis, William Andrew Solace.

“Oh look, it’s Perseus,” Will taunted. Percy felt himself going red and the entire group went quiet. Will looked around, wondering why everyone was silent.

“Oh, you guys don’t know?” Will smirked, looking directly at Percy, the knowledge on the tip of his tongue. “ That’s what everybody called Percy in middle school, after we learnt the myth of P-”

The rest of the sentence was muffled as Will felt a hand wrap itself around his mouth. He looked up and saw the sea green eyes that read Shut the fuck up . Will, feeling nostalgia from this certain situation, smirked and stuck his tongue out, licking Percy’s hands, eliciting a yelp of disgust from Percy.

“Dude! Why do you always do that! Every fucking time I’m trying to shut you up, you pull shit like this!”

“You’re telling me that wasn’t the first time you tried to ‘shut him up’?” Nico and Annabeth both asked, hostility floating in their voices. Will gave a jolly smile at Percy who groaned and wiped his hands on Will’s shirt, muttering ‘gross’ under his breath. Will shoved Percy who proceeded to make a face back.

“How do you two know each other?” Frank asked, completely confused before Hazel went up on her tiptoes and began whispering in Frank's ear while he nodded along.

Nico, sick of Will’s attention not being focused on him butted in. “ Did you come all this way to flirt with Percy or what?”

Percy and Will both gagged and shivered, the idea of liking each other being just gross.

“I’m here because you son of a bitch, used me!” Will cried, flinging his arms out.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “I did?”

“Your boyfriend, booty call, whatever you wanna call them- was right there and I was just some pawn for you-”

“-If I wasn’t talking or paying any attention to you whatsoever, how on earth would I make them jealous?”

Will didn’t respond, his mind racking for answers, excuses, insults he could fling at the raven haired boy. He noticed he wasn’t wearing his lip ring that day.

“I think you should focus on the fact that Leo and I just so happened to be at the Medical College despite our majors being nothing related and we just so, by chance, crashed into you and your friend,” Nico hinted. He was a bit tired from how oblivious this blond guy was- hadn’t he made it obvious?

Will took a while to connect a few dots, but the problem was that he only connected the exact dots that Nico did not want him to connect.

“Wait, so Leo does like Callie? Is that why you guys are here?”

Nico wanted to fucking facepalm.

Saturday

The shop bell rang. Calypso was sitting at the counter with her apprentice, Meg. They were both chatting, something to do with the variation of a certain dandelion- Will wasn’t very sure.

He was sporting a daisy chain around his wrist that Meg had forced him to wear and a pink rose had been braided into his hair after much argument with Calypso that the thorns would hurt, in which she retorted that she’d obviously clip the bloody thorns.

When the bell rang, none of the three workers really snapped their heads up. But when the bell rang, and then rang and then rang again, they slowly lifted their heads from their conversation. Will, who had been leaning his elbows on the counter to talk to the two ladies, turned his head to see 8, very unwelcome people, walk into his shop.

Nico was standing there with all 7 of hids friends- Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason and Leo. All of whom were very much not welcome in any way whatsoever in this shop.

“What are you doing here?”

The friends all glanced at one another before a few sputters of laughter were spread out. Nico, who was wearing his lip ring again, walked forward and picked up a red rose, twirling the thorny flower in his two fingers, ignoring the small prick it made.

He noticed the blood trickling down his thumb and lifted the injury to his lips.

“Didn’t I tell you last time...” Nico asked, his voice teasing but also malicious, a small corner of his lips stained red. “That you’ll be seeing a lot more of us?”

[sleepyvib-es]

like the hercules merchandise in disney's hercules, and we're reaching the point when herc looks around at the room full of cheap imitations and feels empty.

Once again I agree with everything you've said. The hercules comparison jumped out at me b/c it's something I've thought about before with percy's retcon/mischaracterization in recent works. The brand/merchandise angle is one thing, as you've brilliantly pointed out. I also just find it quite ironic since percy had a brief arc and reflection moment in the ttc about how he didn't want to be like hercules. It's one of my favorite percy moments in the og books.

Percy was able to reflect and look at his childhood hero in a new light after being informed of how he used and abandoned Zoe Nightshade and decided right there and then that he did not want to become like him.

This was a declaration that meant so much to Zoe (as per her final words to percy) and Percy did a lot to show that he meant it. It was a huge part of the reason why we get that gut wrenching, heartfelt moment between her and percy before she dies.

