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cabinofimagines · 2 years

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Day seven; the party

A/N: Happy Halloween! -Danny

Pairing: Platonic!Everyone xgn!reader

Words: 1,035

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Leo had been anxiously waiting for you, you were wearing a matching costume, so you obviously had to show up together to get the effect you wanted. Once you were done, you made your way to the party meeting a few friends in the way.

You had to admit the decorations were far better than the ones you’d done last year, but this year Leo had been in charge of it, and you’d helped, so you weren’t that jealous. Some people had decided not to wear costumes but they were enjoying themselves pretty well, you spotted Percy and Annabeth, and the young man’s eyes lit up at the sight of you and Leo.

“You did it! Man, you two look amazing!”

“It was so hard to get a resistant fake pumpkin head,” you admit, looking at Leo’s mask proudly. “But hey, he gets to light himself on fire without harming anyone and looks really cool while doing it! It’s a win-win.”

“What are you guys?”

“Callum and Rayla,” Annabeth points at the purple marks under her eyes.

“Oh, I love that show! I knew you guys were looking familiar!” Leo says. “Great choice!”

“You guys saw Frank?” Percy grins. “He came as a trollhunter.”

“What!” You quickly push through calling for your friend, finding him talking with Piper and Jason— who decided to dress up Captain America. “Oh Gods! Look at you!”

They compliment your costume and ask about Leo, who’s a little behind since you decided to sprint across the place to find Frank the trollhunter, once he finds your group he comes with Thalia, Reyna and Calypso. Thalia is dressed as a knight, and Reyna is weeping lady— she called it “La llorona”. Calypso can’t be seen under the bed sheet, but her eyes are very bright and happy, and her voice is blithe, so you can tell she’s having fun.

A voice comes from behind you. “Great party, kids!”

Apollo and Meg are also wearing matching costumes: Lester is the little girl from Hocus Pocus and Meg is Winifred’s undead boyfriend Billy.

“Really outdid yourselves, all of you,” Meg says approvingly. “Didn’t think Romans knew how to be fun.”

“Hey!” Jason frowns. “We invented fun.”

“That’s such a lie,” Thalia teases him. “But I also think you guys did an amazing job.”

“Very good for mortals,” Apollo admits with a playful grin. “But nothing like a godly party. Maybe we should make the next one in Olympus.”

Everyone looks at him in horror. Frank gulps. “Not sure that’d be as fun for us as for you, buddy.”

“Oh c’mon! I’ll tell everyone to keep themselves from killing any of you for fun! I promise I’ll watch your back!”

“Absolutely not,” Piper frowns. “Drunk Gods are more dangerous than any monster, no one wants to be around that!”

Everyone agrees, and Lester has no choice but to admit defeat. However, Meg pats him on the back and offers an alternative.

“Well, we can always do it in my house? I mean, I know nymphs and satyrs love to party, so...” she looks at the rest of you. “If you’re interested in keeping up the tradition of changing up the place and host...”

“If you’re up for it, sure,” Leo says slightly surprised. “But you have school and all, Meg— we can help you out.”

“Hey, she’s got a God for that,” Lester says defensively. “But I wouldn’t mind it if some of you decide to hang out before the party,” he puts an arm around your shoulders and squeezes. “Would love to spend more time with my friends. I don’t see you as often as I’d like... and I still have godly duties to attend, so I might need help with a few things.”

“Cool!” Frank pats his back. “Have fun.”

“Now let’s stop thinking about the next party and enjoy this one!” You exclaim, grabbing Leo’s wrist. “Come on, Jack, I want to jumpscare Nico.”

You did jumpscare Nico. At what cost? Well, now you were running for your lives from a few angry ghosts that he’d sent to chase you.

You were laughing hysterically though, which was not helping you get away any faster from the current threat, and you only got rid of them until you promised not to do that to Nico ever again.

“I know you liked it too, though!” Leo says reproachfully. “You’re laughing!”

“I’m laughing because I saw you run around like headless chickens for the last ten minutes,” Nico smirks, grabbing the drink Will was offering to him. “You’re in your twenties and you still act like the teenagers we met years ago. That’s embarrassing.”

You could tell he wasn’t that upset about it, however. Nico liked seeing his friends having fun, even if sometimes that happiness came from his own embarrassing moments, sometimes looking silly was worth it.

“At least they didn’t scare the children,” Will says.

“Who do you think we are?” You say in outrage. “Scaring children? We’re not assholes!”

“Yeah! Besides, Y/N already does that without trying to on a daily basis, so it’s not exciting anymore.”

You push him sideways and Leo chuckles. “Rude!”

“You guys tried Hazel’s Jamaica’s water?” Will points to the drinks he and Nico are holding.

“I gave her the recipe,” Leo winks at him. “Great for Halloween if you ask me, right? She wanted something that wasn’t like soda for the sugar-free people. I thought this was the right choice. I mean, it’s red.”

“It’s really good,” Nico hums.

You support one arm on Leo’s shoulder. “Another successful Halloween for the demigods, one for the books, am I right?”

Leo snorts, poking your side. “We’ll never be able to thank you enough for starting this in the first place,” he says dramatically.

“Oh, you don’t need to, I live to please the masses,” you wink at him, then your smile fades a little. “That sounded wrong.” Leo’s smile grows, you frown at him. “I messed up.”

“Do you please the masses, Y/N?” He asks casually.

“Don’t you dare.”

“I have a mass that you could pl—”

“Nico, I’ll pay you five drachmas if you send more ghosts after Leo.”

“Deal.”

“NO—”

#Danny's writing #pjo fanfic #Halloween #Halloween Fest #halloween fic #halloween verse #halloweek 2022

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frontkilop · 2 years

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The mark of athena book online

The mark of athena book online series#

“At least some of them-”Ī few yards away, the silver dog barked. “But I’ve never met Ella before today, and I’ve never heard those lines exactly.” “It sounded like a prophecy,” she admitted. She didn’t know if that applied to magical metal dogs, but she decided it would be better to tell the truth. She had heard that dogs could smell fear, even detect changes in a human’s breathing and heartbeat. Something about Aurum’s ruby eyes made her uneasy. We both know that, don’t we?”Īnnabeth swallowed. “The harpy Ella…it was a prophecy she spoke. “There’s more.” Reyna snapped her fingers, and her golden dog, Aurum, trotted over. The past few days, they had been looking to her for orders-even Jason, who could have pulled rank as the son of Jupiter, and Coach Hedge, who didn’t take orders from anyone. But she wondered if her friends on the Argo II would agree. Not leaders of dangerous quests.”Īnnabeth started to object that she wasn’t the leader of the quest. “They might be craftsmen, artists, maybe advisers, but not warriors. And even if your camp had children of Minerva-” No wonder the Romans had been giving her strange looks. “Got it.” Annabeth’s hot chocolate suddenly tasted like dust. So the idea that a maiden goddess would have children-” The Vestal Virgins, for instance…if they broke their vows and fell in love with anyone, they would be buried alive. “But Romans take vows of maidenhood very seriously. “I understand that you Greeks don’t see things the same way,” Reyna continued. People usually asked her whether or not she had a belly button, since she had been born magically. Talking about that always made Annabeth feel self-conscious, like she was some sort of freak. She didn’t want to get into the details of Athena’s children-how they were born straight from the mind of the goddess, just as Athena herself had sprung from the head of Zeus. The idea that Minerva would have children-frankly, it’s a little shocking to us.” You won’t find any children of Minerva here. She’s also a maiden goddess, like Diana…the one you call Artemis. She’s the goddess of crafts and wisdom…but she isn’t really a goddess of war. He lives in san Antonio with his wife and two sons.“I take it Minerva isn’t…uh, quite as respected here?” Film rights for the 39 clues have been purchased by Steven Spielberg and dream works. Rick is also the author of the 39 clues, the maze of bones, another 1 new York times bestseller.

The mark of athena book online series#

The third title, the titan's curse, made the series a #1 new York times bestseller and the fourth title, the battle of the labyrinth, had a first printing of one million copies. The sea of monsters was a child magazine best book for children for 2006 and a publishers weekly and book sense national bestseller. Film rights have been purchased by twentieth century fox and a feature film is in development. The lightning thief was a new York times notable book for 2005. His Percy Jackson series features a twelve-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of a Greek god. His short fiction has appeared in Mary Higgins Clark mystery magazine and Ellery queen's mystery magazine. His adult fiction has won the top three national awards in the mystery genre the Edgar, the Anthony and the shamus. In 2002, saint Mary's hall honoured him with the school's first master teacher award. For fifteen years, rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the san Francisco bay area and in Texas. Rick Riordan is the author of the 1 new York times bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for children and the multi-award-winning tres Navarre mystery series for adults. It won the Best Fiction Book for Children award in Bulgaria, in 2013. The book is the third installment of Rickâ€™s famous book series, The Heroes Of Olympus. The Mark Of Athena (Heroes Of Olympus Book 3) was published by Penguin UK in 2013, and is available in paperback version. Whether they find the Mark of Athena and whether all of them survive and unite, forms the rest of the gripping story. This follows the adventure of seven Greek demigods as they try to invade Rome by encountering several other demigods like Hercules and Ichthyocentaurs. However, Leoâ€™s mind is poisoned into attacking the Romans right away, which enrages them. Once a few of them reunite with the Greeks, they are told about a prophecy called The Mark of Athena, and that they should search for it to bring them both together. The Greek demigods plan to enter the Roman border, but are stopped by Terminus. The book begins with a prophecy recited before the Greek and Roman demigods, the significance of which is explained as the novel progresses. Taking off from where Son Of Neptune left off, the book tells the story of Greek and Roman demigods, in an alternating set of narratives. The Mark Of Athena (Heroes Of Olympus Book 3) is part of Rick Riordanâ€™s The Heroes Of Olympus series.

#The mark of athena book online

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sodamnbored · 3 years

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Jason and Juno

I just want to talk about them. I have so many feelings and I can’t find anyone else that cares about them. But, like, why not?

Because Rick ignored Jason in HoO and I still haven’t got my Roman prequels, that’s why.

I freaking love Jason anyway and I always have. And I admit, reading original PJO, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Hera, but we weren’t really supposed to be I don’t think. But Juno? Nah man, Juno is cool.

Everybody seems to write her off because she’s Hera and we all know Hera sucks, and obviously Percy and Annabeth don’t like Hera so makes sense that we kinda subconsciously take their lead. But Juno is cool - and I will absolutely fight that corner forever. It’s like, Ares was kinda a dick in many regards, but Mars was a good dad to Frank, Mars was cool too.

Juno was one of the only gods interested in actively helping demigods, particularly her favoured ones, sure, but she still tried to help. And she obviously cared about them too. Not just Jason, it was very evident she liked Leo a lot too (and I love that too). And we know - at least from ToA - that she had a soft spot for Frank too (and honestly who can blame her).

But yeah, so I actually dig Juno in HoO. She helped out, she was awesome, she was actively nice at least to Jason.

So that’s the first thing to get over. Hate Hera if you want to - but let me convince you that Juno is better. Re-read the books and look for her being nice and cool. Because it’s there.

On top of that though, the relationship between Juno and Jason just makes me so happy and warm. I love it so much, even though I haven’t seen anyone else that seems to care.

Jupiter was at least as much of a dick as Zeus was - that’s something everyone agrees on I think. And I think a lot of us if not everyone can agree that he was a worse dad to Jason than he was to Thalia. And maybe that’s because he washed his hands of responsibility for him after he gifted Jason to Juno. (Dick move btw.) but either way, he basically ignored Jason his entire life and throughout HoO. He was hands down one of the most distant godly parents of the seven and of a lot of main heroes we’ve followed in the series’. So Jason couldn’t really depend on him for help or guidance an awful lot and basically felt like he didn’t have a father. But at least he had Juno.

Juno was a good patron to him. She helped him where she could. She actively and genuinely cared about him. She tried to make herself available for chats when he needed them as much as she could. Gave him presents (his gladius) and praise when he did well, pep talks for what was ahead. As pseudo foster mothers go, she really wasn’t bad. Closest thing Jason had to a parent, and yeah, he could’ve had worse. He did have worse with his alcoholic slightly off the rails actual mother who gave him away, and had worse in a dad who never spoke to him or saw him or lifted a finger to help him until the very last second and who also gave him away. I kinda gotta figure after that kind of treatment from both your actual parents, getting what he got from his patron was probably very appreciated.

And Juno/Hera is the goddess of marriage and family among other things. Throughout the series it’s pretty much her biggest hang up. And obviously she wasn’t always the best mother (poor Hephaestus) to her actual kids, but she kinda held Olympus together. Stopped them all tearing each other apart. Family was important to her and something she valued. Obviously she hated when her husband cheated on her and had someone else’s kids. Honestly? That’s pretty reasonable to be unhappy about. But she watched the rest of her family, literally forever, having kids willy nilly when they wanted to. Obviously Artemis didn’t, but she didn’t want kids and she had the hunters so that’s fine. For someone that loves family so much, it’s very possible she could’ve been a little envious of everyone else having huge families. She still had her Olympian family, but maybe she would’ve liked to have some demigods of her own, if it didn’t involve cheating which she just won’t do. She favoured original Jason and was his patron too, so she was happy enough to adopt them, but it still wasn’t something she did often. So she didn’t get a lot of mortal kids and might’ve felt like she was missing out. But at least she had Jason.

So, being given another little adopted demigod, hell yeah she probably loved mothering him. He was totally her kid. He didn’t have any parent or family to be there for him, she didn’t have any demigod kids of her own and knew she never will. That’s hella cute that they can adopt each other.

Everyone loves found families lately - well this is basically that. Kinda forced at first but doesn’t mean they wouldn’t grow to love each other. They helped each other, could depend on each other. Juno is literally the patron of Rome as well. So even if Jason hadn’t known from the off that he’d been given to Juno, he’d have still had the sense that she had his back along with the rest of Rome, so he might’ve asked for a little help or guidance before HoO, maybe while he was Praetor too. And Juno being New Rome’s patron would’ve probably kept an eye over Camp Jupiter and especially when Jason rose to Praetor she could’ve been paying more attention to him from then. Watched out for him during the Titan War.

I want to know more about them. Especially if Jason was fully aware that she was his patron the whole time before HoO. I want them to have had some sort of relationship. I want them to like each other at least a little. Nico and Hades got closer eventually. Percy and Poseidon (and honestly a bunch of the gods) got on well. Mars adored Frank. Aphrodite seems pretty cuddly with her kids in general. I don’t think it’d be a terrible stretch for Juno and Jason to have each other’s backs.

