#papadopolous

[punkchestnuts]

the product of immense work, part 2, chapter 1

Leon doesn’t understand her. After that moment in the pantry, he thought he won’t need the stupid plan of his. He thought that it was a sign that Hilal was finally softening up to him, and maybe, just maybe, they could be friends. But after that day, she went back to her cold hardy self, avoiding him and keeping it ‘professional’.

She also makes sure to make herself busy. She’d annotate readings, transcribe interviews, revising papers, and doing other tasks she can help with.

It didn’t help that Leon had his own workload to complete. Classes were picking up, and since he’s one of those teachers who give essay questions during exams and tests, he’s been reading and annotating as well.

He finally gets to have his plan in motion though. Since he knows that some of the faculty gives Hilal some tasks of their own, he decides to give her a few himself. He manages to get her email address from Carrie and writes to her that he needs help in photocopying a reading material for his students.

He asks for fifteen copies then waits an hour and tells her he actually needs ten more. He tells her a few minutes later than he needed fifteen more.

She walks into the faculty room and walks to his cubicle with purpose. Her expression was tense, but he could only think how cute she looks angry.

“Can I just confirm that you need forty copies in total?” she asks, raising her brow as if to challenge him to change the number.

“Yes, forty copies,” he says with a smile. “Also, after that, if you’re not doing anything important, can I ask you to return these books in the library?” He produces a short stack of books from the corner of his desk. “Today’s the due date and I don’t have the time to do it since I’ve got back-to-back classes later.”

She crosses her arms and looks at him suspiciously but takes the books anyway.

“Forty copies,” she says in finality.

“Forty copies.”

She leaves in a huff, her head scarf flowing behind her.

He smiles at the prospect of having her go to the library only to find out he only borrowed those books yesterday. Too bad he won’t be able to see her face when she comes back to the office.

It’s evil, he knows, but he really wants to see how this plays out.

This goes on for a few days. He makes her do these menial tasks like preparing a presentation for him, borrowing books from the library, scanning documents, and even getting her to proctor for an exam.

She takes all these with no complaints despite freely showing him her displeasure in whatever this is. Also, despite everything, she completes the tasks in high quality.

He’s surprised one day when she’s the one who approaches him first. He’s checking some papers in his cubicle when she knocks softly on one of the wall panels.

“Hilal?” he greets, taking his reading glasses off. He’s almost afraid she’s there to reprimand him for the tasks he’s been giving her. He recently made her look through the administrative files for Kalde’s older syllabi from the previous years. (“All of the old syllabi?” she asked through gritted teeth. “Yes, if that isn’t too much.”)

“It’s not my place,” she starts. “But I noticed something and I just had to point it out.”

“Sure, what is it?” Leon asks, already pulling a chair for her. She doesn’t even notice the chair, but she does place a few papers on his desk. It’s the syllabi he’s asking for.

“There’s a part in every syllabus that discusses historiographies all over the world,” she says, pointing towards each section in the syllabus containing the reading material and expected learning outcomes. “There’s a discussion here on Islamic historiography,” she continues. “And as you can see, Professor Kalde has been using one source consistently through the years.”

Leon reads the citation and frowns. “It’s pretty outdated, isn’t it?”

“Very,” Hilal agrees firmly. “I’ve come across this source before and it’s already been debunked. There has been better resources and introduction materials for Islamic historiographies and I don’t know if it’s a deliberate choice to include this here, or if it’s just a product of lazy research, but it’s bad either way.” She huffs as Leon studies the material again.

“That’s epistemically violent,” she says, crossing her arms.

He looks up from the material and smiles. “Brunner, Alcoff, or Garbe?”

“All three plus Galvan-Alvarez,” she says it as if it should be an obvious fact. “Since you’re revising his syllabus anyway, I thought to point this out.”

“Why? Because I’m a Greek cisgendered male and therefore you don’t trust me to give justice to your people?” he teases, leaning against his chair.

She frowns at him, her big blue eyes starting to stare him down. “I’m not playing any cards here.”

He lets it go. “I would have noticed it, just so you know,” he says. “You might say that we deal with outdated sources in philosophy, but I’m mindful of the fact that this is a historiography course. And this,” he points to Kalde’s syllabus. “Is epistemically violent, to use that same term, to the Islam community.”