We see him prove this over and over again throughout the series. Take the moment with him and the river naiad in botl for example. He literally made a deal to clean out the stables and gambled his and his friend's lives so that they'd all get out safely if he succeeded (actually he made this deal to free nico since his friends were already granted safe passage by hera, which is another character moment i love that is consequently forgotten with the retcon of nico and percy's friendship but let me not get too ahead of myself). Percy was on a very tight time limit and had virtually no other options other than to use water to clean the stables. Then we meet the river niaid. She knows exactly what percy is there for as heroes before him have tried it. She tells him he doesn't have her permission to use her river b/c it'll pollute her water and ruin her ecosystem. Percy notices that she was scared, that while she was bravely putting up a front, she also knew that if he decided to fight her for control of her waters he would most likely win. Percy then proceeds to tell her that she's right and that he won't fight her, which shocks her since again, heroes before him have tried it with no regards to her. He literally says "The thought made me sad. I felt like a bully, a son of Poseidon throwing his weight around."

The reason why we have the iconic "the water is within you" moment with percy (that ultimately we see again and again with percy's powers like when he blew up a volcano in that same book, when he recalls what she told him) is because percy showed her compassion. He didn't use his might, he didn't force her, he was simply given an alternative way to help his friends as a result of him being considerate.

He has more moments in this book alone where he proves that he isn't like hercules. He asks rachel to help them navigate the labyrinth, since she's clear sighted and their best shot at it. He knows that what he is asking of her is dangerous and reassures her that she did not have to help them if she didn't want to. He also reassures her that she's doing great and that he trusts her even after she feels guilty for leading them to the arena percy almost lost his life in (and again we get more great character moments with percy refusing to kill ethan and instead using his wits to outsmart the giant and get them all out safely.)

He also demonstrates this with his interactions with calypso. He feels so much empathy for her. She helps heal him and all she asked in returned, besides staying in her island, is that he plant her a garden in manhattan. Which he does. He could have left it at that but what does he do next? He asks for the gods to swear an oath to set her free. He doesn't use people, discard them or forgets about them until he "needs something from them" so it's so jarring to me that this is apparently the narrative we went with in regards to percy in hoo and tsats.

It fills me with so much rage. It's one thing to milk out the series when there are no more stories to tell but it's another thing entirely to drastically change the very same character you're trying to make a profit from. Percy's themes, characterization, his arcs, his interactions with other characters and how they fundamentally change him and influence his world view has been bastardized and thrown in the trash and like you said ... this all hurts the narrative. It harms not just him but other characters as well. The way rr takes hero moments from classic myths (like perseus, hercules, theseus, etc) and retells them in the context of his story is similarly done to percy's character in the worst possible way where we just hand out his significant moments to make others shine and take away from his. Which like yeah.. it shouldn't have to come down to that. Let his other characters be great and have their moments to shine without needing to messily tie it all back to percy and diminish him entirely.

Hi just wanted to say that your tags on my percy post are so spot on. You're so right, rr uses him as some kind of metric and it's frankly hurting his character so much. Also yes there's really no one else he can measure up with being momma's boy so that's really the only thing about percy that stays intact. Like you said, other characters can def shine on their own without it having to tie back to percy's achievements or low moments in the series but sadly rr has this capitalist need of name dropping percy in everything he writes about. Sorry for the yap session just wanted to say you're soo right <33

yes it's so capitalistic! i really feel like percy has become little more than a product to rick. one that can be sold and polished and reconfigured and resold. like the hercules merchandise in disney's hercules, and we're reaching the point when herc looks around at the room full of cheap imitations and feels empty. or like captain america when he's first being paraded around and all his natural heroism and humility is being hidden by something flimsy and marketable. but the difference between those characters and percy is that those obstacles were built into their stories for them to overcome, whereas percy is helplessly trapped in this story where the integrity of his character is being corroded by the ever-present push to appease the market.

and i might understand this more if it were disney hyperion who were pushing for this kind of exploitation, but given that rick essentially is to dh what sjm is to bloomsbury, in that he can do pretty much anything he wants, i'm not inclined to believe that to be the case. especially especially because this name dropping is not existing without narrative consequence, which you so brilliantly pointed out in your post.

it's as if percy's a loaf of bread that keeps being brought out for other characters to tear off and claim pieces of until all that's left of him is small and stale. and yeah there is still a good chunk of himself he has claim to, but percy's always been so much more than just a mama's boy yk. and it's not fair to the other characters to make them subsist on percy's shadow, even if they are getting something out of it, because it robs them of the possibility to create their own measure as individual characters.