I want to know if Jason ever made offerings for her along with Jupiter. Burnt food at CHB for her as well as his dad.

I want to know if Juno ever helped him out on earlier quests at all, whether he knew it or not. If she ever gave him and maybe Reyna too, sort of a Praetor deal, counsel.

I want to see Juno fully lean into having Jason as her favourite, as her chosen hero. I want to see her lend some power to him when he needs it. I want to see Jason with the Blessing of Juno. How many demigods would’ve ever gotten that? That’s unheard of. I want it for him. I want to see him marching on Mount Othrys to take down Krios and topple the throne, not with the blessing of Jupiter (although I would also love to see him with that, that would be so cool!) but with the blessing of Juno, patron of Rome. I wanna see him monologuing Krios into intimidation like he did to the giants: I'm the son of Jupiter, I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion. I slew the Trojan sea monster, I have the blessing of Juno: Patron of Rome. And she also happens to be my stepmom, dick.

I talked about it in another post before, him getting her blessing. Supposedly with her Roman counterpart she’s supposed to be militaristic, strategic, etc. A blessing from his dad would be like an explosion of power, don’t get me wrong. It’d be like Thor in Infinity War. Magnificent. He could totally burst into the palace and fry Krios and destroy the throne. But I think it’d also be pretty damn awesome if he got zapped with her blessing and became like the ultimate military leader (kind of like Frank with Mars’ blessing I suppose, but more strategic instead of hitting the protein shakes), leading the troops in the invasion and being a total Praetor before he even became Praetor.

Side note: It’s probably not possible but can you imagine if he got blessings from both of them?? I doubt you can have two at a time, but that would be spectacular if he did. Especially from Jupiter and Juno. He would be incredibly powerful, no wonder the Legion made a big deal out of him in the early part of the series. Always was a little disappointed we never got to see cool Roman Jason. I love Jason, I do, but he wasn’t exactly what we heard about in The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune. It never felt like we saw his full potential. So I’m just gonna sit in my corner and dream it up instead lol.

Anyway, this was purely for me because I have a lot of feelings about these two and I couldn’t find anything about them at all or not anything positive. But if anyone else likes them or has ideas or there is stuff you can point me to, please do, I want to get involved in it and find people that are into this so bad!

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algumaideia · 2 years

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Octavian POV of the MoA Dining Scene

I ended up being more faithful to canon than I expected. Besides Reyna, everyone basically acts just like they did. Also the dialogue will not be the same since my books are in Portuguese. And in the end there will be a short paragraph of Reyna's pov.

@doctor-rat I hope you also enjoy this prompt! Also thank you so much!!! Writing this prompt was really nice and I wouldn't have done it if you haven't commented in my post!!

@zazzander Maybe now this scene is a little better.

There is 2809 words on this prompt, I deeply hope it is well written.

Jason.

He was finally back after months. Months that he spent with greeks. Octavian breathed heavily while he tried to put his emotions under control. He missed Jason so much, he was so worried about him and he was so, so happy to know he was coming back. But he was also very preocupied. Have the greeks changed him? Or was him able to stay the same?

Octavian hoped so, even though the greek girl that was near to Jason seemed to be a bad sign.

"Jason Grace, my old friend." Reyna seemed to be very unconfortable "I welcome you. And your friends-"

Reyna was interrupted by a greek girl running to Percy. They made a very dramatic scene, with kisses, cries and hugges. It was ridiculous how overly dramatic they bot were being. Reyna and Octavian also missed Jason immensily but unlike these greeks they were being able to control themselves.

Jason coughed.

"Well... it is nice to be back... this is Piper" Jason pointed to a girl next to him, Octavian didn't like her. There was something weird about her and the other greek boy "and this is Leo."

Leo made a love and peace sign and smiled like there was nothing wrong in the world.

"And that is Annabeth"

Reyna looked to Annabeth with a weird face, Octavian didn't know how to interpret it. But it didn't seem good.

"Well, it seems like we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!"

Some people started moving around Octavian but he wasn't paying attention. He looked to the two greeks next to Jason, a boy and a girl. He suddently felt terrible. Had Jason replaced him and Reyna? Octavian wanted to believe on that, but Jason looked different.

That orange greek shirt under the praetor clothees was bothering him deeply. It reminded him of the Trojan Horse, it looked like a gift but it was all greek and threatening inside.

With those thoughts on mind he looked to the war ship that was almosting invaiding the city. A peaceful conversation, Octavian wanted to laugh. That ship looked like one thing and only one thing a threat, a very deadly threat.

How was Reyna so chill about this situation? He looked to her wanting to know what she was doing.

"Dakota warn the spirtis in the kitchen. Ask them to prepare a welcome feast. And Octavian-"

"Are you gonna let those intruders enter in the camp?" Octavian went where Reyna was “Reyna, the risks to the safety-”

“We are not gonna let them go the camp, Octavian” Reyna looked to him in a weird way “We are gonna eat here, in the forum”

“Oh, that is waybetter” this situation was so wrong, why Reyna was agreeing with this bullshit? “You want us to relax in the shadow of their war ship”

“They are our guests” Reyna almost seemed to be begging “Let’s welcome them and talk. As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back safely”

“Good idea” Octavian felt like his anger increased immensely upon hearing the voice of the damn graecus “Go burn your bears, Octavian”

Reyna looked annoyed at Percy. Octavian waited her to defend him, but she only sighed.

“You have my orders. Now go”

Before Octavian went to the temple, he starred Percy with hatred in his eyes and he was able to see Aurum and Argentum going to the forum. He calmed down seeing Reyna was took at least some precautions.

He barely paid attention on the offerings, his mind was busy with the Greek matters. The way Percydidn’t respect roman’s culture at all, that war ship, Jason, the boy, and girl with Jason. Something bad was coming from the Greeks.

When he came back to the forum he unfortunately had to seat with the Greeks. He almost threw up when Reyna made a toast to a friendship between the camps.

Jason started telling his story, when he told about how he lost his memory Octavian couldn’t stop himself to wonder if Jason got all his memories back. Until now he hasn’t even glanced him, like they didn’t have a relationship. He tried to remain calm but when they mentioned the absurd story of Juno being in the Wolf House he couldn’t contain himself.

“Impossible!! This is our most sacred place. If giants had imprisoned a goddess there-”

“They would have destroyed her” the girl that was with Jason interrupted him “and the blame on the Greeks. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish”

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came. The girl’s face became red as a tomato while the romans around the table started to whisper.

“Pipes…” Jason sounded worried.

Octavian tried to speak again and again, but nothing. The tension increased quickly.

“I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t- “

“So that’s the plan?” Reyna’s voice was cold as ice “Use charm to convince us, romans, to trust you Greeks?”

“No, I… I didn’t do that on purpose. I promise. I’m just nervous. I’m so, so sorry. You can talk now”

Octavian took a deep breath.

“How do we know if you are not lying?”

“Aurum and Argentum didn’t attack her”

Octavian had completely forgot about the dogs. Jason coughed and continued to tell the story trying to pretend nothing happened. The romans weren’t relaxed anymore.

The fact Jason didn’t ask if he was okay and the loss of control over his voice, his body, made Octavian incapable of concentrating on the conversation. His mind could only focus on the panic he felt when he tried to speak, and nothing came, and the way Jason looked to him like he was a stranger.

Octavian started paying attention again when he heard someone whistle.

“No wonder they chose you as praetor”

That words cut more than the sharpest daggers ever could. Octavian was filled with rage. He breathed deeply and tried to no lose control in front of the legion.

"Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

“On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So, we can both tell you to shut up.”

And then Jason dared to high-five Percy. Octavian felt like he could explode because of the fury. Jason, his friend, acting like he was nothing but an annoying piece of shit. And then Reyna didn’t defend him again.

“We can discuss the problem of praetor later. Now we have more serious questions to deal”

“I withdraw in favor of Jason. It is no big deal.”

“No big deal?!!” Octavian thought he would die in that moment “The praetoria of Rome is no big deal?!!”

Percy simply ignored him, like he was nothing.

“You are Thalia Grace’s brother, right? Wow. You guys are nothing alike”

“Yeah, I realized that. Anyway, thank you for helping my camp while I was out. You made an incredible job.”

“You too”

Octavian started squeezing stuffed animal.

“We need to talk about the Great prophecy” Percy’s girlfriend interrupted “It seems like the romans also know about it”

Reyna nodded. Again, she was acting weird about that girl.

“We call the Prophecy of Seven. Octavian, do you know it by heart?”

The question surprised the augur.

“Of course, but-”

“Say it, please. But not in Latin”

Don’t lose control in front of the legion. Don’t lose control in front of the legion. Don’t lose control in front of the legion. Don’t lose control in front of the legion.

Octavian sighed.

“Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire, the world must fall-”

“An oath to keep with the final breath, and foes bear arms to the Doors of death.”

What was wrong with the Greeks? Now they were interrupting him?!!

Frank, sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she'd grown a third eye. "Is it true you're a child of Min-I mean, Athena?"

"Yes," she said, suddenly feeling defensive. "Why is that such a surprise?"

Octavian scoffed. "If you're truly a child of the wisdom goddess-"

“Enough”

-Why are the Greeks being so stupid and disrespectful in this meeting?

Why Reyna interrupted him?

“Annabeth is who she says she is. She is here in peace”

Why was Reyna acting so weird about this girl? Annabeth. What had the Greeks done to his friends? Especially Reyna, unlike Jason she hadn’t spent any time with them. What was wrong with her?

“Anyway, parts of the prophecy are becoming clear. And foes bear arms to the Doors of death… this means Romans and Greeks. We need to unite to find the doors.”

“My brother, Nico” Hazel’s voice shook a little while talking “went to look for the doors”

“Wait. Nico di Angelo? Is he your brother?”

Octavian was confused. How did that graecus know the ambassador of Pluto?

Hazel nodded.

“He… he disappeared. I’m afraid… I’m not sure, but I think something happened to him.”

“We’re gonna find him” Did Percy also know him from his Greek past? “We need to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos said we would find the two answers in Rome… the original Rome. We pass through it to go to Greece, right?”

Was Nico a spy? How much did he tell the Greeks about Rome? Why didn’t his auguries tell him about it? What kind of game the Greeks were playing?

“You are proposing a trip to Greece in your war ship. Do you realize the old lands… and the entire Mare Nostrum… are a dangerous place?”

“Mary who?”

“Mare Nostrum” Jason answered almost looking like he was the same of months ago “Our Sea. That’s how the Romans called the Mediterranean.”

Reyna nodded, she also seemed to have thought the same as Octavian.

“The territory of the old Roman Empire wasn’t just the place of birth of the gods. It is also the ancestral home of monsters, Titans, giants, and worse things. Demigods take risks traveling here in America, but there the risk is ten times bigger.”

“You said that Alaska would be bad. However, we survived”

Unfortunately, Octavian thought.

“Percy, traveling to the Mediterranean is another level of risks. For centuries it has been forbidden to Roman demigods. No sane hero would go there.”

“Then we are the right people!!” the boy that was with Jason spoke for the first time “We are all crazy, aren’t we? Besides, Argo II is a great war ship. He will take us there”

“We need to hurry” Seeing Jason agreeing with the graecus boy made Octavian blood boil “I don’t know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaia becomes more conscious every minute. She is invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We need to defeat the giants before they wake her up for real.”

“Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. We need to unite the camps” Why was that girl Annabeth talking like she was an expert on prophecies? That was Octavian’s job “Jason, Piper, Leo and me. We are four”

“And me, plus Hazel and Frank. Seven”

“What?!!” Octavian couldn’t take it anymore. Without realizing he stood up. “Do you expect us to just accept it? Without a vote in the Senate? Without a debate? Without-”

“Percy!!!”

Octavian was interrupted by the cyclops. He was with the giant underworld dog and the harpy.

“Ella is afraid.”

“No ships” The harpy looked like her mind wasn’t in the moment “Titanic, Lusitania, Pax… ships are no place to harpies.”

“Ella is pretty, and she is afraid”

“No ships” then Ella looked to Annabeth. What did that girl have to make everyone look to her in a weird way? “Wisdom's daughter walks alone; the Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death. Giants' bane stands gold and pale, won through pain from a woven jail.”

Annabeth was with a scared expression. The entire table was dead silent. Octavian couldn’t believe on what he has just heard. A prophecy. Where did the harpy get it? Could it be… would the gods be that generous with him? Apollo…

“Tyson!!” Percy was excited in a suspicious way “Why don’t you go walk with Ella? You and Mrs. O’Leary-”

Oh no. Octavian wouldn’t let him take the harpy away from him. Not when it could be the Sibylline books.

“Wait a minute” So many years searching about it, and not it could be there “What did she just say? It seemed- “

“Ella reads a lot” Frank interrupted him “We found her on a library”

“Yeah” Hazel agreed with a fake smile “it is probably just something she read on a book”

Something read on a book his ass. Where were Aurum and Argentum? They were obviously lying!! Why didn't the dogs attacked them? Octavian looked around but the dogs had disappeared.

“Books” the harpy acted like she didn’t understand what have just happened “Ella likes books”

“That was a prophecy” Relax Octavian, you might be wrong. Relax. “It sounded like a prophecy”

Then Annabeth laughed at him.

“Really, Octavian? Maybe harpies are different here, on the Roman side. Ours have just enough intelligence to clean cabins and cook lunches. Do yours usually foretell the future? Do you consult them for your auguries?”

“I, uh…”

Octavian dropped his teddy bear.

“No, but-”

“She’s just spouting lines from some book,” Annabeth said, “like Hazel suggested. Besides, we already have a real prophecy to worry about.”

Before he could say anything, Hazel asked Tyson to shadowtravel the harpy away. Octavian looked at Reyna, asking for support. The legion didn’t like him, but they would listen to her.

“That seems good. You can go.”

What? How could she…? The prophecy… Octavian started breathing heavily, he felt like he couldn’t feel anything. Suddenly the big cyclops hugged him and then the harpy was gone. It was his chance and the completely lost it. Why has he acted so stupidly?

“Well, Octavian is right about one thing. We need the Senate’s approval so any camper can go to a mission… especially one so dangerous like that.”

“This whole story is not right. There will be a betrayal” Octavian would explode at any time “That trireme is not a peace ship!!!”