She seems to relax at that.

“Thanks for pointing it out anyway, Hilal,” he says. “But I do admit, what I know of Islamic theory of history and philosophy is limited. And since you’re well-versed in this, I’d appreciate it if you could send me a list of sources I can read through.”

“Because you’re a white cisgendered male who specializes in Greek and Classical philosophy,” she continues.

Leon doesn’t even try to argue, but he does smile. “Unfortunately, yes. And that is why I’m humbly asking you to help this oppressor know better.”

She rolls her eyes and smiles. “I already have a list,” she says. “I’ll email them to you. Let me know if you have any trouble finding copies, and I’ll gladly lend mine to you.”

“So kind, Hilal.”

Hilal rolls her eyes again and gathers the syllabi copies. “Do you still need these or should I continue doing whatever it is you’re making me do?”

Leon shrugs. “I’ll just take the most recent syllabus and you can return the rest.”

She takes a deep breath, shuffles through the papers she has and slams the requested document on his table. “Alright then, glad to be of help.”

He watches her walk out of the cubicle, loving the familiar sight of her head scarf catching up with her angry gait.

Someone pokes their head out from one of the adjacent wall panels. He looks up to see his coworker, Lucy, an English woman who specialized in feminist history and gender studies. She also loves to assist (see: interfere) in his non-existent love life as if he didn’t get enough of that from his mother. She was also their department chair, and the reason why he was taking on Kalde’s classes for the next semester in the first place.

“Hello?” he greets.

“You know, you create this weird energy whenever you two are at it like that.” She places her arms on top of the panel and leans her chin against them.

“I don’t understand the majority of what you just said,” he says.

“Do you really want me to explain it to you?” she asks, smiling teasingly.

“Stop it, Luce. You’re reading into it too much, maybe you should stop consulting your crystals for a moment.“

She rolls her eyes but walks into his cubicle instead. “Leonidas,” she says it the same way a mother is ready to begin lecturing a child. She leans against his desk and smiles with her teeth. “I’m not reading into it too much, my dear.  It just so happens that you’re just easy to read. And Hilal too. Everyone’s noticed how you two act together, and it’s both cute and frustrating at the same time.”

“And how exactly do we act together?”

She smiles even wider. “Like children, really.”

He blinks and she laughs at his expression. “Like I said, it’s cute but it’s frustrating. It’s literally like watching children you know who like each other but they don’t know it themselves.”

“’Like each other’? Lucy, she barely tolerates me. And we’re…friends?”

She sighs fondly. “So cute, but so frustrating. I would love to spell it out for you, darling but you’re smarter than that.” She pats his cheek and has the audacity to squeeze. He swats her hand away.

“When will you stop doing that?”

“Don’t forget, dear, I’ve literally seen you as the fresh grad that you were. You’re always a child in my eyes.”

She ruffles his hair and walks back to her own space.

Leon can only huff in frustration before turning back to his own work.

He receives a notification from his phone and sees that Hilal has already sent him the list. He clicks at it immediately.

Professor,

Attached to this email is the list containing, in my opinion, the best resources for the Islamic historiography portion. As I have said earlier, please let me know if you have any difficulty finding copies.

Regards, Hilal

Why does she write to him like this? It’s frustrating but he can’t help but smile.

…

[incorrect-riordanverse]

Meg: can you at least try to see it from my perspective?

Lester: *gets down on one knee*

[moodyseal]

Apollo choosing to sing to explain what happened to Jason was so out of pocket I can't stop thinking about it 💀 I mean imagine you're a young Roman demigod standing in the crowd wishing to know how your ex praetor died so you can mourn and have some closure and some random guy just starts rapping about him out of nowhere

[mothmanavenue]

// The Trials of Apollo

Meg McCaffrey & Apollo, a study in platonic love

[money-and-dandellions]

Apollo (and Lester) believes that everything he touches is meant to rot away

just because he touched it

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

I have a headcanon that post-TOA whenever Meg needs something she prays to "Lester Papadopolous" and every single time. Apollo picks up.