[winryofresembool]

Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapter 6 (aka final ch)

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface. (Coffee shop AU!)

a/n: Woop, finally it's time to finish this fic! It took way longer than I anticipated but hey, I'm still pretty happy I did it.

Thank you once again everyone who has supported me both here and on ao3, and special thanks goes to @caldez for the headcanons because without you this fic wouldn't exist!

Once more, I hope you guys enjoy, and please leave a comment if you like this! And keep your eyes open for a twlitf update soon enough because I am continuing to work on it again tomorrow! I've missed that universe a lot.

Words: 1700+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: some slight *ahem* implications (just implications though)

previous chapter / AO3

...

A few weeks later, Leo was leaning against the familiar counter again while he was watching Calypso work. For once he didn’t interrupt her, instead quietly waiting for her to stop her work for the day so he could tell her what he had in his mind. Well, not entirely quietly; his fingers were tapping impatiently against the smooth surface, and eventually Calypso decided that she needed to ask him to stop because she could see some of the other customers giving him dirty looks. Not that she could call him a customer anymore; after the day when Leo had finally revealed his name and she had asked him out, they had been on several dates and things were going pretty well between them.

At first Calypso had been worried that she had been too fast in her decision to ask him out, but after a while she had realized that Leo’s company was exactly what she needed. Not because she /needed/ to have a boyfriend, but because his company made her happy. They could talk about anything and everything between the earth and sky, they had a lot of fun even when they were bickering about whether blueberry cake was better than strawberry cake - which wasn’t a feeling she had known in the past - and most importantly, they understood each other. Both were loners who had some bad experiences with people who were important to them and both were trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. And despite the mischievous surface, Calypso already knew that Leo was someone she could trust to keep his word. She could see it from for example the way he interacted with his work ‘family’ (Calypso had caught Leo calling Georgie his sister the other day when she had quickly dropped by at the garage), how dedicated he was in achieving his goals and how he still showed up at the coffee shop almost every day despite being busy.

“Leonidas,” Calypso had managed to make Leo confess his full first name and now she used it every time she wanted to chastise him. “You may be my boyfriend now…” The b-word made Leo grin widely. “... But I’m still going to have to ask you to try to be quieter because some of our customers don’t like the drumming.”

“Sunshine, not the Leonidas! That’s so cruel,” Leo fake complained. “I was just deep in my thoughts and you know I can’t help it with my random movements while I’m thinking…”

“Fine, then,” Calypso gave in. “What were you thinking?”

“How shiny your hair looks in this light…” Leo said with a low voice.

“Leo… please leave that talk to my off hours,” Calypso scolded him but couldn’t help but blush a bit.

“Okay, Coffee Princess,” he said but suddenly got more serious. “Listen, I do have some actual news for you. I just don’t want to tell it right now that you’re working.”

Calypso checked the clock. “Then you’re going to have to wait maybe 15 more minutes because I still need to take care of a few things once we have closed.”

“No problem. I can wait because Patience is my middle name,” Leo claimed.

“Leonidas Patience Valdez?” Calypso eyed him suspiciously. “Soon you’ll tell me that actually your name is Theophrastus Bombastus or something like that.”

That gave Leo a new idea. “Ooh, should we start a new game? Guess my middle name?” he asked enthusiastically.

“No,” Calypso said immediately. “I think we’ve had enough name games for a while. But maybe some other time.” Her mouth twitched a bit as she said that.

“Oh, alright,” Leo hid his disappointment quickly. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be waiting for you outside once you’re done.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And hey, just to be clear: I wouldn’t care even if your name really was Bad Boy Supreme. You’re still my weird but pretty great boyfriend.” Calypso smiled at him before he raised from his spot and waved her a goodbye.

... A bit later, Calypso joined Leo by a car he had recently obtained. It wasn’t the newest or fanciest but Leo had worked hard to make it function and even Jo had admitted he had done a great job with it. After getting the car Leo had taken a habit to drop Calypso to her apartment after her workshift so they had some extra time to talk - and more - which in Calypso’s opinion was a pretty sweet gesture, even if the make out sessions inside the small car sometimes got a little uncomfortable.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” Calypso asked when she was fastening her seatbelt.