“You can steer the boat, and if you’re really good I’ll give you a little paper captain’s hat to wear.”

Octavian almost screamed.

“How dare you-”

“It is a good idea. Octavian go with him. See the ship. I’ll call a senate meeting in one hour”

“But…” Octavian looked to Reyna that only answered with an expression that meant later. At least he would get some explanations. “Fine.”

...

(Not in the book from now on)

Octavian didn’t know what to say to Reyna. So many things happened. Jason, Reyna, Percy, the harpy, the attack… Where would he start the conversation? In the end he just started crying. Octavian was surprised that he only did it now if he was honest with himself. He was sobbing, shaking, making weird noises and his nose was running. He felt like he was being destroyed, damaged, broke. Everything hurt so much.

But then Reyna hugged him, and it almost felt like it wasn’t that bad. After some time, he realized she was crying too, nearly as bad as he was. Somehow, he was capable of muttering a word.

“Jason”

“I know”

Reyna hugged him tighter. They spent minutes like that. Just suffering together.

“I’m so sorry” Reyna’s voice was shaking “I know that meeting was terrible for you… everything was terrible. And I’m so sorry I didn’t defend you more, I really wanted to do. But… Tav, we’ve had so many battles in a short time period; I didn’t want another one. I thought that if I ignored some mi- less threatening behavior from the Greeks it would be easier to have peace with them”

Reyna pulled away from him, put her hands on his face and stared at him. “I’m really sorry” For a moment Octavian felt good, relived. Reyna was still his friend. He leaned his forehead against hers.

“It is okay Reyna. Truly. I understand.”

Reyna and Octavian closed their eyes. She sobbed. They stayed in this intimate silent until they calmed down.

...

Reyna's POV

It broke Reyna’s heart to see Octavian’s face go to pure excitement to disappointment about Ella, but she couldn’t let him get her. The prophecy she said could be from the Sibylline Books, considering Octavian’s excitement it probably was. And what if Octavian was so obsessed with them because it was necessary to his plan with Apollo? What if after getting Ella they would finally put their plan to overthrow Jupiter in action? She couldn’t let them do that.

She knew Octavian would question why she hadn’t supported him about Ella and she didn’t know how to excuse what she did without hurting him even more. What would she do?

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diana-bookfairchild · 2 years

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Jason and Hazel's Friendship

Heroes of Olympus did somethings really well, but it dropped the ball quite a bit when it came to others.

Jason and Hazel's relationship through the series is one of them.

Let's consider them. Leaving aside the very problematic and ridiculous fact that Jason spares literally no thought to his Roman friends and his life before the memory loss, in The Lost Hero one of the first people he remembers is Hazel:

The day he’d been raised on a shield and proclaimed a praetor. His friends’ faces: Dakota, Gwendolyn, Hazel, Bobby. And Reyna.

And how concerned Hazel was for him in The Son of Neptune:

Hazel leaned forward. “If he’s survived as a loner all this time, maybe he’s seen Jason.” She turned to Percy. “Have you ever met a demigod like us before? A guy in a purple shirt, with marks on his arm—”

“So…just a few weeks before that guy Jason disappeared.” Percy knew he’d hit a sore spot. Hazel looked down. She was silent long enough to count every paving stone. “Come on,” she said at last.

“Jason isn’t dead,” Hazel snapped. “You’re the augur. You’re supposed to be looking for him!”

“That was back in August, before I—um, before I got to camp. Jason told me about it. The legion destroyed the enemy’s palace and about a million monsters. Jason had to battle Krios—hand-to-hand combat with a Titan, if you can imagine.”

Hazel’s whole body tingled. She glanced at her friends. “Jason,” she whispered. “She fought Jason. He might still be alive.”

However, in The Mark of Athena, their relationship soured and is not treated with any significance whatsoever. There is nothing about the two of them reuniting or talking, or of Jason and any of his old friends for that matter.

Their first interaction there is:

“We met Narcissus,” Hazel said, which didn’t really explain much. “Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess.” Jason sighed. “I miss all the fun.”

Which might indicate some familiarity but is immediately followed with Hazel leaving the cabin without even Annabeth's "Glad you're awake." Their only interactions until the "You're wondering if we can trust the guy" debacle was in the mess hall meetings, where Hazel and Jason interacted just as much as the others and Hazel caught Jason's arms when he fell after possession.

Hazel’s arms shook. A silver platter zoomed toward her and hit the wall to her left, splattering scrambled eggs. “You… the great Jason Grace… the praetor I looked up to. You were supposed to be so fair, such a good leader. And now you…” Hazel stomped her foot and stormed out of the mess hall.

Then the half-assed but kind of tactful apology. It shows that the comment weighed on Jason, to bring it up when almost completely unrelated, but honestly, if Hazel and the boys hadn't had a more detailed discussion on that I cannot see her forgiving them for that.

This also seems to be the beginning of their coldness to each other. The fact that her thoughts about the praetor were so different in the second book vs the fourth book could be an inconsistency, or it could indicate that Hazel had once looked up to and trusted Jason but that had gradually fallen away.

Still, she wished it were Frank at her back, or Nico, or Piper, or Leo. Or even … well, okay, maybe not Coach Hedge. But, still, Hazel couldn’t get a read on Jason Grace. Ever since she’d arrived at Camp Jupiter, she’d heard stories about him. The campers spoke with reverence about the son of Jupiter who’d risen from the lowly ranks of the Fifth Cohort to become praetor, led them to victory in the Battle of Mount Tam, then disappeared. Even now, after all the events of the past couple of weeks, Jason seemed more like a legend than a person. She had a hard time warming to him, with those icy blue eyes and that careful reserve, like he was calculating every word before he said it. Also, she couldn’t forget how he had been ready to write off her brother, Nico, when they’d learned he was a captive in Rome. Jason had thought Nico was bait for a trap. He had been right. And maybe, now that Nico was safe, Hazel could see why Jason’s caution was a good idea. Still, she didn’t quite know what to think of the guy. What if they got themselves into trouble at the top of this cliff and Jason decided that saving Hazel wasn’t in the best interest of the quest?

In the mean time, Jason gives an earnest speech about his belief in Hazel's abilities - which is a pretty clear declaration about how the two were definitely not on the same page regarding their friendship. Jason could've just been encouraging a fellow teammate, however.

I take this not to mean that Hazel has decided she completely hates Jason. She says herself that she could maybe understand his perspective. I think it was more of a lingering resentment, and the fact that she couldn't read him. She agrees that Jason is a natural leader. She makes him do something he doesn't want to, and is not intimidated by him, even if the opposite isn't true:

Jason noticed that the others were reluctant to meet her eyes. Since her trick with the Mist against Sciron the bandit, even Jason felt a little nervous around her. He knew that wasn’t fair to Hazel. It was hard enough being a child of Pluto, but she’d pulled off some serious magic on that cliff. And afterwards, according to Hazel, Pluto himself had appeared to her. That was something Romans typically called a bad omen.

Neither of them seem stiff with one another, communicating pretty easily through the meetings which means an off-screen resolving or that they were just hiding their mistrust from one another. But they seem to be friends, reassure one another:

Once he was gone, Hazel frowned. ‘He’s acting strangely. I’m not sure he’s thinking this through.’ ‘He’ll be okay,’ Jason said. ‘I hope you’re right.’ She passed her hand over the ground. Diamonds broke the surface – a glittering milky way of stones.

Blood of Olympus isn't exactly Hazel full. It has only 182 mentions of her, as compared to 605 of Jason or 525 of Piper or Percy's 315. When he thinks of her, he both trusts and doesn't trust in her powers, though the first is more. They sit next to one another and aren't awkward.

Hazel also confides her suspicions in Piper, which means she doesn't mind them getting to Jason, since the Argo II has proven itself a place where gossip thrives. This indicates a previous conversation about it, or trust.

She thought about something Hazel had confided to her a few nights ago: I think Jason is the linchpin to Hera’s whole scheme. He was her first play; he’s going to be her last.

She's also worried for him, and they trusted each other.

Hazel stumbled out of her cabin, hugging her stomach. ‘I hate the ocean!’ When she saw him, her eyes widened. ‘What are you doing out of bed?’ ‘I’m going up there!’ he insisted. ‘I can help!’ Hazel looked like she wanted to argue.

‘Hazel!’ Jason yelled. ‘Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don’t merge with the rest of the demigods –’ ‘On it!’ Hazel said.

And of course:

Still…I owed it to Jason. Hazel had been his friend. I steeled my nerves, opened my mouth to speak, and was beaten to the punch by Hazel herself. “It’s Jason,” she said, as if the information had been whispered in her ear. “Oh, gods.” She ran to the coffin. She fell to her knees and threw her arms across the lid. She let out a single devastated sob. Then she lowered her head and shivered in silence. Strands of her hair sketched through the quartz dust on the polished wood surface, leaving squiggly lines like the readings of a seismograph. Without looking up, she murmured, “I had nightmares. A boat. A man on a horse. A…a spear. How did it happen?”

Hazel pressed her fingers against the coffin lid. “I’m so angry at you. Doing this to Piper. To us. Not letting us be there for you. What were you thinking?” It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t talking to us. She was speaking to Jason. Slowly, she stood. Her mouth trembled. She straightened, as if summoning internal columns of quartz to brace her skeletal system. “Let me carry one side,” she said. “Let’s bring him home.”

As the pyre burned, Frank and Hazel stood hand in hand, keeping vigil as Jason made his final voyage.

"I just…” Her voice tightened. “I don’t want to lose him. Especially after what happened to Jason.”

“She had a soft spot for Jason, too.” Hazel’s voice turned brittle. “Not that I’m complaining that Frank is alive, of course. It just seems…” She didn’t need to finish. Frank’s survival was wonderful. A miracle. But somehow it made losing Jason feel all the more unfair and painful.

Hazel's grief could be for a fellow officer of Rome, or a fellow child of the prophecy, or even for a friend of a friend (Nico, Piper, Percy) but it was definitely more personal.

It seems Riordan either resolved this offscreen or actually decided that the Blood of Olympus ending was enough to resolve all tension between the Camps and the Seven.

Nevertheless, Hazel and Jason had an extremely interesting dynamic and friendship with a lot of plotholes and a lot more potential for fleshing out. I have my own personal headcanons for this friendship and for Seven-As-A-Family.

For me, it illustrates how HoO while amazing, doesn't offer much in terms of resolution at the end, or in platonic relationships after The Son of Neptune where the beginning stage was set. After that, other than the Leo-Hazel-Frank love triangle, Jason and Percy's awkward competitiveness and bromance, Jason and Nico beginning to talk, Annabeth and Frank's single conversation in book 3 and Hazel helping Piper with swordplay, there was no mention of going beyond established groups.

Hazel's suspicion of him could've developed into something more, particularly after - to her - he gave up the praetor position without much conflict, 'chose' to be a Greek and completely gave up his Roman side. She was completely sidelined in the final book, but we could've had them discussing this. Or how Hazel's idealization of him had faded away. Or their friendship prior to Jason's memory loss. About New Rome. About set expectations (Jason's was to be the Golden Boy™ while Hazel had her children of Pluto are evil and introverts) and being children of the Big Three while also being overshadowed by their siblings (Thalia and Nico). How they felt that their older siblings had either sought a replacement for them or chosen them for a replacement (Percy and Bianca). How their parents saw them as burdens, how they gave them up.

There was so much that could've been done with this.

Alas, it was not to be.

#jason grace #hazel levesque #heroes of olympus #friendship #underrated friendship #The Tyrant's Tomb

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zazzander · 2 years

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Reyna and Octavian as Foils

Looking for more? Here's my master list of Octavian analysis.

Reyna and Octavian are foils to each other in many ways.

Octavian wears his heart on his sleeve, expressing his thoughts and opinions through emotion, raising his voice, and generally dramatic gestures. Yet, at the same time, his actions are actually quite analytical and logical. To the point of almost being cynical.

On the other hand Reyna is very stoic. She rarely raises her voice and talks with restraint and composure. It’s not often that a character can tell what she’s really thinking through her expressions and tone of voice alone. Yet, she often makes decisions based on a gut feeling. She has a strong amount of scepticism when it comes in prophecies and legends, but in the here-and-now she will trust her instincts.

Interestingly, both characters will often make quick decisions in the heat of the moment, but with very different thought processes.

Both of them also attempt to achieve the ideal of being “Roman” but what they do so differently. We have a quote from Son of Neptune about Lupa’s tenants. And the goddess is a good guide:

Demigods like Percy were still responsible for carrying on Roman traditions in modern times – fighting monsters, serving the gods, protecting mortals and upholding the memory of the empire. [Son of Neptune, 36]

We can see that’s a long list, and the last point is especially broad. Which monsters should they fight, and which ones do they make a truce or even ally with? Does serving the gods prevail over protecting mortals, which is more important? And, lastly, the empire lasted a long time and even within a single time period there was a diversity of things that was deemed “important”.

So while the general ideas hold the same, each character is going to have a different interpretation and understanding of that. And I think we can see that with Reyna and Octavian, even down to the emperor they look up to. For Octavian it’s Augustus, the first emperor, a son of Apollo*, someone who fought and schemed his way to the top but managed to end an age of warfare in the process. For Reyna it’s Diocletian, the last pagan emperor*, a son of Jupiter*, someone whose parents were once slaves, who fought his way to the top, and eventually retired peacefully.

*Riordanverse history

How Reyna and Octavian Lead

Reyna herself seems to be the kind of leader who believes in great heroic deeds on behalf of her people, often going out solo to face the greatest challenge.

Meanwhile, we have Octavian. His leadership style seems far more unit-based. Everyone acts as one, as per his orders. He’s rarely seen away from the central unit when it comes to combat. Notably different from Reyna.

Examples:

- Battle in Son of Neptune: Reyna is seen in the air, riding Scipio, facing off against Polybotes. While Octavian is on the ground with the First and Second legionaries.

- Mark of Athena: Reyna hunts down Annabeth while Octavian leads the majority of the legionaries against the docked Argo II.

- House of Hades: Reyna chooses to go on a quest, alone; something that strikes Octavian as unthinkable (and potentially unforgivable).

All of these indicate a general trend for how Reyna and Octavian choose to lead. Neither option is worse or better.

Leaders They Admire - Diocletian:

We also know that Reyna is a fan of Diocletian (along with Jason).