[goblinwithartsupplies]

PJO AU

Ancient history professor Sally Jackson

The reason Poseidon fell in love with Sally in canon wasn’t very clear she had no connection to any of Poseidon’s domains. Where other mortal parents have some connection to the domains of the gods that carry favor with, Annabeth’s father was a professor, Piper’s father was handsome, and he was object of desire, Leo’s mother was a mechanic Frank’s mother, who was a soldier, wills mother was a musician, so why does Sally whose only connection to the ocean other is the vacation house in Montauk and she doesn’t have any connection to his Earthshaker title.

So in this AU Sally is a researcher in Mycenaean mythology and she didn’t have Percy with the Hellenic Poseidon but his Mycenaean form.

Disclaimer The Mycenaean name for Poseidon, the is not entirely clear as the Mycenaean civilization is older than then the Ancient Greece we are familiar with and not a lot of the myths survived the Bronze Age collapse. Some scholars believe that the Mycenaean name for Poseidon was "Potinues," which appears on inscriptions found at the Palace of Pylos in southern Greece. Other possible Mycenaean names for Poseidon include "Posedaon" or "Poseidaon" based on the later Greek name for the god. So I’m going to use Pontiues as that is different enough from Poseidon to be to distinguish the two.

Sally wrote her dissertation for her doctorate in history and mythology about the differences between the Hellenized Greek Gods and the older Mycenaean Gods and how the Mycenaean culture focuses mostly on chthonic gods meaning gods relating to the earth and underworld. Pontiues’ earth shaker title makes him a chthonic god and because of this Pontiues was the chief deity and king of the gods. Because Zeus is a sky god the Mycenaean mythology didn’t really view Zeus as an important god. Pontiues is still the god of the sea but he has more emphasis on his earth shaker title and lord of earthquakes. After the gods were Hellenized during the Greek dark ages where ther are little records Zeus was somehow supplanted as king of the Gods. When Pontiues was Hellenized into Poseidon he became more of an ocean god and his role of lord of earthquakes is greatly diminished.

Zeus doesn’t like to be reminded that he wasn’t always king. He forbids the gods from taking their Mycenaean forms. Pontiues naturally hates this.

When Sally publicly published her dissertation it caught the eye of Poseidon or rather Pontiues who was happy to finally have someone respect and acknowledge his time as the king of the gods.

Sally basically professionally insulted Zeus and Pontiues was immediately smitten.

Rather than meeting Sally at the beach in Montauk Pontiues attended some of Sally’s lectures at Columbia University

Pontiues is impressed by Sally’s knowledge of Mycenaean history and culture

Pontiues is even more impressed when Sally confronts him about being a god

Pontiues had Percy two months (as per canon because Rick can’t count) later and left Sally with a celestial bronze sword and instructions to pretend Percy is a son of Poseidon

This is why she delayed sending Percy to camp for so long.

Sally never really ended her relationship with Pontiues. She built a small shrine to Pontiues in her apartment (no smelly Gabe she figured out how to hide Percy’s smell by herself) and she raises Percy with full knowledge of his father’s divinity

Percy’s eyes are never calm sea green. They are perpetually raging seas.

Percy has shark teeth. Not in the literal sense but in the sense that he is always growing more teeth.

Sometimes when Percy has a strong emotion the ground shakes.

Sea creatures don’t call him lord. They call him prince Percy or when nobody else is around they call him prince of the gods. He hates it.

Percy’s personality is the same he is just freaks people out more.

Percy sensed Kronos’s aura around Luke he just didn’t think Kronos was bad. So he was still friends with Luke until Luke tried to kill him.

The first time anyone suspected that Percy might not be a Hellenistic demigod is when Percy met mr. D. When Mr. D with Percy alone for the first time something in Mr. D regresses to his Mycenaean form. Horns grow out of his head. Mr. D doesn’t mention it.

The first time Clarisse tells Percy about how the Ares cabin thinks she is weaker because she’s a girl Percy drags her to Sally who tells Clarisse about the most famous of Ares’s daughters the Amazons.

Percy knows about most of the gods because of his mother’s work. He goes to her for help when he doesn’t know what to do. Sally gives him a rundown of how the monster or quest was originally defeated in the myths. She is constantly looking for loopholes in prophecies.