“What… what would you say about working at Waystation?” Leo wanted to know, looking at the road instead of her.

“Huh? Cars aren’t exactly my area of expertise,” Calypso noted, wondering where he was going with his question.

“No, I don’t mean the car side,” he responded, shaking his head a little. “You do know that Emmie has a flower shop in the building as well, right? The thing is, she is getting closer to her retirement and an extra hand wouldn’t hurt her. I know you like gardening, and who knows, you might learn a thing or two from her. She knows a /lot/, trust me. You’ve told me you don’t really like it at the coffee shop so when I heard her talking about hiring someone to Jo… I was like, I gotta let Calie know about this.”

“So… did you already tell her I could be interested?” Calypso asked.

“No, because I didn’t know how you would feel about it. I think it’s better if you contact her personally; Emmie isn’t the kind of person who hires someone just because she happens to be her employee’s girlfriend,” Leo stated, and based on the earlier stories Calypso had heard of her, she could easily imagine that he was right.

“Yeah. That makes sense.” Calypso nodded. “I wouldn’t want to be hired for that reason anyway.”

“You already have a lot of experience in customer service and you’re interested in flowers and stuff so I feel like you could have a good chance,” Leo said, glancing at her briefly. “I mean… if you want to, of course! I don’t know for sure…”

“I’d love to!” Calypso exclaimed before Leo had time to finish his sentence. “At this point anything beats making a thousand cups of coffee per day. And, well, I suppose getting to see a certain someone during the breaks would be an added bonus,” she added sneakily. “I will make sure to contact her soon. Thanks for letting me know!”

“You’re welcome,” Leo replied. “I’ll have my thumbs up for you, babe.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t quite all, though,” Leo said after a while. “I’ve told you about my friend Piper, right? Well, she sings in a band and she knows a lot of people who play and study music as well… They have a gig nearby tomorrow evening and as it happens, I’m not working then so if you happen to have time… would you like to go and see them? And maybe we can meet with Piper and the others afterwards? I just thought, you once said you had enjoyed singing and playing but you had to stop… Well, maybe this could be your chance to get reacquainted with music. She could probably give you some tips too.”

“Do you think she would be OK with it? I mean, helping me out?” Calypso inquired.

“Oh, for sure!” Leo reassured her. “To be honest, she has been quite curious about you ever since I told her I have a girlfriend - it’s almost like she doesn’t actually believe I have one - so I bet she’d be excited to meet you.”

“Um, there’s one small thing, though…” Calypso noted. “You know Reyna, my coworker? From what I’ve gathered, she used to have a major crush on a guy named Jason, who coincidentally is now dating a girl named Piper. And I’m quite sure we are talking about the same Piper now because it’s not that common a name. Maybe I should ask Reyna first how she feels about me hanging out with her before I promise anything...”

“Ouch… Yeah, maybe you should. I don’t wanna cause issues between you and your friend.” Leo agreed.

“But hey, thanks for asking.” Calypso briefly lowered her left hand on Leo’s right one that was resting on the gear stick. “I’d like to meet your friends at some point, for sure. And I’ve never been to a concert so I would definitely love to see one!”

“You’ve never been to a concert?” Leo asked, looking surprised.

“No,” Calypso shrugged. “That was another one of those things that was a waste of time according to my father. But hey, there’s no one to stop me now!”

“That’s my girl. And I can promise that if you decide to go, you would have a decent company too.” Leo grinned at her.

“Hmmm… I still need to be convinced about that…” Calypso teased him. She wondered when she had become someone who flirts and jokes but she assumed that was the effect of the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’.

“Oh, I will convince you, alright,” Leo promised. Calypso couldn’t help but blush when she thought about the implications behind his words.

“OK, as long as we make it to my place first.”

A comfortable silence fell between the couple as Calypso took in everything they had just discussed. The more she thought about it, the more clearly she saw what she wanted to do with her future. She’d save money at a place that she was quite positive she would prefer over the coffee shop, hopefully find a way to get reacquainted with music - maybe with Piper’s help, maybe some other way - and eventually start studying whatever she felt passionate about. Maybe certain things would take a while to happen, but she was on the right path, and why would she have to rush anywhere when she had people like Leo by her side?