“Reyna and I used to talk about Diocletian,” [Jason] said. “We both kind of idolized the guy as a leader.”

We can see that, in the Riordanverse, that Diocletian is a son of Jupiter. And upheld the old Roman pagan society – notably by executing thousands of Christians.

“He wasn’t a total villain,” Jason said. “Yeah, he persecuted Christians, but otherwise he was a good ruler. He worked his way up from nothing by joining the legion. His parents were former slaves . . . or at least his mom was. Demigods know he was a son of Jupiter - the last demigod to rule Rome. He was the first emperor ever to retire, like, peacefully, and give up his power. He was from Dalmatia, so he moved back there and built a retirement palace. The town of Split grew up around…” [House of Hades]

And in Blood of Olympus,

Reyna used to dream about going there with Jason to admire their favourite emperor’s home. She pictured romantic walked with him through the old city, sunset picnic on the parapets. […] Don’t be bitter, she chided herself. Aeneas suffered, too. So did Romulus, Diocletian and all the rest. Romans don’t complain about hardship.

We can see Reyna’s own story reflected here. Reyna wasn’t someone from a great family in New Rome. When her sister decided to join the Amazons instead, Reyna was left without a support system at all. Yet she rose quickly through the ranks. And eventually “retired” peacefully (by joining the Hunt).

And while Reyna’s thoughts on Diocletian are pretty limited, we can assume Reyna and Jason had a similar thought process. I would even argue that Reyna might have been the one to idolise him more since it’s Reyna who first assumed Jason would go to Split to meet her. Not to mention her romanisation of the the palace.

Even her understanding of bitterness and how to process disapointment is filtered through this idealisation of Roman figures. Aeneas and Romulus are obvious, they are mythical heroes, but Diocletian was a real historical figure. Yet to her, they all represent who she is striving to be. Who she ought to be.

On that point, let’s talk about Jason and Reyna for a moment. The emperor Jason and Reyna bonded over was a son of Jupiter. They both idolised this emperor. And for that reason, a part of me wonders if Reyna might have been one of the people who placed their expectations upon Jason as the son of Jupiter.

She expected him to live up to the legacy of their favourite emperor: Diocletian.

They were close friends, of course. But it’s possible that Jason, in his heart, knew they couldn’t be anything more. Even before coming to Camp Half-Blood, Jason tried to resist the pressure of those expectations. And he might have feared that Reyna wouldn't accept him if he failed to meet those high standards.

And in Mark of Athena, it's Reyna who comments on how Jason has "changed". But I would argue Jason has simply come to understand himself more.

“And Jason… well, he has changed. He seems distant, no longer quite Roman.”

Part of Reyna’s romantic feelings may very well have been simple admiration, which was born from the façade Jason presented to the world. Jason did everything he could to be a great "son of Jupiter". And when he came back changed? I think Reyna lost some of the admiration – and therefore the romantic feelings. Not that that stopped her feelings of friendship. But it certainly made her confused and bitter (I'll get into that later).

Not only that, but they both have very different recollections of their time in Camp Jupiter:

Her four years at Camp Jupiter hasn’t been easy, but they’d been the best time of Reyna’s life. [Blood of Olympus 59]

Compared with, only a couple chapters earlier, Jason’s thoughts:

This has been the story of his life, he thought bitterly. Everyone had always watched him, expecting him to lead the way. From the moment he’d arrived at Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigods had treated him like a prince in waiting. Despite his attempts to alter his destiny […] he had been made praetor anyway. [Blood of Olympus 28]

Overall, I think at minimun the fact that they shared a favourite emperor - one so intrinsically tied to their hopes and desires, their understanding of leadership - placed those expectations on Jason. For Reyna, it was a choice to take up the mantle of praetor, but Jason it was a duty thrust upon him.

Diocletian was a die-hard pagan, one who persecuted Christians. But what Reyna and Jason seem to have admired was how he reorganised the empire, stabilising it. His reforms helped fend of the Western half’s fall – and enabled the Eastern half to flourish.

This is the emperor that Reyna admires most. Not a conqueror, but a strong leader who brought stability and who retired once their job was done. And the way Diocletian chose to retire peacefully reflects a fundamental Roman ideal. One seen in the story of Cincinnatus returning to his farm after holding the Dictatorship for only fifteen days. An ideal Reyna fuflils by joining the Hunt.

Leaders They Admire - Augustus

“Besides, the first day of August is most auspicious – the month named after my ancestor Augustus. And you know how he united the Romans?”

“He seized power and became emperor,” Mike rumbled.

Octavian waved aside the comment. “Nonsense. He saved Rome by becoming First Citizen. He wanted peace and prosperity, not power! Believe me, Mike, I intend to follow his example. I will save New Rome and, when I do, I will remember my friends.” [BOO 66]

So let’s get into Octavian. It’s important to note that Octavian is speaking in front of an audience here (Jacob), so the words he says are measured. But I think they give us a good enough insight.

We know that Octavian admires his namesake (and ancestor), Augustus. And we can see here what Octavian admired. The fact that Augustus stopped the 50-year-long streak of civil wars that had ravaged the Republic.

Obviously, he’s dismissive of Augustus’ less than moral means of getting into power here – but we know that Octavian follows Augustus’s example there are as well. Augustus when he was “Octavian” was ruthless. But after he was in charge, after he changed his name? He changed his tune, switching from an image of power to one of benevolence.

And much like how Reyna and Jason can look passed Diocletian’s cruelty against the Christians, Octavian also sees the best of his ideal leader. “Peace and prosperity” might not be some hollow promise. But an end goal of Octavian's.

Not that this is the last war they wil have to fight. Octavian, more than any other character, is aware of the impeding threat that is the Triumvirate.

As I’ve also discussed, Octavian didn’t hate the Greeks. Not really. Not until they attack his city, at the point they (from his perspective) declared war.

Summary

I think it's fascinating that, by Riordan lore, Octavian admired the first emperor while Reyna admired the last (pagan) emperor. Both rulers came to power during a time of instability. And both were able to lay out a foundation of prosperity. Augustus was able to pass away peacefully, dying of old age; Diocletian was able to retire peacefully, living out his days in his palace.

Interestingly, neither of these emperors count among the martial emperor, the ones famous for their military prowess. Augustus had Agrippa. Diocletian had Maximian.

There's is one notable difference - one that I think is important. Augustus was a son of Apollo, Diocletian a son of Jupiter.

Augustus brought Egypt into the empire (it was still technically independent until that point). He patroned a golden age of art - integrating the Hellenistic influence that had been such a controversial idea a couple generations before. He ruled to the end of his days, never letting go of power.

Meanwhile, Diocletian's retirement, as I've mentioned, mirrors an older ideal. One of the Republic. Where power was something a person only help for a short time. And even that power ought to be shared.

Neither interpretation is wrong. But I think we can see where Reyna and Octavian's enmity might have begun. Reyna would never allow Apollo to become the patron god of the legion.

The Legion That Failed

I’m going to on a little side-track for a moment, just to discuss why Reyna might be resistant to changing their patron god (Octavian’s idea). We get a few hints throughout the series that there was other groups of Roman demigods out in the world, at one point in the past. We also know that Reyna is aware of them.

“I think – well, this is the part I don’t know, but Reyna always said there were many lost legions. The Twelfth founded Camp Jupiter.” [Son of Neptune]

Some carried tattered lightning-bolt banners of the Twelfth Legion, Fifth Cohort – Michael Varus’s doomed expedition from the 1980s. Others carried standards and insignia Hazel didn’t recognise, as if they’d died at different times, on different quests – maybe not even from Camp Jupiter. [Son of Neptune]

The name “Camp Jupiter” shows this particular legion’s strong association to Jupiter. He is their patron god. The eagle’s power comes from Jupiter himself. It’s not so strange of a concept that the other groups (potentially in the form of a legion, potentially as something else) had other patron gods.

However, they have all failed to last. They were defeated or simply withered to nothing.

So perhaps Reyna sees the changes Octavian was proposing not as starting a “new era” but instead an abandonment of the divine patron who had seen them through the ages It would harm the legion, not help it.

Warfare, Peace, and Stability

Reyna

Reyna seems to have the general attitude that she will only fight a defensive war, though she is aware that is not the “Roman way”. As I’ve discussed, her ideal emperor wasn’t a conqueror – he was more of an administrator (Diocletian did wage wars, but mostly he worked on fixed the mess of an empire he had come to rule, such as reconquering Egypt when it declared independence).

Reyna acknowledges the Roman way here:

“You see, Romans have always believed that offence is the best defence.”

[…] “It doesn’t have to be that way,” Annabeth said. “We’ve got to work together, or Gaia will destroy us both.”

“I agree,” Reyna said. “But is cooperation possible?” [Mark of Athena 39]

Even after the attack on New Rome, Reyna is hesitant to go into full war-mode.

The blond scarecrow-looking kid, Octavian, was speaking to the mob shaking his fist. Piper couldn’t her him, but the gist was obvious: We need to kill those Greeks!

Reyna, the praetor, stood to one side, her face tight with suppressed emotion. Bitterness? Anger? Piper wasn’t sure. [Mark of Athena]

Reyna is not ready to call it ‘war’ yet.

“Reyna,” she said, “what happened at Camp Jupiter was Gaia’s fault. Eidolons, possessing spirits–”

“Save your explanations,” Reyna said. “You’ll need them for the trial.”

The dogs snarled and inched forward. This time, it didn’t seem to matter to them that Annabeth was telling the truth. [Mark of Athena 249]

Reyna isn’t there to listen to Annabeth’s ‘reasons’. She might not be keen for this war, but it isn’t due to her trusting the Seven (outside of Jason).

“It wasn’t me!”

“It doesn’t matter!” Reyna snapped. [Mark of Athena 249]

And again, Reyna rejects Annabeth’s attempts to tell the Romans about the eidolons. For all the Seven’s assumptions about her listening to them – Reyna at this moment isn’t ready to hear it. She retains her scepticism because of that she’s between a rock and a hard place. Does she accept this war or does she accept the excuses the Greeks? She wants to do neither.

“You see?” Reyna said bitterly. “The spear is thrown. Our people are at war.”

“Not if I succeed,” Annabeth said.

Reyna’s expression looked the same as it had at Camp Jupiter when she realised Jason had found another girl. The praetor was too alone, too bitter and betrayed to believe anything could go right for her again. Annbeth waited for her to attack. Instead, Reyna flicked her hand. The metal dogs backed away. “Annabeth Chase,” she said, “When we meet again, we will be enemies on the field of battle.”

The praetor turned and walked across the rampart, her greyhounds behind her.

[Mark of Athena 251-2]

In this scene, Reyna allows Annabeth to go off and return to the Argo II. And it’s Annabeth’s words here, ‘not if I succeed’ that convince Reyna to let her go.

And this happens again in House of Hades,

“A Roman leader returning the most important Greek statue to Camp Half-Blood – she knows that could prevent a war.”

“This isn’t a trick,” Rachel added. “We’re not lying. Ask your dogs.”

The metallic greyhounds didn’t react. Reyna stroked Aurum’s head thoughtfully. “The Athena Parthenos… so the legend is true.” [House of Hades 252]

Once again, Reyna is swayed by the idea of preventing a war that has already begun. Logically, this doesn’t make a sense, but I think it’s a key element of her character. And to see it happen multiple times – I don’t think it’s a momentary thing. A potential war is a completely different beast that a war that is already raging.

Because Reyna knows that to be an ideal Roman leader, she might fight. She must lead the legion in this war. After all she says this to Percy:

“The praetorship will be yours for the taking. Together, you and I could expand the power of Rome. We could raise an army and find the Doors of Death, crush Gaia’s forces once and for all.”

But in action, Reyna doesn’t seem to think like this. Her goal isn’t to expand Roman power. It’s to solidify it.

But Reyna is ultimately burdened by this question of what it means to uphold the memory of the empire. The need to expand, to build, and – most of all – to conquer is a fundamental part of Rome. Reyna doesn’t go against tradition very often. Except on this note. And I think that bothers her.

I wonder if that is the conflict her character is undergoing throughout Mark of Athena. Why she seems so tired, bitter, and on edge. So knows that as a Roman she should be readying for war.

Octavian is ready to fight this battle. He’s out for blood. Like a proper Roman. So what about her? What’s stopping her? I think this might be why she seems to flip back and forth between being against the Seven and helping them in MoA, and even in HoH.

Because if they are at war – then she must fight. If the war has yet to begin then she can stop it. And if you are wondering what I mean by her flipping back and forth.

Reyna:

1. Agreed to bring the Seven to trial, potentially to execute them

2. Gave the legion to the location of Camp Half-Blood [probably]

Annabeth wanted to sob. Camp Half-Blood was the only real home she’d ever known, and in a bid for friendship she had told Reyna exactly where to find it. She couldn’t leave it at the mercy of the Romans and travel halfway around the world. [Mark of Athena 250]

Why is this the case?

Well, Jason is the one to explain to the legion his version of events. And he doesn’t necessarily say where Camp Half-Blood is.

Jason explained how he’d arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he’d gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick – she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman).

There this isn’t the conversation Annabeth is referring to – no, it’s where she tells Reyna, in private, her life story.

She talked about how she had run away when she was only seven, finding her friends Luke and Thalia and making her way to Camp Half-Blood on Long Island. She described the camp and her years growing up there.

As Annabeth predicts, the Romans seem to know exactly where they are going after this. They beeline it to New York (coming to settle and start scouting Long Island within a few days of leaving Charleston).

While, sure, Octavian could have seen it in an augury or possibly from Nero (if he was already working with the emperor at that point).

But Annabeth at least seems to think Reyna will inform the legion. And, at least, on face value she seems to do it.

Octavian

Obviously, Octavian doesn’t have the same qualms about this war that Reyna does. The war has begun – that’s not up for debate. And while Reyna stands back, Octavian takes over, rallying the legion.

When it comes to war, Octavian is one who veers towards the tradition.

“The Romans have honour to think about. They’ve been attacked. They’ll shoot first and ask questions posthac.” [Mark of Athena 107]

Yet despite Octavian’s aggression, he see that the war takes a physical toll on him. In the twelve days between Charleston and the meeting on the rooftop, Octavian’s condition has worsened.

Octavian stood to one side, thin and pale, his eyes red-rimmed from sleeplessness or anger. [House of Hades 247]

In Blood of Olympus, we see this again,

He stopped so close that Nico could see the bloodshot veins in his pale watery eyes. His face was gaunt. [Blood of Olympus]

But also the mental toll, Octavian was certainly losing his grip on reality in the final battle.