Annabeth is surprised that Percy dumbass Jackson is the son of a professor.

Athena is the first god to figure out that Percy is the son of Pontiues. She finds Sally’s dissertation.

Oracle: a half blood of the elder gods…

Percy remembers the Mycenaean gods are older the Hellenized gods:

Fuck!

Whenever Percy is around a Hellenized god they get a mild headache. They didn’t notice until after the Roman and Greek demigods united because they were already getting headaches from the whole Jason and Thalia situation.

Paul doesn’t exist in this au but after the war with Gaea Sally has a newborn daughter and is regularly seen with a man who looks suspiciously like Percy

Apollo shows up at the Jackson family apartment sees the ancient king of the gods with a baby girl in his arms and decides that maybe he doesn’t need Percy’s help

[surpriseroundtellyourfriends]

Benji and Russel rly is the most overlooked and underrated dynamic in VP… they started out going for each other’s THROATS and then Solomon of all people made them make up… and they were such bros during the time Vikabella was having the most drama…

Plus the themes… silver and gold… kings and gods… possibly the two immortals in the main group of Punks… both something other than human, and yet the ones who teach others about humanity best…

You almost forget they’re stupid idiot teenage boys and then they try mixing their blood together on the table to see what happens

[gregor-samsung]

Acasă la tata [Back Home] (Andrei Cohn - 2015)

[whineandcheese24]

i like to think that when meg is at camp she sacrifices food to apollo instead of demeter. but not like good food. like, you know those blueberries that are all shriveled up. things like that. or a waffle she accidentally spilled water on. and she always says it’s for lester papadopolous

[incorrect-riordanverse]

finally reading tsats here are my live thoughts (spoilers, obviously):

i’m so excited because some pages are darkly decorated and its so cool. still don’t vibe with the title though (the sun IS a star and its peeving me)

why are we talking about dating darth vader 😟 where are we rn (anakin is a yes, but DARTH VADER???)

maybe i’m too old but the jokes are not funny 😭

“this whole place feels like my soul. empty and dark. dark as the pit of the underworld.” <- i don’t care if he’s joking nico would never say thissss 🙏😭 we’re only 10 pages in but please stop butchering my fav character he’s not himselffff i am cringing so bad

i know i’m being dramatic but if they do nico dirty in this book i’m going to end it all

oh my god i don’t think i’ve thought about the words “significant annoyance” in so long. bringing back good memories for sure.

i can tell which parts were written by riordan and which parts were written by oshiro. i don’t think their voices are blending very well together…

also, maybe it’s because it’s the start of the book and they’re trying to familiarise new readers quickly with the characters but it feels like they’re making nico the caricature of ‘emo and shadow and ebony darkness dementia raven way 🥀⛓️🖤’ and will the caricature of ‘happy and sunshine and blonde and flower gleam and glow ☀️🌈🫧’ and i usually like this dynamic when it’s not blatantly pointed out every other page. i have faith they’ll show more complexity than this later on though. future yan will let me know by the end. (future yan here, im not at the end but the characterisation def does get more complex thank gods)

oh ok so it is bob the titan

since when was nico’s actual name niccolo??? how did i forget this detail??

“you have to listen if not you’ll share my fate.” “ominous much?” <- ok he’s finally himself again guys it’s all good

the one-sided beef nico has with percy will never not be funny

“cookie monster appeared over the mouth of the jar, reached inside and gobbled up nico like the chocolate-chip cookie he was.” <- nevermind i’ve gone back to hating this book again

“what was one straight boy when you spent your whole life longing for the impossible?” <- i’m reminded of that time a few years back where everyone made ‘having an unrequited crush on percy’ nico’s whole fanon personality, so i’m glad they addressed this somewhat. this boy has been through so much and people really thought crushing on percy was the biggest thing to focus on about ‘nico angst.’