[border-spam]

Leech Lord AU

Troy Calypso / Troy DeLeon / God King Calypso / Father Troy (differences from canon)

List of character traits and  world-building facets for this character within my AU that differ from / are of more importance than in canon. One of these coming for Tyreen, and OC shortly. Same AU as all other twins content I’ve written. TW: Self harm, mental illness, addiction.

Traits: ✓ Positive x Negative:

✓x Dangerously trusting.

Despite the isolation of his childhood and constant warning from his father regarding the outside world, Troy is incredibly fast to respond to any form of positive reinforcement or care. Being starved of both for most of his life causes him to desperately seek out meaningful relationships, without having the skill or understanding of how to initiate and maintain them, or the experience to know if he is being manipulated.

✓ Extremely intelligent, if not highly learned.

Troy absorbs information at a frightening speed and would be considered a mathematical savant if he had entered any kind of education. The COV’s meteoric rise is linked to how quickly he began to work the numbers and statistics needed to climb to social dominance in a bustling media.

✓ Natural alignment does not match his role.

Troy’s undamaged self is a vulnerable, gentle hearted man who would find more happiness in genuine thanks from someone he knew meant it, than he would from the adoration of the billions of followers who worship his persona.

✓ Highly skilled at mimicry.

Troy is able to ingest media and dissect social interactions quickly and concisely, then integrate them into his persona and actions near instantly. He views almost all social interaction as a kind of step by step game there are specific rules to, and so most people who have had direct contact with him have likely never had a genuine conversation with Troy. Just the God King Persona.

x Easily controlled.

Troy’s yearning for validation and praise from someone he sees as an authority / source of love makes him extremely easy to manipulate. Without the ego and self confidence to stand fast against this, or the physical ability to leave the relationship he’s being used in, he will continue to waste more and more of himself away, for less and less thanks over time. 

x Refusal to accept the reality of his situation. 

Troy doesn’t have the strength or means of escape needed to allow himself to accept and deal with the truth of the snare he is trapped in, so continues to convince himself daily that Tyreen has his best interests at heart and the followers of the Twin Gods love HIM, not the vile persona he hides behind to avoid facing the reality of his toxic existence. 

x  Aggressively secretive towards anything he considers genuinely personal. 

Troy has spent most of his life feeling like who he really is is a monstrous freak no one can stand to be around, so almost never speaks truly about his interests or personality to others. Two people who think they have a speaking terms relationship with the God King would be disturbed once they compared what they thought his personality was with each other and found it to be completely different, realising he’d subtly mimicked their own interests and social cues when interacting with them as a way of creating a bond. The people in the past who Troy had been genuine and himself around have all left him. He no longer makes that mistake.

x Dangerous levels of self hatred and physically destructive behaviors.

Troy’s subconscious is completely aware that both the persona he vicariously lives through and the position he rules in as God King are created from lies and in no way reflect his actual wants or needs. He loathes himself both physically and mentally, viewing his inability to truly hide the damage to his body The Leech causes, and his weakness in continuing on with this charade instead of choosing death, as inexcusable failures he will never redeem himself from. He is self destructive socially in his aggression towards others and use of people to slake his physical lusts ( when what he truly craves is a connection and to be genuinely cared about ), and physically in his reliance on alcohol and drugs to deal with his intrusive thoughts and inability to sleep. As time goes on within the COV eras, the damage under his bracer worsens through self infliction. It’s a way to focus his destructive hatred of himself on the part of his body he see’s as the epitome of his weakness, without anyone else knowing.

Backstory:

Bl3 canonical backstory till landing on Pandora where the AU begins, with additional points of:

Not expected to survive birth and marked as Non Viable on Leda’s med scans, Tyreen’s continuous (and unaware) low energy feeding allowed him to live, albeit exceptionally weakly. Spent most of his childhood bed-bound.

Painfully aware of the burden he was on his family during this period.

Held onto some keepsakes from home, has the coat his father gave him hidden in his ship quarters, and a photo of Leda and the twins.

Misses Leda desperately, has not had any freely given care or love since she was last alive. Genuinely believes she would hate everything he is now, and it eats him inside.

At no point has wanted what Tyreen wants, but is subconsciously aware at all times that his only choice is to convince himself that the COV and worship of billions is something he craves too, or die. 

Personal: 

Likes: 

Machines.

Being spoken to directly and respectfully without needing to intimidate with title or persona.