Octavian's laughter was brittle and quite insane.

With that in mind, let’s talk about Octavian’s intentions when it comes to this war. Because I don’t believe it was wholesale destructions into very late.

In Mark of Athena, he says,

“Surrender to Rome!”

In House of Hades, he says,

“I hope you’ve come to discuss surrender terms.”

So we can see that Octavian has a strong focus on ‘surrender’ in both books. These are his opening statements when dealing with the Greeks.

And it’s even possible, there was a third attempt at getting a surrender in Blood of Olympus. This would have occurred just before the councillor meeting at Camp Half-Blood. It would explain why Will Solace seems to be hate Octavian. And why Jake Mason seems to have heard Octavian’s last name, then forgotten it, in his comment “Octavian what’s-his-name”.

Now the question of ‘why’ comes. What terms does Octavian want to bring to the table. Well, as I’ve send before, Octavian does seem to have locked onto “unity” at some point.

And while, by the time we get to the quote below, Octavian has given up on getting the Greeks to surrender, he stills mentions the idea twice.

[Octavian] rose and stretched. “Don’t worry, old friend. Our siege teams have the Greek camp surrounded. Our eagles have complete air superiority. The Greeks aren’t going anywhere until we’re ready to strike. In eleven days, all my forces will be in place. My little surprises will be prepared. On August first, the Feast of Spes, the Greek camp will fall. […] We demigods will be strong and unified, as we were in the old days of the empire.” [Boo 65]

And we can see that this goal of unity under Rome is Octavian’s interpretation of upholding the memory of the empire.

“We eliminate the division.We wipe out the Greeks. We return the gods to their proper manifestation as Roman. Once the gods are restored to their full power, Gaia will not dare rise.”

Obviously, at this point Octavian has given up on the Greeks surrendering, so his plan has been modified. But the general gist is the same. He wishes to eliminate the division and make the gods fully Roman. It seems to me reasonably likely that Octavian desired the Greek to surrender to Rome and join it. This would have expanded the legion’s power and unified all the demigods under one banner.

I think, as well, Apollo would have been more willing to go along with that plan. I doubt Apollo would have been willing to overlook the death of his kids but having the join the legion would solve a lot of headaches (literally).

Summary

Much like any good foils, Octavian and Reyna seems to have almost-aligning goals. Stability and strength for the legion. But they differ on a few key points - and that has caused them to come into conflict.

#hoo octavian #octavian analysis #octavian hoo #heroes of olympus #reyna ramirez arellano #pjo hoo toa #octavian pjo #reyna hoo #hoo analysis #reyna analysis #Reyna ramirez arellano analysis

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allpjowomenarequeens · 3 years

Text

If HoO was a diary-type format

okay a follow-up to this post (and my tags, specifically) because i can

Percy’s chapters would be essentially the same as the PJO series, with funny chapter titles and sarcasm. There would be tons of little references to Annabeth, and lots of “I could’ve kicked Jason ass, fyi”. There isn’t a lot to say on him because we already know what he’d narrate like, but I imagine he wrote the PJO series in the few months between the wars (or at least started it) so he knows how to narrate. His chapters would be some of the longest.

Annabeth would probably have the roman-numeral system. She would be a good narrator but a little bland, but with lots of details on architecture she noticed. She constantly has to stop herself from going on rambles about it. She notes down how exasperated she is over the Jason/Percy thing. Her chapters wouldn’t be too long but not short, either.

Jason would absolutely be using the roman-numeral system. His chapters would be a vague combination of Percy and Annabeths, with Annabeth’s formal writing style and Percy’s constant jabs, plus a little sarcasm (he is sarcastic, yall just flatten him)

Frank’s.... okay so listen everyone else would make little funky references to things because of their respective hyperfixations but Franks constantly referencing his grandmother’s teachings, and his chapters are on-track for the most part.

Piper’s.. idk honestly she talks about her friends a lot and Cherokee legends/stories? Honesty im not that connected to Piper’s character so i cant rlly do her here.

Hazel’s are short because I refuse to believe anyone in the 40s taught her (black, girl, dyslexic, “witch”) to read/write. She’s learning, and shes very proud of herself for doing so, (so is basically everyone else). Honestly Frank probably wrote hers for her (aw) but she’s actually good at narrating otherwise.

Leos are just... chaos. He gets the narration across but he also goes on side-tangents constantly. His are filled with [Editors note: Five page long ‘How the fuck does the Athena Parthenos work?’ tangent was here] or ‘[Editors note: This page was burnt accidentally and rewritten from memory, may not be accurate] or some other variation of workshop-themed destruction. His chapters would be the longest, then they edit out the tangents and cussing (he calls everyone else (except like, Hazel and Annabeth) bitch and you CANNOT change my mind) and it’s like, third-longest next to Percy and Annabeth/Piper.

Reyna’s being a mix of Jason and Hazel (She cant write well either, its literally canon). She’s not sure why Hedge and Nico insisted but honestly it lets her get everything out so she stopped complaining real quick.

Nico’s are so fucking short but he gets the job done somehow?? He’s depressed and traumatised and he knows these will be read later eventually so he isn’t talking about himself too much. Actually, no, he writes the narration in English and the personal parts in italian. But he also takes the time to explain myths and different tellings, with a TL;DR of the important parts.

And in general:

Occasionally they have to stop narrating bc trauma (I.e, During the scene w/ Kym, Percy was the initial narrator, but he realised he couldn’t because he was way too upset and his thoughts were too up-front, so he let Jason narrate it and his draft was voided.)

They aren’t supposed to look at each others pages but that doesn’t stop them because they want to know what each other are thinking.

There are occasionally notes from others in peoples chapters, like Percy saying “Okay, the word I was looking for was “cyan”, thanks Annabeth” or in Hazel’s there’s “I think the word is “geocentric”? (it is - Frank :))”

The parts of the diaries (lets be real they need a few) later to be MoA was written first. Sometime during HoH, Jason/Piper/Leo wrote TLH and got Hazel/Frank to start SoN. BoO and the final parts of SoN were written at the same time.

This means that Jason/Percy c o n s t a n t l y note things down in brackets during the time they were amnesiacs. Jason’s “(now, I obviously know why CHB felt like enemy territory)” and Percy’s “(For the record, yes, I knew him and he knew me. It’s complicated. It’s fine(..ish) now)” are good examples.

OVERLAPPING POVS! Gods like during the “crazy dolphin” bit Percy was the primary narrator but Jason/Piper took the time to tell their POV and its just WILDLY different stories.

Or just little notes like Leo noting something down “Frank gave me a fucking heart attack with that :/”

Gods let these kids have spelling errors. If it is in the diary format let it have doodles in the sides (percy, leo, piper, hazel would all do it dont lie). I think they would have a written diary then type it out so spelling errors would be edited out but the actual physical diary would be so full of errors and pictures in the margins.

Reyna and Nico’s copy got lost/wrecked so many times their POVS are all re-written from memory post-war, but they try to keep it as long as the originals (Reyna leaves out the feelings parts and Nico cuts out the italian parts, but still).

Cupid scene is still Jason’s pov, BUT it completely skips over the actual outing/getting the sceptre/anything that so much as hints what happens there. I imagine it goes:

‘Welcome to Salona,’ Favonius said. ‘Capital of Dalmatia! Birthplace of Diocletian! But before that, long before that, it was the home of Cupid.’

The name echoed, as if voices were whispering it through the ruins.

Something about this place seemed even creepier than the palace basement in Split. I had never thought much about Cupid. I’d certainly never thought of Cupid as scary. Even for Roman demigods, the name conjured up an image of a silly winged baby with a toy bow and arrow, flying around in his diapers on Valentine’s Day.

‘Oh, he’s not like that,’ said Favonius. I flinched.

‘You can read my mind?’

‘I don’t need to.’ Favonius tossed his bronze hoop in the air. ‘Everyone has the wrong impression of Cupid … until they meet him.’

[Unfortunately, for the next part I got knocked out (...again), so I can’t say for sure what happened. Nico wasn’t up for narrating it as he sustained a pretty nasty shoulder injury. So, sorry, but I guess this part is a secret. I’m going to pick up where I woke up.]

Nico was picking up a sceptre when I came to. ‘Oh, good,’ He said. ‘You’re up just in time for us to head back. We’re shadow-travelling this time, I’m sick of the wind.’

(Yes I copy-pasted the top part and made it first-person)

But yeah Jason would be 100% willing to make himself sound like an idiot to keep Nico’s secret and you can fucking fight me on that one.

Also, like, imagine they did little ending notes? like couple sentence comments at the end?

“Fucking sucked. 0/10, would not recommend. On the other hand, Hazel’s so fucking powerful, good for her. Good for her.” - Percy Jackson, on The House of Hades

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Glad we got that all wrapped up, but we still have Mud-face to deal with yet. (And figuring out how to find [REDACTED])” Leo Valdez, on The House of Hades

or,

“Got gaslighted by a 13-year-old 80-year-old but also met Hazel and Frank and honestly that outweighs the shitty amnesiac experience.” Percy Jackson, on The Son of Neptune.

“It was... an interesting first quest. Can’t say I enjoyed it, but it was a good learning experience. (Is that good? I don’t think Mars will take well to me disliking the quest).” Frank Zhang, on The Son of Neptune.

or,

“Yeah... can’t say I want to do that one again. Meeting everyone at camp was fun, but not like that.” Jason Grace, on The Lost Hero.

Y’know? Just little things like that.

That's it for now but you get the point

#pjo #nico di angelo #leo valdez #percy jackson #annabeth chase #jason grace #piper mclean #frank zhang #hazel levesque #reyna ramirez arellano #hoo #heroes of olympus #au #heroes of olympus au #percy jackson and the olympians

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starlightshadowsworld · 3 years

Text

Jason was someone who knew the value and the importance of a good night sleep. And life on the Argo ll showed him that the others were lacking in that department.

And without quite fully realising it, he studied them and found solutions that maybe they hadn't even realised.

(Or, Jason is distressed team mum and wants to help everyone get some sleep)

He'd find Percy drifting off while sat on the sofa and would inquire that the other slept. Percy would give him a fond and amused grin "yeah, I will." But Jason can see the bags under his eyes and the way he's slower to react (not by much of course, it was Percy after all impulse was kinda his thing) and resists the urge to shake his head.

Instead Jason goes over to the window, and feels his power fill the air. A cool gust of wind and the trickling of rain start to appear, followed by the cool lapping waves of the sea (because of the wind) and Percy listens to them absentmindedly but only takes a few minutes for him to nod off on the sofa, lulled by the sounds around him. Jason had heard him fondly talk of Montauk, of a rainy cabin by the sea and Jason knew at once what to do.

A light swirl of wind picks up the blankets from his room and tuck him in, a pillow pet wedged in his arms.

Jason finds Leo tinkering in the engine room with Annabeth by his side. They've thrown themselves into another invention and happily explain it to him. And while most of its intricacies go over his head, he praises them regardless (and tries not to frown at how surprised they are, especially Leo to receive genuine praise. That he files away for later.)

His points of going to sleep fall on death ears of course, but he's caught them before they've started to consume any caffiene. Jason takes a deep breathe and mumbles some words in a language he's never truly used before. But Leo does, freezing in place and staring at Jason in open mouth surprise.

It's a song Reyna sings, has sung to Jason more times than he can count. On cloudless night skies full of stars, when all they have is each other to hold on to. Jason doesn't completely known the language but Reyna uses it when there alone, he wants to know because he knows just how important it is to her.

Tears well up in Leo's eyes, his body sags and his eyes flutter sleepily like Jason had hoped. It reminds Leo of his Madre, and warmth wells up in his heart. To seal the deal, Jason hands over a blanket with all the importance of a treaty and mimes for Leo to put it around him.

Leo raises an eyebrow, still reeling from the song and does so. He gasps in surprise, for this is a weighted blanket that seems to by magic dull the anxiety that wells up in his friend. (Jason is certain that weighted blankets are just magic). He gives Jason a grin but for once it reaches his eyes, eyes that shine witb gratitude "okay okay, I'm going to sleep Jase if you're gonna go through all this trouble."

Annabeth looks like she's about to protest for all of 3 seconds before shaking her head and bade Leo goodnight. She gives Jason a calculating look "I'm assuming you're doing this with everyone." Jason nods, open and honest because he has nothing to hide and knows how much that means to her. Annabeth stares at him for a few seconds, before nodding, accepting it.

"We have been... Running ourselves ragged I suppose...." To Jason that's an understatement, she can read them all but he can read her 2. He can see just how much she's struggling to keep herself together. Otherwise she'd probably have put up more of a fight to his plans. "So, care to tell me what you thought of for me?"

Jason smiles, taking out a book and pressing it into he'd hands, she raises an eyebrow and makes what's halfway between a snort and a chuckle. "You want me... To read till I sleep?" She asks, Jason nods absolutely serious. Annabeth isn't sure how to react that but finds no harm in it and does so. She's about 5 pages in when her head falls onto the pillow beneath her and softly snores.

Annabeth had been that exhausted that few things wouldn't have made her fall asleep. That is if she were anyone else, but she was Annabeth. She was someone who's guard was raised at all times, so he made his intentions clear and handed her a book to help her sleep. It wasn't that the book was magic or anything it was even what it contained though that was important.

It was on keystone arch way design, an architectural style that had been pioneered by Romans. This particular book was one of Jason's favourites, and by giving her a book important to him, about something he cared about he was able to gain her trust. Jason had relaxed Annabeth enough that her guard dropped momentarily so that her tired body was able to win out.

Jason had no doubt she would read the book the next day and bookmarked it for her, using the wind to gently send her to her room.

He found Frank polishing his bow and talking to Hazel. Jason strode over to them and told them that it was late and they should rest. That they had a big day ahead of them and he wouldn't want them to get hurt through their exhaustion.

And while the words were casual enough, they bore with them a certain edge. Not harshness or even cruelty but a certain form of confidence that spoke of authority. Now Jason didn't have authority, not here but he used to. Frank and Hazel has known him for a while personally but not as long as he'd been their Praetor and Jason knew instantly that they'd recognise his tone.

But he didn't leave it there, otherwise he'd have felt cruel and cold, and besides it wasn't the whole plan. Jason smiled warmly, and began to tell a story. Like so many he'd shared at a campfire after long days at Camp Jupiter. Hazel curled up beside Frank who stifled a yawn, the almost Prateor voice had got their attention yes.