“we made a mistake. you have to fix it.” <- call me a red flag but if i was nico i would do anything and everything to not go. i would medicate myself so highly on sleeping pills that i can’t dream (doctor bf can go kick rocks). i would track percy and annabeth down and haul their asses into tartarus instead to do it. and if i had to go i would only go in to kill bob myself for sending me those traumatic ass nightmares. no thx. bro willingly jumped in himself and now wants me to save him. nuh uh.

not cupid being will 😭 its like his aphrodite 😭 i am not well.

they always have a really good and emotionally moving scene and they ruin it with a dumb joke. let it be heavy 👏👏

something’s really fishy and i have a feeling that it might not be bob calling for him

if this whole “grumpy ball of darkness” thing continues i will actually lose it

you can’t tell me the percabeth pep talk was actually needed. i will forgive it because i miss them though

im sensing tension in the gap between nico’s connection to the underworld and his relationship with will and i’m here for ittttt. give me the dramaaa

who is the gorgyra girl and why is she in their business sm?

oh shit a will solace pov??? christmas came early 🙏

nevermind that whole nightmare sequence was so fucked up 😭😭

somebody HELP HIM i never thought we would get will angst (nico angst fs, but will???)

DONT JUMP IN THE STYX PLEASE

SOMEBODY TELL HIM HE’S HELPFUL OMG

nico strangling epiales in his sleep is so fucking cool he’s literally HIM he’s literally THAT GUY

[moodyseal]

Day 25 - Scars That Last

Another "Hyacinthus Lives" AU? In this economy? It's more likely than you think

This one is even less fleshed out than what I had in mind for the Flower Shop AU but the general idea is that a very much alive and very amnesiac Hyacinthus is sought out by the emperors and taken in as a weapon to use against the gods (specifically against Apollo)

It's a little bit of a mix of a Winter Soldier AU (even if he doesn't remember anything, I doubt that Hyacinthus would go along the emperor's plans if they didn't brainwash his moral code away) and a Lityerses-but-make-it-angstier AU, specifically because in this scenario I think he'd be working under Commodus

This should be the moment where Apollo recognizes him, I guess? That's gotta be a real punch in the gut

[mothmanavenue]

more takes that i won’t take criticism on

[money-and-dandellions]

adding on to this post:

apollo who needs to bring the body of meg mccaffrey back home; dead, pale meg mccaffrey. he, who gets out of the car in the palm springs, the legs barely able to hold him upright; the man clutches the girl's body close to his chest, she is so small .

he gives it to the nymphs, apologising for the mistake, after all, he was not fast enough to protect her (he was not fast and present enough to shield her, despite beating hermes in a race once; he was a god back then, but now he is mortal, he wanted nothing more but to cry and -kill himself - beg for forgiveness, kneeling), it's his fault, he got the child, oh gods she was a child (just as old as troilus was when he also-); he keeps seeing his sister's blood, he just couldn't keep yet another promise, all his fault, monster

(and, just maybe, coach hedge was there also and saw the panicking, self-hating and punishing kid, and made sure to keep an eye on him, just in case;)

(just maybe, the nymphs saw an impressive amount of snakes, vultures and other creatures circling around the house; just maybe. after all, no one would think that the god of war (who knew what grief and anger is so well) would be somewhere nearby checking in to make sure that his oh so brightly loving younger brother would not harm himself even more.)

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

“She draped him [Apollo] in a light blue fabric she called a “chiton.” It was light and flowy and hung in a way that (thank the gods) showed off his chest. It stopped just above the knee, and underneath he wore soft, silken pants of the same color, trimmed halfway up the thigh with jewels. He expected them to be heavy, but to his pleasant surprise he could barely feel them. It was finished off with golden sandals.”

“Rachel led him down to the stables and they met Meg and her stylist… His gremlin of an ally complimented him well. She wore a lavender chiton that came down to the floor with an underskirt of jewels. Her glasses had been removed (which she grumbled about very loudly), but the rhinestones on them had been replicated by small diamonds on the corner of her lids. They both wore matching jewelry, but her bob was crowned by a circlet of jewels.”

The sketch of the tribute parade costumes from my Hunger Games AU I promised! I don’t have the iPad to digitize it but I will when I do!

@ukelele-boy @xxqueenofdragonsxx since I know y’all read it

[guardianspirits13]

There are two types of people:

Those who haven't read past the first two Trials of Apollo books

And people who adore the series and relate to Lester Papadopolous on a spiritual level