Genuine concern towards him.

Animals, though he knows little about them.

Almost all music genres.

Quiet time alone by choice, preferably in his quarters.

Being thanked or appreciated in any way.

His intelligence being noted.

Eagerness to communicate with him, or ask for his opinion on matters of importance.

Debating opinion on any topic, as long as the other person remains respectful.

Good coffee, fresh herbs, woody/spiced/citrus scents.

Going down 4am echonet holes and realising it’s 9 in the morning and he now knows how to make a basket out of Skag sinew but hasn’t slept in over 24 hours.

The quiet whispers in the back of his mind that tell him one day, everything will be ok, and he just needs to keep going.

Dislikes:

x Public displays of affection around him.

Troy is desperately, agonisingly lonely despite having unlimited access to physical contact with followers eager to throw their bodies at him nightly. 

x Dismissal or put downs towards his ego. 

He can tolerate these to a level in private, but will not do so when done publicly or in front of people who’s respect he values.

x Touching.

While he is open to being touched, Troy has a noticeable aversion to touching others, even so much as rarely making contact with Tyreen with his hand. A combination of intense loneliness, self disgust, and barely controlled aggression means he strongly dislikes initiating contact with others, and doesn’t feel comfortable doing it to those he is close with. If God King Calypso lays his hand on you, it generally means you are about to die. 

x Any mentions of his original surname or middle name by Tyreen. 

He feels in a way that she stole them from him, and reacts extremely poorly to hearing them from her. Regardless of her tone, it always feels like an insult

Physical differences to canon:

The damage to Troy’s right side is severe and has affected most of his internal organs, stunting their functionality.

His entire right shoulder blade, all of his lymph nodes and musculature, and half of his collarbone on that side were completely consumed by Tyreen in utero. Under the bracer is a bruised, delicate ribcage leading up to the remains of his collarbone, with nothing to protect it from damage bar paper thin skin and scarring. He’s unable to build any muscle to pad the area as so much was lost in development.

Body heavily modded with piercings and tattoos.

Split mouth maw mod as well as elongated prehensile tongue. Subdermals on either side of his clavicle and the grooves of his hips, both nipples pierced

Siren markings curve down his left thigh to the sole of his foot.

Right leg has a full greyscale piece of a skeleton lying in repose on a bed of lilies that grow through its skull and ribs, with hands clasped in prayer. Runs from his thigh to ankle.

Prosthetics are noticeably more predatory.

Robotic hand is clawed, and spinal implant shifts its plating with his moods. Capable of raising into a black arch of spines that pulses red light to match his markings once angered, or at will to threaten.

Body build is highly physically developed while also betraying his terrible health.

Troy has never recovered from the damage to his self confidence that being mocked as “A giant, sickly freak” by the first other men he’d ever met caused him. He’s spent years trying to make himself look as strong and intimidating as possible, despite the strain of building muscle onto a body barely able to store fat and with compromised organ quality. 

He’s visually both noticeably muscular, and extremely frail by late COV, and would have a beautifully sculpted physique if it wasn’t coupled with jutting bones and bruised skin.

Asks are open! Any regarding AU will prob get priority for now as I work to flesh it as we go.

[sakuraalexia]

Some Maya headcanons of mine

Since I had nothing to do and I wanted to keep track of my headcanons and things for my own stories, here’s a rather long list of headcanons and small things of mine about Maya, and how I like to write her. This is personal interpretation, but do feel free to add up ir take inspiration from them, I don’t mind.

She lived in the monastery with the monks and before running away then returning from Pandora to Athenas, she didn’t know much of how her planet looked at all, because she had been confined in the abbey all the time and not allowed out.

The Order took her away from her parents when she was still a little baby, and her parents were killed. However she had never been directly told what happened to them, she just assumed they were dead after she discovered what the true face of the Order was about.

She thought of Brother Sophis as a surrogate father when she was younger, as he was her main handler and he was the one interacting with her the most. However it was all a facade from him to get her trust.

Always Brother Sophis had a rather violent temper, and when Maya got older and started showing powers, he would take his anger up on her disguising it as training, purposefully beating her up whenever he felt like it, or when she disobeyed him. He had claimed those as training to boost Maya’s “pain tolerance”, they became more rare as Maya grew up, as he was afraid she’d find out and rebel against him.