But the story pulled them in, just like it always had. It was one they'd heard a thousand times of a mission a former Prateor had been on but Jason weaved words like magic and before he was finished they were out like lights.

He smiled fondly, just like than and wrapped a blanket around them and left once they were comfortable.

Piper was sat by one of the windows, staring into her blade in deep thought. Jason clears his throat to make his presence known and she jumps slightly, waving at him once she regains her composure. "Oh, hi Jason. What's up?" She tries and fails to hide her true feelings. Piper's afraid, and Jason knows it. He asks her if she can fall asleep and she shakes her head silently. Jason nods, expecting as much and sits beside her.

Instantly she rests her head on his shoulder, it takes a few seconds but she voices her worries. Her anxiety and fear about their mission, and he holds her close. Jason let's get it all out, even prompting her at times before consoling and comforting her. He addresses every one of her fears with a realistic but kind response, it reminds him of new campers still learning the ropes and asking a billion questions all at once.

He comforted them, answered their questions and made sure they knew he was always their to support them. Jason comforts Piper the same way, bringing up that she has improved, how far they've gotten and holding her close.

And it helps her relax, much like it did to them in the past and once she does she starts to yawn. He gives her a pointed look and she laughs tiredly "fine I'll get some rest, only if you do as well." Jason nods, watching her go back he'd to her room.

Of course he will, he fully intends to keep that promise like all the rest. The rain is more natural now, perhaps he'd initially caused it but oh well. Jason thinks of the seven, or rather the six and how they've worked their way into his heart. He thinks of Reyna and knows she'd have been amused of his efforts as she always is.

And now Jason finds himself able to sleep, now that he knows everyone else is well and truly resting. And that's what he feels as he drifts off to sleep curled up in a nest of blankets like the wolf he is.

When Nico joins them, and everyone notices him having trouble sleeping there is little surprise among the six when Jason quietly approaches him.

It's a lot less surprising when they see Nico drinking hot chocolate at night and discussing Mythomagic strategies with Jason, as his eyes begin to flutter, that remind him of so much of late night conversations with Reyna on days that have been so hard on them both.

Because every now and again Nico will drop in something serious in their friendly banter and Jason will not belittle, nor ignore nor make light of it or coddle him but listen and ensure he feels listened to. Because that he finds is what Nico needs... And if he manages to hug him at some point and get him to sleep that's a definite plus.

(Really wanted to hammer it home that Jason makes others feel comfortable by addressing who they are as people and uses himself to help.

With Percy he uses his powers to remind him of his safe place when he's in distress.

With Annabeth he uses his passion and being a literal open book because he knows she values and needs trust and safety.

With Leo and Nico it was his friendship with Reyna, of how they've both helped each other when there hurting and applied what he's learnt here.

With Frank and Hazel and Piper it was his role as Prateor, the knowledge of how to help tjise who are openly hurting and want that support and telling stories because that's what helped campers like Frank and Hazel are to feel better.

Because helping others is such a core part of who Jason is)

#jason grace #percy jackson #The seven #reyna avila ramirez arellano #nico di angelo #piper mclean #leo valdez #Frank zhang #Hazel levesque #annabeth chase #Mama Jason Grace #jason grace protection squad #jason grace appreciation squad

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buoyantsaturn · 3 years

Text

you don’t want this (trust me on this one) (1/1)

warnings: angst. its very sad folks.

summary: Nico visits an old friend

word count: 1,513

read on ao3

“Hey.”

Nico winced as his voice reverberated against the stone walls. He hadn’t even spoken loudly, but the echo seemed to amplify his voice. He was glad there wasn’t anyone else around to overhear what he was about to say.

“I have some stuff I need to say, and I need to just get them out, so… Just bear with me, okay?” Nico took a deep breath, stuffed his hands in his pockets to hide their shaking, and dropped his gaze to his shoes. “I miss you.”

His voice stopped. He had so much more to say, and he’d thought that if he started talking, then he wouldn’t be able to stop. But now he had everything building up inside of him and threatening to push out, and he couldn’t manage to get his vocal cords vibrating again.

Nico cleared his throat, and tried again. “I… I didn’t, like, script this out, but I know what I need to say to you, so hopefully I don’t skip over something important. I mean, the missing you part is probably the most important thing.” He reached up and pinched his nose as he huffed in frustration, and then ran his hand through his hair, tugging on the ends as if that would help him find the words.

“It’s just that, if I’d known that the last time I saw you was going to be the last time, I would’ve, like, made it count, or something! I don’t even remember the actual last time I saw you, because the last time I remember seeing you definitely wasn’t actually the last time.” He huffed again. “Did that even make sense? Whatever. I just know that the last memory I have with you involved me snapping at you because I was tired and pissed off, and-- And I hate that that’s the last thing I remember. Because I know you wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye, but I don’t remember saying goodbye!”

Nico took another breath, and slowly lowered himself to the ground until he was sitting. “I don’t...blame you. You had a lot going on, and I was probably more of an annoyance to you than a friend most of the time, but… I love you, and I miss you.”

His hands fidgeted in his lap before one finally reached out, tracing the J that had been freshly carved into the stone wall as part of a name. “I think… I think that’s most of it,” Nico whispered. “I know I probably should have summoned you, because I don’t know for sure that you can actually hear me, but… But there’s one more thing. And I needed to make sure you weren’t going to interrupt this next part, or try to talk me out of anything.”

Nico drew his hand back, dropping his gaze to his lap again. He couldn’t even stand to look at his friend’s name as he said the words. “It’s, um. It’s two things, actually. Two very stupid things - or, maybe one thing that’s a little more stupid than the other - and if you were here, you would definitely try to talk me out of...well, one of them, for sure.” He took another pause, another breath, and started to smile. “The first one is… I’m gonna tell Will I love him, because… Well, first, because it’s true, and second--” His soft smile instantly flipped into a frown, and he had to force himself to swallow down the emotion he could feel building up again. “I don’t know that I’ll have another chance to tell him. Because the second thing is that I’m going back to Tartarus. We both are. I mean, I’m going back, but Will is coming with me. And… And if something happens to one of us… I don’t want to go without telling him.”

He forced himself to glance away, tilting his head up and blinking his eyes furiously as tears finally started to form. He wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket quickly, as if trying not to make it noticeable. “The Tartarus thing is the stupid part. Did I make that clear enough? I don’t want you to think that I think that telling Will how I feel is stupid. I mean, as stupid. Because he should already know how I feel without me having to say it. Like, I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear by now, but… I guess it’s always a nice thing to hear confirmed.”

Nico sniffed, pausing for a few moments as if waiting for a soul to manifest in front of him whether he asked it to or not, but nothing changed.

“So, um. I don’t really know how much you know,” Nico said softly, “so I guess I’ll catch you up to speed as best I can. Hazel’s a praetor now, so her and Frank are kind of like the ultimate power couple around here. Apparently Reyna stepped down sometime after you--” He swallowed down the word. “I haven’t seen her in a while, so I don’t actually know what she’s up to. Nobody will actually tell me anything, so when I leave here, I’m gonna go see what I can dig up.” He shrugged. “Or, I dunno. Maybe I don’t want to know. Nobody actually knows that I’m here anyway. Will and I are leaving in a week, and I wanted to make sure I had time to rest up after making this jump, so I didn’t actually tell anyone I was coming. And if they see that I’m here, then they might figure out that something’s up, and--”

He tipped his head back, but it didn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks this time. “I get it, you know? Why you didn’t make that goodbye memorable. I don’t want to… I’m scared to say goodbye. Because I almost didn’t make it out last time, so what if this time, I can’t? Like, maybe I should just let my last goodbye to Hazel be from the last time I visited - a happy goodbye, instead of one that’s going to leave her worrying about me for the rest of my life.”

Nico drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them. “Except, I know, I know, that’s a bad idea. Because then I’ll have her showing up at my empty gravesite, yelling at me just like I’m doing to you right now.”

He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, sorry. Where was I? Um. So, Percy and Annabeth are here now, too, with Grover-- Did you ever meet Grover? He’s their best friend. I was on a quest with him once. He’s cool. I think you’d like him, but you Romans always had a weird relationship with fauns, so I dunno how you’d feel about a satyr. Um, and Leo’s doing good, last I heard. Staying out of trouble. I think he’s teaching shop classes to homeless kids in Indiana, or something. And Calypso’s going to high school. I heard you tried that, for some gods forsaken reason. Why would you voluntarily put yourself through that? Will just told me that when we get back, he’s going to start studying for AP tests, whatever those are. He says they’ll help him get into college, I guess.”

He paused, as if realizing what he’d said a second too late. “He’s...so certain that we’re both coming back, but… You know what happened when Percy and Annabeth were there. Somebody has to stay behind, and… If it comes to it, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get him out. He’s got so much potential to do anything he could ever dream of, and I… I’m just an old man who missed my shot at a life the first time around.”

Nico groaned, hiding his face in his hands again. “Gods, I can practically hear you lecturing me. Okay, I’m moving on. Who did I miss… Oh. Piper. She’s...good, I think, if what Apollo said can be trusted - and isn’t that weird? I’m actually listening to what a god has to say. And on top of that, a god is talking to us. Apollo visits, like, once a week. I think he’s going to try taking over when Mr. D’s sentence is up at camp. Sorry, anyway. Piper, she has a… A girlfriend, I think, but people usually say partner when talking about Shel, and I don’t really know what the difference is. I’m trying to learn, still, but there’s just...so much.”

He stopped to think. “I’m...pretty sure that’s everyone. Everyone that I’ve heard something about, anyway. So, um, I should probably get going if I want to see everyone before Will realizes I’m not at dinner. If all goes well… If I’m still alive after all of this, I’ll summon you, and we can catch up for real.”

Nico got to his feet. “And, um. If not…” He chuckled sadly to himself. “If not, then I guess I’ll see you in hell, Jason.”

He turned and left the tomb.

thanks for reading!!

buy me a coffee

#nico di angelo #solangelo #mine #my writing #you asked for it folks! and here it is :)

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firerose · 3 years

Note

headcannons about each individual member kf the seven as dark?

So I decided to split this answer into seven seperate posts because otherwise it would be too long (I'm having to much fun wit this XD)

I'll post the first one here <3

Ok, here we go <3, Hazel: People expected her to change after Franks death She had lost her boyfriend at fourteen no one expected that to be easy So none said anything when she kneeled over his grave for five whole days and nights Reyna simply brought her food and hot chocolate and mourned with her But if they all could have had a look into Hazel's mind they could have seen the slow death of the sweet kind girl she used to be Thoughts of hate begin to burn inside her She asks herself why Juno who saved Franks stick from burning up as a baby refused to do it a second time. The question makes her storm up to Olympus, her brown eyes hard with anger Her friends are with her, Of course, they want to protect each other now that one of them has fallen Juno awaits them in her usual glory, tall with a cloak around her shoulder and .. jewellery precious metals decorating her arms and neck "Why didn't? Do you save him? Was he just a weapon you did not need anymore?!, hazel shouts out her suspicion and now people, gods and demigods alike begin to worry The queen of Olympus remains silent She sees the hatred in hazels eyes and regrets not answering her grandsons screams for help when he burned in the flames Her silence is Hazel's answer and in her growing rage the necklace on Juno's neck starts chocking the goddess Hazel does not feel remorse, only satisfaction as she hears Junos choking It is Percy's hand on her shoulder that snaps her out and Juno's necklace flys into her open hand "You will never use a demigod like that again I will make sure of that. She says and then with one last glare leaves Things are not the same when shes back at camp Jupiter Everything and everyone annoys her, reminds her of what she has lost They are around her all the time like, Leo who reminds her of Sammy, Jason who made Frank Praetor, Percy who loved Frank like a brother Whenever they talk about Frank she feels the desire to yell at them One time when Jason tries to comfort her once again she snaps "You don't have to do this just because you made Frank Praetor and you feel guilty.", Hazel tells him a bit too harshly and Jason leaves her She feels guilty so she does her best to act as grateful as possible from now on The days are very hard for her That is why she loves the night She hasn't forgotten the power rush she got on Olympus and that is why keeps practising She steals weapons from the night patrols She makes the tunnels under the field of Mars change so that they all lead to dead ends When some of the new Rome's war veterans talk about having seen lost loved ones at night Hazel pretends to not listen She just thanks Jason in her thoughts for telling her so much about the ones that fell in the titan war Hazel disappears two weeks after Frank's death The remaining five of the seven are devastated They immediately go searching for her but even after five months there is no sign of her Other demigods start whispering Even Thalia who visits Reyna often is part of those whispers She doesn't know hazel and Frank well and yet what she has heard reminds her so much of the story of a friend she had once lost He had been left alone with his fate with his insane mother just like Hazel Thalia fears that now that Hazel has lost a loved one she will seek revenge just like Luke once did. Nico and Percy are Hazel's greatest defenders They deny every rumour and says that Hazel just needs time to calm down it's the only thing that keeps them from drowning in their guilt Hazell has gone to her old home in Alaska Arion took her there It hurts to be back but here she is saved from the gods who used her and her loved ones She's so sick of being their pawn The years pass and all alone in this cold country Hazel's heart turns to ice A few old men yell insult her with racist phrases She controls the metal ankers on their ships to impale them She hears screams from her neighbour's house at night and so she breaks the metal lock to get in The man who is beating his wife only has a second to look at her before her senses reach metal and they find it......in his