Because of those sorts of “trainings” Maya has a rather large number of scars littering her body, they are however covered from her clothing most of the time, or hidden under her Siren markings. She absolutely hates to show them to anybody, as she is deeply ashamed by them, even though she knows it wasn’t her fault for believing in Sophis’ words as a young and naive child.

She despises the type of training she was brought upon that, when she meets Ava, she is the sole responsible to train her, making sure to never push nor hurt her in any way, as she doesn’t want her to fall victim of the Order like she had been.

She’s incredibly protective of Ava whenever other monks are around her, even though she knows not all of them are bad, she doesn’t trust them after what they did to her in her younger years.

Maya didn’t know a lot of things when she came to Pandora, that’s because she was never allowed to do them herself before, nor she had ever been taught such things. Such as driving a car or making herself a proper meal.

About driving, she is a rather bad driver, she had to learn mostly from Axton and Zer0, and she was surprised that even Gaige knew something about the topic and she didn’t, as her father had started giving her lessons before she had to run away from Eden 5. So she lets the boys drive most of the time, she does it only if she can’t help it.

She is an awful drinker, she can’t hold alcohol almost at all, the really mild stuff of the abbey didn’t help in raising her tolerance. She becomes a giggly mess before inevitably ending up sick.

Maya doesn’t know how to express feelings very well, as the Order always hindered her ability to do so, they had told her that as a Siren she didn’t need useless emotions, and that she needed to control them if she wanted to control her powers. 

She was also a complete stranger to things such as friendship and displays of affection, both given and received, and her being a Siren also didn’t help, as it made her much more wary of other people. She used to not like being touched, and even flinch away entirely at first, but she eventually learned to trust her fellow Vault Hunters and adjusted, ending up even craving friendly contact at times. She won’t admit it, but she knows how touch-starved she truly is.

Maya didn’t know what music outside of sacred chants was, it was Gaige that made her listen to some at first, and she became fond of it. However, she discovered herself to be a pretty good singer, as she has a very nice voice, to which Krieg is particularly a fan of, the others too, but him the most.

On top of it, she can play the piano, she learned at the abbey, but she didn’t really have a reason to play it until she met the rest. They’d make her listen to songs for her to redo on the piano of Moxxi’s bar, as she only knows sacred music, and occasionally having her sing or even sing all together. 

Maya loves reading not only because she is a curious person, but also because it was pretty much her only past time in the abbey and it stuck to her.

She is not interested in the idea of romance nor even in sexual things, living in an abbey doesn’t give you a chance to experience much of either thing, she was pretty much forbidden to even mention them from Brother Sophis. So, by the end of it, she is no more interested in either thing, she knows what they are yet she very much prefers sharing a hug with a friend than anything else.

She’s lowkey really proud of her powers, even if they brought her a lot of problems. However she prefers to not show off much and would rather act like a normal person, since she hasn’t really had occasion to be nor to be treated as such before coming to Pandora.

She not only can use her powers of Siren, but she has also been trained to fight hand to hand. And when Axton challenges to a duel, mocking her, he ends up with his face on the ground eating dust, while the rest laughed at his misery.

He did however teach her how to swim, another thing the monks didn’t teach her, after he had pushed her into the waters in the rivers of the Highlands as a joke, and she almost drowned because of it. He taught her not only because it would be useful, but also because he felt guilty about it.

Maya had no healing powers when she was on Athenas, they had manifested after a mission had gone particularly awry, even though they got out of it alive and successful, but badly hurt. They showed up out of Maya’s own fear to lose her only friends.

She however can’t use such powers on herself to heal her own wounds, she has to do so the normal way.

She hates using Eridium too, after seeing what it had done to Angel, and after seeing Lilith almost falling victim to it too, she swore to not use it unless it was strictly necessary.

Eridium also used to hurt her at the beginning, unlike Lilith, she’d get sick if she tried to use it, ending up with a raging fever, aches and nausea for days. Until her body either managed to fully absorb the substance or it would manage to throw it back out. With time and a lot of attempts, her body eventually adjusted and she no more has these effects, however, absorbing it still causes her to feel some pain and aches for a little still today.

Maya despises the Children of the Vault, and cults in general, as one that has been worshiped for the wrong reasons almost her entire life, she knows better than anyone that such things are only a plain lie.

But she despises the Calypsos’ cult the most, as the leaders only give Sirens a bad name for being the crazy murderers they are, and making their race look like nothing else but that.