blood She concentrates hand stretched out and the man chokes to death She leaves without a word There is no remorse in her, if the gods let her sweet gentle boyfriend die why isn't she allowed to kill a few bad peopöe One day she decides to return as thoughts about her past cloud her mind Someone has to show the gods that they can't treat their children like this She returns after ten years but does not show herself to her friends Maybe because she worries that they notice how much she has changed Instead, she decides to try to control the labyrinth just like Pasiphae once did The mist helps her to create new tunnels that lead wherever she wants them to go One day they lead to new Rome She just wants to look at how everyone is doing but when she sneaks near the city hidden in her magic she sees something that makes her furious Her friends have moved on She sees them celebrating with other Romans and greeks They celebrate Gea‘s defeat like it wasn‘t just a terrible unnecessary war they had to suffer through She hates that they enjoy their demigod lives They should have told the gods that they want to live normally away from both camps that endanger their lives Unfortunately, that makes her think of Frank and how he has ripped away from his life, his home country just to serve the gods Hazel feels her rage burning like an active Volcano close to erupting She walks up the hill over new Rome and looks down at the glorious city She could bury it without even trying For a moment she thinks about the lives that will cost but then again what else could make the gods notice their flaws She reaches for all the metals buried under the city She hesitates for a moment but then she thinks about Frank, his sweet smile and with a scream the earth starts shaking Buildings and temples collapse People get swallowed by big cracks in the earth There are screams horns are blowing Mist is rising and People hear voices whisper that this is god's fault They have to be punished for their mistakes It‘s like a storm of fog being thickest at the hilltop Hazel‘s old friends are filled with dread as they have seen those powers before Leo decides to fly directly into the mist together with Piper and Jason Hazel sees them approaching and a soft smile appears on her lips The mist lightens All demigods gasp Leo yells in despair He already blames himself for Franks death and now he sees that Hazel the girl he once loved has gone mad Her once curly short hair now long falls around her shoulders Her once brown eyes glow sickly golden as if the riches of the earth have taken control over her It drives him insane and so he rips out a hammer from his tool belt and attempts to attack her Hazel feels deeply hurt by this and so she moves her hands Leo is thrown of Festus's toolbelt made of metal turning out to be his curse Hazel smashes him into the ground a hundred feet under him Festus claws impale Jason and Piper before they have time to react Hazel feels a sting in her heart but she oppresses it The gods and their quest would have killed them anyway Percy and Annabeth are still in the falling city trying to get as many people out of there as possible They both try to ignore the corpses falling from the sky Percy‘s mind is still refusing that the girl he sees as a sister would do this He knows that she has to be stopped but how is he supposed to do that? He still loves her like a sister despite the lives she is taking Her real brother steps up instead Hazel can feel his presence behind her It makes her lose focus The citizens of New Rome cry in relief when the metals stop resurfacing Their city is in ruins but at least it has stopped Before Hazel can react skeleton warriors jump out of the earth restrain her by grabbing her arms She is furious about Nicos interference and struggles to escape „Hazel please it‘s not worth it just surrender and we‘ll talk about this.“, Nico says while he walks up in front of her. Hazel‘s heart breaks at the tortured look in his eyes and she realizes that she is the reason for it She disappeared She came back and murdered

hundreds She did it for Frank but she suddenly asks herself if Frank would have ever wanted to get justice in this way Would he wanted her to become hateful and obsessed with revenge just for him? As she looks into Nico‘s eyes regret strikes her „I……..I‘m sorry.“, She whispers with tears in her eyes. Nico smiles sadly happy that his little sister came to her senses He stretches out his hand to gently touch her cheek Thunder rumbles and suddenly a lightning bold explodes the hilltop right where the children of the underworld Jupiter feels nothing as he watches Percy, Reyna and Annabeth falling to their knees, sobbing and holding each other Hazel Levesque is just another demigod for him, a girl that could not get over her boyfriend Percy buries Hazel next to Frank all by himself New Rome is rebuilt with the help of the greeks The time goes by and slowly Frank and Hazel‘s names are forgotten Juno would love if they had never existed in the first place Whenever demigods speak of them they do it with anger and the queen of Olympus fears that one day a rebellion will start It's not often that their names are talked about but when they are people always refer to them as „Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang. The couple that died in Storm and fire

#percy jackson #heroes of olympus #hoo #dark hazel #dark!seven #dark!Hazel #hazel levesque #frank zhang #leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #annabeth chase #thalia grace #frazel

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mango-dolphin · 3 years

Note

bestie

give

details

about your ocs

and that

jason prequel fic

pleeaaaaase? <3

of COURSE bestie!!! <3<3<3 thank u for enabling me. it's time to f,uckgin., Oh god i have no clue how to format this i didn't think i'd get this far

jason grace prequel fic stuff

(side note: may actually be multiple fics in a series, we'll see how wordy/invested i get)

about the it

i don't have a title for this yet (thus "Jason Grace Prequel Fic"), but essentially the goal is exploring Jason's life from before Camp Jupiter to right after the Titan War. written in first person and in Jason's perspective (usually...), i want to use the fic to develop and build Jason as a person to see just how much he lost after Juno had to spirit him away for his Gaea quest. (And, potentially, how much he may have gained afterwards.)

The Titan War is a looming threat that exists for the majority of the fic, even though they don't precisely know it's a war yet for part of it. Camp Jupiter had been facing some real rough times the past few decades apparently? I'd like to imagine that, at the point Jason joined in, these guys were buckling in and preparing for the worst.

I'd also like to explore the involvement of both the Lares and the greater city of New Rome. Where are these guys? What the fuck they doin? Pspspspspspsspspspsspp? i'd also like to explore the Roman side of the Titan army, that must be fun as FUCK considering all of the turmoil and bad feelings going around.

I will be creating illustrations and brief comic strips for this project because I'm just that unhinged. Don't talk to me (DO talk to me sorry for giving you a contradictory desire)

my wants

Jason get friends :)

exploration of Roman culture and their spirituality/religious practices/etc. I also wanna talk about how much these guys apparently loved agriculture most of their gods were dedicated to that. Gods bless (literally) they know what's important

i wanna talk about people who aged out of the legion too. Hehe.

Octavian stuff. I've already posted about my headcanon of him having shit parents & 7 other siblings, and we are gonna Get. into That.

i'm intrigued about Riordan setting up stuff about reincarnation and the Isles of the Blest. I'm gonna do something with that.

it's also been implied & off-handedly mentioned that there are mortals in the Legion and New Rome as well. also a bigger monster population! I'd like to include some perspectives of like, the implications of That!

also some headcanoned Legacy lore why the fuck not. the "photocopied until nothing special" comment that was written in Blood of Olympus about Octavian still rubs me the wrong way and i have some bones to pick (but not in the way you might expect by my tone here LOL)

forgot to put this in initially. WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT REYNA IN THIS FIC. reyna ilu i am so sorry i forgot to mention you in the og version of this post. You are becoming real in five seconds.

Exploration of some major Roman gods that were just. Unexplored. In HOO.

in particular i'm thinking about Janus, they gave him a funny lil sonboy that did whore things (michael varus) and i love that for him. But also holy SHIT he was confused for a minor greek god in PJO and that's! SO! FASCINATING! TO ME IN A WORLDBUILDING SENSE. like. Percy happened to ask for a Janus Cabin in camp halfblood THAT'S SO FUNNY. THAT'S SO FUNNY HE'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN GODS AND HE DOES HIS FUNNY LITTLE SONG AND DANCE TO ANNABETH, SOME GREEK FREAK BRAINCHILD OF HIS IN-SOME-MYTHS GREAT-NIECE MINERVA'S COUNTERPART, IN THE LABYRINTH AND HE FUCKS OFF AND THEY DON'T EVEN GIVE HIM A GREEK CABIN IN HOO BECAUSE RIORDAN REALIZED HIS FUCKING MISTAKE I LOVE JANUS PJO SO MUCH I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM WHAT IS HE DOING WHAT IS HE UP TO DOES HE KNOW THAT HE'S AMAZING

What was I talking about.

oh yeah! Jason get friends :)

origin story

this project is coming about since hyperfixation hit me hard and there's a lot about Jason's history that i'd love to see expanded and elaborated upon. i'm of the belief that not everything in a story needs to be explained: some things are better left up to interpretation, or may stand stronger without trying to explain every last detail.

however, i feel there were a lot of opportunities and connections that came and went throughout the final product of Heroes of Olympus—a lot of which that came about in order to either preserve a status quo of "protagonists right, antagonists wrong," or have their cake of systemic critique and eat it too by never changing anything fundamentally.

we also do not see much respect—or exploration, really—of the Roman perspective, which troubles me as a lot of it seemed to be sidetracked. the Greeks are deeply individualist (sole heroes, groups of up to three on quests, frequent focus on one's worth as an individual rather than strength in numbers as well as singular people's achievements rather than working as a collective army, etc); the Romans provided an alternative unity that we just. never saw, as they were condensed into one collective "bad" that didn't want to be "bad" but were being led by OOooOOoOOOne bad LeeaAAAaaAAaader I'm bitter about this to the point of being incomprehensible

i don't have a lot of coherent thoughts honestly i just. Feel it. deep within my Bones. and i wish i knew more about greek & roman history & mythology to provide a more nuanced take. but i DO obsess a lot over the human condition and the extremes that one goes through; i think New Rome is potentially an amazing setting and i'd like to find a way to explain, in-universe, how Camp Jupiter became so melancholic and hollow (and, on some extent, how Jason seems to be this way as well. We never actually received clarification on if he got all of his memories back, and considering how he felt so Nothing over Octavian... well. let's just say i came up with a weird fanfic theory for it and we will be EXPLORING it god DAMMIT)

i have realized that i may have gone on a tangent for awhile and did not even talk about my OCs for this fic

i'm tempted to like. split this answer up so that the kids i wanna talk about get their own post? i think it feels appropriate. but it also might cause me to procrastinate on tlaking about them.....................

eh. fuck it gonna make another post LOL thank u for reading this far. i don't wanna get anyone's hopes up too high idk how well i'm gonna write this fic. I just have a lot of ideas and i'm trying to sort them out in a journal, i'm typically a pantser haha

#thegodswereneveronourside #ask #my writing #mango's writing #jason grace #jason grace prequel fic #pjo #percy jackson #hoo #heroes of olympus #toa #trials of apollo #ahahaha! ahehehehe! ummmmmm!!! Wow I had more words than I thought on that #though to be fair my journal is starting to get more full as the days go by #i haven't written this much in awhile so i feel a lot of joy about this #the worldbuilding feels like it'll be the biggest concern for me atm. because i still don't know much about history #wasn't exactly my best subject in school.#but i DO wanna learn it. i am just mentally ill </3 but i AM going to learn it #there's a lot of mythological stuff i wanna tackle as well as cultural so it'll be important ghrhghghghngvbhnhfgfj girl help #also i will never not be thinking about janus. nor janus pjo #love that two-faced little god of thresholds #did u kno the king of sacred rites was the one who carried out janus' ceremonies. he had no flamen. at least APPARENTLY he didn't #citation needed etc. but that's an interesting thing to write.#i need to learn more about him too i like that god the most #also janus & saturn have an Interesting relationship in mythology made interesting by pjo's titanomachy!#saturn is the roman aspect of kronos! did you know this! fun fact!!!#januaia

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waynewifey · 3 years

Text

Fading away. —

Pairing: Jason Grace x Roman!DaughterofPluto!Reader

Sumary: after moths of over working, a colapse makes you get into a coma and reflect on your feelings.

Warnings: coma, angst, Pluto as a caring dad, fluff at the end.

Words: +-3k.

A/N: This is my first Percy Jackson Franchise fanfiction, so take it easy on me. This is also my biggest and favourite one. I hope you like this! My requests are always open.

(Y/N) (L/N) had a good reason to hate Jason Grace. How could she not? Jason was so annoying, self centred, selfish, stubborn and worse of all? He dated Piper McLean. Piper was great, (Y/N) knew that and they seemed happy together. But, still, he chose Piper, not (Y/N), his girlfriend back at Camp Jupiter, who he totally forgot about. How come Percy remembered Annabeth but Jason wouldn't remember (Y/N)? And when he recovered his memory, he chose Piper. But she also loved him still, and seeing him hurt like a bullet going straight through her heart. She decided to spend a year at Half-Blood Camp to stay with her half-brother Nico Di Angelo when Gaea were defeated. She thought she could manage to see him almost every day, but she couldn't. So she started doing anything to get her mind occupied. Going on meaningless quests, travelling to New York randomly, volunteering for literally any service in the camp and barely sleeping — because sleeping meant dreams.

"It doesn't have to be like that, (Y/N)." Her brother gave her another shot of Nectar. The sunlight that entered Hades' cabin was leaving slowly as they talked, (Y/N) leaned on her bed watching her fingertips become solid again.

"I'll learn how to do it right and I promise I won't push myself too much, but I can't stop practicing." She avoided eye contact with Nico, feeling ashamed of herself. After all, she was supposed to be the one taking care of him, since she was older. She came back from a "quest" for her father, that was staying a weekend on the Underworld. She started using Shadow Travel to get there. The problem? She had no idea how hard it was, and she almost died every time. He sighted.

"I'm not talking about Shadow Travel. You should talk to Jason and sort this out. You're almost killing yourself everyday doing the craziest stuff just to keep your mind off him. He already broke up with Piper, what's stopping you now? I'm your brother and it pains me to see you suffering, I won't just sit and watch while you literally desapear." He got up and walked to the door. The (h/c) girl forced a smile so he believed she was fine. Nico left the cabin.

After hours reflecting and thinking, she heard the trumpets that announced the convocation to a game of Capture the Flag. Since she was feeling better, she changed her clothes and walked outside. The teams were: cabins 1, 4, 5, 9, 12, 14, 18, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29 vs. cabins 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24, 25, 26. They started the game. (Y/N) had to protect the boundary with a kid from Hipnos' cabin while a group attacked the opponent's flag and another protected their territory and their flag. Everything was going as planned, she hadn't seen anyone yet. Out of the sudden, she saw a blond guy running in their direction with a sword. Oh hell no, Jason Grace wouldn't attack her like that. But he did.

"What the hell?!" She screamed, reacting to the blade flying in her direction. Her teammate was asleep. She defended herself with her own sword and counterattacked. He invested against her leg, trying to make her fall. Her instincts took place, she jumped, attacked again and they started a meaningless battle. Jason looked the same as always. He was almost the same Jason that used to take her on cute dates in New Rome. But he fought like a greek. And that was when it hit her, he changed. The mixture of love and hate made her loose her senses for a bit, giving Jason the lead. He focused on her leg but hesitated to hit it, giving her time to get back on the fight. She knocked him to the floor, her foot on his chest and her blade on his neck, when she heard footsteps approaching quickly. Of course. It was a trap. She turned around and saw a son of Hebe holding her team's flag running, followed by two daughters of Hephaestus. She grabbed a knife from her belt and threw it to his leg, hitting exactly where she wanted. She then grabbed Jason's blade and Shadow Travelled. For a moment everything was fine, while she drowned into darkness, but then she couldn't get out. She saw her father's face mixed in the dark. He raised his hand and touched her face, than she was back at the forest. Realising not even a second had gone through, she attacked the — injured — boy and the two gigantic girls at the same time. She wasn't really expecting to defeat them, just trying to win some time so, hopefully, someone would come help her. The boy dropped the flag and got a small sword. The two girls had hammers... oh. The three of them attacked at the same time and she protected herself with Jason's sword, which flew away. She was out of hopes when a figure appeared beside her and started fighting them.

"What are you doing here?! You're not supposed to help me, we're enemies, remember?" She said, fighting Hebe's son.

"I guess you're welcome then." Jason replied smiling, fighting the hammers-girls. (Y/N) sighted in annoyance. Seconds later, her teammates came running from the enemies' territory with a flag and the three-people group surrendered. Everyone started screaming and celebrating. (Y/N)'s head hurt with the noise and she looked to her brother, feeling numb.

"Hey, can we talk?" Jason said, getting in front of her with a big smile. He was proud of himself for helping her? Of course he was. He was going to take all the credit for her team's win. The anger rose inside of her burning everything. She furrowed her eyebrows and with the last energy that remained in her body, she tried to Shadow Travel for the perhaps hundredth time that day.

She fell into the darkness while feeling her body desapear quickly. Her heart was very accelerated but then it stopped. She saw herself at the barks of Lete's river. I'm dead., she thought. The desperation started taking over. She remembered the face of all her friends. Her siblings, Hazel and Nico. Her mother. Her best friend Reyna. Camp Jupiter. New Rome. The Lar Vitellius. Lares? Lares! Maybe she could go back as a ghost! She would at least see her friends again.

"Didn't expect to see you this soon." A voice said with humor. She turned around, as always enlighten by her father's presence. But his face was sad. Not the everyday-sad-Pluto, but the my-daughter-just-died-sad-Pluto.

"Am I d-... dead?" The anxiety forbid her from crying in front of her father. The one she never knew and once she did, she didn't want to disappoint him.

"Yes and no. You see, my darling, there are things more powerful then death. Right now, your physical being is exhausted from travelling through darkness and light — which I told you not to, but we'll talk about this later, you have a decision to make. You're body is surrendering to Death out of hopelessness. But your soul, on the other hand, still fights for the heart beating in your chest. And your conscious, the controller of both body and soul, has to decide which one of them you'll support right now. As Lord of the Death that's all I can say to you. But as your father, I would like to say that we have a room for you in the castle, if you'd like that. And also, I feel obligated to show you what is happening on Earth." When he finished his words, an image formed in the air, sort of an Iris message, but no one saw them. (Y/N) saw herself laying on the grass, surrounded by some campers, Nico and Jason.

She was watching them from above. Jason put two fingers on her neck, trying to feel her pulse. She — the one in the Underworld — gasped as the blond boy whispered 'nothing'. She glanced at her father, who had a pained expression as he stared at Nico freaking out. Her brother had his hands on her chest and was murmuring something in greek. Then, he opened his eyes, filled with tears of desperation, and glanced at Jason, who didn't look any better. She wanted to scream and go back to up there, but her voice wouldn't come out of her throat.

"Half of her is already gone." Nico struggled to say. Everyone around gasped. "I can't Shadow Travel with her, it- it would k-kill the other half..."

"Let's take her to the Infirmary. Everything's gonna be fine. She'll be okay." Will Solace had appeared in the crowd and kneed down to take (Y/N) in the arms, being helped by the other two. As they walked, (Y/N) held herself in her arms, sobbing. She didn't want to die, not like that. The image faded away and Pluto hugged her. He never did that before. She left out all her emotions through the cry. Her father caressed her back and gently kissed the top of her head.

"Now you see, my child, what those on Earth are going through. You have a family up there. And if you'd ask me, Jason Grace is a good person, even being a son of my brother. You have a choice, so make it wisely." Pluto said, not backing away from the hug. She nodded and he immediately knew what her choice was. "You know I'd love to have you here with me, but I'd love even more to see you happy. Don't be reckless. And listen to your brother. You don't have to worry to come see me, I'll make sure to visit you during your recovery." As he said that, a white door appeared out of nowhere. "Here's your carpool." The girl started to walk to the door, when she heard Pluto say: "(Y/N) I lo-... Good luck." She smiled to him and went through into the door. It felt like eons in the nothingness. She felt so much pain all over her body. Then she gained conscience. She didn't knew how long it had passed. She also couldn't open her eyes or say anything, but she knew she was laying down something comfortable, a bed, perhaps. But she could hear perfectly well.

"... and I'm so sorry you had to die for me to gain the courage to say this. Please come back to us... Come back to me. Nico barely leaves this room and nor do I, Will had to force him to go eat. It's not the same without you, (Y/N/N), it really isn't." Jason's words gave her the urge to cry, but she couldn't. It was like her body had shutdown completely. She felt his warm hands on her cold ones and after that, a door was opened. Footsteps. Only one person. Jason didn't move. Someone sat down next to them.

"Dad- I mean, Hades said she will be okay." It was Nico's voice. He sounded extremely tired.

"Didn't he say that last month?" Grace was annoyed, but he didn't stop holding her hand.

"I know, I wish I could do more... I'm... I'm sorry Jason." The blond sighted.

"I should be the one to be saying that. I know there's nothing else to do. I'm sorry for putting the blame on you. It's just- if we've talked before, nothing of this would have happened. If only I was brave enough..." (Y/N) felt weak and her consciousness was back at nothing again. When she heard something again, it looked like a lot of time had passed by, but she wasn't sure at all. Jason's voice was happy as he told her his plans to the future.

"I realised you would like to work with me training the legion. You're obviously skilled and the payment is quite good. And I've heard they are planning to build a village here as well, but I don't know if you-..." Every time she tried to stay conscious, she felt weaker. 'Rest', her father's voice said inside of her head, so she let herself.

Some time...? A long time...? She didn't knew. But the next time she heard, she was way stronger. She waited until then, so she could stay longer and try to understand her emotions. She heard almost an entire day. Her friends entered and left cabin 13 — she found out that she was there. Some of them talked "to" her, some just sat there in silence. When alone, Nico talked a lot about Will Solace. (Y/N) smiled mentally. Then Jason entered. She could already recognise the sound he made walking. He sat beside her bed and held her hand, as usual.

"Hello, princess. You look better." She reunited all the strength she had storage and sent it all to her right hand. She softly squeezed Jason's hand, for a small portion of second, trying to say 'hi'. She felt exhausted. He gasped.

"She just squeezed my hand!" He screamed, laughing. Nico jumped out of his bed, laughing as well. They both stared at her, waiting for more. "You're there, right? I knew you were! It's been long months, but you're getting better. Don't work too hard. We'll see each other soon, don't worry." He kissed her forehead. After that, it was easy for her to let go and dive into her sleep again.

She was slowly getting better. She noticed her comas were smaller now, and she got stronger every time. She started communicating by squeezing people's hand. One time for 'yes' and two times for 'no'. But it still was exhausting. She met with her father a couple times through dreams, but it never lasted long. She was sick of it. She wanted to jump out of the bed and run through all the camp. She was alone with Jason, as he talked about the last time he went to Camp Jupiter, telling every change. She slowly forced herself to open her eyes. It wasn't for too long, just enough for her to see the big smile he had while talking, her favourite blond hair and how he gesticulated while speaking. By that time, her feelings were completely lined. She declined her childishness and stubbornness to accept the fact that she obviously loved him. Her lips were able to form a small smile. He hadn't noticed her yet. I can do this, she thought.

"J." She whispered for the first time in five months. Her eyes were already closed again. He gasped.

"Did you just say J? That's me! I'm here, i'm right here, love. Can you hear me?" She squeezed his hand one time. Yes. He chortled. "You're so strong. I miss you so much." He started softly crying. She squeezed his hand two times. No. Don't cry, she wanted to say. "Alright, 's fine, 's fine. Gods, you're coming back. I bet Aphrodite is watching us closely." He chuckled but suddenly stopped. "I forgot we haven't talked about that yet, i'm sorry. I don't wanna be intrusive, you know. It's just, by what Nico has told me, well, you still liked me." She squeezed two times. "That's... that's great, love. But don't worry about that just yet. You should take some rest now, my love."

Five days. She had woken up every single one of them, but only listening. No squeezes, no talking, no looking. Just storing strength. She knew she was close to fully waking up. She was already able to keep track of the days. It was a Sunday, the day she received the most visits. It should be morning, because she only heard Nico's snorting. She slowly opened her eyes. The same place. Different clothes. She wondered who had changed them. Perhaps Will did. She systematically moved her arms, pushing herself to sit. Her back was laying at wall. She took a deep breath. It was going fine. She wanted to wake Nico up, but she decided to wait to see if she would be able to actually stay awake. About an hour later, Nico woke up by himself. He yawned and turned to her bed. She looked at him with a big smile. He jumped out of bed.

"Holy shit, (Y/N)! You're up! How- Wait! I need to- Wait! Don't fall asleep, I'll be right back!" She blinked slowly to sign 'ok'. He was back moments running later with a bunch of teenagers in pyjamas. They all froze at the door, staring at her. Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Percy, Jason and even Piper. Hazel was the first one to wake up from the trance. She ran to her sister and hugged (Y/N).

"Ouch." She managed to say, reacting to the tight hug that made her head hurt.

"Right, sorry! I forgot. Wait, you speak!" Hazel answered and laughed. All of the others joined in, amazed by her friend, and started talking, telling everything she had missed. (Y/N) couldn't speed properly, only a few words like 'hi', 'ow', 'miss' and 'food'. Later that day, Will came to check on her. He said everything looked just fine, but that she should rest.

"Hey." Zeus' son said, once they were alone.

"Hi."

"Gods, it's so good to finally hear you again. I've talked to myself for a long time." They giggled softly. (Y/N) wasn't showing any signs of it, but that day had been extremely tiring. Her entire body hurt but she couldn't give up just yet.

"I... heard." She whispered. "A bit." Her eyes tried to close but she opened them wide, fighting her own nature. Jason noticed that.

"Hey, no need to over do it.” He brushed her cheek with his thumb.

"Sleep... here." She begged, placing her hand beside her. He froze for a moment, embarrassed. And then, with a rubor across his face, he sat on the bed beside her. She laid her head on his chest and quickly fell asleep.

“Go to sleep, love. We have all the time in the world.”

#percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #fluff imagine #percy jackson imagines #percy jackson fanfiction #jason grace #jason grace x reader #jasonissocutehelp #nico di angelo #nico di angelo x reader #daughter of hades #pls send requests

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anachronisticcrab · 3 years

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Valdangelo

I’m in such a valdangelo mood... so I’m gonna rant about them a bit

It’d be so amazing if they were canon cause they parallel each other so well. They’re literally 2 sides of the same coin

Leo and Nico both witnessed their moms die in a way that was related to their godliness (Leo started the fire, Zeus was trying to kill Nico and Bianca)

Neither of them had a steady home or a family for years, and they both lived on the streets

They both lost the most important person to them (their mother and sister respectively), and were forever changed because of their deaths

They both blame themselves for those deaths (Leo started the fire; Nico annoyed Bianca and made her feel badly enough that she stole from a god)

They both put on masks to keep people at a distance; Leo pushes people away by always smiling and cracking jokes while Nico glares and scowls

They’re both terrified to let anyone care about them because they think they’re destructive

Their trauma manifests in seemingly opposite ways, and yet it’s very similar when you think about it

They both had a crush on a friend that saved their life who then went and dated their other friend, and despised themselves for it (Jason and Percy, respectively)

They both feel excluded and left out, like they’re the third wheel, like they’re a crowd

They both use books and shows as coping mechanisms (Leo to crack jokes and avoid, Nico to escape and ignore)

They both feel left out at CHB and CJ because they feel like they’re monsters, and they have different skills than their siblings (Nico over the dead vs Hazel over riches, Leo over fire without any of his siblings having power over that)

They both dislike each other when they first meet because of snap decisions and judgements, but they end up being able to tease each other

They both refuse to talk about their past out of shame and fear

They both love Hazel so much and are always worried about her. They both become really close with Reyna. They were Jason’s best friends. They both get along with Piper. They both have a complicated relationship with Percy and Annabeth

Nico hangs onto the message Leo sent in the Hidden Oracle

Leo describes Nico as having baby bat wings for hair, and he spends an entire paragraph describing Nico in a really unique way

They both forget to watch out for themselves and instead they try to protect their friends from all of their self-destructive behaviours

They both enjoy being alone but for completely different reasons

The ADHD and autistic solidarity the two of them share

They both know Morse code (90% of people in the 30’s, especially guys in Europe, knew Morse code and Esperanza taught Leo)

They’ve both been distrusted by the Romans and the Greeks for things they didn’t mean to do (Leo getting possessed and firing on Camp Jupiter, Nico bringing Percy to the Underworld and accidentally almost getting him killed)

They both have powers over heat (Nico’s been able to summon fire as seen in ttc, and he causes the air around him to become near freezing; Leo controls fire)

They’ve both demonized themselves for powers and they’ve both been shunned for their powers (Nico by the demigods, Leo by his family and Frank)

They’ve both been in the foster system (Nico had the ‘lawyer’, but I’m assuming he was somewhere before he was sent to Maine)

Nico is perpetually cold and how Leo is essentially a space heater

Their internalized homophobia prohibits both of them from being happy, and how they both feel that they need to be in a ‘traditional’ relationship to make them whole and happy

The fact that they’re both socially awkward and don’t know how to act around other people

The fact that they both have an affinity for pirates and dragons (there’s like no way that that’s not true, right?)

Leo being a natural cuddled in his sleep and Nico needing someone to reassure him when he wakes up

Both of them being incredibly smart (in different areas as Leo’s a math/science guy and Nico’s a literature/history/art guy), but neither of them are treated as if they are as smart as they are

They both hate their fathers for shit that they’ve been through because of them (Leo’s socially awkward and his mom died because of his relation to Hephaestus. Nico’s been shunned and abused because of his relationship to Hades)

Leo shows Nico its okay to laugh and be happy, while Nico shows Leo it’s okay to be sad

This is getting really long, but I love them. They compliment each other and help each other grow and they really are great for each other. Don’t get me wrong, I love Solangelo too. Will is a gem. But valdangelo really would’ve been amazing

#pjo #hoo #nico di angelo #og post #leo valdez #valdangelo #toa #ton spoilers #toa spoilers #really mild spoilers I think #they’re so good #I would sell my soul to have them canon

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