Always on the topic of cults and followers, she had scolded Lilith back then when she had her own little thing, and then much later on Amara too, for taking pride in it. And made them aware of the dangers that lurk beneath the adoration of other people, so they may not fall into a trap like her.

Having had no friends nor people that truly loved her before, Maya is very afraid of losing them, which is why she tends to ignore her own wounds to check the others and make sure they are okay first.

Maya is very secretive and also rather ashamed of her past, that she hadn’t told anyone much of it. She’d rather take other people’s problems on her shoulders than share her own, she only does if it becomes too much for her to handle alone, only in that case she’d seek out someone for comfort.

[bleep-bloop-boo]

@purple-dinosaur17

HALF MY TAGS DISAPPEARED i dont trust those tags anymore.... but basicallyyyy group dynamics oml. obviously in big groups, youre not gonna know everyone. ive been friends with people since 7th grade (im going to 11th in 8 days) and i havent talked to them one-on-one until this year. big friendgroups work SO different than normal friendships or even trios/quads AND I CAN WRITE AN ENTIRE ESSAY ON THIS AND HOW IT COULD APPLY TO HoO buttt thats a tangent i will not go on rnn (unless ofc you wanted-)

i would focus House of Hades on the new group dynamic and how its changed without the oldest two. whos going to lead now?? jason?? the practically 15 year old?? (he turned 16 like the day they fell, hes not 16, hes considered 15) he doesnt even have his full memories back! nico?? he has the most experience with being a demigod?? coach hedge stepping up?? how do they grapple with the loss of such big figures!! and id keep this going in blood of olympus because dude, percabeth is too traumatized to function after tarturus, let alone lead-

AND I WOULD FOCUS MORE ON FRANK AND HAZEL OML theyre so slept on?? aND THEIR TRAUMA?? hazel has MAJOR abandonment and trust issues. also roaming the fields of asphodel?? i feel like it would affect her a tad bit... AND FRANK- OH MY GOD broski lost his entire family in the last book and lost any sense of familiartity or normal he ever had in the time span. of one year. hes not even in the same country anymore!! and he has to naivagte it all himself?? AND NO ONE MENTIOSN THAT HES AN ORPHAN?? hes so repressed and he needs to adress his emotions.

i would love to have frank now turn to jason as his mentor without annabeth there and learn to lead from jason (which would also explain him becoming praetor) and even more!! i want him to realize that jason isnt some cold distant myth or legend like he was led to believe his entire stay at camp jupiter. jason was just a confused 16 year old...

AND LEO AND NICO INTERACTIONS OH PLEASE i wouldnt have them interact until the second half of the book and keep leo picking on nico to fit in but then i want just a moment of recognition. i want them to see how similar they are. i want them to see themselves in each other. i want a quiet understanding. and they wouldnt trauma dump or anything, thats not who they are but theyd become close. small silent gestures. maybe standing up for each other during a random argument and then just leaving and everyone else is shocked cuz they never realized they were close?? but more leo and nico friendship please

AND JASPER. like i really enjoy that they broke up. i think it makes sense and it really does advance their characters. ToA jason was always my favorite, hes so real and representative of so many people ik and i have a whole other essay on that but ever after the general fandom decided to rally behind valgrace, many people have wrote that essay for me (and im so happy that people finally get jasons character!!) but oh gosh, i would love to focus more on jasper and their dynamic and relationship

and obviously (like majority of the fandom) i would have never sent leo to ogygia i cant remember if this was HoH or BoO but oh well lets go with it maybe if he does end up there, his and calypsos relationship is purely platonic and they bond over their loneliness but i really dont see romantic aspects here. I WOULD ALSO CHANGE HOW CALYPSO WAS WRITTEN?? like she was painted so horribly in ToA and like i think i get why he tried to write her liek that?? but he did not do it well.... and in general i think that leo should get some help and improve his self-worth before getting into any relationship. if he doesnt improve his self esteem, any relationship he has with any person will turn toxic.

and i have so many more ideas but just for HoH i think these are the main points (without adressing the earlier changes i would make)- and its also rather long of a yap-

anyways... im sure youre real happy you asked juliett LOLOL

never forgetting the time someone said "the seven are not a found family, they are parents that should've been divorced long ago but are staying together for the kids and it's not going well", not only hillarious but also true, those guys are not eachother's bffs and it SHOWS